JALAPENO SALSA

Ingredients

4 to 6 Jalapeno chiles (firm) remove the stem
4 to 6 Tomatillos (Firm, remove husks and wash off sticky film)
6 to 8 Roma tomatoes (firm but not green, wash and dry off) or,
Crushed tomatoes (large can / 2 cups)
2 to 3 cloves garlic (peeled, quartered)
¼ cup onion diced
1 tspn sea salt (regular salt is ok)
¼ tsp black pepper
1 tblspn lime juice
1 tblspn olive oil
2 tblspn cilantro (washed and coarsely chopped)
¼ tspn oregano (crush by hand)
1/8 tspn comino (crushed or use ground comino-cumin)
Chicken bullion (dash)

Preparation

In warm skillet add olive oil and heat. Add whole jalapenos, fresh tomatoes, tomatillos, garlic, salt and pepper. Cook until chiles, tomatoes and tomatillos are soft and garlic starts to carmelize. Remove, allow to cool somewhat. Quarter the chiles, tomatillos, and tomatoes.
Place all ingredients into blender in layers. Chop briefly until salsa is chunky. May have to make in two blender sessions. If so, combine and stir together.

Other Comments

Do not over blend as the salsa becomes soupy. Taste. If too spicy, add more crushed tomatoes. This will last several days in the refrigerator – can also be frozen and last several weeks. Store in appropriate size containers. Do not leave in the fridge longer than four days as it does not contain preservatives. Do not leave out in the open for periods longer than an hour as it can go bad quickly. Cilantro is a herb that one either loves or hates and is not for everyone. For those that like their stuff hot, add about ¼ of a Habanero to the recipe. Wow!
Great over eggs and meats. For dips add a couple of tablespoons to cheese, artichoke or bean dips and heat.

Green Chile – New Mexico Style (Posole)

This is the recipe I’ve prepared over the years. It uses New Mexico green chile, preferably from Hatch, New Mexico. However, green chile from New Mexico or Colorado can be used. In a pinch, you can use Anaheim chiles or other fleshy long green chiles that have some kick to them. Sometimes you can find the small can of diced green chile in the market – they are usually mild.

Preparation:

Roast the chiles on a barbeque grill until they puff out and brown. Take care as they sometimes abruptly release steam and seeds.  Do not overcook them as they will lose their flesh and bulk.  I leave the skin on since it retains the smokey flavor. As soon as they are roasted, bag and freeze them. The quantity to place in each bag depends on their heat and the amount of Posole you normally make.  (Of course they can be used for salsas and to spice up soups, casseroles and other dishes.)

Ingredients:

For a ten quart pot.

6 – 8 Chiles (Medium hot – use more if milder)

1/2 large onion – diced

4-6 cloves of garlic -minced

4 TBL olive oil or canola oil

½ TSP ground comino

½ TSP oregano

3 large bay leaves

3 cubes of boullion (Beef, chicken or vegetable)

2 TBL sea salt

1 TBL pepper

3 – 5 TBL flour

2 – 3 lbs lean pork cut in ½ inch cubes or equivalent amount of cut up chicken or turkey.

1 1/2 – lbs pork neck bones or ribs cut into 1 inch lengths. (Optional)

1 gal hominy

Cut up the chiles. Retain the liquid. You can discard the seeds or keep them depending on the heat and individual preferences.

Dice half of a large onion and about 4 to 6 cloves of garlic.

In a baking dish, spread the meat out and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Rub half the garlic on the meat and place in the oven under high heat until browned. Save the liquid in a bowl. Turn the meat at least once to brown all over. Remove.

In the large pot, place 2 TBL of oil and heat. Add the meat and cook for a few minutes stirring infrequently. Turn the heat up and add about 3 QT of water and bring to a boil.

In a large frying pan, place 2 TBL of oil and heat. Add the remaining garlic and the onion and cook until the garlic becomes golden brown and the onions starts to carmelize. Add the flour and turn frequently to avoid burning. When it begins to brown add the juice of the chiles and the meat with 1 cup of water stirring rapidly to make a roue. Immediately add the roue to the pot and stir. Scrape the bits of meat that stick to the bottom of the pot to avoid burning.

Add the green chiles to the pot as well as the boullion, oregano, comino and bay leaves. Bring to a boil and stir. Once it begins to boil reduce the heat to let it simmer for a least 45 minutes to an hour. Once the meat is tender it is ready for the hominy. Do not add the hominy too early as it tends to soften. Put it in about ten minutes before serving.

Skim the grease from the top of the pot and discard. Season to taste. Serve with thinly sliced cabbage, and radishes.  Provide lemon slices.

This is a traditional December holiday meal but you won’t be criticized for eating it year round.  Serve with sopapillas or corn or flour tortillas. 

I really like left over green chile in the mornings served over eggs.   A killer meal is chorizo and eggs burritos with green chile poured over them.  I make my own Mexican style chorizo which does not have the snout, lips, fillers, grease,  etc., etc., and is healthier.  For that recipe contact me here.

Enjoy,

A poem by the Cuban Poet Dulce Maria Loynaz entitled “ Desprendimiento.  The translation is mine.

Dulzura de sentirse cada vez más lejano.
Más lejano y más vago…  Sin saber si es porque
las cosas se van yendo o es uno el que se va.
Dulzura del olvido como un rocío leve
cayendo en la tiniebla…  Dulzura de sentirse
limpio de toda cosa.  Dulzura de elevarse
y ser cómo la estrella inaccesible y alta,
alumbrando en silencio…

¡En silencio, Dios mío!…

Detachment

Sweetness in feeling more and more distant.
More distant and idle… Without knowing if it is
because things are leaving or if it is us that go.
Sweetness of oblivion like a slight
dew falling in darkness…  Sweetness in feeling
cleansed of every thing.  Sweetness to rise above
and be like an inaccessible and lofty star,
illuminating in silence…

In silence, my God!…

A statue fragment in La Ruinas de Copan, Honduras.  Picture taken in 2001.

A poem that appears in my book: Porcina – A Voice From the Shadows by Trafford Publishing.

Crimson City

Reaching out with arms
Made bloody
From a night of mourning.
I grasp at wisps of yearning.

Christ; but I have fought
The royal fight
And taken issue with
The blasphemies poured
Upon your name and
Lost one hundred nights of sleep.

Still, I am waiting
Here within the portals
Of this bleak and crimson city
By the shore.

Browsing televison last night, I stumbled upon a show on PBS station WEON in Rhode Island where singer Janice Ian was featured.  I did a visual and mental double take when I saw her.  I don’t remember ever seeing a picture of her but the image of the 53 year old folk singer had an immediate effect on me.  I’ve always felt her song “At Seventeen” was a classic.  I was in my twenties at the time the song was being played. I had heard about this music phenom who had been recorded at fourteen.

I was immediately enthralled by the lyrics and the open honesty of her voice.  The first line, “I learned the truth at seventeen, that love was meant for beauty queens,” immediately hit a chord among many in my generation, and older.

I could have been a male model for the song, having endured a horrific childhood of physical and mental abuse by a father, who had, himself undergone a similar life initiation. My self image was abysmal. He had completely ripped out my value system and it has affected me in some form or another ever since.

Janice’s words were a life vest thrown out to me. It is no coincident that “At Seventeen” is in my computer’s music files. It never fails to bring me to a certain place, where I am my own person; where nobody can hurt me anymore.

The timing of this encounter is no accident. I needed to experience this, what with the brutal, continuing carnage in Iraq and the senseless act of the maddened soul that took so many lives in Western Virginia this week, my mind was desperately searching for answers.

Janice, of course, does not propose to have all the answers. But she certainly can provide a safe haven, where, for a few moments, we can immerse ourselves in her message, subscribe to her vision and emerge with faith confirmed.

I encourage you check out Janice’s website: www.JaniceIan.com.

Call me crazy, but, I almost became a closet republican a few years back.  And then, the elder Bush decided not to pursue the Iraqi forces into Bhagdad.  Such seemingly innocuous reasoning for this shift in political bent.  Ah, but George the senior, was brighter than his son, I assume.  Did he have a master plan once he conquered the Sunni controlled Iraq?  Of course he didn’t or Junior would have leapt on it as if it were some kind of hormonal nectar when he decided to avenge the slanderous assault the late Saddam heaped on his pappy.

Today, some 360 odd billion dollars, more than 3000 body bags and several years into the rush to punish, we find ourselves deeply divided internally, ostracized by countries we have kept afloat by our national largess, and the tunnel keeps snaking out into the darkness and sprouting root tunnels in all directions.

So what is W going to spring on us tonight?  Remember a couple of years ago when he trumpeted the push to cleanse the major leagues of illegal drug use?  Now that was big!  Forgive my tongue-in-cheekiness, but I believe the biggest fish that grand ploy gained was in denying Mr. McGuire from being elected to the hall of fame on his first attempt.  Ooooh.

I believe our President will assail our seemingly paranoid distaste for illegal immigrants.  Oh, I am not exactly pleased that our borders are so porous that as illegals pour in our jobs and mercantile assets pour out.  Something must be done and soon.  A twenty foot tall fence two thousand miles along the Mexican American border?  Why not land mines along our waterways?  No, I don’t think that is the solution.

What about diplomacy?  If W could spell it he could then look it up in the White House’s Funk & Wagnall (had to use that.)  Seriously, we really have to consider this as a legitimate tool.  Sure, it will be painful approaching the French and Russians for help.  Has anyone calculated the cost we will incur and endure in the next ten years or so and still not have a meaningful solution in Iraq?

It will be distasteful to approach the Mexican government to undertake a massive family planning campaign and use it’s considerable natural resources to keep their citizenry at home.  Something, we could do here as well.

Here’s an idea, if someone could convince the Vatican that birth control is a heavenly concept – a veritable immaculate conception as it were, they should be given the peace prize of the millennium.  Let’s face it, it is time for drastic measures.

Having recently moved to New England from North Texas I find the atmosphere in this area very refreshing. Here is a picture of Battleship Cove under the I195 bridge in Fall River, Mass.

A poem from my recent book: Porcina – A Voice from the Shadows. How I look at ‘words’.

Words

Words – their sounds, their meanings, their potential to be a force; intrigue me and I seek to expand the envelope of the spoken sound, from the guttural urge to the flatulent bark; From the silent “o” to the whispered “no!” It will always have a fascination that will keep me searching, Groping, falling, pitching, stumbling, yet continuing to grow. Oh, I love it so! This is when I feel my strength – My calling – my nom de plume.

The 19th Century Mexican Poet, Manuel Gutierrez Najera wrote some of the finest poetry, in my opinion, ever written. Attached is an excerpt from his poem, Mariposas (Butterflies) along with my interpretation of that piece. I will introduce more later along with some personal works that can be found in my book: Porcina – A Voice From the Shadows. http://www.trafford.com/4dcgi/

.. Leves saltan del cáliz abierto,
como prófugas almas de rosas
y con gracia gentil se columpian
en sus verdes hamacas de hojas.
Una chispa de luz les da vida
y una gota al caer las ahoga;
aparecen al claro del día,
y ya muertas las halla la sombra.

…Lightly, from an open chalice springing,
like fugitive souls of the roses
gentle and graceful are swinging
in their green hammocks of leaves.
A brief spark of light gives them life
and a droplet upon falling does drown them;
they appear at the first rays of dawn.
And by dusk’s arrival lay dying.

From the poem “Mariposas” by the 19th Century Mexican poet
Manuel Nájera Gutiérrez translated by the author