Rancho Gordo: Experiments from my mostly New World kitchen and gardens

Tunas

This weekend's harvest. Just because!

Zuppa Alla Frantoiana o Ribollita

Online pal Nicole Krakora writes with what looks to be an amazing ribollita recipe:

As promised, here is the recipe that I use as a starting point.  I jotted it down while we were making it in Tuscany, so I usually just use the measurements listed as a guide and sometimes add more or less of items depending on my mood.  I also look at the market and add whatever other vegetables are in season (peas, parsnips, etc.).  The basic idea is to make a bean broth and add a variety of vegetables to make a hearty dish.

 

Also, I usually double the beans called for in the recipe.  Then I pass ½ of the beans and liquid through a food mill and leave the other ½ whole so there are whole beans in the soup as well.  Borlotti beans are traditional for this dish, but I like to make a blend of whatever meaty beans I have on hand to shake things up a bit.

 

I also add a rind from some Parmigiano-reggiano to the soup pot to add some additional depth of flavor.

 

Use the very best quality olive oil you can find, since you will be drizzling it into the soup when you serve it.

 

This is a really hearty soup and is just so flavorful.   It freezes very well.  Buon appetito!!

Zuppa Alla Frantoiana o Ribollita

Olive Presser’s Soup (Ribollita)

(Recipe by Sandra Lotti – Toscana Saporita cooking school, Italy)

 

1 cup extra virgin olive oil

3 medium carrots, minced

2 celery stalks, minced

1 clove garlic, minced

2 medium onions, minced

2 leeks, white part only, minced

10 fresh sage leaves

8 leaves Swiss chard, stalks removed and roughly chopped

1 small head savoy cabbage, roughly chopped

10 leaves black kale, stalks removed and roughly chopped

6 ounces canned Italian (San Marzano) plum tomatoes, shredded and with liquid reserved

2 celery stalks, diced

2 small carrots, diced

2 small zucchini, diced

1 bulb fennel, diced

1 cup freshly shelled peas (if available)

2 ripe plum tomatoes, diced

3 leaves fresh basil

1 tablespoon fresh thyme

2 pounds butternut squash, seeded, peeled and cut into small chunks

3 potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks

salt and fresh ground black pepper

2 pounds dried borlotti beans, soaked overnight, drained and cooked in water along with 1 clove garlic, 1 red onion, and fresh sage, add salt after beans are tender

freshly ground nutmeg

slices of peasant style bread

very best quality extra virgin olive oil

Parmigiano-reggiano cheese

 

1. Cook beans in water with 1 clove garlic, 1 red onion and fresh sage until tender.  Add salt to taste.  Set aside.

 

2. Heat the oil in a large heavy-gauge pot over low heat.  Add the minced carrot, celery, onion, garlic, leeks, and sage, and cook, stirring frequently until translucent, about 10 minutes.  This is your base (or soffritto).

 

3. Add the cabbage, black kale, Swiss chard, canned tomatoes and stir until well blended.  Cook for 10 minutes, covered.

 

4. Add the remainder of the ingredients, except for the salt, pepper, thyme, nutmeg and bread.  Increase the heat to medium, cover and cook 1 hour, stirring occasionally.

 

5. Meanwhile, pass the beans and their liquid through a food mill and add the mash to the soup pot.  Cook for another hour over low heat, covered.  Stir occasionally.

 

6. Check salt and pepper and season to taste.  Add freshly grated nutmeg to taste.

 

7. Serve hot over sliced peasant bread and drizzle generously with extra virgin olive oil.  Garnish with shaved Parmigiano-reggiano.

 

 

Serves 4.  Leftover Ribollita can be frozen up to 2 months.

A Great Party at the Jimtown Store

Carrie Brown and staff hosted a really fine party at the Jimtown Store this last Sunday for Day of the Dead. What a hoot! Six different beans were prepared by chef Peter Brown for tasting, along with salsas and handmade tortillas. Later in the afternoon, the kitchen turned out hot chocolate and churros to accompany the sugar skull decorating. The weather, the friends and the food were all amazing.

Event: PRIMAL - Napa

PRIMAL - Napa
“Celebrating Fire Cooking, Meat and the Art of Butchering”
November 7th, 2009
 
WHAT: Taste Network presents “PRIMAL Napa”, the first annual, outdoor gathering of local butchers and chefs preparing a bounty of heritage meats over hardwood fires. Held at Chase Cellars’ Hayne Vineyards, guests will be able to explore chefs’ creations along side great California wines. The event will also feature meats and heirloom vegetables from Napa Valley’s Hudson Ranch and a multi-animal breakdown demonstration by local butchers keeping the art alive.

WHO:
Chris Cosentino, Incanto and Boccalone
Staffan Terje, Perbacco
Taylor Boetticher, Fatted Calf
Scott Boggs, Hudson Ranch
Ryan Farr, 4505 Meats
Avedano's Holly Park Market
Dave the Butcher
Star Meats Berkeley
Jeremy Fox of Ubuntu will prepare heirloom vegetables
Peter Jacobsen, Jacobsen Orchards
Magnolia Brewing and Alembic (Daniel Hyatt)
Charbay Distillers in high spirits
Rancho Gordo Beans and much more...

Wines: Chase Cellars, Terra Valentine, Hill Family Estate, Hirsch Vineyards, Frias Vineyards, Gamble Family Vineyards, Miner Wines, Erna Schein-Behrens Family Winery, Pey-Marin Vineyards, Steltzner Vineyards, Macauley Vineyard, Murphy Goode Winery, Pax Wine Cellars and Zacherle Wines.

WHEN: Saturday, November 7, 2009 3 to 9 pm

WHERE: Chase Cellars’ Hayne Vineyard - 2252 Sulphur Springs, St. Helena, CA 94574
This is an outdoor event, rain or shine, attendees should plan accordingly.

WHY: A portion of the proceeds will benefit the St. Helena Farmers’ Market and the City of Napa Fire Explorers program.

HOW: The cost is $65 per person and is open to the public. VIP tickets are $100 and include reserve wines, grilled artisan whole cheese wheels, wood-fired oysters, Allan Benton’s Bacon Bar and more. For tickets visit www.artofthebutcher.com or call 404.849.3569 for more information.

PROMO CODE: $10 OFF – enter “555”
 
###
 
Taste Network is a Georgia-based company delivering experiential services to the artisan wine and cheese industries. The company’s mission is to provide cultured events and education focused around artisan wine, cheese and cuisine to its clients and the public at large. They also produce COCHON 555 (5 chefs, 5 pigs and 5 winemakers), a ten city culinary tour where renowned chefs prepare heritage pigs in a head to toe competition. The tour brings together top chefs, winemakers, farmers, thought-leaders, foodies, media and the general public to promote breed diversity and whole animal utilization.  www.tastenetwork.com <http://www.tastenetwork.com/>  

Media Contact: Carolina Uribe
404-201-0796 - carolina@tastenetwork.com

website: http://www.artofthebutcher.com
FaceBook page: http://www.facebook.com/cochon555
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/artofthebutcher

Mexico Invests in Beans

I've been holding on to this item, sent to me by Mexico Bob this last summer. These last few years we've sen more and more Chinese and American beans in Mexico, which you'd think would be a little like bringing coals to Newcastle but Mexico has experienced some nasty droughts and bean consumption on the whole is down. Cheap imports are going to nudge some bean farmers right out of business. 

The Bean Congress mentioned is the very one I was at this summer in Zacatecas. At the time, I made the observation that like the US, bean producers are concentrating on making beans cheaper and easier to grow and harvest and zipidy do da is being spent on flavor.

MEXICO CITY, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- The Mexican government plans to invest 500 million pesos (383,550 U.S. dollars) annually in training bean farmers to reduce the nation's imports, Agriculture Minister Alberto Cardenas said on Wednesday.

    "Via the (government-backed) Produce Foundation, we are investing around 500 million pesos a year to broadcast the knowledge that the National Food and Produce Research Agency is discovering," Cardenas said at the opening of the International Bean Congress and Fair held in the central Mexican state of Zacateacas.

    Mexico produced 1.12 million tons of beans last year. Meanwhile, imports have risen to 94,000 tons. Despite the large acreage of farmlands devoted to beans, Mexico is still far behind Brazil, the world's largest bean producer, as well as India, China and Myanmar, Cardenas observed.

    The government has also laid out a 12-point plan to help farmers, Cardenas added.

    The plan includes improving seed technology, machinery investment assistance, modernizing logistics and storage centers, and promoting consumption.

As an aside, if you have even a casual interest in things Mexican, Bob's blog is a must-read. Always thoughtful and provocative, I always feel humbled when I read his posts.

Mexico Bob blog link.

Sophie's Black Midnights

Sophie worked for us at the farmers market in San Francisco and I can easily say she was a favorite customers and staff alike. We miss her a lot. She would experiment with the beans and always come back with a story and what follows is her adventures with out black Midnight turtle beans.

I probably shouldn't speak of her in he past tense as she's thriving in the Pacific Northwest!

-Steve

I made this the other night and it was soooo good! A lovely, very simple summer dinner. I thought you might like to share it with our customers, or whatever. Sorry it's not very exact or well laid-out, I just made it up and tried to write it down later. It would have easily served 4-5 people as a main dish. We had it with grilled summer squash and fried squash blossoms stuffed w/ goat cheese and fresh basil. Yum!

Ingredients:
about 1/4 - 1/2 lb. black midnight beans, cooked + drained (in the RG manner, of course! I used lard to sauté the onion and garlic, and added bay leaf, and toasted, freshly ground cumin and chili de arbol). I'm sure other kinds of beans would work great, too.
1 pint cherry tomatoes, halved
about 1.5 - 2 lbs fresh shrimp, peeled and deveined
cumin, fennel, and coriander seeds, toasted and ground
1 chili de arbol, toasted and ground
4 ears sweet corn
juice of 1-2 limes
fresh epazote and cilantro, coarsely chopped

I marinated the shrimp and tomatoes in the lime juice and the ground spices + chili for about an hour, then put everything on bamboo skewers.

We got the BBQ going and grilled the corn (in its husks), and then the skewers of shrimp and tomatoes.

Cut the kernels off the corn cobs and mixed them with the beans, shrimp, and tomatoes, and sprinkled the whole thing with salt and the epazote & cilantro.

It was delicious, and just as good the next day, too.

"Sophie, come back!" - Steve and staff

A Little Video About the Harvest

Rancho Gordo 2009 Harvest from Steve Sando on Vimeo.

Swiss Chard Soup with Chickpeas and Barley

I received a lot of emails asking for this recipe when I posted about it on Facebook and Twitter. As I said, I used the wonderful new Turkish clay pot I bought from tulumba.com on a hot tip from Paula Wolfert.

The recipe comes from Greg and Lucy Malouf's beautiful book, Turquoise: A Chef's Travels in Turkey.This is a gorgeous book and if you're any kind of fan of Middle Eastern cooking, it's worth your time.

For this recipe, I improvised a bit as I already had cooked the garbanzos and I prefer my chard a little more al dente.

Swiss Chard Soup with Chickpeas and Barley
6 oz dried chickpeas
2 tablespoon olive oil
1 small onion, finely diced
3 sticks celery, finely diced
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
5 sprigs thyme
1/2 pound Swiss chard leaves (stems tremoved), shredded
4 oz pearl barley
1.5 quarts chicken stock
2 bay leaves
1 long red chile, seeded and shredded
1/2 tomato, seeded and diced
sea salt
lemon juice to serve
Greek-style yogurt to serve

Soak the chickpeas (garbanzos) overnight in plenty of cold water
Heat the oil in a large, heavy saucepan. Saute the onion, celery and garlic over a low heat for 5-8 minutes, until the vegetables soften. Add the spices, thyme and Swiss chard, then toss everything around in the pan for a few moments.
Drain and rinse the chickpeas and add them to the pan with the pearl barley, stock and bay leaves. Bring to the boil, then lower the heat and summer, covered, for around an hour or until the chickpeas and barley are tender.
Add the chile and tomato and season generously with salt and pepper. When ready to serve, remove the bay leaves a nd tge thyme stalks. Ladle the hot soup into warmed bowls and then add a squeeze of lemon juice and a generous spoonful of yogurt to each.

Serves 6-8

From Turquoise, 2008 Chronicle Books

Newly Harvested and Ready to Ship.

Finally. Two old favorites reappear. Borlotti and Good Mother Stallard are ready to ship from our warehouse to you.

It's been a long, long time. 

For the time being, they are only available online and at our store in Napa.

Order Borlotti beans from Rancho Gordo.

Order Good Mother Stallard beans from Rancho Gordo.

Cooking With Clay No. 9 Revisited

I ended up making a wonderful soup from Gary and Lucy Malouf's Turquoise.

Swiss chard soup with chickpeas and barley. The lemon squeeze and Greek yoghurt dollop at the end are not optional; they're essential! 

My Nopal Runneth Over

A little love, a little sun, a little water and next thing you know you have a prickly pear cactus that's so heavy with fruit, the paddles start breaking.

Rather than throw them into the compost pile, I saved them to see if the fruits would continue to ripen, and they did!

Dinner Party Inspired by Frida and Diego

This is an "encore presentation" of one of my first posts from 2006. I think I had six readers a week back then so I thought it would be fun to revisit a few older entries. If you are even vaguely compelled to have a blog, I'd encourage it. It's been a lot of fun and going back over the years is a great way to document Rancho Gordo's growth. And mine, too.

Remember, you can click the individual photos if you want a closer look. - Steve

I used to be a fairly good host but life took over and I tend to take the easy way out these days. One pot, not too much time, not too much trouble. Maybe you will join me in questioning my sanity. What's the point of working so hard if not to also enjoy breaking bread (or fresh corn tortillas) with dear friends, new friends and loved ones? Am I working six days a week in order to "enjoy" a Trader Joe's frozen pizza and declare it "not bad, considering"? I want to see the people I like across my table and I want to feed them the food I love, grown as much as possible from my gardens here in Napa. I will have a dinner party at least monthly. I will re-join the human race!

Inspired by the book Frida's Fiestas (I hate the title but it's a great book), I commenced with my new life as a host.

After I made this declaration, I invited friends and made plans. On the day of the party, I left work at about 2pm and went to the fishmonger here in Napa (Ospry) and it was a joke. I asked for snapper and some heads. They don't have heads. Today? No. Ever. Ok..... How about bones? All he had was monkfish. I felt it was going to be too different so I passed. I then asked for fresh sardines, knowing he wouldn't have them and wanting to be a little mean. What a stupid store. I looked around, confused, as if I were in a butcher shop. I ended up boiling some cactus for a dish that was never made and used the boiling water instead of tap water for the soup. I imagine the viscosity added a little something but I don't know.

The recipe calls for 6 serranos. I used 3-4 and it was plenty hot.

The rest of the shopping I did at Vallergas, our great market here in Napa. They had pretty good poblanos, chayotes and lots of key limes. I bought a chicken as well.With the chicken, I decided to dump the chile rellenosI was planning on and make up a chicken dish instead. The meal was turning out to be almost nothing like the one in the book.

I just loved spending the rest of the afternoon cooking with no email, no TV, no radio and just me and the food. I had to really think things out as I was pretty rusty beyond a one-dish meal for myself or something like tacos for the kids. But it was a gas.

Everything was going as planned. One guest arrived on time and everyone else was late so I sent her out to the beanfield to collect some bean flowers (Flor de frijol) from the Black runner beans that were blossoming but not producing many pods. I wasn't sure what I was going to do with them but a meal at Rancho Gordo without some form of beans was unthinkable.

So here's the meal:
Shots of tequila and mezcal and cold beers with a few little appetizers like olives, radishes and some pumpkins seeds that I'd toasted on the comal with a little oil and garlic clove.

The bean flowers become gorditas with chorizo from Fatted Calf. The flowers have a nutty sprout taste and I am queer for them. This was last minute inspiration and I wish the photos did the dish justice. 

The snapper soup was easy enough. Snapper plus aromatics sauteed in lard. Oink and splash!

For the main course, I ended up roasting the poblano chiles, then peeling them, then blending them with about a cup of crema Mexicana and a cup of the chicken's poaching liquid. I then sauteed some onions and garlic, added the sauce and then gently reheated the chicken pieces. This was all done in a black ceramic chamba pot.

The recipe for chayote squash sounded less than appealing to me but I thought I'd give it a go. I don't like raisins and olives together but I am a fool. This was delicious and wasn't anything like I imagined.

So the meal was fun, the crowd was appreciative and I learned a lot of new things. For dessert, from the book, I doused some sliced prickly pears from my cactus with Sambuca Romano and chilled. Wow! Another surprise. The two flavors become a third.

Finally, one of the guests was nice enough to bring some cheeses to go with the pears that have been falling off our tree for about a week. Just a perfect way to end a good evening.

I forgot to make the rice and the agua fresca. I quickly heated up some tortillas and no one was the wiser.

Cooking With Clay No.9

Thanks to a hot tip from Paula Wolfert's Mediterranean Clay Pot Cooking book, I ordered this handsome clay pot and lid from Turkey.

It's very crude and very heavy and just plain feels foreign. I love it.

The instructions said to wash it with soap and water and then rub the insides with margarine. I couldn't bring myself to do that so after washing I rubbed the whole thing, inside and out, with olive oil. It's something I've always felt compelled to do and Paula's book confirms that it's wise.But you know deep inside you're some kind of freak if you get pleasure from rubbing unglazed clay with olive oil. So be it!

I poached chicken in it last night. It takes a while to get hot but once it does, it retains the heat beautifully.

Next I'm going to attempt the clay pot chicken with dates and bulgur from Greg and Lucy Malouf's Turquoise: A Chef's Travels in Turkey. Isn't cooking fun? I don't understand why everybody doesn't agree.

The pot is from tulumba.com. I don't think it's an essential piece for your average kitchen but I'm very happy to have it.

Great Clay Pots via the Web

I've talked about Bram before and now it's your turn to see what all the excitement is about. I'm lucky enough to live 25 minutes away from the square in Sonoma but if it's a little further for you, you can still order from them over the web.

Most of their stock is theirs exclusively, from Egypt, but they also carry tagines, chamba (from Colombia) and lots of other essential clay pieces. The pots go directly on the gas (or electric with the help of a heat diffuser) and if you love to cook, you'll find you use your clay pots everyday.

Naturally, for beans, there just isn't a better way to cook them.

Visit Bram online.

Bean and Wine Pairing at Cakebread Cellars

Longtime readers know I'm lucky enough to participate in Cakebread Cellars' American Harvest Workshop every fall. The seminal vintner gathers chefs from around the country and introduces them to local producers (like Cowgirl Creamery, Hop Island Oysters, Soul Food Poultry, etc.) and two incredible dinners are planned using the chef's talents, the bay area's food and the Cakebread's booze. The wine is teamed expertely with the help of Michael Weiss, author of WineWise, who comes out from the Culinary Institute of America in New York. 

This year resident chef Brian Streeter hosted a seminar on wine and bean pairings. I'd asked Michael Weiss about this years ago as a joke, but he without hesitation he tasted one of the beans and said "Pinot Grigio." I learned that these guys take their wine very seriously. 

(Michael Weiss and Brian Streeter)

Now Brian's cuisine is one of my favorites and if I didn't think it would make you roll your eyes, I'd tell you how I think he understands "wine country" cooking better than almost anyone, almost defining the genre. So of course I was flattered and thrilled that he'd be cooking Rancho Gordo beans to show off the Cakebread wine.

Sauvignon Blanc with Ablubia Criollo beans (with manila clams, preserved lemon, arugula and fresh herbs):

Chardonnay with Mayacoba beans (bean puree on bruschetta with sauté of corn and gypsy peppers):

*Pinot Noir with Tepary beans (with gourmet mushrooms in a roasted tomato broth):

Cabernet with Yellow Indian Women beans (fritters like middle eastern falafel with eggplant dip and tahini):

Zinfandel with Ayocote Morado beans (in broth with Fatted Calf Chorizo):

 

What I particularly like about this (and all of the American Harvest Workshop) is that despite being a wee bit of a "know-it-all" when it comes to beans, I get to see what others come up with, without the "benefit" of my interference. I think of the beans as my kids and I want to make sure they go to good homes. Working with talented chefs like Brian assures me that I need to just relax a bit.

Harvesting Beans

It's all coming down to the harvest. You plan, you plant, you pray. And now the moment of truth.

Things are looking very good.

This afternoon we harvested a new bean, Hutterite Soup. It's a pale yellow and supposedly has a very thin skin making it ideal for soups and chowder. The plant responded well to California.

The harvester is somewhat of a Rube Goldberg-type machine. The machine rolls over aisles of podded beans and after some rough massaging, beans come out almost clean. The pods are ejected out the back but before they make their way down, they're cut up by a circular blade that helps them to decompose, making them a sort of green manure.

There are some dirt clods and debris but most of the cleaning is actually done here in the field.

The whole operation is very loud and the machinery shakes like the '06 quake, but the result is glorious beans!

After we finished this field, we wondered over to another and I want to show you your future:

This photo is me in the fields holding a huge mound of, sit down, Good Mother Stallard, everyone's favorite bean.

I'm sorry to say the harvest won't be anywhere near enough to last the year. but it's a start!

Meditteranean Clay Pot Cooking Follow Up

I started with the fish tagine.

The dish is very slow cooked and when finished, browned under the broiler. Reduced sauce is added and the eater hits "high C" after a biteful.

The tagine is from tagines.com.

Popcorn and Chick Peas

I can officially announce that we have garbanzos and popcorn back in stock. The popcorn will last a good long while but we grow a very limited amount of garbanzos because they aren't a new world product and we grow them for me because I want them and the commercially available dried ones stink in California (and I assume beyond our fair state). In other words, get them while you can.

Paula Wolfert's Mediterranean Clay Pot Cooking

I can't think of a book I've anticipated more. Paula Wolfert has inspired more of us than she knows with her seminal books like Couscous and Other Good Food from Morocco and The Cooking of Southwest France. It's because of her that I became a clay pot freak, now never coming through customs without something clay and heavy with me. 

(My "fish tagine", one of three tagines from tagines.com, ready, willing and able for Ms Wolfert's new book)

Her new book is Mediterranean Clay Pot Cooking: Traditional and Modern Recipes to Savor and Share and I'm like a kid on Christmas morning. All of the recipes look great, some are a little challenging and all of them are bound to make you a better cook. As usual, her recipes are authentic and uncompromising. I am smitten. And flattered that she mentions Rancho Gordo a few times!

Diana Kennedy: A Vintage Look Back

I have a paperback version of Diana Kennedy's Mexican Regional Cooking, which was first released as Recipes from the Regional Cooks of Mexico. I believe the best of the book was incorporated into The Essential Cuisines of Mexico. What I like most about the book is the author's photograph.

She's been a hero of mine for years and it's sweet to see this 1978-era photograph.

The Bon Appetit Awards in New York

As I mentioned earlier, I was lucky enough top be a recipient of an award from the seminal Bob Appetit magazine. Rancho Gordo was one of the "Hot 10" for 2009. I'll be honest, when the letter arrived on my desk, I thought it was a subscription renewal notice and it sat there unopened for almost a week. I've saved the letter because it's stained with coffee that flew out of my mouth as I read that I was to come to New York as a guest of the magazine and receive the award.

Now, I know I've been very lucky with all the press we get and I know not to take myself too seriously but this was one of "those" moments. How often in life do we work hard and then are recognized for what we do? I used to joke that "pluck makes luck" but maybe it's really true.

Bon Appetit went to every effort to make us feel like celebrities. Private cars to and from the airport and the big party, statuettes, a fabulous dinner and a great room at the Ace hotel were all part of their thoughtfulness. But really, the greatest highlight was meeting the other "Hot 10". I've already sent emails back and forth with many of them.

After dinner the first night in New York, I turned to my literary agent, Kitty, and siad, "I could live here!" but we were in New York for only four days and each day was jam-packed and by my last night, I couldn't wait to get home. I met with all the major retailers and a few of the restaurants we sell. I missed most everyone else and virtually all of my friends.

At the actual ceremony, I was pretty much a mess when I got up to accept the award. What do you say to this group? Ted Allen was helpful in making we novices comfortable but it was still pretty nerve wracking. 

At one point I found myself joking around with Daniel Boulud and Jose Andrés and my mind raced back to one of many rainy mornings before dawn as I made my way out to the farmers market. I remember cursing the rain and tripping in the dark towards my truck, imagining my friends and family all warm in bed. And feeling very sorry for myself. Naturally the market was dead and no one had the time or interest in heirloom beans until one of my regular customers came and declared, "I only came in this rain because I knew you'd be here." It reminded me of why I was doing what I was doing and why I should shut up and suffer a little rain if it meant someone was doing the same for me. There were many days like this and the payoff has been customers who care about what we're doing and are personally involved in Rancho Gordo and years down the road, I'd be at a swank New York party sipping champagne with Daniel Boulud and Jose Andrés. 

Yes. Pluck makes luck!

Runner Beans Times Three

I made a huge pot of runner beans.

First things first, a bowl with some cilantro and imported cotija cheese. 

Next meal, I added some nopales, chorizo and requeson (with epazote and onions):

And then for breakfast, two fresh eggs over the beans:

Fun with a Barbecue

It may surprise you to know that I have very little experience with grilling or barbecues. If I've been the host, trying to cook with live coals seems at odds with making the rest of the dinner and it's too stressful. But there is nothing like it.

Dipping my toe into the waters, I bought this nice little cast-iron grill, which is small but a major step up from a hibachi. It's very easy to use and I am a little smitten already. 

The tamal wrappers are of course soaked corn husks and those are filled with fish and salsa. One was a corn salsa and the other, much more satisfying, was a tomato chipotle salsa.

The beans in the clay pot were just reheating but I imagine if you were inspired, they could have cooked from the beginning on the fire.

Finally, the coals were still going strong so I added some corn.

It was a swell dinner.

Media Merry-Go-Round

1. In case you missed it, there's a very nice piece on Rancho Gordo in the month's Culinaria Mexicana. They have no archives so you need to see this before the end of the month. I've loved this site from the their inception so it's particularly sweet for me to be included. 

(Photo by Ruth Alegria. In the Culinaria Mexicana studios.)

2. The great Emeril LaGasse was here in the Napa valley filming his Emeril Green show. The air date for this Planet Green channel show has been confirmed as November 2nd.

The Hunger Challenge

For the second year in a row, I've failed! Last year I was just an airhead and this year I had to fly to New York and participate in the opposite of the Hunger Challenge. It was four debauched days of rich, reduced sauces and expensive wines.

The challenge involves living on $4 for food. That's the average amount a Californian on food stamps has to spend on a day's meals. The point is of course to put yourself in another man's (or woman's) shoes and the point is it's darn near impossible. You're encouraged to try it for a week or even a day. It's not going to be pretty.

My idea was to make beans as even Rancho Gordo beans are about 50 cents a serving. And buy a sack of masa harina for corn tortillas. I also thought it would be interesting to forage. This time of year you can find neighbors with fig trees, some wild greens (although the very good miners lettuce is long gone), cactus paddles and maybe even some prickly pears. I'm not clever enough to hunt for mushrooms but I do think I spied some stinging nettles on our property and I know where to find some wild epazote down by the railroad tracks to flavor the beans. I probably can do it but it would still take my upper middle class free time and someone who is limited to $4 a day might say that's a luxury they don't have. 

Whatever level you participate, even if it's just thinking seriously about modern Americans being hungry, I think it's great.

The Hunger Challenge.