Turn It On, Turn It Up, Turn Me Loose

In the mail arrived a huge sack of fresh peppers, a few different varieties. Brilliant vibrant colors, all so alive! Big Ed had sent them from his farm in southern Indiana. Well, its his home garden but you'd think he had a huge spread of land. He has a real green thumb for these peppers.

It was time to have some fun! I immediately sought out a few recipes, thinking I'd need to reach across the globe to really highlight their individual flavors. If you isolate the flavor of peppers and really taste them, their essence is very distinct. A habanero to me is like tasting the color black. Its the deepest darkest hottest flavor but take away some of the heat and it becomes purpley in taste. I love jalapenos and feel they don't get enough props. Grilled, they are so mellow and sweet. Fresh they are like citrus, nice and tart, the flavor pops right out at you. I'm sort of just discovering the red hot chili pepper. I love it in Thai food but I'm sure it has so many other uses. I can't wait to find them.

But this time since I knew the jalapenos wouldn't last forever, I used them first and for a White Bean Chicken Chili. At first taste I thought it was good but it didn't move me. Second night, this soup was ALL that! Honestly, the one night of getting all friendly and chummy in that pot made everything sing.


First I made a chicken stock with a pack of chicken thighs, celery, onion, peppercorns, bay leaf and garlic. Meanwhile I got the beans ready for boiling and pan roasted a huge bunch of jalapenos. I skimmed the fat off the stock and added the beans. The one lesson I learned over the years is not to add salt yet until after the beans are tender. After about an hour I added the peppers, chicken and adjusted the seasoning. Cumin replaces the chili powder in this soup along with coriander, salt and pepper. I left the seeds in about 5 of the peppers to give the soup heat because white beans are super mellow and need some motivation to shine.

The Price of doing business in this town

When I don't know what to make I browse through cookbooks for inspiration and ideas. But since I'm no good at actually following a recipe, mostly I just look at them for the pictures.

I had all those baked blackened chicken thighs already made, so some chicken verde enchiladas seemed festive enough for a working holiday. They were enough of a challenge without going overboard. I wanted to roast something, chop something and make a sauce, that much I knew. I had energy but not a lot.

The *good market had nice looking poblano and serrano peppers and luckily, tomatillos too. I found the manchego cheese at the *fifteen dollar store but they wanted to bend me over for $12.95 for a little chunk of it. Since it's sheep's milk cheese, I thought it might be a bit like Feta, so I got that instead.

So anywho these came out good. You know I'm trying to cut down on some of the fat on these old dishes, so I took out the cheese inside the enchilada and instead mixed the shredded chicken with some roasted poblano slices and onion. Then the cheese (a mix of Jack and Feta) just went on the top. For a bonus, I also topped the enchiladas with some roasted corn.

My mom always served her enchiladas with lots of cold crunchy iceberg lettuce, onion and tomatoes and I see no reason to mess with that. I tried other green's but this is one time when iceberg might actually be right because you don't really want to add flavor, just something cool and crunchy.

I worked Labor Day, today and yesterday Sunday and pretty much feel like a big retail loser so it was nice to have a little rolled up bundle of love, chicken and cheese waiting for me on the plate, as if to say 'it's okay kid, you don't always suck'.


*I'll refer to 3 markets, PathMark, my main man, the $15 store which is the Green Market on Fulton. We call it that because you have to buy fifteen dollars worth to use your debit card. And the last is the 'good' market, Brooklyn Fare. They are across what we call the Crossroads, (Flatbush/3rd)so its a little bit of a walk down a way depressing path but they have great stuff and great deals and are new enough where the cashiers are actually nice still.