@worth1 Thank you for the advice about Poblanos. I chopped one up last night to go into a pot of chili, and tasted it raw to see about the heat - well there was none, but really a delightful sweet and subtle flavor for a very green pepper. IDK if they are normally eaten green but I would definitely rate it as excellent, unlike green bells which are bitter and horrible. It's good to know that the occasional poblano might be hot, so I will take care around my handling of the seed end. The fact they are good to eat when green means it could be worthwhile to grow them here, even if they are late.
I feel exactly as you do about bell peppers. They're all water weight and short on taste. We have been getting a lot of small pointed 'snack' peppers in the stores here for the past several years, which really stepped up to fill the place of home grown peppers. But I haven't seen any in a couple of months, and so I ended up with the bargain bag of "naturally imperfect" bells.
The poblanos were on special $2 for a pack of two. That's a good deal, considering they weren't getting old - I often pass by the hot pepper section for the sorry appearance of the peppers under plastic wrap. Poor quality of produce especially in winter here has always been a big reason for growing our own.

Chilies en nogada is a slightly hard video to find in English.
It's considered the national dish of Mexico by some and eaten on Mexican independence day.
But you can find some on YouTube if you look.
It is really involved to make to say the very least.
I subscribe to this ladies channel as well as many others.

Last night I roasted 2 pounds of pecan halves.
They cost 14 dollars raw in the big bag.
I mixed them in enough oil to cover them and added a little salt and sugar then mixed everything up.
Roasted in baking sheet spread out but not the labor intensive method you see on how to do it.
Roasted in pre heated oven at 325 for ten minutes shut oven off and cracked the door and let cool off.
The cost of them made like this is over the top expensive if store bought.
Some as much as Planters at $ 68.80 for 29 ounces which is 3 ounces under 2 pounds.
I have an experiment recipe going on and I needed pecans.

Not the experiment.
Taco made with my beef barley mushroom
stew and Sriracha sauce.
Had two of them.
Reminiscent of carne guisada tacos.

It just dawned on me that the chilies en Nogada filling is a lot like real old fashioned mince meat.
I'm not attempting to replicate the dish but build on it with the stuff I have on hand.
The filling was raisins and whole pecans with a little water to cook.
Additional ingredients were 3 chilie Morita and two guajillo chiles.
Apricot preserves and fresh diced tomato.
Whole cloves and 5 spice powder.
Of which has cinnamon anise ginger fennel and black pepper.
The peppers were rehydrated in the fluid and removed to the blend.
Obviously all seeds were removed as well.
The blender had a couple of handfuls of roasted pecans coconut milk and a half stick of cream cheese.
More 5 spice powder paprika and a splash of sherry.

Here it is so far.
It the meat concoction will cool off before stuffing into poblano peppers and baked.
The sauce will go on top.

Here it is.
And it's really good.

Oh wow, that recipe looks amazing.

My chili is just mundane (not authentic of course, there are beans in it). Rich, hot, and a little sweet. I didn't want to mess with the rice, so I put a loaf of bread on last night to make garlic bread to go with it. Yes those are nearly dried up tomatoes that have been sitting in a bag or a bowl since... well, october or so? They were pretty juicy, all considered. Also picked a mini romaine lettuce from the greenhouse to make a side salad. I haven't made garlic bread in a dog's age, and it was super garlicky, but whatever. It seemed like a treat anyway.

Tuesday night I made a type of vada, using the leftover chickpea barley porridge, adding some sooji, or coarse semolina to stiffen it even more, then, instead of deep frying it (the usual way those are cooked), I brushed a small amount of oil on the surface of them, then cooked them in a NS skillet. Turned out great! I also cooked some bok choy, that I harvested from my hydro - started with a generous 3 c, and it cooked down to a generous cup.
Sort of a vada, made from the leftover chickpea barley porridge, with some semolina added. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

7 outer stalks from the bok choy in the hydroponics. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Those bok choy stems, chopped up to about 3 cups. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

The bok choy, cooked about 90 sec, with a tb of nam prick pao ready to stir into it. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Bok choy, cooked with a tsp of soy sauce, and a tb of nam prik pao added for flavor. Cooked down to about a cup, from 3 c. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Tonight, a friend came over, and I made some guacamole, with some avocados I had to use today, plus a Mexican omelette, with some ham, roasted green chiles, from the freezer, and some queso fresco. Plus I gave him the two leftover vadas from last night, to reheat.

It seems like quite a few of us were using barley this week. I love it in many dishes, even just simmered with a bit of stock. Added some to the lamb curry, managed to fit in the taters anyhow, LOL, and chilled to get the fat to rise up and stiffen. Removed it and it was supper today. The lamb breast is so luscious slow simmered. Will have the same tomorrow and also put some up in quart jars and process it.

I love red bell peppers, guess I am a minority for that. The green ones I do not like mostly, not much of a fan of the yellow. The dark gold ones can be good though.

worth1 wrote: ↑Tue Jan 31, 2023 12:43 pm Traditional Mexican hot chocolate.
I've been drinking this type all my life.
2 tablespoons cocoa powder.
Good pinch of cinnamon.
Good pinch of chili powder.
Not the stuff that comes with all the spices but the ground chili.
This time it's Chipotle powder.
Ancho is good too.
One cup of hot water.
Sweeten to taste.
((((((No milk.))))))
If you've never had hot chocolate made this way you should at least once.
20230131_123432.jpg

Where da mini marshmallows or whipped cream?

Shrimp for me is sort of shrimp scampi. Oil and butter, garlic, chicken stock, lemon juice, parsley, shrimp, and salt, served over linguine.

Danny wrote: ↑Wed Feb 01, 2023 11:28 pm It seems like quite a few of us were using barley this week. I love it in many dishes, even just simmered with a bit of stock. Added some to the lamb curry, managed to fit in the taters anyhow, LOL, and chilled to get the fat to rise up and stiffen. Removed it and it was supper today. The lamb breast is so luscious slow simmered. Will have the same tomorrow and also put some up in quart jars and process it.

I love red bell peppers, guess I am a minority for that. The green ones I do not like mostly, not much of a fan of the yellow. The dark gold ones can be good though.

Orange bells for eating raw, red bells for cooking. Green bells are hit or miss, as store bought is unknown if picked too early (bitter) or a bit before breaker stage (fine, but not sweet). I usually don't pass up on a few green ones that are just starting to color, and are half the price of the reds. If I have no immediate use for them, they get cut, seeded, and frozen.

I got my tostada craving out of the way.
Its a rare moment I have everything at once to make them.
And naturally I made my own tostada chip things in oil.
I think I ate 4 or 5, I can't remember.
The meat spice was San Antonio chilie powder and beef bullion powder for the salt and a little water because I drained most of the grease off before adding spices.
Tomato.
Poblano.
Onion.
Lettuce.
Muenster cheese.
Yellow corn tortillas.

I got home yesterday as always and looked at the latest Friday installation of Sam the cooking guy.
He was making a Mexican pizza of some sort.
That's when the lights came on to make tostadas.
I literally had everything that I needed to do something with fast.
I swapped gears from hamburger steak to tostadas in about 5 seconds.
I won't go to a Mexican restaurant without ordering a tostada.
I don't care what else I ordered.
Tostadas aren't Tex Mex and can be found in various forms throughout Mexico and Central America.

I had a little leftover from last night.
Breakfast tostada with sunny side up egg.

Back to basics fried chicken.
Nothing fancy.
Just flour garlic powder and black pepper dredged in flour and fried.
No soaking or milk or anything.
Extra crispy skin.

Simple fare, grilled chicken thighs, grilled Boudin, french filet beans.

Lazy today, chicken sandwich on buttered italian bread.

This cold weather makes this soup weather, so I made a batch of mushroom barley soup. I made it my usual way, starting with sautéeing an onion in EVOO in the Instant Pot. After 5 minutes or so, added about a tb of minced garlic, and a generous tb of tomato paste, and sautéed about 2 minutes, then added 7 cups of chicken broth, 3/4 c barley, 2 tb light soy (for part of the salt), a little Worcestershire sauce, then set the IP for 25 minutes on manual, and let release naturally.

While that was cooking, I cleaned the soaked boletus, then chopped them fine, and cooked the strained liquid and the boletus down, while washing, and quartering the mushrooms. Added them to the last tb of liquid, then steamed briefly, then removed the lid, added 2 tsp olive oil, and when the water boils off, sauté 6 or 7 minutes, then set aside, until barley is done. I then took some of the broth and rinsed all the fond out of the pan, and added that, and the mushrooms to the IP. Then I added about 3 tb black quinoa (only to empty a jar) and 4 tb masoor dal, adjusted the salt, then simmered 20 minutes, then added 12 oz frozen peas, and cooked 5 more minutes. I then added about 4 tb of chopped parsley, and added a generous amount of freshly ground pepper, to finish it.
A lb of mushrooms, cooked with almost an ounce of dried boletus, ready to add to the soup. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Mushroom barley soup. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

I didn't put any parmesan on this helping, as it's good without, as well, but I'll probably have some on the next batch tomorrow.

Show me your ghee.
Say what?
50% store bought and about 50% homemade butter being converted to shelf stable ghee.
Easy and well worth the effort.
Just keep the temperature low to get out a the moisture and let the mild solids brown just a wee bit for flavor.