Recipes
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Last Wednesday I did not know what to prepare for my lunch for the next day as we did not have much time to go to the supermarket and we were running out of everything. I looked into the cupboard and found some cans of tuna and I decided to prepare one of my favorite dishes "Atún a la VizcaÃna". This time I decided to invent a new version "Pasta with Atún a la Vizcaina"; I prepared my tuna recipe and I then boiled some pasta with salt and when it was cooked I drained it and served it with tuna dish and added some parmesan cheese, it really became a great dish.
This tuna recipe we can be served by itself or presented in a wide variety of ways. Our nice Alejandra really likes it in empanadas or as a pie. This can easily be done by rolling out some fresh or frozen puff pastry dough and for the empanadas you cut 5" circles out of the dough and place a large spoonful of the tuna dish in the middle and fold in half and pinch the edges to seal well. You then cut some slits on the top with a sharp knife and place them on a cookie sheet and bake in a medium oven until golden. You can do the same thing as a pie, by lining a pie dish with the puff pastry, then filling it with the tuna dish and then placing another sheet of dough on top. You then seal the edges and cut some vents in it and you might even decorate it with some nice fish shapes cut from the dough. You bake it like the empanadas, and if you prefer a shiny crust you can paint it with a beaten egg white. Another nice way of serving this dish is to cool it and then make a nice sandwich with a nice large crusty bread roll.
Ingredients
1 can of tuna in olive oil
1 tomato, chopped
1/2 medium onion, chopped
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
1/2 chile jalapeño, finely chopped
1 tbs parsley, chopped
1 tbs soy sauce
5 stuffed olives, chopped
1 tbs capers, chopped
1 handful almonds, chopped
1 handful pine nuts
1 handful walnuts, chopped
1 tbs. olive oil
Preparation
1. Sautee the onion and garlic in the olive oil in a pan over medium heat until the onions are translucent.
2. Add the chile, parsley, tomato, and soy sauce.
3. Add the rest of the ingredients and the tuna can without the liquid.
4. Let it cook some minutes until the flavors melt together and serve.
Normita
Last weekend I was reminded by Normita that we have not had cheese fondue in a long time, especially since we did not have a fondue pot until recently and we have not even broken-in it yet. It is a dish we both like, but we normally indulge in it only a few times a year, as it is somewhat heavy. Traditionally it is something that we have been doing on Christmas Eve for over 20 years, but the stories of Christmas traditions will have to wait for the proper season.
My recipe for cheese fondue is a bit non-traditional. More than 25 years ago, when I started preparing cheese fondue in the traditional way, I had relatively good success. I used to do it with a mixture of imported gruyère and emmentaler cheeses. After some years of success, the imported cheeses were getting very expensive, and the market was flooded by local very cheap similarly name varieties. I still remember the first time I tried a cheese fondue with them, and the horrible experience I had. For some reason the cheeses, instead of melting smoothly, started to release a huge amount of oily substance. You had the melted cheese at the bottom of the pot, and then a layer an inch or more thick of oil. I remember spending a long time pouring this oil down the sink, and then mopping up the excess oil with paper towels, then throwing some flour on it to try to absorb it as much as possible.
After this fun experience, I decided to devise a way of doing fondues that would prevent this problem. After trial and error I came up with a different method that is both easy and will yield consistent results and a very smooth tasty fondue. The main thrust of the recipe is to prepare a white sauce with butter, flour, and wine, and then melt the cheese into that sauce. I still like the standard mixture of gruyère and emmentaler best, but in recent years I have played with local varieties with great success. I normally try to look for two or three firm cheeses with a complement of textures and tastes. For this Mexican Cheese Fondue I propose some local varieties and a locally made Dutch one. First I use Manchego that is made here with cow milk, not ewe milk like the original from Spain. It is a mild cheese with a neutral flavor. To add a bit more taste I chose next a cheese of similar texture, but with a slightly stronger taste, a locally made Edam. To add a bit more pizzazz the third variety is a Chihuahua, a more pungent type of cheese with a firm, slightly crumbly texture, and a bit of a salty aftertaste. They combine well together for a pleasant and tasty result. Dry white wine is used to make the initial white sauce, and most well-made cheaper varieties can be used. Of course to replace the traditional Kirsch I use tequila instead. I prefer a smooth, not too smoky reposado style for this. A nice side dish of Caesar salad is a great complement.
The fun of this is that you can experiment at length with cheeses, wines, and alcohol chasers to create an infinite variety of tastes. Please let us know your favorite combinations. The leftover fondue, especially the burnt part, is great to make dishes like French Onion soup, and is fantastic by itself melted over a piece of crusty breath in a broiler. Don’t forget that the tradition says that if you lose your piece of bread in the fondue, you have to kiss the person on your left, so plan the seating arrangement accordingly…
Ingredients
1 pound Manchego cheese, roughly chopped in small pieces
1 pound Edam cheese, roughly chopped in small pieces
1 pound Chihuahua cheese, roughly chopped in small pieces
1 garlic clove, peeled and slightly crushed
3 tbs butter
3 tbs flour
1 1/2 cups dry white wine
2 1/2 Oz reposado tequila
White pepper to taste
Firm textured bread cut into cubes for dipping
Preparation
1. In the fondue pot, on the stove, melt butter over medium eat and cook the garlic clove for 2-3 minutes until golden.
2. Remove and discard the garlic clove.
3. Add the flour 1 tbs at a time, and incorporate well into the butter to create a roux.
4. Cook 4-5 minutes until it slightly starts taking color.
5. Add 1 Oz of tequila and mix well with the roux.
6. Slowly add the wine, a bit at a time and stir well to make sure that no clumps are formed.
7. Bring the sauce to a low simmer and lower the heat to minimum.
8. Add of the 3 cheeses a bit at a time and stir until all melted and smooth.
9. When all the cheese is melted add pepper to taste and the remaining tequila, and stir well to incorporate.
10. Light the fondue burner and place it at lowest setting and bring the fondue to the table to serve.
11. Eat by dipping a piece of bread speared on your fondue fork in it.
Lucito
Yesterday morning, before we left for the tianguis, we were discussing what we would eat for supper. We had returned late the night before from some errands and only picked up some essentials for the week, and we had no real plans for the food for the day. Normita was thinking something along the line of a simple fish dish, but alas the fish merchant was not there so we could not get that. We looked at one of the many butchers and we finally decided for making some hamburgers as I had not made any for many many months, and it would give me a chance to test the mini-BBQ for which we had finally found the propane bottles for.
As I was walking through the tianguis thinking about how to prepare the hamburgers, inspiration struck and I thought of seasoning the meat with mole paste. Mole is an interesting Mexican specially, normally in paste form, and that is used as a pungent sauce with a variety of dishes. There are tons of recipes for it and Normita published one for Mole Poblano last fall. At the tianguis there are always a few booths, normally from San Pedro Actopan, a village outside of the city that is famous for his various moles and its mole paste industry. We stopped and tasted a few varieties and we settled for some mole almendrado, a spicy concoction with an almond base, and we found out it was also available in a dried format that keep much longer.
We also picked up about a pound of nice beef from the leg that we had ground twice for a nice smooth texture. After we finished our chores and we were ready for lunch, I setup the BBQ and made those nice juicy hamburgers that turned up stunning. I normally prepare my hamburger patties a few hours before and store them on a plate in the refrigerator, so that the condiments in them have time to mix well and marinate the meat a bit. We will certainly make some again in the coming weeks as we both enjoyed them tremendously.
Ingredients
Hamburgers
1 pound lean double ground beef
4 tbs mole almendrado powder
2 tbs soy sauce
2 tbs Worcestershire sauce
2 tbs brandy
2 tbs sesame oil
Salt & pepper to taste
4 Hamburger buns
2 tbs margarine or butter mixed with garlic and onion paste
Potatoes
3 medium potatoes
3 tbs extra virgin olive oil
2 tsp herbes de Provence
Salt and pepper to taste
Preparation
1. In a large bowl break up the meat in a thick layer.
2. Add mole powder, soy sauce, Worcestershire, brandy, sesame oil, and salt and pepper to the top of it.
3. With a fork mix the seasoning with the meat until well incorporated.
4. With your hands create 4 large thick patties and put on a plate to rest. Refrigerate for a few hours.
5. Cut the potatoes in 1/4" slices and place on a large plate.
6. Add half of the herbes de Provence and olive oil as well as salt and pepper to taste.
7. Turn the potatoes and repeat the procedure.
8. Mix the margarine with a bit of garlic and onion paste and spread some inside the buns and on the top and bottom of them.
8. Heat up you BBQ grill and when hot, cook the potatoes on it until well browned.
9. Put the potatoes on an ovenproof platter and into a low oven to keep warm.
10. Cook the hamburger patties until your preferred doneness is reach and reserve in the warm oven.
11. Warm up the bunds on both sides and then assemble the dish. Serve with your favorite condiments.
Lucito
As promised yesterday I am posting recipes for ‘Salsa Verde’ and ‘Salsa Roja’, two staples of the Mexican tables. Wherever you go, whether home or restaurant, when you sit down to eat there are both salsas sitting on the table. Both are very similar in nature and are a nice spicy condiment to use at you discretion to spice up your meal or to use as a dip for bread or ‘totopos’. The salsas are named for their colors, and the difference between the two is the main ingredients. The ‘Verde’ uses ‘tomatillos’ a green ground tomato, and the ‘Roja’ uses tomatoes.
There are many methods of preparing these salsas and they can be made with raw ingredients or cooked, they can be chopped finely or made in the blender. For raw salsas you simply put the ingredients in a blender and pulse until you have the consistency you wish. For cooked salsas the procedure varies with the actual cook. You can grill the chiles and the ‘tomatillos’ or tomatoes on a very hot ‘comal’, a circular sheet of metal that you put directly on a stove’s burner or over coals. Once the skin is burned, you peel them and prepare as usual. An alternative is to chop and cook them in oil then add the chopped onions and garlic. You can also blanch them in boiling water for a few minutes and then peel them before chopping or blending the mixture. With all of the cooked version the cilantro is added once cooked and then you salt to taste.
I specify chiles jalapeños for the recipes, but the salsas are also commonly made with chile Serranos, or with a variety of dried chiles like anchos, chipotles, pasillas, guajillos, or whatever type of chile that the cook prefers. I am posting here a simple raw version of the salsas, but you can experiment with cooking the main ingredients and with different chiles. I normally prefer most red salsas, and Normita’s passion is the green ones. Have fun experimenting with those salsas and leave in the comments your favorite variations.
Ingredients
1/2 pound of ‘tomatillos’ if you decide to make ‘salsa verde’
1/2 pound of plum tomatoes if you decide to make ‘salsa roja’
2 chile jalapeños or to taste
1 large onion
2 cloves garlic
1 cup coarsely chopped cilantro
salt to taste
Preparation
1. Cut tomatillos or tomatoes in quarters and place in blender or food processor.
2. Cut chiles in half and remove the seeds and membrane add to the blender.
3. Cut the onion in quarters and add to the blender.
4. Add the peeled garlic cloves to the blender.
5. Pulse the blender or food processor until you have a coarse salsa.
6. Add cilantro and pulse briefly.
7. Add salt to taste.
Lucito
I was asked a few times in recent days about what to do with the marinated arrachera meat that I gave my recipe for some weeks back. The simplest dish that I have seen is grilled arrachera. This is normally served in a lot of restaurant with some Mexican-style rice and some refried beans as side dishes. Warm corn tortillas are served with it so that you can make some nice tacos and they are garnished with either ‘salsa verde’ or ‘salsa roja’. I will post recipes for both salsas tomorrow, and will prepare recipes for some other delicacies that can be made with arrachera meat. This recipe is best prepared on a real charcoal grill, but can be done easily on a gas grill, or in a grill pan on the stovetop.
Ingredients
1 pound marinated arrachera meat cut into 6" long wide pieces
12 ‘Chiles Serrano’
12 large green onions or ‘Cambray’ cut in 3" pieces
2 cups cooked Mexican-style rice
2 cups refried black beans
12 corn tortillas
‘Totopos’ (dried or deep fried corn tortilla triangles) for garnish
‘Salsa verde’ and ‘salsa roja’
Preparation
1. Over very hot charcoals cook the green onions and the whole ‘Chiles Serrano’ until tender and reserve on a cooler section of the grill
2. Cook the arrachera until the doneness you prefer. It is normally cooked a little more than you would normally prepare a steak.
3. Serve the arrachera on a wide oval plate with the chiles and green onions on top, and with a portion of Mexican-style rice and some refried beans on the side.
4. Top the refried beans with a few ‘totopos’ stuck into them.
5. Prepare tacos with the cut arrachera and garnishes and top with either salsa.
Lucito
As I mentioned a few days ago I was planning to post a few recipes using Oaxaca cheese. Here is another one that is a spicy version of the typical pasta with cheese sauce. It makes for a different taste experience and could also be served as a side dish with some arrachera to make a definitely innovative combination. ‘Epazote’ is a traditional Mexican dark green herb with a very peculiar smell. It is normally available in most Latin American grocery stores. It is used a lot in a variety of Mexican dishes.
Ingredients
5 quarts water
1 1/2 tbs salt
1/2 pound Oaxaca cheese torn into strings
1/4 pound cream cheese
1/2 cup dry white wine
1/2 cup milk
2 tbs butter
3 egg yolks
2 sprigs of ‘epazote’ finely chopped
3 ‘chiles Serrano’ seeded and finely chopped
1 pound fettuccines
Salt and pepper to taste
Preparation
1. In a large pot bring the water with salt to boil and cook the pasta until tender.
2. While waiting for the water to boil, in a heavy saucepan over low heat, melt the cheese in the milk, wine, butter, ‘epazote’, and chiles.
3. Remove from fire and add the yolks and whisk rapidly.
4. Return to fire at the lowest possible setting and heat for some minutes making sure it does not boil.
5. Season with salt and pepper to taste and serve on the cooked pasta.
Lucito
The Padrino, when he visited us last December, had the pleasure to taste Oaxaca cheese. He told me last week that he found a similar Turkish cheese in Vienna and he was wondering what he could cook with it. Oaxaca cheese is a variety of spun cheeses that is originally from the state of Oaxaca in Mexico, and that is currently made all over the country. It is available commercially from the big cheese producers, and of course a much better ‘artisanal’ version is available everywhere from road-sides to the local tianguis.
It is a cheese of ‘squeaky’ consistency, a term coined by one of our Japanese friends in Québec when she called fresh cheese curds ‘squeaky cheese’ as it squeaks on your teeth when you eat it. The Oaxaca cheese is normally pulled into long stringy ribbons during its fabrication and then spun into balls ranging from grapefruit size to huge affairs over a foot and a half across. Its primary use is normally to melt over food, a little bit like mozzarella is used on pizzas.
The simplest Oaxaca cheese recipe to make is a ‘quesadilla’ where a piece of Oaxaca is torn into strings and then placed inside a folded corn tortilla. This can then either be browned in a dry pan until the cheese melts, or pan fried with a bit of oil, or even deep fried. It is then served with your favorite salsa.
A lot of other dishes are topped with Oaxaca as a last step before serving, and pieces of it can also be put in soups to give extra flavor. Following is a simple recipe for ‘Volcanes’ meaning volcanoes, which is very simple to make and very tasty. It is better cooked on a grill, but it can also be made on the stovetop in a dry pan, or in a pan with a little bit of oil.
In the coming days I will post another tasty recipe to make with Oaxaca cheese, and also recipes for homemade salsa verde and salsa roja that are staples of every table here…
Ingredients
4 corn tortilla
8 tbs of refried beans
1/4 pound Oaxaca cheese torn into strings
Homemade salsa verde or salsa roja
Preparation
1. Take each corn tortilla and spread 2 tbs of refried beans on it.
2. Top the beans with 1/4 of the Oaxaca cheese.
3. Cook on a hot BBQ grill, tortilla down, until the tortilla is nice and crisp and the cheese is melted.
4. Top with either salsa verde or salsa roja to taste.
Lucito
For all of those wondering, YES we did get our new car, and we took a few days off driving around town to break it in. Yesterday was a holiday here and Normita took Monday off to make an extra-long weekend. We would have like to go out of town for 4 days, but since we did not get the car until Monday evening, we could not do that. This will have to wait for another weekend.
We decided to celebrate the coming of spring and I researched what was traditional for this time of the year. It seems that egg dishes are the norm and also desserts with honey in them. I prepare a nice smoked salmon quiche for the main course, and I will post the recipe in coming weeks. For desserts I instantly thought about Baklava, but I did not have the patience to bake some as the weather was too nice and the new car was beckoning. I then decided to create a nice honey pie recipe. It turned out stunning so I decided to share it with you. It is very easy to prepare and I baked it before leaving for the day, yesterday morning. Once it was out of the oven and cooled I left it on the counter with a clean dish clothe on top, so it was ready for when we returned.
You can bake this easy pie in a prepared uncooked pie shell, prepare you own dough, use some frozen puff pastry, or do like I did, buy some fresh puff pastry at the supermarket and roll your own pie shell in a few minutes.
An easy trick there is to use a large plastic cutting board so that the puff pastry dough does not stick. Make sure that you put enough flour on both the board and the top of the dough before rolling. With light pressure roll a square of dough to a size that is about 2-3 inches bigger than you pie plate. While rolling the dough flip it over a few times and dust it and the board with flour every time you do so. It only takes a few minutes and I find this much better than most regular prepared pie shells. I prefer to use a sturdy non-stick-coated metal pie plate as they conduct heat better than glass ones.
Ingredients
1 1/4 cup of honey
4 large eggs, beaten
3 tbs butter
1 tbs vanilla extract
2 tbs Scotch
1 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground dried ginger
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
9" unbaked deep pie shell
Preparation
1. In a saucepan heat the honey until it boils, then retire from the heat.
2. Slowly add the beaten eggs while stirring continually so as not to create an omelet.
3. Add the butter and stir until melted and well incorporated.
4. Add vanilla, Scotch, and spices. Stir until you have an homogeneous mixture.
5. Fold in the chopped walnuts.
6. Pour the mixture into your prepared pie shell.
7. Bake in the middle of a preheated 350F oven for about 30 minutes, or until the center of the pie is set.
8. Cool down on a rack before serving.
Lucito
Yesterday I posted one half of this great combination I like so much, and today it is only normal to post the second half, a wonderfully divine potato recipe. I have always been a potato lover, and this brings my love of them to another level. It is not an everyday dish as it involves using truffles and truffle oil, but it is nice to indulge ourselves once in a while. I normally use the cheaper Italian black truffles in jars and Italian truffle oil, a combination of olive oil and truffle flavor. I have not found a ready supply of the around here, and I am still looking around. The Padrino used to bring us some when he visited in the old days, but lately he has been forgetful about this <wink, wink>… The recipe is simple to make and yields wonderful results. If you really want to be fancy you can carve your potatoes in cylinders around 1.5-2" in diameter before slicing them to get uniform slices, but I normally do not go to this trouble as I prefer my potatoes with the skin on. Enjoy them with a nice juicy piece of bavette…
Ingredients
2 pounds medium potatoes
2 medium Italian black truffles
3 tbs Italian truffle oil
1/4 pound clarified butter
1/2 tsp white pepper
1/2 tsp salt
Preparation
1. With a mandoline or a very sharp knife cut potatoes into thin slices.
2. In a large pot of boiling water add the potato slices and blanch for 3-4 minutes.
3. Place the potato slices in cold water to stop the cooking, and then pat dry.
4. Cut the truffles into very thin slices or shavings.
4. Butter a 10" round cake mould and place a layer of the potato slice in it, carefully overlapping them slightly.
5. Pour a bit of the melted butter on the potatoes, add a few truffle slices, pour a bit of truffle oil and salt and pepper to taste.
6. Repeat the layering process until you use up all the potatoes.
7. Press down firmly on the potatoes so that they stick together well.
8. Place in a preheated 400F oven and bake for 30 minutes, or until a nice brown crust develops.
9. Turn the pie mold over a serving dish and cut into portions like a pie.
Lucito
Last week I posted some pictures of various dishes we like a lot and I mentioned that one of my favorite ones was a bavette de boeuf recipe that I have been making since our French butcher, Roger, showed us this inexpensive cut of meat. He worked in a little Italian butcher shop in St-Léonard, an eastern suburb of Montréal. I was raised in this neighborhood where a lot of Italian people resided. A bit over 20 years ago this butcher shop was recommended to us and we started to get our meat there regularly. Years after I moved up North to Mont-Tremblant, where I was born, I was still driving 100 miles to Montréal to go get my meat at that shop as they had the best beef, veal, lamb, and pork that you could get, and also great grain-fed chicken, turkey, pheasant and quails. Roger was from France and the only non-Italian in the shop. He was my regular butcher and was always recommending the best cuts to us. One day I was not sure about what to buy and I was thinking of maybe getting some beef tenderloin, and he suggested that I get some bavette as the taste is far superior. Bavette is not as tender as tenderloin by its nature, but well marinated its well marbled texture will melt in your mouth. I always liked meat with coarse texture like flank and the bavette is similar. If your butcher does not know this French cut, the North-American name is flap meat, or more exactly bottom sirloin butt flap. Its taste is very distinctive and once you have it, nothing else will compare.
I normally marinate it for some hours before cooking, or even overnight if you want it extra tender. I accompany it with a sturdy port wine sauce, and my favorite side dish is Salardaise Potatoes made with some nice Italian truffles and truffle oil. It is best grilled over real charcoals, but can be successfully made on a grill pan on the stovetop and finished in the oven. It is a cut that works greatly with the cook and hold methods. I like to entertain with this meal as everything can be cooked slightly ahead and held until you are ready to serve. It permits me to sit down with the guest and to have the first course with them while the main course is holding in a low oven. This way I do not have to do last minute cooking between courses. Leftovers are wonderful, and years ago, when the Padrino was visiting, we invented a wonderful lunch treat the day after one of our famous 6 hour meals. By the next afternoon we were getting a tad hungry and we looked at what we had for leftovers. We discovered some nice cooked bavette from the night before, some great Brillat-Savarin cheese from France, and my favorite Montréal style bagels. We made some incredibly satisfying sandwiches on the bagels with simply a thick layer of Brillat-Savarin, some nice slices of bavette, and a bit of honey mustard. Just thinking about it makes my mouth water…
Ingredients
Bavette and Marinade
2 pounds bavette in one piece
2 tbs Worcestershire sauce
2 tbs soy sauce
4 tbs port wine
1 tsp crushed thyme
1 tsp crushed freeze-dried chives
1/4 tsp freshly ground pepper
Sauce
3 tbs butter
2 tbs flour
1/4 pound of fresh chanterelles
2 tbs very finely diced sweet red pepper
2 tbs very finely diced French shallots
2 tsp fresh chives finely sliced
2 tsp finely crushed Herbes de Provence
2 tbs beef extract
1/2 cup port wine
1 1/2 cup beef bouillon
salt and pepper to taste
Preparation
1. Clean the bavette well and remove any piece of remaining fat.
2. On both sides of the bavette and with a very sharp knife, cut a pattern about 1/4" deep, an inch apart, in two directions 90 degrees from each other. One of the series of cuts should be with the grain and the others across.
3. Place the prepared bavette on a large bowl or plate and rub into it half of the marinade ingredients. Turn the bavette over and repeat the process with the remaining ingredients. Cover and marinate for a few hours or refrigerate overnight.
4. On a very high heat BBQ or grill pan, sear the bavette for about 4-5 minutes, turn and repeat the process to the other side. Place the seared bavette in an oven-proof dish and place in a preheated very low oven (~250F) while you prepare the sauce.
5. In a medium saucepan put 1 tbs of the butter and sauté the mushrooms, red peppers, and shallots until tender and reserve.
6. In the same saucepan melt the remaining butter and add the flour to it. Mix well with a wooden spoon and gently cook the roux over medium heat until it starts taking color. Be careful not burning it.
7. When the roux reaches a light brown color, add 2/3 of the port wine and incorporate well.
8. Slowly add the beef stock while mixing until you have a nice thick sauce. Lower the eat to a very slow simmer.
9. Add the reserved mushrooms, shallots, and red peppers. Mix well.
10. Add the chives, Herbes de Provence, beef extract, salt, and pepper. Mix well.
11. When all the ingredients are well incorporated, add the rest of the port wine and blend well.
12. To server cut the bavette in thin slices on the bias across the grain and ladle a few spoons of sauce on the meat.
Lucito