Ska Brewing's 16th Anniversary and Breakfast at the Durango Diner

After a few days of camping and hiking in Canyonlands National Park with our friends Elise and Tom, we all headed out to Durango for a few days of relaxation.

As it turns out, it was Beer Week in Durango, and to cap off the week, Ska Brewing held a party to celebrate their 16th anniversary. Ska has a great facility, with a nice tasting room and grassy grounds.

Headlining the appropriately ska-themed band lineup at the party were The Toasters, who were celebrating their 30th anniversary. Ska brewed a special black IPA for the occasion, and it was quite tasty.



Also playing were the Nuns of Brixton - a band dressed as nuns covering Clash songs. Very entertaining.

The next morning, we needed some nosh before heading out of town, so we stopped into the Durango Diner.



The place was jam packed. They were serving food not just for the diner, but also for a bar down the street. Despite the mayhem, the staff did a great job of managing the situation.



I'm not sure how much of it was hunger and how much of it was the food, but when I finally got to tuck into my green chile breakfast burrito, I was a very happy man.



Smothered in green chile sauce (mostly mild, but with the occasional kick from a chunk of chile), the burrito was filled with beans, ground beef and egg. Probably not up there in my breakfast burrito hall of fame, but it made for a very satisfying breakfast in a friendly local spot.

Ska Brewing Company
225 Girard St
Durango, Colorado
(970) 247-5792

Durango Diner
957 Main Avenue
Durango, Colorado
(970) 247-9889

Canned Tomatoes and Tomatillos

We ended up with way more tomatoes this summer than we could handle, so we had to do something with the overflow. We are perpetually out of freezer space, so canning seemed the most practical option.

Because our tomatoes had high enough acidity (we checked with a pH meter!), we didn't need to pressure can them - boiling was sufficient. We gave them a quick roast under the broiler first so that the skins could be easily removed.

After it was all said and done, we ended up with 29 pints (mostly red, but a few jars of green zebras):



We also did up a bunch of tomatillos the same way - resulting in a nice little pallet of 1-cup jars:



I think we're set for the winter!

Taco Shop Hot Sauce - Salsa Verde

Two plastic squeeze bottles of heat and flavor have pride of place in our refrigerator door. Hot sauce, red and green, is for us a condiment that sees pretty much daily use - sometimes multiple times a day.

A while back, I posted my recipe for our red, chile de arbol "Taco Shop" hot sauce. This post, however, is all about green.

And green means tomatillos from the garden:



Our green hot sauce is even simpler than the red one. Just tomatillos, green chiles (usually Serranos) and garlic. I put them on a sheet pan and put them under a broiler for 5 minutes or so.



When they are done, the garlic has roasted, the tomatillos have browned and the chiles have softened and blistered.



Then it is a simple matter of blitzing it all up a blender with some salt and a bit of water to loosen it.



We find it convenient to keep the sauce in an 8oz squeeze bottle. It makes for efficient delivery to top your food of choice. In this case, it was breakfast tacos. Yum!

Taco Shop Hot Sauce - Salsa Verde

Makes about 2 cups.

Ingredients:

14 ounces tomatillos, husked and rinsed
2 serrano chiles
3 garlic cloves
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 cup water

Husk the tomatillos and rinse them to get rid of their stickiness.

Place tomatillos, chiles and garlic on a sheet pan and put them under the broiler. Check them after 5 minutes, and then again every minute until they soften and begin to brown.

After letting the pan cool, peel the garlic and take the skin off of the chiles. In a blender, mix everything together with the salt and water until smooth.

Fried Green Tomato BLT - The "BLFGT"

I am happy to present to you the Menu In Progress House "BLFGT" (Bacon, Lettuce and Fried Green Tomato) sandwich. Home-cured bacon, homemade sandwich bread and lettuce and tomatoes from the garden.

Having produced prolifically for the past several months, our initial planting of tomatoes is winding down, and Sherry has started pulling out some of the plants. We had some green tomatoes still on the vine, so fried green tomatoes seemed in order.



In addition to the Early Girl tomatoes from the plant we pulled out, we picked a few unripe Green Zebra tomatoes to add to the mix.



You fry up the bacon:



Bread the tomatoes in flour, beaten egg and cornmeal and fry them up in the bacon fat:





Toast some white bread:



And make yourself a sandwich.



Serve with a homemade zesty dill pickle and you are good to go.

Tomato Season is Offcially ON!

Our summer garden is a forest of tomato plants, and they are now producing more tomatoes than we can eat (which is saying something, because we eat a lot of tomatoes).

If we keep getting production like this, we're going to need to look into canning some. I'm thinking I'll quickly roast or blanch them, peel them and just can them whole.

Come winter, it will be nice to be able to pull a jar of our own tomatoes from the pantry shelf to use to make a batch of pasta sauce.

For now, though, we're doing our best to keep up with the influx of fruit.



That means eating lots of tomato-centric dishes like gazpacho. No complaints here...

Homemade Cream Cheese

Fresh, creamy and slightly tangy - who knew cream cheese could be this good?

There are certain things we almost always keep on hand and try to make more of as soon as we run out. While Mike is in charge of keeping us supplied with his Taco Shop Hot Sauce, I'm in charge of the cream cheese. I've been making it for a few years now, and have gradually settled on a technique that's easy, reliable and delicious.

All you have to do is:

1. Add starter culture and rennet to room temperature milk and cream.
2. Let it sit for a day.
3. Drain the curds in fine cheese cloth for another day.
4. Add salt and flavorings (optional).
5. Eat and enjoy!

Here it is after the first step - the mesophilic starter culture acidifies the milk allowing the rennet to do its magic and turn the milk into a soft gel. It's been sitting on the counter top for about 24 hours.



Next put a strainer lined with dampened cheese cloth into the sink and gently scoop in the curds. The cheese is set up almost like a yogurt at this point.



The fine cheese cloth (butter muslin) allows the solids to firm up while the whey drains away. Don't use regular cheese cloth - the weave is too loose.



Hang it up and let it drain another 18-24 hours...



Now it's cream cheese! All that's left is to add a little salt. For variety you can add fresh herbs or garlic and black pepper or whatever you choose.



I've tried other recipes which use a lot more cream and were often heated on the stove top, but they were all too solid and grainy. This one on the other hand is light and creamy - almost the texture of whipped cream when it's just made - and it sets up nicely once cooled.



We have found cream cheese to be surprisingly versatile as an ingredient in the kitchen. We often use it in place of cream, sour cream, crème fraiche or even buttermilk. It adds a tangy richness to soups, and Mike makes a great mushroom sauce with it.

Oh, and it's not bad on a homemade bagel, either...

Simple Cream Cheese

This simple cream cheese has an appealing fresh, slightly tangy flavor and it’s super easy to make.

Important: make sure your milk and cream are pasteurized and not ultra-pasteurized. If you can’t find regular pasteurized cream, decrease the milk by a cup and use 2 cups of pasteurized half-and-half instead of the cream.

Ingredients:

1 cup heavy cream (pasteurized, but not ultra-pasteurized)
1/2 gallon whole milk (pasteurized, but not ultra-pasteurized)
1 packet mesophilic direct-set starter (1/4 t)
4 drops liquid rennet
1- 1 ½ teaspoons Morton's kosher salt ( ½ - ¾ t if using regular table salt)

Stir together the milk and cream, then let it come to room temp: leave it in a warm place a few hours, or put it on the stove top on very low, or put it into a barely warm turned-off oven (do not microwave).

Sprinkle the mesophilic starter over the milk, let it sit a couple minutes, and then stir it in gently, but thoroughly. Add the rennet and stir another 60 seconds. Cover and let sit 18-24 hours.

Gently ladle the curds into a colander lined with fine cheese cloth -- I like to do this over a large bowl. Carefully lift the corners of the cheese cloth and tie them together. Hang from a cupboard knob or other convenient place and place a bowl beneath to catch the drips. Leave alone for 12-24 hours. The longer you wait, the stiffer the cheese will be.

Turn the cream cheese into a bowl and use a wooden spoon to mix in the salt. (Note - the salt will dissolve and become more uniform tasting after the cheese has rested for a few hours.) If you want to add flavorings (herbs, garlic, pepper, fruit) to portions of the cream cheese it's easiest to that now while it’s warm. Or it's great plain too.

Pacific Beach Tuesday Farmers' Market

Yesterday was the first day of the new Tuesday afternoon Farmers' Market in Pacific Beach. Operated by the same people who run the Little Italy market, the new PB market runs from 2:00 to 6:30 every Tuesday during the summer months. It is located on Bayard Street between Garnet and Hornblend.

The bulk of the market space is taken up by vendors selling prepared foods and crafts, but there are still enough produce vendors to cover the basics. A stand run by relatives of one of our favorite vendors from the Saturday morning market, Maciel Family Farm, is there and Suzie's Farm has a stall. Son Rise Ranch is on hand selling beef and pork (and chicken if you order it ahead).

Overall, the new market is a nice addition to PB. I think we'll stick with the Saturday market for the most part, but it will be good to have a second option.