August – hot, muggy, unbearable across the mid-Atlantic coast.  What does the entire populace do?  Migrate down Hwy’s 158 and 12 to the Outer Banks, NC on a weekly basis to enjoy beautiful weather and the cooling ocean and Pamlico Sound.  What do I do?

Our Outer Banks neighborhood, Surf or Sound in Frisco, NC

Fly 5 hours from California, where the beach is only 20 minutes away, max.  Why do I do it? One word – family is everything.  And it’s pretty darn gorgeous out there, nothing like west coast beaches.

During this weekly migration, the highways get pretty backed up, especially on Saturday’s.  One great way to take a break is to stop at one of the many farmer’s markets.  These markets are literally in middle of farm fields that surround all the highways.  It doesn’t get fresher than this!

Grandy Greenhouse Farm Market Butter Beans

And what is one to do when a bag of freshly shelled butter beans (aka baby lima beans)?  Buy it and figure out what to make with them later, which is exactly what I did.  I looked at a bunch of recipes, but settled on potato and bean cakes with green onion for an appetizer.  Who doesn’t like a fried potato cake?!

This recipe from epicurious.com couldn’t be easier.  It was a great little snack before the delicious mean of grilled greek chicken and lemony orzo pasta salad my cousin’s wife made.  The recipe called for canned beans, but I one upped them and

All mashed up

had fresh.  In order to make them a little closer to the creamy texture of the potato, I par boiled the beans for a few minutes then shocked them in a bowl of ice water.

Coated in panko and ready to fry. In olive oil of course. That’s healthy right?

If I was in my own kitchen, I would’ve added some hot sauce into the mash mixture as well.  The onions gave it a little zing, but it still could’ve used a little assist.  Unfortunately, we were in the middle of no where and hot sauce wasn’t in the cabinet so I went without.

And if all else fails, drink Pimm’s cups with your sisters!!!  🙂

Pimm’s cups anyone?! Delicious and refreshing

Your appetizer – ready to eat! Now where is that hot sauce??

I’m behind.  Way behind.  Specifically on keeping this blog up to date, but being behind isn’t a new thing to me.

I will never forget the grand dame of engineering mathematics, Professor Vera Granlund, once infamously (well to me at least) said that as long as she had known me I was always playing catch up.  She was not a woman to take for granted either, regardless of the fact that she wore a sun dress year round, accompanied by a cardigan when it was cold.  She was a human calculator in the era when it was still thought women couldn’t “do math”.    Everyone who went through the UVA School of Engineering and Applied Sciences for several decades, definitely in the 80’s and 90’s had her for calculus.  I had her for 4 semesters of it.  And then some.   One of our “math labs”,  where she was known for standing in front of you saying, “Well get your pencil moving!  Math is not going to do itself!!” conflicted with my Naval R.O.T.C drill period.    Her solution:   one on one with Professor Granlund and me in her office.  It was terrifying.  I’m pretty sure she resented me for having to spend the extra time with an individual student, but understood my commitment to becoming an officer so she did it.   The “always behind” comment in front of my classmates was her way of revenge.  In retrospect, I was privileged to have such attention from such a pioneer and smart woman!

This blog isn’t about my college memories, nor math.  It is about the food I cook and eat and I’ve got tons of food porn sitting on my laptop, waiting to be lovingly written about and posted.    I’ve resolved to do my best to not be behind in this endeavor and write more.  It counter balances that “engineering thing” I still have going on.  Oh…that and cooking more.   Always more cooking.

Through those puppies in the oven to roast up!

This one is a no brainer.  Got poblanos?  Got tomatillos?  Make roasted tomatillo and poblano salsa!!  It’s easy as throwing then on a sheet pan, roasting, cooling, blending, seasoning and eating.   Makes a great gift too!

The roasted veggies, ready to be made into salsa

Roasted Tomatillo and Poblano Salsa

• 4 small poblano chiles, halved lengthwise
• 2 jalapeño chiles, stems removed and halved lengthwise
• 24 fresh tomatillos, husks removed
• 2 tablespoons canola oil, divided
• 4 garlic cloves, coarsely chopped
• 1 white onion, quartered
• 2 small bunches fresh cilantro, trimmed and coarsely chopped
• 1 teaspoon salt

Preparation

1. Place peppers, tomatillos, garlic, onion on a large rimmed baking sheet. Drizzle with 1 tablespoon oil, turning to coat with a wide spatula. Place peppers cut side down, and broil vegetables 15 minutes or until charred, turning tomatillos but not peppers. Remove from oven; set aside and cool
2. Process roasted vegetables and accumulated juices in food processor until finely chopped; pour into skilled or deep sauce dish and add 1 1/2 cups water. Bring mixture to a boil; reduce heat, and simmer 10 minutes. Stir in cilantro and salt. Cool completely; cover and chill.

I’m going to get some grief from some by calling this a paella.  It’s not the paella that people think of with the beautiful prawns and mussels you’d find by the ocean.  It’s not paella valenciana you’d find in Valencia with rabbit and broad beans.  It’s not your mother or your father’s paella.   It was a more like a “this is what I have in the fridge and garden right now” type of paella.  So by that measure, it’s a paella.  And it should keep me eating for a while this week.

Bringing the broth up to a boil. This is going to be good!

I had yellow and green beans, some cherry tomatoes, and my first two zucchini of the year sitting on the counter, waiting to be eaten.  After watching a PBS series (“Spain…On the Road again) that I had rented on my new AppleTV, in specific the episode on Valencia and paella, I was a little inspired.  Ok, let’s be real – I just had a craving.  Combine that with some organic short grain brown rice from Costco I had picked up the other week that is supposed to be good for paella, it was a fait accompli that I’d be making a paella.

Ok, so I didn’t have the wood burning fire out in Albufera Spain, where the bomba rice comes from but I had a paella pan and I was going to cook!  Side geek note: bomba rice is famous for being able to absorb 3-4 times it volume in liquid thus taking in your flavors of the broth.  The rice is the thing, with what you use to flavor the broth just acting as supporting characters.

I will also tell you I had a type of sofrito already ready in the freezer.  The last big paella go, I had left over sweet bell peppers and onion and made somewhat of an pepper onion soup with saffron and broth in it.  After I cooked some chicken breast (thighs would have been better, but again what I had in the kitchen was breast meat) that had been marinated in garlic, smoked paprika, and olive oil, I put the thawed sofrito in the center and cooked it down with some grated tomato.  After it cooked down to a dark red, I added the veggies and filled the pan with organic chicken broth.  When it came to a boil, I tasted for seasoning and adjusted with salt and cracked pepper.  Then I sprinkled in 400 g of the short grain brown rice and brought it to a rapid boil.

After the liquid cooked down, I could hear the crackling which meant the socarrat (the lovely carmelized crust on the bottom) was forming.  When that happened for a few minutes, I turned the heat off and covered it to let it rest for 10 minutes.   I didn’t have peas in it. I didn’t have fancy piquillo pepper garnish. I didn’t have parsley…but it didn’t matter.  The result was still delish and was definitely work calling paella(esque).

A paella (more or less!)

What to bring to a housewarming barbeque after recently returning from Spain earlier in the week?  Something Spanish flavored of course.  But to write about it?  It would run the risk of comparing it to the marvelous food that I blogged about on it’s own page (Todo sobre mi comida).  No, not comparing it…but perhaps breaking the spell that the country of Spain, it’s food, and most importantly the people cast on me every time I go to visit.    This was a thing I did not break, and find it harder to do every time I go.  So I made the potato salad and let them sit in my computer while I reminisced, that is until I was shamed into writing through a simple inquisition from Spain.  So start writing again I must!

“The Science of Cooking” end all potato salad reference

I came home to an overflowing garden, one of the crops being green beans of the green, purple, and yellow varieties – they were definitely going to have to go in whatever dish I prepared.  And I MIGHT have picked up some potatoes to make tortilla española, so potato salad it was to be.  And any spanish potato salad would have to have garlic and smoked paprika in it.  And extra virgin olive oil, from Spain of course.  It was good that I just happened to have a bottle of it in my house.

Peeled and cubed, ready to be boiled in cold water.

I blanched the beans and then shocked them in ice water, while the potatoes were being cooked.  It was a little bit of a bummer that the the purple beans turned green when they were blanched, but they were going to work in any case.  As a little bit of a side note, I finally got to use my “Science of Cooking” cookbook by Cook’s Illustrated.  They had over 20 pages on potato salad and the preferred techniques.  Bottom line, if you want a potato salad with potatoes that absorb the dressing, like I did, cube the potatoes and boil them in cold water.  They cook quicker, more evenly, and will absorb all that dressing – scientifically proven!

Beans fresh from the garden!

Shocking the beans (notice the purple has gone green)

To make the dressing, I tossed the garlic, sherry vinegar, oil, salt, pepper, anchovies,  and smoked paprika into the blender and whipped it up until it was all incorporated.  Mix that with the slightly warm potatoes, the green beans, and some diced multi-colored bell peppers, capers, and red onion and you have the only potato salad I will ever make again!!!  ¡Buen provecho!

The dressing done in the blender

(Note:  I lie.  I want to make another potato salad soon – the traditional Spanish ensala rusa.  Oh.  And there will be the luau’s potato/mac salad of course.)

The final product! I almost forgot to take a picture, but snapped a quick on at the party.

Spanish Potato and Green Bean Sala

It’s hot out. Well, all things considered not THAT hot. It’s not Death Valley hot. It’s not even El Cajon hot. Ok it’s just kind of warm and I don’t have a/c in my house. And there was no way my oven was going on, but the grill? Yes, the grill!

I had some salmon fillets that I picked up at the store that needed to be cooked. (Fresh and Easy is carrying wild caught, skin on, never frozen pacific salmon. I couldn’t resist!) So I fired up that grill, and made a quick marinade for the salmon. Soy sauce, garlic, chili bean paste, and agave syrup does wonders for a fillet!

But this post is not about the salmon. It’s about what happened before the salmon. My mind wandered, I was hungry, normally danger would ensue. (Read a bag of chips and salsa). My eyes spied the garden and padron peppers and I had a far far superior plan!

After washing the peppers up, I dried them off and tossed them with olive oil. Right on the grill, padrons cook up quick. Turn them until the are blistered, 4-5 minutes tops, and then sprinkle with sea or kosher salt once they are on a plate.

Padrons are great Spanish pepper variety. Picked around 1-1.5″ long they are very mild, but some of them pack a punch. It’s like pepper Russian roulette. I love them! Way better then the inferior shishto variety that seem to be languishing in my garden.

If you don’t have a grill, pan fry them, but either way – buy these at the store, plant a plant, and eat them!

And in review, I seem to be repeating myself in these posts….padrón peppers, tortilla, padrón, tortilla…. It’s ok. I just really like em. 🙂

Typical for me, I started my Saturday morning off making a tortilla española.  For anyone who’s been following my blog for any length of time, you will know I’m a big fan of these.  I make them for myself on the weekend and then nosh on them all week long.  If you’ve been to my house for a dinner, you might have had one for an appetizer, cut up into little bite size squares so you can pop into your mouth with the aide of a toothpick and a swish and gulp of your drink.

Gently cooking the potato and onion – almost a confit of potato.

I’ve been asked, “Is it always just potato, onion, and egg?” or been told “It needs green in it”, the later statement (order?) made by a certain chef friend.  I always make that same face though when confronted with those propositions: wrinkled nose and brow, questioning why I would want to ruin something so simple and so perfect.   After all, it IS a tortilla española…there is nothing else in it but potato, onion, and egg by definition.  And it was the only tortilla I really ever had growing up as a kid in Southern Spain.

The finished product – tortilla de patata y col rizada

Recently I was forced to confront a truth that was contrary to my reality though.  Shocking, eh?  I was back east in Virginia on a work trip and was spending the night at my parents house.  We had a few minutes before meeting the rest of the family for dinner and I spotted a cookbook on my parents shelf by Penelope Casas.  This one was “Tapas – the Little Dishes of Spain”.  I know of Penelope’s books, as my parents have many of them, speak her praises,  and have even given me one as well – “¡Delicioso! The Regional Cooking of Spain”.   Her recipes are great and very authentic.   I started flipping through the well used tapas cookbook, looking at the pages that had sticky notes I assumed indicated things they cooked a lot and/or liked.  I found some gems that I had to have, so I started snapping pictures of the pages with my iPhone – marinated mussels in a vinaigrette, boiled potato, tuna, and egg salad, and those little yummy sandwiches I remember eating in Sevilla on my last trip (montaditos and pringas).

Then I stumbled across the tortilla section and my tortilla world was rocked!  There were recipes for tortillas with ALL KINDS OF THINGS IN THEM: swiss chard, green pepper, onion, baby eels, cheese and truffle (yum, right?!), potato, chorizo and veggies…  AND THERE WAS EVEN A SAUCE RECIPE TO SERVE ON TOP!!  OMG!  And it didn’t stop. There was a “3 layer tortilla” (tortilla de tres pisos).  HOLY TORTILLAS BATMAN!!

Then something even more bizarre happened.  I recovered something akin to a repressed memory.  Actual tortillas in Spain that weren’t just the classic tortilla española!  I can’t remember the city, but I can see the street and the cafe in my minds eye.  I remember getting the ever ubiquitous croquetas (a croquette – a small breadcrumbed fried roll of usually mash potatoes mixed with bechamel and other filling) and looking the food display case at the tortillas, remarking to my dad they they had the craziest thing over there – tortillas with OTHER things in them!  HOW DARE THEY?!  Well apparently, this is common in other parts of Spain that aren’t Andalucia, where we lived.  We learn every day, but apparently I forgot that lesson until a few weeks ago.    Oh – and the kicker to all of this is when I mention this “discovery” to my parents is that their response was one of, “Well, yeah duh…dad makes them with greens in it all the time!!”    Like since when??  Sigh….  Humbled, I am.

Back to the present time, I secured these recipes in short order and was re-committed my intention to at some point in my life have a tortilla cafe that sells just tortillas.  How excellent would that be?!  (I may have also seen several perfect places to do it…just saying.) It’s good to have dreams.  🙂

It’s like a giant delicious edible Pac-Man!

You know where this is going now…  When I went to make my tortilla this morning, it was not going to be a typical one.  I had some tuscan kale from the garden that needed to be used, so in the tortilla it would go.  I followed the basic tortilla recipe, but after setting the potatoes aside to drain, I sautéed the cleaned and chopped kale in the pan with the residual olive oil.  That got mixed in the the potato, onion and egg mixture to soak for the 15-20 min time before cooking up the omelet.  Otherwise, it goes just like any other “regular” tortilla.  Let it cook and set up a bit and bueno – TORTILLA DE PATATA CON COL RIZADA (tortilla with potato and kale)!

Breakfast, lunch, or dinnner. Cold or warm. Plain or on a sandwhich roll. I’ll take a tortilla anyway!

This lunch started as some simple okayu, or Japanese rice porridge. I had felt the beginning of a sore throat over the last few days and needed some comfort food and I didn’t get to have one of my favorites yesterday, the egg noodle soup at Saffron. Okayu is my second favorite comfort food. I put of pot of this one the stove and then cooked up some fresh padrón peppers. Delicious! But I still had some fresh yellow and purple beans, cherry tomatoes, and sugar snap peas on the counter. I really wanted to eat them today, fresh that day from the garden.

So, after the okayu cooked up, I put a few scoops in a bowl, and chopped up the clean veggies to put on top. It needed some more body so I put some canned sardines in olive oil on top. Was this French or Asian? I kept thinking, this would be good and very French(ish) if I had some boiled sliced potatoes, but I wanted that rice, the okayu, so I plodded on.

So if this was going to be Asian, I’d run with it and use Asian toppings to spice it up. So much for my simple rice porridge. After a small dash of soy sauce, a sprinkling of nori fumi furikake (a delicious seaweed, sesame, and other spice rice seasoning), and a dollop of chili garlic sauce, I had my lunch. It may sound weird and the sardines are probably not for all, but it was delicious!

Okayu – Rice Porridge
from this site

Okayu (rice borridge) is easy to digest, so people in Japan commonly eat it when having a cold or so on. This is a basic recipe to make plain okayu. Various ingredients such as chicken and radishes can be added if desired.
Yield: 2 servings

Ingredients:

1/2 cup Japanese rice (short grain rice)
3 cups water (adjust the amount of water based on your preference)
1/2 tsp salt
for toppings (optional):
chopped green onion
sesame seeds
umeboshi (ume pickles)
Preparation:

Wash Japanese rice and drain. Put water and rice in a heavy bottomed pot or earthenware pot. Leave it for about 30 minutes. Cover the pot and put it on medium-high heat and bring to a boil. Turn down the heat to low and cook the rice for about 30 minutes. Stop the heat and let it steam for about 10 minutes. Season with salt. Serve into individual rice bowls. Put toppings, such as chopped green onion, sesame seeds, or/and umeboshi if you would like.