pure
i moved and i threw out most of my old kitchen so that i'd have an excuse to re-outfit myself. two things that i've come to like are the dutch oven and the food mill.

apple sauce

take as many apples as you like. even pears. cut them into octants, removing the seeds. place them in the dutch oven, which you place in the oven at about 200F, 1-2 hours, until they are mushy and carmelized. run them through the food mill. add sugar and cinnamon to taste, or not.

pan-americas beans

soak a pound of kidney beans overnight. rinse twice or thrice. prepare a garlic stock. cook them at a simmer, open, in enough stock to cover by 1", having added a few bay leaves, until done. in the end, there should be just enough broth to cover the beans. be vigilant during the cooking so that the liquid level does not go below the beans.

cut a half pound of pig skin into thin strips, like tagliatelle. add them to the dutch oven along with a bit of ham fat. cook on the stove at low heat, until all of the fat is rendered and the skin becomes cracklins. remove the cracklins, salt them and set aside. remove all of the rendered fat except for as much as you want to have in your pot of beans.

in the fat, fry on medium heat one diced onion and, optionally, several jalapeños, scorched on a gas flame, seeded and deveined, diced. let the onions become diaphanous.

add the beans and their broth. bring to a slight boil for up to a half hour. add tomato coulis to chicken and to improve the color. add cumin to taste and the cracklins. if you added jalapeños, finish with chopped cilantro.

it is done.

serve with rice or tortillas.

potage parmentier

it is convenient to make this with the food mill.

- posted by Jesse @ 9:01 PM