hitting the road

I'm heading to Montana for a week of internet-free vacation in some of the prettiest mountains in the country.  I won't be posting for the next week, but I will be cooking.  I am taking the reigns for cooking for a houseful of people.  Should be fun.  We are kicking off the week with a grilled red wine marinated flank steak, served with a jicama slaw.  We end the week with a home made pasta primavera.  I will report on the results when I get back.  In the mean time, here's the jicama slaw recipe.  It is an original, and I haven't, so far, found anything similar on the net.  But there is nothing new under the sun....

It's a crispy, slightly sweet, slightly spicy, citrusy slaw that pairs especially well with spicy foods, such as chilis, tacos, or barbecue.  It is very pretty to look at, and especially nice to serve with Mexican food, with its colors of the Mexican flag.

Jicama Slaw

1 large jicama
1 large navel orange
2 limes
1 bunch green onions
1 Serrano pepper, or 1/2 habanaro  pepper
1 large red pepper, or 6 baby red sweet peppers
1 bunch cilantro
1/2 cup neutral oil, like grapeseed or peanut
salt and pepper to taste

grate the zest off the orange and the limes with a microplane, or similar tool to produce a very fine zest, then juice them, all into one bowl.  Trim the green onions to just the white and light green part (about 6 in a typical grocery store bunch) and add to the bowl.  Trim the serrano or habanaro, seed if desired, rough chop, and add to bowl.  Add salt and pepper to taste, and pour mixture into a blender.  Blend until vegetables are pureed.  With the blender running, add the oil in a stream, and blend until the dressing is creamy, and thick enough to coat a spoon.  Set aside.
Peel the outer skin from the jicama and cut into quarters.  The best way to cut the jicama is on a mandoline, on a small julienne setting.  If you do not have a mandoline, you can grate the jicama on the large  holes of a box grater, or julienne with a knife.  Shredding in a food processor causes too much water to exude from the jicama, and is not recommended.  Julienne the red pepper, or, if using the baby sweet peppers, slice into small rings.  Rough chop the cilantro, using as much or as little as your personal taste dictates.  I generally use about 1/2 a typical grocery store bunch.  Combine the jicama, peppers, and cilantro, pour on the dressing, and toss to combine.  Taste and adjust for salt and pepper.  This will stay crunchy and fresh tasting in the refrigerator for about 3 days, especially if the jicama is julienned rather than shredded.

See you next week!

easy hollandaise

there are a couple of different ways to make a hollandaise, including the blender method.  But that tends to produce a thinner sauce than I like for eggs benedict.  The biggest obstacle to a great hollandiase is over cooking the eggs.  Here's a simple method to more easily avoid that problem.

I like to use a glass pyrex bowl nested on top of a sauce pan of simmering water for a double boiler -- no corners to hide ingredients from the whisk.  Place your egg yolks, lemon juice, salt, and any desired seasonings in the bowl.  Then cube up your COLD butter, and dump that in as well.  Put the whole mess over the simmering water, and start to whisk.  While it doesn't need your undivided attention at first, you will want to keep the eggs in motion as they begin to heat up.  The secret here is that the cold butter helps to regulate the temperature of the eggs, helping to prevent curdling.  As the butter starts to melt, whisk a little more vigorously, and keep whisking until the butter is fully incorporated and the sauce is ALMOST the consistency you want.  Using a hot pad, remove the bowl from the pan, and continue whisking until the bowl begins to cool off.  The sauce will continue to thicken off of the heat.

I have never had a failure with this method.  And it can be done before any other prep is done, when you can focus just on this one task, because it will hold quite nicely for an hour or more.  When you are about ready to serve, just pop the bowl back over simmering water, and whisk until the sauce is warm again.  If it has become too thick, just thin it with a bit of water.  Perfect every time!

home made enchilada sauce

Well, the other night was an experiment  in home made enchilada sauce.  I wanted something smooth, silky and spicy, and intensly flavorful.  To that end, I took a couple of pounds of fresh Campari tomatoes, and tossed them in  a broiler pan along with a large quartered white onion, and a couple of serranno chilis, and slid the whole mess under a hot broiler, turning them occasionally, as they began to blacken.  Once they were charred, I pulled the skins off of everything, chopped things up roughly, and tossed everything in a skillet with a little neutral oil and a couple of shredded up dry ancho chilis.

And cooked, and cooked, and cooooked, and cooked some more, until the tomatoes were reduced to the consistency of tomato paste.  Ran that whole mess through the small disk of a food mill, and returned it to the pan with a couple of cups of home made chicken broth, and started reducing again.  As that reduced, I added about a tablespoon of Wondra flour, to give the sauce a bit of body, and continued to reduce until I had the consistency of a fairly light gravy, capable of coating a spoon (or a tortilla).  Adjusted my seasonings, and voila!  A rich, smoky, spicy, smooth enchilada sauce.

Don't ask me if it is authentic.  I have no idea, and since I just threw it together, I have my doubts.  But I suspect marvelous Mexican abuelitas have been tossing together their sauces for centuries, so that is the tradition I am going for.