Albondigas Soup for the Blocked Writer’s Soul

It's not that I don't like you. It's not that I don't care. But most of the time, after doing things such as working and cooking, cleaning the house, paying bills, and gazing out the window for what seems like hours on end, I find that I simply cannot blog once a week. I have a problem—a big problem. You see . . . how can I put this: I have a writer's block the size of a boulder in the brain.

What to do? What to do?

I have searched high and low, looking for the best recipe to get your and my creative juices flowing, to help send us into wondrous flights of fancy. One that by its mere smell conjures up sweet memories that you thought you had forgotten for all time. The kind of food that makes you witty, intelligent and wise, and if not, then at least sound like you are.

Well, I have just one thing to say:

Albóndigas Soup.

Ah, let the inspiration begin . . .

The perfect soup to warm the heart and stomach of many a Mexican on a crisp fall evening. Once there is the slightest snap in the air, I can't look at another cold salad in the face until spring starts. Besides being one of my most favorite soups, it costs so little to make--how great is that? Since this is a complete meal, just add some cut limes and corn tortillas, and you are done. Most measurements are approximate, so you can fiddle with the recipe, making it as plain or as gussied up as you like. This soup is in many ways a blank canvas so feel free to improvise and add more or different vegetables. May I suggest thin sliced zucchini, julienned pasilla chilies or even red bell pepper for a bit of color? Just saute them along with the the garlic, celery, carrots and onion as instructed. Add a bit of red chili salsa for some heat, or even green tomatillo salsa (as I did here) to the finished soup.

Of course, food is more than just fuel--it is so much more: for some it is a drug, or others it means love, and for some of us, like Marcel Proust's madeleine cookie, it is the stuff of memory, imagination, and yes, amigos mios, inspiration.

Albóndigas Soup for the Blocked Writer's Soul

Ingredients:

Soup:
2 tablespoons olive or vegetable oil.
1 celery stalk, cut crosswise
½ or more white onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, smashed with the flat end of a knife
2 or 3 white, thin-skinned potatoes, chopped into bite-sized chunks (optional)
8 cups chicken broth (homemade is best, but canned broth will do)
2 juicy tomatoes, diced; or, approximately 1 16 oz. can of Mexican-style stewed tomatoes
Approximately 1 cup of carrots, sliced crosswise into thin disks
1 bay leaf
Pinch of cumin or to taste
Salt (or garlic salt) and pepper to taste

Meatballs:
Approximately 1 lb of lean (about 7% fat) ground beef
½ bunch of cilantro, chopped
1½ cups of cooked white long-grain rice
1 large egg
1 heaping tablespoon of "Menudo Mix" or dried oregano

Directions:
Chop, slice, or dice all vegetables. In a large pot, sauté onion, garlic, celery and carrots in the vegetable oil until the onion is golden brown in color. Add tomatoes and continue sautéing over medium flame until the tomatoes are melted and the inside edge of the pot is a nice golden brown.
Next, add chicken broth, cumin, and bay leaf and potatoes. Bring to a boil. Lower heat and simmer for approximately 30 minutes, covered.
While soup is simmering, prepare meatballs as follows: In a large mixing bowl, mix ground beef, rice, egg, "menudo mix" or oregano, and cilantro by hand. Add salt and pepper to taste. Using a light touch (you do not want tough meatballs), roll mixture into balls a little less than 1 inch in diameter.
After 30 minutes, check soup and make sure that all the vegetables are tender, especially the carrots and celery. If not, continue cooking until they are done. Bring up to the heat and boil meatballs in soup for approximately 6 to 8 minutes. Check by taking out a meatball and splitting it in half to make sure there is no pink. Adjust salt and pepper to taste.
Serve with cut limes and hot corn tortillas, beans or whatever you want.
This soup tastes best the next day.
Variation: For the meatballs, omit cilantro. Use chopped fresh basil instead. ¡Ay, ay, ay!

Chili as Strong as Tarantula Venom

How do you measure success? It is by your state-of-the-art kitchen, the Manolo Blahnik shoes in your closet, or by the new BMW parked in your driveway? Now be honest.

Because if you do, then I feel like, totally sorry for you. Really I do.

Don't get me wrong, you can be justifiably proud of your achievements, but does success or happiness in life depend on amassing wealth? Now that the global economy is near the brink of collapse, perhaps we should turn to Wall Street bankers for their thoughts on the subject.

Oftentimes, whenever I see a picture of an ultra-expensive kitchen with the latest gadgets and appliances, I wonder if people ever cook in such a place—or, is it just for show? And if they do cook, does the food even taste good? Do they make chili salsa the way my mother did, or prepare a big plate of enchiladas? Because let's face it, cooking can be a messy business, and I don't think that a gleaming white kitchen can even survive the explosion of color and smell of chili salsa. I can't count how many times I did not properly fit the lid when I turned on the blender and ended up having to clean chili salsa off the ceiling. Oh well, clumsy me.

Now that we are living in uncertain economic times, how can you make a simple delicious meal without breaking the bank? Like our ancestors before us, you make beans, rice, tortillas and this chili salsa which costs almost nothing to make. Add a green salad and you're set. No only will it fill your stomach, it will comfort you in ways that Coq Au Vin never will.

Before some us lived in McMansions or possessed (now rapidly dwindling) nest eggs we lived in small houses in poor neighborhoods. How can we forget the tiny kitchen, the pokey stove, those mismatched plates? The coughing and choking when the fumes of toasted chilies filled the entire house? The smell of our mother's cooking while everybody gathered round and talked and joked while watching Soul Train on Saturday afternoons? The music of Los Bukis coming from a neighbor's window? Almost nobody we knew had much money, even in good times, and frankly we didn't mind it at all. If you create the same atmosphere of amor in your family, then you are a very successful person, indeed.

And it doesn't cost a thing.

Chili Salsa as Strong as Tarantula Venom (But Better Tasting)

Fact: Who knew that our delicate taste buds do not even register chili's searing heat? Curiously, that burning sensation occurs when chilies and tarantula venom target a specific pain receptor. In fact, some chilies are as strong as tarantula venom. Such a lovely thought, no?

Once you learn to toast dried chiles, you are only a hop, skip and a jump away from making enchilada sauce from scratch (bye, bye cans!). This is just a basic recipe, but the variations on this theme are endless.

Warning: on a heat scale from 1 (mild) to 6 (very hot), this salsa is a 4 or a 5.

What you need:
A large griddle or comal
A wooden spatula
A blender
A medium sized bowl

Ingredients:
30 dried Chile de Árbol chilies (stems removed) See photo above.
2 dried New Mexico chiles
1 or 2 cloves garlic in their skins
2 medium sized juicy tomatoes
Salt to taste
1 tablespoon of vegetable cooking oil (optional)
Salt to taste

Directions:
First of all, open the windows and turn on the fan over your stove!
Remove the stems from each dried chili and shake out the seeds, or slit each one lengthwise and remove the seeds. Take the griddle or comal and preheat over a medium heat for a minute or two. Add cooking oil (optional) and wait a minute more. Put the dried chilis, garlic and tomatoes on the hot comal and toast chiles for some minutes until you see their color change (see photo below). Do not burn! (Burning them only makes them bitter, in which case you must throw them out and start all over again.) Remove chilies from comal and put them inside the blender. Remove the tomatoes from the comal when they are toasted on all sides and their skins have burst.
Cut up tomatoes and place them with the chilis and garlic in the blender. Blend at full speed for some minutes until the chili salsa is smooth. If the salsa is too thick, add a bit of water and blend some more. Pour into bowl. Add salt to taste.
This salsa is perfect on almost anything: with carne asada, over chicken, fish. I think I will have them with my eggs tomorrow morning.