friday faves
Zapps Voodoo Chips :: Schramsberg Mirabelle Sparkling Wine
Zebra Farfalle :: O&Co Mayo with Olive Oil, Capers and Candied Lemon
LOVING the O&Co. Mayo right now. Its great on sandwiches, but best served with poached salmon. Yes, I know I am on Weight Watchers. And of course it doesn’t make sense to take a healthy dish like poached salmon and slather it with mayonnaise. But you know what? Its delicious.
Also, don’t you think the black and white pasta would be pretty tossed with
a simple pesto and sun-dried tomatoes?
turkey taco cups
These taco cups are my new favorite weeknight Mexican dinner. They are done in less than 30 minutes and are healthy!
I wasn’t a huge fan of corn tortillas (and why would I be when H-E-B makes the best butter-flour tortillas in all the land?) until I tasted how great they are once they’ve been baked. They are crispy and salty (yeah, I added a little salt) and delicious.
To make the tortilla cups, stick the tortillas in the microwave for 15-20 seconds to soften them, then tuck them into the cups of a muffin pan. Spray the tortillas lightly with Pam and sprinkle with sea salt. Bake them at 425 degrees F for 20 minutes, until brown and crispy.
While the tortilla cups are baking, start cooking the ground turkey. Once it has browned, add the taco seasoning and 3-4 tbsp. water. Continue to cook over medium heat until the water has evaporated.
I serve these with flavored fat-free Greek yogurt, shredded fat-free cheddar cheese and fresh salsa. I like to use fat-free Greek yogurt instead of sour cream because it is much higher in protein and lower in calories and fat. It has a distinctively tangy flavor but it can easily be masked by adding cumin and Cholula hot sauce.
To assemble the taco cups, fill them to the brim with the ground turkey then top with the flavored yogurt, shredded cheese and fresh salsa. I like to shake Cholula over them a few times too!
Turkey Taco Cups
1 lb. ground turkey
1 pkg. taco seasoning
8 corn tortillas
1/2 c. fat-free Greek yogurt
2 tbsp. Cholula hot sauce
2 tsp. cumin
1 c. fat-free cheddar cheese
1/2 c. salsa
To make the tortilla cups, stick the tortillas in the microwave for 15-20 seconds to soften them, then tuck them into the cups of a muffin pan. Spray the tortillas lightly with Pam and sprinkle with sea salt. Bake them at 425 degrees F for 20 minutes, until brown and crispy.
While the tortilla cups are cooking, start cooking the ground turkey. Once it has browned, add the taco seasoning and 3-4 tbsp. water. Continue to cook over medium heat until the water has evaporated.
I like to use fat-free Greek yogurt in Mexican cooking instead of sour cream because it is much higher in protein and lower in calories and fat. However, it still has a distinctively tangy flavor which can easily be masked by adding cumin and Cholula hot sauce. I also serve these with shredded fat-free cheddar cheese and fresh salsa.
To assemble the taco cups, fill them to the brim with the ground turkey then top with the flavored yogurt, shredded cheese and fresh salsa.
Time: 30 minutes
Serves: 4 (two cups each)
WW+: 10 points (5 points per cup)
pacific northwest :: pt. 1 :: seattle
Whitney and I spent a few days eating our way through Seattle and Vancouver earlier this spring.
The first night, we had dinner at Dahlia Lounge. I started with a raw tasting plate with three small dishes on it: ahi tuna with ponzu, lemon peel and radish; dungeness crab with cucumbers, rice cakes and avocado; and kona kampachi with grapes, olives and tarragon. Whitney’s first course was a slice of St. Andre triple cream Brie served with fennel seeds, lavender honey, and pizzelles. For such a big slice of rich and creamy cheese, it disappeared really quickly!
Dahlia Lounge is known for their crab cakes, which were great but not really that unique. Whitney’s entree, on the other hand, was a outstanding. He had Coho salmon with cranberries, hedgehog mushrooms and Bluebird Farms farro (which we were introduced to in a recent Foodzie box – yum!).
We had a hard time making dessert decisions but I finally ordered the cinnamon sugar doughnuts (which were cutely delivered by the waiter in a brown paper bag that he was shaking to coat the piping hot doughnuts) and Whitney ordered the creme caramel with a rice krispie. We switched dishes as soon as they reached the table and I was practically liking the sauce off of the plate when they finally came to clear it away!
We got up the next morning and took a walking food tour of the Pike Place Market. We had a blast tasting our way through all of the vendors. Scroll down to see what we ate:
Of course, being Seattle, there was a downpour when we left the market. We raced back to the hotel with our jackets pulled up over our heads and spent the afternoon reading. Maybe even more than the eating we do while traveling, I love vacations for all of the guilt-free reading I get to do. No homework, laundry or other tasks hanging over my head while I enjoy a book!
I was able to tear myself away from The Hunger Games long enough for dinner that evening. My Mom and Dad had been in Seattle recently and recommended we eat at Purple Cafe & Wine Bar. From the moment I walked in, I knew I would enjoy it. The atmosphere was great, with tall ceilings and a unique wine ‘cellar’ that spiraled upwards in the middle of the restaurant.
We split a bunch of small plates and everything we had was wonderful. We started with a cheese plate with a paired flight of wine. We’d both had Barely Buzzed (espresso and lavender rubbed cow’s milk) before but the other two were new discoveries. I hope we can find them here in Houston. One was cracked black pepper cow’s milk & cream (Fromager D’Affinois Pepper) and the other was a rosemary-infused goat’s milk (Tumalo Farms Remembrance).
The cheese plate was followed by a beef carpaccio served with a really spicy mustard. We also had a wild mushroom bruschetta that I have unsuccessfully tried to recreate at home. It was meaty and earthy-tasting and absolutely delicious. However, the star of the evening was duck confit served over black lentils. Whitney and I were fighting over the last morsels of it!
Our dessert was a maple bread pudding with blackberries and orange rind. It was the perfect balance of sweet and tart.
Isn’t the wall below pretty? Look at the door in the bottom left corner to get an idea of how big this mural is. We passed it on the way to Salumi and I had to stop and get a shot.
The next day we grabbed lunch at Salumi before heading to Vancouver. I’ve read about Salumi for years and always had it in the back of my mind that I wanted to eat there if we visited Seattle. All of the articles warned that the line is often out of the door and that there are only about 10 seats in the place. We felt like we won the lottery when we arrived around 11 am to find only 4-5 people in line and two empty seats in the front!
I had a muffaletta with spicy salami. The olive mix was really unusual (more like a paste) but it was a perfect compliment to the spicy meat. Whitney, upon hearing that they only make the balsamic brisket four times per year, stopped looking at the menu. The middle of the ciabatta roll had been scooped out and then filled with the brisket and a sautéed red pepper, onion and mushroom mix. It was messy and delicious!
Then it was off to Vancouver! Stay tuned for a recap of the best fish I have ever had in my life…
friday faves
These are a few of my current kitchen favorites and are too fun not to share!
Click the links below for more info.
tiger, tiger glasses :: ikat nesting bowls :: cocktail napkins :: salted caramel sauce
Hope you all have a great weekend!
asian coleslaw with mango
What can I say? Other than that I am glad to have the summer off of school! Sorry it has been so long since my last posting — I really plan to make up for it this summer!
I’m sure you have all had that delicious Asian coleslaw with cabbage, ramen noodles, and the delicious sugary oriental dressing. Its definitely one of my summertime favorites but between the 1/2 cup of sugar in the dressing and the fried noodles, its not nice to the waistline. This version is really similar (I even like the dressing better) and the toasted pine nuts give you the same crunch as the ramen noodles.
Start with a bag of broccoli slaw, which is a great substitute for cabbage in coleslaw recipes because it is full of vitamins and fiber.
The broccoli slaw already contains carrots but I think their sweetness plays well into this salad so I added 4 more. In addition, throw in 1 sliced green onion, 1/4 c toasted pine nuts, and a sliced mango.
Make the dressing by combining the juice of one lime, 3 tbsp. rice vinegar, 1 tbsp. sesame oil, and 1 tbsp. low-sodium soy sauce. Whisk or shake really well. Toss 2/3 of the dressing with the salad. Add more as needed.
Serve immediately so the slaw does not become soggy.
By the way, I started Weight Watchers last week so a lot of the recipes you’ll see on here this summer will be healthy. I’m also calculating the points per serving to make it easier if you are on Weight Watchers too — they’ll be below the condensed recipe at the bottom of the post.
But don’t worry, life is about balance so I will definitely still be posting butter-filled goodness every now and then!
Asian Coleslaw with Mango
1 bag broccoli slaw
3-4 carrots
2 green onions
1 large mango (or 2 small ones)
1/4 c toasted pine nuts
lime
3 tbsp. rice vinegar
1 tbsp. low-sodium soy sauce
1 tbsp. sesame oil
In a large bowl, combine the broccoli slaw with the grated carrots, sliced green onions, sliced mango and toasted pine nuts. In another bowl, whisk together the lime juice, sesame oil, soy sauce and rice vinegar. Toss with the slaw mixture and serve immediately.
Time: 15 minutes
Serves: 6
WW+: 3 points per serving
zucchini frittata
Classes just started last week and Whit and I are already knee-deep in projects, presentations and readings. We wanted a quick dinner tonight so I made a zucchini frittata.
If you have eggs and any vegetables in your refrigerator, you too could have a frittata for dinner!
I started by grating a zucchini and half of a yellow onion on a box grater and sautéing them over medium heat for 3-4 minutes. I added 2 minced garlic cloves and cooked it all for a minute more. Then I added 5 beaten eggs (to which I had already added a tablespoon of half-and-half) to the pan and let it cook for 4-5 minutes.
Once the eggs looked like they were almost cooked, I scattered pieces of fresh mozzarella and crushed Zapp’s chips over the top. Then I stuck it in a 400 degree oven for 5 minutes.
Once I pulled it out I inverted it onto a plate and folded one half over. I love how the bottom got crispy and the inside was still soft!
And the crunchy chips added awesome flavor and texture. I love this flavor of Zapps!
Anyway, scan your fridge and see what you could throw in a frittata. Almost any combination of veggies would be great – especially if topped with a little cheese!
thanksgiving leftovers: smoked turkey and sausage gumbo
Whatcha doin’ later this week? If you’ve got a big turkey in your plans, then I have the perfect recipe for your leftovers. This recipe calls for smoked turkey, but you can use whatever kind you have this Thursday.
There are two main types of gumbo — seafood and game. There are actually a bazillion-million-cajillion gumbo recipes out there. In fact, just about everyone has a unique recipe and I would encourage you to use this one as a jumping off point and make your own additions and changes. But the point I am making here is that most gumbo recipes pretty much all play off of the two variations mentioned above.
When I was a kid and Momma made seafood gumbo, usually shrimp and lump crabmeat, it was always a special occasion. A pound of lump crabmeat is basically like gold, so we were taught to slowly fold it in after the gumbo was cooked so the lumps didn’t break up.
Anyway, the other kind of gumbo – game – was really elevated in our house once we discovered Greenberg Turkeys. I think a business associate gave one to my dad as a Christmas gift one year when I was in high school. In my opinion, these honestly aren’t the best turkeys for carving and eating. For that, I prefer a really moist roasted or fried turkey. But damn, the smoked turkeys from Greenberg cannot be beat for making gumbo.
Here is what you’ll need to make smoked turkey and sausage gumbo. Top pic — seasonings. Bottom pic — everything else. Wait, where’s the turkey? Momma had already cut the meat off and boiled the carcass before I got to Baton Rouge so it was in the fridge and I forgot to take a picture.
Okay, before we start, here is a lesson on roux.
First, color. You may hear people say light rouxs are flavorless or a black roux is burned (not necessarily). Blond rouxs (like the one on the top left below) are actually ideal for etoufees and are very thick. The longer roux is cooked – and the darker it becomes – the less “thickening power” it has. For gumbo, you want a brick roux, like the one on the top right in the picture below. It should be the color of a dirty penny.
Okay, what do you do if you accidentally burn the roux? Throw it out. I’m serious. You can’t save it. Just cut your losses and start over.
How should you keep it from burning? Do not stop stirring. At all. Your arms will be tired and you’ll think one second away won’t matter. But that is when the black flecks start appearing.
Why do you cook the roux for such a long time? Because you are actually slowly caramelizing the flour and giving it more flavor. The darker it is, the more caramelized it becomes.
Proportions of fat to flour? You’ll often hear one-to-one. While this is true, it is not one-to-one in mass (measuring cups); the correct measurement is one-to-one in weight.
And finally, the kind of oil you use matters. Refined, or pure, canola oil has a smoke point in the 400s and is the best to use for making roux.
Here’s what our roux looked like over the course of an hour. You’ll be about two Abitas in before you see a noticeable change in color, then it starts to darken more quickly.
See the different utensils I am using? When you first add the flour to the oil, you want to whisk all of the lumps out. Since you’ll be stirring for such a long time, use a wooden spoon so it doesn’t heat up in your hand. But keep a metal spoon with a flat edge on hand for scraping the bottom of the pan every few minutes or so.
So the step by step goes like this. Heat your oil in the microwave in a glass measuring cup in 30-second increments until it is hot but not bubbling. Add it to your cast iron dutch oven that has been sitting on the stove over medium heat. Once it starts bubbling, which will be shortly, add the flour. This will pop, so keep your hands away for a second. Then, whisk, whisk, whisk until it is well-combined. Grab a wooden spoon and start stirring. Every 5-7 minutes, trade out the wooden spoon for something that can really scape the bottom of the pan. You want to keep incorporating this into the roux so it doesn’t stick to the bottom and burn. From start to finish, the roux will take about 45 minutes – 1 hour of stirring. I’d recommend doing this with a friend, sister, mom, husband, etc. — someone who can relieve you every few minutes while you run outside to grab another beer.
Did I mention chopping the veggies? Do this before you start making the roux. You will need to add these the second the roux reaches the right color so you need them to be ready to go.
Once the roux has turned the color of a dirty penny, add the chopped onion, bell pepper and celery (the Holy Trinity of Southern cooking). Turn the heat down to medium-low and stir until the roux coats each vegetable, then cover and let steam until wilted, about 5-8 minutes.
Add the garlic and cut okra. Sweat until the okra is softened. Bring about 7 quarts of stock to a boil in a large stock pot and then begin to add roux/vegetable mix to the stock stirring to dissolve as it is added. Turn the heat down to simmer and cover the pot.
Meanwhile, slice the sausage into 1/4″ thick rounds and brown it in a skillet. This will give it extra flavor but also gets rid of some of the fat and grease that comes out while cooking sausage. Once it has browned, set it aside.
Back to the gumbo. While simmering, add the seasonings. Continue to simmer for about 30-45 minutes.
The jalapeno powder below will lose its flavor before the jar is even halfway empty. That is because you barely need a teeny tiny little pinch to give the whole pot a great flavor. This stuff is made from ground jalapenos and seeds, and it is fiery! Jalapeno powder isn’t really sold in grocery stores, but you can find it at spice markets. The stuff below is from Flores Spices & Herbs in Houston on Airline Drive near all of the farmers’ markets.
Bottom line: if you can’t get your hands on any, just use cayenne. It will still be delicious!
After the gumbo has simmered for 30-45 minutes with the seasonings, add the cubed turkey and continue to simmer for about 30 minutes longer, and then add the sausage and turkey which came off of the bones when making the stock. Simmer for 30 more minutes and adjust seasoning to taste.
Serve over white rice or jambalaya rice.
Turkey and Sausage Gumbo freezes really well. If you don’t think you can make it through all two gallons in the next few days, portion it out into smaller containers and freeze. You know what else freezes well? Cooked rice. And that makes for a super easy dinner in a few weeks.
Smoked Turkey and Sausage Gumbo
Makes about 2 gallons
Turkey and Stock:
Half of a smoked turkey, 6-7 pounds
1 onion, quartered
2 stalks celery, quartered
1 carrot, quartered
4 stems fresh parsley
4 stems fresh thyme
2 bay leaves
1 tablespoon peppercorns
2 teaspoons minced garlic
Remove and discard all skin from the turkey. Remove the breast from the carcass and cut most of the thigh and leg meat from the bones. Cut the meat into bite size cubes/pieces and reserve to add later. Break the carcass at the joints and put in large stock pot; add enough water so it’s covered by an inch or so of water. Bring it to a simmer. Skim off anything that rises to the top that you wouldn’t want to eat if you saw it floating in a bowl of soup. As soon as it comes to a simmer, put it in the oven at 180 degrees. Leave it in the oven for 4-5 hours. As long as it’s not bubbling you’re good. It should not be bubbling, but it should be too hot for you to hold your hand against for more than an instant.
About an hour before you want to take it out of the oven, add the vegetables, herbs and peppercorns.
Continue cooking for another hour Remove the bones and meat and after cooling, separate the meat from the bones and reserve for later use. Strain the stock through a colander, then cheesecloth. Now it’s ready to use or chill it and take the fat that congeals off the top.
Sausage:
2-3 pounds smoked sausage (preferably Andouille)
Slice the sausage in half lengthwise, then slice into ½-inch slices. Saute in a skilled until browned.
Roux:
2 cups oil
2 ½ cups flour
Heat the oil in a large Dutch oven and add the flour, stirring til smooth. Bring to a bubbling boil and stir constantly, scraping the bottom of the pot with a flat wooden spoon. After it starts to change color, turn the heat down to a simmer and continue to cook slowly, stirring constantly, till you have a very dark red/brown roux.
Vegetables:
4 cups chopped onions
4 cups chopped celery
4 cups chopped bell peppers
2 teaspoons minced garlic
2 – 16 ounce bags of cut okra, thawed
Just as the roux turns the right color, add the onions, celery and bell peppers to the roux to stop it from cooking and cook the vegetables until wilted. Add the garlic and cut okra. Sweat until the okra is softened. Bring about 3.5 quarts of stock to a boil in a large stock pot and then begin to add roux/vegetable mix to the stock stirring to dissolve as it is added.
Seasonings:
1/3 cup Tony Chachere’s seasoning
1 tablespoons salt
1 tablespoons crushed dried thyme
½ teaspoon white pepper
¼ teaspoon jalapeno powder
While simmering, add the seasonings. Simmer for about 30-45 minutes. Add the cubed turkey and continue to simmer for about 30 minutes longer, and then add the sausage and turkey which came off of the bones when making the stock. Simmer for 30 minutes and adjust seasoning to taste.
for every success in the kitchen…
I have a disaster like this…
It keeps me humble.
smothered quail
I have conquered a cooking mountain! I wrote in my “about katie” page that I have been trying to make smothered chicken that was as good as Zadie’s for a long time. Zadie was our maid when I was growing up and of all of the wonderful things she cooked, my favorite was her smothered chicken.
She taught me how to make it when she was alive but I didn’t take notes and I am sure I didn’t pay as much attention as I should have, so I have never been able to replicate it. Or even get close. I really regret that.
Momma found a recipe for smothered quail from Dunleith Plantation in Natchez and after a few tweaks, I think we have a winner. You could use this same method for chicken or pork chops.
Here’s what you’ll need. Ignore the white pepper. It was on the counter so I threw it in the picture, but it was actually for something else.
Where can you find quail? Well, if you’re like most of my friends, your husband is a hunter and you can find it in your deep freeze. Not that lucky? Check Whole Foods or call a local butcher. In Houston, Pete’s Fine Meats usually has quail.
The ones we used for this recipe are from Manchester Farms. They have plain and marinated semi-boneless quail as well as bacon-wrapped quail breasts. It is a family business in South Carolina and they use no antibiotics or hormones. (Sound like I’m on Manchester Farms’ payroll? I’m not. They have no clue who I am, but I am happy to recommend their quail.)
On to the recipe. Season the quail with the Tony Chachere’s. This isn’t super clear in the picture below (thank you iPhone camera) but you don’t want to completely coat the quail. Just a little sprinkling on each side. Set aside.
Combine ¾ cup of the flour with the paprika, nutmeg, black pepper and thyme in a shallow dish. I like thyme so I went a little heavy on it here. Same with the black pepper. You can adjust these spices to you liking. But don’t leave out the nutmeg just because it sounds like a funny addition. It adds a nice warm undertone.
Dredge the quail in the flour mixture.
Heat the oil and 2 tablespoons of the butter in a large cast dutch oven over medium heat. Why oil and butter? Butter has a better flavor but oil has a higher smoke point so it won’t burn as quickly.
Fry the quail in the dutch oven until they are golden brown, turning them to cook evenly, about 6-7 minutes per side. Remove the quail from the dutch oven and set aside.
Do not clean those delicious drippings from the pan!! Instead, add a stick of butter to the pan drippings in the dutch oven. Once it has melted, add the onion, celery and carrots and stir until they are soft, about 5 minutes. Sprinkle the remaining 6 tablespoons flour over the mixture and stir until the mixture has browned, about 15 minutes.
Gradually stir in the broth and continue stirring until the mixture is smooth. Add the wine and simmer, whisking, over low heat for 5 minutes.
Add the quail and cover the pot. Simmer over low heat until the birds are very tender, about 45 minutes – 1 hour.
Be careful when removing the quail from the dutch oven, as it will be tender and want to fall apart.
Serve with stone-ground parmesan grits (made with heavy whipping cream, duh) or white rice. You just soaked your meat in butter and gravy for an hour. This is not the time to start watching your waistline, my friends.
Smothered Quail
12 semi-boneless quail
1 tablespoon Tony Chachere’s
¼ cup vegetable oil
1¼ sticks butter
¾ cup plus 6 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 ½ teaspoon sweet paprika
½ teaspoon grated nutmeg
1 teaspoon dried thyme leaves
1 ½ – 2 teaspoons black pepper
½ cup finely diced onions
½ cup finely diced celery
½ cup finely diced carrots
3 ½ – 4 cups chicken or turkey broth
1/3 cup dry red wine
Season the quail with the Tony Chachere’s. Set aside.
Heat the oil and 2 tablespoons of the butter in a large cast iron dutch oven over medium heat.
Combine ¾ cup of the flour with the paprika, nutmeg, black peper and thyme in a shallow dish and dredge the quail in the flour mixture. Fry the quail in the dutch oven until they are golden brown, turning them to cook evenly, about 12 minutes total. Remove the quail from the skillet and set aside.
Add the remaining 8 tablespoons butter (1 stick) to the pan drippings in the dutch oven. Add the onion, celery and carrots and cook, stirring, until they are soft, about 5 minutes. Sprinkle the remaining 6 tablespoons flour over the mixture and stir until the mixture has browned, about 15 minutes.
Gradually stir in the broth and continue stirring until the mixture is smooth. Add the wine and simmer, whisking, over low heat for 5 minutes. Add the quail and cover the dutch oven. Simmer over low heat until the birds are very tender, about 45 minutes – 1 hour.
santa fe, parte dos
Since all good things must come to an end, we headed back to Houston today. Whit and I had a great time in Santa Fe — it is really a foodie heaven!
Want to know what happened on day 1 of our trip? Check it out here.
Day two saw us having breakfast off the beaten path at Tecolote Cafe (hat tip to JJ for the recommendation). After seeing Carne Adovada on multiple menus since we arrived, I had to try it. It just so happens that the Carne Adovada at Tecolote Cafe is hands-down the spiciest in town. Whew. I think I can still feel the burn in the back of my throat. Whitney, no surprise, had pancakes again. The blue corn piñon blueberry pancakes were a hit — especially since I used the extra syrup that came with his plate as a throat salve. They also had french toast that changed daily based on the fresh baked breads they had — cinnamon raisin, 7 grain, mixed berry bread, orange poppy seed, blue corn honey, etc. And they served our meals with a house made bread basket that included green chile biscuits!
Thanks to my generous friend Kristin, we got to visit the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum after our late breakfast. I loved it!! Who else has always heard that her paintings are of vaginas? Turns out that was not her intention at all and she was upset that all of the critics thought that. So after seeing the video at the beginning of the museum about her life, it was interesting to look at all of the paintings in a new light (read: not private parts). Anyway, I absolutely fell in love with her painting Bleeding Heart.
We spent the rest of the afternoon walking up and down Canyon Road. This is a famous stretch of Santa Fe that has more than one hundred art galleries and studios exhibiting Native American art and antiquities, traditional and modern Hispanic art, regional contemporary art, international folk art and international contemporary art. We had so much fun laughing about all of the art we’d buy if we had the money. We were COLD by the time we reached the top of the hill so we stopped in at the Teahouse. Check out this wall of teas — they had more than 50 different varieties of loose leaf teas.
So I mentioned how cold it was, right? It never hit 50 while we were there, which was nice since we left Houston in the low 80s, but at night, when it was below 20, I was so glad for the fireplace in our room!!
Anyway, we had dinner Friday night at The Compound, which was lovely. They gave us a cute table for two by the fire. We split the caramelized pear salad. In addition to the caramelized pears, it was served with feta cheese on buttered toast points and apple cider vinaigrette and frisee. It was just a little sweet, but we really enjoyed it. Whit thought his meal was just so-so (he had the osso bucco), but I had half a roasted chicken with foie gras pan gravy and was practically licking my plate. On a typically light(er) dish, roasted chicken, the gravy was just the right rich touch.
The next morning we learned how to make a southwestern brunch at the Santa Fe School of Cooking!
Jeremiah, our instructor, showed us how to make blue corn pancakes with a mixed berry compote (are you noticing that we ate a lot of blue corn pancakes on this trip?), chorizo cottage fried potatoes, adobo goat cheese and spinach quiche, and huevos rancheros with beans and red chile. I am excited to recreate all of these dishes (if you are in my Sunday school class, you will see these soon) but I am most excited to have learned how to make homemade red chile sauce. I can’t wait to use it to make my own carne adovada!
After class, we wandered around the Plaza and checked out the miracle staircase at the Loretto Chapel. After reading about it years ago in a chain email, I have always wanted to see it in person. The story goes that the chapel was built without a staircase, which was apparently common at the time as choir lofts were accessed by ladders, but that didn’t work for the nuns. So they prayed to a saint (can’t remember which one) and a carpenter miraculously appeared in town and built a staircase that didn’t have nails or supports. Then he left town without payment and no one knew how to find him.
Here’s a picture of the beautiful staircase:
I am telling you, this staircase was built by God. It is so unbelievably pretty in person.
Since this is a blog about eating, I will get back to the main story. We ate at Terra again Saturday evening. This was the restaurant in our hotel in which we ate Thursday night. It was cold outside and we were being lazy. Whit had the short ribs again and I followed his lead. YUM! But let me tell you what I started with — tuna tartare served on blue corn blinis with chipotle infused caviar and grilled scallions. It was so unusual and I loved it.
Next up, brunch at Tesuque Market and, surprise, we had pancakes again. This time though, they were “sweet cakes and swine” — pancakes with bacon and chocolate chips in them. They were gluttonous and worth every bite.
Our last dinner was at La Boca, a tapas restaurant. I would so highly recommend this place. It was full of locals (good sign in a tourist town) and had unusual menu items. Most tapas menus are the same, which I generally love, but it was a fun surprise to find lots of new things. Like the flat iron steak with smoked sea salt caramel drizzled on it. That doesn’t really sound good, does it? I didn’t think so either but Whitney ordered it and it was super. Like, really super. We also liked the grilled artichokes with mint and goat cheese and fingerlings with lemon aioli. I ordered the scallops over artichoke puree with jamon serrano but they ran out right before me. No lie. I saw a server deliver the dish to a table near us not 30 seconds before our waitress came over to tell us they just served the last scallop in the joint. Bummer. So overall, I’m still sad about the scallops but the meal was great.
We couldn’t leave Santa Fe without stopping at the Trader Joe’s I saw as we entered town on Thursday. I was so excited to see a Trader Joe’s for the first time in years that I thought about it all weekend and begged Whitney to stop with me on the way to the airport.
Here’s the thing with Trader Joe’s — they have Greek marinated racks of lamb that are UNBELIEVABLY delicious. And TJ won’t ship them. And so far, I’ve not been able to replicate them. Anyway, I was secretly thinking I could get a million racks and quickly find a FedEx and overnight them to Houston, but alas, this Trader Joe’s DIDN’T HAVE THEM. The travesty!
Good news though: they had lots of other stuff we didn’t need but looked too delicious to pass up. Dark chocolate covered pomegranate seeds, piñon coffee, brown rice and chicken dog jerky (for Emmy Lou), ginger snaps, s’more bites, meyer lemon crisps, chocolate truffle bar, and a couple of seasoning grinders.
So all in all, we loved Santa Fe! We hope to go back again soon but in the meantime, I have some recipes from the cooking class to make for the blog!
Is there any wine left? 