Salsa: if you can’t beat the heat, join it!

salsa

There’s an old saying, “if you can’t beat em, join em.”  It applies quite aptly to summertime heat and a good, fresh salsa don’t you think?

My current favorite method of salsa making is about as simple as it gets, and just relies on fresh ingredients.

Fresh Salsa
6 medium tomatillos, diced
2 large ripe tomatoes, diced
1 red onion, diced
5 or 6 spring onions, finely chopped (use all the green)
1 green pepper, diced
1 red pepper, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 to 3 fresh jalapenos, minced (add heat to personal taste; can also use cayenne or serrano)
juice of 1 to 2 limes, to taste
large bunch of cilantro, chopped
1 tbsp rice vinegar (or to taste)
salt and pepper to taste

Just chop everything up and combine in a bowl.  Serve with some tortilla chips, or toast some bread with a little olive oil for a simple bruschetta, or serve as a garnish alongside a well-seasoned and grilled flank steak.

Don’t forget the beer. 🙂

Today Lisl had some friends from her choir over for lunch, and this went over quite well (we also had a hit with a black-eyed pea salad that was sort of a combination of this and this).

Below the fold, I’m attaching a few more photos from our recent trip up to the Catskills.

Continue reading “Salsa: if you can’t beat the heat, join it!”

Summertime: mint watermelon lemonade; cilantro chimichurri w/ flank steak

audrey-field

Summertime has finally come, although here in the Catskills the spring rains have decided they like hanging around. They enjoy our company in the afternoons. That, or they’re out to kill everyone’s tomato plants, and doing a good job of it too. We are just finishing a week vacation here in “slightly-upstate” New York, and while work and mozzies invaded quite a bit, it has been quiet and beautiful. (if you don’t speak Oz, mozzies = mosquitoes)

The farms have been fighting with the weather – what a tough profession farming is, subject to the whims of weather.  I was really looking forward to the return of fresh roma beans at our local farm, but the wet weather has left them tough and unenjoyable, resistant to even a long stew in tomato sauce.  The cucumbers have suffered even worse, including the little kerbys.

gills-09-start

Still, the chard, wax beans, and golden zucchini are all beautiful, and I have high hopes for the corn season. I was glad to see Gill’s farm stand open for business.  Here is my first payload:

09-first-produce

Given the onslaught of work (trying to get a new venture off the ground in this environment is not a simple task), I have only had time to cook oldies but goodies, rather than creating new dishes.  With summertime eating, I also tend to go simple — fresh salads and well-seasoned meat cooked on the grill.

A dry rub of smoked paprika, ground coriander, salt, and brown sugar was a smashing hit with our niece visiting from Sydney.  We have also been playing around with chimichurri-like green sauces to go with flank and skirt steak, some with parsely and some with cilantro.  My favorite so far was the following:

flank-steak-chim

Cilantro Green Sauce (chimichurri inspired)
large bunch of cilantro (fresh coriander)
2 cloves of garlic
1/3 of a hot jalapeno
pinch of salt
1 tbsp of olive oil
red wine vinegar and rice wine vinegar to taste

You can finely mince everything and combine with the liquids, or just use a food processor (which is what I did last night).  The bite of the vinegar and the heat of the jalapeno are a fabulous complement to a flank or skirt steak, well seasoned with salt and pepper, cooked to medium-rare on the grill, and sliced thin across the grain.

lemonade-and-mint

I also love making twists on lemonade.  Last summer I had fun freezing watermelon cubes and using them instead of ice.  This year I did a similar thing, but with more of a mohito-making approach.

Lemon-limeade with Watermelon and Spearmint

Juice 4 or 5 lemons and 2 limes, and place in a large jug.  Add mint leaves from several sprigs of spearmint or regular mint.  Add in 1 lime, washed and quartered.  Cut a half-inch slice from a watermelon half, and slice into 1/2 inch cubes.  Add in 3 tbsp of sugar.  Mash everything up.  Pour in cold water and ice, then taste for the amount of citrus juice and sugar, adjusting to taste.

Breakfast Pancakes

I can’t tell you how many times I have wanted to make fresh pancakes and struggled to remember the ingredient ratios. So here is the mix I like to use, which is adapted from Joy of Cooking but with much less sugar:

Mix in one bowl
1.5 cups all purpose flour
1 tbsp sugar
1.5 tsp baking powder
0.5 tsp salt

Mix in another bowl
1.5 cups milk
3 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
2 large eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

I find that this amount can support roughly 4 people — increase the ratios as needed. Combine everything together, possibly with some fresh blueberries tossed in there and maple syrup ready to go on the side, and ladel away.

Pork Shoulder Braised with White Wine and Napa Cabbage

pork-braise-napa-cabbage

I keep on playing around with pork shoulder braises, and what’s not to love? They make a great meal, and the leftovers can be used in a myriad of ways such as pulled pork sandwiches, stews, chilis, meat pies, etc.  The picture above was the only one I had time to grab for this recipe, but I was so happy with it, I wanted to record it up here.  I made it the night before, so putting on dinner the next day was a snap, and boy was it good!

Pork Shoulder Braised with White Wine and Napa Cabbage

5 or 6 lb pork shoulder butt, on the bone (preferably Berkshire pork)
1/2 lb slab bacon, 1 to 1.5 inches thick
1/2 napa cabbage, sliced 1/4″ thick
3 medium vidalia or yellow onions, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
2 celery stalks, diced
4 or 5 cloves of garlic, minced
1 1/2 tsp fennel seed
1 tsp coriander seed
bouquet garnis of parsley, winter savory, and 2 bay leaves, wrapped in string
salt and pepper
dry white wine
water
grapeseed oil

Preheat oven to 300F.  In a mortar and pestle, coarsely grind the fennel and coriander seed.

Remove the skin from pork shoulder and score the fat. Rub 1 tsp of salt and the ground spices around the pork, let it come to room temperature for 20 minutes or so. Heat a splash of grapeseed oil in a dutch oven until very hot. Sear all sides of the pork and then remove to the side.

Slice the slab bacon 1/2 inch thick and brown it in the dutch oven, then turn the heat down to medium and remove the bacon to the side as well.

Saute the onions until they start to turn translucent, then add in the carrot, celery, garlic, and spices.  Place the pork shoulder on top and pour in half a bottle of white wine.  Bring the liquid about 1/4 up the side of the pork, adding water if needed.  Scatter  the slab bacon around, place the bouquet garnis in the pot, and scatter around the napa cabbage.  Cover and cook for two hours, then flip the shoulder and cook for another 2 hours.

Remove the pork shoulder to a cutting board and let cool for 15 minutes, then using two forks gently pull the shoulder apart to separate the bones and fat from the meat.  Also remove the slab bacon.  If you refridgerate the pork and bacon overnight, as I did, then slice any large chunks of pork into half-inch-thick pieces, and sear the meat on both sides in a hot non-stick skillet.  Do the same with the bacon, and plate, grinding some coarse salt and pepper onto the pork.

If you are serving the braise immediately, skim the liquid fat off the top of the braised vegetables in the pot. If you put in the fridge overnight, the fat will solidify on the top making it much easier to remove.   Re-heat in a pot, not a microwave!  Ladle several large spoonfuls into a food processor and blend into your gravy.

With a slotted spoon to drain excess liquid, plate some of braised vegetables next to the meat and serve with a side of your choice — in our case, Lisl made a salad of fresh peas (parboiled and then immediately cooled in ice water), jicama, red onion, and cherry tomatoes, with a lemon juice, olive oil and thyme dressing.