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the life and times of J T Frey
Alton Brown is 2 for 2 in the fall 2019 season of Good Eats! I've been looking for more dishes that expand our breadth of proteins and leverage more vegetables. This dish fit the bill perfectly — with a few alterations to match a family of four's appetite.
Sauteeing spinach with onion and garlic is one of my favorite ways to prepare that particular leafy green. Add that mixture to creamy ricotta and you've got a great filling for a ravioli (or tortellini). Now that I think about it, probably great for lasagna, too
Serves ~ six people.
Red beet eggs are a Pennsylvania dutch treat. In short, the juice from a can of beets is used to make a weak pickling brine and hard-boiled eggs are submerged in it, taking on the deep red-purple color of the beet juice. The color usually goes all the way to the yolks, making for quite a presentation. I'm the only one in our house who enjoys red beet eggs...but that just means all the more for me.
Once upon a time I tried Rick Bayless' recipe for chicken tinga tacos. The pickled morita chiles turned out to be one of my favorite aspects of that dish — so much so that I couldn't bear to discard the unused liquid. Instead, I used it to pickle some cucumbers. And thus were born red devil pickles: a sweet, salty brine with tones of chile flavor and heat with a hint of smoke.
The morita chiles make this a slightly spicier taco than we typically eat, but there's enough sweetness from the tomato and fat from some shredded cheddar and avocado to cut the heat nicely. The pickling brine used to reconstitute the morita chiles tastes amazing — I use it on sliced cucumber to make "red devil pickles."