Southwest Heritage Beans

Rich and I were in Tucson earlier this month and while visiting a farmers' market, I discovered a stand that sells a great variety of Southwest Heritage Beans. Martha Ames Burgess is the friendly lady who was tending this stand. She was also selling other seeds and spices. I bought chia seeds to put in my granola and I bought a couple of her heirloom beans; "Colorado River" and "Tom's Mix". Martha gave me one of her recipes to try, which I will soon, but I already had one in mind that I've been wanting to prepare.

The following recipe is usually prepared with pinto beans, which are the most used in my kitchen, but this time I used the Colorado River beans and it turned just as good and the heritage beans made it a lot creamier. Mmm, sabrosa!

Sopa de Frijoles

(Bean Soup)

3 C. frijoles de la olla, pot beans that is (whole canned pinto beans can be used)

2-3 C. bean broth (if using canned beans, you can use water)

1 T. oil

1/4 C finely chopped onion

1 garlic clove, finely chopped

1 sprig of epazote, chopped (optional)

1/4 t. ground cumin

1 T. dried Mexican oregano

Salt to taste

Oil to fry

4 corn tortillas, cut into thin strips and fried

Queso fresco or Mexican crema or crème fraîche

Strips of fried pasilla chile or sun dried tomatoes could be used for garnish (optional)

In a blender, purée the frijoles with 2 cups of broth. In a large saucepan, heat 1 tablespoon of oil and sauté the onion until transparent. Add the garlic and epazote, cook for a couple minutes. Stir in the cumin and oregano, cook for a few seconds longer, then add the beans from the blender. Continue stirring until the mixture comes to a boil, add salt to taste and reduce to simmer. Cook for about 10 minutes. If too thick, add the remaining cup of broth. In a separate pan heat about 1/2 inch of oil and fry the tortilla strips a few at a time until crispy. Remove from oil and place on paper towels to drain. Ladle the soup into bowls and top with tortilla strips and queso fresco or dollop of cream. If using, add garnish.

Septiembre - Mes de la Patria

Every 16th of September is a Mexican Fiesta! On this day Mexicans all over the world celebrate Mexico’s independence from Spanish rule. As good Mexicans, we celebrate throughout the month of September. Why? Well, because Septiembre es el Mes de la Patria!

Like at most festivities, certain foods are considered representative of Independence Day. People are compelled to cook the traditional antojitos Mexicanos or a variety of finger foods. A favorite is posole, a soup made of hominy and pork. Other foods have the colors of the Mexican flag - green, white and red, like chiles en nogada. Of course green or red enchiladas are some of my favorites.

My family had gotten together a few times this month to cook some of the traditional dishes and I have prepared a couple of Mexican recipes with a little twist of my own. Here is one:

Enchiladas en Salsa de Chile Poblano y Elote

(Enchiladas with Poblano Peppers and Corn Sauce)

For the sauce:

1 T. olive oil

1 medium white onion, chopped

3 garlic cloves, chopped

6 poblano peppers;

roasted, seeded and coarsely chopped

1 C. fresh corn kernels (frozen corn can be used instead)

1/4 C. cilantro, coarsely chopped

1 C. evaporated milk (light...or not, your choice)

Salt to taste

12 corn tortillas

1/4 C. vegetable or olive oil

For the filling:

1 chicken breast, cooked and shredded

2 C. queso fresco; crumbled (fresh feta cheese can be used instead)

1 small onion, chopped

1/4 C. cooked sauce ingredients (optional)

Toppings (optional):

Sour cream, hot sauce and cilantro.

The fastest way to roast the poblanos is on an open flame over the stove. Place them directly on the flame and rotate as they roast until they blacken all over. Transfer to a bowl and cover with plastic. Let sit while you clean the corn and chop the rest of the ingredients. When the poblanos are cool, complete the process of peeling, seeding and coarsely chopping them.

In a large frying pan heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil and sauté the onion and garlic until translucent. Add the peppers and corn and continue cooking for about 3 minutes. At this point, you could reserve part of this to use as a filling.

Transfer all ingredients to a blender or food processor. Add the milk and cilantro and purée. Return to the pan and keep warm.

Brush both sides of the tortillas with oil. Heat a flat skillet and slightly fry one tortilla about a minute on each side.

Transfer to a plate, fill with chicken and cheese, onion 
and cheese, or with sauce ingredients and cheese. Roll and place in an oven proof dish. Repeat until all the

tortillas are used.

Pour the sauce on top of the enchiladas and bake at 350° for 15 minutes or until heated through. Serve hot and top with sour cream and hot sauce. Garnish with cilantro.

Viva Mexico and its food!

Herb Salt

Sometime ago I discovered the pleasure of cooking with herb salt. I used to buy an Italian blend of sea salt and fresh herbs that I love. I use it in roasted potatoes, grilled fish or chicken, soups, eggs; I add it to almost every thing! I have been using this salt for, I don't know, at least five years now. It never occurred to me that I could make my own.

For Mother's Day, it is a tradition in my family to give presents not only to our own mom but to all the women in the family that have the fortune of being mothers. Since there are gazillions of these women in my family, the presents are often simple and more of a token than an expense. I usually try to give something homemade. I will never forget the year I went down to the canyon and cut big bunches of wild daisies. Rich made flower bases out of tree branches and I filled them with fresh cut flowers from the canyon. My mom and sisters loved them.

Last May, while trying to think what to give to my mom and sisters for Mother's Day, I picked up the jar of my herb salt, as I often do, to inhale the great aroma of the herbs I love. I read the ingredients just to discover that I have almost all the herbs used in this mix growing in my back yard. What a nice surprise. My mind was immediately made up, I was going to make herb salt to give as a Mother's Day present!

I had no idea how to make this but I didn't think it would be difficult. After a little research I found out that some people dry the herbs in a 200° oven for 24 hours before mixing them with sea salt. The label on my Italian mix said that to preserve the bright color of the herbs longer, they mix the herbs with sea salt while still fresh . Since I like what I've been buying, I decided not to dry the herbs - I wanted to replicate the salt that I know and love so much.

Since this salt is about the herbs more than it is about the salt, I didn't need to get the most expensive sea salt. I just bought a big box of sea salt at a restaurant supply store and used the herbs from my back yard. I cut and cleaned several sprigs and leaves of rosemary, sage, parsley, thyme, garlic and onion chives, and a couple of big garlic cloves. I chopped everything very fine and placed it on my kitchen counter in between two layers of paper towels to aerate overnight. The next morning, I mixed everything together with sea salt and voilà! I had herb salt.

There are many mothers in my family, so I had to fill about two dozen small jars of salt and decorated them with a homemade label that listed the ingredients and suggestions on how to use it. Everyone loved it and has been using it in their cooking. Last week, several of my sisters returned the empty jars and asked me to fill them up again. I just made another batch of herb salt but this time I dried the herbs in the oven, but only for a couple of hours instead of overnight. There was nothing wrong with using fresh herbs but I wanted to try drying them to see the difference. I liked it both ways.

Prieta's Herb Salt

2 C of mix herbs; rosemary, sage, thyme, parsley, garlic and onion chives (or anything you like.)

2 C sea salt

2 large peeled garlic cloves

Clean and pat dry the herbs or spin in a salad spinner. Place herbs on a baking sheet trying to keep on a single layer. Place in a 200° oven to dry for a couple of hours. When the herbs are dry they crumble easily. Grind them all together in a blender, food processor or in a molcajete. In a big bowl, mix sea salt and ground herbs to combine.


Finely chop the garlic and add to the mixture. I do not dry nor grind the garlic but I make sure it is chopped very, very fine. Store the herb salt in a glass container until ready to add to your favorite dishes.

I use this salt with everything but it is specially good with fish, chicken, and potatoes. Another version I make is sea salt with herbs de provence (savory, fennel, basil, thyme, and lavender) that I buy at the Farmer's Market. This one is really good with meat and with vegetables.

Back From Our Vacation

Rich and I just came back from a great vacation in Michigan. We started in Traverse City where Rich did a superb job officiating the wedding of our nephew Andy and his beautiful bride Nicole. The wedding was fabulous and we really enjoyed visiting with family members that we don't get to see too often. It was great!

At the same time, Rich and I were celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary so we took some time for ourselves to explore new places. We took a road trip in the northern part of Michigan visiting small towns and places where I have never been. I am amazed at how much water this state has! Everywhere I looked, there was a lake, a river, a creek or a stream of water running freely for my enjoyment. Of course the great Lakes Michigan and Huron are so huge that it was easy to forget these were lakes and not the ocean.

We visited the Sleeping Bear Dunes. What an incredible sight this was. I loved feeling the fine, cool sand between my toes and the breeze from the lake (I wanted to say ocean) on my face and looking down the hill of sand at the HUGE lake. Oh, I loved it!

We sat at the edge of the Platte River to get our feet wet and enjoy the peaceful scenery. And we stopped at a little town called Empire. On our way out of town we stopped at a chocolate shop that Bob, Kim's husband, told us about. The small building was painted a bright green color and it had a big sign with the name - "Grocer's Daughter Chocolate ...a better world chocolate". The sign seemed to be too big for the building but thank God it was that big, otherwise we would have missed the place. Needless to say we tasted samples of everything they had and we bought a little chocolate...okay, lots of chocolate! The lady gave me the idea to put cocoa nibs in granola. She had just finished baking granola and she let me taste it; it was yummy! When she saw me looking at the jars of cocoa nibs she had on the shelves, she approached me to tell me theirs was too expensive ($11 for a 1.2 oz jar!). She told me I can get it cheaper in a Whole Foods store if I buy it in bulk. I liked that- she not only gave me her recipe but she also advised me on how to save money. Nice.

We continued our road trip to the north, driving and stopping at many interesting places to eat, walk, enjoy the scenery and to take pictures. Charlevoix is one of the towns we stopped at and spent some time. While we were driving through, we were enjoying the streets that were lined with lots of white, pink and purple pansies. Block after block had these flowers planted at the edge of the sidewalks, it was beautiful. We stopped when we heard some music coming from the pier. People were gathering for a free concert at an open air stage by the water. We listened to the music for a little while and then took a walk on the boardwalk where we watched the drawbridge raise every half hour, allowing the tall sailboats to enter the harbor. What a perfect place to take a walk with my hubby. I enjoyed it very much!

Later, we crossed the five mile long Mackinaw bridge to the Upper Peninsula. We were very lucky to find a place to spend the night in a nice cabin at a small town called Trout Lake. Although it was late, we looked around admiring the beautiful set up of this small resort. We were hungry and there were no restaurants open in this tiny, four corner town. We had a couple of peaches that I bought when Kim and I went to the farmers' market in Traverse City (I had a great time at the market!) and we also had some blueberries that Rich got at a little stand somewhere along the road next to a farm. Oh and one lonely donut. But, ahhh, we had our delicious chocolate! This was our dinner and it could not have been any sweeter than that!

The next day we visited Tahquamenon Falls. What a beautiful place that is! The walk on the wood-plank walkway along and across the river was wonderful! We went to the lower and upper falls. We walked down fast but we took our time climbing back to the parking lot. It was hot and humid and it was not easy to walk under those conditions. Plus we were starving! But it was great to get some exercise. The park has small shops and a brew-pub so we ate lunch there. Rich suggested that I try the pasties, which are a specialty in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. I tried 'em and I liked 'em. It reminded me of a Mexican empanada filled with meet and vegetables, it was dee-lish!

After that we headed to Canada Creek, stopping at every interesting place and little town along the way, to eat, admire the scenery and take more pictures. We spent time in Mount Pleasant where Rich went floating down the river with Pat, our brother-in-law and I enjoyed the quiet, peacefulness of the country for a couple of days.



Then we took off to Highland where we finished our trip spending a few days with Richard's sister, Martha and her husband Fred. I shopped at a big farmers' market and Kara, their daughter, and I had a wonderful cooking day. What better way to end a great vacation than with great food. Yumm!

We are back home in San Diego and while reviewing the pictures and a couple of "Edible Grande Traverse" magazines that I picked up along the way I was pleasantly reminded of all the fresh, sweet fruit that we ate in Michigan. I found a recipe in one of these magazines for a Leelanau Summer Berry Cake which I baked last night. This cake called for blackberries but I had strawberries and raspberries as well as blackberries so I used all three and, since my berries weren't from Leelanau, I called it Three Berry Cake. It smelled so good that Rich and I had two big pieces before I remembered to take pictures of it.

This cake is so good I think this will be a recipe I'll cook every year on our wedding anniversary as a reminder of our great vacation in Michigan - Summer, 2009. Umm, perhaps as a new family tradition. Here is the recipe:

Three Berry Cake

(adapted from Leelanau Summer Berry Cake from Edible Grande Traverse Magazine - Summer, 2009. My changes are in italic)

3 T unsalted butter

3/4 C all-purpose flour

3/4 C sugar

1 t baking powder

1/2 t cinnamon (I used Mexican canela)

1/4 t salt

1 t vanilla extract (I used Mexican vanilla)

3/4 C whole milk

2-3 C mixed strawberries, raspberries and blackberries

1 T raw cane sugar

Preheat oven to 350°. Put butter into an 8 or 9-inch round baking pan or cast iron skillet and place in the oven to melt. In a small bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, Mexican canela, or cinnamon and salt. In a separate bowl, combine vanilla and milk, then beat into the flour mixture to make a smooth batter. Pour batter into the pan over the melted butter; scatter berries over batter and sprinkle with raw sugar. Bake until batter is brown and fruit is bubbly, about 50-60 minutes. Serve warm with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.

Summer Salads

I am very excited about the food growing in my back yard. Ever since I sowed the first seeds, I've been going out almost every morning to survey my back yard in search of new ripe veggies. I keep looking at my fennel and inspecting my carrots and zucchinis, waiting for the day I can pick something to eat. It is an inexplicable feeling but I really enjoy seeing how things take shape in my garden. I have been eating the fruits of my labor for several weeks now. I'll tell you, it is not bad for an inexperienced gardener! Things are tasting mighty good!

I made this salad with my first summer squash and tomatoes. Just thinly slice the squash and halve the tomatoes. Toss them with some avocado oil and season them with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste. Sprinkle with fresh mint.

With these three ingredients I prepared another salad. Roast some beets in a 400° oven for 25 minutes. When cool, peel and slice them. Clean and slice the fennel and the tomato. Arrange all three ingredients on a plate and season with salt and ground black pepper plus a little bit of sumac. Sprinkle with extra virgin olive oil and the juice of half lemon. Garnish with fennel fronds.

Mmm, summer salads, what a treat!