Chili on a Snow Day; revisiting recipes

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Something about the quiet hush of snowfall transforms the external world into an ethereal alternative universe, and makes you want to curl up on the couch with a good book. Or in my case, make a big pot of chili.

Lately, I've been revisiting old favorite recipes and I thought I would post a medley of thoughts and photographs. Below are some notes on a braised-pork chili, swiss chard and leek gratin, and mac and cheese.



Braised Pork Chili
I've been playing around with different chili recipes, but have returned to one I posted back in October (link) as my favorite. I have decided that I prefer pork to beef in chili, and meat that has been braised before the chili is made. The texture of the meat is just so much better! This time around, I had braised a 5lb pork shoulder earlier in the week for a different meal, but saved the majority of the meat for the chili.


The black and white Vaquero beans are like little cows, in bean form that is!

I followed the old recipe fairly closely, but this time did not save any of the braising liquid and just used more of the bean cooking liquid. I used 1/2 lb of Vaquero beans and 1/2 lb of Pebbles beans for this chili (both from Rancho Gordo), and loved the darker coloration that came with this choice. I also threw in a dried chipotle chile to add a touch of smokiness, although probably could have used more than one to make the flavor influence more clear, and instead of fresh jalapenos, I crumbled up two small red hot chile peppers I dried in the summer.


Swiss Chard Gratin
Another favorite recipe from last year was Alice Waters' Swiss Chard Gratin (link). This time I made it with leeks instead of onions, used more of the chard stems than Waters calls for, and bumped up the quantity of breadcrumbs. I like cooking this in a cast iron frying pan, so there is only one dish to wash.

Lisl and I ate this as a vegetarian meal unto itself earlier in the week, with a small glass of red wine to cut through the richness of the gratin. Delicious! I was so captivated by the color of the chard stems that I decided to get ambitious and take a photo of the stems chopped up for the gratin, and submit it to Click, the photo contest put on be Bee and Jai at Jugalbandi, which has "red" as its theme this month.



Mac and Cheese
I have been meaning to explore other macaroni and cheese recipes, but when the craving hit one day last week, I went back to the tried and true recipe I adore (link), and which I believe I originally adapted from a Gourmet magazine. This time I bumped up the amount of cheese and breadcrumbs I had on the top. Isn't the browning on top marvelous? I had to use farfalle since the pantry was pretty bare, but I prefer to make it with penne. So good!



Now I think I'm off to make Recipe Girl's roasted mushroom soup and enjoy the snow cascading down outside. Here are a few miscellaneous pictures from the week that I also liked:


Chili, Monterey Jack cheese, and rice


Swiss Chard


Onions are fun to chop with the new Santoku knife Lisl was kind enough to get me for Christmas.

Images of Fall

Indian corn and emptying fields


Golden canopies and a still-warm sun


The mountain palette, procrastinating the grey


The last bounties, a final discovery


Merry days, and continual thanksgiving


Revel in the reminder of seasons


I'll look forward to long days once again

Ah, it was nice to be a locavore while it lasted... just a few more weeks, and then 'till next year!

Green Bean and Shallot Salad; Porcupine dances; Weekend in Pictures part 2

Hello from Los Angeles. Let's just say that my culinary experiences out here have been, ah, lacking, so I will skip the gripes and get right back to images and thoughts from last weekend.



Another small dish we served this weekend was a super-simple green bean salad with a shallot-vinegrette. I should title this "porcupine salad" in honor of our dog Ellie, who you saw last post, discovering said creature for the first and hopefully last time. I saw it at the end of our driveway a split second after Ellie did, but it was a split-second too late (insert slow motion "NNNNNnnnnooooooooo!!!")

The ensuing debacle included a bizarre 3-way dance with Ellie (mouth and nose at this point already covered in spines) circling the porcupine while shaking her head in pain, me in pursuit of the dog yelling and trying not to get spiked myself, and the porcupine making slow but steady progress towards the woods while spinning around and around waving its pointy business end at both of us.

Believe it or not, this was actually repeated twice, as our dog (normally so well behaved) squirmed free of my grasp as Lisl tried to remove a few spines, and went *back* after the porcupine. Four hours and a big emergency vet bill later, Ellie was fine, if a bit woozy from the anesthetic.

It really was a glorious weekend if we just pretend The Porcupine Affair was a Ludlum book rather than our afternoon.


Green Bean, Tomato & Shallot Salad
Amounts serve 2

Two handfuls of fresh green beans
1 large handful of red and orange cherry tomatoes
1 small/medium shallot
extra virgin olive oil
white wine vinegar
dijon mustard
salt and pepper

Mince your shallot and place in a small bowl or mug with a dash of olive oil and two dashes of white wine vinegar. Let this marinate while you do the rest.

Wash and top and tail the green beans. Place in boiling water for 2 to 3 minutes then immediately drain and cool by running cold water over the beans in the colander. Cut them in half (or bite sized pieces) and place in a salad bowl.

Wash, dry and halve your cherry tomatoes, and add to salad bowl.

Finish your vinegrette by adding a small amount of dijon mustard (say, 1/8 of a tsp), a dash or two more of olive oil, a small amount of sea salt and ground pepper. Taste and add more olive oil, vinegar, salt and/or pepper as needed. Mix into the salad bowl and let it all sit together for at least 10 minutes before serving.


Now onto other pics from the weekend:


Snack time


Habanero peppers at Gill's farm stand


Hot cherry peppers


I spotted this lone pinecone hanging onto the spruce tree.


Huge amounts of natural peppermint grow by a little creek at the front of our property, and the bees work away.


Peppermint plant flower


Not an unusual photo of watermelon, but I bet come February, I'll be happy to see this pic again!

Lima beans & Pancetta; Weekend in Pictures part 1

I am in Los Angeles this week for work, and Lisl's probably going to be too busy to post much, so we'll have to settle for pictures from the weekend up in the Catskill mountains.

Other than the chili, it was a weekend of small plates, mostly vegetarian. Gill's farm is still producing a wide range of produce, with cauliflower, lots of fresh beans, and hot peppers added to the mix.



Lima Beans & Pancetta



This is a very simple side dish: shell the lima beans and place the beans into a pot of boiling water. Simmer for 8 minutes then drain in a colander and cool by running cold water over the beans. If you have time, remove the skins from the larger beans: quickly pinch the skin at the indent of the bean (where it was connected to the pod), then gently squeeze the bean out of the skin from the other side (the curve).

Chop up pancetta into 1/2 inch chunks (or desired size). Heat up a dash of olive oil in a pan, and saute the pancetta over medium heat until it just starts to brown. Lower heat, add a tablespoon or so of butter, and add the lima beans. Gently stir and cook it all together for a few more minutes, then serve with some freshly ground pepper.



Who says prep means being stuck in a kitchen! I took the fresh lima beans up the hillside to shell them under a tree.


Our dog Ellie kept me company, carefully watching the antics of Lisl and Audrey as they washed the car. Ingredients to that latter effort included: soap, water, hose, sponges, buckets, and a fair amount of 3-yr-old squealing and giggles.


The view over my head

Eggplant, Mint and Caper Salad



The other small dish I tried for that meal was an eggplant, mint and caper salad spotted on Smitten Kitchen (follow that link for the recipe at Smitten Kitchen). I had to try this recipe because I love all three of those ingredients, but had *no* idea if I would like it all together.

The end result was surprising and interesting, and got a thumbs up from both Lisl and I. Like Smitten Kitchen, we used long, thin eggplants rather than the big dark ones you typically find in a supermarket.

My notes: keep a careful eye as you broil the eggplant, because mine was cooked a lot faster than the minutes in SK's recipe and your oven is probably slightly different too. I also think next time I do it, I'll slice the eggplant more like 1/3 inch thick rather than 1/4 inch.

Weekend in Pictures

While we ate well this weekend, I can't really say there was much in the way of recipes -- just fine, fresh food. Below are a few of the photographs taken along the way.






The first local apples are emerging in the Catskills: Ginger Golds (above) and Paula Reds. Tart and delicious!


Mixed peppers


I love color


Bounty from the farm stand


I tried roasting tomatoes after seeing them on Smitten Kitchen. While you see that I tossed some rosemary on top, Deb is right in her post that herbs are really unnecessary. Next time I'll leave them out entirely.


They're like little tomato candies


Saturday's meal was super simple and completely satisfying: corn picked that morning; par-boiled romano beans and cherry tomato salad (tossed with oregano, olive oil and red wine vinegar); and grilled pork lightly marinated in olive oil and rosemary. I'm sad that this was the last week for romano beans, as they were my favorite discovery this summer.






I'll leave you with a lemon-limeade (juice from 5 lemons, 5 limes, sugar to taste, tons of mint chilled in the fridge for a while and served with frozen watermelon chunks standing in for ice cubes). I don't love the picture but the drink was yummy!

Apples in the Catskills mean that summer is waning, but luckily there's a whole new wave of great produce still to come.

Cornflowers

Cornflowers mean

Long days

Shiny fields

And glorious, delectable

Corn!