Dim Sum Sunday - It's Chile Picking Time

I have to say I had a blast researching and cooking for this week's Chile Dim Sum Sunday. I've never been a pepper fan so it's not like I have a go to recipe. So I googled. Quite a bit actually. I found tons of the typical recipes which sounded good but just didn't connect. It wasn't until I hit upon Central Market's recipe web site that I finally found what I was looking for, Apple Hatch Bison Meatballs. Why did this recipe resonate with me? It called for a decent amount of chiles, it features a protein I haven't used before, and it calls for fresh sage and mint which just so happen to grow abundantly in my backyard. That's not to say it was perfect. One of the ingredients is a cup of roasted Hatch Poblano pesto which I gather is a jarred condiment sold at this market. I had a choice, go without or concoct my own. C'mon, it's pesto, how hard could it be?

Not that hard. A classic pesto is pine nuts, basil, garlic and salt, a hard dry cheese and olive oil. The Hatch chiles took the basil's role, pumpkin seeds or pepitas became the nuts, the garlic, salt and olive oil remained the same. The cheese was a bit of a problem. I wanted a nice dry pepper jack but got lucky at Whole Foods.

(excuse my cell phone camera and the Midwestern Goober spelling of Chiles)

It seems Hatch Chile Peppers were one of their feature items this week which meant fresh, roasted and an excellent Hatch Pepper Jack Cheese. While the cheese was fragrant with peppers, it was a little too moist for my pesto so I added in some Pecorino Romano to help even out it's mixability. Worked like a charm. But I wondered, would the meatballs really need the pesto?

The mixing of the meatballs was fairly easy. I left the adding the pesto until the end and scooped out enough of the meat mixture to make two meatballs. Once I had those two samples, I incorporated the pesto into the remaining meat mixture and fried them up. I tasted the pesto-less balls first. The balance of savory bison was overcome by the flavor of the cinnamon. The the meatballs with the pesto were much more balanced. The bite of the peppers combines with the sweetness of the cinnamon to give an interesting backdrop to the deeply complex and meaty bison. Where ground hamburger seems to be more about fat and juice, lean ground bison gets all of it's flavor directly from the meat. It's a good hearty flavor, certainly bold enough to dance with the Big Jim Chile peppers. I also took a tip from the website and made up a batch of Smoky Hatch Blue Corn Grits so I could use even more of my Hatch Pepper Jack Cheese.The meatballs and the grits hit all the right notes for this early fall day, hearty, spicy and stick to your ribs good. Thanks to Moi for including me in the Harvesting of the Peppers.

BONUS DESSERT

After all the chile action I decided I needed a cool refreshing dessert to cool off my tongue. Virginia Willis's Tipsy Watermelon Salad was called into action. Here's the original recipe:

1 6 lb watermelon, halved lengthwise

1 cup lemon juice

2/3 cup sugar

½ cup Vodka

1/3 cup crème de cassis

pinch of fine sea salt

¼ cup chopped fresh mint

To prepare the watermelon, using a large ice cream scoop, remove the watermelon flesh from the rind and place balls in a large bowl. Reserve the scooped out rind of one half to use as a serving bowl.

To make the dressing, whisk the lemon juice and sugar in a bowl until the sugar dissolves. Whisk in the vodka and crème de cassis. Season the mixture with a pinch of salt. Pour the mixture over the watermelon and gently stir to combine and coat the balls.

Cover with plastic wrap and chill for at least one hour and up to two hours.

When ready to serve, gently toss the watermelon balls once or twice to redistribute the liquid. Transfer them to the reserved scooped out watermelon "bowl." Sprinkle with chopped fresh mint and serve. Serves 6-8.

As you see I've hacked the recipe just a tad. See I've got this teeny tiny melon baller and I was dying to use it. So instead of big ice cream scoops of watermelon, I've got little delicate drops. Plus I paired it up with some mascarpone cheese in the base. I also plan to freeze some of the watermelon drops so I can later plop them into some lemon or limeade. That is if I can keep from eating them all before I get some into the freezer. It's a really good dessert.