Chilaquiles Jones

For our anniversary, my mom got me and M. a gift certificate to Frontera Grill. We went with my mom and aunt one Saturday for brunch, after buying berries and pastries at the Green City Market in Lincoln Park.

Frontera chilaquiles with guajillo sauce. And really good coffee.

I'd had chilaquiles on the brain for weeks, and when I saw it on the menu I knew I had to have it. The guajillo sauce was sharp, a little spicy, a tiny bit bitter, and all delicious. The substantial chips were made from the housemade thick tortillas, so they still had some bite despite being drowned in the delicious sauce.

After getting home, I had to make a batch of my own. I found a recipe on Epicurious, which I followed with a couple of exceptions. I used chipotle powder in place of the paprika, and I doubled it, so it cooked longer.

It was pretty easy to make. I soaked a package of guajillo chilies in hot water until they were soft, then roughly chopped jalapenos, onions, and garlic. After removing the stems and seeds from the chilies, I blended everything with drained whole tomatoes and some of the soaking liquid, and cooked  it for about 40 minutes. The heat level was still pretty low, so I added some more chipotle and cooked it a little more along with the honey.

Homemade chilaquiles

I tossed some of the sauce with store-bought tortillas and topped it with some crumbled feta (instead of queso fresco), then baked it until the chips were browned.

With some chopped sweet Texas 1015 onions, lime juice, and avocado, it was satisfying, but pretty different from Frontera's version. This one was more tomato-y and less spicy and complex. Next time, I think I'll try a mixture of dried chilies and toast them before soaking, and reduce the amount of tomato.

I'd assumed the sauce would cook down a bit, which is why I made the double batch. I ended up with four pints, which was a bit more than expected. I'll be making this again soon.

Onions: Milagro Farm

Jalapenos: Urban Roots

Garlic: Buena Tierra Farm

Project: Stuffed Poblanos

I've always loved stuffed peppers. My grandma's version used green bells stuffed with rice and rich tomato sauce. They were pretty tasty, but I prefer a spicier Latin-inspired poblano relleno to a standard stuffed bell pepper.

I've made chiles rellenos before, stuffing charred and peeled poblanos with cheese, then breading and frying them. They're always delicious, but after having an un-fried version at La Fonda in San Antonio, I wanted to try making them myself.

I found some gorgeous poblanos, which I charred, peeled and seeded.

Charring poblano and naked peppers

I used one to make a poblano cream sauce, and stuffed the remaining two with a mixture of quinoa, raisins, pine nuts and a veggie mixture of sweet potato, corn onion and purple cabbage.

Veggie filling with quinoa steaming away in the background

I put a little bit of the poblano cream into the bottom of a pan, and placed the stuffed poblanos in it, then covered them with more sauce and some nutty-sharp Cheddar cheese and baked them until everything was hot and melty.

Stuffed poblanos, before and after baking

We ate them with quinoa with raisins and pine nuts and black beans.

I am really happy with how well the poblanos turned out. The texture was fantastic, still a little firm, and I think I prefer this non-fried version to the battered one. It's much lighter, and the flavor of the poblano comes through a lot better. Plus, it's not fried, so you get to save a little on fat and calories.

I think that, with fall coming, I'm going to make these again and experiment with fillings. Maybe butternut squash and black beans?

The poblano cream sauce was delicious, and really easy, too. It's kind of based on a Rick Bayless recipe from Mexican Kitchen, but it's a lot lighter. I had a funny kitchen moment when making it, though. I used all low-fat milk and no cream, but when I blended the milk in the food processor, it aerated and puffed up like whipped cream! It deflated once I added it to the hot pan, but just over cup of milk filled the bowl of the food processor.

Poblano Cream
1 large poblano, charred, peeled and seeded
1 1/4 cup milk
1 Tablespoon flour
1 Tablespoon butter
1/2 cup Greek yogurt (you could use crema, but this is what I had)
salt and pepper

Blend the poblano and 1 cup of milk in a blender or food processor.

In a small saucepan, melt the butter and add flour. Cook over medium heat until it begins to take on a little color. Whisk in the milk mixture, along with the remaining milk. Bring to a simmer. Add Greek yogurt, salt and pepper. Heat through.

My Kolaches. Let Me Show You Them.

I hadn't heard of kolaches before moving to Austin three years ago. In Chicago, Polish kolackys (pronounced ko-lach-keys) were popular, but are really more of a cookie than a bread.

I've really liked the kolaches I've gotten at Lone Star Kolaches on Lamar, but I wanted to try them on my own.

I searched the webs for a recipe that looked tasty, and settled on one from the Homesick Texan blog, which I modified to suit my needs.

After gathering all my ingredients, I settled into the kitchen and started my dough.

First, I fed the yeast with sugar, flour and milk. After a little rest, the dough had puffed up.

Pre-puffed and puffed dough starter

I mixed in butter and eggs, and then the flour. A lot of flour. I'm not even kidding; I used a lot of flour. The recipe called for 2 cups, but I ended up using closer to 3 after I turned out the 2-cup dough and it oozed over the side of the board I was working on. It had been raining for several days, so I think I can attribute a lot of that to the moisture in the air, and probably my flour. But I was a little surprised at just how I much I had to use.

Pre-puffed and puffed completed dough

After another rise, I started filling the dough. Going kind of traditional, I used a veggie sausage and pickled jalapenos in one type and extra-sharp Cheddar and jalapenos in another. I filled the leftover dough with cherry preserves.

After buttering and another rise, I baked them. I had to go a bit longer than the recipe suggested, baking for 20 minutes instead of 12-15.

Buttered and risen kolaches

Seeing my nicely browned kolaches come out of the oven, hot and steamy, was really satisfying. I don't bake a lot, but I really want to do it more. I think I found yeast breads kind of intimidating, but really, they're easy. There's just a lot of waiting.

Kolaches
1 packet dry active yeast
1 cup warm milk
1/4 cup sugar
3 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup melted butter
2 eggs, beaten
1 teaspoon salt

Mix the yeast, milk, sugar and 1 cup of the flour in a large bowl. Cover with a towel and let rise until doubled in size (about an hour).

Add the eggs, butter and salt. Mix until well-combined, and add the flour, 1/2 cup at a time. The dough should be moist and supple, but not oozey. If you've got a good dough (it's sticking to itself more than to your hands), you can stop before the reaching the 3 3/4 cup mark.

Knead on a floured board for about 10 minutes. Put in a large, buttered bowl and cover. Let rise for an hour.

Butter a baking sheet. Punch down the dough, and begin filling: Pull off small balls of dough and pat or roll out into 3-inch discs. If filling with sausage or cheese, place in the middle of the disc and fold the sides over. Place seam-side down on a baking sheet. If using fruit preserves, use your finger to make a little well in the center of the disc. Place on the baking sheet and fill the well with about a teaspoon of fruit preserves.

Brush the tops of the kolaches with melted butter. Cover and let rise for 1/2 hour. Bake at 375 for 15-20 minutes, or until golden brown all over.

Melon Soup

One of the things I really dislike about the summer in Austin is the heat. It's oppressive, and it feels like it's never going to end.

One of the things I love about the summer in Austin is the fruit. I look forward to melon season all spring long.

This year, one of the first farms to have melon at the Sunset Valley market was Buena Tierra.

Buena Tierra Farms

Fresh melon is crisp and cooling, and I don't think I've ever had melon as delicious as the melon I've gotten here in Texas. Maybe it's the heat?

I've also had melons I hadn't heard of before moving here, my favorite of which is the galia. It's kind of canteloupey, kind of honeydewy, and all delicious.

Fresh Galia

And during these really hot days, a chilled melon soup is simple to make, requires no cooking and is really cooling to eat.

Melon Soup
One melon, preferably galia
1-2 cups vanilla-flavored yogurt, depending on the size of the melon
Juice of 1 lime
2 Tablespoons agave nectar
1/2 inch ginger, grated
1 Tablespoons chopped fresh mint leaves
1/2 teaspoon salt

Cut the melon in half, and scoop out and discard the seeds. Scoop the flesh into the bowl of a food processor. Add yogurt, starting with 1 cup. Add the rest of the ingredients, and more yogurt to taste.

Soup with mint leaves and ginger snaps

Instead of croutons, I like to crush ginger snaps on top.

Okra Stew with Black-Eyed Peas

I brought this stew to a potluck dinner Friday night. With gorgeous okra from Finca Pura Vida, I thought an okra stew would be a nice, summery dish.

French Quarter Stew
3 Anaheim chiles, chopped
1 small onion, chopped
2 teaspoons safflower oil
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 28-oz can diced tomatoes
1 teaspoon tomato paste
1 15-oz can black-eyed peas, rinsed and drained
3/4 pound fresh okra
1/2 cup water
salt and pepper

Heat safflower oil in a large pot. Add the onion and chiles with a little salt and pepper and cook until soft, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic, and cook until beginning to soften, about a minute more

Add the tomatoes and tomato paste, and season with more salt and pepper. Simmer until the tomatoes begin to break down, about 10 minutes. Add black-eyed peas.

Cut okra into 1-inch pieces, discarding the stem ends. Add to the pot with the water. Cover and simmer over low heat until okra is tender-crisp, about 15 minutes. Serve over rice.

The chiles were much hotter than I'd expected, and much hotter than other Anaheims I've had this season, so I didn't have to add any more heat (I'd planned to use jalapenos). A little Sriracha on top would do, too.

Beans!

I have a confession to make: I am a dried-bean novice.

And I eat a lot of beans. After being vegetarian for about 15 years, I have only used lentils in their dried state. (Do lentils even count? They take no time.) Other beans just seemed like too much work.

I've been satisfied with canned beans—they're a great convenience food and really good for you. It's so simple to just open a can, rinse the beans, and add them to a recipe or salad.

While shopping last weekend, I finally decided to take the plunge and make dried beans instead of canned. I chose black beans, because they're one of my favorites and I could imagine using a whole batch in just a few days.

I was getting ready to soak the beans before going to bed Monday night. Just for good measure, I checked with the old standby, The Joy of Cooking, which suggested that black beans don't need to be soaked at all. Apparently, soaking them only eliminates a tiny portion of the gas-causing sugars.

So I went to bed and left the bean-making for yesterday.

After picking over and rinsing the beans, I just boiled them with a chopped onion and jalapeno, adding salt and pepper when they were almost done.

And the results?

Holy crap! My black beans are actually black! I've always hated how my black beans turn out brown after I cook them out of a can with other ingredients. Seeing perfectly black black beans in restaurants was frustrating.

Who knew all it would take was a super-simple method of cooking dried beans? OK, probably a lot of people, but whoa—I am so happy with these. They're prettier, have a firmer bite and taste better than their canned counterparts.

The only sad thing is that the process stained my favorite pot. It's enameled cast-iron, and its creamy interior has been stained before. I think the blue-black ring should come out with further cooking or a good baking soda scrubbing.

I am definitely going to be using dried beans more often. They're much easier to use than I thought, not to mention delicious.

Shortcut

(((This is a blog about cooking and eating in Austin, Texas (where I live), and wherever else I go.)))

Sometimes shortcut ingredients can be lifesavers. Or, at least dinnersavers.

I had a pack of White Wave Garlic and Herb Baked Tofu in the fridge. It's not something I normally buy, but decided to give it a try after finding it on sale.
With a giant head of red-leaf lettuce in the crisper, the tofu made a nice addition to a salad, providing flavor, texture and protein.

After adding a few sliced olives, dried cranberries and toasted almonds, dinner was prepared in under 10 minutes.
Yum.

Ugly Soup

I get on these food kicks (don't call it a rut!), and lately I've been making lots of soup. For some reason, when the weather got to 90 and stayed there, I couldn't get enough of the stuff.

My most-made soup the last several weeks is one I call Ugly Soup. It's kind of like a Vietnamese-style hot and sour soup, spicy with chiles and sour with lime juice.

It's delicious, and pretty good for you. But it's ugly. Really ugly.

It's got a whole head of shredded cabbage boiled in it, and that stuff just ain't pretty. But boy, is it tasty! I put a little fresh cilantro on top to dress is up a little, but it's clearly drab. The cabbage is light - almost grey, and tofu looks like, well, tofu - beige and square.

Tomatoes and pineapple make it more tart and fresh-tasting, and the color from the tomatoes helps a bit, too.

I could probably make this stuff a couple times a month and still not get sick of it. Even in the heat, it's light and fresh and feels nourishing to eat. The hot, sour and slightly sweet broth is irresistible, and I love the slight crunch of the cabbage.

Cauliflower Soup: Better with Air Conditioning

There are so many good veggies at the market now. I got an incredibly gorgeous golden cauliflower recently at Sunset Valley.

My usual method of cooking cauliflower is roasting - I find it really brings out the flavor without having to add much of anything else, except for a little bit of butter and salt.

I've been eating a lot of soup lately, so I tried a creamy cauliflower version.

To start, I chopped the cauliflower and roasted it until it was golden brown.

As it was roasting, the house got hotter and hotter. That's not so unusual, but the air conditioning was on. I checked the vents, and air was coming out, but it wasn't cold. Uh oh. Now, I had roasting vegetables and I had to eat a bowl of hot soup pretty soon.

I added the cauliflower to a pot of sauteed carrot, onion potato and vegetable broth and boiled it all together for a few minutes.

I added fresh milk and parsley and whirred it with a hand blender until it was smooth-ish (I like some texture).

The result was delicious, and really pretty. I love the pale orange color. I'd thought about adding some Full Quiver Cheddar for sharpness, but I forgot. (I blame the heat.) It was good, even without the cheese, but I may try it next time.

Eating hot soup in a hot house is not the most comfortable thing in the world, but when the soup turns out really well, it isn't all that bad.

Stuffed Squash

At last Saturday's farmers market, I found some round squash. The farmer described them as being similar to zucchini in texture and flavor. Since I hadn't had them before, I thought I'd give them a shot.

Their full, round shape and flat bottoms make them perfect for stuffing. It's been quite warm, so I decided to use a light and summery quinoa mixture.

First, I scooped out the middles, creating hollows in which to stuff the stuffing.

Next, I stuffed them with a mixture of the sauteed middles, cooked quinoa, Pure Luck feta , tomatoes, toasted almonds, fresh parley and mint.

Then I baked them until they browned a bit.

I think they turned out really well for a dish thrown together on the fly, and I'll probably make them again, or at least a variation. Next time, I might add more fresh herbs—their flavor, especially the mint's, got a little dulled with the cooking.

The squash themselves did taste a lot like zucchini, juicy and buttery, but has slightly more bite to them. Overall, the dish tasted really fresh and summery. Aside from having to brown them in a hot oven, they're a great hot-night dinner.