Chilly, Chile, Chili - When its chilly get some chile and make some chili! - Here's a Recipe.

New Mexicans are very particular about their chile and no New Mexican worth their salsa would ever call our wonderful chile pepper chili. Chili is that Texas style bean and meat or lack of beans or lack of meat thick stew sort of concoction that you pour into a Fritos corn chip bag. Nothing wrong with chili but don't get it confused with chile.

As much as I love my traditional style of making chile and all the various chile sauces there are times when a big ol' bowl of hot steaming chili is just the ticket, add cornbread, avocado and sour cream and this is a bowl of winter heaven. 

Christo's Big Cowboy Chili

1 lb ground beef (or chicken or turkey)
1 large onion diced
3 cloves garlic minced
3 Tbs cumin powder
4 Tbs (use as much or as little as you want for level of heat desired) red chile powder (get it from New Mexico) 
1 small can tomato paste
2 cups water
salt and pepper to taste
1 lb dry of cooked kidney beans (I cooked a pound of dry beans in the pressure cooker you could use canned and it would probably work out to 2 quarts of beans) Make sure you have at least 3 cups of liquid with your beans
Avocado, sour cream and green onion for garnish

Brown the meat in a large skillet. When meat is brown add the onion and garlic and saute until soft. When the onion and garlic have softened then add the cumin and the chile powder and stir till everything is coated (if its not spicy enough add more red chile powder). When all of this is a nice deep red color then add the tomato paste and water. Simmer gently for 15 minutes. Add this mixture to your cooked beans and bean broth and simmer for 5 more minutes. Serve with your garnish and cornbread of you have it.

This is by far the easiest and tastiest chili you will ever have. No need to add any sugar as the onions add all the sweetness you need but if you do find that your particular can of tomato paste was extra acidy then add a squeeze of honey. Enjoy

A bowl of chili is a soothing, warming and an inexpensive way to bring lots of flavor and nutrition for you and your family, make some.

Calabacitas By Any Other Name Is Squash - A Dish Of My Youth

When I was a kid growing up in New Mexico you couldn't get me to eat squash if it was candy coated, dipped in chocolate and disguised as a super hero but you could always get me to eat Calabacitas. You see I didn't know what calabacitas was but I did know that I loved it and I did know that I hated squash. I wouldn't even taste squash if it was offered to me. I grew up in a family that spoke more spanish than english but we spoke english at home since my parents wanted us to grow up that way and squash was one of those english words that I could not possibly put in my mouth. Squash - thats what I did to bugs, thats what happened to toads that didn't make it across the road, squash was an absolutely gross word. Calabacitas, on the other hand had a tasty ring to it, calabacitas had cheese. Well to make a long story short you can imagine my surprise when I saw one of my aunts making calabacitas and she said "and now we add the squash" - the WHAT - I thought - no, don't ruin it but she did it anyway and I saw what she was putting in and it was zucchini - now I am completely confused. What the heck is going on here? It wasn't until I asked what does Calabacita mean that I learned it was SQUASH. I had been eating squash all along and loving it. I still prefer to say Calabacita or Zucchini and if I do eat a squash I use its name like Kabocha and when people say "whats Kabocha" then I have to say "squash" but I use that word sparingly. Enjoy my Calabacitas, its my favorite thing to eat in the summer.

I like to cook everything separately giving each item its own special attention and color and caramelization before combining them together. Its not the traditional way to make it because it is a bit more fussy but thats the way I like to do it - fussy.

Once everything is ready I mix it and today I had some Lambs Quarters, a delicious wild green, so it went into the skillet with my peeled and roasted chiles that I chopped up.

I don't always have fresh oregano but since its one of the herbs we have in abundance in the garden this year I will get to use it more often, what a treat, so a little fresh oregano that I chopped up, some melty cheese - I like muenster, and some warm corn tortillas and you are all set. If you want to add more cheese to your plate then do it because thats what I do.

All thats left to do now is try to get the right proportion of calabacitas to tortilla and just eat and eat until you balance it out- Calabacitas - its what squash wants to be.

Mish mash, doo dads and gobble de gook -

Amazing how time flies - 2013 went by day by day to total 365 days and 2014 will do exactly the same thing - nothing revealing about that revelation but how do we fill those days - that is more a feat than anything else. I probably wasted a good number of those days and I would make myself crazy if I tried to get a tally on that so rather than inflict myself with any kind of burden I will simply say that however many days I wasted last year I will do my darndest to waste less this year. I wrote 12 posts for Char-Broil and I will write 12 or more for them again this year - in fact I have one up already. Salt to taste is demystified - sorta - go check it out.

I have lots of irons in the fire and hopefully this year those irons will do a little more than just get hot. My foray into molecular gastronomy got no further than simply ordering and receiving some things but very little in the way of learning new techniques, that will hopefully change this year.

 Everyone's diets are changing so I am going to embrace that with more vegan. vegetarian and gluten free alternatives.

I can never abandon my New Mexico roots so of course there will always be lots and lots of chile. It looks like I have my year cut out for me - how about you?

Fusion: Dragon Roll Burrito

Every now and then I like to take something I know and love and mix it with something else I know and love and hopefully the union is a good one. Usually I hit the nail right on the head because I am not  trying things like "green chile ice cream" or "candied steak" - typically its a blend of two things that want to be together - like my Shrimp Tempura Dragon Roll Burrito.

This dish came to me in a dream. I was fondly remembering my childhood in New Mexico and all the delicious burritos I had eaten when I fell asleep and dreamed I was a Samurai. Trekking through New Mexico as a Samurai I was getting hungry and all I had with me was shrimp tempura and rice - go figure. Surrounded by chiles and tortillas I decided to roll up my rice and shrimp in a tortilla and cover it with chile, sour cream and guacamole and a new dish was born. 

I think I need a name for my dream character now - Cheech Samurai - The Samurai Bandito - time to dream some more.

Grilled lamb skewers with watermelon and mango

When Kitchen Play invited me to participate in this watermelon event I was as excited as all get out - that is until I sat down and really thought about it. My first reaction was "yay watermelon"  followed by that blankness that you feel on a hot summer day lounging by the pool or beach or lake without a care in the world. Then it hit me. This is December, where am I going to find watermelon this time of year? Well that was no problem since watermelon is everywhere all the time. Most people overlook watermelon in the winter months, but it is available year-round, typically as a mini-watermelon or in the pre-cut section of your produce aisle. Loaded with vitamins A, B6 and C, watermelon is a healthy choice any time of year. "Fill Up Without Filling Out." Watermelon is 92% water, so you can feel good about filling up, as it hydrates while satiating your appetite. Then it hit me again. I was asked to do an entree. 

As you look over this lovely tropical salsa you can imagine that my head was spinning with absolutely no thoughts what so ever - remember I was in that blissfull blankness that you feel on a hot summer day. So I set out to make the salsa.

Tropical Watermelon Salsa

1 large ripe plantain

1 ripe mango

1 large wedge of watermelon

10 grape tomatoes

2 scallions

1 jalapeño chile

1 serrano chile

1 anaheim chile

1 yellow hot

1 sweet cherry pepper

3 tablespoons fresh chopped coconut

juice from one lime

juice from one meyer lemon

salt and pepper to taste

Preparation

Dice everything and toss in a bowl with the citrus juices and salt and pepper to taste. Let sit for 15 minutes to lightly macerate. 

With the salsa done, its time to move on to the main dish. Now I know I said my mind was blank but as I was buying the ingredients I remembered that all watermelon needs to grow is water, sunshine and bees and don't ask me how but it suddenly hit me to do skewers of lamb, watermelon and mango. Thankfully my mind was only blank for those few minutes at home and not while I was out sourcing my components.

Grilled Lamb Skewers with Watermelon and Mango and Watermelon Gastrique

Serves 4

1 pound of blade lamb chops cut into 16 uniform cubes

16 uniform cubes of watermelon

16 cubes of mango

Dash of cumin

Salt and Pepper

Gastrique

2 cups of watermelon juice (watermelon in the blender and pureed till liquid)

splash of red wine

splash of balsamic vinegar

1 teaspoon of honey

Reduce in a sauce pan until reduced by half.

Preparation

Soak your wooden skewers.

Mix the salt, pepper and cumin together and sprinkle over the lamb - let sit for 5-10 minutes.

Assemble the skewers alternating a cube of watermelon then lamb then mango then watermelon then lamb then mango so that each skewer has two pieces of each item. Make 8 skewers.

On a hot grill pan or hot grill sear each side for 3 minutes each for medium rare lamb.

Place some of your tropical salsa on a plate, place two skewers on top of the salsa and drizzle your gastrique over the grilled items. Enjoy

A complex dish that is easy to prepare. You will wow your guests, yourself and even your in-laws and dont worry you will maintain that summer blissfull blankness with each and every bite.

I have been as busy as bunnies (get it?)

Thanking my lucky stars lately since I now have a bit more work to keep my busy hands busy but this new bit of business has slowed up my blogging. If you are longing for my snark and sassiness then you will have to wait a bit longer because it seems like my backhanded verbosity is on hiatus. Laziness will have to suffice and with that you will have to accept that I will simply post a synopsis of pictures that would have been and could have been blog posts chock full of my witty repartee. Take this Molé Poblano for example - imagine what I could say about it.

Chocolatey, spicy goodness in an enchilada suiza cannot hardly get any better than this.

With more time I could go on and on about the sweet and succulent lamb chops dripping with the lamb unctuousness that only lamb can drip and with this extra time I could tease you with the curried lentils it is bathing in but lo I do not have even a spare second.

Morels, specifically, need more of my time and attention and should not be treated like latch key kids with parents too busy to care but sadly this is their fate and this is their life. Morel mushroom barley soup is, by far, the best mushroom barley soup that exists.

Steamy goodness with an earthy bite the delicate yet toothsome barley pearls give a good chew with the husky deliberateness of the morel mushroom. So with all my lagging and veiled bragging I did what I normally do - post pictures and write nonsense - so things are really not that different after all.

frutti di mare from the orchard of the sea

Less than thirty days ago I made some grilled octopus and it has been on my mind ever since. Then a few days ago Caterina made octopus using the pressure cooker so I had to give that a try. Results: passable. The slow poaching method is by far better but the quickness of the pressure cooker makes this an easy dish to prepare on the fly.

Grilling was not part of the plan today - well not actual charcoal grilling since I did put in the grill pan with a little oregano to smoky it up a bit. Results: passable. Nothing beats the real flavor of fire.

After the octopus was sufficiently cooked twice I chopped it up and tossed it with some garlic, chile, olive oil, more oregano some lime and a little salt and served it over rice. Results: delicious. Make yourself some octopus and if you have the time slow poach it and grill it.

Too much to say and too few words to say it

Being busy has its advantages and it has its disadvantages as well. I can only think of the disadvantages, though, when I am set on complaining. For me one of the greatest catch 22's of the advantage/disadvantage conundrum is how it triggers creativity. On many occasions it lights a fire and then on an equal number of the same occasions it puts the fire out. So where am I now? I'll tell you. I have so many pictures and no words to go with them.


A couple of posts ago I had mentioned the wonderful people at Goose Valley and the delicious rice they had sent me, well I made some more and this did not disappoint. The grains had a definite strong tooth feel and the flavor was spectacular, this wild rice is the best.


The natural wild rice was served up with some European Soldier beans from MarxFoods, an egg and a little hot chile, if you are so inclined.


After braising some pork belly for a couple hours or so in five spice seasoning and rice vinegar and rice wine and brown sugar nothing seemed more perfect than having it on a nice warm tortilla.


The pork was so tender and so succulent and so rosy pink even after hours in the braising liquid in the oven - I am going to work on this a little and definitely make it again.



Catching up to this mornings breakfast enchiladas with eggs and mache.


Nothing makes me feel like I am back in New Mexico more than stacks of corn tortillas, cheese, beans, red chile and fried eggs - and for fun we threw a few little green leaves in there. So you see folks I am losing my whimsical edge, I need to swim in the ocean to get my mojo back. (the first photo is a little steam action we did over the weekend with some blue crabs, we also had some fish and oysters)...Tomorrow its the Share our Strength event called Taste of the Nation in Princeton, New Jersey, photos and info to follow.