Wildcrafting

Today was a bit rainy and overcast in Massachusetts but we went out anyway and I harvested a motherload of red clover that is now drying loverly in my kitchen. I am going to use it for iced/hot tea- it is a great female tonic and the fresh buds are a nice visual addition to salads that also add a touch of sweetness.



My other find was some choice wild mustard greens; they are shaped like arugula but with the fine teeth of radish leaves. I plan on sauteeing them in garlic and oil and tossing with spicy italian sausage over pasta for lunch today, instead of broccoli rabe. Yum!

The Plaintain

"The Chip." "The Cracker." Even "The Pretzel," can't compete with...

"The Plaintain."



It's "The Godfather," of all things cruchy, fried or baked! The most versitle food on the planet! Well, maybe that's the tomato but..."The Plaintain," my friends, "The Plaintain" puts salsa in your step, tangos on your tongue and swirl in your hips. It pizazzes the palate with it's ability to change forms. Mash, you say...no problem; make a Mofongo! Sweets you want? Got it covered...let's have Amarillos (or Moduros depending on where you're from). In the mood for a pot pie? Make The Plaintain your crust for a surprisingly tasty and healthy alternative. Having a party? Need some chips & dip? Or just in the mood for a crunchy snack but got snowed into your house and I can't get out? If you're an Irizarry, or any other self-respecting Puerto Rican, you will always have "The Plantain" in your home. Don Poncho said, "Let them make chips!"

And so we shall...

"The Plaintain" Chip

This plaintain should be green and firm. Slice it up - length-wise. Easier to do with a Mandolin but if you have a cuisin art, get the attachements out! Cut the plaintain in half so it fits in your machine for a long cut. Let it dry out a little - 20 minutes or so. Salt it up a little add a dash of pepper if you like. Or paprika, or oregano, or garlic salt (see how versitle!) Heat a cast iron skillet about 1/3 of the way with canola, vegetable or peanut oil. Let the oil get hot but do not let it burn. Toss the leggy-plaintain strips into the hot oil. It won't hurt them; they like it! Don't over fill the skillet or you'll bring the temperature down too much or risk an oil spillage. Flip them around. When They look sunburned, take out and set on a paper towel. You may choose to season your plaintains at this point instead of before frying. That's ok, especially if you want to save your oil to fry up something else! Empanada's anyone?



Serve atop chili, add a little crunch to a salad, make nachos, eat with salsa. Or eat on it's own. You won't be disappointed.

Luuuuuuv Chocolate

Pre-made chocolate mix is an affront to humanity. Why anyone would NOT make their own hot cocoa is totally beyond me especially with the laundry list of unpronouncable ingredients that make powdered mixes "consumable" for immeasurable periods of time on bodega shelves the world over.

This is Titi Jess' luuuuv chocolate that she makes especially for her little niece my sweet baby Ava Bean.

Enjoy!

1/2 c. sugar
1/4 c. cocoa powder
dash salt

Combine dry ingredients and add 1/3 c. hot H2O and 3/4 tsp. of vanilla and bring to a boil and dissolve the dry ingredients, stirrign constantly for 2 minutes.

Add four cups of cold milk and bring to a simmer, don't let it boil. For a thicker cup of chocolate, add some dark chocolate pieces, and for a change, a pinch of cayenne pepper.

This recipe makes 6 cups of hot cocoa.

I am a Salad, My Sister is a Dish

At lunchtime my father unveiled a stunningly deft analysis of my sister's and my particular personalities based on what we excel at preparing in the kitchen.

I am a salad: no need for recipes or fussy ingredients, can be thrown together from anything lying around with surprisingly good results, can be tossed recklessly,even thoughtlesssly into a bowl, without fuss and with complete spontenaity, ingredients flying this way and that. He also said I may be good at soups- though actually my baby is the one who excels at that, leaving us in a particularly one sided culinary conundrum if my father is right about food and personality.

I would of course add the following list of adjectives to his description: homegrown, fresh, a little crunchy, creative and neccessary for your health.

Jessica, on the other hand, is a dish or perhaps a sauce-measured, precise, complex, multi-stepped, ordered, and sophisticated...I can't argue with this one bit, it's true. Jessy doesn't like making salads, she says that mine always come out tasting so much better when I make them for her and I, in return, have to call her at least twice a week for this recipe or that because she really does have a certain method to her madness that produces excellent results!

This is the coven on the beach on Christmas day. I am the lettuce leaf and she is the layered, accessorized one. Go figure.

Shrimp Boil

I've said it before and I will say it again: one of the finest things about the Gulf Coast is access to cheap, local, delicious, and totally fresh seafood. My Mom works in an heirloom sewing shop (more on her particular talents later)and has a customer who regularly purchases her seafood directly from a local fisherman straight out of Bayou La Batre, Alabama. Sometimes he catches more than he expects and when he does, my Mom's customer will call up the shop and the staff will sop up some of the surplus (the disturbing side to this is the reckless spoiling of certain felines in this household who are accustomed to this abundance and get hand fed shrimp at the table...my parents cats-gorgeous and nuerotic-live truly high on the hog). When that happens, as it did the other day, my Mom will buy 10 pounds of shrimp at $3/lb and have a good 'ol fashioned Southern shrimp boil.

It's fast, easy, simple, and satisfying. Add a couple tablespoons of shrimp boil to a pot of boiling water with potatoes. When approaching desired softness, add corn on the cob and boil for about 5 minutes.

Remove the veggies to a colander(reserving the liquid)and add the unpeeled shrimp until they shine with that customary pinkish hue, no more than two minutes. Whip up some cocktail sauce, throw some newspaper on the table to save your linens from shrimp spooge, and dive in.

Again, shrimp is one of those things I don't usually care too much for, like crab, but my palate seems only to reject the stuff when it's of the shipped across vast oceans variety. When I am here, I love it!

I Love Milk....

but only in a frothy, spiced milk punch with a shot of 151 and creme de cacao straight up with milk and half and half and a dusting of fresh nutmeg on top, seved in a chilled martini glass, preferably.

This is one of only three ways I will drink this most hideous and vile dairy product in its liquid form, the others being hot chocolate and cafe con leche.

My Dad got me started on this drink this morning as a prelude to my coffee and I have to say it's a good thing he didn't make me any more because I definitely would have spent the day in the hammock on the beach sleeping.

For two cocktails:

put ice in a beaker and throw on top 2 shots 151, and a pony shot of creme de cacao
add 4 shots of half and half and shake vigorously.
Garnish with fresh nutmeg or dark chocolate shavings and don't operate any heavy machinery.

Mallorcas

The tastiest and most delectable little confection you can imagine-not too sweet, oh so soft and just lovely with a little cafe con leche. I remember calling this pan dulce when I was a kid visiting PR but found out on my last visit back that they are actually pan de Mallorca-the most delectable of which can be found at La Bombonera- a 50's style throw back diner in Old San Juan where my great grandmother and her mother worked when it was definitely NOT famous at all and where they make honest, simple foods that most people could make for themselves but have forgotten and so are more rarified nowadays.

My great grandmother apparently was a tasty little confection herself, tramping in and out where her mother worked (I assume as a waitress), totally barefoot, whose affections were secured by a 50 some odd year old man who would become my great grand father and who had made a fortune in I think, construction. He bought her some shoes, probably maintained her impoverished family (why else would a family allow their child to marry a man so old?), and sired six or so children by her, one of which was my beautiful grandmother, Rosa. They later married properly when his first wife either died or moved on and were together until his death at age 101. My father told me that his grandfather's secret to longevity was 2 asprin and two beers every day. Does that mean that 3 or 4 beers will get me to 125? Hmmmm, that is something to ponder. (:

Anyway, here is the recipe:

3 eggs well beaten
Add to this 1/2 c. sugar and mix well
In a Cuisinart place 3 c. of flour and 1/2 tsp. salt and blend til incorporated
Warm 1/2 c. milk
Warm 1/4 c. water til it's warm enough to stick your finger in comfortably, around 105 degrees or so, I think. Dissolve in this 1 tsp. of sugar and then add a packet of yeast and let it sit a bit.
Meanwhile, take half a stick of butter and get it soft either by having had left it out or by nuking it a bit
Throw milk, yeast, butter into Cuisinart and blend until well incorporated.
Take it out and knead it a bit, grease lightly a big mixing bowl and put your dough in, nicely formed into a mound.
Cover with plastic wrap or a warm towel and put in a warm spot to rise for an hour

Upon rolling out the dough on a floured work space about a quarter inch thick (it should have a soft yellow hue)you can lightly lightly brush some butter onto the surface. Then roll it up and it will look like this:


Then cut the log of dough into 12 sections and place them on a cookie sheet, greased with butter. It will look like this:



And, after having risen again for a spell while we were fishing on the pier, like this:



We had more luck with the mallorcas than with the fish:



Okay, for the final touch, bake the mallorcas at 325 degrees for about twenty minutes. They should not be brown or really even golden, when the edges start to tinge, take them out.

Then simply place a cup of confectioner's sugar in a sieve and dust the little guys til your heart's content. Let them set a while to cool and then enjoy warm. These little babies actually freeze really well, too so you can make a bunch and have them ready when and if someone drops in for tea.

Here's the final product: