Chile Verde, Spanish Rice, Corn Pudding

So it turns out that one of my favorite things to do on the weekend is make a bunch of food. Not only does this provide for many options during the rest of the week, utilizing leftovers and maximizing my budget, it also means if we have people over there's plenty to eat.

It also turns out that I love chili verde.

Or really, most Mexican food.

I tried making chili verde a few times before finding this recipe with simple ingredients and great results. I don't suggest using a slow-cooker for this-- I've had mixed results, mostly on the not-so-good-side. I prefer a stove-top simmer.

It's still a bit of a project if you're going to roast peppers and tomatillos and chop onions and jalepenos and such all on your own, but you could always cheat and buy the pre-chopped stuff if so inclined. Otherwise, expect this to take a chunk of your afternoon; make this on a day when you have time to spare. Trying to rush a slow-cooked dish is like trying to shove a square in a circle- it's unlikely to produce the desired result. Besides filling the house with an amazing aroma, it will give you the opportunity to prepare some other side dishes, get cleaned up and set the table.

If I'm going to make a pot of chili verde, I plan a whole week around Mexican food. I tend to make enough rice to last, and given the season and availability of fresh corn & zucchini, I like to make a pan of corn pudding. A couple of Saturdays ago the stars aligned and another Mexican Week was born.

chili verde

tools: knife, garlic press (or supermincingskillz), cutting board, gloves (for jalapenos), a couple of bowls to hold ingredients, a large stock pot, a large skillet, some spoons, a blender or food processor, some tongs and some tinfoil, two cookie sheets & measuring utensils.

ingredients:

1.5 lbs tomatillos a buncha garlic, like 6-8 cloves, unpeeled

2 jalepenos (3 if you're into spice), seeds & ribs removed, chopped

2 Anaheim chiles 1 bunch cilantro, washed

3.5 - 4 lbs pork shoulder, trimmed, 1-in cubes

Salt Ground pepper

Olive oil 2 sweet white onions, chopped

3-5 garlic cloves, peeled & minced, 2 tbsp fresh or 1 tbsp of dried oregano

2 cups chicken stock 1/2 cup light Mexican beer

pinch of cloves

this recipe originally came from simplyrecipes.com

Line 2 cookie sheets with foil. Remove the husks, wash and halve the tomatillos. Place them cut side down on the lined cookie sheets. Toss on the unpeeled garlic cloves. Broil for 5-7 minutes until they look nice and done and then pull 'em out. After rinsing, deposit the Anaheim chiles on the other cookie sheet and broil those, turning once, until the skin is nice and blackened. This takes about 4-6 minutes each side depending on your broiler. Pull it out and let every thing cool off until you can handle it with ease.

While those bad boys cool off, chop up your onions and rinse your cilantro. The original recipe calls for cleaning and stemming it but I figure, why bother? I just rinse mine and cut off the stemiest bottom portion. Put on the gloves (trust me, this part is IMPORTANT) and seed & de-rib your jalepenos. Chuck all of this into your food processor or blender.

By now the tomatillos and garlic should be touchable, so use your tongs and transfer them to the blender. Scrape the blackened skin and seeds from your Anaheims and add that, too. Blend.

If you didn't buy pre-cut pork, and you're trimming your own, now would be a good time. If you did buy chili verde pork (my local FoodMaxx & Lucky both carry pre-packaged, trimmed & cubed pork shoulder) then now would be the time for some liberal salting and peppering. Heat about two tablespoons of olive oil (not extra virgin, people-- you want the real deal here) in your large, heavy-bottomed skillet. When it starts to get that shimmer & slight wisps of smoke, add the pork. Don't crowd it!

Keep on browning in batches until you're finished and you've got a goldeny pile of pig on a plate. I like to transport with tongs, though the original recipe also mentions using a slotted spoon.

Ok, so now it's time for those onions to come into play, and the minced garlic. Drain the excess fat from the pork pan and put the onions to the heat. Add the garlic and cook on medium heat until limp and smelling fabulous. It takes about 5-8 minutes.

Relocate everything to your large stock pot in this order: meat, onion mixture, tomatillo sauce. Add the chicken broth, beer & a pinch of cloves. Adjust the heat and bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer. Leave uncovered and stir occasionally as it simmers for no less than 2 hours and no more than 3.5.

spanish rice

tools: 10 inch skillet, 3 qt pot, spoon, stirring utensils, knives, cutting boards, can opener, measuring utensils

ingredients:

2 tablespoons olive oil 2 cups long grain white rice

3 cups chicken broth 1 tbsp tomato paste

1 onion, finely chopped 2/3 cup chopped carrots

4 cloves garlic, finely chopped 1 can diced green chiles, mild

1/2 cup sweet white corn

oregano

salt

Chop your onions, garlic and carrots. Olive oil goes into the heavy skillet. Heat it up over medium. Add the rice and brown until it's all toasty-smelling and carmely colored. It works well to use a flat edged wooden spoon to stir and toss the rice. While that's happening you should have your chicken stock (or sub vegetable if so desired) in the pot. Whisk the tomato paste into the chicken stock to remove all the lumps. Bring to a boil. When the rice is good and ready and browned add the onion, garlic & carrot. Stir until softened. Add the sweet white corn. (You can totally use frozen, just make sure to thaw it first.) Stir until warmed. Add the can of diced chile. Stir it up.

Now comes the tricky and occasionally messy part: transfer your rice mixture to the boiling stock. I use a ladle for the beginning until it's more manageable. Let the liquid come back to a simmer, turn to the lowest heat possible and let it go until the liquid is gone, usually between 15-25 minutes. (I always check it after 15 and find it's usually 15-20.) Turn off heat and let stand at least 5 minutes or until ready to serve.

Corn Pudding

I know this isn't the most delectable sounding dish but let me assure you: the mouthfeel of this creamy, buttery, yummy delight will change your mind about puddings forever.

This recipe is from Dona Tomas's cookbook.

tools: 13 x 9 inch shallow pan, knive, two bowls, a bundt pan (trust me), cutting board, knives

ingredients:

Butter for pan
3 cups fresh corn kernels (3 to 4 ears)
1 1/2 cups zucchini cut into 1/4-inch dice (3 to 4 slender zucchini)
1/3 cup flour
3 eggs
3 egg yolks
3 cups heavy cream
2 teaspoons kosher salt

Heat the oven to 375 degrees with a rack positioned in the center.

Cut the corn from the cob. The best way to do it is with a bundt pan. See : this guy cutting corn.

Dice your zucchini.

Butter a 13 x 9-inch casserole.
Place the corn and zucchini in a bowl and toss with the flour to evenly cover. Spread into the casserole.

Wipe the bowl clean and combine the eggs and yolks and whisk briefly. Add the cream and salt and whisk until fully incorporated.

Pour over the vegetables.

Bake about 1 hour, until lightly browned on top; it should feel like a firm pillow. Allow to cool 10 to 15 minutes before serving.

And if you have two ovens and time on your hands, you can be a crazy person and make cookies in the midst of it all.

I use the chile verde the rest of the week: burritos, enchiladas and by itself-- all delicous. The rice keeps for about 10 days, refrigerated in a tight container and the corn pudding lasts for about 4 days. It's great for breakfast.

The cookies, of course, go a lot faster.

Loosemeat Sammiches- Not Just for TV

Remember Roseanne?

Yeah, I'm talking about the show with the lady who butchered the star-spangled banner, was married to Tom Arnold and had fake tv hubby John Goodman. I was never crazy town for Roseanne, but I was always drawn to the concept of loosemeat sammiches, as served in her diner The Lunchbox. (This was when the show started to go downhill-- remember the new Becky? Ugh. And that kid from Big Bang Theory was Darlene's skeezish boyfriend, David... ok, so maybe I watched Roseanne a lot.)

Every time I say loosemeat sammiches when someone (besides N) asks what's for dinner, I get crazy looks or funny responses. My friend Irene said they sound pornographic and Rick simply said WTF? My friend Sarah the Vegetarian got such a kick out of the idea that she went home and told her husband. The novelty of loosemeat sammiches, it seems, has no bounds.

But these are actual sammiches that have a place outside of an old sitcom-- they're actually quite common in the middle of the country and there's even a brand-name loosemeat sammich called the Maid Rite that originated in 1926 or so. (Google it.) My stepmother made them a couple times when I was growing up-- mostly because we were out of sloppy joe mix-- and when I started cooking on my own, I made my own variation.

I like to use ground turkey because it's leaner, but traditionally these sammiches are made with beef. Some recipes are very plain, and some are very sweet, and some don't sound very good at all. I keep mine pretty simple and basically made it up as I went along. Another friend likened it to a high-class white trash dinner, but I like to think any trash could make and eat this regardless of race or creed. ;-)

First, I dice some onion. If I'm feeling garlicky I'll mince some of that too, but usually I'll just add some garlic powder. Loosemeat sammiches are about lack of work, not chopping and dicing and mincing all night.

I sautee the onion in about a tablespoon of olive oil just until they start to color.

Then I add the ground turkey, salt, pepper, and some seasoning:

I like the slight edge the ground mustard gives-- and while some recipes call for vinegar and sugar, I don't advocate this method. I find that they sweeten and overpower the taste of the meat and add unneeded juicyness to the mix. Loosemeat sammiches are messy, but they shouldn't leave drippings running down to your elbows or be responsible for the use of several napkins.

Once the meat is browned, I don't drain it-- another advantage of using the ground turkey is that there isn't an excessive amount of fat to be drained. Woohoo! You can serve these on regular bread, hamburger buns or hot dog buns. Since we had some leftovers of both hamburger and hot dog buns (but no hot dogs or hamburgers) I used both.

The cell phone is not an ingredient.

I shred some jack cheese, spread mayo onto the bread receptacle and top the buns with meat. Then I mustard 'em up, liberally sprinkle the cheese and call 'em ready to eat.

I served these bad boys with roasted potato wedges and green beans.

Loosemeat Sammiches

1 lb. ground turkey 1 tbsp. olive oil

1/2 sweet white onion, diced 1/2 tsp. ground mustard

1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce 1/2 tsp. garlic powder

hamburger or hot dog buns mayo, mustard, shredded cheese

Salt and pepper to taste

Sunday, Bierock Sunday

My friend Thereasa does not cook.

Don't get me wrong-- there are baking forays and occasional meals, but for the most part her husband takes care of prepping dinner and the like. We'd been talking about making bierocks, one of the few things she makes on a semi-regular basis. Her grandmother used to make them, and though she doesn't have a set recipe, they always turn out delicious. She came over last Sunday and we whipped some up (although "whipped" might be a little inaccurate seeing as how it took most of the afternoon).

We started by dicing about half of a large red onion and making small medallions out of some baby carrots. In a large pot with a heavy bottom, we added the ground turkey and stirred it around a bunch with some salt and pepper until it began to color. Then Thereasa dumped in the onion and carrot.

Since there isn't a set recipe, Thereasa just kept adding the aromatics until the mix looked right to her. I'd say it was about a half of a small bag of baby carrots. I'm sure you could use full sized carrots, diced to about the same size as the rounds. I think for variation and shape if I do this by myself I will likely use baby carrots, but cut them into a slightly smaller triangle dice, so that all of the veggies are somewhat the same size. I might even shred the carrot. While that happened, I sauteed some potatoes-- I overcrowded the pan a bit, and I'd suggest *not* doing that.

Thereasa cut up some zuchinni and we added it into the mix. We used about a half of a package (each) of frozen corn and frozen peas. We seasoned the mix pretty liberally with salt and pepper, Worcestershire sauce, summer savory, sage, oregano, rosemary and whatever else was in the hamburger-seasoning mix Thereasa brought over. I'd say go easy on the pepper and salt-- remember, you can always add more but it's hard to take away! If I make these on my own, I think I'll add a little more Worcestershire, and use white onions instead of red. I'm a big fan of red onions in salads but I like white and yellow onions for cooking. Next time I'll add some more fresh garlic, too. If you wanted to be really lazy you could always buy a package of frozen vegetables that has carrots, peas and corn. We forgot cabbage, but that sounds like it would be a great addition. Also, I think I'd add celery.

Wikipedia tells me that bierocks are an Eastern European thing-- likely of German origin-- and my search on the internet confirms it to be true. Since they're a meat-filled pastry, we needed something to wrap around the mix.


Thereasa rolled out the dough on a floured surface. We used pre-made bread dough from the grocery but you could absolutely make your own. Since beirocks are already a lot of work, we decided it was ok to skip that part. Thereasa was a dough-pro-- I haven't had much practice and mine came out a bit wonky. She was gracious enough about it but honestly it was a little ridiculous. Just means I better make some fresh bread soon, right?

We spooned about two teaspoons of mix onto each square. Once the mix was apportioned, we gathered each end of the dough and pinched the seams closed. The beirocks formed little squares. We tried thin dough and thick dough and found it didn't make much of a difference. We popped the bierocks into pre-heated oven (I forget what the temp was-- we just followed the instructions on the package for the dough) and let them bake for about 22 minutes.

Once they were done we took a stick of butter and rubbed it over the top to give it a delicious sheen. We repeated this process until we ran out of the innards. We used two pounds of ground turkey, but that won't fill six loaves of dough. (I'm thinking if we make these again we will be writing things down for a more accurate recipe!)



Yumz.

The big question was what to do with the extra dough-- I didn't have any ground meat (or much of anything, really) laying around the kitchen. I opened the fridge and inspiration struck!

Beirock dessert!

I took a Gala apple, diced it and threw it into two tablespoons of melted butter. I cooked it on medium heat in a non-stick skillet with some cinnamon, nutmeg and a pinch of cloves. I added a dash of kosher salt and about a teaspoon of honey. The juice was pretty thin so I sifted the tiniest bit of cornstarch over the apples and mixed well. Thereasa rolled out the extra dough and cut it into squares. I have one of those raw sugar/cinnamon grinders from McCormicks so I dusted the interior of the dough with it. Then we spooned out the apple mixture and sealed the pockets. Since these were diffent from the meat bierocks, we made them a little rounder. We popped 'em into the oven. When they came out I dusted them again with cinnamon/sugar thing and also a bit of powdered sugar just to make it prettier.



There was a little exta dough-- we rolled it like snickerdoodle in the cinnamon/sugar after getting it all buttery. The apple balls turned out pretty well and Thereasa said, "This is a new addition when making bierocks!" I think if I did it again I'd knead some sugar into the dough before rolling it out and use more than one apple. The innards were a little thin but overall, not too bad for an improvisation!



But what the hell!? There was STILL dough left over! Hmmm... better make cheesey bread twists!

We cut the dough into strips, shredded some jack cheese and sandwiched it between two strips. We pinched them every inch-and-a-half or so just to make sure they would hold together and then twisted 'em together. While they were baking I melted butter with crushed gloves of garlic (I did it in the microwave, taking the easy way). When the twists came out of the oven I brushed on the butter and sprinkled a little bit of kosher salt across the twists.



Finally, we were out of dough. Phew! The cheese bread twists were super yummy and a great way to use up the extra dough if you don't want to make a loaf of bread.

The bierocks make a perfect lunch when eating two at a time, or just one for a snack. We sent most of them home with Thereasa and her hubby because I had the dinner menu planned already and didn't feel like revising. Next time I'll keep more-- this was a bit of an impromptu bierock sesh. I've eaten them room temp and also piping hot-- both tasty.

You could fill the dough with practically anything. N & I have been contemplating the possibilities and I'm thinking sausage, more aromatics... broccoli and cheese... Thereasa and I wondered about doing PB&J but I'm not sure how that would work out-- next time we'll have to make a tester just to see.

Since we sort of worked from the fly and not a recipe, here are some links I found for some bierock recipes:

All-recipe calls them german turnovers

The fresnohub offers up a few recipes (funny enough, Thereasa is from the Fresno area)

Jim and Tom over at plainsfolk.com give this traditional variation