Harvest Cooking with Stickman

The growing season's pretty much done here except for a few cool weather crops. Time to see what we can make with the fruits of our harvest.

Today is a cold, rainy day and we have company coming for supper. I'm baking whole wheat bread with buttermilk and honey, and making Queso Fundido and a Moroccan vegetable soup called Harira that we like a lot.

The uncut chiles are to identify what's in the cut pile. I toasted the garlic in a dry frying pan before including in the recipe.

saute the onions in butter, toss in the garlic and some flour and make a roux. Add milk and whisk while heating until thickened. Stir in a cup of chopped tomatoes and the minced peppers and drop the heat to low while adding the shredded cheese a little at a time and allowing it to melt before adding more.

When the cheese is all melted, stir in cilantro, salt and pepper to taste...

and kick it up to where you want it with chile powder. Lastly, stir in a little sour cream. Done!

 

[stickman]

I had a hankering for Asian tonight, so I decided to make a Korean inspired chicken stir-fry with mandu... Korean dumplings made with a filling of kimchi, ginger and ground pork.

First I made the marinade of garlic, scallions, half a grated Asian pear, toasted sesame seeds, white wine, soy sauce, toasted sesame oil, ginger, gochujang and hoisin sauce. Cut up a chicken breast and put in the 'fridge to marinate. Then I cut up the veggies. Oops... I forgot to include the onion until now.

I cheated, since it was a weeknight, and I heated up some frozen mandu. I made the dipping sauce of soy, toasted sesame oil, lemon juice, crumbled toasted kim (laver seaweed), toasted sesame seeds and a spoonful of gochugaru.

 

[Trippa]

Sounds good stickman!! You must be off on your holiday soon?? If I don't catch you before have a very merry Christmas bro. Enjoy and don't forget to add some chilli cheer into the mix!! Peace trippa

 

[stickman]

Sounds good stickman!! You must be off on your holiday soon?? If I don't catch you before have a very merry Christmas bro. Enjoy and don't forget to add some chilli cheer into the mix!! Peace trippa

The same to yourself Trippa! We're heading out the day after tomorrow if the weather co-operates. I'll be in touch remotely until we get back around the new year. Cheers

 

[stickman]

In honor of New Year's Day I made Hoppin' John. I would have included collard greens, but when we got home from Canada I found the Collards had gotten snowed under and pretty well beat up. I also used cranberry beans that I grew this past summer instead of black-eyed peas, but true to the spirit of the thing, I just used the ingredients we had on hand rather than buying more. I gather the tradition of making this bean dish is to eat cheap on the first day of the year so there'll be more for the rest.

 

[RocketMan]

Rick, I like to be liking some Mondu. Were those frozen homemade or that you got from an Asian market?

Hoppin John looks good whether you followed the recipe or not. Shame your collards were trashed. But I don't see the Cornbread

 

[stickman]

Rick, I like to be liking some Mondu. Were those frozen homemade or that you got from an Asian market?

Hoppin John looks good whether you followed the recipe or not. Shame your collards were trashed. But I don't see the Cornbread

Hi Bill
The Mandu were store bought... We have a small Korean market nearby that sells them for the times when we don't want to make them. I do make them, just not that time...

I was feeling a little too stiff to bake cornbread yesterday after shoveling out... Rice was a whole lot easier...

 

[romy6]

I think you need to post more foody pics Ricky Ticky. Your slacking Don't tell me you have been eating out everyday since Jan 2nd

 

[stickman]

Nope... I've been trying to shake the cold I brought home from Canada. Felt enough better yesterday that I poached a chicken in the slow cooker and shredded the meat. Stirred in a sauce made from 6 toasted guajillo chiles, 2 cloves of garlic, half an onion, A can of diced tomatoes, cumin, mexican oregano, salt and pepper. That'll be the filling for chicken enchiladas tonight. I'll post pics of the rest of the process later today.

 

[stickman]

Making Chicken Enchiladas tonight. Started by roasting a couple of medium onions and 3 cloves of garlic on the gas range...

The rest of the ingredients to make the sauce. The beer's for the cook...

Toasting 3 dried Anchos

After toasting, removed the stems and seeds, tore into strips and soaked in hot water for 20 minutes to soften.

Peeled and roughly chopped the onions and garlic and put into a blender with half a tsp of cinnamon and a few tbsp of water and blended to a paste, then
fried the onion mixture for 5 min....

Blended the softened anchos, the water they soaked in and 6 tbsp of fire roasted tomatoes. Added 3 tbsp of my chili powder blend, a quarter cake of Mexican chocolate ground in a mortar and pestle, half tsp Mexican oregano, three quarters tsp ground cumin, half a tsp sugar and 3 and a half cups of homemade chicken stock. Simmered half an hour.

Shredded chicken from last night with toasted guajillo chiles, onion, garlic and tomato sauce...

Warmed corn tortillas in the microwave to keep the fat content down, rolled chicken/chile filling up and packed into casserole dishes...

Baked in a 350 degree oven covered in foil so the tortillas wouldn't dry out too much. Took them out after 20 min. Covered with chile sauce and a mix of shredded cheddar, monterey jack and asadero cheeses and put back in the oven until the cheese had melted and bubbled...

Served with boiled rice and collards steamed with strips of red bell pepper. See if that don't hit the spot!

 

[sicman]

dude!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1 do we get a plate pic with some salsa smothered on top?



looks aweesome!!

 

[romy6]

I second what sic said. Rick that is an amazing display of cullinary skills. Thanks for sharing. Now pass me an enchiladas

 

[stickman]

dude!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1 do we get a plate pic with some salsa smothered on top?



looks aweesome!!

OK... Here you go Sic... Garnished with salsa, sour cream, chopped cilantro and a couple of lime wedges squeezed over all.

The hot sauce is my second fermented sauce made with Orange Habs and Fresno chiles. Hope it meets up with your expectations Jamie...

 

[sicman]

thats what i be talking about

 

[MisterNo]

Wow rick, those Enchiladas look amazing, bet the taste is even better

Are those home made tortillas? They look great. Been searching for a good tortilla recipe, I tried making them two times, they were good, but not great.

 

[stickman]

The thing about corn tortillas made from Masa flour is that they tend to disintegrate in layered casserole or chilaquile dishes. The ones that hold together the best are made from the dried corn itself.

First, a Nixtamal is made by picking over the dried corn kernels to remove small stones and other detritus, and washing them. They are put into a non-reactive vessel like a clay olla, covered with water to 3 cm over top of the kernals and the water is brought to a simmer. Powdered lime is stirred in, a heaping tablespoon per kilo of dried corn, and then the whole is simmered over low heat until the membranous skin can be scraped off the kernels. This should take about 15 minutes. Don't go past this stage, because the corn will become soft and gummy if you overcook it. Remove from heat, cover, and let set overnight. In the morning, drain, rub off all the skins from the kernels and rinse away leftover lime. The kernals should be white. Too much lime and the kernels will have a dull, yellowish color and be slightly bitter. Too little and the skins won't rub off. When cleaned and prepared, the kernels are ground in a steel burr mill to make a very smooth dough. The rest is probably as you made them.

In short... the tortillas are only as good as your Masa. The techniques aren't really used here either, but if I ever get a hand-cranked burr mill and grow flint corn I'll probably do it. I use the store-bought corn tortillas not made from Nixtamal. Glad you liked it... the Guajillo chiles gave the chicken filling a sweet, berrylike flavor that went well with the savory cheese on top.

 

[stickman]

My wife wants Indian tonight, and I've been talking about curries with our friends in the southern hemisphere, so here goes...

Slow Cooker Chicken Curry

Cut up 3 pounds of chicken breast and put it in the bottom of the slow cooker. Processed the can of tomatoes, 2 med onions, 10 cloves of garlic and a 1 inch piece of ginger root in the blender. Stirred in a quarter cup of vegetable oil, half a cup of water, 1 tbsp salt, 1 tbsp turmeric, 1 tbsp garam masala, 1 cup plain yogurt, 1 tbsp red chili powder (I used my Gochu garu), a quarter tsp fenugreek seeds, a 2 inch cinnamon stick, 4 green cardamom pods, 4 whole cloves and 4-6 green chiles of your choice. I used one of PaulG's Bih Jalokias, frozen and a frozen package of 3 of my Serranos.

,
Cook on low for 8 hours. Garnish with fresh cilantro and serve.

 

[stickman]

Plate pic of tonight's chicken curry over Indian fried potatoes (sookhe aloo), apple/raisin chutney and Kashmiri collard greens (haak).

 

[frenzix]

i likee your food.. inspiring and I like the asian twists. Thanks for sharing

 

[stickman]

Thanks Tim, What do you like to cook at home?

 

[stickman]

Having put the glog to bed for the 2014 season, I'll be shifting my attention here for the  fall into winter. The second Frut ferment has finally started to separate, so that's well underway. It's really simple... just 100% pepper mash with 2% kosher salt by weight and enough sweet white wine to cover. This is gonna be a very liquid hot sauce when it's done so I'm gonna have to find a source for dasher bottles, or at least some flow restricters that can snap into the top of standard 7 oz woozies when I'm ready to process it.