Cinco de Mayo recipe

Sorry I let this one go by. I had some camera malfunctions as mama forgot to charge the bat'ry. It combines some good Mexican food with the grill. Inspired by last month's FW, in fact that's the link to the recipe as it was described. I'll just add some extra tidbits to it.

Arrachera a la parrilla; tortilla de maiz; crema de elote con rajas.

Grilled skirt steak, corn tortillas, salsa, creamed corn with roasted poblanos.

Skirt steak

Get two full pieces of skirt steak, make sure they're clear of silverskin. I have had some variable luck with finding this at the grocery store. If you ask, they usually have it, but it might be frozen. Not preferred, but it will do. Skirt is not the same as flank steak. Flank is oblique muscle, skirt is diaphragm, and hanger is diaphragm in contact with kidneys which does change the flavor.

Season only with salt, pepper, and lightly coat with olive oil. This is going to be quick, and you need a super-hot fire. Alton Brown on Good Eats describes actually putting these directly on the coals. Bold. Sear 5-6 minutes on one side. If it flames up, don't worry about it. 3 min or so on the other side. Cut on the bias. THAT'S IT! The idea is black outside, pink inside. Sounds like the punchline to a Newman joke. (insider MCG thing)

Options: you can marinate this overnight with some combination of ginger, lime zest (or deactivated lime juice), but a brining solution is probably overkill. The only other thing I'd say is that you have to think about how to serve this. You can make tacos with it, but think about the size of the meat and how it's going to behave with a taco. If you make it like this and cut it like it's described, you'll have two pieces about 3-4 inches long per taco. One bite, blows the whole thing up because it's a pretty chewy piece but it's got a bunch of flavor. I've been in restaurants that serve this alone.

Tortillas

When you buy these at the grocery store, how do you heat them up? You could throw them right into the microwave, but you'd be a moron. You could also wrap about 10 or so in a damp dishcloth and microwave them, that's better. Or, you could dampen them a bit and throw them suckers on the grill! That's what I'm talkin' about! Super hot fire, be quick about it, or you're going to have baked chips. Which isn't so bad, either. They do need some moisture because they get really dehydrated in the fridge. Alternative: on a skillet with a touch of oil or cooking spray. Don't let them brown. Like any good dough, they need to steam and blacken a bit. Or you can make your own. I'll get to that before to long. I just got a tortilla press that I bought at world market.

Creamed corn and poblanos

Take your pick. Cheat like I did and use a small can of creamed corn. Take two poblanos and throw them on the grill, too. Blacken them on all sides. Pull them off, let 'em cool, and then peel them. Seed, core the peppers, and cut diagonally into strips. Throw your large stainless skillet on your side burner or stove top, and heat it up to medium high heat (electric? 7/10). Add some oil to coat the base until it just starts to smoke, and throw in a diced onion. Let it go for a while, throw a couple of cloves of minced garlic, be careful not to burn them. Add a cup of sour cream, the corn, and the poblanos. Probably need a little bit of water in there, too, to give yourself a liquid that can reduce. This will take about 10-15 minutes total, and you can prepare it first while your stoking the coals for the other stuff.

Serve all with thin-sliced limes, and sprinkle a little cilantro over the top.

Viva la Matthew!

More Spicy Treats!

As I was thinking of my pal OG and his recent Salsa posts, I decided to make something spicy. Taking a note from Bobby Flay, I decided on a chili-rubbed pork tenderloin with a Flay-inspired sauce containing chicken broth, apple juice concentrate, chipotle with adobo, mustard, and some homemade chili paste. I served with some creamed hominy and a roasted pepper/chile salad. I don't have a picture, but this was pretty easy and damn good.


Ingredients:
For pork-
2 pork tenderloins
2 T canola oil
Rub-
5 T of mixed chili powders, I used 3 T of Ancho and 2 T regular McCormick's blend
2 T brown sugar
1 T smoked paprika
1 t kosher salt
1 t black pepper
1 t cinnomin
1/2 t allspice
1/2 t garlic powder
Sauce
3 cups chicken broth (per Cook's Illustrated, the absolute authority for home cooks, Swanson's organic)
1 cup apple juice concentrate
2 T chipotle chile in adobo pureed
1/4 cup home made dry chile paste
1 T mustard
2 T mexican crema, creme fraische or sour cream would work as well
salt and pepper to taste

Start by making the sauce, as you are preparing your mise en place, start by soaking 4 to 6 dried chiles such as ancho or pasilla in warm water for 3o minutes and preheat your oven to 375 F. Once the chiles tender, remove stems and seeds, tear into small pieces and blend until smooth adding some of the soaking liquid until the "paste" is between the consistency of mashed potatoes and tomato paste. To same time here, go ahead and add 2 chipotle chiles and a tablespoon of adobo sauce to this puree.

In a medium saucepan, add broth and concentrate, bring to a boil, then add chiles, continue cooking at a brisk simmer to reduce. While reducing, start on the pork.

Pat the tenderloins dry with as many papertowels as you can stand to waste, then completely coat the tenderloins with the rub. Heat stainless skillet over medium-high heat for 3 minutes then add the oil. Shake the excess rub off the tenderloins and drop in the skillet. Brown the tenderloins well on roughly three sides (note this doesn't take too long b/c the rub has brown sugar). While the final side is browning, place pan in preheated oven...by this time the sauce should have reduced significantly.

The pork will roast for about 10 minutes, but if you are afraid of pork, I suggest checking temperature with instant read thermometer. The sauce should reduce until you have about a cup and the sauce is thickened. Once desired consistency is reached, whisk mustard and cream into the sauce and season with salt and pepper to taste.

Let the pork rest about 5 minutes tented with foil before slicing into medallions.

I served this with creamed hominy and a pepper salad. For the hominy, I combined one can of hominy and added about a 1/2 cup of half and half, 2 T honey, some cilantro, some chipotle chile puree, salt, pepper and juice from a lime. Heated over medium heat and blended with a stick blender until all the hominy was broken down somewhat. For the pepper salad, I roasted and seeded a red bell pepper, yellow bell pepper, 2 poblano peppers chopped into 3/4 inch dice. I combined the peppers with 2 cloves minced garlic, salt, pepper, a squirt of lime and a drizzle of olive oil. I crumbled in some queso fresco just before serving. The combined flavors were excellent.

After making this I found a Bobby Flay recipe that is probably better on FoodTv.com titled New Mexican Rubbed Pork Tenderloin, has recipe for Sweet potato tamale...Next time, I'll try this one and compare the two.

Salsa, a reprise

Out of necessity comes invention. When you're out of your key ingredients and you've got a hankering for something specific, you have to make do.

28 oz can diced tomato
1 habanero pepper, seeded minced
1 shallot, minced
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded minced
juice from 1 squeezed lime
1/4 - 1/2 cup minced chopped cilantro
salt to taste
fresh ground black pepper
2 cloves fresh garlic, minced

Add all of this to a blender and pulse until well mixed. Don't overdo it, or the tomato juice will get frothy.

The story is that I was out of crushed tomato and green onion, and I have noticed that the fresh garlic is a little bit overpowering, especially if you don't eat the salsa the same day. (See Mom, I do listen.) The habanero gives it a nice kick, and you don't have to put 3-4 jalapenos in it. Plus it gives it a little different color, as this one was orange (not that I'm a big fan of orange, see previous posts). Habanero also gives a sweetness that plays well off the bitterness of the jalapeno and lime juice. This has been one of my favorite mixes, yet. Again, I think that experimentation is the key, and find what you like. Everyone makes it differently.

Salsa recipes (1)

You'll never need to buy salsa again if you stick with this pretty easy formula, although you know me and my taco bell sauce.


Basically, there are a couple of types of salsa: those that use tomato and those that don't. The trick is deciding what to make based on your peppers. Within the tomato groups, you can do raw or cooked, depending on taste, and a few other factors.

Basic raw red tomato salsa:

1. 23 oz can crushed tomato (not diced or whole, too much liquid)


2. 2-3 jalapeno peppers (3-4 if serrano), lightly seeded, minced


3. 2-3 cloves of garlic, minced


4. 1 bunch of green onions, diced


5. cilantro, 1/4 to 1/3 of a bunch, minced


6. juice of 1/2 lime


7. salt


8. pepper

Save yourself the headache, cut your peppers last, or else the heat will be all over everything. Beware, this stuff is much better eaten within 24-48 hours. The longer it sits, the stronger the flavors of the garlic and onion. My mother doesn't like putting fresh garlic in, instead she opts for garlic powder, and to give a little soupier, but less watery consistency, she'll put tomato juice (like V8). Other possible variations are as follows:

• Roast the peppers first. I really don't think this makes that big of a difference, but Bayless recommends it.


• Roast the garlic. This might make a difference, but I don't do it in the interest of time and because sometimes to salvage a salsa that's been sitting around and wasn't eaten in time, I'll cook it to get it going again.


• Out of green onions? You can use shallots (1-2), white/yellow/red onion (1/2), or onion powder for that matter.


• Short on good peppers? You can sneak a little red cayenne pepper powder and/or red pepper flakes to give a little extra heat.


• Leave more seeds/membranes for extra heat if you're short on peppers.


• Leave out one jalapeno and add a couple of canned chipotle peppers in adobo sauce. Gives it a nice flavor.


• If you have nice avocado, you can dice one up and mix it in. Eat it soon, though.

Tomatillo sauce:

There're a couple of tricks to this. First is you don't want to pick out tomatillos that are too green. Don't use the canned stuff for this, it does make a difference. Good red tomatoes seem to me to be harder to find which is why I opt for the canned ones. Second, you have to oven roast the tomatillos under the broiler until they are black and half of them have exploded. I've tried to skip that step or to just sautee them, doesn't work, it comes out too watery and raw tomato flavored.

1. 8-12 tomatillos, husked


2. 1 bunch green onion or 1/2 medium white/yellow/red, diced


3. 2 cloves of garlic, minced, which you can oven roast with the tomatillos


4. 2-3 peppers, minced (I use either Serrano or Jalapeno or both)


5. 1/2 lime


6. salt


7. pepper


8. cilantro, 1/4 bunch minced

Broil the tomatoes, take them out and stick them in the blender. Pulse it to reduce it to runny jelly consistency. Add your other stuff, and you've got it. I tend to make this one hotter than others, but you don't have to. I haven't tried too many variations of this one, because I don't want to screw up the tangy taste, and if you anything red to it, it turns it brown and makes look like something you don't want to eat.

Chile Verde