2 fresh Anaheim peppers, seeded
2 California chiles, stemmed and seeded
1 small hot chile, like árbol, stemmed and seeded
1 chipotle chile, not from a can if you can help it, but it or powder will do, stemmed and seeded
3 ancho chiles, stemmed and seeded
2 quarts chicken broth, or homemade beef broth
2 1/2 – 3 pounds chuck roast, trimmed, fat reserved, and cut into 2 inch chunks
1-2 tablespoons tallow or bacon grease
1 large onion, finely diced
4 – 5 garlic cloves, pressed or minced
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, preferably Mexican
1 tablespoon cumin
1/4 teaspoon allspice
2 teaspoons oregano, preferably Mexican
salt and freshly ground pepper

1. In a medium saucepan, combine chiles and enough broth to cover. Bring to a boil and simmer for about 15 minutes, until the chiles are tender. Transfer to a blender and purée until smooth.

optional: Meanwhile, heat a large Dutch over over medium low heat. Add the reserved fat from the beef to the Dutch oven. Render as much fat as you can be bothered to do.

2. Heat the Dutch oven with the rendered beef fat, or a couple tablespoons of another fat, over high heat and add half of the beef chunks. Cook for several minutes then flip and brown the other side. Scoop out and place in a bowl, and repeat with the other half.

3. Lower heat to medium (remove the pot and let cool a bit if you have a blasted electric stove) and add onions. Sauté for about 2-3 minutes. Add garlic, spices, and oregano, and sauté for another minute.

4. Dump meat and any accumulated juices, chile purée, and remaining broth in the pot. Stir to combine.

5. You can either simmer on the stove top or place in at 225 degree oven, lid slightly ajar, for 2 1/2 – 3 hours. I cooked it in the oven. So easy.

Season pot to taste with salt and freshly ground pepper, adjust spices if you want. Serve with chopped onions, cilantro, avocado, pepitas, scallions, or whatever! You will love me. And even more if you have leftovers the next day.

oven-crisped yuca fries with lime

1 big yuca root, like 2 lbs., but whatever you can find
lard or bacon grease
sea salt
fresh lime juice

1. Peel your yuca root with a vegetable peeler. There’s the outer brown skin, then a purple-y layer underneath. Get down to the white. Cut into 1/2 inch thick, several inches long fries, cutting around any brown spots or anything gross. Again, I have no idea how long my root was sitting in that grocery store…

2. Preheat your oven to 475 degrees. Put your fries in a pot of salted, cold water to cover, bring to a boil and boil for about 12 minutes, until they’re tender when pierced with a fork.

3. Drain the yuca, put back in the pot and mix around several tablespoons of pig fat until they appear to be very nicely coated with fat. You can add more, no one’s watching.

4. Place yuca in a single layer on a baking sheet and bake for about 15 minutes. Flip them over and bake for about another 12 – 15 minutes until nice and lightly browned.

Squeeze copious amounts of lime juice over the fries and sprinkle coarse sea salt on top. Perfect with fatty, crispy pork. Or anything. By themselves. Don’t eat too many.

salsa
4 kiwis, peeled and chopped
1/4 red onion, finely chopped
1/2 jalapeño, or to taste
1 garlic clove, minced
1/4 cup cilantro, coarsely chopped
fresh lime juice
coarse sea salt and freshly ground pepper

Mix all ingredients together in a bowl. Season with lime juice, salt and pepper to taste. I find it easiest to peel a kiwi by cutting it in half, then using a spoon to scoop out the fruit. That way you also get to scoop out and eat any leftover kiwi in the skin shell.

salmon
1 side of salmon, skin on
2 tablespoons olive oil/fat, divided
2-3 tablespoons green curry paste
coarse salt and freshly ground pepper

1. Using a butter knife, scale the skin by running the knife over it backward. Give the salmon a good rinse afterward.

2. Coat the fish with some olive oil and generously pat on the curry paste. Season to taste with salt (depending on your curry paste – mine is rather salty) and pepper. Cut into fillets.

3. Heat the remaining oil in a large sauté pan over medium heat. When the oil is hot, sear the salmon for about 3-4 minutes per side, depending on the thickness of the fillets you cut. Do this in batches for the most even cooking. Don’t disturb the fish until you’re ready to flip it! You don’t want a stuck on skin mess.

Top the fish with some kiwi salsa and another squeeze of lime! Gorgeous.

meatballs
1/4 cup finely chopped parsley
3 garlic cloves, pressed
zest of 1 lemon
1 teaspoon fennel seeds, roughly crushed
1/2 tablespoon chili powder
1/2 tablespoon paprika
1/2 tablespoon cumin
liberal sea salt and freshly ground pepper
3/4 – 1 lb ground lamb

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
3 teaspoons ras el hanout (I sure hope you’ve gotten/made some and changed your life!)
1/2 tablespoon smoked paprika
28 oz can of whole tomatoes
sea salt and freshly ground pepper
6 eggs
parsley leaves, chopped

1. Mix parsley and spices together, then add ground meat, mix thoroughly. Form into meatballs – I made them mini, about 1 inch in diameter. Just ’cause.

2. Heat oil in a large sauté pan over medium high heat. Add onions and garlic, sauté for about 4-5 minutes, until soft and beginning to brown.

3. Add the meatballs and sauté until there are nice brown spots on them, about 5 minutes.

4. Add ras el hanout and paprika and stir to toast just a little. Pour in the canned tomatoes and juice, crushing the whole tomatoes with your hand. Bring to a low simmer and cook until the sauce is thickened, about 15-20 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

5. Crack in the eggs, spacing evenly. Cover and cook until just set, about 5 minutes. uncover and gently baste the whites with tomato sauce, being careful not to break the yolks.

Using a ladle, carefully spoon out an egg along with a good amount of the tomato sauce and meatballs. Top with parsley and bask in the glory of cutting open that egg.

And please pay me to blog.

cuban pork
adapted from Mad Hungry by Lucinda Scala Quinn

3 limes
10 garlic cloves, peeled
4 tablespoons fresh oregano leaves, or 2 teaspoons dried oregano
4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon coarse salt
3 1/2+ pound pork shoulder (bone or not, whatever you want)

1. Zest the limes, then cut away the peel. Place the lime segments in a blender or food processor along with the zest, garlic, oregano, oil, and salt. Purée until smooth.

2. Place the pork in a roasting pan and score any large swaths of fat. Mine was missing the big fat cap (d’oh) so I just scored in a few places. Rub the purée all over the pork. Cover and refrigerate for 8 – 24 hours. Flip the roast around a few times and redistribute the rub.

3. Preheat oven to 250 degrees. Remove meat from refrigerator 30 minutes before roasting. Add 1 cup of water to the pan and place, fat side up, in the oven. Roast for 6 to 8 hours, basting occasionally and rotating the pan a few times.

4. Heat the oven up to 500 degrees. Cook the pork until the fat is a crispy freaking delicious dark brown, about 10 minutes. Let rest for 15 minutes before pulling away hunks to serve.

Now, on to the dipping sauces…

mojo

8 garlic cloves
1/3 cup fresh orange juice
1/3 cup fresh lime juice (OR a total of 2/3 cup fresh sour orange juice if you can find sour oranges)
1/3 cup olive oil
1 tablespoon fresh oregano, or 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon cumin
coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Purée all ingredients in a blender or food processor. Or, if you’re feeling fancy and rustic, use a mortar and pestle to grind the garlic and salt into a paste, then whisk in the remaining ingredients.

chimichurri

1 cup packed fresh parsley
5 garlic cloves
2 tablespoons fresh oregano leaves, or 1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
2-4 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 teaspoon coarse salt
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes

Purée first 6 ingredients together in a blender or food processor. Suite the vinegar amount to your taste. Stir in red pepper flakes. Done, easy!

There are a million things you could serve this with to make a full meal. Plantains, collards, yuca, oh man I’m getting hungry. Gotta stop.

perfect roast chicken
adapted from Ruhlman’s Twenty

3-4 pound chicken
coarse salt
1 lemon
1 small onion, quartered

1. Take the chicken out of the fridge about 30 minutes to an hour before you plan on roasting it. Rinse it and generously salt the inside and outside. Let it drain on a paper towel-lined plate.

2. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Place the chicken in a cast iron pan, or other roasting pan. Zest the lemon over the top of the chicken (optional, it doesn’t make the chicken look as pretty cooked as it would if you use just salt). Quarter the lemon and stuff it inside, along with the onion pieces.

3. Place the pan in the oven and cook for 1 hour. Check the doneness by cutting into the leg joint – if the juices aren’t clean, chuck back in the oven for another 5 minutes and check again. When done, let rest for 15 minutes before carving.

4. While the chicken is resting, on a plate or rimmed cutting board, you can deglaze the pan and boil it down to make your little sauce.
Now that you’ve perfected the lowly chicken, what are you going to do next with it? Don’t say coat it in garlic powder.

2 medium red beets, trimmed
1 medium chiogga beet, trimmed
2 Cara Cara oranges
1 pomegranate’s arils
1 pear, such as Comice, peeled and sliced into 1/2 inch thick wedges
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
1/2 fennel bulb, very thinly sliced crosswise
1/4 red onion, very thinly sliced on a mandoline (about 1/3 cup)
Extra-virgin olive
Coarse, flaky sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Fresh cilantro leaves

1. Preheat oven to 400°. Wash and scrub beets and wrap individually in foil. Place on a rimmed baking sheet and roast until beets are tender when pierced with a knife, about 1 hour. Let cool enough so you can rub the skin off without dying.

2. Meanwhile, peel the oranges and remove all the white pith. With one orange, slice down the outside to remove the membranes, then slice the orange crosswise into 1/4 inch rounds. Place the rounds in a medium bowl. With the other orange, separate it into segments and peel off the membranes. Put membrane-less segments into the bowl and squeeze the membranes into the bowl to save any juice. Discard membranes.

3. Put the pomegranate arils and the sliced pear into the bowl and add the lemon and lime juice. Gently toss.

4. Once the beets are cool enough to touch, rub the skins off with your fingers. Slice the chiogga beet and one red beet crosswise into thin rounds. With the other beet, cut into 1/2 inch wedges.

5. Arrange some beets and fruit mixture onto a plate, making sure to get some juices from the bottom of the bowl. Top with some sliced fennel and onion. Drizzle with olive oil and a generous helping of salt and pepper. Top with cilantro leaves.

I ate so much of this it made my pee turn red from the beets. I’m so sorry I wrote that.

avocado salad
1/2 red onion, thinly sliced
3/4 cup red wine vinegar
2 ripe avocados, sliced and scooped out
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
sea salt and pepper

1. In a small bowl, marinate the red onions in the vinegar for at least 30 minutes.

2. In a larger bowl, place avocados, 1 tablespoon of the marinating vinegar, olive oil, and the drained onions. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and gently toss to mix. Alternatively, if you don’t want to bash the avocado, you can place the sliced avocados on a serving plate and top with the reserved tablespoon of vinegar, olive oil, the drained onions, and salt and pepper.

plátanos maduros
2 ripe plantains
coconut oil or bacon grease
fresh lime juice
coarse sea salt

1. To peel the plantains, it’s easiest to cut the ends off and then using a sharp knife, make two opposing vertical cuts and peel off the peel. There may be spots that stick, so just slice them off.

2. Use enough oil to be about a 1/4 inch deep in a heavy sauté pan. Heat the oil over medium high heat. Cut the plantains in 1 inch chunks and add them to the pan. Cook them about 3 minutes per side, until they are golden brown.

These sides are a delicious little meal or perfect sides for some pulled pork, or hey some leftover Christmas ham!

Oh look, it’s my Linzer sandwich cookies. I hate you.

1 tablespoon butter, plus more for greasing
2 medium yellow onions, chopped
2 garlic cloves, pressed or minced
1 tablespoon curry powder
1 teaspoon ground turmeric
2 lbs ground lamb or beef, or a mixture of the two
1/4 cup whole milk
zest and juice of 1/2 lemon
1 egg
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
3 ounces dried apricots, chopped
1 Granny Smith apple peeled, cored, and chopped
1/4 cup golden raisins
1 1/2 ounces chopped or slivered roasted almonds
6 lemon, orange, or bay leaves (if you can’t find fresh, use dried bay leaves)

topping
1 cup whole milk
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon salt

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Butter a 9×13 casserole.

2. Heat butter and oil in a medium saucepan and sauté until the onion is translucent. Stir in the curry powder and turmeric, and cook briefly until fragrant. Remove the pot from heat and mix in the ground meat.

3. In a small bowl, mix together milk, lemon zest and juice, egg, salt, pepper, apricots, apple, golden raisins, and almonds. Add to the meat mixture and and mix in.

4. Add contents of the saucepan into your prepared casserole. Roll up the leaves, or not, if they’re dried bay leaves, and bury them at regular intervals. Cover tightly with foil and bake for 1 1/4 hours.

5. Increase heat to 400 degrees. Thoroughly whisk together the topping milk, eggs, and salt, and pour over the casserole. Bake uncovered for 15 more minutes until the custard is cooked and lightly browned.

If you want to serve this with the chutney, here is the recipe. It’s called blatjang.

2 ounces dried apricots, chopped
2 ounces golden raisins
3 cups wine or cider vinegar
1 large onion, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, pressed
1/4 pound honey
1 1/2 ounces chopped almonds
1/2 tablespoon salt
2 1/4 teaspoons ground ginger
1/2 tablespoons ground coriander
1/2 tablespoons mustard seeds
1/2 teaspoons chili powder

Combine all ingredients in a saucepan and heat, over medium heat, until liquid is reduced to about 1/3. Stir frequently toward the end.

The recipe I got this from was more involved – calling for overnight soaking of the fruit, etc. I think the easy way is probably just fine. I’m sorry if I’m greatly wrong… I mean, I don’t really know what I would have created, had I not made candy.

2 tablespoons butter
1 1/2 pounds brussels sprouts, ends trimmed, and halved (don’t you dare throw away the leaves that fall off when you cut them – they are the best)
3/4 cup chicken broth
2 shallots, thinly sliced
1 tablespoon chopped fresh marjoram, or dried
salt and freshly ground pepper
optional: 1 tablespoon butter, 1/2 cup pine nuts, 1/3 cup heavy cream

optional step 1. In the skillet you’ll cook your brussels in, heat 1 tablespoon butter over medium heat and add pine nuts. Stir until they’re golden brown, about 3 minutes. Put in a small bowl and set aside.

1. Melt 1 tablespoon butter in large skillet over medium heat. Add your brussels and sauté, stirring occasionally, for about 10 minutes until they are getting nice and brown.

2. Pour in the broth, cover, and simmer until sprouts are almost tender, about 5 minutes.

3. Uncover and simmer until broth evaporates, about 5 minutes. Push aside the sprouts a bit and melt the other tablespoon of butter in the center. Add the shallots and sauté for about 3 minutes.

4. Stir in the marjoram and season with salt and pepper. If your broth is salty, then you probably won’t need any additional.

optional step 4. Pour in the cream along with the marjoram, stir until the brussels are coated, and simmer for about 4 minutes. Mix in half of the pine nuts, and save remaining half to sprinkle on top when they’re in the serving dish.

I hope you like these and aren’t disappointed in them. I’d be pretty embarrassed. And I’d just workout in my corner of the gym, stinkin’ it up all by myself. “Eww that girl stinks like brussels.” “Yeah, and the ones she makes aren’t even that good. Pff.”