green chili, flour tortillas
This pork roast from Trader Joe's is nice. You could buy one and slice it and use the slices separately.
Four times this amount of chiles was diced up.
This is my best batch of tortillas yet.
I used the method shown by Mexican ladies on YouTube. I used butter for fat as you do a pie crust except it has baking powder and it uses very hot water to melt the fat.
None of the YouTube videos show the technique that a friend's mother showed. She and her daughter do not use a rolling pin. Instead, they pat the wet dough in their hands and smash it and flip it like a mini pizza. Then they use a rolling motion to place it on the hot pan. Theirs come out much thicker and heartier than these. And my friend is so proud of his mother's tortillas. "The best in town."
No matter what you do it comes out great. I've never been disappointed and I've never made it the same way twice.
However, this was the weakest I've ever made. I kept taste-testing to bring up the body but nothing worked. Bay leaves. Beer. Garlic. Everything I tried was lame.
It lacked what Japanese call umami.
So I used Japanese flavor ingredients to correct it. 1) one tablespoon sugar 2) one tablespoon fish sauce 3) one tablespoon toasted sesame seed oil, boom, fixed beyond imagining. Three tablespoons of Asian ingredients greatly improved the whole pot. And it's a very large pot.
Why has it taken me so long to learn these things?
I'm slow on the uptake. That's why.
cornbread with cheese, bacon and jalapeño
I broke another coffee mill processing pop-corn, so I threw it away and brought out the flour mill. The corn is too big to fit until I turned the knob from fine to more coarse. That opened the burrs enough for the kernels to feed through.
Flour and cornmeal in equal tablespoon increments into the liquid portion until it becomes satisfactorily thick.
The liquid portion includes four egg yolks and one whole egg. For some reason I wanted this to be very eggy and rich.
Two types of cheese, actually, and really good ones too.
Jalapeños finished with the bacon so they are roasted before being included.
One teaspoon baking powder at the very end because it goes active the moment it touches liquid.
Extra cornmeal frozen for later.
Baked to 200℉ because that's boiling in Denver, and that's when cornmeal polenta cooks when its not used in bread.
This is so good. I'm glad I invented it. Cheese bacon and jalapeño, the same three things that make macaroni taste great.
chicken thigh, potato waffle, maple syrup and honey
Brown food. I meant to say golden food just now.
egg makisushi, literal egg roll
The rolls are spread with American creamed horseradish. The green wasabi that you buy in tiny tins is made from American horseradish. Genuine wasabi is gentler.
Dipping sauce is delicious
* 1 teaspoon toasted sesame seed oil
* 1 teaspoon fish sauce
* 2 teaspoons mirin (fermented sweet rice wine sauce)
* 1 teaspoon rice vinegar
* 2 teaspoons soy sauce
Wakame salad
I'm glad I discovered this.
By anime. Can you believe that? I think it was "One Punch." The hero just beat up a monster with one punch and then he goes, "I'm in the mood for a wakame salad."
And then I recalled buying a bag of this stuff decades ago and being amazed and distressed by the way such a tiny amount grew to a whole bowlful. I didn't know what to do with it. I became emotionally distressed and threw away the whole bag after only testing it once.
It reminded me of an unpleasant episode at age five involving Grape Nuts. I didn't understand why Grape Nuts came in such a small box. I thought it was like regular cereal so I poured a bowlful. Mum told me to stop. She said I couldn't eat that much. I did not realize Grape Nuts is like nuclear food. I don't even know what Grape Nuts is. I never touched it after this one episode. It left a lasting impression. Just recalling it makes me feel miserable.
"I can too."
"No you can't."
"Yes I can."
"No you can not."
"Yes I can."
"I'm telling you that you cannot eat that much."
"Yes I can."
"Fine then. You're going to sit there until you're finished eating that whole bowl."
"Fine."
I poured milk over the pile of Grape Nuts and it began to swell. I ate a few teaspoonfuls and it sat in my stomach like stones. There was no way my baby teeth could crunch through the whole bowl. But I tried. Crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch.
Rest.
Crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch .
Rest.
Crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch.
The bowl didn't diminish one single bit. This was going to take a long time. Mum was hovering observing progress as the Grape Nuts continued to swell.
Crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch.
I was only 1/4 the way through. Grape Nuts were impossible. I was fighting a losing battle. What is it with these things anyway? I was going to be here a long time and my stomach cannot hold this growing bowl of cereal. I started to become sad.
Crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch.
There was no way I could eat this crap. I broke down and cried.
And cried and cried and cried. Oh, the horror of my fate.
"There, there, relax. Settle down. You don't have to eat the whole thing."
Good. *ping* I ran out of there fast as I could.
jalapeño pizza
This is one of the best pizzas I've made. 3 cups of flour this time. No semolina in the dough except to coat the dough before pressing it out onto parchment paper as usually done with cornmeal, so it has a somewhat crunchy grainy surface texture on both sides. 3 types of cheese, and it's all good.
shrimp and avocado salad
I'm always a bit apprehensive opening an avocado that's been in the refrigerator over a week. You never know what you will find.
Dressing:
* 1 teaspoon toasted sesame seed oil
* 1 teaspoon fish sauce
* 1 Tablespoon maple syrup
* 1/2 teaspoon sugar
* 2 teaspoons rice vinegar
* no oil because avocados are nearly all oil
Spices
* salt / pepper
* coriander
* cumin
* chipotle powder
Shrimp is bathed for two minutes in water that had boiled.
ARTS!
Oh man, what a win.
Let me tell you about the gorgeous people at Trader Joe's.
There are too many to mention. Workers and customers alike.
I told the beautiful young woman behind me at the very front of the store, "I said 'wow' and the gum fell out of my mouth." I pointed to the gum on the floor. She said, "Oh, I have something for that." She dug through her purse for a scrap piece of paper, then seeing me struggle to bend down to get it, she offered to pick up the gum.
There were other people I conversed with, the worker with the British accent describing what they have and don't have by way of sausages, and the older man checking out tinned peppers who laughed at my remark about mild jalapeños not having a point to them, agreeing, "It's like taking a bath with a raincoat." Then selecting a jar based on my recommendation.
Then to the woman who works there, I asked, where are the figs and dates? In separate places, she said. She offered to get them for me. I told her I'd like to see where they are put. She escorted me at my pace first to the figs then to the dates that need refrigeration. We got to the dates.
Returning to the checkout line I told her that one time I boiled figs to a paste and made my own fig Newtons that are 10x better than the kind that you buy. I added, I wish my father could have tasted them because he sure loved the manufactured kind and my own beat the pants off of those. She asked if I had a recipe for the cookie portion. I told her, "I just looked on the internet."
"Have you tried Trader Joe's brand?"
"No."
She separated from me to go get a package of Trader Joe's brand fig Newtons. She opened the package and offered me one. (Too much cookie and no milk to drench it) It really is an excellent cookie. The fig flavor comes through sharply later, after the cookie dissolves, then the fig aftertaste lingers an incredibly long time. I heard her in the distance asking customers if they'd like to sample the Trader Joes' brand of fig Newtons. She was dispersing the entire package among customers.
All based on my remark about making them.
These Trader Joe's figs and dates are much better than the grocery store brands I've been buying. Especially the dates.
Texas sausage
This is marketed as Texas Rope at Trader Joe's. The sausage was cooked four hours in the Instant Pot under pressure. It turned a fairly dense sausage soft as marshmallows. The two cups of liquid is extremely spiced up, the sausage is still rather hot with spices. Diced potato will cook in the liquid separately under pressure in four minutes.
