Pasta Bolognese

I was watching Jamie Oliver one night and he was cooking this recipe. It looked absolutely fantastic so I decided to make it.

I copied the recipe exactly, no additions or omissions, and it turned out oh so good! You can see his recipe here.

I used some brisket which I got at Marin Sun Farms. I had never cooked with brisket before, but the salesman at Marin Sun Farms convinced me that it would be delicious in this dish. He was right!

This is a great pasta sauce, or use it as a basis for lasagna.




Ingredients
2 strips of bacon or pancetta
2 medium onions
2 cloves garlic
2 carrots
2 sticks of celery
olive oil
2 heaping teaspoons dried oregano
1/2 lbs beef brisket
2 cans of chopped tomatoes
Salt and Pepper
Fresh Basil
Parmesan Cheese
Spaghetti, Penne, tagliatelle or other pasta


Finely slice the bacon or pancetta in a large stock pot.

Peel and finely chop the onions, garlic, carrots and celery. I pulsed mine in a food processor, which was quick and dirty!

Heat some olive oil to a large stock pot and add the bacon or pancetta and oregano. Stirfry for a few minutes until the pancetta or bacon is cooked.

Add the vegetables to the pan and stir fry for 7 minutes, or until softened.

Stir in the brisket or meat and brown, breaking it up with you spoon as you cook it.





Add the canned tomatoes with their juices.

Fill one of the empty cans of tomatoes with water and add it to the pot.

Give it a good pinch of salt and pepper.

Add a swig of red wine.

Add chopped basil and continue to stir. Bring to a boil and reduce the heat to a simmer. Cover with the lid slightly askew, stirring every now and then.

Remove the lid and continue to cook for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. If the sauce looks like it is drying out, add a little water.







































Remove from heat after 30 minutes. Grate the Parmesan cheese and add half into the pot.

Serve immediately or let cool and freeze.

Just before serving, add remainder of the grated Parmesan cheese.

Herb Stuffed Tomatoes

This Provecal style starter is quick to prepare and delicious! Serve it with a little salad of seasonal leaves and a few pieces of broken robust goat's cheese. I got this recipe from Yotam Ottolenghi's Plenty. My fiancee had mentioned the book, so I got it one year for her for Christmas. I didn't know that it was all veg food! But it is actually really tasty and he has a wonderful balance of flavor and texture. Serves 4 as a starter course.

Ingredients
4 medium tomatoes (ripe but firm)
1 large onion, finely chopped (easy to do this in a food processor)
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped (easy to do this in a food processor)
12 wrinkly black olives, pitted and roughly chopped
2 tablespoons olive oil
30 grams panko or homemade breadcrumbs
2 tablespoons chopped oregano
3 tablespoons chopped parsley
1 tablespoon chopped mint
1 1/2 tablespoons chopped capers
salt and pepper to taste


Preheat oven to 320 F/160 C.

Trim the top part of tomato and discard (or chop it up and make into a small salsa). Take a small spoon carve out the flesh and most of the seeds, leaving a clean shell. You can discard the scoped out flesh or add a little shrimp or chicken stock to the scooped out flesh and seeds to make a nice little broth as a side dish.

Lightly salt the inside of the tomatoes and place upside down in a colander, to drain some of the liquid out.

Meanwhile, heat a tablespoon of olive oil in a medium pan. Add the onion, garlic and olives and stir fry for 5-6 minutes on low heat, until the onion softens and loses its raw aroma/taste.

Remove the onion/garlic/olive mixture from heat and place in a bowl. Add breadcrumbs, herbs, capers and some pepper and give it a good stir. Taste and add salt if you wish.








Fill the insides of the tomatoes with the herb stuffing, pressing down very gently as you go. You want to have  a nice little dome of stuffing on top.

Place on a greased pan. Drizzle with olive oil and bake for 35-45 minutes, or until the tomatoes soften.

Serve hot or warm!

Thanksgiving Turkey

Thanksgiving has come and gone...Too bad, its my favorite holiday. Food, Family and Friends, what is not to love?

Last year, I brined the turkey for the first time, and I must say, I was very impressed with it! So, I decided to continue the tradition this year. Brineing sounds complicated, but essentially, you just boil water, add some salt and other spices of your choosing, and then you soak the bird overnight.

The brine solution seeps deep into the muscles of the bird, allowing the flavor to fully penetrate all the way to the bone. The salt also massages the meat and makes it soft and succulent.

I still put a rub on the outer skin of the turkey, to make sure the skin was very crispy and delicious.

When we were younger, my mom would stuff the cavity of the bird with stuffing. But I find that the stuffing absorbs a lot of the liquid, and tends to dry the bird out, which is what I want to avoid. Instead, I stuff the cavity with cut of vegetables-Fennel, onion, carrots, celery, some fresh herbs like parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme (like the Simon and Garfunkel song, "Scarborough Fair"). I also got a trick from Jamie Oliver. He takes a lemon, boils it whole in water for a few minutes, pokes it a few times with a knife and them stuffs it "straight up the jacksie" of the turkey. I found this was really crucial-as the turkey cooked, the heat forced all the lemon juice out. As it released, the steam helped cook the bird from the inside and released a delicious flavor to the inside of the bird.

I also braised the turkey with a little garlic butter and homemade chicken stock. I basted the bird about once every hour,

The brine and the rub mixture I got from Michael Chiarello, who I think is a genius! You can find his recipe here.

You need to let the brine come down to room temperature before you pour it on the turkey. You can chuck a bag of ice in it, or make it in advance and let it cool to room temperature naturally. I let it cool naturally.

Timing is key on this. You want to brine the turkey for about 12 hours, no more or less. If you brine less than 12 hours, the flavor won't work itself into the meat. If you brine for more than 12 hours, the meat will get too salty and dry and won't taste good.

Have a nice big ice chest to put the turkey into. The turkey also needs to brine in a cool place, so I will put it into the garage, or leave it out on the porch overnight.

Make sure to remove it from the brine 1 hour before you begin to roast it. This way, the meat will come up to temperature and you will have a more even cooking process.

For the brine:
6 quarts water
2 cups kosher salt 
½ cup light brown sugar
2 tablespoons whole black peppercorns 
8 bay leaves 
4 tbsp juniper berries (optional)
1 quart ice

2 pieces dried mikan (tangerine) peel (optional)

For the turkey:
½ cup extra-virgin olive oil, divided 
½ cup spice rub (recipe below)
8 sprigs fresh rosemary 
1 lemons, whole
4 large carrots, halved lengthwise

2 carrots, chopped rough
8 celery stalks, chopped rough

1 fennel plant, bulb and stalks, chopped rough

2 onions, quartered

For the Fennel Spice Rub:

1 cup fennel seeds

3 tablespoons coriander seeds

2 tablespoons white peppercorns

3 tablespoons kosher salt

For the Garlic Butter
A few cloves of garlic
1/2 stick of butter

For the Braising Stock
Homemade chicken stock

For Sage Gravy
Freshly cut Sage
Cornstarch


For the brine
The day before Thanksgiving:
Combine all brine ingredients (except for ice) in a stockpot, and bring to a boil. Stir to dissolve solids, then remove from heat. Cool till room temperature.  Refrigerate until thoroughly chilled. Alternatively, if you want to make the temperature come down quickly, chuck a bag of ice in it. 

Remove giblets from turkey. You can either save them for making stock or discard. Wash the whole bird with fresh water, inside and out. Pat dry with a few paper towels. Place the bird in a large cooler. 

Next, add the cooled brine to the cooler, as to the right. 

Place the cooler outside in your garage overnight for 12 hours. I usually put the turkey in the brine around 10pm on Wednesday. 

Thanksgiving Morning:

Remove the turkey from the brine after 12 hours (10am for me). Place in a sink and let the turkey come to room temperature for 2 hours (12pm). Discard the brine and make sure to clean out the cooler!

In the meantime, chop your vegetables prepare your and spice rub.

For the vegetables: 
Cut and prep the vegetables.

Boil a small pan of water and place the lemon inside of it. Boil the lemon for several minutes. Take a knife and make several incisions in the lemon (the knife should easily penetrate the lemon). Stick the lemon in the jacksie (backend) of the turkey.

Take the carrots that have been cut in half and arrange on the tray you are going to cook the bird in. This will serve as the rack for the turkey. I prefer a deeper tray, and there will be much liquid you add.

For the Spice Rub:

Take a heavy cast iron skillet and heat. Over medium heat, add the fennel seeds, coriander seeds and white peppercorns. Toast them for a few minutes, until their flavor and aroma is released. Toss frequently, so that the seeds don't burn. Remove from heat and let cool.

Once cool, grind in a spice grinder. If you grind them when they are still warm, they will stick to the blades.

Prep the Turkey
At 11:30, preheat the oven.

Place the turkey on the rack. With one hand, pull the skin of the turkey back around the breast. With your other hand, take a chopstick and separate the skin from the breast. The skin will now look flappy. Take some of the fennel spice rub, stick you hand between the skin and the breast and rub it into both breasts of the turkey with the rub.

Next, take some good quality olive oil and generously pour it all over the turkey. With your hands, massage the oil into all the folds of the turkey, making sure to get the wings, the drumsticks and the bottom of the turkey.

Take the remainder of the fennel rub and rub it all over the turkey.
















Once the over comes up to temperature, place the bird in the oven (around 12:00).
Continue cooking the turkey, basting every hour with the garlic butter and braising stock (see below), until done. (around 5-6 hours for my bird). If you find the top of the bird is getting overcooked, place some aluminum foil on it.

In the meantime, prepare Garlic Butter and Braising stock

For the Garlic Butter

Slice several gloves of garlic with a razor blade, so they are paper thin.

Take a small saucepan and add half a stick of butter. Melt the butter and add the garlic. Simmer for a few minutes on low heat to let the flavor develop. Remove from heat.




For the Braising Stock
Take a cup of homemade chicken stock and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low and cook for a few minutes to help the flavor release. Remove from heat.


When the bird comes out, there will be a great deal of liquid in the pan (partially from the chicken stock, but also the bird will sweat out a lot of water). Mine came out like this:

Scoop out most of the liquid from the pan and place in a small saucepan. You can use this as the base for your gravy.

For the Sage Gravy

Heat the saucepan with the turkey and chicken stock in it (see above). Whisk in cornstarch, a little bit at a time, until the stock thickens to a gravy. Once the gravy has the thickness you desire, continue whisking (but not adding more cornstarch), until all the cornstarch is dissolved and it looses its raw taste. You really don't need to add any salt, because alot of the salt sweated out of the brine mixture and the fennel rub.  Add freshly cut sage (or even rosemary) to give it some flavor. Strain the gravy into a gravy boat.

Apple Pie

I had been craving Apple Pie for a while. I don't have cable, so I only get to watch tv once a year, when I go home to visit my family for Thanksgiving. While there, I watched the Food Network, and they had a special on Thanksgiving food (surprise surprise). Alton Brown had an episode about an apple pie, and it looked absolutely delicious! You can find his recipe here. The only thing was that the recipe called for one special cooking instrument (a pie bird) and two special ingredients, which I could not seem to find anywhere: Grains of Paradise (not to be confused with the plant, Bird of Paradise) and Apple Jack.

Pie Birds, I have learned, are fantastic ingenious devices. All that extra liquid can really destroy the inside of your pie. The pie bird is a small, hallow ceramic device. It prevents the liquid pie filling from boiling up and  leaking through the crust by allowing steam to escape from inside the pie.  Place it down on your bottom pie crust. You can then place your apples or fruit in circles going outward from the pie bird in the center. If you have a cover on your pie, like in this recipe, just place the second crust on top. The pie bird will poke its way through the dough and you can remove any extra dough that is clogging the pie bird.

I looked high and low for Grains of Paradise. I thought that living in the Bay Area, surely there would be a store that had the spice. Alas, no dice. I went to Seattle with my fiancee to visit some friends, and I happened upon an excellent spice shop, Market Spice, and they had Grains of Paradise. Market Spice is a fantastic store! If you are ever in Seattle, I highly recommend checking it out! It is really cool! You can also order online, and they will ship you the spices!

Apple Jack is similar to Apple Brandy, but much more closer to Apple Whiskey. Its very potent stuff! I was able to secure some at a local store in Berkeley called Ledgers Liquors

This is the first Alton Brown recipe I made, but I must say I am tempted to try more of his stuff....Especially his Fried Chicken.

I made a few alterations to the recipe, but those were by mistake. For example, I forgot to crush the grains of paradise and left them whole instead. I also forgot to add the Apple Jack when I was mixing the dough, so I added it to the glaze instead. I also used my own recipe (a la Alice Waters) for the pie dough (I used butter instead of vegetable shortening, and I didn't put any sugar in the dough). Needless to say, it was still delicious!

Cardamon Sugar

This is a delicious spice to have on hand to spruce up pastries, pies and the like.

When I was growing up, my mom would make me cinnamon toast for breakfast....sliced bread with butter and cinnamon sugar. Its nice to replace the cinnamon with cardamon sugar.

I also like to sprinkle some on top of a piece of pie before I dig in.

There really isn't a recipe for this...just mix white sugar with cardamon powder. You can as as little or as much as your want, depending on how you want to flavor the sugar.

Persimmon and Fennel Salad

Persimmon are in season and are delicious.

Growing up in Cleveland, I never had persimmon.

The first time I had persimmon was when I was living in Nagano, Japan.

Come fall, Nagano is full of persimmon. Its delicious and delectable. I remember I saw a strange fruit in the fruit stand, that looked like a tangerine, but much harder. I asked the store keeper what it was and he said "Kaki", which didn't mean to much to me. I had him right the kanji down, and then bought a handful of the fruits.

They are delicious--just skin and eat as is.

I made some into a chutney, which was quite tasty. In Nagano, a delicacy was Hoshikaki, or persimmon which has been dried out....It's one of my favorite fall treats and always brings back good memories of food and friends.

This is a simple salad of Persimmon and Fennel.

Persimmon thinly sliced
Slice a few pieces of fresh fennel
Fresh pomegranate seeds
1 or 2 sprigs of fresh mint, chopped fine
Fresh goat cheese
Good olive oil
Fresh black pepper

Mix the persimmon, fennel, pomegranate seeds together with your fingers. Sprinkle with black pepper, mint and goat cheese. Drizzle with fresh olive oil.

Fennel Rub

Coriander Seeds 1 tablespoon

Fennel Seed   1 tablespoon

Anise Seed    ¾ tablespoon

Roasted Sichuan peppercorns   1 tablespoon

Salt   ½ teaspoon             

Roast the coriander, fennel and anise seed in a heavy iron skillet or a wok for a few minutes. 

Cool. 

Grind in a spice grinder and add salt. 

Cardamon Cream

I found this recipe in Ming Tsai's Simply Ming.

Ingredients
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon powdered cardamon


Using a mixer, whip the cream until lightly thickened. Add sugar and cardamon and continue whipping until stiff peaks form.

Refrigerate until ready to use.

Tart & Pie Dough

This recipe is for 2 10 oz balls of dough. It can easily halved or doubled as needed.
It really helps to have a pasty mat, as it makes cleanup much easier. I had a trusty pastry mat which I purchased in Hawaii of all places at a store called Executive Chef!  Its made by a company called Demarle, and the product is called RoulPat. Its fantastic because you can roll your dough out, and transfer it to your pie pan and then any extra flour you have on the pad you can just put back into the till. Its great and cleanup is a snap!







Ingredients
1/2 cup ice cold water
2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt (omit of using salted butter)
12 tablespoons cold butter (1.5 sticks) cut into small 1/4 inch cubes

Work the butter into the flour with your fingers. Your fingers warmth will help warm the butter just enough to help it mix. Leave some of the butter in large, irregular pieces. This should take only 1 or 2 minutes.

Pour in some of the water. Take a fork and press the butter into the flour and water. The dough should form clumps. As the dough forms clumps, mesh them together with your hands. Try not to overwork the dough.











Divide the dough in two. Form into 2 balls, and wrap each in saran wrap.















Compress and flatten each ball into a disk. Let rest in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour.









After 1 hour, remove the dough disk from the refrigerator and let sit for 20 minutes, until the dough begins to soften.

Start to roll the dough with a rolling pin. Keep guilding the rolling pin from the center, as opposed to rolling it back and forth. Give the dough a quarter turn every now and then.

Place the rolled out dough in a greased pie pan or tart pan. Be careful not to tear the dough.

Pumpkin Pie

Thanksgiving is upon us! Its the most magical time of the year....

I made this pumpkin pie a few years back, and it is simple and delicious. I got the main recipe idea from a recipe sticker on the pumpkin!

Ingredients
1 10 oz ball of tart and pie dough
1 sugar pie pumpkin
Couple dabs of butter
1 1/3 cup smooth pumpkin puree
1 1/3 cup sweet condensed milk
1 egg
1 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
Cardamon Creme


Preheat oven to 350.

Cover a baking sheet with aluminum foil. Smear some vegetable oil or butter on the foil so the pumpkin will not stick.

Cut the pumpkin in half and remove the seeds. Scoop out the guts and seeds. You can either discard the seeds and guts or save them for later to make pumpkin gut bread and spiced pumpkin seeds.

Sprinkle a pinch of cinnamon and nutmeg and sprinkle over the pumpkin fresh. Take a dolop of butter and put on the flesh and cavity of each of the pumpkin. Place the pumpkin halves, flat side down, on the aluminum foil.

Bake the pumpkin for 1 hour to 1.5 hours on 350.

Remove and cool until you can handle the pumpkin with your hands. Scoop out the flesh with a spoon and puree in a food processor until smooth. If the flesh is too watery, drain. Measure out 1 1/3 cup of the pumpkin puree. You can take any remainder and store in a plastic container in the freezer.

Add the condensed milk, egg, and other spices to the food processor and blend until incorporated.

Pour the pumpkin mixture into a prebaked 9 inch pie shell.

Preheat the oven to 375.

Bake at 375 at 55 to 65 minutes.

If you find that that crust is starting to burn, place some aluminum foil around the crust.

Cool before serving!


Serve with Cardamon Creme

Grilled Cheese Sandwiches

When I was growing up our next door neighbor would make grilled cheese sandwiches for us. Gooy Grilled Cheese, she would call them. It was 2 slices of Wonderbread with several slabs of industrial cheese in between.
They were OK, but really never revisited grilled cheese sandwiches until about a year ago.

The key is good bread, good cheese and good butter.

I made these with Olive Bread from La Farine, a local bakery, but any sort of good bread would work I think.

Ingredients
2 slices of bread, cut thin, preferably Olive Bread
3 or 4 slices of good cheese (I prefer goat cheese, like Gruyere)
Lavender Butter
2 sage leaves (optional)
Dried Oregano (optional)
Dried Basil (optional)

Make sure the bread is cut thin. I find if the bread is too thick, it takes the cheese too long to melt.

Heat a cast iron skillet on medium heat.

Spread some of the lavender butter on the outer side of each slice of bread. Place one of the slices, butter side down, onto the cast iron skillet.

Add your sliced cheeses directly onto the slice of bread on the skillet.

If you want to make this a turkey or ham melt sandwich I recommend taking 2 or 3 slices of turkey or ham, and cooking them before hand with a little cheese on top.

Place the second piece of bread on top of the meat and cheese, butter side up.

Cover and cook for a few minutes, until the bread is crispy and a golden brown. Flip and cook the other side.

Cut and serve immediately!

Lavender Butter

This is a delicious butter that I use to make grilled cheese sandwiches. I also use it to spruce up pretty much anything...its delicious! 

Ingredients

1/2 stick butter

Lavender Salt

Cut the butter into small cubes, as to make it easier to smash and whip the butter. Its easier to do this with butter that has been out of the fridge for 30 minutes or so. 

With a fork or spoon, smash and mix the butter until it is soft. 

Add the lavender salt in small batches. Add the salt, mix and taste. Continue adding salt until you reach the flavor profile you are looking for. I find I do not want the butter too salty, and the lavender salt goes a long way. 

You can add as much or as little lavender salt as you want. I also add orange honey to this on occasion to give it a more sweet n savory flavor profile. 

Rosemary Oil

I got this recipe from David Tannis's A Platter of Figs.

He mentions that you need to use the oil right away, but I found that if you follow this method, you can preserve the flavor of the oil for quite some time.

1 bottle good cold pressed olive oil
a few sprigs of rosemary

Pour the oil into a cast iron skillet. Heat the oil on low heat just until the oil starts to heat up. Add the rosemary sprigs. You are infusing, not frying the rosemary sprigs, so they should retain their color somewhat, and not be completely brown or charred.

After a few minutes on low heat, shut the heat off and let the oil cool to room temperature. I think this also helps impart flavor onto the oil.

Remove and discard the rosemary and pour the oil into a glass jar or empty wine bottle. Seal with a cork.

I wanted to keep the rosemary in the bottle to see if that will help improve the flavor, but I did not want the rosemary sprig to be caught in the bottle. So, i tied some cooking string to the end of the sprig and shoved the rosemary into the bottle, with the string hanging out over the lip of the bottle for easy removal. I think it definitely helps improve the flavor!

Bulk Goods

I am a big fan of bulk goods. Or, rather, I am a big fan of not wasting things, like packaging and containers. Bulk foods is the perfect intersection of two radically divergent political groups: tree hugging liberals with their desire to save the environmnet, and hard nosed cheap people, like myself. I buy bulk because it is cheaper and there is less waste involved than with convential packaging....reuse, reduce, recycle. I guess I am a bigger can of reuse and reduce!

I have been able to find the following essential cooking items in bulk, locally here in the Bay Area:

Whole Foods
Balsamic Vinegar
Dried Fruit

Honey

Olive Oil
Soy Sauce

Wild Rice

Farrow

Popcorn 

Red Lentils

Channa Dahl

Berkeley Bowl
Agave Syrup

Barley
Body soap

Couscous

Conditioner
Deli Meat & Cheese
Dried Fruit

Flour

Granola

Honey

Sea Salt

Shampoo

Lasagna Pasta
Lentils, Yellow
Lentils, Red
Linguine Pasta

Peanut Butter
Penne Pasta
Popcorn

Oatmeal (steel cut and regular)

Spices

Sun Dried Tomatoes

Market Hall
Farrow

Sea Salt

Olive Oil

Red Wine Vinegar

Oasis Market
Spices

Lavender Salt

I found this salt at Whole Foods, listed under "Mediterranean Spice Blend". Its absolutely delicious and wonderful on roasted birds. It also works great to mix with butter for some lavender butter, or mix with the butter and add a little bit of orange honey for a slightly sweeter flavor. I use it to flavor popcorn (usually with olive oil or a little rosemary oil). I also use it on the Thanksgiving turkey and love it!

Ingredients
Sea salt
Rosemary, chopped
Lavender flowers
Garlic, chopped very fine and fried until golden brown
Freshly ground black pepper
Canola oil
Rosemary oil
Basil Oil


Fry the garlic in a combination of  canola, Rosemary and Basil oil, until golden brown.

Add the chopped rosemary and fry for a few seconds.

Remove from heat and allow to cool.
Remove the garlic and chopped rosemary and lay on a paper towel to let any excess oil drain.

When completely dried, add the garlic and the rosemary to the other ingredients and mix well.

The salt stays intact for a few months.

Feeling Mexican Part Doux: Chicken Tomales with salsa verde

This was my first time making tomales, and I must say, I impressed myself. Well, my fiancee also helped, so, really, we impressed ourselves. This is a big chore and takes quite a while. I highly recommend that you make the salsa verde a day ahead and let it sit in the fridge. It will develop more flavor and lighten your work load the day you are making the tomales. I also recommend you invite over a friend or two to help you make the tamales, as the more people the merrier! (It also really lessens your load)

Ordinarily, I roast a chicken for dinner. While the chicken is roasting, I will make the salsa verde and soak the corn husks. This way, the next morning, I can use the meat from the chicken, and will be ready to make the tomales-chicken, salsa verde and soaked corn husks-all ready to go. You can also use one of those store bought, precooked chickens. I found one at a Mexican grocery store in Fruitvale that was seasoned with salt and limes. It was delicious and make excellent filling for the tomales!


Ingredients
Corn Husk shells
1 8 oz package dried corn husks

Filling
1 recipe for salsa verde
4 cups coarsely shredded packed chicken
2/3 cup chopped fresh cilantro

Dough
1 1/3 cup lard
1 1/2 teaspoon salt (omit if masa mixture contains salt)
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder (omit if masa mixture contains baking powder)
4 cups freshly ground masa dough for tomales (if you can't get hold of masa dough, you can make your own. Add 3 1/2 cups of masa harina with 2 1/4 cups of warm water.
2 cups rich dark chicken stock

For the corn husk shells:
Place the dried corn husks in a semi-deep baking pan. Add water to the pan, so the husks are submerged.  Place a metal baking sheet over the husks and a heavy weight on top of the metal baking sheet (I used a wine bottle). Let it stand, turning occasionally, for 3 hours minimum or overnight (see note above).















For the Filling
With a good carving knife, slice all the flesh from the roasted chicken. With your hands, begin to shred the chicken by peeling the flesh off in strings.

Combine the shredded chicken, cilantro and salsa verde and mix well. You can also make this filling a day in advance--the flavor will only deepen in the fridge!





For the Dough
Using an electric mixer, beat the lard (with the salt and baking powder, if using) in a large bowl until fluffy. I got one of those Kichen Aid Electric Mixer's from William Sonoma for Christmas last year and used that. It worked brilliantly. Beat in the masa dough in small additions, making sure that the flour, dough and lard mix well. Reduce the speed to low and gradually beat in 1.5 cups chicken stock. The dough should be soft and somewhat silky. If the dough seems firm, beat in more chicken stock, 2 tablespoons at a time, until it is soft.









Assembly
You will need to make ties to tie the tomales together, so the filling won't come out. After the corn husks have soaked for the appropriate amount of time, tear 3 large husks into 1/4 inch wide strips.








Open 2 large husks on a work surface. Spread 1/4 cup of the dough onto the center of one of the husks, leaving a 2-3 inch plain border at the narrow end of the husk. Take a heaping tablespoon of the filling and spread it in a strip down the center of the dough. Fold the long sides of the husk and dough over the filling to cover. Fold up the narrow end of the husk. Tie the folded portion with the tie to secure, leaving the wide end  of  the tomale open.

Cooking
Take a large stock pot and place a metal steamer in the bottom. Add water until the water level is just barely touching the metal steamer. Take a few of the corn husks and place them on the steamer.

Stand the tomales in the steamer, so the wide open end is facing up towards you. Now, when you first start placing tomales in there, the weight will be uneven and the steamer will want to fall off. I usually try to balance that out by placing one tomales on the outermost edge of the steamer at 12 o'clock, and another one at 6 o'clock. Place on at 9 o'clock and another at 3 o'clock, etc.

Once you have 4 tomales or so in the pot, add water until the water line is barely touching the tomales. (Adding water at this point lets you see if the water line is touching the tomales or not. If you put in more tomales before adding the water, you wont be able to see if the water level is right, and it will be difficult to pout the water into the pot).

Continue placing the tomales on the outer edge of the steamer in a similar manner. Once the entire outer circumference of the pot has been filling, start place the tomales in the next inner circle. If the tomales need to lean on the original circle that is fine. Continue placing the tomales in a similar fashion until you have reached the center of the pot. I usually do not place a tomale in the exact center of the pot, but leave it empty. This way, if I need to add more water for steaming I can easily aim and shoot the water in the pot, without disturbing the tomales. If you have more tomales, but have no more room to place a tomale upright, then you are done--steam this batch and then steam a second batch later. Don't place the tomales sideways, because all of the filling will seep out.

Once you have placed as many tomales as you can in the pot, bring the pot to a boil with the cover off. Cover the pot and let the tomales steam until the dough is firm and separates easily from the husk, about 45 minutes. It helps to have one of those see through covers, as you can check the water level. If the water level is getting too low, add more water.

After 45 minutes, turn off the heat and let the tomales rest for about 10 minutes. This accomplishes two things: 1) it will allow the tomales to continue to cook even when the heat is off and 2) The tomales will cool off enough so you can pick them up by hand.

Take out one of the tomales, tear off the skins and dig in. The dough should be thoroughly cooked and soft. If it is not, continue to cook the remainder of the tomales for another 5 to 10 minutes.

The brilliant part of this recipe is that since you are using cooked chicken to start with, you don't have to worry about raw chicken, salmonella or if the chicken cooked thoroughly.

You can serve these tomales with more salsa verde. I made them with a fresh salsa of black beans, tomatoes, onion and coriander. They were absolutely fantastic!

Unless you are having a bunch of dinner guests over, chances are you will not be able to eat all of the tomales in a single sitting. Chuck the rest in a ziplock bag and place in the freezer. They retain their flavor and integrity just fine! To reheat, I will put them in a Chinese bamboo steamer and steam for 10-15 minutes. They taste absolutely delicious!

Feeling Mexican Part Uno: Salsa Verde

I had a craving for tomales and Mexican. I had never made tomales before so I thought I would challenge myself. Fortune had it that I had found a store with masa and dried corn husks, so I thought I would try my hand at tomales.

I found a very good recipe online at Epicurious, which I used. The recipe is really two parts: the chicken tomales and the salsa verde. I really bit off more than I could chew on this one. It is a big job making tomales. After my fiancee and I finished, I recall my friend Joseph mentioned that it was really a big family affair, making tomales. Usually reserved for Thanksgiving and New Years, when there are lots of extra hands around to help out! Its very labor intensive, but well worth the effort.


I will write about the salsa verde in this post, and post the tomales in a future post.

To make both the tomales and the salsa verde, you need to find a good Mexican store that will carry dried corn husks and tomatillos, the small green tomatoes that are used for the salsa. I was shopping around Berkeley, and found a lovely family owned Mexican store called Mi Tierra (My Land) that carried them. You really need the tomatillos, they really make this dish! 


Ingredients
1 lbs tomatillos, husked and rinsed
4  3in long serrano chiles, stemmed and chopped
4 garlic cloves, chopped
1.5 tablespoon olive oil
2 cups of rich dark chicken stock
2/3 cup chopped fresh cilantro


Preheat the ol' broiler on your oven. Line a heavy baking sheet or pan with aluminum foil. Arrange the tomaillos on the sheet and place them under the broiler. Let them broil away for about 5 minutes. You should get some charred skin on the top. Flip and broil for another 5 minutes. Remove from the oven and transfer to your trusty food processor. Make sure to get all the pieces and all those lovely juices. Add the chilies and the garlic to the processor and blend until it is really smooth. You will see some of the black flakes appear which is fine.

Heat oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Add the puree and boil for 5 minutes to let the flavors develop. Stir often so the bottom won't burn. Add your chicken broth. Reduce the heat to medium or medium low, and simmer for about 40 minutes, or until the sauce coats the spoon thickly. Once the sauce has reduced to  about 1 cup, season with salt. Mix in the cilantro.

You can use this for dips. I usually use it when I am making a cheese quesadilla to give it a little bit more zest. I also use this as the base for making tomales.