Chile de arbol hot sauce

Chris and I made hot sauce today, well, Chris made hot sauce, I was the sous chef and the second hand, since he is operating with only one hand these days. We made chile de arbol hot sauce from Rick Bayless’ Authentic Mexican cookbook and were very pleased with the outcome.
Sterilize your jars and all utensils first. We saved and recycled our hot sauce bottles, but I am sure they are easy to find on the internet. Hot sauce does not need to be canned, it will keep indefinitely in the refrigerator. If you don't want to store it in the refrigerator, you can pour the hot sauce into sterilized canning jars, seal and process in a water bath, and store at room temperature. Refrigerate after opening. This recipe made one big bottle and one small bottle.
Chile de arbols are available in most Mexican markets. I found a big bag at Supermercado Los Angeles. But, if you can’t find them, a good sauce can be made with any small, dried hot pepper.

Chile de arbol hot sauce
1 ¼ ounces (about 50 to 60 mixed sizes) dried chiles de arbol
1 ½ tablespoons sesame seeds
2 tablespoons of pumpkin seeds (pepitas)
¼ teaspoon cumin seeds (or about 1/8 teaspoon ground)
4 large allspice berries (or about 1/8 teaspoon ground)
2 cloves (or a big pinch ground)
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 scant teaspoon salt
2 large cloves garlic, peeled and roughly chopped
¾ cup cider vinegar

Stem the chiles, then roll them between your thumbs and fingers, pressing gently to loosen the seeds inside (I used rubber gloves). Break in half, shake out as many seeds as possible, then place in a blender jar.
Heat an ungreased skillet over medium-low. Measure in the sesame seeds and stir for several minutes as they brown and pop; scoop into the blender jar. Add the pumpkin seeds to the skillet. When the first one pops, stir constantly for several minutes, until all are golden and have popped into a round shape.

Pulverize the cumin, allspice and cloves in a mortar or spice grinder, then add to the blender jar along with the oregano, salt, garlic and vinegar. Blend for several minutes, until the mixture is orange-red and feels quite smooth when a drop is rubbed between your fingers.

Strain through a medium-mesh sieve, (I don’t have a medium and used a fine, it works, it just takes more muscle) working the solids back and forth and pressing them firmly; there will be a fair amount of chile seeds, skins, sesame hulls and other debris to discard, but be careful that there is nothing liquid trapped within them.
Stir in ¾ cup of water then pour into a bottle, cover and let stand for 24 hours before serving.

Really, really good homemade frogurt!

When I was a child at River Hills Country Club, they use to serve this amazing frozen concoction, which they referred to as frogurt. I never knew what it was except that it was this fabulous tart, sweet soft serve ice cream, lemon was my favorite. The frogurt machine was habitually out of service and then it just disappeared all together, but I always longed for that incredible soft serve. Since then, frozen yogurt was everywhere, but it tasted…like ice cream, and it wasn’t as good. Last year we were living in Shreveport, LA temporarily. I was pregnant with an 18 month old, starving, desperately looking for some sort of drive thru fare that would be healthy and I didn’t have to drag the baby out of the car. I spotted a little yogurt place, Counter Culture, with…a drive thru. I ordered the special which had granola, yogurt, honey and fresh fruit, perfect! It looked great. Not only did it look great, but I took a big bite, and it was…frogurt. The frogurt of my childhood, the tart, sweet, creamy, frogurt. I had found it, I knew it was too good to disappear forever. Since I discovered Counter Culture, I have noticed that old school frogurt has become a new food trend, they’re like cupcake shops! Popping up everywhere, pure culture, pinkberry, etc. If you haven’t tried it, get some, but better yet, make your own, it’s really expensive at the trendy yogurt shop.

Frogurt
2 cups whole milk
2 1/2 cups cream
1 packet yogurt starter
1/8 cup good quality local honey
½ cup sugar

Place a small amount of milk in a dish and allow it to come to room temperature, stir yogurt starter into room temperature milk or allow one ½ cup serving of plain yogurt to come to room temperature . Bring the 2 cups of milk and 2 cups of cream to 180, remove from heat and put in a cold water bath. Add milk with starter or room temperature yogurt to milk and cream when mixture is between 108-112. Pour milk mixture into cups and put in yogurt maker for 14 hours (I always fill one cup with ½ cup serving to use as a sterter in the next batch). In a saucepan combine. ½ cup of cream, 1/8 cup honey and ½ cup of sugar cook over medium low until the sugar dissolves, cool mixture (I put it in an ice bath) when mixture cools to less than 108 degrees add it to your yogurt to taste, depending on how sweet you like it. I served mine topped with plums and honey and a warm, homemade oatmeal cookie.

Cooks Notes: I used milk and cream but you can make yogurt with lowfat milk, I am pretty sure that your lowfat yogurt would freeze. I can’t wait to try goat’s milk. I just made another batch, this time with milk and half and half, but if you are looking for an incredibly creamy frogurt that will keep your friends out of the line at Pinkberry, go with the cream and milk.
Play with your flavors. For chocolate, pour the hot cream over chocolate stir until the chocolate melts, cool to 108 and add to frogurt mixture. Chocolate disguises the tart, sweet taste though. I am trying lemon next, I am going to omit the honey in the hot cream sugar mixture and add lemon juice. Hopefully, it will taste just like it did...when I was eight!

The world might be a better place, if everybody stopped to shell peas...

It's peanut and purple hull pea time. My mother-in-law brought us a sack of purple hull peas and a sack of peanuts from The Peanut Shack in Crystal Springs, MS. So, Sadie and I have been shelling peas and the crawfish pots have been pulled out of the barn to boil peanuts. Even though its still 96 in the shade, Fall has arrived!

We buy peanuts in bulk in the peak of the season when they are cheap, boil them and freeze them. When you yearn for that salty taste of early fall, just take them out of the freezer,allow them to thaw and enjoy! Chris makes really, really good boiled peanuts. The secret, don't let last year's crawfish seasoning go flat, use it up in the fall on your peanuts.

Chris' boiled peanuts
36 pounds of peanuts
6 pounds of crawfish spice
1 cup salt
Bring peanuts to a boil, keep them at a low boil for about an hour and a half until done to taste(periodically, taste until they are done to your liking, I like a little residual crunch, rather than a mushy peanut). Turn off the fire and allow the peanuts to soak for a couple of hours, again, taste until they are as juicy as you like them. Allow peanuts to cool, bag, and freeze.
Use whatever crawfish spice you like. Our personal favorite, for peanuts and crawfish, is Duane's in Lawtell, Louisiana. I am not sure where you can buy it, but if you live in Mississippi or Louisiana they probably drive a crawfish truck through your town. Call them during crawfish season (337.543.6147), they'll be happy to stop and let you pick up a sack off the back of the truck, and be sure to get some of their spice. We've bought many sacks from them and have never gotten a bad one

Tonight, I made a salad with a fig mustard vinaigrette, glazed carrots and a fresh purple hull pea salad.

To make the purple hull pea salad. Bring fresh peas to a boil and then simmer until they are done to your liking. Drain peas, pour cold water over them. I used queso anejo, a really good store bought salsa (fresh tomatoes would have been better), rice wine vinegar, olive oil (pick a good one), salt, black pepper. Mix all the ingredients and chill.

Planting pumpkins, making cheese, harvesting earthworms, starting a compost, raising chickens, making yogurt

I got the pumpkins in the ground today. I planted four mounds of sugar pumpkins along the barbed wire fence to the pasture next to the house. Hopefully, they are close enough to the house, the varmints will stay away. I have read that you can dust the pumpkins with cayenne and it will keep the pests away. I welcome any other suggestions.
I also started a compost pile this week, I harvested some fat earthworms from the soil while digging my pumpkin mounds that I added to the compost pile. I was delighted when digging the pumpkin mounds to find the soil full of grub worms and earthworms. Great protein for a flock of chickens. I just read Storey’s Guide to Raising Chickens by Gail Damerow, and am seriously considering acquiring chickens. I would love to have a beautiful multi-purpose flock, that provides meat and eggs, but I can’t commit to that at this time.. sigh, one day. So we are considering raising a small flock of meat birds to supply ourselves with chicken for the year. I guess I will soon see if I can handle the emotional side of farm life.
I also just read Home Cheesemaking by Vicki Carroll and have sourced raw goats milk, so hopefully we will have cheese in the near future.
I have picked back up my yogurt making. Sadie was demanding it in the grocery store and the laundry list of awful things added to serve one milk that has been heated and cooled with a culture is sickening. This week we made plain and honey with fresh plums. I always keep plain, you can add it to salad dressings in place of olive oil and it makes a great creamy dressing.



Honey Yogurt with Fresh Plums
3 cups of whole milk
1 cup of cream
1 packet of yogurt starter
Good quality local honey
Place a small amount of milk in a dish and allow it to come to room temperature, stir yogurt starter into room temperature milk. Bring the 4 cups of milk and cream to 180, remove from heat and put in a cold water bath. Add milk with starter to milk and cream when mixture is between 108-112. Add honey to taste to the bottom of the yogurt cups, about 2 tablespoons. Pour milk mixture into cups and put in yogurt maker for 14 hours. Place yogurt in refrigerator and allow it to cool. Chop ½ fresh plum and stir into yogurt just before serving.
Cook’s Notes: I found a fancy Waring Yogurt Maker at Tuesday Morning for $39, but if you don’t have a yogurt maker, I made lots of yogurt before I had a maker. It is easy to make a homemade one. Put a hole through a canning lid and insert a thermometer into the hole, place the lid on a sterilized quart jar, wrap the jar in a kitchen towel and place in the warmest place in your house. I have an old stove with gas pilots, the stovetop over the pilot makes a great place to grow yogurt. Monitor temperature on the thermometer if it is dropping below 108 add yogurt jar to a warm water bath to bring temperature up. You can also wrap your jar in a heating pad to hold it at temperature. Don’t worry if your yogurt got too cold, it is still alive, you just slowed down or stopped the starter. If you add the starter to the milk when it is too hot or heat the milk higher than 112 once you have added the starter, you will kill it. The longer you allow the yogurt to grow the more tart it becomes but also the thicker it becomes. You can make a nice thick yogurt with low fat milk and powdered milk. You can also add powdered milk to any milk and it will produce a thicker yogurt.
When making yogurt, reserve one ½ cup serving as a starter for the next time that you make yogurt, when you are ready to make the next batch, take the ½ cup serving out of the refrigerator and allow it to come to room temperature and add it when you would the starter.

My Mexican background, Supermercado Los Angeles, chorizo hash and eggs, and elotes

Chris and I share a passion for really good authentic Mexican food. My husband has cooked his way through two of Rick Bayless‘ cookbooks and watches Mexico, One Plate at a Time every time it is on, literally, when he is off work he plans his day around what time Little Ricky comes on, watching the same episodes over and over.

At one point in my childhood my father had a friend whom made frequent trips to Mexico, they worked out a trade in which the friend would return with authentic ingredients not available at the Jitney Jungle in the 80’s and Daddy would cook a meal for everyone. I also made five mission trips to Saltillo, Mexico as a teen. A group of ladies from the church would prepare our meals, I think I was the only catholic school girl that knew, that the incredibly flavorful meat we were eating was goat, but I dare not tell. The smells of fresh corn tortillas, cilantro, chorizo and lime excite all of my food senses.

From what I found, this seemed to be the only food lacking in New Orleans. So we were eager to return to our favorite Mexican grocery in Pearl, Mississippi, Supermercado Los Angeles. Supermercado is owned and run by a very nice helpful couple. They have a decent selection of Mexican produce including cactus paddles, espazote, cilantro, lime, fresh peppers, white onions, etc. There is a good meat and cheese counter at the back, they make their own chorizo, crema and lard for tamales, have a decent bakery selection and a restaurant in the back, set to open in two weeks (9/10). It is a great place to go on a Saturday, there is always a big pot of some meat that has been stewing for hours and a good selection of Mexican street food, elotes and chicharrones.

I hate to start my Mexican dishes with this one, there are many times that Chris and I spend days preparing some fabulous Mexican fare, but this one happened when Chris walked in and said what’s for dinner at 7:30 ( I thought it was more like 5). So I threw something together with our ingredients from Supermercado, and it turned out pretty good, and pretty easy.

Cut potatoes into large cubes and boil them for 10 minutes, then drain. Break up about ½ pound of chorizo into a skillet, allow chorizo to render and cook about seven minutes. Meanwhile, prepare your toppings, I used cilantro, crema, queso fresco and Chris’ hot sauce (look for more about our hot sauce endeavors in a future blog). Add lightly salted and peppered potatoes to the pan with chorizo allow them to cook turning occasionally for another five minutes. ( I used a seco chorizo so not much rendered out to cook the potatoes in, so I added about a tablespoon of olive oil.) Keep on very low eye to keep warm while you prepare your eggs. I prepared my eggs over easy, topped the hash with eggs and a plethora of toppings, don’t be shy with the cilantro.

I purchased some beautiful, incredibly sweet silver queen corn at the Mississippi Farmers Market this week. The corn would have been great all by itself, but I had promised elotes. To prepare the elotes, boil corn, brush lightly with mayonnaise, sprinkle queso anejo all over corn and then finish with a very light dusting of cayenne or your favorite ground chile mixture.

Foodsource:
Supermercado Los Angeles
3157 Highway 80 East
Pearl, MS 39208
601.936.8986

Where I've been...

September 1, 2010

I apologize for my break in blogging. Life’s circumstances have taken me deep into the woods, into the land of no internet, nursing a husband that almost cut his arm off , a 2 year old and a 6 month old. I have continued to cook and photograph, so I have plenty of material that I am eager to share with you. I have also started making baby food for Virginia.

I have not provided very much info on this blog about who I am, where I come from or how I came to blog about food. Really, because I was pretty sure that everyone reading this blog knew my story. I’ve been told that I should give more personal info for my readers, if I even have those. So here goes… I am from Jackson, Mississippi where I was raised in Belhaven in a family of five girls, yes, five! My mother and father are Irish catholic and Italian catholic. So I grew up in a large food centered family. I think I was the only kid I knew whose father served holiday meals in courses, he was just ahead of his time. I graduated from catholic school and went to Sweet Briar College in Virginia, where I met a collection of treasured friends from all over the country. After college I entered the financial services industry with PaineWebber in Atlanta. I lived in Atlanta for five years, single, supporting only myself as well as attending many wholesaler sponsored dinners at the finest restaurants in Atlanta (my father was one of those wholesalers, famous for his dinners.) This allowed me many incredible dining experiences that furthered my food education. Currently, I am back home in Mississippi, married, raising two daughters, Sadie and Virginia. I now have to prepare those foods if I want to enjoy them. My husband, Chris works in the film industry so we have been traveling with him when he works, this has allowed me to live temporarily in New Orleans, Baton Rouge and Shreveport. We just recently returned home. Chris just wrapped Green Lantern, well, they were set to wrap two days after he almost cut his arm off, unloading a truckload of building supplies for our impending home renovation, that is now on hold. Home is in the woods about 30 miles south of Jackson. Our plan is for Chris to continue doing movie work for as little time as possible. Our goal is to have goats, chickens, and a really big garden. We are also doing a complete renovation on the 100+ year old farmhouse that was built by Chris’ great grandfather. So excuse me if I digress into chicken raising or home renovation on this food blog.

Sadly, my weekly trips to the Crescent City Farmers Market, less than ½ mile from my house are over for now, but Bill Ryals, my favorite goat guy’s daughter comes to the farmers market in Jackson. I will be exploring the Farmers Markets in Jackson, growing or raising some of my own food, and making some day trips to New Orleans to stock up. My pumpkin seedlings are looking great and will go into the ground this week, they should be just in time to make a plethora of pumpkin dishes for Thanksgiving.

Softshell crab with meuniere sauce; corn with basil and feta; avocado, peach, basil and goat curd salad

I spotted the softshell lady as soon as I entered the market, and since I can't ever seem to make it early enough to get softshell before she sells out, I made a bee line for her stand, "all out," she says! I then spot the shrimp lady across the market, she has a beautiful box of blue crabs, claws flailing all about. So I steer the stroller in her direction only to be cut off by a man, that orders in front of me. I watch as she takes her tongs and starts filling his bag, then another bag until the only thing left are four dead crabs in the bottom of the box. "Any more?" I ask. I guess hoping, that there is some other elusive box of beautiful blue crabs stowed away somewhere in her truck. "All out!" she proclaims. I finish my shopping and as I'm about to leave the softshell lady waves me over, she still has softshell she was saving for someone who didn't pick them up, whomever you are, thanks for being a flake, I did your softshell justice! My husband says they were better than The Mayflower, and he's definitely not one for flattery!
The lungs on my softhell had been removed as I think most of them are when you buy them, if not, remove the lungs and then take a sharp paring knife and remove the head, cutting it out in a vee. I lightly dredged mine in seasoned flour (flour, Paul Prudhomme's Seafood Magic, salt and pepper). I added three tablespoons of clarified butter to a skillet on medium, and cooked the crabs three minutes on one side and two minutes on the other side. Remove crabs from the pan, add zest and juice of one lemon. I then add butter to the lemon, a tablespoon at a time, tasting as I go until the butter and lemon are balanced (it will make sense when you're tasting it). I then added 1 tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce, I know meuniere purist would disagree, but I wanted mine to taste like The Mayflower.

I had a hard time coming up with a side from whatever was in my refrigerator, which did not include lettuce. What I ended up with were two great summer sides that went suprisingly well with the softshell.



For corn and feta, boil corn, remove kernels with a sharp knife, being sure to milk the cobs, by running the dull side of the blade of your knife down the cob. Add butter (about 2 tablespoons)and garlic, to a pan, saute garlic for a few minutes, add corn and saute for a few more minutes. Remove corn and toss with fresh basil and feta.



For the avocado and peach salad, dice the peach and avocado, add to a bowl with goat cheddar curds, fresh basil, mint or cilantro (I wish I had used cilantro, and maybe mint, too), and salt and pepper. I tossed the salad very gently (stir as little as possible or you will end up with guacamole) with a dressing of 1/2 tablespoon of rice vinegar and 1/2 tablespoon of honey.

So easy to prepare and so quick, the only thing missing were some hot Mayflower Rolls to sop up the rest of the very tasty meuniere.

Note: The Mayflower is a historic seafood establishment in Jackson, MS that has an equally historic meuniere and comeback dressing. Look for a future blog on a dining experience at The Mayflower.



Sadie insisted that I cheese her plate (take a picture), and announced that this meal was her favrit!