Roundabout

Roundabout

Roundabout

Earlier this year the Denver alternative weekly, Westwood published a restaurant review 1 and follow-up article 2 about Denver's obsession with green chili. The articles describe the surprisingly prominent place green chili holds in Colorado cooking. It was news to me. But after thinking about it, I realized I had – in fact – overlooked a series of uniquely Colorado capsaicin clues – Clues that should have alerted me to the regional importance of green chili. Here they are:

Clue 1. I myself like green chili a lot... and I live in Colorado, north of Denver.

Clue 2. I especially like and enthusiastically recommend the green chili at Los Tarascos Mexican restaurant on College Avenue in Fort Collins (despite the culinary inconvenience of the owners of Los Tarascos coming from a southern Mexican state, which is far removed from the northern Mexican states and American southwest where green chili originated).

Clue 3. My acquaintance Jaqui makes an hallucinatorily great green chili, which she learned how to cook in her hometown of Pueblo, Colorado – two hours south of Denver.

Clue 4. Pueblo is also the hometown for the Pueblo green chile, which is Pueblo's secret weapon in producing the best green chili in Colorado. At least, that's what Jaqui tells me (and which the Westwood follow-up article confirms).

Clue 5. The Pueblo green chile is also known as the mira sol chile (or mirasol chile) because the mira sol plant holds its chile fruit upright on the stem and "looking at the sun", rather than hanging down. The mira sol chile has been grown in the Pueblo area of the Arkansas River valley since at least 1910. It surely qualifies as a locally conserved and appreciated heirloom variety of Capsicum annuum.

Clue 6. According to a geographer who's affiliated with the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs – someone who's an expert on Hispanization in the U.S. – The Pueblo Chile & Frijoles Festival, which has been held in Pueblo in late September since 1994, "coincides with the Denver Broncos football season, and the Pueblo Chamber has successfully wedded these two seasonal events. Chiles are roasted and taken home to be eaten during the game in chile verde, chile rellenos, and guacamole. Fall in Pueblo, and increasingly in Colorado, means football and green chiles." 3

Clue 7. And lastly, Dr. Mike Bartolo initiated a mira sol breeding program at the Arkansas Valley Research Center in Rocky Ford, Colorado. Mike's program developed the Mosco variety of the mira sol chile, which the Colorado Agricultural Experiment Station released for commercial production in 2005.4 The Mosco variety is now grown on over 50% of the acreage that had previously been planted to older varieties of the mira sol chile.

So there you have it. Green chile peppers go back 100 years in Colorado, but green chili stew represents a more recent history – one that's benefited from a lot push from this chili's contemporary friends. Which irks some, as you can read about here.5

Green chili stew in Denver is known for its slurry consistency. Jaqui's green chili is less viscous than that and has a fuller flavor. My own green chili – which I describe below – comes from a cookbook 6 (more or less). The juniper berries are key to my chili's success, as are the freshly roasted poblano chiles – bought from the farmer's market. I'd buy mira sols, but they're not distributed this far north.

Ingredients
2 pound diced pork ($1.99 per pound, on sale)
1 large red onion, coarsely chopped
3 clove garlic, finely chopped
¾ teaspoon juniper berries, crushed in a mortar and pestle
2 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
2 cup chicken broth (2 cup water + 1 scant teaspoon of Superior Touch® brand Better Than Bouillon chicken base)
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon black pepper
2 tablespoon flour
6 roasted poblano chile ($5.00 per ¾ pound from the farmer's market)

Procedure
Sauté the onion in the olive oil in a Dutch Oven until translucent. Add the garlic and juniper berries, and continue to sauté for another minute or so. Add the pork. Cook until no longer pink, and then simmer for 10 minutes.

Prepare the chicken broth. Whisk in the salt and pepper, and then add the broth to the pork. Simmer for 20-30 minutes.

Ladle a cup or more of the broth into a bowl. Whisk in the flour, and then slowly add back to the pork. Then add the chiles. Simmer for another 20-30 minutes.

I serve this chile garnished with tomato salsa and/or corn salsa and sometimes over rice.


1Lori Midson (15-Apr-11), Denver's five best green chile fixes, Westwood, Cafe Society blog, online at blogs.westword.com/cafesociety.

2Patricia Calhoun (18-Apr-11), Readers: Is the best green chile in Pueblo? Or is it just hot snot? Westwood, Cafe Society blog, online at blogs.westword.com/cafesociety.

3Terrance W. Haverluk (2000), Chile peppers and identity construction in Pueblo, Colorado. Journal for the Study of Food and Society 6:45-59.

4Michael E. Bartolo (undated), The Mosco chile pepper: Notice of release of Mosco pepper, Denver Green Chili website, online at denvergreenchili.com/moscochilepepper.aspx.

5Patricia Calhoun (27-Apr-11), Readers: There's no such thing as Colorado green chile! Westwood, Cafe Society blog, online at blogs.westword.com/cafesociety.

6Betty Crocker's Southwest Cooking (1989), Green chile stew, pages 74-75, Prentice Hall, New York.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Heirloom tomatoes are open-pollinated varieties that have been grown somewhere for 50 years or longer. Yet the varieties remain true-to-type – although when we talk about an heirloom variety, true-to-type doesn't necessarily mean that all of the fruit look the same. Open pollination confers upon heirlooms greater genetic variation – and less uniformity in appearance – than what we see in a commercial hybrid variety. The genetic variation in heirlooms represents an agricultural resource and the biodiversity resulting from many generations of cultivation. In heirloom tomatoes we see a testament to the popular choices, selections, preferences and needs of tomato growers and consumers who have enjoyed tomatoes around the world.

Also, heirlooms taste better than any other tomato you can buy at the grocery store. Despite my respect for biodiversity, as far as I'm concerned, heirlooms only exist to satisfy the tastes of those who don't grow their own garden but still want a real tomato (1) in season, and (2) out-of-season. I fall into both of those categories. For better or worse (which I say because heirlooms aren't cheap), I feel lucky heirlooms have appeared again at my local Whole Foods Market.

I'm making heirloom tomato salsa tonight, to go with pork tamales from the Mexican market and the last of my leftover rice and black beans. Crumbling feta cheese over the top will make it all taste just right.

Ingredients
1 medium-large organic heirloom tomato (approximately ¾ pound, at $4.99 per pound), chopped
1 tablespoon lime juice (from concentrate, $2.19 per 15 ounce bottle)
½ teaspoon salt
1 jalapeño chile ($0.24 from King's Sooper), finely diced
several tablespoons fresh cilantro ($2.49 per bunch), chopped

Procedure
Put lime juice into a bowl. Mix in salt. Add jalapeño and then tomato and cilantro. Stir well, and set aside while you prepare the rest of your meal.

Originally posted on Sunday, April 6, 2008.


UPDATE, Saturday, July 19, 2008—Roasted tomato salsa: Here's a variation on tomato salsa – this one made special by roasting the tomatoes, jalapeños, onion and garlic. It's not a salsa for using heirloom tomatoes. Instead, use the hydroponic tomatoes that come from the grocery store (or use your own homegrown, if you've got them).

Here in Northern Colorado, hydroponic tomatoes come from the Honeyacre Produce Company, which is located in Wiggins, Colorado – 70 miles east of here, out on the shortgrass steppe. I'm pretty sure Honeyacre grows its tomatoes with this salsa in mind.

Ingredients
2 medium tomato (approximately 1 pound, at $3.99 per pound)
1 jalapeño chile ($0.45 from Whole Foods)
½ medium-size red onion, cut in half ($1.99 per bag of five onions)
3 garlic clove, unpeeled ($0.69 per head)
¼-½ cup fresh cilantro, chopped ($2.49 per bunch)
1 tablespoon lime juice (from concentrate, $2.19 per 15 ounce bottle)
½ teaspoon salt

Procedure
Place the tomatoes, jalapeño, onion and garlic onto a sheet of aluminum foil. Broil the vegetables in the oven until they're blistered and blackened. Then flip them over, and broil them on the other side. When done, put the roasted tomatoes into a bowl to collect the juice and allow to cool. Put the roasted jalapeño into an airtight plastic container to steam. Put the roasted onion into the bowl of a food processor. Also press the roasted garlic into the bowel of the food processor. (If the garlic is overcooked, do what you can, and then press a fresh garlic clove into the food processor.)

Skin the tomatoes (core them if you feel like it), and add them to the food processor, along with any juice. Skin and de-seed the jalapeño; cut into ½-inch strips, and add to the food processor. Add the cilantro, lime juice and salt.

Process until smooth but not liquid. Taste, and correct the seasonings. Usually I end up adding more cilantro, lime juice and salt. Let the flavors blend at room temperature while you finish preparing your meal.

Thursday night I served this salsa with guacamole, long grain brown rice (4 cups for $1.50, on sale), homemade black beans and hamburgers.


UPDATE, Friday, October 21, 2011—Cherry tomato salsa: The end is near for getting fresh produce from the farmer's market. Even so, last Sunday at the farmer's market on Harmony one of the growers offered a spectacular variety of cherry tomatoes – which made me grateful for summer. The grower offered two varieties of yellow cherries, one variety of orange cherries, and one variety each of a small and a large red cherry. I bought a pint of the large red cherries.

The thing I do with cherry tomatoes – salsa-wise – is to make a salsa that lets the tomatoes shine on their own. I make a cooling salsa that showcases the tomatoes and omits any heat from a chile. My recipe is described below. It complements the green chili and stuffed ancho chiles that we make – both of which I'll eventually talk about on this blog.

Ingredients
1 pint cherry tomato ($3 per pint from the farmer's market)
1 shallot, finely chopped ($2 for eight shallots from the farmer's market)
2 tablespoon chopped chive
2-3 tablespoon chopped cilantro or Italian parsley
¼ teaspoon salt
1 splash lime juice (from concentrate, $2.19 per 15 ounce bottle)

Procedure
Cut the tomatoes in half lengthwise. Mix them with the other ingredients, and let the flavors mingle at room temperature before serving.


 

My love affair with Colorado light

Election 2012 ― Liberalism

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Red, white and blue

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Many thanks to CC (aka Cookie) and her Facebook page for letting me know about this.


Pop music

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rick Perry on Barack Obama: When Rick Perry was asked at a Republican Party campaign event in Cedar Rapids, Iowa on August 15, 2011 if he thought President Obama loved America, Perry replied: "You need to ask him... I'm saying, you're a good reporter, go ask him."

Rick Perry on Ben Bernanke: When Rick Perry spoke at a campaign event in Iowa on August 16, 2011, he said of Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke: "If this guy prints more money between now and the election, I dunno what y'all would do to him in Iowa but we would treat him pretty ugly down in Texas. Printing more money to play politics at this particular time in American history is almost treasonous in my opinion."

Rick Perry on evolution: When Rick Perry was asked at a campaign event in Portsmouth, New Hampshire on August 18, 2011 if he believed in evolution, he replied: "It's a theory that's out there. It's got some gaps in it. In Texas we teach both creationism and evolution."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yet another lift from AHK's Facebook page.


Pop music

Social media ― Graphic storytelling & visual narrative

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here's the way Bryan Collins explains how this drawing came about: "The drawing was originally intended to be a tattoo, which evolved into a full-on illustration to represent Jesus as King of Kings."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hike Fort Collins

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hike Fort Collins

Give to the rich ― Republican governance ― Red, white and blue