I love reading quarterly issues of Gastronomica, a journal published by UC Berkeley on food and culture. Their motto borrows a phrase from Gertrude Stein, “Nothing is more interesting than that something that you eat,” which I think is quite true, don’t you agree?

sautéed broccolini with garlic and crushed red pepper

Gastronomica’s articles are always exciting. In this last issue, for instance, there was something controversial, ‘Prescribing Pork in Israel;’ another called ‘The Sweetshops of Kolkata;’ one about Piedad Yorba, the first female celebrity chef and proprietress of a famous Mexican restaurant in Los Angeles in the late Nineteenth Century and an intriguing story about broccolini, or baby broccoli.

Baby broccoli is a hybrid vegetable created by the Japanese company Sakata Seed, Inc., the world’s biggest broccoli seeds producer. The idea was to expand sales and generate more profit by developing a new broccoli plant that had tender stalks, sweeter flavor, and was more heat tolerant. The company selected gai lan, or Chinese broccoli, which had the desired features, to cross with “ordinary” broccoli. After more than seven years of hand pollination trial-and-error, broccolini was born!

Naturally, after all that work, the Sakata Company wanted to sell this new-and-improved broccoli at a higher price. Because of its tender, bright green stalks, they initially decided to associate the new plant with asparagus, implying a connection with this ‘nobler’ vegetable. Therefore, they named the thing asparation. But it didn’t catch on. After a complex series of meetings and negotiations, the new name, broccolini, arrived. The rest is history.

There’s a lot more detail in the article, of course. I urge you to get a copy of the magazine if you’re interested. Perhaps you’ll subscribe, too.

Trader Joe’s sells broccolini under the label, Baby Broccoli. I’m not so sure about that name. Eating babies sounds so not cool.

a family affair: broccoli, broccolini and gai lan

Anyway, after reading the article I rushed out immediately for some gai lan, broccoli and broccolini. We cooked them all throughout the week so more to come. Today my ‘asparation’ is to feature broccolini.

sautéed broccolini with garlic and crushed red pepper

1 bunch baby broccoli, broccolini or asparation (they’re interchangeable)
3 cloves garlic, cut into slivers
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
fresh black pepper to taste
2 tbsp water
Kosher salt to taste
crushed red pepper to taste

Add two tablespoons of olive oil, garlic, salt and baby broccoli to a saucepan and sauté on high heat until aromatic. Add water, cover pan and cook for about 7 minutes. Pierce broccolini stems with a fork. If tender then it’s ready, otherwise add another tablespoon of water and continue cooking with the pan covered. Drizzle remaining olive oil over it. Serve as a side dish. Delicious!

Last weekend was Callie’s last spent with us. She’s now back to work in Charlottesville. She and Elizabeth were marvelous guests, and we hope that they’ll return soon.

mustard sauce masala over black cod

I enjoy have guests from out of town every now and then. This way, we can see San Francisco through tourist-eyes and often we’ll do things that we wouldn’t otherwise. I especially liked the evening we took Callie to the top of Twin Peaks for panoramic city views and to contemplate the full moon. It was during that recent heat wave so the sky was perfectly clear and fog-less, and it was balmy! It lasted for about three days: perfect 85-degree weather. Yoohoo! I enjoyed watching the city lights flickering to the horizon while the silvery moonlight reflected in the Bay, and savoring the smells exuded by the wild thyme, rosemary, yarrow and other herbs from the bushes down below. What a magical evening! Everyone seemed to have the same idea, as Twin peaks was mobbed! Lots of tourists speaking a profusion of languages, locals, lovers, and, since we’re talking San Francisco, pot smokers abounded. LOL

Turns out that, like us, Callie likes Indian food! So it only seemed natural to don my apron and mix passions and powders in my Indian-cooking laboratory! (‘course, I’m talking about my tiny kitchen.)

For that Indian feast, I prepared some old favorites as well as this incredible mustard sauce masala over fish. The recipe comes from Lachu Moorjani’s Ajanta: Regional Feasts of India. In the book, he serves it over catfish. I don’t particularly like that, so used it with black cod. Really, this sauce is spectacularly delicious all by itself and could probably be used over most anything: rice, pasta, tempeh, tofu, other kinds of fish or even shellfish, you name it. So this recipe is not about the fish but, rather, the delicious mustard sauce.

mustard sauce masala

3 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp black mustard seeds
2 tbsp nigela seeds
5 cloves garlic, minced
1 large sweet onion, chopped
8 ripe dry farmed early girl tomatoes, skins removed and chopped with their juices
1½ tsp turmeric
¼ tsp cayenne pepper
2 tsp cumin seeds, pan toasted and then ground
2 tsp coriander seeds, pan toasted and then ground
2 tsp yellow mustard seeds, roughly ground
Kosher salt to taste
½ cup of raw cashew nuts or almonds, ground

Heat olive oil in a deep non stick pan. Add black mustard and nigela seeds and allow them to pop, about 30 seconds to one minute. Stir in garlic and sauté for further ½ minute then add onion and cook for about 15 minutes or until soft and translucent. Add chopped tomatoes and cook for another 12 minutes while stirring occasionally. Transfer about ¾ of the sauce to a bowl and using a stick blender process for a few seconds. Return to the pan. Add turmeric, yellow mustard, cayenne pepper, cumin and coriander powders, salt and ground nuts. Simmer for about 15 minutes, stirring every now and then. Remove from heat and keep warm.

To prepare the dish with fish:

Olive oil
2 black cod fillets (about 1½ lbs.)
Kosher salt
fresh ground black pepper.

Place fish on a platter and sprinkle with salt and pepper over both sides. Rub some olive oil on both sides. Add 1 tbsp of olive oil to a pan. Bring temperature to medium high, add fish and cook for about 1 minute on each side.

Ladle some of the mustard sauce over fish fillets, bring temperature to low and cook for a couple more minutes. Serve in a warm platter and add a bit more sauce over the dish before presenting to your awed guests. Garnish with fresh cilantro.

vegetarian paratha or maybe paratha veggie burgers

I absolutely love Indian cuisine and never got around making my own paratha. Paratha is just a pan-fried unleavened flat bread originally from the Punjab region that is popular all over India nowadays. This recipe was adapted from Prerna’s beautiful blog. Her parathas looked so tempting that I had to try them at home. I always have this phobia about making bread even when the dough does not require rising. I’m glad I finally made this one. They are supposed to be flat, but mine turned out kind of thick; sort of like a veggie burger. Scrumptious!

vegetarian paratha

1 bunch of organic spinach rinsed, dried and thinly chiffonaded
1 cup carrots, shredded
3 tbsp nutritional yeast
3 tbsp fat free cottage cheese
1 medium just harvested white onion cut into small cubes
3 small potatoes boiled and roughly mashed
1 clove garlic, mashed
1 inch piece of fresh ginger, grated
1 Serrano pepper cut into thin disks
5 long beans chopped fine, steamed for 3 minutes
1 tsp fennel seeds
1 tsp ajwain seeds
1½ cups flour
1 cup cream of wheat
Fresh black pepper
Kosher salt
Olive oil

vegetarian paratha is rich in wholesome fresh vegetables

the cream of wheat box is sooooo old-fashioned looking!

Mix spinach, carrots, cottage cheese, onion, ginger, garlic, salt, fennel, Serrano and black pepper together. Add dry ingredients and mix until incorporated. No other fluid is required as the vegetables will release liquid.

Grease your hands with a bit of olive oil. Grab enough dough to make a ping-pong size ball in your hands. Flatten the dough into thin discs. Place a bit of oil in a non stick skillet, bring temperature to medium and fry parathas about 6-8 minutes flipping half way through. The parathas will turn a bit brown on the surface. Watch out for hot temperature as it may burn the outside and leave the inside uncooked. It is super fun to make this bread, sort of like cooking pancakes.

Serve as a side with rasam, dal or with tamarind, mint and cilantro salsa. Enjoy them on their own as well. These are good!

vegetarian paratha dough is messy fun

This post comes from our first-time guest blogger, Ernestina C. This mole was simply incredible! Thanks for the great post and we hope you write again soon!

mole rojo classico with shrimp

Ernestina made this mole sauce from scratch over a weekend a few weeks back. She knows that we’re pescetarian at WC headquarters so set aside a jar of the concentrated mole paste for us to try at home before she added chicken broth. From our perspective, this meal was simple and simply divine. All I did to prepare the sauce was to simmer it uncovered in two cups of vegetable stock to reduce it to a thick mole. At the end I adjusted the salt. Ernestina likes hers sweeter so adds canned pineapple before serving. We had this with shrimp sautéed in garlic, olive oil, some dried oregano and a pinch of salt. Wow!

So take it away, E!

I tried scanning the recipe but that turned out even more complicated than making the mole itself; so here it goes.

The recipe is from Rick Bayless’ new book, Fiesta at Rick’s: Fabulous Food for Great Times with Friends, which is great even though some of the recipes are a little over the top–such as instructions on how to dig a pit in the backyard and roast a whole pig–reminds me of my Texas days at my grandparent’s house.

Ernestina's concentrated mole rojo clasico

mole rojo clasico

makes about 3/4 gallon of mole – about 24 servings

10oz (5 medium) tomatillos, husked and rinsed
1 1/2 cups (6 1/2 oz) sesame seeds
1 cup rich tasting pork lard or vegetable oil, plus a little more if necessary (I used grapeseed oil and about 1/2 cup)
12 medium (6 oz) dried mulato chiles, stemmed, seeded, torn into large flat pieces
6 medium (3 oz) dried ancho chiles, stemmed, seeded, torn into large flat pieces
10 medium (3 oz) dried pasilla chiles, stemmed, seeded, torn into large flat pieces
8 garlic cloves peeled
1 cup (4oz) unskinned almonds
1 cup (4oz) raisins (I used currants)
1 tsp cinnamon, preferably freshly ground
½ tsp anise, preferably freshly ground (I didn’t have any so I used star anise)
¼ tsp cloves, freshly ground
2 slices firm white bread, darkly toasted, broken into several pieces
2 oz (2/3 of a 3.3 oz tablet) Mexican chocolate roughly chopped
3 quarts chicken broth (or substitute vegetable broth)
Salt
1/3 to ½ cup sugar

Step 1 – Preliminaries – On rimmed baking sheet, roast tomatillos 4 inches below a very hot broiler until they splotch black and get thoroughly soft (about 5 minutes per side).
Scrape into a large bowl. In a dry skillet, toast sesame seeds, stirring constantly until golden – about 5 minutes. Scrape half into tomatillos, reserve the rest.

Step 2 – Brown other mole ingredients. Turn on exhaust fan and in large dutch oven or stock pan, heat lard or oil over medium. When quite hot, fry the chiles, 3 – 4 pieces at a time, flipping constantly with tongs until aromatic and interior side has lightened in color, 20 to 30 seconds (don’t toast so darkly that they begin to smoke or mole will be bitter). As they are done, remove to a large bowl, draining as much fat as possible back into the pot. Cover the toasted chiles with hot tap water and rehydrate for 30 minutes, stirring frequently to ensure even soaking.

Remove stray seeds from oil and with pot over medium heat fry the garlic and almonds, stirring regularly until browned (garlic should be soft) about 5 minutes. With slotted spoon remove to the tomatillo bowl, draining as much fat as possible back into pot.
Add raisins to hot oil, stir about 20 seconds until browned slightly, scoop out and drain fat back into pot. Add to tomatillos (I had to make a second batch because I put them on a paper towel to de-fat and we ended up eating most of them before they went into the sauce, they were so good!)

To tomatillo mixture, add the cinnamon, black pepper, anise, cloves, bread and chocolate. Add 2 cups water and stir to combine.

Step 3. Blend, strain and cook. – Into a large measuring cup, tip off the chiles’ soaking liquid. Taste the liquid and if its not bitter, discard all but 6 cups — add water if you don’t have enough. If bitter, pour off and use 6 cups of plain water (this is what I usually do). Scoop half of the chiles into the blender jar. Add half of soaking liquid or water and blend to a smooth puree. Press through a medium-mesh strainer into a large bowl; discard the bits of skin and seeds that don’t pass though the strainer. Repeat with the remaining chiles. (I used my new oxo food mill; such a joy ).

Return the empty pot to medium heat, (bottom should have a nice coat of oil, If not add some more). When quite hot, pour in the chile puree – it should sizzle sharply and if the pan is sufficiently hot the mixture should never stop boiling. Stir almost constantly until puree has darkened and reduced to the consistency of tomato paste, about 30 minutes -cover pot with spatter screen to catch any spattering chile. (This is a crucial but delicate step; more than once I have burned my puree and had to toss the entire thing out. I used my all clad nonstick stock pan and stirred constantly so I couldn’t use the spatter screen. I am still washing chile off my kitchen ceiling and cabinets and lets not even talk about the burns).

In two batches, blend the tomatillo mixture as smoothly as possible – you may need an extra ½ cup water to keep everything moving through the blades, then strain into a large bowl. When the chile paste has reduced, add the tomatillo mixture to the pot and cook, stirring every few minutes until considerably darker and thicker, 15 to 20 minutes.

At this point I stopped and let the paste mellow out overnight. The recipe doesn’t call for this but this is what my grandmother used to do so that the paste could rest. I separated it into smaller batches and put some into jars, one of which I gave to Stevie and one which I froze for future use. I then made a very slow simmer chicken stock (another 2 hours of cooking) and when it cooled I refrigerated that overnight so that I could de-fat it in the morning.

Step 4. Add the broth to the pot and briskly simmer the mixture over medium to medium-low heat for about 2 hours for all the flavors to come together and mellow. If the mole has thickened beyond the consistency of a cream soup, stir in a little water. Taste and season with salt (usually about 4 tsps) and the sugar. (Since at this point I was working with a much lesser quantity of puree, I added enough broth so that it looked diluted and then simmered it down for about an hour or so – also, I like my mole on the sweeter side so I added half a can of drained crushed pineapple instead of sugar).

Step 5. Rick Bayless served his mole over a glazed chicken; I served mine over a roasted butterflied leg of lamb, which had marinated for a few hours in garlic and red wine with olive oil. The final step is to sprinkle the remaining sesame seeds over the finished dish and enjoy.

Paste keeps several months in the freezer. I divide it into 2-3 cup portions and cook with broth when I need it. We use it as enchilada sauce, on shrimp, chicken or turkey.

mole rojo classico with shrimp

fresh corn tamales stuffed with shitake mushroom and brie

This is a variation of a recipe for fresh corn tamales that comes from Stephan Pyles’ The New Texas Cuisine. In the Nineties in Dallas, Stephan Pyles was The chef that everyone talked about. In the last year or two that I was there, he opened Star Canyon on the edge of the Cedar Springs neighborhood, quite near where I lived at the time. I dreamed of going there, but since I was a student then and had no money, it seemed constantly out of reach. When I graduated from school, my parents took me to the restaurant as a treat. What an experience!

Many of the recipes in The New Texas Cuisine were things that got served at the restaurant. This one takes me back to a younger time when I was thin and had more hair! Ah, the good old days!

shitake mushrooms and brie for filling

The version from the book is without filling. I happened to have a bunch of ugly shitake mushrooms as well as some left-over brie from a dinner party sitting around on the day that I made these tamales. The ‘shrooms and the cheese added an earthy, nutty flavor to the sweet corn. This is really good and surprisingly easy to make. I was worried about shaping the tamales and keeping them properly wrapped. This proved to be fairly simple, really. I’d definitely make this again.

dried corn husks for wrapping tamales

fresh corn tamales stuffed with shitake mushrooms and brie

2 ears sweet corn
8 tbsp vegetable shortening
1 cup masa harina
2/3 cup cornmeal (I used quick cooking polenta)
¼ tsp cayenne powder
¼ tsp cumin
¾ tsp salt plus
1 tsp baking powder
¾ cup warm water
14 dried corn husks
2 to 3 oz. brie
½ cup shitake mushrooms, washed and sliced into very thin strips
Olive oil

Begin by soaking corn husks in a large pot of water for about thirty to 45 minutes.

Fill large steamer with water and set on stove to reach boiling.

While doing above, sauté mushrooms in a bit of olive oil and salt. Once they have become tender, set aside to cool.

Cut corn from cobs. In a food processor, pulverize half the fresh corn until a smooth paste.

Using a hand mixer, whisk vegetable shortening until light. In a separate bowl, combine masa harina, cornmeal, cayenne, cumin, salt and baking powder. Then gradually add warm water to the dry ingredients to form the dough. Whisk the dough into the shortening. Fold in ground and whole corn kernels.

fresh sweet corn

wrapped tamales ready for steaming

Drain corn husks and pat dry. Tear two into about a dozen long strips to use for tying tamales. With remaining twelve husks, lay them in pairs so that the wide parts of the husks overlap one another by about two inches. Divide dough evenly to make six tamales. Poke holes in each tamale and stuff with some sautéed shitake and brie. Cover stuffing with dough.

To close tamales, carefully roll the corn husks around filling. Twist each end and tie shut with a strip of corn husk. Place tamales in steamer and steam, covered, for 35 to 45 minutes.

I served these with pico de gallo and smoky ancho salsa.

fresh corn tamales stuffed with shitake mushrooms and brie served with pico de gallo and smoky ancho salsa

These mild green peppers are available at the farmers market during the summer. They remind me of pimientos de padrón except that these are sweet. We ate them prepared simply with garlic and oil to accompany chole masala.

sautéed sweet green chili peppers

sautéed sweet green chili peppers

1 lb sweet chili peppers, whole including stems
3 peeled whole cloves garlic, just slightly pressed
Kosher salt to taste
3 tbsp olive oil
3 tbsp water
Black pepper to taste

Place garlic, chili, olive oil, salt and pepper in a pan then cover. Bring temperature to high. Let peppers fry until slightly charred and blistered. Shake pan for few times while cooking. Add a couple tablespoons of water. Cover and cook for a couple more minutes until water has evaporated and peppers are soft. Serve it as a side dish.

fresh nameless sweet green chili peppers

Zucchini blossoms are lovely, don’t you think? The yellow orange color is so pleasing. I’ve been reading about them everywhere in the food blog-i-verse in the past few weeks. One blogger recommends buying them whenever you see them as frequently and for as long as possible. I wish I remember who that guy was! His story inspired me to try them myself.

zucchini blossoms

Unlike some of these other sites that routinely display spectacularly finished deep-fried cheese blossom wonders, mine turned out a bit… less than photogenic, shall we say? More like a blossom scramble without the eggs. But one thing is for sure, these fattening little babies taste unbelievably good! If you’ve been thinking of making them, now’s the time. And like that other guy said, you should buy zucchini blossoms whenever you can for as long as you can. They really are that good!

I invented my own stuffing after reading a number of recipes. I think so long as you use cheese that you could put almost anything else inside. The batter recipe is sort of a blend of a few that I read here and there.

zucchini blossoms stuffed with goat cheese, cilantro, oregano and pepitas

10 to 15 zucchini blossoms
¼ cup grated goat mozzarella
3 oz soft goat cheese (mine was encrusted with dried herbs)
¼ cup pepitas
small bunch fresh cilantro, chopped fine
small bunch fresh oregano, chopped fine
1 tsp. salt
1 cup flour
1 cup chilled sparkling water
canola and olive oil for frying

Rinse zucchini blossoms. Remove stem with a paring knife. Gently open flower to remove pistils. I tore some of my flowers in this procedure. I never became a surgeon for a reason.

Toast pepitas in a hot dry pan for about 30 seconds. Mix pepitas with cheeses and fresh chopped herbs. Gently fill each flower with the cheese mixture. Refrigerate for thirty minutes to chill.
Heat oil on high.

my stuffed zucchini blossoms with goat cheese and herbs looks more like a blossom scramble but it tasted great

Mix salt, flour and sparkling water together. This makes a highly energetic and bubbly batter. I was really excited by it. Dip stuffed flowers into batter and gently fry for a few minutes to cook. Obviously this is where my technique failed me. Oh well! Remove to paper towel to drain.

I served mine with the roasted tomato sauce that I make for chiles rellenos. Just like the chiles rellenos, this dish looked a mess but was so good!

rainbow Swiss chard with garlic and Meyer lemon

We went to Delfina on The Fourth of July to celebrate our 12 year anniversary together. Wow!

I really like their food: always simple and delicious. This last time we ordered a sautéd garlicky lemony Swiss chard side that was incredible. That’s really something for me, as I am not usually much of a chard fan: preferring neither the leafy green vegetable nor the white wine

At the farmers market last week I bought a couple bunches of gorgeous rainbow Swiss chard. The stems came in orange, pink, yellow and white. The leaves were a bright green and curled a bit. They were dramatic to the point of being baroque, kind of like those enormous gaudy curtains you see at old movie houses or Broadway theatres, but in miniature.

Inspired by the restaurant and the drama of it all, I tried to reproduce Delfina’s chard at home. Turns out to be simple, quick and terrific! This is a simple healthy dish that’s a classic anytime.

rainbow Swiss chard with garlic and Meyer lemon

2 bunches of organic rainbow chard, stems removed to use in another recipe
3 cloves garlic, crushed
4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Juice from ½ Meyer lemon

Sauté garlic in olive oil until aromatic. Be careful not to burn it. Add whole chard leaves, salt and pepper. Toss to coat with olive oil and garlic. Cover and cook for a couple of minutes until leaves are tender. Transfer to serving dish then squeeze Meyer lemon juice over leaves.

Garnish with Meyer lemon half.

beautiful organic rainbow Swiss chard

My original idea for this recipe wasn’t Southwest at all. I was reading this cool food blog, bitchin’Camero, and got super excited by Mel’s recipe for smoked salmon, goat cheese and spinach empanadas.

Southwest inspired homemade empanadas

My folks had just gone on an Alaskan cruise and brought us some smoked salmon as a gift. Perfect! I made the dish more-or-less the way described, but I tried to be ambitious and make my own dough. I should have read between the lines when Mel gave hints on buying pre-made empanada shells at a local grocer or even on-line. Will I ever learn? The filling for the salmon etc. empanada (I made one large pie instead of hand-held ones) tasted great. The crust, not so good: sort of brick-like.

this smoked salmon, goat cheese and spinach empanada looks great but the dough didn't work

Not to be deterred by such a minor setback, I tried again: this time with a different crust recipe and a new filling. I’d already used up the salmon so improvised here with a Mediterranean-meets-Southwest style stuffing. The empanada dough recipe comes from about.com. The dough was easy to make and turned out very well. I ended up sprinkling some sea salt on the finished empanadas before popping them into the oven, which might have been overkill. Otherwise, this was fantastic.

some key ingredients for Southwest inspired homemade empanadas

Southwest inspired homemade empanadas

For the filling:

½ cup olives, pitted (I used kalamata and stuffed Spanish)
3 fillets anchovy
4 sundried tomatoes
6 cloves garlic
12 small dried mild chiles (I used chile puya)
2 small onions, peeled and cut in halves
¼ cup pepitas, briefly dry pan roasted
8 spring onions, chopped
Goat cheese to taste
Salt to taste

For dough:

Follow the link above or take Mel’s excellent advice and try frozen shells. Making the dough yourself brings a real sense of satisfaction if it comes out right. Plus the empanadas can take on irregular and exciting shapes, which make them seem more unique and fun.

To prepare the filling:

Using a cast iron pan on high heat, roast the garlic and onion until blackened a bit. At the same time, roast the chile peppers for about 20 to 30 seconds on each side. Immediately toss them into a small pot of boiling water. Boil, covered, for five minutes. Remove from heat and allow to rest, covered, for another fifteen minutes. (This is the same preparation that I used for smoky ancho salsa but with a different chili pepper.) Remove chiles from water. Carefully remove and discard stems, seeds and inner ribs. Place peppers in food processor.

Add olives, roasted garlic and onion, sundried tomatoes and anchovies to chiles. Pulse until a thick paste is formed. Transfer to a bowl.

Mix pepitas and spring onions with blended chile filling.

Southwest inspired homemade empanada close up

To stuff empanadas:

Place a large spoon of filling in the center of each piece of dough. Top with a chunk of goat cheese. Close dough per recipe directions and bake. Allow to cool on wire racks and serve. These would be great for a picnic to wine country!

chili pepper mobile

Steven’s parents have just returned from an Alaskan cruise. They didn’t see Sarah Palin or the Cullen vampire clan, but loved it nonetheless. Their pictures made it look really exciting though quite cold, even in summer.

I want to visit Alaska sometime in the future, but I don’t think I can do it by sea. I just get terribly sick on boats. Last year we went with them on a Caribbean cruise. I can tell you that despite great company and the beauty of the Caribbean, I suffered the entire time on that eight day trip. Everything seemed in motion constantly. I couldn’t take it.

The Alaskan-bound cruise ship left from Seattle. They spent a day or so there on the way back. They always bring us back cute souvenirs from their trips. This time, they got us matching Alaska hats and T-shirts as well as some smoked salmon and this lovely chile pepper mobile.

That was really thoughtful: thank you, Lynda and Stan!

On the way back home, they detoured to San Francisco so we got to spend the afternoon with them. We took them sightseeing to the new Cartoon Museum and to Sausalito where we had a delightful lunch at Scoma’s.

But back to the chile pepper souvenir… the whole thing was made with several types of peppers in different ripening stages with a head of garlic at the base to hold it down. There were Thai bird’s eye, chili de arbol, jalapeño and Serrano chiles, all beautifully arranged and suspend by a fishing line. It was very creative. The mobile toy lasted for a few days in the kitchen but then it started to wilt. Since I don’t like waste, I disassembled the mobile and I’m using all the ingredients in my cooking.

sundried chili peppers

I simply rinsed then cut the stems off the small peppers and left them in the California sun for about a week to dry. They’re excellent in recipes that called for dried hot chiles like Roman style pasta or in Asian style dipping sauces.

I made the large peppers into this Indian inspired pickle:

Indian style chili pickle with mustard oil

Indian style chili pickle

1lb mixed chili peppers (different stages of ripeness is fine)
½ inch fresh ginger, peeled and grated
1 tsp whole black mustard seeds, roughly ground in a mortar
Juice of 4 limes
1 tbsp wine vinegar
1 tsp sugar
¼ tsp cumin seeds partially ground
¼ tsp coriander seeds partially ground
½ tsp freshly ground black pepper
½ tsp turmeric powder
2 tbsp kosher salt (or other non-iodized salt. Sea salt works, but use less because it’s saltier)
~2 tbsp mustard oil
1 clove of garlic minced

Wash peppers. Slice in halves then discard seeds and ribs and stems. Lay them on a paper towel and let dry in the sun for a couple of hours.

Mix ginger, turmeric, mustard seeds, lime juice, vinegar, cumin and coriander seeds, sugar, and garlic. Add chili peppers and toss to coat. Pack chilies tightly in glass jar. Top with mustard oil. Leave it at room temperature for four days. Taste it. It should have a mellow flavor with a bit of a kick but none of the rawness of garlic, ginger or pepper. If the flavor is harsh, leave it out for another day or so. Transfer to the fridge and serve as a side for rice and beans or for any other Indian, Middle Eastern, or Morrocan dishes.

It’s the mustard oil that really makes this preserved pepper dish taste “Indian.” You can find mustard oil in Indian grocery stores. It is labeled for external use only as it is not approved by the USDA for consumption because a compound present in the oil, erucid acid, which supposedly may cause cardiac lesions based on tests made with animals. But Indian people eat it all the time and seem very healthy as a people, so I don’t know. But you are warned.

moody Alsakan landscape

Alaskan iceberg

Alaskan glacier

lumberjack contest and show

Alaskan mountain range

another Alaskan glacier

Alaskan sunset