Chili Night...Caliente!

Guacamole and Chili con Carne: a match made in Mexican Heaven!

Last Monday, we had a guest (Nancy) for dinner. I decided to take everybody south, with litres of lemonade and a bag full of spices thrown across our chest for survival. En route for Mexico!

Let me take you on the trail of our short culinary itinerary of the night: First, I suggested we paid a tribute to the great Aztecs' tradition, so we started with an individual side dip of Guacamole-Olé!

Jaguar warrior, from the Codex Magliabechiano.

I made it super plain: 2 avocados, crushed, mixed with the juice of 1/2 a lemon, paprika and all spices, with a bit of fennel seeds for decoration. FYI, I didn't add any jalapenos or tomatoes as the chili was already rich in those ingredients...
Then, I invited them to join me in the Hacienda of Chili con Carne, Arri-Arriba!

Hacienda de San Antonio (dating back to 1879), now a hotel in Mexico.

The chili , which arguably is not the most typical Mexican food (it can be found worldwide, and is the official dish of Texas, USA!), did wonders that night! I served it as our main course; with blue corn chips and a side salad of arugula. But this was not my first try with chili...

I love chilis! I must have made about a dozen of them since the last year and a half, when I first moved in with my Peruvian-born husband, Marco. He loves spicy cuisine, and so do I, even if my tolerance is not as high as his... Chili Con Carne is one of our favourite dishes, when it comes down to cooking together (another big hit with us being the boeuf en daube!), as it really is a lot of fun to prepare. Marco could not participate in the preparartion of this chili, so I had to play it solo, and decide on the spiciness alone. I enjoyed the experimentation and took down a few notes.

This being said, I am therefore happy to declare that this chili con carne worked out beautifully: spicy, subtle, bitter-sweet, filling but not like a brick of beans dropping down into your stomach. And the final spicy touch was brought by Marco, who chose to play Lhasa's legendary La Llorona while we were having dinner.

Lhasa de Sela

In a nutshell, it was a memorable Chili (not chilly, oh no!) night. I say memorable, and not the ultimate chili ever; because, you know, with chilis, proportions and ingredients tend to vary according to taste, inspiration, and what is left on your spice rack...So there are many other variations of that good chili night! Making a chili is indeed very creative. It is enjoyable to play with this traditional, homely Tex-Mex specialty. Preparing a chili in a big pot feels, to me, a bit like a ritual. It is chemistry. Like a magical potion: "Fair is foul, and foul is fair", could I sing in unison with Macbeth's Weird Sisters...
But enough with my talking about chili, here is time to make it happen!

Ingredients:
Serves 6-8 people
600-800g medium ground beef (organic, if possible)
1 or 2 large chopped onions
6 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 tbsp dried ground cumin or to taste
2 tbsps dried chili powder, or to taste
1 tbsp of ground coriander, or to taste
1 or 2 fresh chili peppers or jalapeno peppers
A few marinated chilis (4-5) are great for extra spicy flavours too!
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
700-800 g of tomato puree, diced tomato sauce, or fresh tomatoes, coarsely chopped (or a combination of all three)
400-600 g of Romano or Red Kidney beans
200 g of Black beans
NB: If you go for dried beans instead of their canned cousins, don't forget to damp them for a night and boil them with a tsp of baking soda to help with the digestion process...
2-3 squares of dark chocolate (70% cocoa)
Fresh leaves of coriander for garnish

.In a large soup pot over medium-high heat, fry ground beef, onion, and garlic until the meat becomes grey in colour. Add cumin, chili powder, jalapenos, salt, pepper, tomatoes. Reduce heat to low and simmer, covered, approximately 1-2 hours, stirring often. Note: additional beef broth, water, or wine may be added as needed.
.Add beans and continue to simmer another 30 minutes. Remove the lid from your pot to make sure the mixture is not too drowned into juice.
Note: During the last 30 minutes of cooking, do a lot of tasting and adjust seasoning to taste.
.Toss 2-3 squares or a grating of bitter (70% cocoa) chocolate into chili to cut down the acidity of the tomatoes. It will help give body to the chili and mellow the flavors.
.Serve in large individual bowls.

NB: Chili is like any other stews, the more you heat it up, the better it gets! For maximum flavour, cool chili and refrigerate overnight so that flavours will mellow. Reheat chili over low heat.

Red Chili Peppers , watercolour by Ileana Carrena

Buen provecho!

Cooking with Youtube

Last Sunday, I hosted a crazy Strudel & Xmas shortbread cookies party! A budding tradition initiated by Zuly, my mother-in-law, and her desire to try two new Christmas recipes that she had found online. We reported present to take up the challenge, you know us, always ready to go for something as new, daring and challenging as... baking based on youtube video recipes.

Hannah, who happens to be a real chef - not a pastry chef, though, and baking a strudel was new to her too- was here in charge of the apples mixture for the strudel. She did a fantastic job!

Watch the following videos...and see you again in a little while.

A Baker's Odyssey: Apple Strudel Recipe Apr 9, 2009 - 10:43 Learn to make classic apple strudel - layer upon layer of paper-thin buttery pastry rolled around a generous amount of apple and cinnamon, with raisins & walnuts. By baking with immigrants in...

Shortbread Cookies - Foodea Recipes Nov 26, 2008 - 05:37 Delicious shortbread cookies that are great for the family.

You now understand why Zuly picked up these recipes! The more, the merrier...She loved the making of the strudel most particularly, to start a family Christmas tradition. And we did have a lot of fun! Strudel-wise, we warmed up our hand muscles, and kneaded the strudel's dough as much as required, i.e we hit it on the table a hundred times !!!

Zuly airing the particles of the dough. I think she hit it the hardest!

While we were hitting the dough on the table in turns, Jen was hands down dealing with the mixture for the cookies
Here is Chris's turn to hit the dough. He was so crucial to keep us on track!
Yours sincerely at work, along with Jen - What a blast!

Honestly we found it a bit tricky not to have the exact quantities and instructions listed in front of our eyes...We had to repeat a few stages while making the strudel.

The team focusing hard on the videos...What did he say? How much? How long? What's the oven's temperature that he just said?

Well, to tell you the truth, the strudel from the Baker's Odyssey didn't prove very successful. As a matter of fact, the result of our cooking session turned out to be half-half!

Jim, scooping up the cookies with real savoir-faire

Part of it worked beautifully (the cookies!), the rest did not really (the strudel)...

The strudel and its offspring: bof, way to go! But the cookies did pass the test. Yes, we tasted ONE (see the hole in the middle...), and the consistence was purr-fect!

It's OK! We have learnt from our failure. Baking is quite like chemistry... In baking, everything has to be perfectly accurate to give the right result, and I think that the strudel video was a bit elliptical on some crucial points...Whatever, we missed the target with the dough. We, all the same, sat around the table and ate the strudel with a lot of pleasure, all together. My husband, Marco, and his twin brother, Miguel, who had been away for the day, even made it just in time to share the joy with us!

We welcomed the latecomers (Miguel and Marco) by crowning them with fancy coloured hats - looking good, baby!

At the end of the day, we were all too happy to get a box full of scrumptious cookies. As you can see the box was sealed carefully with my Canadian tape to make sure that no hungry fingers would slip inside the cookies box before Christmas day, the day the Jacob family will gather chez nous to eat them all together. I can't wait!

A charming Francophile trio of cooks : Zuly, Lara and Hannah. Bravo!

Lesson of the day: We have learnt from experience that to make a strudel is a lot of fun, (it was a very good idea, Zuly!), but that it is better...
. to marinate our raisins in a cup and a half of rum
. not to put any bread crumbs (it made it too dry)
. to glaze the roll with the yolk of an egg.
Yes, we will do that next time! And, if we can't find a way to bake a good strudel, I might well invite my Canadian family to go for a gingerbread Christmas tradition, instead. I have a very good recipe for it, taken from my traditional Alsatian cuisine cookbook. I will soon bake one for you. I will keep you posted ;0)

Last but not least, is there anybody there who would have a good traditional recipe for Strudel in store ???

Brussels Sprouts...From Paris with Love!

Thierry and I, in front of Pei's Pyramid - the Louvre Museum, Paris, August 2008.

Mon cher Coco,

This new label Chez Coco & Co will feature some of my good friends' recipes. The first one invited aboard is Titi from Paris. Let me tell you briefly about my good friend, Thierry. I have known him since I was 19! In a nutshell, since college as we were both following English studies, at that time. There was a lapse of about 10 years in our relationship as he moved to Prague, and well, we lost touch. But one day as I was browsing my facebook, I thought of him and searched his name on the network. There he was. He's now back to my community of friends, and I am overjoyed! Thierry (a.k.a Titi) is the most Tati-esque person I have ever met. It is no surprise then if Jacques Tati is one of his favourite film directors... Thierry loves the 1960s and collects furniture, clocks, fabrics, posters, books, etc from that era.

He also is a talented art director and web designer who works for a Parisian advertising company. I definitely share a lot with Thierry. He is a true hedonistic Epicurian, like I am. Oh, and he is a great cook too. He has always loved cooking. The last time we visited him in Paris, he spoilt us with a precious homemade gift of his : a pear and lemon jam that was jaw-dropping and mind-blowing!
OK. So now I guess you can roughly picture out who my good friend Thierry, is. Well, recently, I received an invite from him and his partner Benoît, who happens to be an amazing baroque flutist, by the way. They just bought a house in the suburbs of Paris, and as they were throwing a swell party, they thought of us in Toronto! Obviously, we could only wish them all the best as Marco and I could not take a trip to Paris for the occasion. But the other day I received an email from him, and it felt as if we had attended the whole party! Thierry drew us an exhaustive list of the meals that they had concocted. And look how thoughtful I am, let's share the joy of the party together...I am going to give you the recipe of an unusual loaf.
Please, pardon my French! As I'm quoting him, there's going to be a bit of French involved here. Oh, come on, mon cher Coco, don't sulk like that! A bit of French cannot hurt you. On the contrary. Ah voilà, it's better- Step on it!

Brussels Sprouts, Caramelized Onions*, and Toasted Pine Nuts Loaf
-Cake au choux de Bruxelles, oignons caramélisés et pignons de pin-

Ah, Brussels sprouts, you either love them or you hate them...While many will bemoan the sudden appearance of the slightly pungent vegetable on the sides of their plates, there is more to the humble Brussels sprout than meets the eye. When cooked correctly, not only does the sprout have exceptional nutritional value, three times the vitamin C than the same weight of oranges, it also is more versatile to cook with than one might think. So here is the recipe for Titi's loaf. You can use it to taste, and add all the ingredients you particularly love, or those that suit what is left in your fridge...Lucky you!

Préparation : 15 min
Cuisson : 45-50 min à 200°C (400°F)

Ingrédients (pour 6 personnes) :
- 150- 200 g de farine/ flour
- 3 oeufs / eggs
- 1 gros oignon (environ 200 g)/1 big onion
- 200 g de Choux de Bruxelles, cuits à la vapeur et coupés en 4/ Brussels sprouts, steamed and cut in 4
- 100 g de gruyère râpé /grated cheese ( I used crumbs of blue cheese and parmesan).
My tip: Here you can substitute ham, chorizo, etc. for cheese, or combine them all...
- 25 g de pignons de pin (les faire griller avec oignons et choux)/ pine nuts (toasted with onions and sprouts)
- 4 cuillères à soupe d'huile d'olive / 1/2 cup olive oil
- 1 1/2 verres de vin blanc sec / dry white wine (or 150 g plain yogurt or 1 cup of milk or half-half cream)
- 1 sachet de levure chimique/ 1 1/2 to 2 tbsp baking powder

* How to caramelize onions:

1. Heat butter or combination of butter and oil in heavy skillet.
2. Add onions and a small amount of sugar (optional) and slowly cook over medium heat.
3. Cook until onions are caramel colored, stirring often, 30 to 40 minutes.
4. For more flavor, add a touch of vinegar at the end of cooking, stirring to deglaze the pan.

I tried it, and it was a success! I baked the loaf, and let it cool down for a night. I served it the next day for lunch as a cold dish, with a baby spinach salad, and a side of small cut tomatoes puréed, enhanced with onions, celery and green peppers. It was miam-miam!
Variations; I made another one, where I added to the sprouts and caramelized onions, some piquante salami, sundried tomatoes, chestnus (instead of pine nuts) and a full bunch of fresh parsley. Again, Delicioso!

. Faire revenir les choux dans une poêle tout doucement avec les oignons caramélisés. Bien laisser refroidir. Puis, intégrer les choux + oignons dans la préparation. / Gently sizzle the Brussel sprouts in a skillet with the onions on low heat, and add them to the mix when cooled down.)

. Mélanger les choux, les oignons caramélisés, les pignons, le gruyère, les oeufs, l'huile, le vin blanc.

. Incorporer ensuite la farine mélangée à la levure chimique.

. Placer le mélange dans un moule à cake beurré, et cuire 45-50 min dans un four préchauffé à 200°C (400*F).

Wine suggestion: Here are the wines Titi & Benoît offered to their guests : St Nicolas de Bourgueil, 1996 (mind-blowing!), and a Vacqueyras 2004.

Benoît (left) & Thierry (right) in Paris, August 2008.

More Brussels Sprouts?
While investigating the Brussels sprouts case, I also found the recipe for the following loaf with sprouts, ham and hazelnuts. You should try this one along with Titi's, both loafs will please your guests, and win their hearts over to the Brussels sprouts' cause forever. Splendid!
Brussels sprouts 200g (steam them but not too long, they must remain firm)
flour 150g
toasted hazelnuts 70g
ham or prosciutto 4 thin slices
eggs 3
grated parmesan 50g
olive oil 4 tbsp
seed style mustard 1tbsp
baking powder 1 tbsp
salt & pepper

Whisk the eggs with the oil. Add the flour, the baking powder and the Brussel sprouts, steamed and cut in 4, the thinly sliced ham, and the hazelnuts, coarsely crushed. Mix well, add the parmesan, mustard and season with salt and pepper to taste. Pour the mixture in a loaf pan and bake for 45 min at 375*F (180*C).

Vive les choux de Bruxelles!

Let's Bourbon up our Marmalade for Xmas!

I have always loved orange marmalade in winter time. To me, it is invariably reminiscent of the holiday season and the traditional full English breakfast that I would occasionally rely on to boost me up on Sunday morning when I lived in England.

So I decided to make marmalade for Christmas...

Pffew! I just finished my first batch of homemade marmalade. That was quite an ordeal. The preparation is a bit long and tedious. I spent about an hour and a half just washing, cutting, squeezing out the juice, putting the seeds and pith in a cheesecloth, and slicing the fruit...
I started with a recipe from the Classic Conran,

...but ended up with the recipe from another cookbook, Simply British!

It took me two cookbooks indeed to get it right! After completing the recipe with the Classic Conran, I ended up with a marmalade that was a bit too rich in big chunks of orange rinds; so I had to seek for help with my French reference cookbook, published by Marabout, and specialized in simple English cuisine. I just needed to empty each jar that I had filled in with the marmalade, boil it all over again, add a small glass of flavourful Bourbon and process the whole with my hand blender. Better! The result is now sheer delight for our taste-buds, an explosion of delicate flavours...
Traditionally savoured on a piece of buttery toast- it is both sweet and bitter, joyful and sinful. Well, it sets us in the mood for Christmas just with one quintessential mouthful!

Here are both recipes, in English and in French, so that you can choose which one you prefer yourself.
Let's start with the English version:

ORANGE MARMALADE
Kate Jenkins
Robertsewns Golden Stitch
Lambs Wool Crochet , 2009
33.5 x 33.5 cm (13.2 x 13.2 ins)

This makes about 8 to 10 jars (enough for a year, pffew!)
6 bitter oranges (preferably organic!)
3 lemons
2 kg granulated sugar (I chose to go for 1kg white and 1kg brown granulated sugar)
1 hand-held blender
Wash the fruit well in warm water, using a stiff brush - a nail brush is ideal.
Place a square of cheesecloth in a basin to catch the seeds and pith. Cut the oranges and lemons in half and squeeze out the juice, putting the seeds in the cloth-lined basin. slice the fruit- thickly for chunky, or finely, or somewhere in between. Put the fruit, the juice and 2 quarts water in a large basin.
Tie up the seeds, add them to the fruit, and allow to soak for 24 hours.
Transfer the contents of the large basin to an 8-to10-quart kettle or pot -but not aluminum- and simmer gently for 2 to 2 1/2 hours (I would recommend that you use the hand-held blender to mix the fruit at that point, i.e before adding the sugar). Meanwhile, warm the sugar in a low oven.
When the fruit and water have reduced by half and the peel is tender, stir in the warm sugar to dissolve it then bring to the boil for about 10 minutes, or until it says "jam" on the sugar thermometer--220*F
Allow the marmalade to cool in the kettle for a good 20 minutes. Pour into hot, sterilized jars and seal tightly.

Suggestion:

At the end, add a small glass of whisky or bourbon! That's what I did, and I don't regret it..I added a small glass of U.S Kentucky Bourbon, Woodford Reserve, Distiller's Select by Labrot & Graham...and it gave to the marmalade such oomph! with its subtle flavours of smoked maple syrup, a 'je ne sais quoi' of strength and delicacy. In a word, it transcended it all!

And now in French:

MARMELADE D'ORANGES

Pour 5 kg de marmelade
1,5 kg d'oranges amères
2 kg de sucre
3,5 l d'eau
le jus de 2 citrons
Environ 8-10 pots de confiture, lavés et séchés au four à basse température.

Lavez les oranges. Coupez-les en 2 et pressez-en le jus. Prélevez le zeste. Retirez la peau blanche, les pépins et placez-les dans une toile de mousseline. Versez le jus dans une casserole avec le zeste, l'eau et la toile de mousseline. Portez à ébullition et laissez cuire 2 heures à feu très doux, jusqu'à ce que l'écorce des oranges soit tendre. Laissez refroidir une nuit.
Le lendemain, ôtez la toile de mousseline après l'avoir pressée.

Mixez le mélange (avec un mixer plongeant ou aussi dit mixer girafe!) en plusieurs fois, quelques secondes, jusqu,à ce que l'écorce soit réduite en petits morceaux irréguliers. Ajoutez le sucre, et ramenez très lentement à ébullition. Laissez bouillir 15 à 20 minutes. La marmelade est prête quand, lorsque vous prélevez un peu de confit d'oranges et le déposez dans une soucoupe, une couche se forme au bout de 1 à 2 minutes. Enlevez l'écume blance de temps en temps. Versez la marmelade dans les pots et attendez qu'elle soit complètement refroidie avant de les fermer.

Suggestion:
En fin de cuisson , vous pouvez ajouter un petit verre de whisky...

Happy marmalade time to you and your family!

Kashmiri Lamb Curry!

Last Sunday night, I decided to take my husband on a culinary journey through Kashmir's rough but sublime landscapes, all transcended for us in Indian cuisine by the Rogan Josh or the Kashmiri Lamb Curry.

Kashmiri Lamb Curry
(from Indian Cuisine by Mridula Baljekar, in the Food Lover's Collection)

This deliciously spiced lamb dish from the Himalayan region is traditionally cooked with a brilliantly colored variety of chiles. This color can be replicated by mixing chili powder with Hungarian paprika and a touch of tomato paste.

Serves 4
4 tbsp sunflower or olive oil
1 large onion, coarsely chopped
2-inch/5-cm piece fresh ginger, peeled and coarsely chopped
5 large garlic cloves, coarsely chopped
400 g canned tomatoes
3 brown cardamom pods
2 bay leaves
1 tbsp ground coriander
1 tsp ground turmeric
1 tsp chili powder
700 g boned leg of lamb, cut into 2 to 5-cm cubes
2/3 cup plain yogurt
2 tsp flour
1 tsp salt, or to taste
1 tbsp tomato paste
1/2 cup warm water
1 tsp ghee, or unsalted butter
1 tsp garam masala
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
2 tbsp chopped fresh cilantro leaves

Heat 2 tablespoons of the oil in a medium, heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion, ginger, and garlic and cook, stirring frequently, for 5 minutes, or until lightly colored. Remove from the heat and squeeze out as much excess as possible from the onion mixture by pressing against the side of the saucepan. Transfer the onion mixture to a blender or food processor with the tomatoes and their juice, blend to a purée, and set aside.
Return the saucepan to low heat and add the remaining oil. Add the cardamom pods and bay leaves and let sizzle gently for 20-25 seconds. Then, add the coriander turmeric, and chili powder. Cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Then, add the tomato mixture. Increase the heat to medium and continue to cook for 10 to 12 minutes, until the oil separates from the spice paste, reducing the heat to lowtoward the last 2-3 minutes.
Add the lamb and increase the heat slightly. Cook, stirring until the meat changes colour.
Put the yogurt and flour in a bowl and beat together with a fork or wire whisk until smooth. Reduce the heat slightly and stir the yogurt mixture. 2 tablespoons at a time, into the meat mixture. Add the salt and tomato paste. Reduce the heat to low, cover, and cook for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Add the water and bring it to a slow simmer. Re-cover and cook for an additional 20 to 25 minutes, until the meat is tender.
Melt the ghee in a small saucepan over low heat, add the garam masala and nutmeg, and cook, stirring for 30 seconds. Pour the spiced butter over the curry and stir in half the chopped fresh cilantro. Remove from the heat and serve with the remaining fresh cilantro, accompanied by naan or plain boiled (by absorption) basmati rice.
We ate this very flavourful lamb curry with a local Shiraz-Cabernet from the Pelee Island Winery, and it worked beautifully together!

Bon appétit!