Mole Dulce Brownies

December 18, 2015 / Savor Blog Partners / 5 Comments

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Amy here, running, needing something for a cookie trade! Recipe below.

Mole Dulce is perfect in desserts and sweet treats, like in EXO Roast Co‘s Mole Latte. My friend Amy there is always asking for more mole. I developed a Mole Dulce variation without the graham cracker, so the drink would be wheat free. Someday I’ll get to making a label for that, so people can buy it on the shelf.

mole latte

Savory, salty, spicy Mole Dulce gets its sweetness from raisins and Xocolatl, very fine Oaxacan drinking chocolate imported by my friends Yissel and Dave. The beautiful brown paper wrap with dried lavender protects the hand formed sticks.

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The chocolate contains cacao, cane sugar, almonds and cinnamon. The Mole Dulce powder contains additional almonds, giving body and flavor to the sauce. Or in this case, BROWNIES!

Mano Y Metate Mole Dulce Brownies

4 eggs (room temperature)
2 cups sugar
2 sticks softened butter (8 ounces)
1 1/4 cup cocoa powder
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons Mole Dulce powder (www.manoYmetate.com)
Mole Dulce powder for topping, 5 tablespoons or so, to taste
Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F. Line a 9” x13” baking pan (or 2 pans, each 8”x8”) with parchment paper.

With an electric mixer, beat the eggs just until fluffy. Beat in sugar. Add remaining ingredients and beat. Pour batter into pan(s) and spread to level. Push Mole Dulce powder though a wire strainer to evenly distribute over the batter as a topping. Bake for 35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out with crumbs instead of batter on it.

I like them thinner, so there’s more spicy, chocolaty topping per bite. Feel free to take it out sooner or bake them in a smaller pan if you like them gooey, but the edges of the pan always seem to go first around here.

Now, off to the cookie trade. And to grind more mole.

Love, light and peace to all! Amy

Farmers’ Market Sources for Warming Body and Soul, Baking and Gifting

December 11, 2015December 12, 2015 / Savor Blog Partners / Leave a comment

Autumn harvest from the NativeSeeds/ SEARCH Conservation Farm in Patagonia, AZ–heirloom Navajo banana squash (MABurgess photo)

What makes Tucson an International City of Gastronomy? It is not only that we are blessed with amazingly creative chefs–like the ones showcased at the Mission Garden Picnic feast. It’s also the availability of rare and wonderful heirloom foods that are adapted to our particular Baja Arizona climate, soil, and cultures! Few other places have the flavorful and nutritious diversity of crops that have been part of our Baja Arizona agricultural landscape for about 4000 years.

Tia Marta here to share ideas for finding the raw materials for some great slow-food feasting this Winter Solstice season.

OPEN NSS NAVAJO BANANA SQUASH FOR AN EXPLOSION OF BETA-CAROTENES!

Ignored, more than maligned, by present-day dominant cultures, the squash is a gift to menu-inventors. It can be prepared as a savory dish with good old salt/pepper/butter, or fancied up with moles. Or it can be made into fabulous desserts. Use it in place of sweet potato for a genteel variation. My favorite is to make it into a festive “Kentucky Pudding”.

Muff’s “Kentucky Pudding” Dessert Recipe

4 cups steamed or baked heirloom Navajo banana squash (or other heirloom) mashed or pureed

2-4 Tbsp mesquite honey or agave nectar (to taste)

2-3 Tbsp chopped crystallized ginger root (I found it at Trader Joe’s)

1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans or pine nuts

1/4 cup good bourbon whiskey

Steam or bake squash ahead. (You can freeze it for using later in a variety of recipes–it’s so convenient!0 In a saucepan, heat mashed squash on medium. Add honey, ginger, nutmeats. When hot and steamy, stir in the bourbon quickly and serve with a flair. You could even try flambé. Serves 4-6.

Navajo banana squash showing its interesting pattern of seeds inside

These luscious heirloom squashes, grown at NativeSeeds/SEARCH’s Seed Conservation Farm in Patagonia, are available now at our Flor de Mayo booth at Sunday’s St Philips Farmers’ Market. Come see the size of them–one of them could feed the whole extended family or a small tribe! We will be selling them by the smaller family-sized chunk as well. Start salivating… If you are seeking Vitamin A in glorious beta-carotenes, this is the food to find.

And don’t forget those giant seeds inside! They can be roasted easily with a little olive oil and sea salt and voila you have a healthy snack full of zinc to ward off colds in this chilly season. You can save a handful of those seeds to plant next summer in your garden and keep the gift growing.

Heirloom organic locally grown White Sonora Wheat-berries

And here are some ideas about baking with local heirloom grains…. Get out your VitaMix or your hand-mill and get ready for a real treat–home-baked goodies made with fresh-milled flour from whole heirloom grains. Find these precious ancient grains at the NativeSeeds/SEARCH Store (3061 N Campbell near Prep and Pastry) and at the Flor de Mayo booth–Sunday St Philips Food-In-Root Market.

Organic Khorasan Kamut wheat–great for bread baking

If you don’t want to take the time, or if you don’t have milling equipment, no problem! Just come by our Flor de Mayo farmers market booth and see your special grain being fresh-milled before your very eyes. It is especially neat for kids to see where flour comes from. Surprisingly, many an adult has difficulty making the connection with grain and flour. The beauty and significance of keeping the grain whole until milling is that the grain is ALIVE! When used fresh-milled within a few days of milling, the beneficial enzymes–the “life force” in the whole kernel–are still active in the flour. And the taste of freshly-milled flour is a whole new flavor-ballgame.

Organic hard red wheat–perfect for Christmas cookies and cakes

Come actually touch our good organic grains! Feel their liveliness. We have recipe ideas to share, like our Baja Arizona White Sonora Wheat flour and Mesquite pie crust. In addition we can recommend lots delicious whole wheat-berry recipes for Padre Kino’s white Sonora wheat grown locally by BKWFarms or the Pima club wheat grown by San Xavier Farm Coop and Ramona Farms.

For a completely new experience, try baking with a purple grain!–our heirloom Purple Prairie Barley. Barley flour has the lowest glycemic index of all the grain flours hence helping to balance blood sugar. It has a rich flavor that can enhance any bread or biscuit recipe. The purple color indicates a high anthocyanin content– an important antioxidant. When you cook the purple barley as a whole grain, you can use it in pilafs and marinated grain salads the way you might use rice or quinoa. Combined with rice it makes a colorful high-contrast pilaf. (I’d be happy to elaborate in another post.)

Beautiful purple prairie barley–an heirloom originally from Tibet–full of the healthful flavonoid anthocyanin

Try using Mano y Metate’s Pipian Rojo Mole as a vegetarian spice for these Zuni Gold beans!

Tis the season also to rejoice in the indigenous beans that have supported Native cultures for unknown centuries.

Beautiful Zuni Gold beans–used traditionally in the Winter Solstice celebration

Heirloom beans are full of protein, full of flavor, and so versatile. I like to cook up a big pot of these golden Solstice beans and then freeze them in serving sizes to prepare later in a variety of fun ways–as chile beans, as dips, in burritos, as hummus, and of course heart-warming bean soup–the list goes on… Come get inspired at our Flor de Mayo table when you see the biodiversity of beans spread before you!

Delectable Christmas Limas can be prepared as vegetarian centerpiece dishes to honor the season!

The most festive heirloom bean of the holiday season is the colorful Christmas Lima (AKA Chestnut Lima) so called because of the timing when it is harvested. (Check out past blog posts for some great recipes.) We have even had jewelry-makers buy this bean to string as fetish-style necklaces.

Calling creative gift-givers! Join us at the Sunday St Philips Farmers Market for some meaningful, local, healthful and tasty gifts that say “Baja Arizona” in the most delightful way.

Just for scale, Tia Mart hefts this heirloom Navajo squash. Who needs a workout center if you are a gardener or farmer?

Just for scale, Tia Marta hefts this heirloom Navajo squash. Who needs a workout center if you are a gardener or farmer?

May you have happiness, health, peace in your hearts, and good cheer this holiday season –greetings from Rod and Tia Marta at Flor de Mayo!

Bean and Corn Cakes with Mole

November 20, 2015November 21, 2015 / Savor Blog Partners / 1 Comment

Hello, Amy Valdés Schwemm here. When I want to offer people several varieties of mole to taste, I make small batches of each sauce and serve them in mini electric crocs. Guests can spoon mole over servings of turkey or these bean and corn cakes. They make a perfect vegetarian main course or a hearty side.

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If you want a taste, meet me at The Food Conspiracy Co-op Saturday, November 21, 4-7pm. There will be other samples, including wine, and everyone (not just members) gets 10% off everything.

The recipe for Bean and Chicos Dinner Cakes was published in Furrow to Fire: Recipes from the Native Seeds/SEARCH Community, its author unknown to the editors. Chicos are New Mexican corn kernels roasted when still fresh, then dried. Sometimes they have a smokey taste that can almost be a seasoning if you cook a handful with a pot of beans. I often substitute Tohono O’odham gai’iwsa or Mexican posole. Using a bean with a creamy texture helps to hold the patties together. I’ve made it countless times, sometimes substituting ingredients wildly. They hold in a warm oven perfectly until ready to serve.

The photo above used lots of white posole and some canario beans. For tomorrow’s tasting, I’m using plenty of pintos and a little yellow polenta. No need to measure or time the polenta, as this recipe is so forgiving. Kneading in dry cornmeal when forming the patties (instead of just mixing it in) will fix the mixture at the perfect consistency.

I like to carefully reduce the bean cooking liquid, affectionately referred to as bean juice in our family, because I can’t imagine draining it.

Pulse everything in the food processor or mash by hand, and season to taste. Make big or small cakes to suit the occasion.

1/2 cup chicos

1 cup beans, cooked and drained

2 tablespoons cornmeal

1 I’itoi or green onion, minced

salt to taste

Options:

1/4 teaspoon Mexican oregano

1 teaspoon chile powder (or substitute Mano Y Metate Adobo powder)

Place chicos and enough water to cover in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer and cook for about one hour, until chicos are fairly soft. Cool slightly, then drain and coarsely chop. Set aside.

Combine beans, cornmeal, onion and chile powder and either mash by hand or whirl briefly in a food processor. Combine with the chicos, adding salt and adjusting seasoning to taste. Shape into about 1/3 inch thick patties.

In a lightly oiled skillet over medium heat, brown dinner cakes on each side. Serve with mole, pipián, or salsa.

My Aunt Bertie has shaped and browned lots of these little things with me. Here she is taking a break from flipping during a cooking class my family taught. We love to cook together!

Bat’s, “Seed-Dispersal” Clusters, and Taking Off by Letting Go

November 6, 2015November 8, 2015 / Savor Blog Partners / 1 Comment

“Seed Dispersal” Chocolate Clusters, are inspired by bat’s remarkable ability to drop seed where it is needed.

Aunt Linda here on this chilly early November day, writing to you from under a Tucson bridge. My feet are burrowed in the arroyos’ sand – which is dotted with bat guano. The smell of guano is thick and earthy. And while I am not in a cave, it smells like the inside of a cave from down here. The chattering and “chirping” from the bats above delights me. Bridges, it turns out, are comfortable roosting places for bats. The expansion joints offer 1 foot deep grooves for bats to roost. Habitat loss is a significant challenge that bats face, and while bridges were not constructed with bats in mind, it turns out that they are bat friendly places.

Today we widen our scope beyond the Sonoran Desert and fly into the rainforests. Before we leave though, I’ll mention that bats are more closely related to primates (yes, humans included) than they are to rodents.They are the only mammals to achieve true flight. They are not flying mice; they do not glide like some squirrels. They fly.

And they have been doing so for 50 million years.

One of many reason bats are considered a “keystone species” – meaning so essential to certain ecosystems that they would collapse without them – is that they are extremely effective “seed dispersers”. As we know, huge areas of the planet’s rainforests are cleared every year. Regenerating these vast expanses of open areas, where once a forest thrived, requires seed dispersal. Birds and many primates, fear crossing vast areas where there is little shelter from attacking flying predators, so they usually stick to trees, where they they defecate seeds directly beneath where they perch. In contrast, nocturnal fruit bats have no such concern. Covering large distances over large clearings every evening while they feed and forage, they also drop seeds in those wide expanses. It turns out that many of those very seeds are from “pioneer plants”; those plants capable of growing in the hot/dry extreme conditions found in clearings. The growth of these plants invite other more delicate plants to grow and take root, they do this by the shelter they provide other plants, as well as by providing safe perching sites for birds and other primates, who are now too, dispersing more varieties os seeds. I discovered that seeds dropped by bats usher in up to 95% of the first new growth within these clearings.

Bats have been reported to disperse seeds such as dates, figs, cashews (hence the recipe today) as well as MANY others.

RECIPE : Seed Dispersal Clusters

Ingredients:

2, 3oz chocolate bars (or just a plane 6 oz) I used Lilly’s dark chocolate (coconut flavor) because I like the lack of sugar, but I have used the Trader Joe’s Jumbo bars for bigger batches, chocolate chips, … The Point: use whatever YOU Like. Dark, not dark ….
a handful of roasted salted (your preference of salted or not) cashews. I love the salt with the sweet.
1-2 Figs – dried and unsulfured – slice
4 dates (I used sun-dried and unsulfured) sliced
Optional: for the tops – 1 chiltepin per cluster, or a few pomegranate seeds. Or combine the two.

(And use what you have on hand. I have used almonds, ginger, chia seeds, poppy seeds, sunflower seed, pepita (pumpkin) seeds, dried cranberries … the bats might agree: sky is the limit)

How To:

In a double boiler (I used a pan inside a pan with boiling-roiling water), add the chocolate. As it melts you can begin adding the “seeds”.

I chopped the figs and dates roughly because I like the unexpected texture; feel free to be as uniform as you would like.

Stir the cashews and dried fruit until coated with the chocolate.

Place dollops of the seed mixture onto wax or parchment paper - add chiltepin if you like the heat - or pomegranites if you like the sweet. Place in the freezer until chilled through. 10-15 minutes.

Place dollops of the seed mixture onto wax or parchment paper – add chiltepin if you like the heat – or pomegranates if you like the sweet. Place in the freezer until chilled through, about 10-15 minutes. Don’t freeze freeze them – you want them hard, but not so hard that you cannot bit into them.

When firm, delight in the flavors and taste! Put remaining, if there are any, in an air tight container and keep in the fridge.

When firm, try one; delight in the flavors and taste! Put remaining clusters, if there are any, in an air tight container and keep in the fridge. Eat soon and swiftly.

Letting Go

I discovered a bat fact that surprised me. Unlike birds and bees and butterflies, very few bats actually “take off”, meaning they don’t push off of the ground or branch or flower in order to take flight. Because most bats perch upside down, they simply let of the surface from which they are hanging, immediately flap their wings, and fly.

We know this one as well, don’t we. There are times when, having let go of something – (a way of perceiving, an idea no longer relevant, an identity, a person) – we have a sense of flight. I know I have. There is a sense of an inner lightness. And it can take us places.

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BATS!! I am ENCHANTED with them. There is so VERY much to admire about these flying mammals! Stay tuned Bat Friendly Folk: I will be returning to bats again in future posts. I hope to inspire the building of Bat Houses and the planting of Bat Gardens. We’ll talk about all this before springtime so that you can plan. Whether or not you want to build bat houses or plant bat gardens, you will definitely want to learn about making Guano Tea for the gardens you normally tend. Please feel free and write me with any comments and suggestions and experiences you have had with any of the above.

If luck permits, we may also explore the making of “bacanora”, which is a potent drink made from an agave species in Sonora.

The making of this product affects bats.

Stay tuned.

Taste Buds Ready to “Rejoice in Local”–at Mission Garden!

October 15, 2015October 20, 2015 / Savor Blog Partners / 1 Comment

Gluten-free black tepary brownie-cockaigne for a desert dessert!

Yum!–Gluten-free Akimel O’odham Black Tepary Bean brownies with pinyones — a truly desert dessert served at the Farm-to-Table Picnic Feast at Mission Garden

Indeed, there is no doubt Tucson should be given the designation as an International City of Gastronomy! Where else in the world could we enjoy a finer, more diverse, perfectly indigenous, more delectable and nutritious PICNIC-FEAST than here in Tucson? Delicious dishes were the pieces de resistance by some of Tucson’s most renowned chefs for……the first-ever Farm-to-Table Picnic at Tucson’s Mission Garden.

Native-foods cook and author Carolyn Niethammer picking heirloom figs at the Mission Garden for the Farm to Table Feast for her gone-to-heaven fig-bar postre.

At the base of our landmark A-Mountain–the very birthplace of Schuuck-shon–set in a scene of verdant orchard trees heavy with fruit, and heirloom vegetables bearing their colorful autumn harvest, we feasted this past Sunday, October 18, on the tried and true fruits of our desert land. The community registered for this edible fundraiser via the two hosts of the Farm-to-Table Picnic Feast–our Tucson-born-and-bred organizations– Friends of Tucson’s Birthplace and NativeSeeds/SEARCH. The cost of $75 covered a magnificent repast–not just a dainty little taste of hors d’oeuvres but a sumptuous serving of at least 7 gourmet entrees, plus a variety of hand-made desserts and some locally fermented beverages! Either website can guide you to ways of supporting or volunteering for these worthy outfits–http://www.tucsonsbirthplace.org or http://www.nativeseeds.org.

At our special outdoor feast, we learned and appreciated where every single bite comes from! Every ingredient was LOCAL–grown on our own Baja Arizona soil, bathed by our own Arizona sun, watered by our own Pleistocene aquifer, tended by our own neighbors’ hands not to mention those of Mission Garden and NSS volunteers and staff.

To recognize them from the source….the beautiful Native Tohono O’odham Ha:l squashes, grown at the NativeSeeds/SEARCH Conservation Farm, in combo with I’itoi’s Onions and other heirloom veggies, morphed into betacarotene-rich chile with Loew’s Ventana Canyon‘s Chef Ken Harvey’s magic. Mission Garden’s heirloom pumpkins and greens transformed by Chef Doug Levy at Feast Tucson to a superb salad-supreme.

Traditional and delicious--Tohono O'odham Ha:l winter squash with magic inside--and curry pumpkins (MABphoto)

Traditional and delicious–Tohono O’odham Ha:l winter squash with magic inside of them–with curry pumpkins (MABphoto)

Akimel O’odham pearly black teparies from Pima farmer Ramona Button‘s fields and locally-harvested cholla buds transformed with culinary sorcery by Chef Janos Wilder’s Downtown Kitchen into the most gourmet vegetarian delight.

Padre Kino’s White Sonora Wheat from BKWFarms‘ organic fields became the most flavorful and delicately marinated wheat-berry salad by the hand of Chef Rebecca Ramey at Blue Willow Restaurant. And speaking of transformation, BKWFarms’ organic white Sonora wheat, with the magic of friendly microbes at Dragoon Brewery, became a festive brew with an amazing back-story to delight all samplers.

Ripened seed heads of organic heirloom Padre Kino White Sonora Wheat from BKWFarms in Marana (MABurgess photo)

Farmer Frank’s Crooked Sky Farms‘ GMO-free fresh corn expressed itself in a fresh-from-the garden casserole by Proper’s Chef Kris Vrolijk. Tohono O’odham traditional melon with other fresh corn and tomato, evolved into a gourmet gazpacho created by the Chef at Desert Diamond Casino, our major event sponsor.

Tia Marta here thanking ALL who came to the Table–the Farm-to-Table outdoor Picnic Feast at Mission Garden–to enjoy this enriching experience of Tucson’s traditional foods, cultivated with love in our own “desert terroir.”* THANKS TO ALL our local–yet world-famous–culinary talent who prepared these sacred foods with care and dedication! THANKS ALSO to the supporters and volunteers who made this event such a success! Was it a sign of its significance at that moving moment culminating the feast when the heavens blessed us with a glorious sunset?

The public is invited to visit the ever-changing setting of this feast–the very garden and orchard where many of the heirloom foods are still hanging on fruit-tree boughs or ripening on the vine. The Mission Garden is open for tours every Saturday with knowledgeable guides to take you through this special desert oasis–a living agricultural history museum. (For info see http://www.tucsonsbirthplace.org).

For your own table, you too can source the heirloom foods served at the Picnic Feast, at the NativeSeeds/SEARCH Store, 3061 N Campbell, Tucson, http://www.nativeseeds.org, or at the Flor de Mayo booth (online at http://www.flordemayoarts.com) and other farm booths at Sunday’s St Philips Farmers’ Market (www.foodinroot.com).

Native Black Tepary Beans from Flor de Mayo at St Philips farmers market Sundays

Join NativeSeeds/SEARCH as a member and stay in touch with seed-savers, gardeners, and cooks as we keep these desert-adapted foods alive and well into an unknown future.

Yours truly, Tia Marta, have also honored these heirloom foods artistically by documenting them from my garden in their harvest splendor as watercolor images. I invite you to view them firsthand at two upcoming OPEN STUDIO events: ART TRAILS on Saturday, Oct 24, and the TPAC OPEN STUDIO weekend Nov.14-15 at Carolyn Leigh Studio. Search by my studio name, Flor de Mayo Studio, or by artist’s name, Martha Ames Burgess, at http://www.ArtTrails.org , and at http://www.tucsonpimaopenstudiotour.org for directions, and do come by for a visit. You can also check out some of my Southwest Native heirloom food images on my website gallery http://www.flordemayoarts.com — enjoy!

NativeSeeds/SEARCH heirloom Navajo Cushaw Squash watercolor by artist Martha Ames Burgess

NativeSeeds/SEARCH heirloom Navajo Cushaw watercolor by artist Martha Ames Burgess

What will Tucson's top chefs cook for the Heritage Picnic?

Tucson’s top chefs cook for the Farm-to-Table Heritage Foods Picnic Feast

*Desert Terroir, by renowned author and co-founder of NativeSeeds/SEARCH, available at the NSS store, is a great read about the deep significance of LOCAL. We can “internalize” his messages by shopping at farmers’ markets, growing our own, and honoring long-successful desert traditions, seeds, and foods.

Cool Time for the Carrot Family

September 26, 2015September 27, 2015 / Savor Blog Partners / Leave a comment

Fall is for planting! (From a mosaic in the Herb Garden at the Tucson Botanic Gardens)

Jacqueline Soule here to discuss some herbs to grow now that the Autumn Equinox has come and gone. Days are cooler and shorter, and that means it is time to plant the plants that will thrive in the cool season garden. This means a wide variety of leaf and root crops, most of them imported from the cooler areas of the Old World. Today let us look at a north temperate plant family that loves our winters – the Carrot Family.

Caraway seeds for rye bread, sure, but have you tried them in a marinade for chicken? Yummy.

The Apiaceae or Umbelliferae, commonly known as the celery, carrot or parsley family, is a family of mostly aromatic plants with hollow stems. The family is large, with more than 3,700 species spread across 434 genera; it is the 16th largest family of flowering plants. Included in this family are the well-known plants: angelica, anise, asafoetida, caraway, carrot, celery, chervil, sweet cicely, coriander (cilantro), culantro, cumin, dill, fennel, hemlock (used to kill Socrates), lovage, cow parsley, parsley, parsnip, cow parsnip, sea holly, and giant hogweed. Note that some of these are also deadly poison so this is one family you should only collect in the wild if you know what you are doing.

The Pima County Library has a seed library where you can check out seeds of many cool season vegetables. 5 varieties per month per library card.

Plants. All members of the Carrot Family are a tad fussy about growing conditions. They do not transplant well so either seed them in place or be very careful to not disturb their roots as you plant.

Just when you think you know plants, seed people like Renee’s Garden come out with a new variety to try!

Soil. All carrot kin grow best in a well-drained, sandy, slightly acidic soil, rich in organic matter. That makes them best grown in containers in our area. Use a pot one and a half feet deep. Potting soil with some added sand makes a good growing media.

Seedlings from the nursery are also an option for many of the carrot family herbs. Just be careful not to harm the roots.

Light. Six or more hours of winter sun is needed to do well.

Water. Keep the soil relatively moist during establishment. You can let all of these dry a little more between water once the plants get larger. Some people believe this makes their flavors stronger.

Another “new” Heirloom variety to try.

Fertilizer. These plants will get very lush and full with some fertilizer. However, if you amended your soil at the start you don’t need to purchase fertilizer. Plus, avoid fertilizing anything when frosts are a possibility. Come late February you could apply a half-strength general-purpose fertilizer.

Harvest and Storage. Carrots and parsnips are best harvested on based on the days to maturity on the seed package. Most of the herbs taste best when fresh but lose much flavor when dried. Freezing the leaves retains more flavor. Select healthy leaves, rinse, pat dry but leave some moisture. Chop into roughly quarter inch squares and freeze in a labeled plastic bag or yogurt container. This can be used directly from the freezer.

Seed is harvested after the plants “bolt” or flower in spring as it heats up and the days get longer. Pull up the entire plant once seeds start to dry and put it upside down in a paper bag in the shed or garage. They should be dry enough to store after 2 weeks.

Cilantro seeds are the herb we call coriander. They ripen in plenty of time to use for making pickles this summer.

If you live in Southeastern Arizona, please come to one of my lectures. Look for me at your local Pima County Library branch, Steam Pump Ranch, Tubac Presidio, Tucson Festival of Books and more. After each event I will be signing copies of my books, including the latest, “Southwest Fruit and Vegetable Gardening,” written for Arizona, Nevada and New Mexico (Cool Springs Press, $23).

All photos (except where noted) and all text are copyright © 2015, Jacqueline A. Soule. All rights reserved. I receive many requests to reprint my work. My policy is that you may use a short excerpt but you must give proper credit to the author, and must include a link back to the original post on our site. Photos may not be used.

Black Teparies Make a Come-Back!

September 12, 2015September 12, 2015 / Savor Blog Partners / 1 Comment

Rich black teary beans dried, ready to hydrate for cooking

Rich black tepary beans dried, ready to hydrate for cooking

In some light they are a dull charcoal difficult to spot if the pods shatter onto the ground. Sometimes they appear shiny black or opalescent. Somehow black teparies appear to have an antiquity about them–mysteriously harking back to a time rich in prehistory. Tia Marta here to tell you a little about the black tepary bean’s odyssey back into cultivation and into the cooking pots of Southwesterners once again.

Shiny black teparies close up

Back in 1912, before WWI and the rapid plunge the “remote” Southwest unavoidably took into East-Coast food fads, there was a crop survey done of the many types of tepary beans being grown and used by different Native American families and communities throughout the Borderlands. The diversity at that time was astounding—some 40+ different colors, forms, sizes, speckles, of tepary beans were reported. Within about a decade there remained only a couple of dominant tepary colors—“red” (an orangy-brown) and white. [For more history, check out Volume 5, No.1 of Desert Plants Journal published by the University of Arizona CALS. Specifically this issue is devoted to tepary beans, and includes an article by yours truly.]

The neat thing about cultivars that are still genetically close to their wild ancestors is that they still contain a diversity of genes that can “pop out” occasionally as visibly different seeds. In the case of the teparies, every so often in a harvest of white teparies, for example, there may turn up a few coral pink, or blue speckled, or even black beans. At the University of Arizona’s Maricopa Experimental Farm, an amazing crop researcher, Mike Sheedy, was, for several years growing teparies to isolate some of these genetic “sports”. He used assistance from his kids (In farming, child labor rules just can’t apply) to help pick out the odd-ball seeds from hundreds of pounds of harvested teparies. Over the years, he grew the separated colors in isolation from each other to preserve color purity. Before research funds ran out he had “re-created” an ancient lineage of black teparies—i.e. he has assisted the ancient genes to come again to the fore, to bring the “invisible” genotype back into the “visible” phenotypes. At termination of his research project he generously donated the black tepary collection to the traditional Pima farming family of Ramona and Terry Button.

Native Black Tepary Beans & Flor de Mayo 1-lb pkg

Now—tah-dah!—at last black teparies are in agricultural production on ancestral lands! The public can purchase these little food gems of antiquity now at the NativeSeeds/SEARCH store (3061 N Campbell Ave, Tucson) www.nativeseeds.org , at the Flor de Mayo booth at Sunday St Philips Farmers Market www.flordemayoarts.com , or online via www.ramonafarms.com.

Black teparies are very different in taste from the red or white teparies—although all teparies are much richer than their more distant cousins like the common bean, lima or black-eye pea. Black tepary, schkug ba:wĭ of the Tohono and Akimel O’odham, is the deepest, nuttiest of all, with an earthy bouquet and a slightly bitter after-note reminiscent of coffee. Well, you will just have to try your own taste buds on them!

The public will have an exciting opportunity to taste black teparies prepared by none other than our beloved Tucson Chef Janos Wilder (of Downtown Kitchen fame) at the upcoming Farm to Table Picnic feast at Mission Garden, Sunday afternoon, October 18, 4-6:30pm. Janos is not letting on what his special black tepary recipe will be, but we can be sure it’ll be sensational. [The picnic is by pre-registration only so buy your tickets soon! Online purchase is via the Friends of Tucson’s Birthplace site www.tucsonsbirthplace.org.]

Potted blooming chiltepin plant for edible landscaping

All of the heirloom foods served at the Farm to Table Picnic are being grown (even as I write) locally in Baja Arizona, either at the NativeSeeds/SEARCH Conservation Farm in Patagonia, or at the Mission Garden itself, or by sponsoring farmers and ranchers such as BKWFarmsInc, the 47-Ranch, and Ramona Farms. Some of Tucson’s best chefs are donating their skill and time to prepare different dishes for us. It will be a great opportunity to put the fun in fundraising for two worthy local non-profits, to share the delicious tastes of our heirloom foods of the Borderlands, and to share community joy in what we are able to produce together locally.

For adventuresome cooks, dessert addicts, and chocoholics, I would like to share two variations on brownies made with—yes, you guessed it—black tepary beans! You will not believe how yummy these are.

Gluten-free Black Tepary Brownie-Cockaigne on cooling rack

First, cooking black teparies (as with all teparies) takes some time—and premeditation. The day before you want to use them, sort, wash, and pre-soak your black teparies. I hit them with a quick boil and let them sit overnight to hydrate slowly. Change the water the next day, adding fresh drinking water. Simmer until soft (it may take 2-3 hours on stovetop or 4-6 in crockpot). You want them beyond al dente in order to puree them in a blender or CuisinArt for the following recipes.

Muff’s Gluten-free Black Tepary Bean Brownies-Cockaigne

Ingredients:

1 cup cooked and pureed black tepary beans

1 stick butter= ¼ lb= ½ cup butter

5 Tbsp dark 100% cocoa powder, unsweetened (1 oz.)

¼ tsp sea salt

1 cup organic cane sugar

1 cup loose organic brown sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

4 eggs well-beaten

¼- ½ cup nutmeats (I use pinyon nuts to keep the Southwest theme)

Directions for Muff’s Gluten-free Black Tepary Brownie-Cockaigne:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease an 8×8” baking dish and place a wax paper cut to fit the bottom of pan. Melt butter (preferably in top of double boiler). Stir in thoroughly 5 Tbsp dark unsweetened cocoa powder. Let the mixture cool. Add sugars and sea salt to mixture and beat until creamy. Add vanilla. Beat 4 eggs and add to mixture stirring until uniform in color. Add 1 cup pureed black teparies and hand-mix. Pour batter into greased bake pan. Sprinkle top of batter with pinyones or other nutmeats. Bake 45-50 minutes until it tests done with toothpick. Cool pan on a rack. Cut in small squares to serve because it is so rich and moist. Enjoy their delicious flavors AND the healthy qualities of high protein/high complex carb teparies, protein-rich eggs, and the benefits of dark chocolate!

Gluten-free Black Tepary Brownie-Cockaigne ready to eat–wheat-free, light, nutritious and delicious!

My next black tepary brownie recipe was first inspired by food-writer and “Blog-sister” Carolyn Niethammer’s recipe found in her book Cooking the Wild Southwest (p.133)–a must-have in every SW cook’s kitchen shelf. Here I’ve made some interesting gastronomic additions…including the use of our fantastic local heirloom White Sonora Wheat flour, crushed wild chiltepines, and Mano y Metate’s fresh-ground Mole Dulce powder produced by our local Molera herself, Amy Valdes Schwemm.

“Hot-Dam”* Black Tepary Brownie Bars [*in the best sense of the expression]

Ingredients:

5 Tbsp unsweetened 100% cocoa powder

½ stick (1/4 cup) melted butter

¾ cup organic cane sugar

¾ cup org brown sugar, not-packed

2 eggs, beaten

2 tsp vanilla extract

¾ cup pureed cooked black teparies

¾ cup organic heirloom White Sonora Wheat flour**

3 or 4+ crushed wild chiltepin peppers*** (number depends on your desired picante level)

¼ tsp sea salt

1-2 Tbsp Mano y Metate ground Mole Dulce powder

2 Tbsp raw pinyon nutmeats

Adding White Sonora Wheat flour and crushed chiltepin to molten chocolate mixture

** Freshly milled White Sonora Wheat is available at our Flor de Mayo booth, Sunday’s St Philips farmers market (www.foodinroot.com). Call ahead for quantities larger than 1 kilo—520-907-9471.

***whole wild-harvested Chiltepines are available at the NSS Store, 3061 N Campbell, and at Flor de Mayo booth, Sunday St Philips farmers mkt. Chiltepin plants to grow can be purchased at NSS plant sales.

Flavors to guild the lily--Wild chiltepin peppers, ironwood bear molinillo grinder, and Mole Dulce powder

Flavors to guild the lily–Wild chiltepin peppers, ironwood bear molinillo chiltepin grinder, and Mole Dulce powder (all available at NSS store and Flor de Mayo at St Philips farmers market)

Directions for “Hot-dam” Black Tepary Brownie Bars:

Pre-heat oven to 325F. Grease 8×8” baking pan with wax paper set in bottom. Melt butter and mix powdered cocoa in thoroughly. Add the brown sugar and organic white sugar and vanilla to the butter and cocoa, and beat. Beat 2 eggs and stir thoroughly into the choc/sugar mixture. Wisk in ¾ cup pureed black teparies. Sift together: ¾ C white Sonora wheat flour, ¼ tsp sea salt, and the well-crushed chiltepin peppers. Stir dry ingredients into liquid mixture. Add pinyon nutmeats. Pour batter into bake-pan. Sprinkle 1-2 Tbsp of Mole Dulce powder on top of the batter. Bake 25 minutes or until it tests done (when fingerprint pressed on top springs back). When cooled, cut into small bite-size squares to be served with hors d’oeuvre picks—you will see why…..(and don’t rub your eyes after eating.)

“Hot-dam” Black Tepary Brownies ready to enjoy!

Tia Marta is hoping you enjoy these fruits and flavors of the Sonoran Desert assisted by fruits of tropical North America—a marriage made in dessert-Heaven! With every bite we should be thanking ancient tepary farmers, and the recent ones who have brought back the Black Tepary from near genetic-oblivion.

Coming this week to Tucson is a food event not to miss: the Farmer to Chef Connection, this Wednesday, September 16, at Tucson Community Center, 12:00noon-5:30pm, sponsored by LocalFirstArizona. Google their site for tickets and come enjoy a smorgasbord of local tastes.

Also be sure to mark your calendar for October 18 and join NativeSeeds/SEARCH and Friends of Tucson’s Birthplace at the very heart of Tucson’s Birthplace –the Mission Garden at the base of A-Mountain—for the first-ever outdoor Farm to Table Picnic. It will be a feast to remember. Make reservations now and we’ll see you there for fun, flavor, history and friendship!

Prickly Pear Upside-down Cake, Summer in Tucson

August 14, 2015August 14, 2015 / Savor Blog Partners / 6 Comments

Amy Valdes Schwemm here today, with glochids in my hands.

Figeater beetle, Cotinis mutablilis

Santa Cruz River Farmers’ Market Workshop

“I want to be a scientist!” she said.

Nopalitos en escabeche (pickled cactus pads with carrots, garlic, I’itoi onion, chiltepin, Mexican oregano)

Prickly pear kombucha

Harvest party at Bean Tree Farm. Classic Barbara Rose cocktail with too many ingredients to list!

Harvest party at Bean Tree Farm. Fancy cocktail by Barbara Rose!

Prickly pear vinegar

Prickly pear jelly on Sourdough Sonoran Wheat, Barley, Almond crepe

Prickly pear jelly and nut butter on sourdough Sonoran wheat, barley, almond crepe

Apple, prickly pear and friends compote

Peach, raspberry, prickly pear cobbler

Prickly pear upside down cake

Prickly Pear Upside-down Cake

1/4 cup butter

1/2 cup brown sugar

3/4 cup whole wheat flour

3/4 cup unbleached all purpose flour

3/4 cup sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup prickly pear juice

1/2 cup butter, melted

1 teaspoon vanilla

6 prickly pear fruit, glochids singed over fire, peeled, seeded and sliced

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. In a 9 inch springform pan, put 1/4 cup butter. Put pan in the oven just until butter is melted. Sprinkle with brown sugar and arrange prickly pear fruit on top. Mix flours, sugar, baking powder and salt. Separately, mix prickly pear juice, 1/2 cup melted butter and vanilla. Combine the two mixtures and pour into prepared pan. Bake for 3o minutes or until a toothpick inserted in cake comes out clean. I like the cake to have some brown edges. Cool, invert on to a serving plate and enjoy.

Fig Jam Ready for Farm to Table Picnic

July 17, 2015August 22, 2015 / Savor Blog Partners / 6 Comments

Picking figs at the Mission Garden operated by Friends of Tucson’s Birthplace.

The hottest weather of summer brings Tucson one of its sweetest treats, figs. The figs at the Mission Garden operated by Friends of Tucson’s Birthplace, are ripening now. Some of the trees have already produced and are beginning to grow their second crop. This is Carolyn today, and that is me picking figs from one of the trees in the lush recreated historic garden near the Santa Cruz River. The plan was to preserve the figs as jam to be used as an ingredient in cookies for the Farm to Table Picnic being organized by the Mission Garden and Native Seeds/ SEARCH. On the late afternoon of October 18, dinners will be able to picnic on Southern Arizona’s agricultural bounty at tables spread through the Garden. (Ticket detals next month).

The brown figs at Mission Garden are living relics of trees brought to Southern Arizona by Father Kino. They were grown from twigs cut from plants behind the Sosa-Carrillo House. Historic records show that those trees came from cuttings of trees at San Xavier Mission. The green figs were grown from cuttings taken from trees at the settlements near the Ruby and Oro Blanco mines.

Plump figs from Mission Garden. The green ones are called “white” and some people think they are sweeter.

Generally in making jam the old-fashioned way without added commercial pectin, you measure an equal quantity of fruit and sugar and simmer until it is thick. Because these figs were incredibly sweet and because I plan to spread the jam over a base crust, I didn’t care if the jam set up like I would, say a plum or strawberry jam. So I thought it would be safe to use less sugar. Ultimately I used about 4 cups of sugar to 8 cups of chopped figs, about half the usual amount. Since I wanted a smooth product, I put the chopped figs through the blender. I could have also used my food processor.

Blending the chopped figs for a smooth product.

Next came the long slow cooking. In the picture below, you can see the large pot on the left where I was boiling the storage jars to sterilize them.

Cooking the jam.

In any jam making, you need to simmer the fruit and sugar until it reaches about 220 degrees F. This takes both time and careful watching to get the jam to a point where it is not too runny and not too stiff. In Tucson, because of our altitude, 218 degrees F usually gives a better product. Use too high a heat and the jam will burn on the bottom of the pot before it reaches the proper temperature.

To check the temperture, I used to use a traditional candy thermometer that looks like this and works with a column of mercury:

Traditional candy thermometer.

A couple of Christmases ago, however Santa brought me a digital thermometer that is good for roasting a turkey, cooking a thick steak and making jam. It has a probe that sticks in whatever you are cooking and gives you a readout. See the photo below. You can see this one has reached 212 degrees F. and the jam is almost done.:

Battery-operated digital cooking thermometer. The thin silver wire on the right is a probe that rested in the jam.

Once finished, the jam just needed to be ladled into the prepared jars, capped and processed for 10 minutes in a boiling water bath. That’s a lot of jam, but I’ll be baking cookies for 200 ticket holders and a whole bunch of volunteers.

Five quarts of fig jam will wait until October to be made into fig bars for the Farm to Table Dinner.

I can’t show you a picture of the fig bars, because I haven’t made them yet. But I have used this recipe previously and it is great. It is a modification of a recipe in Fruits of the Desert by the late food writer Sandal English. If you have fresh figs and are looking for a way to showcase them, try this:

Layered Fig Bars

1 cup sifted flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup oatmeal, quick or old-fashioned

1 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1/2 cup butter, melted

1-1/2 to 2 cups fig jam

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. and line an 8-inch square pan with foil or parchment paper, leaving some extending over two sides as flaps.

Sift together the flour, baking soda and salt in a large bowl. Mix in the oatmeal and sugar. Stir in the melted butter and mix until crumbly. Firmly press 2/3 of the mixture in the bottom of the prepared pan. Spread fig jam evenly over the base layer. Top with remaining crumb mixture. Gently pat the top layer down. Bake in preheated overn for about 30 minutes. Cool, lift from the pan using the paper flaps, and cut into 24 bars.

Note: If you are making this for your family and don’t care that the bars come out perfectly shaped, you can skip the step of lining the pan.

_________________________________________

Looking for ideas for how to use desert fruits and vegetables? The Prickly Pear Cookbook has delicious recipes for both the fruit and pads and complete instructions for gathering and processing. Cooking the Wild Southwest gives directions for harvesting and cooking 23 easily gathered desert plants. Find both at the Native Seeds/SEARCH retail store on Campbell or at on-line sellers.

All That Bountiful Basil

June 26, 2015June 24, 2015 / Savor Blog Partners / Leave a comment

by Jacqueline A. Soule.

Last month I wrote about basil in these pages. In my Gardening With Soule Blog I wrote about how to grow basil in the desert. Now let’s look at more basil uses, and some plant care in our heat not discussed previously.

Hot Plants.

If you bought your basil plants at a big box store, chances are it is not an ideal variety of basil to grow here. In the image below, the plant shows signs of both excessive light and heat stress with yellowing leaves and some sunburned and browned leaves. Basil harvested from such a stressed plant will taste bitter, not really worth the water it takes to keep the plant alive. If you did end up with a large leaved basil, consider growing it on a covered patio or under shade cloth.

Some varieties of basil, like this large leaf cultivar, do not appreciate hot sun and high temps.

Basil Blooms.

If you want basil seeds, let your basil bloom. Otherwise, you should remove and spikes of blooms – ideally before they get too big and use up the energy the plant could use making more luscious leaves instead of flowers.

These spikes of basil blooms were pinched off the plant.

Remove the spikes of blooms by pinching them off. Yes, you can use pruners or scissors or a knife, but scientific evidence shows that good old fashioned fingers are the best tool for the job. Why? Because when we cut, we cut through plant cells, but when we pinch, the plant ruptures between cell walls. The plant heals more quickly when the damage is between the cells instead of right through the middle of them.

The best tool for removing basil blooms is your own hand.

The plant heals more rapidly when hand pinched, even though a tidy-minded person might not like the ragged look to the pinch site.

Harvesting Basil.

You can harvest basil leaves any time you need some. If you are careful about it, your plant will just keep making more leaves, especially if you harvest just above a node of young leaves.

Yes you should pinch your harvest – just like you pinch blossoms. The scissors are in the picture to indicate where to cut – just above a node of young leaves.

Using Your Basil.

Tons of ways to use basil, but I am fond of one I just learned – basil spreadable pseudo-cheese. (I have to come up with a better name!)

You will need: a clean bandanna, a quart of plain Greek yogurt, a bowl, a colander, time, and some basil.

Put the colander into the bowl and line the colander with the clean bandanna. Dump the yogurt into the bandanna and let this sit in the ‘fridge overnight. The whey will drip out of the yogurt. (You can leave it for 24 hours if you want.) From a quart of yogurt, I got almost a cup of whey.

This un-wheyed yogurt becomes thick and spreadable, almost like cream-cheese, and it does not stick to the bandanna! It is not as creamy as cream cheese, but if you add flavorful herbs like basil, it is entirely tasty!

Chop your basil finely for this dish.

Dump your yogurt-cheese out of the bandanna. Harvest some basil, chop it up, mix it into your yogurt, and let it sit for at least four hours to help the basil flavor to merge into the cheese.

Let your basil flavor infuse into the cheese for at least 4 hours. Longer is just fine.

Using the Whey.

Since I got a cup of whey, I did not want to throw it away. I tried a sip – not my cup of tea! Since it is an animal product it shouldn’t go into the compost heap either. I put it into a smoothy with sweet fruit and with a dollop of honey it was fine.

About Jacqueline Soule

Jacqueline’s latest book “Fruit and Vegetable Gardening in the Southwest” (Cool Springs Press, 2014) is available at Tohono Chul Park and the Tucson Botanical Gardens. It is divided into warm season and cool season growing so you can easily select other plants to grow this summer.

All text and all photos (except where noted) are copyright © 2015 by Jacqueline A. Soule. All rights reserved. I receive many requests to reprint my work. My policy is that you may use a short excerpt but you must give proper credit to the author, and must include a link back to the original post on our site. Photos may not be used.

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Savor the Southwest:

Forage, Raise, Cook

Cooking

Mole Dulce Brownies

Farmers’ Market Sources for Warming Body and Soul, Baking and Gifting

Bean and Corn Cakes with Mole

Bat’s, “Seed-Dispersal” Clusters, and Taking Off by Letting Go

Taste Buds Ready to “Rejoice in Local”–at Mission Garden!

Cool Time for the Carrot Family

Black Teparies Make a Come-Back!

Prickly Pear Upside-down Cake, Summer in Tucson

Fig Jam Ready for Farm to Table Picnic

All That Bountiful Basil

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