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RECIPE ROUNDUP
Hidden Kitchens
By Shannon Oelrich
National Public Radio (NPR) has been airing stories about “hidden kitchens”—places
where food and story merge, whether through history, tradition, local acclaim
or eccentricity. Produced by Davia Nelson and Nikki Silva, otherwise known as
the Kitchen Sisters, the stories began with listeners who called in to a special
Hidden Kitchens hotline. There were so many calls from Texas that the pair decided
to make an hour–long special about our state. With help from Willie Nelson
in the form of narration, the Kitchen Sisters put together “Hidden Kitchens
Texas.”
Among other tales, this eclectic collection chronicles the birth of the Slurpee,
the margarita and Fritos, as well as the traditions of ice houses, chili queens
and trail rides. (If you haven’t heard it on the radio, you can go to
http://www.kitchensisters.org
and click on Hidden Kitchens Texas to listen online.)
I caught up with the Kitchen Sisters to ask a few questions:
What stood out to you about the Hidden Kitchens of Texas?
Davia: It wasn’t just the food, it was the way people
talked about the food, it was the story behind the food, it was eccentricity
and the vision people had for how they could glue their community together through
food—even a plow disk was a place to cook on. There’s no element
to life that’s not some implement to cook with. A big barrel barbecue
[trailer] is a place to get married on. The items of food are just so part of
the fabric of life.
Nikki: And the storytelling—that was what drew us to
even think about doing a whole hour on Texas to begin with.
Davia: The place is so vast, so the stories are so vast. It’s
cowboy culture, it’s farming culture, it’s cotton-picking culture,
it’s chili queens in San Antonio and ice house culture. There’re
just so many different traditions and ways of life there. And people care about
the history; it really matters to them.
Nikki: There’s such a sense of place and family. I know
things are changing [in Texas] like everywhere, but still, you do have this
very distinct sense of place. Wherever we went, people were very proud and descriptive
about where they came from and where they were living, so it makes for a great
story.
Davia: Plus everyone always invited us to come eat with them.
And that determines a lot where we go. [Both laugh.] So there’s that hospitality.
I imagine the hardest part of your job is deciding what to leave out.
Davia: Our programs are only 6 minutes, 30 seconds long. And
even with the hour-long Texas piece—we were going, “Oh, an hour!”
and then when we got into it we were going, “We need another hour. And
another hour. We need more hours!”
The stories in this special are mostly from Austin, San Antonio, Houston
and Dallas. Why not more from rural areas?
Davia: Not being from Texas, we kind of underestimated what
it would take to really cover all of Texas. [Both laugh.] No matter where we
were, we weren’t somewhere! You know, once you’d get into one town,
even the small towns breed 10 or 20 stories; imagine what the big towns breed,
like a place like Houston. … With the trail ride tradition in Houston,
we figured trail riding and cowboying was a tradition that kind of ran through
many people’s lives in Texas, so even if we weren’t in those areas,
we were hoping we were capturing some of what that meant.
Nikki: It was so hard. That was one of the hardest things.
We really wanted to spend more time and go more small places.
#1 ORIGINAL SAN ANTONIO CHILI
Recipe from Hidden Kitchens (Rodale, 2005)
2 pounds beef shoulder, cut into 1/2- inch cubes
1 pound pork shoulder, cut into 1/2- inch cubes
1/4 cup suet
1/4 cup pork fat
3 medium onions, chopped
6 garlic cloves, minced
1 quart water
4 ancho chiles
1 serrano chile
6 dried red chiles
1 tablespoon comino seeds, finely ground
2 tablespoons Mexican oregano
Salt to taste
Place lightly floured beef and pork cubes in with suet and pork fat in heavy
chili pot and cook quickly, stirring often. Add onions and garlic and cook until
they are tender and limp. Add water to mixture and simmer slowly while preparing
chiles. Remove stems and seeds from chiles and chop very finely. Grind chiles
in molcajete (mortar and pestle) and add oregano with salt to mixture. Simmer
another 2 hours. Remove suet casing and skim off some fat. Never cook frijoles
(beans) with chiles and meat. Serve as separate dish.
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HOME COOKING
Recipe Contest Winner: Carol Moczygemba, Executive Editor,
Texas Co-op Power
Prize-Winning Recipe: Chicken with Mustard Sauce
These recipes are from our own hidden kitchens, the ones in each Texas Co-op
Power staff member’s home, where we test the recipes for this column.
I asked everyone to bring in their favorite recipe, then we voted on them just
like we do with readers’ recipes. Carol Moczygemba, our executive editor,
won first place with her Chicken with Mustard Sauce. She says this recipe is
an adaptation of one from Craig Claiborne, the noted New York Times
food critic. She changed some quantities and ingredients: “He uses a whole
chicken, I use the dark meat only. I used herbs de Provence, and he used tarragon.
I put in many more mushrooms and carrots, and more wine, of course.”
CHICKEN WITH MUSTARD SAUCE
6 chicken leg quarters, separated
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
3 tablespoons butter
40 baby carrots
1 pound small, fresh mushrooms
2 bunches green onion, chopped with some green
3 tablespoons flour
3/4 cup dry white wine
1 can (14 ounces) chicken broth
2 bay leaves
1 teaspoon herbs de Provence*
3 tablespoons Dijon mustard
Sprinkle chicken on all sides with salt and pepper. Heat butter in a heavy
Dutch oven and add chicken, skin side down. Cook until golden brown and turn.
Cook about 5 minutes longer.
Pour off excess fat and scatter carrots, mushrooms and green onions between
chicken pieces. Continue cooking and turning until all vegetables are moist.
Sprinkle with flour, stirring to distribute evenly.
Add wine and stir. Add broth, bay leaf and herbs de Provence. Cover. Cook 20
minutes covered, 15 minutes uncovered.
Turn off heat. Add mustard and stir into sauce. Serve immediately with crusty
bread. Serves 6-8.
*Herbs de Provence is available in some grocery stores, or make your own mix
by combining 1 tablespoon each dried tarragon, marjoram, thyme and savory plus
1 teaspoon dried rosemary.
Serving size: 1 chicken quarter plus carrots and mushrooms. Per serving:
344 calories, 26 g protein, 21 g fat, 10 g carbohydrates, 526 mg sodium, 116
mg cholesterol
CHICKEN ENCHILADAS WITH SPICY CHIPOTLE SAUCE
Make the Spicy Chipotle Sauce ahead of time and refrigerate until ready
to use.
Spicy Chipotle Sauce
1 can (12 ounces) chipotle peppers in adobo sauce
2–3 canned tomatillos
2 tablespoons minced garlic
Puree all ingredients together in food processor.
Chicken Enchiladas
1 whole chicken, cooked, de-boned and diced (reserve broth)
1 medium onion, chopped finely
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 can (7 ounces) diced green chilies
1 tablespoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
Salt and pepper to taste
Reserved broth
Spicy Chipotle Sauce
2 tablespoons crema agria or sour cream
20 corn tortillas
2 cups grated Cheddar cheese
In large pan over medium heat, sauté onion in olive oil for 3-5 minutes
or until onions are clear, not browned. Add diced chicken, green chilies, chili
powder, cumin, salt, pepper, 2 tablespoons broth and 2 tablespoons of Spicy
Chipotle Sauce. Simmer for 30 minutes or until thickened. Turn off heat and
stir in crema agria or sour cream.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9x13-inch pan. Boil remaining broth in
a pot and dip a tortilla in broth for 2-3 seconds. Place in pan and fill with
chicken mixture immediately. Roll up and repeat until all filling is used.
Top pan with remaining Spicy Chipotle Sauce and then with cheese. Bake for
15–20 minutes or until bubbly. Let sit 10 minutes before serving. Makes
20 enchiladas.
Serving size: 2 enchiladas. Per serving: 575 calories, 36 g protein, 36
g fat, 28 g carbohydrates, 578 mg sodium, 162 mg cholesterol
Sandra Forston, Communications Assistant
KEY LIME PIE WITH COCONUT COOKIE CRUST
Crust
43 vanilla wafers
1/2 cup sweetened coconut
6 tablespoons melted butter
Pulse in food processor all the vanilla wafers (you’ll need 11/4 cups
crumbs). Add coconut and melted butter and pulse to blend. Press mixture along
bottom and up sides of a 9-inch pie pan.
Filling
3 egg yolks
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1/2 cup key lime juice
1 teaspoon lime zest
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Beat yolks until they are lemon colored. Blend
in sweetened condensed milk, then add lime juice and zest. Stir until well blended.
Bake 12 minutes until mixture is set. (If using a glass pie pan, bake at 325
degrees.) Serves 8-10.
Serving size: 1 slice. Per serving: 253 calories, 4 g protein, 14 g fat,
29 g carbohydrates, 156 mg sodium, 99 mg cholesterol
Suzi Sands, Art Director
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RECIPE CONTEST
May’s recipe contest topic is Strawberries. What’s
your favorite thing to do with those sweet summer treats? Send recipes to Home
Cooking, 2550 S. IH-35, Austin, TX 78704. You may also fax them to (512) 486-6254,
e-mail them to recipes@texas-ec.org,
or submit online at www.texascooppower.com.
Please include your name, address and phone number, as well as the name of your
electric co-op. The deadline is January 10. The top winner
will receive a copy of 60 Years of Home Cooking and a Texas-shaped
trivet. Runners-up will also receive a prize.
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