Esalen Cookbook (23 page)
Authors: Charlie Cascio
Add the olives. (If your olives came in salty brine, rinse them in hot tap water and drain before adding them to the sauce.) Continue to simmer and reduce the sauce until it is thick enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon, yet still thin enough to pour. Remove from heat and stir in the fresh basil. If the sauce has an acidic taste, add the maple syrup.
Serve over Torino Hazelnut Polenta (see page 91) or Aubergine Niçoise (see page 110).
ALUMINUM AND HIGH-ACID FOODSIf you’re using an aluminum baking sheet for roasting the tomatoes, cover the pan with parchment paper first. Never cook highly acidic foods using aluminum pans. Their acidity will dissolve the soft metal that will then contaminate the food.
In Italian, the word porcine means “little pigs.” Porcine or King Boletus mushrooms are called the king of mushrooms. Porcinis are by far the most sought-after edible wild mushroom. Even dried, their smell and flavor are exceptional. Porcini mushrooms have an earthy, nutty flavor with a very meaty texture. This is a tasteful sauce that can be used on many dishes, including Spinach-Potato Roulade (see page 112).
Makes 4 cups
1 cup dry porcini mushrooms
1½ cups vegetable stock or warm water
¼ cup butter
¼ cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1 cup half-and-half
1 teaspoon sea salt
Pinch white pepper
1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
Rinse the mushrooms in a strainer, and then soak them in 1 cup warm stock or water for about 5 minutes or until the mushrooms are soft and pliable.
Over low heat, melt butter in a 1-quart saucepan, and then whisk in flour until smooth. Stir in the mushrooms with the soaking liquid and raise the heat to medium; stir often until this mixture boils.
Add the half-and-half, salt, and pepper. Keep the heat at medium and stir constantly until the mixture boils. Add the parsley and turn off the heat. The sauce is ready to serve.
VEGAN VERSIONTo make a vegan version of the Porcini Mushroom Sauce, substitute the ¼ cup butter with 1/4 cup unhydrogenated margarine, and substitute the 1 cup half-and-half with 1 cup soy milk.
This Mexican green sauce can be substituted for tomato salsas and makes a nice change from the expected.
Makes 6 cups
16 tomatillos (golf-ball size)
3 jalapeno or serrano chiles
2 medium-size yellow onions, cut into
¼-inch dice
1 clove garlic, minced
2 teaspoons salt
Juice of 6 limes
2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
1 avocado, peeled, pitted, and cut into
¼-inch dice
Peel and rinse the tomatillos. Chop them into ¼-inch cubes and place in a mixing bowl. Pierce the chiles with a fork and roast them over an open flame (or place on a baking sheet and roast in the oven at 400 degrees F). Sear chiles until the skin turns black, then put them in a brown paper bag until they cool. When cool enough to handle, remove stem, skin, and seeds from the chiles and discard; finely mince chiles and add to the tomatillos. Be careful to wear gloves or wash your hands thoroughly after handling the chiles.
Add the onions and garlic to the tomatillos and chiles. Add the salt, lime juice, and cilantro. Gently mix the salsa until blended. Take one-third of the salsa and puree in a blender. Pour the puree back into the mixing bowl, add the avocado, and gently mix.
CASHEW CHEESEThis is a spread that we use at Esalen for our dairyfree cheese replacement. It can be used as sandwich filling, on pizza, or as a dip for chips and crudités.
Make 3 cups
1 cup cashew pieces
½ cup tahini
¼ cup water
2 teaspoons tamari soy sauce
½ cup diced red pimentos, drained
2 medium carrots, grated
2 teaspoons minced garlic
2 teaspoons chopped fresh basil
1 tablespoon nutritional food yeast
Place the cashews, tahini, water, and soy sauce in a food processor and grind into a paste. Add the pimentos, carrots, garlic, basil, and yeast. Process this until smooth. Cashew Cheese will keep in the fridge for up to 1 week.
TWO-CHILE SALSAThis is another recipe that Robin Burnside brought with her when she was head of the Esalen kitchen. It’s a flavorful salsa that has a crisp, spicy chile taste. It uses jalapeno, which is a small, green, spicy chile that takes it name from Jalapa, a city in Mexico, and serrano, a flavorful small, green chile that packs a lot of heat. Both of these chiles are common in Mexican salsas.
2 large, fresh, ripe tomatoes
1 small red onion, cut in ¼-inch dice
1 fresh jalapeno chile
1 fresh serrano chile
1 tablespoon minced garlic
½ cup chopped fresh cilantro
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
½ teaspoon cumin seed
½ teaspoon sea salt
LESS SPICY VERSIONTo make a less spicy salsa, mince only ½ of the jalapeno chile and eliminate the serrano chile.
Before dicing the tomatoes, cut them in half and scoop out and discard the seeds. Then continue to chop into 1/4-inch dice. Dice the onion and add it to the tomatoes. Slice the jalapeno and the serrano chile down the center lengthwise. Remove the seeds and membrane and discard. Then mince the chiles as fine as you possibly can. Add to the tomatoes along with the garlic, cilantro, and lime juice.
Place the cumin seed in a small fry pan and roast over medium-high heat until the seeds have an aromatic smell and are lightly toasted. Then ground the toasted seed to a fine powder in a seed grinder. Mix the cumin and salt with the other ingredients in a bowl and let the salsa sit for at least 20 minutes to allow the release and build up of flavor.
At Esalen, we serve this salsa with a big bowl of tortilla chips.
RANCHERS SAUCEThis is a Santa Fe version of the recipe also known as Colorado Sauce. The authentic recipe has you prepare the dried chile pods from scratch. If time doesn’t allow for this, you can substitute 3/4-cup ground red chile. Be sure to use ground red chile, not chili powder. Denise Ladwig brought this recipe to the Esalen kitchen.
½ pound dry New Mexico, Arbol, or Anaheim
red chile pods
3 quarts chicken stock, vegetable stock,
or water from cooked chile pods
4 medium yellow onions, cut in ½-inch dice
½ cup olive oil
6-8 cloves garlic, minced
2½ teaspoons cumin seed
3 teaspoons sea salt
Remove stem and seeds from the dry chiles. Don’t worry about getting every seed out as any you miss will sink to the bottom of the pot. Fill a 4-quart saucepan with the stock or water and the chiles. Bring to a boil, and then cover and simmer for about 2 hours or until chiles are tender. Drain chiles in a colander, saving the liquid.
In a skillet over medium heat, saute onion in olive oil for about 10 minutes or until browned; then add minced garlic and saute for about 1 minute more.
Dry-roast the cumin seeds in a skillet over medium heat until the seeds have a beautiful aroma (about 2 to 3 minutes). Then grind in a seed grinder.
In a blender or food processor, puree the chiles with the onions, ground cumin, and salt. Add the cooking liquid until the puree is the desired consistency, similar to thick gravy. Much of the spicy heat from the chiles will come from the stock the chiles were cooked in, so taste the sauce periodically as you add the liquid. If you want a really hot sauce, use only the cooking liquid; if a milder sauce is desired, use more plain chicken stock, vegetable stock, or water to thin the puree.
Ranchero Sauce can be used for enchiladas, tamales, huevos rancheros, or burritos. It can also be added to soups like posole (hominy soup) or bean chili.
A popular lunch at the Esalen dining lodge is the Greek Feast. We serve a Greek salad with freshly picked spinach from the Esalen organic garden and, as an accompaniment, hummus. Hummus is an ancient dish that is popular all over the eastern Mediterranean. Its two main ingredients, chickpeas and sesame seeds, have been cultivated in this part of the world for over five thousand years. This variation adds the sweetness of roasted red pepper blended into the earthy flavors of the hummus.
Makes 3 cups
1 roasted red bell pepper
1 pound cooked chickpeas (or one 15-Ounce can)
¼ cup olive oil
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 tablespoon minced garlic
⅓ cup tahini (sesame seed butter)
Pinch cayenne pepper
½ teaspoon sea salt
¼ cup water from cooking the chickpeas
(or vegetable stock)
Roast the bell pepper by placing it over an open flame or in the oven at 450 degrees F. When the skin of the pepper is blackened, place the pepper in a paper bag and seal for about 15 minutes, letting it steam in the bag. Remove it from the bag and peel off the charred skin. Cut it in half and remove the seeds and white veins. Puree the pepper in a food processor.
Add the chickpeas and olive oil to the pureed pepper and process until smooth. Then add the lemon juice, garlic, tahini, cayenne, and salt; process until smooth. Thin the hummus with reserved cooking water or stock if necessary.
ALTERNATE METHODIf you don’t have a food processor, mash the roasted bell pepper with a fork until it is as smooth as possible; then add the cooked chickpeas and mash with a potato masher until it is as smooth as possible. Blend together the oil, lemon juice, and tahini and add to the chickpeas. Again, mash and whisk the mixture to get it as smooth as possible. Then add remaining ingredients.
DESSERTS
Maple-Pecan Apple Crumb Pie
This is an excellent apple pie recipe from a master pie baker. Robin Burnside brought this recipe to the Esalen kitchen along with a long list of other great pies. Robin teaches the pie-making workshop at Esalen
—
if you want to learn pie making from a master, sign up for one of her courses.
—
if you want to learn pie making from a master, sign up for one of her courses.
Serves 8
PIECRUST1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1¼ cups unbleached all-purpose flour
¼ teaspoon sea salt
2 tablespoons Sucanat
(dehydrated cane juice)
1 cup cold unsalted butter
½ cup ice-cold water
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