Avocado/tangerine salad

Simple as can be.

Chop:

• 1 avocado
• 2 tangerines
• A decent amount of goat cheese
• Two handfuls of almonds

Combine that with spinach.  Dress with:

• Sesame oil
• White wine vinegar (rice wine vinegar would work here too)
• Ground ginger
• Garlic powder

And that's it.  The flavors blend extremely well what with the sweet from the tangerines and almonds, the sour goat cheese, and the various spices (plus whatever it is that avocado has).  The textures work well varying from the crunchy almonds down to the almost melty cheese and avocado.

In a large enough batch this could be a meal.

Bread salad

Look!  It's both summerish and has actual amounts!

Combine:

• 4 cups fresh tomatoes, diced
• 3/4 cup red onion
• 1/2 cup white wine vinegar
• 1/3 cup olive oil
• 1 tbsp black pepper
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1/2 cup (or more; can you really have too much?) shredded basil (traditional Italian)
• 6 cups dense crusty bread in 1-inch cubes

Add the bread last, preferably after a few minutes so the other flavors come together.  You can always toast fresh bread to get the right consistency, but if, say, you live in a high arid climate, your older bread will hit the sweet spot before molding anyway.

Chill, serve.  It's absolutely wonderful.

Pad thai

I've done this a few times now. It isn't what you get from a Thai restaurant. Apparently it's also even closer to the real thing than what you can get in this country.

I based this largely on several readings of this extensive post. It's really good. And then I ignored much of the advice and came up with the following.

So, two parts: sauce and assembly.

Sauce

• 1/2 cup fish sauce, more or less. The stuff is salty so take that into account.
• 1/2ish cup -- maybe more -- rice wine vinegar. This was basically because tamarind paste is hard to find; I'm sure it's better done the right way.
• Pure cane sugar -- more than expected
• Sriracha (plenty)
• Garlic-chili paste (also plenty)
• Water to take salt down and get a sauce that will reduce properly under very high heat

Let that all combine for some hours on low heat. You can even keep it for some weeks. Fish sauce is an amazing preservative.

Prep

As per suggestion, I've decided that woking up one serving at a time is the best way to go. Not only does it let you customize to the taste of your fellow eaters, it just comes out better.

But first, noodles. I've used pho. Soaked in hot tap water for less than about five minutes. Make sure these are ready to go.

Take your choice of proteins. I like chicken for this; beef is too aggressive, I hate shrimp, and I don't much care for tofu. If you're going to use shrimp, be sure to add it later than you would the chicken (which goes in first).

Slice your chicken, preferably breast for this (trust me, you won't miss the fat), quite thin. This is rather important, as you really don't want any single serving to be in the wok for more than, say, 90 to 120 seconds.

Crush some peanuts, preferably unsalted. The easy way: put a bunch of peanutes in a ziploc bag and either use a rolling pin to roll them into near pulp or, say, a cast iron pan. Either works.

Dice some green onion.

Chiffonade some basil, preferably Thai or purple, but we've talked about those before.

Wash some bean sprouts. More than you think.

If desired, let about an egg per serving come to room temp. I also hate egg, so I don't add this myself, but it's not only traditional, it's almost required to be "real" pad thai.

Assembly

Heat peanut oil, plenty, in a wok. Toss in any non-seafood with a small ladel-full of the sauce. Cook that nearly through as quickly as possible.

Add noddles and bean sprouts.

If using egg, push everything in the wok to one side save some of the sauce and basically scramble the egg very quickly on the bottom of the wok.

Add shrimp here and make damn sure the heat is high enough to cook quickly.

Add peanuts.

Add more sauce, probably a few ladels if your heat is high enough.

Finish with basil, green onion, etc.

Serve with lime slices and more peanuts for maximum effect.

Mmm. Realish pad thai.

Early summer risotto

First, read up on the basics of a decent risotto.  I'm not inclined to repeat myself, so that's what you get for an introduction.  (And seriously, this stuff becomes second nature after awhile; it's not like you have to read a recipe for risotto and do more than skim to see what ingredients are added when.  It's a great dish for experiments.)

This is a side dish, I suppose.  It can work well with anything from salmon to chicken to beef.

Start off the dish as usual: onions, garlic, rice, wine, stock in that order.

Let that go about half way to done; judging that might take some time.

Add about a dozen capers, drained and rinsed, choped finely.

Aside: capers are neat.  Some people have them; they're basically crazy.  What they do is add a floral note to a dish that you basically can't duplicate.  Probably because they are, in fact, flower buds.  Subtle but it adds quite a bit.

Finely chop about half a red bell pepper.  Grate sufficient cheese.

Don't forget to keep stirring and adding liquid.

When the mixture is about 90% done (ie, it's getting noticeably harder to stir), add the red pepper.

Finally, the basil.  Cooked basil loses flavor fast, so this goes in nearly at the end.  If you have fresh, great.  If perhaps you froze some from last year, make sure you give it enough time (and hot liquid and massive amounts of stirring helps here) to defrost.  Chop finely, add that, let that go for another minute or two, then add the cheese, take off the heat, and stir it in.

Works wonderfully.

Mustard green salad

Mustard greens are tasty, and when they're in season they're quite cheap.  So check around.

This seemed to work out well:

• Mustard greens
• One sliced red pepper
• One sliced cucumber; don't bother scooping seeds or anything but do peel it
• Bunch of chopped walnuts
• Goat cheese
• White balsamic vinegar

Quite tasty.  The flavors all compliment one another.

If you're somehow goat cheese-impaired (not that I have anyone in mind), a mix of blue and feta might do you, but it won't be as good.

Pseudo-minestrone

This is truly not seasonal, but it came up in my archives and I don't want to lose track of it.  Back to risotto shortly, I'm sure.

To start, sweat one large red onion in a, oh, cast iron pot.  Crush and peel garlic and add halfway through the sweat.  Near the end, add four or five chopped, but not diced, carrots.

When said sweat is done, add:

• 2 cans diced tomatoes with liquid
• 2 cans garbanzos (liquid optional; the flavor really varies if you add it or don't)
• 2 cans chicken broth
• Thyme
• Oregano
• Parsley (dried)
• Rosemary
• Red wine vinegar

Bring to a boil.  Add:

• Eightish baby red potatoes

Simmer for 45 minutes.  Add:

• Two zuchinis all sliced and diced as you'd like them.

Let that go for ten minutes.  Serve, adding some greens (mustard worked great on my first try).

Lots of leftovers but it reheats like a dream.

Orange quesadillas

Dead simple if a little weird.  But trust me; they're good.

Slice:

• 1/2 medium orange
• 1/8 or so white or yellow onion

Preheat the oven to 450.

Sprinkle a large (I think we're calling these "burrito size" now) tortilla with the onions.  Add either sliced or shredded cojack in a relatively thin layer.  Sprinkle the orange chunks over that.  Add Cholula for some heat; you really don't want to add the acid that comes from Tabasco here.

Layer on another tortilla.

Bake for 15 minutes on a high rack, flipping once at about 10 minutes.

Let that cool, slice, and eat.  Absolutely delicious.

Edit: and by all means serve this with guacamole.  It really is a perfect compliment.

Pico de gallo

Pico de gallo.  Yeah, this usually means some combination of tomato, onion, and sometimes something vaguely hot; often jalapeno.  It's usually boring and comes off more as a salsa that someone forgot to blend than anything else.

This is not the pico de gallo I grew up with.  Not even close.  What I know, as far as I can tell, is all New Mexico.

Combine:

• Four fine chopped clementines (or equivalent amount of orange; the clementines are nicely sweet though)
• One medium jicama, cubed up into something like 3/8 inch chunks
• One generous handful of parsley (replace with cilantro if desired), choppped
• Red pepper flakes to taste
• Optionally, you could add some lime juice.  I'm personally not a fan, especially if you've already used clementines -- there should be more than enough liquid in there already.

I suggest taking the amount of red pepper flakes up or down depending on how much the pico is supposed to be a cooling agent for other foods.

Toss all that around and it's ready to serve.  If you've never used jicama you're in for a real treat.

And for goodness' sake, don't use tomatoes.

Black beans

This one's easy.  And tasty.  You can modulate spice if need be, and they're slightly (but only slightly) on the unusual side for just standard black beans.

Chop:

• One half white/yellow onion.  Pretty small bits.
• Four or five cloves of garlic

Sweat in olive oil.  Add:

• About 1/3 of a 7oz can of chipotle peppers in adobe sauce, rough chopped, with some of the sauce itself.  This stuff is potent, as it turns out.  Save the rest for another day.

When that's all nicely combined, add:

• Two cans of black beans, one of them without liquid
• One can chicken broth

Bring all that to a boil and reduce it down until the liquid is just covering the beans.  Cover, reduce heat, add some salt.  You can hold that warm as long as you need and beans will just get softer and mushier, which can be desirable.

Very basic pasta

So many pasta dishes get so complicated so quickly.  This isn't one of them.

Boil water; don't forget to salt it.  It really is better that way.  Eventually add, say, angel hair or some other thin version of spaghetti.  Cook that through.

In the meantime, get to chopping.  Mostly garlic.  Lots of it.  And parsley.  Lots of it.

Add olive oil to a saute pan and lightly toast the garlic.  Once the pasta is ready, add that as well.  Once the pasta is well-coated in oil, kill the heat and add the parsley.  A little red pepper flake at this point wouldn't kill anyone.  Toss further. 

And you're done.

Grate a hard cheese over the top upon serving.

And yes, this compliments the salmon perfectly.

Very basic stir fry side dish

(Part 1 in a series that I consider a challenge from my cousin.) 

As stated, very basic.

• Snow peas, ends snapped as needed.  About a pound.
• Half a red pepper, finely cubed
• Garlic to taste, chopped finely
• Sesame oil, but not too much

Heat the oil.

Toast the peppers slightly.  Add garlic, but don't over-sear it.  Add snow peas.

If you're in the mood, grate some ginger and add that with the garlic but it really isn't needed.

Serve as is, preferably in a black bowl.

Doesn't get simpler than that.

A salad to die for

Note: this just happened to be what my parents had on hand one night when they asked me to make a salad.  It just happened to work wonderfully.


Basics on the salad:

• One large grapefruit.  I think ruby red works better aesthetically but use what you have.
• Greens.  I like spinach.  Obviously.  Arugula is great here as well as is any bitter green.
• Walnuts.  Nice and chopped, but not too fine; you want the texture.
• Your choice: either goat cheese or crumbled blue cheese.  Both seem to work; blue does a bit better for some reason.
• Bell peppers wouldn't hurt anything.  Neither would a bit of cucumber.  And frankly jicama would be awesome here.

 And then you dress it:

• Olive oil
• White wine vinegar (and actually rice wine vinegar works here too).
• Coriander
• Just a touch of garlic
• Powdered cumin
• Just possibly a dash of ground lemon grass?

And that, friends, makes a salad.

Random dal

This was an experiment from a few years ago, but it turned out to work.

Beans

Bring to boil:

 * 6 cups water
 * 1 cup lentils of some sort (I like some of the more interesting varieties but experiment as you will)

Cook for a long time, until lentils are soft and mushy.  Add:

 * 1 can garbanzos, strained and washed

Cook through, bring off heat.

Other stuff

In large pot with, oh, for kicks, walnut oil (I happened to have some at the time), toast:

 * Pinch of brown mustard seeds (only use yellow if that's all you can find; brown have a much earthier taste that compliment the dish much better)
 * 15-20 black peppercorns

When those pop, reduce heat and add:

 * 1 medium onion, diced
 * About the same amount of sliced carrots

Let that cook for a bit.  When onions brown, add:

 * 4 cloves garlic
 * 1 or 2 serranos
 * Generous turmeric
 * Some coriander
 * Cayenne
 * 1 or 2 cups water as needed
 * Bean mixture
 * Small amount of garam masala

In that order, mind.  You need to not toast the garam masala.  And don't add too much.  The cinnamon in the stuff gets to be overwhelming, and really, there's already enough flavor in there without overdoing it.

Serve with rice, which for this seems to go well with toasted cumin.

Very hearty.  Give it a shot.

Peasent food is the best

This seems to be a recipe I originally got from my parents and then modified significantly. It's dead simple, messy, delicious, and a great thing to modify for any range of people.

Six basic ingredients:

Bread
Garlic
Basil
Roasted red peppers (jarred is not only fine, it's basically ideal)
Goat cheese
Olive oil

For two people I like to use two heads (yes, you heard the right, heads) of garlic, two demi-baguettes (Costco does exceptionally well here believe it or not), a small loaf of goat cheese (the most expensive part by far), rrps and basil to match.

Heat the oven to 350. Toss the garlic on to an oven sheet, unpealed (well, maybe take off the outside layers of skin), and toast until very fragrant.

In the meantime, split your bread and lightly cover the inside with olive oil. Set aside. Also, rough chop the basil and red peppers.

Drop the oven to 250. Add the bread and keep it on until it starts to color and crisp just a bit.

Plate all items, including lumps of goat cheese, for all eaters. Have them combine ingredients on the bread, squeezing out individual garlic cloves (which should now be at most semi-firm and more likely quite squishy) on the bread, followed by peppers, followed by cheese, followed by basil.

While it's a decent appetizer, it can easily be a full meal (for two as described above).

Just trust me on this one.

Enchiladas

This can be done the right way or the wrong way as far as I'm concerned. Most people do it the wrong way.

Enchiladas do not need to be rolled to be good. In fact, I really prefer them stacked.

This style really isn't found outside of New Mexico as far as I can tell, though we have at least one decent restaurant in Denver that stacks memorably.

Homemade is still better.

This is a variation that, as family legend recalls it, came in a supplement to an Albuquerque phone book[1] with a few variations from Huntley Dent[2] and experience. Without further introduction:

In a skillet -- preferably cast iron as that doesn't stain -- slowly heat some oil or shortening. I'm really digging butter these days but that's more of a personal choice. You'll be making a roux[3], so add more than you need just for base vegetables.

Dice some onions. White seems best. One, maybe two if they're small.

Dice some garlic. Maybe four or five cloves; this one doesn't need to be overkill.

Add all to the skillet. Onions should remain semi-firm and the garlic should be fully extracted for flavor.

In the meantime, mix a packet of red chile powder -- available at
decent grocery stores, and labeled for heat -- with water. It'll clump;
be persistent.

Chimayo and hot new mexico are my favorites for this one.

When onions are done, add flour to match the oil, cumin, and a touch
of oregano. Make a roux.

Take off heat, add powdered chile and water to roux. Back to heat,
bring to a simmer and cover for a bit. Don't let the sauce burn; it
seriously affect taste.

When the sauce is done, layer thusly in pyrex (for easy cleanup):

Sauce
Corn tortilla
Onion/garlic mix
Shredded cheese (I happen to like cojack but cotija is great here too)

Keep stacking, usually about 3-4 tortillas high.

Bake at 375 until all the cheese is melty and the tortillas have slightly crispy edges.

Garnish with lettuce and tomatoes. Guacamole is a great side here as well.

___________________
[1] No, seriously.

[2] See my Manifesto.

[3] If you don't, well, I'll write that up someday. But you should. They're important.