Sue Porter’s Biscochitos

Joel, her son, posted this recipe on FaceBook around Christmas 2020 and I wanted to keep it here. Sue and here family have been friends of my family since I was 3 (no type, three) years old. Such a wonderful person.

Here is what Joel said

Was inspired by some of my friends who have been posting things they’ve recently baked; biscuits (sourdough and buttermilk), and butter cookies. 

That made me think of a cookie my mom used to make around this time of year. Bizcochitos. For the uninitiated the bizcochito (or biscochito) is the official cookie of New Mexico and is typically prepared around the Christmas holidays. 

There are different recipes floating around but the key ingredient that gives them their popularity is the Anise seed (I also found out there are actually two ways to pronounce this. Mine is the correct way BTW). The cookie, when made from my mom’s recipe, sort of melts in your mouth and you get the cinnamon and sugar on top but underneath is the hint of the Anice flavor, but not too much as I actually cannot stand black licorice. These are not a cookie that kids would necessarily like, nor is it a cookie that you would want to plow through a half dozen or so (ok, maybe you might). But they are so good. These go nicely with a hot drink such as cider, hot chocolate, hot tea, coffee, mulled wine. 

Here is my mom’s recipe for those of you who might want to give these a try. 

Bizcochitos

Preheat oven to 350 F

Cream together 

• 1 cup of lard or shortening  (I went old school and used lard)
• 1/2 cup of sugar.

Add and beat until very fluffy. 

• 1 egg

Sift together 

• 3 cups flour, 
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder, 
• 1/2 tsp salt. 

Then add the flour mixture to the creamed mixture. 

Stir in 

• 1 tsp Anise seed, 
• 3 TBSP sweet wine. 

Roll out dough on floured board to 1/4” thick. Cut into plain or fancy shapes. 

Combine and sprinkle on top of each cookie. 

• 1/4 cup sugar 
• 1 TBSP cinnamon 

Bake in preheated 350F oven for 15-20 minutes or until light brown. Freezes well.

Blue Cheese Salad Dressing

I used Google to combine many recipes to make this one. I like this and it makes just enough for two small salads or one large one (or one salad for someone who loves blue cheese dressing).

Mix together breaking up the chunks

• 1Tbsp buttermilk
• 1Tbsp sour cream
• 1Tbsp mayonnaise 
• 1Tbsp blue cheese (Roquefort is good)
• 1 tsp red wine vinegar
• Pinch salt
• Pinch pepper
• Pinch sugar
• Pinch garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp chopped parsley

Makes enough for one salad. 

350 calories (by looking up the ingredients) Note: this is not diet food

Note. If you leave the buttermilk to the end, you can put more or less to adjust the thickness of the dressing. Thicker for wings or wedge lettuce. Thinner for tossed salad. 

Potato Soup

Originally this came from my college roommate's wife who learned it growing up in Germany. Then I lost the recipe. One night I called my daughter and she showed me how to make it over AirTime:

45 min includes chopping. 

Sauté in a large pan on med low

• 4 oz bacon

When the bacon is brown but not crisp yet, add

• 1 leek without leaves. Sliced into coin sized bits
• 1/2 medium onion
• 1/2 medium carrot thin sliced
• 1 stalk of celery sliced
• 1/4 tsp Black pepper
• 1/8 tsp White pepper 

Continue sautéing until barely soft and add

• 4 med potatoes cut in 3/4 in cubes. You can peel or not. You can half peel. 

Continue sauté making sure the potatoes are coated in oil and maybe a little browned. Or not. 

Then cover with 

• chicken broth. You can use turkey or vegetable broth or water. 
• 1 tsp chicken base
• 1/3 tsp beef base

Bring to a boil on med high. Reduce to simmer about 15 minutes until potatoes are soft when stuck with a fork. 

Mash as with a potato masher. Maybe only partially. 

Optionally blend 1/3 to thicken broth or use an immersion blender some. 

Simmer on low for 5 more minutes to blend tastes. 

Add to taste:

• salt
• Black pepper 
• (Optional) Parsley

If you like, can be optionally served with

• sour cream OR
• Cream Or
• Cheddar cheese 

on top. 

Serves 4. 

Pasta I Fagioli

A family favorite

Sauté in olive oil in a large saucepan:

• Medium Onion chopped
• 2 cloves Garlic crushed and chopped
• 1 stalk Celery thinly sliced at an angle (1/8 inch slice)
• 1 large Carrot thinly sliced at an angle

Add and brown:

• 1 lb Hamburger meat
• 1/4 tsp Salt
• 1/4 tsp Pepper

Add

• Large can Crushed tomatoes 
• 1/2 tsp sugar

• 14 oz can of cooked Pinto beans (2 cups)

Simmer 15 min. Make sure the meat is done and then prepare according to package directions:

• 1 c pasta noodles a little underdone

Drain cooked pasta and add to the saucepan. Simmer a few minutes to meld the flavors.

Serve

Alfredo Sauce

This goes back to the late 90s when my daughter perfected this sauce.

Slowly melt 

• 1 Tbsp butter. 

Add 

• 1 c cream prewarmed in the microwave. Not hot. Warm. 

Keep on low heat and stir some. Butter will float. When the butter and cream mix, start adding 

• grated Parmesan 

a few Tbsp at a time and stir gently but constantly. I like to add a little pepper because it’s so pretty but it’s optional. No salt. 

Taste it and look at the consistency and when it’s right, quit adding Parmesan. 

It’s done. 

Options:  You can add a little basil flakes and garlic powder too. 

Pumpkin Bread

My kids always loved this. It makes 3 loaves:

Cream in mixer

• 3 cups sugar
• 4 eggs

Add and mix

• 2/3 c water
• 15 oz can pumpkin
• 1 c salad oil

Sift together in a bowl

• 3 1/2 c flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 1 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp cloves
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp nutmeg

Add dry ingredients to mixer and mix as little as possible 

Pour into greased pan. 

Bake at 325 F for 1 hour

Glaze

• 2 Tbsp margarine
• 1 c powdered sugar 
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 tsp instant coffee

My 2nd Posole - from scratch

I realized that I had a quick and easy Posole recipe on this blog, and a variation where you serve the pork/posole soup and chili sauce separately but not my original recipe.

Of course, for something I've been making since I was a wee lad, its more complicated than that. My original recipe I got from Stan after eating his Posole at his annual Christmas party (back when we had Christmas parties with people all in the same room). It was a quick crock pot recipe with meat and cans of stuff added together. Someday I might put that in here.

One year, though, (2004) I decided I would replace the cans of stuff with my own recipes for that stuff and this is what I came up with. I'm putting it in as written on the battered 3x5 card with notes about stuff I've learned since then.

What is the posole grain from which this chile based soup gets it name?

Posole is made from fresh corn kernels. This recipe calls for dried posole. You can buy it in any grocery store in New Mexico and can also buy it over the Internet. Just Google "dry posole." Either the white, yellow or blue corn varieties are acceptable. 

Dried posole is made with the nixtamal process from ordinary corn. The shell of the corn is chemically removed in this centuries old process. Then the result is dried and packaged. If they grind the result to a powder, it makes masa, the foundation for tamale dough or corn tortillas.

Look ahead by getting the posole ready. Wash it and start to soak together:

• 1/2 lb dried posole (about 1 1/2 cups)  
• 3-4 cups water

Set that aside to soak for quite a while as the crock pot does its magic.

Start with a crock pot and add:

• 1 lb fresh pork (you can use the pork chops that were underneath that beautiful one on the top of the package, or pork short ribs, or the end off a pork loin though something with a bone in it makes better soup) cut into 1" cubes
• water (to cover the pork just barely) or you can use chicken or vegetable broth

Note: Nowdays, I brown the port in a skillet with a bit of oil or under the oven broiler. That adds a bit of good flavor to the soup.

In a skillet at medium low, saute these until the onion turns translucent:

• 1 Tbsp olive oil (or some oil)
• 2 Tbsp finely chopped onion
• 1 clove garlic. crushed and finely chopped

When the onion has lost its color add these and cook the rawness out of the flour but not to the point of brownness. You will need to stir continuously:

• 1 Tbsp flour
• 1/2 tsp ground cumin (comino)
• 1/8 tsp ground mexican oregano (regular oregano works too)

Once the rawness is out of the flour, add the contents of the skillet to the crock pot along with:

• 1/4 cup New Mexico powdered red chile (its available in mild, medium and hot) but you can use powdered Guajillo or Ancho if you want. Note that some powdered red chile is very hot, particularly if you get it in an Asian grocery. Note: DO NOT use standard "chili powder" as it includes the garlic and cumin and other spices that we want to control the amounts of.
• 1/4 tsp black pepper
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 tst sugar
• 1 8 oz can green chile (or 2 4 oz cans)

Cook on high until the meat is falling to strings. Be sure to add water if it's cooking away so the meat remains covered. This could take quite a while, 5 hours to overnight, and if you can guess when it will be over you can add the posole (as described below about 3 hours before the meat is completely done).

Drain the posole. It should be almost doubled in size from absorbing water while soaking. Then add it to the crock pot. When you add it and as you are cooking it, you may also need to add:

• more water or chicken broth because the posole will absorb more water

Cook on crock pot high for about 3 hours. Your crock pot may be different than mine. You will know it is done when you see the posole kernals have "popped" open mostly on the end. Taste one and it should be easily chewed but with a bit of a bite. Sort of like the texture of perfect al dente pasta but not so creamy. 

The dried posole will expand while cooking to 4 times its original size.