Homemade Focaccia

Ya baby, homemade focaccia bread!  Do not fear, do not worry.  I am privy to the horror stories of those who have attempted to make homemade focaccia bread, only to have it end in disaster, and swear off baking bread forever.  Heaven only knows that when it comes to yeast breads, I just can't figure out what is going on.

Well, that's all over, my friends.  Ya, that's right.  I have found a recipe for making some of the best focaccia bread I have ever had!  I mean this stuff is really bomb.  My fiance likes it, the folks at work totally dig it, so we must be on to something. 

OK, lets have a quick look at the origins and background of focaccia:

Focaccia is a flat oven-baked bread, usually topped with other ingredients or herbs.  It is closely related to pizza, but not quite the same.
Focaccia is quite popular in Italy, and usually seasoned with olive oil and herbs like rosemary or sage and topped with course sea salt.  School children in Italy will often purchase a slice from a baker on the way to school to be enjoyed at break time. 
A common practice when baking focaccia is the dotting of the bread.  This creates multiple wells in the bread by using a finger or utensil to poke the unbaked dough.  Olive oil is then spread over the dough to preserve the dough's moisture.  In some northern parts of Italy, lard is added to the dough to give it a flakier texture (did not do it with this one and it came out great).
Focaccia can be used as a side to many meals, as a pizza base, or as sandwich bread.

Alright, let get down to the real nitty gritty:

Chile Rellenos, hard to pronounce, easy to eat!

Chile Rellenos (pronounced "ra-ye-no") is one of those foods that not many people know how to pronounce, especially here in the Great Northwest, but also true back in New Mexico.  I am sure if you have ever been to any self respecting Mexican restaurant you have seen this on the menu, but not necessarily ordered for fear of pronouncing it incorrectly or because you just can't grasp what it is.  Let me break it down for ya.

Chile Rellenos are a dish that originated in Puebla, Mexico.  The name literally means "Stuffed Chile". Rellenos consisted of fresh roasted poblano, Hatch, Anaheim, or pascilla (occasionaly jalapenos, but would actually be considered a "popper" if used) peppers. The pepper is then stuffed with Oaxaca or Monterrey Jack cheese, and sometimes meats with rice in variation.  The pepper is then covered in an egg batter or coating of masa flour and fried.

In my opinion, some of the best rellenos I have had are at Pancho's restaurant (http://www.panchosmexicanbuffet.com/) in Albuquerque, NM.  My Aunt Marion says they taste canned, and she does make some delicious rellenos, but they just make my taste buds rock.

Pork Roulade, Simple and Elegent.

Mission criticle:

You have a pork loin sitting in the fridge.  Questions arise in you mind.  What do I do with this? How Did it get here?  Do I chop it into medallions? Do I grill it as is? Do I toss it in the slow cooker and make pulled BBQ pork (8 freaking hours later and only 1 until we actually want to eat)? WHAT DO I DO WITH THIS THING???

Check it out: Pork Roulade!  Oh ya, nothing to it and satisfyingly tasty!

Pork is one of those tough meats to cook because it has a tendency to come out as dry as the Sahara.  And if I know my environmental studies, that's pretty freaking dry!  Hense the reason I never really liked it growning up except for in tamales or pasole (I've never met a breaded chop that I could cozy up to).

Biscochitos!

FALL IS HERE!!

I couldn't be happier that fall has finally come.  People laugh because each year I go through my own kind of seasonal cycle.  I break out the Reggae, Funk, Rap and Rock music early in the Spring to get in the mood for Summer.  Of course I end up burning myself out fairly quickly and feel that I am totally over Summer 3/4 of the way through.  On the proceeding side, I tend to start my love of Christmas music well before Thanksgiving and go all the way past New Years.  I can honestly say that I rarely burn myself out on Christmas tunes.  But Fall... Fall is that spectacular time when the leaves are changing and falling, the air is crisp, and the sun just seems to shine differently, casting a golden hue on everything it touches.  During Fall, my musical tastes are that of Opera (Luciano Pavarotti, Paul Potts, Jose Carreras, Placido Domingo, etc.), Classical Symphony, and of course, my un-ending love of Flamenco/Latin music.  There is nothing like putting on Pandora Radio set to Classic Symphony or Flamenco and spending a little time cooking some good food.  It moves the soul and the body.  I can feel the music transcend through me to the movement of the knife or whisk.  There is something zen like, something spiritual about it.

Enter my fall baking and the greatest cookie on Earth.... The Biscochito of Northern New Mexico!

Le Pichet! (Part 2)

Greeting, friends!
In my absence I completely spaced my follow-up to the posting on taking a visit to Le Pichet in Seattle. Well, here it is:

One Thursday evening, after my friend Ryan and I did Happy Hour at the Matador, we decided to get in a real meal. Well, at the thought of this we settled on being adventurous and checking out Le Pichet.

Upon our arrival, Le Pichet certainly portrayed the vision of a true French Bistro. Atmosphere is everything. The patrons were very laid back, chatting over plates of cheese and olives, bottles of wine and bread. I must say, Anthony Bourdain's rule is that eating the bread at a restaurant is a bush league move, designed to keep you full and away from the really good stuff. But what can I say, a good crusty French bread is divine, and we put down two baskets of it with butter and hearty pours of Knob Creek bourbon.