Tangled Branches: Satiated

riveting tales of how we sustain ourselves

Friday, August 29, 2008

Pasta with Uncooked Tomato Sauce

Long ago, I used to make pasta tossed with diced fresh tomatoes, minced garlic, chopped fresh basil and diced fresh mozzarella, but eventually forgot all about it. But twice in the last week I read about a similar dish, so decided to revisit the concept. Basically you cut up good fresh ripe tomatoes, toss them with some seasonings and let them sit while you cook the pasta. Combine tomatoes and pasta. Eat.

I used 2 large tomatoes (Piriform and Persimmon) and several smaller ones (Striped Roman and Black Prince). I cut them into chunks by slicing 1/2 inch thick and then cutting along a solid wall (so the pieces don't fall apart readily). Striped Roman, and to some extent Piriform, are basically all solid, so they can be diced. Chopped finely 1 small yellow onion and a small part of a leftover red onion (I would have used more if I had them). Minced 2 ripe red Czechoslovakian Black hot peppers and 1 large clove of garlic (really large, I would have used 2 if they were smaller) and 1 large sprig of curly parsley. Basil would be an obvious choice for seasoning here, but we're getting just a bit tired of tomatoes and basil - seems impossible, I know. The bronze fennel is going to seed in the garden. I gathered one of the semi-ripe (just starting to turn brown) seed heads and snapped off the seeds from just one section of florets (about 1/8 to 1/4 of a teaspoon of seeds). Mixed everything into a large bowl and added salt and olive oil to taste. It needs a heavy hand with the salt - I could have used more.

Now cook whatever pasta you have on hand. I can never remember the names of pasta shapes, but I used some thin linguini type stuff. After cooking and draining the pasta, I tossed it with a little olive oil and salt and pepper, but on reflection I wished I had spooned in a bit of the juice from the tomato mixture instead. We just served ourselves, buffet-style. A portion of pasta with the tomato mixture ladled on top. On the side we had crusty bread spread thickly with goat cheese. Fast, fresh and delicious.

Labels: chiles, fennel, garlic, parsley, pasta, tomatoes

BLT of the Day

Yesterday's lunch BLT.

Bread: Whole Grain store-baked from Costco, sliced very diagonally to get large enough slices to fit the tomato
Bacon: Edwards'
Tomato: Mortgage Lifter
Mayonnaise: Trader Joe's Organic Mayonnaise mixed with minced Serrano peppers and garlic, and a splash of lime juice
Lettuce: None, substituted Thai basil leaves

The verdict: Tasty, but the chile/garlic/lime mayonnaise pushed the flavor too far away from the classic BLT. I do think that mayo mixture would make an admirable tuna salad though.

Labels: bacon, basil, chiles, garlic, tomatoes

Thursday, October 18, 2007

All My Chiles

Inspired by Ki's post about his chile pepper obsession, I decided to check my kitchen to see how many chile-containing items I had on hand. I think Ki wins. He definitely wins in the hot sauce category, as I only could find two. Most of our chiles are to be found in other condiments - salsa, pickles etc. And very few of these have seen the light of day since the garden started producing peppers and tomatoes this summer. But when the last of those have been consumed we'll be back to our favorite commercial products.

Here we have, left to right, Korean chile paste, Thai chile paste with basil, Sriracha sauce (spelled Sriraja here), Indian lime relish, and Indian tomato chutney. I use the Korean chile paste as the base for a chicken wing sauce, and I've never used it for anything else. The Thai chile paste used to be the seasoning for chile-and-basil stir fries, until I concocted my own recipe this summer. Sriracha gets added to a lot of things when I want a little extra zip, but we use it most often to create a spicy ketchup (half ketchup, half Sriracha), and also mix it with mayonnaise to make a sauce for crab cakes (better than tartar sauce). Indian pickles, relishes and chutneys are all used as zesty palate-refresher side dishes, served in small portions along with the rest of the meal.

Leaving Asia, and coming to North America, we have Scala's Hot Giardiniera, Arriba's Green and Red Salsas, a couple of chile vinegars, and Frank's Hot Sauce. Scala's Hot Giardiniera is a product that, as far as I know, is unique to Chicago. I know we've searched for a suitable replacement in Virginia and not found it. There are other giardinieras, but they are not the same thing. So we buy it in northern Illinois when we're there. It's mostly sport peppers, and a few other vegetables (celery, carrot, olives), preserved in oil. We normally serve it alongside sandwiches (Italian Beef, another Chicago thing) or maybe with just bread and cheese. Arriba's Salsas are just about the only jarred ones I buy. We've tried others, but always come back to Arriba. We only wish we could get the hot version of green one, but don't know of anyone selling it locally anymore. Chile vinegars get added to dishes in the same way I use Sriracha, when I need an extra little something. I top off the bottles with rice vinegar when they get low and these bottles last a long time. This year I'm planning to make my own with the Bellingrath Gardens Purple peppers. Frank's Hot Sauce is put on chicken wings and nowhere else. I make chicken wings in three styles - Korean, Thai, and Buffalo. Frank's is for the Buffalo version.

We'd hate to be without chiles in any place we occupy, even part-time, so the country fridge also yields up a few jars. You'll notice a lot of duplication here.

I thought, well surely this can't be all the chiles in the kitchen, so I broadened the search to the spice cupboard. I realize this looks like an ad for Penzey's but believe me, all the money in this relationship flows in one direction - me to them; I'm just a satisfied customer.

We munch on chile snacks too. We usually have these chile-flavored mango slices in the pantry. The newer packages in the stores look different - not as red - which leads me to believe that we're not going to like the new version. When I saw the new ones I grabbed all the old packages I could find on the shelves, so we're well stocked for the time being. I don't have any Mama Zuma Reds at the moment. Those are very hot, almost too hot - the spouse and I usually share a snack-size bag, and that's plenty. Sometimes we mix them with the plain salted ones.

My cheap plastic containers are nowhere near as photogenic as the flashy commercial packaging, but here are several things I made with our homegrown chiles. These are in the freezer now, destined to warm up our winter nights.

Does anybody else reading this have a chile collection? I'd love to see it.

Labels: chiles

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

Carnitas Tacos

At long last, we got to eat something from the garden other than herbs. It would still leave you hungry, because it was still just seasoning, but it was actual fruit - not leaves!

Carnitas Tacos with Pico de Gallo

I swear that I have a cookbook here somewhere which tells me that Pico de Gallo is a relish of chopped chiles and onions - sharp like a rooster's beak (pico de gallo). The thing called Pico de Gallo that's commonly served in restaurants these days is more like what I always called a Salsa Cruda (uncooked salsa) - diced tomatoes with chile and onion. Well, whatever it's called, I was trying to imitate the Carnitas Tacos at Picante from several years ago. (They've changed their menu since.)

First, I made the relish. I finely minced five assorted chile peppers (that's the garden part). These were only mildly hot, so I left the seeds in. Then I finely minced some yellow onion; the amount was roughly equal (or a little less) than the amount of the chopped chiles. I cut a few coriander leaves (cilantro) (there's the garden again) and minced those finely. Mixed everything in a small bowl, and added lime juice and salt to taste.

I cut up some pork chops into carnitas-sized pieces, approximately half-inch dice. Tossed the diced pork with some soy sauce, sliced garlic, and lots of black pepper, and set them aside for a while to soak up the seasoning flavors.

Then I put the pork on flat metal skewers (leaving the garlic behind in the bowl), and grilled it over charcoal until crispy.

We then assembled tacos from the meat, relish, some romaine lettuce, and flour tortillas.

Verdict: a winner, but the chiles could be hotter.

Labels: chiles, pork

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