davepolaschek

recipe

Based strongly on the Sweetcorn chowder with smoky chipotle oil recipe from Meera Sodha in the Grauniad, this took a New Mexican twist when I cooked it up.

Times

  • Cooking time: 30 minutes
  • Idle time: 90-120 minutes

Ingredients

  • 2 oz vegetable oil
  • 4-6 spring onions, chopped finely, green bits and all
  • 1C chicos
  • 1 qt chicken stock (use vegetable stock if you want a vegan dish)
  • 400ml can coconut milk
  • 1 leek, trimmed, finely sliced, and rinsed
  • 1 clove garlic
  • small handful small yellow potatoes, or one large white potato
  • ⅓ bag roasted green chiles from the market, peeled, seeded and frozen, then chopped finely
  • 1 tsp lemon juice
  • 2 Tbsp corn flour
  • 2 Tbsp potato flakes
  • 1 can (15 oz) sweet corn, with juice

Directions

  • Sauté onions in a skillet with a little oil, 6-8 minutes, until they’ve gone a bit brown, past translucent
  • Put chicos, chicken stock, and coconut milk into crock pot and get it warming on high
  • Add onions to crock pot
  • Sauté leek and garlic in a little oil, until leek is translucent, and add to crock pot
  • Cut potatoes into 1cm cubes and sauté in a little oil until soft, then add to pot
  • Sauté chopped green chiles in a little oil in skillet, and add to pot
  • When pot comes to a boil (over 90 minutes with my crock pot), add corn flour and potato flakes, stirring well
  • After a few minutes, add corn and liquid from can and stir well
  • Taste and season with salt as needed
  • If you like your chowder thicker, put in a stick blender into the pot and blend some of the soup up
  • Serve and enjoy

Notes on ingredients

  • Chicos are corn, roasted on the cob in an horno, and then dried. They keep pretty much forever, and add a nice smoky flavor to food.
  • Green chiles are sold at farmers markets in New Mexico in the fall, roasted right there at the market. They’re typically sold in sandwich bags or quart ziploc bags. We buy the mildest ones available, bring them home and peel, seed, and freeze them into freezer bags (one per bag from the market). A third of one of those bags is enough in this recipe for us, but don’t let me tell you how spicy to make your food. If you must use canned, one of the small cans is probably a good starting place.
  • The simplest way I know of to get all the dirt out of leeks is to cut off the fine roots, thinly slice the leek, then put it in a bowl and rinse it with water. But if you’ve got a better suggestion, have at it! I didn’t use the green part of the leek in this recipe, as it was already plenty onion-y, but again, you’re welcome to use it all if you want.
  • If you want a little added protein in this, adding bacon would be a fine idea. I would use about a pound of bacon, chopped up and sautéed. Or a can of spam if that works for you.

#recipe #NewMexico #corn #soup

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  • ½C (unground) chicos (or ¼C ground)
  • ¼C corn flour
  • ½C bread flour
  • 3T sugar (or dark honey)
  • 1tsp baking powder
  • ¼tsp salt
  • ¼tsp Chimayó chile powder (more if you like, but probably not less)
  • 1 egg
  • 2T olive oil (or bacon grease)
  • ½C water
  1. Grind chicos with spice grinder
  2. Add corn flour to make ½C (roughly ¼C, but maybe a little more or less)
  3. Add all other ingredients to bowl and mix
  4. Spoon into greased muffin pan
  5. Bake for 15-20 minutes at 400F

Makes six corn muffins, or a dozen mini-muffins.

Note: chicos are smoke-roasted dried corn (maize) kernels and add a concentrated smoky corn flavor. They’re traditionally used in soups.

#recipe #corn

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This is dairy-free, but not vegan, due to lard in the corn muffin mix and the egg. Cream style corn does not contain dairy.

Time: 1 hour 15 minutes

  • Prep time: 5 minutes
  • Cook time: 1 hour 10 minutes

Serves: 8

Ingredients:

  • 1 box Jiffy Corn Muffin Mix (8.5 oz)
  • 14¾ oz can cream style corn
  • 15 oz can sweet corn (drained)
  • 1 egg
  • 1 cup dairy free sour cream (or yogurt)
  • ¼ cup Miyoko’s or Earth Balance butter substitute

Directions

  • Preheat oven to 350°F
  • Grease a 2½ quart casserole or baking dish with coconut oil or bacon grease
  • In a large mixing bowl, combine all ingredients but butter and stir until combined
  • Pour mix into casserole and even it out with a spatula
  • Slice butter into chunks and place on top of mix
  • Bake for 1 hour 10 minutes, until golden brown and delicious
  • Optionally top with fresh herbs
  • Serve warm

#recipe #dairyfree #corn

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Made these after all our stuff was packed for our move to Santa Fe. All you need is a knife & cutting board, a cast iron skillet, and one tin of spice. And the recipe cleaned up the food we had left in the fridge.

Ingredients

  • 2 pork chops
  • 1 Honeycrisp Apple
  • 12 seedless grapes
  • ½ tbsp Chinese five spice
  • ½ tsp flour

Directions

  1. Core apple, and chop it up. Leave the skin on if you’re lazy.
  2. Chop the grapes into halves or quarters.
  3. Simmer apples and grapes with a little water until they go mushy. About 15 minutes. You’re making a quick applesauce.
  4. Add the Chinese five spice and continue to simmer until you have a nice sauce. Remove from heat and pour into a bowl (or ziploc bag)
  5. Use the (warm) sauce to marinate the pork chops for about 15 minutes.
  6. Put the sauce and chops into the skillet and cook about 7 minutes per side on low heat. Add a little water if the sauce looks to be drying up.
  7. Remove the chops from the sauce and plate. Make a pan gravy using a little water and flour.

Pairs nicely with grits if you have them. Also takes about the same total amount of time to cook as quick grits.

#recipe

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Based on this Lemon Chicken Piccata {Paleo, Whole30, Keto} recipe, but with the usual Dave tweaks.

Cook time: 35 minutes Serves: 2-4

Ingredients

  • ¾ lbs boneless skinless chicken breasts, thin sliced
  • 2-3 Tbsp flour
  • ½ tsp kosher salt
  • ¼ tsp black pepper, ground
  • 2 Tbsp olive oil
  • 2 tsp minced garlic
  • ¼ mild yellow onion, chopped
  • ⅔ C chicken broth
  • 2 tsp lemon juice
  • ½ can (roughly ⅓C) coconut cream, unsweetened
  • 1 tsp Dijon mustard
  • 4 tsp capers, drained

Directions

  1. If you’re making risotto, noodles, rice pilaf, or couscous, start that first
  2. Mix flour, salt and pepper in a bowl big enough to dredge the chicken breasts in.
  3. Heat a large skillet with 2T of olive oil over medium heat.
  4. Dredge the chicken, one cutlet at a time, and place into the pan. Cook 4 minutes on each side, until golden brown and delicious. Note that depending on the size of your pan, you may need to cook the chicken in two batches.
  5. Remove the chicken and set aside on a plate.
  6. Add 1T olive oil to the pan and get it warm.
  7. Lower the heat to medium-low.
  8. Add the ¼ onion, sauté until translucent (3-4 minutes).
  9. Add the 2 tsp garlic and sauté until soft (a minute or two).
  10. Add the chicken broth and lemon juice, increase the heat to medium-high until the broth comes to a boil, then return it to medium-low and simmer for 3 minutes. Stir enough to get any fond loose from the bottom of the pan.
  11. Stir in the coconut cream and Dijon mustard, and about half of the leftover dredging flour.
  12. Stir to make a thin gravy-like consistency (it’ll thicken as it cooks).
  13. Add in the capers and chicken and return to a simmer until the sauce is a good thickness and the starch is cooked
  14. Remove from heat and serve over risotto, noodles, rice pilaf, or couscous.
  15. Grate some Parmesan cheese over the plate if you like. It’s not needed, but it’s good.
  16. Enjoy!

#recipe #chicken

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Cook time: 8 hours. Start this around 8am. You’ll need to fiddle with it about lunchtime and 2pm, too. It’ll be ready about 4pm.

Serves: 8-12. Or a family with 3 growing boys.

Ingredients

  • 2 pounds chicken thighs
  • 6 ribs celery, chopped
  • ½ onion chopped
  • 1 tsp tarragon
  • 1 tsp marjoram
  • 1 tsp basil
  • 4-6 C chicken stock
  • ¾ bag frozen carrots
  • 1 or 2 potatoes, diced
  • ½ bag frozen roasted sweet potatoes
  • 1 C coconut milk
  • 2 tsp minced garlic
  • 2 tsp minced dried chives
  • 1/3 bag frozen peas
  • 1/3 bag frozen corn

Directions

  • Place celery, onion, chicken, half of the carrots, and 4C chicken stock into a 4.5 qt crock pot
  • Set crock pot on high and forget about it for 4 hours
  • Using two forks, shred chicken meat and skin and remove and discard bones and cartilage. You will miss at least one piece of cartilage. That shows the soup is home-made.
  • Add potato and balance of frozen carrots
  • Turn to low and let cook for 2 hours
  • Add frozen vegetables and enough chicken stock (about 2 C) to fill the crock pot, and let cook on low for 2 hours.
  • Serve and eat

#recipe #soup

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Strawberry kiwi salsa

Ingredients

  • pint or pint and a half strawberries, diced
  • four kiwis, diced
  • one New Mexico chile, plucked off the ristra, washed, deseeded and diced
  • tablespoon lime juice
  • teaspoon salt

Directions

  • mix everything up
  • let it sit for a few hours in the fridge
  • eat on tortilla chips

#recipe #sauce

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Ingredients

  • ¼ lb maple-smoked bacon, diced (we use Beck & Bulow wild boar bacon, which is lean enough that I need to put some oil in the pan)
  • 1 Tbsp soy sauce
  • 1 Tbsp maple syrup
  • 2 Trout fillets
  • 1 C red split lentils
  • ½ C green beans (frozen will work, fresh are better)
  • 3 C water
  • ⅓ tsp red chile powder (to taste)

Directions

  1. Sauté diced bacon in 2 or 3 quart saucepan.
  2. Mix soy & maple syrup in a small bowl and set aside.
  3. When bacon is cooked, but not crispy, pull bacon from saucepan and set aside. If there’s significant grease, save it for some biscuits.
  4. Put 3C warm water in saucepan, deglazing the pan & bring water to a boil.
  5. Place trout, skin down, on broiler pan and coat flesh side of trout with maple/soy mix.
  6. Broil trout, 9 minutes @ 400F, or 7-8 minutes if you don’t have a temperature setting on your broiler.
  7. Put lentils & beans in boiling water, and reduce to a simmer – simmer for 7-9 minutes, until lentils are done.
  8. Pull trout from broiler, and sprinkle with chile
  9. Add bacon to lentils.
  10. Serve and eat. Enjoy.

Total time, about 25 minutes.

#recipe

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Biscuits on a cooling rack

Makes about 15 biscuits. We ate 3 of them before I could take the picture.

Ingredients

  • 4 C all-purpose flour
  • 2 Tbsp baking powder
  • 2 tsp kosher salt
  • ¼ C honey
  • ¾ C bacon grease, chilled
  • 1 can (13oz-ish) coconut milk

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 450F
  2. Prepare a baking pan by placing a piece of baking parchment in it
  3. Mix flour, baking powder and salt in a large bowl
  4. Add honey and bacon grease, and cut ingredients together until a “crumb” has formed
  5. Shake can of coconut milk well, open, and pour into bowl
  6. Stir ingredients together just until a dough forms
  7. Put dough onto a floured surface and fold and knead a few times
  8. Roll dough into ¾ inch thick sheet
  9. Cut out biscuits using a biscuit cutter or a drinking glass, and place onto pan
  10. Reform leftover dough into a sheet and cut out remaining biscuits, placing onto pan
  11. Bake for 15-17 minutes, until golden brown on top
  12. Transfer to a cooling rack, or eat as soon as you possibly can without burning yourself

#recipe

Based loosely on 5 Ingredient Dairy Free Biscuits

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Trout taco, with apple & pickle salsa, tomatoes, and mixed greens

For each taco:

  • 1 large soft taco shell (burrito-size tortilla)
  • 1 trout fillet, approx 3oz
  • 1 half-strip bacon
  • 1 tsp orange oil
  • 2 tsp olive oil
  • ⅛-¼ tsp Penzey’s Pico Fruta

Directions:

  • About a half hour before cooking, coat the flesh side of each trout fillet with oils and spices
  • Grill or broil 7-10 min with bacon on top of trout
  • After broiling, remove bacon and turn it into crumbles, which get sprinkled on top of the trout (the bacon might need a minute or two more in a skillet, depending on your grill / broiler)

Salsa (enough for 4 tacos):

  • 1 apple, cored and diced
  • 1 tsp lime juice
  • 8 round slices dill pickle, diced
  • 1 Tbsp mayonnaise
  • ⅛-¼ tsp red New Mexico chile powder

Also chop up a tomato and have some dark greens (spinach, mustard, etc) and salsa verde for garnish.

#recipe

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