Adobo seco - Dry marinade, a Pinedo recipe

I had a boneless pork loin just asking for a Pinedo recipe.  I liked the challenge of this one, on page 4, which was "cook enough red chiles."  Hmmm.  How much was enough?  For my redaction, I needed to balance the heat of the chiles (not too many!) with the flavor of the chiles (not too few!).  I have a bag of costeño chiles, which I was cautioned to be careful with because I am not as experienced a chile-eater as the person who gave it to me.  I'm getting better, but I heed the caution.

Her Recipe

My Translation

My Redaction

3 pounds, 14 ounces boneless pork loin

0.8 ounces costeño chiles (dry)

1 pound tomatoes

1 tablespoon garlic

1 teaspoon cumin seeds

2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar

3 tablespoons olive oil for frying

And the olive oil.

Remove the stems, seeds, and cores of the chiles.  Cover them with boiling water and let them soak for 10 minutes to soften them.

Core and coarsely chop the tomatoes.  Grind them in a large mortar (or pulse them in the blender) until the mixture is wet and not as chunky as they were after they were chopped.

Grind the cumin seeds.

Drain the chiles.  Grind them with the tomatoes.  

Add the garlic and cumin.  Grind them more.

Heat the olive oil in a large Dutch oven.  Add the chile/tomato mixture and the vinegar.  Mix well and bring to a boil.  Add the meat and turn it over to get the sauce on both sides.  Then ladle sauce over the top of the meat.  

Bring the sauce back to a boil.  Turn the heat down so the sauce is simmering.  Leave the Dutch oven uncovered.

Cook the meat for about 2 hours, turning over occasionally and spooning sauce over the top.  This is how long it took for the sauce to reduce to very thick.  Adjust the heat as needed to maintain the simmer.  Turning over the meat will slow the simmer for a short time.

When done, turn off the heat and let the meat rest in the sauce for a while.

Serve slices with the sauce spooned over the top.

Chiles soaking

Coarsely chopped tomatoes

Grinding in my mortar.

Sauce in the pan and the pork loin on top.

Spoon that sauce on top!

All done.  Notice how little liquid is left in the pan.

My Notes

I used my large (ish) mortar to grind everything.  I ground half the tomatoes and put the result in a big bowl.  Then I ground the other half with the chiles.  After that was done, I added the garlic and ground it some more.  Then I repeated that with the ground cumin seeds.  Then it all went into the bowl and I mixed them together.  If I were to do this again, I would use my blender and make it more of a puree.

Since I didn't know how long it would take to cook the meat, I turned it every 20 minutes, spooning sauce over the top each time.  I think 30 minutes is better.  Since the Dutch oven is uncovered, the top of the meat seemed to be colder than the rest, so it stopped the simmer when I turned the loin.  I adjusted the heat to bring it back to a simmer.  

The sauce started getting thick but it appeared the meat juices and fat made it runny again.  Then it got thick again with more cooking.  Be careful not to scorch the sauce.  Turning the meat helped keep the bottom of it from being scorched, too.

After two hours, the internal temperature read about 150 degrees F.  

The Verdict

I was hoping that the meat wasn't overcooked, i.e., dry.  It was very mildly pink in the middle and appeared moist.

I served it as a simple dinner with green beans and wine.  

Put a little sauce over the top.

My concern was that the tomato skins and/or the chile skins would be tough and noticeable if they were bigger than what a blender would make.  That is what I was looking for when I tasted it.  I really wanted to know what my guest tasters thought of the chiles' heat levels.

One guest taster, the one who is not really into spicy foods, thought the chile heat level was just right.  He enjoyed the flavor of the sauce and thought it was good with the meat.

The other guest taster, who loves spicy food and strong flavors, thought it was not chile-hot enough and that the sauce was "sweet" from the tomatoes.  He did not really detect the costeño's much at all; he wondered if it had any chiles in it.  He also did not think the sauce had much flavor.  He compared it to some rosemary-flavored crackers which he thought did have a flavor punch and said those had flavor but the sauce did not.  Does that make sense?  

As for me, I liked the flavor, although I would agree that it was not strongly flavored.  I thought the sauce was important to moisten the meat and keep it from being "just a slice of pork loin."  So if I were to do this again, I would bump up the amount of chiles (if my first guest taster were not involved) and definitely bump up the garlic and cumin content.  Even my first guest taster would like more garlic and cumin.

One guest taster noted that the skins from the chiles and tomatoes were annoying to eat.  I agree, that was my worry, and though I didn't experience that with this dish, I have previously.  So definitely use a blender to make the sauce.  Perhaps using a mano and metate would have broken up the skins better than a mortar and pestle.  I don't know.  

Also, everyone agreed that the meat was cooked to perfection.  It was cooked enough but not dry.  I think the slow cooking and the regular turning helped that along.

The green beans with a variation on a Pinedo pipian sauce were a good accompaniment!  You can see that recipe here:  Ejotes en pipian.  I used red wine as the liquid and cinnamon and cloves as the spices.  

Success!

Cuban Corn, a World War II U.S. rationing recipe

I've been exploring World War II cooking ideas, especially those relating to food rationing and the ration coupons that went along with it.

One interesting book is titled Coupon Cookery by Prudence Penny.  The subtitle is "The New Book of Ration-Revised Recipes and Menus Including a Handy Changeable Table of Point-Values For All Foods..."  Yes, the book includes a table that helped a family plan how to track their coupons and use them efficiently before they expired.  It is in the chapter called "How to S-T-R-E-T-C-H A POINT."

Published in 1943, so no ISBN.

There are all sorts of tips for shopping with ration stamps (coupons), how to calculate your family's budget.  Throughout the book are cute and sometimes silly cartoons and poems along with the chapters that emphasize the need to be frugal, avoid waste and hoarding, while still feeding your family a healthy diet.  There are "Penny Tips" that point out, for example, ways to achieve speed or better flavor.

On page 72, there is a recipe for "Cuban Corn," basically a casserole that can be a side dish or, as the Penny Tip notes, be "a good main dish for meatless days."

Cuban Corn

2 tablespoons flour
1 teaspoon salt
Dash pepper
Dash cayenne
1 teaspoon chili powder
2 cups canned or fresh corn
1 chopped onion
1 tablespoon fat
1 dozen chopped ripe olives
1 cup tomato sauce
1 cup grated cheese

 Add flour and seasonings to corn.  Brown onion in fat and add.  Add olives and thoroughly combine all ingredients.  Put mixture in a casserole; pour hot tomato sauce and the grated cheese over the corn.

Place in 350 degree oven until mixture is well heated and the cheese is melted.  If fresh corn is used, cook slightly before combining with other ingredients.

My Notes

I think it is the use of chili powder and cayenne that makes this "Cuban."  My experience with reading recipes from the 1940s is that savory seasoning use was often limited salt, pepper, garlic powder or salt, and not much else.  Anything beyond that was pretty exotic!  People's palettes were accustomed to what I might consider "bland."  (This could be my biased opinion, but I don't see much evidence to think otherwise.)

First I started the oven preheating.

I used olive oil for the fat.  

Since I chose to use canned corn and my cans were 15 1/4 ounces each, I used one full can (1 1/2 cups) and topped off to two cups with the other can.  These were drained before measuring.

I mixed the corn with the flour and seasonings in a big bowl, then browned the onion and chopped the olives, and mixed everything in the bowl.

Corn, flour, and seasonings combined.

With onions and olives, too.

Once the mixture was poured into the 7" x 11" glass casserole - so I had set the oven to 325 degrees F, -  I heated the tomato sauce for 1 minute in the microwave and poured it over.  

Spread it throughout the dish.

 

Distribute the tomato sauce throughout, too.

I chose to use a mixture of cheeses: asiago, parmesan, provolone, and fontina, which were already shredded and mixed.  My impulse was to just put on a lot, which would have been more than one cup, but I restrained myself and followed the recipe.

Okay, that should be enough cheese!

It heated in the oven for 15 minutes; at this point the tomato sauce was bubbling and the cheese was melted.  I could smell the chili powder as it baked.

Bubbly, melted, and done!

Then I took it to a family event and reheated it in the microwave for a few minutes before serving.

The Verdict

It certainly was easy to assemble.  Perfect for that busy day when you want a hot dish but have little spare time. 

In general, everyone thought it was fine as a side dish.  It went well with the beef main course and garlic mashed potatoes side.  

I think we all agreed that it wasn't overspiced or too spicy at all; in fact, I think it could have used more spicing.  Not just more chili powder but more salt and pepper.  It had bothered me to pour straight tomato sauce from the can onto the dish.  I had really wanted to add some seasoning to it, too.  

I'm not sure if that "dash" of cayenne made a difference.  A couple of shakes of Tabasco sauce would have been an improvement.

The one person who really dislikes olives (that was my mistake for picking a recipe that included them) said she couldn't taste them.  That was a relief on my part.

The cheese added a nice chewy and flavorful aspect to the dish.

So while it was a fine side dish, it wasn't spectacular.  I would do it again but I would increase the spices.

The leftovers were good as a side dish with raviolis and then as a filling in an omelette.

Unsurprisingly, the leftovers look just like they did on the first day!

Success, especially if you like mildly-spiced food.  

 

Coliflor en salsa de mantequilla - Cauliflower in butter sauce, a Pinedo recipe

I have to admit that I am not a fan of cauliflower.  I don't buy it while grocery shopping.  When it is served to me at a restaurant, I eat it but it is never tasty.  In general, what I get is usually hard and the flavor is uninteresting.  I wondered if I would ever try a Pinedo recipe involving cauliflower.  (There are six of them.)

But when one is given a cauliflower, one does not ignore it.  I decided the fates were telling me it was time.

On page 69, Encarnación Pinedo gave us a recipe for Cauliflower in butter sauce.  This is the second recipe in the cauliflower section.  The first tells us how to cook the cauliflower:  boil it in salted water, then drain it.

Her Recipe

My Translation

My Redaction

1 pound, 6 ounce cauliflower in one whole head

1/2 teaspoon salt

water to cover

2 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons white wine vinegar

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

It looks simple enough.

Remove the leaves from the head and wash the head well under running water.

Bring salted water to a boil in a saucepan big enough to hold the cauliflower head comfortably.

Immerse the head in the water, stem up.  Bring water back to a boil.   Turn the heat down so the water is at a fast simmer.

Cover the pan.

Cook until fork tender, about 7 minutes.  

Meanwhile, melt the butter in a small pan over low heat.  

Whisk in vinegar and pepper.

Let this combine for a few minutes while you get back to the cauliflower.

Remove the head from the water and allow to drain.  

Cut off stem and place the head in a serving bowl.

Whisk the sauce again and slowly pour it over the head.  Aim to allow the sauce to cover the entire head.

Serve while still steaming!

An only somewhat enthusiastic simmer.

The sauce is combining over a very low heat.

It looks lovely, no?

My Notes

I checked the head for fork tender at 4 minutes, and it was nearly done.  It was still too firm near the center of the head.

When I was allowing the sauce to combine, I turned the heat down to the lowest possible setting.

When I poured the sauce over the head, the pepper "marked" where I had already poured.  The sauce disappeared into the head and I worried that it would all just end up on the bottom of the bowl and not on the head at all.  

There was pepper left over in the pan once I had poured the liquid.  It might work just fine to use 1/8 teaspoon of pepper instead of 1/4.

The Verdict

I served it with baked spiced chicken for a simple meal.

It really was that simple.

I had put a sharp knife near the bowl to help with serving, but the cauliflower was so tender that it came apart easily with a large serving spoon.

And yet it wasn't mushy, which was my "don't you dare overcook this" worry.

My guest taster, who is also not a fan of cauliflower, tried it cautiously.  He was very surprised at the taste!  He could taste the pepper and the vinegar, then figured out there was butter in the sauce, too.  

I knew what was in it, of course, so I was pleased to discover that the sauce had stayed mostly in the nooks and crannies of the head, even though I couldn't see it.  There was just enough vinegar to add interest and the pepper made it more exciting.  That the cauliflower was so tender made me happy.

In fact, I had seconds!  I never thought I would be able to write that.

So success!  We both enjoyed it and it went well with the Chinese spice mix that had coated the chicken before it was baked.

This is a simple sauce, but it brought the (otherwise boring) vegetable to new heights.  

My guest taster tried the leftovers the next day and decided that it was really good and that I could fix it again any time I wanted to.  That says a lot of good things about how it tasted.

All Things Mulberry

My Pakistani mulberry tree starts producing ripe mulberries in early April.  I put a large tarp under the tree because when the berries are ripe, they fall off the tree.  The tarp makes it easier to find the berries and keeps them cleaner.  I sit down under the tree, take my shoes off, then perform what I amusingly call “Mulberry Yoga.”  I scoot, crabwalk, and roll my way around and under the tree, putting ripe berries in a bowl and the unacceptable berries in a little tub.

When the harvest starts, I get 4 to 5 pounds a day just from the tarp.  A week or so into it, the amount slows down to 4 to 5 pounds every few days, and often I shake the tree to make more berries fall.  That is what I end up getting; I cannot estimate what I lose to the birds, squirrels, bunnies, possums, raccoons, and skunks.  I don’t mind sharing with them, and the harvest is large enough that they actually share with me (unlike with my peach tree).

Pakistani mulberries are longer than a “typical” mulberry, and when they are dark purple, they are sweet and flavorful.  When they are dark, they look just like big, fat caterpillars hanging on the tree.

This is about four pounds of berries.

Forty to fifty pounds of mulberries is a lot to handle!  I decided this post would give you a sense of all the things I can do with such a beautiful and large harvest.

First and easiest, eating them fresh!  I’ll eat them right off the tree while picking and they make a great little side dish at lunch.  Fresh berries are excellent with yogurt (I like vanilla yogurt, berries, and a chocolate/coffee granola), and I think mulberries and jack cheese are a great combination (with a white wine, of course!). 

I share with friends, too.  I like to give to people who never had mulberries before; they are often surprised at the flavor.  I know that the mulberries I had as a child were Russian mulberries, which are tart and small compared to mine.  I think most of the people I give them to eat them fresh.

This year I made mulberry jam, where I cut the berries up a little and cook them in sugar with a little lemon juice until they form a syrup and thicken up.  It is not a standard jam because the fruit is bigger so it separates from the syrup more than jam.  It tastes great! I used less sugar than one usually puts into a jam, with the idea that it would be more "fruit forward."  It was, and I store it in the refrigerator to keep it fresh.  I think the next time I do this, I will chop the berries up more or maybe pulse them in the food processor.

Juicy jam.

I also started a batch of liqueur.  First, I put the berries in vodka and let them soak for a while.  Last year they soaked for 6 months before I strained them out; this year I waited two weeks.  This year, too, I used a muddler to press the berries in the jar.  This made a lot of juice, so I couldn’t fit much vodka into the jar.  Oh well, I put in what I could and tucked it away into a cupboard.  A few days later, I smelled ferment.  Sure enough, the juice and berries were bubbling away!  They smelled and tasted good but it was not what I wanted.  So, I moved the mixture into a bigger jar and added more vodka, which stopped the fermenting.

A lovely color, no?

When I strained out the berries, the mulberry-infused vodka was dark purple and the berries were mostly white – a good sign.  It tasted good, but it needed the sugar that makes it a liqueur.  Before I added the sugar, I poured in my attempt this year to make mulberry molasses.  I’ve done this in the past successfully:  basically, it is super-concentrated mulberry juice with a little lemon juice added.  But I didn’t feel I had achieved the molasses-level of reduction and the quantity was so small that I didn’t want to reduce it any further.  Then I added enough sugar to finish filling the jar.  I’ve made liqueurs for decades so I don’t really measure anything.  Now it is officially aging, which allows the flavors to blend and the sugar to dissolve.  In six months or so, I’ll taste it to see if it needs more sugar. 

Last year’s mulberry liqueur had aged for nearly 6 months, so I decanted it into a bottle.  It was wonderful!  Not an epic liqueur, but a very good one.  Smooth, just sweet enough, and a rich, fruity flavor.  The danger with such a liqueur is that it tastes so good that it is easy to consume too much in one sitting.  Sip at your own risk!

Mmmmmm.

This year I’m trying again to make mulberry wine.  Last year’s was good.  I’m not willing to call it a great wine, but it was certainly interesting.  Dry, when most people expect it to be sweet, with a mild flavor that made it clear it was not a grape wine.  One recipient thought it was excellent with a good steak.  This year I’m following the same recipe but most of my sugar was vanilla-scented.  I’m curious to see if that makes a difference in the outcome.

It sure smells good.

My experiment this year was to embed fresh berries in a lot of sugar and watch it turn into a syrup.  I took a picture every day for six days to see the changes.  What a fun and easy way to make syrup!  No cooking, just patience. 

A lot of sugar, layered with mulberries.

The view from above.

Day 1, layering is completed.

Day 2, juice is seeping into the sugar.

Day 3, more juice and it is spreading.  I shook the jar to mix it up a bit.

Day 4, look at that syrup formation!

Day 5, notice how the level has dropped?  I shook it again.

Day 6, that looks amazing.  I rolled it to mix it, too.

I was ready to add more mulberries to the jar, so I got to taste it (on Day 7).  It was unsurprisingly sweet, but I really enjoyed the strong mulberry flavor that went with it.  I added more berries, stirred it thoroughly, then put it into the refrigerator just in case it was tempted to start fermenting.  

In the past, I have made historical mulberries recipes.  One is a sort of breadcrumb pudding, called a Murrey.  You can view the recipe by clicking here.

 Another was a mulberry meatloaf, called a Red Murrey or Red Mulberry.  You can view that recipe by clicking here.  Yes, you read that right.  A mulberry-flavored meatloaf!

The other day I froze a box of mulberries knowing I want to make a cobbler in a few weeks.  

Last year I tried mixing the juice with milk, sugar, and flour, then heating it to make a thick saucelike dessert; this was a riff on an historical recipe that used cherry juice.  Unfortunately, the mulberry juice curdled the milk!  But I recovered from the blow and poured the curds and mulberry whey over sliced bread.  This was well-received and no one knew it was supposed to be different.

So there you have it.  Lots of things to do with mulberries!  I will continue to look for historical recipes that use them, with the hope I can report it on this blog.

Success! 

Pollo guisados -- Stewed chickens, a Pinedo recipe

I have to admit that I love stews.  They are generally easy to fix, can contain a lot of flavors, feed a crowd, and can be made in advance.  This Pinedo recipe, on page 207, checks all those boxes.  

Her Recipe

My Translation

I also have to admit that I don't have any pigeons on hand, so I have to make this one with just chicken.  I noticed she didn't say to cut the birds up, but I assumed they were.  I chose to use boneless, skinless chicken thighs (a favorite).  But look at all the ingredients that make up the sauce!  

My Redaction

3 pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs

2 cloves garlic

7 ounces onion

1 1/4 pounds tomatoes

16 large, pitted black olives

4 ounces mushrooms

1/2 cup raisins

1/4 cup fresh parsley leaves

1 teaspoon pepper

1 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon flour

2 cups boiling water

1/8 cup fresh oregano leaves

olive oil for cooking

Everything but the chicken.  Its picture is further down. Not the olive oil, either.

First, heat the olive oil in a Dutch oven.  I put enough in to lightly cover the bottom of pan once it was hot.

Add the chicken thighs and brown them over medium heat.  You can do this in batches if you want them to be more brown.  I did one batch.  Note:  I interpreted "half fried" as "brown them."  After they cooked on one side, I turned them to brown the other side.

While the meat is browning, chop the tomatoes, garlic, parsley, oregano, and mushrooms.  Also, slice the onions and olives.  I had a big bowl nearby and I placed each ingredient in the bowl once it was chopped or sliced.  Add the raisins, too.

Once the meat is browned, add all the ingredients from the bowl into the Dutch oven.  Stir them well.

Add the boiling water, salt, and pepper.  The sprinkle the flour over the top.  The goal is to avoid lumps and clumps of flour.  Stir well.

Bring the whole mixture to a boil, then reduce the heat to low.  

Simmer over that low heat for 3 hours, stirring occasionally.

Serve by placing one thigh with a scoop (or two) of sauce over the top.

This is a bit crowded for standard browning, but I didn't worry about it.

Everything in the bowl, as viewed from the top.

The bowl, as viewed from the bottom, after added to the chicken.

Stirred well.  Note the herbs are not finely chopped.

Now it is everything.  See how the flour was sifted with no clumps?

Stirred and starting to bubble.

Ahh, done.

My Notes

Miss Pinedo suggested using flour or toast.  By that she probably meant toasted or dried bread crumbs, which is a time-honored method of thickening a liquid.  I chose flour because it was convenient, although I do have copious amounts of dried crumbs that I store in my freezer.  Either works.  I have learned that with stews, bread crumbs seem to make a more "gooey" sauce, meaning thicker with more body.

For my low heat, I used 1 or 2 out of 10 on my stove's settings.  I was looking for just a little bubbling in the middle; that's all.  Slow cooking will get the meat very tender.

I judged the amount of water to use by how high the level in the Dutch oven was -- it was almost as high as all the ingredients together.  And that was 2 cups.  

The house smelled so good while the stew was cooking, and continued to smell good afterwards.  Yum!

The Verdict

I kept the meal simple:  stewed chicken, toasted onion rolls, and wine.  Don't forget the wine!

The chicken was tender.  I never used the knife because the meat broke up easily with a fork.  The meat was not dry, either.  

The sauce:  Oh, the sauce!  Full of flavors, textures, and surprises.  My guest taster, who didn't know all that I put in it kept saying, "Are these raisins?" and "There are mushrooms!" and similar comments.  He loved all the ingredients he discerned while eating.  

Overall, we both loved the sauce.  It was complex in its flavor profile, but no one flavor stood out.  I consider that a win.  I got the balance right, even for the amount of salt and pepper.  The tomatoes cleared formed the basis of the sauce but it was not a "tomato-y" sauce.  It was fun to taste different ingredients along with a bite of chicken.

The toasted roll came in handy for sopping up the sauce once the meat was gone.  

My guest taster had seconds.  That is also a win!

Success!

The leftovers were just as good reheated.  

Did the flour really thicken the sauce?  I will say, "Probably not" but the long cooking with the lid off reduced the sauce and it did thicken up a little.  How much was from the flour, I cannot tell.  Would bread crumbs have been better?  I've used them in stews before and I think it would be thicker.  But with only one tablespoon, maybe not.

It just occurred to me that Miss Pinedo's tablespoons were probably two of ours - so it could have been thicker had I thought of that earlier.  I realized that after reviewing her table of weights and measures on page 274:  she said, "A tablespoon measures an exact ounce."  Our standardized tablespoons measure one-half ounce.  I need to keep that in mind for future experiments.