Lengua Ranchera - Beef Tongue in Spicy Tomato Sauce

I've been meaning to write about preparing beef tongue for a few months now.  Since the process of preparing it is not for the squeamish, Halloween seems like a perfect time for the post.

For those who haven't tried it, it may sound gross, but it's actually quite tasty.  I am not huge on offal, but tongue is on my good offal list.  When properly prepared it is tender and beefy, sort of like a really well cooked pot roast, only finer textured.  Which makes sense, since it's really just another muscle, glands and taste buds aside.

Whatever you want to make with your tongue, 9 times out of 10, the first step is to simmer it in water to tenderize it, and to make it easier to clean.  What I normally do, is take a good sized tongue, simmer it, clean it, divide it up in to several portions, then stash them in the freezer for quick meals.   Here's the basic process.

Rinse the tongue thoroughly under cold running water to remove any excess blood.  Place the tongue in a large stock pot with an onion quartered, a few cloves of peeled garlic, a couple of bay leaves, a tablespoon of kosher salt, a half dozen pepper corns, and enough water to cover the tongue by about an inch or so.  bring to a boil, then reduce to low, and simmer, adding water as necessary to keep the tongue covered, until the tongue is quite tender, but not falling apart.  This will take anywhere from 2 - 3 hours.

Once the tongue is tender remove it from the stock and set it on a cutting board to cool for about 10 minutes.

Now you need to peel the skin from the tongue.  This is really pretty simple to do, just grab a corner and start peeling.

Once peeled, you need to do a little trimming,  The underside of the tongue has a lot of fat, and what I'll call plumbing, that has to be removed.  Just start cutting it away.  Don't remove more meat than you have to, it's all tasty stuff.

The tongue is now ready to go.  Next what I do, is slice it into half inch thick slabs, and store it in vacuum bags in the freezer.

You may be thinking that's all well and good, but how do you use it.  Well you could just cut some up into bite sized pieces, and saute it up in a little oil, or better yet bacon fat, until hot and a little crispy around the edges, and make tacos.

My favorite way to use it is to simmer it in tomato sauce with a few peas the way my momma used to.  I have replaced the mild tomato sauce she used for a spicy jalapeno sauce, and like to refer to my version as Lengua Ranchera.

Quick Jalapeno Sauce

1 15 oz can diced tomatoes, fire roasted if possible
1 clove of minced garlic
1/4 cup pickled jalapeno slices
2 tablespoons jalapeno pickle juice
1/4 cup cilantro stems and all
1/2 tsp kosher salt
juice of 1 lime.

Put all the ingredients into a blender, and puree until blended but not completely smooth, just about 10 seconds or so.  A stick blender works great for this and is my personal weapon of choice.  Taste and adjust the seasoning adding a bit more lime juice or salt if needed.

Lengua Ranchera

1 tbsp bacon fat or vegetable oil
1 cup quick Jalapeno sauce
12 oz pre-cooked tongue cut into 2 inch pieces
1 cup frozen peas
water or chicken broth as needed

Heat the fat in a medium sauce pan over medium-high heat for about 30 seconds.  Pour in the jalapeno sauce.  Cook stirring almost constantly for about 1 minute.  Add the tongue, and if necessary a bit of water or chicken broth to barely cover the meat.  Reduce to a simmer, cover, and simmer for about 5 minutes.  Add the peas, stir, adding a little more water or broth if the mixture seems a little dry, cover again, and simmer until the peas are tender, about 5 minutes more.  Serve with hot tortillas and a bit of sliced avocado or guacamole.

We have vinegar.

Well it's finally done.  Today I strained my pineapple vinegar into a clean mason jar and gave it a taste.  It tastes...well, like vinegar.  It is milder than apple cider vinegar, but perhaps slightly stronger than rice vinegar.  It has a flavor that is similar to the previously mentioned tepache, but much tarter and much less beery.  I'll have to post a follow-up after I've had a chance to try it in a few recipes.

Are we there yet?

Not quite yet.  It's been about 10 days since my little pineapple vinegar experiment began.  Four days ago, I pulled out the last pieces of pineapple rind.  The color has definitely changed.  It's noticeably lighter.  However, it still smells quite beery.  Not so much like a vinegar yet.  I'm going to give it another week or so then give it a taste and see where we are.

We have arrived at Tepache

My mother pointed out that the procedure I was following to make pineapple vinegar, was in fact very similar to what she used to do to make tepache.  Tepache is a fermented beverage made from pineapple rinds and sugar.  It is slightly alcoholic, perhaps 2% - 3% by volume, and it is relatively common in Mexico.  I remember drinking it in the summer time as a kid.  It's an acquired taste.  Sort of like a fruity beer gone wrong.

Mom said, she did the same thing, but she'd not add sugar until after the second day of fermentation.  By day three, the tepache was strained and ready for drinking.  Most recipes I found for it, call for some spices, usually cinnamon, sometimes cloves, to be added to the mix at the beginning of the process.

This makes perfect sense if you think about it.

Apples -> Apple Cider -> Apple Cider Vinegar
Grapes -> Wine -> Wine Vinegar
Pineapples -> Tepache -> Pineapple Vinegar

Here's what my batch of pineapple vinegar looks like today.  It has the aroma I remember from my childhood, but I'm not going to drink any of it, as I don't want to screw up my batch of vinegar.  Perhaps I'll make a batch of true tepache in a week or so and see how that turns out.

Wild Bacteria Experiment 1 - Pineapple Vinegar

Wild Yeast Experiment 2 - Pineapple Vinegar

Wild Bacteria Experiment 1 - Pineapple Vinegar

I did a bit more reading, and apparently bacteria is responsible for the process of turning sugars to vinegar not yeast.

I was perusing Diana Kennedy's The Cuisines of Mexico the other day and ran across her recipe for pineapple vinegar.  I was cutting up a fresh pineapple for breakfast this morning, and decided to give it a shot.

All you have to do, is take the skin from a half a pineapple, a few chunks of the fruit, some brown sugar, and water, throw it all in a jar, cover it with plastic, set it on the counter, and wait.  The process is supposed to take about 3 weeks.  Wish me luck.

Summer Food Files - Case 2: Pork and Peaches

During the dog days of summer, to avoid heating up the house, I do a lot of cooking outdoors.  One of my favorite things to grill is pork chops.  Now that I have the option of buying pork at the farmers market, I pretty much never buy it at supermarkets anymore.  Regional family farms are producing piggies that taste like piggies once again, and have plenty of fat on them.  My favorite vendor is Full Quiver Farm.  They are primarily in the cheese making business, and make some fine cheeses, but being good frugal farmers, they had to find something useful to do with all the whey leftover from the cheese making process, so they started feeding it to their hogs.  The resulting pork is really, really, tasty.    Supermarket pork pales by comparison.

My usual technique for grilling pork chops is easy, but requires a little advance planning, because the pork chops are cured in a brine for three or four days prior to cooking.   I really like applesauce with my chops, but in the summer I like to grill fruit to serve with the pork instead.

Brine
1/4 cup Kosher salt or 2 tablespoons table salt
1/4 cup brown sugar (You can actually use granulated sugar, brown sugar, maple syrup, honey, or a combination)
5 cups water

Combine the ingredients, and stir until the salt and sugar are completely dissolved.

You can add some spices to the brine if you like, but you will only notice them if you use very punchy things.  Bay leaves, crushed red chili flakes (about a teaspoon), and a cinnamon stick all work well.  If you are using spices, you can really bring out their flavor by steeping them in a few cups of hot water before mixing adding the rest of the ingredients for the brine...be sure to cool the mixture to room temp before adding your pork.

This is enough brine for about four to six good sized pork chops.  I prefer center cut, bone in chops, about a half inch thick.

Brine the chops in the fridge, at least for 24 hours, but preferably for three to five days.  The longer brining time really enhances the texture and flavor of the chops.  This isn't a recipe for anyone on a low sodium diet.  The resulting pork as a pleasantly salty sweet taste, almost ham-like.

Rinse the chops thoroughly under cold water to remove the excess brine, then pat them dry with paper towels.  To prevent the chops from curling while cooking, make a series of slits through the fat along the side of the chop.  This will also help the fat render, giving a nice crispy edge to the chops.

Rub the chops with just a few drops of olive oil, then season with freshly ground black pepper.  Remember NOT to add any additional salt at this point.  They are plenty salty.

Split your peaches in half, and remove the pits.  Drizzle the peaches with a little olive oil and season them with a little kosher salt and black pepper.

I always do this recipe on a gas grill.  You can certainly do this over charcoal if you want, but I'm always preparing it on a weeknight after work, and like to keep it quick and easy.

Heat your grill up on high until it is rocket hot, about 10 minutes at full blast.  Mine has a thermometer on it, and I take it all the way up to about 550 - 600 degrees before cooking.   Turn the burners down to medium high, lubricate the grill with a rolled up paper towel soaked in vegetable oil, then toss on the pork.

Stay close by.  At these temperatures, the fat that starts to render can quickly flare up, and if you aren't there to move things to safety, you will have a porcine bonfire on your hands.  Cook the chops for about six minutes on the first side.  Turn them a quarter turn after about three minutes to make some fancy grill marks if you like.  I cook them covered for most of the time, but I open the lid frequently to check for flare ups.  Flip the chops over, and cook another three to five minutes, until the chops are cooked through.  This recipe is for 1/2 inch thick chops.  If you are using thick pork chops, you will need to increase the cooking time.

Transfer the pork to a serving platter, and tent with foil to keep them warm while they rest.  Crank the grill back up to high, let it heat up for a minute or two covered, then place the peaches cut side down on the grill.  Grill the peaches for about three minutes, then flip them over, and continue grilling for another two minutes.  Your cooking time may vary depending on the size and ripeness of your peaches.  In the end, you want the peaches to be tender, but not mushy.

Prepared this way the peaches actually taste quite savory.  To my palate, they taste tarter than they do raw, and the char from the grill adds a slight bitterness that works really well with the sweet-salty pork.

If you like you can drizzle the grilled fruit with a little aged balsamic vinegar, but only if you have the real (expensive) stuff.  If all you have is supermarket balsamic, then don't bother, you'll ruin them.

This recipe also works quite well with other stone fruits or even figs.

Enjoy.

Peperonata addendum.

Peperonata leftovers 

+ grilled home made venison sausage 

+ store bought flat breads heated up on the grill

______________________________________

= Yummy!

Summer Food Files - Case 1: Peperonata

Summer is now in full swing in central Texas, and the farmers markets are loaded with beautiful produce.  One of my favorite vendors, Finca Pura Vida, often has some very interesting heirloom varieties of peppers for sale.  Whenever they have them, I buy a bunch to make one of my summer standbys, peperonata, a simple Italian sweet pepper dish.  The recipe I follow is a spin on a recipe from one of Mario Batali's cookbooks.  It comes together relatively quickly, and I always make a lot of it, so I'll have leftovers.  If you're growing your own bell peppers, and you find yourself with an over abundance, this is a great use for them.

Ingredients:

6 sweet bell peppers sliced into strips
1 medium red or yellow onion sliced into 1/4 inch slices
2 cloves of garlic thinly sliced
1/4 tsp crushed red chile flakes
olive oil
1 tsp sugar
1 tbsp good quality red wine vinegar
1 cup tomato puree, left over tomato sauce, or diced canned tomatoes
1 tbsp fresh thyme
1 tsp minced fresh basil
salt and pepper to taste

You'll need about six or seven good sized peppers.  Ideally you should have a mix of yellow, red, and green peppers, but really I'll use whatever looks good...just don't use all green peppers, they are not sweet enough on their own.

Heat a large saute pan or dutch oven over medium high heat.  Add good glug of olive oil, about 2 or 3 tablespoons.  Toss in the onion, garlic, crushed red chile, and a pinch of kosher salt and cook stirring often, until the onions and garlic are translucent, about 5 minutes.  You don't want them to brown.  The salt helps the onions release their water, speeding up the cooking process.

Add all of the peppers, and stir the pot to get the peppers well coated with olive oil.  Add a little more olive oil, if it seems a bit dry.  Add another pinch of salt to help things along.  Cook stirring occasionally until the peppers begin to soften, about 10 minutes.

Now add the sugar, vinegar, whatever tomato product you are using, and the herbs.

Stir the mixture, to incorporate all the ingredients, cover the pot, reduce the temp to medium, and let it simmer stirring occasionally, until the peppers are nice and tender, but not mushy.  This will take about 15 or 20 minutes.  Taste, and adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper.  Yields about a 1 quart mason jar of peperonata.   It will keep in the fridge for at least a week.

I love serving my peperonata with grilled fish, chicken breasts, or sausages.  It's also great on sandwiches, as a topping for bruschetta, or tossed with pasta.

The great rabbit breeding experiment begins.

So as I have mentioned before, I grew up in a hunting household.  One thing we nearly always had in the freezer was cotton tail rabbits.  It is open season on them in Texas, and in South Texas, there really is no shortage of them.  We ate them year round.  The two most common ways my mother prepared them was in mole sauce and Rabbit ala King which she'd serve over toast.   I've cooked rabbit a few times since I stopped hunting using store bought rabbits, and those are just as good.  However, at $10 a pound, it becomes a rather expensive dinner.

A couple of months ago, the NY Times ran an article about foodies in Brooklyn taking a class on raising and harvesting rabbits at home for cooking.  That is an option I had never considered before.  It is certainly a more affordable way to go.  I knew I'd have no problem dispatching a rabbit myself, and I have years of experience in the dressing and butchering of the critters.  I mentioned it to Cristela and to my great surprise, she was totally in favor of the idea.

A week or two after I read the article, all the people on our cul de sac had a little block party.  Over my fourth or fifth glass of wine, I mentioned what I was thinking of doing to a couple of neighbors.  None were too disturbed by the idea.  Kelly, the gal next door, was excited about having rabbits she could bring her kid to see, but said "I'll be sure not to get too attached."  The guy who lives across the street from me said, "I've got a hutch you're welcome to."  More wine was consumed, and we moved on to other topics.  I wasn't even sure if they'd remember the conversation.

A few weeks later, I returned home from a weekend out of town to find a nice sized (8' x 3' x 3') hutch sitting on my front lawn.  A gift like that really gets the ball rolling.  The next week Cristela began scanning the classified ads for people selling rabbits.  She looked for a few weeks, but finally decided to let Craig's list do the work for her, and put up an ad asking for bunnies.  This weekend, we bought three californians from a lady in Spicewood.  They are much heftier animals than a cotton tail.  We got two does and a buck on the recommendation of the seller.

We named them Buck, T, and Alice, which is only amusing if you watch The United States of Tara.  The name seemed appropriate since they all look the same.

If all goes well, we should have little baby bunnies in four to six weeks.

The Beneficiary

My boss called me into his office this morning and said, "hey, would you like some morel mushrooms?"  As I thought to my self, "is this a trick question?", he added, "I have a buddy who gathers wild mushrooms, and he went out this weekend and he gathered pounds and pounds of them.  He sold most of them to local restaurants, but he gave me a couple of pounds, and I can't use them all."  "Absolutely" was my response.  A few hours later Russ showed up at my desk with a plastic bag containing about 3/4 of a pound of the freshest, most beautiful, morel mushrooms I've ever seen.

I didn't want them to deteriorate, and I figured that the more I did to them, the more I'd screw them up, so I cooked up about half of them this evening in a very simple pasta dish.  I sauteed the morels with some finely diced shallot and a couple of cloves of garlic.  Then I added some asparagus, and a cup of chicken broth, about a cup of cream, and a few teaspoons of fresh thyme from my garden.

Ten minutes later I tossed the sauce with some grated parmesan, salt, and pepper, and it was dinner time.

I overcooked the asparagus just a bit, but it was still delicious.  Spring on a plate.  Tomorrow morning it's scrambled eggs with morels for breakfast.  Thanks again Russ.

I had no idea that morels could be found in central Texas.  Now I really want to take one of those "Hunting For Wild Mushrooms" classes I see advertised from time to time.

Sausage, it's what god created deer for.

My father was an avid hunter.  Growing up, at least half of our meals consisted of something we caught or killed.  Over the winter, we would harvest on average three or four deer, which would stock the freezer for the rest of the year.  We always had the deer professionally processed, and always had the processor make sausage.  In Laredo during the early 80's your only choices were a lightly smoked link sausage, breakfast sausage, or chorizo.  This is probably the case today, but I could be wrong.  I haven't shot a deer in over 20 years, but I am still a big fan of venison, especially venison sausage.

My brother-in-law has recently gotten into hunting.  He doesn't cook much, so for the past couple of years, he has given me all the venison I could handle.  He doesn't bother getting it processed, he just does it himself, which means the portions I get, are huge primal cuts...entire legs and such.  This weekend I decided it was high time I dealt with one of the rear legs that was taking up room in my freezer.  It was time to make some sausage.

A 12 pound leg of venison takes some time to bone out and cut up.  There is a lot of silver skin and tendon that you need to remove before grinding it, otherwise you will wind up with odd gristly bits in your sausage.  Also, since all I have is a rather puny meat grinder attachment for my Kitchen Aid stand mixer, I needed the meat in strips no more than an inch wide.  It took me a good 30 minutes of effort to get the leg above to look like this.

One of the advantages of making sausage at home, is you know exactly what is going into it.  If you are a health conscious person, you may be tempted to take advantage of the fact that venison is nearly fat free to make a very lean sausage.   You can actually get away with this if you are just making chorizo, but you will need to add a fair amount of oil when cooking it if you do.   When it comes to link sausage, let me tell you, don't skimp on the fat.  It will be dry and disappointing.  You need at least 20 percent fat in your final mix to have a nice juicy sausage.  That may sound like a lot, but many recipes push the fat content up over 30 percent, so relatively speaking, it's still pretty lean.  I purchased a quarter of a pork belly from a vendor at the farmers market to provide the fat for this round of sausage making, but in the past I have just used pork fat, which you can buy at markets such as Fiesta.  I cut that into strips as well.  I had a nice chunk left over which I roasted up for dinner but that's another story.

After boning out the leg, I ended up with nine pounds of venison.   Since pork belly is not pure fat, I used three pounds of pork belly to get me into the ball park of the 20 percent fat content I was shooting for.  The venison and belly then went through my grinder.  For this round of sausage making I was planning on making three types, chorizo, a riff on merguez, and an Italian sausage.  For the Italian sausage, I would need some pancetta, so I ground up a pound of that as well.

Once I had my three piles of ground meat portioned out, I seasoned them up.  Chorizo sausage is seasoned with a lot of ancho chile powder, some spices, and good amount of cider vinegar.  It needs three to five days of curing to develop the proper flavor, so after seasoning it, I covered it up and put it in the fridge.

The merguez and Italian sausage were both going to be stuffed into sausage casings, but they could also benefit from some curing time, so I also stashed them in my fridge over night to allow the flavor to develop before stuffing.  The next day, I attached the sausage stuffing attachment on my stand mixer and went to work.  (possibly NSFW photos below)

Typically, I place six or seven link portions in vacuum bags and freeze it.  With 12 pounds of sausage, what else are you going to do?  I have a Foodsaver vacuum sealing machine and it works very well.  You can store it in regular zip top freezer bags, but after a few months, it will start to get freezer burn.  Vacuumed, it will keep it for over six months with no problems.

A few days later, after it had cured sufficiently, I dealt with the chorizo.  Although one could stuff chorizo into casings, you always remove them before cooking it, so there isn't much of a point.  Instead, I wrap five to six ounce portions of the stuff in  plastic wrap, then store those in a large zip top bag in the freezer.  Packaged this way, it's very easy to pull out and thaw just enough for breakfast.  The plastic wrap also does an excellent job of keeping freezer burn at bay, so vacuum sealing is not necessary.

In terms of recipes, I found the merguez recipe on-line.  The Italian sausage was based on a recipe from a Mario Batali book, and the chorizo was from Diana Kennedy's The Cuisines of Mexico.  In each case, I just replaced the pork and pork fat or in the case of the merguez, lamb and lamb fat, called for with an equal amount by weight of my 80/20 ground venison mix.  If there is interest, I will type up the recipes.

Ceviche

Ah, spring.  It's getting to be that time of year when I get to spend more time outdoors enjoying life, and less time cooped up inside.  It's also a time when I am less interested in messing up the kitchen cooking something elaborate.  In the spring and summer I am all about things that are tasty, but require a minimum amount of time over a hot stove.  Nothing fits the bill better than ceviche. 


If you are not familiar with it, ceviche is a sort of Latin American fish salad made from raw fish, that is "cooked" in lime juice.  A long soak in citric acid turns the fish opaque and gives it a cooked texture.  It is pretty common here now, thanks largely to the sushi craze that got Americans over their queasiness about eating raw fish.  15 years ago, you had to be at a Mexican restaurant in the barrio to find it.  Today, they probably serve it at your friendly neighborhood TJ McFunsters.

Here is my ceviche recipe in 3 easy steps.


Step 1, catch a fish.


Now this is not absolutely necessary.  If you live in a major city and have a reliable fish merchant in your town, you can probably get sushi grade fish, which would be what you want for this.  However, nothing beats the fresh clean taste of ceviche made from a fish that was swimming in the sea less than 24 hours earlier.  I've made ceviche from dodgy fish before, and believe me, it's not worth the effort.  For 2 - 3 people, you'll need about a half pound of fish.  


I was on Tiki Island, just west of Galveston visiting my sister over the weekend and my brother-in-law put us on some fish right under the causeway.  Which made my first batch of ceviche for 2010 possible.  I caught the chunky sheepshead on the far left in the photo below.

Step 2, marinate.


Cut the fish into a small dice, about 1/2" max. You'll need a good sharp knife for that. Then put the fish in a glass or ceramic bowl, and add enough fresh lime juice to cover the fish. For that amount of fish, it will probably take at least 8 good sized limes, perhaps a few more. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or foil, and park it in the fridge for 4-6 hours or over night.

Step 3, dress it up.


Drain the lime juice from the fish. Add 1/4 cup of finely diced onion (or shallot, or scallion), a handful of sliced green olives, 1 minced clove of garlic, 1 finely diced serrano or jalapeno chile, and a handful of chopped cilantro. Pour in about 2 or 3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil and salt and pepper to taste. Toss the ingredients and give it a taste. If it's a little flat add the juice of 1 lime and/or a bit more salt. 

I almost always serve my ceviche with chunky guacamole on the side, and corn chips or saltines.

In terms of the fish to use, I prefer a mild white fleshed fish. Grouper, trout, redfish, and flounder all work well. For this batch I used what the bay provided, a combination of sheepshead, speckled trout, and black drum.  Use whatever looks freshest. I've also used mahi mahi and amberjack, but those larger ocean fish give you a slightly different texture. It ends up more chunky, but still very good. I've never tried using salmon of fresh tuna, but wouldn't necessarily rule it out. Scallops and shrimp are also fair game, but those should probably be lightly poached first.

Some variations. If you don't have serrano or jalapeno, any chile will do even habaneros. It depends on your tolerance for heat. It's best to add a little to start then taste, and add more to get it to the heat level you want. To give it an asian spin, skip the olives and serrano and add some sirracha sauce and about a tablespoon of minced fresh ginger root. I'd probably also use a more neutral oil such as peanut or grape seed in place of the olive oil.   For more of a Polynesian flair skip the olives, and use pineapple and ginger.  Really, it's all about the technique.  Once you have the marinated fish, you can go any number of directions with it.  Enjoy.

Chicken Cobbler?

I was trying to figure out what to do for dinner tonight. Scrounging around in the fridge, I found a half of a store bought roasted chicken. I was kind of in the mood for compfort food, so I thought I'd throw together a pot pie. I've made chicken pot pie a number of times, and I usually make a sage biscuit crust, but I was trying to throw something together relatively quickly, so I decided to make drop biscuits in a food processer to speed things along. In the end what I wound up with was not quite chicken and dumplings, and not quite a pot pie. I dubbed it chicken cobbler, and it it turned out quite good.

Chicken Cobbler

Chicken Stew Base

1/2 Roasted Chicken

2 tbsp olive oil

8 oz sliced crimini or white button mushrooms

2 tbsp butter

1/4 cup finely diced shallot or 1/2 cup finely diced onion

1/2 cup finely diced celery

3 cloves minced garlic

2 tbsp flour

1 cup chicken broth

1 cup milk (I use 2% fat)

1 tsp herbs de Provence, or whatever herbs you like.  Fresh thyme or fresh parsley are nice.

8oz frozen peas

1/4 tsp tabasco sauce

salt and pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.

Remove the chicken from the bones, and shred or chop into bite size pieces.  Heat the olive oil in a 12 inch skillet over medium high heat.  Add the mushrooms and cook tossing occasionally until the mushrooms are well browned.  Remove the mushrooms from the skillet and set aside.  Return the pan to the stove, turn the heat down to medium, and add the butter.  Once the butter is melted, add the shallots or onion, celery, and garlic.  Cook, stirring occasionally until the veggies are translucent, about 5 minutes.  Add the flour and cook about 1 minute stirring constantly.  Add the broth and milk, and stir until the mixture is smooth and begins to thicken, about 3 minutes.  Add the herbs, chicken, reserved mushrooms, peas, and tabasco sauce.  Taste for seasoning.  Add salt and pepper as needed.  Turn heat to low, and let the mixture simmer while you work on the biscuit topping.

Drop Biscuit Topping

1 cup flour

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

1 tsp sugar

1/4 cup vegetable shortening

1/2 cup buttermilk

Combine all the dry ingredients in the work bowl of a food processor.  Give the mixture about 5 one second pulses to combine.  Add the vegetable shortening, and combine using about 10 - 15 one second pulses or until the mixture resembles course corn meal.  Add the butter milk and pulse about 10 times until well combined.  The mixture will be relatively wet.  Using a soup spoon spoonfuls of the dough over the top of the chicken stew base.  The dough balls should be about the size of ping pong balls.  

Place the skillet in the oven and bake until the biscuit topping is golden brown, about 20 minutes.

Cool for about 5 minutes before serving.  Serves 4, or 2 to 3 really hungry people.

Setagaya Boro-Ichi

I am in Tokyo this week on business, and had a weekend to do some exploring.  I saw that a sort of street fair was going on, so I decided to check it out. 

I started my day with a quick bite at a bakery in Shinjuku station.  They didn't have any English on the signs next to the choices, so I grabbed a pig in a blanket, one of my usual favorites, and something that looked like a sweet pastry.

The sausage thingy was damn tasty.  The crust is green from just a bit of seaweed that was in the dough.  Then I took a big old bite of my pastry.  To my great disappointment, it wasn't sweet.  The filling was mashed potato which had been covered with a sauce that although it looked fruity, was actually made from fish roe.  Not what I had in mind.  Off to the festival.

The Setagaya Boro-Ichi has apparently been going on for 430 years. Basically it's like a giant flea market, with over 700 vendors, which goes on for blocks on end. You can find all manner of things there, stylish handbags, plants, antiques, kimonos, erotic posters, tools, you name it. 

I quickly realized I should have skipped breakfast. The festival was a street food dreamland.  One the first items I had was a sausage on a stick, a common sight at Japanese festivals.

Two other street food classics you see all over Japan are Okonomiyaki, a sort of pancake with a variety of savory ingredients, and yaki soba, a stir fried noodle dish.  I wasn't in the mood for either of these, but they did look good.

Many sections of the festival were so crowded with people, that you literally could not stop to look at things.  The massive throng just pushed you along.  It was a little unsettling at times and definitely not for anyone who is claustrophobic or has issues with personal space.  I saw a number of people giving their kids piggy back rides because they would be quite easy to lose otherwise.

A bit further down the market the crowd cleared up, and I found a vendor making yakatori from beef.  The aroma drew me in, and it's hard to go wrong with grilled meat.  These ones were quite tasty.

I saw several vendors grilling mochi over charcoal.  If you've never had it, mochi is a cake made by pounding sticky rice into a smooth dough.  It is served as a sweet, stuffed with sweet bean paste, but it is also often used in savory applications.  When grilled, the mochi gets a toasty flavor sort of reminiscent of plain popped corn.  The texture is what usually turns off westerners.  It's very sticky and elastic.  I was really turned off the first time I tried it, but over the years it has really grown on me.

As I was wrapping up my trip to the festival, I came across a vendor selling imagawayaki, a filled cake made from a pancake like batter, and filled with sweet fillings.  They are served nice an warm, perfect for a cold winter day.  I wasn't sure what the filling was on these, but I grabbed one anyway.  Turns out the filling was a creamy custard which tasted of maple. 

Warm imagawayaki in hand, I made my way back to the train station for the trip back to my hotel.  Below you'll see a few more images from the festival.  Please enjoy.