AYWS: A year with Sally Fallon, author of Nourishing Traditions
Today felt more like Cinco De Mayo than yesterday. The sun was warm this afternoon and people were out biking and gardening and taking leisurely strolls. Yesterday was sort of a soggy gray day. I’ve been craving some good mexican food, and perhaps it’s all the chili peppers and cumin in the air as people have been celebrating the 5th of May. I actually dont remember what Cinco De Mayo is. Perhaps I should google that.
Regardless! Them Latins know how to cook good grub! When you do it with nourishing ingredients, slow cook it and avoid the prepackaged, canned junk, it makes an incredibly nutrient dense meal.
I actually started making this meal 2 weeks ago. I roasted a chicken and picked every morsel of meat off of it. I’m not even kidding. I picked and picked, and then I boiled down the carcass and made 1 GALLON of chicken stock and then I picked even MORE meat off the bones, until the bones were clean! My determination to get every last bit of goodness might have had something to do with the price of this pasture raised, beyond-organic local chicken. Do you want to know how much I paid for a 5lb chicken? Are you sure you want to know?
$30.
I’ll just let that sink in for a second.
To justify it, so far we have had 4 meals and counting from that chicken. More on that in another post.
Continuing on with my latin culinary experience.
This meal consisted of
Basic Black Beans, Page 496
Mexican Rice, Page 470
Red Enchilada sauce, Page 156
Roasted chicken with onions and green chilies (my own recipe)
First,
~The Black Beans
So 2 weeks ago I made homemade chicken broth. 2 days ago I began soaking black beans in water and whey.
Whey? Like curds and Whey?
Yes. I will give you the curds and Whey low down tomorrow.
Here’s a picture of what REAL whey looks like. Not like whey protein drinks.
Remember a few posts back when I was talking about phytic acid and enzyme inhibitors in grains and legumes? That’s why you soak beans. You know that little song, beans beans the magical fruit, the more you the more you….
Beans that aren’t properly soaked and cooked aren’t properly digested. Resulting in barking spiders.
What? You don’t say that in your house? We do.
Phtttthhhtt! OH! Did you hear that?! There’s a barking spider in the house!
And now you have been completely dis-enchanted by my life.
OHhhhh lordy… where did I trail off???
Beans.
Soak the beans in water and a TBS of raw milk whey. I left mine to soak for 48 hours, rinsing and draining them a total of about 5 times. I’ve soaked them for less time and trust me, they take WAAAAAY too long to cook.
So after they soak, you cook them.
Just barely cover them with water, bring to a boil and then skim the top of the impurities that rise. You can see the white foam in this picture, which is what you want to skim off and throw away.
Lower the heat to a simmer add a few mashed cloves of garlic and let simmer for several hours. I think I let mine simmer for 4 hours, but it can take up to 8, especially if you don’t soak them long enough. You could make this a few days ahead or in the morning.
These were some good black beans, and my tummy is nice and quiet, no barking spiders to be found!
~Mexican Rice,
I skipped quite a few steps here. To begin with I used short grain brown rice, cause I like it better and it cooks up faster. I didn’t add the onion, annatto seeds, or the oregano, and I chose to use filtered water instead of the chicken stock it calls for. The NT recipe also calls for gelatin and chopped green olives, but I skipped those too.
Here’s what I did do and it was still excellent rice!
In my Le Creuset casserole dish, I warmed 3 TBs of butter with 2 tsp of ground cumin and a tsp or so of turmeric for it’s lovely yellow color and deep flavor, on the stove top until the cumin and turmeric were well assimilated. I then added 2 cups of short grain brown rice and stirred it until the rice had soaked up all the butter and was beginning to crackle a bit. I then added 3 cups of filtered water with a few red pepper flakes, and 2 cloves of garlic, covered and allowed to cook on the lowest setting for about 45 minutes.
~Red Enchilada Sauce
This sauce is by far better than any canned version you’re going to find. It just tastes…… rich and hearty and awesome.
Sorry bout the fuzzy images....
Start by sauteing 1 diced onion in a hefty amount of olive oil. Approximately 1/4 cups. Add cumin and stir until the cumin is soaked in well and the onion are translucent. Add 2 cups of chicken stock (I used mine from the $30 chicken) and dried, cleaned New Mexican chilies. If you don’t know what ‘cleaned’ means, it means remove the stem and clean out the seeds and don’t touch your face cause it burns like fire.
Bring this all to a boil, reduce heat and simmer. Whisk in 2-3 cloves of garlic, 2 small cans of tomatoe paste, 1 TBS red wine vinegar and some sea salt.
Cover and allow to simmer for 45 minutes on low. After it cools, blend it all up! I love my immersion blender for stuff like this.
~Chicken with green chilies
This is sort of where I really veered off to do my own thing. I loosely followed the chicken taco recipe in the NT for this, but it took a detour.
Simmer 1 medium onion and 2 tsp cumin (this dish has lotsa cumin) until translucent. Add shredded chicken, diced green chilies and 2 cups of the red enchilada sauce from the previous recipe. Allow to warm and for the chicken to soften.
After everything was prepared, I piled the ingredients on a whole wheat tortilla (probably should have gone with a sprouted one…) and topped it with Montery Jack Cheese, Fresh salsa, Creme Fraische, Avocado and cilantro.
And to really celebrate my Seis De Mayo I made a Strawberry Mojito.
I know, how very un-Sally of me. It was really good. I’ve included the recipe, although I dont know the exact measurements
Muddle fresh mint (mine was straight outta my garden) with sugar (I used coconut sugar crystals) and a few fresh strawberries. Add 1 oz spiced rum, 3 oz of mojito mix ( or you could just do a squeeze of lime) and top off with seltzer water.
