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
Last night ‘somebody who does not want to be named’ (SWDNWTBN), an experienced cook who excels at making fantastic soups, had a fun little adventure in cooking. People always assume that experienced cooks always get perfect results, but I am the first to acknowledge that I make my share of mistakes and blunders in the kitchen like everybody else. Due to inattention or distraction, or just really not being in the mood for cooking, you can easily make messes and ruin dishes. The main difference between an average cook and a great one is that a great one can often salvage the dish or turn it into something else, if it is not too far along the path to oblivion.
This story is about one of those situations that went way too far down the path to oblivion. I was sitting in my office and SWDNWTBN was in the kitchen preparing a big pot of chicken and vegetable soup that would be our lunches for the rest of the week. The chicken would be used in chicken salads or sandwiches, and the soup first by itself, then as a nice purée with the adjunct of a bit of milk or cream. I started to notice a somewhat unpleasant smell in the air and asked SWDNWTBN what was going on. According to SWDNWTBN nothing out of the ordinary was going on, so I assumed that the smell was one of those strange emanations that the city’s pollution level bring to you at times.
A bit later I visited SWDNWTBN in the kitchen and she was cutting the chicken legs into pieces and putting them into a plastic container for us to use in the coming days. I noticed again the strange smell and commented about it. It seemed to be coming from the chicken, but was not too overpowering at the time. A while later, when the large pot of soup was cooling, I passed by the kitchen again and SWDNWTBN asked me if I could smell the chicken that was now in the refrigerator. I opened the plastic container and I almost lost my supper right there and then. The chicken was after all the source of the bad smell and we were now sitting with a nice container of salmonella-infested chicken and a large pot of special salmonella soup, enough to kill the entire neighborhood and then some.
I asked SWDNWTBN if the chicken smelled strange before cooking, and she replied that she smelled it and it smelled really strange, and she wanted me to check it before cooking, but since she was very tired after a long stressful day at work, as she had to do the job of 2 people who are on holidays on top of hers, she totally forgot and cooked the chicken anyway. She mentioned to me that once cooked she did not feel like tasting the chicken as it smelled really bad. I still wonder why she prepared it all and kept cooking the soup, but let’s put it as one of the hazards of cooking while distracted.
We ended up throwing the chicken and the soup away, as we did not want to take a chance in poisoning ourselves. What lessons can we extract from the adventure? First, if the chicken smells bad before cooking, throw it away first and don’t use it in the soup. You might lose the chicken meals, but at least you will still have a pot of soup to eat. Second, when you are very tired and distracted, be careful in the kitchen and if you are not sure about the quality of an ingredient, ask a second opinion. SWDNWTBN almost lost a fingertip last weekend from a bread cutting accident, so it might be a good idea for her to relax a bit away from the kitchen. As mentioned before, a great cook can salvage badly messed-up dishes at times, but no amount of cooking skills can salvage a pot of salmonella soup, unless you need it to get rid of the entire neighborhood…
Lucito
Yesterday Kurtito discussed at length the various Easter traditions that his family followed in Vienna. Today I want to talk a bit on how we celebrated in Québec. I grew up in a Catholic family and Easter was normally celebrated with the entire family getting together for dinner at my paternal grandparent’s house in St-Jovite. When I was very young, before the ‘Révolution Tranquille’ of the 60’s when most people in Québec stopped going regularly to church due to their dissatisfaction with the church meddling with the government, we used to follow lent before Easter and also eat fish on Fridays most of the year.
I have vivid memories of sitting at the table in my grandmother’s kitchen and eating hot-crossed buns during the weeks before Easter, and of going to get palms blessed at the church on Palm Sunday. Our regular family reunions were always on the small size, as the entire family from grandparents to grandchildren normally hovered around a dozen people. Only my uncle Jacques was living permanently with my grandparents, as my uncle Pierre was studying in Montreal at the time, and my father and us, and also his older sister Jeanine were living in Montreal. Normally on weekend the entire clan would drive up to my grandparent’s place and spend the weekend there. In the summer, we were spending the entire season at the lake, where we used to live until recently, and my grandparents would visit us every Sunday for the ritual barbecued standing rib roast beef.
The door to my grandparent’s house was rarely locked and you could walk in at anytime of the day or night and there would be food on the stove or in refrigerator. Normally there was a freshly cooked ham in the refrigerator that my grandmother would prepare before the weekend, and whenever somebody would arrive from Montreal the ritual was to go to the refrigerator, take the ham out, and cut and eat thin slices out of it, even on Friday nights when we were supposed to only eat fish. Looking back at it I guess that ham was not considered meat in those days. I have a few Jewish friends that similarly have always told me that ham and bacon are not pork, so I guess that every religion has its exceptions.
For Easter we normally would go to church in the morning, and I remember receiving all kinds of chocolate eggs and bunnies. I remember a type of egg in particular, that came in a yellow box. The chocolate egg was large around 3-4" long and wrapped in foil. Beneath it soft chocolate shell there was a white filling based on marshmallows and a yellow center. We would cut slices from it and eat it throughout the day. Normally the meal was either a huge roast beef or some nice large glazed ham.
In later years when most of the family stopped congregating weekly at the family house, we started to celebrate at the lake, and Easter was one of the few occasions throughout the year where the family would come together. The other occasions would be for Christmas and New Year, and irregular meetings throughout the year. Now that the family is spread all over the place we normally are all together only for Christmas and New Year, and we manage to attend those meeting only every few years since we moved to Mexico.
During the period I was in charge of cooking for the Easter feast at the lake, my dish of choice was always some nice deboned butterflied legs of lamb that I would marinate for a few days in a concoction made with pureed onions and jalepeños, honey, soy sauce, and other pungent ingredients. The lamb was almost cooked by the mixture…
I would sear the lamb on a very hot barbecue until a nice crust would form, then finish it slowly in a low oven. The meat would just melt in the mouth and would be accompanied by a variety of side dishes. As usual I would probably prepare a fish or seafood-based first course, and finish with a variety of desserts and a wide assortment of cheeses. Of course plenty of wine of all types would be served.
Regrettably in recent year we have not had the occasion to celebrate Easter with the family. The last few times we were in Canada for the occasion we went to a nice brunch all together. Since we arrived in Mexico we did celebrate it once with Normita’s family, but for the last few years we did not have a chance to do so, as everybody was not in town at the time, so we did only did prepare a nice meal just for the both of us.
It seems that sadly some traditions are lost in our case, and that we should try to start new ones or revive old ones in the coming years.
Lucito
Every country with a noticeable Christian population has its own traditions around Easter. What’s more, there are even different traditions for subpopulations in a single country due to religious and regional distinctions. The longer the Christian history, the more diversity you will find and even in a small country like Austria with barely 8 million people, due to long Christian history you will find hundreds of such subpopulations with different traditions.
As long as traditions are kept, they will start getting mixed when members from different beliefs and/or regions marry and both bring their own traditions to the new family. This is exactly what happened when my mom, who is from Styria province in Southern Austria and was brought up a Catholic, married my dad who was living in the capital city of Vienna all of his life and of European Protestant faith. The results are a host of nice traditions that we children have kept until today. Thus for example we don’t eat meat in Good Friday and we eat the traditional (in Austria and Southern Germany) spinach and sunny-side up eggs the Thursday before, both from Catholic tradition, while we do celebrate Good Friday as highest clerical holiday from Protestant tradition, with our church ringing it’s Lutheran bells and can start celebrating Easter Saturday early afternoon.
Even when we were kids and still went for the eggs, sweets and toys the ‘Easter Bunny’ hid for us, the main event always was the traditional Easter dinner on Saturday. When our grand parents were still alive, they often joined us as did my mother’s sister, until she got married and founded a family of her own, sometimes friends, but always a happy family affair with lots of food and good times and memories.
This year, like the last few, we invited the families – my wife’s and mine – for the traditional lunch and it was great fun as always. And while we have subtly varied the beverages over the years and added a little here and there, the differences to the traditional Easter dinner from our childhood are minimal. The ingredients sound simple but trust me, it’s a wonderful ensemble.
One basic ingredient for our traditional Easter meal is sweet bread. There are at least two varieties we have been using over time, one is called a ‘Pinza’ and it’s made from biscuit dough and formed to show three loafs interconnected in one corner. The other is from my mom’s home region Styria and is called ‘potato bread’, quite similar to traditional Irish soda bread in structure, and even taste, the recipe includes potato starch for a special taste. Potato bread is usually formed in a single extended loaf and it’s available with or without raisins.
The next essential ingredient is cooked ham, which is sliced thickly from the bone, resulting in mighty chunks of rather varied geometry. As the Easter dinner traditionally marks the end of Catholic lent, this ham needs to be rich, both in flavor and in fat. Thus no fat is removed from it when slicing and everyone needs to decide for himself whether he wants to eat it or leave it on the side.
A variation of Easter ham is pre-cooked ham that is wrapped in some type of bread dough. That could be biscuit for a sweetish taste or sour bread for a more interesting contrast. The bread stuffed with ham is then baked and sliced. An interesting side effect of this process is that a lot of the fat will melt away while baking and is soaked up by the bread making its taste delicious.
The third essential component is horseradish, and lots of it from the Styrian roots of the family. Combined these ingredients already give you an explosion of aromas, sweetness from the fresh bread, thickly covered with rich, fresh butter, topped with chewy, succulent ham and the harsh sharpness or fresh horseradish. For those who prefer it less spicy, there usually is also horseradish that has been marinated to reduce it’s tanginess. Two year ago, as most recent addition to the menu, we discovered egg horseradish, a delicious mixture of finely chopped up or processed egg with horseradish, a good alternative if you’re not that much into horseradish.
Finally the symbol of spring and fertility, Easter eggs with all their ancient heathen tradition are added. The special tradition with them is, after kid’s search for them, they go for ‘egg pecking’. Each contestant holds his egg and one hit’s the other’s egg with his own. Due to the properties of the shell usually only one egg will survive the contest. In olden days, when people were poorer and kids didn’t get abundant amounts of sweets and Mattel brand toys, they went out for the contest and if you damaged another egg, you were allowed to keep it and take it home. Today eggs are cheap and we do it just for the glory. After they’ve been pecked the shells are peeled off and discarded and the eggs are cut in wedges or slices and used as side to the ham sandwiches.
As for beverages, this is a tough one as horseradish is as tough on wine as it gets, next to vinegar and tomatoes. Again our family has established a tradition here, serving a choice of strong Easter Bock beer or an aromatic and acidic rose from Styria called ‘Schilcher’. The Schilcher is made from an autochthonous grape called ‘Blauer Wildacher’ that can also produce fruity though acidic reds of light to medium body, but it’s excellence is definitely in the rosé Schilcher and his family – some vintners also prepare sparkling wine varietals including a slightly sparkling Schilcher Frizzante that makes a wonderful apéritif.
What about your families Easter traditions? Or maybe you’re observing pessach? If so, what spices does your family use on the lamb? Share your tastes with us!
Kurtito
You might have noticed that posting has been light lately, so I wanted to briefly chime in and check around the place before resuming regular topical postings tomorrow. The last few weeks have been incredibly busy ones around here from both work and entertainment. Last Friday was the wedding of Marcelita, Normita’s younger sister, and it was followed by the official party the following day. The party was tame by local standards, and only lasted from 1pm to 9pm.
The food was great and consisted mainly of Mexican dishes. After the party we returned home with Alejandra, Marcelita’s oldest daughter at 9 years old. She stayed with us until last night to give her parents a bit of a rest and a mini-honeymoon. I think that they plan to go to Veracruz with the kids and the inlaws next week, so I guess that the real honeymoon will be for another time.
When I noticed that the blog had been stagnant for most of the week, I put on my task list for the day to do a regular post, but time really flies and this is the first minute I have all day to write something for the blog. The day turned out to be an organizational nightmare as I was planning to spend most of it programming, and I ended up spending it exchanging business emails and telephones. I will have to catch up on the programming until late tonight to keep up with the schedule, so I decided to only post a short note.
Tomorrow should be a tad lighter, as we are getting close to Easter and the city is already feeling empty as the kids are out school for 2 weeks and a lot of people are on holidays this week and next. There was almost no traffic when I dropped Normita at the Metro this morning. This should even get lighter there as the week progresses. I just wish that it would be like that all the time.
Lucito
Palm Sunday has mostly clerical traditions over here in Austria, a country with a noticeable catholic majority, though the nonbelievers are catching up. Typically kids take ‘palm twigs’ (willow catkin) to church and get them blessed and not much more. Also the palm weekend is the start of local school holidays and people in Vienna flock to the countryside like crazy.
With this background, we are getting to our friend, who has been ‘domesticated’ recently. The Greek, as we’ll call him though he has no blood line to this beautiful country, has always been a wild one and one of the last holdouts about marriage or fixed relationships. However a few years back one of his earlier infatuations, the one he never had any real thing going with, became divorced and he jumped in to help and emotionally stabilize her. Thus he got a nice step family and became a replacement dad.
As he has to work this week and the girls are in the country side, he’s returning to his primordial male lifestyle. Going out with friends, playing computer games until after midnight, guzzling humongous amounts of beer, eating unhealthy and abundantly, and so on… To help him in his temporary ‘misery’ – and to make sure for one day he would not eat nothing but junk food, we decided to invite him over. Why not start a new tradition, a Palm Sunday barbecue?
The weather is beautiful, lot’s of sun, few clouds, temperature around 20C (70F) and thanks to daylight saving time it doesn’t get dark until 8pm. Ideal weather to roll out the Webber gas grill and get broiling. It was easy to decide on the meat – chicken is very, very affordable right now while chicken flu hysteria is raging on. At the same time it’s of good quality and better controlled for health than anytime else. So we had to decide which style to prepare things today. We considered some North African and Caribbean and then, thinking of Normita and Lucito, settled for Mexican.
As Normita was attending a family party yesterday we had no chance to ask her advice, but thanks to the web and some fine cooking books we found our way to – hopefully – proper recipes… though I’m sure that Normita will provide some fine tuning, refinements and corrections eventually. So this is what we decided on, with a little explanation on why:
Appetizer: We would have loved to try Lucito’s Volcano-recipe alas we ran out of refritos so this has to wait for another time. Thus we’ll settle for grilled quesadillas. The recipe we found sounds delicious though a tad risky as it mentions that they go up in flames easily. We’ll see.
Main course: Both Aglaja and I love the taste of chipotle, the smoked jalapeno peppers. Unfortunately they are hard to come by over here. While it’s too early to use homegrown jalapenos and smoke them – the plants are just starting to bloom – the canned variety is very nice and, for the adobo marinade we intend to make, even better. The marinade will add a lot of spice to the outer crust and provide a wonderful smoky flavor even on a gas grill. To enhance the smoky taste we’ll add some mesquite chips in an aluminum foil pouch.
Sides: The Adobo is pretty spicy; I tried it while it’s cooling. Thus we’ll have a rather mild salsa on the side, a guacamole recipe from Oaxaca that has no tomatoes in it but a little spice from jalapenos – we’re using our own, harvested last year, cut in thin slices and frozen. We’ll also serve some corn tortillas, admittedly frozen ones, but at least they are really from México. I checked and we have both in the freezer, regular yellow-orange colored ones and my favorites, the blue ones. I might also to a freshly prepared Salsa Verde if I’m ambitious. I have a recipe I wanted to try for quite a while. We’ll see. (Ed. I’m pouting because he didn’t try the recipe we posted in the last weeks)
As for desert, let’s see if we still are able to eat by then. I was thinking about frozen Margaritas or something with pineapples. Or we will just finish it off with a few shots of Tequila. That reminds me of the beverages and I have to admit, I’m a sucker for Mexican beer, especially Bohemia. Aglaja prefers white wine so we’ll see what we can find that’s up to the challenge. We’ll report back soon with the results and recipes, provided all turns out as planned. Cheers from the pit in Vienna, saluting all reader with my grilling prongs.
Kurtito
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
I just was reading a blog post on a new wine announcement and the author was saying the following:
"the wines aren’t for the wine-savvy crowd but for the barbecuing dad who wants to have a nice tasting wine without having to learn about terroir and varietals"
My first thought was:
What exactly does knowing technical information about a wine has to do about enjoying the taste of a wine?
I have been involved in the wine trade for over 20 years and I have always been stunned by that kind of thinking. When I met Normita she did not know anything about the technical aspects of wine and of wine tasting, but she sure could easily know if she liked a wine and could greatly enjoy them without this knowledge. Most of the time, the knowledge can even get in the way of enjoying wine. Years ago, when I was organizing weekly wine tastings at the wine store a friend was managing, we did some nice tests to prove this idea of mine. We organized a formal tasting for a group of friends who belonged to a local wine club. All of those people were wine fanatics and they were armed with a vast knowledge about the wines we were planning to taste.
We had originally planned a tasting of over a dozen wines, but to test this crazy idea of mine we decided to narrow the selection to about 6 or 7 bottles and created an event where there would be a blind tasting first where the tasters did not know anything about the wines they were tasting, followed by a regular tasting of the same wines that ranged from good tasting low-end ones to a very expensive, but overhyped, one. The tasters were told that the two flights of the tasting were different wines and that we would compare notes at the end of the evening. I led the tasting, and tasted the first flight blind without knowing which one was which and noted the wines accordingly. We then followed with the regular tasting where the crowd could apply their vast knowledge of the wines to the bottles that they now could see.
The results were amazing. In the blind tasting one of the midrange wines came out ahead by a wide margin followed by the cheapest one, and the expensive one came out dead last. The regular tasting of the same wines coming from the same bottles was totally the opposite. The wines came in exactly in the order of price and reputation. What had changed between the tastings? The wines were the exact same ones, but the tasters now could let their opinion and knowledge color their judgment. I have seen this happened over and over again and it is something that we should always keep to the back of our minds when we taste wines. We should always remember that it is only fermented grape juice and no amount of knowledge should color our opinion on if we enjoy the wine or not. Let us enjoy the wines that we do enjoy, even though they might not have the prestige of some of the overhyped brands, or of the proper vintage and terroir. The important thing is that we enjoy fully what is in our glass. Knowledge is important if you want to analyze the experience fully, and if you need or enjoy the technical side of the wine experience, but remember that this knowledge does not change the taste of the wine in your glass and it might even color your judgment.
Lucito