Bolita Beans

And now for a recipe!

My Bolita Beans

This hands down is my favorite bean. It's also my kids favorite. Once you've had them, you'll see why, they are plump, meaty, smooth, easy on the stomach, and they are a local food for us. We get ours from Schweback Farm, and surprisingly they aren't sold out yet from this past harvest. The year before they sold out so fast we went without for the year!

And if you are interested here is a little info about Bolita Beans at Local Harvest/Slow Food USA, a recipe from Taos News (and chicos, which I'll be giving my recipe in the next blog post), and New Mexico Magazine's version.

What I've found is that I don't like my Bolita Beans complicated with a lot of additions. Many times, tomato products are added to beans because the acid in them tenderizes the bean, as the salt does. Any how I urge you to try them simple.

Extra notes:

You can make 1 pound instead of 2. I make 2 because we eat them a lot.

You can also adjust the ham hocks, onion, and garlic ratios suited to your taste. My mom adds 6 cloves of garlic for each pound. For Texas style beans, I've seen as much as 8 ham hocks added to 1 pound of beans.

For vegetarian/vegans I imagine you could use liquid smoke, I have done this in the past, but never took any notes on the amount added.

For us locals, Keller's has someone that smokes their hocks locally. I can't recommend them enough. They are excellent quality and flavor. Call first to see if they have them, they sell out quickly. When they do have them, I buy extra to freeze.

Two pounds yields me about 12 cups cooked beans. I freeze them, and how I do it takes a bit of extra time, but do what works for you. Remove hocks, bay leaves, and onion and discard. Strain liquid from beans but reserve! Measure out two cups of beans into containers, then pour reserved liquid just to cover beans. I find that reheating them with their liquid after being frozen is better.

Before eating we often add either chopped roasted New Mexico green chile or Red Chile Sauce.

And lastly, don't omit the bay leaf. It really makes a difference!

Bolita Beans

Cuisine: New Mexican

Serves: 12 (1 cup portions)

Ingredients

• 2 pounds bolita beans rinsed well and picked over
• 3 smoked ham hocks rinsed
• 1 large onion, peeled and halved
• 4 cloves garlic peeled
• 2 bay leaves
• water
• 1 tablespoons sea salt

Directions

Place beans thru bay leaves in crockpot. Add a minimum of 10 cups of water. Turn crockpot to high and let come to a good simmer (1 to 2 1/2 hours depending on model crockpot), then turn down to low and simmer for additional 2 to 3 hours. 4 1/2 to 5 1/2 hours of total cooking time for the beans to be tender and cooked thru, but you'll notice the skin may feel just a little tough. Add the salt and cook for another half hour, beans will be perfectly tender.

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Sopa de Papas

Note: working on a better photo, I don't like this one. I am not a good food photographer!

And on the stove or in the oven at a New Mexico Kitchen.......

Sopa de Papas

This recipe is loosely based (to be milk-free/gluten-free/nut-free) from an adorable little gem of a cookbook called Flora's Kitchen, Recipes from a New Mexico Family, by Regina Romero. I think this was the first New Mexican cookbook I purchased the first time I moved here. I may have mentioned this before, New Mexican cookbooks are more than just recipes, they are history, a coming together of family with the staples of New Mexican cuisine.

We eat this because, well, it is just down right economical and it tastes good. I will be the first to say that I love creating fancy meals when I have time, but lately, the trip to the grocery store is just killing me. And with the crazy food restrictions we have going on in our household our food bill is driving me a little crazy!

I caramelize the onions while the veggies are cooking. If you don't want your soup to have a pink tone, remove the carrots before processing.

This is my version of her recipe. Yields 4 servings.

Sopa de Papas

Course: Soup & Stew

Cuisine: New Mexican

Serves: 4

Ingredients

• 4 medium yukon gold potatoes peeled and diced
• 2 carrots peeled and diced
• 2 celery stalks diced
• 1/2 quart water
• 1 1/2 cups rice milk (optional)
• 2 egg yolks
• 1 small onion peeled,and cut into thin cresents
• Olive Oil (or other fat)
• Herbamare to taste
• Black Pepper to taste
• Roasted New Mexican Green Chile (optional)

Directions

Put potato, carrot, celery and water in pot and bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer until veggies are very soft. Strain and reserve liquid, puree veggies and return to stock. Add the rice milk and beat in the egg yolks, heat gently and season with Herbamare. Saute onion in olive oil to your liking, lightly browned or caramelized, and add to the soup. Serve. Of course we add a dollop of roasted green chile.

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Red Chile Sauce

Red Chile Sauce

How time flies and things change!

I promise there will be a recipe for Red Chile Sauce made from the Chile Caribe Concentrate, but I thought I'd ramble on a bit about our "food changes" in recent weeks.

About 12 weeks ago we decided to go gluten free for health reasons (one of my family members maybe allergic or severely intolerant, or have a carbohydrate intolerance) and that has me side tracked! Mainly, just how to adapt our staple recipes to be gluten free. Honestly, it's not that hard when you are an adult, but for kids, who at every turn, have gluten products offered to them, it's been, challenging to say the least.

And I had been aware of all the different ways people had been altering their food (ie gluten-free, paleo, vegetarian, vegan, dairy-free, soy-free, or a combo - this is a short list) I've been broadening my knowledge base, sharing ideas and thoughts with friends that are also on their food journeys for many different reasons.

Making it even more interesting, 2 people in my family are lactose-intolerant, 2 are allergic to tree nuts, and 1 is allergic to peanuts and melons. So far this is what we have identified.

So yup, we are gluten-free. That has led us to eating more corn products than usual (and yes, we try very hard to not buy GMO corn, and I don't think we do, but buying at the health food store does not automatically mean its non-GMO unless it has "the seal"). Interestingly, paleo way of eating frowns on corn products, but I have to be honest, I live in a part of the country where 4 foods are a way of life here, and those would be BEANS, SQUASH, CORN, & GREEN/RED CHILE. I don't know if I could give corn up. In fact, since moving back here close to 4 years ago and eating these foods again, I am healthy, don't have as many energy spikes/lows, and have lost weight, without trying.

The only reason I bring paleo up is for many of the recipes are gluten free, but the use a lot of almond products, and unfortunately, we can't do that! So corn must stay!

The good news is I am lucky to not be allergic to anything! Although, since cutting gluten I have felt extremely better, a 80% reduction in headaches and I don't feel tired all the time. Maybe I have a mild intolerance, who knows, or maybe it's a lesson that everything should be in moderation (except for good ole veggies) and we REALLY need to think about how our food has gotten to where it has.

Wheat now is not what it was 50 years ago, or 100 years ago, and we did not eat it the way we do now - these were the words of our GI doctor, interesting. I didn't need the GI doctor to tell me this, but it was sure great hearing him say it!

All these changes also meant we were not eating out, and consuming very little processed foods. Ironically, my DH decided to go get some fast food he was craving. The next morning he asked me to remind him to never do it again. He felt awful, upset stomach, etc. Interesting indeed!

Red Chile Sauce (from concentrate)

1 tbsp shortening/oil

1 tbsp flour

1 cup chile caribe concentrate

2 cups water

1/2 tsp ground Mexican oregano

1/2 tsp garlic powder

Heat oil over medium heat, add flour, stir and cook for 1 minute.

Add chile concentrate and water, stirring well to avoid lumps.

Add seasonings and simmer at low heat for 20 to 30 minutes to desired thin/thickness. Add more water if you feel necessary depending on your concentrate.

From here you can freeze it if you decide to make a double or triple batch, but.... 

You can make it gluten free by using a GF flour substitute blend or cornstarch, but it will not freeze well. Something about the starches in these blends tend to separate, so you will have to make it fresh each time.

You can also substitute broth for the water, but honestly, it is perfect with just water.

We add Red Chile Sauce to lots of things, such as beef stew, over steak, and it is used in traditional New Mexican dishes like Enchiladas, Posole, and Carne Adovada.

Enjoy!

Chile Caribe (The Concentrate): The Recipe

Chile Caribe Concentrate

This post is dedicated to Karla and Pow, who asked me the question: how do you make red chile sauce? The post is part one of two.

This recipe is to make the concentrate which Red Chile Sauce is made from. This is one of MANY ways to make Red Chile Sauce.

Even thou I love every red chile sauce I made or ate elsewhere, I noticed that there were versions I liked more than others.

And up till now I had only been using ground red chile powder, and had used frozen red chile once. I could never quite get the desired texture, color, or flavor I was looking for. After talking to some locals, they said I needed to try using the dried chile pods. This drove me to finally make the Chile Caribe Concentrate; I felt this was the key I was looking for.

I now realize that the dried red chile powder makes a passable product, but the concentrate, made from scratch was definitely the way to go.

First I went on a search for the most vibrant red new Mexican chile pods I could find. I am also making a mental note that I now feel confident purchasing a large bag of dried chiles at the farmers market during the chile season now that I know what to do with them AND I would love to get my hands on red chile from Chimayó.

New Mexican Red Chiles & Chiles de Nuevo Mexico

A note about dried chiles: I'm including the picture above because I want to show you the difference in the chiles. The chiles on the left are dried New Mexican chile pods. They are a vibrant red. The ones on the right are called Chiles de Nuevo Mexico (New Mexican Chiles) and they are from Mexico. They are a deep red, rich color. They are not the same thing! Look for vibrant colored chiles that are grown in New Mexico. Also there is a Caribe chile, do not confuse it, it is definitely a different variety.

Also, while in Chimayo and talking to a gentlemen there, he highly discouraged mixing different types of chiles and/or powders as done in Tex-Mex cooking. The goal is to have one pure chile flavor, and I agree that this is the way to get a true New Mexican flavor.

PLEASE READ RECIPE ALL THE WAY THRU, YOU NEED TO RESERVE 2 CUPS OF COOKING WATER!

Chile Caribe Concentrate

8 ounces whole red chile pods

2 garlic cloves, peeled

Water

1 teaspoon salt

Remove stems and seeds. Then rinse chiles very well. Place chiles in pot with garlic. Cover with water. Cover pot and bring to full boil. Turn off heat , keep covered, let chiles soak for 20 to 30 minutes.

Transfer chiles and garlic to blender. Add 1 teaspoon salt, add 2 cups soaking water and 2 cups fresh water.

Purée very well, then strain thru fine mesh strainer.

After puréeing it will yield approximately 6 to 7 cups of concentrate.

After straining it will yield 31/2 to 5 cups of concentrate.

I freeze this in 1 or 2 cup increments. It freezes well!

Note: In the Tasting New Mexico Cookbook, they recommend using half the about of water when blending, you could definately do this and it will produce a strong concentrate. Each cookbook has a slightly different way of doing it, I am only sharing my way of making it, and honestly, you can't mess it up. If your concentrated comes out a little different, that's okay. When you use it to make the sauce it will come out good either way!