Sancocho 7 carnes- Sabroso Saturday

My mom is here today – she cooked rice and beans for us, which we ate with a roasted chicken from the deli section. We finished our meal a short while ago and then I remembered Sabroso Saturday. I need a recipe! She recited this from memory, making it seem easy and routine. Of course there are no measurements. This is a non-recipe, handed down from one generation to the next, because it’s so simple. It’s all about what looks good or smells good when you get to the store.

You should know, to my mom cooking is natural like breathing. For years she kicked us out of the kitchen, while she prepared a full meal for a crowd, every single day. Mami thinks nothing of making a sancocho. It’s much easier for her than making meat and potatoes, or any other food that needs a side dish. Sancocho is comfort food, one pot, one bowl. Most times, anyway.

Sancocho

This photo shows the last time Mami made a sancocho for the whole family. It was a spring day where the weather started out nice but hinted at rain.

We went out in the rain for groceries with my sister and Lesli -  after we were already on the road, the rain turned to a storm. It got so bad, the store even lost a window! Employees were running around with cardboard and planks to seal up, while we hunted for the best of everything. All of us came back home soaking wet and then the fun really started.

We had bought so much of everything, that the meats and vegetables overflowed from one pot, so Mami had to get another.

Sancocho de 7 carnes

(Stew made with 7 meats)

Ingredients

• Meat: beef, chicken, pork, guinea fowl, goat, rabbit, smoked ham (leave out any you don’t like or have)
• Vegetables: Celery, corn, green guineos, malanga, plantains, potatoes, squash, yautia, yuca (skip the sweet potatoes or anything that would go in a salad – we’re going for firm starchy vegetables)*
• Seasonings, herbs, spices: adobo, basil, bouillon cube, garlic, onion, oregano, salt, pepper
• Cilantro

Steps
Add seasonings to meats and put them in a large pot with room in it.
Cover with water, bring to a boil.
When the meat is starting to get tender (before it’s falling off the bone), lower heat to simmer and add vegetables.
When vegetables are soft and starting to crumble, the broth will start to thicken.
Add cilantro, keep on simmer for 10 to 15 minutes then turn off flame.

My favorite way to eat sancocho is over white rice, with chunks of avocado and hot sauce. We have no photos of that, because once we smell the food, everybody comes over to sneak a bowl.

*You can find lots of these in the frozen section, and sometimes even a blend of “sancocho” vegetables, but Mami says it’s better to buy them fresh. Whatever looks good, or smells good, or makes you smile when you see it in the store, that’s what you put in the sancocho.

I wrote this post as part of the Sabroso Saturday blog hop originated by MsLatina. She writes a post each week at her site – then other bloggers add links to their recipes. I would suggest grabbing note cards, stocking up on ink for your printer, because you will want to try more than one of these recipes!

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Huevos Divorciados – Sabroso Saturday

A few weeks ago I was at my friend Lety’s house. Lety is a book lover, food lover, businesswoman, mom, wife. To put it simply, a woman I admire. Did you catch that bit about book lover? The vocabulary word would be bibliophile, which I really really like to say. Lety has business books, science fiction, romance, art, biographies and my favorite: food books. Not just recipe books, but books that involve food. Sitting in Lety’s house always feels like home. Very safe and comfortable. I grab something off the shelf, ask questions, we start talking about anything or everything..

This last time at Lety’s house I spotted her book Tacos by Mark Miller. This book tells you everything about tacos. How to make them, where to to buy special ingredients, which ingredients to use when, how to fill tacos, what to serve with  tacos. As I flipped through the pages, the photos made me drool. There is even a seafood section!

The recipe that made me laugh was “huevos divorciados”, divorced eggs. In the book, they are served on separate tortillas instead of being separated by a wall of tortilla chips. But I hope you get the idea.

This is Mark Miller’s recipe, the photo below came from Wikipedia.

Huevos Divorciados

Makes 8 tacos, Serves 4 – Heat level 5 (on scale of 1 to 10)
Prep time 20 minutes

• 1 1/4 cups Green Chile Sauce (recipe in book)
• 1 1/4 cups Red Chile Sauce (recipe in book)
• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 8 large eggs
• 8 (5 1/2 inch) soft yellow corn tortillas (recipe in book) for serving
• Garnish: crumbled cooked bacon

Heat the red and green chile sauces in separate saucepans, and keep warm.

Preheat a large, heavy nonstick skillet to medium-low. Melt the butter, then add the eggs and fry sunny side up.

This is a knife and fork taco. For each serving, lay 2 warmed tortillas side by side, open face and overlapping on a plate. Top each tortilla with a fried egg. Spoon some of the red chile sauce around one egg, some green chile sauce around the other.

*NOTE* In my house, the sauces would probably come from jars. Then we would add extra spices or chiles, and use premade tortillas to make the eggs the star of the dish. Since I like my eggs pampered, coddled, over medium, any way that leaves the yolk soft enough to dip, I might occasionally do this presentation below with tortilla chips. I hope to soon make my own tortillas, maybe adding flecks of fresh chiles in the masa.

Huevos Divorciados - photo from Wikipedia

This post is part of the Sabroso Saturday blog hop originated by MsLatina. You will find links to recipes from bunches of bloggers recipes at her site – grab a napkin now, because when you start reading all the recipes you might end up licking the monitor!

DISCLOSURE: The link for the Tacos book goes to Amazon. If you buy through that link, I get a percentage of the sale.

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Breakfast for Dinner – Sabroso Saturday

It seems the weather has been on some type of delay – we had snow in April now rain in May. This means I haven’t quite figured out whether to put away the galoshes, or start shopping for barbecue supplies. I mean, any minute now we should have warm weather for barbecues. Any minute now we should have fireflies in the evening.

With this confusing weather, my taste buds have also been out of whack. I ate spicy chopped tomatoes with jalapeño peppers, and whole grain chips. Had hummus straight from the container. Wednesday night, though, I had my favorite meal of the week. Breakfast for dinner. If you’ve never had breakfast for dinner, give it a try. Until then, I have two words for you: comfort food.

Lesli made one fried egg on a raft of turkey bacon. It was so simple it can barely be called a recipe.

1. Take two slices of turkey bacon. Cut each in half with kitchen scissors.
2. Arrange the bacon strips into a grid, in a nonstick pan over medium-low flame. More low than medium.
3. When the bacon starts to get crispy, crack one egg into the center of the bacon grid.
4. If desired, add one or two tablespoons of water to the pan, away from the egg and bacon.
5. Put a lid, glass if possible, over the bacon and eggs, so the steam cooks everything.
6. Stay near the stove. If your lid is not glass, wait at least three minutes before checking.
7. Serve with whole-wheat toast.

When Lesli brought up the bacon-and-egg creation, I put it on the toast. The egg was over-medium, just how I like. The white was fully cooked, the yolk was a little soft. Much more fun than eating an overdone, gummy egg. Besides, the bacon under the egg was crunchy enough. Why mess around?

Breakfast-Dinner

This post is part of MsLatina’s Sabroso Saturday blog hop. Check in at her site for recipes from other bloggers across the country, and from all corners of the internet. Get your napkins ready, all these recipes are going to make you drool!

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The Oprah Show, best friends and Hanes

Do you see the connection yet?I think it’s all about comfort. Yesterday on Oprah we were treated to some fun and drama (ahem, Yellowstone and  the “days of yore” experience). I thanked my lucky stars to live in “modern times” when Gayle and Oprah had to sacrifice inner garments as part of the 1600′s experience. Gayle talked about large soft leaves when she had to switch modern plumbing for an outhouse. My biggest laugh was the look from Oprah, when Gayle requested her bacon extra crispy.

If you’re anything like me, that last paragraph has you stuck on “outhouse” or “inner garments”. Well yes, those were the things that stuck for me. I couldn’t imagine surrendering my soft, smooth, tag-free Hanes. I’ll stop short of telling you which particular items. Let’s just say Hanes does head-to-toe, from the inner layers all the way to hoodies.

Today ONLY – April 22, 2011 – if you buy from Hanes online, at this link: http://www.hanes.com/specialevents/TVShow.html, there is a 40 percent discount on ANYTHING you buy. Go ahead, stock up on socks (they always seem to be separated in my laundry). Don’t forget the tag-free sweats and unmentionables.

UPDATE: I just tried to make my purchase, and got a message about the website being overloaded. The offer is being extended (no specifics on time limit, but I’d say if you make your purchase on Saturday it should be good).

DISCLAIMER: I have not been paid to post about this. It’s just a great promotion.

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Caldo Verde – Sabroso Saturday

This past Saturday Lesli and I went to our church’s annual mother/daughter dinner. The room was decorated in a garden theme, with creeping vines on the walls. The tables were set with pretty floral plates, and the napkins had butterflies and flowers on them. Each table had a basket full of bread, with oil for dipping. The teen boys were assigned the task: make sure the moms and daughters had food and drinks. Brother Angel (yes that’s really his name) checked to make sure all the ladies – young and not-so-young, were happy with their meals. Our first dish was caldo verde. It was delicious, and felt just right for these past few weeks – a big bowl of soup would comfort me when the weatherman starts to call for snow in April.

Caldo Verde - originally from Serious Eats.

I did a search for caldo verde. After comparing a few different photos, this recipe for Azorean Kale, Sausage and Bean Soup looks most like what we enjoyed. Caroline Russock shared this originally at Serious Eats. Read her post here.

This soup looks yummy, with tons of vegetables.  I will be making it soon, and serving it with warm crusty garlic bread (we mash the garlic with olive oil and add a few secret spices). NOTE: I cut and pasted Russock’s recipe exactly. There are certain steps where I plan to make changes, such as using canned kidney beans instead of soaking dried beans overnight. Also, since the recipe calls for garlic cloves, I plan to mash a bunch of garlic in my pilón (mortar and pestle) – some for the bread, some for the soup, some for future use, then mashing the beans in step  4. I’m not afraid of some bean skins.

Azorean Kale, Sausage and Bean Soup

serves 8 to 10

Ingredients

1 1/4 cups dried red kidney beans, picked over, rinsed, and soaked overnight in water to cover by 3 inches
2 tablespoons olive oil, or more if needed
12 ounces chouriço, linguiça, or dry-cured smoked Spanish chorizo, cut into 1/4-inch coins
2 large yellow onions, chopped
1 Turkish bay leaf
3 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
4 cups homemade beef stock, or low-sodium store bought broth
1 1/2 pounds red potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1/2 pound collard greens or kale, thick center stems and fibrous veins removed, roughly chopped
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

1. Drain the beans, dump them into a medium saucepan, and cover with water. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to low and simmer, partially covered, until the beans are tender but still hold their shape, about 45 minutes. Drain and set aside.
2. Meanwhile, heat the olive oil in a large pot over medium heat until it shimmers. Toss in the chouriço and cook until browned, 7 to 10 minutes. Fish out the slices with a slotted spoon and transfer to paper towels. Pour off all but 3 tablespoons of the fat from the pot, or if the pot is dry, drizzle in more oil so you have 3 tablespoons. Add the onions and bay leaf and cook, stirring often, until the onions are deeply golden brown, 20 to 25 minutes. Adjust the heat as necessary to prevent the onions from burning.
3. Add the garlic and red pepper flakes and cook for 1 minute. Pour in the beef stock and 5 cups of water, add the potatoes, and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat to low and simmer, covered, until the potatoes are just tender, 10 to 12 minutes.
4. While the soup is simmering, spoon a third of the beans and a bit of the soup broth into a food processor. Pulse to make a loose paste, then, if desired, pass the paste through a sieve. Straining the paste gives the dish extra body without errant bean skins floating in your soup. It’s entirely optional but, I think, preferable.
5. When the potatoes are cooked, stir in the collards, chouriço, bean paste, and beans. Turn off the heat and let the soup sit for 10 minutes to marry the flavors.
6. Remove the bay leaf, season the soup with salt and pepper to taste, and ladle into warm bowls.

This post is part of the Sabroso Saturday blog hop originated by MsLatina. Check in at her site for recipes from other bloggers across the country, and from all corners of the internet. There’s no telling what everyone will be cooking!

DISCLOSURE: I was not paid to post about this event. There is an Amazon link with my Associates code, so if you buy the product I will get a percentage of that.

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