HOME: AT MY HOUSE IN YOSEMITE VALLEY
Sunday, May 9, 2010 at 10:33AM 
The snow is done and Dogwoods are blooming. I ride my orange bike for work and play with frequent commentary ("Look at that orange bike!" as I tool past on the bike path). Ted has organized the firewood pile for summer firepit and grill, and we have Miner's Lettuce growing behind the cabin. The campground denizens cry "Elmer!" to each other every night (serenity now!) and the Valley Stables are open for business. We sometimes visit the mules and horses with carrots - don't tell JR.
We also tried our hand at a Mexican dish not currently part of our repertoire: Chicken Mole. With ingredients procured from a recent trip to the Big City (Merced), I followed Rick Bayless' instruction to create this native dish from the city of Puebla. True Red Mole is very labor intensive to create, so I cheated with a prepared sauce from Rancho San Miguel market. And what a cheat! If you are lucky enough to live near a Rancho San Miguel market and have a taste for Mexican food, you will find every needed ingredient at this Central Valley chain. We're not talking dimly-lit ethnic grocery corner market (though I love those!), we are talking Mexican Megastore: a full size grocery store with a Mexican emphasis serving the needs of the hispanic community in California - it's marvelous!
I sauced up chicken thighs for this dish, served with garlicky Mexican white rice and sauteed greens. On the way to Merced, nearly at the city, I found a farm stand on the north side of Hwy 140 where a very friendly Asian lady sold me marvelous strawberries, onions and artichokes. She also offered me a kind of greens that she didn't name, just indicating that the local Mexican population really liked to cook these by sauteing with garlic & oil. So I sauteed with reserved bacon fat and garlic to combine with rice. They were very, very tasty.
Ted's special request for my trip to the market was for Pulparindo - a spicy Mexican tamarind candy with a chewy consistency. How to describe the taste of Pulparindo? Hot, bitter, salty, sweet? If you are familiar with tamarind from Asian cuisine, it really won't help at all. Feeling adventurous? You can find the candy (and mole ingredients) at MexGrocer.com - use the link on this page (top right) and a percentage of sales will assist with the upkeep of Junket.
Last, but never least, my new favorite cocktail: Tequila and Tonic. Apparently popular in Sweden, the TT is also known as the TNT in the States. My version is christened the Ana Lucia after the Lost character who inspired my libation venture (though I am not the first to do so):
Cocktail Ana Lucia
1 shot of Tequila
tonic water
lime wedge
sea salt
Fill a mixer glass with ice cubes and pour over the Tequila. Squeeze lime wedge into glass and add tonic water to taste. Add a dash of salt and swirl.
The addition of salt makes this my own version, though Ana Lucia drank hers straight up with a lemon and no salt. Don't use table salt. Try salt with good crystals: sea salt, gray salt, Hawaiian red salt, etc. I used Real Salt from Redmond, Utah with super sabroso results. This cocktail makes any Tequila palatable, but like every drink; the better the ingredients, the better the result. In the past I have used Gran Centanario's Rosangel Tequila that is ridiculously smooth, sweet and tasty. But it ain't cheap.
Junket Ratings:
Yosemite Valley Stables: Junkety-Junk-Junk
Rancho San Miguel: Junk in the Trunk!
Pulparindo: Junk-O-Rama
MexGrocer.com: Junk in the Trunk!
Real Salt: Junk-O-Rama
Gran Centanario Rosangel: Junk in the Trunk!
Michelle Hansen
On the tour of the TD Willey Farm, I learned that the delicious greens sold to me by the lady at the Merced roadside stand are Lamb's Quarters. Found all over the Central Valley, they are a favorite of Mexican farm workers, as Tom Willey could attest. It was growing all along the roads and borders of his farm. Try them sauteed, like we did, or check out Huazontles Capeados.
CALIFORNIA, COCKTAILS, FOOD, RECIPES, SPRING, WILDFLOWERS, YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK in FOOD, HOME
Reader Comments (4)
Oh fine, Ted got YOU a basket for your beautiful orange bike. But for me? Nada. Humph. <wink>
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It looks like my mom's hometown. Very beautiful, and one can spend a whole life on exploring new scenes.
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