Brewing the Funky Chicken

Sometimes I find myself purchasing a product purely because the packaging is cool.  That said, I make my living as a graphic artist - so you can understand why I might scrutinize package design a bit more than the average joe....and a package of joe is the subject at hand.

As a self-proclaimed coffee snob, I like to buy locally roasted coffees.  There's an organic food market not far from my home called Mom's (My Organic Market), and they have a nice variety of coffees roasted in Maryland and Virginia.  I frequently buy Equal Exchange coffee by the pound there - which is a fair trade coffee they sell by the pound.  It's a small batch roast coffee, and at 10 or 11 bucks a pound - it's hard to beat.

However - yesterday while picking up some beans I spotted a coffee I'd not noticed before.  The roaster was Red Rooster Coffee Roasters out of Floyd, VA - which is in far-out nowhere Southwest Virginia.  Aside from being a local small batch roaster, it was the packaging that roped me in. "Funky Chicken" is the name of the blend, under which it reads "For Medicinal Use Only"...which conjured up an involuntary chortle from me in the store.  Then I noticed they'd stamped a roast date on the bag and it was roasted just a few weeks ago...so I grabbed the bag and headed toward the register.

Upon opening the bag, I immediately noticed the beans showing a variety of different brown tones.  Small variations can sometimes just be the result of small batch roasting; it's hard to get a perfectly even roast with small batch.  However - this variation was more pronounced, indicating this was not the type of blend where a variety of beans are roasted together - but rather the type of blend where after the specific origin roasts are done, the roaster takes a scoop of this and a scoop of that, and mixes it all together.  Please note: I've never seen the inner workings of a small batch roaster - so this is purely a guess.  The smell was intoxicating - so into the grinder it went.  This was to be my morning coffee - which I normally do in a automatic drip coffee maker...and today was no different.

Back of the bag reads, "Intense flavor with plenty of body and a fruit finish."  I've had some intense coffees in my day, and I don't think that would be the word I use.  I did detect the fruity tones - Ethiopian or Tanzanian is possibly responsible for those.  Even though it's not intense, it's a really nice, mellow morning coffee with a sufficient caffeine punch.  I was not blown away, and am not rethinking the pecking order of my favorites...but it's surely nice enough to gift and I'll likely buy it again.  I'll give it a try in a pour over and pull a shot or two of espresso with it and report back if something miraculous happens.

The Salsa

When Herndon, VA's legendary Mexican joint The Tortilla Factory closed down after over 30 years of fabulous food, there were a whole lot of saddened people.  We were sad we could no longer dine in what had become a Herndon institution...but mainly because we could no longer get the chips and salsa.  The chips were home made and sensational...but the salsa was something really special.  The restaurant closure left us standing in the shadow of a huge condimental void, and my old friend Mason and I decided; the only way to step out of the darkness was to make our own salsa...and so the pursuit to replicate the Tortilla Factory salsa began.

After some digging (and bothering people who used to work at the restaurant), we got our hands on what we were told was "the" recipe.  Mason and I experimented with it, and we have both implemented subtle variations to the recipe we started with.  At first, my variations came in the name of trying to replicate the Tortilla Factory's concoction...but along the way it just became a pursuit of damn good salsa - and many have told me that's what I make.

Some kitchen notes about the recipe:
• The recipe we got didn't have mixing instructions. I use a blender, and I put the cilantro in first.  Once all the ingredients are in, I just pulse it until everything's mixed and chopped nicely...being careful to not liquify.  I like it to have some texture.
• For those that don't have a kitchen scale, 3-4 oz of cilantro is about what most grocery stores sell as a bunch, and that's with just the very bottoms of the stems trimmed off. It's going to seem like an awful lot of Cilantro - but roll with it. 
• I have made several batches that ended up with a dominance of onion flavor. To prevent this - use a medium onion on the smaller side, or use a half or 3/4 - depending on the strength of the onion. 
• Fresh tomatoes might seem like a better idea than canned, but I've tried it both ways and with numerous varieties of tomatoes, and my conclusion is the canned is not only easier but tastes better.  Furthermore, I always use San Marzano tomatoes.  They're more expensive, and worth it.

1 28oz can tomatos
1 Medium sweet onion - chopped
2 tsp prepared chopped fresh garlic
2 tsp oregano (Mexican oregano preferred)
2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tbs black pepper - fresh ground
1 tbs Tabasco
3-4 oz cilantro - chopped
1/2 cup red wine vinegar
1/4 cup corn oil

A note about chips.  The Tortilla Factory's chips were very crisp and thin.  The closest Mason and I have found are a brand called Xochitl.  I find them at Whole Foods and Wegman's consistently.  I've heard Walmart and Giant sell them, too - but have looked and never seen them there.  An alternate is Tostitos Cantina Thin & Crispy.  Those are available pretty much everywhere.

If you try it - I invite you to come back and let me know what you think.  Also - please leave a comment if you made any variations and/or substitutions!