Main courses

Jack’s Fiesta Markley (mostly) vegetarian Chicaoji Stew

| Randall Waugh

A Fiesta in Your Mouth!

Jack H. and Isaac shared the Fiesta Markley (mostly) Vegetarian Chicaoji Stew recipe via email.

“I’ve been working on a project of making weekly stews throughout autumn and this week I made a spicy stew with peppers and, of course, Chicaoji. Here’s the recipe:”

The Ingredients

  • 2 red carrots
  • 4 red potatoes
  • 1 and 1/2 yellow onions
  • 2 Anaheim peppers
  • 2 jalapeños
  • 1 poblano
  • 1 habanero
  • 3 Roma tomatoes
  • 3rd head of cauliflower
  • 3rd head of red cabbage
  • 3 radishes
  • 1 Can ranch beans
  • 1 Can White kidney beans
  • 1 red, yellow, and orange peppers
  • Cajun seasoning to taste
  • Salt to taste
  • Pepper to taste
  • 1 tbsp cumin
  • 1 tomato paste can (small)
  • Lime juice to taste
  • Half cup Chicaoji
  • 1 bag sweet corn
  • 1 can of hatch chiles
  • Half cup of cilantro
  • 10 chopped cloves of garlic
  • 1 box vegetable broth
  • 1 box bone broth (Substitute veg broth for vegetarians/vegan stew)
  • Cotija cheese (for individual bowls)

The Process

You can watch Jack & Isaac make it happen on this video:

https://www.instagram.com/p/ClCyeM-pZfp/

1. Sautée potatoes, cauliflower, onions and carrots in stock pot for 20 mins, adding cajun seasoning and salt
2. In a separate pan, sautée all peppers (chopped)
3. Combine and add broth and all ingredients (wait 10 minutes before adding cilantro)
4. Bring to boil, cover and simmer for an hour
5. Top with Cotija and additional lime juice and cilantro (if you want to add a dash of extra Chicaoji to your bowl, go ahead!)

The Map It Up Stew Crew
The Map It Up Stew Crew, ? on L and Jack on R.
Chicaoji, a key ingredient in Fiesta Markley Stew.
Chicaoji, a key ingredient in Fiesta Markley Stew.
Stir the stew.
Stir the stew.
Measure out Chicaoji for recipe.
Measure out Chicaoji for recipe.
Add Chicaoji to Fiesta Markley Stew
Add Chicaoji to Fiesta Markley Stew
Yum!
Yum!

Jon’s Chicaoji Hummus

| Randall Waugh
  • 1x 16oz. can garbanzos  aka chickpeas (See below for dry/cooked beans ratio.)
  • 1 large clove garlic, crushed and chopped
  • ½ tsp. salt
  • 2 – 3 Tbs. Chicaoji (to taste)
  • Juice of 1 lemon or lime
  • 2 – 4 Tbs. toasted sesame oil (according to taste)
  • 2 – 3 Tbs. extra virgin olive oil

Rinse garbanzos well in a strainer. Put the rinsed garbanzos, garlic, salt, Chicaoji, lemon or lime juice and sesame oil in a food processor. Process until a smooth puree forms – about a minute or two. Add a little water to make the texture smoother if necessary. With the processor still running, add the olive oil. Process until smooth and incorporated.
Great with crunchy vegetables such as celery, jicama sticks, carrots, cucumber sticks, etc. Or on pita or naan.

Notes:

Jon added, “You can use tahini instead of the toasted sesame oil. I don’t like the texture that the tahini often imposes, so I use the oil. But others find the tahini just as good.”

Jon’s recipe referred to a can of beans so I looked up what that means in term of dry/cook beans. Here’s what I found:
One 15.5 ounce can of beans = 1 ½ cups cooked = ¾-to-1 cup dried

JP’s Magic Chicaoji Sauce

| Randall Waugh

John P. from Burlingame, California came up with a REALLY unusual recipe that I want to share with y’all. This is what he said when I asked him if he had a Chicaoji recipe. RW

“I do have a recipe for you. It’s a super simple one, once you obtain the 3 ingredients, that is, but amazing if I might say so myself.

I put it on everything and make lots to give away.

Here ya go:

  • 1/3     Chicaoji Sauce
  • 1/3     Kewpee Mayonaise
  • 1/3 (or less, depending on how runny you want it) Yuzu Juice

I riff’ed it up while messing around in the kitchen one evening. It just clicked.

Now, I can’t live without it on things like:

  • Fried Okra, or fried anything
  • Grilled Asparagus
  • Tacos
  • Roast veggies of any type
  • Fish of any type and cooking style
  • Anything where you might use mayo or a sauce”
    ~~~~~~~~~
    The ingredients for John’s recipe can be found online. I had to look up both ingredients that were not Chicaoji!

Kewpie Mayo is apparently the go-to mayo for master chefs. (Not surprisingly, I’d never heard of it!)

Yuzu Juice is a really interesting food that is common on the other side of the Pacific Ocean. It’s a variety of citrus that is considered to have some health benefits. Here’s a LINK to some info I found about the benefits.  John even has a Yuzu growing at his Bay Area home.

Now not everyone is going to have Kewpie Mayo and Yuzu Juice on hand but you can get the idea from John’s recipe. Please do let me know if you come up with substitutes and or any “recipe riff” of your own.

Thank you, Randall

Brandon’s Breakfast Eggs on Toast with Chicaoji

| Randall Waugh

Thank you for providing such a lovely product over these years! Thank you for the information, I truly had no idea I could get my favorite sauce here in Everett! [Sno-Isle Food Co-op] Thank you for letting me know, I will check it out there next time!

I have been enjoying chicaoji for quite some time now… roughly 6-8 years or so now. I first found out about Chicaoji at a local market on Lopez Island some years back, and I believe it was you that sold it to me 🙂

Typically, I use chicaoji on my egg recipes or chicken recipes. My favorite breakfast to make for myself and my wife is as follows:

  • 1 piece of toast
  • small layer of cream cheese
  • a few cut cherry tomatoes
  • sprinkle sunflower seeds
  • various greens mix of lettuce
  • 2 eggs over easy/medium on top
  • Chicaoji Sauce drizzled to liking

or

  • 1 piece of toast
  • layer of lightly fried ham
  • cheese (cheddar or pepperjack)
  • 2 eggs over easy/medium on top
  • dollup of sour cream
  • sliced avocado
  • Chicaoji Sauce drizzled to liking

Perhaps you will try them and see what you think!

Jon’s Lopez Island Chicken Wings

| Randall Waugh

Lopez Island Chicken Wings

  1. Chicken wings – First and second sections only – the drumette and flat wingette. Cut off the wing tips and use them for bait in your crab traps.
  2. Preheat a grill to a relatively low heat. I put all six burners on my natural gas grill to the lowest setting.
  3. Place the wing sections on the grill and cook over direct heat for approximately 7 – 8 minutes. Turn the sections over and allow to grill for another 7 – 8 minutes on the other side. Wings should have crispy skin at this point, and some grill marks. There should be visible signs that cooking is complete, such as small amounts of clear juices bubbling under the skin.
  4. Remove the wing sections from the grill and place in a large bowl. Put a few tablespoons of Chicaoji sauce for each pound of wings into the bowl and toss with a spatula to make sure all the wings are coated with the Chicaoji. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and allow the wings to rest and steam in their juices for about 10 minutes and for the Chicaoji to adhere to the chicken skin.
  5. Serve with crunchy vegetable sticks such as celery, carrot, jicama, or cucumber, and a creamy dipping sauce such as blue cheese or ranch dressing.

Annie’s Chicaoji Yogurt Dressing with Pan Roasted Veggies

| Randall Waugh

Ingredients:

Pan Vegetables

  • 4 cups vegetables – such as yams, potatoes, beets, squash, summer squash, parsnips, onions, carrots, garlic, celery… whatever.
  • 2 Tablespoons of your preferred cooking oil
  • 2 cups chopped greens (kale, chard, spinach, collards, orach etc.)
  • ½ cup chopped parsley (or more…parsley is really good and good for you.)

Chicaoji Yogurt Dressing

  • 1 cup plain yogurt
  • 2 Tablespoons Chicaoji Sauce

This recipe is extremely flexible. Basically, it’s about pan roasting whatever you want to eat, steaming some greens on top of it and then eating this with Chicaoji Sauce & plain yogurt. The quantity of food depends on how many people you are feeding and how big a skillet/pan you have.

  • Cut up vegetables (I like to just cut roots in half or quarters and put a flat side down. RW)
  • Put them in skillet with the oil and cover with lid. (The lid helps to steam things but isn’t absolutely necessary.)
  • Cook these in the oven or on top of the stove. Cooking time and heat varies depending on how soon you want to eat and how finely you cut up the veggies. High heat/finely chopped is faster and low heat/coarsely chopped is slower…. Medium heat….well…you get the idea. (I like to cook root vegetables a long time on low-medium heat until they blacken, i.e. “Cajun Style”. RW)
  • Mix Chicaoji and yogurt in separate bowl.
  • Toss chopped greens on top of other veggies and continue to cook for a couple of minutes, according to taste. Some people prefer raw greens. I like to cook them 4-5 minutes so that they wilt but are still bright green. Dark greens are interesting because their flavor evolves the longer they are exposed to heat.
  • Serve up the vegetables and greens.
  • Scoop on the Chicaoji Yogurt Dressing.
  • Sprinkle on parsley
  • Serve with bread, tortillas, crackers, chips or whatever you prefer.

Jon’s Chicaoji Salmon Tagine

| Randall Waugh

Here’s a recipe for Salmon Tagine from Jon P. over in Texas.

“Coat salmon generously with Chicaoji and let marinate for 30-60 mins. Do this on the counter to let the fish come to room temp, but if you go longer than 30 mins you might want to do it in the fridge for the first while and then take it out.

Ingredients:

  • Salmon
  • 2 Tablespoons oil
  • 1-3 medium Shallots, (depending on size) finely chopped
  • Couple cloves of garlic, crushed
  • Pinch of saffron, ground in mortar & pestle
  • 4-6 small or 2 large preserved lemons (removing any seeds!), coarsely chopped

Into stovetop tagine,

  1. add oil and heat on medium flame,
  2. add shallots, sautéd half until clear
  3. Add crushed garlic and continue cooking on low heat for a couple of minutes
  4. Grind a large pinch of saffron in a mortar & pestle and mix well into shallot/garlic mix and keep cooking on low
  5. Add preserved lemons
  6. Cover with tagine lid and let whole mixture cook on low heat for another 15-20 mins
  7. Let stand until you are ready to cook fish (I usually make this first and then reheat to temp for fish once I’m ready to cook and serve)
  • Heat tagine with mixture in it to just slightly higher than medium heat.
  • Once things are sizzling immediately add fish, skin side up, so that non-skin side is directly on top of the mixture and cover.
  • Let cook for 4 minutes, then
  • flip fish so skin is down, moving as much of the shallot/lemon mixture to the top of the fish,
  • cover and cook another 5 minutes.
  • Turn off heat and let stand another few minutes—this sort of depends on how thick the fish is!! I generally choose pretty thick pieces and then let stand another 3-5 mins.”

“Tagine” definition

Chicaoji Chili

| Randall Waugh

From Johnny

My improvised Chicaoji Chili recipe from yesterday – Turned out really well.

  • 3 cups dry black beans (soaked overnight)
  • 1 can chili beans
  • 1 small can of tomato paste
  • 1 quart of my friend Jennifer’s canned tomatoes and zucchini
  • 1/4 cup Chicaoji sauce (makes it mild. if you like it hotter double or triple that)
  • 1/2 lb grass-fed organic local ground beef
  • Enough water to get the right consistency
  • Throw it all in a crock pot for a few hours.

That’s it. No other spices. Just the Chicaoji.