Picadillo (not Peccadillo) and Spanish Salad

A couple weeks back, Lady Sally's Mum gave me a Key West cookbook, and I started cruising through it thinking ahead to the next time I needed to make Sunday lunch for the three of us.

Then Sally and her friend Susan went to Spain for a week and I started looking at Spanish recipes again.

So this week I'm going to tell you about a fabulous Cuban dish as well as a great Spanish warm salad.



Picadillo 
The Spanish word means "mince", which Lady Sally tells me is what the dish would be called in Brighton English.  Some folks would call it a hash.  Very simple and very tasty, without any of the hot spices that typically characterize other Caribbean dishes.  In Cuba picadillo is often served atop plain white rice, or with a side of "patatas fritas" or fried potatoes (home fries).  I served it with tortillas to make soft tacos,  I can also see it as a filling for pita pockets, or in a pie pan with a topping of mashed potatoes making a Cuban Cottage Pie.  No matter how you serve it, you've gonna love this one and make it time and time again.

2 cups Onion, diced
2 cups Green Pepper, seeded and diced
4 cloves Garlic, minced
2 pounds Ground Beef
3 large Roma Tomatoes,  chopped1 teaspoon Cumin, ground
1/4 teaspoon Cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon Ground Cloves
1 teaspoon Oregano
1/2 cup pimento stuffed Green Olives, chopped

2 Tbsp Capers1/3 cup Raisins
1/2 teaspoon salt and black pepper to taste

Brown the beef, add the onion, pepper, garlic and spices and cook for a few minutes.  Add the other ingredients.  Reduce the heat and simmer for about 45 minutes to marry the flavors

I served my picadillo with warmed tortillas and a side of Maduros, sometimes called Tostones or Plantanos Refritos.  What's that?  Pan fried plantains.  Lady Sally loves 'em!   Plantains are un-sweet relatives of the banana.  There are also "cooking bananas"  -- sweeter than a plantain, but not as sweet as a banana.  What I ended up with was cooking bananas.  I sliced them about 1/2" thick and laid them out on a griddle pan with a splash of oil and cooked until I got some nice caramelization.  

If you make Plantanos Refritos, you cut the plantains about an inch thick; fry both cut faces until brown and caramelized, then smash them down to half the height and fry again.

Escalivada

Sally and Susan spent a week in the Catalonian region of Spain, of which Barcelona is the capital.   Barcelonans love to grill, and Escalivada is a grilled vegetable salad usually served warm with fresh bread and cheese.  In Spain there is a tendency to smother things in olive oil.  Good locally made oil, mind you, but 'way too much for Americans who are trying to be a bit healthy. This is my take on this wonderful regional dish, with only a splash of EVOO.  Serves 4.

3 Red Bell Peppers

1 large Eggplant or 3 long eggplant

2 large sweet Onions

4 large Tomatoes

1 whole head of Garlic

Extra Virgin Olive Oil

¼ cup Red Wine Vinegar

Kosher Salt to taste

Wash the vegetables, and cut into large pieces (not a dice. If you insist, but I don't, peel/ skin the tomatoes, eggplant, and peppers. 

Toss the veg with 2-3 Tbsp olive oil and roast under broiler or on grill until things are nicely blacked. Toss with a bit more olive oil and red wine vinegar and serve warm.  I added a toasted baguette with a schmear of good soft goat cheese.  

Happy eating!

Pork and...

Nah! Beans would be too iconic. We're gonna do pork and corn! I know you pork farmers out there are gonna say corn goes inside the pig; not alongside. But just wait.

Why are they “pork farmers” anyway? Why not “pig ranchers”?? Enquiring minds wanna know!

I've been housesitting for Lady Sally for the past few days, while she's out of town on business. Hey! It's tough house sitting and taking care of the dog, two cats, the hot tub and the pool!! Anyway that gave me the kitchen to make some of the dishes I love but she's not so fond of.

So I stopped at the megamart and got a 3 lb pork roast, some ear corn, canned hominy, a couple spicier peppers and things, and set out to make some of my comfort food. Not food from my youth, mind you, pleasant as that was. I talking food that I've discovered as an adult which just hits the spot. Not fancy, but tasty as all getout. Let's start with

Pulled Pork

I make mine from a concept I got from Sam Choy, the famous Hawaii'an chef. Over there, Kahlua Pork is pit cooked – wrapped in wet banana leaves laid on hot coals and covered with dirt to cook for hours. But if you don't have an emu cooking pit in your backyard, or banana leaves handy (even though I do). You can still make pork “dat taste like de islan's mon!”

• Coat your pork roast with 1 Tbsp of Kosher salt per pound of meat. Rub it in well.
• Brush that salty meat with 1 Tbsp Liquid Smoke per pound. Try to not wash the salt away.
• Set the meat in a covered roaster and set the oven for 250F. Or use an electric pot, set for 225F.

Add broth or water or a courtbouillion (flavored water) like I did, until the liquid comes half way up the meat. I added a couple of Oxo beef cubes and 4 quarters of home-made preserved Meyer lemon to flavor my courtbouillion. Cook for 1 hour per pound.

Carefully lift the meat out, set it on a rimmed pan, and attack it vigorously with a pair of forks.

Place shredded meat in a large bowl and add to it a cup or more of the braising liquid, and toss. The shredded meat will absorb all that “liquid love”.

Here's my first pulled pork sandwich, on a biscuit I'll tell you how to make next.

Soda Biscuits

No, these aren't Baking Soda biscuits. The recipe is all over the Internet as 7Up (tm) Biscuits, but any Lemon-Lime soda (or even Ginger Ale) will work just as well. Makes 8 large 
(4" diameter) biscuits:

4 cups Bisquick (tm) brand baking mix (nearly all of a 20 oz box)

1 cup Sour Cream

1 cup Lemon-Lime Soda

Butter for greasing the baking sheet (or Baking Spray if you prefer).

Flour for prepping the work surface

Combine the baking mix, sour cream and soda into a soft dough in a bowl. Liberally flour a flat working surface.  Turn the dough out on it and knead, flouring the dough as you go, until it comes together without being a sticky mess.

Pat the dough out about 3/4” thick and cut out your biscuits with a round cutter, and place them on a greased baking sheet. Alternatively, place the dough in a greased 9x13 baking pan and pat it out to cover the bottom evenly. Then use a wet knife to score the dough into squares. Either way, bake at 425F for about 15 minutes until GB&D. If using the 9x13 method,  after about 10 minutes, pull the pan and score the biscuit lines with your knife again, then finish baking.

Set the biscuits on a cooling rack for 10-15 minutes before serving. Can be kept for several days in the fridge if wrapped well.

Pozole

Other  than making sandwiches, or just going face down in the bowl of pulled pork, there are other tasty things you can do. Pozole is one of them.

Pozole is  a pre-Columbian soup or stew which probably originally contained turkey, agouti, javelina or any number of other wild meats, chile peppers, and a special kind of corn product we now call hominy. Today chicken and pork are the usual proteins. Hominy is whole dried corn kernals that have been softened in lime water,  cooked until it pops, and then canned. If you live in the American Southwest you can buy fresh made hominy which must be cooked until it pops.

Usually pozole contains cubes of pork browned in a skillet then added to the mixture. This version uses pulled pork.

1 lb Pulled Pork

1 can Hominy (white or yellow)

2 Poblano peppers (or hotter ones if you prefer)

1 Onion, diced

1 can Rotel(tm) Diced Tomatoes (optional)

Open out the peppers, seed and vein if you please.  Place them inside down on a baking sheet and put them under the broiler until they blacken nicely - 5-8 minutes. Cut into a large dice.

Combine the ingredients in a pot with water and a bouillon cube and simmer until the peppers are cooked and the flavors melded.

Simple and tasty!

Elotes – Mexican Corn on the Cob

Continuing my Latin theme, I made sweetcorn as tailgate food for The Game on Saturday afternoon.

I'm a UF Gator by adoption, as it were. The Gators were playing Alabama. Lady Sally and I often go to friends' house to watch the game, but this time I was on my own. I knew she'd want a play-by-play account later, so I got the TV set to watch the afternoon game.

Halftime (we were tied 21-21) came about dinner time, so I quickly made another pulled pork sandwich and some Mexican Street Corn, called Elotes. Using the microwave is a lot faster (4 minutes per ear) and less messy than grilling, but you can also use the broiler. Serves 6-8 as part of a meal:

6-8 ears Corn on the cob

¼ cup Mayo

¼ cup Sour Cream

1 Lime

1 cup grated Cotija cheese or Parmesan

Chile Powder or Paprika

While the corn is cooking, mix together the mayo and sour cream, and add the juice of half a lemon.

To serve, peel the husks, slather with the “crema” mixture, add the cheese, and then dust with chile powder or paprika. 

Even though we lost the game, the tailgate grub was great!

Stuffed Peppers & Ginger-Orange Carrots

Interesting week just past.   Here at the marina we had a 120 ft South African registered megayacht limp into port for a couple day stay.  They'd been crossing Lake Okeechobee, and ran afoul of something huge and fiberglass or plastic (sunken boat?)  that damaged one of their 3 foot diameter bronze propellers.  So the owners went ashore and the crew stayed aboard to "effect repairs".

I walked down the dock the next day,  and welcomed the crew to the area, introduced myself, and gave my Personal Chef business card to the Captain.  He said "You don't sound Scottish." and asked what kind of Scottish food I made.   The upshot was that I was asked to do a "Scottish Dinner" for the Captain, his wife, and two young deckhands.   No rough and tumble sailors these, but polished upscale maritime folk.  Megayachts don't hire seadogs.  The Captain reminded me a lot of Robert Irvine, the Food Network chef from Dinner:  Impossible, who was once chef aboard the Royal Yacht Britannia.

So for their feast I prepared my Faux Haggis and Tatties & Neeps, detailed here in my Scottish Culinary Delights post.  Their second side dish was my signature Ginger-Orange Carrot Ribbons.


Ginger-Orange Carrot Ribbons
1 "thumb" of fresh Ginger
Carrots - 2 large per person, washed
1 can frozen Orange Juice Concentrate

Julienne the ginger.  Peel the carrots.  Just keep peeling long ribbons until you can't hold on any longer.  Don't discard the outside peels, as they've got lot of goodness in them.  In a large covered skillet place the ginger, carrots and about a 2" length of the still frozen OJ concentrate.  Bring the temp up to medium-high, tossing the carrots in the melted OJ and ginger.  Simmer until the ribbons are cooked through -- perhaps 10 minutes.  Plate and serve.  Even veggie haters love these sweet and tangy orange ribbons!

For dessert I made them Strathboggie Mist, a concoction of poached pears in a ginger wine and cream sauce.  But since I neglected to get any pictures, I'll have to give you that recipe another time.


Stuffed Bell Peppers
Last week I gave my my secret recipe for shrimp stuffed tomatoes.  This week I'm stuffing bell peppers.

6 large Red Bell Peppers (or other colors, but we prefer the taste of cooked reds)
1 pound 90/10 or 85/15 Ground Beef
3-4 cups Cooked Rice (2 'cups' uncooked rice in the Rice Cooker)
4 oz Crimini Mushrooms
1/2 Red Bell pepper, diced (not one of the 6 above)
1/2 large Sweet Onion
1/2 large Yellow Tomato, diced
3/4 cup prepared Vodka Pasta Sauce 
Italian Spice Blend or combination of spices, to taste

Cook the rice.  I used Jasmine rice infused with about half a tablespoon of ground cumin.  While that's going on, slice off the tops and remove the seeds and veins from the peppers.  Stand peppers upside down on paper towels to drain while you prepare the rest of the stuffing.

Brown the beef and onion.  Add the diced pepper, tomato and mushrooms and cook 5 more minutes.  Add the pasta sauce and spices and cook another 5 minutes.  Remove from heat.  Add the cooked rice and fold to combine.

You can finish this recipe in the oven, or in a temperature controlled deep cooker like my Saladmaster(tm) MP-5, five-quart electric cooker.  If you're going for the oven, set the temperature to 350F and arrange the hollowed peppers in a suitable container.  Fill peppers with the stuffing, swell packed.  Bake about 30 minutes until the peppers are softened.  

In the MP-5 I set the temperature for 300F, arranged the peppers and stuffed them.  Then I added about an inch of water. and put the lid on.  After 30 minutes the peppers were nicely cooked, so I turned things off and plated them out.  One pepper makes a pretty good dinner serving, especially if you serve a small side salad.

Lady Sally had been gifted with a nice large Dragonfruit, so for dessert we had a Dragonfruit and Starfruit smoothie.  Yum.

Even here in Southwest Florida we're getting temperatures in the low 80s for daytime highs.  Welcome to Fall!!

Shrimp, Shrimp and ...

So this week we're going to do two or more simple shrimp recipes with a 20 oz bag of frozen 'salad' shrimp. You know, the little bitty ones with all the flavor. Pre-cooked and shelled, and ready to eat.  Also a classic Peruvian dish of rice and beans or lentils.

I was down at the riverside farmer's market the other day, and came across these giant yellow tomatoes. Lady Sally likes the yellow ones as they are less acidic than the red ones. My Aunt Jeanette, back in the day, used to get hives from red tomatoes. Over the years that she lived with us, my folks grew lots of yellow tomatoes.

I'd been wondering what to make for Sunday lunch this week, and “stuffed tomatoes” immediately came to mind when I saw those big yellow globes. Sally had a stuffed tomato recipe from her sister in England that I tweaked by adding the baby shrimp, some celery, and things. Here's what I made:

Shrimp Stuffed Tomatoes

6 Large Tomatoes

Stuffing:

1-1/2 cups Salad Shrimp, thawed

1 tbsp whole Capers

¼ cup Golden Raisins

1/3 cup diced Sweet White Onion

1 Tbsp minced Garlic

12 large Black Olives, coarsely chopped

¾ cup chopped Tomato “guts”

2 tsp Szeged(tm) brand Fish Rub (paprika, salt, pepper, lemon, and more)

1-1/4 cup Panko Bread Crumbs

Shredded white English Cheddar for topping

Hollow, and drain the tomatoes while you prepare the stuffing. Simmer together the other ingredients, except for the panko, for about 10 minutes, until the celery and onion are softened. Add the panko and toss to absorb the liquids and form the stuffing. Stuff the tomatoes and top with cheese. Place under the broiler for 5-10 minutes until the cheese is brown and melty.   Serve on a bed of lettuce.  Depending on tomato size, these can be an appetizer or 1-2 as a meal with a starch side.

Shrimp & Shell Salad

This is my twist on a recipe I 'inherited' from my Mom. She made a dish something like this every summer that I can remember. Mom made it with canned tuna (shrimp wasn't in our lexicon). But I think I've kept the rest accurate. This is a K.I.S.S. Recipe; don't go adding too many ingredients.

My vegetarian friends can make this without the shrimp, just double the amount of vegetables. Use faux mayo if you're vegan.

1 lb box Seashell Pasta

1-1/2 cups Salad Shrimp, thawed

1 cup frozen Green Peas, thawed

10-12 Red Radishes, sliced

1 stick Celery, sliced fine

1 bunch Green Onions (or ¼ sweet onion, diced)

1 Red Bell Pepper, diced (I believe Mom used carrot slices)

½ cup Mayonnaise for dressing

Salt, Pepper, Paprika

Cook the pasta according to package directions. While that's going on, slice and dice the celery, pepper, onions, . When the pasta is done, cool and drain it. Then toss everything, including the mayo, in a large bowl, add salt & pepper to taste, and fold with a spoon or spatula to combine. Don't over-dress with the mayo. Top dress with paprika. Chill and serve.

Alternatives and options I've tried over the years: curry powder spice, Cajun spice, Old Bay seasoning, mixed frozen veggies instead of just peas, sliced mushrooms, daikon instead of red radishes; smoked paprika instead of sweet paprika.

Bonus Shrimp Recipe

Add a handful of those salad shrimp to your mushroom omelet. To make it really upscale add a dollop of guacamole before you fold or roll the omelet closed.

Tacu Tacu de Lentejas

If you live in a culture whose cuisine features lots of rice, beans and lentils, you're gonna have leftovers. That's what the Peruvian name Tacu tacu means – leftovers. Lentejas are lentils.

Aji Amarillo is a spicy sauce/paste (not salasa) made from the Peruvian Yellow Chile pepper. It's a unique flavor. Aji amarillo can be obtained as dried peppers or the paste. For this recipe you really want the paste (available from many Latin markets or on-line). Substituting another pepper sauce might be tasty, but just won't be the same.

Tacu tacu is commonly served as a side dish or bed for a pork chop or grilled chicken breast, but makes a tasty main dish by itself. If you make tacu tacu with beans, use black or pinto beans.

Of course you can start with freshly cooked rice and lentils (or beans) if you don't happen to have any leftovers. For the lentils in this dish I prefer half ordinary green lentils and half orange split lentils, as the split lentils mash easier and help bind things together.

1 cup cooked Rice

1 cup cooked Lentils

¼ cup diced white or red onion

1-3 tsp Aji Amarillo (to taste)

Cook the rice and lentils and cool them. I prefer to cook the rice spiced with cumin, and lentils spiced with my Latin Spice Blend:

1 tbsp Cumin

1 tbsp Coriander

1 tbsp Chile Powder

1 tbsp Salt

1 tbsp Black Pepper

Toast the combined spices in a dry skillet until very aromatic. Then cool and store in a jar.

Combine the aji amarillo paste, cooked rice and lentils and raw onions in a bowl and mash with a potato masher or Pampered Chef Star Masher until the lentils break down a bit and the mass starts to stick together. Turn out onto a lightly oiled griddle or skillet and mash into a flat cake about ¾ to 1” thick. Fry about 6-8 minutes on medium high until you get a nice crust on the bottom. Flip the cake (don't worry if it breaks up) and fry again for 6-8 minutes to get more crust. Cut the cake into quarters and serve.

Here I've molded the tacu tacu in a glass pie plate.  Invert a plate on top, then flip to unmold.  Can be garnished with pickled red onions:

Salsa Criollo (Peruvian Pickled Red Onions)

1 Red Onion

1 Tbsp White Wine Vinegar

1/2 Tbso olive oil

1/2 Lime

1/4 tsp Salt

1/4 tsp Cumin

1/4 tsp Oregano

Slice the onions thin (julienne).  Rinse & drain and place in a bowl.  In a cup mix the oil, vinegar, spices and juice of the lime.  Pour pickling liquid over the onions and toss to combine. Refrigerate until use.

Simple Salmon and Vodka Eggplant

I once lived in the Pacific Northwest, where fresh salmon is ubiquitous, like fresh grouper is here in FL.

 The only use I have for the canned stuff is making salmon rissoles (patties) or croquettes.

Farmed, “color added” Atlantic salmon is OK, but wild-caught salmon of any kind is superior in taste and texture to even the best farmed salmon. I object to “color added” making the uninformed buyer that s/he is getting top-of-the-line fresh fish. There's nothing “wrong” with pale fleshed salmon; it just means they haven't been eating enough shrimp and other crustaceans to get a maximum dose of beta-caretene. Farmed salmon are often just fed “Purina Salmon Chow” so they don't get the color you expect from wild-caught fish eating a natural diet.

Atlantic Salmon

Keta, or dog salmon, is drier (less oily) than other species, and has firm pink flesh suitable for grilling. It also tends to be less expensive than sockeye or king salmon. In season – late summer – Costco has large side slabs of skin-on sockeye or keta for a good price. We'll often buy a 2-1/2 lb side slab for say $25 and get five meals for two from that. $2.50 per person food cost for a salmon dinner is pretty darn good.

Keta Salmon

Sockeye is the third most common salmon of the PNW,  The name Sockeye comes from the Anglicization of its name from on of the Coastal Salish native peoples:  Suk-kegh, meaning "red fish".

All three are anadromous species, meaning that they spend most of their life in the open ocean, but return to the stream where they were hatched to lay down their own eggs (spawn).  Some species of salmon notably the Kokanee, have developed landlocked populations.

Simple Salmon and Stir Fried Salad

When I lived in the PNW, I learned to spice and cook salmon two ways – with whole Cloves pinned into the meat, or dusted with Dill weed. Both are equally good, and which I use depends on what I'm going to serve as sides. You can bake salmon, but I'd rather not; it tends to dry out the meat.  As it cooks the filet exudes a whitish substance which is the fat. Gently scrape it off.

¼ lbs Salmon per personDill or cloves (4-6 per steak)I either cook the salmon directly on a hot, lightly oiled griddle, or poach it atop lemon slices above a bit of lemon water, wine, diced onion, and caper courtbouillion. Either way, cooking time is no more than 15 minutes. After 10-12 minutes start testing with a fork to see if the meat is flaking. When it flakes easily, it's done.

Salmon poaching on lemons over a white wine courtbouillion

The side vegetable I served with the salmon show you the versatility of the Chopped Salad I wrote about last week. We almost always have some leftover salad. It's hard to make in small amounts. So one Friday after a week of having salad for lunch everyday, and seeing a largish amount left, Lady Sally says “why don't you stir fry the leftovers to go with...?” A hot griddle, a splash of oil, some soy sauce and rice wine vinegar, and a few drops of sriracha for a bit of spice, and there you are.

Stir Fried Salad

Simple Salmon, Stir Fried Salad and Salt Baked Fingerling Potatoes

The Salt Baked Potatoes are simply rinsed in water, pierced with a  fork so they don't explode, and tossed with about a tablespoon of Kosher salt.  Nuke for 3-5 minutes until tender.

Vodka Eggplant and Shrimp

We both love eggplant that's well prepared – not overcooked and mushy but firm and moist. Aubergine is probably Lady Sally's favorite vegetable. If you don't like them skin-on, that's OK, go ahead and peel. But if prepared right, you won't even notice the skin. One of these days I'll tell you about my signature Stuffed Eggplant recipe, but today it's 'way too hot to fire up the oven!

½ lb Shrimp (for this dish I use cooked, peeled shrimp available at my seafood market)1 large eggplant, unpeeled, sliced into about six 3/4” thick roundsPanko breadcrumbs for dredge1 egg, beaten with a splash of water, for dredge1 Jar commercial Vodka Pasta Sauce of your favorite brandItalian Seasoning Blend, chopped garlic, lemon juice, etc. for doctoring the sauce4 oz sliced Mushrooms2 slices Provolone or other cheese cut into strips

Place the Panko and beaten egg in seperate wide bowls. Dredge both sides of each slice of eggplant in egg and then panko, and griddle or pan fry them on medium high in a splash of olive oil, for about 6 minutes a side, until tender. Place on paper towels to drain.

While cooking the eggplant, in another pan saute the mushrooms. Then add the shrimp, vodka sauce and whatever you want to doctor the sauce with. Bring to a simmer and hold.

Plate the eggplant rounds, ladle the Vodka Shrimp sauce over, and garnish with strips of cheese.

Brined Eggplant

Some folks object to the “bitterness” of eggplant. So they salt the bejezus out of the eggplant and smash it flat under plates to “let the bitterness out”. WRONG! Bitterness is caused by phenolic compounds generated from the seeds of over-ripe eggplant. The first cure for bitter eggplant is buy firm, “just barely ripe” specimens, not loose-skinned, soft-fleshed over ripe globes.

The second cure for bitterness in eggplant is called brining. You may have heard of brining as a way of flavoring or tenderizing meat. Well, it works for veggies too. Even if you buy perfectly ripe aubergines, this is a wonderful thing to do to them. A couple tablespoons of Kosher salt in a quart of water is all you need. Submerge the eggplant rounds in this liquid and in half an hour you'll have plump, juicy, tender, rounds of goodness, not smashed flat, tasteless muck.

Brining does NOT make the eggplant salty. The salt interacts with the flesh of the eggplant to open up pores and plump them up with just water, not salt, and in the process flush out the phenolics which cause bitterness.

x