A Little Cooking Music

Most of the time I don’t have any music in the kitchen when I’m cooking.  But awhile ago I uncovered No 1 daughter’s sound system that she left behind when she went off to college.  (Actually, she couldn’t have anything in her room at the USMA, so I guess I just sort of took it over.  Now if she reads this, she is sure to ask for it back! J)  Thinking to put it to good use in time for Christmas music, I set it up in the corner and pulled out some of my favorite CDs.  I had forgotten how much fun it was to cook with music in the background.  Here are 10 keepers that go great with anything you’re making and any mood you’re in.

1.      Pink Martini—Hang On Little Tomato

2.      Michael Hedges—Aerial Boundaries

3.      Sergio Mendes and Brasil 66—Greatest Hits

4.      Great Big Sea—The Hard and the Easy

5.      Dolly Parton—The Grass is Blue

6.      Electric Light Orchestra—Greatest Hits

7.      Aaron Copland—Appalachian Spring

8.      Huun-Huur-Tu—the Orphan’s Lament (Tuvan throat singing)

9.      Paul Winter Consort—Earthbeat

10.  Frank Sinatra—Greatest Hits

What are yours?

          

    

Whammo! Tom-Clam-O!

After passing through the grocery store aisles for years and eyeing the Clamato Juice cocktail with curiosity, I finally broke down and bought some.  I actually resisted buying it for a long time, since its ingredients included high fructose corn syrup and food coloring.  (Why high fructose corn syrup is bad.) It was also sort of a suspicious unnatural red color. 

However, I couldn’t stand it anymore.  One day I bought some.  The whole idea of clams and tomatoes together was actually very appealing.  Afterall, weren’t they the stars in my favorite Italian clams dish?

I have to say that I really loved the stuff.  It was/is the perfect morning jolt, with enough flavor and salty sweetness to get me moving.  I guess you could say I became addicted to Clamato.  Have a midnight craving?  Drink Clamato.  Thirsty after eating a bag of pork rinds while working on the computer?  Drink Clamato.  Happy?  Drink Clamato.  Mad?  Drink Clamato.  Pregnant?  But, at nearly $5 a bottle, it was more expensive than fricking orange juice.  I went through 2 bottles a week.

As much joy as it was giving me, I cringed every time I put a bottle into my grocery cart or took one out of my fridge.  Still high fructose corn syrup in there?  Yep.  Still strange coloring?  Yep.  Despite channeling subliminal requests (a la Richard Gere) to the Mott’s Company to amend their recipe, my favorite beverage was becoming a serious source of cognitive dissonance. 



Some of the basic ingredients.  Try to get Snow's brand clams.
They are the only ones I've found with US clams.



Observing my predicament one day, Mr. Artifact suggested, “Why don’t you make your own?”  In fact, he even collected some ingredients at the grocery store for me.  I tried a number of recipes that I found on the web from souls as conflicted as mine.  But, they (the recipes) were weak approximations.  Clam juice was the recommended ingredient to get the clammy flavor into the juice, but it was not coming through once diluted in the tomato juice.  Mott’s appeared to use dried clams, which weren’t on my grocer’s shelves.  Again, Mr. Artifact came to the rescue and brought home a can of clams (Snow’s, a product of USA. Yay!).  These were liquefied in my trusty Oster Blender.  And viola!  This was a significant improvement, but still not kicky enough.  We finally settled on adding some fish sauce, a key ingredient in Southeast Asian cooking.  A few more improvements to get the tart, sweet and salty mixture resulted in the additions of Worcestershire Sauce, beef broth, catsup, vinegar, and lemon juice.

Mr. Artifact even made up an apt name and label:  Whammo! Tom-Clam-O!

So, I’m still addicted, just not conflicted.



Whammo! Tom-Clam-O! Recipe        Makes 8 Cups

(by Butternut Place blog)

·         6 C tomato juice

·         1C homemade beef broth/cooled (if you use bouillon, be warned that it may make the drink very salty)

·         6.5 oz. container chopped clams (in clam juice)

·         4 T lemon juice

·         2T red wine vinegar

·         2T natural catsup (no HFCS)

·         1 ½  T fish sauce

·         1  T Worcestershire Sauce

·         2t sugar

·         1t Sriracha Hot Chili Sauce or Tabasco (you may want less, so add only a little bit at a time and test in between)

Add clams (with juice from can) in blender and blend on high/liquefy for 40 seconds.  If you notice that your clams have not completely liquefied, blend a bit longer. Add 1 C of the tomato juice and all the remaining ingredients in a blender.  Blend until incorporated.  It may appear pinkish and cloudy due to all the air infused during blending.  Pour the mixture into a plastic or glass container/pitcher.  It will need to be about 8 cups or 64 oz in size. 

Add the remaining 5 C of tomato juice to your container with the mixture, and stir or shake to combine. 

Affix Tom-Clam-O! Label.

Taste, wait a moment for the kick to develop, widen your eyes, and with a big look of surprise exclaim “Whammo!”

 Chill and display prominently on top front shelf in refrigerator.

This drink will improve in flavor after several hours of (not to get all scientific with you, but) ‘infusing and entwining.’ It will become less opaque as the air bubbles diminish.

Winnie's Posole





Winnie and Santa.  Need I say more? 
Posole drained and ready to cook below.



During a recent visit to Number One Daughter and Favorite Son-in-Law in Tucson, we went to this cool food co-op (Food Conspiracy:  http://www.foodconspiracy.org/) , and I got some dried hominy and other goodies.  Poor Winnie (their Number Two dog, a chow chow) had to stay outside the store at a bistro table and entertain the Tucsonians.  Fortunately, her mom and dad like posole and might even give her some leftover pork.

First order of business:  how in the heck do you pronounce this stuff?  Po-SO-lay with the main emphasis on the middle syllable.  Just imagine you’re in England, where all the middle sylLAbles get the emPHAsis.





Second order of business:  what the heck is hominy? Hominy is the kernel of the corn with the bran and the germ removed through a process of soaking the kernel in a caustic medium, such as lye.  The kernel is then dried and used whole (for dishes like posole) or ground (for dishes like grits).  It originates from Native American food practices and is an especially good storage product.  If you want to know more, check out this information on Wikipedia.   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hominy   Hominy looks like a corn nut and can be very chewy if not cooked thoroughly (which is why I had to serve it the next day when I tried to make the posole!).



The posole simmering away.



So, here’s to Winnie’s Posole!  Made from a Native American grain,  in a dish perfected by the Mexicans, enjoyed by anyone with a taste bud worth a peso, pronounced like a Brit, and endorsed by a Chinese dog.   Oy vez!  What a misbegotten food! (my Jewish/Pennsylvania Dutch sneaking in here). 

This recipe is for about four hungry people or six foodies pretending to be on a diet.  Imagine you just came in from cross country skiing and you are having this with a cerveza and a lime!  Or a nice glass of Cupcake Vineyard sauvignon blanc http://www.cupcakevineyard.com//index.cfm. 

Ingredients

1 ½ C hominy (dried) (if using canned, omit the soaking and long 2-4 hour simmer)  Hint: while it sounds so romantic to use the dried corn, it is a major deal to cook it long enough, so I would not be ashamed to use canned—I will next time!)

1 ½  lb pork butt (shoulder)

4-6 C chicken or beef broth

1 small onion, diced

½ tomato, diced

3 cloves garlic, diced

2 T bacon grease or olive oil

2 bay leaves

½ diced chipotle pepper plus one teaspoon adobo from the can (from canned Embasa brand chipotle pepper in adobe sauce)  This stuff is hot so proceed gradually with caution!

SPICES—crush in a mortar (or use ground)

1 t cumin seeds

½ t anise seeds

1 t coriander seeds (1/2  t if ground)

3 whole cloves (a pinch if ground)

3 whole allspice (a pinch if ground)

1 t Mexican oregano

2 t salt

Garnishes ready for the table.  Garnishes por las mesa.

GARNISHES

4 sliced radishes

3 diced green onions

1 lemon or lime in wedges

1 C shredded green cabbage

1 tomato diced

1 avocado sliced

SERVE WITH

Warm corn tortillas

Directions

The day before: 

Brown pork butt, add salt and pepper and then bake covered in 325 oven for 3-5 hours until it shreds away in tender pieces.  When done, set aside/refrigerate.

Overnight soak the hominy in water to cover.  Drain, then cook for 2-3 hours until chewy. You could do this at the same time your pork butt is cooking.  If you are using canned hominy, skip this step and decrease hominy cook time below to 30 minutes.

To make:

Sauté onions, garlic, tomatoes and chipotle/and sauce in bacon grease.  Add spices and some salt to taste when onions are translucent.  Add more chipotle if you want it  hotter.  Add hominy and coat with fat.  Add chicken broth, bay leaves and bring to simmer for 2-4 hours or until hominy is tender (if you use canned hominy reduce cook time to 20 min).  Don’t rush it!  If not tender, keep cooking and plan for it as the next day meal. This is too good to screw up.  Number One Son actually likes it kind of chewy.

Once tender, add pork (shred it and dump it in).  Simmer for another 30 minutes or more until all the flavors combine.  Important:  don’t add the pre-cooked pork until your hominy is done.

Serve:

In a large bowl and allow diners to garnish as they like.