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Tacos!

Tuesday, June 8th, 2010

Hello blog, its been a while.

After a long journey across the country with my man crow, my cat, and in a strangers car, I’ve arrived in New England. More importantly, I will soon be reunited with the JP crows!

I immediately started missing Oakland, and Oakland taco trucks, the second we left California. The thought of entering a taco-free world, and worse yet, a hard shell taco world (and what I thought would be a ceviche free world, until the crows retreated!), was eating away at my soul with each passing day. I knew that I had to share the glory of a good taco with my parents, who were so graciously allowing me to stay at their house while I got my proverbial “shit together.”

The results? Joyous, wonderful, & delicious.

Juanitalovestacos

for proper assembly smear black bean goo on the bottom of the shell. add meat. add cream, pile on cilantro, cabbage, and salsa. drizzle with hot sauce, squeeze 1/4 lime. enjoy!

Now, of course, my taco was not “authentic” either. I used no lard or deep frying, and chose to fill my taco with more than meat + onions + cilantro. Nonetheless, it filled a void in my tummy. My favorite animal meat is pig. I love me some pig, especially when it is cooked by several men in a taco truck. I, of course, could not replicate this on a New England grill, so I had to think fast! I went with some extremely thin sliced-bone in- somewhat fatty-pork. Marinaded in Lime zest, oil, hot peppers, cilantro, salt and pepper, then grilled to a tender but done perfection, I sliced it as thin as possible to form the base of our tacos.

Soft Shell Taco Essentials (the players)

small taco shells- I prefer a yellow corn tortilla, but white corn or flour will do, I suppose
cilantro
red onion
hot sauce
red cabbage
sour cream
salsa
karen’s magic bean goo creation (recipe below)
limes- juice and zest
meat product of your choosing!

So, one could just use these ingredients as is, and have a delicious taco. I made a few small, simple, and fast additions to really make it delicious.

Sour cream: Zest a lime and add 1/2 the juice to a 1/2 of sour cream
Salsa: A pico de gallo style salsa would work, this time I cheated and bought some. If you feel like being 100% home made you: take 3 large tomatoes & dice them finely. Zest 2 limes, add all juice. Dice 1/2 a red onion. chop a full bunch of cilantro. dice very finely at least 1 jalapeno, more if you like heat. Finely grate 2 garlic cloves. Mix everything together with a heafty dose of S & P.
Karen’s Bean Goo: The first time I made tacos at home was with our Oakland friend Karen. She made a black bean “hummus” earlier in the day that went SO WELL with our dinner tacos. Drain & rinse a can of black beans. In a blender combine, black beans, a tomato, a green pepper, cilantro, S & P, and some onion. Blend until smooth.
Cilantro & onions: In a bowl, mix a bunch of cilantro with 1/2 a diced onion. Juice a lime over it and add a good amount of salt. It should taste salty.

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Recipe for delicious cornmeal poundcake to come!

Also- a thought. Let’s combine our ceviche with a tostada shell, these taco toppings, cucumber and have a ball!

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Posted in Jamaica Plain, Meat/Poultry, San Francisco, dessert, sauces | 1 Comment »

Taco Night

Tuesday, September 29th, 2009

Last weekend,  I had a very fortunate encounter with a taco truck in my neighborhood called El Ojo de Agua. I didn’t understand why or how this was an appropriate name until after I enjoyed their famous tortas.  So you can understand how awesome this place is, here is a picture of the of the truck via their yelp page. I must also point out that this tropical motif (less the truck and plus a beach scene) is gracefully painted on the side of the building that houses this wonder.

taco truck extraordinaire

taco truck extraordinaire

This was an unplanned encounter, and although I had mixed feelings about eating a grease bomb before the beer, instead of hours after, I was entirely satisfied in my decision for the following reasons

  • The food.  Sometimes torta’s are gross and too smooshy gushy for my taste, but this one had perfected the textural condition. Crunchy jalapenos, lettuce, and onions, and fresh carne asada with a nice chunk of fresh-made cheese! The fresh cheese + above average pickled jalapenos (although i ate too large a chunk of one and had to remove the rest from my sandy) really made me go “wow.”
  • Absence of gringo treatment prevelant at so many fine taco establishments around the bay and beyond. Also, the owners were excited to help me pick something new and exciting to try (and I’m sure I reciprocated the relationship by entertaining them with my attempts to translate the menu for billy).
  • Thoughtful and not-wasteful attitude. As we were departing the god of the truck started yelling at us to come back- there was some extra smoothy in the blender from our order that he didn’t want to throw away! Yes! The major league gut bomb that hit me for the rest of the night was defiantly worth it.

After leaving this place we ventured over to the humble above of 3 lovely friends of Jingletown. The smell wafting from the kitchen had me hooked from on the ground floor.  What was cooking? More mexican food! I had just consumed this massive torta/strawberry smoothy combo and my stomach was bursting at the seams, but the smell…oh the smell was so potent! I was so upset that I couldn’t indulge in this treat, that yesterday I went out and got all the makin’s for none other than:

Spicy Boiled Chicken Tacos

For the meat:

  • 12 chicken thighs- bone in skin off
  • 1 green bell pepper
  • 1/3 cup diced onion
  • 6-10 garlic cloves, whole, crushed
  • 16 oz can of diced tomatoes- or 1-2 large chopped fresh tomatoes
  • cumin
  • paprika
  • salt & pepper
  • oregano
  • water

For Serving

  • lettuce
  • Cilantro
  • onions
  • chopped tomato
  • sliced jalepenos
  • limes- if you have them

Method

  1. Start by chopping the onion and pepper and throwing into your pot of choice. Get the heat high, and start softening the veggies.
  2. Add the skinned- but in-bone thighs (I’m sure you could also use breasts or whole parts of the chicken and it would be…more delicious.
  3. Brown on both sides of meat and pour in tomato
  4. add spices- as much or as little as you want- I recommend using more than 1 t of each, more of cumin
  5. add water at first to cover the meat up to 1 inch. As the water boils add more water as necessary to prevent total evaporation.
  6. Remove the meat from the bones when it becomes easy to do so, and continue to boil until the meat almost shreds itself, and the sauce has reduced to a thick and delicious entity which takes anywhere from 1.5 to 3 hours, depending on your time restraints and love of sauce-y sauce.

Assemble and Serve

  • I made tacos using soft shells heated up with a fine layer of Parm cheese between them. Then I layered the lettuce (unconventional but yummy) meat, cilantro, tomatoes, jalapenos and some sour cream. You could also toast up the taco shells- or just buy tortilla chips and make a nice salad! The meat alone would also make a yummy soup with some black beans and corn :)


Posted in Meat/Poultry, San Francisco, Uncategorized, restaurant review, salad | No Comments »

Butternut Bliss

Friday, September 25th, 2009

Fall is rapidly approaching- although I only know this from the arrival of squash to the dinner table. The weather is hot, the sky is blue, and there are still leaves on the trees. In order to fulfill my New England needs, I bought myself some butternut squash.

It all started with an email and a recipe c/o my mom.  She wrote:

Try this recipe-
1 butternut squash shredded
dried cranberries
walnuts
Cover with dressing made from small goat cheese log, apple cider vinegar, juice one lemon, olive oil
salt, pepper
yum!

I would never think to shred butternut sqaush- ingenious!

Then, my friend Sarah came over and said that her market sells a butternut squash lasagna. I had never heard of such glory. The stars had aligned- Two instances of new forms of squash- shredded and in a savory treat- made me immediately hunt down the seasons early harvest. My mind started spinning in circles thinking of all the ways I could combine these two brilliant ideas. Add the walnuts in the lasagna? What about pine nute- or even cranberries? I bought two medium-large sized squash from the Castro Farmer’s market. A more expensive market than others, but I like it because of the specialty items that converge- olives, bread, Bolani, and suprisingly some of the cheapest places to buy flowers($3 a bunch!) that I have ever found.

In the end I would up making lasagna minus anything special b/c of my lack of walnuts or any of the other special ingredients – but I will certainly be making more exotic variations as well as the salad sometime soon!  I adapted a few recipes I found to fit my needs- namely this mixed with this and my own interpretations, inexact measurements, and oval-shaped casserole dishes .

Butternut Squash Lasagna

18-ish lasagna noodles
1.5 c ricotta
2 eggs
1/2 log of goat cheese
5 lbs Butternut squash- cubed in 1″ pieces
cinnimon
nutmeg
fennel seed-ground
Salt & Pepper
Olive Oil or Grapeseed Oil or both
2 cups milk
2 T butter
2 T flour
1 Cup Parmesan
3 T diced onion

Method: For the filling: Peel the squash with a veggie peeler and cube into 1 inch pieces. In a large bowl, coat with oil first. Season with heavy amounts of black pepper and salt. Eyeball 1 T of ground fennel seed and cinnamon, and  1 t nutmeg. Toss evenly on the squash, coat heavily with more oil it the cubes seem to dry. Pour onto a baking sheet or roasting pan and cook aprox 45 minutes or until fork tender, stirring 2-3 times to distribute juices, in a 425 degree oven.  Either mash the squash, or use a food processor. * Add the cheeses, add the eggs.  For the noodles: Boil noodles for only 3-4 minutes, remove while they are still firm and coat with oil. Make sure they don’t stick while you wait for everything else to be ready.  For the sauce: Melt butter in saucepan, add onions, cook until slightly caramelized. Add flour, cook 3-5 minutes until the flour smell is gone. Add milk, stir to remove lumps. Add parm cheese and remove from heat when it becomes thick.  Assembly: Start with a layer of sauce on the bottom of the pan, then :noodles, sauce, filling, noodles, sauce, filling, etc,etc. Finish with noodles with a nice amount of sauce on the top- if you wish add more parm cheese.
Serves: 6-8. If my dish had 90 degree angles, I suspect it would be 8 X 12.
*I used the food processor and made some smooth, and left some in larger forked chunks. I def. recommend leaving some chunks

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Posted in Cheese, San Francisco, baking-savory, pasta | No Comments »

Colorful Salad

Thursday, September 24th, 2009

Monday night I got to hang out with a good friend that I rarely get to see. We made pinhole cameras (or rather started to make pinhole cameras), and made a retro typewriter work in a build up to a delicious diner. Here are some action shots!

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For the main bit I made Mo’s Sauce-y Vodka Sauce- although I had no heavy cream so I improvised with a  whole milk/cream cheese combo that did the trick less a few cream cheese lumpules. So good! I have never been able to master the thick/richness of a store bought sauce, but this one didn’t need it. It was especially good as leftovers the next day as the liquid had soaked into my al dente noodles.

I had no lettuce, but a good array of fresh salad veggies- plus an avacado to boot! Along came the inspiration for this delicious summer side salad that rounded the meal out perfectly.

Bright Summer Salad

1 cup blanced sugar snap peas

2 inches paper thin sliced English Cucumber

1 shaved carrot (done with the veggie peeler)

1 can cannellini beans rinsed, drained

1 small red gypsy pepper

paper thin sliced onion, to your liking

1 very large yellow heirloom tomato, cubed

Avacado- Cilantro Sauce

1 whole avacado

the top part of a cilantro bunch (about 1/4 cup)

1 clove garlic

juice from 1 lemon

Salt & Pepper

a few T Olive Oil

Milk- as needed

In a blender (or it fits perfectly in 1 of the cup shaped parts to the magic bullet) combine all the ingredients minus the milk. Blend until smooth. Open, taste for further seasoning. If you want a more watery sauce use milk to thin it out.  Toss with veggies and serve immediately.

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Posted in San Francisco, pasta, salad, sauces, vegetarian | No Comments »

The Story of Sourdough

Wednesday, September 16th, 2009

So this has been a post long in the making. After much deliberation, and draft writing, and stalling, and re-writing, and researching, and stalling, and rewriting,  I have decided that instead of writing one huge mega-post, I will break it up so that each step in this process has it own post!

And so I begin:

I  have officially lived in the Bay Area for 1 year. Wow.

What is more wow, is that it has taken me this whole year to start making sourdough. This area if famous for a few things, like lame duck female politicians, crack babies, hippies, homeless people, rice-a-roni, and….Sourdough!  In reality however, the star of the show is the airborne yeast that thrives in this foggy bay. There are endless possibilities for making deliciously fermented treats, and I plan on making each of them….pickles…beer…kraut…sourdough…delicious! In Fact, there is a fermentation festival here, and hopefully next year I will find a way to attend.

I began my research with a simple Google search, and although I was disappointed overall in what I found (I have a feeling sourdough recipes are much like mushroom hunting locations….) I did find enough information to start my experiments.

I started with these three 1 2 3

The second one, was really all I needed, though, as it provides the basics from which you can grow after attempt 1,2,3,4,5….

This series on YouTube also provided me with some helpful inof during my personal attempt #2.   I wish I had found it sooner as he provides some helpful hints for when you actually begin forming the dough.*

Until we meet again, here is a picture of Starter Day 1

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Sourdough Starter:

1 cup water

1 cup flour

1 awesome jar

Combine the two ingredients in the jar and mix thouroughly. Each day disgard half of the starter, and replenish with 1/2 cup water and 1/2 cup flour. in time you will see visible signs of fermentation…bubbles and a brown liquid on top are good indications that your starter is near completion! You may toss the brown liquid on top if your mixture is watery, or mix it back in. Continue this process from 3-7+ days.

Challenge: The Bay Area is known for having awesome yeast, I wonder if this will work as well on the East coast? Someone shoudl try it! I think you can also add some yeast to the starter to jumpstart the process, as the “sour” comes from the secondary fermentation that occurs during the making of the sponge-the pre-dough dough.

* I also wish I knew how to embed videos!

Posted in Domestic Tips, San Francisco, Uncategorized, baking | 1 Comment »

Writers Block EXTREME

Wednesday, August 26th, 2009

I know I should be reflecting and writing about the recent CAW visit to California, but I just can’t. I am way far more excited about the soup that I just made, than reflecting upon things we all did.

Although, I will, I promise. Eventually.

While Billy is away enjoying the sights and sounds of Yosemite with his childhood christian brethren, I am at home attempting to not freak out about the mess left behind; and the toilet seat that was up- a clear indication of man-boy rampage prior to their departure this morning.

How do I relax? I brief clean up, and immediate cooking adventure and a characteristic analyzation of my day.

Today was the Castro Farmers Market- a savior on a day where fumes were emitting from my ears for approximately 8 hours straight. After consuming a delicious lunch of Hummus and Tabbouleh* with sesame pita, around 4 o’clock I felt it was time to go for a walk.

I enjoy eating my lunch at my desk, and then going for a stroll later in the day, in lieu of a full blown lunch out. On this day, I decided that I did not crave cookies (although that was tooootally what I needed on Monday, from Hot Cookie)

I craved strawberries. Sweet Delicious strawberries.

Now it is not strawberry season, so I question the integrity of these apparent fresh market berries, but god damn you these were stupendous! They saved my day.

But I digress. Savior of Soup. Simple, delicious, my mind is a-flutter as to what to do with the savory leftovers.


Red on Red on Red Lentil Soup

1 small onion diced
1 large carrot grated
5-6 gypsy or lipstick peppers
1 excessively large ripe heirloom tomato, diced
about 1 cup frozen corn- although fresh would suffice

1/2 cup red lentils
4 cups water

larger bits of ground fennel seed
1 T crushed black pepper
pinches of salt
sprinkles of onion powder
1 pinch cumin
some garlic powder
a little mustard powder
some nutmeg

Methods:

Coat the bottom of a heavy pan with olive oil. Add carrot and onion, cook for a long while. meanwhile, dice the peppers all nice and tiny-like. Add these. At this time add some salt and lots of black pepper. Cook for an f-ing long while, add tomatos and cook until they give off their water. Add various spices now. Add lentils. Add water. Cover and cook for a long while, until lentils are cooked until you can’t tell they were once tiny little things, and the soup is of a consistency that makes you happy. Turn off the heat, add the corn, mix. Eat with bread, or rice, or alone!

*a great lunch btw

Posted in San Francisco, soups | 3 Comments »

Experiments with Agave Nectar and Sweet Breads

Sunday, July 19th, 2009


It’s summertime, and that means in the Bay Area, produce boxes are HEAVY on the fruits. I get so much fruit, I can’t eat it all, and I’m about 3 weeks backed up on plums, nectarines, and peaches. These two breads, are my attempt to use up some of the fruits I have that are about to turn.

Recently, I was exploring a new neighborhood of Oakland and came across a silly hippy natural foods store called The Food Mill, that reminded me of the ass-backwards “health foods” stores that exist in the Northeast, and have existed there since before the dawn of Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s. You know the type, fresh peanut butter, more aisles of suppliments than food, and the origional pay-by-the pound grains, psices, and teas. I like the first and the latter, but the suppliment ailes both scare and piss me off. And for some reason the people that work/own these stores tend to have a bit of the creepy jesus stare in them, but I digress.

I LOVE PAY BY THE POUND

I especially love pay by the pound olive oil and honey. This time around I bought some pay-by-the-pound Agave Nectar. I have never had it before, but in my attempt to move away from refined sugars as sweetners, I figured I should give it a try. At room temperature it is way less viscous than honey, and therefore, baking was quite easy with it. It scooped right into my measuing cup with ease.

The following two breads are in the oven, so I don’t know if the proportions are correct or not. I’ll be sure to update when I taste…I’m hoping for a t least a 1 out of 2 here..

Orange Banana Bread

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 t cinnamon

1/2 cup butter
3/4 cup agave nectar
2 eggs, beaten

2 mashed overripe bananas
1 h applesauce
zest 1 orange

Mix everything in the usual baking manner- wets with wets, dry with dry. Bake in a buttered and floured pan- shape and size of your choosing (I did 4 X 9) at 350 until the skewar comes out clean.

Plum Cardamom Bread

1 c. fresh plum cubed

1/2 c applesauce
1 yogurt cup
1/2 cup agave nectar
2/3 cup white sugar

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
11/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 tsp. fresh salt

1 tsp. cardamom
1/2 t cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Mix everything in the usual baking manner- wets with wets, dry with dry. Bake in a buttered and floured pan- shape and size of your choosing (I did 4 X 9) at 350 until the skewer comes out clean. If you feel like it make a sweet decoration of plums on the top of the bread- I recommend this as the top crust wasn’t as hearty as I had hoped for.

Posted in San Francisco, baking, dessert | No Comments »

Farewell BBQ’s and Wiiiiiiiiine

Sunday, July 12th, 2009

Oh man, I’ve been on quite the hiatus. And tired.

I’ve been on a 1 and a half week vacation from life, and boy was it good. I really don’t want to return to civilization.

Where have I been you ask? Entertaining my visiting parents, of course!

And entertaining my parents, really just meant eating out 80% of meals, bringing them to all the tasty restaurants in this Bay Area (…that I can’t afford). In the beginning, it sounded like a great idea, but by the final night, I had heartburn (which apparently feels like your boob is asking to be ripped off of your body) from eating foreign food substances so much, and really just wanted to return to my kitchen and cook a yummy meal with my mom for billy & my dad.

It was stupendous.

The highlights were a super satisfying corn soup, and perfectly grilled portabella mushrooms (which fared considerably better than some ny strip steaks we attempted to cook, but really just chared), which we ate with grilled/burnt squash and onions and a simple salad of cucumbers and tomatoes with balsamic deliciousness.

Mama Ferrier’s (chicken) Corn Chowder

1 1/2 c diced red onion
1 1/2 c diced yellow onion
1 1/2 c diced potato
1/2 c diced carrot
1 c diced celery
4-5 corns on the cob, boiled, with kernels cut of
6 c chicken broth
heavy cream
flour
olive oil
salt & pepper
1 t fresh basil
pinches of dried oregano, basil
a couple of shakes of chili powder
Optional: meat picked from half of a rotisserie chicken

In your soup pot, start with some olive oil, the carrots, the onions, and the celery. Cook until translucent, add flour and cook until the flour smell is away. This soup is thickened more by this rue, than the cream, so use a hefty amount of oil and flour to get a nice rue. Add the chicken stock to the pot now and do a little scrappin’ to get all the good flavors on the bottom of the pan. Bring soup to a boil and add the potato, corn (and chicken if you wish). Now is the time to add the basil, oregano, and chili powder. Let the soup simmer for a little while, and test the potatoes for doneness. When the potatoes are to your liking shut of the heat and allow to soup to cool down to a temperature that allows you to add some cream. Add as much, or as little, as you like!

Grilled Portabella Mushrooms

4 Large Bella Shroomies
1 t mustard
olive oil
salt & pepper
1 t fresh chives
1 t fresh basil
oregano flakes
juice from 2 juicy lemons
1 Container for shaking

add dressing contents to container and shake up. Place mushroomies in a big bowl and pour the dressing all over them. You might have to add more oil than you think to coat evenly. Be sure to add enough salt to encourage a little water to release before you grill. Do this about a half hour before you are grilling. When you place the musrooms on the grill save the extra dressing in your bowl and drizzles over top the finished mushrooms.

A Note on Wine Country

While the retals were here, I had the awesome chance to go to Napa and Sonoma- only an hour from Oakland! This hole concept of driving around, and drinking, and then driving around more is really strange to me, but f-ing awesome none the less. The whole myth that you aren’t drinking enough to get drunk it just that- a big myth. I got saucy both days I went up there. It was grand.

I went to about 6 wineries- all were yummy. Even the cheap wine companies we see in the store tend to have reserve wines on site that are super. The most memorable wineries were:

Peju
Ravenswood (due more to a heavy handed server than the wine)
Sebastiani

If you have $100+ to blow on wine, I recommend any of the Peju’s Napa Style Cab’s

Posted in San Francisco | 2 Comments »

I’ll take my summer with a side of political turmoil

Sunday, June 21st, 2009

This was an interesting weekend that lacked the normalcy of weekends past. Sunny weather, goodbye parties, and a sighting of someone who looks like me reading the book I’m reading (In Defense of Food) on BART.

….and I feel asleep last night to a room of 3 boys trying to explain why they can’t just get their hands to go through the table : /

Thanks Whiskey. More thanks to the Monks Kettle.

I don’t know how I have let this place slip my sight until last night- I’m guessing it is because the average beer price is somewhere above $10. I suggest checking out the beer menu now so that when you(I’m looking at you crows and family members) come out to SF you know what you’ll order before walking in the door!

Also of note- I saw several patrons ordering very large pretzels served with country mustard as their bar snack! I will defiantly check that out next time I go.

Monk's Kettle on Urbanspoon

******************

On the food front I just made the delicious summer squash gratin c/o the New York Times, and, Wow. Wow. Wow, it was so delicious (gracias crow Vanessa). I used fontina and Parmesan, and ate it with a fresh salad and some yummy chopped peach.

Now I am off to try and make myself some smashing aprons! The fabric store by my house has incredible sales on dress fabrics…Polka dots and flowers anyone?

Posted in San Francisco, cocktails, restaurant review | 1 Comment »

Grilled Chess

Monday, May 18th, 2009

Eek, it was a very nice weekend here in the Bay Area.

Although… you’d be hard pressed to find a native to agree with me. 90+ and sunny! Woohoo!

Last night billy and I had a mini grill-session that included Burgers, eggplant and garlicy asparagus, and 3 games of intense chess.

I have little new to share recipe wise, except, that 1.5 lbs. of meat = exactly 4 patties!

In case you are ever unsure of how much meat to get for a party.

Posted in Meat/Poultry, San Francisco | 1 Comment »

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