171: Tomatillo Pudding

This looks nice, right? Though even there you should be wary of the sheen on the curd. I'm continuing to improve on crusts, noticing that if you check it too early you'll just think it's falling apart, when it needs a little more time to firm up and come together. I was able to take it out of the pan side, but the removable bottom would not detach.

And then, of course, this happened.

I followed this recipe from Food in my Beard. I wanted to like it, I really did, but I wouldn't necessarily recommend following it. Maybe if I had a juicer it would've been more flavorful. but pureeing the tomatillos in my food processor then straining it out didn't get me the flavor (or color) I was expecting. These were fairly weak tomatillos though, too. So I won't blame the recipe completely.

Why did this fall apart? Well, I didn't use a thermometer. So while it changed to being opaque, and I was able to create a nice line on the back of a wooden spoon, I may not have taken it far enough.

As it is, not tasting like tomatillos at all, it's still delicious. It's just a pudding more than a curd. That much sugar, butter and eggs has to be, though. I think I need to take a break from desserts for a while though. Didn't I say that last time? I probably (maybe) mean it now.

168: Chicken Chili Verde

So maybe this isn't the prettiest dish, but damn is it tasty. I triangulated between a few recipes, and due to the nature of my tomatillos, I don't have anything easily official if you feel like playing along at home. Chili is something that I always wing. It's very forgiving.

Ingredients

4 chicken thighs

1 onion, diced

3 cloves of garlic, minced

2 poblanos, roasted, skinned seeded and diced

1 jalapeno/serrano, roasted skinned seeded and diced

~ tomatillo puree/liquid*

~ chicken broth

1.5 tsp (guessing) cumin

~ salt, pepper, olive oil

1 Tbs cilantro, chopped

Juice of 1 lime

* recipe to post later that needed tomatillo juice. I had pureed 20 tomatillos, strained through a fine sieve/cheese cloth. This used about half that pulp and then maybe a 1/4 cup of juice

Brown your chicken thighs in a dutch oven all over, rendering out some fat. Remove the thighs from the pan, set aside, and put your onions in with the brown goodness on the bottom of the pot. Saute for a bit, until the onions start to brown, then add your garlic and stir until fragrant. Add the poblanos and the hot pepper, then the tomatillo pulp/juice, broth, and cumin. Taste it, adjust some seasonings to your liking (more hot pepper or cumin, etc). Put the chicken back in and simmer, covered, until cooked through. I don't tend to time it.

Remove the chicken again, add the lime juice and some of the cilantro. Let it simmer and thicken uncovered. Shred your chicken, add it back to the pot, and continue to simmer until you reach your desired consistency. Taste and adjust your seasonings again.

I probably added to much tomatillo pulp, but just barely. It's a nice sweet/heat with a slight tartness, but overwhelmingly savory. Is that a confusing enough description? Here's a shorter one: nom.

Delivery 17

Red Leaf Lettuce-2 heads Still having nightmares about the lettuce from the beginning of the season, so I switched out for more tomatillos

Mizuna-1 bunch

Mustard Greens-1 bunch

Radish-1 bunch

Potatoes-2 pounds

Cabbage-1 head

Tomatillos-10

Thyme-1 bunch

Rainbow Carrots-1 bunch

Hot Peppers - Habanero - take if you like

Ancho Peppers- 2

Sweet Peppers-2

Mustard Greens

The salad I made last week was just what I needed, so I'd like to do another raw preparation. Here are a few options.

Potatoes

A mix of red and white potatoes...and I still have some potatoes from last week that haven't found a recipe home. My time has been crazy limited lately, so I have a feeling that most things will probably be roasted/boiled. One of the mustard green recipes uses them. Here are some leftover recipes from other weeks: potato cake (with parsley), pancake, roasted (with cabbage), smashed (with cabbage).

Peppers

Rainbow of peppers! Bell, what they say is ancho (ancho is a dried poblano), cubanelle and habenero. Here's a frittata (bonus for potato). I may just roast them all and mix them with some kind of dressing.

Rainbow Carrots

Rainbow of carrots, too! I'm interested to see if the different colors taste different. Simple raw and roasted preparations are in order.

Cabbage

So...I still have that cabbage from two weeks ago. It's looking not-so-great. Can we just agree that I'll get to this when I get to this? But my perennial salad suggestion will hopefully not be the new pepper jelly (i.e. a recipe that I keep mentioning but never actually do)- it sounds lovely, but the "salt then let it sit for a few hours" gives me pause. When am I home for a few hours and then not on my way to bed?

It's a natural pairing with potatoes- here are some options: Ethiopian, Bolivian, more fried cakes, a few Indian preparations.

Broccoli

Makeshift "head" of broccoli...not sure it's worth making something dedicated out of this. I'm always in need of something simple (and healthy) to eat after interning on weekend, may just snack on these raw.

Tomatillos

These were smelling a bit musty, so as soon as I got home I washed and pureed. Will pick up some cheesecloth on the way home to strain out the juice for a tart. Or if not a tart, at least the curd portion of that tart. Any leftovers & pulp will probably be frozen/used in some kind of meat braise.

Thyme

Roasting herbage. Or biscuits, or popovers.

Radishes

Cherrette and one breakfast. Simple toast, salad (bonus for carrots), sandwich with herb butter, slaw with broccoli and carrot (technically daikon but I'd try it with regular).

Mizuna

Oh heeyyy Mizuna, long time no see. This post mentions an easy prep with potatoes, here's an insanely easy salad (hot garlic dressing), and here's a post on serious eats about it.

164: Tomaillo Cobbler

It's really surprising how few tomatillo dessert recipes I'm able to find. It's salsa this, braising meat that, but the tart/sweet taste seems perfect for baked goods.

I used this recipe from Rick Bayless. The crust is the best I've made so far, the filling was the tricky part for me. I kind of just dumped it in the crust, and then realized it wasn't going to be lay flat/be pretty etc. That didn't bother me, but the fact that it never properly set up was a killer.

I tried cutting out a piece for breakfast and the tomatillos went everywhere/didn't cut cleanly and the filling seeped a lot, so I took the filling out of the crust (ate a bunch of crust), added some pomegranate seeds, and made it into a cobbler with this topping.

The filling is nicely set now, but the cobbling/filling ratio is a bit off. I was thinking that using cornmeal would be a nice southern twist to the recipe, but there's a weird bitterness I'm not enjoying (maybe the corn flour went bad?), and overall it's just too sweet. It's not bad, I just don't think I'm in the mood for desserts.

Delivery 16

Lactino Kale - 1 bunch

Tomatillos - 10
French Breakfast/Cherriette Radishes - 1 bunch
Parsley - 1 bunch
Mustard Greens - 1 bunch
Bok Choy - 1 head
Broccoli - 3 These were feeling rather limp, so I hit up the swap table for more tomatillos!
Shallots - 4
Red Cabbage - 1
Peppers - 2

Hot Peppers - Serranos take if you like

Lactino Kale 

Why are people calling this Lactino Kale when it's also known as DINOSAUR kale. Seriously, so much more awesome and totally apt. Here's a raw salad, and some stuffed sweet potatoes.

Bok Choy

Hash, super easy saute, and I'm still feeling in need of soup.

Tomatillo

You could buy 10 lb bags of these from the farm that supplies the CSA. It was tempting, but I somehow refrained. I want to do something vastly different with these guys. Here's a tart, or some curd, a drink, or braised chicken. Ok and a guac, just in case I feel like dipping.

Radishes

I've had this salad on the list for ages, but now I actually have share radishes to make it with, so it will definitely happen soon. Greens are also nice! If I want to go simple here's a sandwich, or roasted. A few salads: detox and with mangos. And out of the blue a bit: curry!

Red Cabbage

No red cabbage on the swap table today. This is a little guy, so this won't hit as many recipes as the usual cabbage. Simple sweet and sour, a salad with white beans, a few slaws, cooked with apples, and a plain ol sear.

 

Mustard Greens 

There was a surprising amount of mustard greenage on the swap table, maybe people aren't as enamored of it as I am? I keep cooking them, this time I have to keep it raw. Here's a salad with anchovies and one with apples.

Peppers

So the long guys are probably cubanelles- I've just been eating them as easy snacks and will probably continue to do so. This looks really good, though anything with eggs is a winner for me. They're also often stuffed. I have a blacklog of hot peppers, maybe I'll finally get around to pickling them.

Shallots

I'll be posting something amazing with shallots soon, but, again, will mostly just try to use in place of onions/garlic in a few standard recipes.

Parsley

A few recipes mention parsley (at least one of the slaws has it), but here it is wilted on toast (with an egg- scroll down!)...and even further down the page there's a simple salad with lentils and a mustardy vinaigrette. Tabbouleh, a roulade (not gonna happen but cool), eggplant dip, potato cake.

126: Roasted Tomatillo Salsa

Seriously: HOW did I not know about tomatillos until now? Why did no one sit me down and make me eat this delicious thing. I kept seeing them in grocery stores and while tempted, I never actually took the plunge to buy. Well I got 10 this week, which meant about 7-8 for this recipe, and a few for me to nom while it roasted. So tart and delicious.

This week's share had tomatillos and cilantro so that meant salsa time. I followed this recipe from Food in Jars. It's loose (the recipe and my resulting salsa), but I think that's just my bias for liking all my sauces/soups/chilis being crammed full of "stuff" as opposed to brothy.

There are no chips in my apartment, at least none that I'm aware of. Maybe I'll make tacos or enchiladas this week to use some up. Or I'll just make some regular salsa with my tomatoes and have a party. Or hey here's a roundup of uses for leftover salsa!

Delivery 13

So it's come to this, then: I had a dream the other night about picking up my CSA share. The crates the veggies come in were stacked high on tables, so you had to climb up to reach anything. I couldn't find any good tomatoes. I think we were also getting kabocha squash and maybe corn. No zombies...yet.

Tomatoes - 8
Summer Spinach - 1 bunch

Peppers - 4

Eggplant - 2 orient

Cilantro - 1 bunch 

Broccoli - 3 heads

Tomatillos - 10

Garlic Chives - 1 bunch

Cabbage - 1 head

New Red Potatoes - 2 pounds

Hot Peppers - a couple

This week is going to be the death of me. Half of these things just beg for roasting, so it's gonna be soo hot in my kitchen.

Eggplant

These are small ones but: Baignan Bharta! I was worried I'd reached the last of the eggplants but I've got at least one more go. I'm probably going back to redo V4 as that was closest to what I'm looking for, flavor wise.

 
Tomato

My dream was fairly accurate about tomato quality. It was tough finding eight that were good (though I'm picky with produce). Beyond using some for Indian I want to do more remakes or varations. Salsa? More stuffing? Or shakshuka, which I've made for myself but not for ages.

Peppers

I'm giving up on that pepper jelly- if I haven't made it thus far I doubt it's happening. I have a blacklog of hot peppers from the past few weeks, may try making pickles. Not that I eat dips a ton but this Muhammara looks tempting (there are a few other cool dips on that page, too). Or I could stuff them and do a little test on how much flavor it imparts to the final product.

Tomatillos

Flooded with recipes for green salsas, mostly roasted. Some enchiladas if I get tired of dipping chips in it. Haven't used these at all before so I'm going simple.

Broccoli

I will probably just end up roasting this, with or without the accoutrements in that link (not that I really need a recipe to roast). There are a few other options though: stir fry, fritters, or slaw! 

New Potatoes

I'm psychic for share ingredients- in that I buy them a week or two before they come in the deliveries- first the beets now potatoes. Don't think I'll remake that gratin, though it was delicious. I found about a million recipes to roast. This one's a little more interesting (and uses a few things I have leftover from other recipes). Or, you know, fritters.

Cabbage

I'd like to remake the marmalade, even though I still have leftovers. It's delicious, no doubt I'll finish it, and I really want to go for that buttery texture and golden color. For the rest: salad with tuna, here's a roundup from Bittman (though it's mostly napa), pancakes, or hey a simple slaw.

Spinach

The bunches weren't looking so great this week, but I'm always happy to see spinach. Bulgur is a grain I've really wanted to try, so there's that. Here's some saag paneer (looking for an excuse to go back to Kalustyan's), and another roundup from Bittman.

Cilantro 

Between salsa and Baignan Bharta- this is a tiny tiny bunch that I have a feeling will be used up very quickly.

Garlic Chives

I was very close to just trading this in at the swap table- there were tons of cabbage and even a spinach bunch that would've been more useful to me. But I'm already unsure I'll have enough time to cook what I did get, so here we are. I'll most likely just try to incorporate it into dishes, but here's something simple with eggs from Serious Eats.