I remember watching Rick Bayless make this green chile chorizo from Toluca, Mexico.  It has always been tucked away in the back of my mind.  When our Creative Cooking Group decided that June’s theme would be “color”.  Pick a color (just one) and create a dish with the main ingredients being only that color. I immediately looked up the recipe.

I am not crazy for the hot & spicy…I am allergic to heat.  When working with the chiles (peppers) I immediately started to cough, cry and turn beet red.  What I do for my Creative Cooking Crew.

This recipe is a bit altered.  I only used one Serrano chile and 2 Poblanos.  The meat was under two pounds.  I am copying the original recipe for you.

Green Chile Chorizo (Chorizo Verde)

Ingredients:

1 large fresh poblano chile
1 or 2 fresh serrano chiles, stemmed and roughly chopped
1 medium bunch of cilantro, tough lower stems cut off, the leafy part roughly chopped
1 1/2 pounds ground pork (you’ll need pork that’s a little fatty – 25 to 30% – and preferably coarsely ground)
3 tablespoons spinach powder (available on the internet)
2  teaspoons salt

Directions:

This month the Creative Cooking Group’s theme was a picnic.

I was watching Rachel Khoo, Little Paris Kitchen on the Cooking Channel prepare this cake and had to make it, adapting it a bit.

Ingredients:

9 ounces plain flour
large log of goat cheese, cut into small pieces
8-10 prunes, roughly chopped
3 ounces pistachios, roughly chopped
1/2 ounce baking powder
4 eggs
5 ounces olive oil
3 1/2 ounces milk
1 3/4 ounces plain yoghurt
1 teaspoon salt
Ground black pepper to taste

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

It was a gloomy day in New York City when I turned on the TV and here was the Barefoot Contessa preparing her Italian Wedding soup.  It looked so comforting that I ran walked slowly to the fridge.

I had most of the ingredients except for the chicken sausage.  Also, she used carrots and celery in the broth and left it in the soup.  I used it to give it more flavor and then discarded it.  The carrots you see there and used at the end as I like my veggies a little crunchy.  Chop the spinach and placed on bottom of each bowl before pouring the hot soup over them to keep the color.

I am not a left over person, but ladies and gents this soup fed us for three days straight and the husband said it was one of my better soups, I agreed.

Ingredients for meatballs (24 meatballs): 
(adapted Barefoot Contessa-Italian Wedding Soup)

1 pound ground chicken
3/4 pound pork sausage, no casings
1/3 cup seasoned bread crumbs
4 minced garlic cloves
4 tablespoons fresh parsley leaves, chopped
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
4 tablespoons milk
1 large egg, lightly beaten
Kosher salt/freshly ground pepper

Mix all the above, make meatballs and bake in oven at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes.

Soup:

12 cups of chicken stock
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 large onion cut in pieces
3 celery stalks, cut in thirds
4 carrots, cut in thirds
2 carrots, diced for later use
1/2 cup white wine (Sauvignon Blanc)
1 cup of small pasta (Acini di Pepi) or stars/tubetini
1/3 cup fresh dill for garnish
baby spinach ( a handful per plate)

Directions:

Heat the olive oil over medium-low heat in a large soup pot. Add the onions, carrots and celery and cook for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the chicken stock and wine and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and continue until carrots are soft, the remove all so you have a flavorful stock. Add the meatballs and diced carrots. Then about 10 minutes later add the pasta and cook until al dente. Add spinach to you plate, ladle soup and garnish with dill.

BUEN PROVECHO!

This was a fun challenge and I was able to use so many fresh ingredients.

Marinated lamb overnight with yogurt, oregano, red pepper, nutmeg, garlic, cinnamon, mint, salt /pepper, then grilled.

For tabbouleh:

I used equal parts of parsley and mint, 1/3 cup bulgur wheat, tomatoes, cucumbers, scallions, lemon juice,virgin olive oil and my touch, fresh herbs.

Buttermilk-tahini dressing adapted from Kalyn’s Kitchen.

Husband and friend, Ines approved.

BUEN PROVECHO!

This chicken was so delicious that I decided to make it the star of this post…

Here is my version of her recipe:

Beer birds:

3 pieces of whole leg and thigh
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 head garlic, broken into cloves and peeled
1/4 pound bacon strips, quartered
4 bay leaves
2 branches fresh rosemary, cut into pieces
4 branches of thyme (my addition)
1 tablespoon juniper berries
12 oz bottle of beer (I used Smethwick’s Irish ale)

To make the chicken:

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. Season the chicken well with salt and pepper and place in a single layer in a baking dish. Tuck in the garlic, bacon, and herbs. Scatter over the juniper berries. Pour the beer in the side of the dish.

Bake 15 minutes. Turn the pieces and bake another 15 minutes. Turn again and bake 15 minutes longer. By now the meat should be cooked and sticky with a slightly caramelized sauce.

Serve the chicken with the sauce.

There was an abundance of potatoes left over from St. Patrick’s at the Torres-McHugh home that had to be used.

I had purchased two books on Irish Cooking…the husband said that elegant Irish cooking is an oxymoron, but I disagree as these young Irish chefs are venturing out, studying in different countries and coming back to Ireland applying what they have learned and really changing Irish cooking for the better.

From The Complete Pub Cookbook:

Colcannon is a traditional Irish dish often served at Halloween.  In some families the cook will hide a lucky charms or coins in the mixture – these are said to bring good luck to the recipients or fortune.

The book’s version uses cabbage and scallions (which I also have plenty of), but kale and leeks can also be used.

Ingredients:

4 potatoes, russets or Yukon gold, cut into chunks
4 tablespoons lightly salted butter
2/3 cup light cream
1/2 small green cabbage
6 scallions, finely chopped
salt/pepper to taste

Cook the potatoes in a large pot of boiling salted water for about
15-20 minutes. drain well and mash until smooth. Season to taste with salt and pepper, add the butter and cream, and stir well. The mashed potatoes should be soft. Keep potatoes warm while cooking the cabbage.

Cut the cabbage in to quarters, remove tough core and shred the leaves finely. Cook the cabbage in a large pot of boiling salted water for 1 – 2 minutes, until soft. Drain thoroughly.

Mix the potatoes and cabbage and stir in the scallions. Season well with salt/pepper.

Bain taitneamh as do bhéil - Bon Appetit!

Took me a while to come up with this idea and was injured while preparing it.  Using my mandolin I sliced the apples and my hand.

OUCH!

Ingredients for corn pudding:(adapted from Taste of Home Magazine)

1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 cup (8 oz sour cream – I used 1/2 sour-1/2 yogurt)
1 package (8-1/2 ounces) whole kernel corn, drained
1 can (14-3/4 ounces) creamed style corn
6 strips of bacon cooked and chopped

Preparation:

In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in sour cream. Gradually add muffin mix alternately with milk. Fold in corn and bacon.

Pour into a cookie sheet (as shown) and bake at 350 degrees until set and golden…about 45 minutes.

Assembly:

Nine slices of Granny Smith apples grilled and then brushed with reduced fig vinegar for glazing. Plate three apple slices, cut pudding and place atop apples. Do this twice and finish with three more apple slices.

Pistachio Butter: In your Cuisineart put 1/2 cup of shelled pistachios, juice of half lemon and two tablespoons of butter and pulse until smooth. Shape into quenelles.

BUEN PROVECHO!

The Causa is a traditional Peruvian dish made from potatoes which is served cold adding different fillings. I decided on using white, purple and sweet potatoes as I could not find the yellow potato which is mostly used.

My take on this wonderful and beautiful dish is adding the Steak Tartare instead of the typical chicken, tuna, shrimp, crab…endless fillings, which I have had many times.

My love for Peruvian cooking grows and grows through the years.  One of my favorite is Gaston’s La Mar Cevicheria Peruana in San Francisco and now in New York.

I hope his year my dream is to visit this beautiful country will come true…to be able to go to Gaston’s school, if only for a visit, traveling around seeing the sights, tasting their delicacies and to meet a few fellow bloggers who I follow.

The main ingredients for the potatoes are lime, vegetable oil, aji amarillo paste and salt/pepper to taste.  Boil potatoes in salted water.  Peel and mash while hot. Let cool and mix with ingredients.

Molding:  layer potato, the tartare, then another layer of the potato and unmold. Adding garnishes like boiled eggs, avocado, olives with my addition of  cilantro vinaigrette and some extra aji amarillo.

Please note that this is my take on the traditional recipe.

For the Steak Tartare I adapted from Emeril Lagasse leaving out the raw egg yolk and adding a spicier mustard.  It worked well.

Taste test:  Husband approved!

BUEN PROVECHO!

There is a change in our monthly challenge…we were known as  5 Star Makeover Cooking Group…we are now called the Creative Cooking Crew and I am looking forward to collaborating with our old group and welcoming new talent.

The theme for January 2013 is to create a healthy vegan dish instead of using a protein.

Keeping with my Latin roots, I have decided to turn those cute little fried empanadas (meat patties) into a healthier version and no deep-frying, but baking.

Ingredients:

3 sweet ripe plantains
about 4 oz mixed mushrooms
1/4 of each, green, yellow, orange and pimento peppers cut in small cubes
12 spicy olives, sliced
2 culantro leaves (or cilantro)
1 onion chopped
2 garlic cloves chopped
2 tablespoons olive oil
Salt-pepper to taste
reduced fig balsamic vinegar for glazing

Tortilla press + wax paper + Pam

Directions:

Cut plantains in 3 pieces each and boil with its skin until fork tended. Remove and let cool.

Meantime, heat oil and add onion and garlic and saute for a few minutes. Add rest of ingredients and cook for about 10-15 minutes and set aside.

Remove the skin from plantains and mash with a fork. Make about 6 balls and flatten with a tortilla press using a piece of wax paper or by flattening the balls with your hands. Place filling in middle and seal.

Bake at 400 degrees until heated throughout.

As I was baking these babies my superintendent and his aide knocked on my door to see what I was cooking and of course they had to try the new recipe…I will not repeat what they said but…yes they came out delicious…

BUEN PROVECHO!

AND

Are taking December off to prepare for the holidays and a few cooking gigs that have come up.

To all my blogging friends I wish you all the best of the Holiday Season and a Happy & Healthy New Year.

BUEN PROVECHO!

NORMA