Zest

I've been working my way through the alphabet, using each letter as a jumping off point and seeing where it would take me. Z brings to a close three years worth of letters.

Last weekend I was in South Burlington for another ending - my niece's graduation from 8th grade. The class speakers were quick to point out that graduating from 8th grade was also a beginning. The niece is moving on to high school. When I went on to "the big house" in 1980, it was scary stuff, from an 8th grade class of sixteen at Charleston Elementary to the huge and overwhelming North Country Union High School in Newport, VT. It was a new beginning and Z is a new beginning. I'm not sure what I'm going to do now. I may just work my way back down the alphabet; there's a lot more food.

Two weeks ago I made a pesto of radish leaves. I always used to cut them off and toss them. I'd tried cooking the things before but really didn't enjoy the taste - bitter - the pesto was another story. It got me to thinking about other foods I wasn't using to their full potential and so I immediately made the leap to zest (Z was already on my mind so it was a more of a short hop, kind of how I do the Electric Slide).

I don't usually bother scraping off the rind of lemons, limes or oranges. Usually it's about the juice. I squeeze the heck out of them, hoping I don't get any seeds into whatever it is I'm making and am done with them. Today I zested them and it felt positively zesty. 

I'm sad that Zestfully has been used. Zestfully clean. Why can't marketing people leave good words alone? Apple, Windows, Zest, Coast, Dial, Irish Spring, Dawn, Clorox... Zest soap was the one that didn't leave a film. I went through a phase where I was using the deodorant soaps (didn't everyone?) I was mostly an Irish Spring guy who kept his  brogue down to a whisper in the shower. 

So, what do you do with zest? I'm still figuring that out. This zest went into some coconut flour muffins. I think it'll be a nice touch in beverages, on top of fish, on the side, on chicken, adding a bit of panache to vegetables. If you're left with lemons, make lemonade and zest them - the smell alone is worth it.

There's Z, an ending and a beginning.  

Yampy

Yampy Bin, C-Town, Inwood

I came across these little fellas in a bin close to the floor in the produce aisle of the Inwood C-Town (I do a lot of shopping there for whatever I can't get at the Farmer's Market or the CSA). The Inwood C-Town has a pretty good selection of vegetables and tubers for Caribbean cuisine. I'd just started experimenting with yams and sweet potatoes. "Yampy" sounded like a cute yam to me so I decided to see what I could do with them.

Knowing that just about anything works fine in a tagine (except for unsliced kumquats) I peeled (somebody went all out waxing these things) and sliced them up and added them in. 

Raw yampi are described as mucilaginous which is not how I want to think of any food, especially during allergy season. I'd prefer to say they are slippery when peeled (there's a title for an album). Thankfully, this slipperiness cooks away, and in the case of a tagine, you are left with something like a boiled potato except yampis are even less tasteful. They do do a good job of taking on the taste of the food around them and are a nice change up texturally. 

If you come across them, why not give them a try? Look for Yampy, Yampi, Cushcush, Indian yam, napi, Yampie (Jamaica), Maona (Peru), Mapuey (Puerto Rico), Aja (Cuba); Cara doce (Brazil) or if you want to get scientific,  Dioscorea trifida.

I

Xató

This is my take on xató, you know, the Catalonian salad. Here it is undressed....

 

and dressed. 

 

The dressing is almonds, wine vinegar, garlic, an achovy, olive oil, salt, pepper and chili peppers.

White Bean Chicken Chili

Stainless Steel Pot - got this at an auction.
Eureka Joe's was my favorite writing spot in NYC. Now it's a BCBG.

Two of my favorite tools for making chili.

I start out by putting garlic and onions in the pot.

Meanwhile, the chicken - legs & thighs.

Green peppers and chipotles.

More peppers - white beans are a food canvas waiting
for a splash of color.

Tomatilloes.

Chives.

A bunch of cannellini beans.

A little something something to counteract the acidity -
much more necessary when cooking with tomatoes
but I just love telling people there's NEK syrup in there.

Jalapenos and a somewhat hot red pepper - I didn't
catch their name at the farmers market.

White Bean Chicken Chili.

"Vittles!"

I picture Granny Clampett in black and white, scowling and yelling, glasses perched on her nose. And then, a split second later, there's Jethro behind her. He's digging into the pot with a ladle and slurping up the possum dish she's been slaving over for hours. She's looking the other way, gives a start when she sees him. I'm sure she's pleased he likes the vittles she's been slaving over but she still gives him a whack. If they have company, the Clampetts are seated at their pool table, passing dishes with their sticks, remarking on how useful they are for passing pots (they only cook in pots that can be passed with pool sticks).

The other place they have vittles is on the Dukes of Hazzard. I wouldn't mind taking the General Lee for a spin over the Clampetts rig (though I would like to have someone chauffeur me about while I sat in the rocker) but if I had to choose between Uncle Jesse and Granny's cooking or the hooches each offered up, I'd go with Granny's on both counts. Besides, The Beverly Hillbillies is the only show I can think of until the Simpsons came along that had a Homer. I watched a lot of episodes, black and white to color and back again.

I'm a word guy. I like to know where a word comes from. Vittles surprised me. I looked it up in our dictionary and was referred to victuals. Victuals? Sounds like a ceremony. Turns out victuals and vittles are both from the same word, vitaille, which in turn eventually came from vivere to live. Of course. Which is why air is also...oh, it's not? Well, I was surprised that vittles was coined about a century before victuals. Victualia, victualis, victus. If I had just taken Latin I know my Scrabble rating would be better than 1291. I'll keep at it - who knew vicuna was a llamalike ruminant animal? Pluralize that and bingo, look out, buddy!

"Well now its time to say goodbye to Jed and all his kin.
And they would like to thank you folks fer kindly droppin' in. You're all invited back again to this locality to have a heapin' helpin' of their hospitality. Hillybilly that is. Set a spell, Take your shoes off.

Y'all come back now, y'hear?." And let me know when you're serving up some vittles.