Vegan – Page 9 – Experiments in my New World Kitchen and Garden

Sea Salt from the Yucatan

In April of 2011 I made my way down to the Yucatan with my friends Yunuen and Gabriel. The goal was to eat well, relax, get a tan and drink beer on the beach but inevitably we were drawn to the mercados and eventually to the salt marshes.

The locals have been collecting the salt in the same way for generations.

There were a few collectives in different parts of the coast but we found a group of women who seemed to do the best job and we've now imported salt from them.

I asked Yunuen if you were supposed to crush the salt in a salt grinder and she just laughed. No one in Mexico uses a salt grinder! You just throw an appropriate size chunk of salt into your pot and it dissolves quickly. This isn't intuitive for those of us who like precise measures but I've been using it for two weeks now and I haven't over-salted anything.

A small bowl of the stuff looks pretty cool around the stove. That never hurts!

Sal de Mar at Rancho Gordo.

A Delicious Substitute for Runner Cannellini

Crop failure has made our lives miserable here. People try and be understanding but they want what they want and we wish we could help. Nature has its own plans!

Runner Cannellini are in the ground, doing well and we hope we have a bumper crop. In the meantime, we can offer this delicious Ayocote Blanco as an alternate. It would be great in a cassoulet or a thick white bean and bacon soup. It’s very much like the beloved Runnier Cannellini but it has a thinner skin (making it less desirable for salads) and it has a slight new potato flavor and texture.

As for the Runner Cannellini (and Yellow Indian Woman, for that matter), they’re still in the ground and we’ve yet to know when they’ll be back.

Banana Vinegar: An Incredible Bath for Good Tomatoes

A lot of people are intrigued by our banana vinegar but are at a loss on how to use it. I use it like I would any good vinegar but I'm pretty fast and loose with the rules.

This salad was slmply sliced heirloon tomatoes, doused with banana vinegar. I added some Oregano Indio and chunks of panela cheese (but any simple farmers cheese will do.) At the end just a few drizzles of my best, insanely expensive olive oil and sea salt. It couldn't be easier or more delicious.

Scarlet Runners Are Back (and Bigger Than Ever!)

Just in from our cleaning facility are our Scarlet Runners. This season’s crop was great. The raw beans are large but when cooked they become enormous.

Once cooked, they can be a little starchy, but you can also continue cooking them and they become creamy and almost velvety. I love them.

Beans with Poblano Chiles (Step by Step)

One of my favorite way to eat beans is with roasted poblano chiles. I think green bell peppers are ok but you really can’t compare them to a big, meaty poblano. Bells might have a thick skin but they’re watery and bland. Poblanos are juicy and versatile and they go well with beans, making them my ideal pepper.

Here in California, a lot of fresh poblanos are marked as “Pasilla” peppers. I think it’s a Norteño thing but I might be wrong. Most of Mexico knows this chile as a poblano. I think you should, too.

The chile is almost never eaten without roasting and removing the skin first. I’ve done it a million times and I think I can do it in my sleep, but I do know it’s an odd technique so I’ll fill you in on how I do it.

If you have just one or two peppers, it’s very easy to roast them straight on the fire on a gas oven. If you have a lot, or an electric range, you can roast them in a comal, as in the photo above, or a well-heated cast iron skillet. At first I discounted this method but really, it’s nice not to have to keep a close watch. You have to rotate the chiles and turn them as they char but you don’t have to hoover as you would over an open flame.

This method will leave a lot of un-blistered skin so I use my Bernzomatic torch with a can of gas. I obsessively fill in all the green gaps with blistering, unforgiving heat. When the entire chile is charred and blistered, you are done.

A lot of instructions will have you place the chiles in a plastic bag and let them sweat. I find the idea of sweating in plastic unpleasant, and I’m betting the chiles do, too. I opt for a mixing bowl with a plate on top if I have just a few or a big old grocery store paper bag for a batch. Let them rest about 15 minutes, covered and undisturbed.

I’ve seen Diana Kennedy pull the whole skin off with one stroke using just her fingers. I can almost do this, but not quite. I end up using my trusty kitchen knife to separate and remove the skin. Sometimes it’s whole, often it’s in sections.

You also want to remove the seeds inside. For our needs, you can be sloppy and just cut and remove them. If you’re making chiles rellenos. you want to find a weak section in the side, make a slit with your knife and remove the seeds from there. We just want the chile “meat” for this recipe so you chop the top off and remove the seed head and all the seeds. You can scrape with the dull end of your knife to move any stray seeds.

I’ve seen recipes suggest you rinse the chile in cold water. I’m sure there are situations where you want a super clean chile and this makes sense but I can’t believe you’re not sending flavor down the sink. A few char marks or seeds aren’t going to harm things and they may even help.You also will find that there are some lovely juices that collect as they chile cools down. Save them!

Now you can take the chiles and fry them with oil, onion, garlic and Mexican oregano and you have beautiful rajas of poblano chile to enjoy. Classically they are a great match for eggs or you can take some strips and some cheese as a stuffing for tamales. I’ve fried them with olive oil, garlic and onion and pureed them as a sauce for pasta. It’s pretty unlimited what you can do.

Now let’s take some homemade beans and put them to good use. I used Good Mother Stallard for this recipe but any bean that doesn’t fall apart will be fine, just a little different. I made the beans in my glorious new micacious clay bean pot from Mica Pottery by Jan. I’ll write more about this amazing pot later but for now let me just say: WOW!

When all the ingredients are calm and happy, you just add some of the rajas to a bowl of beans and call it a day. If you are the indulgent sort, you could add a dollop of heavy cream or yogurt. I am the indulgent type, to be sure, but I really just love the beans like this. And if you care, it’s vegan.