5 posts tagged “latin”
When it comes to delicious and easy to make condiments, chimichurri is right up there with another favorite of mine--pesto. I guess I have a thing for garlicky, oily sauces with fresh herbs. Makes sense, right? How can you not?
A couple weeks ago we went out to eat at an Argentinian steakhouse that serves many of its dishes with chimichurri and I was reminded how much I love it. So, I set out to make some last week to accompany our flank steak. The jury's out on what authentic chimichurri is, but from my understanding (and as confirmed by the all-knowing Wikipedia), it's fresh parsley, dried oregano, olive oil, and garlic. Paprika can be added (but I opted for chili powder) and so can lemon juice & vinegar (I opted for both). I do know a lot of places put cilantro in their chimichurri, but not me. Cilantro is offensive to my tastebuds, after all. But if you are one of those people who doesn't think cilantro tastes like aluminum foil, you could definitely substitute some of the parsley in my recipe for cilantro.
One bite of his steak and Tom said, "Well, you nailed the chimichanga sauce!" He was right. Okay, maybe not about the name of the sauce, but about the flavor. This was some delicious stuff. We like garlic, so I made this quite garlicky (4 fat cloves), but of course reduce the amount if you don't like too much raw garlic.
I seasoned the flank steak very simply with salt, pepper & a little oregano. I used aleppo chili powder in this recipe because I recently picked some up at the Spice House and wanted to use it, but any chili powder will do. We had this with a salad and some red quinoa.
Chimichurri
Serves 4
1/2 cup parsley leaves
3-4 cloves garlic
1/4 cup cup red onion
1/2 tsp. dried oregano
1/2 tsp. aleppo (or any other) chili powder
2 tsp. red wine vinegar
2 tsp. fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper
Break up the garlic in a food processor first, and then add the parsley, onion, oregano, chili powder, vinegar & lemon juice to the food processor. Put the mixture into a bowl.
Stir the olive oil into the bowl (more or less, to the consistency you desire) and adjust seasonings to taste.
July is such a busy month for us. I think we will actually be in town for 17 out of the 31 days and we have events/dinners a few of those days we are in town. So, I won't be doing a whole lot of cooking this month. In fact, I am trying to cook from the freezer/pantry with *maybe* a trip or two to the grocery store for a little fresh produce. So, I don't expect the blog to be updated too frequently, unfortunately.
Tonight, we had grilled Cuban-flavored pork tenderloin with some stuffed portabello mushrooms. Really tasty, and healthy to boot!
Cuban Marinade (for 1 tenderloin, about 1 lb.)
1/4 cup orange juice (about 1 orange)
2 Tbsp lime juice (about 1 lime)
3 Tbsp. canola or olive oil
2 bay leaves
3-4 garlic cloves, smashed
2 tsp cumin
1 tsp oregano
salt and pepper
Combine all ingredients and pour into a resealable bag with the pork tenderloin. Marinate several hours.
Grill tenderloin, basting with the marinade as you grill, until internal temperature reaches 140.
Set aside to rest for 7-10 minutes, underneath an aluminum foil tent. Slice.
This is the first time I have grilled pork tenderloin. Why have I never done this before? Typically I sear and roast or sometimes cook medallions on the stove. The grilling gave this a nice crust and the pork was incredibly tender. I'm definitely going to do this a lot more frequently.
To accompany the pork, I decided to make poblano and cheddar stuffed portobello mushrooms from Food and Wine. These turned out great. My portobellos were definitely smaller than 6 oz. (I weighed them. Have I mentioned I LOVE my kitchen scale? If not, let me just say here that I love the convenience of a kitchen scale) so I decided to decrease the filling a little. I kind of wish I hadn't, so if your mushrooms are 6 oz. or so, I would suggest maybe increasing the filling slightly. I used red poblanos instead of green and added a garlic clove to the onion/spinach mixture. Also, to lighten them up, I used my Misto filled with olive oil to spray the portobellos rather than brushing them with oil. Almost a tablespoon of oil per mushroom is overkill otherwise (well, if you are trying not to eat too many calories, that is).
Poblanos have a great flavor and are not very hot. They are earthy and go so well with the portobellos, also earthy. These actually seem like they would be a good vegetarian meal option (especially if you do find the larger 'shrooms) since the portobellos are meaty, there is a carb and there is cheese :)
[sidebar: I really should work on cleaning my table so my keys and/or mail aren't in the background of all my dinner pics :)]
Many thanks to Cara, for hosting the second Platinum Chef Challenge! Round 2's ingredients are corn, blueberries, hot peppers (jalapeno, chipotle, etc.), citrus and cheese.
This time, I was bound and determined to use all the ingredients in one dish. I can often be finicky about fruit in my food, so this could have been tricky. But, I decided blueberries in some sort of balsamic or barbecue sauce would be a nice, sweet variation. So, I took that idea and ran with it. The remaining ingredients seemed to go together fairly naturally for me.
I decided to model my dish after something I have eaten at Coobah, a local Cuban restaurant. I modified it to fit the challenge and my budget :) I love manchengo but at 10 bucks for 6 oz, I couldn't justify it.
Here is the description of the Coobah entree:
Chicken Negra Modelo--tortilla, smoked tomato, spinach and cheese 샨ilaquilesî topped with a dark beer-sweet mustard glazed roasted chicken breast
Good, right? Mmm.
My version (please feel free to name it, as I have no ideas for names :) was a cumin-orange marinated chicken breast atop some broiled tomatoes, spinach, queso fresco and a tortilla. I basted the chicken and topped the dish with a blueberry-chipotle sauce. It was seriously SO delicious.
Corn Tortillas (makes 2 slightly larger/thicker than normal tortillas)
I made homemade corn tortillas for the first time tonight and they turned out great. I have to say, tortillas are the kinds of things I never even *think* about making, because they are so easy (and cheap) to buy, but I decided to give it a whirl to get a more authentic, puffy tortilla instead of the paper-thin ones at the grocery store. They turned out great and were much easier than I would have imagined. Puffed, fluffy goodness.
1/2 cup masa harina (corn flour)
1/3 cup hot water
pinch of salt
Mix masa, salt and water until a soft dough forms. Put in a bowl and cover with a damp towel. Let stand as you are making the rest of the meal (or about 15-30 minutes)
Heat a cast iron skillet over hot heat.
If you have a tortilla press, go ahead and use that. I sure don't. What I did was divide the dough into two balls. I put a ball at a time in a freezer bag and rolled with a rolling pin. It was not a perfect circle (though you could use a bowl or mold, I'm sure, to get it that way) but it was a snap to do.
Cook tortilla for about a minute per side in very hot cast iron skillet (you don't need any oil).
Chicken
2 boneless/skinless chicken breast halves
2 Tbsp fresh orange (or any other citrus) juice
2 cloves garlic, smashed
cumin
salt and pepper
1 Tbsp olive oil
Mix together orange juice, cumin, garlic, salt, pepper, and oil. Add chicken and marinate (don't marinate *too* long as the acid in the citrus could begin to cook the chicken).
Grill chicken, brushing with blueberry-chipotle sauce.
Blueberry-Chipotle Sauce
1 Tbsp oil
1/4 cup diced onion
1 clove garlic
1 chipotle in adobo, diced
1/4 cup fresh blueberries (I gave them a rough chop)
2 tsp. balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup beer
Heat a saucepan over medium heat and add oil. Add the onions and cook until translucent.
Add the garlic and the chipotle pepper, cooking an additional minute. Add berries.
Stir in beer and balsamic vinegar. Bring to a boil and then reduce to a simmer to thicken and combine the flavors.
Depending on the texture you want, you can run the mixture through a sieve or use a food processor. I pulse processed so it still had a little texture but not big chunks of blueberry or chipotle.
And the rest...
Seed and chop tomatoes. Toss with a little oil and salt and pepper and broil about 4 or 5 minutes.
Stir in spinach and set aside to cool (the heat from the tomatoes will begin with wilt the spinach)
Before spooning over tortillas, crumble in 1 or 2 oz of queso fresco.
I made Canarygirl's arroz con pollo tonight (again), with some skinned drumsticks. This time I got a picture. Not a great picture, but a picture :)
It was just as delicious the second time around. I should have let it sit a couple minutes longer to thicken but I was too excited to eat it.
I plugged this into Sparkpeople and with using 2 skinned drumsticks and a half tablespoon of olive oil per serving, it comes out as follows:
Calories: 415 / Fat: 13g / Saturated Fat: 2g / Carbs: 39g / Protein: 33g
(I'm going to try to do nutritional information when I remember :)
So....yeah. My camera batteries died on me. Again. This has been happening a lot lately, despite charging them everyday. I think I need new batteries.
I'm pretty sad about it because for dinner I made Canarygirl's arroz con pollo, which was delicious! It was so simple but so tasty. Tom loved it, too. He was going on and on about how flavorful and creamy the rice was. Really!
I made it with our last 4 chicken drumsticks. We are drumstick free since 7:43.
Sorry I don't have a picture of it but let's be honest, Nikki's would be 10 times better anyway! :)
