A wonderful member recently gave us a generous helping of Thai Basil they grew. Oh! Such a lovely and heady gift. The baker took one sniff and begged for Drunken Noodle (Veranda in Portland is his favorite). I’ve had this Thai dish and I like it but I’ve never made it. So, in true Rock Bottom fashion, I winged it based on a culmination of recipes I researched. It turned out great – the baker was happy, the Thai Basil was amazing, fun was had by all.

As usual, I like malleable recipes based on whatever we have on hand. We went to the Farmer’s Market in hopes of veggies to add, we found some lovely banana peppers (a lovely bouquet), fresh tomatoes, green onions, and rainbow carrots but we would have also been happy with broccolini/broccoli/raab, the tatsoi in the garden, fresh peas in or out of the pod/snow peas, any kind or color pepper. Any wide noodle will work, not necessarily just the traditional rice noodle (some recipes used linguine – that could work, but we like it as wide as possible). And we happened to have the smattering of strange sauces in our pantry (soy/amino acids, fish, & oyster) and tubes of cilantro and lemongrass (I hate the plastic aspect but I love the ease and less waste of the tube – like the genius who made metal tube tomato paste and smashed anchovies). The amount of spice is up to you, my child likes some but not a ton (but she liked mixing up the sauce). We made it with local beef tips but it would be great with any meat or tofu or no meat.

I hope this pleases you and showcases the loveliness of Thai Basil! See what happiness gifts can bring – if we all grew one thing and shared it, we’d be a community garden…

Stone Broke Drunken Noodle
Serves 4-6

For the dish:

• 1.50lb of beef sirloin tips, cut against the grain in 1/4″ thick pieces
• 1 Large scallion/Green Onion, chopped small (saving some chopped greens for garnish, if desired)
• 4 thin new Carrots or 2 large, any color, chopped on a bias (diagonally)
• 4 tennis ball sized fresh Tomatoes, cut into wedges
• 2 cups Green Peppers (we got long Cubanelle style, but Bell works, too), chopped big and rough
• 1.5 cups or a really big handful of Thai Basil, removing big stems, ripping big leaves (leave a few out for garnish)
• 2 Tbsp (or 2 big cloves) minced Garlic
• 2 Tbsp frying oil (something mild, Grapeseed, Canola, etc)
• 1 lb Extra Wide Egg Noodle, cooked per package directions, set aside
• 1 Lime, cut into wedges (optional for serving)

For the Sauce:

• 2 Tbsp Oyster sauce (to substitute, double the fish sauce and add more soy to taste)
• 2 Tbsp Soy sauce/Amino Acids
• 2 Tbsp Water
• 1 Tbsp Fish Sauce
• 1 Tbsp Cilantro (in a tube, or fresh minced, if fresh save a little for garnish, if desired)
• 4 tsp runny Honey (can warm thicker honey to soften) or use 2 tsp OG cane sugar
• 2 tsp Lemongrass (in a tube, or 1-2″ chunk, minced)
• 2 tsp Red Pepper Flakes
• 1 tsp Ground Ginger
• (optional) add 1 Tbsp Sriracha or other Hot Sauce

Cook noodles according to package and set aside. Whisk sauce ingredients all together and set aside.

In a wide bottom pot or wok, heat the oil over High heat, add the Carrots and Scallions and fry for 2 minutes or until the edges of the Carrots start to get golden, add in the Peppers (or Peas or Broccoli) and Garlic and fry for 2 minutes. Then add the meat or tofu and cook until edges are crispy (for meat, you will have to move it more often to evaporate extra liquid, for tofu, let sit a little longer before stirring – using a stiff spatula). When meat is cooked to your liking 4-5 minutes, add the sauce and cook 1 minute more, stirring to combine and incorporate.

Take pan off of heat and add Basil and Tomatoes, cover and let sit 2 minutes. Then mix with Noodles, cover and let sit another 2 minutes. Stir again and serve, adding more Thai Basil, Cilantro, Green Onion, and Lime as garnish, if desired.

I think the last recipe was a Summer stew of some sort, for which I apologize (ish). Both because summer and stew don’t seem like good friends (a point we would obviously argue), and because, well, I already did that — but in my defense, you don’t really want to hear about the millions of salads we have been eating. They aren’t super exciting to share, but are very satisfying, fresh, and summery: every week seems to bring new ingredients to the salad — we started off with greens, shoots, and radish now moving into greens with cukes and tomatoes, and I know there are golden beets in today’s CSA for which I had salad plans…and with the plethora of ridiculously delicious Fiore oils and vinegars, a little Pumpkin Vine Valley goat feta, and some toasted pumpkin or sunflower seeds, we are in salad heaven, sometimes with a piece of local meat, fish, eggs, or a smattering of chick peas, and a slice of sourdough bread, dinner has been pretty easy peasy.

Though on our day off (Wednesday), we’ve been trying to make something more involved. Recently we had folks over and did a lovely saffron turkey over the firepit with the end of last years frozen nightshades for a fire-roasted ratatouille, it was all divine. Last week we had responsibly sourced bone-in pork chops (there was a time when D would only eat meat ‘on the bone’) with jasmine, brown, and manoomin rice (thank you, Forager’s Harvest! They hand-harvest this wild rice in canoes with the Indigenous folk, and dry it over the fire. All from Wisconsin and Minnesota lakes and rivers — it is so rich and fortifying), and salad. But most of the time we eat pretty simply, summer classics (hippie hotdogs & fries, homemade pizza, stir fry) or we snack for dinner (some nights we work too late to think about dinner — Soulemama taught me long ago that it’s ok if it’s popcorn for dinner once in awhile).

This summer stew hit all the right notes for us since we’ve been dreaming of New Mexico again. J & I (pre-D) loved it out there (we lived South for awhile, came back East and tried the Northern part of the state which worked out a lot better for us…sorry, Billy the Kid). We loved the food, the air, the people, the sky, the river, the birds…and in both places, the chilis…oh, those green chilis…J loved all the family dishes — pozole, frito pie, menudo (‘stomach stew’ made with tripe), whereas I’m a tamale/chili rellenos kind of gal (though there was a breakfast place that made fresh biscuits with green chili gravy that was out of this world). I struggled with pozole as it can be served a little bland and then you add all your ‘things’ to make it rich (and I was always a little thrown by firm hominy, I don’t like it too firm or too soft), additives like salsa verde (or rojo, you can xmas it up, too!), queso fresco or other cheese, lime, onion, cilantro, avocado, lettuce, radish, jalapeno, pepitas, tortillas or sopaipillas, etc. Typically, it is a slow simmered pork stock with hominy.

I tried to make it last year for J and it was ok, it didn’t thrill me but I could see the potential. This week, I decided to use the semi-cooked frozen hominy I saved and try again, with chicken, beans, tomatillos, and poblanos. I found a couple of great ‘starter’ recipes, landing on a lovely combination that tickled our Taos fancy. This is a keeper. You can still go that one step further and make sopaipillas or fry-bread, or eat with tortilla chips, or soft flour tortillas, whatever you wish. I can tell you that we had extra Parmesan sourdough, and oh, darn, we had to eat it up with this…it’s a rough life.

Pozole con Pollo
Serves 6-8

Ingredients:

• 1-2lbs responsible Chicken parts (I used a quarter breast w/ wing)

• 12 Tomatillos, papery skin peeled, then washed
• 2 Poblano Peppers (I suppose you could use Green Bell if you don’t want any heat but these are not too spicy, just enough to give good flavor and a warmy-ness)
• 1 Medium White or Yellow Onion (peel outer skin and halve or cut into 3 pieces)
• 4 cups Chicken Broth (either container or whip up some yourself, keep chicken parts in a bag in the freezer, adding in ends of carrots, celery, onion, herbs until ready to make broth, boil gently for a bit, strain, use), plus 4 cups water
• 4 cups ‘cooked’ Hominy (either canned or pre-cooked, alternatively you can set up the day before, cook like you would dry beans, then can replace water above with hominy water)
• 1 cup and a half of Pinto beans (equals 1 can, drained, rinsed)
• 2 Tablespoons Garlic, minced (or chopped small)
• 2 teaspoons Cumin seed
• 2 teaspoons Sea Salt (or to taste)
• 1 teaspoon Aleppo Pepper (or something stronger if you want more heat, like Chipotle, or Ancho, or powdered Green Chili)
• 1 Bay Leaf
• 2 Tablespoons of oil of choice (I used Avocado oil for this, to start things off), and a little for roasting veggies (I used Olive Oil for that)
• Additives: Queso Fresco, Cilantro, Chopped Green Onion, Lime wedges, Avocado slices (or any of the suggestions above)

Instructions:

• Broil (or grill, or high heat roast), a sheetpan with the onion, tomatillos, and poblanos (drizzled with a little oil) — until the poblano and tomatillo skins are scorched and the edges of the onions are darkened, set aside to cool a bit (about 10 min, at the most)
• In a heavy-bottomed pot, over Med-High heat, add starter oil (2 Tbsp Avocado or Olive Oil, etc) then Cumin seed, after about a minute or so, add Garlic, stir for a minute. Then add chicken, skin side down. Brown chicken, turning/stirring occasionally to not burn seed or garlic. If it looks like the seed/garlic are darkening too quickly, move on to next step.
• Add broth, water, Bay Leaf, and Hominy to pot. Bring to slow boil and let actively simmer with the lid slightly askew for about 40 minutes. Remove Chicken to cool a bit.
• Meanwhile, if the veggies are cool enough to handle, peel the charred Poblano skin from the Peppers and discard, pull the stem (and hopefully, the seeds will pop out with it, or slice lengthwise and scrape seeds out and discard). In a food processor or blender, puree the Peppers, Tomatillos, and Onion. Then add it to the Hominy in the pot.
• Take the Chicken, pick the meat from the bones if necessary, and shred. Then add it to the pot with the Beans, Salt, and Chili Pepper spice (Aleppo, in our case, a lot of flavor but little heat).
• Heat through, check the Hominy for preferred texture and add Salt if necessary.
• Serve in wide bowls with as little or a lot of broth as you like, adding favorite toppings (crumbled Queso, Lime, Avocado, and Green Onions for us!) and serving with rice, bread, tortilla see above for more ideas).

Enjoy! It’s both fresh tasting and filling. Hominy-success!