Yum
Originally uploaded by Jake Sutton.
Archive for the 'Food and Cookery' CategoryPage 3 of 3
Monks run out of the world’s best beer
Brings a tear to the eye, it does. Those Belgian monks make some fine brew.
Once it gets back to steak grilling weather, I have to remember to whip up some chimichurri.
I love making salsas. This tropical fruit variety is great with chips and even better on top of a nice grilled tuna steak or something along those lines.
Ingredients:
- 6 fresh (soft to the touch) mangoes, “cheeked” & diced
- Mango juice (squeezed from mango pits)
- 1 fresh (smell the base) pineapple (or one large can pineapple rings), diced
- 1 fresh papaya, diced (Optional, but adds some nice funkiness)
- 1 medium/large red onion. diced
- 2-4 cloves garlic, minced/crushed
- Peppers, minced (However many and whatever types you like. Try a couple jalepeños and a couple serranos to start.)
- 2 tsp salt
- Handful fresh cilantro, chopped fine
Directions:
- Combine in glass bowl (glass is best considering the acid present).
- Let sit to allow flavors to combine (Not required, but helps).
The only trick here is preparing the mangoes. Mangoes have a bizarre sort of fibrous pit. The best way around the pit is to lop off the bottom of the fruit. If the orientation of pit is not visible, you should be able to feel it with a finger pressed into the meat. once you know the orientation of the slim-in-one-direction, wide-in-the-other pit, stand the fruit up and carefully follow the wide, flat side of the pit with a knife. I call this “cheeking” the mango. Not sure if I made that up or heard Martha Stewart call it that or what. Once you have the cheeks, you can carefully score the meat with the tip of a knife in a grid pattern — careful not to go through the skin. Push the skin inside out and just scrape off the nifty little mango cubes with a spoon or the tip of your thumb.
You may also want to try it with a few dashes of vinegar (red wine, rice wine) added for extra zing.
This will make A LOT… enough for at least 6 normal people… 4 if you have to feed a Miracle Ed…
Measurements are iffy at best… Like I said, I cook by feel…
Ingredients:
- 1.5 lb. of super fresh fish, cubed
It needs to have some body to it, too. For instance, I used 1 lb. of scrod and 0.5 lb of swordfish and it turned out great.
Other options include sea bass, scallops, tuna, conch… and so on. - 3 largish limes, juice of
- 1 large lemon, juice of
- Maybe ½ cup orange juice or better yet: 1 medium orange, juice of
- 2 large cloves garlic, minced
- 1 medium habañero pepper, minced
Please! Remember the habañero is one of the hottest peppers known to mankind. WASH YOUR HANDS WELL after you handle the pepper. Alcohol helps get the capsaicin off your hands, too. - 1 Santa Fe Grande pepper, diced
Any pepper with some sweetness and a bit of heat is good. I’ve rarely seen these labeled at the grocery. They usually look like red jalepeños. - 1 onion, diced
The type of onion is a personal preference. I used a plain yellow onion, but a red onion or a sweet Vidalia would have been great. - 1 mango, cubed
- 1 avocado, cubed (similarly)
- 3 plum tomatoes, diced
- 1 can of pineapple slices, chunked or better yet: ½ of a fresh pineapple, chunked
- Salt to taste
- Dried pepper flakes to taste
Directions:
- Place fish cubes in a large glass bowl (glass is definitely preferred, considering we’re working with fish and acid), lightly salting and sprinkling with pepper flakes.
- Add garlic and habañero, fold to distribute evenly.
- Cover the fish with citrus juices. Stir the fish gently to make sure there aren’t any dry spots / air bubbles.
- Refrigerate and let stand for at least 4 hours.
(I left mine for almost 20 hours as a matter of convenience.) - Strain fish in a colander. Let stand while preparing fruit, etc. to drain excess liquid.
- Mix all other ingredients in a large bowl. Add the fish. Stir/fold gently.
(The avocado will dissolve to varying degrees, depending on how ripe it is… Be gentle to keep this to a minimum.) - Put it back in the fridge until you’re ready to serve.
(Just long enough to make sure it’s nice an cool is good) - Serve with tortilla chips (I baked my own.) and sangria.
OK, OK… I know the idea of fish being “cooked� by citrus juice may seem strange, but it really works. You’ll be amazed.
Please try it and let me know how it turned out.
I just dredged this up from the Google cache. I don’t want it to be gone forever, so here it is again:
Ingredients:
- 10-12 Dried chiles (Anaheims are a safe start. I like to mix Anaheims and New Mexicos.)
- 3 cups water
- ¼ cup tomato sauce or paste
- 1 clove garlic, minced/crushed
- ¼ cup vegetable oil
- 1½ tsp salt
- 1 tsp Mexican oregano (It’s so worth finding the Mexican variety!)
- ¼ tsp cumin
Directions:
- Remove stems and seeds from chiles.
- Simmer chiles in water ½ hour.
- Place in blender with enough water to blend, whirl until smooth.
- Add remaining water, tomato sauce and oil. Whirl until smooth then
strain. (This is a pain, but absolutely essential. Use a fairly coarse
strainer and a wooden spoon to mash the sauce through.) - Add remaining ingredients and simmer approximately 10 minutes.
I’ll leave the actual enchiladas to you.
Thanks to my Ma who passed this on to me. Also to the Mexican maid who taught the recipe to my grandmother back in Texas in the ’50s.
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