Hello, My Name Is Anne and I’m a Sauceaholic… | Sequatchie Cove Farm

I have a new addiction. To make matters worse it is an addition to an existing addiction — my tomato habit.

I bought a case of tomatoes from Signal Mountain Farm last week for an awesomely low price — I think it was around twenty five or thirty dollars. The addiction addition is twofold. One, I really love the way tomato skins slip off after an instant of blanching (I am new to the tomato skinning world and have heard about this trick but never had any reason to try it). And two, I love the way my house smells after hours of cooking down tomato sauces. I love the way the tomatoes are pink and watery at first and then three hours later are a deep rich red. I’m afraid one case isn’t going to cut it for me — my cupboards are just going to have to find space next to the tomato chile sauce and tomato-cayenne relish that already resides there.

I spent all day making gumbo today. That is what you have to do when you make gumbo — spend all day. The day before I took some ‘stock parts’ of chicken out of my freezer that I’d picked up on a farm visit to Dave Waters’ farm — River Ridge. This contained the backs, necks, and feet of chicken and although not quite fit for those unaccustomed to the joys of chicken parts, they make a luscious broth. The feet have a lot of gelatin and other good things and you really can’t make a perfect broth without them. It IS a little scary to see chicken toenails poking out of the stock pot but once it is all said and done I never regret it. After I’d cooked that for about four hours I let it cool, drained off the bones, and put the broth in the fridge. Then I picked off whatever meat was stuck to the backs (it turned out to be about two cups) and tossed the rest.

Today I took all the fat off the stock and after making a brown brown roux of equal parts butter and flour (you have to let it cook-stirring every now and then- until it is passed the point of smelling like popcorn and looks like really dark peanut butter) tossed in a chopped onion, a couple peppers, some shiitake, a quarter pound of sliced okra, a few chili peppers, and five cloves of garlic. I cooked that til the onions were soft and then threw in my chicken stock, about five chopped tomatoes, some salt, paprika, nutmeg, thyme, and cumin and let that cook for four hours. Then I sliced up some of those special Sequatchie Cove sausages, fried them, and threw them in along with the salvaged chicken meat. Then I let it cool and put it in the fridge for tomorrow night. It would have been good today but I think it’s even better to let it sit and think about things.

To go back to the ‘fast food’ side of life — Two night ago I pulled a beef eye of round roast from my freezer, thawed it, and sliced half of it into very thin slices. I marinated the slices in ginger, garlic, beer, and a cayenne for a few hours. In the meantime I sliced some of Sequatchie Cove’s famous sweet peppers (I don’t know what it is but this year I have fallen deeply in love with the amazingly sweet crunchiness of these peppers), a cucumber or two from Williams Island, and a yellow squash from Clover Wreath. I made dressing of a couple lime’s juices, an a touch of fish sauce. I heated up my cast iron griddle til it was super hot and then threw the beef slices on for a few seconds — until just done. Eye of round can be tricky — you have to either cook it forever or barely at all. After they had cooled I added them to the vegetables.

To go with this ‘beef salad’ I cut some River Ridge Farm potatoes into chunks and cooked them in some turmeric, a touch of fenugreek seed, sliced onion, a few jalapenos, salt, and enough water to cover them. When they were done I threw in about a half a cup of coconut milk. They were wonderful — especially if you smash them with your fork and mixed in some coconut milk gravy. I checked out this book call Mangoes and Curry Leaves from the library — a few weeks ago I had checked out Hot Sour Salty Sweet written by the same people- they are both big, beautiful books full of pictures and cover most of the Asian continent.

I also made my first chile relleno this week with some poblanos from Sequatchie Cove. For some reason I have always been a little scared of them — I think it must be the frying part. I am terrified of frying, although every time I brave it it seems to turn out just fine. Or maybe because I like the IDEA of chile relleno but since I’ve never really had a very good one, they seem scary — something a little soggy, spongy, gooey, salty, bland and served with a side of goopy beans and slightly hard dry rice tends to be a little frightening.

So, I took the chilies and roasted them over the gas flame on the stove. When they were black all over I threw them in a bowl and put a plate on top — that lets them sweat a little in their own charred skins and helps the skin come off better. While I waited for that to happen I heated up a wok of oil, and grated a little sharp cheddar and crumbled up some goat cheese. Then I took the chilies out, scraped off the skins, made a slit in one side and cut out the seeds. You have to leave the top intact — which is a little hard because the seeds are attached to it. I just cut them off with a knife and shook out all the rest. Then I stuffed the peppers with the cheese and patched the seam in each one with a big basil leaf. You are supposed to use epazote — a Mexican herb that I hardly ever find fresh — but I didn’t have any so I substituted something I have quite a lot of. If you put it on the inside and pull the edges shut it does a great job at keeping the filling in — very important when frying. Then I beat the whites of two eggs til stiff and then quickly whipped in the yolks. I dipped each chile into the eggs and then right into the wok where they turned a gorgeous golden brown and puffed up nicely. I let those drain for a second (if the oil is as hot as it should be they barely absorb any), put them on a platter, and covered them in a tomato sauce of a couple Williams Island tomatoes, five Crabtree cloves of garlic, and a River Ridge onion that I’d made before I started the chilies.

Even looking at that is hard but really and truly it was easier than it sounds. AND I was totally unprepared for how amazingly heavenly they were. Really, I have never had anything like it. The cheese was soft and melty, the outside of the chilies were warm and crisp, and the sauce was fresh a perfect balance for the slight heat of the chile. (although the heat of the chile to ME was just slightly warm, the other person I served them to would not agree. If you have any kind of sensitivity to heat, try making them with some other pepper ( I actually wouldn’t recommend it because sweet peppers usually have much thicker walls and it would not be near as balanced and delicate as a poblanos).

If you want to make chile relleno or any other wonderful Mexican food — check out Seasons of my Heart by Susana Trilling. It is mainly Oaxacan — style cooking. It one of about three cookbooks that I look at on a regular basis- the rest I just glance at every now and then if I’m desperate for ideas.

Now I’m just going to have to sit on my hands until next week when I can score another case of tomatoes.

See yall at market. If you have any questions like — how do I use a whole bunch of squash or what is a good way to cook eggplant let me know. I might be able to answer you if I can get basil and tomatoes off my mind.

Filed under: Local Food Letter on August 4th, 2009 |