Gigya's Winning Chile Verde Recipe

To celebrate the close of an extremely successful Q1, Gigya held a Chili Cookoff in conjunction with poker night. I might have lost all my money at poker, but I did win a $100 with my award winning Chile Verde. I promised to post the recipe if I won, so here it is!



Although chile verde is usually made with pork, (and you can definitely use that meat if you prefer), I used oxtail for this one because it's a slightly richer meat that's not often found in restaurants.

The chile verde sauce also works really well as a side sauce for meats and fish, if you're using it that way, omit the onion, and add 1/2 cup of olive oil.

Good luck!

Gigya's Oxtail Chile Verde

Serves 8

5 lbs Oxtail
4 cups Chile Verde
2 Tbs Oil

Chicken broth
Salt & pepper to taste

Heat the oil in a large sauce pan, and sear the oxtail on all sides, until nicely browned
To this in batches as necessary
Add the chile verde sauce, and enough chicken broth to cover the oxtail
Cover pot and braise in a 320F oven for about 2.5 hrs or until meat falls off the bone
Pick the meat off the bone and serve hot
Season to taste

Optional Garnish: Sour cream, queso fresca, cilantro

Chile Verde Sauce

Makes about 4 cups

4 ea Poblano Chilies
3 ea Jalapeno Chilies
8 ea Anaheim Chilies
6 ea Tomatillos
4 ea Green Onions
1 ea Green Pepper

3 ea Limes, juiced
1 ea Yellow onion
4 cloves Garlic
1 bu Cilantro

Salt to taste

Roast the peppers and tomatillos until skin is charred
Leave to cool, then peel peppers
Combine all ingredients in a blender
Season to taste

To serve as a sauce, omit the yellow onion, and add 1/2 cup olive oil when processing

Light Bites at Night

I first came across Panzanella when I was at Masa's. We up-scaled it by using tomato water gelee and micro basil, then served it as an amuse bouche. Although yummy, I don't think it carried off the "Rustic Bread Salad" feel quite as well. My kitchen has recently been stocked full with piles of bread - it seems that I've kind of developed a liking to it, especially when drenched in fat and oven baked till crunchy (OMG, am I eating crunchy food now too?). I hadn't thought about Panzanella in a long while, but with this surplus of bread, I thought it best to make the most of out it.

Traditionally, Panzanella was made with bread, tomatoes, olive oil, and flavored with basil and salt & pepper. Leftover ingredients were commonly thrown into the salad, making it somewhat of a peasant dish when there was not a lot of surplus. Same idea here, I thought I would stick to the bread, tomatoes & basil, but instead of using only bread as a base, I sliced some thick chiffonade (ribbons) of Basil to bulk the salad up, and it made for a really interesting lettuce stand in.

I also remember that when I staged at Jardinaire, we served a similar (more rustic) bread salad, with a farmer's cheese that was soft & chewy, marinated in olive oil and balsamic - integrating some great texture into the salad. I wanted to replicate that as well, and chose to use Burrata, a fresh Italian cheese similar to buffalo mozzarella, but with cream on the inside. You could also use Buffalo Mozzerella, but I liked the creamy insides that soaked into the crunchy bread, preventing it from becoming too dry.

Another twist on the salad included it being served warm, instead of cold (reserved for summer nights), and I did this my roasting the tomatoes in a pan, which also gave me the opportunity to infuse flavor into the salad by warming garlic slices. It's an absolute winner for lite bites at night!



Here's the recipe!

Panzanella

Serves 2

5 slices Good thick Bread, cut into 1/4" cubes
2 Tbs Olive Oil

Salt & pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 400F. Season bread well with salt & pepper and toss with olive oil. Bake in a single layer in the oven for about 10 minutes, or until golden brown

1 cup Cherry or Grape tomatoes, halved
5 ea Garlic Cloves, sliced thin
2 Tbs Olive Oil

While the bread is baking, heat the oil in a saute pan. Add the garlic cloves and gently cook until slices start to soften, but not brown. Increase heat to high and add tomato halves. Roaste tomatoes until skin starts to brown. Remove from heat


2 cup Loosely packed Basil Leaves from thick stalks, chopped into 1/8" ribbons
2 balls Burrata or Buffalo Mozzerella balls, halved, then sliced into rings

Toss the bread, warm tomatoes & garlic mixture, basil and cheese together. Serve immediately and with a sprinkling of freshly ground pepper.

Burrito a la Calafia

I made a californian burrito for dinner last night. It was the most delicious non-traditional burrito I've ever had. Don't get me wrong - I really love my carnitas, and salsa verde super burrito with sour cream, guac, the works, etc (secretly I even sometimes crave for chipotle, even though La Vics still comes up top). But last night's burrito, well, that was something else.

So what exactly is a californian burrito? In my books, it' a burrito that has ingredients that are decidedly californian, or exhibit properties of "californian cuisine", (which I define as a fine juxtaposition of flavors from east to west, but always firmly grounded on fresh and local produce).

Side note about the Burrito - when I was at Masa's there were these two servers, a pair of brothers, Hugo & Victor. Hugo once swore to me that the Burrito originated in California, because when he was in Mexico growing up, there didn't exist such a thing as the burrito as we know it, What d'ya know, maybe all burritos are californian after all!

Anyway, it started off with some cold grilled sancho seasoned chicken breast, that I had used to test-drive the new grill with. By the way, I was in a hurry to do the test run because this Friday we have a Gigya BBQ, and if the grill doesn't work, I'm pretty sure there would be a host of disappointment. Anyway, the grill worked perfectly, but then we had to leave for dinner & the Opera, so I stuck the grilled chicken in the fridge. I'm not even sure what possessed me to use sancho.

Sunday dinners are always a blur, and I usually try to make stuff out of leftovers, so this was no exception. Plus, in the afternoon, I made an awesome romesco sauce (which is another story in itself), and felt like that would stand in well for salsa! For your information, the romesco sauce is also for that BBQ which is happening later in the week.

Not to mention, I picked up a ripe hass avocado (now everyone knows there's nothing more californian than a hass avocado), and had a leftover tomato from the romesco sauce to make an awesome guacamole.

Back to leftovers, I had the shredded cheddar cheese from the previous week's sausage casserole, and also leftover tortillas from when I went snowboarding and made breakfast burritos for everyone. Yes, I know that was a while ago, but tortillas keep pretty well ok?

So anyway, I piled the sliced sancho chicken, guacamole, cheese and romesco sauce on a giant tortilla, rolled it up and then stuck it in the toaster oven at 450F for about 15 minutes, just enough to get everything hot.

And then, I bit into it.

Oh yum. The cheese was melted, and the romesco sauce was just all over the chicken so that it didn't dry out. Plus, that Hass Guac - mmmmm, the perfect rich mouth feel that you have to have with a good burrito. It was healthy too!

I think it'll be on the menu for a while.

Californian Burritos

Serves 2

2 ea Flour Tortilla
1 ea Chicken Breast, seasoned, grilled or roasted and sliced
1/2 cup Cheese Shredded
1/2 cup Romesco sauce or jar salsa
Guac from 1 Avocado

Preheat the oven to 450F
Seperate all the ingredients and pile them onto each tortilla shell
Roll the tortilla up and stick it in the oven for 15 minutes


Here's how I make my guac:
1 Avocado, peeled, stoned & sliced
1 Roma Tomato, small dice
1 Garlic Clove, minced
1 Tbs Yellow onion, minced
1 stalk Green Onion, chopped
Juice of half a meyer lemon (if possible, if not regular lemons are fine too)
Salt & pepper

Mash the avocado, then mix in all the other ingredients well
Generously season with salt

Breakfast Sausage Casserole

Every year, Menlo Park Pres takes a break from regular church services, and instead goes out into the community to do volunteer work. It's part of their motto to "Serve the World" and I think it's a great event, with thousands of volunteers flooding the Peninsula that weekend. This year, I chose to volunteer at the
First Resort's Birthday Party - which is a celebration for kids from unplanned pregnancies. I offered to bring food to the event, and was tasked with making a sausage souffle.

I've never been able to follow a recipe, and this time was no exception. After reading through it once, I "forgot" to print it out, and instead went shopping for what I thought would make a delicious dish from Smart & Final. Turns out it was a huge success, and a number of people stopped by to ask me for the recipe. I'm getting better at taking note of what I add in my food, now that I'm sometimes asked to contribute to magazines, etc, so making this recipe up wasn't that difficult. It's not a health food option, but it's a cheap and delicious fix for when you have a crowd over for brunch.

Laura's Sausage Breakfast Casserole

Feeds 10

20 ea Sausage Links

2 ea Red Peppers, sliced lengthwise into 1/4" sticks
2 ea Green Peppers, sliced lengthwise into 1/4" sticks
2 ea Yellow Onions, sliced with the grain
6 Tbs Oil, separated

5 ea Eggs
1/2 can Condensed Mushroom Soup
1/2 can Whole Milk
1/2 can Tomatoes
1 Tbsp Dried Mixed Herbs
1/4 cup All Purpose Flour

3 cups Shredded Cheddar Cheese
10 slices Thick Sliced Bread, halved


Preheat the oven to 400F
Spread the sausage links on a baking sheet and bake for 20 minutes, if necessary, do this in batches
Butter a 9 X 13, 4" deep casserole dish
Heat 2 Tbs of oil, and sautee the red peppers until carmelized. Repeat with the green peppers & onions
Slice the sausage into 1/4" pieces, and mix it with the all the vegetables
In the blender, combine the eggs, mushroom soup, milk, tomatoes, herbs & flour

ASsemble the Casserole:
Layer half of the sausage mixture, top with 1/3 of cheese, then a layer of bread
Repeat with a second layer, and then top the bread with the last cup of cheese

Pour the egg mixture over the casserole
Leave to soak for at least 1 hour, or up to overnight.
Cover with aluminum foil and bake at 320F for 1 hour
Remove foil and bake for another 30 minutes or until an inserted knife comes out clean