Learning to Make Sherbet

So my cold rolls into its third week and I realize I'm going to have to see my doctor. He's not a bad guy and in fact I like his quirky matter-of-fact style and poor bedside manner. But I've been in good health and haven't seen him in over five years and if I allow myself to be truthful, I can't bear the inevitable lecture about losing weight. It's been eight years so I can't use the "I just quit smoking!" excuse anymore. The cold symptoms beat out the dread.

Prickly-pear-sherbert

In prepping me for the doctor, I joked with the nurse about swine flu. She asked if I was concerned. "No, but it would be fun to be a statistic. I mean, a surviving statistic." They didn't even check! No fever. the blood pressure was good and then on to the scale. "You seem surprised by the result!," she said. It was horrible! I probably haven't been on a scale since that last visit. It was a real buzz kill!

I left the doctor's office knowing the cold was at its end and I needed to buy a scale for a weekly weigh-in. I went to Target and as I passed the Housewares section, I decided what I really needed was an ice cream maker. Makes sense, doesn't it? I've always wanted to get David Lebovitz' book, Perfect Scoop and what better time to learn about ice cream and sherbets than now? So I bought the ice cream maker and a scale, with pride, I might add!

Prickly-pear

While waiting for David's book to arrive, I used Pure Dessert
by Alice Medrich. This has been a favorite book ever since I met Alice last autumn at a block party in Oakland. I like to say I don't have much of a sweet tooth but it's not true; it's chocolate that doesn't rock my world. I like it but I hardly crave it. Even though Alice is most famous for chocolate, she knows a lot about other desserts and this book is inspired, useful and delicious. I first made banana ice cream using her recipe and then inspiration hit I decided to make a sherbet using some reduced prickly pear sauce I had.

The final mixture was:
1 1/2 cups of reduced prickly pear (tunas) puree
3 spoonfuls of sugar
juice from 2 limes
water (enough to make a total of 2 cups of liquid for the entire batch)

Prickly-pear-sherbert2

It was really delicious and I think pretty healthy. The reduced tunas (prickly pears) were intense and the sherbet was somewhat tart but it was great and I'd do it again in a heartbeat, maybe with a little less fruit and more water.

Have you made ice cream or sherbet? It's a gas. If anything really interesting comes up, I'll post it here. And the scale? I'm sure it's going to be handy once I unpack it.

San Franciscano Bean

In case you missed it in the Rancho Gordo newsletter, our new bean from the Rancho Gordo-Xoxoc Project is San Franciscano. It’s most likely a kissing cousin to our own Rio Zape, sharing the color and markings and even the hints of chocolate and coffee. But the skin is a little thicker, making San Franciscano good for chilis and salads if you’re so inspired.

San-franciscano-bean

Try them with some salsa, grilled onions and a plop of sour cream.

Souvenirs? Make Mine Pond Scum!

The last time I was in Mexico I was going slower than usual through the market. With both Ruth Alegria and my pal Yunuen at my side, I asked about everything I saw that I didn't know.

A bag of grey dust looked intriguing.

Tequesquite

It turns out to be Tequesquite.

Unless I misunderstood, it's dried lake scum from Lake Texcoco. Chemically, it's similar to bicarbonate of soda. For centuries, it's been used to soften old beans and as a leavening for tamales.

I've used a very small amount in my beans and I can't seem to tell anything much one way or the other. I have heard of people putting baking soda into their beans to soften them but I have to confess this sounds very unappealling. Somehow in my mind, dried lake scum makes more culinary sense.

Tequesquite-2

I think most people would nod their heads and mention how darn interesting that was but I of course thought about how much I could bring back into the states and then my mind raced even further and I wondered about importing it to sell on the Rancho Gordo website. Let's just say I'm working on it!

Another Reason to Like Daniel Patterson

Daniel is one of the Bay Area's better chefs, most known for his Coi restaurant and provocative writings that challenge those lazy among us who take the local food legends as gospel. Unlike a lot of chefs who use the farmers market as a photo op, Patterson can be found almost any Saturday morning shopping for his restaurant. He has a quick wit and good taste- you can't beat that combination!

Mex-jan09--455

Recently he wrote a piece on bison. This is really embarrassing but I had thought the words buffalo and bison were interchangeable. "There’s no such thing as American buffalo. The famously roaming animal
is in fact a bison, and not related to any species of buffalo, which
are indigenous to Asia and Africa. Bison, a meat animal related to
cattle, migrated to North America thousands of years ago across a strip
of land that once joined Siberia to Alaska, and eventually settled in
the vast, arid prairies of the Midwest, " writes Patterson.

I must have been absent the day the explained this but I'm happy to know now and I'll only use the term bison from this day forward!

Doing It the Hard Way: Tortillas From Corn From the Garden

I know my tombstone will read: "He did everything the hard way". I'd just add, "But he had a blast doing it!"

Corn-in-field

This is the story of one batch of tortillas, from seed to taco. Why? Why not!
The corn was from Chiapas and it took awhile to germinate and send up its little soldiers in my Napa plot.

Corn-in-field2

All summer long it did beautifully but there weren't tassels or any sign of corn until almost October. The yield was pitiful, but I got about two or three pounds in the end. My youngest son Nico helped with watering and weeding and couldn't wait to make something good with the starchy corn we were growing.

Nixtamal
 

We dutifully rubbed all the corn out of the cobs (it's miserable work) and later cooked it with cal and let it soak. After 8 hours, we rinsed and rubbed the corn and then later  put it through the Nixtamatic, which made quick work of all 2 pounds.

Nixtamatic-grind

After the grind, we kneaded the masa with wet hands and added maybe a quarter cup of water. Once the dough was fluffy, it was time to get to work.

Massa

Nico insists on rolling out the balls for tortillas. I insist he wash his hands first.

Rolling-masa-balls

Nico prides himself on his tortilla making and he should! He's got a pretty light touch for an 8 year old. The hot comal we're using to heat the tortillas scares him, and this makes me a little happy.

Nico-at-prensa-pre

Nico-at-prensa

As you can see, we also had beans going in the background. You never know when you'll need beans.

Nico-at-prensa2

Before long the first tortilla is ready. Has anything ever tasted better? What a great feeling to produce your own tortillas from your own corn. Nico tries not to get carried away but he almost can't believe it himself. The first tiny tortilla shall be eaten plain, maybe with a little salt, we declare.

Victory-tortilla

It really was delicious. As the tortillas started really coming in, Nico made them bigger and we decided to add flavors to our victory discs.

Tortilla-bean

A few beans and some cotija cheese from the microplane grater.

Stack-tortillas

Our stack grows!

Tacos-rajas

Finally, for breakfast this morning, I made tacos with the Ayocote Morado beans, strips of roasted poblanos with mushrooms in a chile sauce.

The verdict? I'll do it again this summer.

The Return of the Yellow Indian Woman

This post will make many people happy. I can’t think of another bean that people love as much as Yellow Indian Woman. Good Mother Stallard and Eye of the Goat come close but the Yellow Indian Woman reigns supreme, and happily, she’s back.

Yellow-indian-woman-bean

Good flavor, great texture and a luxurious bean broth make it a favorite. I had one restaurant fall in love with it but had to change the name because they found it so offensive. Yes, sometimes we can go a little too far here in the Bay Area. I believe the beans are yellow, and were probably gathered by Indian women. Who knows? But I don’t think it’s a slur of any kind.

These would make great charro beans but of course I love them made with just onion, garlic, a little fat and some water. They can’t be beat!

Order Yellow Indian Woman online.

Elizabeth and Sophie will have them at the market on Saturday.

In other news:
We’re having a horrible time cleaning the beans and we’re also discovering less than stellar crops and dismal crop yields. The runner cannellini turned out to be so minimal we had to pull them. I still don’t have a realistic idea of where we stand but I hope to know sooner than later. As much as you’re missing Eye of the Goat, you have to know my pain is worse than yours!

Beans from Hidalgo

Aren't these gorgeous? I just received them this morning from my friends in Hidalgo.

Moro

Frijol Moro

Ayocote-morado

Ayocote Morado

Coton-de-indio

Cotón de Indio

Sanfran

San Franciscano

Yunuen and Gabriel are mostly known for their delicious xoconostle products under the Xoxoc label but they're also keeping an eye out for local beans and corn and promoting good agriculture in the state of Hidalgo. They live in a dreamy hacienda and I'll write more about them sooner than later. I was introduced to them by Ruth Alegria, who knows just about everyone worth knowing on either side of the border.

Getting this package of beans was like Christmas morning for me and I can't wait to go home and cook them up.

Lima Beans from Chiapas

I'm just back from New York and while I'd love to hang around and watch Alice Faye movies on TV, the reality is many of my trial beans are ready to be harvested. The longer nights, wetter mornings and chance of rain all mean I need to get on it. I loved New York, but to tell you the truth, this view on a Sunday afternoon is what pleases me more than anything.

Rancho_gordo_beanfield

My youngest son, Nico, and I go down the rows, pulling off the dried pods and putting them into paper sacks. We start out chatty but soon it's dead silence as we concentrate and do our work. I notice if Nico doesn't understand something, he just makes it up. I wonder if we don't all do that in some manner.

2_nico_harvest

As I look through the netting on my row, I dare not tell my seven-year-old how much these late afternoons mean to me, for fear that he'd run away or return to video games. I just saw Patti LuPone's electrifying performance in Gypsy, followed by drinks at Sardi's, and yet spying Nico through the beans is my idea of heaven. Thankfully, it seems I have it all, for the moment.

3_limaPlant

The limas have weird smile-shaped pods and they seem to be indeterminate, meaning the beans and flowers just keep coming. The pods dry on their own without me cutting the water.

4_lima_dried

They seem suseptible to some mealy worm but otherwise, they're mostly fine. Luckily, we grew enough for the bugs and for us. 

6_beans

The pods just pop open like a twisted spring if you let them.

5_beans_on-palm

Nico didn't think much of this bean but I love the color. They're even more dramatic as they darken.

7_threshing

We put the dried pods in a pillowcase and then my laborer went to town threshing them by smashing the pillowcase on to the side of the house. Normally we hang the bag piñata-style and whack it with a baseball bat but we didn't have much and this technique worked just as well. And it gave me a chance to exclaim how well all that "growing food" he'd been eating paid off.

8_limachipas

Inside, we separated the pods from the beans and then shook them through a sieve top get any last junk out.

Nothing short of a great day for two bean lovers!

Purple Tortillas

I was in a local mexican grocery store and spotted the odd colored field maize called "Morado" and just knew I had to try some.

Tortillas-morado-masa

I made masa out of it. I have no idea what you do with this corn in Mexico, but it seemed worth a try.

Tortillas-morado2

The dough was slightly less sticky than normal but it cooked well and puffed up in all the right places. It's an odd color but that's part of the fun. The tortillas were delicious and I'd do it again.

Tortillas-morado

Foods the Americas Gave the World

I'm doing some research for a pre-Columbian dinner (details to come shortly) and while I knew that a lot of our indigenous food was a real gift to the world, it's almost staggering seeing it in a list like this. It's not complete (I left off a lot of the hard-to-find exotic fruits and edible weeds) but it's impressive!

LIST OF AMERICAN FOOD PLANTS
Source: Foods America Gave the World
By A. Hyatt Verrill, 1937 L.C. Page & Co Books

Diego-rivera-illust
 

Agave
Cacao
Sarsaparilla
Sassafras
Corn
Quinoa
Squash
Sunflower
Wild rice
Avocado
Gooseberry
Blackberry
Sapote
Blueberry
Cacti (nopales and tunas)
Cashew
Cranberry
Elderberry
Grapes (particular species are native to N. America)

Potatoes
Guava
Mamey
Papaya
Persimmon
Pineapple
Raspberry
Strawberry (Particular strains found in Chile and Colombia)
Achiote
Beans
Chiles
Chayote
Tomatillos
Lambs quarters
Tomato
Mushrooms (not exclusive to the Americas)
Peanut
Purslane

Riviera-plaque

Can you imagine an Indian curry without a chile? Italian food without tomatoes?
I would have bet that persimmons and purslane were Asian. Do you know? I've seen purslane listed as both Asian and as Mayan.

Images: The top illustration is from Mexico: A Study of Two Americas by Stuart Chase and the photo is a detail from a mural in the Palacio Nacional in Mexico City, both by Diego Rivera.