Diving into endive, with a scalloped edge

Summer's heat makes it hard to face spending much time in the kitchen, where it can get even hotter than the inferno outside. Yet, one cannot live by grill alone, even though that is tempting.

And salads. Salad after salad after salad is not good for the creative soul, although creativity and a composed salad can lend variety to summer's meals.

For something a little different, try scallops served on endive. To get the whole leaves from the tight little endive, keep trimming from the bottom of the core as you pull off the outer leaves. If the leaves seem a little limp, wrap them in damp paper towels and stick them in the refrigerator for a bit. (Save the small leaves on the core to slice into a salad later.) You can soften the cream cheese in the microwave if you have a soften setting; I zapped it twice at the 1-stick-of-butter setting and it was soft but not melted. As for the scallops, look for the cream-colored and rosy ones; they have a richer flavor.

Serve with saffron rice and sautéed green beans or spinach, and you'll have an elegant dinner on the table in less than 30 minutes.

Diver scallops on endive
Serves 2

Ingredients
1/2 pound medium to large scallops (about 8)
McCormick's mesquite seasoning
1 tablespoon olive oil
3 ounces cream cheese
1 large endive, washed and separated into enough leaves for each of the scallops

Instructions
Wash and dry scallops, set them in a single layer on a plate and season on one side with the mesquite seasoning. Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a medium cast-iron skillet over medium heat. When hot, put in the scallops, seasoned side down. Meanwhile, spread about a teaspoon of the cream cheese on the endive leaves, and arrange on two plates. The scallops should cook until golden brown on each side and just until firm, about 8 minutes total. Drain on paper towels as you finish preparing the meal, then place one scallop on each endive leaf (they can be picked up and eaten easily). Serve.

When new ( Cholula ) is not improved

I really love Cholula hot sauce. For one thing, it's still made in Mexico. And it has that cute little wooden cap. And it's made from arbol and piquin peppers, not Tabasco or habanero. Not that there's anything wrong with the others; it's just my personal taste.

And for years, the bottle has never changed, never updated. I thought it was frozen in time, with the woman on the front always looking a bit weary, but managing a Mona-Lisa smile.

Yet on the shelves this week, next to the original bottles, was something NEW: chili-lime. With a GREEN wooden cap. I had to try it.

Disappointment to the max. Did you ever pick up a packet of Limón at gas station in an area with a high Latino population? It's a lemon-lime salt that you can lick off your hand (and at a bar, you follow it with a shot of tequila). Well, the chili-lime flavor of Cholula tastes like they took the original recipe and dumped in several packets of Limón in it.

At least they didn't mess with the original.

Cool coffee treat

News flash: Caffeine can kill you. To find out how much you would need to consume to meet your end, go to http://www.energyfiend.com/death-by-caffeine, put in your weight and enter.

So, if you're more than 70 cups of coffee short of your goal, you can try this nice, refreshing coffee drink and live another day. Isn't life grand?

Lori K's nonfat coffee cooler
Makes 3 glasses

Ingredients
Ice
4 rounded teaspoons Medaglia D'Oro instant espresso
4 rounded teaspoons Ghirardelli ground sweet chocolate
16 ounces nonfat milk

Instructions
Fill blender with ice to 24-ounce mark.  Add the instant espresso, ground chocolate and milk. Blend until ice is well crushed. Serve with large straws. About 70 calories per glass.

Palestine on her mind

You probably heard all about the hot water Helen Thomas got herself into with her comments about Palestine. But did you see the Springfield, Ill., State Journal-Register item about her submission to a Women's National Press Club cookbook back in 1961?

The recipe is "Palestine Chicken."

Thomas, 89, was a longtime White House bureau chief for United Press International, columnist for Hearst Newspapers, first female officer of the National Press Club, first female member and a president of the White House Correspondents’ Association, member of the White House Press Corps and is the author of five books.

On May 27, she was outside a Jewish Heritage Celebration Day event at the White House, when she was asked by a rabbi (with a video camera) for a comment on Israel. Thomas said, “Tell them to get the hell out of Palestine.”

She resigned from Hearst Newspapers, and her entertainment agency dropped her.

No word yet if she's thinking of another cookbook.

Meatless Mondays: Papadzules

Now that I'm back to blogging on a more regular basis, one of the ideas I had was a weekly entree that didn't involve meat, since that's one of the best ways to cut your food budget without making your family and yourself feel like you're depriving yourself. (If you're already on the Meatless Monday plan, try stepping it up to twice a week.)

This week is one of my favorites, but it's not for the faint of heart. It's a bit on the spicy side, but you can use a milder salsa if you so desire. The pumpkin seed sauce isn't spicy, but a little salty. If you want to make this vegan, use a silken firm tofu instead of the hard boiled eggs. Once you mix the chopped tofu with the salsa, you won't know the difference.

Papadzules (vegetarian enchiladas with pumpkin-seed sauce)
Serves 4

Salsa

Ingredients
3 or 4 ripe tomatoes
2 cups of water or broth
1 or 2 fresh sprigs of epazote (optional; can substitute cilantro)
1 habanero chile, sliced almost in half; leave stem on and remove seeds
Salt
1 small onion, chopped
2 tablespoons oil, divided

Instructions
Bring the first 4 ingredients plus some salt to a boil and simmer for 5 minutes. Remove from heat. Take the tomatoes and habanero out of the broth and set aside. Remove the skin from the tomatoes and discard the skin. Reserve the broth. Heat one tablespoon of the oil in a small skillet and sauté the onion until soft. Set aside.
Purée the cooked tomatoes and sautéed onion in a blender. Heat the remaining tablespoon of oil in a saucepan. Add the puréed tomato mixture and simmer for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add more salt to taste.

Salsa de Pepita

Ingredients
1 cup of pepitas (fat shelled pumpkin seeds), toasted until they turn golden
2 cups of broth (reserved from the salsa making, above; may not use all of it)
Salt

Instructions
Strain the broth. Finely grind the toasted pepitas, using either a blender or food processor. Add the reserved broth slowly, until you have a paste. Blend or pulse, slowly adding more of the broth, until you get a saucy consistency. Set aside.

Filling

Ingredients
6 hard-boiled eggs, peeled and chopped
12 corn tortillas, heated until they are soft and pliable
Warm salsa (see above)
Warm salsa de pepita (see above)

Instructions
Place a warm tortilla on a plate. Put some of the egg down the center of the tortilla, add some salsa, then fold over two opposing edges of the tortilla on top of the egg. Place this bundle on another plate, seam side down. Repeat until you have formed 3 for each serving.

Ladle the salsa de pepita over the top of the papatzules. Then ladle on some more salsa. Serve.

Carnitas: More than just "a little meat"

The last time I wrote something about carnitas, I had several Mexican-American friends tell me that my slow-roast technique was all wrong.

"My mom always used a bottle of Coke in hers. Made them really tender." No doubt the acid in the soda also tenderized the meat, and the sugar probably put quite a nice color on the outside when the meat went into the oven after simmering in the Coke for a few hours. But how traditional can Coke be?

Even the Coke sounded better than the recipe that swore by a milk base and claimed it caramelized after slow cooking (the milk evaporated, then the meat got brown and crispy). I didn't like that at all.

I'm not a real fan of sweet meats; I like my barbecue Texas style, which is hot and smoky and stands alone, no sauce needed. If you want to slather something on it, maybe some more hot sauce. But nothing sweet, not even sweet and vinegary. I've gotten where I enjoy pulled pork, but to me, it's about as close to barbecue as Cincinnati chili is to New Mexican chili.

So I thought about the Coke, but decided instead on beer. And looking at the smiles around the table, I don't think it would have been better with Coca-Cola. (The recipe follows the video of Roy Orbison singing the Coke jingle the last line of this posting refers to.)



Lori K's beer carnitas

Ingredients
1 5-pound pork shoulder (Boston butt)
1 California chili pepper
2 chili arbol peppers
2 garlic cloves, peeled and sliced
1 Shiner Dark Lager beer
1 tablespoon salt
Ground oregano to taste

Instructions
Rinse and dry pork. Put chilies in large crackpot and turn on high. Pierce pork in several places and insert garlic cloves. Put pork on top of chilies, fat side up, and add beer on the sides. Sprinkle salt over the top of the pork and sprinkle with oregano. When the pork feels warm, turn down the crackpot to low and cook for 8-10 hours. Drain any liquid, and allow meat to cool. Cut off the fat, cut the meat into chunks, and put in a roasting pan. Season some more if it seems too bland. Turn on oven to 425 degrees. When hot, insert the meat and cook until it sizzles, about 15 minutes. Serve with tortillas, shredded cabbage, sliced radishes, cilantro, lime wedges and salsas.

Right out of the box

In my mom's day, it was common for ladies to turn to the boxes of their favorite mixes for new recipes to thrill their snarly kids and bored husbands. Sometimes it even worked. The recipes got passed around, became instant classics, turned into the staples of community cookbooks, then the recipes made it to the next logical step: A packaged mix or frozen dinner. Then out came cookbooks harking back to the "original recipes" and how to make the dish "from scratch."

Then we started to cook fresh and the recipes collected dust.

Today, as I emptied an open box of linguine into my pasta jar, I spied a recipe on the package for linguine with tuna, olives and capers. OK, that sounded pretty good. And it was.

Here's to a new generation of "ripped from the box" recipes.

De Cecco's Linguine with Tuna, Olives and Capers
Serves 6-8

Ingredients
1 pound linguine

Salt

1/4 cup olive oil

1/2 cup of black olives, pitted and finely chopped
1 1/4 tablespoon capers
2 cloves crushed garlic
1 tablespoon chopped parsley

Pepper 

1 small can tuna, shredded with fork

Instructions
Cook the pasta for 11 minutes in boiling salted water. In the meantime, sauté in olive oil the olives, capers and garlic. Add a few tablespoons of the boiling pasta water, then put in the parsley and some ground pepper. Let it cook for a few minutes, then remove from heat and add the tuna. Drain the linguine and put in a serving dish. Add the sauce, mix well and serve.