Bacon Green Chile Cheeseburgers

I have been working on making the perfect burger for months now. There has to be a suitable balance between toppings and meat. The patty has to be thin enough to bite into, but thick enough to be a mouthful. The outside has to be browned, but the inside needs to be juicy and not overcooked. Despite the fact that I can make a mean salmon with beurre blanc and that my Caesar salad is out of this world, burgers are still a challenge for me.

For my bacon green chile cheeseburger, I chopped the green chile into the patty itself. I have found that this helps keep the flavor evenly throughout.  I also mixed a small amount of Cholula, kosher salt, and pepper. Delicious! For once I cooked it perfectly, but I was somewhat lacking in condiments. In the end the burger was excellent, but I will have to do some more planning before I make this the next time. 

Green Chile Tempura Trial 1.0

This past weekend I continued my green chile adventures and made green chile tempura and arroz verde. There is an amazing sushi restaurant in Santa Fe called Shohko Café which I highly recommend to any visitors of the city. My green chile tempura is not nearly as impressive as theirs, and for that reason I will not be sharing the recipe.  I still have one fresh green chile left and I might use it to perfect this recipe.  The key to amazing tempura is a light and fluffy batter and mine left a lot to be desired. Up next is bacon green chile cheeseburgers! 

Chiles Rellenos

In my opinion chile rellenos exemplify New Mexican cuisine. In fact, if they had pork in them, they would contain New Mexico’s four favorite ingredients—the other three being chile, cheese, and cilantro. Perhaps I should start experimenting with a bacon chile relleno…

This recipe was adapted from one taught to me by the amazing Chef Michelle Roetzer at Santa Fe Community College. She teaches classes for tourists and does food tours at the Santa Fe School of Cooking, which I highly recommend, for anyone who visits the Land of Enchantment.

Chiles Rellenos

4 New Mexico green chiles (Anaheim or poblano chiles will work as well)

4 oz jack cheese, grated

2  scallions, chopped

½ bunch cilantro, chopped

½ cup flour

3 eggs

¼ cup 7-up or Sprite

Cayenne

Garlic powder

Salt

Pepper

Roast chiles and place in sealed ziplock bag until cool. Peel carefully and use a paring knife to cut a one-inch slice toward the top of the chile. Gently remove the seeds and set chiles aside.

Combine the grated cheese, scallions, cilantro and a pinch of cayenne, salt, and pepper. Form into marble sized cheese balls.

Carefully place 3 cheese balls in each of the chiles without overfilling them or causing rips. Set stuffed chiles in the freezer until ready to batter.

Make a seasoned flour with ¼ of the flour and pinches of salt, pepper, cayenne,  and garlic powder.

Separate the egg whites and yolks into two bowls. Whisk egg whites until stiff peaks form.  Add 7-up and remaining ¼ cup of flour to egg yolks and mix well.

Heat 1 inch of oil in pan. Lightly coat stuffed chiles in seasoned flour and then dip in batter before frying. Fry with the slit up and spoon oil over the top of the chile before flipping. Repeat with remaining chiles and place on paper towels to remove grease. Serve with arroz verde and enjoy!

Chile, Chile, Chile!

Growing up in New Mexico meant that I had an endless supply of green chile and ate it with almost anything. Since moving to the Pacific Northwest I have had to somewhat change my New Mexican diet. I have been hoarding chile like treasure and I currently have two jars and one pound of frozen taking up space. Despite this stockpile I have really been missing the late summer smell of freshly roasted green chiles. Luckily Whole Foods flew in to my rescue! Not only are they currently selling fresh Hatch green chile, but they are roasting it in their parking lot. I am now the lucky possessor of fresh chile and some extra hot roasted for freezing. Tomorrow I will making a batch of chile rellenos and will share the recipe, but for tonight, here is a list of my top 5 green chile dishes. Thanks to my bountiful harvest, I will be able to do recipe based posts on each of these meals in the next few weeks.

Chile Rellenos

Green Chile Bacon Cheeseburgers

Green Chile Stew

Bacon Chile Breakfast Burrito

Green chile tempura

Feliz Cumpleaños Nuevo México

On a recent Friday while I was still sick (pretty sure it was the plague), New Mexico celebrated its 100^th birthday. I had originally planned to track down a Mexican grocery store and make tamales and biscochitos. In the end I honestly can’t remember how I spent the day, but I think it involved drinking ten cups of tea and copious amounts of sleep. Now I am finally feeling better and felt like giving New Mexico a belated birthday party. After scouring the internet for the best biscochitos recipe, I chose one from a true New Mexican blog, Gabriela's Kitchen, and got started. What my cough syrup addled brain failed to realize was that when you combine one pound of lard with six cups of flour, you are making a LOT of cookies. Hours of rolling and cutting later and I have two huge plates of cookies. My best guess is that I made over 150 cookies today. They are flaky, sweet, and oh so delicious, and gave me an excuse to share the love with my friends. Happy birthday New Mexico!

Gabriela's Kitchen Biscochitos

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups lard (1 pound box)
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 eggs
3 teaspoons anise seed
6 cups flour
3 teaspoons baking powder 
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup sweet white wine (plus 1/4 extra if needed)
1/2 cup sugar + 1 Tablespoon cinnamon

• Cream together the lard and 1 1/2 cups sugar. In a separate bowl beat the eggs and anise, add to the lard/sugar mixture. Mix well.
• In a separate bowl sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. Add this dry mixture to the wet mixture. Knead well with your hands until dough sticks together, it should be slightly sticky but able to form a firm dough ball. If the dough is too dry add more wine a teaspoon at a time, if it is too sticky add more flour a teaspoon at a time.
• Divide the dough into three large balls and wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate overnight so the dough becomes firm and manegable.
• The next day preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Roll out the dough with a liberally floured rolling pin on a liberally floured surface 1/8 inch thick. Cut into desired shapes. Dip one side of each cookie into cinnamon-sugar mixture and place on cookie sheet sugar side up. To ensure all cookies bake evenly, bake each shape cookie in batches of alike shapes and sizes. Bake for 10-15 minutes until the bottom of the cookies are brown and the tops are golden.
• Remove from oven, and immediately dip in cinnamon-sugar again, dipping them while they are warm is key to getting the cinnamon sugar to stick. Store in a cool-dry place or freeze for up to six months.

Home for the Holidays

There is something eternal about the holiday season. New traditions and old come together without conflict. Every day there are delicious smells in the air along with an indescribable excitement. Some families may roast an annual turkey or decorate the tree with tinsel and golden balls. In my family we eat macaroni and cheese, green chile stew, and spicy caramelized bacon. Our family tree is a hodgepodge of ornaments from around the world, childhood arts and crafts, and antique plastic apples. The New Mexican idea of “decoration” is paper bags with sand and a lit candle in the front yard. Home is where you feel loved, but seeing those farolitos truly helps.

This was a difficult year for me. I moved to a new country, began an education in a new career, left behind many friends and a comfortable job, and I did it all without any certainty about the future. The holidays were all a bit disastrous since I had to learn to celebrate a different Thanksgiving and live without snow or ice on Christmas, but I am extremely lucky to have an amazing family who has stood by me as I try to create a new career for myself out of nothing. Problems are more difficult to bear when one is alone and it took true effort for me to share my problems with my family. In the end though, it was a happy Christmas and a nice vacation away from my life in Vancouver. I know that there is always love and support coming towards me from Salt Spring Island.

Hartwell Family Green Chile Stew
Ingredients:
2 cups chopped roasted New Mexico chiles - skins and seeds removed (roasted anaheims or poblanos can give similar flavor)
1 lbs cubed pork shoulder (ask butcher to cube it (1 inch/small cubes) and to give you the bone from the shoulder
3 Tbsp masa flour (or all purpose if masa cannot be found)
2 Tbsp vegetable oil
1 large yellow onion (chopped)
2 Tbsp butter
32 oz chicken stock
3-4 Yukon Gold potatoes (small cubes)
4-5 cloves of garlic (chopped)
2 Tbsp oregano (chopped)
1 Tbsp thyme (chopped)
1 tsp ground cumin
1/4 cup hominy/posole (optional)
Salt/Pepper

Method:

• Dredge pork cubes in masa flour

• Brown pork in oil in large pot - set aside

• Add butter to same pan, sweat onion until translucent, add garlic and lightly saute

• Add 1 tsp of masa and a small amount of chicken stock to browned bottom of pot - as stock warms, scrape browned bits off of the pan to create a roux. Add remaining stock to pot

• Add all remaining ingredients to same pan except green chiles. Bring to slow boil, then cover, reduce to simmer for about 30 minutes. Add green chile and cook at simmer until pork and hominy are tender (about 1 hour).

• Add salt/pepper to taste