Homemade Tortillas

One of my favorite meals is homemade tortillas served with lots of chopped vegetables and beans made into a bean paste. Trouble is that it is a lot of work for just the two of us so I relish the opportunity to have people over to dinner. Somehow cooking for the 6 we had tonight makes it feel worthwhile. My daughter and her family came over for my special taco dinner.

The tortillas are made from half masa harina and half white flour, and water and then rolled out with a rolling pin and cut using an 8" pot lid as a cutter. 2 cups of each and 2 cups of water made 15 tortillas. They are then quickly cooked in a hot frying pan with a little oil. I keep them in my gorgeous tortilla keeper that my daughter gave me for a Christmas present many years ago. It is probably my favorite piece of china. I love the peppers on it.

The beans are just red Mexican beans cooked till soft and mashed into a paste with garlic, cumin, chili powder and Mexican oregano, lippia graveolens, a relative of lemon verbena, not a member of the oregano family. Spread the beans on the tortillas and top with cheese, onion, tomatoes, peppers, lettuce, olives and salsa.

Brussels Sprouts

The dark wet days of fall and winter are also the days I get to eat as much as I want of my favorite vegetable, Brussels Sprouts. Last winter we lived on Brussels Sprouts and winter squash. I think I bought one head of lettuce and a few red peppers from the grocery store before spring greens were available. I love these little cabbages. My oldest daughter got our middle daughter to eat them when the latter was about 5 by calling them Fairy Cabbages and Fairy Cabbages they have remained for us ever since (about 30 years ago?). We tell our customers at market that that is what we call them. They are really popular and always sell out fast.
My favorite way to cook them is to simply steam them until tender but last Christmas Siri introduced us to roasted Brussels Sprouts that she had gotten in a deli in New York. You just put them in roasting pan, drizzle with a bit of olive oil, sprinkle with black pepper and roast until tender and just a bit browned on top. Delicious.

We serve all our brassicas with Ginger Tamari, a recipe I originally got from Kate Stone of Katrina's Restaurant in Friday Harbor. When Kate closed down her business and moved to New Zealand she gave me the recipe as I mourned the loss of one of my favorite condiments. I've changed the recipe a bit over the years and here is my current version.

Ginger Tamari
1/3 c water
1/3 c rice vinegar
1/3 c soy sauce
1 Tbsp sugar*
1Tbsp sesame oil, hot or not*
1 Tbsp grated fresh ginger root*
* to taste
Pour into a bottle and shake well before serving. To serve pour over Brussels Sprouts, Broccoli, Cauliflower, whatever.

First Rhubarb

The first rhubarb is ready. Our rhubarb is all descended from plants Joel found here when he came to the farm in the late 70's. The place had been abandoned for about 40 years, or since the end of the Depression, when those islanders who had waited it out with no money but plenty to eat, went into town for jobs that the beginning of WWII created. But the rhubarb had persisted. I've been eyeing it for more than a week, wanting to make a rhubarb crisp (remember, Joel does pies, I do crisps) but not wanting to rob the cradle, so to speak. But today I decided it was finally big enough to harvest.
I brought in about 2 pounds and made a crisp. Here's my recipe:

Cut approx. 2# of rhubarb into a 7" x 11" baking pan (a bigger pan would just make a flatter crisp)
Add 1/2 cup sugar (I use evaporated cane juice) and 1/2 cup flour to pan and shake around to coat rhubarb.

For topping:

Melt 1/2 (1 cube) butter, add l c oatmeal, 1 c flour, 1 c brown sugar. Mix lightly with a fork so that it stays crumbly. Cover the rhubarb with this mixture and cook until done. Since I cook on a wood stove and the heat is rarely ever the same I can't say how long in a regular regulated oven. This took a little less than an hour to cook. It's done when the rhubarb is soft.

Add ice cream or whipped cream if you have it. We'll take whatever is left with us to town tomorrow and buy ice cream to have with it.

For those of you on San Juan Island, we will have rhubarb at the market Saturday, which is the first regular weekly market of the season. We'll be back at the courthouse parking lot. Come early if you want rhubarb as we won't have a lot this first time. There'll also be lots of spring greens, purple broccoli, and spring cauliflower.