Salsa Love

I love salsa. In my estimation, a tortilla chip is merely a vehicle for more salsa.  Even if the basket of chips is totally full, I often find myself breaking chips into small pieces before dipping into the salsa bowl; anything to get more salsa on a chip.  

My trip to Mexico this week reminded me of how good really good, really fresh salsa is.  Meal after meal (breakfast included), I found myself surrounded with bowls of salsa--red, green, chipotle, and wow, was it amazing.  I even got the recipe for one of them (the waitress at our hotel spoke flawless Spanish as well as English with a disconcertingly thick Atlanta accent; she was very sweet and wrote one of my favorite recipes down for me), but that will have to wait until a later post so that I can take the time to try and perfect it first.

Making salsa is deceptively more difficult than it would appear given the simplicity of the ingredients.  The right blend of tomatoes, onions, and acid takes some perfecting; there should be tomatoes without being tomatoey, onions without being oniony, etc.  Last year I found a really good recipe that holds up to all of these criteria; this recipe is shared below. I've adapted the original recipe by adding red wine vinegar; I find this flavor adds some depth to the flavor of the resulting salsa.  I also think that letting it sit for an hour or two before serving allows the flavors to more fully mesh.  Enjoy!

Salsa Mexicana

Adapted from Bon Appetit

2 medium tomatoes, diced 

1 medium white onion, minced

2 jalapeño chiles (more if you like it spicier), diced

1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro

juice of 1/2 a lime 

dash of red wine vinegar

salt

Mix tomatoes, onion, jalapeno, cilantro, lime juice, and red wine vinegar in a bowl.  Season to taste with salt.  If you have the time, let sit at room temperature for 1-2 hours before serving.

Yogurt Chicken II

There's something that has always seemed a bit daunting about cooking Indian food.  I'm not sure if it is the exotic spices or the sheer number of dishes that usually grace the table, but for a long time I just left well enough alone and didn't even attempt it.  Last year, however, I discovered how misguided I'd been for all of those years and now my standby recipe collection includes several really delicious and surprisingly easy Indian recipes.  In fact, upon arriving home from Africa, my first craving and culinary decision was to make Yogurt Chicken II, the pinnacle of my Indian cooking accomplishments.

Learning to cook Indian food started with a class I took at the Cook's Warehouse in Decatur with my friend K, taught by the woman who owns Bjojanic, an Indian tapas restaurant that is supposed to be great but I've never actually been to.  The class was a riot, in part because the woman who taught it has a larger than life personality, in part because the group that K and I ended up cooking with totally messed up our dish (navratan korma).  As it turns out, messing up a dish in cooking class means learning how to fix a dish, which actually makes for a much more educational experience.   Although two years later I have absolutely no recollection of how to fix poorly made navratan korma, I did learn two secrets to Indian cooking.  First secret: cook the onions for a really long time.  If you have to ask if they are done, they aren't.  Second secret:  salt (I felt my blood pressure rising just watching our instructor adding more salt to things, and I barely salt things myself, but I will admit that salt has a magical effect on Indian cooking).


The dish that led me to firmly establish Indian food as part of my repertoire was an amazing cumin chicken that one of the women in my book club made.  It was so good, I had to have the recipe, and ended up asking for the cookbook for Christmas last year.  I have to admit that the title of the cookbook, 'Passionate Meals,' gave me a moment's pause, but title aside this is a fantastic cookbook.  The recipes are straightforward but have just enough complexity to make them interesting, and so far everything I've made has been delicious (with the exception of the cumin chicken that the woman in my bookclub made; I took the salt secret a bit too far on that one, but that was my doing, not the recipe).  


I can't say enough how much I like Yogurt Chicken II (Yogurt Chicken I is also good but II is better).  There's something magical about cooking chicken in all of that yogurt, it just absorbs into the meat, resulting in a rich and well spiced sauce that is the ultimate Indian comfort food.  Serve it with homemade raita, rice, and a green vegetable and you have the perfect 'welcome home' meal.

Yogurt Chicken II

Adapted from “Passionate Meals” by Ismail Merchant

2 lbs chicken thighs or legs

1 onion, chopped

1 bay leaf

1 ½ cups yogurt

2 tsp cumin seeds

½ tsp salt

1 ½ tsp ground red pepper (hot is better)

1 tomato, coarsely chopped

2 Tbsp vegetable oil

In large, heavy skillet heat vegetable oil until hot over medium heat.  Add onion and bay leaf and cook until onion is browned (let it get really good and browned).  Add cumin seeds and chicken and sear until chicken is browned on all sides.  Mix yogurt and 1/2 cup water and add to chicken along with red pepper, salt, and tomato.  Stir to blend, then reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer for 1 hour.

More on Airline Food, and Nescafe

Although there are numerous good restaurants in Dar es Salaam and Nairobi, for some reason I haven't felt compelled to blog about them on this trip. I will say that if dining in Dar, try Zuane, a new Italian restaurant near the Slipway, and Addis in Dar, located near the US Embassy.  The latter left my fingers smelling of delicious Ethiopian spices for 24 hours after the meal, surely a good sign, right? 

What I am compelled to blog about is airline food.  Further proof to my theory... On Saturday I flew from Tanzania to Kenya, a brief one-hour flight with gorgeous views of Mt. Kilimanjaro.  A one-hour flight in the US=peanuts/pretzels and a soda, with cursory service at that.  Not on Kenya Airways.  On KQ we got actual food.  It was a small snack, but tasty, healthy, and it actually resembled food (a pita pocket with grilled chicken).  And, they served alcohol.  In fact, the folks in the row in front of me were boozing it up with whiskey/Cokes.  And lest I forget, they actually passed out handt owels before the flight took off (which was nice since my fingers still smelled of Ethiopian food).

Lastly, a word about coffee.  Coffee is very important to me, and although I do not have the most discriminating or snobbish taste in coffee, I do like a well-prepared cup.  So it is perhaps a tad painful to think of drinking instant coffee.  But here in the land of great coffee, Nescafe is quite common, and in anything less than the fanciest establishment often the only choice.  And I really like it. Is instant coffee so delicious in the US and I've just been missing out because of my coffee prejudices?  Time to find out, I will let you know.

Another Mouth to Feed...

And what a beautiful mouth it is!

Introducing Nola Fern Haggerty, born January 13, 2010 to my lovely sister and her partner-in-crime.  That means I get to add the title of aunt to the list.  Perhaps my favorite title so far.

I apologize for the non-food nature of this posting, but as her mother said, 'she's almost edible'.  I can't wait to start cooking for her!

Chicken or Pasta?

Three infamous words... 'chicken or pasta?' lead me to dedicate this post to the culinary world that is airline food.  Having just spent more than 24 hours traveling from an icy cold ATL to a steaming hot Dar es Salaam, I have had ample time to reflect on this topic.  [I'd considered taking photos of the food on my seatback table but in an effort to keep this blog more aesthetically pleasing this photo of the scenery out the plane window will have to suffice; extra points to anyone who can tell where/what I was flying over].


In an era of downsizing and no-frills airlines, I should start by saying that I am not ungrateful for the food I was served.  At least there was something vaguely edible to put in my mouth during two more than 8 hour flights, right?  That said, the fact that a banana was about the highlight of the airplane food should say a lot (especially because I'm not much for bananas).

Always one for numbers, I think that the quality of airline food can be generally defined by a simple mathematical rule:  the farther away from the United States an airline is based, the better the quality of the food.  Because of my employment I am somewhat constrained to flying US-based carriers, so it is a bit tricky to actually test this hypothesis, but in a world of codeshare agreements most any flight can be run by a US airline on paper, so I have done a bit of research to support this.

Let's get down to my recent flights:  Carrier D (US-based) vs. Carrier K (Dutch).  In order to keep the playing field level I chose the pasta options on both flights.  D's was simply the 'pasta' option and was some sort of baked ziti with a creamy/tomato/cheese sauce.  A bit liked baked rubber with sauce.  K's pasta was billed as 'gorgonzola pasta', so got points for billing itself as something that might be a menu item, but the actual pasta itself wasn't far off of D's, in fact was rather reminiscent of the pasta on the D flight.  D's pasta came with a salad, bread, and pre-packaged brownie.  K's came with a Asian-inspired salad, seemingly fresher bread in that it came out of a separate basket and wasn't automatically distributed with your tray, and some sort of green dessert that I didn't try.  All in all, not a huge difference in terms of the food in the dinner/lunch meal.  Next, the breakfast/snack meal (I know, why am I even complaining, I got fed not once, but twice on my flights!).  Here, D's option was an english muffin with some sort of egg that came pre-packaged and was so devoid of color or flavor that I couldn't eat it.  The breakfast was accompanied with a banana (yum) and I think juice.  K's snack, on the other hand, came with a small green and potato salad, a small fruit salad, a piece of quiche that wasn't great (but remember, this was on a plane), and some sort of dessert that I again didn't try.  K definitely came out ahead on this one.  Conclusion #1:  no 5-star food from either airline, but at least K served something that might be counted as food. 

Where K really scored big though was in presentation.  K has gone all out in this department--each meal was served in a special box emblazoned with a lovely photo of somewhere in the world and an inspirational quote; in my case there was some sort of Asian theme on my dinner box.  Perhaps a bit hokey to some but I liked it; by giving the meal a theme it made the meal actually feel like a real meal, something I might want to put in my mouth.  Conclusion #2:  pretty pictures and trite quotes make food taste better at 37,000 feet.

Last but definitely not least, D kind of struck out when it came to alcoholic beverages.  Not only do they now charge for alcohol on international flights (except for a glass of wine with the meal), but they charge $7!  True, it's healthier to not drink on a flight, but come on, we're talking a long flight here.  Conclusion #3:  serve alcohol, it helps to disguise bad food.

I guess I'll have to try the chicken on the way home.

The Peanut Gallery

Hi readers!  I know that you all are out there as several of you have written me to tell me that you have tried a recipe or are entertained by something I wrote or just like the radishes on the title bar (okay, in reality several of you means that I've heard from my Mom and KMH and of course Mw has been subjected to reading various versions of posts and is my recipe guinea pig and favorite eating companion).  Thanks!  I appreciate the kind words.  So....Not to be ungrateful for all of the feedback so far, but I'd love it if you'd take the time to comment on posts, when you feel like it and if you have something to say, of course.  It's nice to know that people are reading.  I'd also love to hear about the topics that you are interested in reading about so I can make sure my readers are kept interested and happy!

Snow Day Gluttony

Can you believe it?  SNOW! IN ATLANTA!  In the strictest sense, today wasn’t really a snow day because I did have to work, but my boss was kind enough to let our team work from home, hence avoiding 27 car pile-ups and roads coated in sheets of ice.  And, the agency started late and ended early today, so the day has had a vaguely weekend feel to it.  No complaints from me.

On top of the whopping inch of snow on the ground, the weather is frigidly cold, but Mw and I braved the elements to venture out for a walk and food at lunchtime.  We went to one of my favorite burger places, the Vortex, a biker-bar and restaurant in Little Five Points.  I love the place, Mw has mixed feelings as it can be a tad smoky, but at lunch on a weekday it wasn’t so bad.  Everything about the food at the Vortex is big and most of it is fried—giant burgers, overflowing plates of tater tots, yum.

Today I ventured out of my menu comfort zone to try the Trailer Park Cheeser.  Not for the faint of heart—pimento cheese, bacon, coleslaw, fried pickles, and barbeque potato chips served grilled on marbled rye bread—even the server who brought it out to me confessed that it was just too much for him.  Only one word to describe it:  delicious.  Well, and decadent.  And gluttonous.  Good thing we walked there.

[You might be questioning the work from home day at this point in the post but a girl does have to eat, right?]

 

Huddle Together for Warmth, or Eat Soup

It's cold here in Atlanta.  Like New England winter, wear a big puffy jacket and huddle by the fire cold.  Not my favorite of weather conditions, to say the least.  Since I can't realistically just up and go to a warm climate (although thankfully my job is taking me to one next week), I decided to make soup.


I'm actually not much of a soup person.  It's kind of odd, because my mom loves soup, and I ate many delicious soups growing up, but in general, soup just doesn't do much for me.  Ironically, the soups I do love tend to be those that my mom isn't a huge fan of--like chili or cream of anything.  I don't think there's anything Freudian about this, nor do I feel that I need any therapy to reconcile our differences of soup opinion, but it is kind of interesting. 



Soup therapy aside, my most favorite soup, and perhaps the most elusive, is black bean soup.  I love the flavors, the colors when garnished with a bit of sour cream and some cilantro, and the warmth and spiciness.  For years I've been working out the perfect black bean soup recipe; today I might have succeeded.  


[I served this with made-from-scratch cornbread (is there another way?) and a spinach salad, a big hit all around.]

Black Bean Soup

By Hannah

1 onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 16 oz cans black beans (or 1 black, 1 kidney, which is what I did), drained and rinsed

1 16 oz can diced tomatoes

2 cups vegetable stock

1 tsp cumin

1.5 tsp green chili powder (could also use regular chili powder but I love green chilis, this can be hard to find outside of New Mexico though)

dash Worcestershire sauce

dash Siracha chili sauce (Tabasco or another hot sauce works too)

2 tbsp olive oil

Active time:  20 minutes; Total time:  45 minutes

Serves 4

Heat olive oil in stockpot over medium high heat.  Add onions, cumin, and chili powder and cook for 8-10 minutes, until onions are soft and beginning to brown.  Add garlic and cook 1-2 minutes, until odor of garlic is apparent. 

Add beans, tomatoes, vegetable stock, Worcestershire sauce, and chili sauce.  Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer and cook 20 minutes.  In batches, remove around ½-3/4 of the soup to a bowl and puree using a hand blender (you could also do this with a regular blender; the amount of soup you puree will depend on whether you want a chunkier soup or smoother soup).  Return pureed soup to pot and cook another 5-10 minutes over low heat.  Serve soup with sour cream, cheese, cilantro, green onions, or other desired accompaniments.

Holiday Meals

If you've ever eaten a meal with me, you know that I frequently take photos of my food.  Here's some from my holiday travels, most taken with my cell phone camera.

Buffalo Calamari at Archie Moores in New Haven, CT.

Brunch @ Lilee's Public House in Brunswick, ME included decadent Scottish Eggs (hardboiled eggs wrapped in sausage and deep fried, served with Hollandaise sauce) and Maine French Toast (stuffed with goat or cream cheese and served with blueberries).  No fear, Mg and I split these.

 

Dinner on the 26th of December (pre-cooking).

                                    

Good Luck With That

I just returned from a whirlwind 10 days in Maine, Rhode Island, and New York. There were many culinary highlights to the trip, including all things cream cheese with B's family, lobsters straight from the ocean, an outstanding brunch at Lilee's Public House in Brunswick, pizza at Lucali's in Brooklyn, unbelievably good bagels, and my all-time favorite of Buffalo Calamari at Archie Moore's in New Haven, but it is undoubtedly the New Year's Eve meal that was conceived with the most creativity.

While visiting family in Texas for the holidays, B and S had read a newspaper article about foods that reputedly bring luck. Being a new decade and all, we figured that a good dose of luck was in order and set out to incorporate as many of these foods as possible into the evening's meal. Our final menu thus contained, among other things, several foods with pork, black-eyed pea salsa, coleslaw, and fortune cookies (not on the list, but seemed appropriate). And at midnight, L, S, and I dutifully ate 12 grapes each, hoping for a dearth of sour months in the upcoming year.
 
My contribution to the good luck was pork chili. I improvised the recipe but it was such a hit that I wrote it down to share with all; I did not measure the spices, so you will have to adjust to your own tastes (in fact, the lid of the chipotle powder fell off so a bit more went into the chili than I had intended). It's looking like it's going to be a good year, so anytime you need a dose of luck, you know what to cook.
 
Lucky Chipotle Pork Chili
by Hannah

Ingredients:
1.5 lbs pork shoulder or pork chops on bone
1 large yellow onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 jalapeno pepper, minced
2 16 or 18 oz cans kidney or black beans, drained and rinsed
1 28 oz can diced tomatoes
1 bottle beer of choice (I used a stout)
3-4 cups vegetable stock
cumin
cayenne pepper
chipotle chili powder
flour 
3 tablespoons olive oil
salt and pepper

Active time: 45 minutes; Total time: 3 hours

Serves: 6-8

Cut pork into 1 inch cubes. Sprinkle meat liberally with flour, cumin, chipotle chili powder, cayenne pepper, and salt and pepper. Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil over high heat in large stockpot. When oil shimmers, add pork and cook until browned on all sides, about 10 minutes, turning as necessary. Depending on size of pot, pork may have to be cooked in batches; avoid overcrowding meat to ensure that meat browns. Remove pork from pot and set aside.

Add remaining olive oil to pot (although the pork has been set aside, the pot should be well-seasoned with any remaining pork fat and cracklings from cooking the pork). Add onions, garlic, and jalapeno, and cook for 8-10 minutes, until onions are just beginning to brown.

Add pork, beans, and tomatoes. Add beer and vegetable stock. Adjust spices to bring chili to desired heat. Bring chili to a boil, then reduce to a simmer. Cook 2 hours (or longer), stirring periodically. About 15 minutes before serving, check consistency of chili. If chili is too watery, thicken with 1-2 tablespoons flour.

Serve chili with grated cheese, sour cream, chopped cilantro, or other desired accompaniments.