Sweet Summer Pies

The fruits of summer are plentiful, sweet, cheap, and bright with color and flavor. Whether its peaches, rhubarb, strawberries, blueberries, cherries, or nectarines they are savory fresh or prepared in their beautiful bounty.

My favorite way to sweeten the heat of summer is by making a pie. Nothing fancy is ever necessary with a base of ripe fruit. The ingredients I add to fresh fruit fit for a pie is always the same. There are only two rules:  the more watery the fruit, then add more flour; the sweeter the fruit, the less sugar is necessary.

This is my basic recipe for pie filling:

6 cups fruit cut into chunks
1 cup white sugar
1/4 cup white flour
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbs lemon juice

Mix all of the above in a bowl. Set aside.

Pie crust does have to be bland. The best pie crust recipe comes from my dad. When it comes to crust, this one wins every time for its rich flavor and flakiness:

Mix the following ingredients together well:

6 c. Flour
2 tbs. sugar
2 tsp. salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 lb lard
1 stick butter

Then add the following to a one cup measure:

1 beaten egg
2 tbs apple cider vinegar
And fill rest with whole milk.

Mix above and add to dry ingredients.
Knead and roll dough on floured surface.

Whatever dough remains can be wrapped tightly in plastic and frozen for a future use.

I fill my pie with the filling and because the crust is so lovely, I always give it a flat solid or lattice pie crust top. I brush on an egg wash and bake for about an hour at 325 F. Letting it cool completely is mandatory for the filling to set.

Top with whip cream or serve ala mode.

Snips, Snails, and Puppy Dog Tails...

... Sugar, spice, and everything nice. If you remember the rhyme those are the ingredients for making little boys and girls. Also, let us not forget, we are what we eat.

Some of the best foods are made from the seemingly bad or gross. Boil bones with vegetables at their end of goodness and you get a tasty, rich, savory broth-- that is after you skim off the scum, and drain it through cheesecloth to get out all the little floaty bits and pieces. Milk that is almost about to sour makes the creamiest and sweetest ricotta cheese. The milk starts to separate within its homogeneity and acidifies naturally. This means that less acid is needed to pull the natural sweet fats away into the cheese. Aged steaks, well-hung carcasses covered in blue mold (like blue cheese), ahhh delicious.

We  butchers and a few fortunate culinary enthusiasts know what I'm talking about. We know about the scum of soup, souring milk, and aged (though not old)  meat. However, the majority of the general public has no clue as to the splendor of these delights.

 So why is our soup so good? We answer,"boil bones to make the broth." We don't mention the scum and floaty bits. Why is our cheese so creamy? "Because its freshly made... from spoiling milk."  And finally, why is that chorizo so good?  "It was made from snips, snails, and puppy dog tails."

Which brings me to the mystery of chorizo. Most people have no need to know about the snips, and snails, and puppy dog tails that go into making good chorizo. But sometimes... The more of them the better.  Making chorizo from a nice fresh pork roast most often will turn out tasting fine. But it hardly will be memorable. But adding in a few snips, snails, and tails will make it so much better. As a gainfully employed butcher I feel a professional code of conduct of non-disclosure regarding my latest snips and snails. However, I had just the right ones lately. Which dutifully so, I made some of the best chorizo ever for the Oracle Market (see their Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/OracleMarket ).

But not everything in good chorizo is snips and snails. I also am a big fan of sugar, spice, and nice. I, however, first must note though: there is no sugar in chorizo, just as there really are no snails or puppy dog tails. But there is lots of spice and nice. A rule of thumb to follow when making good chorizo is to equal your ratio of snips and snails to your spice and nice.

So here is a base for good chorizo:

1. Meat. (Pork, beef, or any combination of the two)
2. Snips, snails, and puppy dog tails. (Ask a good butcher in person if you really want know and purchase some)
3. Chili-- a lot of chili fresh ground pods and/or powder. Just be cautious because of the huge amount you need the level of spiciness can get out if hand quick)
4. Dried oregano
5.  Garlic fresh or dried
6. Salt and black pepper
7. White or apple cider vinegar (about one cup per 10lbs meat)

I grind everything together once and taste. I am cautious on salt amount from the get go because that is only fixed by adding more meat which can be expensive and throws everything else off too. I then add in more salt and spice as needed, mix well, and grind again. Taste.  Usually grinding twice is all you will need. Let sit overnight. This gives the vinegar and spice time to do what they need to do.

The next day, this chorizo will be ready for breakfast, served with eggs, potatoes, tortillas, and fresh fruit on the side.

Verdolagas: weeds in my kitchen

Verdolagas a.k.a purslane is classified as a noxious weed. The seeds are illegal to transport, the plant restricted as to how it is grown.  It is essentially a controlled substance.  But it grows everywhere in my garden. It just popped up and took over everything. However, I'm sort of okay with that. At first I didn't know what it was. I picked the fresh leaves and added them into salads. However, I soon found out that eating them raw was only a mediocre way of enjoying them. I started asking long-time local residents how they cooked them. Apparently many feel they are a delicacy and now that word is out that I have them growing abundantly in my garden... I am sharing them with people who live as far as forty miles away!!! But please don't let authorities know, heaven forbid should the pollen of the flowers blow into the wind as I travel.

I have now cook them in a few different ways. They end up sort of like a milder version of spinach once they are cooked. No matter how they are prepared, they must have the woody bottom stems removed and then be simmered for ten minutes in a sauce pan of water. The following recipe is my favorite way to prepare them:

Ingredients:
Bunch of verdolagas
3 tomatillos
White onion
2 cloves garlic
Serrano pepper seeds and stem removed
Juice of a lime
Olive oil
Cotija cheese (or any fresh crumbly cheese like feta)

Prepare the verdolagas by cutting off any woody stems and boiling them for ten minutes in a sauce pan of water

In your food processor purée the tomatillos, white onion, garlic, serrano pepper, and lime juice. Add a bit of water if it is real thick.
Heat a skillet to med/high heat with olive oil. Add in the purée and simmer for a few minutes. Then add in the cooked verdolagas. Since the verdolagas will be wet from the water they were boiled in, I sautéed everything until the water has evaporated. I then add salt, pepper, and the cheese.

This is great on it it's own with a side of toast. Or even is very good wrapped in a tortilla. To take the recipe a little further, this dish can be used as a base for a quiche or scrambled eggs.

In the Beginning...

Everyone has memory of someone who influenced the way good food is perceived. There was that person (or persons) who you can still visit their kitchen via the sounds you once heard, the smells you once took in deeply, the visual memory of certain dishes, the tastes you have never been able to replicate. Whether you are conscious or not of how important that person was as in influence in your life, it is now time to give a little praise and worthy appreciation.

So who was your influence??? Or maybe you were fortunate enough to have many of such people. I dedicate this entry to these influences... Of which I was/am fortunate to have a few.

The key component to cooking influences is a simple concept: when you think of the person you want to be in their kitchen and savor everything they make. Their food is made with love and care. It's like a little bit of their soul is in every bite you remember.

My mom is definitely one of my influences. I know she is aware that she is good with food, but I don't know if she knows how it really affects people around her. Whenever someone visits her house, whether it be friend, family, or even the handyman... The kitchen is where all transactions of life take place. Enter from the back of the house... enter from the front if the house... go down the hall to the kitchen-- it's mandatory and routine. My mom makes the best lasagna. The best salads ever. The best cheesecake. She can follow a recipe, but it just comes out better. Why? Maybe. Because she uses eating spoons for measuring. Her cupboards are disorganized. Her refrigerator has relics from years past (sort a museum if jarred delights). But I think somehow all that adds to experience. Not only do i enjoy her food, but I love watching people eat her her food.  I can see each bite pausing time and fueling lively conversation. Her food creates energy with its color and vibrancy. Thanks mom.

My friend Dora is one of these special people that influences people with love through her food. Everything she makes is so wonderful. Dora can make a bologna sandwich and it just tastes better than any other bologna sandwich ever. Dora is from a small town in Mexico. I imagine that all women that come from this little village must be wonderful in the kitchen, teaching each other each day their secrets of labored love. But it could just be a story I tell myself, to justify the beauty and perfection of her food. Regardless, her food makes you verbally make noises of mmmmm out loud while you eat it. It makes all the world disappear from around you and a feeling of safety and protection as you sit at the mercy of her red chili. Her pozole can cure any ailment if sickness or malady. Her tamales... Are worth millions. When Dora cooks, you can see her love and soul and heart  move into her food. There is nothing but pure goodness. I can only hope to someday cook like that. But I'm not sure that is a skill perfected with practice. It is just something that is only is a state of being.

So who were your influences??? What did they make that captured your heart?  Share their love with the world through this blog. We all owe it to them just a little.

Sacred Sunday Sauce

Sundays bake at a different degree here in Winkelman, Arizona than they do in any other place I have ever lived. Very few people work on Sundays here. Even the grocery store and bar are closed. The only time small town traffic is "heavy" is during the mid-morning when people travel to and from church. There is a restaurant  in the next town over-- they will be open. They have a post-church little rush. But Sundays are a day that families and their friends still religiously congregate to worship not only The Lord, but also good food. 

Sunday food is slow cooked and/or accompanies barbecued meat. For many around here, Menudo or tamales or pozole would be the Sunday food that first comes to mind.   For me, it's lasagna or meatballs, pasta, good salad, something baked sweet. The smell of going home on Sunday is that of a house warm inside like a pot of tomatoes simmering with four different meats and Romano cheese. 

Every Southern Italian family has their recipe for the "sauce" and the meatballs that make it the best.  However, I've never known a family to disclose their recipe with specifics. There is something protected about it... a secret in the sauce. In my family, that secret is like a skeleton in the closet-- literally. The secret is bone-laden chicken parts.  It's just not the same with out it. 

I can't disclose all the specifics of my sauce and meatballs. I just can't. It wouldn't be the same anyways. But I will give you what you need as the base to create your own family recipe should you not have one. 

SAUCE
Canned tomatoes: use  only real Italian brand tomatoes: whole tomatoes, tomato purée, and paste. 
Oil and Spice: extra virgin olive oil only, smashed garlic cloves, fresh ground pepper, crushed red pepper flakes, dried oregano and basil. 
The Skeleton: a whole chicken pieced and browned. A pigs foot. A beef neck bone or two. 

MEATBALLS 
Meat: equal parts ground veal, pork, and beef
Cheese: Romano has the best flavor but Parmesan will do. Fresh grated of course. And whole milk ricotta. I make my own but that will be the subject of a future post. 
Fillers: a couple eggs. Bread crumbs but not a lot (they are MEATBALLS after all), lots of fresh chopped parsley. Garlic powder, salt. Fine pepper. 

Menudo: a love or hate sort of thing

Menudo is traditional Mexican soup cooked almost exclusively in weekends or holidays. Despite its often cringe-inducing main ingredient, tripe (or the honey comb, noodley, inside if cow stomach), it often tastes quite delicious. Every time I've had menudo it has been prepared by a woman over the age of fifty. It has always contained the exact same ingredients no matter who prepared it. And it also was prepared in a big pot so that there was plenty to share. Menudo is a soup that is meant to be shared and serves a base of matriarchal cooking pride. 

Yesterday I made my first Menudo... I had a bowl of it first thing this warm Saturday morning. It's good.  So I think I'll bring some to my neighbors and see how they like it.

The recipe for my Menudo is ingredient type specific, but vague as for ingredient amounts. I know how good menudo tastes: savory, rich but thin broth, tender bits of tripe, sort of firm hominy, perfect balance of dry oregano, a touch spicy, and fresh-fresh garnish.
The taste of bad menudo is just as memorable: bland, rubbery tripe, too much and too firm hominy, overly or underly applied oregano, no spice, no color, and no amount of garnish makes it a satisfying dish.

This is my "trial-size" recipe. It made me about 12 cups of soup.

Ingredients:
Large white onion
1.5 lbs. chopped tripe
6 dried chilis de arbol and 6 chilis de japone (in the dried Mexican spice section of grocery store)
Dried Mexican oregano
Three small bones from a beef foot.
Four chopped cloves fresh garlic
25 oz can of white hominy
Water
Salt and pepper

Garnish:
Cilantro
Fine chopped white onion
Lime wedge
Pinch of dried oregano

Fill Dutch oven half way with water. Throw in tripe, beef feet, and half the white onion cut up into medium pieces. Cover and boil for two hours.
Lower heat and add in the other half of the onion, can of hominy (drained), about a tablespoon dry oregano, and both types of dried chilis.
Cover and low boil for another hour or two.
During the last ten minutes of boiling add in the fresh minced garlic.
Add salt and pepper to taste.

Ideally it should be served many hours or the following day after it is made. It just tastes better that way. Sprinkle the garnish over each bowl, squeezing in lime or lemon and leaving the rind in the served bowl.

First Entry Introduction

My mother always said I could and would be anything I ever wanted to be. Well she was right.  I do very well at living and being excited with the present moment at hand. I also love to share my enthusiasm, love, insight, and vigor with those I encounter each day. I live in the smallest incorporated town in Arizona: Winkelman, a blink of a town that is famous for being the last stop to get gas before Globe. We have three legal businesses, one of which is one my favorite grocery stores in all of Arizona-- Giorsettis. One of my other favorite places to find the precious ingredients I create love and nourishment with is Oracle Market-- where I work 35 miles south of Winkelman, and 35 miles north of Tucson.

I am a butcher... And I love it. I am the real deal and take pride in my ability to look at live animal (even as I often know it's name as it looks deep into my soul batting its eyes) and effectively kill, or harvest politely, and break any animal species down (process) into all available options based on anatomical characteristics. And, well, because of those anatomical characteristics, I can distinguish what meat should be prepared in which manner. My love of food and cooking, spices, savor, and deep rooted satisfaction is the heart of most my food. It is a privilege to be a butcher. For the majority of all prepared meals in America, meat is the root ingredient and I get to be the beginning source of that for so many people. I can't make a person be a good cook. But I can at least provide a good base for the root of their meal.

I don't like to eat. Eating is boring. I associate it with physical necessity, boredom, obesity, and lack of soul or appreciation. On the hand, savoring is appreciating all the combinations of smell, texture, taste, love, and energy put into a dish and/or its accompaniments. I like to savor. I like to taste something and know that it was made with pride and love in all regards. It's nourishing. Just a little bit satisfies the soul, satiates the appetite, mesmerizes the mind, supplies necessary nourishment, and acts as a viaduct connecting the heart of the cook to those consuming. Take one bite into love prepared food and it sort of stops time. Or at least slows it down. Good food is meant to be shared. And so this blog is here to share what I know and create each day with food with a broader audience than just my three children, friends, family, and love.

Famous chefs often focus on one genre of cooking: Italian, Asian, low-fat, Southern, simple, etc. But I am way more unfocused than that. Southern Italian is my specialty, but I am bored with it. Mexican is fun because I cook it just as good (if not better) than most Mexicans. A sort of "oh yeah, try this gringo's comida" mental competitive thing takes over. It must be a result of being in the racial minority of the community Winkelman. Asian is fun to experiment with. Russian is so delicious. But cooking love manifested ingredients I guess is my style. I cook what is gonna be in the moment good tonight: seasonally grown, I guess; locally purchased, most likely; vibrantly colorful, as much as my tattoos a given; savory sensational, usually the case; and made from the heart with soul.... Definitely!!!!