Ingredient Spotlight – Page 21 – Experiments in my New World Kitchen and Garden

Great Clay Pots via the Web

I’ve talked about Bram before and now it’s your turn to see what all the excitement is about. I’m lucky enough to live 25 minutes away from the square in Sonoma but if it’s a little further for you, you can still order from them over the web.

Most of their stock is theirs exclusively, from Egypt, but they also carry tagines, chamba (from Colombia) and lots of other essential clay pieces. The pots go directly on the gas (or electric with the help of a heat diffuser) and if you love to cook, you’ll find you use your clay pots everyday.

Naturally, for beans, there just isn’t a better way to cook them.

Visit Bram online.

Harvesting Beans

It's all coming down to the harvest. You plan, you plant, you pray. And now the moment of truth.

Things are looking very good.

This afternoon we harvested a new bean, Hutterite Soup. It's a pale yellow and supposedly has a very thin skin making it ideal for soups and chowder. The plant responded well to California.

The harvester is somewhat of a Rube Goldberg-type machine. The machine rolls over aisles of podded beans and after some rough massaging, beans come out almost clean. The pods are ejected out the back but before they make their way down, they're cut up by a circular blade that helps them to decompose, making them a sort of green manure.

There are some dirt clods and debris but most of the cleaning is actually done here in the field.

The whole operation is very loud and the machinery shakes like the '06 quake, but the result is glorious beans!

After we finished this field, we wondered over to another and I want to show you your future:

This photo is me in the fields holding a huge mound of, sit down, Good Mother Stallard, everyone's favorite bean.

I'm sorry to say the harvest won't be anywhere near enough to last the year. but it's a start!

Popcorn and Chick Peas

I can officially announce that we have garbanzos and popcorn back in stock. The popcorn will last a good long while but we grow a very limited amount of garbanzos because they aren’t a new world product and we grow them for me because I want them and the commercially available dried ones stink in California (and I assume beyond our fair state). In other words, get them while you can.

Fun with a Barbecue

It may surprise you to know that I have very little experience with grilling or barbecues. If I've been the host, trying to cook with live coals seems at odds with making the rest of the dinner and it's too stressful. But there is nothing like it.

Dipping my toe into the waters, I bought this nice little cast-iron grill, which is small but a major step up from a hibachi. It's very easy to use and I am a little smitten already.

The tamal wrappers are of course soaked corn husks and those are filled with fish and salsa. One was a corn salsa and the other, much more satisfying, was a tomato chipotle salsa.

The beans in the clay pot were just reheating but I imagine if you were inspired, they could have cooked from the beginning on the fire.

Finally, the coals were still going strong so I added some corn.

It was a swell dinner.

Fresh Crop: Flor de Junio “Silvia”

Look what we're preparing to put on the web:

This is a Flor de Junio (June Flower) bean called Silvia. It's this year's harvest and was just cleaned and bagged from a farmer in Guanajuato, Mexico. I'm so excited I can't keep still! They are gorgeous and delicious. But like all the Flor de Mayo and Flor de Junio beans I've tried, they won't age well. We have a bumper crop of them but if you're interested, you'll want to get them now and enjoy them within 8 months or so.

I'll keep you posted as they become available.

Deep Fried Worms

This post may not be for the weak and sensitive. Last week in Mexico I enjoyed a plate of gusano del maguey, or worms, as we say in English. I felt I was being very brave by eating them but to be honest, they were delicious and easy to like.

Wikipedia tells us they are nutritious as well.

You notice here at Fonda San Angel in Mexico City, they're served with blue corn tortillas, guacamole and a guajillo chile sauce. Again, very easy to enjoy.

Requesón

Requesón is a spreadable cheese that reminds me of an unsalted ricotta.

I recently had it in Hidalgo. The cheese was prepared by frying it with spring onions, garlic and epazote. Then a big, healthy blob was added to a bowl of beans.

I bought some recently and did the same, subbing red onion for scallions. Then I added it to the middle of an omelet.

Of course, beans would have been a great addition.

I found mine in the butcher section of my local Mexican market. I'm told it's used throughout Latin America.

New Beans from Hidalgo

First off, we’ve reinstated Reboseros on the web. We have a limited crop until September.

Now, may I present some new beans that arrived today from Hidalgo? I hope you are as excited as I am about their arrival.

Ayocote Negro: big, ebony beans that are worth buying just to look at them raw!

Lila, or Apetito beans:

and perhaps the best news of all, a medium sized white bean, Alubia Criollo. It’s actually a smaller runner bean but it can be used all over the map, in Mexican food and of course European staples like beans and clams with chorizo and pasta fazool:

We’ll try and get these added to the web site by the end of the week.

Mushrooms and Nopales: A Great Combination

I was watching Bobby Flay's weird TV program, Throwdown. What's the point of competitive cooking? I don't get any thrills out of it. This episode had two brothers in Los Angeles who made chile rellenos with nopales and mushrooms and they looked great. Flay "challenged" them to a throwdown to see who could make the better chile relleno. Flay came up with a vomit-inducing eggplant filled relleno with a cornmeal batter and a sauce with balsamic vinegar. His version looks and sounds vile. I think if he left off the sauce and used a bell pepper instead of a poblano, maybe I'd take a bite, but his thing sounds a hot mess.

Food Network published the Flay relleno but not the authentic Mexican one. I didn't watch the whole show so I didn't know who won or how it was made but I did start humming a happy samba at the thought of nopales and mushrooms. So I improvised a batch. Along with sauteed onions and garlic, I added a chopped nopal (prickly pear paddle) and a bunch of chopped crimini mushrooms. Finally a chopped Roma tomato and a serrano chile and salt. When it was all cooked, I chopped about 2 spoonfuls of epazote and added it to the pan.

That night I stuffed the mixture into peeled poblano chiles and added some cotija cheese before heating it in my toaster oven. The next morning the mixture made its way into an omelet. Both dishes were great and worthy of your experimentation.

It’s Spring and I think I’ll Renew My Vows

My prickly pear cactus has gone insane with growth and I'm eating nopales like crazy. I just can't get over how borderline negligent I am with this plant and all it does is give. Who needs a pet? You feed it and give up vacations because no one wants to dog-sit and you must deal with it's bowels. A prickly pear gives you a vegetable and a fruit and it's healthy and you can take a last minute trip to Paris without worry. You tell me which is the better deal!

One lilttle harvest tip I just learned: Cut the paddles at the end of the day. They have more acid in them in the morning! It's true.

If you've noticed me looking radiant lately, I might tell you my secret. For breakfast I take a cleaned paddle and blend it with the juice of two oranges and a little water and a hit of honey. When you hear someone hitting "high C", you'll know it's me.

HELP WANTED: I would like to pickle and can my extra paddles. Can paddles be made with a water bath or must they be pressure canned. They're so acidic I can't believe they need the extra equipment but I've been wrong before.