Daily Express
Posts about what we prepare and eat for our main meal daily
We had bought a nice big chicken breast yesterday and decided at the last minute not to prepare it and use it today. Normita prepared her famous chicken noodle soup again and she cooked the chicken in it. We had that as a first course. We had some mole almendrado we had used a while back and that we had frozen the leftovers. We normally buy fresh mole paste at the market and we use it in a variety of way. Normita added the freshly cooked chicken after finely shredding it with her fingers and reheated it in the mole.
We had also bought some “chalupas” literally some “rowboats” yesterday. Chalupas are made with the same dough as corn tortillas and are shaped like little rowboats thus the name. They are about as thick as 3 tortillas and are normally handmade with a little rim. The ones we bought looked machine made evenly cut from a thick sheet of dough, instead of hand-formed. They are easy to prepare, you put a few tablespoons of oil in a hot pan, or a comal and fry the chalupas in the oil until golden and crisp. You place the fried chalupa after draining the oil on a paper towel on your plate and butter them with a nice layer of refried beans. You then add to it some of the mole with chicken, and you traditionally top them with some grated cheese. Since we did not have any cheese to grate, we topped them with a dollop of heavy cream.
They turned out to be very satisfying and like many traditional Mexican dishes that you eat with your hands they were also very messy to eat, but that is part of the fun of good Mexican food.
A nice and very tasty serving of Chalupas de Mole con Pollo
Lucito
As mentioned earlier, today we had some simple ham and cheese sandwich. To make them tasty we added to the basic ham and cheese some fresh avocados, salt, pepper, and some great cooked chipotles from Veracruz that my mother in law had prepared and sent to us today via Normita’s sister. My mother in law Juanita is in town here, but the chipotles she uses are from Veracruz. They somewhat different than the chipotles normally available around here and have a more smoky flavor. Juanita cooks them with piloncillo (raw cane sugar cones) and some carrots and the results are very tasty. We have over a pound of them so we will use them a lot in the coming weeks. They make a great addition to many dishes and we used some pieces to spice up our sandwiches and some of the tasty cooking juices as a dressing.
The open sandwich with all the trimmings
The tasty sandwich ready to eat
The meal turned out great with the leftover salad and couscous from yesterday. The French roll we bought at a new supermarket we went this morning was surprisingly crusty and tasty. We will go back there next week as it was much better stocked than the local Wal-Mart and I even found the black peppercorns I had been looking for ages and some coriander seeds…
Lucito
Today was one of those where we ran around all day without accomplishing much besides some basic food shopping in the morning. Things have been very stressful for us so far this week and we both have not been able to concentrate on much. I decided that it was not worth trying to do some important work and ruin it, so I spent the rest of the day doing some research on many project and gathering data so I can process it properly on a better day.
When we went food shopping in the morning we bough some nice French rolls with sesame seeds and a nice big chicken breast and some jalapeño tortillas. We were planning to make some nice chicken soup today and with the cooked chicken make some chicken and mole almendrado sandwiches today, and some enchiladas de mole tomorrow. Since we both were not in any mood to cook, we decided to prepare some nice ham and cheese sandwiches with the French rolls with some nice fresh avocado inside, accompanied by the leftover couscous and green salad from yesterday. We plan to do the soup and enchiladas de mole tomorrow. I’ll head for the kitchen and see if I have the energy to split a roll…
Lucito
As mentioned earlier I cooked some very simply prepared thinly cut pork chops today. Here are some photos of the results.
The chops in their before photo
The marinating chops with the ingredients used
The chops starting to cook
The plated very tasty pork chops with walnut couscous
Lucito
Today I defrosted the last of those thin pork chops we bought some weeks ago. I was rushed for time and since the temperature is still high I did not want to spend much time in the kitchen. The entire meal was prepared in around 20 minutes. I simply marinated the thin chops for a few minutes with soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, sesame oil and “Jugo Maggi” a vegetable flavoring sauce. Then I grilled the thin chops to perfect crispness on a grill pan. This took only minutes. As a side dish I prepared a quick walnut couscous and a simple green salad. From entering the kitchen to the table only took a bit over 20 minutes and the results were very tasty.
It is one of those types of meals that takes longer to describe than to actually prepare. I will post some pictures before and also the recipe of the couscous.
Lucito
The pasta I finally chose for today’s meal was spaghetti rigati. I cooked it to a perfect al dente, and with the heated sauce the meal turned out very good yet again. We relaxed a bit during the meal while watching a bit of TV, and now we are back at work for a few hours.
The cooking meal, sauce in front and pasta in the back
The plated spaghetti rigati all bolognese
The meal turned out exactly as I wanted. Very easy to prepare, as the sauce was from my private frozen stash, and also very tasty as the sauce was perfect as usual and the pasta was cooked like we like it. A great meal to end a great weekend.
Lucito
When I went spelunking in the freezer this morning I came across the last container of my Bolognese sauce that I made last month. I have been making my adaptation of this sauce for more than 30 years and it is very versatile. I make large patches and freeze it in individual portions. This was the last container so I should be making more in a few week. We normally do not eat pasta twice in the same week, but I was looking for something that would be tasty without any preparation. I will just have to boil some water for the pasta of unknown type I will make, and heat up the sauce. It will make a nice filling meal with no real intervention on my part, which is exactly what we need after a long day of work around the house.
I will see if I can convince Normita to make some nice fruit juice for the tropical punch while I go take a long-deserved shower…
Lucito
I ended up finding a lot of things to put in the omelette and it turned out great. Since the mishap with the suadero earlier this week, thinks have improved dramatically and every meal was simple and just perfect. I hope that the trends continue…
I started by dicing the bacon and salami like yesterday and shredded a bit of Oaxaca cheese.
The diced salami and bacon and a bit of shredded Oaxaca cheese
I then diced a small zucchini, some mushrooms and a sweet red pepper.
The diced zucchini, mushrooms and sweet red pepper
Then it was time for 4 eggs some dried onions and oregano, a splash of sesame oil, a tablespoon of heavy cream, and some salt and pepper. I whipped them until light and fluffy.
The whipped eggs
The cooking then started buy sauteing bacon and salami until crisp.
The bacon and salami cooking
I then added the veggies and sauteed them until lightly cooked.
The veggies cooking with the bacon and salami
Then it was time for the eggs and then the Oaxaca cheese. I cooked the eggs until they were set and had a nice brown crust on the underside. As the pan was smaller and the omelette was thick, at that time the top was still not totally set. Like I normally do in those occasions, I used my trusty kitchen torch and set the top of the omelette with it and gave it a nice gratiné look.
The cooked omelette prior to plating
I split the omelette in half and plated it and we enjoyed a nice simple meal yet again…
The plated omelette ready to be eaten by us
Lucito
I was planning to cook some nice fish filets we have in the freezer, but then we started doing housework first passing the broom outside in front of the house while Normita was watering the garden and the trees around the house so the fruits they are loaded with do not die from the hot dry weather. After that was done we had a quick breakfast and I spent a few hours cleaning up my clothes closet and throwing away the old stuff or the stuff that I will never wear again. It was something I wanted to do for months, but never had the time to do or I was just plain too lazy to do it. Now there is a huge pile of old clothes and shoes on the floor of my office, and it will be sad to lose my best Scooby Doo tennis shirt, but I feel much better and there is an aura of cleanliness and good riddance in throwing away all of that stuff.
Before I attacked the closet I knew that probably I would not be in the mood to spend a lot of time in the kitchen after I did that, so I decided that instead of thawing the fish, I should find something else to prepare. I looked around the refrigerator and did not find much as we did not go food shopping yet this week. I decided that I should use whatever leftovers I have in there and do something with it. I still had a piece of that nice thick bacon I used with the pasta yesterday as well as some salami, there’s a bit of cheese left, some mushrooms, a small red sweet pepper and whenever I get to the kitchen I will use that and whatever else happens to fall into the wrath of my trusty knife and I will make a nice thick fluffy omelette. It should take a maximum of 10 to 15 minutes to prepare and cook and we will have a nice nutritive meal with the least amount of fuss. I will be back later with the details and some photos.
Lucito
As mentioned earlier this afternoon I was planning to make some form of carbonara, but I was not sure exactly what and how I would make it. Finally it turned out more traditional than I thought, but with a twist. I did find a bit of Parmesan in the back of the refrigerator and with that and most leftover ingredients I also found I made a nice pasta that turned out stunning. We like it so much that we had some seconds, and the boyz will enjoy the leftovers tonight with their meals.
The process, like most of what I cook during the week, was simple and fast. While the pasta was cooking, some miniature tortiglionis, I simply sauteed some diced thick bacon and salami until golden. I added some finely diced garlic and onions with some fresh asparagus and mushrooms with a splash of olive oil.
Here is the bacon, salami, garlic, onions and asparagus cooking
The sauteed ingredients with the mushrooms added
I drained the pasta once it was cooked and then added it to the rest of the ingredients. I tossed it around still on high heat then took it of the burner.
The dish almost ready prior to the addition of the eggs and cheeses
I then mixed 2 eggs with the leftover Parmesan and mozzarella I found and poured the mixture in the pasta and rapidly blended it well so it did not turn into an omelet. I served it topped with a bit more Parmesan and a generous grating of fresh black pepper.
The plated Pasta alla Carbonara with a generous grating of black pepper
We were very happy with the results which turned out great and light enough to be enjoyed on a hot day like today. Now I have to plan something to do tomorrow with that other leftover piece of bacon and the little bit of salami left…
Lucito