"I am an idealistic, naive, passionate, truth-seeking, spiritually motivated artist, unschooled in the science of law and finance." --Wesley Snipes

Saturday, January 31, 2004

Chile Colorado

Just got off the phone with my pop, who reads no poetry. He bragged that he had just made chile colorado. He added tomato sauce. I checked my cookbooks. Neither Rick Bayless nor Diana Kennedy mentions tomato sauce in the traditional preparation of red chile. They recommend water (in which the chiles have been soaked) or, for a richer, "northern style" red chile, beef broth.

Dad wasn't convinced. "Shit, son, your gramma's been makin' it this way for years." Family tradition trumps authenticity, I suppose. He's sending a bowl home with my brother, along with homemade jerky, this evening. I'll post the taste results here.

We also discussed why Oregonians in the Willamette Valley (where you can't throw a stone without hitting a couple of sheep) don't eat more lamb. He's lived his entire sixty years in the same valley in the same county in the same state, and has eaten lamb exactly once in his life. I promised to cook lamb for him soon. Given my father's usual and automatic aversion to new foods, though, I imagine he won't be impressed.

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