Feast 27 – Lamb Tagine and Vegetable Couscous

This week, i accepted Eddie’s challenge of creating a Moroccan feast. i’m fascinated by the cuisine of northern Africa with its mixture of desert sensibilities and Mediterranean spicy flair. i think it suits my personality well, i enjoy cooking it almost as much as i enjoy eating it.

Unfortunately, amongst the many cooking implements i do not have here in Korea, I do not have a traditional Tagine, the cooking vessel from which this delicious stew gets its name. but, wait for it, its a stew made of an indifferent cut of meat that is cooked for a long period in order to leave the meat tender and fully seasoned. hmmmm, what could i possibly use to slow cook a stew, Moroccan or otherwise?

so, yeah, another excuse for me to break out the crock pot. i’m almost starting to feel like i should have called this the 48 crock pot feasts. it is certainly my favorite implement for the here and now.

I’ve gotten rather cavalier with my approach to recipes these days. i found wonderful recipes for the tagine and for the couscous which i will link below but in the end, i used them as a basic blueprint and just went ahead and cooked the dishes. they ended up tasting quite nice although probably not as traditional as the could have been. i’m okay with that. for me, this has always been about exploration and finding the flavors and techniques that make a meal work for me. following a formula is great and all but in all honesty, there are few recipes that fit my palate right out of the crate. i almost invariably increase the garlic, omit one spice in favor of another, use a different cut of meat… all minor changes but ones that are designed to make the dishes exactly what i want to eat. so, here is how i rolled for this week. as a side note, i did make some pita to go alongside but lets just say, the first rule of greg’s baking is that we don’t talk about greg’s baking. the second rule of greg’s baking… blah blah blah. yeah, i need practice with breads.

the tagine:

Tagine stewing away

first off, here is the original recipe from epicurious.com. Lamb Tagine with Tomatoes and Caramelized Sweet Onions i selected this recipe because it suited my intention of slow cooking and i was intrigued by the two methods of cooking the onions, one set stewed in the dish and another batch caramelized and served on top. it seems that here, most of my recipe modifications are a direct result of one ingredient or another that i just can’t get. there are things that we take for granted in our well equipped stateside stores, such as Vidalia onions. of course, here, i have none. so, i made do with yellow onions. a little sharper flavor of course but after caramelizing they still turned out nice and flavorful. As i mentioned above, i chose to make this dish in my crock pot. so, i started in the wee hours, around 8.5 hours before dinnertime to be exact. i am also stuck for cuts of lamb that are available here so instead of the cheaper stew meat that this dish called for, i took a whole leg of lamb and stripped it off the bone. i cut it into nice sized chunks, i guess about 1.5 inch cubes would be the best approximation. whatever size you would like to find in a bite of stew is what i would go with. i chopped up four onions and put these in the bottom of the crock pot. dropped in a couple of cinnamon sticks, liberal salt and pepper and then layered the lamb on top of the onions. repeat the salting and peppering, sprinkle with a bit of cinnamon powder and ginger. cook on high for about 5 hours, stirring often. at the 5 hour mark, add in about 6 chopped tomatoes, one julienne sliced orange bell pepper and two minced habaneros. yeah, i like a little hidden kick in my stews. cook for an additional 2 hours. then add in about 1/2 cup of chopped cilantro. cook for one more hour or until you are ready to eat, it should be tender and flavorful by then. about an hour before you serve, caramelize the remaining onions (i had three more onions for this stage) in a bit of olive oil in a large heavy pan. stir well until they begin to soften then reduce heat to medium, cover and let them cook down for about 45 minutes. spoon atop the tagine when you serve.

Caramelizing the Onions

the couscous: this dish was meant to be served cooled but i wanted to serve it hot so thats what i did. its amazing the freedom that making a decision gives you. this was a three stage operation, each one utterly simple but when they all mixed together, the results were quite nice. here is the original recipe from which i didn’t deviate that much, just mixing the ingredients while they were still warm and i did swap cilantro for the parsley and omitted the mint, my personal taste, individual mileage may vary…Pearl Couscous with Olives and Roasted Tomatoes

Blackened Tomatoes and Roasted Garlic for Couscous

it probably goes without saying that i was unable to obtain pearl couscous and used your normal everyday variety in its place. i imagine the texture was a little slighter that intended but it turned out nice regardless.

of course, nothing goes better with a spicy stew than a decent lager, we however settled for Corona, improved with slices of line and Tabasco. It provided a refreshing counterbalance and made me want to shoot pool afterward. all in all, served its purpose.

Plated and ready to eat (yeah, i took the picture before putting the caramelized onions on top, sue me)

i’ve been daydreaming about future feasts. kinda odd i guess. i believe i may be making a miniature version of turkey day traditional fare for Thanksgiving, just to be cute. i’m still developing but have visions of roasted cornish hens stuffed with cornbread stuffing alongside miniature roasted potatoes, baby glazed baby carrots (all lovingly carved down with a paring knife to 1/4 scale) and a selection of miniature one serving pies for dessert.

i’m also contemplating the statement i want to make for feast 48, my last bit of cookery in this godforsaken place. it will have a meaning behind it, believe me.

Feast 26 – Chinese Five Spice Chicken

For the first week, i woke up on sunday just not wanting to cook. it was weird, i went thru the normal preparatory stages, planned the meal through the week, did the shopping on friday, thought about the process on saturday but sunday rolled around and i just didn’t feel like it. there was a laziness that crept over me that i just can’t put my finger on. i’m looking forward to going home for christmas so much that i find it hard to deal with the here and now, even the things i have chosen for myself.

still, this aside, i did at the end of it all make the meal i had planned. i cooked almost out of habit, the meal flowing out effortlessly. i felt no real pressure or stress on the timeline, i just saw it as an inevitability. it was sunday. so i cooked.

i got a really late start. motivation was hard to come by and luckily this particular meal didn’t take as much brain power or time as some others that i have made in the past. i framed the meal around three courses, as is my habit, chinese five spiced chicken, using cornish hens as the fowl, curried eggplant and vegetable fried rice. all in all the meal took about 90 minutes to prepare and it turned out great, i was very happy with the results, especially the eggplant. it shouldn’t surprise me, its the dish that took the least effort so obviously it was the one that would turn out the best.

the hens:

i decided to spatchcock the cornish hens both to decrease the cooking time and to give them a better presentation on the plate. increasing the surface area of the birds gave more crispness and delicious texture as well. i used the standard spatchcocking technique except as it turned out, the keel bones were insignificant and didn’t require removing.

Cornish Hen, Spatchcocked

thaw the cornish hens and drain well. with a pair of kitchen shears, cut along the backbone on each side to remove it. place the hen breast side up on your cutting board and flatten with the palm of your hand. cut two small slits in the skin on the end of the hen and tuck in the ends of the leg bones to hold them in place.

drizzle the hens with a bit of sesame oil. rub the oil over the chicken to thoroughly cover. liberally spice the birds with chinese five spice mixture, salt and pepper. roast uncovered in a 350 degree oven for around 45 minutes or until the internal temperature reads 180. turn oven off until ready to serve. i split each hen in two to serve, creating four servings from the two hens, it fit better on the plate and was suitable to my appetite level. i do love leftovers as well.

Cornish Hen, fresh from the oven

The curried eggplant:

heat a bit of olive oil and sweat down one diced onion and 4 cloves of garlic until translucent. sprinkle the onion/garlic with a scant 1/4 cup of brown sugar.

slice two japanese eggplants into 1/2 inch slices and place in the pan. sprinkle with curry powder, cayenne pepper, salt and black pepper. pour in 1/2 cup of water and cook over medium high heat until the eggplant is soft, about 40 minutes, ensuring to stir often to prevent any sticking to the bottom of the pan and distribute the spices. sprinkle with sesame seeds and cook for about 2 minutes more. serve immediately.

the fried rice:

i needed to use a bigger pan for this dish but the wok i have will not fit on this stovetop. a large hot pan surface will give a much better consistency to the fried rice, especially at the stage when you add the egg. but hey, you gotta do what you gotta do to get by.

Vegetables for Rice cooking away

prepare one cup of dry rice according to manufacturers directions. set aside to cool. heat a bit of oil in a large pan or wok and touch fry a mixture of four diced green onions, 2 thinly sliced carrots, a finely chopped thumb sized piece of ginger and around six sliced mushrooms. when this ingredients start to soften, season with salt and pepper, then add the rice back in, stirring to distribute evenly. with the heat on high, pour in one beaten egg and stir constantly to ensure the egg doesn’t clump. this is where a big wok would have came in handy as my egg merged too much with the rice and didn’t really add much to the dish. it still tasted damned good though.

Meal Plated and ready to eat

Due to our wonderful selection of beverages here at Osan, we were limited in choice but Eddie came through with some more Kirin Ichiban which is a damned fine beer in my opinion. no complaints here, thats for sure. the eggplant was the star of the day with a surprise kick that knocked me down once with a particularly well spiced bite. i may make the eggplant again just during the week for myself, it was pretty tasty.

Eddie also came though with a meal suggestion, a Moroccan feast that i will be developing for next week. the centerpiece will be a lamb tagine with a couscous side dish of some sort. i may get crazy and make some pita alongside, it would be fitting and thematic.

Feast 25 – Raging Hunk of Burning Love

ok, this weekend, i decided to make cajun food. its not something that i have had much experience with beyond the whole instant zartrains sort of thing but something that i consistently enjoy when i eat it. so why not? also, it gave me another excuse to use my crockpot. the love affair continues. i can’t help it, i love building a nice dish and then letting it cook until it a molten ball of goodness 7 or 8 hours later. the smells in the room, the occasional stir and taste (gotta make sure its seasoned right), it just turns the whole day into a feast. so, with that in mind, i decided on a gumbo.

the thing about gumbo is that almost every gumbo i come across is a seafood gumbo. not that there is anything wrong with that but i have been on a chicken kick as of late. it doesn’t hurt at all that the bags of chicken thighs are a meager $2.40 at the store. makes for an easy decision for me. a bit of hunting around and i found a recipe for chicken and smoked sausage gumbo. exactly what i had in mind, i call that a result. to go alongside, i thought it would be nice to have a bit of blackened catfish and a vegetable. well, okra is my first choice but the gumbo already has okra in it so i do some poking around. i come across a dish with the unlikely name of Maque Choux (pronounced “mock shoe”) courtesy of Emeril Lagasse. If there is one thing i will trust Emeril on, its cajun food so again, i will call this a result. ok, original plan was to make a nice batch of southern style biscuits but upon reflection, with the gumbo served over rice and the two other dishes, biscuits become extraneous. i’m really working hard to practice constraint because my natural inclination is to make six or seven courses but that would be entirely too much food. i enjoy leftovers but a bit of restraint and focus on three dishes is turning into my optimal planning pattern.

So, i mention over and over that the planning revolves around the meal that takes the longest. well, in this case, it was a bit extreme. i started prep for the gumbo at midnight the night before, setting the chicken thighs to boil and then reducing the heat to low and letting them simmer overnight. i generously spiced the water with salt, pepper, bay leaves, thyme, oregano and a large amount of cayenne. my thought process on this is that i will end up with a nice spiced chicken broth with extra to freeze for use in a future spicy meal. needless to say, it worked out well and at 7 the next morning, i removed the chicken from the water to cool and turned up the heat to reduce the broth a bit, cooking it for around another hour and a half.

with the chicken tender and falling off the bone, i skinned it, removed the bones and proceeded as below:

· 1/3 cup flour
· 1/3 cup cooking oil
· 3 cups chicken broth
· 12 to 16 ounces smoked sausage, sliced about 1/2″ thick
· 2 cups chopped cooked chicken
· 2 cups diced cooked chicken
· 2 cups sliced okra
· 2 cup chopped onion
· 1 cup chopped green pepper
· 1 cup chopped celery
· 4 cloves garlic, minced
· 4 diced jalapenos
· salt, to taste
· 1/2 teaspoon pepper
· 2 teaspoons ground red pepper
· 2 teaspoons thyme
· 2 teaspoons oregano

Preparation:

For roux, in a heavy 2-quart saucepan stir together flour and oil until smooth. Cook over medium-high heat for 4 minutes, stirring constantly. Reduce heat to medium. Continue to cook, stirring constantly, for about 15 minutes more or until roux is dark reddish brown. Let roux cool.

Add chicken broth to a 3 1/2 to 6-quart slow cooker. Stir in roux. Add sausage, chicken, okra, onion, green pepper, celery, garlic, jalapenos, salt, pepper, herbs and red pepper. Cover and cook on LOW for 8 to 10 hours, or HIGH for 4 to 5 hours.
Skim off fat. Serve with hot cooked rice.

the recipe above was acquired off the internet and modified with the addition of the herbs and jalapenos, increase in the amount of cayenne, okra and celery. the thing about gumbo is that its a nice hearty stew that blends really well with the long cook time so you can balance the ingredients however suits you.

Ingredients for Maque Choux

Maque Choux… what can i say, i really really really like this dish. its like cream corn on steroids. far be it from me to steal Emeril’s thunder so please by all means, follow this link for the recipe… i made a few modifications, using both a green and red bell pepper and increasing the jalapenos to personal taste levels. i also added all the spices individually instead of using his ever present Essence. it still had a little bam to it in my opinion though. i used fresh minced garlic as well because, well, fresh garlic is good.

after cooking the Maque Choux on the stovetop, i transferred it to a baking dish to keep in a warm oven both for ease of serving and to free up the real estate on my stove which is at a severe limit as most of you know from my constant whining about same. i felt the time in the oven helped the creaminess develop a bit more, individual mileage may vary but i was happy with the result.

so, gumbo stewing away, maque choux in the oven, i make a quick batch of white rice, nothing fancy, flavored with a bit of the same herbs from the maque choux to tie the dishes together on the plate. i like having a common thread. i was very subtle with the herbs though, no need to overpower it, its gonna be buried in gumbo anyway.

Catfish in the pan

while the rice is steaming, i heated up my cast iron skillet with a knob of butter and an equal amount of olive oil, medium high heat. take some catfish fillets and make sure they are as dry as possible. sprinkle both sides with a mixture of the following spices (yes i’m lazy and doing a little cut/paste instead of retyping)

# 2 teaspoons sweet paprika
# 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano, crumbled
# 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme, crumbled
# 1/4 teaspoon cayenne, or to taste
# 1/2 teaspoon sugar
# 1/2 teaspoon salt
# 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Spice Mixture for the Catfish

press the spice mixture into the fish with a spoon or if you are me, with your hands. cook the fish in the heated cast iron skillet for about 4 minutes per side and serve immediately with slices of lemon on the side to squeeze over.

last step, bask in the glory and adoration of your dinner guests.

Gumbo, Catfish and Maque Choux plated, ready to eat

so, in the coming week, expect two posts… on saturday, i plan on a second bar food experience and on sunday, your regularly scheduled feast, still in the planning processes but most likely centered around spatchcocked cornish hens seasoned with a chinese five spice blend sort of thing. i’m considering a curried eggplant dish and a fried rice of some sort for the accompaniments but its just monday, give me a break!

oh, 56 days til i get to go home for a bit. keep the beer cold.

Feast 24 – The Battle of Midway

well, this is it, the halfway point. i feel excited and a bit relieved. its not going quickly but it is going.

with this being the midway point, i wanted to do something a little special. a little fancier, something to knock the socks off so to speak. my efforts to this end were two-fold. first off, as far as the menu, i opted for a few dishes that aren’t exactly everyday fare. this week i made a Brie en croute, Ratatouille on the side and for the main, a take-off from a faux maki that i found online using beef as the outer roll. not sure what to call it but it turned out quite nice. For the second departure, i decided to wait for all the prep until after Eddie arrived, to give a full demonstration of the process, start to finish. it was nice to roll through the steps, to verbalize them and to give reasons why each step was done the way it was done. in some ways, this reinforced my confidence in my techniques and gave me a bit of a mental boost.

I identified two key concepts that today’s prep revolved around. the first is the importance of a timeline when cooking multiple dishes that need to be ready at the same time. with more elaborate spreads, i use a whiteboard to identify the timing on key steps to make sure i keep on track. This is essential for large meals like Thanksgiving or larger dinner parties to make sure that your dishes are both ready on time and not ready too far ahead. a dish that sits is one that loses quality. every timeline that i make revolves around the prep/cook time of the dish that takes the longest. it sounds obvious but you need to remember it and focus on that when determining what time to start everything. you may remember me referring to a dish in past posts as my “long pole”, that is the dish that takes the longest and is either the most prep intensive or takes the most actual cooking time. once i’ve figured out what time to start this dish, based on prep time and the time i want to eat (usually about 30 minutes after i tell guests to arrive since no one ever shows up on time), i work backwards with the other dishes to fill in the time, subtracting the prep/cook time + 15 minutes wiggle room from plating time to determine the start time of each dish. it happens almost subconsciously with smaller meals like this one but takes a bit of planning with large meals.

the second key concept is the mise en place. this is basically laying out all the ingredients, tools and any other items needed to make your dishes. a well organized mise en place leads to smoother cooking processes. its much more important when you are cooking on a commercial scale but its a good habit for the home chef as well. i usually work with a partial mise en place, most of my items laid out and a few more that i dig for at the time of need either because they need to stay in the fridge or more likely because i forgot to get them out.

so, here is my mise en place for the three dishes i made this week:

Beef dish mise en place

Brie en Croute mise en place

Ratatouille mise en place

ok, more than anything, i just have my ingredients laid out and my central area, pictured here in the Brie prep picture is my work station for todays meal. a nice clear area with your cutting board is essential for me in meal prep.

the long pole today was a split decision between the Ratatouille and the Brie. both take about 45 minutes but the Brie required some prep followed by some time in the freezer for the pastry to hold shape better so i started with it first. this gave me flexibility in building the Ratatouille while the Brie was chilling. The brie recipe was intended for an entire wheel of brie but given that it was intended for an audience of two, i scaled this back to individual cheese filled pastries, using a single sheet of puff pastry cut into six sections.

found at Epicurious.com
Mushroom stuffed Brie en Croute

Ingredients
1 small onion
1/2 pound mushrooms
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 tablespoon dry Sherry
1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
a 17 1/4-ounce package frozen puff pastry sheets, thawed according to package directions
a chilled 14- to 17-ounce wheel Brie
1 large egg

Preparation
Mince enough onion to measure 1/2 cup and finely chop mushrooms. In a 9- to 10-inch heavy skillet cook onion in butter over moderate heat, stirring, until softened. Add mushrooms, Sherry, nutmeg, and salt and pepper to taste and sauté over moderately high heat, stirring, until liquid mushrooms give off is evaporated. Cool mushroom mixture.

Mushrooms, Onions and garlic cooking

On a lightly floured surface roll out 1 sheet of pastry into a 13-inch square and, using Brie as a guide, cut out 1 round the size of the Brie. Cut out a mushroom shape from scraps for decoration.

Horizontally halve Brie. Roll out remaining sheet of pastry into a 13-inch square and transfer to a shallow baking pan. Center bottom half of Brie, cut side up, on pastry square and spread mushroom mixture on top. Cover mushroom mixture with remaining half of Brie, cut side down.

Staging the puff pastry and pieces of Brie

Without stretching pastry, wrap it snugly up over Brie and trim excess to leave a 1-inch border of pastry on top of Brie. In a small bowl lightly beat egg and brush onto border. Top Brie with pastry round, pressing edges of dough together gently but firmly to seal. Brush top of pastry with some egg and arrange pastry mushroom on it. Lightly brush mushroom with some egg, being careful not to let egg drip over edge of mushroom (which would prevent it from rising). With back of a sharp small knife gently score side of pastry with vertical marks, being careful not to cut through dough. Chill Brie, uncovered, 30 minutes. Brie may be made up to this point 1 day ahead and chilled, loosely covered.

Preheat oven to 425°F.

Bake Brie in middle of oven until pastry is puffed and golden, about 20 minutes. Let Brie stand in pan on a rack 15 minutes and transfer with a spatula to a serving

i modified this a bit by using a splash of marsala wine in place of the sherry, a combination of taste preference and this being what i had on the shelf. i also added 4 cloves of minced garlic to the mushroom mixture, personal preference again…

While the formed Brie pastries were chilling, i formed the Ratatouille. My original intention was to make this in my little corningware bowls in individual portions and then turn it out onto a baking pan to finish with some more parmesan under the broiler. this would have worked great with the exception that i was using my solitary pizza pan for the brie pastries and the bowls were way too hot to effectively manage a flip into any other type of container. so, i decided to just finish them as they were in the dishes and scooped them out onto the plates for serving. they were very cooperative and came out of the bowls whole and well formed so i have no complaints there. the recipe below is intended as a casserole, use your own preferences when making the dish. as i was making it as a layered formed dish, i sliced the eggplant thinly and did not precook it as in the recipe below. i also increased the seasonings, adding scant amounts of oregano, basil, majoram and cayenne pepper in the layers.

Ratatouille

2 tablespoons Olive oil
3 cloves Garlic, minced
2 teaspoons Dried parsley
1 Eggplant, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
Salt to taste
1 cup Grated Parmesan cheese
2 Zucchini, sliced
1 Large onion, sliced into rings
2 cups Sliced fresh mushrooms
1 Green bell pepper, sliced
2 Large tomatoes, chopped

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Coat bottom and sides of a 1 1/2 quart casserole dish with 1 tablespoon olive oil.

Heat remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil in a medium skillet over medium heat. Saute garlic until lightly browned. Mix in parsley and eggplant. Saute until eggplant is soft, about 10 minutes. Season with salt to taste.

Spread eggplant mixture evenly across bottom of prepared casserole dish. Sprinkle with a few tablespoons of Parmesan cheese. Spread zucchini in an even layer over top. Lightly salt and sprinkle with a little more cheese. Continue layering in this fashion, with onion, mushrooms, bell pepper, and tomatoes, covering each layer with a sprinkling of salt and cheese.

Bake in preheated oven for 45 minutes.

My inspiration for my beef main was Japanese Beef and Scallion Rolls from Epicurious but i decided to deviate in such a extreme manner that it really can’t be seen as the same dish anymore. you can follow the link to see the original but here is what i did:

pound flat a cut of flank steak and slice into two portions. you want this as flat as possible and vaguely rectangular.

meanwhile, blanch 4 green onions and two large julienne cut carrots of the same length as the green onions in briskly boiling water, removing the green onions after about 45 seconds and the carrot after 3 – 4 minutes when they begin to soften. transfer to a bowl of ice water to retain color and prevent further texture changes.

toss two stalks of asparagus with salt, pepper and a bit of olive oil. pan roast in a dry cast iron skillet over high heat until blackened, turning to char all sides of the asparagus.

mince 4 cloves of garlic.

season the flattened steak with salt, pepper and just a hint of rosemary. place all your ingredients sushi-maki style on one edge of the meat and tightly roll. the original recipe called for these to be tied up in string which is probably a good idea. i improvised with some toothpicks to hold them together and it worked reasonably well.

beef ready to roll

fry the meat rolls over medium-high heat until all sides are cooked to desired level, around 5 – 6 minutes total.

let rest on a plate. while the meat is resting, deglaze the pan with a 1/2 cup of Bordeaux, cooking over medium-high to reduce the wine to a sauce consistency. slice the meat maki-style and drizzle a bit of sauce over top. serve and enjoy.

Brie, Ratatouille and Beef Roll, ready to eat

overall, i would say the meal turned out well. my biggest complaint is the quality of the cuts of meat available here at Osan. i should know after a few failures that you can’t get away with using a cheaper cut of meat because although a bashed the hell out of it, the meat still wasn’t very tender. the next beef dish i make, i will have to pony up for a more expensive cut. the only other criticism is that the brie overpowered the mushroom mixture and the subtlety of the filling was lost. i would probably opt for a milder cheese if/when i made the dish again.

Eddie brought a Mouton Cadet 2007 Bordeaux which was just what the doctor ordered for this meal. it was well balanced and tasty, definitely a wine i would have again.

with the leftover sheet of pastry, i made homemade pop tarts, going off the vague memories of seeing Alton Brown do so on an episode of Good Eats and recollections of my wife’s fruit compote recipe:

add frozen strawberries, 1/2 cup water and 1/4 cup sugar into a pan, bring to a boil and continue cooking on high until the mixture thickens. add a generous splash of vanilla extract. use your immersion blender to puree most of the strawberries leaving some chunks. cool the mixture

roll out the sheet of puff pastry to a thin layer on a lightly floured surface. cut into four rectangular pieces, twice as long as you want your pastries as you will be folding them over. spoon some strawberry compote over the middle of each pastry bottom part leaving a bit of space between the edge to seal it. sprinkle just a hint of fresh ground black pepper on top of the strawberry compote. fold over the other half of the pastry and crimp closed on all four sides with a fork. transfer to a cookie sheet and bake in a 375 degree oven for about 12 minutes. try to save some to share.

unfortunately, no pictures exist of these pastries. i’m not sure what happened to them but by the time i thought of the camera, they were gone.

Feast 23 – Chili today, hot tamale

I’ve been reading this great book called Hidden Kitchens: Stories, Recipes, and More from NPR’s The Kitchen Sisters which is a great read covering non-traditional venues for preparing extraordinary food. it demonstrates the fact that where there are people, food will crop up. i’m only about 1/2 way through the book so far but each story tweaks my interest a little more. i shouldn’t be surprised, NPR as a whole has a tendency to appeal to my esoteric side and find the weird angles of whatever human interest to keep me on my toes. i must admit that i never thought of cuisine and NASCAR until i read the story. but, the way this relates to here, now and today is that they write a wonderful story on the chili queens of San Antonio, beautiful exotic women who would ply the locals and tourists with hot fiery chilis in the markets of downtown San Antone. well, you had me at chili. San Antonio being as close to a home as i have had, beautiful exotic women, spicy delicious food, this story was custom made for me, wasn’t it?

anyway, this sparked an interest in making a bit of chili. it was rather convenient as i had been trying to think of a meal that i could make that would leave me with leftovers for a few days this week to stretch my meager budget and make it til the next payday. chili is perfect for that, you make a big ass pot, eat some, store the rest and it just improves with age, mingling and settling into greatness in the fridge. with the budget in mind as well, i decided to go with pork, quality and quantity the least expense option i have on the table.

after a bit of searching, i came across a recipe for pork chili that called for a cup of coffee amongst the liquid ingredients. this intrigued me to say the least. i decided to up the ante and give a nod to the wonderful mole tradition, dropping in a few wedges of mexican chocolate that i now have thanks to my wonderful in-laws Don and Pat (from san antone, yet another connection in this story). For me, the perfect accompaniment for chili is corn bread. my wife makes great cornbread and since she does, i’m not sure when the last time i even bothered to make it. we have an informal non-competitive agreement in our household, any dish that the other makes, we refrain from making to avoid any direct competition, no comparisons of who can make the best (insert dish). we all know who would win that contest anyway. my wife is a great cook. so, anyway, to the point, i actually had to dig a bit to find a recipe that i was happy with for the cornbread. as luck would have it, one of the cookbooks i brought with me to korea is El Charro Café Cookbook: Flavors of Tucson from America’s Oldest Family-Operated Mexican Restaurant, a great little cookbook detailing the history and dishes of a wonderful restaurant in Tuscon, which i must visit at some point. They have a recipe for cornbread but oddly enough, in the edition i have at least, there is no baking time listed. i’ve baked enough bread to be able to figure out when to pull cornbread out of the oven but i found this omission odd.

On to the recipes:

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Spicy-Red-Pork-and-Bean-Chili-102938

Ingredients
1/2 pound sliced bacon
4 pounds boneless pork shoulder, cut into 1-inch cubes
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 large white onion, chopped
1 to 2 fresh jalapeño chiles, seeded and chopped
4 large garlic cloves, minced
2 teaspoons dried oregano, crumbled
1/3 cup chili powder
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon cayenne
14 1/2-ounce can beef broth
1 cup brewed coffee
1 cup water
28- to 32-ounce can crushed tomatoes with purée
2 (19-ounce) cans small red beans or kidney beans, rinsed and drained

Preparation

Bacon Crumbled and onion ready to slice

Cook bacon in a 6- to 8-quart heavy pot over moderate heat, turning, until crisp. Transfer with tongs to paper towels to drain and pour off all but 2 tablespoons fat from pot. Crumble bacon.

Pork Roast on the cutting board

Pat pork dry and season with salt and pepper. Add oil to pot and heat over moderately high heat until hot but not smoking.

Browning the pork

Brown pork in about 6 batches without crowding and transfer with a slotted spoon to a plate. Add onion and jalapeños and cook over moderate heat, stirring, until softened. Add garlic, oregano, chili powder, cumin, and cayenne, then cook, stirring, 1 minute. Return pork to pot with any juices accumulated on plate and add broth, coffee, water, and tomatoes with purée.

Close-up of Chili in the crockpot

Simmer chili, uncovered, stirring occasionally, until pork is very tender, about 2 hours. Stir in beans and bring to a simmer, stirring.

Serve chili with bacon and accompaniments.

Chili, steaming hot in the bowl

I increased the peppers to six, using 2 green jalapenos, 2 white jalapenos and 2 anaheim peppers. also, added three wedges of mexican chocolate, not enough to overpower the dish but i subtle undertone. if i hadn’t mentioned it, you probably wouldn’t have known it was there. would probably plus up on the chocolate next time so that it peeked its head out a little more. i did the dish in the crockpot after the pan browning of the pork, around 7 hours cook time on high to get the meat nice and tender. i waited until about 2 hours from serving to add the beans to prevent them from getting mushy. also used around 8 cloves of garlic and sprinkled in some chipotle pepper powder. the dish turn out really zesty without being overbearing. i hate it when people make chili and focus on nothing but the heat. its a real waste, there are so many delicious flavors to balance and enjoy, if you scorch your taste buds on the first bite, you lose all that and just have an endurance match eating white hot magma.

Cornbread turned out and ready to eat

the cornbread is simple, mix together all the ingredients until they resemble a thick pancake batter, pour into a heated, oiled cast iron skillet and bake in a 350 degree oven until a knife inserted comes out clean and the top is evenly browned. bonus points for rotating the pan midway thru. should take around 18 – 20 minutes for the cornbread, individual mileage may vary.

ingredients:
1 cup cornmeal
1 cup flour
1 cup sugar
1 tbsp baking powder
1/3 tsp salt
3/4 cup milk
1/2 cup sour cream
2 eggs
6 tbsp melted butter

1 finely diced jalapeno
1/2 a can of creamed corn

Bowl of chili with sour cream and cheese

the meal turned out great, good enough that i had two bowls of leftover chili this morning Eddie brought over some Stella Artois, lager suits itself to chili quite well. i served up the chili with a bit of sour cream and shredded cheese over top, avocado, green onions, freshly diced tomatoes, whatever you like would also go nicely.

it occurs to me that next week is the midway point, meal 24. i should do something nice.

i wanted to take a quick moment to give some respect to Gourmet magazine, shut down this past week after 70 years of operation. a look at my recipes cooked and you will find a number of them start in the pages of Gourmet, by way of epicurious.com. I am thankful that Bon Apetit is still there but cannot deny that the absence of Gourmet creates a void.

weekend preview

for a variety of reasons, after speaking with my darling wife this evening, i have decided to make a big batch of pork chili this sunday… i <3 leftovers.

i will probably make some jalapeno corn bread and some honey corn bread alongside. chili is one of those dishes that doesn't call out for any side dishes so it may very well be a one-pot affair.

at any rate, the crock pot will be put to use and i will have an abundant amount of chili for the coming week. that sounds like a win-win to me.

Feast 22 – Meat and Potatoes (It’s Grim Up North)

ok, this meal started because i had a hankering… i believe thats the best reason to ever cook something, because you get a notion that hey, i’d really like to eat that. and so, i caught a sudden urge for meatballs. as is my habit during research for these meals, i start free associating with the internet as my friend to determine what thematically would be appropriate. i find the regional cuisine pages on wikipedia to be fascinating reading. just seeing the lists upon lists of traditional dishes from a specific cuisine is like a culinary goldmine. and so, when i think meatballs, i think scandinavian style food. swedish meatballs. or in the case of today, Norwegian meatballs. which, to be honest with you, are identical to my mental image of swedish meatballs but i want to be as accurate in my reporting as possible. as far as an accompaniment i was kinda at a loss. from my western experience, it seemed that there would probably be some egg noodles involved somewhere with some steamed vegetable on the side. but that was just the american experience, i wanted to make this as right as possible. so just what do they eat up there? as it turns out, lots and lots of meat and potatoes… lots of fish. other root vegetables but nary a green leaf in sight as far as i could tell. so, between google, wikipedia and epicurious, i came up with a two dish ensemble to satiate my craving for meatballs.

Norwegian Meatballs with Spiced Cream Sauce

Ingredients
Meatballs

4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) butter
1 small onion, chopped
2 slices day-old rye bread, crusts trimmed, torn into pieces (about 1 1/2 cups)
2/3 cup beef stock or canned beef broth
1 egg
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1/4 teaspoon ground white pepper
1/2 pound ground beef
1/2 pound ground veal

Sauce

2 tablespoons all purpose flour
1 1/3 cups beef stock or canned beef broth
2 tablespoons whipping cream
Ground allspice

Preparation
For meatballs:
Melt 2 tablespoons butter in heavy medium skillet over medium heat. Add onion and sauté until translucent, about 5 minutes. Cool slightly. Combine bread and stock in large bowl. Mix in onion mixture, egg, allspice and pepper. Add ground beef and veal and blend well. (Can be prepared 3 hours ahead. Cover and chill.)

Shape meat into 1 1/4-inch balls. Melt remaining 2 tablespoons butter in heavy large skillet over medium heat. Add meatballs and sauté until cooked through and brown, turning occasionally, about 20 minutes. Using slotted spoon, transfer meatballs to platter and keep warm. Reserve drippings in skillet.

Meatballs simmering away

For sauce:
Add flour to drippings in skillet and stir over medium heat until brown, about 4 minutes. Gradually whisk in stock and cream. Simmer until sauce is thick and smooth, stirring frequently, about 5 minutes. Season to taste with allspice, salt and pepper. Pour sauce over meatballs and serve.

Pan Sauces are not very photogenic

i probably don’t even need to mention this but this is Osan so i was unable to get veal. i had to make due with a full pound of ground beef, 82% lean for the flavor adding value of that tasty fat. anything leaner and i think you really miss out on a lot.

i have to tell you, this is probably the best freaking pan sauce i have ever made. i cheated, in typical 48F fashion, increased the cream to stock ratio by just a bit and kicked in a healthy amount of cayenne. we can’t be traditional all the time. it spiked the sauce to a higher level in my opinion and was extremely tasty. i’d like to just call off the next 26 weeks of meals and make this pan sauce over and over. ok, thats not true, variety is the spice of life but it was a pretty good pan sauce.

For the side dish, i came across this potato dish called Janssons Frestelse, translated as Janssons Temptation. well, if it’s so tasty this guy Jansson can’t resist it, how can i resist making it? it’s a very simple dish, i kinda like it that way. a layered casserole with potatoes, onions and anchovies finished off with cream, butter and breadcrumbs. bake in an 400 degree oven for 45 minutes and serve. quite tasty and well worth the minimal effort it takes to prepare. below is the quoted recipe i found on the net, no real mods to this one, i did mine in three layers with anchovies on the first and second layer but not the top. i used panko breadcrumbs because they are damned tasty and add a nice crisp finish to dishes such as this.

Janssons Frestelse

5-6 medium potatoes
2 large yellow onions
15-20 anchovie fillets
2 T butter
3/4 C heavy cream
bread crumbs
freshly ground black pepper

First Layer of Potato, Onion and Anchovies

Peel and grate the potatoes. Slice the onions thinly. Grease a casserole, about 9×12 inches. Layer the grated potatoes, onion and anchovies in the dish, starting with potatoes. Pour the cream, then sliced butter, bread crumbs and pepper evenly over the mix. Bake in a 400° oven for 40-50 minutes.

Finished Casserole

Well, one point of light in this bleak world… by some apparent shipping accident or bizarre mistake, the store here got a shipment of Kostriker Schwarzbier which is pretty damned tasty. it was just the thing for this meal and oddly enough, a few of them was enough to convince me to go shoot some pool afterward.

i can’t say enough about the meatballs and the sauce, the meatballs were moist and tender, the sauce zesty with just the right amount of creamy kick. This is one of my favorite dishes in quite some time.

plated and ready to eat

oh, i also threw down the gauntlet for Eddie, i challenged him to come up with a theme for a feast, either a world cuisine, a key ingredient or a vaguely recollected dish that he might want to try. i like the thought of audience participation, who knows where it might lead?

Feast 21 – Soup and Salad

Well, here is a little nod to Xtna and her penchant for soup and salad. I really wanted to keep the focus on the soup that i was making today and i felt that if i made any other main course it would distract from it. So, the natural addition to round out the meal was a salad. I wanted something that was varied enough to stand up to the soup (just you wait) but still nice and clean so as not to detract. I opted for a version of a salad Nicoise. It’s a tasty salad with many variation but i tried to keep it as traditional as possible. I was unable to get chervil so that is one thing you could definitely add that would be a nice addition to my recipe.

Salad Nicoise, ready to eat

i started with a bed of red leaf lettuce, added some fresh green beans, trimmed and some thinly sliced green bell pepper. surround with one boiled egg and a tomato cut into eights. dress this with extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar. lay some anchovies over top and you are ready to eat. gotta love salad, its quick easy and delicious. i may be a little anal retentive but to ensure optimal serving temperature, i chilled the lettuce, tomatoes, anchovies and salad plates in the freezer for about five minutes right before building the salad. i wanted everything nicely chilled to balance the hot soup.

The soup that i wanted to make is almost a french onion soup. i say almost because, well, there are no onions in this particular soup. what, you say? how can it be french onion soup without onions? well, i think anyone who has ever read this blog knows that i have a very strong affinity for garlic. so, i decided to make a french garlic and shallot soup. and it turned out damned good if i don’t say so myself.

so that's what 6 heads of garlic looks like peeled...

I’m sure i am sounding like a broken record but this is yet another recipe that i have taken from Alton Brown and modified. Sure, french onion soup is french onion soup but i want to give credit where credit is due. i really enjoyed his version with vidalia onions when i made it about a year ago (seems like a lifetime) so i knew it was a solid start for my experiment with garlic and shallots. two minor variations that i went with and that is to exclude the cider and to use just beef broth instead of a mixture of consume and chicken broth. i am quoting his original recipe as i think it is well worth the effort to make, if you want to make it as i did today, exclude the cider, double the beef broth and use 5 shallots and 6 heads of garlic in place of the onions. also, i used rounds of sourdough topped with gruyere for the lids. make sure not to make the lids too thick or they will be difficult to break apart with your spoon.

Shallots on the cutting board

i was a bit nervous about this dish as the bowls i was using for the soup specifically say not to use them under a broiler. i took a chance since it was only for a brief few minutes they would be exposed but was half expecting an oven full of soup to clean up. I took the precaution of running the bowls under hot water before filling and broiling to avoid the temperature shock of going straight from cabinet to broiler. it may or may not have helped but it certainly didn’t hurt.

here is the original recipe, make the modifications above if you want to make it as served during this feast. As always, if i am out of line for quoting the recipe, please let me know and i will remove it. i simply don’t want to take credit for work that isn’t mine, i modified it but it is firmly based in Alton’s recipe.

Recipe courtesy Alton Brown

Ingredients

10 Sweet onions (like Vidalias) or a combination of sweet and red onions
3 tablespoons Butter
Kosher salt
2 cups White wine
10 ounces Canned beef consume
10 ounces Chicken broth
10 ounces Apple cider (unfiltered is best)
Bouquet garni; thyme sprigs, bay leaf and parsley
1 Loaf country style bread
Ground black pepper
Splash Cognac, optional
1 cup Grated Fontina or Gruyere cheese
Preparation

Trim the ends off each onion then slice from end to end. Remove peel and finely slice into half moon shapes. Set electric skillet to 300 degrees and add butter. Once butter has melted add a layer of onions and sprinkle with a little salt. Repeat layering onions and salt until all onions are in the skillet. Do not try stirring until onions have sweated down for 15 to 20 minutes. After that, stir occasionally until onions are dark mahogany and reduced to approximately 2 cups. This should take 45 minutes to 1 hour. Do not worry about burning.

Add enough wine to cover the onions and turn heat to high, reducing the wine to a syrup consistency. Add consume, chicken broth, apple cider and bouquet garni. Reduce heat and simmer 15 to 20 minutes.

Place oven rack in top 1/3 of oven and heat broiler.

Cut country bread in rounds large enough to fit mouth of oven safe soup crocks. Place the slices on a baking sheet and place under broiler for 1 minute.

Season soup mixture with salt, pepper and cognac. Ladle soup into crocks leaving one inch to the lip. Place bread round, toasted side down, on top of soup and top with grated cheese. Broil until cheese is bubbly and golden, 1 to 2 minutes.

French Garlic-Shallot Soup, right out of the broiler

this was an amazing soup. the shallots and garlic gave it an intensely sweet and sharp taste. for those of you that have indulged in massive amounts of garlic, you can only imagine the aftermath. i’m not going to get scatological on you but let’s leave it at the fact that i really wished i could get far away from myself after my body started processing it. it was absolutely worth it though, i would do it again in a heartbeat. and yes, i peeled all my own garlic, drop those accusing fingers. no shortcuts to the 48 feasts.

27 to go.

48F Supplemental – Bar Food

VIP, exterior at night

Well, in my never-ending search for things to do, i have became the captain of a pool team for a local bar. We aren’t that good, truth to be told but we enjoy playing and there is a bit of beer involved. As such, i have spent a bit of time in our home bar, the VIP club. I like it there because it is devoid of the constant pressure that is prevalent in most other places downtown. They have girls that work there but they are friendly without being overbearing and they respect the fact that we are there to drink beer and play pool, not to chase after them. However, being a frequent flyers at the VIP, Eddie and i have established a friendly relationship with the owner and the employees. and how better to show your appreciation for good service and friendly attitude than to make a bit of food.

Me with Yumi, owner of the VIP

At some point, i believe that i really need to get Alton Brown a fruit basket. I know that i have a lot to learn but it seems like every time i turn around i am using a technique that i learned from Alton off of his excellent program, Good Eats. Please, if anyone bumps into him, let him know that my hat is off and he has my appreciation. For this particular meal, as i was focused on bar food, i chose the quintessential bar food, chicken wings. The lesson learned from Alton is that if you steam the wings first, you cook out enough of the fat that you won’t end up with a smoking mess when you try to broil them to crisp them up. It’s a valuable lesson and i have used it to very good effect several times now. I have my limitations here as mentioned in the past so given my lack of steamer pot, i went out on a limb and used that ever so useful tool of the bain marie and they still turned out great. same basic principle but the wings did dry out just a tad more than they would in a steamer pot. not enough to stress about so if you happen to be stuck in south korea without a steamer pot, feel free to give it a shot.

Eric with Sunny and a flower vendor

I decided to make three different types of wings because it’s dirt simple to make multiple sauces and just toss a portion of the cooked wings with it. It would be almost lazy to make a single sauce but if that’s your thing, go for it. You can make just about any flavor combination you like, just cook it down to a slightly thickened sauce and toss the wings in the sauce after broiling them, i use a large tupperware container because its nice and contained and i can shake the hell out of it to coat the wings. Today i opted for Sesame Ginger, Mango Habenero and traditional Tabasco and Garlic. In a slight change, i am not posting any pictures of the food itself but instead interweaving pictures of the people who ate the food. I hope you enjoy the slight deviation. Eric, Brad, Yoon and Eddie shoot on the VIP team with me. Not pictured are Rob and Jon, Rob went home to early and Jon didn’t come out because of prior engagements.

Brad with two of the VIP girls, not drunk just badly timed photo

i cheated a little and used a mango habanero sauce i found on the net with slight modifications. i upped the habaneros to 4 because i wanted just a little (ok alot) more kick. i also upped the garlic to 4 cloves because garlic is good and good for you.

Mango Habanero Barbecue Sauce
Source: Recipesecret / Kitchenwitch

3 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 cup diced onion
1 habanero pepper, diced with seeds and ribs removed
1 teaspoon diced garlic
2 cups diced mango
1/4 cup fresh lime juice
1/2 cup white vinegar
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
1 1/4 teaspoons salt

Place a 1-quart saucepan over medium high heat and add 1 tablespoon of olive oil to the pan. Once the oil is hot, add the onions and habanero pepper and cook until the onions are translucent, about 3 to 4 minutes. Add the garlic to the pan and cook for 30 seconds. Deglaze the pan with the lime juice and vinegar. Bring the pan to a boil then reduce the heat to medium. Add the sugar, mustard, and 1/2 teaspoon of the salt to the pan. Continue to cook the barbeque sauce until the mangoes are very soft, about 5 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat and allow the sauce to cool for about 15 minutes. You can leave the sauce chunky like this, or puree the contents of the pan in a blender on low speed for 1 minute, if desired. Reserve the sauce until ready to use. Sauce will keep up to 10 days in a non-reactive air-tight container in the refrigerator.

Eddie with Eric and Sunny in the background

For the Sesame Ginger Sauce, i mixed and cooked down the following ingredients until it was slightly syrupy. after pouring the sauce over the wings, i sprinkled on about a 1/4 cup of toasted white sesame seed (dry toast them in a hot pan until they start to brown and smell nutty).

1 cup Soy sauce
1/2 cup White distilled vinegar
3 tablespoons Honey
thumb sized piece of ginger, finely minced
2 tablespoons Oriental sesame oil

Me with Mina

For the traditional Style, i melted 4 tbsp butter in a pan and added 6 cloves of minced garlic. pour in 1 cup of Tabasco and cook down just a bit. Toss with the wings. a twist or two of black pepper is nice to finish them off.

Me and Yoon

as i was worried about the wings being hot when i got them to the bar, i sealed them in disposable aluminum cake pans with foil and left them in a 275 degree oven until just before i was ready to leave. this both kept them warm and cooked the sauce into the wings a bit.

Eric shooting with Sunny watches

I stand by the fact that one of the nicest things you can do for people is to feed them. Good food is made better by the sharing and it was nice to see everyone happy and well fed. i don’t want to spoil them so i won’t do it too often (stray cats and all that) but i will definitely make some food for the bar at some point in the future.

Feast 20 – Mexican Food

late post, my body needed sleep and i just slept for an unreasonably long time. still feeling hazy and half asleep but luckily, i authored the majority of the text of this post at work yesterday!

It shouldn’t surprise me but yet again, the dish that I spent the least time and effort on turns out to be the stand out dish. I would like to credit it to my culinary acumen but I don’t have that confidence. Instead, I think I would credit it to the fact that simple preparations with good ingredients make for the most enjoyable dishes. This is evident in the prep I do for Brussels sprouts. Tossed in olive oil, salt and pepper, roasted in a cast iron skillet and you are done. Easy. Simple. Delicious. No complicated prep, no delicate sauces, just good ingredients prepared in a way that accents the natural flavors. There is a lesson to be learned.

Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy complex dishes with deep flavor nuances. They are both fun to make, a bit challenging and very satisfying. But, it seems that the crowd pleasers are usually the simpler dishes. Makes me wonder if I am overthinking some of my dishes and that perhaps I should experiment with more Spartan cookery. Avoid gilding the lily so to speak. A bit of soul searching is in order I believe.

Ok, philosophical meanderings aside, this week, I made a wonderful selection of tex-mex sort of dishes. The centerpiece was the tamales. Tamales are a staple in our family for the winter holidays. Its fairly typical of Hispanic culture as I understand it and I have been lucky enough to marry into it. Due to my interest and the fact that I can be relied upon to actual go through the work, I have taken up the mantle of making the tamales for the extended family whenever we all get together. I usually make three or four dozen for those occasions but for today, serving two, I made a dozen, split between two types.

The first type of tamale I made, the bulk of the work for this meal, was a stewed pork tamale. This was a two day endeavor with the time it takes to properly slow cook the pork to the desired tenderness. I started with a three pound pork roast in the crock pot on top of three quartered onions. Add to this one bottle of beer, salt, pepper, oregano, 6 bay leaves and 8 cloves of chopped garlic. Meanwhile, soak 3 ounces of dried ancho chili peppers in hot water, held under with a small plate. Soak these for about 30 minutes or until they soften. Drain the chilis, reserving the soaking liquid. Stem them, remove as many of the seeds as you feel like taking the trouble with and toss them in the pot as well. Set aside one cup of the soaking liquid and pour the rest over the pork. Add 2 cups of chicken broth, a bit of brown sugar and a touch of balsamic vinegar. Cook on high in the crock pot for four hours and then switch to low for 10 more hours (overnight in my case). You want to turn the pork over a few times throughout the cooking. Your first indication that it is getting to a good point is when it starts to fall apart when you are turning it. The next morning, turn the crock pot back to high and cook for an additional three hours, stirring often to reduce the mixture a bit. It should look really dark brown and angry at this point. Drain and set the meat aside to cool, picking out the bay leaves.

pork roast in crock pot, ready to cook

The second type of tamales was the dish that I alluded to in the opening paragraphs. It started with just a notion, no real direction, just a thought of where I wanted to go. I wanted to capture a bit of the chili relleno flavor in tamale form. To this end, remove the stems and seeds from 6 anaheim peppers (yup, they don’t have poblanos here, be patient with me, I am trying. Chop a large onion and sweat down the onion and peppers in a pan with a bit of olive oil. Cook the hell out of them until they are nicely translucent and the onions have caramelized. Season with salt and pepper and set aside to cool. We will be adding some standard Mexican mixed cheese to these when we roll them. Yet again, no queso fresco here which would have been my choice for this dish.

For the tamale dough, mix 3 1/2 cups Masa Harina, 1.5 tablespoons Salt, 3 ½ cups Chicken broth and ¾ lb Lard or shortening. Combine well and using a hand or stand mixer, mix to make a very consistent dough. Set aside.

The assembly is always the most time consuming part of this dish, luckily I was only making a dozen, six of each type so it was relatively painless. You want to soak your corn husks in hot water for about an hour before starting to make them more pliable. This will ease the rolling process significantly. Working one at a time, spoon enough dough to cover your corn husk and spread a couple of tablespoons of mixture in a line in the center. Roll tightly and fold the end over . place these on a rack with the seal/fold facing down.

Again, I am working with limited resources here so I don’t have my steamer pot. I decided that I was going to work around this by using the oven and a bain marie to steam them. Simply put, this is a pan of water under your rack of tamales in a 325 oven for about 45 minutes. Worked like a charm by the way and I am likely to use this method for small batches even when I get back to the real world and all my stuff.

You could make a sauce for these but it would be extraneous in my opinion. They are tasty enough without.

Alongside this, I decided on a simple salad and some Mexican style rice. My rice is not traditional but it turned out really good so I am not going to argue with success. take 2 cups of rice and brown it in a bit of oil over medium heat until it starts to smell a little nutty. meanwhile, start a pot to boil with 2 1/2 cups chicken stock and the reserved one cup of pepper soaking liquid with a twist or two of salt. add the browned off rice, 1/2 a cup of frozen corn and a 3 oz can of chipotle peppers in adobo sauce. return the mixture to a boil. cover and reduce heat to low, cook until water is absorbed, about 15 minutes. fluff and serve.

For the salad, I chopped an avocado, 3 tomatoes and 6 small cloves of garlic (which, incidentally, I grew in my backyard) . add to this a handful of chopped cilantro, a twist or two of salt the juice of one lime and 2 thinly sliced fresh jalapenos. Toss well to combine. Chill and serve.

Unusual for me but this particular meal would not have been right without a dessert. And no dessert other than flan could fit this meal. I will quote below the recipe that I use, adapted from one that was found in a book years ago that I don’t remember the name of unfortunately. Over the years, I have made this my signature holiday dish and am very proud of it. Its not terribly complicated and any one can make it, it make take an attempt or two to get the caramelization of the molds to work out just right. Don’t be discouraged, eating this dessert is the best thing you could ever do for yourself. Really. It’s that good.

sugar caramelizing for the molds

Flan

Ingredients

3/4 cup Sugar

1/4 cup Sugar

1 1/2 cups Milk

1 14oz Can sweetened condensed milk

3 Large eggs

4 Large egg yolks

1 1/2 tsp Vanilla extract

Preparation
Measure 3/4 cup sugar into small saucepan, dribble 1/3 cup water around and over sugar to moisten, and set over medium-high heat. let mixture come to a boil and reduce heat to medium. swirl pan over heat until syrup is a dark brown color but not quite burnt. pour syrup into bottom of round glass pan.

molds filled with caramalized sugar and ready for flan

heat oven to 325 F

in a medium saucepan, combine sugar, milk, and condensed milk. Bring to simmer. in a bowl, whisk eggs and yolks until liquid. slowly whisk in warm milk mixture and add vanilla. pour into glass dish over syrup.

bake the custard in a pan of simmering water that some 2/3 of the way up the side of the custard dish. bake for 60 – 70 minutes until barely set in the middle. let custard cool in pan of water and then refrigerate for at least 2 hours. turn over onto a serving plate to serve.

you can also make it in a bunch of small containers instead of one large one.

The above cut and paste was from my recipe library at mealmatter.org an excellent recipe and shopping list management site. I recommend it without hesitation.

tamales, rice and salad ready to eat

This meal was great, not only because everything turned out well but because it gave me the chance to introduce Eddie to both Tamales and Flan. The tamales turned out fabulous with a nice texture and flavorful fillings. He said that if he had ever had a tamale before that it was not memorable enough to make an impression, most likely drowned in a cheap sauce at a cut rate Mexican restaurant. These, homemade with care, showed him what the dish was supposed to be like and that was enough for me.

Ok, here is where a little conceit sets in. I served the flan with some coffee (French press of course) and didn’t even have to look at Eddie to check reactions. Flan is just that good and I have made it enough that just looking, I knew the texture and flavor would be right on. It was love at first bite and I guarantee that it will not be the last time he has flan.

flan on serving plate

That’s 20 down and 28 to go. I can’t say that its flying by but it is passing that indomitable force that is time. I am excited that soon we will be at meal 48, the nominal halfway point of this separation and project. More is coming and I can only hope that they turn out as well as this meal did.