Walter Knoll's "A Musing Florist"

Risotto with Shrimp, Poblano & Arugula

4 cups chicken broth combined with 1 cup water

2 tbs extra virgin olive oil

2 or 3 shallots finely diced

4 garlic cloves finely diced

1-1/2 cups aborio rice

1 cup dry white wine

1 lb peeled, deveined, chopped shrimp pieces (1″ dice)

2 roasted peeled and seeded poblanos (1″ dice)

2 cups chopped arugula

salt and pepper

freshly grated parmesan cheese

Prepare and have all ingredients at the ready, this only takes about 20 minutes

Measure the wine

Roast and peel and cut up poblanos, chop the arugula

You can leave the shrimp whole but I prefer them in about 1 inch pieces

Combine chicken broth and water and bring to simmer on back burner

heat 2 tbl olive oil in large saute pan on medium high heat

add shallots and cook, stirring for about 3 minutes

add garlic and rice and cook, stirring constantly for about 3 minutes

Add the wine and cook until it is absorbed.

Add the broth a ladel or 2 at a time, stirring occasionally and waiting until it is absorbed before adding more.

About halfway thru the broth add the poblano

Add the shrimp and arugula with the last broth addition and cook only until

the shrimp are done – about 2 minutes.  Turn off the heat!

Serve with a sprinkling of freshly grated Parmesan Regianno.

A few of these ingredients came from my garden

Shallots

Garlic from Hood River

Arugula (green beans and celery in the back ground)

You like fahita meat?  I LOVE fahita meat – crazy for that chewy texture!  My local grocery had some for a change last weekend so I decided to give the Country Bob’s sauce a try out in a steak salad.  Not bad, actually quite good.  Looks good, doesn’t it?  So very pretty in my giant vintage McCoy pottery bowl!

Skirt Steak Salad

First thing to do is get some salad dressing made – here’s what I used

1/3 cup olive oil

3 tbl red wine vinegar

2 tbl freshly squeezed lemon juice (about 1 small lemon)

1 clove of garlic, minced (of course I used my home grown!)

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp ground black pepper

1 tbl Country Bob’s All Purpose Sauce ( I used “spicy” – I like it hot, more about that later in this post)

Wisk all the above ingredients together – and refrigerate until ready to use.

Now to fix up the meat:

Rub a teaspoon of salad dressing onto each side of your skirt steak (1-1/2 lbs) and liberally pepper it, let it sit at room temperature while your coals heat up.

Once those coals are hot, grab your man and give him the tongs and tell him to git to it! (Those are my poblano and habanero peppers growing over on the right)

My Q-King

The skirt steak won’t take long (my Q-King added a couple cube steaks when I wasn’t looking) 4 or 5 minutes on each side – put it on when the coals are really hot, get a nice sear and color to the meat.  Then let the meat rest for about 15 minutes under a foil tent.  While the meat is resting you can make a salad – use crispy lettuces, arugula, whatever veggies you like in a salad. I cut a pear up into mine as well as tossed on some feta cheese (I would have used blue cheese if it was on hand though).  Cut the skirt steak against the grain into bite sized pieces and add to the salad – finally toss with the dressing.  This amount of dressing and meat was a good amount for a large head of romaine and 1-1/2 lb skirt steak – serves 3 or 4.

Now about that hot stuff. You know I grew some peppers this year, and even though it is October 8 today, I am still picking peppers!  I have been grinding them in my handy dandy little Cuisinart mini processor and freezing the peppers in plastic bags – I make a narrow log that I can easily break when it is frozen – I just snap some off for my chili or soup or enchiladas or whatever – tastes great, still as hot as ever and tastes fresh picked!  Wear gloves though when you are messing with those little orange habaneros – I lost a couple layers of skin on part of my left hand last time I did some grinding!

Freezing Ground Peppers

Harvest

If, like me, you have an abundance of Poblano peppers right now, this is a great way to use them up!

Small Poblanos

Large Poblano

We love this recipe around my house. My peppers are small – only 3 inches long – so instead of 4 large poblanos I’ll be using 8 or 10 of my small ones – enough to fill my largest casserole dish.

Some good gravy here!

And in case you are not familiar with poblano chiles, they are not spicy – if you have an aversion to hot stuff, just leave out the jalapeno! I also decided to add some filling into boneless, skinless chicken thighs – good stuff! Made for some great gravy!

Just need to remove the crowns of seeds

Stuffed Poblanos Casserole
The cornmeal takes on the texture of tamale during baking.
Serves 6

1 can (28 ounces) whole tomatoes (in puree if you can find it!)
1 jalapeno chile (ribs and seeds removed, for less heat), minced
2 small onions, chopped
3 garlic cloves (2 whole, 1 minced)
Coarse salt and ground pepper
1 can pinto beans, rinsed and drained
1/2 cup yellow cornmeal
1 bunch chopped cilantro (divided into ½ bunches)
1+ cup shredded pepper Jack cheese
1 teaspoon ground cumin (optional – I HATE CUMIN & LEFT THIS OUT)
1 handful frozen corn kernels
4 large poblano chiles, halved lengthwise (stems left intact), ribs/seeds removed

Preheat oven to 425. Spray a 9-by-13 pan with cooking spray. In a blender, combine tomatoes in puree, jalapeno, half the onions, ½ bunch cilantro and 2 whole garlic cloves; puree. Season with salt. Pour sauce into prepared dish and set aside.

Gravy Beginnings

After blending

In a medium bowl, combine beans, cornmeal, ½ bunch cilantro, ½ cup cheese, remaining onions, minced garlic, optional cumin (yuck), corn kernels, and 3/4 cup water; season with salt and pepper.

Enough for 8 thighs and 8 poblano halves

Dividing evenly, stuff poblano halves with bean mixture; place on top of sauce in baking dish. Sprinkle poblanos with remaining 1/2 cup cheese; cover baking dish tightly with aluminum foil (don’t let the foil rest on the cheese or it will stick to it).

Ready for the oven!

Bake until poblanos are tender, about 45 minutes. Uncover, and continue to cook until sauce is thickened slightly and cheese is browned, 10 to 15 minutes more. Let cool 10 minutes.

Serve with rice and plainly dressed fresh salad.

Garnish is Mexican Oregano blossoms from my garden

Ever heard of Hatch Peppers? My friend Nancy in Tempe brought me a few bags of frozen roasted Hatch Farm peppers – that’s how I came to love Poblanos and had to try my hand at growing them this year.