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.

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.

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.

choices

Whenever I am given a choice I choose seafood or food from my native New Mexico. Since it is now chile harvesting time in the Land of Enchantment and I have caring parents who have a food dehydrator I get the best dried green chiles you could ever imagine so I choose chile. You soak these in a little warm water just to soften and then chop em' up and you are good to go, they re-hydrate into the most plump and succulent chiles you could ever imagine. In a few weeks it is red chile season; after the green pods sit in the sun for a while they turn red, same chile - different flavor. There is so much you can do with chile, it is a fruit after all, but simple foods made with care are always the best.

A bowl of beans with a couple spoonfuls of chile is an excellent example, or the more popular 'texas chili' where you mix it all together and let it stew so that the flavors get a chance to know each other and eventually get married. I have posted chiles rellenos, which are roasted and stuffed fresh peppers with a chile sauce poured over. I have posted flat enchiladas, rolled enchiladas, I have posted burritos so whats left? Huevos Rancheros a New Mexico diner classic. ...And someone says it makes you sleep better... cool. (thanks anonymous)



Chopped green chile ready to go. This is good just like this in a quesadilla.



New Mexico green chile with meat.



snapshot of red chile dryng in the sun.



One plate of Huevos Rancheros. Pinto beans, green chile with pork and blue corn tortillas topped with a sunny side up egg.

Beans

Whenever I am hungry for something fast and easy I make food that comes naturally to me. I could make this in the dark and blind drunk and it would always come out the same, delicious. I am talking burritos. Nothing is easier than rolling up some beans and rice and cheese in a flour tortilla and drizzling some chile, either red or green, and grating cheese on top. It is good it is filling and it is spicy all the things I like. Its like the hot dog for little southwestern children, my mom would make brakfast burritos, lunch burrtios any kind of burrito and they were always perfect - especially since she made the tortillas too.

Fresh Fish

I love chinatown. Nothing excites my afternoons more than making a trip to chinatown. I get so happy with all the noise and smells and hustle that it makes me feel like a tourist even after 20 years of living here. Today it was to get tilapia which I crusted with herbs and tortilla chips with a gratin of potatoes with shredded beet greens. The fish is so light and tasty and the crunchiness of the tortilla chips and corn flavor give it a nice and subtle boost, and its hard to mess up taters so these were a little creamy and a lot tasty.

Someone had the brilliant idea to paint some of the mail boxes to look like R2D2's and I love it. My only complaint would be that they are the same, it would be so cool if they were different D2 units each unique.

Oh and the Empire State building was awesome with these fairy tale clouds.

Last night I had a snack of fried plantains with sour cream, and refried black bean tacos on blue corn tortillas with a salsa made with tomatillos and serano chiles with pork rinds (the really good ones from the cuchifrito stores). The pork rinds get really soft and really delicious soaking in the salsa and even though this looks gooey and kind of gross the flavor made up for the lack of positive visuals.

I guess I should try to explain what a cuchifrito is - NYC has these little food stores that sell hispanic foods like pasteles and bacalao and pork rinds to name just a few and the slang name for these kinds of stores is "cuchifrito" pronounced - coo-chi-frito, and thats about all I know besides the fact that I enjoy their offerings.