Food | Bewitching Kitchen

The moment I stumbled on this amazing blog – Ghoulatheart.com – I knew I had to make something from it right away. The recipe for Muertos Rancheros called my name really loud, as I had the right pan for it and the timing could not be more perfect: the week before Halloween! I made a tomato-free version, so if you want a more authentic version, check her blog post.

MUERTOS RANCHEROS
(inspired by Ghoulatheart.com)

Mock tomato sauce:
1 jar of roasted red bell pepper (12 ounce)
8 ounces mushrooms
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
salt to taste

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 shallot, finely minced
1 celery stalk, diced
1 pound ground turkey
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp cumin
1 can black beans
cilantro leaves to taste
chicken stock to adjust consistency

jumbo eggs, whites and yolks separated
olive oil spray

garnish (optional)
flour tortillas cut in ghost shapes
olive oil spray

Heat oven to 350F.

Cut flour tortilla in ghosts shapes of varied sizes. Spray olive oil on both sides and bake until golden. Reserve for garnish.

Make the bell pepper sauce by running all ingredients in a food processor until super smooth. Reserve.

Heat the olive oil on a large skillet, add the celery and shallots, season lightly with salt. Sautee until fragrant. Add the ground turkey, salt, chili, cumin, and cook until the turkey is almost cooked through. Add 1 cup of the red bell pepper sauce, cook gently in low heat for 10 minutes, with the lid on. Add the black beans, cilantro, and a little chicken stock to loosen the sauce and make it a good environment to place the eggs over. Cover the pan and keep it at a simmer.

Make the eggs. Spray the skull pan with olive oil, add the egg white of the JUMBO egg, season lightly with salt. Cook in the oven for 4 minutes. Remove the pan, add the egg yolks, one per cavity. Put back in the oven and cook for 3 to 4 minutes more. Remove the pan from the oven, go over the edges of the eggs with a plastic knife or spatula to make sure it is loose enough to slip off the pan. Place a parchment paper and a baking sheet on top of the pan (careful, it is HOT), invert it. Eggs should slip off easily. Carefully place them with a silicone spatula over the sauce, with the heat turned off. You might need to add more chicken stock depending on how dry the sauce looks. Serve immediately decorated with tortilla ghosts.

ENJOY!

to print the recipe, click here

Comments: If you ever need to adapt a recipe that calls for tomato sauce due to food sensitivities, I recommend you try this red bell pepper version. I saw it online in a discussion forum and was intrigued. We really like it a lot. It is of course a huge departure from the ranchero sauce, but I hope the Ranchero Police won’t come after me. Cooking the eggs in the pan can be tricky, I had a big mess on my first try, I did not use spray, I rubbed olive oil in the cavities and that was clearly not effective. Some readers of her blog recommended adding the yolk to the sauce and just cooking the whites in the pan, but I found it harder to invert the egg whites only as the volume is very shallow. I think what works best is add the eggs to the sauce with the heat OFF, and let the yolks just cook in the residual heat. You might want to practice with one egg in your oven and see how it goes. Nudge the egg gently with a plastic spatula before inverting on the parchment paper.

Such a fun meal for scary times! The tortilla ghosts I saw on FoodTV The Kitchen show, and thought it was a good way to add something else to this meal. Poor little ghost was a little scared, knowing his end – another end – was near!

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We spent the whole of last Saturday meandering around beautiful LA neighborhoods, guided by the coolest couple in town, my stepson and his girlfriend. From their apartment in North Hollywood we hopped on the metro to Silver Lake, marveling at the stores of furniture, clothing, books, shoes and art, …when suddenly our guides mentioned a spice store…

You know what happens when a dog’s laying around in a pleasant state, minding his own business, and someone drops the word “cookie” in a conversation? The ears pop up, the head twists, and the inquisitive eyes tell it all: “Cookie? Did someone say … cookie”?

I didn’t wag my tail, but I was ready to “woof!” It wasn’t easy to control my enthusiasm because, after all, I’d left all my spices – three drawers of spices– 1,345 miles behind. And I needed a whiff of at least the basic aromas. Having visited Penzey’s in the Bay Area, I didn’t expect to be awed, but I underestimated: Spice Station is a fragrant dream of a store!

Inside a hidden courtyard, with doors wide open, enticing smells waft around and invite you to step inside and enjoy what they have to offer. Do you like masala mixes? I thought I knew them all, but a couple of theirs were new to me. Have you heard of Urfa Biber? I hadn’t. Care for special salts? You’re in for a treat of smoked and infused salts that you can sample at will (I brought home smoked Yakima Applewood). Dried peppers, curry mixes, barbecue rubs, endless herbs, seeds, pods, and a huge selection of teas. They sell a rare Chinese white green tea, “pai mu tan, ” that’s hard to find except from special tea importers (it’s my favorite!).

Not only does the Spice Station carry an amazing stock, but they’re all elegantly displayed in beautiful bottles, perfectly spaced on charming wooden shelves. The owners and staff are super friendly, knowledgeable, fun to chat with… and patient! The poor guy in charge of my order didn’t even blink at my long list of spices. He stood by the balance, weighing away, writing and labeling and moving to the next spice… and the next… and the next….

Between tasting, choosing and chatting the time flew by, but, in this lovely environment the gentlemen didn’t seem to mind… 😉

So if you’re a spice lover then stop by Spice Station next time you’re in LA. If you’re far from LaLa-Land, then take a look at their Etsy store for your next order. I’ll be back by again and again… there’s a Vintage Merlot salt that’s calling my name! 😉

SPICE STATION
3819 W Sunset Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90026
(323) 660-2565

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