Villa Victoria Blog

Deep Feast - Camp Long

On Sunday I attended a food writing workshop at Camp Long in Seattle, "Deep Feast Writing", taught by Vermont writer, Cresent Dragonwagon.  Cresent wrote the definitive treatise on cornbread in 2007, "The Cornbread Gospels".

Scheduled from noon to 6, we didn't waste time.  As each person registered, our instructions were to "turn your cell phone off and start writing".  We learned the "Twelve Percepts of Fearless Writing", we participated in some games to see how stories take form, we ate a delicious potluck and got back to writing again.  In one exercise, we were asked to pick a recipe or ingredient and have a dialogue with it.  Okay.

Dialogue with Chiles -- Camp Long, Seattle 3/6/11

First, in the voice of chiles:

1. I am the oldest cultivar in Mexico.
2. Together with beans and corn I form the basis of Mexican cuisine.
3. I am flavor and heat and dimension.
4. I stimulate language and culture.
5. I protect myself from predators.
6. I am a form of currency.
7. I am a usurperor of ketchup.
8. I have a protocol.
9. I am misunderstood.
10. I am feared.
11. My intensity cannot be measured.
12. I bring joy - serotonin.

Next, in my voice:

1. I first met you when I was born.
2. Your smell was always there.
3. Your nature first pricked my tongue and I rejected you as a child.
4. Through my mother's entreaties, you would occasionally find your way onto my beans and rice.
5. My father over-ate you and died from those complications.
6. You always reminded me -- wherever I went -- of who I am and from where I come.
7. You waited for me to learn about you.
8. You opened my world when I got comfortable with you.
9. You are there when I need you.
10. You are smooth, silky, dark, musky, floral, bright.
11. You evoke tears, laughter, love, sex

Wow!  If Cresent can get this out of me in six hours, imagine what her four-day Vermont workshop can produce.

Ad Hoc Salsa

[ad hoc|(") ad-'häk: for the particular end or case at hand without consideration of wider application]

The most precious heirloom my mother gave me was a molcajete (mortar and pestle) that she brought in her suitcase from Mexico in 1945.  A molcajete is a heavy three-legged bowl carved out of quarried volcanic rock.  The word, molcajete is a corruption of the Nahuatl word, temolcaxitl.  The pestle is a rounded three-dimensional trapezoidal rock and is ergonomically suited to the hand in order to facilitate a grinding action.  Its Spanish name, tejolote, is also derived from the Aztec word texolotl.

Some of my earliest memories are of the muffled, bell-like sound of the tejolote grinding against the shallow  bowl of the molcajete.  The beans are bubbling, the rice is silently swelling, there is a freshly-made stack of flour tortillas wrapped in a crocheted-edged towel, and my mother is making just enough salsa for that meal.  One tomato, one chile, one garlic clove and a few sprigs of cilantro -- served in the molcajete.  How utterly simple!

Since most people in the United States do not have a molcajete, it is perfectly legal to use a mini food processor.  This recipe begs for a perfectly ripe tomato -- the salsa looks so pretty when it is a true red and not a pithy pink.  If you don't have fresh cilantro on hand, you can substitue a few smashed cumin seeds (5-6) which will make it a more Northern Mexico salsa.

1     Medium ripe tomato
1     Medium serrano chile
1     Medium garlic clove
1     Tablespoon finely minced onion
2     Small sprigs of cilantro (leaves only)
       Kosher salt

In a small saucepan, bring the tomato and the chiles to a gentle boil and cook for about five minutes.  The tomato should be halfway stewed on the outer edges and still firm on the inside.  Drain.  Peel the tomato and don't seed -- the seeds have flavor.  Coarsley chop the chile.

If using a molcajete, grind the garlic, using a circular wrist-twisting motion.  When that is ground, add the chopped chile and grind some more.  Add a few grains of salt (and the cumin seeds, if using) , add the minced onion and then add the chopped tomato, still grinding.  If using a mini food processor, follow the same steps and pulse lightly when you finally add the tomato.  The salsa should be amalgamated with a few chunks of tomato here and there.  Adjust the taste for salt and add a few leaves of cilantro, lightly bruising some of the leaves to release their essential oils.

Budín de Elote con Queso de Cabra y Chiles Poblanos / Corn and Goat Cheese Tart with Poblano Chilies

Poblano chiles are alternately called Pasilla chiles.  When they are eaten green, they are Poblano, but when they are dried, they are called Pasilla, Ancho or Mulato.  Poblano indicates that it comes from the state of Puebla.   Mild in flavor and heat, poblanos are large, dark green and conically-shaped.

2.5 lbs. Organic white corn

1 cup Cornmeal - soaked for 

24 hours in 1/2 cup slaked lime*

6 Eggs

2 tsp. Baking soda

8 oz. Butter - melted and slightly cooled

1 T Salt

1/4 tsp. Freshly grated nutmeg

11 oz. Fresh goat cheese, crumbled

1 lb. Poblano chilies

Over a gas flame, char the poblano chilies, turning the chilies over with long tongs to expose them evenly to the heat.  The skins should blister and char.As each one is done, put it in a paper bag and tightly close after each one.  You want to create a sweat in the bag. When all the chilies are done, close the bag and set aside for about 20 minutes.  Tear open the bag and holding the chile under a trickle of running water, scrape the charred skin off the chile and cut stem and the seed pod out.   Open them up and lay them flat cut into long strips. Reserve some of the strips to decorate the tart and roughly chop the rest.

Soaking the cornmeal is a way to improve the amino acid quality of the proteins in the germ, thereby making it more digestible. 

Grind the corn, cornmeal, eggs, baking soda, butter and nutmeg.  Place in a bowl and add most of the crumbled goat cheese, reserving some for the top of the tart and the roughly chopped poblanos.  Pour into a prepared (buttered) casserole or tart dish.  Make a lattice-work pattern with the reserved long strips and sprinkle the reserved crumbled goat cheese over all.

Bake in a preheated 425˚ oven for 40 minutes or until golden on top.  Serves 4-6.

*To make lime water, put 1 inch of dolomite powder in a 2-quart jar.  Fill jar with filtered water, shake well, cover tightly and let stand overnight.  The powder will settle and the resultant clear liquid is lime water. Store in a cool place and use for soaking cornmeal by pouring out carefully.  [from "Nourishing Traditions" by Sally Fallon}

Chile de Arbol - Chili Oil

Fifteen years ago, Susan Stamberg of National Public Radio reviewed a series of books and noted that sales were good for books which had titles with words as, "handbook", "manual" and "guide".  Who knew that best-selling author, philosopher and scholar, Moises Maimonides, was over 800 years ahead of his time when he released his blockbuster,  "Guide for the Perplexed".

I'm settling into my new home at Villa Victoria Blog and I've been mulling over ways to categorize my posts -- food, history, genealogy, etc.  Chilies are a topic that can be explored infinitely but can be daunting.  I want to make it easier for people to try many different chilies in all their forms and understand their use.  Here then, shamelessly ripping off Maimonides, is the first entry under my new category: CHILIES: A Guide for the Perplexed.

How many times have you gone to your local store and seen a bag of Chiles de Arbol and reached for it and decided against it because all you needed was two little chilies and you knew you would never use the rest of them?In her seminal work, "Capsicum y Cultura, La Historia del Chilli", Janet Long-Solís, Research Associate at the Institute of Historical Studies, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Mexico, describes Chile de Arbol, C. annuum, as an elongated and thin fruit with a pointed apex.  It is native to Jalisco, Nayarit, Aguascalientes and Zacatecas.  When mature the Chile de Arbol turns bright red and grows in bush (tree/arbol) form.  It is very hot.   This chilito can be drizzled over Sopa de Albóndigas, or scrambled eggs with cotija cheese, grilled meats.  Once you have it, it will beguile you.

 Chile de Arbol / Chili Oil

1 oz.        Chiles de arbol, tops removed
.5 oz.       Garlic, smashed (3-4 cloves)
1.5 cups   Corn Oil
1.5 tsp.    Coarse salt

Pre-heat a heavy skillet on medium heat.  Pour in the oil and when the surface of oil starts to quiver, add the smashed garlic an brown on both sides.  Be careful not to burn it.  Take it out immediately and set aside.  Let the oil come back to temperature and add the chilies all at once and stir to distribute evenly.  Carefully turn them over as they brown.  They will be come reddish-brown and will become very fragrant.  This happens very quickly so you must be ready to carefully take them out, set them aside and turn the heat off and move it to a cooler burner. 

When the oil has slightly cooled, put the garlic, the salt, the chilies which you have crushed with a gloved hand, and just enough oil to get the chilies grinding.  Blend on HIGH for a long time.  Gradually add the rest of the oil and blend for another long time.  Taste a tiny bit for salt.  This salsa is fiercly hot and you need just a little.

Pour into a glass jar with a lid.  This salsa keeps for months.