Cacao

A friend recently returned from a trip to the Honduras and brought me great photos of the cacao plant and fruit. We've traveled together in the past and she knows what interests me (she brought me chiltepin peppers from NW Mexico). What she didn't remember was that we had seen cacao pods in Guatemala near Coban, but that's okay, these pictures are fantastic. From my bookshelves, I have the following books on cacao:

Coe, Sophie D. America's first cuisines. University of Texas Press, 1994.

Coe, Sophie D. and Michael D. Coe. The true history of chocolate. 2nd edition. Thames and Hudson, 2007.

Diccionario enciclopedico de gastronomia mexicana. 6. burrito-calabacitas con queso. Clio, 200-?

Young, Allen M. The chocolate tree : a natural history of cacao. Rev. and expanded ed. University Press of Florida, 2007.

My apologies for not putting citations in the correct format, will update and correct later.

Maguey and Los Otomies

I'm reading a report from the Washington State University Laboratory of Anthropology written in 1969. The title is: Los Otomies : papers from the Ixmiquilpan Field School / edited by H. Russell Bernard. It is the Laboratory's Report of Investigations ; no. 46. I upgraded the cataloging of this report while working as a Washington State Library cataloger so I knew of its existence and knew that I would find it interesting to read. The report contains papers by anthropology students who attended the WSU Field School in Ethnology and Linguistics where they studied the culture of the Otomi people, an indigenous group who live in the state of Hidalgo, Mexico. I was interested because of the descriptions of agriculture as well as the descriptions of the diet of this group.

One of the papers entitled San Andres : land, produce, and power in an Otomi village / by Daniel Early is especially informative with illustrations of farm equipment, plates which further illustrate techniques and demonstrations of tools developed for various agricultural and harvest needs. There is also a good description on how Maguey (agave) is grown, the use of the leaves for fiber, how agua miel is harvested and how pulque is made from agua miel. I found the paper fascinating and thought of other books that I have in my own library that provide more information on Maguey. Now I am looking at a map of Mexico and comparing it to the areas of Mexico written about in the series Cocina indigena y popular (series published by Consejo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes). If I do not have the book from that series about that area I will try to find one that covers the land closest to or including the Otomies' land. I also have Tequila : a natural and cultural history / by Ana Guadalupe Valenzuela-Zapata and Gary Paul Nabhan. I will be re-reading sections looking for more information on the agriculture of Maguey and of this area.

Sounds like a good project to start on, researching traditional agriculture and uses of Maguey. I will report back when I have more information.

Ellen's visiting!

Ellen and Jim are coming up from Sacramento and I want to make them a real Pacific Northwest lunch. This is what I'm thinking: It's fall and the chanterelles are just about at the end of their season (it's been raining), I bought a handful of soggy ones yesterday. I have kale and leeks in my garden, the fall salmon is running (I'm hoping to take them out to Kennedy Creek to see the salmon running), I'm watching a little brown bird eating huckleberries in my front yard, and it's the weekend before Thanksgiving. I am starting to form a menu in my mind: mushroom-kale soup, locally caught and smoked salmon, squash stuffed with savory Thanksgiving style dressing, and a dessert with huckleberries or apples and pears.

Tea Habits

It's October and it's time to publish the blog entries that I've written and saved and thought about but haven't posted. I still need to take a picture for this one.

We had a family reunion this past week (this was mid-August in Minnesota) and each day we stopped for at least one tea break. It brought up memories and discussions of the role of tea in our family and I've decided to try to put as much as I can remember down here in this post.

My mother grew up in England so tea drinking was a natural part of our growing up in Minnesota, much more so then coffee which was probably the preferred drink of many of our Scandinavian neighbors. We made tea at least three times a day: first thing in the morning to have with breakfast, around the kitchen table after school at about 4:00, and a final pot while we watched the 10:00 p.m. news. We often had Sunday afternoon tea together during the winter. For these family gatherings, we drank tea and ate warm scones while sitting in the living room around the fireplace.

First of all, the brands of tea that are preferred and currently drunk in the various family households include PG Tips, Yorkshire Gold and Yorkshire Red, Tetley's British Blend, and Earl Grey from Twinings or Trader Joe's. Those are the more recent brands, we grew up with Lipton's which was easily found in midwestern grocery stores.

There are certain rules to making tea well. These are our family's rules for our type of tea, our own tea ceremony. Boiling water must always be used. Hot water provided in pots in restaurants just doesn't do it, instead makes weak 'dishwater' tea. Then, especially in winter, the pot should be preheated by pouring a few inches of the boiling water into the pot, letting it sit for a few minutes and then, just before making the actual tea, pouring it off. This keeps the pot from cooling down too quickly. The other thing that helps keep tea hot in a cold climate is to use a tea cozy to insulate the pot. (Our tea cozies were crocheted out of bright colored yarns for our pots by my mother.) The best tea is made by putting loose tea leaves into the pot or a tea ball. If loose tea is used, a strainer is used to keep the tea leaves out of the cups as it is poured. I don't know what the proportion of tea to water is that makes the best tea (remember, I don't ever use absolute recipes) and think that the strength of the tea is a personal preference. I prefer strong and I use a couple tablespoons tea in a 3-cup pot. The tea is allowed to brew for at least a few minutes (again, I don't know for how long and I don't time it). After brewing it's poured into the individual cups or mugs, my mother likes porcelain teacups, I like substantial mugs. We drink our tea with milk and sugar. My mother says that the best way to pour a cup of tea is to pour the milk into the cup, then pour the tea in, and finally add the sugar and stir.

As I've said, we had scones on Sundays. We, my mother being from northwestern England, grew up pronouncing the word as rhyming with fawns. Apparently in southern England and in the U.S. it's pronounced as rhyming with phones. From what I understand, it's a regional thing and neither is wrong. The Sunday afternoon scones of my memories were plain, almost like baking powder biscuits but with raisins or currents. We buttered them but I can't remember if we used jam. Now we add other other ingredients including lemon peel, craisins, pieces of apples, a little cream in the scone batter, a bit more sugar (but only a bit) sprinkled on the scones before baking.

While I was riding in the car with my oldest sister and her husband, leaving my mother's home last August, I was talking to another sister on the phone, getting her recipe for scones. This is approximate, she was recalling it from the top of her head, I was taking notes on a scrap of paper. I wish I was a poet like her, I would write recipe poems.

Mary's Scone Recipe

1/3 cup butter

1/4 cup raw sugar

1 egg

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 cup milk (or cream?)

1/4 cup raisins

1 cup flour

Mix flour, baking powder and sugar together. Add raisins. Cut in butter. Work in milk. Roll out and cut into shapes (I think we used the edges of glass drinking glasses to make round ones (that gives you a clue as to the approximate size.) Put on a;n ungreased cookie sheet or flat oven pan. Brush with a little milk or egg white and sprinkle with sugar. Bake in a 400-425 degree preheated oven. They probably take 10 or 15 minutes so watch them closely, burnt scones are not tasty.

Quinoa Planted Again

I planted quinoa last year (2008) with not particularly good luck (it was a total failure). The chickens relished the leaves and therefore, stripped the plants. Deborah Kean also planted it at the Oregon State University Vegetable Research Farm last year and had problems with top heavy plants lodging after fall rains. This year I'm trying again with fencing to keep birds out and a little more knowledge about growing the plant here in the Pacific Northwest (water sparingly!).

Five varieties were planted on June 7, 2009. These were planted a single time, no replication of planting, in short (two foot) rows in a raised garden bed. The bed is surrounded by a plastic chicken fence which probably shades the bed slightly. I'll remove the fencing over the top eventually but am being especially careful about keeping chickens out as they could decimate the whole planting in a very short time.

Four of the varieties were the same ones planted last year with the addition of one new variety from Nichols Garden Nursery.

1. Cherry Vanilla (Nichols): "100 days, 5' tall. Open pollinated ... Hot pink and white seed heads are striking in the late summer and fall garden."

2. Dave (Four-O-Seven, Seeds of Change): 90-100 days, 5-6' tall . "Medium sized seed is yellow brown on yellow gold seed heads.

3. Brightest Brilliant (Seeds of Change): 100-110 days, 3-4' tall. The seed packet has no variety description but the website says: "This ornamental and highly edible, nutritious grain blooms in late summer to produce gorgeously rich brugundy [burgundy], orange, yellow, white and pink flower head spikes. The most unusual and striking quinoa we've grown." Unfortunately, there was only a single seed left in packet, but fortunately, that single seed germinated.

4. Faro Traditional (Seeds of Change): 100-130 days, 4' tall. "Most adaptable, southern Chile sea level variety. Green and red topped plants with white/yellow seeds. Mid to long season, adaptable to much of the US. High Yielding."

5. Temuco Traditional (Seeds of Change): 100-110 days, 5-6' tall. "Delicious white-seeded variety. Tall plant produces yellow-green or brilliant red seed heads. One of the best choices for maritime areas, but also grows well in a variety of climates."

This year I had excellent germination (it was a dry June). Plants were thinned to about 6 inches apart (each variety has 1 to 4 plants) as of July 8. I've added the clearest photo I have, taken when plants were 3 weeks old. At this point they all look pretty much the same, they resemble lambs-quarters (another Chenopodium) for those of you who wonder.

Mom's Birthday Memories

It's my mother's 85th birthday tomorrow and this is the email she sent to us:

Dear Childen, As I was remembering birthdays of my childhood and youth, I thought you might like to share some of my recollections. Because June's birthday, and mine, are so close together, we always shared a birthday celebration. We had very few birthday parties in those days, but we did always have strawberries and cream as our special treat. I know we always received a birthday present, but usually it was not anything very big. When Stella and Betty were in their teens, they would buy each of us a small gift, a paper doll cut out book, or such like. We must have been very allergic to strawberries, because we both broke out in huge hives. They itched badly, so we were told to "spit" on them. We were occasionally invited to a birthday party for some other child. It was quite formal, we had "party" frocks, usually taffeta, full skirts with rosettes sewn on. We wore white socks and black patent shoes, never with ankle bands, our Mother considered them to be "common". The games were very organised, and the "tea" usually consisted of molded jelly (jello) and molded blamange, strawberry flavoured, little sandwiches, and fairy cakes. I never liked going to these parties. I was quite glad all that stopped when I got to be about 10. I hope this isn't boring. Next time I will tell you about my 21st birthday. Love to all of you. Your Mother

Birthday Food

It's my birthday in two days so I'm planning what I want to cook and bake for my birthday meal and thinking back to other birthdays and what foods were associated with those memories.

I think the oldest memory I have of birthday meals goes back to when I was living at my parents' house and my mother made me shrimp curry for my birthday. Considering that I grew up in the Midwest and I was still pretty young, that was quite brave of me to request something like that. I always liked trying things that were different, considered unpalatable by some (think of that terrible stinky cheese that Dad used to bring home from somewhere). I also remember that we used to have strawberries on angel food cake for our birthday cakes. It might have been one of Mom's favorites. I know that now she makes chocolate cake with chocolate whipped cream but I don't think she did that until more recently. 

Mary's birthday is two weeks before mine so we sometimes shared birthday celebrations, that's where 'we' comes from. The one and only birthday party I had with children other than family was a shared one with her. 

Two years ago my sister came out to visit around my birthday. Ariel and I made paella. It was gorgeous! And we served it in the beautiful ceramic pot that Chris E. gave me as a birthday present a few years earlier. Unfortunately, Mary was sick and couldn't eat any of it so a lot was wasted. Last year I had a potluck with friends and neighbors so the food was random. Usually I make my Mayan chocolate cake for all birthdays but this year I am planning something different.

This year I'm planning and cooking the whole meal myself because I realized that 'though I love to cook (occasionally) there's usually no one around to eat it when I'm struck by the desire. So since Arie and Oscar will be here, I'm going to cook for pleasure, my birthday present to myself. This is what I'm thinking about: I brought mole rojo paste back from Mexico last fall and haven't used any of it yet so I'm going to make pollo con mole rojo. Then to go with it, I have been wanting to try making tamales so here is my opportunity, I'll make tamales with black bean filling. Then to make it colorful, I'll make sweet potato fries and a salad with greens from the garden. Sounds pretty good! And to top it off, instead of the cake, I'm going to try making a rhubarb pie with meringue top, a recipe from The Washington local and seasonal cookbook. 

Here is my Mayan chocolate cake recipe. It's a revision of a recipe that someone gave me years ago:

Mayan Chocolate Cake

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 3/4 cups flour

3/4 cup cocoa

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground allspice berries

1/4 tsp dried cayenne powder

1/4 to 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

2 eggs

1 cup milk

1/2 cup canola oil

2 tsp vanilla

1 cup boiling water

Heat oven to 350 degrees, grease and flour 2 round cake pans or 1 9x13 rectangular one.

In large bowl, mix all the dry ingredients. Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla. Beat until well blended, about 2 minutes, add chocolate chips, then stir in boiling water.

Bake for 30 to 40 minutes until it's done in the middle. Let cool and frost or don't, your choice. 

This is a very deep dark cake, tastes very rich without being full of butter or cream. The cayenne warms it without making it too hot. There's enough vanilla to give it a fragrance. The smell of allspice reminds me of being where allspice trees grow.

Here is a not-so-great picture of an allspice tree (the multi-limbed one in the center) growing in Tikal (Guatemala). I bought allspice berries there, in the market at Coban, and brought them back with me.