Older Bolder Life

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the Older Bolder Life Friday Feast: Roasted Green Chile (Enchilada) Sauce

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Several weeks ago I had the pleasure of being on a multi-person Skype call talking food with several friends and foodie professionals; most of us happen to be in Texas currently, most of us aren’t professionally trained chefs (though two, including friend Libby from Austin, were culinary school trained), and to the person all of us are immersed in some aspect of the food world more or less on a daily basis.

Somehow the topic of verde or green enchiladas came up, prompting a debate as to whether or not verde sauces (and you might even argue salsas) should include our tart friend – the tomatillo.

Opinions ranged widely as you might imagine, some invoking the hallowed “New Mexico Green” enchilada, which collective opinion insisted was built around the revered Hatch Chile (probably New Mexico’s finest export) and not the tomatillo, though many of our Texas-allied compadres insisted that “it’s just not a (insert colorful adjective of choice here) green enchilada if tomatillos aren’t in the (insert second colorful adjective of choice here) sauce”.

While those on the call parted amicably, a few days later I chatted with Libby about tweaking a verde enchilada sauce recipe to include hefty piles of roasted green chiles along with tomatillos – preferably roasted.

She didn’t have time to play around with recipe trials given her catering schedule that week, so I ventured off and started playing with several combinations of these great flavors we’d been arguing about days before. While it’s probably best to do over live fire on the grill, I started off by roasting onions, poblanos, and tomatillos in the oven after drizzling with a good olive oil, and then combining them with a more or less typical assortment of ingredients you see time and time again in most roasted green chile based sauces.

Hot damn, this ended up being a very tasty approach, and one that can be spiced up (more serranos or jalapeños) as desired, and left fairly thick or thinned out as needed. My wife insists it makes a damned fine salsa verde, and she’s pretty good at the salsa game.

Try this next time the verde enchilada siren calls your name; we’ve been using it as a salad dressing, topping for roasted proteins and vegetables, even as a dip for fresh, crunchy veg as well. It’s amazing over eggs or migas, and I find it delightful over a simple salad too.

I’ll also feature this roasted green chile (enchilada) sauce in an upcoming post covering a green chile chicken casserole I helped a buddy cobble together for a family gathering around the 4th, it was a huge hit…

1 small onion, trimmed and halved
1 poblano chile, trimmed and halved
5-6 tomatillos, husked and rinsed
1 tbsp (or more) olive or avocado oil
Kosher salt

4 4-ounce cans roasted green chiles (Hatch if possible)
4 garlic cloves, rough chop
2 serrano peppers, stemmed, seeded, rough chop
1/2 cup cilantro, leaves and tender stems
1/2 to one cup chicken or vegetable stock
1 tbsp fresh lime juice
1 and 1/2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp kosher (or to taste)

Preheat your trusty oven to 400, and place the onion, poblano, and tomatillos on a rimmed baking sheet. Drizzle with the oil, dust with a sprinkle of salt, and throw in the oven for 30-40 minutes until the vegetables are soft and browned. Let cool for several minutes, rough chop, and throw in the blender, along with any juices that leaked from those beautifully roasted tomatillos.

Now add the next 8 ingredients, taking note that you should start with 1/2 cup of chicken stock, adding more as needed to reach the desired consistency. Puree until smooth, taste, and adjust for cumin and salt.

Note: Pending how thick or thin it is, you can either add more chicken stock or throw the sauce into a pan on the stove and reduce to the desired consistency.

As noted in the narrative above, this recipe was most recently used for a friend’s 4th of July party feed down here in Texas, though this makes an astoundingly tasty verde enchilada sauce as well.

Enjoy.

And by the way, it’s kinda hard to get really sexy images of salsa and sauces; the image below is looking right down the barrel of a blender loaded with this sauce in progress…

the Older Bolder Life Friday Feast: Gochujang Curry Peanut Sauce (Dip)

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I’ve shared before that we’re big fans of spicy peanut sauces, particularly when we’re grilling during the warmer months and have great leftover proteins in the fridge on most of these blisteringly hot summer days. To hammer that point home, and tempt your taste buds today, there’s an image below featuring this wonderful sauce over the Original Recipe Chicken from last Friday’s Feast.

Curry and peanut flavors tend to play really well together, and while you could certainly make your own curry sauce, given the number of ingredients and time required to make a really great curry sauce, we much more often than not reach for one of the tasty prepared curries available today (scan ingredients carefully).

Curry, peanut, and coconut flavors also play very well together, and on a whim a few months back, brand-spanking new tub of gochujang in hand, I stirred a couple of tablespoons of gochujang into the peanut sauce I was crafting to serve as a dip for crudite for a little party at the house.

Gochujang is, among other things, an umami flavor bomb, bringing all sorts of deep, almost at times fruity peppery notes to a dish, without being ferociously hot.

Oh you can certainly add more heat to this sauce, either with fresh peppers (try minced serranos or jalapeños), or using cayenne or other spicy ground red peppers, and you do want this sauce to be fairly spicy, given that the foods you’re pouring it over or dipping in it typically aren’t. We’ve even thrown a little chipotle powder in a batch or two, and love the smokey heat that chipotles bring to the table.

Finally, a friend who took this recipe home from the party above likes to add a teaspoon or more or cumin as well – it’s not a typical peanut sauce ingredient but is damned tasty too.

1 tbsp avocado or olive oil
1/3 cup prepared red curry paste (maybe more)
1-3 tbsp gochujang paste
1 can full-fat coconut milk (14.5 ounce)
1/2 cup + 2 tbsp creamy peanut butter
3 tbsp unseasoned rice vinegar
1 tbsp good fish sauce
1 tbsp honey (optional)
1 tsp ground cumin (optional)
Kosher salt to taste

Heat your oil of choice over medium heat in a medium-sized saucepan, and the prepared curry paste and at least 1 tbsp of gochujang, and cook, stirring pretty much consistently, until the paste darkens a bit, is very fragrant, and just begins to stick to the pan.

Quickly add the entire can of coconut milk, stirring to combine well, and bring to a simmer. Continue to whisk occasionally until the mixture has reduced by 10-15%; it’ll darken a bit as it cooks as well.

Remove from the heat and immediately whisk in the peanut butter, rice vinegar, fish sauce, and if you’re using them – the cumin, honey, and other spicy flavors (see above).

Let it cool a bit, then taste, and adjust seasons; we almost always add a bit more gochujang and/or cumin, even a little cayenne or chipotle powder occasionally.

Keep this one chilled in the fridge.

Enjoy.

the Older Bolder Life Friday Feast: The Family “Original Recipe” Grilled Chicken

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Like many of you, we’ve grilled a truckload of chicken on the back porch grill over the years, maybe even a couple of truckloads, and have a handful of favorite recipes we reach for time and time again when doing so.

This recipe, what we’ve come to call The Family “Original Recipe” Grilled Chicken is one that I unwittingly cobbled together back when I was in high school grilling now and again for the family.

The idea first came from a family friend named Butch who ran a family ranch along the breaks of the Canadian River in the Texas Panhandle, a ranch eventually buried beneath the waters of the then in development Lake Meredith.

We attended several big parties out on the ranch way back in the day, and even as a youngster I watched the men cooking over the open fire slather chicken with a baste made principally of grass-fed, ranch-churned butter and Worcestershire sauce. Even as a kid I learned that complimenting the cook and asking reasonable questions is a great way to learn all sorts of useful things, including some time-tested delicious recipes.

Over the decades since we’ve fiddled with all sorts of additions and modifications to the recipe and approach to cooking, settling on a pre-grill dusting of paprika and garlic powder (or granulated garlic), followed by a frequent turn and baste cook – with the simple basting sauce we’ve closely guarded until now – until the chicken is a golden-mahogany brown and ever so flavorful.

The time and turns needed to get a great crust on the chicken always precipitated a balancing act requiring a watchful eye – the fats in the baste will burn if applied too early, wait too long to start basting and the chicken could end up overdone, dry, and under-flavored.

Lately we’ve been adding a nifty par-cook using a sous vide technique, and it’s clearly producing the best Original Recipe Chicken we’ve ever done, and I mean ever. The point of using a sous-vide par cook is to gently precook the chicken, with a light application of spice, at 140 degrees (for about an hour and half for those interested), then go right to the grill and layer on the flavor via a series of baste and turns. This guarantees you won’t overcook the chicken – it’s incredibly moist and tender, and packs all the flavor of the traditional all-grill-cooked approach.

Either way, this is one fine recipe, and makes the best damned chicken salad or cold chicken sandwiches you’ll eat this summer. And by the way, it’s awesome with the Gochujang Curry Peanut Sauce recipe I’m posting next week (last image below).

2-4 pounds chicken breasts, thighs, leg pieces (see above)
Garlic powder
Paprika

4 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
2 tbsp grass fed butter
2 tbsp avocado oil
1 tbsp chile powder of choice (optional)
1-2 tsp molasses (optional)

Sous Vide + Grill Method
After dusting your chicken pieces with a light sprinkle of paprika and garlic powder (or granulated garlic), seal in the BPA-free sous vide bags of your choice.

Now sous vide at 140 degrees F for 1.5 hours, then remove and pat dry.

While the chicken is in the sous vide bath, combine the 5 sauce ingredients in a small saucepan over medium heat and cook until simmering, stirring occasionally. Turn off the heat and let cool in place.

Fire the grill during the last 15 minutes of sous vide time.

Dust the par-cooked chicken pieces again with a light sprinkle of paprika and garlic powder, then grill for 2 minutes per side. After the first turn, begin basting the chicken pieces with the prepared basting sauce, turning every 2-3 minutes until a deep, rich, mahogany-colored glaze and crust develops on the chicken.

Pull and rest for 5-6 minutes, then go to it.

Grill Only Method
Prepare the sauce as per above while you’re firing the grill.

Dust the chicken pieces again with a light sprinkle of paprika and garlic powder, then grill for 4 to 5 minutes per side, you’re not looking to cook the pieces through, but to set the spices and partially cook the chicken. .

After the first turn, begin basting the chicken pieces with the prepared basting sauce, turning every 2-3 minutes until a deep, rich, mahogany-colored glaze and crust develops on the chicken. If using a gas grill, you’ll want to turn down your grill to medium-low during the basting phase of the cook.

Pull and rest for 5-6 minutes, then go to it.

Enjoy.

The Older Bolder Life Friday Feast: Clay’s Potato Salad

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For the first time in over four years as we’ve traveled the low carb and nutritional ketosis roads, and for several reasons, we’ve dug out an old family favorite recipe for the best damn potato salad we’ve ever tasted – Clay’s Potato Salad.

Quite frankly, we’ve not eaten potatoes of the non-sweet potato variety in years, and sweet potatoes rarely when the need for a carb-refeed arose, so this indeed is a departure for us.

For those eating along classic Primal or Paleo paths, and pending both your activity levels and carb tolerance, dabbling now and again with potatoes certainly isn’t verboten, though your neighborhood keto police might disagree.

We’ve dug this recipe out (and cleaned it up) mainly because it tastes so damn good, and has been part of our family food lexicon for years and years. It’s probably so delicious in part due to the inclusion of bacon and even incorporating a bit of the bacon drippings into the salad (trust me on this, it’s magical).

I’m also back into training for Masters level track and field events now that the COVID-19 embargo on events is nearing the end, and find myself lagging from a performance standpoint a bit on my leanest carb days. Finally, cooked and cooled potatoes are a great source of resistant starch, which we’ve been experimenting with a bit around our camp of late, and appear to be the form my wife best tolerates.

My lovely wife and I first tasted this recipe now nearly 40 years ago. We were living in San Antonio as I finished grad school; only during our most affluent weeks did we have two nickels to rub together. We lived in a tiny apartment, survived on a food budget of less than $40/week, tromped all over San Antonio for free entertainment and were happy as could be.

A young couple we knew, fellow paupers in grad school downtown, lucked into house sitting for one of her professors one summer. They had a charming old English tudor at their disposal with a gourmet kitchen and an exquisitely landscaped pool in the backyard.

It was there on a hot summer day that we first tasted this brawny, classic potato salad recipe. Bacon was a splurge for us back then; it was nothing short of ambrosial that afternoon. We stole the leftovers and rationed them out over the next week.

Like all great recipes that foodies hoard, we’ve tweaked this one around the edges and definitely lean toward a tart, spicy, full-of-crunchy-vegetables mix, and have changed out the old for healthier dressing ingredients to align with a primal/paleo palate. That said, the nuts and bolts of the recipe remain the same.

Finally, like all salads of this sort, this recipe is ultimately customizable to suit your family’s tastes and what’s in the fridge and pantry; amounts shown in the ingredient list below are to be considered rough guidelines.

And a word to the wise – don’t skimp on either the mustard or the pickle juice.

2 medium sweet potatoes, cut into 3/4-inch slices
8-10 small to medium new red potatoes, halved if bigger
1 pound thick-sliced bacon in 1-inch pieces, crisped and drained, reserve drippings

1 large sweet onion, small to medium dice (more as desired)
6-8 stalks celery with tender leaves, chopped
1 red bell or Mediterraneo Dulce pepper, seeded and diced
1 cup chopped kosher dill pickles

1 tbsp seasoned salt



1/2 cup avocado oil mayo (see below)
1/2 cup full-fat Greek yogurt (see below)

1/4 to 1/2 cup prepared yellow mustard (see below)
Pickle juice to taste (see below)
Paprika

Optional
4 boiled eggs, cut into bite-sized pieces
1/2 cup sliced pickled jalapeños
1/2 cup chopped green onion, white and green parts
1/2 cup sliced green olives
Mustard, whole grain

Boil the scrubbed and trimmed spuds until fork tender, rinse under cool water until you can handle, then dice medium. Place in a large bowl.

If you’ve not already done so, fry the bacon crisp and set aside to drain well. Pour the hot bacon drippings over the spuds and make sure to scrape all the brown, crusty goodness out of the pan. Crumble the bacon when cooled and set aside.

Chop and dice the sweet onion, green onion, celery, bell or other pepper, dill pickles, and other optional goodies from the list to the potato bowl. Add half the crumbled bacon.

Sprinkle the growing mixture with the seasoned salt. Start by stirring in at least 1/2 cup each of the mayonnaise and yogurt and 1/4 cup yellow mustard, knowing full well that it won’t be enough.

At this point we like to stir in the pickle juice (our tradition calls for using quite a bit to add a punchy vinegar bite to the salad), we add a couple of big spoons of whole grain mustard and then add more mustard and mayo/yogurt to get it to the consistency desired. How much you’ll eventually need will depend on personal taste and how soft your spuds are.

Smooth the top, dust liberally with paprika and sprinkle with the remainder of the bacon. Note this potato salad is very good after resting in the fridge for 4 hours and great the next day, you want it good and cold for the best flavor and to set those resistant starches.

Enjoy.

the Older Bolder Life Friday Feast: Zucchini Jalapeño Salad

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Now that summer is in full swing for most of the country, or soon will be, it won’t be long before we’ll all be seeing oodles of zucchini at our favorite farmer’s market or grocer.

We’ve been seeing the really good fresh, younger zucchini here in North Texas for several weeks now, and while I’d probably rather slice it thin length-wise and grill it quickly over high heat, my lovely wife is a huge fan of spiralized zucchini salads.

This past week I started fiddling around with several of our favorite salad preps and dressings, and cobbled together this Zucchini Jalapeño Salad with an Asian-inspired dressing featuring the gently sharp acidity of rice vinegar with a healthy splash of toasted sesame oil.

Throw in one or two finely diced red jalapeño or Fresno chiles and some of that delicious chile crisp from last week, and you’ve got a nifty, bright tasting, unique, and healthy as can be side or salad for your next feast with the family.

There’s not much to this one, though note in the recipe below that a little resting time is called for to let these flavors mature. And as always, given the Asian inspiration here on flavors we’ve played with adding a bit of sweetness, though at least around our table, we prefer it without.

No spiralizer? No sweat, just chop into matchsticks and go to it.

2 medium zucchini, trimmed, spiralized or cut into 3-inch matchsticks
1/2 tsp kosher salt

1-2 red jalapeño or Fresno chiles, seeded, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 and 1/2 tbsp unseasoned rice vinegar
2 tbsp toasted sesame oil
1/4 tsp kosher salt

Optional
1-2 tsp chile crisp (homemade is far better)
Up to 1 tbsp sweetener of choice (see note above)
Toasted sesame seeds as garnish

Prep the zucchini using your method of choice, place in a medium bowl and sprinkle with the 1/2 tsp of kosher salt. Note if spiralizing your zucchini, consider cutting the longer strands into roughly 3-inch long pieces. Let rest 30 minutes or so, drain, and return to the bowl.

In the meantime, combine the prepped chiles and garlic, the rice vinegar, sesame oil, 1/4 tsp salt, and sweetener of choice if using in a small bowl, whisk to combine. Set aside to let the flavors develop.

After draining the zucchini, stir in the dressing to combine well. Let it rest in the fridge for another 30 minutes or so before serving (could probably go up to 5 or 6 hours), cover if resting longer than 30 minutes.

Stir in the chile crisp right at service and sprinkle with the toasted sesame seeds if using.

Enjoy.

Inquiring Minds Want to Know: Older Bolder Links, Reads, Podcasts, Recipes, and More 17 June 2020

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Interesting Links and Reads from the Week: Exercise, Low Carb, Omega-3s, and More

Physical activity and A-Fib: It’s Complicated. And riskier for men?

Yet another trial of low carb/high fat works. I’m shocked I tell you, shocked….

Association between omega-3 intake and muscle strength in mature folks.

Training the masters sprinter: our stride length shortens, among other things.

Longevity hack: volunteer.

Happiness and gut health is no laughing matter. The study the article is drawn from here.

COVID-19 Links from the Week

Sex differences in immune responses to COVID-19.

Could up to 60% of the non-infected population be immune to COVID-19? Maybe.

COVID-19 fact check: Infection Fatality Ratios probably aren’t what you’ve been hearing.

The CDC’s data suggests COVID-19 infection fatality rates are below 0.3%.

Are bald men more susceptible to COVID-19?

Podcast of the Week

Q&A with Brad Kearns.

Food, Glorious Food

Poisson Cru in French Polynesia.

Libby’s Chile Crisp.

The Older Bolder Life Friday Feast: Libby’s Chile Crisp

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We’re always on the lookout around our camp for interesting sauces, spice mixes, and flavorings of all shapes and sorts to add interest to the foods we enjoy.

It really helps to have a friend “in the industry” to politely pester now and again, especially one who’s as creative as our compadre Chef Libby down in Austin. For reasons that aren’t wholly clear to either one of us, our palates align pretty damn closely, as do our tastes in recreational pursuits, namely fly fishing and other diversions undertaken on or around the water.

Libby and I were chatting several months about sauces, and I mentioned that we were looking for something along the lines of a typically sweet (make that overly-sweet) Asian chile sauce when she asked if we’d ever tried her version of a chile crisp?

For the life of me I couldn’t remember her ever sharing the recipe, one that she’d sourced years ago from Bon Appetit and fiddled with to clean up the ingredients to align more with a Primally-influenced palate.

Libby’s Chile Crisp has become probably my personal favorite table condiment of all time, displacing the ever-so-durable Tex-Mex table salsa (some might even call that a pico), a condiment that’s become increasing essential and good on just about everything I can imagine being seared, roasted, or otherwise cooked on a grill, eggs of every sort, and even vegetables (roasted or grilled in particular).

This recipe produces a rich, red slather that’s at the same time spicy (the red pepper and ginger), crunchy (the toasted shallots and garlic), with a hint of Asian-inspired flavors (the star anise, tamari, and ginger), with a soothing, flavor-infused oil to tie it all together.

Eggs will never be the same again with chile crisp in the fridge – I just had it drizzled over three chilled boiled eggs (cut in half so the just set yolks could soak up the flavor) for lunch as I finished this post in fact.

The recipe easily doubles, and you’ll get a better crisp-ing effect if you use at least an 8-inch sauce pan to spread the shallots and garlic out in a thin layer (go bigger if doubling the recipe); just watch them and don’t push them too fast. Oh, and by the way, we like it with more red pepper flakes; this is the recipe Libby originally shared with us back in the day.

3/4 cup oil of choice (we use half olive oil, half avocado)
2 medium shallots, thinly sliced
1 head garlic, separated into cloves, thinly sliced
2-3 star anise pods
1 cinnamon stick
2 to 3-inch piece of fresh ginger, peeled, chopped fine
2-3 tbsp crushed red pepper flakes
2 tbsp coconut aminos or tamari
Optional: 1-2 tsp sugar of choice

Combine the oil(s), prepped shallots, garlic, star anise, and cinnamon stick in a saucepan at least 8-9 inches in diameter. Place over medium heat until simmering, then reduce the heat to keep it just simmering and swirl now and again for 20-30 minutes, until the shallots and garlic have crisped and browned.

Meanwhile combine the prepped ginger, red pepper flakes, tamari or coconut aminos, and the optional sugar in a medium bowl and set aside.

When the shallots and garlic have browned and are crispy, strain into the ginger-pepper bowl, and leave the shallots and garlic to cool in the strainer (makes them crispier). When cool, stir back into the infused oil.

Keep in the fridge between uses, and yes, the recipe doubles easily (you’ll want more…).

Enjoy.

the Older Bolder Life Friday Feast: Curried Roasted Sweet Potato and Cauliflower Salad

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Like many (if not most) of you, we’ve been looking forward to a turn toward the summer season for a host of reasons this year, given the bizarre journey we’ve all been on for the past three months. Not to mention the simple fact that we all love the fun the summer season brings.

Astrological summer of course doesn’t being for another three weeks, though count me among those who sort of spiritually look at Memorial Day as the advent of summer. During all the time we lived and worked in Montana, as often as not it snowed sometime the last week of May, often in town but almost always in the high country. We’d chuckle at relatives down in Texas complaining of the early advent of summer’s heat, though now that we’re down in North Texas as I write this, with a forecast week of temps pushing 90 or better on the docket, the arrival of summer seems all the more real.

We love the summer (year round really) grilling season around our camp, and are almost always looking for great salads to accompany our favorite proteins off the grill.

I’ve been playing off and on with a roasted sweet potato and cauliflower salad for a few years now; we’ve found several flavor combinations that we resonate with, but I have to admit, I’m not a huge fan of roasted and cooled cauliflower from a texture perspective. (Texture matters.)

We have a couple of raw cauliflower salads we often reach for, including this long time family favorite, so recently I stole a page from that recipe and left the cauliflower raw but roasted the sweet potatoes in this Curried Roasted Sweet Potato and Cauliflower Salad, adding in a healthy handful of roasted red peppers, crunchy celery, and red onion, along with a Southwestern themed spice array + good curry.

Leaving the cauliflower raw adds a delightful crunch, as does the celery, and crisp roasting (in a pan) the sweet potatoes adds a bit of caramelization to the equation too. This salad, like any and all you make at home, can be customized to suit your family’s tastes – for instance, in making this batch, my lovely wife had forgotten to grab a red onion on her last shopping excursion, so I just added a sweet onion (Vidalia’s are in!) instead. Next time around, I’ll probably add a tablespoon or two of capers as well….

If your schedule allows, make this an hour or more ahead of time to let the flavors meld, and my clan thinks it’s even better the next day.

1 and 1/2 tsp fennel seeds
1 and 1/2 tsp coriander seeds
1 and 1/2 tsp cumin seeds
1 tbsp good curry powder
1/4 to 1/2 tsp cayenne powder

4 cups cauliflower florets, cut into 3/4-inch pieces if needed
2 medium sweet potatoes, trimmed, cut into 3/4-inch cubes
1 cup roasted red peppers, well-drained, diced
3/4 cup celery, including tender leaves, thinly sliced
1/2 small red onion, trimmed, julienned
1/3 cup chopped cilantro
1/3 cup avocado oil mayo
1/3 cup full fat Greek yogurt
Zest and juice of 1 lemon
Good salt and fresh ground pepper to taste

Garnishes: 2-3 green onions thinly sliced, more chopped cilantro, more diced red pepper

Trim and cut the sweet potatoes to size, then sauté over medium-high in avocado oil until browned and beginning to caramelize around the edges. Set aside to cool.

In a clean, dry small skillet over medium heat, toast the three seeds until fragrant (keep them moving in the pan). Transfer carefully to a spice grinder and grind to a fine powder. Transfer to a small dish with the curry and cayenne powders.

Into a large bowl go the toasted spices, diced peppers, celery, onion, cilantro, lemon zest and juice, mayo, yogurt, salt, and pepper; stir to combine well, then add the potatoes and cauliflower and stir until evenly coated. Taste and adjust for salt, pepper, and curry.

Transfer to a serving bowl if desired and garnish using any and/or all of the garnishes.

Enjoy.