eG Foodblog: Chardgirl - 21st Century Peasant

[chardgirl]

Goodmorning all:

breakfast was the leftovers of the sausage/broccoli/red pepper pasta thing I made last night. I like leftovers for breakfast, I'm not much of a sweet-in-the-morning person. Ok, I also had the last Boulette's cookie too: with my Earl Gray tea.

I'm madly cleaning the kitchen, in fact I'm procrastinating that chore for 5 minutes by posting this.

I've not given the menu for today, I don't think so anyway:

Birria de chivo. Sopa. Frijol. ensalada de watermelon radish y black spanish radish y cebolla, chile, y ajo, at least I think so. also: 3 salsas, including a mole (!) I"ll post the English ingredients and descriptions after the meal

Ingredient procrastination photo #1:

Ingredient procrastination photo #2

and while we're in my kitchen: the leeks/carrots tiles my very talented cousin Joel made for us

[tejon]

Looking forward to descriptions and pictures later. I'm making tamales next weekend for a party and am currently figuring out what would go best as sides and complementary dishes.

[purplewiz]

Ok, I'll just show you the kitchen as it is right now: it will make yours seem so much neater 

←

Um, not really . The only reason my kitchen doesn't look like that right now is that we had houseguests over Thanksgiving, so we spent a full day cleaning so they'd have somewhere to walk and sit down to eat breakfast!

I've been enjoying the blog and all the marvelous fresh produce, since local produce will only be a dream until springtime around here (got at least a foot of snow yesterday!).

Marcia.

[chardgirl]

Well... hosting 2 guest cooks in my kitchen (the 'sides') and 2 guest cooks outside (the goat/birria) and then hosting 20 eating guests prevented me from 'posting throughout the day', sorry about that. I have so many photos to post! I still have photos from farmers market. Tomorrow will be a relatively calm day and I can catch up with the good stuff I miss tonight.

Let's start!

I'm going to go minimize the photos, do the egullet small acrobatics, and then come back and post. One of my favorite food moments of the day: Maria fried the saltine crackers for the mole sauce. I tried one, and it was quite tasty. The mole was delicious! Stay tuned.

cg

[chardgirl]

one question for the egullet community: Mr. Chardgirl took photos of the butchering and whatnot of the goat... I don't plan to post those. I can email them to those that are interested and/or make a link on my own website, I don't want to offend anyone or gross anyone out.......

pm me and I can easily email you a file or two.

cg

[chardgirl]

Mole making, including 'fried crakers':

Lourdes and Maria preping the dried chiles for the mole sauce:

The toasted sesame seeds were blended with a little water to add to the mole sauce:

and more coming...

[chardgirl]

Ok... more on the mole:

the dried chiles were then cooked in a little vegetable oil then water added so they could steam up:

Then they were ground up with my immersion blender, which then died. It's easy to get another though...

another ingredient photo:

I was outside running around helping folks park, helping visiting kids visit young goats, setting up the beverage table, etc, so I didn't see part of the mole making.

When I came back, the sesame mixture had been added to the chile mixture and this is what we served:

Lourdes also made a tomatillo salsa and a radish salad. These with the beans and tortillas would have made a fine meal WITHOUT the goat, but the birria was tasty.

[chardgirl]

Making Goat Birria! I was busy with the house/sides/Lourdes Maria part of the day, Mr. Chardgirl did most the birria with Don Miguel and Adrian. What I know they did:

I'll leave out the gory first parts...

Once the animal was butchered into pieces it was cooked in a big pot.. The sauce had: dried then fried chiles (guajillos and arboles), fresh oregano, fresh garlic, black pepper, dried ginger, bay leaves (maybe those were added later?), cumin, onions.

The birria was cooked with the top on for 3-4 hours.

The truth: Mr. Chardgirl and I were busy hosting the party so we missed big pieces of the actual cooking/recipe stuff. For instance Don Miguel needed 'cal' (lime: as in the mineral kind) for the preparation of the goat stomach delicacy where they chop up some of the innards and mix it with oregano and garlic and stuff it back in the stomach and then steam this. Some folks say Yum, I say Yuck, but to each his own. But we didn't have any cal: it was a misunderstanding. So I ran to the store (8 miles round trip) to get the cal. So it's a little hard for me to post actual recipes since we weren't doing the cooking!

[mizducky]

The truth: Mr. Chardgirl and I were busy hosting the party so we missed big pieces of the actual cooking/recipe stuff. For instance Don Miguel needed 'cal' (lime: as in the mineral kind) for the preparation of the goat stomach delicacy where they chop up some of the innards and mix it with oregano and garlic and stuff it back in the stomach and then steam this. Some folks say Yum, I say Yuck, but to each his own. But we didn't have any cal: it was a misunderstanding. So I ran to the store (8 miles round trip) to get the cal. So it's a little hard for me to post actual recipes since we weren't doing the cooking!

←

That "goat stomach delicacy" sounds like the Mexican answer to haggis. (I'd be willing to give it a go, but then I'm a fool for offal...)

[Daniel]

What a wonderful blog chardgirl.. I really enjoyed it.. What became of the fried crackers?

Edited December 5, 2005 by Daniel (log)

[chardgirl]

That "goat stomach delicacy" sounds like the Mexican answer to haggis. (I'd be willing to give it a go, but then I'm a fool for offal...)

←

Yes, some folks love offal: I have a friend writing a cookbook about it (!). But maybe I was a vegetarian in a past life, it's often the sides that get me animated.

I did a bit of left over cooking tonight, the photo is on it's way...

cg

[chardgirl]

What a wonderful blog chardgirl.. I really enjoyed it.. What became of the fried crackers?

←

Yes, the fried crackers got ground up at some point in the mole making process. I'm very intrigued by Maria's mole. She will be working here on Tuesday, I hope to at least get the ingredient list from her then. I think this blog runs through Tuesday or so, I can post it then!

Tomorrow's plans?! left overs! I hope to do some KID COOKING tomorrow at some level, since that was one of my hopes for this blog. And I'll continue to post weekend photos til this blog is over. I still have quite a few great market photos.

[chardgirl]

I did a bit of cooking while trying to figure out where to store all the left overs. Yes, we did try to send as much as possible home with folks: ziploc bags!

Birria tacos are served with chopped cilantro and chopped white onions. I sauted the leftover onions and added about 20% of the leftover beans. Then I slopped in some of the mole sauce and some of the cilantro and and mashed them up with a bean masher. They are YUMMY.

I added the rest of the cilantro to the simple tomatillo salsa: here's the photo:

[rancho_gordo]

Where are your Mexican pals from? I know you've introduced me to one of your friends from Oaxaca, but what about Maria and Lourdes? I always think of birria as from Jalisco and I'm curious how other Mexicans make it and what the little differences might be once the dish travels.

I'd try the goat stomach treat in a heartbeat!

Edited December 5, 2005 by rancho_gordo (log)

[chardgirl]

Where are your Mexican pals from? I know you've introduced me to one of your friends from Oaxaca, but what about Maria and Lourdes? I always think of birria as from Jalisco and I'm curious how other Mexicans make it and what the little differences might be once the dish travels.

I'd try the goat stomach treat in a heartbeat!

←

Maria and Lourdes are both from Michoacan, I don't know the name of the county/town they're from. I know that in this last generation many of their family have landed in Uruapan to work and they go back and forth between the smaller town and the city when they visit.

Birria is ubiquitous as far as I can tell. Mr. Chardgirl tells stories of hearing about birrias made from deer, armadillo, gophers, squirells, badgers, you name it!

[chardgirl]

breakfast this morning: gen mai cha (roasted rice green tea, a refreshing hot beverage the morning after a large meal), and 1 taco with my doctored beans and doctored salsa, see photos above.

cg

[chardgirl]

My delicious taco made of leftovers, my chai, and my vitamins are all consumed and it's time to get to work in the office while Mr. Chardgirl does HomeSchooling Duty today. So I'm posting photos from farmers market of course!

I took lots of photos of 'frequent market shoppers' and chefs that come to buy vegetables at the stall, but I only want to post photos that will be interesting to you folks who are viewing. I also took photos of some of my favorite vendors: either their products or the people: usually both

Honeycrisp: Art is a sweetheart of a farmer who grows GREAT citrus. And the photo came out ok:

FattedCalf: Toponia and Taylor are a young (to me) couple who started their own charcuterie business and make a great sausage. Daughter Age 8's favorite product, unless you count the inside-the-building gelato parlor.

Tierra Vegetables: Lee and her brother Wayne grow chiles and vegetables north of SF: they are passionate about all they do and it shows in their products!

Sally: our beloved nut gal. She and her husband grow and bring walnuts and almonds. Son Aged 10 will only eat her nuts now, I can't slip in the inferior Trader Joe's brand, he notices.

AndrewDonna: ok, this one photo of FMS (frequent market shoppers) Andrew and Donna are double extra special in that they come down to market EVERY WEEK and they are CSA members! They are also interested in food history and talk about the latest renaissance recipes they've tried with their neighbor Jeremy, I love talking to customers about food. I learn lots every weekend:

Eatwell: Nigel has a great little farm east of S.F. He does lots of vegetables and a CSA just like we do, but he also has an entire lavendar empire going on. Folks can have their weddings in the middle of his acres of lavendar.

Cher and Wayne: These FMS make the market look good, don't they look look like Hollywood stars? They are buying Sally's nuts nextdoor. Foreground = our chantenay carrots.

Swanton: Swanton Berries is north of Santa Cruz and they grow broccoli and artichokes as rotation crops with their berries. This weekend that's where Daughter aged 8 hung out, you can see her art hung about. It's much better to draw and talk to interesting but non mom Big Girls than hang out in our stall and have to WORK.

I'll post a few more around lunch time PST.

cg

[chardgirl]

More market pictures with captions:

Here's a photo of Far West Fungi's mushrooms: it's a family operation:

Some of our gold beets:

Amaryl of Boulette's Larder: she's up to interesting things at the larder!

The Apple Farm: masters at 'value added product' , three words that give me the horrors. I'm thrilled THEY do it, but I'm not the farm wife who longs to stay home and fuss with the best apple butter/pumpkin butter/pumpkin juice/pickled beet recipe, then once perfected make hundreds of jars a week. There's a space for everyone on the universe, right?

[chardgirl]

name that vegetable: (Gifted Gourmet, where are you?? )

more Boulette's Larder: They have windows in their cooler so passersby in the building can see things in their cooler on special 'display'. (here's some of our broccoli romanesco)

Dirty Girl Produce: started by our friend the ever pumped Jane, it's now owned and run by Surfer Joe. Rumours abound that Dirty Girl sells next to Happy Boy at the Berkeley market, but I"ve not been there so I've not confirmed it.

[chardgirl]

Swanton Kiwis, with Daughter Aged 8 artwork adorning:

[chardgirl]

And more from Saturday: I think it's going to take quite a little while for me to catch up from this marathon weekend.

This is a view from around the corner from our stall, it's understandable why 'tourists' love this destination so much, it's too bad for me they don't want to buy CHARD. Slanted Door just bought 35 # broccoli romanesco, the tourists can eat our vegetables prepared by the pros.

There are two excellent sources for Mexican food at the Saturday market:

and

One's "in the building" (mijita) and one's 'outside, in the back' (primavera) like us. So here's the deal as I see it: the Ferry Building Marketplace is the upscale foodcourt so much of the food press has commented on in the last couple of years. Mijita, Boulette's Larder, Slanted Door, our mushroom friends Far West Fungi, Scharffen Berger chocolotes, etc. all have shops 'in the building'. They are there 7 days a week and pay dearly for the privelege I'm certain. ALSO on Saturdays there is one great big also upscale real live with farmers and everything FARMERS MARKET, outside, in the sun or rain, whichever the SF Bay is choosing that day. 2 days ago it was sunny but very nippy chilly, all day.

another inside the building shot:

our radishes and a bit of broccoli:

Pickles from Happy Girl Kitchen: We've known Todd and Jordan quite a while....

I still have a few more but it's time to go be gymnastics mom, finish up washing some wine glasses, I'll be back later today.

cg

[therese]

name that vegetable:

←

A bit like lambs' quarters, though more regular and deeper serration to the leaves than I recall.

[tejon]

Is that shiso?

[chardgirl]

Is that shiso?

←

nope, it's not shiso or lambsquarters... good guesses though!

[ludja]

Hi Chardgirl, thank you for all the wonderful photos and commentary.

I loved seeing some of the mole prep. At your big cookout on Sunday how was the mole served? Was is a sauce for the goat or some other meat or was it served on its own?

Was it warm enough to sit outside down there or did you have to squeeze inside? (I was up in Berkeley for most of the day and it was crystal clear but pretty nippy there!)