I love a salad that has absolutely no pretensions of being healthy. Romaine lettuce, tomato, bell pepper, cold potatoes… plus crispy streaky bacon, creamy ranch dressing, and big chunks of sourdough bread tossed in a little of the bacon fat and toasted in a hot skillet.
I meant to add cheese, but totally forgot. Probably for the best.
This may come as a surprise, considering that I have a blog with the name ‘Yorkshire’ in the title, but I was born and raised in America. Shocking, I know! I’ve been here for nearly four years now, and for the most part I’ve pretty much gone native. My Yorkshire puddings could possibly be better than your mum’s, and I have become quite a connoisseur of English cask ales. There have been plenty of great surprises here that completely give lie to the myth of terrible food in England (Cheese! Seafood! Curry! Pies!) – but I do miss Mexican food. I’ve tried a few outlets here in Leeds, and there are a couple in York I mean to try, but I have yet to find anything that goes much beyond edible. Mexican food doesn’t mean ‘cover it with melted cheddar cheese’ – it’s about deep, rich flavours and economical but really fresh ingredients carefully prepared to their best advantage. Cheddar cheese is NOT Mexican – Mexico has its own cheeses, thank you very much, many of which are closer to a mild feta or a fresh goat’s cheese than to Cheddar. Old El Paso Tacos with minced beef? Don’t get me wrong, I have been known to eat them until I make myself sick – they are tasty in the way that only salt-laden greasy junk food can be – but they are most assuredly NOT Mexican food, any more than curry-flavour Pot Noodle is Indian food.
So, since I can’t find Mexican food, I make my own. Most ingredients are pretty easy to find – cumin, coriander and chiles (though they’re never hot enough!), fresh citrus, economical cuts of meat, fresh vegetables. Unfortunately, there are some things I can’t find at Morrison’s, like various dried chiles, Mexican oregano (MUCH different – and better – than Italian) and most importantly, CORN TORTILLAS. These are key – flour tortillas have their place, but for the most part, corn is where it’s at. So this is where The Cool Chile Company come in. Corn tortillas by post!
A couple of months ago, I ordered four packages of corn tortillas. They make them fresh on site in London and post them out super-fast for a completely reasonable shipping charge. I also ordered a jar of chipotles (smoked jalapeno chiles) in mole sauce, a jar of tomatillo salsa, and a packet of Chile en Polvo, which is a salty, sour, and spicy-hot powder to sprinkle on fresh fruit (sounds weird but it’s amazing!) It was all delicious, and they even threw in a free packet of tortillas. They freeze great, and I’m just now finishing up the last packet, so it’s time to order some more. I’m throwing a bit of a multi-gender stag-do type party for a friend later this month, and as he’s a Mexican food fan, we’re having carnitas -slow roasted, fall-apart tender pork with fresh salsa and coriander with corn tortillas to hold it all together and soak up the amazing cooking juices.
Photo blatantly stolen from Wikipedia. Mine actually look better… I make sure the filling is dark and rich and chewy-toasty-almost burnt around the edges. Try not to lick the screen, ‘kay? Save it for later, when I post pictures of my version.
So, Cool Chile Company – highly recommended! The website says they have a stall at Borough Market in London, which I will definitely check out the next time I’m down south. I’ve also seen some of their jarred sauces here in Leeds upstairs at Harvey Nicks.
As promised, Mushroom Risotto! I don’t use a recipe for risotto… well, not really. For every risotto I make there are five central ingredients: arborio rice, white wine, chicken stock, good quality parmesan, and butter. The rest depends on what’s good. Asparagus in season is great, so are chopped ham and fresh garden peas. But today, a tray of mixed mushrooms are getting the risotto treatment.
First of all, there’s half a rib of celery and a quarter of an onion all chopped up. I’ve really been getting into celery as a base flavour lately – I use it anywhere I use onion, which is basically in everything. I even like it braised in stock as a side dish, though I realise that might be a little extreme for some people. Still, even if you think you don’t like celery, give it a try in your bolognese, casseroles, and what have you. It adds a really nice flavour. Just make sure to chop it up fine.
Right. Celery and onion are chopped. Let’s get ‘em in the pan. See those other pans on the stove? The smaller one (please forgive its appearance, it’s old but functional!) is some chicken stock on the simmer – I made it a few days ago from the bones of a roast chicken. I just throw ‘em in the slow cooker with half an onion and a rib of my friend celery, plus some garlic and peppercorns. I leave it for the day on medium, and I’m all set. I have a big slow cooker, so it makes a ton. I used less than half for this risotto and froze the rest. The bigger pan is waiting for the rest of the mushrooms. A few of the less-exotic mushrooms are going to go straight in the pan with the celery and onions here in a second, but the rest will just be sauteed over really high heat with butter and a little salt – this way the distinct flavour and texture of each mushroom can really shine.
Aren’t they pretty? I like the curly edges on the criminis.
So let’s get on with this risotto business. The onions and celery are soft and transparent, the chopped criminis are soft and buttery. Time for the main ingredient! In goes the rice, along with a finely chopped clove of garlic. Stir it all around just until the rice barely starts to go a little brown and toasty. It looks thirsty doesn’t it? Let’s give it a glass of wine.
This is where the fun starts. Keep the heat pretty low, and stir the rice until it drinks up almost all the wine. Add a ladle of the simmering chicken stock. Stir until THAT’S almost gone – and repeat, repeat, repeat with the stock. If you start with a cup of rice, you’ll end up using about 4 cups of stock – but the exact amount depends on how fresh the rice is, how fast or how slow you cook it, the weather, the NASDAQ, etc. You’ll need to taste it to know when it’s done – the rice will be creamy, without any trace of hardness in the middle. Now you can turn the heat off for a minute while you cook up the rest of your mushrooms in plenty of butter over high heat – you want them nice and brown, even a little bit crispy on the edges. Make sure you stir them and toss them around while they cook so they don’t burn.
Now that you’ve got mushrooms nice and toasty, it’s time to finish the risotto. Put it back on the heat and add one final ladle of stock so it’s creamy and oozy. Risotto should spread out on the plate, not stand up in a stiff mound. That’s why you need to have a sense of urgency here at the end- you need to serve it hot hot hot on hot plates, or it will stiffen up. The last step is to stir in a little more butter – half a tablespoon-ish – and a handful of grated parmesan. Give it a good stir, ladle it onto the plate, and throw the sauteed mushrooms on top. I recommend serving it with a piece of toasty crusty bread, rubbed with a clove of garlic. Like so.
So I’ve made goat’s milk cheese from this recipe I found at Serious Eats three times now. All you need is a couple of pints of goat’s milk, a lemon, salt, a cooking thermometer, and some cheesecloth – but I think you can do without the last two. You heat the milk to 180 degrees Fahrenheit (82 degrees Celsius), which is the moment the tiniest simmery bubbles just start to break the surface. That’s when you take it off the heat, stir in the juice from the lemon you squeezed while the milk was heating, and pour it into a colander lined with a few layers of cheesecloth. I use butter muslin – it’s finer, so you only need one layer – and if I didn’t happen to have that, I would use any kind of super-clean, soft white cloth with a close weave, like a big square from an old pillowcase or t-shirt. Then you make a pouch like so and finagle a way to hang it over a bowl for a couple of hours. Then you de-pouch, mix in a nice pinch of salt, and you have cheese! It’s like magic. See?
Technically, this is a goat’s milk ricotta – but it’s tons better than the grainy ricotta you buy at the grocery. The, um, goaty flavour of more aged goat’s cheeses is almost completely missing, so this could be used in sweet recipes where you might normally use mascarpone. I eat it on crispbread with pepper and olive oil like you see on the picture, as a spread on sandwiches and wraps, and… so far that’s it because I eat it up before I can do anything else with it. But I have plans… mixing in caramelised onions or fresh herbs, serving it with fresh fruit and honey. I’m also going to try lime juice instead of lemon juice with a little cumin and coriander to serve with fresh salsa and tequila marinated chicken tacos. Wanna come over?
