[CH] IN hotluck (under the redbuds)
Alex Silbajoris (72163.1353@compuserve.com)
Tue, 13 Apr 1999 08:50:55 -0400
Pods,
My thanks to Steve and Elizabeth Thomas for hosting another festival; these
are always a good way to re-assure myself that there really are other
pepper nuts in the world. Thanks also to CaJohn for giving me a veritable
arsenal of hab products!
Once again I got to taste some new flavors, see more products, and soak up
more music and conversation. This year the spring has been warmer and the
redbud trees were more open - the old historic brick mansions and gardens
looked good with all the flowering trees.
I never did comply with Steve's request for recipes with the food, so here
are my descriptions of what I brought.
Jim C. mentioned the chicken wings, but with a small error. They were
cooked (well, a little burnt here and there) over plain charcoal. The
marinade was a combination of two recipes - a Cuban mojo crillolo and a Key
West-style "old sour" sauce.
The old sour sauce has the chiles. I'm used to using green serranos, but
you could use other peppers. Here is the recipe I've always based my sauce
on. This is a good way to actually use some of that bottle of Key West
lime juice you may have hanging around. Old-timers have seen me post this
recipe before:
Chili Lime Sauce
This sauce, which accompanies French West Indian stews,
is called 'old sour' in Key West ... Spoon it over grilled
vegetables, chicken or seafood or use it to perk up soups,
stews, or salad dressings. It keeps for several months at
room temperature and improves with age.
1 to 3 scotch bonnets or other hot chiles
1 cup fresh lime juice (about 6 limes)
1 tablespoon salt
Stem, wash, seed, and thinly slice the peppers.
(For a hotter sauce, leave the seeds in.) Combine the lime
juice and salt in a mixing bowl and whisk until the latter is
completely dissolved. Stir in the peppers.
Transfer the sauce to a clean jar or bottle. Let the mixture
"ripen" at room temperature for at least 24 hours, preferably
five days to a week. Makes 1 cup.
The Cuban mojo crillolo is another story, milder and more elaborate to
prepare. I've had this on fish, poultry, pork, and - if you ever get a
chance, try this - boiled yuca root.
Mojo Crillolo
6 - 8 cloves of garlic
1 tsp salt
1 medium onion, very thinly sliced
1/2 cup sour orange juice (see note)
1/2 cup pure Spanish olive oil
Using a mortar and pestle or food processor, crush the garlic
with the salt to make a thick paste. In a mixing bowl, combine
the garlic paste, the onion and the juice and let the mixture sit
at room temperature for 30 minutes or longer.
Minutes before you are ready to serve to mojo, heat the oil over
medium-high heat in a medium-sized pan until it is very hot,
add the garlic mixture (do this very quickly as it will spatter)
stir, and serve immediately. To reheat, simmer over low heat
until heated through, 6 - 8 minutes. This sauce keeps several
weeks refrigerated. Makes 1 cup.
Note: If unable to obtain sour oranges, make a mixture of
1/4 cup sweet orange juice, and 1/8 cup each lemon and
lime juices.
This is what I brought to the hotluck. Don't know what to call it, maybe
Sour Mojo. These measures are approximate.
2 cups orange juice
2 cups Key West lime juice
5 large cloves of garlic
10 green serrano chiles
2 tablespoons salt
Combine the orange and lime juices, and stir in the salt to dissolve.
Mince the garlic finely, or run it through a garlic press, and add to
the juice. Slice the serranos thinly, add, and stir.
Allow to rest in a covered jar in refrigerator or at room temperature.
The aroma will change hour by hour as the serranos, lime and garlic
combine their influences. I like to let this rest for at least a day
before use; the sauce I used as a marinade this year was about
48 hours old.
For the hotluck, I bought a big bag of chicken wing halves, and let them
soak for a few hours in the marinade before cooking on skewers over
charcoal.
The salmon was another story. No chiles here, so skip this part if you
don't want to read about anything else. *g* This is not a slow-smoking
recipe; this is more like a quick roast. Sassafrass is the same tree as
used for root beer, and it has a strong spicy flavor. The leaves are
ground for file seasoning, which I want to make this year. When freshly
split, the wood actually smells like ginger. If you can't get it, you
could substitute maple or apple.
Sassy Smoked Salmon
1 salmon fillet (or substitute salmon steaks)
1 cup water
1 tablespoon salt
1 teaspoon whole coriander
1/2 teaspoon whole caraway seed
1/2 teaspoon whole black peppercorns
Dissolve the salt in the water. Crush or grind the whole seeds
together, and combine with the water. Immerse the salmon
in a pan (or bag) and allow to marinate for three or four hours.
Light a covered grill (kettle-style, or box-style) with a fire of
sassafrass wood. You can boost this with ordinary charcoal
briquettes at first. Once you have a good bed of embers, and
while there is still much wood left to burn, choke the fire with
the lid and vents so you have just a light stream of exhaust,
similar to a cloud of steam from a boiling pot of water. You'll
have to get a feel for this with your own grill/wood combination.
Lay the salmon out, skin side sown, onto a sheet of heavy-duty foil.
Place it on the rack, close the lid, and leave it closed. Check the
cooking progress by the rate of smoke output, and by listening -
you can hear the salmon gently sizzling if you have the heat right.
Cooking time will be 30 minutes or so; start checking after
15 or 20 minutes and judge for yourself when the fish is sufficiently
cooked through to your taste. If you leave it on too long, it will dry.
The skin will stick to the foil; you can serve it that way, or flake it
all apart and serve it loose. Watch out for the occasional bone.
I brought this non-chile dish to the festival just to contrast against the
heat of the other foods. However, I could not resist having _something_
hot about it, so I also brought toasted bagel chips which I brushed with a
garlic-butter-habanero sauce combination.
Alex Silbajoris 72163.1353@compuserve.com
Grills to the hills