Those neo-Mexican supper recipies

Okay. I got enough strokes so now I'm posting.

Cucumber-yogurt with Pepperoncini

This recipe was in the current issue of Food & Wine magazine and rather than writing the whole thing out, you can LINK to it. Clever me, duh. Honest, this is so refreshingly good, I’d like to make another batch right now. We reduced the dill. I’m no buttermilk drinker, but in this recipe no one knows they’re spooning up buttermilk. Left over buttermilk, even if it’s pretty sour and undrinkable, is great for pancakes or biscuits.

Stuffed Poblanos

Poblanos are consistently milder and cuz they’re kinda fat. Easier to stuff, but you can use Anaheims also. Then they’re called Chile Rellonos.

5-10 roasted peppers. Go to this site for instructions on roasting or charring. Only, sweat them in a paper bag, not plastic. And if you rinse them under water to help skin, be sure to dry them off before cooking. Another thing - if you do a larger batch you can freeze the extra for later use.

Monterrey Jack cheese – 8 – 12 oz.

Dry the roasted poblanos with a paper towel. Make a small slit on side to remove some of the seeds and ribbing. Tuck a triangle of cheese in the slit. Roll in flour to dust outside. Don’t worry if the “slit” becomes more of a gaping hole. Just kind of wrap the flesh around the cheese and dip them in batter one by one, using your fingers, place on a saucer and slip into ½ inch hot oil in a frying pan. Sauté until golden, turn, about 3-4 minutes per side. Drain on paper towels. Eat SOON.

Batter:

3-4 eggs, separated

1 – 2 T water

3 T flour

¼ t. salt

Beat egg whites until they form soft peaks.

Beat yolks with water, flour, salt until thick and creamy.

Fold whites into yolks.

Tomato and Mint Salad with Pomegranate Dressing.

Yeah! Go to Epicurious for this recipe. Really great company for this menu.

Lazy Flat Enchiladas like my Hispanic Neighbor Taught Me

1 lb ground beef, browned

1 pkg corn tortillas

1 small onion, chopped

1 can green chile (or use fresh, add jalapenos if you want heat)

2 cans cream of chicken soup (Horrors! Sometimes I have stock and can make my own.)

1 can water

1 lb grated mild c

heddar cheese.

1 large casserole dish, oiled

Mix soup and water in shallow dish.

Assemble like this:

1. Dip tortillas in soup one at a time and place in a single layer. Tear them in ½ to make fit, if needed.

2. Sprinkle layer with 2 T ground beef.

3. 1 T. or so of raw onion

4. 1-2 T green chile

5. A little grated cheese.

Repeat until you fill

the casserole. I usually get about 3-4 layers. Pour any remaining soup over the top. Finish with cheese. Bake 350 oven for 30 minutes or until it bubbles.

Café Flan (I could eat this all day, but I’m a Christian. You know?)

3 eggs, slightly beaten

6 T. sugar

¼ t. salt

1 t. vanilla

2 T. instant coffee or espresso (okay, just so you know, this is about the only form of instant coffee that ever passes my lips, and it keeps forever)

3 c. milk, scalded. (about 3-4 minutes in microwave?)

6 T. Kahlua

Whipped cream (Do NOT use COOL WHIP!!)

In mixing bowl, combine eggs, sugar, salt, coffee, and vanilla. Mix. Gradually add hot milk, stir like heck, Pour mixture into 6 custard cups. Place in pan of hot water and bake at 375 for 25 minutes or until slightly firm. Cool to room temp or chill if you make it a day ahead. To serve, spoon liqueur over flan and top with whipped cream.

Source: Simply Simpatico cookbook

Days of heaven, maybe

A couple nights ago we took another supper out to the farm. Anita and I got inspired by a peppery sort of Mexican menu and before the food was planned she had pulled a red Mexican blanket from the trunk of her car for a tablecloth and I’d chosen a cd - Flaco Jimenez – All Said and Done. Joe and Becca’s interns Nathan & Sarah joined us, Hannah was there, and Daniel, Joe’s good friend, arrived on his motorcycle with his new puppy, Franky, riding in a box on the back.



While Anita and Denis set up, I finished the poblanos, frying them up in Becca’s cast iron skillet.





Sitting down together in the yard with friends and a loaded table had the distinct feel of eternity – the scent we sometimes get being hundreds of miles or years



downstream from the source. What with the long rays of evening crossing the fields diffusing through the trees, the blend of flavors and textures, sharing stories – it roused hope, the reminder that one day these won't be such a rare moments especially when life is…
Cheez. I’ve been reading too much nineteenth century nature writing. Sounds like I’m channeling James Audubon essays. What I’m saying, okay, is that sometimes God gives grace-filled days and I really, really need to bank them against bad times. Not that I’ve lived with a pessimist or anything, these many years.

This was our menu:

Cucumber-Yogurt Soup with Pepperoncini
(now my favorite cold soup with perfect amount of creamy tanginess)
Flat enchiladas (an easy dish from Hispanic neighbors)
Stuffed Poblano Peppers
Tomato mint salad with pomegranate molasses dressing (unusual foody items like this can make me crabby, but this specialty molasses was worth it)
Challah bread & butter
Fresh lemonade
Café Flan with whipped cream and Kahlua. (a flawless melting of flavors when a spoonful is slowly pressed to the roof of your mouth)

You know, if there was interest, I might post some of these recipes. But only...

Sabbath gifts

This evening Denis and I sat on the back porch for a little while, each with a cup of hot tea. There are frost warnings out for northern Minnesota tonight and it was already chilly enough that I wrapped up in an afghan. We sat recounting our weekend -- I was here and he was in St. Louis. A rabbit settled beneath the hedge and closed her eyes, but her ears still twitched. A humming bird came to the feeder right in front of us and we could hear his feathers give a tiny rumble as he downshifted to hover mode. Denis said he's like a semi that does jake braking. He drank, sat on the clothesline, drank again, sat back down, scratched his ear with a leg. Flashed to the nasturtiums, ate a couple gnats for protein then, gone. A bird with a “Purpose Driven Life.”

We pray to receive the coming week as from God’s hands, to be as content with our limitations, work, pleasures, finiteness as the creatures we witnessed tonight.

Zucchini

First good thing. Am much happier now than I was a few minutes ago having just eaten a slice of fresh zucchini bread. Anita’s been baking and the scent rises to my second floor office. As far as I’m concerned it’s still too early in the season to resent the giant, naughty zucchini gardeners pawn off when you're not looking.

Second good thing, I see it is nearly dinner time and I’m not cooking! We’re grilling at Kosmo’s tonight and I hope she remembers that a bunch of us are coming over and she’s providing the car-nay. So. More joy. It’s not that all of my life is about food. Really, it’s not. But at the end of a long day to find that someone else is redeeming zucchini and lighting the fire is, well, a grace. And for good measure: a poem:

Zucchini

O dread species!

overachiever, overpopulator,

you bore me to death.

At night while the stars hone their points

you multiply and inflate into obscene gestures.

You are the season’s homeless.

We pass you among us like orphaned children

until our sense of charity dissolves

under the sheer weight of your numbers.

Then do we stack you like firewood

and pray for lightening to strike.

- Robert Samarotto

It's like this...

Remember last winter when we whined and cried for fresh like this? Wes made us Victory Garden Chicken Soup. The flavors subtle and green, softly satisfying accompanied by the crunch of fresh bread. Saying good-bye to him for a season - easier when time slows for wine conversation and mannerly dogs laying their heads on your knee saying, Friend, I only just met you, but as you can see, I love you.

I've been away

Been distracted. Busy. Tired. Lacking bloggerish energy. But I'm coming back, I think.



But here’s my favorite comment from Paige and Anson - other than…”Grandma, I’m going to miss you soooo much” -- Anson, 5 Paige, 3 were embracing in the kitchen. Both were laughing, dancing, falling down together.
Paige says: “Anson loves me very much.”
Anson clarifies: “No I don’t. I was just huggin her.”

After a week of not eating more than two bites of anything I made, except Kraft macaroni and cheese. (I wasn’t offended.) Today jackpot. They left for home today, staggering off, stuffed like little snakes having each eaten five large buckwheat pancakes with maple syrup, one egg over easy, four pieces of bacon, two glasses of juice.

Distribution will not be equal

A friend from Hawaii writes that a branch bearing sixteen ripened avocados fell off their tree, and she would gladly share them if only I would come across. Her husband carefully logs numbers and guards them from scalpers. So there may be no better reason for a trip to Hawaii. Just yesterday I was spared some envy and slightly assuaged with a pretty good one for Minnesota store-bought. Rare. It was large and dark, evenly acned, made you want to press your thumbs in like that gross scene with the eyes in Blade Runner - not a good idea. And don't look up the scene on youtube. The peel lifted smoothly and the inside it was that perfect green to yellow and easily turned to the consistency of Pantene Hair Conditioner when I mashed it with a fork. I added fresh lime juice, minced garlic, hot pepper flakes, salt and spread it on lightly toasted bread, placed a slice of ripe tomato on top, grated parmesan cheese, and broiled it for a minute or two. mmmm. We ate it on the back porch in perfect temps and looked at the flowers blooming wildly as if they know time is short. But a mere branch of sixteen? And today she says that three of them made four pounds of guacamole? I faintly writhe.