Blue Corn Posole

In my quest for a decent blue corn posole, I'm trying something a little different this time. Well, a couple of things.

Blue corn posole, dry

First, I'm crocking it.  When I've made the posole on top of the stove, I've not been happy with how the blue corn hominy cooks up.  Some pieces are solid and very chewy.  Others split apart and are... very chewy. 

I think the chewiness is just part of blue corn, but am hoping that crocking will at least help it cook more evenly.

The second thing I'm doing is roasting the pork, onions, garlic, and chilis before adding them to the stew.  The hope is for a little more depth of flavor.

Blue corn posole is a two-day process.

Day one is easy. Take the dried hominy, and soak in water to cover.  This time around, I started the soaking mid afternoon. 

Day 2 is a little more involved.

First, trim the pork of extra fat, and render it in an iron skillet.

Rendered pork fat

This provides something like unfiltered lard to use in the skillet when roasting everything. 

It also provides cracklins, which can later be used in corn bread. 

Cracklins are like unflavored bacon.  They're a hillbilly delicacy.

Cracklins

After rendering the fat, drain some of it off, and use the rest to sear the pork. 

Rub some of the fat on the seared pork, 1 quartered onion, 2 halved and seeded jalapenos, and 4 cloves of garlic.


Put everything in the oven to roast.  I'm roasting at 350 (f). 

Pork and vegs, ready for the oven

Next, wash and quarter 6-8 tomatillos.  Drain the soaking water from the posole.  Add tomatillos and posole to the crock pot, and add a couple of quarts of water.  Add salt to taste and about 1/2 tsp or so dried oregano.  Set the crock pot on low, and let the hominy and tomatillos cook while the pork and vegs roast.

Tomatillos and posole in the crock pot

Cool the pork and vegs. Cube or shred the pork and chop the vegs.  Add to the crock pot and cook about 4 hours, until the hominy is tender and the broth is tasty.  Add additional seasoning to taste.

Ingredients:

1 12 oz. package dry blue corn posole
2.25 lbs thick cut pork loin steaks
1 onion, peeled and quartered
2 jalapeño chili peppers, cut in half and seeded
4 small cloves garlic
6-8 tomatillos, quartered
About5 1/2 tsp oregano
1 frozen garlic cube, or 1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/4 to 1/2 tsp onion powder
1/4 tsp ancho chili powder
Freshly ground salt and pepper
Cilantro

Directions:

1. Day one: Soak the posole in a covered glass bowl for at 12-18 hours.
2. Day two: Rinse pork, pat dry, and trim fat.
3. Cut fat into small pieces, then render in an iron skillet.
4. Remove cracklins from the skillet and drain and reserve most of the fat. Leave about 1 Tbsp fat in the skillet.
5. Sear the pork on all sides.
6. Rub onions, garlic, and jalapeños with some of the reserved fat, then place in skillet with the pork.
7. Roast pork and vegs in 350 (f) oven for about an hour or so, until pork is done. Let cool.
8. While pork is roasting, drain and rinse the posole, then put in crock pot with about 2-3 quarts water.
9. Add tomatillos and oregano, and start cooking on low.
10. Remove vegs, cut onions, remove skins from jalapeños, and add to crock pot.
11. Shred or cube pork and rub it around in the skillet to get some of the skillet liquor mixed into the meat.  Add to crock pot.
12. Cook on low for about 6 hours, adding remaining seasonings to taste after a couple of hours.
13. Serve garnished with cilantro.

The finished product

Squash Chili

As my adventure in mushy food continues, my biggest question is, "Do variations in Vegetable Slop count as new recipes?"

OK, my real biggest questions are, "Will this ever end?" and "Am I going to be alright?"

But, those questions make for boring blog posts.  Even more boring than blenderized vegetables.

So... today's gustatory delight (said with tongue in cheek, aforementioned tongue partially poking through the hole where the tooth used to be because I'm typing this as I eat, and I'm supposed to eat with my flipper out, and isn't that way more than you wanted to know?) is Yellow Crookneck Squash Chili.  And, yes, it could be made with Zucchini.

Sorry, no pics -- partly because I just didn't have time, and partly because this stuff looks almost exactly like any other Vegetable Slop.  Maybe a little more red-orange than  the greenish brown slop made with tomatoes and green beans. But, except for color, it's all be the same.

Yellow Crookneck Squash Chili

Ingredients:

• 2 small yellow crookneck squash
• 2 small heirloom tomatoes
• About 3/4 cup water
• Big pinches and dashes of Chili powder, garlic powder, onion powder, oregano, salt, pepper.
• 1 TBSP guacamole

Directions:

1. Put everything except the guac in a pan and cook.
2. Blenderize with your handy stick blender.
3. Taste and add more seasonings if needed.
4. Pour into a bowl and top with the guac.

Yumm. Sort of.

Vegetable Slop - er, I mean, Soup

I'm not sure how humans survived oral surgery before the advent of the stick blender.  I'm sure I'll wear mine out before this is all over.

One of my biggest challenges has been vegies.  I eat LOTS of vegies.  A day without broccoli is like a day without sunshine. Only worse.

But, pureed broccoli? Not so much.

And, even though I can now chew well-done vegies, it can be very tedious trying to eat a whole bowl full.

Right now I'm kind of craving the vegie soup from Marie Callendar's.  But, without all the salt and who-knows-what one gets in restaurant soups.

So, here it is: Vegetable Slop - er, Soup.  I'm not saying it's all that pretty.  But it is tasty, and it requires no chewing.

The recipe makes 2 small servings or 1 large.

Ingredients:

About 6 ounces organic frozen green beans
About 1/2 cup organic canned tomatoes
About 1/4 cup frozen peas
A slice or two of onion, or a generous sprinkling of onion powder
Dash of garlic powder
Pinch of oregano
3/4 cup or so of organic vegie broth or water
Salt & pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Throw everything in a pan and cook til done.
2. Blenderize with your stick blender.
3. Serve in a pretty mug.

Variations:
Add a pinch of capers, a couple of olives, or some fresh savory.  Throw in a little spinach or any other vegies you have on hand.

Millet Mini-Muffins with Sage Streusel (Gluten Free)

My muffinly machinations complete, I have to say I'm happy with the result.  Here's the recipe:

Dry ingredients
120 g. flour blend*
1 TBSP baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp xanthan gum
1/4 tsp sea salt
1 tsp freeze dried parsley
Freshly ground pepper
A few bits crumbled dried rosemary
2 tsp dried chopped onion

Wet ingredients

42 g walnut oil

1 egg

About 3/4 to 1 C organic unsweetened applesauce

2 tsp lemon juice

Fresh thyme to taste

1 C cooked millet



Sage Streusel
1/2 C fresh sage leaves
1 1/2 C walnuts
2-3 TBSP soft butter
2 TBSP flour blend*
Dash of salt

1. Pulse the streusel ingredients together in a mini food processor.  Add the walnuts in stages so that chunks of walnut remain.
2. Preheat oven to 350(f) and line mini muffin tins with 24-28 muffin liners.
3. Whisk dry ingredients together in a small bowl.
4. Whisk wet ingredients together in a medium bowl.
5. Stir in dry ingredients, and add a couple of tablespoons water if needed to get a nice batter consistency. The batter will look light and fluffy, and I think I hear a slight crackling sound as I stir it. Don't over mix.
6. Spoon mixture into muffin liners, flatten gently with damp fingers, then top with toasted streusel.
7. Bake until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. For me, that was about 10 minutes.  Be careful not to overcook them. Mini muffins can get a bit dry.
8. Cool in pan for 2 minutes, then transfer to cooling racks.

* My current favorite flour blend is 6 parts organic brown rice flour, 6 parts sorghum flour, 2 parts potato starch, 1 part tapioca starch.  When I mix it up, each part is about 1/3 cup.  I'm working on converting that to weights so I don't have to think.  Stay tuned.



Muffin Planning

My affair with savory muffins continues.
 
I did take a brief break to visit my sister in Mesa, and then made some BBQ turkey meatloaf muffins, then some oatmeal muffins to give The Spouse a break from the savories.  And then I was getting low on cookies.

But, now my muffin machinations are back.  I've been thinking about The Next Muffin all day. 

I'm approaching this one top down: It all starts with the streusel. 

Sage.

Fresh sage is wonderful.  I have three different sage plants growing in my windowsill.  All small, none doing well. One that's been getting white spots on the leaves.  But, I think between the three plants, even with avoiding the white spots, I have enough sage. 

Nuts.

Pine nuts? Pecans? Walnuts? Cashews? Almonds? Macadamias? Sunflower seeds? (Technically, not a nut, but usable in a nutly context.)  With sage, almost certainly walnuts.

Fat.

Olive oil? Sunflower? Walnut? Sesame? Organic shortening? Butter?  Needs to complement the sage, but should also help provide structure to the streusel.  Since I'm not using a cheese in the streusel, probably butter.

Now, down to the muffin: Muffins are comprised of grains, the egg, the liquid, the fat, leavening, maybe an acid, and the seasonings.

Grains.

You can do a blend, or you can have a main grain and then adjunct grain(s).  This is a muffin that calls for  a main grain.  The adjuncts will be easy: brown rice, sorghum, tapioca, and potato starch. But the main grain.... blue cornmeal? Cooked millet? Millet flour?   This time: Cooked millet.

Egg.

Organic. Cage free. No substitutes.

Liquid.

Definitely starting with applesauce.  Unsweetened. Organic. Funny thing about applesauce: I've seen recipes where folks use it to substitute for fat, for egg, for sweetener.  Pretty much the Universal Ingredient. I'm using it for the liquid.

Fat.

Not butter. We don't want the muffin to be about the butter. It's about the sage streusel. So, in the muffin itself... Olive oil would complement the sage, but may not work with the applesauce.  Sunflower oil would complement the applesauce, but might be too boring. Maybe this would be a good day to open that bottle of walnut oil.

Leavening.

The basic millet muffin recipe I'm starting from uses both baking powder and soda. And because it has baking soda, it needs either cream of tartar or...

Acid.

Lemon juice? Lime juice? Orange juice? Apple cider vinegar? Rice vinegar?  Probably lemon juice. Maybe rice vinegar.

Seasonings.

Salt & pepper, of course.  No sage, because we don't want to draw attention from the streusel. But, we need to have something to give the muffin some flavor.  Maybe a few fresh thyme leaves, some parsley, and the tiniest bit of dried rosemary.  No garlic this time around.  Onion?   Not sure.

Well, anyway, that's the plan. At least, the beginnings of one.

Mozi Muffins

Now that I'm done with St. Pat for another year, my savory muffin obsession continues with thoughts of color.  Golden yellow has been calling me.

Mainly, yellow has been calling to me from the jar of turmeric my baby sister gave me for Christmas.

Most muffins are named after the main ingredient.  But no, these little guys aren't made from my baby sister. Rather, they're in honor of her, and her love affair with turmeric.

Vegetables and legumes

1/2 organic sweet onion, finely minced, sauteed in a small amount of olive oil

1 cup cooked red lentils (firmly packed, semi-drained)

 

Dry ingredients

90 g. brown rice flour

30 g. garbanzo flour

1 TBSP baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp xanthan gum

1/8 tsp granulated garlic, or to taste

1/4 tsp sea salt

3/8 tsp turmeric
1/4 tsp cumin
3/8 tsp dried cilantro

Freshly ground pepper

Wet ingredients

1/2 cup "original" hazelnut milk (or milk substitute of choice)

55 grams salted organic butter, melted

1 egg

1 tsp pepper infused vinegar

 

Topping

Melted butter

Lightly toasted sesame seeds

1. Preheat oven to 375(f) and line mini muffin tins with 24 muffin liners.
2. Saute onion in olive oil until onion is translucent. Set aside.
3. Whisk dry ingredients together in a small bowl.
4. Whisk wet ingredients together in a medium bowl.
5. Add onions and lentils to wet ingredients and mix well.
6. Stir in dry ingredients, and add more hazelnut milk if needed to get a nice batter consistency. The batter will look light and fluffy, and I think I hear a slight crackling sound as I stir it. Don't over mix.
7. Spoon mixture into muffin liners, flatten gently with damp fingers, then brush with butter and top with toasted sesame seeds.
8. Bake until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Since I'm still getting used to mini muffins, I have no idea how long that is.  Maybe about 8-12 minutes?  Be careful not to overcook them.  Mini muffins can get a bit dry.
9. Cool in pan for 2 minutes, then transfer to cooling racks.

Mini muffins are cute, but they're a lot more work than regular sized muffins.

Yummm.

Cookie Dough Thoughts on a Rainy Sunday

We were getting low on cookies, so I had to take a break from my muffin obsession to mix up a batch of cookie dough.  It's been a while since I made quinoa nut butter cookies...

It's a wonder to be able to mix the flour while the stand mixer just stands there, patiently and faithfully creaming butter and nut butter and raw sugar and other sweet things.

Dump in the dry stuff, and the mixer mixes while I tidy up a thing or two.  And, voila! The exquisite, almost painfully beautiful lightness and fluffiness of cookie dough.

It's silly of me to feel proud.  God invented quinoa, and honey, and maple syrup, and pecans, and all the other goodness.  I didn't invent the Kitchen Aid. I didn't even invent the original quinoa cookie recipe. 

All I did was change up the nut butters and the sweet things and add an extra splash of vanilla.  I can't take credit for the skills needed to make the cookies.  God gave me the ability to learn the skills, and He gave me what little creativity was needed to change up the recipe.

Every good and every perfect gift is from above.

Which makes me wonder at intellectual property.  Is our intellectual property really ours? Do we have any right to claim intellectual property rights, when our very intellect isn't ours, but a gift? Maybe even just a loan?