rancho_gordo

Do you say these things to hurt me????? Oh, right! This is a fast food thread. Actaully that sounds very good. An alternative, requiring a little bit of forethought, is to have the beans and hominy previously made and frozen. A little more hassle but justified by the superior flavor and texture over canned.

On many Sundays, I boil a chicken. I cut it into pieces (I can do this in my sleep now) and remove the skin. 1. The skin goes on a cookie tray and is baked at 250 until the fat has rendered out and the skin is cripsy. This can take hours. These go in salads and tacos, etc. 2. The chicken pieces, sans back (which goes into the freezer with other backs until I have 4 or so to make stock) go into a stock pot with onion and garlic and simmer until done. I eat the liver as cook's reward. Remove the pieces as they are cooked, obviously the breast first and so on. While this is happening, i'd also make beans so you have those for the week as well. 3. The liquid is strained and refridgerated and the pieces are cooled. 4. Now throughout the week, you can shred some of the chicken and fry it in the rendered chicken fat, add some dry cheese and salsa and make a great taco. You can add it to a sauce, you can add it to a salad. One chicken goes a long way. 5. The chicken stock (defatted and maybe reduced a bit) is the basis for a lot of soups and sauces. Extra gets frozen. Soup with 1/3 stock, 1/3 pureed tomatoes and 1/3 Rancho Gordo brand Heirloom Beans (sorry! Any beans will do!) plus seasonings takes minutes and is v. good! This may sound like a lot of work but my point is a little prep (and not much) one night a week can make the rest of the week a snap. Chicken and Mexican is easy for me but maybe there's some clever variation on a pot roast or pork loin. Is it healthy? The fat and skin might need to be monitored but it's all real food and I don't think a healthy person should worry too much about eating real food. But I have no science background to prove it.

I think it's brand new. I said he felt it wold be better in Sept but I know it's a very limited producton so I'd get it now! So much better than some of the piss that passes for balsamico domestically!!! Mine won't last the summer.

re Bariani oil: I have to add that I also love this stuff and big bottles sit on my counter without going bad. I don't think any oil benefits from long exposure to sun and heat but I don't find Bariani particularly sensitive. L ove this stuff and it's a very good bargain. This last weekend Sebastian Bariani gave me a bottle of their new balsamico. It was very good and he claims it should be perfection by September.

They are customers of mine. You can try my posole without soaking it, simmering for three hours and then using it in your recipe! They'll do the work for you. They are great guys and you see them every weekend at the farmers markets power shopping. I prefer to make my own but if I were tempted (and I am), this would be the first place I'd go.

I grow, sell and use it. It's great for hot areas that can't grow cilantro but I've found you don't cook with it as it loses everything.

But Fifi, isn't there a window for growing tomatoes? January thru Spring or something like that? Here the window for production is August thru maybe October. It's not so long. The rest of the year I eat canned (my own and store bought) rather than eat commercial tomatoes. Shalmanese, if you want to, you can grow tomatoes and buy artisan/organic/sustainable/whatever food. It's a decision. If being in an urban environment is holding you back, I have literally dozens of internet friends who would love to help. If they can grow good tomatoes in foggy San Francisco, it can be done anywhere. If it's economics, my beans are very expensive compared to Chinese production GMO varieties picked by slave labor, but they're pennies per serving and a downright steal nutrionally compared to meat. If it's not your thing, I can accept that, but to claim eating like this is a luxury or just for a scant few isn't really fair. But it is a decision.

Yes, but wasn't the point that a tomato still hot from the sun picked from your garden the best of all? Or in August buying a brandywine from a local farmer at its peak of ripeness a really wonderful thing? Maybe I'm reading too much into slkinsey's post. but I think I'd be more likely to come on board if we could at least agree on a best case scenaro and maybe even call it a goal.

Thank you for making a point much more elegantly and insightful than I ever could! I think sometimes frustration (and perhaps a little anger) cloud my voice.

I've discovered that eG isn't always the best place to discuss issues like food politics, ag sustainability, slow food or the basic assumption that local, fresh seasonal food is a worthwhile goal. One is more likely to get support for particular processed snack foods. Just as you probably are confused that we don't see modern and corporate science as The Answer, we find it hard to fathom that our goals aren't embraced, especially on a food site. But I've been beat up or deleted when posting on these subjects and I don't have it in me to go through that again. And I suspect there are others who feel the same way and I wouldn't want our silence on this subject to be interpreted as agreement.

My objection is it seems like it will give the corporate food chain free reign to do whatever they want, knowing they can just zap it in the end. I am apparently somewhat of an extremist around here, but I don't want cheaper meat, I want better meat. Less of it is fine. I'm proud to sit on top of the food chain, but I also believe in humane treatment, genetic diversity and local freshness. Is it possible if the food was handled right in the first place we wouldn't need to go to such extremes?

I'm going through Couscous and Other.... recipe by recipe, one better than the next, but as mentioned previously, if the recipe calls for liquid, I find I can half the amount and it still seems like a bit too much. There was some food science talk about unglazed pottery absorbing more liquid but I've found the opposite to be true with the tagine. I don't understand it but that's true for many things!

No- it's just that La Fifi's follow up seemed to be more about DK in general, not just that book. Try the roasted chicken with achiote paste and lard in Art of . It is SWELL!

Just a slight correction, the bean is Jacob's Cattle, not Ladder. Some places back east insist on this bean for baked beans. It doesn't fall apart and has a new potato taste (mild) and texture. It's not my favorite on its own but I'm not so sure I'd want a big, simple bowl of Tarbais, either. Jacob's Cattle is also much bigger than Tarbais that I have seen. I'm trying to think of a witty reply to this but I'm too tired!

re:Diana Kennedy- maybe the recipe requiring blood sausage shouldn't be the first thing you try. Her long discussion about beans, how to refry them (or rather well-fry them), etc is priceless. A lot of the salsas look simple on paper and end up being glorious. The Cuisnies of Mexico is a little pedantic with that Mastering the Art of French Cooking style but the others are pretty straightforward and she often suggests subs for hard to get items. Now Zarela strikes me as every thing Mexican is good and everything Gringo is bad and her tone can drive me nuts. The Oaxaca book was good at the time but now seems a little superficial. It's a good introduction but now it seems time to go a lot deeper. I can't get past the cover of Veracruz (talk about me being superficial!) But really, Diana Kennedy deserves your attention again if you're interested in Mexican food.

Well, the beat goes on. Went to The Spanish Table in Berkeley today (also in Seattle, Santa Fe and at www.thespanishtable.com) and got what i think are going to be my two favorite bean pots. The two tall ollas are unglazed on the outside and are quite tall and gently rounded- exactly what I think of for a proper bean pot and rarely see. The other is glazed all over and more traditional, so I really don't need it, but I figured what the heck. Having been lucky enough to see Ms Wolfert's clay pot collection in person, I figure I have a long way to go before it's a "problem". The tall ollas were pretty cheap. I don't remember exactlly but I do know the smaller one was just $20. FWIW, they had excellent saffron for $9, 2 grams. They are soaking now but will report after the first pot o'beans.

I have some beautiful, organic lamb shanks. Can I do something clever, wonderful or just simple with one of my two tagines (number three is on the way!)?

Amy suggestions for a fixing a developing crack? I smeared Elmers Glue up and down and it seems to be fine. This is an unglazed cazuela. I'm going to try and use it tonight but I wonder if there are expert ideas.

I'd sure rather play this game than the Rachel Ray game. "Yum-o!" "I wish you could smell this!" Arms flaying to express nothing, upper body leaning way back. Referring to her audience as "you guys" "E.V.O.O. , extra vigin olive oil" etc, etc.

I bought the 12" Rifi and the 9" Souss. I cured them both with oil and woodash and they both look great, but it's the second curing that really does the trick. they both look completely different from when they arrived. And they both look great. And they both look completely different from each other. I wish I had gotten the bigger Souss as the 9" is pretty small, but I'm making up my own chard recipes and it's fine for vegetables and small meat. To those like myself who find the whole concept really intimidating and exotic, I think you can think of the tagine as an earthenware casserole and relax a bit. The lid design is clever as it stays cool to the touch (the knob, anyway) and I'm sure the bell or triangle shape does something clever to circulate air. But it's an ideal braising vehicle and you should relax. I'm just starting to. But also be aware that because it's earth and porous, you'd probably want to only cook Morrocan food in it, or Middle Eastern. And in the two things I've cooked, there's a lot of moisture, so maybe follow most recipes, cut the liquid and watch the levels. Paula, is this about right or have I made things up?

I think she had plenty of black. The red were only 8 and I bought 4 (for insurance!). Email or call her and I bet she can get you one. I haven't used the black much but the red is charred and worn and delicious. You can smell it when the heat is on and it's empty. I like to add a spoonful of oil and a handful of raw pumkin seeds and toast them with my little hand broom-thing until they pop. Toss some salt and you've got a snack. They heat up very quickly on low. I haven't bothered with a heat diffuser (I have 3 more!) although I do use them with my pots. FWIW, the red comal is 12" across. I think I read somewhere that you need to make a thin paste with cal in order to heat tortillas. Each time! I still have my well-loved metal one for that.

Well, hey! I'm an American, so no wonder I'm enjoying mine!

Nuestra Tierra has a proper black chamba comal, featured here. (Oops! Am I plugging my online store?!) It's like cooking in a pot. The unglazed earth and your food belong together. Maybe something inexplicable happens or maybe it's all sentimentality, but I'm buying what they're selling. I believe the earth adds flavor.

I'm not sure which comales you are referring to but the whole line of red Oaxacan earthenware is designed for cooking. They are unglazed and beautiful. And particular to Oaxaca. I think most modern cooks prefer the metals because they don't break. The chamba has been discussed a lot here on eG. It's great stuff.

Nuestra Tierra has a few in red clay from Oaxaca and the black chamba that we've discussed over and over. They stink for heating tortillas but are great for eveything else.