Holiday Cooking – Experiments in my New World Kitchen and Garden

Flageolet Salad with Lemon, Radishes, and Oven-Roasted Tomatoes.

A vegan salad to be enjoyed on its own or served with traditional Easter dishes.

I don’t think of Easter as an inspirtational meal but that’s changing. I grew up with industrial hams in cans and lots of bad chocolate. I was invited to my friends’ Easter celebration and when I heard that there’d be both ham and lamb, a lemony vegan side dish seemed in order.

Raw, they have almost no taste. Roasted in a low oven, they become delicious jewels.

It’s clearly too early for good tomatoes but I’ve been craving them after the long winter, which seemed to end overnight here in Northern California. Cherry tomatoes sliced in half, dusted with salt and pepper, drizzled with olive oil, and then topped with fresh time went into the 250F oven for just about an hour.

You can use them in beans, salads, and even pasta.

They don’t compare to in-season tomatoes but they’re terrific. Use them like sun-dried tomatoes in salads, pasta, and of course, with beans. I left the thyme stems in as long as possible but be sure to pick them out before serving.

One pound of dry beans yields about six cups of cooked. Make them a day ahead so they can cool and you’ll have one more thing done the day you serve them.

It’s not a bad idea to make sure beans ahead of time. Bring them to room temperature before you strain them and be sure to save the liquid for another meal. Take care that the beans are well-salted. Things tend to need a bit more when they’re served room temperature or cold.

Recipe: Flageolet Salad with Lemon, Radishes, and Oven-Roasted Tomatoes
6 cups cooked Rancho Gordo Flageolet beans, cooked (from one pound dried)
1 medium red onion, chopped fine
1 bunch Italian parsley, chopped fine
1 bunch radishes, cleaned and sliced thin with a mandolin or vegetable peeler
12 ounces cherry tomatoes, sliced in half
5 sprigs thyme, leaves stripped from stems
olive oil
1 ½ lemons for juicing
salt
pepper

Heat the oven to 250F. Arrange the tomatoes, cut side up, on an ungreased baking tray. Add the thyme leaves to the tomatoes, along with a little salt. Add the stems and any leftover thyme and then drizzle a light dose of olive oil over the tomatoes. Cook for about an hour until the tomatoes are slightly shriveled but not dry. Allow to cool and then roughly chop them.

Toss the beans with the tomatoes, onion, parsley, and olive oil. Add the juice of one lemon and check for tartness. It should be very lemony. Add more lemon juice as needed.

Salt and pepper to taste. Just before serving, add the radish slices and more parsley, if desired. Optionally, you can garnish with a lemon slice.

My New Favorite Dish for Christmas: Bacalao Mexicano

I don’t know if this is a tradition anywhere in Mexico, but this strikes me as a generous, somewhat easy to execute Christmas dish. I’ve been making trial runs, and my family has loved it. I guessed that this recipe would serve 4-6 people, but this made my mother laugh. I reminded her that not everyone would be having seconds and thirds like she was. I think it would feed 6 normal people just fine.

It’s handy to keep a box of salt cod in your fridge. It needs to soak and be de-salted before you cook but this is easy and only a little time consuming. I’ve seen many different times for soaking but I think 24 hours is plenty.

I used a large, clay cazuela but a small stock pot or soup pot will be fine.
Many recipes call for almonds and raisins but for me it’s almost too much. I love the cod-tomato-chile combination as it is.

All of this is approximate and vague. It’s hard to mess this up.

Recipe: Bacalao a la Mexicano

1 pound salt cod, soaked for 24 hours with several changes of water
1 large onion, chopped small
4 cloves garlic, minced
Extra virgin olive oil
5 canned plum tomatoes and their juice, roughly chopped
1 teaspoon Rancho Gordo Oregano Indio
¼ cup capers (I use salt-packed Italian capers, soaked for about 20 minutes with a few changes of water)
½ cup green olives (I used Castelvetrano olives with pits, which I smashed with a knife and removed the pits before chopping roughly)
5 cooked potatoes, quartered
2 red bell peppers, roasted and roughly chopped
Salt to taste
3 jalapeños en escabeche, chopped
1 bunch flat leaf parsley, chopped
Optional and traditional: ¼ cup raisins and ¼ cup slivered almonds

Poach the cod in water with an onion, over medium low heat for about 20 minutes. When cooked, set aside and allow to cool.

Saute the onions and garlic in a pot in plenty of olive oil and saute until soft over medium low heat for about 15 minutes. Add the tomatoes and the oregano and continue to simmer for another 10 minutes.

Remove the cod from the soaking water, reserving the cooking water. Once cool, shred it with your hands to small, bite size pieces. Shred the fish small, not tiny.

Add the potatoes, peppers, capers and olives to the pot. Stir gently and then carefully add the fish and simmer for 10 minutes or so over medium low heat. The dish should be like a thick soup with some broth. If it seems to dry, add a little of the reserved cooking water from the cod. Taste for salt.

The dog didn’t get any bacalao but he was there and I felt it should be documented.

Leftover Strategies: Grits with Black Eyed Peas and Bacon

Earlier, I wrote about cooking on my wood-burning stove and the success I had making grits. It was simple and fun but even having given away a lot to my mother, there was still plenty left.

This morning, I gently heated the grits with a little chicken stock. Meanwhile, I sauteed some chopped bacon pieces, drained the excess fat and then stirred in some leftover Black Eyed Peas. I made a bed for the pea mixture and yes, it was ugly but so delicious that I can’t wait to make it again. It fills you up and I felt I should go build a pyramid or a freeway or something. This is the perfect cold weather breakfast for playing or working outside.

Not being a Southerner, I don’t know if I’ve done something offensive or not. I based this on a recipe for polenta and Cranberry beans from my first book. Please forgive me if I have made a blunder.

A vegetarian option would be to replace the bacon with my mushroom carnitas recipe. You could also do it with just the peas and polenta but I think you deserve better.

Black Eyed Peas and Greens

My romance with Black Eyed Peas continues. I had some very poor dishes made with very old peas in the past. Aside from bringing luck on New Years Day, new crop, home-made Black Eyed Peas are just plain delicious. Like Lima Beans and Teparies, they aren’t as versatile as regular bean. They have a more vegetable flavor that is easy to like but not as easy to add to everything.

I had leftover plain Black Eyed Peas and added them to sauteed greens, in this case they were Stinging Nettles from the farmers market, but chard, broccoli rabe or even mustard greens would have been good.

You can still order our Super Lucky 2017 Black Eyed Peas in time for New Years Day if you do it soon. We’re coming to the end of our crop this year but we’ll have them again this fall.

At the Movies: Video on Making the Luckiest Black Eyed Peas Ever.

This is the recipe that switched me from passive Black Eyed Pea consumer to a true advocate.
It’s very simple, traditional and delicious. New Years Day will be a happy one with this going on in the kitchen.

Our Black Eyed Peas were harvested this autumn and when we run out, that’s it until next year.

You can order Rancho Gordo Super Lucky Black Eyed Peas today.

How Lucky Can You Get? Black Eyed Peas for the New Year

It seems that for a lot of people, 2016 wasn’t a great year.

As 2018 approaches, it seems as if we need all the help we can get. Eat Black Eyed Peas on New Years Day for luck. Please. Just do it, just in case. We’re counting on you.

It may mean nothing or it may be the key to success in the new year, but either way, eating Black Eyed Peas couldn’t hurt!

I was searching the New York Times for Martha Rose Shulman’s excellent vegetarian Black Eyed Peas with Collard Greens recipe when I stumbled upon all of these great looking Black Eyed Pea recipes, especially this one by David Tanis.

Our peas were harvested late autumn and are about as fresh as a dried pea can be. We have a limited amount and once they’re gone, that’s it for the season. As of this writing, we’ve reached our cutoff for Christmas delivery via ground shipping, but you can still order Rancho Gordo Super Lucky 2018 Black Eyed Peas and they’ll make it to you in time for New Years Day.

New Crop: Flageolet with Lemon Vinaigrette

At one point during all of our cassoulet preparations, I was speaking to cassoulet expert Kate Hill about beans to use in the iconic dish. Years ago, I used to recommend Flageolet. Kate winced politely. She is very fond of the bean, just not in a cassoulet. She offered instead the advice to brighten them up with a lemon vinaigrette and I took this to heart.

Our new crop of Flageolet beans are in and they’re some of the best we’ve had in years. They are an odd bean. Maybe a little more vegetable-like than most beans, but not like limas or peas. They still are a bean. They have a thick skin but somehow they are delicate at the same time. They’re also extremely mild so they take on whatever you can give them.

I cooked these simply with a bay leaf, and salt once they started to get soft. Conventional wisdom says to dress them while they’re still warm but I had a hunch that I wanted to toss them with a vinaigrette after they’d cooled. I wanted two distinct flavors. Beans and lemons, not lemony beans. Don’t forget the parsley. It’s not just for color.

For the vinaigrette, I pounded a garlic clove with some salt, thyme and then 3 tablespoons or so of fresh lemon juice. Once this was all mashed well, I drizzled in extra virgin olive oil and the sauce emulsified. I think I will try an anchovy filet next time. Of course you can do this in a blender, food processor or just whisk the ingredients but I prefer the drama of a mortar and pestle. You obviously will need to adjust the oil to acid ratio as you see fit but this should be a bright dish.

A lot of people serve fish on Christmas Eve and I think this would be the perfect side dish.

Buy Flageolet beans at Rancho Gordo.

Holidays at RG: The Rancho Gordo-Xoxoc Project Sampler

ranchogordo-1120782 — Gabriel and his lovely daughter, getting a kick out of climbing a tree.

When my friend Ruth Alegria told me I needed to meet Yunuen and Gabriel, I shrugged my shoulders and thought, why not? I didn’t understand the work they were doing to promote the sour prickly pears known as xoconostle and even if I had, at best, I would have thought it was interesting. I couldn’t have dreamed that our lives would be intertwined for the next 9 years.

Together we’ve created a market for traditional Mexican farmers to grow their heritage beans (and not give in to pressure to grow commodity beans for the superstores.) Each year, we buy and sell more and it’s a great situation where everyone wins.

To celebrate this great marriage, we have the Rancho Gordo-Xoxoc Project Sampler. Now you’re a part of this great experiment as well.

It’s quite likely this is the first time they’ve offered outside of their region, let alone outside of Mexico. The beans have been saved and passed down for generations and now you have a unique opportunity to try them for yourself.

AYOCOTE BLANCO
Big and fat and creamy, there really isn’t a task in the kitchen it can’t handle. When fully cooked, it’s somewhat starchy and has a mild potato flavor, which screams for bacon or pancetta. Keep cooking and they go from dense to creamy and even a little buttery. You can make an elaborate dish like a cassoulet or you can just drizzle your best olive oil on the top and enjoy them with no fuss.

AYOCOTE MORADO
Ayocote Morado are a cousin to the more famous Scarlet Runner and can be used anyplace a runner bean is called for. These beans are big and creamy but the pot liquor (or “caldo”) is thin and flavorful, almost like a boullion. They cook up dark in color, so save a few of them to remember their lovely purple coloring when raw!

Remember, Free Shipping on orders over $75

SAN FRANCISCANO
From the state of Hidalgo (and sometimes seen in Puebla), these lilac-and-black marked beans are probably a very near cousin to what we’ve grown as Rio Zape. Like Rio Zape, they have a luxurious pot liquor (bean broth) with hints of coffee and chocolate. San Franciscanos have a sturdier skin, making them more versatile and usable in salads and composed dishes as well as chili, soups, and stews. But we think the best way to enjoy them is plain, and pass around the salsas and garnishes like grilled onions, grilled cactus paddles, limes, Mexican oregano and fresh cheese.

SANGRE DE TORO
A classic red bean from the heart of Mexico, Sangre de Toro (or “Bull’s Blood”) is a tremendous and versatile bean that can be used in Southern dishes as well as in Caribbean and Central American meals. Dense and meaty, Sangre de Toro has a good pot liquor and can be used whenever red beans are called for. We like them for salads, chili, red beans and rice, and soups.

Order the Rancho Gordo-Xoxoc Project Sampler now.

Holidays at RG: Heirloom Corn Prepared Hominy

If there’s a better Christmas Eve dish, I don’t know what it is.

Posole is the essential nixtamalized grain, from rare heirloom corn, for hominy stews and more. Dried hominy/posole is superior to the canned version in every way.

In very limited quantities, we have gorgeous, colored heirloom corn dried hominy. These rare corns only need to be soaked and simmered to be enjoyed.

Cacahuazintle is cherished in Mexico for the very best traditional pozole. The extra large kernels and white color are preferred. The Blue is hearty and also works well in salads. The Red corn has less natural fat and has a more “whole grain” taste.

Leftovers for all three can be ground to make superior heirloom grits.

This is a mixture of all three corns. Looks interesting but I don’t know if it’s essential.

Surprisingly, this was the best thing I did with my last batch. It’s a simple vegetable soup with posole. I ate tons of this and I’d do it again.

Seafood and fish for Christmas Eve seems most traditional. We have an easy recipe for you to consider here.

Buy Holiday Posole at Rancho Gordo now. You can choose between red, blue and Cacahuazintle, or one of each.

Look, Ma! I Made Me a Cassoulet!

I spent Sunday finally making a cassoulet. I’ve been curling up with Kate Hill’s Cassoulet: A French Obsession, for a week or so and finally decided to take the plunge.

I will admit I’d been working myself up into a frenzy about this and now that I’ve done it, I can say in all honesty that it’s easily within anyone’s grasp to make an excellent cassoulet.

I made a few compromises but it’s easy to stay within Kate’s guidelines. Well, a lot. Please don’t hold it against her that I improvised so much. Her book is the real deal. The real secret is time. If you do a little prep, you only have to assemble things and then wait as it cooks in a relatively low oven. The pay off is the dish itself. How can you be in anything less than a great mood when you see this monster come bubbling towards you out of the oven?

One of the steps is to brown the meat. After I’d finished, I tossed some bacon cubes into the pan and after they were cooked, I added some white wine and butter and used this as a sauce for some pasta. It was the perfect lunch while we waited for the cassoulet to finish and it made me feel as if I were a very good cook.

So my advice is to not be intimidated, give yourself plenty of time for low, slow cooking, don’t get too hung up on the specific meats and sausages and make sure you have lots of friends over because this is one rich dish. Per Kate’s advice, I served it with a very acid salad to counter the debauchery of the cassoulet.

Another tip from Kate: Keep warm bean broth on hand for basting. You may not need it but it’s sure handy if you do.

One last thought: Nobody seems to mention this part but your house smells incredible for hours.

Cassoulet beans (from French Tarbias seedstock) at Rancho Gordo
Cassoulet: A French Obsession by Kate Hill at Rancho Gordo
Cassoulet Gift Box featuring 2 pounds of beans and Cassoulet by Kate Hill