Thursday, August 16, 2012

It's yum-time!


Hatching up new flavors

I like to play with my food. Or your food.  Doesn’t really matter to me. Lately, we’re playing around a lot. We’re not going too far from home but stepping out a little bit.

Went to Beaumont a while back and had not one but two people come ask me about an Italian foods operation from Houston that is no longer in existence. Specifically, they wanted jalapeno lasagne. We didn’t make it. BUT NOW WE DO! From those two requests came our limited edition Roasted Garlic & Jalapeno Lasagne. I’ve got to tell you, this one might seem odd but I think it’s got staying power, especially once football season and cooler weather roll in and people are looking for filling, tasty, healthy food.

Because I run around in circles a lot, I completely rely on my amazing mom to be the wizard behind the curtain when it comes to ways to show off our latest creations. This was no exception. We had the lasagne hanging to dry and I told her about it. In less than 30 minutes, she came back with the recipe I’m posting today. I trust my mom more than anyone else in the whole, entire world.  So, when she gives me a recipe to try, you can bet two things as sure things: 1) I WILL try it, and 2) it WILL be good! This is no exception. I made the test batch here in the shop and fed it to the pasta posse. Granted, they like to eat, they love pasta and it was being served to them FREE by their BOSS, but they still ate every bite. They didn’t even ASK if they could have seconds. They polished it off (and Sean didn’t get any leftovers for dinner—so much for my plans of not having to cook that night. Dagnabbit!)

The jalapeno lasagne and linguine have a bit of a kick right now. Most of the time, I’ll put the heat at the middle of the scale, with our Roasted Habanero being at the top of the list, followed by Zesty Cajun and Smoky & Spicy Chipotle. But the intense heat and drought have brought us peppers that are noticeably hotter than those we got earlier in the season.

The extra heat there and the influx of Hatch MILD Green Chiles combined in my little brain to foster the love of our most recent creation. So, as of today, we have Hatch Green Chile Linguine.  This one is MILD, MILD, MILD. It also can carry the Hatch name because we used only real Hatch chiles from the Hatch Valley in New Mexico. (We’re still calling it Gourmet TEXAS Pasta!) I’m such a food nerd that I actually contacted folks IN Hatch to make sure it was OK to use the name. A friendly exchange of emails with Preston at Berridge Farms assured me we were on the right track, so Hatch is right there on the label. We’ll only have this one while it lasts because Hatch chiles are a limited-time thing. While they’re note around, we’ll keep playing with regular chiles to improve on what we’ve started (always looking to be better).
For info on Hatch Chiles from Berridge, go to hatchnmgreenchile.com/
The lasagne recipe is flexible, so have fun. Go play with your food!
Jalapeno Lasagne

Ingredients:
1 - 12 oz package Roasted Garlic & Jalapeno Lasagne, cooked according to package       directions
 1 LB chorizo, browned and drained WELL
 1 14 oz can crushed tomatoes
 2 blocks cream cheese, softened
 2 eggs, beaten
 2 pounds  shredded "Mexican" 3-cheese blend

ALTERNATE: If you can find it, use Kraft Cooking Crème (sort of a smooshy cream cheese) in Original flavor in place of the cream cheese/egg combination
Directions:   
Combine chorizo and tomatoes. (Just stir them in the skillet you cooked the chorizo in)

Stir eggs into cream cheese until smooth.

 Place a thin layer of meat mix in bottom of pan. Add a layer of noodles. Top with small dollops of cream cheese.  Then add a layer of shredded cheese.

 Repeat, ending with a layer of sauce topped with grated cheese. Add on a little asiago for a twist, if you'd like.

   Cover with foil. Bake at 375 for 25-30 minutes, until bubbly. Remove foil and cook another few minutes ‘til lightly browned. Rest 15-20 minutes before serving.

Until next time: Enjoy!

Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Julia vs well, basically, everyone else




            I LOVE food. You probably guessed that. Love to make it, play with it and sometimes remember to eat it. I also LOVE to read. Not surprisingly, reading about food ranks as one of the greatest pleasures I have in the zoobie-crazy days that define my life. I read Diane Mott Davidson mystery novels, cookbooks of all kinds, foodie magazines. heck, I even have a book titled “How to be a Foodie” as if I might not be heading into my 5th decade of foodie-ness! Lately, I’ve had an epiphany of sorts brought on by reading works by and about Julia Child and books by Michael Pollan and others in that realm.
            Of course, I read “Julie & Julia,” and watched the movie more times than we watched Ratatouille! I’ve read Julia’s autobiography and am thoroughly enjoying her memoir “My Life in France” right now. Reading these works, I feel the joy of cooking. Not in the Rombauer style but with Julia’s voice ringing in my ears and the thought that she really thought we all could do this, and she was right! We CAN make wonderful food for ourselves and our families and those we turn into family through sheer love and willpower. Butter is not a demon and life’s too short for anything less than food that feeds body AND soul.
            I am happy when I read these works.
            At other times, I am reading books such as “Food Rules” and “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” by Michael Pollan. These books do not make me feel happy. They are important, to be sure, because they condense vast landscapes into digestible snapshots about how the food we eat gets to us. But they do not bring joy.  Perhaps there is something to the bliss of ignorance.
            Those who know me well will smile and nod as I acknowledge the truth that I am a person of extremes. I’m not known for being a middle-of-the-road kind of thinker.  So, I have this challenge: How to bring together the joy of Julia and the thought that my choices of food affect not only me but YOU?
            Happily, I have our farmer’s markets every week!  That means I can eat well, widely and wisely.  Whew!
            I think this week, we’ll enjoy the pork chops Sean picked up at our newest “regular” market, the Farmers’ Market at the Rim in San Antonio.  They look so lean, I plan to cook them in a combination of veggies I picked up from some of the other markets around, including the New Braunfels Farm to Market and the still-growing Pflugerville market on Tuesday. When I’m done, the vegetables and whatever sauce develops will go on top of Roasted Red Bell Pepper Linguine.  Oooh... maybe I should make extra veggies and get a head-start on an amazing vegetarian lasagna using the Roasted Red Bell Pepper Lasagne staring me in the face.   
            So, what’s cooking in YOUR kitchen?