By Emily DeWitt-Cisneros, SuperSite Food Editor

 

Who doesn't like salsa? The children at North Valley Academy in Albuquerque sure like making it. Each year in Ms. Gleason's 1st and 2nd grade combination class, the kids make salsa for a Father's Day project. "I decided to start making 'Salsa for Dads' for Father's Day with my students because I wanted to give dads something they would enjoy,” says Sarah Gleason a teacher in her seventh year at North Valley Academy. “It had been kind of hard coming up with an idea for something and then I attended the Fiery Foods Show and saw how many people had come up with their own salsa recipes and thought, Wow, I make pretty good salsa, and why not do it at school with the kids and send it home for Father's Day?"

Since the class is made up of 6, 7, and 8 year olds, Sarah says, "I wasn't about to let them work with jalapeños and pick their noses or rub their eyes." So she came up with the idea of using an already spicy canned chopped tomatoes, then adding fresh ingredients to the canned tomatoes to make it a chunky pico de gallo-type salsa. "Making salsa for dads goes pretty smoothly as long as I have enough parent help. We use plastic knives and have at least six small cutting boards for six kids to be working at one time. They each cut up their own tomato, onion, and bell pepper and pick apart their own cilantro," says Gleason. Second grader Ian Erwin says smiling, "The only thing wrong is the onion makes me cry". After the salsa is made Sarah spoons it into jars decorated for dads.

I asked 2nd grader Lennon Washburn if her dad liked the salsa she replied, "My dad said it was hot and it was better than some restaurants." This a agreat way to get a class or family involved in cooking. The children in Ms. Gleason's 1st and 2nd grade combination class make this a big event and you can too with your family.

 

 

Ms. Gleason's Spiced Up Father's Day Salsa

5 cans chopped tomatoes with habaneros (we used Rotel Brand)

24 roma tomatoes, diced

5 green bell peppers, diced

3 yellow bell peppers, diced

2 bunches cilantro, chopped

15 green onions, chopped

7 cloves garlic, minced

juice of 5 limes

24 pint size canning jars

 

In a big bowl combine all ingredients. Ladle the salsa into pint size jars. Chill for 2 hours.

Yield: 24 pint size jars

Heat scale: Hot

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Thanksgiving is by far my favorite holiday of the year.  Reasons?  There's no baggage associated with it, like religion, gift-giving, or dressing-up.  And it has all the things I love most about a holiday: family, good friends, food, drink, and football.  So, the feasting team here at the SuperSite is serving up the following Thanksgiving articles with recipes:

A Barbecued Thanksgiving, here.
Spiced-Up Thanksgiving Trimmings, here.
Holiday Sizzling Stuffings and Leftovers, here.
A Chile Lover's Mexican Thanksgiving, here.

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Nancy Gerlach, who retired and moved to Mexico last year, continues her story about adapting to life in Mexico (has she un-retired? We can always hope):  "It hardly seems possible that another holiday season is upon us, but it is. I've got to admit it's hard to get into the spirit without cold temperatures and some snow, but here in Mexico the weather is like Christmas in Southern California...."  Story continues here.  Image is the malecón and the very long pier for cruise ships at Progreso, close to Chelem where Nancy and Jeff live.

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On January 17, Italian Catholics celebrated the Feast of St. Anthony by, well, feasting.  My friend Marco Budinis traveled to Chiavari for its feast.  He writes: "In Italy Saint Anthony the Abbot is remembered for being the protector of domesticated animals.  In several towns in Italy (as it is in Chiavari in January) several celebrations are held run and there are also country fairs, mostly with booths with food stuff, but also plants such as lemon trees, orange trees and so on.  We feasted on porchetta (above) and spicy olives, cheese, and salami."  Porchetta, of course, is boned whole small pigs stuffed with garlic, rosemary, and fennel.  Mary Jane, Harald & Renate, and I tasted this at the big CIBUS food show in Parma last May, and I think porchetta is one of the best foods I've ever tasted.  St. Anthony is also the patron saint of ergotism, a poisoning caused by the ingestion of alkaloids produced by the Claviceps purpurea fungus that infects rye and other cereals that are used to make bread.  The condition is called "St. Anthony's Fire" and the symptoms are hallucinations, painful seizures, and spasms.  Ergot is a precursor to LSD and some experts believe it caused the Salem witch trials because people afflicted with ergotism from infected bread acted so strangely they were thought to be witches.

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Recipes:

Green Chile Tortilla Pinwheels
Chile de Arbol Salad
Posole (Pork and Posole Corn)
Red Chile Sauce
Biscochitos (Anise-Flavored Cookies)

Go here.

 

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I mentioned in an earlier post that Marco Budinis had visited the Natalidea show in Genoa and had found a bunch of spicy foods.  Now he shares more pix with us, from standard fare like crushed chiles and chile powder...

To spiced-up olives from Puglia...

And chile-laden hard Pecorino cheese from Calabria...

The Calabrians love spicy cheese, so why not put some chile in a soft cheese like Ricotta?

And for those rare Italians who can't eat spicy food, how about the ultimate chile house decoration?

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By Neil Travis Honaker

The weather outside may not have been frightful, but it was darn cold for this time of year in Kentucky. A skiff of snow lay on the ground making the roads just slick enough to send traffic into a tailspin--literally. So when my neighbor called and asked how curry chicken sounded for dinner, I knew that the temperature inside was going to be more hospitable. In other words, it was a great night to spend indoors with a roaring fire and pots on the stove.

When I was younger and first discovering a love of cooking, I was never really certain if curry referred to a spice mixture, a type of cuisine, a method of cooking or an ingredient. Of course, it's a little of all of these things. Over the years it's a flavor I've grown to love, although one I don't enjoy nearly often enough. As the evening progressed, I found I was playing very little part in the cooking, being relegated primarily to stirring the curry and tending to the fireplace. Since my neighbor Charlotte had more experience cooking Indian cuisine, I was content to sit back, watch and learn. Accompanying the dinner would be an Indian rice dish Charlotte learned from a friend, who had in turn learned in from an Indian cook while living in the Middle East. The fact that curry has no fixed recipe made the evening's culinary experimentation all the more interesting. We cooked adding a little of this and that, tasting as we went, all the while discussing the flavors of the curry as it developed. As the fire warmed the house, the curry began to scent the kitchen. Of course we could have search on the internet for a curry recipe, but the dish would not have been as much fun to prepare. Like curry itself which differs region to region (and sometimes even family to family) we were creating it to our own tastes which were very much a product of that night, the weather outside and our particular moods that evening.

Food, friends and a roaring fire. It turned out the night wasn't going to be that cold and dreary after all.

Curry Chicken

Vegetable oil
2 to 2-1/2 lbs chicken breast, quartered
3 to 4 medium shallots, minced
1 habanero chile pepper, minced (without the seeds) - you can substitute a jalapeño for a less spicy version
2 tablespoons flour
 1 15-ounce can coconut milk
8 ounces chicken stock
Juice of one lime
3  to 4 tablespoons curry powder
1 to 2 tablespoons  Garam Masala
Salt, to taste
Pepper, to taste

Heat a small amount of oil in a large pan. Add in the chicken pieces and saute until the chicken starts to brown, approx. 5 minutes. Do not cook the chicken all the way through. Add a small amount of oil to pan in which you sauteed the chicken. Saute the shallots and habanero in the oil until fragrant, but not browned. Add the flour and stir constantly (just like making a roux). Add the chicken stock a little at a time and keep stirring. When the mixture starts to come together, add the rest of the stock and the coconut milk. Stir in two tablespoons of curry powder and one tablespoon of Garam Masala. Let the mixture simmer for a while, then taste. Add salt and pepper as required, and more curry and Garam Masala as desired. Continue simmering and add the juice of one lime. When the mixture is well combined, fragrant and tasty, add in the chicken pieces. Turn the heat to medium and cook until the chicken is done (approx. 20 to 25 minutes). Serve with Indian rice. For an even spicier curry add either ground cayenne or hot curry powder to the sauce before adding the chicken.

Yield 3 to 4 servings
Heat Level: Medium to very hot, depending on your taste

Indian Rice

Vegetable oil
1 cup long grain Indian Basmati rice
1 3/4 C water
Cinnamon sticks
Whole Cloves
Whole Cardamom
Whole Coriander

Add a small amount of oil to medium pot (large enough to add water to later and cook the rice). Break the cinnamon sticks into pieces. Count the number of cinnamon pieces and cardamon seeds (you'll want to remove these later before serving the rice, so you need to know how much is in the mixture). Saute the spices in the oil until fragrant. Add the rice and stir constantly until coated with the spices and oil. Add the water, bring to a boil, then drop the heat to a simmer and cook until the rice is finished.

Yield: 3 to 4 servings

Nobilo Regional Collection Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc 2008

 

While I would have been content to never leave the house, I did venture out long enough to pick up something to drink with dinner. Although I love Indian food, I can't claim to have eaten very much of it or really to know anything about it. I made an inquiry at the Liquor Barn (in Kentucky everything it seems is named after a barn) and was pointed in the direction of a crisp Sauvignon Blanc from the Marlborough district of New Zealand. As it turned out it was a excellent accompaniment to the dinner. The Nobilo had bright, citrus flavors and paired perfectly with the aromatic curry .

 

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Here are some articles and recipes to spice up your holidays:

• "Red and Green for the Holidays"--Nancy's classic article, here.
• "A Deep-Fried Cajun Turkey for Christmas," here.
• "A Multicultural Holiday Feast," here.
• "Christmas Latin American-American Style," here.

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Harald, our European editor, reports:  "I'm hugging a 396.4 kg (873 lb.) pumpkin, grown in Gluecksburg, northern Germany.  It was voted most beautiful this year, and 8th place for weight. That's a lot of pumpkin soup, and a hell of a carving job for Halloween, which has become increasingly popular over here the past couple of years."

 

 

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