Presley's Pantry

Six years ago… Mando’s cousin Ampelio buys us tickets for the bullfights in Mexicali, BC. I find myself in a dusty, dirt-filled arena surrounded by testosterone-fueled men wearing big sombreros, shit-kicking cowboy boots, their best blue jeans and crisply ironed white button-downs. I believe Karla (Ampelio’s wife) and I are 2 out of 20 women to be counted at this event. Outside of the arena, music is heard every 50 feet with a new set of mariachis giving their best gritos (yells) and singing as if their lives depended on it. Sweet confections made of either coconut or pumpkin are sold next to trinkets that light up to encourage a cheering crowd. At this point I’m liking the bullfights, walking amongst the locals and embracing their view.

Once inside, we walk through narrow white corridors that lead us to our box seats, where a man wearing a Tecate t-shirt immediately arrives with a large metal bucket filled with tons of ice, beer, salt, chile, lemons, limes and very few non-alcoholic beverages. He also brings along a platter of corn tortilla quesadillas with all the fixings on the side to build your own…it was marvelous.  The Tecate t-shirt man reappears every half hour on the dot to replenish anything that has gone missing out of the bucket….sometimes he brings big red roses too. Everything is going smoothly…it’s the perfect weather, people are jovial, I probably have some big piece of cheese stuck in my mouth, and you can still hear the music bleeding from the outside making its way through the tunnels…then the nightmare begins! Each bull gets slaughtered by the coward in his tight hot pink outfit riding high on a horse. With each passing minute I feel all happiness leaving my body! I’m rooting for the bull. I want to see the punk in his sorry hot pink stockings go down! It’s so unfair and hopeless, hardly a fight. I start to sob, and I’m trying to control myself because I really want to scream out in complete horror and cry at the top of my lungs. Then, before I allow myself to go there, I feel Mando in his true down low style whisper in my ear, “Stop crying. My cousin paid a lot of money for these tickets so pull yourself together!”  Trying to be nice, I wipe my eyes and breathe in the sassy me and exhale the vulnerable me, only to turn around and find Karla in the same exact state with her black mascara running down her face…she makes a cute raccoon. We look at each other and start laughing. Meanwhile Mando and Ampelio are screaming in Spanish and in between breaths, downing as many beers as they can pour down their throats.

At the end of the evening, I convince the man who kept the bucket nicely well stocked to sell me his Tecate t-shirt because Mando loved it so much……then off into the sunset we ride with dirt in our hair and delicious quesadillas on my mind.

Ingredients for Rajas con Crema:

4 – tablespoon olive oil

4 – pasilla chile (Roasted, peeled, and cut)

2 – yellow bell pepper (deseed, and slice)

1 – large onion (sliced)

2 – teaspoon salt

1/2 – teaspoon garlic powder

4 – tablespoon water

16 – ounces sour cream (I use Knudsen)

2 – teaspoon vegetable bouillon (I use Knorr)

Pour 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a small dish,  with a pastry brush generously brush pasilla chiles with olive oil to coat. Then place oil coated pasilla chiles on an  open medium high flame. Burn the skin of the entire chile. It will take about 5 to 7 minutes.

Once chiles are completely charred, place them in an air tight ziplock bag for 1 hour. This step will allow chiles to steam in their own heat and will make peeling charred skin off much easier. It’s an essential step.

Once chiles have steamed, remove from ziplock and place under a slow stream of water from faucet. With your fingers slowly and carefully peel charred skin off of chile, until all burned skin is removed.

Remove stems and deseed skinned pasilla chiles. Then slice into long strips 1/4 of an inch thick. Now slice onion and yellow bell peppers too.

Pour 3 tablespoons of olive oil in a big frying pan over medium flame, allow to heat for two minutes. Then add in sliced onions and sliced yellow bell pepper. Saute for 10 minutes, stirring every so often.

Then add in sliced pasilla chile, along with salt, and garlic powder. Mix to combine and allow to saute for 15 to 20 minutes or until all peppers and onion are limp and soft. Then add in 4 tablespoons of water, and vegetable bouillon. Give it a good stir and let cook for another minute or so.

Now for the final step, add sour cream and stir in well, cook for 3 minutes. Then place in bowl.

Quesadilla Ingredients:

10 – corn tortillas (I use Guerrero, king size)

12 – ounces queso fresco (I use Cacique’s Ranchero)

6 – ounces monterey jack (grated) (I use Tillamook)

Warm tortillas  over an open flame for 20 seconds on each side

Then fill with a slice of queso fresco and a little handful of monterey jack cheese. Fold in half.

In a large pan or comal, heat over a medium flame. Place folded corn tortilla stuffed with cheese in pan and heat on each side for 2 – 3 minutes. You want the outside to be slightly hard and the inside to be soft and melted.

Side Dishes for Quesadillas:

1 – cup red cabbage (sliced thin)

1/2 – cup fresh cilantro leaves

1 – cup salsa (refer to my “salsa for the ages” recipe, posted on 03/09/11)

2 – avocado (either sliced or mashed)

1 – bowl of rajas con crema

Take your quesadilla and fill with a little of each side dish.

Mmmmm Quesadillas… “Que Chaka!”

My fiance’ Mando, Me, Karla, and Ampelio at a local bar after the bullfights.

I realize in the community of salsa makers, no one wants to share their recipes.  Everyone acts like they are going to get their prize winning salsa patented, bottled, and it’s going to be the next big thing to sweep the shelves at every supermarket across the land.  Is it me, or has the universe gone salsa crazy?  The mere mention of salsa brings out a competitive streak in most people I know. They’ll say they have an aunt or a godmother who makes the best salsa and no one can compete or compare. Perhaps that is so. Then, you have the salsa aficionados who want to know if you use a blender or a molcajete and tejolote (mortar and pestle). God forbid you mention the wrong method; they will snub their noses at you and look the other way.  I’ve seen it happen.  I learned to make my salsa the old fashioned way… trial and error.  It took some time and a few bad batches, but I finally got my salsa science down… I can now make it with my eyes closed and it’s exactly the way I like it.  I want to be the first one in the salsa community to step forward and share my recipe.  And guess what?  I didn’t have to think twice about it. : )

Ingredients for Salsa

½ – tablespoon vegtable oil

1 – large onion (cut into 4 pieces)

5 – garlic cloves

¼ – cut salt plus 5 teaspoons

9 – Roma tomatoes

4 – chile de arbol

6 – serrano chile

9 – jalapeno chile

8 –  yellow chile

11 – stalks green onion (white part only, chopped)

½ – cup cilantro (remove stems, tear leaves into little pieces)

2- teaspoon black pepper

4 ½ – cups water chile was boiled in

Pour vegetable oil into a small frying pan, over medium flame, add brown onion and garlic cloves, allow to brown on all sides. Take out of pan and set in a bowl for later use.

In two large lidded pots (between 8 and 9 quarts) fill halfway with water. Set both pots over a medium flame and add 1/8 cup of salt to each water pot. Cover with lid and bring to a boil.  In one of the pots, add tomatoes and chile de arbol, cover with lid and let boil for 20 minutes.

In the other pot, add serrano chile, jalapeno chile, and yellow chile, cover with lid and let boil for 35 minutes.

While waiting for your chiles to boil, take this opportunity to chop the green onion and tear the cilantro.

In a blender (you’ll need to work in two separate batches, blending until all ingredients are blended) add boiled tomatoes, chile de arbol (remove stems), fried brown onion, fried garlic cloves, 1 teaspoon black pepper, 2 teaspoon salt, and 2 1/2 cups of water chiles were boiled in.

Blend for 30 seconds. Once blended pour tomato onion blend into a big bowl. Next mix in cilantro and green onion.

Now for the next round of blending. In a blender (you’ll need to work in two separate batches again, blending until all ingredients are blended) add serrano chiles (remove stems), jalapeno chiles (remove stems), yellow chiles (remove stems), 2 cups of water that chiles boiled in, 3 teaspoons salt, and 1 teaspoon black pepper. Blend for 30 seconds.

Now add chile blend to big bowl of tomato onion blend and mix well.

There you have it…salsa for the ages!

ENJOY with corn chips or anything else your heart desires!

🙂 Salsa Tip: I usually divide salsa into jars and give away to friends or store in refrigerator  for up to a week.

Her name was Hattie May Presley… my great grandmother, she was from the south, Missouri to be exact (well some people call it Midwest, but she called it south).  I never met a woman like her in my entire life.  With a calm and proper demeanor, coupled with a heart of gold, she was such a precious little lady.  She had a strawberry patch in her back yard, and use to make her own preserves.  Enjoyed taking cucumbers to vinegar and making her own pickles as well.  She spent the better part of her career as a cook for the nuns at St.Johns hospital in Santa Monica.  She could take any scraps in the kitchen, turn it into the best thing your mouth ever tasted, and whip it up in flash no less.  She was the type of woman that dressed her breakfast table with every proper serving dish.  I remember when I was 5 or 6 years old being served a grapefruit sliced in half with a maraschino cherry in the middle along with my poached eggs, grilled ham and smothered potatoes.  My great grandma Presley was crafty on many levels; she made me a closet full of dresses when I was first brought into the world, and continued until I was in the 3rd grade.  We have the pictures to prove it.   I had gone to spend some time with her when I was 12 or 13, and the hairdo I was sporting at the time didn’t sit well in her world…  She gave me a long lecture on how to care for my hair, saying “Don’t wash your hair everyday young one. Don’t you know your washing the natural oils off your hair? Wash once a week if you want your hair to be healthy.”  Then she proceeded to grab a brush and comb through my naturally super curly hair, all the while telling me she was making Shirley Temple curls.  When I looked in the mirror my hair was a frizz ball rat’s nest.  She was adorable for trying to reshape my wild hair into perfectly manicured curls, it just wasn’t happening.  I look back on the many wonderful adventures spent at great grandma Presley’s house, learning to play croquet in her backyard, wandering around her kitchen peeking in the cabinets to see where she hid her magic, and eating the most wonderful meals my young life had ever known.  She lived to be 95 years old, I was 18 years old at the time of her passing.  I miss my great grandma Presley and wish someone in my family had a book of all her amazing recipes.  Here is my version of a fried chicken po-boy I once devoured in her kitchen, I serve it in honor of great grandma Presley and all her southern charm.

Ingredients for Gravy:

Ingredients for fried chicken:

Pour coarse salt and cold water in a big bowl and let dissolve. Next add chicken breast and cover bowl with saran wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour.

Remove chicken from bowl. Dispose of salt water. Place chicken back into the bowl and pour in buttermilk. Cover bowl with saran wrap and place back in the refrigerator for a minimum of 2 hours or overnight.

Remove chicken breast from buttermilk bath, and cut into 1 1/2 inch strips, then place on a wire rack to rid of excess buttermilk for about 7 minutes.

Meanwhile in a large paper bag add black pepper, Lawry’s seasoning salt, flour, dried basil, and corn starch. Close the top of the bag and shake it up to mix evenly.

Now take your sliced chicken strips (a few at a time) and add to the flour mixture. Close the top of the bag and shake it up to coat your chicken evenly.

Then place chicken strips back on the wire rack to sit and absorb flour mixture for 5 minutes.

Pour vegetable oil or lard in a big frying pan over a medium flame and allow to get hot for about 6 minutes. Then working in batches add your chicken strips to pan and fry on each side for 6 to 8 minutes, depending on thickness of the chicken.

Once browned and crispy, place on a paper towel lined plate to absorb some of the oil.

Now take a french roll, and slice across… fill with chicken strips and gravy!

Now that’s what I call eating right.

Great Grandma Presley at her home in Santa Monica.

Growing up, I lived in the same house with my Mom and my Grandpa. Everyone calls my grandfather “Sando,” which is short for Sandoval, his last name. My grandpa Sando, who will be turning 87 this year, is one of the most extraordinary men who has ever existed, at least in my opinion. He’s one of the biggest loves of my life. He continues to leave me in awe of all his wisdom and talent… but not with his cooking.

If I woke up to the sound of my grandfather singing his favorite Spanglish song, “Cuando yo estaba chiquito mi mama me decia ‘Pretty Baby’”…. it was a sure signal that he was either in the kitchen cooking or on his way to the kitchen. Most of the time, he was in there frying up an egg that he would then throw over the fence to the neighbors dog Oso. As the egg would take flight, he would say under his breath, “Oso – baboso.” In our backyard, he kept a garden of mystery herbs… no one knew what they were (and still don’t)… and that’s where he usually pulled from for his seasoning. He would take a gorgeous cut of meat, and then ruin it with some overgrown weed that no one could classify. The only herb I know for sure was yerba buena (mint), and who wants to eat that in every dish…. “Not I,” said the little girl in me. Yup, my grandfather made the adult version of mud pie. He was the only one who ever wanted to eat the end result. He would always offer me his creation of the day, and I never wanted to hurt his feelings,  so sometimes I would just suck it up and eat whatever it was he made. Other times, when I didn’t think I could bear it, I would simply say, “I don’t like that, Grandpa.” He usually would take a moment… make a face like I just insulted his intelligence, then follow up by saying in his thick Mexican accent, “Oh…you don’t know! You’re too picky.”  Maybe I was too picky…. I just loved eating beautiful food, even back then.

The only dish I ever craved that my grandfather made was short ribs… I craved the tenderness of the beef falling off the bone, but not so much the weeds he cooked them in.

Here’s a recipe for my version of short ribs…I may have to make them for my otherwise perfect grandpa Sando.

Short Rib Ingredients:

4 – pounds of short ribs with the bone (about 8 pieces)
1 1/2 – bottles of Mexican beer  (I prefer to use Bohemia, or Negra Modelo)
1 – tablespoon of oregano
1 – tablespoon of salt
1 – tablespoon of pepper
1/2 – tablespoon of garlic powder
3 – tablespoons of olive oil
2 – brown onion (thinly sliced)
2 – tomato (chopped big)
4 – garlic cloves (peeled, then smashed)
8 – chipotle peppers in adobo sauce (I use San Marcos) (chopped)
48 – ounces of beef broth (I use Swansons)
2 – carrots (peeled and chopped into 1–inch rounds)
2 – bay leaves

In a big bowl add short ribs and Mexican beer. Let marinate for one to two hours in refrigerator.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Take short ribs out of Mexican beer marinade, and pat short ribs dry. Set beer marinade to the side for a later use. Now generously season short ribs with oregano, salt, pepper, and garlic powder.

Pour olive oil into a 7 quart dutch oven and place over a medium–high flame. Allow oil to get hot. Working in small batches (3 at a time) add short ribs and sear on each side, just to brown. Once all short ribs are seared, remove from dutch oven and set to the side.

Lower the flame to medium and add in onion, tomato, smashed garlic cloves, and chipotle chiles, and saute for 10 minutes.

Then add in 1 1/2 cups of beer marinade, and seared short ribs.

Next add in beef broth, just enough to cover the very top of the short ribs. Finally, add in chopped carrots, and bay leaves. Bring to a boil.

Once boiling, cover dutch oven with lid and place in the center rack of oven for two hours!

These are my dream short ribs. Spicy, tender meat falling off the bone.
I serve mine with refried pinto beans, grilled zucchini and flour tortillas. It’s the perfect menu for an intimate dinner party or cut the recipe in half for a romantic dinner (the cooking time and oven  temperature stay the same).

BUEN PROVECHO!

Grandpa Sando and me.

I never gave quiche much thought until it was presented to me in the most elegant setting.  It was summer of 2001, and I found myself in London, England. I was traveling with my aunt Hope and a few of our friends. We were there for many reasons, but one of our mutual friends was getting married and we happened to get invited to the pre-wedding party. The party was held at the groom’s mother’s apartment in Notting Hill. I remember walking into the apartment and instantly being enchanted. It was decorated like a mini version of the royal palace. Colors of gold and blue tickled my eyes, and all the detailing was so well thought out. From the candle fixtures to the linens on the table, everything was done extremely tastefully. I remember the kitchen had a collection of pigs in chef hats. So cute. I was happy to be in a new place, but even more excited when I found out the groom’s mother had made 12 different kinds of quiche for our dinner. Needless to say, the dinner party was a smash, all her quiches were absolutely sublime. I got bitten by the quiche bug.

That same summer, I flew to Stockholm, Sweden to visit family friends, Kajsa and her lovely mother Anita. It was a whirlwind trip. I was so taken by theSwedish people and all their offerings–great shops, beautiful architecture,  salmon roe in a tube that resembled a toothpaste container, lamb roasted outside by a lake, and gorgeous parks. Kajsa and Anita made sure to make my visit eventful and introduced every last inch of beautiful Stockholm to me. One evening we decided to stay in for dinner. With Anita being a master in the kitchen… it was a no brainer. She asked what I fancied for dinner. Before I realized, the next words that were spilling out of my mouth were, “Do you know how to make quiche, Anita?” She looked at me with a face that read “challenge me.” Then answered, “Of course, it’s really simple.” The rest is history. For the next hour, I sat and marveled at her every move. That’s where I learned to make quiche… a cozy kitchen in Stockholm, Sweden.

Since then, I’ve played with so many variations of quiche, keeping what I loved of Anita’s teachings and adding touches of my own.

Ingredients:

1 – teaspoon olive oil

1 – pint cherry tomatoes (chopped in half)

1 – teaspoon garlic powder

1 – teaspoons of salt

2 – teaspoon black pepper

1 – package of Pillsbury pre-rolled pie crusts (two packages come per box,  you’ll need both)

2 – cups baby spinach (fresh)

6 – ounces crumbled feta cheese

1 1/2 – cups sliced mushrooms

6 – stalks green onion (chopped)

1 – teaspoon of Lawry’s seasoned salt

1 1/2 – cups colby jack cheese (shredded)

1/3 – cup chopped fresh basil

1 1/4 – cup sharp cheddar cheese (shredded)

1 – heaping tablespoon spicy brown mustard (I use Gulden’s)

11 – eggs

1 3/4 – cups half and half

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit

In a frying pan, pour in olive oil over a medium high flame and allow oil to get really hot, then toss in cherry tomatoes with garlic powder, salt, and 1 teaspoon of black pepper. Saute on each side for 4 minutes. Then take off flame and set to the side.

In a round 12-inch baking dish at least 2 inches deep, take one of the packages of pie crust and place on the bottom of dish. Then take the other pie crust, lay it out on a flat surface and cut it into 4 long pieces.  Take each piece and line all around the baking dish to form a crust up the edge of dish. Some of the pie crust will hang over the edge, and that’s okay. Next, grab a fork and make little puncture holes all over the pie crust leaving a half inch in between fork holes.

Now the layering begins: Start with the baby spinach and arrange at the bottom of pie crust lined baking dish. Once you have the spinach spread out evenly and neatly, then add feta cheese. Next lay all mushrooms flat to create the next layer.

With any of the excess pie crust pinch dough in between thumb and two fingers, go around the edge of the baking dish forming the crust.

Go back to building your quiche. Add a layer of green onion, Lawry’s seasoned salt, and 1 teaspoon of black pepper .

Then add shredded colby jack cheese. Next, take your sauteed tomatoes and distribute them evenly to create your next layer.

Sprinkle chopped basil on top of the tomatoes, and then add shredded sharp cheddar cheese.

In a big mixing bowl, add spicy brown mustard, eggs and half and half and beat until combined. Lastly, pour entire egg mixture slowly over the top of your vegetable cheese layered pie crust.

Put in the center of the oven and bake for one hour.

Voila… you have quiche and it’s so good!

This past Sunday,  Feb. 20th, I had a few girlfriends over for a potluck brunch.  What were we celebrating you ask? A few things…. a girlfriend’s birthday, I recently moved into a new house (bigger kitchen), a gathering of old and new friends, and of course good food. My girlfriends sure know how to make life more delicious.  We had an array of lick your plate clean dishes to choose from. Here’s what the menu consisted of: chilaquiles, shrimp cous cous salad, greek cucumber salad, butternut squash soup, mushroom spinach quiche, calabasitas, hash browns, enchiladas, lasagna, breakfast calzones, spanakopita and chicken empanadas.  For our dessert spread we had an amazing apple bundt cake (we ate every last piece of it), an apple pie, triple chocolate cake, a yummy fruit yogurt salad, and I made my oatmeal chocolate chip cranberry pecan cookies. Since then, my gals have been asking for the recipe.

Here’s the recipe along with a picture of half of the ladies eating outside in my patio.

Ingredients:

On a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper or a nonstick baking mat, drop your oatmeal dough by heaping tablespoons 2 inches apart.  Bake for 11 to 13 minutes or until crispy.  Take out of oven and let cool for a couple of minutes before transferring to a wire rack.

Here’s a picture of my baby boy Max testing out the cookies before the brunch.  He gave his stamp of approval!