Recipe: Grilled Eggplant with Toasted-Breadcrumb Salsa Verde

A Recipe:  Grilled Eggplant with Toasted-Breadcrumb Salsa Verde

by Victoria Challancin

Flavors of the Sun International Cooking School

San Miguel de Allende, Mexico

I love eggplants, I love Italian salsa verde. So when I found this recipe by Tasha De Serio in Fine Cooking Magazine, I knew I had to try it.  I used this recipe in a class I did for Mexican cooks.

For the topping:

1/2 cup fresh breadcrumbs, preferably from an Italian loaf

1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, and more as needed

1 small shallot, very finely minced

2 1/2 teaspoons red wine vinegar, or to taste

Kosher salt

1/4 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

1 tablespoon chopped fresh basil

1 tablespoon chopped fresh mint

1/2 tablespoon chopped fresh marjoram or oregano

1/2 tablespoon capers, rinsed well and coarsely chopped

1 anchovy fillet (preferably salt-packed) rinsed and finely chopped

For the eggplant:

1 large globe eggplant (about 1 pound), trimmed and cut into 1/2-inch rounds

3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, and more as needed

Kosher salt

Make the topping:  Heat the oven to 375F.  Put the breadcrumbs in a pie plate.  Drizzle 1/2 tablespoon of the olive oil on top, and mix well to evenly coat the breadcrumbs.  Spread the crumbs out for even toasting.  Toast in the oven, stirring occasionally, until golden brown, approximately for 12 minutes. Let cool.

Combine the shallot, vinegar, and a pinch of salt in a small bowl.  Let sit for at least 10 minutes and up to 2 hours.

Combine the remaining 1/4 cup oil with the herbs, capers, and anchovy in a small bowl.  Set aside.

Grill the eggplant:  Prepare a charcoal or gas grill or heat a ridged frying pan (a regular frying pan can also be used).  Brush the eggplant slices with olive oil and season with salt and freshly ground black pepper.  Cook until golden-brown on one side, turn and grill until the eggplant is soft rather than white and hard.

Just before serving, combine the shallot mixture and the toasted breadcrumbs with the herb mixture.  If it seems too dry, add a bit more olive oil.  Season to taste with salt and pepper.  Add more vinegar if necessary--it should have a nice acidic kick. Spoon some salsa over the top of the eggplant slices and serve any remaining sauce on the side.

Note:  You can make the eggplant in advance and serve it at room temperature, then wait until just before servings to assemble the salsa topping. 

Something new in San Miguel:  A variety of eggplants from a local organic ranch

A Recipe: Quinoa Salad with Arugula and some nice Kudos

A Recipe:
Quinoa Salad with Arugula
...and some nice kudos

We all hate to toot our own horns. Truly, most of us do. Hate it. But the lovely review of a recent talk/cooking class I gave to the San Miguel Garden Club just begs to be shared. I was so touched by the words of President Leigh Gersnoviez in the Garden Club's monthly newsletter, that I asked if I could use it on both my blog and my newsletter. Thank you to all of the Garden Club Members.

The Sazón Cooking School with its specialized kitchen complete with overhead mirrors and closed circuit TVs provided the perfect setting for our program on the art of preparing perky recipes with pungent plants. Victoria Challancin introduced as “fascinating and charming” and in other glowing terms…, is a well-known expert and teacher of food preparation, specializing in the use of herbs and other plants. She maintains a newsletter and blog named Flavors of the Sun to which all of us are invited to subscribe and use and is a trip organizer
to exotic places.


Victoria began with a fascinating history lesson on the nasturtium and then taught us to love its colors (yellow to red), versatility (pestos and salad to simple adornment), health benefits (natural antibiotic) and flavor (pungent to spicy). Since the group expressed such interest in the medicinal qualities, Victoria gave us recipes for both an elixir and tincture of the leaves for use as a fast-acting antibiotic which does not kill the flora in the intestines. It was obvious from this informative and lively discussion that Victoria is a history and academics buff who is coincidentally fascinated by botany, loves cooking and can translate all that into unusual and flavorful dishes thus bringing all her
loves together in the kitchen.


She pointed out how beneficial and underused are the whole family of salad greens and how our health could be vastly improved by their inclusion in our diets. Arugula, now growing wild in the campo as well as being available in our organic markets, has forty known medicinal uses and is now being studied in universities as a treatment for stomach ulcers and is thought to be is a tremendous cancer fighter. Its [flower] leaves form the shape of a cross and [for this reason the members of the Crucifer/Brassiasceae are] sometimes called the “plants that serve man”. Victoria continued her green plant discussion with examples of the actual plants being passed among us so we could touch, taste and smell them.

Watercress is an acquatic plant which is high in sulphur content and used as a strong diuretic as well for pulmonary and kidney problems. It is a blood purifier that also contains high levels of iodine, potassium and vitamins. [Quinoa} is a round-seeded grain full of all essential amino acids and therefore very healthy. Victoria is so well-informed and gives such an entertaining stream of conversation that we could have spent the entire day listening and watching her prepare dishes…


She stressed the need to support the local organic farmers and to change our diet to include these tasty and healthy foods. Many thanks
to Victoria for her fun and informative commentary, the shared dishes to
taste and the “perky” recipes.

And here is one of those "perky" recipes:

Quinoa Salad with Arugula

(Recipe by Victoria Challancin)

Serves 4 to 6

Note: Toasting the quinoa before cooking in water, either in oil or in a dry skillet, brings out its nutty flavor. I also tossed cubes of raw yellow crookneck squash into the salad, just because I had one begging to be eaten.

1 1/2 cups quinoa, well-washed and drained
1/4 cup olive oil
3 cups water
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
3 tablespoons sherry vinegar
1 small bunch arugula, stemmed and cut into julienne
1/4 cup basil or mint leaves, cut into julienne
1 small red onion, very thinly sliced
2 tomatoes, seeded and diced
1 cucumber, peeled, seeded, and diced
1 bell pepper (yellow gives a nice contrasting color), seeded,
deveined, and diced
Freshly ground black pepper to taste

Quinoa needs to be washed before cooking to get rid of bitter saponins. Even though most quinoa is pre-washed, it is best to put it into a fine-mesh sieve and rinse well under cold water for at least 1 minute. Allow it to drain for 2 or 3 minutes.

Heat a skillet with a lid over medium-high heat and add 1 tablespoon olive oil. When oil is hot, add quinoa. Cook, stirring frequently with a wooden spoon for 2 minutes or until quinoa smells toasted. Add 3 cups water and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Bring mixture to a boil, cover pan, and reduce the heat to low. Cook for 15 minutes or until water is absorbed. Allow to cool if using for a salad.

Combine the vinegar and remaining 3 tablespoons oil in a large bowl. Add the arugula, basil, red onion, tomato, cucumber, and bell pepper. Season the vegetables with additional salt and black pepper to taste. Add the quinoa and mix gently. Serve over a bed of baby lettuces. Add cheese, cooked chicken or shrimp—this recipe is extremely flexible.

The Cooks

Margarita and Cristina

The Cooks 


Flavors of the Sun International Cooking School
San Miguel de Allende, Mexico

The following photos are of students in an eight-week course called Fresh! Fast! Healthy!. The focus of this course is to teach Mexican cooks International recipes that highlight the best in local organic produce and modern, updated recipes.

Gina

Nelly

Margarita
Adela

Gina and Nelly

Guillermina

Gina

Nelly

Margarita

Adela

Cristina

Nelly

Chiles for Gringos

A Talk on Chiles for the Botanical Garden

by Victoria Challancin

The following is an article that I wrote on chiles for the local San Miguel de Allende newspaper, the Atención, to accompany the announcement about a talk I was asked to give at the local Botanical Garden:

When people who haven’t been raised with spicy food first encounter the chiles of Mexico, they are in for a surprise. Even the good folk from Texas can’t imagine what it is like to metaphorically swim in the waters of the genus capsicum, family Solanaceae—Latin for what we commonly call “chiles.” And visitors from what we might call the “culinary bland” states just don’t stand a chance.

My paternal family hails from northern Italy and my mother’s from Georgia. This combined background may have provided me with a rich familial quirkiness, but offered nothing to this Southern girl in the way of understanding the culinary world of spices while growing up, much less chiles. In fact, the only real chiles my family ever ate came from the hot peppers soaked in vinegar that we used to spice our turnip greens. When I moved from Georgia to the Arabian Gulf in 1975, however, my life changed forever. Faced with the heady local Arab food, heavily influenced by the cuisines of southern India, redolent with exotic spices, laced with chiles, it was sink or swim for me. I swam. And have never looked back. I’ve been treading water in the world of chiles ever since then.

My love of chiles may have been firmly established while living in the Arab world, but until I moved to Mexico over twenty-one years ago, I never really understood them in any real sense other than the heat they provided for a dish. Who hasn’t encountered a menu whose offerings are rated in terms of “heat” with chile icons given as warnings? Who hasn’t pondered whether a three-chile Panang Curry, or a four-chile Santa Fe Bowl of Red, or even a one-chile Pork Vindaloo would contain enough capsaicin [the alkaloid in chiles responsible for the “heat”] to push you over the acceptable level intended for human consumption? Yet here in Mexico, while the chiles can certainly be rated on a heat scale, it is the actual flavor of the chile that determines its use in a dish. Understanding those flavors gives a richer appreciation of the complex, vital, ever-fascinating Mexican cuisine.

Mexico is the only country in the world that really uses chiles for flavor, not just for the heat they produce in a dish. Different chiles indeed have different flavors and Mexicans seem to understand this at some visceral level the rest of us can only grasp with concentrated effort. Did you know that ancho chiles taste like dates? Pasilla chiles have hints of chocolate. Habaneros are so herbaceous and flowery that you wonder if citrus blossoms have been added to your food. Serrano chiles hit you like a brash teenager who is loud and in your face. Chipotles smolder quietly and seduce you like an exotic older woman, calling to you siren-like with her depth and complexity. Some chiles singe the front of the mouth, others scream at the back. Some are like innocent young love, scorching you quickly, then fading away to gently haunt your palate as a reminder that they were ever even there. Some surprise you like a lively flirtation, tickling your fancy, making you smile, drawing you back for more. Still others are reminiscent of a deep an abiding love, the memory of the shared delight never really leaving your consciousness. Yes, it’s true: chiles are addictive. You will come back for more—and more, hotter and hotter.

The world of chiles is vast, their history long. In Mexico they permeate every socioeconomic level. They exist in literature, music, art, medicine, folklore, and of course, in albures, those playful doble-sentidos that lace idiomatic Spanish and are so loved by the Mexican people. Chile glyphs can even be seen carved into the stones of ancient Mexican pyramids. Books have been written about chiles. Songs sung. Festivals given. And If you live here and don’t make the effort to understand the role of chiles, not just in their use in the cuisine, but in the psyche of the people, the heart of the culture, then you surely miss the opportunity to peel of one more layer in that proverbial onion that comprises cultural understanding.


The blurb from the Cactus Bulletin announcing the aforementioned talk:
Victoria's talk will be about how to identify and use popular Mexican chiles. As she explains the difference in the both the flavors and heat of different chiles, Victoria will weave their history into an entertaining talk about their role in art, medicine, and culture. Victoria’s lifetime affair with history, culture, travel, and food have provided her with a broad base of knowledge which naturally spills over into both her classes and her talks. In addition to providing solid practical information and recipes, Victoria sprinkles her lively lectures with food anthropology, ethnobotany, a bit of phytochemistry, and Mexican herbal lore. Her love of plants includes not only their use in the kitchen, but also their vital role in healing. Her cooking classes have been featured on TV and in magazines and newspapers. Be sure to check out her food blog as well at http://flavorsofthesun.blogspot.com. Victoria also produces a free food-oriented monthly newsletter; email Victoria at flavorsofthesun@yahoo.com if you wish to be added to the newsletter mailing list.

The Colors of Mexico: Orange

The Colors of Mexico: Orange

by Victoria Challancin

At the Tuesday Market where I was buying herbs to accompany a talk I was giving at the Botanical Gardens, I was surprised anew by the rich and varied scenes begging to be photographed. As a twenty-year resident, you would think by now I would be used to the vibrancy of life, the shades of beauty, the surreal overlays of alternate realties, and the staggering colors of everyday life. Fortunately, this time I remembered to take my camera. Later when I looked at these pictures, I discovered an entirely accidental predominance of that favorite Mexican color, orange.