Archive for the 'Latin' Category

Steak with mint chimichurri sauce

Published
by
marc
on July 21, 2008
in Beef and Latin
. 11 Comments

Perhaps it’s your body telling you that you need more iron, or maybe it’s a commercial you saw on TV, but sometimes you get a hankerin’ for a big juicy steak that just can’t be satisfied by any other means. In New York that usually means you head to Peter Luger’s, Strip House, Craft Steak, or one of the other dozen premium steak houses in town. This also means your wallet will be about $150 lighter.

Being on a budget, I almost never go to a steak house as it’s about the easiest thing you can make at home and it will cost less than 1/3 of the price. All you need is a good cut of meat, a heavy bottomed pan and timer. I went with two 10 oz. dry aged rib eye steaks from Whole Foods at $25 a lb. It’s not the best piece of meat I’ve ever had, but it was a heck of a lot better than most steaks I’ve had in restaurants and took me about 10 minutes from start to finish.

The trick is to get a heavy bottomed pan (which means the heat is distributed evenly) really hot then sear the steaks on either side for a few minutes. Doing it over medium heat ensures an enticing brown crust without destroying a stainless steel pan and a sheet of aluminum foil prevents a huge mess of splattered grease.

Chimichurri sauce is an Argentinian condiment served with meat that usually consists of oil, parsley, and some kind of acid, but for my version, I opted for mint and lime. It lightens up the heavy hunk of beef and provides a nice tart contrast while the olive oil adds some extra body to the meat.

I served this a with truffle creamed chard which I’ll tell you more about tomorrow.

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Yuca with yogurt mojo

Published
by
marc
on May 23, 2008
in Cuban
. 5 Comments

This yuca was a spontaneous purchase I made yesterday while at Wholefoods. It’s a long thick root that looks like a giant sweet potato with a waxy scaly skin. I’ve never cooked it before and have only eaten it a handful of times and yet this staple in many parts of the world called to me as I was heading to the cashier.

Yuca also known as “cassava root” is the the tuber below a cassava plant. According to Wikipedia, “the cassava plant gives the highest yield of food energy per cultivated area per day among crop plants, except possibly for sugarcane”. Both the leaves and the roots are eaten, and the roots are turned into flour which is used to make tapioca, boba, bread, etc.

But there’s a catch: it contains a compound that turns into cyanide in the presence of an enzyme found in the plant. The leaves have a particularly high concentration of this compound but it’s also found in the roots. Luckily, cooking renders it harmless, so just make sure it’s cooked all the way and you’ll be fine.

It’s got a texture somewhere between potato and pumpkin with a slight sweetness. Doused in olive oil and dressed with a garlic yogurt mojo sauce, it makes for a great side for fish and meat dishes. The tart yogurt and lemon give it a nice light taste while the potent raw garlic adds a ton of peppery flavour.

How do you like to prepare yuca?

1 small yuca (cassava root) peeled and cut into large even sized chunks
1 garlic clove finely minced
1/4 tsp salt
1/3 C plain yogurt
1 Tbs lemon juice
olive oil
cilantro leaves

Add the yuca to a large pot of salted water and bring to boil. Boil until you can pass a fork through a piece of yuca. You want it cooked through, but you also don’t want to over cook it as it will lose its shape.

Mash the minced garlic and salt together to form a paste then add the yogurt and lemon juice. Stir to combine.

When the yuca is cooked, drain and dump into a bowl. Add copious amounts of olive oil while gently tossing until the surface of the yucca is slightly shiny. Plate the yuca and pour the yogurt mixture on top. Scatter some cilantro leaves on top and grind a little black pepper to finish.

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Tacos al pastor

Published
by
marc
on May 4, 2008
in BBQ, Dinner, Mexican, Party and Pork
. 15 Comments

I think the 3 things I miss most about California are owning a car, having a grill, and the Mexican food. The later two are especially salient around Cinqo De Mayo which for me used to signal the start of the grilling season.

Like the Mexican food in NYC, Cinco De Mayo is a bit misguided here in the US. Most people think it’s the Mexican equivalent of July 4th, but it’s actually not even a federal holiday south of the border (Mexican Independence day on September 16th however is). I suspect its prominence in the US has a lot to do with the marketing engines of big tex-mex chains looking for a way to sell more burritos (ironically, this is a food item that doesn’t have the wide popularity in Mexico that it does here). Still, it is a good excuse to cook Mexican food especially something a bit more elaborate that takes about a day to make.

One of my favourite taco’s, Tacos Al Pastor (”shepherd style”) likely originated from Lebanese immigrants who made their way to Mexico and brought with them Shawarma. Like any food that emigrates from one place to another, changes are made to include locally available ingredients and to suit local palettes. In this case, the meats were flavored with various chiles and then topped with a pineapple while roasting.

The pineapple, aside from adding some sweetness and acidity, also has an enzyme called bromelain that breaks down proteins making the meat very tender. Since we don’t all have shawarma spits at home, I’ve adapted this recipe to work in an oven or on a cooler grill. The pineapple goes into the marinade which gets layered into the roast and is then left to marinade for a short amount of time.

The meat is stunningly tender with a distinct earthy-smokey flavor coming from the dried chiles and a nice balance of sweetness, tartness and salt. I like my taco’s simple (like they serve them at taquerias in Mexico) and load up a double layer of corn tortillas with meat then add a bit of minced sweet onion, cilantro and salsa verde on top.

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Chipotle turkey chili with pickled jalepenos

Published
by
marc
on March 9, 2008
in Mexican, Party, Soups & Stews and Winter
. 0 Comments

Chipotle turkey chili with pickled jalepenos

It used to be that the word “chili” would conjure up images of brown chunky mush that looked (and smelled) like something you would feed a furry four legged companion. The only thing that would make the chili of my memories remotely edible was to douse it with loads of cheese, sour cream, onions, and salsa.

Recently I was contemplating the contents of my pantry and given barren shelf with a lone can of smoked chipotle chilis and cannellini beans (aka white kidney beans) staring back at me, I decided I’d throw old notions of chili out the window. What I came up with was a fresher alternative that still captures the spicy warming essence of what good chili should be.

As in keeping with this blog’s name, I encourage you to take liberties on the ingredients and come up with your own perfect chili. Some ideas include replacing the turkey with crumbled extra firm tofu, using different spices, and serving it with different things. The picture above illustrates what I did with the chili on day 2.

Chili
2 tbs - good olive oil
1 - medium onion diced
1 - celery stalk diced
1 - jalepeno, seeds removed and minced
3 - garlic cloves minced
1 tbs - minced ginger

1 - bay leaf
1 tbs - ground cumin
1 tbs - ground coriander
1 tsp - cinnamon
1 tsp - chili powder

1 lbs - ground turkey

2 - chipotle chiles (canned in adobo sauce) diced
2 tbs - Adobo sauce from the chipotle chiles
3 cups - low sodium chicken stock

1 16 oz can - cannellini beans drained and rinsed

Pickled Jalepenos
2 - Jalepeno peppers sliced thin
1/4 tsp - salt
pinch of sugar
2 tbs - white vinegar

In a medium saucepan, saute the first set of ingredients in the olive
oil over medium heat until soft and starting to caramelize. Add the
spices and cook for another minute until fragrant.

Add the ground chicken, turn up the heat and break up into small
chunks until cooked through.

Add the chili’s, reserved adobo sauce and chicken stock and bring to a
boil. Turn down the heat, add the beans and simmer for 20 minutes.

Serve with pickled jalepenos and toasted bread rubbed with a clove of
raw garlic.

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Grapefruit Guacamole

Published
by
marc
on February 20, 2008
in Appetizer, Mexican and Party
. 1 Comment

Grapefruit Guacamole

I’m a big fan of simple citrusy guac and grapefruit goes especially well with avocados. The tart sweetness along with the slight bitter edge offset the creamy smoothness of the avocados well. Pickling the onions first keep them from overpowering the citrus and the cilantro adds a freshness that rounds out the guac nicely.

1/4 small red onion thinly sliced (about 1 1/2 Tbs.)
1/2 tsp. salt
Juice of 1-2 segments of grapefruit

5 segments of grapefruit peeled
1 ripe avocado roughly chopped
1 Tbs. minced cilantro
Juice of half a lime

Combine the first 3 ingredients ahead of time and let the onions “pickle” for at least 10 minutes. Squeeze out the juice with your hands before using.

Crumble the grapefruit up into pieces with your fingers, add the avocados, pickled onions, cilantro and lime juice and stir to combine (the avocado’s should still be chunky). Salt to taste and serve with chips or on top of a grilled white meat fish like Halibut.

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