Thursday, November 19, 2015

Mia Acción de Gracias Borinqueña: A Puerto Rican Thanksgiving Menu

Frituras de Coles de Bruselas
Fried Brussels Spouts with Roasted Red Pepper Aioli

For all your guests, especially kids, who say "I hate Brussels sprouts." A good way to win a bet.
 
Ingredients:
 
2 1/2 pounds small Brussels sprouts - smaller the better, preferably still on the stem.
1/2 cup flour
5 eggs beaten 
1 cup Panko breadcrumbs
1 cup grated Parmesan
1 tsp dried wasabi powder (trust me)
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp white pepper


Make the Roasted Red Pepper Aioli:

1/2 cup mayo (preferably home-made)
1/2 cup yogurt or sour cream
1 large roasted red pepper, skinned
2 TBS Roasted Garlic Confit (see below)
Pinch Cayenne pepper
1 tsp smoked paprika
1 TBS fresh lemon juice
1 TBS apricot jam
Salt to taste

  • Combine all in food processor, funnel into squeeze bottle.

Make the Spouts: 

  • Blanche sprouts in boiling water until green and just tender (4 to 6 minutes), shock in ice water, dry well.
  • Shake together Panko crumbs, Parmesan and wasabi powder.
  • Coat in egg, then flour, then Panko mixture, fry in small batches at 375 until golden brown (2-4 minutes)
  • Drain on paper towels, keep in warm oven until ready to serve.
  • Serve over salad greens or kale chips, squeeze Roasted Red Pepper Aioli over all.


Fideos de Alcayota con Hongos Silvestres
Spaghetti Squash Nests with Wild Mushrooms
 

A delicate and elegant starter, topped with poached eggs, or truffle cream and fresh herbs.

8 to 12 servings

Ingredients:

2 large spaghetti squash (about 2-1/2 pounds), halved length-wise, seeds and excess threads removed
4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, divided
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, divided
2 pounds mixed mushrooms, suggest hen of the wood, cremini, murataki
4 tablespoons chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley, sage and basel
8 large egg whites, beaten.
1/4 cup white wine
Salt and white pepper to taste
Annatto oil

  • Place rack in the upper third of oven and preheat oven to 425°F. Brush cut sides of squash with 1 tablespoon olive oil, sprinkle with 1/4 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper, then place cut side down on a baking sheet. Roast for 20 to 25 minutes until easily pierced with a fork. Do not overcook.
  • Saute mushrooms until dry, deglaze with white wine (letting it cook off), salt and pepper to taste
  • Meanwhile, remove the squash from the oven and scrape with a fork. Reduce oven temperature to 350°F. Generously grease a 12-cup standard muffin tin with Annatto Oil
  • Make a bed of squash in each muffin tin, and then gently press a well in the center to create a “nest” for the mushrooms. Spoon equal portions into each well until just overflowing
  • Drizzle beaten egg whites over the entire top of each squash and mushroom cup. Bake for 18-20 minutes, or until the egg is completely cooked through.
  • Unmold and serve warm topped with poached quail eggs, or truffle crème (1cup crème fraiche to 2 TB truffle oil, 1 tsp lemon juice); sprinkle with minced herbs



Arroz con Gandules y Mollejitas de Pavo
Rice with Pigeon Peas, Crispy Turkey Giblets and Roasted Peppers



A festive take on Puerto Rico's signature rice dish
 
Makes 8 servings
Ingredients
 
For Recaito:
  • 1 Cubanelle pepper (Italian frying pepper), seeded and chopped
  • 5 fresh ají dulce (small sweet chiles), halved and seeded
  • 1/2 cup chopped onion
  • 2 garlic cloves, chopped
  • Juice of 1/2 lemon
  • 1/2 cup coarsely chopped cilantro
  • 3 fresh recao leaves (culantro), chopped

For rice:
  • 1/4-pound good chorizo, diced
  • One turkey gizzard, heart and liver, blanched in boiling water, rinsed and small diced
  • 3 TBS annatto oil (a little more if chorizo is lean)
  • 1/4 cup chopped pimiento-stuffed olives
  • 2 large roasted red peppers, skinned and sliced in strips
  • 1 tablespoon drained bottled capers
  • 2 cups long-grain white rice
  • 1 (15-ounce) can pigeon peas, rinsed and drained, or half pound fresh if available
  • 3 1/2 cups turkey stock
  • Pinch saffron

 Purée all recaito ingredients in a food processor.                                    
 
  1. Cut out a round of parchment or wax paper slightly larger than diameter of a wide 4- to 5-quart pot.
  2. Pat chorizo and giblets dry and cook in annatto oil in pot over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, until starting to crisp, about 4 minutes. Add recaito, olives, and capers and cook, stirring, until liquid has evaporated, about 5 minutes. Add rice and saffron and cook, stirring, until it sizzles, about 2 minutes.
  3. Stir in peas, red peppers, water, and 1 1/4 teaspoons salt and bring to a simmer. Simmer, uncovered, over medium-high heat until almost all of liquid is absorbed, about 10 minutes, reducing heat to medium once water is below level of rice.
  4. Gently stir from bottom to top, then smooth top of rice. Place parchment round directly over rice and cover pot with a tight-fitting lid. Reduce heat to low and cook, undisturbed, 30 minutes.
  5. Remove from heat, then discard parchment, drizzle with lemon and gently fluff rice with a fork. Cover with lid and let stand 10 minutes.
 
 
 
Mofongo con Chicharrónes de Pavo
Mashed plantains with turkey cracklings

Another Borinqueño classico, with "Dia del Pavo" touches

Ingredients:
1 head garlic
1 tablespoon olive oil
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/4 lb slab applewood-smoked bacon, cut into small dice
1 cup turkey fat and skin trimmings
Canola oil, for deep-frying
8 green plantains, peeled, sliced 1/2-inch thick on the bias
1/4 cup chopped fresh culantro
1/4 cup thinly sliced scallions
Juice of 1 lime
  • Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
Make the Garlic Confit:
  • Slice off the top of the garlic head, cutting away just enough to expose the cloves. Set the garlic on a double layer of aluminum foil and drizzle with the olive oil. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Close the foil tightly to create a pouch, and transfer it to a baking sheet. Bake for 45 minutes, or until the cloves turn golden brown. Let rest until cool enough to handle. Working over a bowl, squeeze the bottom of the garlic head to release the cloves. Set aside.
Make the Cracklings:
  • Saute the turkey fat and skin trimmings over medium heat until all fat is liquid and rendered and trimmings are crispy brown. Strain and reserve fat. Set cracklings aside.
  • Set a saute pan over medium-high heat. Add the bacon and cook until crispy and well browned. Transfer to a paper-towel-lined plate to drain.
Make the Mofongo:
  • Boil plantains until fork tender 15-20 mins. Pat dry
  • In a deep pot or Dutch oven, heat 3 inches of oil to 325 degrees F. Working in batches, fry the plantains in the oil until golden brown and crisp, 5 to 6 minutes.  Drain on paper towels and season with salt as the plantains come out of the oil.

  • To assemble: In a large, heavy metal mixing bowl or mortar, combine the fried plantains, the roasted garlic, the bacon, 1 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon pepper,the culantro, half the scallions and lime juice. Grind to a loose mash with a pestle or potato masher. Toss to mix. Season with salt and pepper. Scoop out individual portions of mofongo using a ladle or cup mold and  make a deep hole in each (OPTIONAL - flash fry the mofongo balls again one at a time for 1 min at 375F), sprinkle in the turkey cracklings and garnish with reserved scallions. Serve with turkey gravy.
 
 
Pavachon Ahumado
Smoked Turkey Pernil Style

 Spatchcocked, smoked and packed with el sabor criollo

 Serves 10-12
 
Ingredients:
1 12 to 14 pound free range fresh turkey, unprocessed
1 head of elephant garlic roasted in olive oil until soft and green (see mofongo recipe above) or half cup garlic confit
1 whole orange (preferably a little sour), zested and juiced, both reserved
5 large sprigs of fresh oregano
3 TBS kosher salt
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1 TBS brown sugar

For Glaze (combine over low heat):
2 TBS Annatto oil
4 TBS orange marmalade
1 TBS smoked paprika

1. Spatchcock Turkey:
Rinse your bird off and place it breast side down on your cutting board. Using a knife or kitchen shears cut along the sides of the backbone and remove it. (I used tin snips or a sturdy kitchen shears.)

Turn breast side up, folding out the sides. Using both of your hands press down on the bird and pound with fist to flatten it out. Reserve backbone for stock.

2. Dry Brine Three Days in Advance:
Mix salt, cumin, cayenne pepper, and brown sugar. Gently separate skin from breast and rub dry brine mixture into breast and leg meat, then on top of skin and over entire bird. Place bird, uncovered, in refrigerator for 3 days.

3. Season, Slow Smoke and Glaze:
Light one side of grill on low to medium, with wet apple woods chips directly in the flame, and a pan of water over it. Set grill temp to 225 degrees (110c). Grind roast garlic and olive oil with half the orange zest, orange juice and fresh oregano (stems discarded) and slather mixture under and over skin, coating entire bird. Insert meat thermometer or probe into the thickest part of the thigh. Place bird on opposite side of grill from flame for indirect heat. Slow smoke for about 4-5 hours, to an internal temp of 170 degrees F., adding more apple wood and water to the pan as needed, and coating with glaze every half hour or so. When temperature is reached, glaze again, turn turkey skin side down on grill, remove water pan, and raise temp to 450F for 15 to 20 mins to crisp skin. Let rest for 30 mins before carving, uncovered. Give a final glaze before serving.
 
 


 

Wednesday, November 4, 2015

20,000 Houstonion's placed under permanent house arrest without charges this morning

Transgender persons in Houston Texas this morning have three options if they choose to leave their home and face the unavoidable human need to relieve themselves while out, whether at their workplace, a public shopping mall, a church or sporting event. The options now are:

Option 1: Get immediately assaulted. This is called "Using the Mens Room" by cis-gendered people.

Option 2: Get jailed for public indecency, and then assaulted. "Using the Ladies Room."

Option 3: Get jailed for public indecency and creating a sanitary nuisance, and then assaulted. "Peeing Behind a Bush" in civil vernacular.

For losing it and peeing yourself, see Option 3.

The figure of 20,000 affected people is based on the minimum estimate of .3 percent of greater Houston's 6.3 million population who identify as transgender. The number is likely much higher.
http://www.livescience.com/50635-bruce-jenner-transgender-prevalence.html

This effective mass house arrest was done extrajudicially, without due process of law. A deprivation of liberty expressly prohibited by the Fifth Amendment.

This due to the repeal of  HERO by Proposition 1, a previously passed bill which merely brought Houston in line with the same protections of basic human rights already extended by every other major city in America, prohibiting discrimation in employment and public resources on the basis of sexual orientation or gender expression. Evangelical right wing republications turned out in droves, all whipped up by their pastors and Fox News to believe the bill was designed to permit male pedophiles to share bathroom stalls with their 7 year old daughters by simply slipping on a sun dress.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2015/11/04/houston-decided-it-had-a-problem-its-lgbt-nondiscrimination-law/


Now, make no mistake. The right KNOW this is illogical. This was a ploy to scare church moms into voting the bill down, by making them believe that the only thing stopping criminals from raping young females in public bathrooms is that little sign on the door that says “Ladies.”

Their ACTUAL logic is much scarier, and has much further reaching implications. The right has always classified homosexuality as fundamentally predatory. They have always accused gay men and women of seeking to seduce, drug, groom and rape godfearing straight folks, above all kids. http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/anti-gay-documentary-gays-grooming-kids-public-schools

The cultural segregation of men and women in locker rooms and public facilities is largely an American obsession.  Go to a nude beach in Spain, or a public sauna in Finland or Japan. The recent hysteria proves the point.  It’s about sexuality, people – specifically fear of sexuality – and not mainly about privacy.  But here’s the rub.

The Right have proven themselves willing to strip an entire group of citizens of their basic human rights;  transfolk – a population by the way far, far more likely to be the victims of sexual assault and violence than perpetrators (most Male to Female transsexuals have already voluntarily undergone the same chemical castration to which convicted sex offenders are still subjected in many states). They justify this solely because such people may feel sexual attraction toward whoever is doing her business in the next bathroom stall.  Can gays or lesbians be far behind?  The Right knows lesbians are attracted to women, and believes they go after young girls. They have said so, publically and for decades. Ditto for gay men and little boys.  Gay guys are already beaten up in men’s rooms.  How long before it’s a cop doing it instead of a trucker? How long before a law is passed prohibiting lesbian women from using the ladies bathroom?  That, to the Right Wing mind, is the more compelling logic.

We can no longer afford to pick our battles, to make some gains in exchange for compromise. Either rights are universal or they are no rights at all. Enough is enough.