Roasted Chile Poblano Rellenos

Foods of the Americas Native Recipes and Traditions by Fernando and Marlene Divina and the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian
Cookbook 2, Recipe 1



I purchased this cookbook a number of years ago at the Half Price in St. Louis Park. It's the only cookbook I've ever seen with the Smithsonian as a contributing author. The recipes are interspersed with photos from the Smithsonian collection as well as photos of artifacts.

A note about this recipe - I strongly disagree with recipes that call for baking/cooking an entire item only to use a fraction of it in the actual dish. This one called for an entire sweet potato to be baked and then only used 2 Tablespoons - sacrilege says I!

A note about dried chipotle - After chopping my dried chipotle I swept it from the cutting board into the dish with the back of my right hand. See photo below of me soaking my hand in cold milk. Just because its dry does not mean it can't burn skin...oops...

Did I like it? Stephen and I both described the filling as Fun. Half way through our respective chile's we ran for milk...I would use the filling, minus the whole dried chipotle, to stuff plain old green peppers.

Recipe
Roast 4 poblano chilis over fire until they are black, place in plastic bag for five minutes, rub all the black skin off. Cut a slit the length of the chile and stuff with filling. Roast covered with foil for 30 minutes at 400.

Filling - mix all ingredients:
2 T currants, plumped and drained
1/2 cup roasted sweet potato in 1/4 in dice (or there abouts)
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
1/4 cup grated Pleasant Ridge Reserve (recipe called for Gouda)
1 chipolte minced (disregard!)
1/2 tsp adobo sauce
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
3/4 cup ricotta salata (recipe called for queso fresco or ricotta cheese, I thought ricotta salata to be a better substitute)

I will now go fill up on brownies that just came out of the oven - Wee Hoo!

The Rolled Souffle

The Way to Cook by Julia Child
Cookbook 1, Recipe 2

This recipe was chosen as a Birthday lunch for Stephen's Mom. Her Birthday was yesterday and we had her over for lunch today. Stephen did much of the cooking on this one.

Did I like it? Delish!

Bechamel sauce:
8 T butter
2/3 cup Flour
3 Cups Hot Milk
1 tsp salt
Melt butter in pan, add flour and cook until it looses it's paste-like quality and becomes more of a foam. Add hot milk, whisking quickly. Bring to a simmer and cook aprox 3 minutes - until thick and coats a spoon.

Souffle:
3 Cups bechamel sauce
3/4 tsp paprika
pinch nutmeg
3/4 tsp salt
pepper to taste
6 eggs
1 cup grated swiss cheese
Whisk paprika, nutmeg salt, pepper and egg yolks together. Whisk egg whites to a stiff peak. Fold 1/4 beaten egg whites into yolk mixture. Add the swiss cheese and fold in the remaining egg whites. Pour into a buttered and parchment lined jelly roll pan (half-sheet pan) and cook at 425 12-15 minutes. (Stephen forgot to look at the temperature required for this recipe. As he was putting it in the oven I asked if it was at the correct temp. Nope it was at 375. So ours was placed in the oven at 375 then turned up to 425 and cooked for 18 minutes) Bake until set (doesn't giggle) and immediately flip out onto another sheet of parchment paper - let set for five minutes. Then remove the paper, spread with remaining 2 cups of bechamel sauce (we only had one) followed by the piperade. Roll up lengthwise and serve.

Piperade (Filling):
Heat a saute pan with 2 T olive oil. Saute 1 onion over medium heat until translucent, add a sliced red, green and yellow peeper along with a mashed clove of garlic. Saute 2-3 minutes - until the peepers are just barely tender.

Hashed Brown Turnip Cakes with Ham and Eggs

The Way to Cook by Julia Child
Cookbook 1, Recipe 1

Just to clarify a couple of items right away. I will give you the recipe as I made it not necessarily as the cookbook said to make it. For the purposes of this endeavor my definition of a week is flexible. A week may start on a Saturday, Sunday or Monday - which ever suits my needs!

Did I like it? If I liked turnips I would have. I tried this recipe because I had leftover ham and I'm trying to like turnips. They are similar to brussel sprouts - I'm not a fan of the mustard-e-ness. However, if you like turnips I'm sure you would like this. Normally I will give you Stephen's opinion as well - he was not here to taste it.

Mise en place
Leftover ham about 1/2 to 3/4 cup
butter to fry ham in
1 turnip
1 potato about 1/2 the size of the turnip
1 egg
2 spoons of sour cream
butter to fry turnip/potato hash in
Freshly chopped tarragon
1 egg

Directions
Place water on to boil for poached egg. Grate the potato and turnip into the towel, wring out as much water as possible. Beat egg with 2 sour cream, add turnip/potato mixture, add salt and pepper to taste. Heat up butter in a skillet to fry hash in and fry it up how you would like.* Place egg in boiling water for 10 seconds. Turn the water down to the lowest setting and crack the egg into it - simmer for 5 minutes. Heat butter in another pan and fry up the ham adding tarragon to taste. When hash is done place on a large plate, top with ham followed by the poached egg. Season with tarragon to taste.

*Julia Child calls for a 1/16 inch of butter or oil in a non-stick pan to fry your hash in. I do not own a non-stick pan and I didn't want to fry with that much butter/oil. I simply added 2 tsp of butter and fried it up not expecting to have a nice patty.

The Year of the 52 Cookbooks

As I informed you in my Christmas Thank You letters I will be starting this blog up again. Below are pictures of the chosen cookbooks. Wee Hoo.

The bottom picture are the books that did not make it. The third picture are books that were given as presents from family.

dinner

we had grilled cheese last night!
ooo, I saw a recipie on t.v.
You put mozarella cheese and fresh basil in a sandwich, dip it in flower, then egg, then bread crumbs, then you fry it.
It sounds good .

Smelt Fries and The Butchers Plate

I've been wanting to have dinner at the this new restaurant in town - The Red Stag Supper Club. I ate brunch a while ago and thought it was excellent. As you can see we ordered Smelt Fries and The Butchers Plate - very fun. They were better than our entrees. The Smelt Fries were served with cocktail sauce and tarter sauce. The Butchers Plate consists of potted duck, pigs in a blanket served with mustard and a scotch egg.

Fun bartender - I drank bee's knees. I've made it myself before but their version was much yummier! They used Beefeater gin which is usually too sweet for me however, in this drink it was excellent with the honey and orange juice.

Death's Door Cocktail Experiment #1

1 part Death's Door Gin
1/2 part Freshly Squeezed Lime Juice
1/2 part Syrup from Homemade Maraschino Cherries
1 spring fresh tarragon (4 inches)

Muddle all ingredients. Shake with ice. Strain into glass and top with soda (no more than one part). I based my recipe using 1 part = 1 oz.

I took a Tom Collins recipe and used it to create something interesting. The tarragon smells stronger than it tastes.

For a stronger flavor omit the soda.

It's a lovely cocktail. My camera ran out of power so I'll add a picture later.

Acorn Eating Pigs are Yummy!

We found Jamon Iberico! This is a cured ham made from wild pigs in Spain who run around eating acorns. The ham just became legal in the US a couple months ago. At $75 a pound we ordered 2 ounces but the counter lady thought Stephen said .5 ounce. It's super yummy!

Yuzu Souffle

Last Sunday I cooked a Yuzu Souffle in teacups. The picture is after it had fallen about a 1/2 inch. The Yuzu juice was purchased from an Asian grocery store. It tastes like a cross between tangerine and lemon - kinda like a meyer lemon but sweeter. Also in the picture is a candied ginger scone with dried cherries that I plumped in vanilla rum - Delicious!

yummy

we ate beef with snow peas and fried rice and creamcheese puffs. ummmm.
it was good!

The Pea is On The Plate....The Pea is Off The Plate

Need I say more?

50's Jello Mold

Stephen requested a jello mold for his birthday party. This is made with 4 1/2 cups of rose wine, 2 T peach schnaps, 8 packets of jelatin and 3 cups of water and 2 cups of sugar. The recipe is from epicurious - they call it Rose-Peach Gelee - I call it chewing wine....

(the tiki embelishments look like they are comming out of the jello - they are not - I wish I had done that.)

Swedish Meatballs

Swedish Meatballs w/Gravy and Red Potatoes

Based on Ojakangas recipe for Swedish Meatballs from Country Tastes written in 1988.
1/2 lb ground pork
1/2 lb ground beef
1/2 chopped onion
1/4 cup bread crumbs (or more)
1/4 cup milk
1 egg
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp allspice (required!)
Mix and form into 1 inch balls and bake at 500 for 10-15 minutes

Gravy:
brown 1/4 cup flour in a pan, whisk in 2 cups milk (or half and half) cook until thickened and add meatballs.

This picture is from our vacation in January to a cabin on Lake Superior.

Pop - Successfull Sealing!

I've never liked Marmalade but I figure maybe it's because I haven't made it myself....I'm not sure I like it made by me either. I'm processing the last batch as I write this - a 15 minute hot water bath for the smaller jars - I'm done with the larger ones.

In my opinion most jelly and jam recipes have faulty instructions for determining when the jelly is "set". Almost all say when "the one drop becomes a sheet off the spoon it is done" - usually that means your jelly is entirely overcooked. So here is a picture of first and slightly undercooked jelly and then a just right jelly (in my humble opinion).

If you compare the base of the drop of jelly in the first picture to the second picture you will notice a much wider base in the second. That I believe is the key to making good jelly - no it doesn't "sheet" off - it drips off and pulls from a wide base of the spoon. You'll also notice in there is less of an O with a belt shape in the second picture - the drip is more sloping.

Also you will notice I use the back of the spoon - I find this to be a much better method of looking at the drip - if you use the concave part of the spoon the liquid wells up at the base and then spills over and it's difficult to get an accurate look at the liquid because it all wants to spill over. However, if you watch the liquid drip off in a nice slow non hurried fashion off the reverse side of the spoon - you'll get a much more accurate look at it's thickness/viscosity.

Anyway that's my rant. This Seville Orange Marmalade has been a three day process. Tuesday: wash the oranges, juice the oranges, strain the juice, slice the peel, add an equal volume of water as juice/peel, let sit in cool place 24 hrs. Wednesday: Bring mixture to a boil, reduce heat and gently simmer 20 minutes. Today: measure liquid, bring liquid to a boil and add 2 T balsamic vinegar, gently simmer 20 minutes, add an equal volume of sugar as liquid measured at the start, bring to a boil and then simmer 35 minutes (till done) add 1 teaspoon bitters. Process.

sticky toffee pudding

Last night was a fun cooking night. Matt and I tried a new tempeh recipe, potato and tempeh patties. They turned out delicious, tasted kind of like pakoras but bigger and creamy. So so tasty, I had leftovers for lunch today and they were just as good. They were spiced with coriander, cumin, cayenne, and tandoori. We had coleslaw on the side.

At work yesterday I stumbled on a recipe for sticky toffee pudding and had to make it for dessert that night! (pudding in the British for dessert, it is a cake) It's from epicurious, here's the recipe, it is really sweet, but very good.

Simmer 1 cup dates in 1 cup water about 5 minutes and then let sit covered.
Beat 1/2 cup butter and 1/4 cup brown sugar until light and fluffy, then beat in 1 egg.
Sift 1 cup flour, 1 tsp baking powder, and 1/8 tsp salt and mix into butter mixture.
Then add dates (and the water they were soaking in) and mix just until well combined.

Bake in a greased and floured 8" round pan for about 30 minutes at 350.

Then, melt 1/2 cup butter, stir in 1 cup brown sugar, 1/3 cup water, and a pinch of salt.
Boil over medium high heat until sauce is reduced to 1 1/4 cups. (how does one know when it is 1 1/4 cups? no idea, I just boiled it until it ran off the back of a spoon slower and smelled all caramel/toffee-like, maybe about 5-8 minutes?)

With "pudding" still in pan poke it all over with a chopstick or a fork, then pour over half of the warm toffee sauce. Let it sit for 15 minutes to soak in, then turn the cake onto a plate and pour the other half of the sauce over the "pudding"
Then dig in!

dinner

For dinner I backed potatoes and cut them in circles and filled the bottom of a dish, then i took leftover thick bean soup and poured that over, then covered it with cheese that melted. It was pretty good.

Soup

Mom made some great, cailiflower/brocolie/cheesey soup.
It was good!

Happy Valentines Day

Mom made a whole batch of cookies, choc chip, walnuts, almonds. And she made the entire batch into one big heart! Yumm yumm
It's huge! and tastes great!

Chinese

Yumm, I got some food from the 'Fortune House' Beef with snowpeas and pork fried rice and creamcheese wontons.
It was really good!

HEllo?

Hey, is anybody out there?
lalalala
I had chilli while watching the big game, Kenny - Allisons husband- made it. yummyumm

BULGAR

Yum, bulger stuffed peppers. With apples, raisins, and yumminess.

Mac and Cheese!!!!!!!

Hi all,
I just bought a fancy bag of mac and cheese. yummmm.
It's the liquid cheese, not the powder stuff. for $2.99

Happy Day!
~Sarah~

Swedish Butterhorns - Tea Ring Style

I made the Ojakangas recipe for Swedish Cinnamon Butterhorns and rolled the dough out Swedish tea ring style (roll the dough out cinnamon roll style; join the log into a circle; cut the dough at intervals and twist every other section into the middle of the ring). The recipe is in the book I made for you a couple of years ago - it's a handy refrigerator style. The dough was made mid-afternoon yesterday - I slept in until 9:00 and ate this warm by 10:00 this morning.

Curried Cauliflower in Squash Custard

This morning I laid in bed thinking about a squash ricotta ravioli in a cauliflower cream sauce. In the end a few adjustments were made. The recipe below is for two of the IKEA pans I gave you for Christmas. You could cut the recipe in half or bake the other in an oven proof bowl.

This afternoon I accidentally discovered a process to extract potato starch. When I boiled the potatoes for lefsa last week I froze the water which they were boiled in to use later in bread. This morning I took a hunk of the frozen potato water and placed it in a pan on low heat and left it alone. When I came back to check on it the starch had separated from the water in a strange globuleous mass. I assume if I could have dried it and pounded it into a powered potato starch (i didn't). Sure does make excellent bread...



Also attached is a pic of our excellent Eggnog from Christmas - Thanks for the raw milk Rachel!


Curried Cauliflower in Squash Custard
Blender or whisk up:
1 1/2 cups squash puree (i used Australian blue)
1 cup whole milk
4 eggs
1/2 tsp salt

Saute with hot olive oil:
2 crushed garlic cloves
2 finely chopped shallots
2 T finely chopped ginger
add:
1/2 tsp curry powder
aprox 2 cups cauliflower

Divide cauliflower mixture between pans and cover with squash mixture. Place in a 9x13 and fill the larger pan with 1/2 way up with hot water.
Bake at 350 for aprox 45 minutes.

Cookies!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yumm Yumm Yumm

so far , krumkakas and dipped pretzels

soon to make;

Swedish toate, sugarccookies, peppermint snowballs, pecan tarts, rosettes, spritz, chocolte and maple fudge

Are we missing anything? Let us know.

Brussle Sprouts

Yumm,

mom pan sautaied some farmers market brussles - thanks Tab & Steve. They were mixed with some ham from a ham halk, and some cheese and over rice.

For desert we ate a wonderful pound cake, full of shreded chocolate and nutmeg. Mmmm Mmm

Oooo we set up the trees, yes we have 2 this year. Looking forward to the yummy treats!

bottling cider (and gratin)

Joe and I bottled our hard cider yesterday! I took this picture with the laptop while he ran to the bar on the corner to find more empty bottles. Unfortunately they were having a special on a beer with a twist off cap. So we had to finish by bottling into some canning jars. I have a towel over them in case they explode!

I think it's going to be a success! It tastes really good- not too sweet, not to acidic, bubbly. And it will change in the next few weeks so hopefully it will get even better. Making it was very fun and pretty easy.

Here's also a fruit gratin I had for breakfast. Pear, kiwi, apple and orange pieces with cream and brown sugar under the broiler. I have that fruit CSA I'm always mentally struggling with (cost vs. fun, real CSA vs. fake CSA, need vs. want) but which tastes delicious and does make me find tasty cool new ways to eat fruit.

Lets talk about what we are going to eat for Christmas soon! I'm bringing the milk for egg nog!

yumm

Butter burger Mmmmmmm Pop tart vs. Cub

- cub wins! poptart too artificial!

Sunday Breakfast

It's been a while since I made a nice Sunday Breakfast. Homemade Sunday breakfast usually includes an entire days worth of calories. This morning I made buttermilk waffles, coffee and hot cocoa, a most excellent way to start the day.




The caption on the peanut brittle recipe reads "Boys' favorite - mothers who find it at church sales take some home". Guess where this recipe comes from... I believe my "man will be pleased" when he arrives home and beholds what I have made:)



Finally, below is the promised dumpling recipe. It's from Beatrice Ojakangas' New Ideas for Casseroles (published in 85). I never would have picked it up if it hadn't been written by her - it's quality

Dumplings:
1 1/2 cups flour
1 T minced fresh parsley
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/8 tsp ground mace or nutmeg
2/3 cup milk
2 Tbl butter, melted
1 egg, slightly beaten.

Mix all dry - stir in wet until just moistened. Drop by tablespoonfuls cover and cook minimum 15 minutes

Anamamme theif!

It was good, warm and with a tad of salt.

yet another try

hmmm

hi just trying again.

turkeyalaking

I'm trying to see if I can get my pictures up yet. If there is nothing just ignore it, i'm trying.
Have a great weekend!
whoohoo a storm!!!!!!!!!!

Turkey ala King

yumm yumm, it tasted great with turkey and on a nice bun.

Comfort Food

It's been a couple of weeks since I took the bus and walked home from work. Even walking quickly with my nordic mittens from mom and cat hat from Eppie, I was still cold. All I could think about was biscuits and gravy on the walk home. I managed to thaw most of the lamb under cold running water and made Dad style gravy (thickened with cornstarch), it hit the spot.








I tried making Olibollen (with some modifications) two weekends ago and failed miserably. I don't like to waste so much oil on one batch of food so falafel was had yesterday.




You can see the Gingerbread Houses that were made during Fun Day last Friday. I wanted to keep them all to decorate the house!

brussels sprouts, again

I cook em up once a year. And while I'm hesitant to say I like them, each year I do find something more and more palatable to make with Brussels sprouts. This year I halved and roasted them with garlic. Then I mixed them with bacon, caramelized onions, sage, squash cubes, and a sauce of cream, white wine and mustard. It was my best effort yet!! I'll even say I liked it!

pumpkin chili cupcakes

More pumpkinny fun! I made pumpkin chili cupcakes. They have a bit of ancho chili in them and a tasty chocolate frosting. Here's the recipe, http://www.gildedfork.com/pastryprincess/2007/10/cupcake-round-up-2.html
Check out this fun recipe for Coffee and Doughnut cupcakes! http://cupcakeblog.com/index.php/2007/09/doughnuts-and-coffee-cupcakes/

prize winner #2

Here is tonight's dinner. A grilled sharp cheddar, apple (ashmead's kernal- a tart russet) and caramelized onion sandwich with squash lentil soup.

The sandwich was another REAP recipe contest winner- and it's good! Working from home makes making bread and caramelized onions pretty easy. Sometimes I don't know what I'm going to do with what I'm making, but I'll figure it out or give it away instead.

The soup was made with squash and puy lentils and a ton of spices: cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, coriander, cumin, kala jera, paprika, fennel seed, pepper, cloves, allspice, saffron, cardamom, and galangal and orange peel. Then it still didn't taste very good- I think because I didn't have stock so I had to use water. So I added pomegranate molasses and kalamata olive tapenade. Then it was good!

virtuous pumpkin pie

The other night we made fish tacos and krispy kale for dinner. (the krispy kale was great Rach! all flamage was avoided) We made a black bean and corn salad to go with the fish. Tasty tasty dinner.

Dessert was punkin pie! It matches rachels virtuous souffle. I lost the rubber ring for the blender, so we put the pumpkin through a ricer. Some of the squashes I have squish right through it, but the pie pumpkin I had was crazy stringy so it would barely go through the ricer. And sometimes because we were pushing so hard to get it through, some bits of pumpkin would make it through and go flying. Anyway, good fun. We ended up with a tasty pumpkin pie, definitely more texture than canned pumpkin, but the flavor was excellent. And pie, as always, is an awesome breakfast
.

White Yam Ravoli

On Friday Stephen & I made up a white yam ravioli with a mushroom, sage cream sauce. The yam took a solid hour and a half to bake. To make the filling we mixed it with ricotta, nutmeg, salt and pepper. The sauce was shallots, mushrooms, sage, paprika, salt and cream. The texture of the filling was not smooth and made for a nice contrast to the cream and soft mushroom sauce. It was surprisingly yummy.

Tonight I made a yummy "old fashioned cinnamon sugar cookie". I think it's called old fashioned since the batter is made with sour cream - very similar to a hermit cookie without the fruit. Simple and delicious.

hummm diddy he he... hua hua

Hi guys, well I have been cooking a lot lately, I just forget to take pictures. This is an squash, apple, fennel soup I made last week. It turned out delicious! It had chopped fennel bulb and ground toasted fennel seed in it. The garnish is apple "matchsticks", there is apple in the soup also. The biscuits were a recipe from the Herbfarm Cookbook, they have wheat and white flour and cornmeal in them (also called for rye but I didn't have any) Good and hearty.

We finally bottled Matt's peach wine from back in July. It smells pretty yeasty still, but it has good potential to be tasty. We'll try it in a few months.

And, I thought you might like to see where Catfish sits when I'm cooking...

Pizza

Yummy yummy,
We made homeaid pizza. I made the crust!
green pepers green olives pepparoni
and corn meal on the bottom.
Happy Weekend
~sAraH

A Day of Cooking & Baking

It's been busy lately and I haven't had much energy for cooking. Today I made up for it. I made buttermilk pancakes (Martha Stewart recipe of course) for lunch and Chicken and Dumplings for dinner . While Dads Chicken and Dumplings are still great I now prefer my method.

Chicken and Dumplings my way. Skin the chicken and cut into six pieces (two legs, two wings and cut the chest cavity in half). Boil in water for approximately 20 minutes - until the meat is done. Take the meat off the bones and through the bones back into boil for at least another 30 minutes. Strain the stock and add a whole celery bunch cut up and a good portion of a 5lb bag of carrots thinly sliced and the chicken meat. Boil for only 15 minutes. Add dumplings on top cover and simmer 15 minutes. With this method nothing is mushy and the chicken is not stringy.

I've been craving homemade bread so I baked a loaf of Oatmeal bread. My refrigerator is also full of apples so I made two loaf pans of Brandied Apple Spice Cake - tiz yummy. Also I started on the gingerbread houses for my friends to decorate at Fun Day - you can see the pictures. I finished 10 roofs and 10 front and backs - no side walls yet - later.

After visiting mom yesterday we dropped Sarah off at work. I wanted to buy a loaf of bread from her and settled on the Finish Sourdough Rye. She couldn't cut it for me because it would bread the machine! It weighted 3 lbs! Anyway after smelling it in the car I decided it needed some dill havarti and turkey just like open face rye sandwiches at Twig Church Potluck - it was a fun diversion.

Fuyu Persimmons

They're not bad! In fact, they're pretty tasty.

I have a fruit CSA for the winter- it's not locally grown but it is a random selection of in-season fruit from around the country grown on small farms. This week was my first installment and I got some local luscious pears, Valencia oranges, avocados, apples, (pink lady variety- which I'd never had because I don't buy apples in the store, but they're good!) and persimmons.

I wasn't too excited about the persimmons but after reading up on the variety- Fuyu, I found they are supposed to be eaten while still firm. Hachiya persimmons are eaten "when they feel like a water balloon" and I'm pretty sure that's what we had as kids. These Fuyus are good! The texture is pleasant, the flavor is good, and they are very pretty. I ate half of one straight and then I pureed the other half and used it to try and fix my experiment from yesterday- a macaroon type cookie made from cooked wild rice. It's not been a raging success but oh well... I'm happy to discover that Fuyu persimmons are pretty good.