We Are Never Full » cilantro

Mariah Carey Makes Me Want to Eat Ecuadorian Ceviche!

Amy — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 01:25:48 +0000

Since parenthood came into my life, so has weight gain. It hasn’t been all that bad but I think I weigh a bit more now than I did in the days after I pushed that child out. Why? Because the gym is now a long-distant memory. Since we clearly like to eat, the gym was once my very good friend four or five times a week pre-child. Now, I’m lucky to even get a long walk to the park. If I still have energy after a day of chasing after a 1 year old, I’ll may pop in a yoga DVD, but I now realize that “5 Minute ABS” only works when you are doing more than just “5 Minute Abs”. I refuse to stop eating or drinking wine but I miss those carefree days of hitting the gym whenever I wanted to sweat off my stress and weekend steak and potatoes.

So how does Mariah Carey fit into this post? Well, recently, Mariah debuted her “post baby body” – a phrase I’m kinda getting sick of seeing on magazine covers. Yeah, yeah, she did it through diet and exercise and did gain like a million pounds while on bedrest with her twins but she has a FLAT STOMACH AGAIN! How about this chick - she did a Vickis Secret bra and panties modeling shoot a few weeks after giving birth. I was still wearing my “belly band” at that point.

But, it’s never too late to try and lose a bit of that baby weight, huh? This ceviche is the perfect way to attempt to do so without getting depressed that all you are eating is salad and brown rice. This ceviche is a bit different than the ones you may have had in the past. Normally, ceviche’s fish/shellfish is “cooked” by lime or lemon juice acid that it marinates in. This particular ceviche requires one to actually cook the seafood first. It is inspired by street food we had in Brooklyn several years ago. We have remembered it all this time – it was the type of NYC street food that is very hard to find these days (one that is probably illegal and delicious). With street food becoming a weird trendy thing, possibly because of the invention of the Vendy Awards and the infiltration of slick food trucks, it is sometimes hard to find street food that isn’t overdone or trying too hard. This particular hot summer day, we discovered a woman on her stoop with a little table containing a large, plastic vat, a tupperware filled with avocados and two bottles of hot sauce. For $2.50 we received half a perfectly ripe avocado filled with shrimp ceviche in a spicy tomato sauce. It was served on a white napkin with a plastic fork. The avocado skin served as it bowl. We happily sat on the neighbors stoop inhaling this amazing snack.

Five years later, we finally got around to trying our hand at the ceviche. After a bit of research, we discovered that this ceviche is closer to an Ecuadorian ceviche which is different from the Peruvian type most are accustomed to. The main difference between the two is 1) a tomato-based marinade with a “soup like” consistency 2) most often made using shrimp that is cooked/boiled first and 3) served with popcorn and fried plantains. We played around a bit with our recipe, adding some things that are probably not traditional. For instance, the tomato base of the Ecuadorian ceviche “sauce” is often made with ketchup and doesn’t have olives. We used some Goya tomato sauce and added olives for briny-ness. We also had some baby octopus that needed eating up, so we threw that in there too.

A few weeks of this as a weeknight meal and I may not have a stomach like Mariah or legs like that Victoria’s Secret model but who cares. It’s the trying that counts, right?

Ecuodorian-Style Ceviche in Avocado (serves 4)

Ingredients:

1 lb. shrimp with shell on (about 15 to 20)
1/2 lb baby octopus (optional)
1 8oz. can of Goya tomato sauce
juice of 3 to 4 limes
1/4 cup of orange juice
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 red onion, thinly sliced and then chopped into small pieces
1 cayenne pepper, very thinly sliced (optional)
big handful of cilantro, chopped
1 cup of alcaparrado (or just some pitted spanish green olives) + a bit of the olive brine
2 perfectly ripe avocados (or 1/2 avocado per serving)

Recipe:

Boil your shrimp with the shells on – about two to three minutes. Remove from water and allow to cool. The take the shells off the shrimp. Keep whole or cut down the middle.
Meanwhile, add the octopus to the boiling water if using and boil for two to three minutes. Remove and allow to cool.
In a separate bowl, add the tomato sauce, pepper, onion, cilantro, alcaparrado or olives, lime and orange juice along with the sugar. Stir and taste. Add a bit of the olive juice for a hint of saltiness. Taste for seasoning. Add more lime juice if you want or even a pinch of garlic powder if you feel it needs that kick. This sauce is to be to your liking so play around with the ratios till it tastes like you want it!
Add the deshelled shrimp and octopus to the tomato sauce. Stir.
Cut ripe avocados in half and remove the pit. Scoop a small bit out from the center of the avocado to allow a bit more room for the ceviche to lay in. You can top the ceviche with that extra avocado if you like. Poor the ceviche on top of an avocado half. Top with a bit more of the cilantro. Serve with rice to make it a bit more of a meal. Enjoy!

Cheese & Pea Curry: Why Paneer-ances Don’t Matar…

Jonny & Amy — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 21:12:35 +0000

If the immense diversity of this city reveals itself in the faces of its people, and if, in turn, those faces can be said to reflect the myriad flavors of this world, then how should one interpret the wearing of “beats by dr dre” headphones by anyone north of 25 years old? With this eternal question in mind, I urge you to consider another conundrum for the ages, which may still puzzle some Hindu theologians: how to take enticing food photography of Indian food with its range of brownish-hued sauces? As we know only too well, appearances are crucial in the food world.

Since the majority of Hindus swear off most meats, dairy and legumes (pulses) are essential proteins for the citizens of the sub-continent, and paneer, a firm, fresh cheese, is an important component of that diet. Paneer – which comes in a variety of styles in India, from super firm to an almost goat-cheese consistency, but is mostly limited to the former in our hemisphere – is something of a strange beast in that it neither melts nor competes for flavor with even the mildest of curries. Also, due to being typically coagulated with lemon juice or vinegar rather than rennet, it somehow manages to be wholly acceptable to vegetarians too.

A perennial, and, likely fruitless, desire to be good food bloggers but also possess the waistlines of triathletes, lately convinced us to expand our palates beyond our customary choices – lamb rogan josh and chicken bhuna – and include a vegetarian option and recipe on these here interwebs. Hardly groundbreaking, we know, but every day is a journey through the world, as described in a previous post, and another recent stop was Patel Brother’s grocery store at the far end of Brooklyn’s Sunset Park neighborhood.

Picking up fresh curry leaves, house-ground spices and a fat block of paneer at Patel’s, we ransacked the springtime growth of our tiny garden for English peas and threw together a matar (pea) aloo (potato) paneer curry with some cumin-seed scented basmati rice and some of the best heat ‘em up at home naan bread we’ve had.

Satisfyingly protein-packed and redolent of sub-continental flavors with the curry leaves and toasted spices, it came together in no-time flat. If you have access to good Indian supplies, this can quite easily become part of your weeknight repertoire and, even if you don’t, non-melting mild cheeses (like halloumi) are readily available and good peas are only a freezer section away.

Of course, Dr Dre headphones are almost certainly perfect for listening to all kinds of music, including hip-hop, but when sported by middle-aged business men one can’t help but assume they were borrowed from teenage offspring (who would surely pour merciless scorn on them for it), as which person of that demographic, in our image-conscious world, would risk public approbation and actually buy them? Taking a similar risk with crumby photos of this yellowish-brown dish we humbly request that you overlook appearances and trust us enough to try it.

Aloo Matar Paneer (Potato, Pea and Cheese Curry) (serves 4)
Adapted from Rick Stein Coast to Coast

Ingredients:

12oz paneer, cut into inch cubes
2 medium starchy potatoes, cut into 1 inch cubes
2 tablespoons neutral tasting oil – sunflower, safflower, canola, etc.
4 cloves garlic, crushed and chopped
1/2 large white onion, diced
1 inch piece ginger, chopped finely
2 birds’-eye, or other hot green pepper like serrano, chiles, finely chopped
1 teaspoon each of ground cumin and ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon each of ground turmeric and ground cayenne pepper
1/3 of a 12oz can whole tomatoes, roughly chopped or pulled apart
1/2lb fresh (or frozen) shelled peas
4 tablespoons julienned cilantro (coriander)
6 fresh (10 dried) curry leaves

Recipe:

Heat oil to medium high in a large pan or wok
Lightly fry paneer until golden on all sides, about five minutes. Remove from pan and reserve.
Add onions and cook until translucent. Add ginger, garlic and chopped chiles.
When aromatic, add dry spices and stir well to coat everything in the pan.
Fry gently for about three minutes.
Add potato, tomato, curry leaves and peas (if fresh) with 2-3 tablespoons of water.
Stir well and simmer gently for five minutes before adding paneer.
Simmer gently for another 5 minutes.
Season with salt and black pepper and sprinkle in chopped cilantro.
Serve with naan and pilau rice seasoned with cumin or caraway seeds

Chicharrones de Pollo: Don Nicolas’ Delicious Dominican Chicken Cracklins’

Jonny & Amy — Wed, 25 May 2011 12:16:34 +0000

While Queens may have the reputation for being the most ethnically diverse area in the United States, our very own borough of Brooklyn is certainly not bereft of global flavors. From the side-by-side Mexican and Chinese neighborhoods of Sunset Park to the century-old Italian areas of Carroll Gardens and Bay Ridge, to the more recently established Caribbean community of Crown Heights, there is rather more than a smattering of diverse flavors available to the curious epicure. Even gentrified Park Slope and Prospect Heights reflect the enduring presence of their Puerto Rican and Dominican populations with a wide selection of places offering “Spanish food”, a phenomenon which took me a while to decipher as it certainly isn’t Spanish in the European sense.

Dishes typical of Spanish-speaking countries, especially those ringing the Caribbean, but which also may be derived from actual Iberian cooking — known predominantly on the east coast as Spanish, or Spanish American — it’s basically a catch-all term that to me connotes delicious, often with tropical ingredients, but always complex and filling food. We’ve made mention of several of these neighborhood eateries in several previous posts – El Viejo Yayo, Los Pollitos, Bogota among them – but our most recent crush is on the wonderful Windsor Terrace institution, Elora’s.

Serving Mexican and Spanish food, whereby you can select from the greatest hits of Mexico as well as these Spanish-speaking Caribbean classics, Elora’s serves all these in such volume that one dish could easily feed a hungry family of four. And it is perhaps because of this, and their consequently narrow profit margins, that our regular server at Elora’s should, by rights, be enjoying the benefits of a comfortable retirement.

Pushing 80 years old, Don Nicolas is without doubt the oldest but also the most charming and interesting waiter we have ever had the good fortune to be served by. Born to Sicilian immigrant parents in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and trained as a tango and opera singer, it is his daughter for whom the restaurant is named. His musical career spanned several decades and took him the length and breadth of the Americas, before he retired from singing, settled in Brooklyn and went into the restaurant business with his marital family.

On our most recent visit while we waited for our heavily-laden plates to arrive, Don Nicolas was explaining to us the secret of his youthfulness – “if I stop moving, I become stiff and I might not get started again! When you are young you don’t think about these things and spend all your time on the couch!” Indeed, many less energetic thirty somethings might have struggled with the amount of food he was charged with lugging from the kitchen. But manage he did, depositing immoderate orders of pernil, bistec encebollado and chicharrones de pollo on our table before returning spritely with sides of beans, rice, and tostones. Still not done, he surveyed the table and in a trice was back with a deep bowl of raw garlic in oil. “Prefieren un poco de salsa de ajo por su tostones, no?” (you’d like a little garlic sauce for your plantains, right?), he asked.

When we congratulated Don Nicolas on his fitness and asked if his health is reflection of his restaurant’s hearty fare, he responded diplomatically that he enjoyed the beans and rice and the pollo guisado (stewed chicken) most weeks, but found the Mexican dishes to be too hot for his Argentine tastes. “No tenemos alimento picante en Argentina,” (we don’t have spicy food where I come from.) he explained.

In fact, chicharrones de pollo, deep fried chicken, or more accurately translated as chicken cracklins’, are a popular Dominican dish, sometimes also claimed by Puerto Ricans as their own — we’ll leave it to them to fight over where it truly originated — in which chunks of chicken are marinaded for a lengthy period in adobe, lime juice, rum and either soy sauce or worcestershire sauce before being lightly dusted in corn starch and tossed into hot oil. If you like fried chicken (and those who don’t must ask themselves some searching questions) then you should try this recipe. It goes perfectly well with the tostones we had at Elora’s or the beans and rice we prepared more recently, but it is just as good on its own with a jigger of hot sauce and a cold bottle of Presidente Dominican beer. And, sure, it won’t necessarily help you live well into your 80s, but it will make the next couple of hours more enjoyable.

Chicharrones de Pollo (fried marinated chicken chunks) (serves 4)

Ingredients:

1 chicken, butchered into primal cuts then cut into 2 inch chunks
1 liter/1 quart vegetable oil
1/4 cup rum
3 tablespoons worcestershire sauce
1/2 cup lime juice
1 tablespoon each of ground cumin, dried oregano, black pepper, garlic powder, and onion powder for the adobo rub
1 teaspoon each of paprika/pimenton and ground red pepper (not strictly traditional but delicious and helpful with obtaining the right color)
1/2 cup corn starch or plain flour
1 tablespoon kosher salt

Recipe:

Combine all dry spices in a bowl and sprinkle evenly over the chicken pieces and massage in.
Cover and allow chicken to marinate for up to 24 hours in the fridge
No more than 3 hours before serving, add lime juice, rum and worcestershire sauce to marinating chicken.
Heat oil in a large pot (a big wok is a good alternative) to around 350F
Drain chicken of marinade and allow to drip dry for 10 minutes or so.
Sprinkle (or roll) chicken with corn starch, shake off excess
Fry your chicken until crispy and golden brown in batches, sprinkling just-removed pieces with salt.
Serve with rice and beans or tostones and lime wedges as garnish.

On Parenting and Pumpkins

Jonny — Thu, 25 Nov 2010 14:24:33 +0000

It’s one of the ironies of being a new parent that even though we are spending more time than at any other point in our adult lives at home, we are finding it virtually impossible to do any cooking. Even when we do steal a few moments of quiet to get behind the burners, by the time the food is done, so is the nap our baby was taking. Of course, eating your dinner cold is nothing new to a food blogger – teasing the plating and getting just the right lighting usually takes a while – but at least we used to be able to eat our tepid meat and congealed sauce without the throaty vocal stylings of a five-week-old as an accompaniment.

Another delightful aspect of being a home-bound parent is that, when leaving the house involves assembling ten things, a stroller and an acquiescent child, one is motivated to make use of what is close at hand. In a moment of hunger-inspired desperation this past weekend, we took that maxim to its logical conclusion.

Literally lying beside our front door was a pair of pumpkins we had originally intended to carve for Halloween had our sculptural ambitions not been thwarted by the arrival of said infant. Still edible, they were quickly hacked, seeded and roasted in a hot oven with salt and pepper while the baby slumbered peacefully in his swing. In a “waste not, want not” moment, also into the oven went the pumpkin seeds seasoned with chipotle powder and brown sugar, emerging a scant twenty minutes later, crispy and snack-tastic. The baby, now stirring, its nostrils a-quiver.

From all of this, plus the contents of a still well-stocked spice rack and half a Mexican chorizo I rescued from a sad end in the depths of our refrigerator, came a pimentón-scented pumpkin velouté topped with sweet chipotle pepitas, crumbled chorizo and a sprinkle of black Hawaiian sea salt that I forgot we’d bought, somewhat curiously, in a supermarket in France last Christmas.

Even the abundant use of the stick blender failed to completely rouse our newborn, though, in his now-customary fashion, by the time we were seated at the table, spoons-at-the-ready, our charming little nipper was once again in full voice, sharing his anguish at his meager milk-based diet. Happily, this soup is just as good, if not better, when reheated the next day. A quality we might not have fully appreciated before now.

Pumpkin Velouté with Pimentón and Chipotle (feeds 4-6)

Ingredients

1 large pumpkin, with seeds
1/2 Mexican style chorizo
1/2 cup cream or sour cream
1.5 cups milk
1 cup chicken stock
2 tsp pimenton ahumado (smoked Spanish paprika)
1tsp chipotle powder
2 tsp brown sugar
salt and pepper
2 tbsp cotija cheese, grated
cilantro garnish

Recipe

Preheat oven to 420F/200C
Cut pumpkin into large chunks (leaving skin on), and deseed it. Sprinkle pumpkin with salt and pepper.
Rub pieces lightly with olive oil and roast in the oven for 40 minutes, or until pumpkin starts to color a little
On a separate oven tray, spread seeds and season with salt, pepper and chipotle powder. Place in same oven and roast for 20 minutes or until crispy.
Remove from oven and allow to cool fully before removing skin carefully with a paring knife.
In a blender, food processor or with a stick blender, pulse pumpkin, pimenton, brown sugar.
Spoon in half the sour cream and milk, and re-pulse. Add chicken stock, pulse to combine.
Consistency should be pretty thick. Add remaining milk and sour cream until soup is smooth but not gloopy.
Return to the pot and bring to a simmer. Correct seasoning.
In a saute pan, crumble chorizo and saute until cooked through
Ladle soup into bowls and garnish with chorizo crumbles, pumpkin seeds, cotija cheese and any thing else you think might be good.

Arroz con Gandules (Rice with Pigeon Peas): A Puerto Rican Must-Eat

Amy — Fri, 21 May 2010 23:18:57 +0000

When our readers actually read our posts, it feels really good. Because we often write a lot in our post, it is understandable why some may choose not to actually read our words. We understand how many blogs exist, and many only have time to do the “blog drive-by” (you know what I’m talking about – the “I’m going to just look at the pictures quickly then comment something like damn! that-looks-deeelissssh!” drive by? We’ve all done it). But the thing we love the most about writing a blog about food from all over the world, trying to infuse history, cultural anecdotes and as much authenticity as possible, is when we get schooled. It’s almost like a sick, food-centered type of masochism. It’s almost as if we are bent over some Argentinian, Spanish, French or Italians knee as they spank us very hard telling us how wrong we were about _______________ (insert ethnic dish of choice here). Knowing we have people actually reading what we write (and telling us how we can do things better) makes us feel all warm and fuzzy inside. It shows us that people are actually reading our words and are interested in enlightening people about their culture. When we get something wrong on the blog, getting schooled helps us learn and grow and we love it.

One may think that one of the best perks of having a food blog is getting free truffle products (ok, that friggin rocked), free yogurt (didn’t rock as much as the truffle) or free seasoning packets (that basically sucked) but my favorite “freebie” actually came in the form of a scanned in family recipe. A bit ago, we received an email from a reader that asked us when we were going to take a stab at featuring “Arroz con Gandules” on the blog. He read the blog and understood the research we do in regards to authenticity and asked us to please try his “Puerto Rican Lady Friend’s” recipe. It happened to be a dish we had on that lovely “list of things to make for the blog” so, once we received this, we figured to look no further. We tried the recipe (even having to email the reader back to make sure I could understand his handwriting correctly) and didn’t even bother with any more research. It was that good and that easy to make and a perfect weeknight meal. If you want to mix it up a bit, do as our reader Christine does and serve it along with Puerto Rican slow roasted pork shoulder, Pernil, instead of the bits of pork.

Arroz con Gandules is often thought of as Puerto Rico’s national dish. It is the dish that will most often be made for the Christmas dinner table and after one taste, you will see why. What could be better than a one-pot meal with layers and layers of flavor? What could be better than looking around at your kitchen thinking you have opened up a Goya shop (that is if you don’t make your own sofrito, sazon or use canned peas) What could be better than being able to create a delicious crust of crunchy rice and spices goodness that can form at the bottom of the rice called “pegao“?(**We aren’t talented enough yet to get the pegao right, but I’ll be working on it as soon as we pony up and buy a real caldero). So, here’s to Robert – the reader who so graciously supplied this recipe. We may never have met you, but we think of you every month we make Arroz con Gandules!

ARROZ CON GANDULES (Rice with Pigeon Peas) – serves about 6 as a main to 8 as a side/starter

8 (more or less) slices of bacon, chopped OR three chorizo links cut in chunks
4 to 5 pork chops, cut in chunks (by butcher or with a heavy cleaver) – about 1 to 1/2 lbs of pork
1 small onion, chopped
1 tomato, chopped
3 to 6 cloves of garlic (we love garlic, so put in as little or as much as you’d like)
6 ounces of Goya Sofrito (or your own homemade sofrito - this is our go-to sofrito recipe)
5 cups of water
1 can gandules (pigeon peas)
1 packet of sazón
1/2 teaspoon salt
pinch of oregano (about 1/2 tablespoon)
pinch of cumin (about 1/2 tablespoon)
pinch of pepper
2 bay leaves
1 cup of alcapparado (or just pitted green olives)
2 1/2 cups white rice
olive oil
a lime
scallions
chopped cilantro

What to do:

Heat up a few tablespoons of olive oil in a heavy-bottomed pan (that also includes a nice, tightly fitting lid) on medium. Add the bacon (or chorizo) and fry until well cooked but not super crispy. Remove with a slotted spoon to a dish.
Season your pork pieces with some salt and pepper and fry in the remaining oil/rendered bacon fat until the get plenty of color.
After pork pieces get brown, add the chopped onion and tomato and fry for a minute. After a minute, add the garlic and cook for about 20 to 30 seconds.
Add the sofrito and, using a wooden spoon, scrape up all those delicious bits on the bottom of the pan created by the pork. Allow sofrito to cook for about one minute.
Add the water, gandules, alcapparado/olives, spices and herbs, sazon packet and salt and pepper, stir and bring to boil.
When water comes to a boil, add the rice, stir once, cover and turn to low and simmer for 10 minutes.
As Robert’s “Puerto Rican Lady Friends” say, “DO NOT REMOVE THE COVER DURING THE COOKING INTERVALS!”.
Leave covered on low, simmering, for 30 to 40 minutes or until done. Robert says you can check the rice every 10 minutes (but never removing the cover in between these intervals) but, I find that checking every 10 minutes is kind of unnecessary. I usually check every 15 or so. Either way, this part may take a tiny bit of practice until you really know your stove and how high/low the flame needs to be to perfect your rice.
After the 30 to 40 minutes, turn off heat and allow to steam for a few more minutes. Remove cover, then fluff rice. Serve in bowls and sprinkle with some chopped cilantro and sliced scallions and maybe a squeeze of lime. Enjoy with a cold Presidente.

The Mexicans Get It Right Every Time! Pollo en Salsa de Cacahuate (Chicken with Peanut Salsa)

Amy — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 16:57:17 +0000

Ever have one of those days where the only thing that gets you through is knowing you are going to have a good meal later on? I have no idea where I read about this dish, but one day, trying to unwind after a long, frustrating and tiring day of putting out the fires that are usually started by teenage drama (I moonlight as a school counselor, in case you forgot), a mental picture of this dish formed in my head and I immediately went to the store to try and make it. This dish is definitely not for the nut-hater. But, maybe it could be? As a girl who used to eat peanut butter on a spoon every day for breakfast (I’ve now matured to peanut butter spread on multigrain toast), this dish made me very, very happy.

It’s not surprising that Pollo en Salsa de Cacahuate is a traditional dish from Puebla, Mexico. Puebla is often thought of as the gastronomic mecca of Central Mexico and happens to be the birthplace of mole, that beautiful, dark, chocolatey sauce made of over thirty ingredients including nuts and seeds, and pipians, another sweet yet savory sauce using ground nuts and seeds. Peanuts have been part of Mexican cooking since long before Spain invaded in the 15th century and are often used as a thickening agent. Poblano cuisine, specifically, is typically made of indigenous and local ingredients and, let me tell you, Pueblo is on my “must go” lists of places to travel to (and eat, eat, eat in).

Traditionally, this dish should be made with dried chiles. We used dried chiles in ours and I really just wanted to kick it up, so I added some chipotles in adobo. For me, it added extra spice and the adobo added more flavor than the dried chiles did. In fact, I think you could leave out the dried chiles if you don’t have any on hand and just add some chipotles in adobo. It’s rare I’ll move away from the traditional but, in this case, flavor-wise I think it would be ok. I also did not make this in a mortar and pestle and, again, although not traditional, a blender worked just fine.

CHICKEN WITH PEANUT SALSA (Pollo en Salsa de Cachuate)
(serves 4)

2 to 3 lbs. of chicken pieces with skin
1 to 1 1/2 cup unsalted raw peanuts, lightly roasted till brown
1 small onion, chopped
2 dried pasilla (or guajillo) chiles, rehydrated and chopped up
3 chipotles in adobo + some of the adobo (if you don’t like it spicy, start with 1 or 2 and decide if you want to add more)
2-4 cloves of garlic (depending on how much you like garlic),whole
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
optional: 1/8 teaspoon ground clove
squeeze of lime
pinch of freshly ground pepper
hot chicken stock
some oil
blender

Season your chicken pieces with salt and pepper and saute in a bit of oil until brown all over. When skin has taken on color and is a bit crispy, remove to a plate.
In a separate dry pan, brown peanuts – this doesn’t take long – about 30 seconds if that. Don’t burn them! Take off heat and keep on the side.
Add a bit more oil if necessary and throw in your garlic, onions and rehydrated pasilla and saute until they take on some color and the onions soften.
In a blender, first add the onion, garlic and pasilla mixture and blend with a bit of warm chicken stock. Try to puree it as best as possible. Add the chipotles along with a tablespoon of adobo and blend. Add the peanuts to the blender along with another bit of chicken stock and puree until smooth. You do not want the texture of the sauce to be like peanut butter, you want it smooth with some liquid in it. Add the cinnamon, clove and some fresh ground pepper. Blend. Taste the sauce for extra seasoning. Does it need more salt or pepper? Do you like it spicier? Add more adobo or whole chipotles if you do. Add a bit more chicken stock so it is not too thick.
When sauce is as you like it, bring it back to the pan you cooked the chicken in and add some along with a bit more chicken stock. With a spoon, pick up all the goodness that collected at the bottom of the pan and stir. Add the chicken to the pan, add a bit more sauce along with a bit more stock and allow chicken to simmer for another fifteen to twenty minutes. Add a squeeze of lime juice to the sauce. Serve with some rice and enjoy.

On the Side: Purple Potatoes with Cotija, and Pattypans with Pepitas

Amy and Jonny — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 12:19:08 +0000

Perhaps surprisingly given that we’ve been deluged with guests for the last month, we haven’t actually cooked for them much, or at least, cooked anything we’d dare post. As anyone who’s been a host knows, having guests is an exhausting experience, but especially so when you’re playing the role of tour guide too, so here are two simple side dishes instead of something that required more lengthy preparation.

We ate them with some enormously meaty lamb rib chops and a fat lump of hanger steak that had both been rubbed with a chipotle-cumin-Mexican oregano mix. A hearty red Zinfandel accompanied it all fearlessly.

Purple Potatoes with Red Onion and Queso de Cotija
Ingredients

1lb purple potatoes
1 red onion, finely sliced into rings
4 tbsp grated cotija
2 tbsp good olive oil
2tbsp chopped cilantro
kosher salt to taste

Recipe

Boil potatoes until they will easily fall off a knife poked into them
Drain potatoes and while still hot, return to pot with onions, oil, cilantro and cheese.
Mix ingredients well.

Pattypan Squash with Pumpkin Seeds (Pepitas)
Ingredients

1lb pattypan squash
1/2cup pumpkin seeds
kosher salt
Lots of fresh-ground black pepper
2tbsp unsalted butter

Recipe

Toast pumpkin seeds in a dry pan until lightly browned, but no more. Reserve.
Boil squash for five minutes or until tender (but not soft)
Drain and, again, while still hot, return to pan with butter, pumpkin seeds, salt and pepper
Combine ingredients well and serve on the side of plenty of red meat.

More Glandular Goodness: Sweetbread Tacos

Jonny — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 14:38:37 +0000

There are few things that, when slapped between tortillas and christened with spicy condiments, fail to get me excited. Making it a shame that the vast majority of Mexican restaurants near us have such a limited spectrum of taco fillings. Not that I don’t enjoy carnitas, carne asada, fish or chicken tacos, I very definitely do, but that there is something of a tyranny inherent in this four-point agenda.

Recently, after our meaty dust-up with the Uruguyuan-style tablita parillada, we found ourselves with a surfeit of grilled sweetbreads (aka mollejas in Spanish, aka thymus glands in biology), and were looking for creative ways to use this most succulent of leftovers. Ever the slayers of convention, we sought to break this taco-based tyranny, and gently reheated our sweetbreads combining them with a crunchy, tangy salsa of radish, roasted corn and grape tomato, all wrapped in a blue corn tortilla for a dramatic finish.

In this process, we learned that throughout the South-West USA and northern Mexico, taco stands offering sweetbreads (as well as other tasty fillings including tongue and tripe) are so common you just about fall over them at every corner. All of which made us feel slightly less original in our preparation, but no less enthusiastic about its merits. Indeed, it was reassuring to know that places still exist in this condensed and standardized world where you can be openly and brazenly glandular should the feeling so move you.

Tacos de Mollejas (Sweetbread Tacos)) (serves 2)
Ingredients:

8oz cleaned and poached sweetbreads
4-6 corn tortillas
4 large red radishes, finely sliced into rings
1/2 medium red onion
6oz grape tomatoes, halved
1 ear yellow corn (sweet corn),boiled and roasted/grilled)
3tbsp cilantro(coriander leaf), finely chopped
juice of 1-2 limes
salt
black pepper
3tbsp vegetable oil

Recipe:

Pre-heat flat-top, griddle or heavy skillet to medium-high
Grill corn cob on said hot surface until browned (but not blackened) on all sides. Allow corn to cool.
When fully cooled, slice off kernels and, in a bowl, combine with radish, onion, tomato, cilantro and lime juice.
Allow salsa to improve for at least half an hour or as long as overnight. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Gently grill/griddle your poached sweetbreads until nicely golden-brown on all sides. (10-12minutes). Squeeze lime juice over them and set aside.
In a skillet or flat-top at medium high heat, add a teaspoon of oil and quickly soften enough tortillas (2-4) for first course (you’ll want seconds). Do not allow tortillas to “fry”, only to puff up a little and become pliable.
Combine your sweetbreads, salsa and tortillas to make your tacos. Other possible condiments include guacamole, crema (sour cream), hot sauce, pickled onions, pickled carrots, sliced cabbage, pico de gallo, rajas, etc..
Enjoy with a cold beer.

Top Five of the Month Contest – March: Fresh Herbs

Amy and Jonny — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 16:17:06 +0000

The contest has ended for this month. Come on back next month for a new “Top 5″! Check out Top 5 Herbs winner here.

Spring hasn’t exactly sprung yet here in Brooklyn. The trees are still bare and are showing no signs of sprouting anything. Even the crocuses, let alone the daffodils, remain mostly tuberly and dormant.

Nonetheless, there are some signs of the changing season as our long-suffering chives are poking through all bright green and soft, and our tough little tarragon plant is also making a comeback. And, it’s these weak, but brave, first signs that we’re clinging to in order to retain sanity at the end of what seems like a very long and cold winter.

So, with these hints of verdant optimism poking through the bare earth, we’re looking ahead to the increasing bounty of our tiny garden, and asking you to nominate your Top Five favorite herbs. This month’s winner will receive a package including various herb seeds and a cookbook/guidebook to growing your own essential culinary flavorings. Click here to read the rules of our monthly top five giveaways.

Amy & Jonny’s Favorite Herbs:

tarragon
chives
lavender
thyme
sorrel

If spring has already sprung where you are, why not try our very delicious recipe for Grilled Lamb Shoulder Chop with a Yogurt Herb Sauce and Grilled Pita or this Lavender & Herb de Provence-stuffed Pork Rib Roast? How about a simple and healthy Artichokes Stuffed with Parsely, Garlic and Parmigiano?

Think spring, readers! Think spring.

Check out WANF’s other Top 5 contests and winners here.

Bandeja Paisa: A Colombian Gut-Buster

Amy and Jonny — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 16:19:50 +0000

We are fortunate enough to live in a city with a ridiculous amount of diversity when it comes to restaurants, and one place we frequent often is a ‘hip’ Colombian restaurant (what the hell, it is Brooklyn). When we go there it’s because of two things: 1) We’re friggin starving and are ready to eat till we drop and 2) we want to get drunk. They have very strong drinks, and the food, shall we say, ain’t exactly light either. Maybe the strong drinks are to help your appetite and enable you to eat more?

One of the favorite menu items is the very popular and typical Colombian dish Bandeja Paisa. Yes, I wasn’t lying when I called it a “gut buster”. There is no way in hell I’m not unbuttoning my jeans when I decide to order this one. Originating from northwestern Colombia (the province of Antioquia), this dish’s name stems from bandeja, meaning tray or platter, and what the people of the region are known as, paisas, or country-folk. The idea is that this mixed platter would be eaten at lunchtime after a hard morning working in the fields and would be followed (like there would be a choice!) by a lengthy siesta before anything resembling work could resume.

In 2005 the Colombian government planned to make bandeja paisa the national dish, but instead with the name of bandeja montañera (mountaineer’s platter). This move was actually faced with widespread opposition, citing that only a small percentage of the population actually eats bandeja (perhaps unsurprisingly, or they’d all be in cardiac arrest and/or 500lbs). However, the government persisted and now you can find all sorts of Colombian tourism paraphernalia advertising bandeja as the national dish – perhaps in a daring bid to encourage obese gringos to head on down for a feast…?

Anyway, like many traditional dishes the exact combination of ingredients/items often differs depending on who you ask, but, again, like many traditional dishes, there are a number of ingredients that all versions contain. Arepa (a thin shallow-fried corn cake), grilled marinated skirt steak, pork chicharron (crispy, deep-fried pork belly cracklins), a fried egg, chorizo, red beans (stewed red beans) and rice. [Note: some versions contain other foods including morcilla (blood sausage), sweet fried plantains, avocado, vinegary shredded red cabbage salad, fried potatoes, tomato sauce, and hogao (aka criollo sauce made with onions, tomatoes, pepper, oregano, cumin, and salt).] We combined our beans with the chorizo, substituted the rice with yucca fries, and cut the richness of the meal with the traditional Colombian condiment, aji.

Estimates vary, but it’s a meal of between 1,500-1,800 calories (that’s most of your daily intake), and yes, that’s right, and it’s all eaten for lunch. I, who can hardly sit up straight at my desk after a sandwich and an apple for my midday repast, find it almost impossible to imagine engaging in manual labor even after only half a plate of this magnitude. Combine this with the nearly year-round equatorial heat that part of Colombia enjoys, and I’d be retiring to my hammock for forty (or more) winks, which is why we tend to save up our bandeja eating for the colder months, and happily for us (but not our cardiologist) those months are on the way. So, get out the largest plate you own, starve yourself for a couple of days ahead of time, consider cancelling your plans for the afternoon, and get stuck into a bandeja paisa - it’s only your waistline at risk!

Bandeja Paisa

So, because this is a meal made up of many constituent parts, and because, with our version, we tinkered with the traditional ingredients a bit, what follows is basically a run-down of recipes starting with the most time-consuming preparations.

Stewed Pinto/Red Beans with Chorizo
See this recipe here we made a while back.

Yucca Fries

1 medium sized yucca (cassava), peeled and cut into 1/4inch (1cm) rings or half-moons
2 cups vegetable oil, heated to 350-375F
1tsp kosher salt
Fry yucca rings until golden and crispy. Remove to plate covered with paper towels to drain, and sprinkle with salt.
Keep warm in oven if not eating immediately as they get chewy and tough if left to cool

Skirt Steak

Sprinkle steak lightly with salt, pepper and rub generously with sliced garlic.
Marinate in olive oil until ready to grill.
Heat skillet or grill to screaming hot. Brush marinade off steaks and grill on each side for about 2-3 minutes (depending on thickness – use poke test regularly) for a nice medium-rare.
Cover with foil and allow to rest for 5-10minutes.

Shredded Red Cabbage Salad

Shred or finely slice 5-6oz red cabbage after removing tough outer leaves
Put cabbage in a bowl and mix with 3tbsp granulated sugar, 1tsp kosher salt and 1/2cup white vinegar
Allow to marinate and grow together for as long as a couple of days.

Colombian Arepas

1 cup masa harina (fine cornmeal flour)
1/4tsp salt
1/2 cup hot water
4oz vegetable oil
combine corn flour, water and salt into a sticky dough
make a ball out of some of the dough and roll into a circle about 4-5inches across and 1/4 thick
heat 1tbsp oil at a time, and fry dough circles until golden and crispy
drain on paper towels, then dress with butter/margarine and serve immediately while still warm

Spicy Colombian Aji

1 sweet pepper, finely diced
2 jalapenos, finely diced and de-seeded
3 small cloves garlic, finely chopped
1/4 onion, finely diced
10-15 stems cilantro, finely diced
1/2 cup white vinegar
1/2 cup water
juice of 1/2 lime
1 teaspoon granulated sugar
Combine all these ingredients together and let sit for at least an hour or as long as 2 days for the flavors to improve

Pork Chicharrones
We used the great recipe we found at Nikas Culinaria, and encourage you to do likewise.

Then, combine all this goodness on a plate (we suggest you share it with at least one other person unless you want to drift into a food coma you may never come out of) and enjoy with the latin cocktail of your choice (avoid beer, it makes everything swell up), or perhaps, as the Colombians would, accompany it with a few shots of aguardiente!

Thank you to about.com for featuring this post in their Colombian food section.

Disclaimer: Our dear Colombian friend kindly let us know that our too-styled, “pretty” version of Bandeja Paisa is a bit less authentic because of the way we put things on the plate. Hear our Juan Camilo discuss Bandeja Paisa and all things Colombian in our exclusive podcast interview.