Fresh Garbanzos

Got some of these yesterday at El Torito #3. My friend Marta was there (she’s the main cook at El Korita and was buying a passel of poblanos for the restaurant) and asked what I could do with them. She said “put them in a caldo or a soup”. So I did.

Shelling garbanzos with a chilaca chile (a green pasilla).

I had some stock from a dish I made last weekend, Chicken with Lemon & pine nuts.  I sauteed a chopped onion and parboiled the garbanzos in salted water. I added a chopped red bell pepper to the onions and softened it. I added the garbanzos, some cooked chicken, then three pints of stock, and some cooked brown rice and simmered this  for about 45 minutes. Here’s how the soup came out. It was great.

Chicken soup with fresh garbanzos.

Pig roast at Local Pig, KCMO and another opening.

Wow.. this was great. They made their own beans and the cole slaw was not some bland and overly sweet grocery store salad bar mush. I was most impressed.  This was for the grand opening at Local Pig, a an artisanal butcher shop that produces charcuterie  in the East Bottoms. This is about two blocks from Knucklehead’s, a music venue where have I occasionally sat in on accordion at the blues jams, just north, across the railroad tracks.

The Local Pig has a nice interior.

There was quite a crowd, even when I got there a bit after noon. It was chilly and windy, in the 40s, but pleasant. There seemed to be a rather well-behaved crowd.

The crowd is served.

The plates were quite nice. The buns/rolls were amazingly good. Not some sort of  Bunny Bread/burger bun dreck.

Here’s a photo of my plate.

Pork plate at Local Pig's grand opening.

If I had known, I could have gotten some ribs. But I didn’t. Here’s a plate of rib remains. Sigh. Whimper.

Had I just know; I could have had a rib or three. Shucks.

Lest we forget, the guest of honor… a noble beast..

Head office!

And here’s the guest of honor with the woman who was nobly serving the Boulevard Ales on tap. Good work, folks!

The Guest of Honor and one of his Minions..

Not forgetting, EL TORITO #3 (I think it’s number 3) just opened its new supermercado on the north side of Independence Avenue, across from ACE Hardware. It’s a really nice place to shop for comida and has a great carniceria.

Canned beans are for feebs…

Use dried beans. Please. Here’s how, from Ruhlman.

Make the time for dried beans. Relax.

Frijoles rosados

The Ali G of Culinary TeeVee

Baron Ambrosia: From da Bronx.

a self-proclaimed “quaffer of culinary consciousness” and travels around New York City, mostly in The Bronx, documenting various ethnic cultures and their indigenous cuisines, represented typically by the small food establishments (including restaurants, food trucks, street vendors, and grocery stores) he visits. Baron Ambrosia has appeared in Fornal’s self-produced video podcast Underbelly NYC and currently stars in the public-access television cable TV channel BronxNet‘s Bronx Flavor.

Insalata di fagioli agli scampi

I’m taking this to a friend’s birthday dinner this evening. There’s a bit of prep, but not as much as with some dishes.

Salad of White Beans, Shrimp, and Tomato (adapted from Judith Barrett’s FAGIOLI: THE BEAN CUISINE OF ITALY. I took the liberty of adding the lime juice, the parsley, and the capers.)

Insalata di fagioli agli scampi

1 cup dried small white beans (I used great northerns)
2 peeled garlic cloves
2 leaves of fresh sage
salt

Soak beans over night (at least 8 hours). Drain & rinse again. Combine beans with garlic, sage, & 6 c. of water in an appropriate sized sauce pan. Bring to a boil, cut to a simmer, and cook uncovered for an hour (or until tender). Season with salt, remove from heat and allow to cool to room temperature. Drain & discard garlic & sage.

1 pound fresh small shrimp, peeled & deveined
1/2 a lime

Bring a small sauce pan of water to a  boil after adding the juice of the half lime and the lime to the water. Add the shrimp and cook until pink.. 1-4 minutes. Drain & set aside.

2 medium ripe tomatoes cored, seeded & diced.
10 basil leaves cut in chiffonade
1 tbs chopped parsley
freshly ground black pepper
2 tbs capers
1/3 c. olive oil

In a large mixing bowl, combine shrimp with beans, tomatoes, basil, parsley, & capers. Add olive oil and mix well. Serve at room temperature.

Reminds me of back when I was doing aerial photography in Honduras & Guatemala.

Chile, last week.

I cut up a small boneless pork roast into small pieces and sautéed the pieces in a bit of canola oil. I then added 3 crushed garlic cloves, 1.5 cups of chopped yellow onion and cooked those till they were translucent..

Molcajete in the kitchen!!

I took a La Costeña canned chipotle (with a good bit of adobo) and ground it up in my lava rock molcajete with a teaspoon of whole comino and added this to the chile pot along with 4 chopped Roma tomatoes and a tablespoon of sweet New Mexico ground chile (CHILE HILL brand). I then added 2 teaspoons of Mexican oregano,  some epazote and a couple of bay leaves.  With some chicken stock & beer to cover,  I  let this simmer for a couple of hours.

Muy sabroso! Over rice with frijoles bayos on the side.

A nice steak from Belmont.

I’ve been busy. This is the most advanced cooking I can handle, other than makin’ a pot of frijoles rosados.

belmont steak

I put some Penzey’s “muralla del sabor” on this sucker.

la parilla

Stubb’s makes good charcoal.

Looking out over the holler!

The deck and its environs. No hablo “gas grill”.

First turn.

Move it to the side.. this fire could have cooked a load more meat. One could also roast an aubergine for baba ganoush in the cooker as it cooled.

It's done to my taste.

Now for the slice.. tender as a maiden’s heart.

May not be done enough for some folks. I have had cheese that was less tender than this.

Hurrah for Belmont!

NewYears Day/Blackeyed Peas

I found some fresh blackeyed peas and I’m simmering them in white wine with thyme, oregano,  savory, a scrap or two of pancetta, and some chile caribe from New Mexico.

Blackeyed peas for New Years Day

I wonder if I should cook rice or cornbread? (I did rice. Easier.)

(Note: a New Years Day ER meet up would be interesting.  Karen can come, too.)

Olio: Dec 22 — Gigot a la Sept Heures! Dec 27

No one’s written up the ER meet up at Olio a week ago. Here goes..

The Wine Lady had a tasting of Central California zinfs and a wonderfully jammy bottle from Amador County.  I’d like to get some more of that, for sure.

Answering questions about tasty wine.

Some folks bought food to share. Jason (our host) got a Pizza margherita and I ordered a nice platter of French cheeses.

quel fromage!

I had to leave before it ended.  Oona was coming in from KC and we’ve had a lot of work to do, getting the townhouse ready to put on the market. No rest for the wicket.

~~~~~

On the 27th, I cooked a Belmont Butchery piece of boneless leg of lamb. It turned out wonderful.

Gigot a la Sept Heures!

Belmont Butchery's boneless lamb

I roasted this for 6 hours on a bed of garlic, rosemary, bay leaves, savory, & thyme at 300 F.

Rosemary, thyme & garlic.. pre-roasting

The roasted garlic cloves were like candy. Sorry I didn’t get a picture of the finished dish until we had devoured part of it. We served this with an Albariño and a bottle of Fin du Monde.

We served the lamb with roast brussel sprouts, asparagus, a green salad, and white beans. It was wonderful.

Out on the town in a minimalist way.

The son of an old Austin buddy and I were going to have dinner Thursday, going out for Indo/Pak.  The weather made us push it to Friday and we went to Malabar by way of Patterson & Lauderdale since we wanted to avoid the chaos of Short-Pumpitudia.  Had a fine meal of samosas, channa sag & curried fish (too bad it was that mudfish, tilapia). We talked about his folks and how they were coming up this week in an RV. Tres honkey.

channasaag

 

Then we went for a beer at Commercial Tap House.  I had a Blue Mountain Full Nelson and Jacques had a Victory 4-y.o. barleywine (10% ?) both of which were excellent.

Their Full Nelson Pale Ale is GREAT!

 

I was home by 8:20,  sensible person that I am.