Black Bean Enchiladas with Red Chile

It's been a bit of a painful withdrawal from eating out at Alma, a restaurant which dealt no gimmicks except for meticulous flavors, as apparent in their exuberant new Mexican chile sauce.

Report from Jamaica

ackee fruit My brother just came back from visiting his girlfriend who’s interning in Kingston, Jamaica for the summer. It sounds like a pretty groovy way to build your resume, but considering it was in the city’s public health administration, it may have been a little more involved than buying shell necklaces and lounging on the beach listening to reggae. I wish I had more to tell about an area I find really fascinating, but since I wasn’t there I only managed to glean these tidbits on Jamaica and its food: Beef patties are commonly sold at two chains owned by Chinese shopkeeper families, Juici Patties, and Tastee Patties. Both entrepreneurs of these chains have won accolades for bolstering the economy in Jamaica, while Juici Patties has successfully entered the Canadian market (for some reason). Jerk originated at Boston Beach in Portland Parish, Jamaica, and was largely unknown outside of Portland until the 1950’s. The dry rub mixture includes allspice and Scotch Bonnet peppers, and the meat is traditionally wrapped in banana leaves and cooked over Pimento wood. Today, most people tend to think it's the most Jamaican thing ever beside Red Stripe beer. The Jamaican national dish and common breakfast is “ackee and saltfish.” The ackee is the crazy fruit pictured above, related somewhat to lychee nuts, and to eat it requires taking out the poisonous big black seeds and de-veining the “bready” sections. It has a strange taste and a texture “like scrambled eggs.” Other weird fruit native to Jamaica and the Caribbean include breadfruit (which tastes like bread), sweet sop (or custard apple), ugli fruit, guineps, and sour sop. Mangosteen, all praises to flavor aside, you are totally yesterday’s elusive fruit. (for more info on Jamaican dishes check out this tourism page on food)

Curry Chicken Leftover Salad

This was a really simple way of using up some chicken I had roasted the other day when it was raining. I'm not sure why that makes sense, but buying a whole chicken and sticking it in the oven with herbs and lemon tucked under its skin was simply the answer to a not very gentle evening's weather, after a not very relaxing day at work. The little bugger didn't have very much meat left on its bones after some relentless munching, but I was still determined to use it the next day to make cold chicken salad sandwiches. I ended up using a bit more of the chopped cucumbers and walnuts to make up for less chicken, which was refreshing.

Summer Corn and Roasted Red Pepper Risotto

Fresh corn on the cob that squirts you in the face when you snap it in half is just what I was in the mood for when I went to the Fairway Market in Red Hook this weekend. Unfortunately, the two ears I’d gotten with the thought of making corn chowder stayed in my fridge for two days. By Monday it was pretty clear that I wasn’t going to make a hot soup in August, as much as I could see myself shaving those kernels right off a newly shucked cob into a steaming pot. When I finally dug into the ears that evening, though, they were still crisp and fresh as white snow.

Cherry Walnut Bruschetta

The great thing about summer is that I can buy produce, well fruit at least, outside my office building from a fruit stand vendor. I have no idea where he trucks his fruit in, but it's probably somewhere closer than where the average grocery store gets them given how firm and juicy the fruit is. And I love seeing them use those simple scoop-bottomed scales--always so human. Although the figs looked tempting, I opted for some dark, ruby-red cherries because, after all, it is summer and life is like the saying goes.