2 jalapeno or other hot chilies, seeded and chopped
2 tbsp fresh cilantro, chopped
2 tsp lime juice
Salt as desired
Preparation
Bring a pan of water to boil. Put tomatillos into water and simmer gently until tender. Turn them frequently so they do not split. Drain
Mix together onion, garlic, chilies and cilantro. In a blender or food processor, blend tomatillos to make a course puree. Add remaining ingredients and blend together. Season with salt to taste.
Allow to cool. Will keep for several days in the refrigerator. Can be frozen and will keep for several months.
Excellent with grilled chicken or fish, or served with tortilla chips as an appetizer.
Crispy Skin and Moist Meat Will Have You Singing that Commodores Hit
Ingredients
2 Tablespoons olive oil
3-4# chicken, halved, rib cage and thigh bones removed (try it yourself or ask your butcher)
coarse salt and freshly ground pepper
1 Tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/3 cup chicken stock
Preparation
Heat oil in a 10″ skillet over high heat.
Season chicken generously with salt and pepper. Add chicken to skillet skin side down and place a 10″ heavy-bottomed skillet on top of the chicken. Place two heavy soup cans or a brick in second skillet to weigh down and flatten.
Reduce heat to medium and cook chicken until skin is golden brown and crisp, about 18 minutes.
Remove top skillet and weights and turn chicken. Pour off excess fat from skillet. Squeeze lemon juice over chicken and ad stock. Cook until instant-read thermometer inserted into the chicken thigh registers 160 degrees, or about 3 minutes.
Place each chicken half on a plate and serve immediately with pan juices.
Cut the peaches in half and remove the stones. If they are not too soft you can twist the cut peach to get at the stone more easily. Toss the halved peaches with olive oil and honey and place on a sheet tray, cut side down.
Roast in a 400 degree oven until just soft but not mushy, about 10 minutes. Removes peaches from the oven and let cool.
Place peaches on a plate and put a spoonful of ricotta on each half. Drizzle with additional honey and olive oil, a sprinkle of sea salt and a little thyme. Serve warm or at room temperature.
Throw them out immediately because you know you’ll never eat them.
Put them in airtight containers to be thrown out after they have had a chance to putrefy.
Anticipate the quick and easy meal that you can make in one-quarter of the time—thanks to leftovers.
I was a follower of the first and second principals but I’ve recently converted to the third.
When I was growing up my parents prodded me to finish my dinners by invoking starving Biafran children. But even after that admonition I often didn’t finish my meal—and yet I never saw the dish in a new incarnation the next day. All those calories wasted!
Working with leftovers tends to be a great way to stretch a tight budget. It turns out you’re making a huge environmental contribution in the process. More on that in a minute.
Dude, got some weed? The kind you find in your lawn, that you cut with a sharp blade or douse with herbicides?
I am looking for one in particular — the dandelion. The French named this flower dens leonis, or “lion’s tooth” referring to the jagged points on the leaves. You know the yellow flower or the puff ball after the flower goes to seed. But dandelions offer more than momentary entertainment or irritation.
Weed ‘Em and Eat
In France people grow dandelions to eat, just as we might grow lettuce. It’s best to collect dandelion leaves in early spring and then harvest again in late fall. As Wildman Steve Brill tells us:
“Dandelion greens are wonderful in salads, sauteed or steamed. They taste like chicory and endive, with an intense heartiness overlying a bitter tinge. People today shun bitter flavors; they’re so conditioned by overly sweet or salty processed food. But in earlier times, we distinguished between good and bad bitterness. Mixed with other flavors, as in a salad, dandelions improve the flavor.”
Some good news, too, for locavores and for nervous parents. There are no poisonous look-alikes for dandelions.
And it’s a rare weed indeed that has a book named after it: Dandelion Wine is Ray Bradbury’s recreation of a boy’s childhood, combining moments from his life and his imagination.
“Dandelion wine. The words were summer on the tongue. The wine was summer caught and stoppered.”
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