OK, this turned out just DAMNED good; I made bacon tater cracklins!

  Personally, I prefer skins left on potatoes when I bake them. I like the flavor and the crunch. Unfortunately, my family doesn't quite agree; they don't like tater skins. (Yes, they actually ARE American . . . just take my word and drop it, K?)

   Anyway, I had an idea. I needed home-made bacon bits for a recipe. The previous day, I had peeled about 7 potatoes and saved the skin shavings. I knew I was making “Loaded Baked Potato Soup” that night, and the thought occurred to me: “What do people like on baked potatoes?” Then the answer came to me!

  I lined a 12” X 9” baking sheet with aluminum foil and sprayed it with cooking spray. I had saved ALL of the tater skin pieces from my last tater job, so I spread them out on the sprayed foil surface, then a placed a bakers cooling rack over the top. On the rack, I laid out one pound of thick cut bacon. Then it was back into the oven @ 250°F for 1 hour, maybe 1½.

  When it all came out of the oven, I removed the bacon and skins to separate, paper towel lined plates for dying & crisping. The potatoes were AWESOME !!! (If I do stay so myself). So there you have it: bacon tater cracklins!

  By the way: it wasn't long ago that I made bacon bits with a twist: I started with a pound of bacon, which I chopped. I also had some beef chuck trimmings (fat mostly with a bit of meat still attached) which I also chopped. I put the chopped bacon in a skillet and added the chopped beef & fat. I sauteed it all until it all was crispy. Kinda makes me think: who says you have to use bacon to make tater cracklins???

Wow! An American Teaches Tamales to a Mexican!

  I got that proverbial wild hair the other day, and decided to make tamales. After they were done, my wife remarked that I stated the same new revelation I have every other time I've made tamales from scratch: "now I know why Mexican families make this a family project, and batch them by the ton!"
  Two of my Mexican co-workers bring in home made food from their wives, daily, for lunch. One of them (that I know of) has worked professionally as a line cook. Any time I make some ethnic Latin dish, I ask them for an opinion. So I brought in a tamale. The former cook said he took his sample home. His daughter tried it, and flipped! He has asked me for my recipe. Here is what I did . . .

Beef - Mexican Ethnic - Smoky Tamales

Ingredients, Meat Filling:

• Meat, Beef, Chuck Roast, Flat Cut: 2 – 2½#
• Meat, Beef Oxtail: 1#
• Meat, Bacon, Thick Cut: 1#, sliced lengthwise down the center
• Herb, Dried Oregano, 1 tsp
• Spice, Chili Powder: 2 tsp
• Spice, Cumin: 1½ tsp, freshly toasted and ground
• Spice, Cayenne Pepper: 1 tsp
• Spice, Garlic, Fresh: 3 cloves, minced
• Substitute: Garlic Powder, ½ tbsp (1½ tsp)
• Spice, Salt, Kosher: 1 tsp
• Spice, Black Pepper: 1 tsp
• Beans, Canned, Pintos: 1 can (15 oz)
• Vegetable, Fresh, Onion: 1 small onion, finely chopped
• Vegetable, Canned: Chopped Green Chiles: 1 can (4.5 oz)
• Oil, Vegetable: ¼ cup
• Water: 2 - 2½ qts

Ingredients, Wrappers:

• 2 dozen dried corn husks

Ingredients, Dough:

• Masa Harina: 15 oz, (about 3½ cups)
• Baking Powder: 2¼ tsp
• Spice, Salt, Kosher: 1 tbsp
• Fat, reserved from cooking beef: 4 oz (about ½ cup)
• Reserved Cooking Liquid from Beef: 2 to 4 cups

Special Ingredients:

• Charcoal
• Wood Smoking Chips: Oak or Mesquite (I used oak)

Preparation, Meat Filling:

1. Start an empty crock pot on high.
2. Prepare a charcoal grill for medium heat. When coals are mostly white, add about 10 more briquettes and smoking chips, then wait 5 minutes for chips to start smoking.
3. Place oxtails and chuck roast on the grill. Cover and roast for 15 minutes.
4. After 15 minutes, remove the oxtails and flip the chuck roast. Cover and roast beef chuck for another 15 minutes.
5. Move oxtails to the preheating crock pot and add 1 qt of water.
6. Add chili powder, cumin, cayenne pepper, oregano, salt and black pepper to the crock pot. Increase heat setting to high
7. After the next 15 minutes, remove the beef chuck from the grill and place into the crock pot. Add water from the remaining 1½ qts until all meat is covered. Cook on high until the water starts to bubble, then reduce heat setting.
   1. Cook beef and oxtails on low for 8 hours, or on warm overnight.
8. Strain out beef and oxtails, saving the seasoned cooking water.
9. Refrigerate the meats.
10. Place reserved cooking water into a pitcher and refrigerate overnight. This will make rendered fat separate, rise and harden at the top of the pitcher. Skim off this hardened beef fat, and reserve it.
    1. If the beef fat doesn't equal ½ cup (4 oz), add clarified butter to make up the difference. Personally, I reserve and clarify all fats from meats I cook. I keep them separate and refrigerated, so this isn't a problem for me; I had enough extra to make my 4 oz.
    2. Note: to clarify butter or any animal fat, simmer it in water, then refrigerate. I usually cook it in a crock pot on low overnight. As with the beef fat, the butter fat will rise and harden. Separate it from it's water, and it is now clarified butter.
11. Preheat the oven to 350°F.
12. Line a large cookie sheet with foil, then a bakers cooling rack.
13. Bacon Strips go on the cooling rack then into the oven for 30 minutes.
14. Shred the beef and oxtails. Save the oxtail bones for any dogs you like. You will be their HERO!!!
15. Open the canned pinto beans and pour them, with their liquid into an extra large skillet (if you don't have one, us a 4 qt sauce pan, a small stock pot or dutch oven).
16. Place your pan of choice over high heat and reduce pinto soaking liquid by ½
17. Reduce heat to medium then add ¼ cup vegetable oil.
18. Once the oil is shimmering, add the onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until they are semi-clear, about 2 - 4 minutes. Add the fresh minced garlic and chopped green chili. Continue to cook for another minute.
19. Add the meat and ½ cup of the reserved cooking liquid. Cook until heated through and the liquid has evaporated. Set aside until ready to assemble.
20. Portion and freeze the rest of the cooking liquid:
    1. Measure out 1 cup and pour it into a sandwich sized zip-top baggie, taking care to push out any air. Repeat until all cooking liquid is bagged.
    2. Lay the bags flat on a cookie sheet and freeze overnight.
    3. The next day, stand the bags up in whatever container you prefer. You now have smoked and seasoned beef stock, frozen by the cup, and ready for whatever future meal you may prepare that uses beef stock!

Preparation, Wrappers:

  On the day I smoked my meats, I placed my wrappers into a 1 gal pitcher of hot water and set it out on a counter. I left them there until the next day when I was ready to assemble and steam my tamales.

Preparation, Dough:

1. Place the masa, salt, and baking powder into a large mixing bowl and combine.
2. Add the beef fat and knead together with your hands until the fat is thoroughly mixed into the dry mixture.
3. Gradually add enough of the reserved cooking liquid, 2 to 4 cups to create a dough that is like thick mashed potatoes. The dough should be moist but not wet. Cover the bowl with a damp towel and set aside until ready to use.

Preparation, Tamales:

1. After 30 minutes have passed, remove the racked bacon from the oven; allow to cool and crisp.
2. Remove a corn husk from the water and pat to remove excess water.
3. Working in batches, lay the husks on a towel and spread about 2 tbsp of the dough in an even layer across the wide end of the husk to within ½” of the edges.
4. Lay one strip of bacon down the center of the dough.
5. Spoon about 2 tsp of the meat mixture in a line down the bacon strip.
6. Roll the husk so the dough surrounds the meat and fold the bottom under to finish creating the tamale. Repeat until all the husks, dough and filling are used.
7. Tie the tamales around the center, individually or in groups of 3, with kitchen twine.
8. Place a steamer basket in an 11qt pot and add enough water to come to the bottom of the basket.
9. Stand the tamales close together on their folded ends and lean them in towards the center, away from the sides of the pot.
10. Bring the water to a boil over medium heat, then cover and reduce the heat to maintain a simmer.
    1. Check the water level every 15 to 20 minutes, and add boiling water by pouring down the side of the pot, if necessary.
11. Steam until the dough is firm and pulls away from the husk easily, 1 - 1 ½ hours.

Serve warm. Store leftover tamales, tightly wrapped in plastic wrap, in the freezer, for up to a month. To reheat, remove the plastic wrap and steam until heated through.

Quick Noodle Stir-Fry

OK, this was TOO easy!

Quick Sausage Stir-Fry with Spaghetti Pasta

Ingredients:

• Condiment, Soy Sauce: 2 tbsp
• Condiment, Sweet-N-Sour Sauce or Hoisin: ¼ cup
  
• Herb, Cilantro, Dried:  2 tsp
  
• Meat, Smoked Sausage, Mild:  2 links
• Meat, Hot Link Sausage:  2 links
• Oil, Butter:  1 tbsp
• Oil, Sesame:  1 tbsp
• Pasta, Semolina Spaghetti:  ½#, broken in half
• Seasoning, Garlic, Minced & Jarred:  ½ tbsp (1½ tsp)
  
• Seasoning, Ginger:  1 slice, ⅛" thick X 1" diameter, minced fine
• Seasoning, Salt, Kosher:  1 tbsp
  
• Seeds, Sesame:  1 tbsp
  
• Vegetable, Stir Fry Mix w/Broccoli, Bagged & Frozen:  1 bag

Preparation:

1. Start a pot of water (hot from your tap) to boil, add 1 tbsp salt.
2. Slice all sausage on and angle; I'd say about 30° - 45°.
1. Cut each link in half, then slice each half four (4) more times to equal five (5) slices.
2. When all sausage is sliced, you will have a total of 40 individual slices.
   
3. Place a large, cast iron skillet over high heat; add butter and sesame oil
4. When butter is fully melted, swirl to coat the whole bottom surface of the skillet.
5. Add sesame seeds, spreading widely.  Allow to cook for about 1 to 1½ minutes, or until sesame seeds just start to brown.
6. Add minced ginger and garlic, spread with a spatula and cook until garlic just starts to turn color.
7. Add sliced sausage and mix well into oil, seasoning and seeds.
8. By this time, the pasta water should be boiling.  Add pasta and stir well to break it up.
1. Stir again every 2 minutes or so until 9 full minutes have passed from the time the pasta was added.
2. Work into your procedure as needed: rinse and drain pasta, then set it aside.
   
9. Watch sausage carefully as it cooks.  When the slices start to brown, flip them.  The idea is to achieve a medium brown on both sides.
10. When Sausage starts to brown on the second side, add the bagged stir-fry vegetables, soy sauce and ¼ cup sweet-n-sour sauce or hoisin.  Stir to mix well.
11. The frozen vegetables will release water as they thaw in the skillet.  When the released liquid has reduced by half, add the drained pasta and dried cilantro.  Mix well.
12. All ingredients have now been added.  Cover skillet and cook for another 2-3 minutes.  Turn off heat.
13. Allow residual heat to do the rest of the work.  Give it all about 5-10 minutes to heat everything through and normalize temperature.

You are now ready to serve!

Dr. FrankenDucken's 5-Day chili

  I can't bucking felieve this!  It's kinda funny, really . . .

     The Friday before Thanksgiving, we had a chili cook-off at work.  I made a 5-day chili, and got several compliments on it.  One coworker even asked permission to take home a generous portion.  The funny/screwed up part is that I found out who won, and what he made.  He made chili that very morning using common ground beef and all canned goods!!!  I figure he must have done something right, because he beat out not only my 5-day with beef, lamb, smoked sausage links and soft chorizo, but also two other offerings with venison!  Not sure how related this is, but this guy also happens to work in the office as transportation manger, basically, the boss of all the truck drivers we employ.

     Regardless of any implied cronyism, I was rather proud of my chili, and I'm posting the recipe here.  Be warned, it's long . . .

Dr. Frankenducken's 5-Day Chili

Relax! This is a five-day process only if you don't have the stock made in advance. If you do have pre-made stock, then it only takes two days.

Ingredients for Stock:

• Meat Bones, Oxtail: 5 bones
• Meat Bones, Lamb Shank: 2 bones
• Meat Bones, Pork, anything you've got: 3 bones
  • *Note* If you're serving an NPE (Non-Pork Eater), sub in 2 more Lamb bones to total 5
  • Or throw in 3 venison bones (if you have them).
    

Ingredients for Chili:

• Beans, Black, Refried: 1 can, 20.5 oz
  • This product can often be found in most grocery stores with other Mexican goods.
• Beans, Kidney, Dark Red: 1 can, 15 oz
• Beans, Pinto: 1 can, 15 oz
• Vegetable, Fresh, Onion, Yellow: 1 medium onion, chopped into 1” pieces
• Vegetable, Canned, Mushroom, Stems & Pieces: 1 can, (4 oz)
• Vegetable, Canned, Tomato Paste: 1 can (6 oz)
• Vegetable, Canned, Tomato, Diced (no salt added): 1 can, 15 oz
• Flour, All Purpose: ⅓ cup
• Herb, Oregano, Dried: 1½ tbsp
• Herb, Sage, Dried/Rubbed: 2 tsp
• Spice, Chili Powder: 1½ tbsp
• Spice, Cumin, Powdered: 2 tsp
  • I prefer fresh Cumin seeds, 2 tsp, toasted and ground, but store bought ground cumin will do.
• Spice, Garlic, Fresh: 5 cloves, minced fine, about 2 tbsp
• Spice, Garlic Powder: 1½ tbsp
• Spice, Peppercorn Melange: 2 tsp, ground
  • Peppercorn Melange is a mix of Black, Green, Pink and White peppercorns, and is available in grocery stores (sometimes).
  • Substitute: Black Pepper, fresh ground or preground, 2 tsp
• Spice, Salt, Kosher: 1½ tsp
• Meat, Beef Chuck, Boneless: 2#
• Meat, Lamb Shank, Boneless: 2#
  • *Note* If your chuck and shank do have bones in them, debone the meat, saving the bones for stocks.
• Meat, Sausage, Pork & Sage, Crumbled: 1#
  • For NPE's: sub in 1# ground beef, bison or venison
• Meat, Chorizo, Beef, uncased: 1#
  • This can be found in most grocery stores, typically somewhere near the ground pork sausage, and is very soft.
• Meat, Smoked Sausage, Mild, Cased: 1# (about 4-5 links)
  • Usually a mix of meats including Beef and Pork
  • For NPE's: sub in 1# link style Beef Smoked Sausage
• Meat, Pork Bacon (thick cut): 1#
  • For NPE's, use Beef Bacon, aka Beef “Plate”
• Prepared Stock: (about) 2 cups
  

Prepare your stock 3 days early:

1. 1. Place all stock bones (Beef, Lamb, Pork or Venison) into a 6-qt slow cooker.
   2. Cover with water and set on high.
   3. Cook bones on high for 24 hours.
       a. Check the stock every 8 hours.  There will be some evaporation.  That's OK, it's just water escaping.  The flavor is in the residue on the sides.  Scrape it all down with a plastic spatula/scraper and add water as needed to keep the bones covered.
   4. Reduce heat to low and cook another 24 hours.
   5. Remove stock from heat.  Strain out bones and refrigerate the stock for another 24 hours.
       a. The bones are now suitable for dog snacks, causing them to sing praises in your name (in their own doggy fashion, that is, so don't look for understandable words).
       b. Be advised: you have just cooked the unholy snot out of those bones.  That means a lot of marrow and collagen has cooked out into the stock.  This will make the stock thick like gelatin when it cools.  This is normal and desired.
   6. Skim off congealed fat and store, there is a use for it later.
   

Prepare the Chili:

1. Open one can of crushed tomato and one can of tomato paste. Add to your crock pot and stir well to mix in the paste. Set heat on high.
2. Drain all canned beans, mushrooms and diced tomatoes into a bowl, reserving the liquids in another bowl.
3. Pour drained beans, mushroom and tomatoes into the crock pot.
4. Open the can of refried black beans and add to the crock pot. Gently stir to break up chunks.
5. Add reserved fat from stock into a LARGE skillet (I prefer cast iron), and heat on medium until it is fully melted and shimmers.
6. Meanwhile, break out beef chuck and lamb shank. Set them on a counter until they reach room temperature.
7. Slice smoked sausage links into 1” rounds and set aside
   1. You can slice the sausage straight across or at an angle, I'd say about 30° to 45°. It's got a nice look to it, and gives slightly more surface area to cook on. Plus, your sausage will cook a little faster.
8. Cut beef and lamb into 2” pieces and dry with clean paper towels. Move them to a mixing bowl.
9. Add ⅓ cup flour to beef and lamb. Toss to evenly coat then set aside.
10. Cut bacon into small pieces and add to large skillet. Increase heat to medium-high.
11. Cook bacon until it is lightly crisped.
12. Place a large sieve, fine mesh, into the center of the skillet and scoop bacon pieces into it. Allow a minute or two to drain, leaving the grease in place, then remove the sieve.
    1. I suggest placing the sieve to the center of a smaller cast-iron skillet, allowing the last of the grease to drain there. When the draining finishes, pour the last of the grease back into the large skillet.
13. Add drained bacon to the crock pot.
14. Into the large skillet, add the crumbled ground meat (pork sausage, ground beef, bison or venison). Set heat to medium-low and cover. Every 5 minutes or so, check the meat and break up into chunks, small to medium size, with a heavy spatula. Continue cooking until the meat is well browned.
15. Using the emptied sieve, repeat the same draining process, leaving most of the grease in the large skillet.
16. Once the ground meat is fully drained, set it aside.
17. Place sliced link sausage into the large skillet to cook.
18. Check the sliced sausage every 2 minutes or so, and flip as needed. You want them browned and lightly crisp, but not burned.
19. Once again, repeat the same draining process, adding the sliced sausage to the crock pot.
20. Now add the flour coated beef and lamb chunks to the large skillet. Cook in batches if needed, just don't crowd the skillet. Leave at least 1” between each piece or the meat won't brown evenly.
    1. Cook until evenly browned but not burned. You're looking for the very last of any pink color in the middle of the beef pieces. That's when you drain them.
    2. If you need to work in batches, you'll change up your draining process a bit: this time place the sieve directly into the smaller skillet, and move meat chunks directly there.
    3. When drained, scrape any liquid grease back into the large skillet using a plastic spatula/scraper.
    4. You have now cooked all but one of your meats, placed them in your crock pot, and have a skillet full of grease. It's time to cook the fresh veggies!
    5. Remember: your grease is still in the skillet, and needs to stay there.
21. Add chopped onion to the large skillet and cook until the pieces just start to turn opaque.
22. Add minced garlic to the skillet.
    1. Cook until garlic is slightly browned and onions are translucent.
    2. Drain onion and garlic the same way as the ground meats, then add them to the crock pot.
23. Pour off remaining grease into a heat proof container to reserve for other uses. The skillet might still have some browned bits from cooking the beef and lamb. That's OK; you'll be handling that shortly.
24. Reduce heat to low, then add soft beef chorizo to the skillet. Cook slowly until the chorizo is reduced to a soft mush.
25. Increase heat to medium, then add crumbled meat to the chorizo. Mix gently but thoroughly until the meat is fully coated and heated through. Remove meat from the skillet and add directly to the crock pot.
26. Deglaze the large skillet.
    1. Add reserved liquids from canned beans & veggies to the large skillet and increase heat to high.
    2. Once mixture starts to simmer, reduce heat to medium.
    3. As the liquid cooks, scrape sides and bottom with a strong spatula to get up residues and browned bits.
    4. Once all surfaces are smooth from residues, raise heat to high and continue cooking until liquid is reduced by half.
27. Reduce heat to medium, add any last flour from the meat chunk coating process and stir constantly.
    1. What you are making is called a “roux,” and burns very very easily. You must stir constantly while you cook. When the roux reaches a medium brown, similar in color to caramel, you're done.
28. Pour the roux back onto a 16 oz measuring cup and add prepared stock as needed to equal 2 full cups.
29. Pour reconstituted, thickened stock back into the skillet. Stir and cook until all flour residues are dissolved.
30. Pour it all into the crock pot and gently stir to thoroughly mix.
31. Add all dried/powdered herbs and spices to the crock pot (chili powder, ground cumin, garlic powder, ground pepper, kosher salt, dried oregano and dried, rubbed sage). Gently but thoroughly stir to mix them all in.
32. Cook your chili monster on high for 1 hour then low for another eight.
33. Turn off crock pot and allow to cool for two hours.
34. Refrigerate overnight.
35. The next morning, restart the crock pot on high for one hour, reduce heat to low for two hours, then drop heat to “warm” (if you have that setting) until ready to serve.

Serve with antacids.

 Clean and season your cast iron skillets.

1. Place skillets over high heat and add enough water to fill them halfway.
2. Add 1 – 2 good pinches of Kosher salt to each skillet, depending on size.
3. Bring water to a boil, the reduce heat to medium.
4. Simmer water for 5 – 10 minutes.
5. Remove from heat and drain the water.
6. Replace both skillets over high heat and watch them. When all water has evaporated, turn off the heat.
7. At this point, you can take the quick and easy way, by spraying both down with your preferred cooking spray, making sure to coat all surfaces.
   1. The longer way is to pour in any reserved fat from the earlier cooking process, I'd say about 1 – 2 tbsp depending on skillet size.
   2. Swirl melted fat to evenly coat all surfaces
8. Once both skillets are evenly coated, remove them from heat and allow them to cool for maybe 30 minutes.
9. Wipe them both out with clean paper towels. Make sure you wipe all inner surfaces of each skillet. The paper towel will help distribute the oil (or grease) in a thin, even coat. Your skillets are now ready to stow for the next use.

Of Stocks & Sauces

    Here's a thought: what shall I do with oodles & kaboodles of leftover rice?  Here's the thought train (sans the usual survivor-less derail):

• I love the rice drink Horchata.
• I have long viewed grain based foods as being neutral in flavor, EG: you can do pretty much whatever the farkle you want!
• Grains are restricted to specific flavor profiles by tradition and common practice, not inherent flavor.
• I prefer to make soup stocks from scratch whenever I can.
• My wife is gluten intolerant, so the "g-free" concept is important in my kitchen.
• Many, many thickeners are based on "g-in" flours.
• Why not rice cooked down to juk?

    So here's what I'll do.  I will take all of the various rice dishes mouldering in the 'fridge, sort them by recipe, and use a crock pot to make juk.  I will then experiment with plain rice and juk recipe variants.  The overall idea is to re-use the rice dishes before they turn.  I'm also looking for a prep method on soup and stew stocks that are pre-thickened.  I may have to play with a blender, though I'm not sure.  We'll see what happens . . .

--  "Some people spend an entire lifetime wondering if they made a difference in the world. But, the Marines don't have that problem."  US President Ronald Reagan, 1985

Frankenducken's Hodge Podge Pupusas

Pupusa has a pretty commons recipe.  2 cups masa to 1 cup water.  Form a dough, cut and pat out about eight disks, fill ‘em, fold ‘em and fry ‘em.

Here’s what I did differently:

I started with five dried guajillo peppers.  I placed them in a 1 quart mason jar and covered them with boiling water.  I left them out on the counter top over night.  In the morning, I drained off the water and stored the reconstituted peppers in the ‘fridge.  I used that pepper-water to make the masa dough.

I also seasoned the masa before I worked in the pepper water.  I added one teaspoon each of the following:

·         Garlic Powder

·         Onion Powder

·         Kosher Salt

·         Ground Black Pepper

For filling, I sprinkled each pupusa with maybe 2 tablespoons of shredded, pizza-mix cheese.  I made three kinds of filling:

·         Diced Pork

·         Diced Beef

·         Shredded Chicken Breast

For each meat, I took about maybe ¼ cup topped with a little bottled, mild salsa, and sautéed it up in a small skillet.  The pork was leftovers from a garlic and herb roast I made a few days ago.  The chicken was from a cacciatore dish.  The beef was marinated for a Carne Asada recipe I found online:

Marinade:

·         4 garlic cloves, minced

·         1 jalapeño chile pepper, seeded and minced (I left these out; my family can’t eat jalapeños)

·         1 tsp freshly ground cumin seed (best to lightly toast the seeds first, then grind them)

·         1 large handful fresh cilantro, leaves and stems, finely chopped (no cilantro on hand; I used fresh parsley)

·         Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper (I didn’t include these; no measurements were specified)

·         2 limes, juiced (I used ¼ cup bottled lime juice)

·         2 tablespoons white vinegar (I used unfiltered apple cider vinegar)

·         ½ teaspoon sugar

·         ½ cup olive oil

My Curtido (Salvadoran Slaw) is another adaptation:

Ingredients:

·         Cabbage, shredded - ½ head (not used)

·         Carrot, peeled and grated - 1 (not used)

o   I  used a medium bag of cabbage slaw mix instead of shredding my own)

·         Boiling water - 4 cups

·         Scallions, minced - 3 (none on hand, so I chopped about ¼ cup yellow onion)

·         Tomato, Roma - 1 large, diced

·         Tomatillo - 1 large, diced

·         Jalapeño or serrano chile pepper, minced - 1 (none on hand, so I used maybe ½ tsp cayenne pepper)

·         White vinegar - ½ cup (I used unfiltered apple cider vinegar)

·         Water - ½ cup

·         Salt - ½ tsp

·         Oregano, dried - 1 tsp

Preparation:

1.      Place the slaw mix in a large heat-proof bowl. Pour the boiling water into the bowl to cover the mix and set aside for about 5 minutes. Drain in a colander, pressing out as much liquid as possible.

2.      Return the cabbage to the bowl and toss with the remaining of the ingredients. Let set at room temperature for a couple hours if you like. Then chill and serve as an accompaniment to pupusas or as a side dish (I ‘fridged it until the next day).

I will now take samples of my offerings to a man I know who runs a little taco stand.  He made pupusa for me a few days ago, and seemed enthused by my ideas for seasoning the masa.

We’ll see what he thinks . . .

Frankenducken's Split Pea Soup

I need an opinion on a recipe I came up with: some one please try this and let me know what you think?


Ingredients:

• Canned Green Peas, any variety
• 2-3 cans, 15 oz ea
• Canned Cream Soup of choice: Mushroom, chicken or celery
• 1-2 cans, 10.5 oz ea
• Canned Mushrooms - 1 can, 4-6 oz
• Onion (Yellow or White) - 1, small
• Fresh Garlic - 3-5 med cloves
• Sliced Bacon: ½#
• Smoked Sausage: ½ #
• Optional: ½ can (about 6 oz) lager beer. Light beer will also work just fine.

Special Equipment:

• Food Processor
• 4-6 qt. Slow Cooker or Soup Pot
• Paper towel(s)

Preparation:

1. Open bacon with a single slice down the middle of the meat width-wise, halving the meat mid-strip. Open the sides of the pkg and remove each half of bacon separately. One half will freeze nicely in a sandwich sized zip top bag.
2. Slice remaining ½ # of bacon across the strips at (about) ¼" wide.
3. Fry sliced bacon in a skillet, covered on low heat. Stir occasionally to break up clumps and prevent sticking. The idea is to slowly render off as much fat as possible without burning.
4. While bacon is cooking, open all canned vegetables and soup but do not drain.
5. Open smoked sausage. Reserve and store ½ lb ; keep the other half out.
6. Depending on the capacity of your food processor, pour peas by the can, with liquid, into processing cup.
1. Start processor on low and let run.
7. Use the flat of your knife to crush 2 cloves of garlic. Mince if desired, but you're adding them to the food processor, so you don't really need to. Add garlic to running processor.
8. Slice sausage into (roughly) ¼" slices and set aside.
9. Puree peas, 1 can of cream soup and two crushed garlic cloves in food processor until smooth. Pour mix into crock or soup pot.
1. If using crock pot, set on highest setting.
10. Peel and chop onion; set aside.
11. Finely mince remaining garlic cloves; set aside.
12. When bacon bits are cooked to medium brown, remove them, leaving grease in the skillet. Drain bacon on a paper towel. Voila: ready made bacon bits, already crumbled!
13. Leave skillet on low heat. Add canned mushrooms with liquid, chopped onion and remaining minced garlic. Increase heat to medium-low and sauté until onions turn slightly opaque.
14. Remove sauté mix, leaving liquid & bacon fat mix in the skillet. Add sauté mix to pot.
1. If using beer, add 6 oz of beer to skillet and heat until simmering.
15. Add bacon bits to pot. Note: for more crunch, add bacon to soup just before serving, but you will get less smoky bacon flavor.
16. Add sliced sausage to skillet and cover. Cook on medium heat until slices plump up in the middle; about 5-7 minutes. Remove and add to pot.
1. Discard or reserve bacon grease as desired, but you're done with it for this recipe.
17. When soup is at a medium simmer, reduce heat to lowest setting. Stir occasionally, serve when ready.

    *Note* For an interesting twist to the texture: add ¼ # (½ cup) frozen green peas and/or frozen diced carrots, unprocessed, to the soup, right after adding the sausage. Simmer until peas/carrots are as done as desired then serve.


Will serve 4-5 large portions, or 6-8 small ones