Bone Appetite

Recipe: Santa Maria Pinquitos, Bunkerlow Style

This one is not an adaptation, but came with some pinquitos I got for Xmas from some friends (thanks R&J!)...I'm keying it in because it's not on the Rancho Gordo heirloom bean recipe site, and I fear for the slip of paper on which I have it at present.

I'm making these tonight in part because I coincidentally also got two different kinds of Spanish smoked paprika in the old Xmas stocking, and I have a tritip that's been in the freezer for three months it's time to cook up. And, as you will note from the ingredients, this will test some of the more hallowed spices I discussed several posts ago in "The Taste of Old Spice"!

Adapted [according to the recipe slip] from Heirloom Beans by Steve Sando

1 lb Santa Maria pinquito bean
1 medium white onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, chopped
1 teaspoon Spanish somke paprika
1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
1/4 taspoon ground allspice
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground clove
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon tomato paste
2 teaspoons molasses
salt and pepper to taste

Soak beans for about 6 hours.

Drain beans and put in a stockpot with water to cover about an inch. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low and simer, partially covered, until the beans start to soften, about 45 minutes to an hour.

Meanwhile, in a small skillet, saute the onion and garlic in the olive oil for a few minutes, until softened. Stir the powdered spices into the onions and cook briefly, ntil fragrant.

Add the onion mixture, tomato paste, molasses, and salt and pepper to the beans. Cook until the beans are fully tender, about 20 or 30 minutes more.

Pinquito beans are supposedly a traditional accompaniment to Santa Maria tri-tip, but we like them on their own with tortillas or conrbread and braised greens.

Recipe: Foggy Night Green Beans

I originally posted this elsewhere in September, just before I revived this blog, and since tonight is a bit dank I thought I'd repost it.

This was made on a night when we had lots of cold fog and really nice green beans. It doesn't feel that original but since I whipped it up on the spot we'll pretend it is for now.

1 # fresh green beans
=> trim, cut into thirds, steam until bright green and crunchy, then chill under cold water, drain

2 tsp capers
2 oz anchovies

crush together with the back of a spoon in a mixing bowl

1 T sun-dried tomato paste or finely diced sun-dried tomatoes
2 T olive oil
juice of 1 lemon (about 1 T)

combine above with caper-anchovies and whisk to smooth consistency

toss green beans in the dressing, cover with plastic wrap, and chill in the fridge for at least 20 minutes before serving

serving suggestion: serve with cold chicken, crostini, fresh tomato, and a little fresh mozzarella.

Recipe: African Squash Soup

Mika and I included this recipe in our cookbook (now ten years old, and still in its first print run!), which was based in turn on the recipe in the Africa News Cookbook, sadly out of print but available (according to Amazon as of this writing) used pretty cheap. We love this as a "winter warmer" and I thought of it today since the temperature here was actually (gasp) below freezing. For years we made this as an appetizer for Thanksgiving, but the last few celebrations we trotted it out it was too spicy for the taste of any of the guests except for us. (And we thought we'd dialed it down.) No matter: this is a great soup and I heartily recommend it for potluck and various solstice-holiday-event parties, as it's quick, delicious, unusual, and warming.

Don't be fooled by the length of the ingredient list - this can be done in 25 minutes or so start to finish, with time off to attend to something else.

1 largish butternut squash, or 2 acorn squash, or equivalent amount of other winter squash
1 bay leaf
1 small onion, minced very finely
4-5 large cloves of garlic, pressed or minced finely
1 TBS cooking oil (we recommend peanut oil or canola if you don't want the peanuty accent)
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp black pepper (fresh ground is great, but not necessary - fine grind)
1 TBS fresh ginger, minced finely or grated (dried is a very poor substitute here)
1/4 tsp curry powder of your choice
1/4 tsp turmeric
1/4 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp dried rosemary; if you use fresh, try to mince as finely as possible
3 TBS fresh lemon juice, or more to taste (we always seem to put in more)

Peel, cube, and cover the squash in enough water to cover, then bring to a boil in a soup pot.

When the pieces are very soft, mash them. It's easier to do if you lift them out of the water with a slotted spoon and mash them in a bowl, and then return them to the water, but if you want to save washing an extra dish, you can mash them right in the pot.

Add the bay leaf and bring to a simmer.

In a small skillet, sauté the garlic and onions in the oil over medium-high heat. Combine the remaining spices and add to the garlic and onion. Turn the heat to low and sauté 5-10 minutes until the flavors have blended well.

Spoon a little of the squash liquid into the skillet with the spices, stir and simmer gently until well combined, and then pour the skillet mixture into the soup pot. Pour the lemon juice into the skillet to get all the remaining spices and such in the skillet, and then pour all this into the soup pot, too.

Add more water if the soup is too thick, and adjust to your texture preference. We like the soup a bit on the thick side. Adjust seasonings to taste (particularly the lemon juice at this point).

For kids and the spice-adverse: you can reserve a portion of the squash base before adding the spices, and simmer it separately, adding only salt and lemon juice to taste. It's bland, in my humble opinion, but if you have a sweet squash many kids can be persuaded to try it, particularly if you serve it with a dollop of yogurt or sour cream. It's not the same dish as the recipe above, of course, but it's a minimal effort to cook "two" dishes this way if you have some folks who you reckon will not like the complex and nuanced brew of spicing in this dish.

The Thanksgiving Menu

We're again going up to see friends for Thanksgiving, who live about a half hour away. They're cooking the turkey and mashed potatoes and one cranberry sauce; we're cooking everything else and bringing the wine.

The real art of the whole enterprise of domestic economy is kitchen management. This gets, I believe, to the heart of the successful big holiday dinner. Having the kitchen organized, getting your ingredients prepped in the right order, rotating things in the oven, and timing everything to come out at just the right time, that is so much more important than mere recipes. I wish I had a magic bullet to make this all work, but I believe a lot of this is just intuition garnered from experience. (Oh, like the time we had our dishwasher break and the sink clog up halfway through the cooking in a galley kitchen. We ended up eating the pie for dinner and the turkey for dessert.)

That said, for something as complicated as Thanksgiving -- especially when we have to do much of the prep work "offsite", as it were, before dinner -- some planning is in order. I don't necessarily go so far as a schedule per se, but I do write down what we need to do in the order that it needs doing, because it sure helps you avoid forgetting things.

So, bearing in mind that we're splitting our part of the cooking into two halves -- before we leave to go to our Thanksgiving house, and after we get there (but before dinner, and certainly before the bourbon and wine have had a chance to kick in) -- here is our part of the menu and the approximate schedule, with notes. I write it here because I have to write it somewhere!!

Wednesday afternoon:

Bake sweet potatoes. Spice with a little salt and pepper, and just a touch of nutmeg. Cover and store in fridge.

Bake the pumpkin for the fresh pumpkin meat for the pumpkin pie, strain and puree and reserve in the fridge for tomorrow. (Start as soon after the sweet potatoes are done as is practicable, or do at the same time.)

Wednesday evening:

Make the braised cabbage and put in the fridge.

Make the traditional cranberry sauce and refrigerate.

Make the three pie crusts.

Make the cranberry-apricot pie (our own recipe to follow in a separate post).

Thursday morning:

Bake the Bourbonated Pecan Pie (requires 450 oven). (our recipe follows in a separate post).

Prep the green beans with leeks and dill as follows:
- french cut, then blanche the green beans and store in an airtight container.
- dice the dill and store in another container.
- slice the leeks and store in another container.

Bake the Pumpkin pie.

Thursday afternoon just before leaving:

Prep salad:
- clean and tear salad leaves (butter, escarole, red leaf) and pre-mix leaves, and bag them
- make champagne vinaigrette

Prep acorn squash with bacon:
- cut squashes into halves and clean (cut away bottom to make lie flat)
- put in one 1/2 T pat of butter into each squash, diced half slice of bacon, 1 T brown sugar
- cover with aluminum foil

Pack into car:

- whipping cream
- three pies
- cranberry sauce
- sweet potatoes
- braised cabbage
- green bean dish ingredients (beans, leeks, dill)
- salad ingredients (lettuce, dressing, pine nuts, goat cheese)
- glass baking dish with acorn squash
- wine
- extra pie serving utensils
- wife, kids, etc.

Immediately upon arrival (one hour prior to dinner):

- put into the oven with the turkey the acorn squash
- open wine and start drinking it

20 minutes before dinner:
- put braised cabbage into dutch oven on stovetop and warm on medium-low heat

10 minutes before dinner:
- put sweet potatoes into oven or microwave, as available
- combine salad ingredients onto salad plates
- in a hot skillet and 1 T EVO, cook leeks and dill together, add S&P
- toss in green beans, stir until warm

5 minutes before dinner:
- remove acorn squashes

After dinner:
- whip up whipping cream

So, that's the plan. Enjoy it now, because, as they say, the instant the cooking starts, the plan gets thrown out the door.