The one-seed juniper, juniperus monospermum, grows in abundance around my community here in northern New Mexico.
You may have had commercial dried juniper berries, used in brines and similar, and you may know they provide the dominant, resinous flavor in gin. But the ripe berries of the one-seed juniper, fresh, are sweet, juicy, as well as having that familiar gin flavor and aroma.
Yes, sweet! The favored food of the bluebird in this habitat. The little fellows gorge on juniper berries and then perch on fencelines and poop out the seeds, which is why you see so many young junipers growing along fencelines here.
"Yeah, thanks for the botany lesson but why should I care?"
Because they're yummy and abundant and we can DO things with them.
I have a mason jar of juniper berry syrup in the works and I'll let you dear readers know how that turns out when it is finished, but this type of syrup takes a month or two.
But for now, the juniper salt.
Imagine a juniper-infused salt pungent enough that only a couple of grains on your tongue will fill your mouth with the flavor of fresh juniper. Imagine such a thing, sprinkled lightly over home fries, rubbed into the flesh of a rack of lamb before roasting, seasoning a holiday goose. There's many potential uses for this condiment.
First, harvest some fresh ripe local juniper berries. Sorry, you can't buy 'em in a store, if you can't wildcraft them, this recipe likely isn't for you.
Add a cup of course sea salt to your food processor. You can substitute coarse kosher salt of course, but sea salt is more flavorful, and more flavor more better.
Turn the processor on and pour a quarter cup of juniper berries in through the top. Let it wizz about for twenty seconds or so and then scrape down the sides and give it another few seconds to incorporate. You should have light-brown salt with a few small flecks of berry hither and yon, but mostly incorporated into the salt.
The salt at this point will feel like damp sea sand. You don't want to leave it like that. Spread the salt out on a sheet pan or similar and let it dry for a day before jarring it up and labeling it.
That's it! Have fun with it, and feel free to post about how you use this flavorful spice!
Chicos and Beans, Ese! They go together like Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire. But what ARE they, and why are they so good? Chicos are as far as I know an ingredient peculiar to northeastern New Mexico. Chicos are sweet corn which is roasted in an outdoor wood-fired adobe oven called an Horno (pronounced or-no, as rhyming with “porno,” but don't make that association with the older generation.) The result is that the corn is preserved, but it keeps its sweetness and the sugars in the corn are caramelized, resulting in a wonderful, distinctive flavor. It is best to buy them from someone who has roasted them, as one never really knows how old the ones in the stores may be. Just like beans, if they are more than a year old, you have to cook them forever to make them tender. The classic winter repast of chicos and beans is about the sweetness of the ingredients and how they harmonize with each other. The chicos provide the sweetness of roasted corn, the smoked ham hocks provide the swe...
Helpful hint. Do it with the fresh berries, and don't think you can leave them on the counter or something for two weeks. You want them fresh and juicy so the juice of the berries permeates the salt, or you lose a lot.
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