food

i like food better than cars/my food never breaks down on the highway
i like food better than cars/my food ain’t rusted all to shit
– NSQ

Soup of the Day: Carrot Ginger Lime Chili Cashew

July 25, 2010 by osteoderm | No comments

It’s hot out, but somehow it felt like a hot soup day. This soup will probably taste great chilled as well (if it lasts that long!), but the spicy-heat will remain. Something about spiced food in the heat… millions of southeast Asians can’t be wrong!

In a 350 degree oven, roast:

  • 2 lbs carrots, peeled and coarsely chopped
  • 1 largish sweet white onion
  • salt & pepper

Roast for 1/2 or more, tossing now and then, until the onions get some colour and the carrots start to tender up a bit. While you’re roasting, drop in a blender the following:

  • Plenty of peeled ginger, maybe 1/4 cup
  • 1 clove raw peeled garlic
  • 1/2 cup cashews

I used Trader Joe’s Thai Lime & Chili Cashews. If you can’t use these, just use regular roast cashews, then add the juice of half a lime and a few shakes of cayenne. In either case, blend into a paste.

Once the veg is well-roasted, run them through a food-processor or a blender in batches. Add the ginger/cashew paste, and transfer to a soup pot. Re-heat up to a simmer and re-season as required; I added a little bit more salt, pepper, cayenne, coriander, and cinnamon (easy with those last three). Stir in a handful of whole cashews right before serving. Yum! I’m off for another bowl…

Tabbouleh revisited

July 24, 2010 by osteoderm | No comments

Tabbouleh, tabbouleh, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways… I’ve been churning out these dishes over the past few days, and trying my best not to gobble them all up as soon as they’re made. Yum! I’ve been using all kinds of bases; couscous, amaranth, rice, orzo, quinoa, take your pick. There are a few variations and “special tips/tricks”, but it’s essentially the same no matter how you spin it: equally delish!

Into the blender the dressing goes:

  • Juice of one large lemon
  • Olive oil to equal the above amount
  • 1 large clove of peeled raw garlic
  • Fresh leaves: a bunch of mint, a little less parsley, a little less than that of basil.
  • salt & pepper

I can’t stress the importance of fresh leaves! My come from planter right outside, and if at all possible, so should yours.

Chop and drop into a bowl:

  • 1/2 sweet onion (I prefer red), minced
  • 1 field cucumber, peeled, seeded, and diced
  • 1 medium tomato (or a few cherry tomatoes) diced
  • More leaves, minced, for texture

Steam, boil, simmer, or nuke your base as required. I like to use a little vegetable stock in the cooking water. Saffron and fresh black pepper stirred into hot Israeli couscous make for some drool-worthy fumes! The red and black varieties of quinoa are nuttier-tasting and visually more interesting. In any event, you ought to let the cooked base cool before slopping the whole thing together, although I seldom do.

Whenever you do mix it all together, don’t forget the sprinkles: re-test the amount of salt & pepper, then get loopy and drop in a wee shake of cinnamon, cayenne, allspice, or all three. Oh yes oh yes!

recipe of the day: potato salad

July 11, 2010 by osteoderm | No comments

I looked in the fridge this evening and saw baby potatoes and feta cheese, so I made a salad out of them. Something like this:

  • 2 cups young red taters, cut into 16ths
  • 1 large cucumber, peeled, seeded, and diced
  • 1/4 red onion, small diced
  • 1 little block of feta cheese, diced
  • 1/2 cup cherry tomatoes, halved

Boil the potatoes as little as possible, just edible-ly un-crunchy. toss them in a bowl with the the rest of the veg, and top with a dressing of:

  • 5 tbs olive oil
  • 2 tbs apple cider vinegar
  • 1 tsp dried oregano
  • 1 tbs dried basil
  • salt & pepper

Only because I already had a few hard-boiled eggs handy, I peeled just one, chopped the white into the salad, and blended the yolk into the dressing. I let the whole works settle in the fridge while we made the rest of the meal, but I’m thinking it would do just as well for a hot’n'cold side with the spuds right off the boil.

Wae Baerdy and I get Mexican in The Shire

March 29, 2010 by osteoderm | No comments

My neighbor the Scot joined me for dinner this evening. It was decidedly un-Mexican outside, with epic rain, but we crowded up to the grill and toasted off some meats to enjoy in some righteous little burritos.

Having recently endured several rounds of sub-par restaurant “gourmet Mexican”, I felt that I had to remind myself of just how good simple fresh burritos can be when prepared with love and attention. Here’s the run-down:

  • 2 cheap thin-cut beef steaks. Seriously cheap (I paid $2 each for mine). Fork ‘em good, and soak (overnight) in:
  • 1 lime, juiced and pulped
  • 1/2 tsp cayenne powder
  • 4 tsp chili powder
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp dried or minced fresh cilantro
  • 1/tsp ground cumin

Now break out the beans. I completely cheated and used:

  • 1 can refried black beans “with a touch of Jalapeno!”
  • dash of Tabasco
  • shake of salt, grind of pepper

If you can make the Pico de Gallo a little in advance, it’ll only help it to sit and stew in its own lovely funk awhile. I find that the most dead-simple, few-ingredient, off-the-cuff version is best:

  • 1 small yellow onion, fine diced
  • 2 roma tomatos, fine diced
  • 1/2 lime, juiced
  • 1 shake chili
  • 1 pinch dried or minced fresh cilantro
  • 1 weak shake salt
  • 1 mellow grind pepper

Just two more keys to the party-time that is about to get fired up in your mouth:

  • 1 lump real honest Queso Fresco. Not always easy to find for everybody, but worth it.
  • 1 pack of real honest masa de harina corn tortillas. Again, not easy to find for everybody, but worth it.

As luck would have it, there’s a bizarre catch-all five-and-dime a block from my place that keeps both these gems in a cooler back beyond the no-name canned cat-food and racks of plastic flyswatters.

Fire up a HOT grill (even if it’s raining). Warm up the beans, using whatever method pleases you (I nuked ‘em). Warm up the tortillas as well; I wrapped them in a barely-moistened tea-towel and nuked them as well. Once the grill is smoking, pull the flat steaks out of the marinade and drop directly onto the grill. Flip once or twice, but stand-by; they’ll overcook in an instant!

Once the meats are done, let them rest on the block until cool enough to handle bare-handed, then slice across the grain into narrow strips. Toss the strips in a bowl with any meaty-juicy-runoff, another quick dust of cayenne, and another pinch of cilantro.

Assemble just so: a tortilla, a smear of beans, a hearty crumble of queso, a few meat-strips, a tsp of pico, roll and sloppily consume. Compared to the gallons of salsa, oversized flour tortillas, and mounds of shredded lettuce and cheddar you’ll find down at the “gourmet”, it almost seems to be too small, too simple, too unsophisticated. That’s the point: cheap, direct, simple, flavour-packed, and  awesome.

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