A Thai-ish Supper

I always have at least one jar of Maesri Thai chilli paste with sweet basil in the pantry. If you enjoy drunken noodles, you'll like this condiment.

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Ordinarily, I plan our weekend dinners a few days in advance, but other times I just wing it. We normally have enough raw ingredients in the house to produce something interesting without having to make a run to the store. On this particular weekend, I decided to use some of the Trader Joe's cod we had in the freezer. Cod's not my favorite--I'm not into its weird, almost-buttery, flavor-- but it's relatively inexpensive and cooks quickly. I thought I could do something like my old standby Sriracha Bouillabaisse, which is relatively easy. (I was feeling lazy.) Then I noticed a jar of Thai chilli paste with sweet basil in the cupboard, next to a can of coconut milk, and dinner suddenly veered off in a slightly different direction.

Both recipes start with sautéing aromatics, then adding tomatoes, stock, and something spicy. In this case, the spicy element is provided one of my favorite condiments. I discovered chilli paste with sweet basil leaves at H Mart many years ago. There are a couple of variations and brands available, with holy basil, or labeled as "pad kapao" sauce. All of them contain some variety of Thai basil, chile peppers, soy bean oil, garlic, and salt. The flavors are spicy and aromatic, bright and fragrant, great with everything (I think). If you appreciate the licorice-like flavors of Thai basil and are into hot stuff, I think you'll like it.

I mostly had peppers on hand--an orange bell pepper and a bag of shishitos that I haven't gotten around to using. I chopped up a handful of those; while not really spicy, shishitos still have the flavor profile of a hot green pepper, which I vastly prefer over a green bell pepper. Green beans would work nicely in this dish, too, so if you have some, toss them in. Hell, any veg would be good, and shrimp or tofu would work just as well as the fish.

I simmer the veg and wet ingredients until they look more like a sauce than a soup, adding lots of fish sauce, lime juice, and a pinch or two of sweetener (sugar, agave nectar, honey) to get a balanced flavor. Restaurant Thai food, at least in this area, tends to be sweet. It's nice to be able to cut back on the sweetness when preparing food with Thai flavors at home, but I still think many dishes need at least a touch of sweetness to balance the more intense flavors of chiles and fish sauce.

The protein is added at the last minute and heated only until cooked through. Overcooked fish is a bad thing, so don't do it. I don't think you can overcook tofu, but probably best not to let that go too long, either. I served the dish with plain jasmine rice, your favorite grain would probably be fine. If you reduce the sauce even more before seasoning, you could probably eat this over pasta, should you be so inclined.

Thai Basil Coconut Fish

2 tablespoons neutral oil
1 medium onion, sliced thinly
1 orange bell pepper, sliced thinly
1-3 green chiles of your choice (jalapenos or whatever you have on hand), sliced thinly
1/4 cup finely chopped cilantro stems
2 cloves garlic, minced
Kosher salt
1 Knorr fish bouillon cube plus 1 cup water, or 1 8-oz bottle of clam juice
1 15-oz can diced tomatoes
1 15-oz can coconut milk
2 heaping tablespoons Maesri chilli paste with sweet basil leaves (or to taste)
Fish sauce
Lime juice
Sugar to taste
1 pound boneless, skinless cod filets, or similar white-fleshed fish
Rice for serving
Cilantro and sliced green onion for garnish

Heat the oil over medium-high heat in a dutch oven or large pan with lid. Add the onion, peppers, cilantro stems, and a big pinch of salt.. Stir occasionally, cooking until veg have softened a bit and starting to brown, 5-6 minutes. Add the garlic and cook an additional minute or so. Add the bouillon or clam juice, tomatoes, and coconut milk and stir to combine. Bring mixture to a simmer and cook for 8-10 minutes to evaporate some of the liquid and concentrate the flavors.

Turn the heat down to medium. Add the chilli paste and taste for seasoning. If you are serving this with rice, you'll need the sauce to be somewhat aggressively seasoned. Add fish sauce for salt--I used a couple of tablespoons. You can add some kosher salt, too. Add a few squeezes of lime juice and a bit of sugar. Once you have the sauce flavored to your liking (it should have a nice spicy/tangy/sweet balance, but do what works for your palate), slip in the pieces of fish. Cover the pan and cook until the fish is cooked through and easily flakes apart, about 5 minutes.

Serve in bowls, with rice on the bottom or on the side. Garnish with cilantro.

Serves 4.

* Any products in this post that are mentioned by name may have been provided to Minxeats by the manufacturer. However, all opinions belong to Minxeats. Amazon links earn me $! Please buy!

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Chili Crisp/Crunch

I like spicy food, though I am not a "chile head" by any stretch of the imagination. Personally, I think the folks who enjoy high Scoville-scorers like bhut jolokia and Carolina Reapers, who are willing to endure the special kind of pain those peppers inflict on their innocent butt-holes, are totally bonkers.

I'm particular about the source of my spice, preferring the mellow palate-singeing heat of dried chiles over the lingering lip-tingling burn of fresh ones. A great way to add that dried pepper zing to dishes, IMHO, is to add a spoonful or two of a condiment known as either chili crisp or chili crunch, depending on the manufacturer. Generally, this is an Asian condiment--made with toasted chile flakes, shallots, garlic, Sichuan peppercorns, fermented soy beans, and sometimes peanuts, in soybean oil--though the Mexican salsa macha, a mix of nuts and chiles in oil, is similar.

Eating chiles can boost dopamine levels, and therefore becomes somewhat addictive. I can't tell whether my now-customary spoonful of chile crisp on my over-easy eggs is a habit or an addiction. What I can tell you is that I enjoy them even more now than I did before, though dippy eggs have been one of my top ten favorite things to eat since childhood. 

It used to be that chili crisp products could only be found in Asian stores in the form of the OG, Lao Gan Ma. Available both with and without peanuts, this sauce might be called the platonic ideal of chili crisps. It's hot, but not too hot, with crispy bits of shallot and garlic for texture and flavor. It's great on dumplings and noodle dishes, and everyone should have a jar in their fridge.  

But wait, there's more! 

Trader Joe's sells a Chili Onion Crunch that is a bit too crunchy for my liking, quite oniony, and somewhat sweet. A little goes a long way for me, so the tiny jar lasted for quite a long time before I determined that I didn't actually like it and gave myself permission to throw the rest away. 

Zindrew Crunchy Garlic Chili Oil  has the perfect amount of crunch, but it has an odd flavor to it that I think of as "fishy." The primary ingredients are oil, chiles, and garlic--no fish--though I wouldn't say the sauce is particularly hot or garlic-y. (They do sell a hotter version they call X Batch.) The only thing I like this particular brand of chili crunch on is over-easy eggs. Somehow egg yolk tempers that fishy quality for me. I feel like I've used this sauce on my weekly eggs for months and months now, and there's still always a little bit left in the jar. It's a pretty big jar, so a good deal for the money (fancy chili crisps are $$$), but I wouldn't buy it again.

Right now, I think my favorite brand of chile crisp is Oomame. The company has received some flak for cultural appropriation--it's run by a white guy--but there's no faulting the flavors of the product. Their chile crisps come in four styles, influenced by the cuisines of Mexico, China, Morocco, and India. My favorites are Mexico and Morocco, with India and China in distant 3rd and 4th places. Not those two aren't good--they are--they just don't tickle my palate in the same way as do Mexico and Morocco. I cook a lot of Mediterranean- and North African-style dishes, and Mexican food is a favorite, so perhaps my palate is just tuned in those directions. In any case, I appreciate the subtle differences in ingredients among the four flavors, including spices native to the countries represented. Also, each of the non-Chinese variants contains a dried fruit which adds subtle sweetness: fig in the Moroccan; mango in the Mexican; papaya in the Indian. The Mexican and Moroccan versions also contain orange peel. You can read more about Oomame in another blog post, which includes a recipe for ice cream made with Mexican Ooomame.

I discovered The Flavor Society via Christopher Kimball's Milk Street shop. They make two flavors, pizza and everything bagel. Considering that (good) pizza is one of my all-time favorite foods, how could I pass up on pizza-flavored chile crunch? I know you're wondering if it actually tastes like its namesake. Yes, it does--it's quite reminiscent of pepperoni or Italian sausage pizza. Fennel and herbs do their magic in this stuff, with mushroom powder adding the umami that comes from the fermented soy beans usually found in more traditional versions. The everything bagel flavor is also delish, swapping out the fennel and herbs for sesame, poppy, caraway, and sunflower seeds. I find both flavors to be eat-off-the-spoon mild, but there is also a spicy pizza version that I have not yet tried. 

Fans of restauranteur/chef/tv personality/podcast host/entrepreneur David Chang swear by his Momofuku brand of chili crunch. I am a regular listener of his podcast (even if I am about 18 months behind) and felt that as a fan of chili crisps, I should give his a try. With coconut sugar as the third ingredient on the label, Momofuku chili crunch is appreciably sweeter than any other brand I've tried. Three kinds of chiles and both garlic and shallots make it spicier and more allium-forward as well. It is good, and I prefer it to both Zindrew and Oomame's Chinese chili crisp, but Lao Gan Ma edges it out by a couple of hairs...and it's much less-expensive!

So far, these are all the chili crisp/crunch condiments I've tried. I know there are plenty more out there, but I'm not that interested in trying more variations on the Chinese chili crisp theme. Lao Gan Ma is great and very affordable, so there's not much reason for me to shell out an additional $8 - $15 for another brand. Point me in the direction of more unusual versions, however, like those from The Flavor Society and Oomame, and I'll fork over the dough. I'd also like to get my hands on a few versions of salsa macha. If any readers have suggestions, I am all ears...er...eyes...um, palate. Please leave a comment if you think there's something I should try.

* Any products in this post that are mentioned by name may have been provided to Minxeats by the manufacturer. However, all opinions belong to Minxeats. Amazon links earn me $! Please buy!

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Charcuterie Platters

Who, except vegans, doesn't appreciate a good charcuterie platter?

It's a perfect lazy meal, and fantastic for those sultry summer evenings when the thought of hot food is unappetizing. And I'm not the only one who thinks that. Not only do more and more restaurants offer assortments of meats and cheeses, I've noticed that some entrepreneurial folks are starting businesses that revolve around creating and selling attractive charcuterie platters. A small amount of decoratively arranged salumi (the Italian term for cured meats) and brie adorned with a sliced strawberry and six almonds can sell for $30-$40. At that price, you're better off going to a restaurant. But make one at home, instead.

Sure, the initial outlay for homemade salumi suppers might be a little spendy, but a $6 jar of cornichons will last through multiple platters, as will boxes of crackers, jars of jam, and bags of nuts. Columbus brand salami and capicola, or similar, in 5-oz packages, run $6-7 in grocery stores. The meats seem expensive, and they kinda are compared to others sold by the pound. Keep in mind that cured meats are fatty and salty and rich, so one only need eat a few slices. Particularly if there are also some even more-fatty cheeses at the party. The last time we had a charcuterie plate for dinner, I purchased two packages of Italian meats, three kinds of cheese, and a jar of cornichons for about $35 and used it for three dinners for 2, with cheese and tiny pickles left over. 

Cheese can also be expensive, so don't go overboard. Buy a couple of your favorites; ideally there should be one soft and one firm or semi-firm, like a brie or goat cheese log and a cheddar or Manchego. If you have more than two diners, buy another cheese for every two people. But expect leftovers. In fact, it's probably best to cut a portion of the cheese off and put it on your platter or board, and stash the rest in the fridge for next time. That way, uneaten cheese doesn't sit out too long, and there's one less thing for you to tidy up afterward, especially if you've been hitting the wine.

You may, of course, enjoy your meats and cheeses with your fingers, but it's much neater to use bread or crackers. Thin slices of crusty bread--toasted or not--are perfect if you are extra fancy and have included a pate in your selection of meats. It's also nice with very soft brie. Otherwise, crackers are the way to go. Use whatever you like. Ritz or Club crackers are just fine, as are water crackers or hell, saltines. I try to eat gluten-free as much as possible and have discovered some truly excellent GF and grain-free crackers, which I will list at the end of the post.

In addition to the three essentials--meat, cheese, and bread-like substance--a good charcuterie platter should include other flavor elements. Olives and cornichons are typical accompaniments, but one needs other items to balance out the salt. I like to add sweet things, like a fruit spread or jam, and fresh or dried fruit, including grapes, figs, and mini tomatoes. Nuts, preferably unsalted, add extra crunch. Mustards are nice, as are roasted red peppers, pepperoncini--honestly, whatever suits your fancy. You may choose to arrange items artistically on a platter or board (I use a large bamboo cutting board), or simply place items randomly. For hard or medium-firm cheeses, I like to cut them into serving size cubes or wedges. I put soft cheese like brie or chevre on the board in one large chunk and supply a separate spreader for each type of cheese. Toothpicks are nice for picking up individual cubes of cheese, especially when there are more than two diners, but fingers are fine otherwise.

I enjoy charcuterie boards so much, I've made them for Thanksgiving dinner. As in, the entire Thanksgiving dinner was one big, coffee-table-sized, spread. Lest you think I jest, see below (ignore my reading glasses in the lower right).

It was perfect for three of us to nibble on for the entire day while we watched football and drank copiously. We did this three years in a row, until my brother determined that it was mildly sacrilegious not to have hot poultry on Thanksgiving. So last year I made chicken legs and roasted brussels sprouts to follow a much-scaled-down selection of meat and cheese. I plan to do the same this year.

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Most of these fine gluten-free and grain-free crackers I've discovered via the Specialty Food Association's annual Summer Fancy Food Show in New York. While grocery stores have better and better selections of food for special diets, it's difficult to stock absolutely everything available, so I have supplied links for ordering the products online.

Simple Mills Almond Flour Crackers - I'm a big fan of these, particularly the Rosemary and Sea Salt variety. They are available in many grocery stores, but can also be purchased online. 

Hungry Bird Eats Nordic Crisps - incredibly crisp and delicious crackers that I will happily eat out of the box like potato chips. They can be purchased online from their website. 

Cabin 11 Bakery 5-Seed Grain-Free Crisps are similarly delicious crispbread-like crackers made with 5 seeds. Their website is down currently, and I'm not sure where to buy them. Hopefully they'll be back up and running soon, as I've run out and need more crackers!

Quator Crisps Yuca Chips - I also like using crisp yuca chips with charcuterie platters. Quator Crisps might be a bit too slender to put cheese on top, but they still work great to nibble on the side. They are available in a handful of shops right now, but you can order them from their website.

Nova Crisp - these crispy air-popped cracker/chips are made with cassava and come in a handy bowl shape that makes them perfect for scooping. The rim also holds in runny stuff like mustard or jelly perfectly. They come in a few flavors, but the sea salt is my fave. They are available in stores like Safeway, Aldi, Lidl, H Mart, and Weis Market but also at Amazon.

Lark Fine Foods, which are not gluten-free but still worth mentioning, makes a bunch of tasty cookies and biscuits that are both savory and sweet. Their Pizzetta biscuits work pretty nicely with soft cheeses, especially if you're into the idea of a cookie that tastes like pizza. They are available in gourmet shops, primarily in the eastern US. Igourmet stocks some of their biscuits, and multi-product samplers can be ordered from Williams-Sonoma.

* Any products in this post that are mentioned by name may have been provided to Minxeats by the manufacturer. However, all opinions belong to Minxeats. Amazon links earn me $! Please buy!

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Nando's Hot Sauces #sponsored

There is a Nando's Peri-Peri approximately 500 steps from my office, and I have been there for lunch and dinner many times over the last few years. For those who aren't fortunate enough to have a Nando's nearby, it's an Afro-Portuguese restaurant specializing in chicken seasoned with peri-peri chile sauce. Even their mildest dishes have a bit of heat, but I like that. So when Nando's contacted me to promote their commercially-available line of bottled sauces, I was more than willing.

Though I must say that I was a tad disappointed that my shipment didn't include my favorite lemon & herb, I happily cracked open the bottles of garlic and medium-hot Peri-Peri sauce and started using them on everything from eggs to chicken wings and oatmeal (yes, we eat savory oatmeal on occasion). Mr Minx particularly enjoys the garlic version. A friend who is more into ass-blistering heat appreciated the extra extra hot sauce. All of Nando's sauce varieties are tangy with lemon, are halal, kosher, and non-GMO, and contain no artificial stuff. Most of them are also sugar-free.

There's no requirement that hot sauce needs to be used straight from the bottle. When peaches were still available (they still sorta are, but I mean good peaches) I used it in a fruity sauce for chicken wings.

There's enough acid and heat in any of the Nando's sauces to cut the sweetness of fresh, ripe, peaches (nectarines, apricots, etc.) yet still retain the fruitiness. If, of course, you'd want your sauce to be on the sweet side, you can add a bit of brown sugar or maple syrup. Now, that would be fantastic slathered on chicken and waffles, eh?

No real recipe. Just skin and cut up a couple three ripe peaches, put in a saucepan with a few tablespoons of water and cook over medium-low heat until the peaches are so soft that they fall apart. Add Nando's Peri-Peri sauce to taste, maybe some salt, brown sugar if you like. Whiz with a stick blender or put it in a food processor to get a smooth texture, then dollop on whatever you think needs peachy heat. Yum.

Nando's Peri-Peri sauces are available on Amazon.com.




* Any products in this post that are mentioned by name may have been provided to Minxeats by the manufacturer. However, all opinions belong to Minxeats. Amazon links earn me $! Please buy!

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Flashback Friday - Kitchen Sink Chili

Football season has begun! Time to make chili.

This post was originally published on September 27, 2011.
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Kitchen Sink Chili

When the Ravens play at 4pm, we tend to eat dinner in front of the television. Most of the time, I'll make something that doesn't involve utensils, but this particular Sunday, I had lots to do between waking up and settling down on the sofa, so I decided to whip up some chili.

Chili is great because there's relatively little prep and plenty of unsupervised cooking time. Just chop up an onion, open some cans, and go do other stuff while the meal basically makes itself.

I had some odds and ends that I wanted to use up, so they went into the chili. Also, straight-up ground beef seemed really expensive last week for some reason, so I bought whatever other ground meat I could find that was less-expensive. All-turkey is kinda boring, so a package of mixed meats went in with it. Honestly, we couldn't tell that it wasn't beef chili, what with all of the other flavors going on.

Kitchen Sink Chili

2 tablespoon ancho chile powder
1 tablespoon ground cumin
2 teaspoons ground coriander
1 tablespoon smoked paprika
2 cups chopped onion
drizzle olive oil
1.5 lb meatloaf mix (ground pork, veal, and beef)
1.5 lb ground turkey
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup leftover salsa (I used salsa verde)
1 5oz can chopped green chiles
1 roasted red pepper, diced (from a jar, or roast it yourself over a gas flame until blackened, place in a paper bag until cooled, peel off charred skin)
2 cans fire roasted tomatoes with garlic
1 can black beans, drained
2 cups chicken stock
1 jalapeno chile
2 dried chipotle peppers
1 tablespoon cocoa powder
honey or agave syrup, if necessary
salt and pepper to taste
sour cream, cilantro, chopped scallions, shredded cheddar cheese for garnish.

Mix first four ingredients in a small bowl. Set aside.

In a dutch oven, heat a bit of olive oil and add onions. Cover pan and sweat onions until translucent. Add ground meats. Cook until meats are no longer pink, breaking clumps with a wooden spoon. Stir in garlic and half of spice mixture. Add salsa, chiles, red pepper, tomatoes, beans, chicken stock, jalapeno, and chipotles. Bring mixture to a boil, then turn down to a simmer. Cover and cook on low heat for 2 hours, stirring every once in a while. After two hours, if there seems to be too much liquid, remove lid and turn up heat to evaporate some of it. When consistency is more to your liking, check for seasoning and add the remaining spices and the cocoa powder. If you think it needs a bit of sweetness, add the honey. Allow to cook for another 30 minutes or so, then add salt and pepper to taste.

Remove from heat and serve in bowls with garnishes and corn bread or muffins.

Moist and Dense Corn Muffins

2 cups corn meal
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 ½ cups milk
2 eggs
1 8.5oz can creamed corn
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 cup fresh or frozen corn kernels
3 scallions, white and some green part chopped

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Lightly grease muffin tins or corn stick pans with a bit of butter or oil. Place pan in oven to heat.

In a mixing bowl, combine the corn meal, baking powder and salt. Stir in the milk, eggs, creamed corn, and oil, mixing together until the batter is smooth. Stir in frozen corn and scallions. Pour batter evenly into preheated muffin tins or corn stick pan. Bake 20-25 minutes. Cool on a wire rack.

Makes 12 regular or 6 jumbo corn muffins.

Posted by theminx on Minxeats.com.




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Chili Verde

Football season is here, which means a goodly portion of my Sundays are spent in front of the tube, simultaneously laughing and crying with the Baltimore Ravens. Ordinarily, I'm doing mise en place and cooking parts of dinner at different times of the day, but on these football Sundays, I have to get stuff started before kickoff. This usually means stew or chili is on the menu.

I've made and posted several variations on typical beef chilis, so I thought it was high time to try something different. Like a green chili. I made a really scrummy one with ground chicken and canned chiles not too long ago, but I was taking a day off from blogging and didn't bother recording the recipe. This time, I took notes.

Green chilis are tangier than red ones, and a bit lighter, so they are perfect for nippy-but-not-exactly-cold October weather. I roasted the vegetables first, then pureed them in a blender to make a thick green sauce. After a couple hours of simmering, the pork was meltingly tender and the dish was nothing short of perfection. Perfection for a day spent watching both football and baseball playoffs, that is.

Chili Verde

1 lb tomatillos, husked and quartered
Olive oil
2 poblano peppers, quartered, stems and seeds removed
2 jalapenos, cut in half, seeded or not, depending on how hot you want the end result to be
1 red onion, peeled and quartered
1 bunch scallions, trimmed
2.5 lbs pork shoulder, cut into smallish cubes
4 cloves garlic
2 teaspoons ground cumin
4 cups chicken stock
1/2 cup cilantro leaves, chopped
Salt and pepper
Masa harina
Sour cream
Pepitas
Tortilla chips

Preheat oven to 450°F.

Place the tomatillos on a rimmed baking pan lined with foil. Drizzle with some olive oil and toss to coat. Place peppers, onion, and scallions on a separate foil lined baking pan. Drizzle with olive oil and toss to coat. Put both pans in the oven and roast for 15 minutes. Remove tomatillos and scallions. Roast remaining vegetables, stirring once or twice, an additional 20 minutes.

Allow vegetables to cool, then put everything in a blender. Puree the vegetables and set aside.

Brown the meat cubes in a couple of batches. I didn't use any oil, but you may want to if your pork isn't as fatty as mine/you find it sticking. Once the meat is browned, stir in the garlic and cumin, then turn the heat up and add the vegetable puree and stock. Bring to a boil, then lower heat so the mixture is barely simmering.

Cook for the length of a football game, 2.5 - 3 hours. After an hour or so, add the cilantro.

If the broth seems too runny at the end of the cooking time, mix a tablespoon or two of masa harina with enough water to make a slurry the texture of pancake batter. Turn up the heat to get the chili boiling and drizzle in as much or as little of the slurry as you want, to get the texture you like.

Season aggressively with salt and freshly ground pepper.

Serve in bowls with sour cream, pepitas, more cilantro, and tortilla chips.

Makes 4-8 servings.



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Okra Etouffee

Who doesn't like okra? So delicious! I know, right?

Wait. You say you don't like okra? What? And neither do you, or you, or you?

Poor okra doesn't seem to have many friends. But I love it, and so does Mr Minx. Yeah yeah, I can hear you whining now, "it's slimy! ewwww!" Shut up. It's not slimy at all if you cook it correctly. And it tastes great, a little like green beans, I think.

So we had this huge bag of okra from the CSA, and it was going to go bad if we didn't use it up pronto. I decided we should make an okra etouffee, so consulted teh Innernets for a recipe. Just about every one I found involved dumping okra in a casserole, covering it with tomatoes, and then baking it. No, no, no...I wanted an etouffee recipe, like crawfish etouffee or shrimp etouffee. Stuff smothered in a roux-based sauce. Not just stuff smothered with other stuff. So I threw one together based on an old crawfish etouffee recipe I've used in the past. Roux + trinity + stock and seasonings. Add okra, simmer for a while et voila! Okra Etouffee.

Okra Etouffee

3 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup flour
1 cup diced onion
1 bell pepper, diced
3 ribs celery, diced
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1 tablespoon Cajun seasoning (we like Emeril's Essence)
2 cups chicken stock
1 bay leaf
1 lb okra, sliced
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
Steamed white rice for serving
Chopped scallions for garnish

Melt butter in a large pot. Add the flour and open the windows. Stir flour and butter together over medium-high heat until the mixture is medium-dark brown, a bit darker than peanut butter. It will smoke, but as long as you are stirring constantly and watching it like a hawk, it should not burn. Once the roux reaches a nice brown shade, dump in the onion, bell pepper, and celery. Inhale deeply, for the scent of trinity cooking in roux is one of the best cooking scents there is. Stir the vegetables and roux until veg are completely coated. Turn the heat down to medium, add a big pinch of salt, and cover the pot. Allow the vegetables to soften, stirring occasionally, about 10 minutes.

Add the garlic, Cajun seasoning, chicken stock, and bay leaf and bring to a boil. Stir in the okra. Cook over medium heat for 25-30 minutes, until okra is tender. Taste for seasoning and add salt and pepper, more Cajun seasoning, a bit of hot sauce, whatever floats your boat.

Serve over white rice and garnish with chopped scallions.



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Roasted Poblano Soup

I'm a big fan of poblano peppers, so when I see them at the farmers' market, I buy 'em. In the past, I've stuffed them, used them in pimento cheese, chili, and in black bean soup. This time, they star in a soup of their own. It's a bit spicy, only somewhat creamy, and overall fairly light. We ate it hot, but it would be lovely served chilled as well.

Roasted Poblano Soup

1 pound poblano peppers
1 cup diced onion
Olive oil
1 clove garlic, roughly chopped
Handful of cilantro, both leaves and stems, roughly chopped
4 cups chicken stock
1/4 cup half and half
Pinch smoked paprika
Pinch ground cumin
Pinch ground coriander
Salt and pepper to taste
1/2 cup cooked corn kernels

Roast the peppers over a gas flame or on a grill until blackened all over. Put them in a plastic or paper bag to sweat. When cool enough to handle, rub off the blackened skin then deseed the peppers and cut them into strips.

Sweat the onion in a bit of olive oil for a minute or two before adding the pepper and garlic. Cook over medium heat for 5-7 minutes, until vegetables are tender. Add the stock and bring to a boil. Turn down to a simmer and add the half and half and seasonings (you can add more to taste, but don't add so much as to overpower the flavor of the peppers). Add salt and pepper to taste and cook for 2-3 minutes more.

Remove soup from heat and allow to cool. Place cooled soup in a blender and whiz to puree.

Garnish soup with corn kernels and some cilantro.

Serves 2-4



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Green Gazpacho

I love gazpacho and can eat it every day in the summer. There are very specific and authentic ways of making this Andalusian dish, and not-so-authentic ones as well. I like all of them. As long as there are cucumbers and peppers of some sort in the mix, I think almost any fruit can be used in place of the tomato. I've made versions with watermelon and strawberries, and have eaten both mangospacho and cantaloupespacho. I've made it both with and without bread, and seasoned with champagne, balsamic, rice, and apple cider vinegars as well as the traditional sherry vinegar (basically I use whatever is in the front of the cupboard). When I got the email from Bon Appetit touting their latest version, made with tomatillos and Greek yogurt, fortuitously received the day we planned to go grocery shopping, I decided we'd be eating it for dinner on the weekend.

Of course I can't follow a recipe to the letter. I'm a tinkerer.

The original had too much Greek yogurt in it for my taste. I don't think gazpacho should be creamy. However, I did have a couple of spoonfuls of yogurt in the fridge, left over from another cooking project, and threw it in. It didn't make much of an impact, but I got to use up something that otherwise might have been wasted. The Bon Appetit recipe also called for a green bell pepper. I'm with Nigella Lawson, green peppers are "an abomination." Instead, I used a yellow pepper, which I roasted first to remove the belch-inducing skin. Roasted poblanos would be good too, I think. And then there was the method. The original recipe calls for tossing all of the ingredients together and allowing them to macerate before pureeing. There's not enough room in my fridge for a bowl full of veggies and soggy bread. I say just bang it all in the blender and put it in the fridge to allow the flavors to develop.

I did, and it was delicious.

Green Gazpacho (adapted from Bon Appetit)

1 yellow bell pepper
1 1/2 medium cucumbers, chopped roughly
12 ounces of fresh, raw tomatillos, husked and quartered
4 ounces ciabatta or country-style bread, crust removed, bread torn into 1” pieces (about 2½ cups)
4 scallions, roughly chopped
1 jalapeño, seeds removed, chopped
3 tablespoons rice vinegar
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
3 tablespoons plain Greek yogurt
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, plus more

Place whole pepper over gas flame on stove or on a grill. Turn regularly, until pepper is charred all over. Place pepper in a bag to steam/cool off. When cool enough to handle, rub off skin. Remove stem and seeds and cut pepper into chunks.

Place roasted pepper, cucumber, and tomatillos in a blender and process until smooth. Add the bread, scallions, and jalapeno, and process again until smooth. Season with the vinegar, lime juice, yogurt, and salt. If your jalapeno wasn't spicy enough, add some hot sauce (we used green Tabasco).

Refrigerate for several hours until cold and to allow flavors to meld.

Makes 1 quart.



Posted on Minxeats.com.

Sausage and Peppers

When I was a kid, I had a strong dislike for bell peppers. The only ones I had ever encountered were green, and those made me belch. Not only that, I didn't like the way they made everything they touched taste like green pepper. About the only thing I really liked that contained the green menace was my Dad's sausage and peppers. He cooked the peppers forever at a fairly high heat until they blackened and shriveled. Once mixed with tomato sauce, they basically disintegrated.

I was probably an adult already when I discovered that green bell peppers were unripe red, yellow, or orange peppers, and that once a pepper ripened, it was milder and less belch-y. They're even less gas-inducing if they're skinned, so I almost always roast bell peppers before using them (except, of course, if I am using them raw, which, er, I don't do). One exception is when I make sausage and peppers. Like Dad, I cook the peppers for a long time, almost until they're unrecognizable. I don't char them like he does, but I cook them for a very long time until they almost dissolve into the sauce.

Dad's Sausage and Peppers

3 red, yellow, or orange bell peppers
extra virgin olive oil
salt
2 onions, sliced thinly
1 lb Italian sausage, sweet or hot or a combination of the two
1 24-26oz jar of pasta sauce (plain marinara-style is best) or a quart or so of homemade sauce
handful of basil leaves, cut into a chiffonade

Cut each pepper in half, removing stems, seeds, and core. Slice into thin strips.

Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add a couple tablespoons of olive oil, the pepper strips, and a pinch of salt. Cover pan and cook for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. The peppers should be very wilted at this point and fairly brown on the edges. Add the onions and another pinch of salt. Cover pan and cook an additional 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. If the onion appears to be browning too quickly, lower the heat.

Add the sausages. Cook, turning the sausages once in a while, until they are browned on all or most sides.

Pour in the sauce and bring to a boil. Lower the heat to a simmer and cook for another 30-45 minutes or until everything has amalgamated to your taste. Stir in the basil about halfway through cooking time, reserving some for garnish.

Serve over pasta or on sub rolls with mozzarella cheese.



Posted on Minxeats.com.

Summer Fancy Food Show 2013 - Savory Delights

A couple of summers ago, I was all set to attend my first Fancy Food Show. It was in DC that year, a relatively short MARC ride away. But plans changed and I ended up spending the day with an old friend. This year, I was determined to go, even though the venue had changed to New York. I love New York, despite its nasty soup-like Summertime humidity, so I was even more excited to attend the event.

After a series of mishaps including a very late train into town and a taxi accident (I was not hurt), I made it to the Javits Center relatively unscathed (albeit sweaty). My first line of business was to check out the booth for José Andres Foods (which will get its own post), after which I simply walked up and down the aisles and checked out the products that most interested me.

The Fancy Food Show is an orgy of food samples. I can't tell you how many booths offered olives and/or olive oil, but there were quite a few. Olives are fine and good, but I was more interested in the unusual.

One of the more interesting products was a vegetarian caviar made from kelp. Kelp Caviar also offers the real deal, but the fake stuff was far more intriguing. There are eight flavors to choose from, including wasabi, balsamic, ginger, and truffle, and I found the tiny pearls to be somewhat like tobiko (the caviar one finds on sushi), only without the snappy texture.

Spain and Italy were well-represented and offered a goodly amount of olive-related products. I skipped much of them in search of other nations to taste. As I walked through the aisles of Mexican-produced items, I noticed that quite a few of them were tequilas and mezcals. Despite the fact that it was still pretty early in the day, I admit to tasting a few of them. Among the best were the mezcals from Oaxaca. The Real Minero, brewed in earthenware pots, is reminiscent of a fine Scotch, intensely smoky, but with a familiar (to tequila drinkers anyway) agave fruitiness. Another smoky, but lighter and drier, mezcal is the Yuu Baal brand. These mezcals have only been available in the US for about six months, and right now in selected restaurants and liquor stores in New York. I meant to pick up a bottle before heading home, but sadly wasn't able to find the time for a booze-shopping expedition.

Fueled by alcohol, I was attracted to a sign that said "World of Chia," which I took to mean a booth of chia seed products. While Interfoods does have one raspberry jam-like product that contains the Omega 3-rich chia, the rest of their products were pepper purees and fruit pulps. Despite being warned that the habanero puree I was slathering on a cracker was "very hot," I popped it in my mouth anyway. Like I said - fueled by alcohol. When the rep asked if I was ok, I acted like it was nothing despite the fact that the right side of my mouth was on fire and smoke was likely coming out of my ear. I thanked him, took a card, and went off to find something creamy and sweet to kill the heat. What I found first was more alcohol - an astonishingly delicious cocktail made with avocado oil, lime, and cucumber by Junior Merino, the Liquid Chef. There were three or four other cocktails on offer, and while I really wanted to try them, or have another one of those insane cucumber ones, I hightailed it out of the spicy, alcoholic land of Mexico and stumbled into Canada.

Canadians are so nice. Not only did the lovely Marianne Pemberton of Vancouver's Ethical Bean offer me a sample of their coffee, she made me a latte. Ah....sweet relief! As I sipped, she told me about Ethical Bean's fair trade organic coffees and showed me their nifty free iPhone app that one can use to track their bag of coffee beans, from growing and picking to roasting, via QR code. And that latte was pretty delicious. Now they have to start selling their product here in the US, because shipping costs from Canada are pretty outrageous.

Another product I liked was Hammons Black Walnut oil. A Sofi award finalist in 2011, the oil has a black walnut flavor that is a bold change from extra virgin olive oil. If you've never tried a black walnut, well, it's a bit hard to describe exactly. It's walnutty, sure, but also darker and fruitier. "Earthy" is a good word for it. Black walnuts are a

wild crop that are hand-harvested, so of course they're a little more expensive than regular walnuts. But what was most surprising about the Hammons oil was that it's available at Walmart. Apparently they're big on exotic oils and sell a good deal of them. However, if you're like me and won't shop at Walmart, Costco also carries Hammons Black Walnut Oil and it can be purchased online at Nuts.com, too. I think it would be a dynamite substitute for olive oil in an olive oil cake.

As far as I'm concerned, one can't have too many sources for seasonings. The Spice Lab features 180 gourmet salts and peppers and were offering sample packs of their pink Himalayan, truffle, and applewood smoked salts. And if applewood isn't your thing, they also have salts smoked with Hawaiian guava wood, grape vines, cherry, alder, hickory, and Welsh oak. They also have exotic salts flavored with saffron, curry, herbes de Province, Thai ginger, and green tea. Just imagine the kick they'd give the garden variety margarita (or a fancier one made with cucumbers, like that one I wish I was sipping right now)!

There were many more interesting savory and liquid treats at this year's Fancy Food Show, but these were my favorites. Stay tuned for upcoming posts on some of the sweet goodies I sampled.



Posted on Minxeats.com.

Pimiento Cheese

Pimiento cheese sounds like a mistake from the Kraft labs, doesn't it? Like some pinkish-orange paste that would come in a little jar in the dairy case. Something my mother would have regarded with near disgust had I indicated that perhaps she buy a jar (despite her own love for Velveeta), you know, just to try it. Like I had to try lima beans before I decided that I loathe them.

Oh wait, pimiento cheese does come in a little jar in the dairy case. Lookee there!

What exactly is a pimiento anyway (and why doesn't anyone pronounce the second "i" - pih-mee-ento)? They're the red thingies in green olives, right? That taste just like roasted bell peppers? Ah - they are peppers, but a cultivar also known as a cherry pepper, and not your standard bell pepper. But why mash them up with cheese and mayonnaise? That seems a little cruel, to both the pepper and the cheese.

...and I've just offended scores of Southerners with my ignorance. I may live south of the Mason-Dixon line, but I am a yankee at heart. (Notice I spelled that with a lower-case "y" so as not to be confused as a fan of a particular New York sports team, which I am most definitely not.)

I must admit I've always been a leetle, tiny, weensy bit curious about pimiento cheese, but I've never tried it. That is, not until Richard Blais' cookbook, Try This at Home, came into my life. In it, he offers a recipe for a decidedly non-traditional pimiento cheese with jalapenos, poblanos, and nary a pimiento to be found.

The white cheese + the green peppers makes a pretty Spring-like color combination that reminds me more of egg salad than of pimiento cheese. And the addition of cilantro and lime takes the flavor profile in a westerly direction, so the result is more Austin than Atlanta. But - cheesilicious. And, if you think about it, I still haven't tried pimiento cheese, at least not the authentic stuff.

I used Kewpie mayo; if you do, too, omit the salt. Also, I didn't like the texture at first - it was like cheese salad. Food processor to the rescue!

Richard Blais' Pimiento Jack Cheese (adapted from Try This at Home)

8 ounces white pepper jack cheese, coarsely grated
1 small poblano pepper, roasted, peeled, seeded, and finely diced
1 small jalapeno, seeded and minced (or more to taste)
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1 tablespoon chopped fresh cilantro
Grated zest and juice of 1/2 lime
Kosher salt to taste

Combine the cheese, chiles, mayo, cilantro, lime zest and juice, and salt. Pop the mixture into the food processor and give it a couple of pulses to break down the cheese a bit more and better amalgamate the mixture.

Serve with crusty bread or crackers or use in a grilled cheese sandwich.

Posted on Minxeats.com.

Quesadillas

I had to tinker with the color on this photo so the pepper didn't look
black. Now it looks like it was taken in the 1970s.

Sometimes I get carried away. I know a quesadilla should be primarily cheese--after all, the "quesa" part of the word comes from queso, which is Spanish for cheese--but I like mine filled with other, non-cheese stuff. Maybe even more other stuff than cheese.

With a similar dish, the grilled cheese sandwich, I'm pretty much a purist. I don't like too many other flavors gunking up the gorgeous cheese + greasy bread glory. But then really good bread, soaked in melted butter, is a bit more interesting than a flat flour tortilla with a bit of crispness.

(Please keep in mind that I'm Polish.)

For this dinnertime iteration of the more-stuff-than-cheese quesadilla, I added creamy "refried" beans, and a chunky filling of chorizo, leeks, and some poblano peppers I picked up at the farmers' market. It made for an interesting and spicy combo.

Quesadilla with Refried Beans, Leeks, Chorizo, and Poblano

1 15oz can pinto beans, drained
1/2 cup chicken stock or water
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1 leek, thinly sliced on the bias, well-cleaned and drained
olive oil
salt
2 Mexican chorizo
2 poblano peppers, roasted, skin and seeds removed, diced
pinch sugar
flour tortillas, fajita-size or larger
shredded Cheddar or Monterey Jack cheese, or a combination

Dump the can of beans into a skillet and add the stock or water and cumin. Simmer, stirring occasionally, until much of the stock has boiled off and the beans are soft. Smash them with the back of a spoon or a potato masher until they resemble "refried" beans. Taste for seasoning and add salt and pepper to taste. Remove from heat and set aside until ready to use.

Wash out the skillet and dribble in some olive oil and a pinch of salt. Remove the pesky plastic casings from the chorizo and add the sausages to the pan. Break up the sausage into small bits with your trusty wooden spoon. Add the leeks and cook them until very wilted, stirring frequently. During this process, the bits of sausage will firm up (they were raw to begin with) and cook through. Stir in the peppers and a pinch of sugar to balance out the heat from the sausage and peppers.

To assemble quesadillas: place a tortilla on a plate or other flat surface. Smear a tablespoon or so of the beans onto half the tortilla and top with about 2 tablespoons of the chorizo/leek/pepper stuff. Sprinkle with a tablespoon or so of shredded cheese, then fold the other half of the tortilla over the filling.

Place in a skillet that has been greased with a bit of cooking spray. Cook over medium-high heat until the bottom gets brown and crispy, then flip. Cook on the other side for a few minutes, and remove from pan.

Cut into wedges and serve with salsa of your choice, sour cream, or au naturel.

Posted on Minxeats.com.

Kitchen Sink Chili and Cornbread

When the Ravens play at 4pm, we tend to eat dinner in front of the television. Most of the time, I'll make something that doesn't involve utensils, but this particular Sunday, I had lots to do between waking up and settling down on the sofa, so I decided to whip up some chili.

Chili is great because there's relatively little prep and plenty of unsupervised cooking time. Just chop up an onion, open some cans, and go do other stuff while the meal basically makes itself.

I had some odds and ends that I wanted to use up, so they went into the chili. Also, straight-up ground beef seemed really expensive last week for some reason, so I bought whatever other ground meat I could find that was less-expensive. All-turkey is kinda boring, so a package of mixed meats went in with it. Honestly, we couldn't tell that it wasn't beef chili, what with all of the other flavors going on.

Kitchen Sink Chili

2 tablespoon ancho chile powder
1 tablespoon ground cumin
2 teaspoons ground coriander
1 tablespoon smoked paprika
2 cups chopped onion
drizzle olive oil
1.5 lb meatloaf mix (ground pork, veal, and beef)
1.5 lb ground turkey
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup leftover salsa (I used salsa verde)
1 5oz can chopped green chiles
1 roasted red pepper, diced (from a jar, or roast it yourself over a gas flame until blackened, place in a paper bag until cooled, peel off charred skin)
2 cans fire roasted tomatoes with garlic
1 can black beans, drained
2 cups chicken stock
1 jalapeno chile
2 dried chipotle peppers
1 tablespoon cocoa powder
honey or agave syrup, if necessary
salt and pepper to taste
sour cream, cilantro, chopped scallions, shredded cheddar cheese for garnish.

Mix first four ingredients in a small bowl. Set aside.

In a dutch oven, heat a bit of olive oil and add onions. Cover pan and sweat onions until translucent. Add ground meats. Cook until meats are no longer pink, breaking clumps with a wooden spoon. Stir in garlic and half of spice mixture. Add salsa, chiles, red pepper, tomatoes, beans, chicken stock, jalapeno, and chipotles. Bring mixture to a boil, then turn down to a simmer. Cover and cook on low heat for 2 hours, stirring every once in a while. After two hours, if there seems to be too much liquid, remove lid and turn up heat to evaporate some of it. When consistency is more to your liking, check for seasoning and add the remaining spices and the cocoa powder. If you think it needs a bit of sweetness, add the honey. Allow to cook for another 30 minutes or so, then add salt and pepper to taste.

Remove from heat and serve in bowls with garnishes and corn bread or muffins.

Moist and Dense Corn Muffins

2 cups corn meal
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 ½ cups milk
2 eggs
1 8.5oz can creamed corn
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 cup fresh or frozen corn kernels
3 scallions, white and some green part chopped

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Lightly grease muffin tins or corn stick pans with a bit of butter or oil. Place pan in oven to heat.

In a mixing bowl, combine the corn meal, baking powder and salt. Stir in the milk, eggs, creamed corn, and oil, mixing together until the batter is smooth. Stir in frozen corn and scallions. Pour batter evenly into preheated muffin tins or corn stick pan. Bake 20-25 minutes. Cool on a wire rack.

Makes 12 regular or 6 jumbo corn muffins.

Posted by theminx on Minxeats.com.

Corn Cake, Halibut, Bell Pepper Confit, Corn Puree. Or, If You're Not Writing a Menu, "Sunday Dinner."

Allow me to take you on a tour of the way my mind works as I'm planning dinner. You're probably thinking, "the way her mind works is scary!" And you're right. So allow me to post the appropriate warnings before we proceed.

Ok. On with the post.

Sometime last week I was opening the fridge for a snack and noticed two slightly-shriveled bell peppers left over from the 4th of July. My brother-in-law had purchased them with no clear idea in mind and I took them off his hands. With no clear idea in mind. Now they were starting to look a little elderly and it was time to do something with them. But what?

Feeling posh, I thought I'd "confit" them. Stew them in olive oil until tender. But then what?

A quick visit to the freezer revealed a package of halibut pieces. Not filets, but oddly-shaped bits and pieces. Hali-butts. That's all Trader Joe's had to offer on our last visit, so that's what we bought. (Who the eff bought all of the salmon?) I thought I could put some pepper confit atop the fish. And that's as far as I got.

Come Sunday, the confit was ready and the fish had been thawed and was awaiting its fate on a paper-towel-covered plate in the fridge. But what to serve with it? We had no potatoes in the house, but we did have rice. I wasn't feeling the white-on-white-on-white plate, even with the nice dash of color from the peppers. Last night's meal was monochromatic enough. How about polenta? That sounded good, but we had about half a cup of cornmeal in the cupboard. :::writing cornmeal on shopping list::: What we did have was a box of Jiffy cornbread mix. I was *not* going to put the oven on in this heat. So I made...corncakes.

Corncakes, halibut, and peppers sounded...dry. I needed a sauce. Another look in the freezer caused an avalanche of ingredients - a package of Reese's-flavored Klondikes fell on my foot, followed by a bag of peas and two char siu bao. And thus was revealed the ingredient I sought: a partial bag of yellow corn kernels. I would make a corn sauce that would rival the one we ate at Babbo. Or not. But I would make a corn sauce.

And there you have it. Corn cake, halibut, bell pepper confit, corn purée. Garished with chopped green olives and a snippage of chives from the overgrown jungle that is our herb garden. And lest you think we Minxes are starving ourselves, that's just the "beauty plate." We each had more than one 2.5" diameter corn cake and matching morsel of fish. And we liked it.

I didn't do much more with the fish than heat it through, as it was still too wet to get a good sear. I think scallops, shrimp, or crab would make an excellent version of the dish, so I suggest you use your favorite seafood. As for the other components:

Bell Pepper Confit

2 ripe bell peppers (I used red and yellow)
1/2 medium onion, sliced thinly
1/2 cup olive oil
pinch salt
1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika

First roast peppers by holding them over an open flame until the skins blacken and char. Place hot peppers in a paper bag to steam for several minutes. While still warm, rub off the blackened skin.

Quarter the peppers, coring and seeing them in the process. Slice into thin strips.

Place onions into a sautée pan with a bit of the oil and cook until softened. Add the peppers and the rest of the oil. Turn the heat down to low and stew the peppers in the oil until they are very soft and all of the moisture let off by the vegetables has evaporated, about 1 1.5 hours. Season to taste with salt and smoked paprika. Remove from heat and set aside until ready to use.

Corn Purée

1 cup corn kernels
1 tablespoon butter
1/2 cup or so half and half
dash salt

Sauté corn in butter until warmed through. Transfer to the bowl of a food processor. Add about half of the 1/2 and 1/2 and pureé. Strain into a bowl, saving solids for the corn cakes. Add remainder of half and half and salt and put aside until ready to use.

Corn Cakes

1 box Jiffy cornbread mix
1 egg
2/3 cup milk
2 tablespoons melted butter
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and diced
2 scallions, chopped
solids leftover from corn purée

Stir together first four ingredients into a relatively smooth batter. Add remaining ingredients. Drop by heaping tablespoonfuls onto a greased skillet or pancake griddle over medium heat. Cook until bottoms are lightly golden. Flip cakes and cook a few minutes more until brown on both sides. Remove to a plate while cooking the rest of the cakes. When all are done, put aside until ready to use.

To serve:

Place puddle of corn purée on a plate. Top with corn cake. Add a bit of your seafood of choice and top with some of the bell pepper confit. Garnish with snipped chives and chopped green olives.
----------------------------------------------------
We accompanied our meal with the 2008 Woodhall Seyval that was my "prize" for participating in the bacon cookoff last month. It was awful, with little or no flavor other than straight-up alcohol. Like Everclear with a bit of vinegar in it.

Bah. I still haven't tasted a Maryland wine worth drinking.