Older Bolder Life

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the Older Bolder Life Friday Feast 18 January 2019: Older Bolder Chorizo No. 1

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I know it might be considered to be out of fashion in some food circles, but we’ve been playing around with Southwestern and Tex-Mex inspired meatza preps lately.

We’ve dialed in our meatza / pizza sauce recipe (on the schedule to share in the next few weeks), and have been using both bulk pork sausage and seasoned ground beef as our meatza base. Last week I cobbled together a very good Tex-Mex meatza using this homemade Older Bolder Chorizo No. 1; it was amazing.

Having spent many a year growing up (and schooling) here in the Lone Star state, we’ve been fans of good chorizo around our camp for some time, having fiddled with chorizo recipes off and on now for well over a decade.

Sourcing good chorizo can be a challenge in that many if not most of the commercially prepared and marketed versions (of bulk chorizo, not the cured Spanish version) are incredibly greasy and contain parts of critters that you’d never ponder eating if you really knew they had been tossed in the grinder.

Speaking of grinder, hopefully you’re fresh grinding pasture-raised pork for your sausage at home; your homemade sausage game will never be the same with a grinder within easy reach.

And like most comfort foods prepared with care and attention, using the freshest ingredients, this version of chorizo is very likely nothing like you’ve tasted before and much more akin to the artisanal sausages (think Bruce Adell’s) you’ve thrown on the grill.  Even better, this one is child’s play simple, and you can tinker with spices to make you and your clan happy.

Finally, we’ve taken to adding in just a few whole cumin seeds too; they add some interesting texture much like fennel seeds in good handmade Italian sausage.

Best made a day in advance to fully develop the flavors, you can cook this crumbled, in patties, and even stuffed into casings for the grill. And oh yea, it’s a masterpiece meatza base…

2 lb fresh ground pork or turkey (mix of white and dark meat)
1 bunch fresh cilantro, leaves and small stems, chopped
2 serrano chile peppers, seeded and finely diced
1-2 tbsp red chile powder
1 tbsp sweet paprika (though smoked would work great here too)
1-2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp chipotle chile powder
1 tsp cumin seeds
1/2 tsp ground coriander
2 tsp kosher salt (or to taste)
Scant 1/4 cup red wine vinegar

This is another one of those recipes that couldn’t be easier.

Mix all the ingredients in a large bowl (using your hands if you’re of the mind to) until well combined. I like to let it rest in the fridge overnight before use, and I’d suggest taking a tablespoon or two of the mixture, cooking it, and adjusting spices to your taste.

Use and store as you would any fresh sausage.

Enjoy.

the Older Bolder Life Vegetable Wednesday 16 January: Grilled Cabbage, Jalapeno, and Onions

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For the next several days here in North Texas we’re about to enjoy a reprieve from winter (such as it is down this far South); we’re adjusting our menu accordingly, breaking out the grill and pondering several nifty grilled protein options.

One of the things my lovely wife asked for was this Grilled Cabbage, Jalapeno, and Onion dish; you could call it a side, a salad, or probably even a slaw.

Grilled vegetables are ridiculously tasty and in reality shockingly easy to prepare; you might not have grilled much cabbage before, if not, this recipe will be one you’ll come back to again and again.

There’s nothing overly fancy about the simple lime, onion/shallot, cilantro, and oil “dressing” here, you could of course substitute any favorite vinaigrette in here (maybe a warm vinaigrette with bacon…).

As always, consider this a starting point; it would probably be great with grilled endive or radicchio, a quarter of red cabbage, different peppers, and even grilled avocados…

1 medium head of green cabbage, core intact, quartered
2 medium sweet onions, halved, root end intact
3-4 jalapeno peppers, stem intact
1-2 bunches green onions, trimmed
6 tbsp avocado oil (or EVOO)
Kosher salt, fresh ground pepper

1/3 C fresh lime juice (or more)
1/4 to 1/2 small red onion or large shallot, finely chopped
2-3 tbsp fresh cilantro, chopped
1 tsp fresh ground pepper
Kosher salt to taste

Fire your trusty grill (or heat a grill pan over medium-high heat).

Prep the cabbage, sweet onions, jalapenos, and green onions, then drizzle with 4 tbsp of the oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Grill until well marked/charred, 3-4 minutes for scallions, 5-7 for the peppers, and 10-12 for the cabbage. Remove from the grill when done, and cool slightly.

Now cut the peppers, green onions, and sweet onions into bite-sized pieces; core the cabbage quarters and cut into bite-sized pieces, place everything in a large bowl.

Toss to combine the vegetables, then add the red onion (shallot), lime juice, 2 remaining tbsp of oil (may want more), and cilantro. Season to taste with salt and pepper, stir to combine well.

Serve immediately or hold in the fridge for a few hours.

Enjoy.

the Older Bolder Life Friday Feast 11 January: Texas Quiche with Sweet Potato Hashbrown Crust

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Now and again we get a hankering for a great quiche, though like many of you, we stopped cooking traditionally-crusted quiches at home several years as we became more Primally/Paleo aligned with our nutrition plan.

While entertaining our adult daughter from Montana over the holidays, she and my wife asked for a quiche dinner one evening. After doing a bit of digging, and consulting with our friend Chef Libby in Austin, I adapted one of our favorite quiche recipes using a spiced, sweet potato hashbrown-inspired crust and a Texas-style sausage, mushroom, onion, and pepper filling.

Quiches are wonderfully malleable creations, in that you can fiddle with the filling ingredients to your heart’s content – changing the protein(s), vegetables, and cheese to suit your (family’s) tastes and what’s available in the fridge at the time.

Note this recipe makes two quiches in 9-inch, deep dish pie plates or one bigger quiche in a deeper quiche pan. We usually make two and hold one in the fridge for a day or two.

SP Crust
2-3 sweet potatoes, grated
2 tbsp AO/EVOO
Optional: 2 tsp cumin
Optional: 2 tsp chile powder
Optional: 1 tsp salt

Quiche Filling
8 eggs
1 can full fat coconut milk
2 tsp cumin
1 tsp good salt

1 lb good sausage, browned, crumbled (see comment above)
1/2 sweet or yellow onion, diced
1/2 cup sliced mushrooms
7-ounce can chopped green chiles (or more)
1-2 jalapeno (or other) chiles, stemmed, seeded, diced
2 cups Monterrey Jack or Pepper Jack cheese, grated (maybe more)
Optional: 1 tbsp pickled jalapenos with juice, chopped small

Preheat oven to 350.

Combine the crust ingredients and pat into 2 deep 9-inch pie plates; we find the crust releases easier if you lightly coat the plates first with either avocado or extra virgin olive oil. Bake the crusts for 20-30 minutes until the sweet potatoes begin to brown. Remove from oven and set aside.

Meanwhile, sauté the sausage until browned, breaking it up as you go; when nearly done, add the onion, mushrooms, and chiles and sauté until softened.

While the sausage is sizzling, combine the eggs, coconut milk, cumin, and salt in a blender or by hand using a whisk.

Now sprinkle 1/4 of the cheese into each pie plate, then divide the sausage and pepper mixture between the two. Top with the remaining cheese, and divide the egg mixture between the two plates. Place on a baking sheet, and bake for 50-60 minutes until the quiche is set and a knife inserted in the middle comes out clean (may need more time if your pie plates are particularly deep).

Allow to cool 15 minutes before slicing; cool completely before covering and storing in the fridge.

Enjoy.

the Older Bolder Life Snack Wednesday 9 January: Spicy Turmeric Coconut Milk (Tea)

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A friend offered us a mug of this delicious Spicy Turmeric Coconut Milk (she likes to call it a tea) one evening a few months ago. Like us she’s a big fan of spicy, full-flavored foods, and enjoys using whole spices when available (she grated fresh turmeric and ginger root for our milk/tea that evening). Her version was outstanding, and we’ve been making it regularly since.

There are dozens and dozens, if not hundreds, of different variations of golden milk floating about, my bent is to encourage you to find one that you like, and consume it liberally. Don’t be afraid to experiment, and don’t forget the black pepper to fully activate the benefits of turmeric too.

As our palate has changed over the past several years, we find overly sweet foods and drinks almost off-putting now; if using freshly grated turmeric and ginger, we often don’t use any honey, molasses, or maple syrup at all in our golden milk (though as a child of the South, a tiny bit of molasses does make this recipe more interesting).

I hadn’t intended to spend time here this morning going over the impressive list of health benefits that turmeric (and ginger) bring to the table; we’ll come back to turmeric in particular at some point down the road and talk about details.

2 cups full-fat coconut milk
1/2 – 1 tsp ground turmeric (or 2-4 tsp freshly grated)
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground ginger (or 1 tsp freshly grated)
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
1/8 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1/8 tsp ground cloves
1/8 tsp freshly ground black pepper

Optional
Honey, maple syrup, blackstrap molasses to taste (start with 1 tsp!)
Pinch of salt
Pinch of cayenne pepper

Combine all ingredients (save for the sweetener if using) in a small saucepan over medium heat, adding a small volume of filtered water if desired if you find the consistency too thick for your tastes. Bring to a gentle boil, remove from heat and let steep at least 5-6 minutes.

If you used grated turmeric and / or ginger, filter through a fine-meshed sieve into a pre-warmed mug, sweeten if desired, and go to it.

Enjoy.

the Older Bolder Life Sauce Sunday 6 January: Homemade Everyday Ketchup (or Ketchup No. 1)

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One of the most common food questions we field from friends, family, and clients as they begin to actually read and pay attention to food product labels is how to replace some of their favorite condiments, ketchup and some form of barbeque sauce probably being at the top of that list.

Mass marketed, commercially-prepared ketchups (and many other condiments) are most often made with stunningly bad ingredients – high fructose corn syrup, we’re looking at you in particular (the image to the right is taken right off a ketchup bottle produced by one of the ‘big boys’ in the game).

We’ve been encouraging people to make their own condiments for years now, and for three obvious reasons. Of course one reason, and perhaps the most critical one, is that you want to control the quality and sourcing of the foods you’re consuming, and that includes eliminating foods/ingredients (like HFCS) that are frankly unhealthy.

Two, customizing your favorite condiments to suit your tastes is limited only by your imagination and willingness to experiment a little. Take this Homemade Everyday Ketchup recipe for instance; you can vary the spices and vinegar/acid components with ease, as well as how sweet you want it to be. Around our house, we like to drop a chipotle pepper (with lots of adobo clinging) in, and don’t use any additional sweetener at all (OK, my wife may make her version with a teaspoon or two of good raw honey).

And three, this recipe, like the Homemade Avocado or Olive Oil Mayo recipe we’ve shared before, is so simple a child could do it, and it takes literally minutes to do.

A good quick ketchup recipe is always handy to have in the fridge (or the ingredients on hand to make in a flash), and can serve as the base for that barbeque sauce you’re hankering for, or a number of salad dressings as well (I have a great Catalina-inspired dressing to share later…).

For those ketchup purists out there who might argue the only way to truly make a great ketchup at home is to literally start from scratch with a half bushel of fresh tomatoes, we’ll have another, more involved ketchup recipe posted in the months to come.

1 12-ounce can organic tomato paste
1/2 to 1 cup raw apple cider vinegar
1/2 to 1 cup water
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
1-2 tsp onion powder OR up to 1/3 cup minced onion
2 tsp good salt
1/4 tsp allspice
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp fresh ground black pepper
1/4 tsp dry mustard

Optional
1/4 – 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
2-5 tsp raw honey OR good maple syrup

This one couldn’t be easier; throw everything into your trusty food processor (or a deep bowl and use an immersion blender) and combine well, adding more vinegar/water to achieve whatever you deem the ideal ketchup consistency.

Enjoy.

the Older Bolder Friday Feast 4 January: Thai-Inspired Slow Roasted Short Ribs

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Last March or April Chef Libby sent us this jaw-droppingly good recipe for Thai-Inspired Slow Roasted Short Ribs that she’d adapted from one published in Bon Appetit. She noted back then that she significantly upped the ‘spice package’ for the spice-infused coconut milk the ribs slowly roast in for nearly six hours (!).

She also added a bit of heat, in the form of a sliced jalapeno or fresno chile, to the toasted coconut, cilantro, and lime gremolata sprinkled over the top.

Our daughter Jess from Missoula recently visited over the holidays, and I slow roasted five pounds of short ribs using this recipe one coolish, windy afternoon her first day in town. The enticing aromas of coconut, ginger, and lemongrass drove us crazy during the last half of the roasting time, and we all agreed this was probably the best tasting short rib prep any of us had ever chased around a plate.

Libby also had shared a tip last year about using lemongrass; if you’re not feeling up to actually prepping lemongrass stalks, you can certainly using some of the pre-prepared lemongrass purees that are available in produce sections around the country. (We’re big lemongrass fans, so I actually used both…)

Take your time with this one, and get those ribs fall-off-the-bone tender.

4-5 lb beef short ribs
Good salt

3 lemongrass stalks (see note above)
2 medium shallots, trimmed and chopped
5 large garlic cloves
3 jalapeno chiles, stemmed, seeded, chopped
2-inch piece of ginger, peeled, finely chopped
1 tbsp + 1 tsp good curry powder
1 can (14-ounces) full fat, unsweetened coconut milk
Optional: 1 tbsp fish sauce

For the gremolata
1/2 cup unsweetened coconut flakes
1 cup cilantro leaves and tender stems, chopped
1 jalapeno or fresno chile, stemmed, seeded, sliced into half rings
2 tbsp fresh-squeezed lime juice (one average lime)
Salt to taste

Preheat your trusty oven to 250.

Trim the uppermost three quarters of the lemongrass stalks off and lay in the bottom on your dutch oven or large cast iron skillet (if using the prepared lemongrass puree, skip this step of course). Salt the short ribs generously and lay atop the lemongrass, bone side up.

Into the blender go the coconut milk, shallots, garlic, jalapenos, ginger, curry, the lemongrass (at least 1 tbsp of the puree if using, grate the bottom quarters of the stalks in otherwise), and the optional fish sauce, puree until smooth. Pour over the ribs, and slide into the oven.

Roast at 250 for 3.5 hours; you’re looking for the meat to begin to tenderize, and the liquids to reduce by roughly half. (It will look broken and oily, don’t worry about that). At 3.5 hours, turn the ribs on their sides and throw it back into the oven for another 2 hours (maybe 2.5) until the meat is fall apart tender.

During the last hour, toast the coconut until golden (10-15 minutes), set aside to cool. When cool, combine with the cilantro and sliced pepper; add the fresh lime juice and salt just before serving.

When the ribs are done, serve hot with the gremolata spooned over the top.

Enjoy.

the Older Bolder Life Vegetable Wednesday 2 January: Fasolakia (Greek-Style Green Beans)

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I’m almost ashamed to admit that my lovely wife and I had never truly tasted genuine Fasolakia (Greek-style green beans) until a couple of years ago, at a then newly discovered wonderful little family-owned Greek place in a nearby town.

The tender green beans, coated with a rich, tomatoey, and well-spiced sauce became a favorite and often were part of a Greek gyro salad dinner for us in the months following our discovery. The restaurant is owned and managed by a charming Greek immigrant in his late 70s; he’s working every single day we venture in, and always welcoming and chatty.

I finally pestered him for the spices used in their version of this dish, and he rattled off the list below, including the admonition to use “lots of garlic and oregano”, and to not forget the spritz of fresh lemon juice at the end.

We also follow his technique of simmering for 15 minutes on the stovetop and then braising in the oven to finish, though you’ll find lots of recipes that complete the entire process on the stovetop. And while we most often prefer to use fresh vegetables, this is one recipe where frozen green beans work like a charm.

1.5 lb fresh green beans, or bout 8 cups frozen green beans (2 small bags)
1/4 cup + 1 tbsp avocado oil or EVOO
1 medium onion, trimmed, grated
4-5 cloves garlic, minced
1 and 1/2 tbsp good dried oregano (maybe a bit more)
2 tsp ground cumin
2 14.5-ounce cans organic diced tomatoes
3 tbsp organic tomato paste
1 bay leaf
Good salt to taste
Fresh ground pepper to taste
Lemon juice (1/2 lemon)
Optional: 1/2 cup fresh parsley leaves

Preheat your trusty oven to 300.

Heat 1/4 cup of your oil of choice in a dutch oven or oven-proof skillet over medium-high heat; add the onion (and any onion juice that’s collected while grating). Sauté for 5-6 minutes until the onion has softened and is just beginning to color and the liquid has reduced a bit.

Sprinkle in the dried oregano, cumin, and the garlic, sauté for another minute or so, then add the green beans, diced tomatoes, tomato paste, along with at least a teaspoon each of salt and pepper.

Bring to a gentle simmer, then cook (uncovered) for 15 minutes, stirring several times. Now cover and pop into the oven for another 30-40 minutes (check halfway through to see if you need to a little water). When the beans are tender, stir in at least another tbsp of oil, 2-3 tbsp fresh lemon juice, and the parsley. Adjust seasonings and serve hot.

Enjoy.

the Older Bolder Life Salad Sunday 30 December: Blue Cheese Pecan Slaw

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Many of the revered smokehouse and barbeque joints around Texas and the South serve some version of a Blue Cheese Pecan Slaw; this is the version we’ve come to adopt as our favorite.

We’re big fans of great slaws and salads around our camp, and have often taken to incorporating a head of radicchio into our slaws of late, along with the occasional parsnip and grated or shredded beet.

The combination of sour cream and avocado oil mayo as the dressing base is a great one, just tart enough, and of course there’s a bit of vinegar, hot sauce, and celery seeds thrown in.

The pecans and blue cheese add a tasty crunch and salty, funky flavor that only blue cheese can bring to the table and are a wonderful change of pace from simpler slaws and salads. By the way, you’ll often see this served with sweetened dried cranberries mixed in; for those moderating their carb intake, those little sweetened carb-bombs cross the line, though unsweetened dried cranberries add a burst of fruity tart flavor and a bit of color during the holidays.

1 head green cabbage, cored and shredded
Up to 1/2 head purple cabbage, cored and shredded
1 large carrot, shredded
1 large head radicchio, cored and shredded
1 bunch green onions, trimmed, white and green parts thinly sliced
Optional: 1 parsnip, peeled and shredded
Optional: 1 golden beet, peeled and shredded

1/2 cup (or more) toasted pecan pieces

Dressing
1 and 1/2 cups crumbled blue cheese, divided
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup avocado or olive oil mayo (use this recipe)
1/4 cup apple cider or distilled white vinegar
2-3 jalapeno hot sauce (we use Green Tabasco here)
2 tsp good salt
1-2 tsp celery seeds
1-2 tsp fresh ground pepper

Toast the pecans in a 300 degree oven for 10-15 minutes; set aside.

Meanwhile, prep and combine the cabbage(s), carrot, radicchio, green onions, and other vegetables of choice in a large bowl; toss gently to mix well. Throw the bowl in the fridge if you’re not using right off the bat.

Mix 1 cup of the crumbled blue cheese with the remainder of the dressing ingredients, combine well. When ready to serve, pour over the cabbage mixture, add the toasted pecans, and toss gently (use your hands here) to coat the vegetables well.

If using a serving bowl at the table, transfer the dressed slaw, then sprinkle with the remaining blue cheese.

Enjoy.