Deep in the heart of Texas....

Texas has many claims to fame--it is the only state that was once an independent country, it is the only state whose flag can fly at the same height as the Stars and Stripes, it is the largest state in the lower 48, and chili was invented there. Legend tells us that range cooks traveling with the cowboys along the cattle trails in west Texas planted small plots of chili peppers, oregano, onions, and garlic along the way that they would harvest to add flavor to stews made from wild boar, deer, jackrabbit, or the occasional steer that didn't survive the cattle drive. From those humble, survivalist beginnings was born the dish that launched a thousand cook-offs.

One of the lessons I'm including in the upcoming web-based class on cooking with spices that I'm teaching is about cooking with chiles. In addition to making the tomatillo and chili salsa from a couple of blog entries ago, I'm also including a lesson on making your own chili powder from scratch. We'll then use that chili powder to make a traditional Texas chili. Since it's been a while since I made my chili recipe, I decided to whip up a batch today to work out any kinks in the recipe.

First, the chili powder. Now, I'll admit, when I've made chili in the past, I've just used store bought blends, but for this class, I really wanted to make the powder from scratch. I did some research, found several different recipes that I folded together into the following version.

Texas Chili Powder

Makes about 1 cup

4 ancho chili peppers, stems and seeds removed

3 guajillo chili peppers, stems and seeds removed

4 chiles de árbol, stems and seeds removed

2 tablespoons cumin seeds

2 tablespoons garlic powder

1 tablespoon Mexican oregano

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Place the chili peppers on a sheet pan and place the sheet pan in the oven. The chiles will toast at different rates, with the smaller chiles toasting more quickly than the larger, so keep a close eye on the oven. After about 2 minutes, check the chiles de arbol, they should be browned and dried; remove from the sheet pan and return the pan to the oven. After another 2 minutes, check the guajillo chiles and remove from the sheet pan as they become brown and dried. After another 2 or 3 minutes, check the ancho chiles and remove them from the sheet pan as they become brown and dried. Transfer the chiles to a spice grinder, food processor or blender.

Heat the cumin seeds in a small skillet over medium to medium-high heat and toast, stirring occasionally, until browned and fragrant. Add the cumin seeds to the chiles and allow to cool. Add the garlic powder and oregano and process to a fine powder. Sift the powder through a fine-mesh sieve. Store in an airtight container.

Now, it was time to take the chili powder and turn it into a bowl of chili. Over the years, I've seen recipes that incorporate all kinds of ingredients, from beer to chocolate. There are great debates over the inclusion of tomatoes, ground beef vs. stew meat,  and don't even get me started on the inclusion or omission of beans. The following recipe is one that I think is pretty traditional, it uses tomato paste to give richness to the sauce as well as a balancing sweetness, cubed beef chuck, and beans are nowhere to be found.

Texas Beef Chili

Serves 6 to 8

4 pounds beef chuck roast, trimmed and cut into ½ inch pieces

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

¼ cup canola oil

5 medium white onions, peeled and chopped

5 cloves garlic, peeled and finely chopped

12 ounces tomato paste

4 tablespoons dried Mexican oregano

4 tablespoons Texas chili powder (see recipe)

1 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1 tablespoon Spanish pimentón or other smoked paprika

1 teaspoon ground cumin

5 cups water

¼ cup masa harina

juice of 2 limes

Season the beef with salt and pepper. Heat a large Dutch oven over medium to medium-high heat. Add the oil and, working in batches, brown the beef, 3 to 4 minutes per batch. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the beef to a plate.

Add the onions to the Dutch oven, sprinkle with a pinch of salt, and cook, stirring occasionally, until lightly browned, about 5 minutes. Stir in the garlic and tomato paste and cook, stirring frequently and scraping bottom of the Dutch oven with a wooden spoon, until the tomato paste is caramelized, about 8 minutes. Add the oregano, chili powder, cayenne, pimentón, and cumin and cook, stirring frequently, for 1 minute.

Return the beef to Dutch oven, add the water, and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium low, partially cover with a lid, and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the meat is tender, about 2 hours. Stir in the masa harina. Continue to simmer, stirring, until thickened, about 5 minutes. Stir in the lime juice and season to taste with salt and pepper. Ladle into bowls and garnish with grated cheddar cheese and sour cream.

Dru was getting married!

Those of you who have been reading this blog since the beginning know that I started teaching myself how to cook as a child by making my mom's cookie recipes. I loved any excuse to bake them, and I carried this habit with me into my NASA days. I would regularly bake cookies to bring in for meetings, someone's birthday, or just because it was Tuesday.

On one of these occasions, I was getting ready to bake oatmeal cookies to bring in the next day. I had the wet ingredients all mixed in the bowl, the oven was preheating, and the phone rang. It was my college roommate, Dru--she was engaged! Would I be a bridesmaid? Lots of giggles and shrieks ensued, and about 2 hours later, we said goodbye and I hung up the phone. 

I came back into the kitchen to a bowl full of half-made cookie dough. It was about 10:30pm, but I decided I would stay up and get them finished, I couldn't see throwing the batter away. I opened my pantry to find that I didn't have enough oatmeal, not even close. I was missing about half what I needed to finish the cookies. I had already changed into my jammies, I really didn't want to get in the car that late at night to go to the store. What to do... I looked back in my pantry and found a box of instant apple and cinnamon oatmeal. I figured, what the heck, let's give it a go, and I started tearing open the paper packets. I had just enough to make up the amount I was short, so I finished mixing the batter and baked the cookies.

The next day at work, the cookies were a hit. People raved about them, they loved the addition of the apple and cinnamon flavors. A year or so after that, dried cranberries started to become all the rage, so I added those to the cookies in addition to the raisins. This recipe quickly became my most requested flavor. All thanks to Dru getting married!

Cranberry Apple Oatmeal Cookies

Makes about 6 dozen cookies

¾ cup shortening

¾ cup unsalted butter

2 cups brown sugar, packed firmly

1 cup granulated sugar

2 eggs

½ cup water

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon baking soda 

3 cups oats, dry and uncooked

3 cups instant apple and cinnamon flavored oatmeal

2 cups chopped pecans

1 ½ cups raisins

1 ½ cups dried cranberries

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.

Cream the shortening, butter, and both sugars in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. When the butter/sugar mixture is pale in color and light and fluffy in texture, reduce the mixer speed to low and add the eggs and water. Mix until incorporated.  Using a silicon spatula, scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl. 

In a separate large mixing bowl, mix together flour, salt and baking soda, then add the dry ingredients to the mixer bowl with the creamed mixture. Mix on low to incorporate. Mix together the oats, nuts, raisins and cranberries in a large bowl, then add to the mixer bowl, mixing on low to incorporate. 

Drop large tablespoons full of the cookie dough onto the prepared baking sheet. Bake for 12 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on the baking sheet for about 10 minutes then remove to a wire rack. Store in an airtight container.

P.S.: The wedding was beautiful! 

Spice, spice, baby...

I'm a Texas girl. I grew up eating Mexican food on an at least weekly basis, and I firmly believe that it's my Dad's favorite. When I was a kid, if we went out for dinner, it was almost always to the local Tex Mex place. Now, when I was a kid, I didn't fully appreciate Mexican the way I do now, I can remember complaining to my dad that we ALWAYS got Mexican food, why couldn't we go someplace different. Even when we ate in, chips and salsa were a regular addition to our dinner table. Of course, now that I'm all grown up, it's one of my favorite cuisines, it makes me think of home, it's my comfort food.

When I first left Texas, I realized that finding good Mexican food, especially Tex Mex, wasn't going to be easy. So, I started researching recipes and learning to make my favorite dishes from scratch. I'm certainly not alone as a Texas ex-pat, trying to recreate that amazing food. I have some good friends from college who moved from Houston to St. Louis about 15 or so years ago, and when I flew up to visit them a couple of years after they moved, they asked me to bring tortillas with me on the plane, they just couldn't find them where they lived. (We Texans have to stick together!)

Well, if you read my last blog entry, you know that I've been asked to participate in an on-line cooking class segment for my work. The lesson is a 7-part series on cooking with spices, and one of the segments is cooking with chili peppers. I had submitted several recipes to cover this segment, but we realized when reviewing the recipes with the production team that none of the recipes used fresh chilies, they all used dry. After kicking around a couple of ideas, I suggested a salsa using fresh and roasted chilies and tomatillos. Now I just had to come up with the recipe.

I really enjoy making my own chips and salsas. I've come up with a few different recipes that are my go-tos, many of which I just throw together on the fly, not really measuring ingredients, just mixing and tasting. So, I pulled out my measure cups and kitchen scale, and knocked out a recipe this evening. 

Fire Roasted Tomatillo and Chili Salsa

Makes 3 cups

1 ½ pounds fresh tomatillos, husks removed and rinsed

1 medium white onion, peeled and cut into ½ inch thick slices

2 poblano peppers

1 or 2 serrano peppers 

½ cup, packed, cilantro leaves

juice of 1 lime, plus additional to taste

Kosher salt and pepper to taste

Preheat the oven broiler and place a rack immediately underneath the broiler elements. Place the tomatillos, onion slices and poblano peppers on a sheet pan and place under the broiler. Broil, turning as needed, until they are well charred and blackened on all sides. Transfer the tomatillos and onions to a food processor.

Place the poblano peppers in a zip top bag and seal shut. When the pepper has cooled enough to handle, about 10 minutes, remove the pepper from the bag and remove/discard the seeds, skin and stem. Add the flesh of the peppers to the food processor.

With a small, sharp knife, remove the stems from the serranos and slice them in half lengthwise. Using the edge of the knife, carefully shave along the inside wall of the pepper to remove the white ribs and seeds. Place the pepper flesh in the food processor. Add the cilantro leaves and lime juice, and process to a chunky puree. Season to taste with salt and pepper and additional lime juice. Serve.

And, what's salsa without chips? Here is my recipe for the best tortilla chips ever. (I mean it.) Once you try these chips, you’ll never want to buy bagged chips again. Have fun with the flavorings, try squeezing lime juice or sprinkling dried herbs, such as oregano, over the chips before you bake them. 

The Best Tortilla Chips Ever

Corn tortillas

Olive oil

Salt

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Cut the tortillas into wedges or strips. Arrange the pieces in a single layer on a sheet pan. Drizzle lightly with olive oil and sprinkle with salt. Bake in the oven until browned and crispy, about 15 to 20 minutes. Serve with salsa of choice.

I'm ready for my closeup...

So, something interesting is happening at work. The company I work for is putting together a series of online cooking classes, and I've been asked to teach the next session. (I'm SO excited!) The topic I've been asked to teach is cooking with spices, so I've been super busy the last couple of weeks compiling my lesson outlines and recipes. I'm using a mixture of recipes from my own files, modified versions of recipes we've taught in classes, and some brand new ones. Filming is in April, so many if not most/all of my blog entries the next month or so will likely be test runs of recipes I'm intending to include in the shoot. Starting with this one.

One of the dishes I'm including uses labneh, a Lebanese cream cheese made from yogurt. I can't get over how easy this was to make, and it is SO yummy. The texture and flavor is like the creamiest chevre you've ever tasted. I think this is going to be a staple in my refrigerator from now on. It's traditionally served as a mezze, the Middle Eastern version of tapas, with pita or some other flat bread, and a fresh salad of tomatoes and  mint. I also had an English cucumber and some mini bell peppers in the fridge, so I threw them in the salad,too. Such a lovely lunch!

Labneh with Tomato, Cucumber and Mint Salad

For the labneh:

32 ounces plain, whole milk Greek yogurt

1 ½ teaspoons Kosher salt

olive oil to drizzle

Kosher salt and pepper to garnish

Mix the salt into the yogurt. Line a bowl with cheesecloth and pour the yogurt into the bowl. 

Bring the ends of the cheesecloth together and tie into a bundle with kitchen twine. Tie the twine to a wood spoon placed over the top of a stockpot so that the cheesecloth hangs from the spoon into the pot. (The cheesecloth should not touch the bottom of the pot.) Place in the refrigerator for 24 hours. 

Cut the string and remove the cheesecloth from the ball of cheese. Place the cheese in a shallow serving dish and swirl with a spoon. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and black pepper.

For the salad:

½ cup cherry tomatoes, cut into thick slices

½ English cucumber, cut into thin slices

2 mini bell peppers, orange, yellow or red, sliced

juice of half a lemon

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

2 tablespoons thinly sliced mint leaves

Kosher salt and black pepper to taste

Place the ingredients in a bowl and toss to combine. Season to taste with salt and black pepper.

Serve with labneh and pita bread.

What's up, doc?

I was walking through the grocery store last week, and I saw something that made me smile--a bag of rainbow carrots. Most of us think of carrots in their traditional, familiar orange, but this bag also had yellow, purple and reddish pink carrots.  Some were thin and slender, others were beefy and stubby. Two bags of them somehow just jumped into my shopping cart.

I remember the first time I saw a carrot that wasn't orange. It was probably about 15 or 20 years ago when I still lived in Houston. These carrots were maroon and advertised as "Aggie" carrots. (The school colors of Texas A&M, my alma mater, are maroon and white, and the students are known as Aggies.) So, the idea of non-orange carrots is certainly nothing new. In fact, the carrots we typically eat have been specifically bred to be tender, orange and sweet; wild cultivars are all different colors. But, it's been a really cold and dreary stretch of weather here in the northeast, and something about that bag of carrots caught my imagination gave me a much needed boost. 

I remember buying those maroon carrots all those years ago, but I don't remember what I did with them. I probably just cut them up into sticks and ate them for lunch. Since, then, I've expanded my carrot recipe repertoire, and I've had some fun this week making a couple of my favorites.  

Carrot Ginger Dressing

This dressing is incredibly flavorful and has a creamy texture, all without using a lot of fat or oil. When pureed, the carrots take on a silkiness that gives the dressing a smooth richness. While it's great on a typical lettuce based salad, I like using it as a dressing for whole grains.

2 medium carrots, peeled and roughly chopped

2 cups water

2 tablespoons chopped, peeled ginger

2 teaspoons packed light brown sugar

¼ cup rice vinegar

2 teaspoons lemon juice

4 teaspoons soy sauce

4 teaspoons toasted sesame oil

2 teaspoons Kosher salt, plus additional as needed

freshly ground black pepper to taste

Place the carrots and water in a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to a simmer and cook until the carrots are tender, about 15 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the carrots to a blender, then add about 1 cup of the cooking water. Add the remaining ingredients to the blender and puree until smooth. Taste and adjust seasoning as needed with additional salt and pepper.

Farro Salad with Carrot Ginger Dressing

I happened to have farro in the pantry, but I've also made this salad with quinoa and Israeli couscous. You'll just need to adjust the recipe as needed to account for the different cooking times for the different grains.

2 cups farro

1 ½ cups chicken stock, low sodium

1 ½ cups water

1 cup diced English cucumber

1 cup diced red/yellow/orange bell pepper

1 cup edamame

1 cup sliced grape tomatoes

½ cup thinly sliced green onions, white and pale green parts

2 carrots thinly sliced into coins

¼ cup chopped fresh cilantro

1 recipe Carrot Ginger Dressing

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Place the farro, chicken stock and water in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to a simmer, cover, and cook, stirring occasionally until tender, about 30 to 40 minutes. Drain any excess liquid and transfer the cooked farro to a bowl to cool.

Once the farro has cooled, add the remaining ingredients to the bowl and stir to evenly combine. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve.

Roasted Carrots with Cumin and Shallots

It was another bitter, bone-chillingly cold day/week/month in Philly. So, as much as I've enjoyed eating the farro salad, I came home the other night, and was just craving something warm. While I confess to eating these carrots straight off of the baking sheet that night, they are actually intended to be a side dish. 

1 ½ pounds carrots, peeled, trimmed, and split in half if very large

1 large shallot, thinly sliced

1 ½ teaspoons cumin

½ teaspoon Kosher salt

¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Place the carrots in an even layer on a parchment lined baking sheet. Scatter the shallots over the carrots. In a small bowl, whisk together the cumin, salt, pepper and oil. Pour the oil mixture over the carrots. Stir/toss the carrots to coat them evenly with the oil, then spread back into an even layer. Roast until tender, about 30 to 40 minutes depending on the size of the carrots. Serve.