The best thing that a recent visitor from California brought down with him was a spice mix from Trader Joe’s called “Everything but the Bagel Sesame Seasoning Blend”. It is delicious on so many things, from fried eggs, to sliced tomatoes and avocadoes and any cooked or roasted vegetable. The sky is literally the limit. I sprinkle it on my homemade sourdough roasted garlic and Kalamata olive bread before I bake it, on toast or a bagel topped with cream cheese, guacamole, salad, popcorn – you name it. BUT, it comes in a small container that empties quickly.
What do you do when there’s no Trader Joe’s down the street when you’re living in Cabo San Lucas for the season and, because of COVID, we have few visitors this season as well. The answer is that you read the label and MAKE IT YOURSELF! Here’s the mixture I came up with:
My Lunch Today – Quesadilla with Zhoug Sauce and Cherry Tomatoes
Ron and I were introduced to a delicious new sauce called zhoug (pronounced zoog) when we were visiting our friends, Bonnie and Don, in Long Beach, California early this year – just before COVID-19 changed the world.
Bonnie is the queen of making fabulous food – FAST! I treat cooking as an exercise in meditation and I putter and play while I create. Bonnie, on the other hand, has learned the art of getting meals prepared quickly so she can move on to do other things she’d rather spend time on. She picked the zhoug sauce up at Trader Joe’s and Ron and I absolutely fell in love with it. We picked up extra to bring home to Mexico, but the supply didn’t last very long. The answer, then, was to figure out how to make it myself!
Zhoug originated in Yemen but is now enjoyed in many other parts of the world (our friend, Henry, remembers having it while living in Israel). I’m a huge fan of chimichurri, but find that zhoug is brighter, spicier, greener and fresher. I use it on and in everything, literally, and it makes the BEST guacamole when mixed into mashed avocado. Using a food processor, this literally takes 10 minutes to make and clean up. Give it a whirl – literally!
Ingredients
3 cloves garlic
2 Serrano chiles, seeds and membranes removed and cut in big chunks
1 large bunch cilantro, washed and dried
1 tsp. ground cumin
1/2 tsp. ground cardamom
1/2 tsp. kosher salt
1/2 tsp. dried crushed chile flakes
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
2 tbsp. fresh lemon juice
Instructions
Place all ingredients (except olive oil and lemon juice) into the bowl of a food processor and pulse until chopped fine. Add olive oil and lemon juice and blend into a coarse paste.
Store in a sealed, glass jar in your refrigerator for up to a week (if it lasts that long!).
For the longest time, I was struggling with why I would continue to write a blog for my website. My posts were becoming fewer and far between. My three books, Fire ‘n’ Ice, Light the Fire and The Hot Sauce Bottle Cookbook, are all out of print now and I have no immediate plan to reprint any or all of them. If my site was no longer supporting the sale of books or some other direct “purpose”, why then would I continue writing blogs?
Then COVID-19 struck! Let’s face it, the pandemic has forced everyone to look at the world differently and I am certainly no exception. It FINALLY occurred to me that I should make my books available in electronic format! So, the process is underway to do exactly that so that people can still enjoy the books and order them online for immediate download. Voila – the solution!
So, stay tuned as I continue to get the ebooks set up for online sales, which gives me the inspiration to begin writing more about our adventures and “cooking with fire”!
I bought an Instant Pot last season and brought it down to Cabo. I’ve had a lot of fun playing with it and experimenting with foods and recipes.
Ron has told me often about a recipe he used to make that he absolutely loved called Chili Colorado. The name has nothing to do with the State of Colorado, but rather the color of the sauce (literally colored red). This is a traditional Mexican stew made with either pork or beef and is wonderfully flavored with the combination of dried chiles used to make it: ancho, pasilla, and guajillo. Please note that these dried chiles should be pliable to ensure maximum flavor – if they are dried out, they will have far less to offer this dish.
Ingredients:
3 cups chicken stock
5 ancho chiles, stems and seeds removed
2 pasilla chiles, stems and seeds removed
2 guajillo chiles, stems and seeds removed
2 lbs. boneless pork shoulder (beef roast may be used as well), cut into 3/4” pieces
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. black pepper
2 tbsp. vegetable oil
8 cloves garlic, chopped
1 tbsp. ground cumin
2 tbsp. fresh sage, chopped
2 tbsp. fresh Mexican oregano, chopped
2 bay leaves
1 – 14 oz. can of pureed tomatoes
1 tbsp. brown sugar
1 bottle of beer
Method:
Heat chicken stock in a saucepan. When boiling, add the chiles, then cover and remove from heat. Let sit for about half an hour to allow the chiles to soften. Put the chiles and all of the soaking liquid into a covered blender and purée until very smooth.
Season the pork pieces with salt and pepper. Heat the oil in the Instant Pot using the Sauté function. Add the meat and brown. Add garlic, cumin, oregano. bay leaves, tomatoes, brown sugar and beer. Stir in the chile purée, cover and cook for 30 minutes using the Pressure feature and Pork selection.
The first night that we had this chili, I served it over white rice with a dollop of sour cream on top. The second night, I added some cooked kidney beans (many chili aficionados would baulk strongly at that!) and served it over baked potatoes, again with a dollop of sour cream on top. Neither of these treatments is authentically Mexican, as it would be served with Mexican rice, flour or corn tortillas and perhaps some beans a la charra on the side. However you like to enjoy it, this is a delicious dish that is prepared rapidly with the use of the Instant Pot.
While we’re staying in the Hamptons, we rent a basement suite from a dear Irish woman and her son in the village of Hampton Bays. As with any rental, the kitchen equipment is basic and you make the best with what you have to work with.
We had a large batch of fresh basil the other day that I decided to make pesto with (the organic and farm-stand produce available here is fabulous at this time of year). We had, I thought, all the ingredients and tools required to make it – until I started.
I threw everything into the blender and was starting to pulse before adding the oil and, as luck would have it, the motor seized up. I pulled everything out of the blender jar in batches and coarse chopped the fresh basil (~2 cups), garlic (4 cloves), and walnuts (~1/4 cup). I then took a round bottomed bowl and used the heel of a chef’s knife to create a mortar and pestle. Once I had the ingredients in the bowl pulverized to a coarse texture, I gradually introduced the olive oil (~1/2 cup) and mixed until smooth. I then stirred in the freshly grated Parmesan cheese (~1/2 cup) until just combined.
I had cooked some Casarecce pasta, added some beautiful sliced cherry tomatoes, Kalamata olives and chopped roast chicken, but was concerned that I wouldn’t like the coarser texture that my handmade pesto would provide. I was delighted that we really enjoyed it and that the small bits of walnut, garlic, cheese and basil actually added to the dish. I’ve always made my pesto very smooth, but this was a huge learning for me that sometimes a more crude or handmade touch is the key to a great dish. I encourage you to give it a try sometime (or at the very least, pulse a bit less to get the same results)!
