Experiments in my New World Kitchen and Garden

Cooking With Clay, Part 4

It’s not just bean pots, of course, for cooking with clay. Tagines, comales and cazuelas all work on a direct flame. This Mexican cazuela is from my pal Chris and it has somewhat high sides, so there’s not as much evaporation as there would be on a broader one.

A nice feature, aside from the gentle cooking and rustic good looks, is the handles stay cool for quite a while.

I recently made a chile sauce in the cazuela. I soaked some anchos and New Mexican chiles in hot water for about 20 minutes and then added them, along with 1 small onion and 4 cloves of garlic, to a blender with enough of the soaking water to keep the blades moving. Then I added a spoonful of lard to the preheated cazuela and "fried" the sauce until it was reduced to a thick consistency, almost like tomato paste.

After about 10 minutes of constant stirring, I added about a cup of pureed tomatoes and a ladle full of turkey stock I had handy. I threw in some Mexican oregano for good measure. Stirring occasionally, this cooked for 20 minutes on a gentle simmer. Once the fat starts rising and shimmering, you’re close to being done. Salt to taste.

This would be a great sauce for enchiladas or you could thin it out a bit with water or stock and gently poach a cut up chicken in it.

Ayacote Beans from Cholula

Two of my favorite friends, Sharon Peters and Connie Green, were traveling through Mexico and were kind enough to keep their eyes peeled for interesting beans for the Rancho Gordo trial gardens.

One of the prettiest is this taupe colored runner bean (ayacote in Mexico) that is quite big. They found it in a market in Cholula.

As usual, I took one cup of the beans, soaked them and then cooked them with onion and garlic that had been sauteed in olive oil. Even soaked, they took a long time to cook but they were pretty nice. A distinct potato texture and thick skin.

Ayacotes are often served with chile sauce so after they were cooked and salted, I added a sauce I’d made earlier from ancho and New Mexican red chiles.

I think they’re good but perhaps not so distinct that we’d grow them out. I have a dozen other runner beans to test.

Another Variation on Chile Relleno

After falling in love again with Christmas Limas, I was determined to do something more with them.

I boiled a plain old russet potato and then mashed it with some Christmas limas until it was like mashed potatoes. This alone was nice and if you had lots of parsley, you could even serve it as a side dish. I used this as the bottom layer. I took some poached turkey breast and tossed it with some Rio Fuego sauce and then added this to the charred, skinned poblano chile. I topped it with Manchego cheese and heated it in the oven until the cheese melted. I then made a little bra out of some corn husks to hold it all together. It was a winner!

Christmas Limas

Christmas Limas (also known as Chestnut Limas) are one of the prettiest beans anywhere. They’re a true lima bean (Phaseolus lunatus) and probably from Peru but they’ve made their way into heirloom gardens everywhere.

They’re called Christmas limas for their distinct chestnut flavor. I hadn’t made them for awhile and it was almost nostalgic when I did last week. Why don’t I make them more often? They have a thick skin and they’re starchy, but it’s a light potato-like starch and a great flavor.

I started thinking about the starchiness of the beans and then mashed up some with a fork. It was like mashed potatoes, only with protein and a more interesting flavor. I think the possiblities are endless from a puree to a fritter to a pasta stuffing.

In the meantime, it made a great taco filling with some cotija cheese and hot sauce.

Clay Pot Cooking, Part 3

This is the last beautiful shot of one of my favorite pots. It’s very simple and classic and the beans always turn out well in it. I also love it because it reminds me of a really fun trip to Mexico.

I say "last" because this last weekend I had the bright idea to reheat the beans on the grill while cooking a nice lamb roast from The Fatted Calf. The grill wasn’t spotless, let’s be honest, and lamb is rather fatty, so while I frolicked in the pool, the grill started to smoke a lot and really did a number on the pot.

That burnt thing top left is the lamb roast. It was delicious despite the way it looked.

The good news is that heating or cooking the beans like this adds a delicious out-of-doors flavor and while the pot isn’t so pretty, it’s even more rustic and maybe even a little flavored now.

Marrow Beans

Marrow beans are small white beans. Unlike the more glamorous Runner Cannellini or Flageolet, Marrow beans work well in any recipe calling for a white bean, navy bean or alubia. Their texture is light and almost airy but they don’t have that annoying "baby food" texture that navy beans can have.

Normally I cook them with a simple mirepoix but recently I was in a rush and had to use what was handy. This ended up being simply some onions and once soft, a little salt. Guess what? They were glorious.

There’s another bean, apparently from England, called a marrowfat bean. I had thought they were the same but apparently the marrowfats are large like a runner bean. And also delicious, just in a different way.

The Heirloom Bean Book- It’s a Reality

This last week we started our first photo shoot for Heirloom Beans: Recipes from Rancho Gordo. As if having a book coming out isn’t enough of a treat, the photos are Sara Remington and the styling is by my personal hero, Carrie Brown of Jimtown.

Most of the book is being shot at Jimtown itself. I was at the grand opening this very weekend 16 years ago and it’s been my favorite place in Sonoma county ever since. I’m not going to tell you what year I met Carrie in. You wouldn’t believe it if I told you.

I took a couple of shots of the gals at work but I realized quickly my best effort would be to stay out of the way.

The Local Foods Wheel

Maggie Gosselin works for CUESA, the producers of the Ferry Plaza farmers market, but she also has many other projects, like writing for Edible San Francisco and making a really nice food wheel that helps shoppers make smart choices with seasonal food. It’s not preachy or absolute or political. It’s fun and I’ve seen two young boys spend half an hour with it and then demand a trip to the farmers market. Now that’s magic!

The Local Foods Wheel is produced by Maggie Gosselin, Sarah Klein and Jessica Prentice. Visit localfoodswheel.com for more information.

Preparing Cactus: From Nopal to Nopalitos

Are your cactus ready to harvest? Mine are and since I’ve had a few requests for instructions on getting them ready to eat. I’d thought I’d do a little photo essay.
When the cactus is a paddle, the Mexicans call it a nopal, or nopales for plural. Once it’s cleaned and trimmed, the pieces are called nopalitos.

First, grab a dish towel and hold one end of the paddle as you make a nice clean slice at the base:

Carefully wrap the dishtowel around the thick base of the paddle, but first notice how butch my hands look in this photo:

Slowly cut along the outside of the paddle. There are too many spines to bother with so just cut around the paddle:

Slowly go from base to top and remove the spines. You’ll be surprised how easily they come off but you won’t get them all. No worries. Also a common question is how to skin the paddle, but you don’t. In fact, do your best to just get the spines and as little of the paddle as possible:

Now carefully go in all directions and get every last spine until there are none left:

If you’re grilling your paddle, make cuts as shown so the paddle will cook evenly:

If you’re boiling your cactus, cut it up into little squares. I’d prefer it of you take a little more care than I have in this photo:

Rinse well and let drain:

It’s that easy. If you’re boiling, I have a post here.
Enjoy your nopales, but remember, like love, they can hurt!

Blue Speckled Teparies

[This was on of my first posts when I started blogging but I think it’s been buried and forgotten. As things develop in the fields, I think it would good to look back at this crop. – Steve]

These
beans were incredibly fast growing. They first sprouted up after 5
days! The flowers arrived at about 5 weeks and they were small lilac
blossoms. The seem to blossom once, make a pod and then the plant
starts to fail. I’ve read severely cutting the water produces even more
blossoms. I’ll experiment next year.

Special watering techniques perfected by Nico.

The first blossoms.

The first beans!

The plants to start to fail and it’s near time to harvest.

Nico helps harvest the bean pods.

Dried pods.

The beautiful Blue Speckled Tepary bean. Phaseolus acutifolius
is native to the American Southwest and northern Mexico. There are
still wild forms growing but the plant was domesticated over 5,000
years ago by various Indian tribes. Since they are an excellent source
of protein and fiber, and are drought tolerant, they should be
respected as an important crop. Here in California, we’ve been growing
them commercially for almost a century.