Hatch Chile Season

Oh yes, It's that time of year again. Hatch Chile season is upon us. If you're lucky enough to live in a part of the country where you can procure these delights, you'd be wise to stock up. If the Hatch Chile is not available in your neighborhood, be aware that the Hatch Chile is generally any variety of the New Mexico Chile, which happens to be grown in Hatch, NM.

This is the first year where I've noticed all of the local markets carrying both a mild (New Mexico #20) and a hot (Big Jim or Sandia) pepper. In the past (at least at the stores I shop in) you've just had the luck of the draw; this is not the case this year. Both Sprouts and Central Market were advertising fresh chiles in mild and hot. I chose to make my purchases at Central Market, mostly because they roast on site and they make just about everything you could imagine with the Hatch pepper on the "roasting" weekends. For example, in my adventure on Sunday, I procured the following:
2lbs each of hot and mild roasted peppers -- roasted on site, in front of me
1lb each of hot and mild fresh peppers
1lb of Hatch Chile Pork sausage
1 jar Hatch Chile salsa verde
1 package fresh Hatch Chile Hamburger Buns

There were many other options include fresh guacamole, pepper jams and fresh pepper jack cheese made with the delicious Hatch Chile, but I thought I had done enough.

Anyway, the fresh chiles are good for many of your standard chile applications, and the roasted go great in everything; my meal plans include Hatch Manwich and Hatch Chicken Enchiladas. I might make rellenos with the fresh peppers; we'll just have to see.

Tonight, I made Hatch Chile Rice. And it was awesome.
1 Cup Rice
2 Cups Chicken Broth
3 Tbsp minced roasted Hatch Chiles (I used the Hot ones)
1/2 tsp Cumin
1/2 tsp Granulated Garlic
Salt to taste.

Rinse your rice, throw it in your rice cooker, add the broth, chiles and seasoning and fire it up. Don't have a rice cooker? You're on your own. I've forgotten how to cook rice w/out one.

--Brad

Quick word about BYOB

You may have noticed that I mentioned the fact that Citrus Bistro is BYOB several times in the review. Post dinner at CB, I decided to do a little research on other BYOB restaurants in the Dallas area. I'd like to thank Google for the below link.

GoBYO

Lists all of the restaurants with a BYO option, and their corkage fee, if any. Only in select cities, but the "select" cities happens to cover the majority of the BeefRobot readership.

Enjoy.
--Brad

Black Pepper Simple Syrup

So, sure, we have all tried simple syrup at one point or another. Maybe we've even made it. But lately, simple syrup is, well, a little too simple for me. I saw a recipe a while back for black pepper simple syrup and it sounded delicious! Tonight, it is achieved.

Start with your basic simple syrup recipe, though I thought it a good idea to add a touch more water than normal. I use a 1:1 ratio of sugar to water, though it is not unheard of to make the sugar portion 1.5 or even 2 to 1 part of water. Then I added about 25 black peppercorns to the pot. I set it to simmer for about 25 minutes, though I will experiment with a longer simmer for greater concentration of the pepper.

The first drink I made with the syrup was an easy one: 4 tsp black pepper syrup, vodka, soda. This drink is very clean, and with a nice undercurrent of pepper. The combo of sweet and pepper really is a mellow way to add a little kick to a drink.

Drink #2: ice to half a rocks glass; just cover with tequila (I did gold tonight); add 6 tablespoons BP syrup. Enjoy this - the syrup adds a layer of complexity to your tequila and gives it the illusion of having been aged. Tasty!

Citrus Bistro -- a review

While shopping in the Preston and Royal area a few weeks ago, I had noticed Citrus Bistro. I did my internet research, and decided it would work well for a nice Friday dinner.

In my research, I had noticed that Citrus Bistro is BYOB, so I grabbed a bottle from the wine fridge and we headed out, arriving at around 7pm. We walked in the back door, near the patio and were asked if we had a reservation. We said no, the host said "no problem" and lead us to a table in the front of the restaurant. Note, this place can get pretty loud, and it appears as though there are a lot of regulars, so you might be wise to make a reservation.

We were seated, and the host went to retrieve some wine glasses for our bottle. He returned shortly, and poured our glasses and explained the numerous (4 or more) nightly specials, and explained that if there was something we wanted that wasn't on the menu, they'd make it assuming they had the ingredients. One of the specials had some soft shelled crab involved, and I seriously considered ordering a plate of crabs, but decided that I'd stick with the current specials/menu options.

Misstep #1. Joy's wine glass had lipstick on it, that wasn't her own. The glass was quickly replaced, but, we didn't notice till after the wine was poured. Ok, now we're short one glass of wine, and they still charged the corkage fee? I should have said something, but for some reason was in a good mood or something, and didn't.

After some deliberation, and assurance that the "Dover Sole" special was indeed Dover Sole, and not Black Flounder, Lemon Flounder or any other Flounder I chose the pan seared Dover Sole, and a Caprese salad.

Misstep #2. My Caprese salad was made with some run of the mill Roma tomatoes -- which I know are traditional, but... For an $8 salad of tomatoes, cheese and basil dressing, I want something heirloom.

My Sole, on the other hand, was probably one of the most correctly prepared pieces of fish I've ever had. And quite delicious. The lemon butter sauce was just right, and as an added bonus, the fish came out whole but was de-boned table side by an extraordinarily adept member of the wait staff.

Joy had the Copper River Salmon special, which, as we were in the height of Copper River season, was spectacular. Cooked perfectly medium, with a delicious crust and silky smooth interior.

In short, since this review is really long, Citrus Bistro is solid, though if you're ordering off the specials menu it can be a little pricey. BYOB is really nice though, and is not just limited to wine, judging by some of the clientele’s flasks, and road scotches they brought in with them. It can get a little loud though, as most of the customers seemed to have imbibed some level of alcohol and the space is small. I can say, with all certainty that we'll be back, cause I love a restaurant that doesn't frown upon you walking in with a pre-poured road cocktail.

Citrus Bistro

--Brad

Mixology

As you might have noticed, if you live your life in the DFW Metro area, it's damned hot here lately. Mowing the lawn, grilling and other related outdoor chores/activities have become increasingly difficult, due to the unbearable temperatures. When it's this hot outside, sometimes you need a cocktail instead of a beer for your post outdoor activities, so, I started experimenting.

I tend to have a lot of booze around the house, but for the most part drink beer, with the occasional bourbon and coke, gin and tonic or scotch thrown in the mix for varieties sake. I don't do a lot of vodka or rum based cocktails, but do have these liquors on hand most of the time.

#1 -- The Cape Cod type Summer Beverage.
Your standard Cape Cod is vodka, cranberry and a squeeze of lime. I like the Cape Cod, but it doesn't really excite me the way it used to. So, I decided to play around with it a bit. I had some pomegranate/cranberry juice in the fridge, so I substituted that for the straight cran -- It's delicious. Added a splash of lime, and hooray, it's a non-boring Cape Cod. At the same time, I thought it could be lighter/less sweet. So, add a splash of club soda, and you have quite the refreshing cocktail.

#2 -- The Fruit based Rummy Drink
You've heard us extol the virtues of Pyrat Rum here at BeefRobot. It's sweeter and more complex than most of your rums, and quite delicious. I don't do much with the Pyrat, other than drink it straight or on the rocks. I was thinking to myself the other day that I need to develop other beverages with the Pyrat as the base liquor.
Enter the slightly over-ripe Nectarine. I took said nectarine, cut it into wedges and dropped half into a shaker. Muddled this with the end of a wooden spoon, and looked to see that I had about an ounce or more of pulp and juice. I added a splash of cranberry to this, and an ounce and a half of Pyrat. I poured this over crushed ice and added club soda (3 ounces or so) to fill the glass. Delicious. I highly recommend this cocktail, as the tanginess of the nectarine is softened by the sweet rum. I do not think this would work with your garden variety light rum, you're going to have to spring for the good stuff.

Two cocktails for your summertime enjoyment. I hope they help to keep you cool.

*Please Note -- If you're going to make this in mass, you should probably use a blender to grind up your nectarines. However, if you're going to use a blender, you'd be wise to peel them, as the skin can be quite bitter, and no one wants that. If you're just doing single servings, the peel stays fairly intact while you muddle, so there's less bitterness.

Dinner 3

Simple. Leftover steak, cold. Asparagus, roasted with olive oil, garlic salt, pepper. Yellow squash, cooked in a pan under a lid with olive oil, butter, garlic salt, pepper. All eaten with hands, no utensils. Beer on the side.

Man meal!

Dinner #2

Dinner 2 turned out to be a rush job, as I realized late in the game that I had to hustle or else I wasn't going to be on time to meet up to see Star Trek. (for the second time. yes I've seen it twice)

I had already pulled out the 1/2 pound of ground turkey we had in the freezer, though it was still pretty frigid. I sauteed onion and mushroom for awhile, then added the turkey and a diced tomato. When I added the turkey, I squeezed a lime in. When I don't have time to marinate (or haven't planned adequately) I like adding lime to raw meats while they are in the pan. The lime flavor comes through so much better than if you wait til the end. At that point it is meat plus lime, not delicious, limey meat. Next, I added chili powder, garlic salt, pepper, a little cayenne. I let this all cook up and when it was cooked, but still liquidy in the pan, I had a thought: we have masa harina (the flour used to make tamales). So, I added a tablespoon of this and stirred.

The masa flour was a solid addition to the mix. I will do this again, no doubt. It gave an authenticity of both sight and taste that I am happy to be seeing coming from my kitchen. The liquid turned to delicious gravy and I had myself the perfect filling for a burrito.

Achieving the burrito involved 11 seconds in the microwave. Then I added grated cheese and put it back for 11 more seconds. I added chopped cilantro and put the filling in. Start to finish, this thing took me about 12 minutes.

Goodness.