3 posts tagged “recipe”

There was a chili challenge at work, the first of any such thing I've ever participated in, but I leapt to the fore for my department and cooked up two separate types.

The first, a standard meat/bean concoction.  2 lbs of ground pork, browned.  1 white onion, chopped and browned.  Mixed with the 2 cups of chili sauce I'd made earlier and two cups of heavy pork stock, and simmered for several hours.  In a large separate pot, 2 cups of rinsed and sorted Anasazi beans, 6 cups of water, bay leaves, juniper berries and an allspice berry.  Baked for 3-4 hours while the chili simmered away.  Cooled the chili and beans overnight, then reheated the chili the next day to a simmer with a large can of diced tomatoes added as well as a handful of chopped sun-dried tomatoes.  Herbs and spices added:  mexican oregano, epazote, smoked paprika, cumin, cayenne, a tin of chipotles in adobo.  At the end, I mixed a few tablespoons of masa with water and dribbled it into the simmering stew, as a thickening agent.

For the second, I decided to make an experimental vegan chili.  I wanted something that would approach the meatiness of a standard meat/bean chili, but with no processed soy or fake meat or anything ersatz.  I had thought about adding eggplant to my meat chili, and in a moment of inspiration decided to make the base of my vegan dish eggplant and crimini mushroom.

Peeled and cut 1 eggplant into small dice (ended up maybe 2 cups?). Destemmed and chopped the caps of 8 largish crimini mushrooms, also small dice. Sauted eggplant and mushroom in olive oil until browned and eggplant was going mushy. Chopped 3 sundried tomatoes (in olive oil) and added to the mix. Chopped 3 chipotles in adobo small and added to eggplant/mushroom/tomato mixture. Added in a teaspoon of the adobo sauce from the can. Stirred and let simmer for awhile. Added 2 cups of water, 1/2 tsp. oregano, 1/2 tsp. epazote, 1/2 tsp ground cumin. Let simmer for an hour or so, removed from heat and partially whizzed up with an immersion blender - not too smooth. Added 1.5 to 2 cups cooked beans. Brought back up to a simmer and stirred in 1 tbsp masa whisked into 1/3 cup cold water. Brought to a boil, then dropped to a simmer for 30 minutes. Adjusted seasonings and add a dash or two of cayenne.

Thick, meaty texture from the eggplant and mushrooms, smokiness from the chipotles, not a whole lot of beans, and lots of chili heat.

Both were quite delicious, very fiery, and neither one won the cookoff.  Lots of people ate the vegan one without knowing what it was, because the sign had fallen off.  This pleased me.

I've had chile ristras around as decorative things for years and occasionally would use a random whole dried chile in a dish. But I made chili sauce for use in actual chili last week for the first time ever. What is a little weird is that you have to get the seeds and membranes out of the dried chile. I cut the stems off, shook out seeds, cut them lengthwise (most of them shattered into chunks), pushed out the remaining seeds and what was left of the membranes. 6 big mild chiles (pasilla negro and New Mexican) and about a dozen random chiles from the ristra and one Thai chile of known origin (from a small ristra given me by a friend). I simmered the chile bits in 2 cups of water with a large minced garlic clove for about an hour. The water was nearly black at the end and the chile bits had all reconstituted. When I went to zoom it smooth in the pan with the immersion blender, it started flying everywhere so I poured it in a deeper bowl - still no good, hot pepper stuff flying all over the place. So I covered the top of the bowl with two sheets of plastic wrap with the immersion blender poking through the seam at the center.

If you are chopping up or handling dried chiles, be aware that your fingers will be covered with powerful oil and don't touch your face or any other delicate areas until it has dissipated!  Washing multiple times in dish soap didn't do it; neither did soaking in milk (though sipping milk does cool the burn in your mouth).

I had Mr. Jaq taste the final product. He took a big slurp of it, which surprised me 'cause I'd mentioned I thought it was hot. He was all mmmmmm, tastes nice but needs salt, OMG WOW!!!

I grew up in the midwest and had never eaten or cooked fish much until I moved to Seattle.  Now, I eat it regularly, often in the guise of sushi and sashimi, but I'm still hesitant about cooking it.  Part of our Superbowl Sunday haul from Uwajimaya was a lovely 1/2 pound slab of maguro tuna and a 1" thick halibut steak.

I made the tuna for dinner Sunday night.  Got a cast iron skillet nice and hot over medium heat.  Sprinkled a tablespoon of black sesame seeds and one of white sesame seeds onto a shallow plate, mixed them up and then pressed both sides of the tuna into them until it was well-covered.  Put a little oil into the skillet and then the tuna.  It was only 1/2" thick, so 3 minutes per side was plenty.  Nice, perfectly seared exterior and rare in the middle, but next time I'll marinate it in something.

For dinner tonight, I mixed a marinade for the halibut of light oil, mirin, sesame oil, grated ginger (about 1 tbsp), and 1/2 tsp of natural wasabi powder.  After whisking together, I spread it on both sides of the halibut steak and let it sit for about 15 minutes while the oven heated up to 400 deg F and I thawed some edamame and heated a pan to fry and steam some gyoza.  The fish went in the oven for 15 minutes, which was about 3 minutes too long.  It still tasted fine, but I am not confident about cooking fish and inevitably over-cook it when I bake it.  Served with the edamame, a few gyoza, some wakame seaweed salad (from Uwajimaya's deli section), and an okay sake.