7.8.10

weekend plans

as quitting time crept glacially toward me on friday, two things i knew for sure. one, i would be waking up too damn early on a saturday morning to drive to reseda and stand in line at albertson's for my parents. two, i would make ricotta cheese. little did i know, at the time, that the two events would so serendipitously align, eclipse-like, to make breakfast.

i'm sure you're wondering why albertson's so freakin' early...

that's A.M.
it's because the chile pepper farmers in hatch, new mexico can't figure out how to extend the chile pepper season. not their fault really, mother nature calls the shots. apparently, once a year this particular albertson's receives about 400 bushels of chiles and they sell-out in a couple of hours. the BBC designated chile peppers from hatch, "the best in the world." taking the british as an authority on epicurian issues is risky buisiness and about chile peppers, hmmmm. bbc or not, there is definitely a major hype over these little peppers.

it's still dark outside

the line wrapped around albertson's; it looked like a line in front of tower records (remember them?) to by tickets to see Hanna Montana in concert. as you can see people were buying several bags. i sat there in line with my one bag feeling foolish as though they were handing out glasses of water from the fountain of youth and i was opting for coffee. whatever, 30 pounds of chiles is a lot and those googley-eyed pepper purchasers are going to freezer burn their remaining 90 pounds of peppers come april.


my one lonely sack. (insert snickering and whatever jokes you please)



the only choice was x-hot. it took about 5 minutes to grab the chiles and pay for them; it took an hour and a half to get them roasted on-site. i guess i could have roasted them myself on my grill but they do the whole 30 pounds in 5 minutes in a tumbler and they come out perfect.







come on, that's sexy eh? let us move on to the next event i had planned for the weekend, ricotta cheese. in doing a little research on how to make ricotta, i came across a nice explanation and seriously simple recipe at seriouseats.com. the recipe calls for milk which i learned is not, technically speaking, used to make ricotta. ricotta is made from whey while, as it turns out, paneer or queso fresco is made from milk. anybody's light bulb go off like mine did? queso fresco! the long line and early rise would be well worth it for some refried beans topped with homemade queso fresco and a fried egg with freshly roasted hatch pepper. the recipe is so insanely simple that we should all be making cheese weekly and making ricotta with the whey that separates from the curds in the process. recipe in one sentence: combine two cups of milk with 2 tablespoons of distilled white vinegar and 1/4 teaspoon of salt and microwave on high for 3-5 minutes until boiling slightly and instant read thermometer reads about 165 then separate whey from curds in paper towel or cheese cloth lined strainer for 5 minutes up to 24 hours, done. okay, it was a bit of a run-on sentense but you get how simple it is. i tasted a spoonfull right away with a sprinkle of salt and drizzle of olive oil. you will not buy cheese like this that is this tasty!



everyone should try this, it is worth the 5 minute time investment. so the morning culminated in a legitimate breakfast that also took about 5 minutes of my life.


delicate silky curds


the hatch pepper was very good but i don't understand the hype. the flavor is bold and the heat was just right. i'm not sure if it's the scorching atmosphere, the desert soil, or the rio grande water that make these peppers what they are but i enjoyed them. will i stand in line next year? we'll see if the remaining 29.99 pounds of chiles can convince me to do so. i think i'll make a hatch burger next...

5.8.10

Sol y Luna

i guess old guy had the night off. we ordered two orders of the guac tonight and ceviche... and margaritas of course


4.8.10

home burger project

this is the first entry to chronicle the development of, in my mind, the perfect burger. i'll just start by saying i aspire to umami burger quality; if you haven't been, you need to go (try any beef burger other than the namesake umami burger). i ground 1.5 parts top sirloin, 1 part skirt steak, 1 part chuck after cubing, tossing with salt, and chilling for at least an hour (chill your grinder and the catching bowl in the freezer prior to grinding). tomato, bacon, avocado, red onion, and cheddar on a grilled english muffin. one bun with thousand islandish-like dressing and the other with avocado-mayo spread. nothing exotic, focus was on the burger and not overcooking it. the beauty of grinding fresh "to order" is the option of cooking to medium rare without the fear retching out the poison the whole next day.





they were very enjoyable but need to come off the heat a little earlier next time. to my surprise, they were still very juicy despite being quite lean; perhaps, the coarse grinding helped retain moisture... more to come on this topic as the home burger project continues.

3.8.10

empanadas a la rosa linda

a friend from work gave to me a great gift the other day... homemade empanadas. she's from florida originally so, yup, you guessed it, cuban empanadas. i'm going to keep her anonymous at this present time but let's just say you might see her proudly strolling the halls in her leopard print snuggie.


the empanadas where god awful! just joking, they where somewhere between really good and excellent. upon dissection i discovered ground beef, green bell peppers, capers, and raisins. spiced with, what seemed to me, only s&p which is how i would have done it so that the beefy beefiness of the beef shines through. snuggie coworker noted that the puff pastry dough she used retained too much oil during the frying process, i concur. i promised to hunt down a good empanada dough recipe but haven't yet (any of my 4 or 5 followers know of a recipe?). to accompany, i made a little side salad inspired by some recently enjoyed guacamole from Sol y Luna.

a quick summary of my thoughts on the aforementioned restaurant. primary problem, stereotypical over-the-top cheezy mexican restaurant decor. just picture fake vines and cactuses, over-carved and over-lacquered wood everywhere, and mariachi murals then multiply that image by a factor of ten. secondary problem, it's so freakin' loud in there i sometimes forget i'm at dinner and think i'm at a rave until i can't find my glowsticks and snap back to reality. okay, back to the real point; this place has decent food but there is something about their guac! you order it and a happy little old guy pushes his guac cart up to your table and mashes avocado with onion, cilantro, lime juice and salt (chile peppers if you want a little kick) right before your eyes! it's not actually that exciting and i've watched him very closely, nothing special. so then why the f is it so f-in delicious. either the avocados where grown in the garden of eden or old man ads msg or pixie dust or crack super fast blurry-armed matrix style. not sure what happens exactly but i will be back for the guac and a cadillac margarita. the entrees are not great across the board, they're barely good across the board, but there are a few winners like the pork in tomatillo sauce with a perfect mexican cheese and the arroz con pollo is my wife's favorite.

back to the side salad. chopped avocado, cucumber (thanks Pam & Keith), tomato, and sliced shallot. for the dressing i combined greek yogurt, lime zest, lime juice, s&p in a processor and drizzled in some olive oil while processing. i think next time i'll add some grilled corn and roasted bell peppers to the salad... what about some candied orange peel too? hmmmmm.

meanwhile during the prepartation of dinner this was going on.

lazy pup

Welcome to j a y s p u n

welcome to my blog. check in regularly to see what i've been up to. most of these entries will be gastro-centric but don't be surprised to see or read about other random facets of my life...

scruffy puppy
while i'm at it, let me introduce you to bosley. he's just about the most scruffy and wiggly pup you'll ever meet. count on seeing him quite a bit; he's not usually playing pirate, he was feeling pretty creative when the picture was taken