Barbecue in Mexico

I am lucky enough to have a friend, who has a friend who lives in a house on the beach in Mexico! This is not the Mexico of all inclusives and resort hotels, this is the Mexico of middle class Mexicans and "gringos" living the dream of endless summer. The town is  called San Carlos in the State of Senora on the Sea of Cortes.

We spent much of our time rolling between snorkeling, swimming and just sitting on the deck enjoying the view and the warm sunshine. On the first night that we arrived a Mexican family that had adopted our host arrived to cook a Mexican barbecue.  Senora is renowned for it's beef and and a traditional Senorian barbecue starts out very similar to a Canadian barbecue with steak.

They brought some beautiful rib eye and sirloin steaks that had been sprinkled with sea salt and left to rest in that for a while.  When the coals were burning and before any food was put on, they wiped the grill with a cut onion to clean and season it.

slow cooked pork with apples and garlic

Fall is here with full monsoon rains.  Gone are the long evenings eating on the deck, summer dresses and sandals, time for comfort food, sweaters and boots.  I am trying to embrace this change, though this year for some reason I am finding it harder than ever.  The only way is to cook some really good comforting food and buy some new warm weather clothes.

I made this last weekend up at Pender Harbour where it was pouring rain, and we had spent the afternoon in front of a roaring fire playing quidler and drinking a full bodied red wine. It was so simple and cooked away all afternoon filling the house with the most glorious smells. Bring on winter.

1 pork butt roast, this one was fairly small and fed 4 with some left over
3 apples peeled and chopped
1 onion chopped
1 whole head of garlic cut in half
1 tablespoon of fennel seeds
1 1/2 cups of white wine.

Add all the ingredients except only add 1/2 cup of wine, with a little salt and pepper to a large cast iron pot.

Put on a tight fitting lid and place in a 300 oven.  You could also do the same thing but place in a slow cooker. Cook for at least 3 hours, but 4 or more is really better.

Chicken cacciatora

I believe I got my love of food from my father, though he never really cooked, getting good food was always important.  Today he sends me recipes that he sees on the Internet that he thinks I will be interested in.  I take this as a request for me to cook it for him, and so being the dutiful daughter I made the chicken cacciatora recipe from The Guardian newspaper that he had emailed me recently. Though of course I changed it a little, I just can't help myself, I get that from my mother!

2 tbsp olive oil
4 chicken legs, divided into thighs and drumsticks (skin removed if desired)
1/2 heads of garlic, cloves cut in half
1 small onion chopped
Small bunch of rosemary
1 carrot, peeled and diced
Half a glass of white wine
250ml decent chicken stock
1/2 quart home canned tomatoes or small can of chopped tomatoes

Heat the oil in a large, heavy-based casserole dish over a medium-high heat. Fry the chicken in batches until golden brown on all sides.

Remove the chicken from the pan and set aside. Fry the garlic, onion, rosemary and carrot, with a little more oil if necessary, for a few minutes until slightly golden.

Fresh corn chowder

Fall is here and we are just coming to the end of the all the wonderful local crops such as corn and tomatoes, so now is the time to make the most of them.  I can only eat so many boiled buttered ears of corn, never mind how good they are, I can not say the same for husband however, who could eat fresh buttered corn for dinner every night and I mean just corn!

After the Terry Fox run a couple of weeks ago, there were 6 for lunch, so I used the 5 ears of corn that I had left over from the previous night to make soup.

I am sure you can buy some special gadget for stripping corn, but I do not have such a thing so I had to do it with a knife.  This works fine but does make quite a mess.

Soup for six

4 slices of back bacon (regular bacon would do, but I am trying to cut out fat)
1 tablespoon of olive oil
1 onion chopped
5 ears of corn stripped
5 small yellow potatoes chopped into about 2" chunks
6 cups of chicken stock
1 tablespoon of chopped fresh sage
1 cup of milk

Grilled rack of lamb and duck fried potatoes

I have been absent from the blog for a few of weeks, as summer, catering and weekends out of town got in the way.  But the summer is over :( the catering is all done and time to settle back down in to my routines.  This meal is one that I cooked up at Pender Harbour earlier in the summer and was enjoyed by my good friend and I as we spent a couple of days capturing a little peace and quiet.

If the sun is not shining and you do not want to use the barbecue, these would be just as good cooked under the broiler.

1 rack of lamb
2 tablespoons of grainy mustard
Sprig of fresh rosemary stripped from the stalk
Salt and pepper

Cut the lamb rack into cutlets and then coat in the mustard salt and pepper.  then press the rosemary into the meat.  

I left this to mellow while we went for a walk. then heated up the barbecue. These cook quickly as lamb chops are really best when pink in the middle.

5 spice duck breast

I had promised my Father when were in Naramata earlier this summer that I would cook one of his favourite things, duck breast, when we returned home.  So last week we went down to Granville Island and picked up two magret duck breasts.  We chose these as they were far more substantial than the regular breasts.  As it turned out it was a good job that we did as we had an unexpected guest for dinner and there was plenty of meat for three.  I love asian style duck and so decided to use some chinese 5 spice to flavour the duck.

2 duck breasts
2 tablespoons of 5 spice
1 teaspoon of salt
1/2 cup of white wine

Score the skin in diamond shapes (being careful to cut through the fat but not the meat) this helps the fat to render out. Rub the 5 spice and salt all over the breasts.

Place them skin side down in a heated frying pan and cook on medium high to high until most of the fat has melted and rendered out of the skin.  I poured about a cup of delicious duck fat in to a container to use at a later date to cook some potatoes in.

When the skin is crispy and most of the fat has rendered off pour as much fat off as you can and turn the breasts over.

Moroccan cous cous salad

This is a go to salad for me, when cooking for a crowd. It ticks all the boxes, it is quick and easy to make, keeps well without refrigeration and tastes good. Also it is something that can be made with items that are probably in your pantry right now. Nancy found a recipe for this a few years ago, neither of us can remember where, and it has definitely morphed over the years.

Cous cous is actually a very small pasta, though it looks like a grain. I made this the other evening when we were enjoying yet another beautiful warm evening and wanted to throw dinner together quickly with out shopping.

Feeds 6

1 cup of cous cous
2 cups of boiling water or hot chicken stock
1 teaspoon of ground cardamom
1 small can of garbanzo beans or half a large
1 bunch of green onion chopped
1/3 cup of chopped dates (or raisins)
1/3 cup of roasted almonds slivered or chopped
Juice of one lemon
1/4 cup of olive oil
1/4 cup chopped mint
1/4 cup chopped cilantro

Put the cous cous  and cardamom into a bowl and add the boiling water and 1 teaspoon of salt or stock.

Cover with a plate or saran wrap and leave for at least 5 minutes.  The cous cous will absorb the liquid and should be dry enough to seperate when picked up with a fork.

While the cous cous is absorbing the liquid prepare all the other ingredients.