Tacos, Old-school.

On this blog we've talked a lot about tacos.  Turkey tacos, fish tacos, skirt steak tacos, veggie tacos...but we've never really talked taco tacos.  You know, the tacos of your childhood:  ground beef, shredded iceberg lettuce, diced tomato, yellow cheddar cheese, a thin red taco sauce and of course, the hard corn tortilla shell.  Your mom made them with a spice packet she bought at the supermarket.  Lawry's, maybe La Preferida, but they all tasted the same.  A chili powder/cumin spice blend and a bit of water that made the meat reddish in hue and spicy and tangy to the tongue.  It's a good nostalgic flavor that is comfort food to a 70s kid.

I still like to make these tacos once in a while and my husband loves it when I do.  But now I'm sort of against spice packets full of dehydrated stuff.  I found a recipe from the people at Cook's Illustrated who set out to duplicate that taste using only real ingredients.

Here's the recipe for a 1 lb of ground beef :

2 t corn or veg oil
1 small onion, small dice (about 1/2 c)
3 medium garlic cloves, minced or pressed
2 T chili powder
1 t ground cumin
1 t ground coriander
1/2 t dried oregano
1/4 t cayenne pepper
salt
1lb 90% lean ground beef
1/2 c canned tomato sauce
1/2 c canned low-sodium chicken broth
A skant 1 t brown sugar
2 t vinegar, preferable cider vinegar
ground black pepper

Have your spices (not brown sugar) measured out and set aside.  You can combine them in a little bowl. Also have ground beef package open and ready to add.  You don't want your spices to scorch so you need to be ready to add it without delay.

Heat oil in medium skillet over medium heat until hot and shimmering, but not smoking.  Add onion and cook, stirring, until softened, about 4 minutes.  Add garlic, spices and 1/2 t salt, cook stirring constantly until fragrant, about 1 minute.  Add ground beef and cook, breaking meat up with a wooden spoon and scraping pan bottom to prevent scorching, until beef is no longer pink about 5 minutes.  Add tomato sauce, chicken broth,  brown sugar and vinegar, bring to a simmer.  Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer, uncovered, stirring frequently and breaking up meat so that no chunks remain, until liquid has reduced and thickened (mixture should not be completely dry) about 10 minutes.  Adjust seasonings with salt and pepper.

Now as far as the corn tortilla shell goes...I'm lazy and I hate to fry so I just heat corn or flour tortillas.  But you can pan fry corn tortillas in a shallow amount of hot oil (1/2 inch or so) and then, using tongs, fold the tortilla and continue to fry (flupping to the other side halfway through) until it crisps up.  These can be drained on paper towels and kept warm in a 200 degree oven until you finish the batch.  It works wonderfully and they taste really good, much better than the store-bought ones in a box.

For toppings, I trust you know what you like. This is great football Sunday food.

Chocolate Zucchini Bread

It's got to be a good recipe to bring me out of blogging hibernation. right?. I'm so excited about this "bread" I had to tell you about it. I put "bread" in quotes because this is really more like chocolate cake. Dark, dense, moist and very chocolatey cake. It would go great with a tall glass of cold milk. I just LOVE it.

I found this recipe while surfing along looking for things to do with zucchini. This specific recipe caught my eye because it looked just like a really good chocolate zucchini bread that I get a bit too often at The Coffee Studio in Andersonville.

Some high points are that it uses 1 1/2 cup of grated zucchini, which is a lot compared to some of the recipes out there. Think about it: if you make the mini loafs, you get 1/2 c of zucchini in each. You can take secret joy in that as your children gobble the it down. Also, this recipe has chocolate chips in it, which is never a bad thing and facilitates the gobbling.

Since I knew the flavor I was trying to approximate, I made a few adaptions to the original recipe on Joy of Baking. I cut down on the cinnamon, using a scant 1/4 teaspoon and eliminated the allspice altogether. I wasn't looking for a spice bread.

So, if you try this recipe, do it my way with just a little cinnamon and without the allspice. You can make one big loaf or divide the batter into 3 mini ones. But don't wait until next summer to make this.

Two more quick things: It's really good cold out of the fridge and leave out the word zucchini when you offer it to your kids.

A Fresh Take on a Classic

Tonight's dinner didn't come from a recipe, it just sort of evolved from what I knew I wanted and what I found. It started with the idea of using my current favorite salad *arugula, prosciutto, dried chopped date and shaved parmesan with a semi-sweet tart vinaigrette; but making it into a complete dinner by adding a simple grilled chicken breast and serving the salad on top as is common in Italian restaurants. The salad itself is a really good combination of flavors: bitter fresh arugula, salty, dry prosciutto, sweet chopped dates, parmesan and also chopped pecans. (Thanks to Chef David DiGregorio, my favorite Italian chef)

But then I started thinking that it might be more interesting if I put chicken and prosciutto together. My thoughts naturally turned to Chicken Saltimbocca, the classic Italian chicken, prosciutto and sage dish, usually served with a lemony wine sauce. This wasn't quite the dish I wanted though, I still was thinking of my dinner salad. So I decided to prepare the chicken breast "saltimbocca" style but serve it with a tart vinaigrette and the arugula and date salad.

The chicken is prepared according to this recipe from Bon Appetit. Basically you just pound it thin and lay thin slices of prosciutto across the top. They just stick, no problem. The whole thing is dredged lightly in flour and then the chicken is browned in oil prosciutto-side down in a saute pan. It browns in about 4 minutes, gets flipped and cooked until it is cooked through (165 degrees,) about another 4, depending on the thickness of the chicken.

A vinaigrette is prepared and tossed with some arugula and thin-sliced dates. (I've pointed you to the vinaigrette that I use, but I think one made with lemon juice and zest would be even better. ) The chicken is plated and the salad is served on the side. Parmesan shavings go over the top - to bring it over the top. The chicken turned out really juicy and flavorful. Sometimes you get in your mind what you want and you just have to follow your instincts and trust that you know what you're doing. A nice spring dinner. Arugula is just about in season, so give this a try.

2nd Hand Soup

This soup came from my mom who'd had a delicious bowl called Navajo Vegetable Soup in restaurant and decided to try making it at home. She told me about it on the phone and I thought I'd give it a try as well. It is basically a vegetable soup but with American Indian/southwestern flavors . The soup is made up of squash, beans and corn, the trinity of native american cooking. There is also some jalapeno and Green Tabasco sauce to give it just enough heat to take it from boring to "I need more."

I'm going to simply give you a basic recipe and you can change it how you like. For example, my mom used a green pepper, I chose a red one for mine. It starts like any vegetable soup, sweat some onion and garlic in a large pot.... add your vegetables, seasoning and broth and let everything simmer and cook until the squash is tender. I guarantee all veggies will be done by that time. The only thing somewhat odd is that we add the whole can of corn, not drained. It seems that the little bit of sweet liquid from the can of corn helps round out all the flavors.

There's a lot of chopping to be done but it is worth it! You can use any squash but I find that a butternut is easiest to peel and dice. But you will probably only need half of it. There's tons of stuff you can do with the other half, so don't worry about it. I tried it with an acorn and it was just too much work to peel that sucker. But whatever works for you. You can even buy raw squash that's already prepped for you at Whole Foods, it just costs a million dollars a pound.

Here's the basic goods:

1 medium onion, small dice
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 cup, squash, peeled and diced
1/2 red bell pepper, small dice
1 zucchini, small dice (optional)
1 jalapeno, teeny dice
-1 can beans, rinsed and drained. (My mom used red beans, I like black because they are smaller and less mealy)
-1 can corn niblets - you could use fresh, but canned works well here
32 to 48 oz low-sodium chicken broth (Swanson is my fave)
-Cilantro, a few sprigs in to cook with the vegetables and some chopped for garnish
-Seasoning, (I have a Penzey's blend, called Arizona that I like) but what's basically in it is: ground ancho chile, cumin, cayenne, paprika - you can play here, just don't use a heavy hand

*Green Tabasco sauce

Sweat the onion until translucent, add the garlic. Do not allow to brown, you just want soft)

Add your squash dice and saute a little bit Add some seasoning, salt and pepper. Toss in the peppers and zucchini. Add your canned beans, corn and a couple sprigs of cilantro, then the broth. You will need to eyeball the broth. You can always add more. Just make it how you like it.

Let everything come up to a boil and then reduce heat and allow to simmer until the squash is very tender (about 1/2 an hour or longer, depending on the size of the squash dice.) Hit it with a few dashes of Tabasco and taste for seasoning. Besides the kick of heat from the Tabasco, it also gives a spark of acid to the broth that really helps. But don't forget you added a jalapeno!

Of course some diced, cooked chicken could also be added if you like. And it also could be made vegetarian using vegetable broth (but I'm not too crazy about the flavor of that.)

Simple, right? And good and hearty and nutritious. You can't go wrong! And, like most soups, it tastes even better the next day. So all that work chopping one day will pay you back the next by providing another meal, labor-free.

Please try this one! I think you'll be really happy with what you make.

Chickpea and Cherry Tomato Salad with Cilantro Dressing

This simple salad is from one of my favorite cookbooks, Clean Food. There's not much to it besides the chickpeas and tomatoes. but they're held together by a delicious sassy cilantro dressing. A food processor is needed for the dressing.

You could use this as a side next to grilled meat or fish or as a dish to share at a dinner. It also makes a nice green salad by tossing it with some baby spinach and a little more of the dressing. Don't add all the dressing at once when you make the recipe. When I make it for just us, I halve it (using a pint of cherry tomatoes and a can of chick peas.) The real value of this salad is what's leftover that you can eat the next day as a quick lunch.

Chickpea and Cherry Tomato Salad with Cilantro Dressing
adapted from Clean Food by Terry Walters

2 lbs cherry tomatoes (mixed varities make it special)
3 cups cooked chick peas (I use 2 cans, rinsed and drained. for the whole recipe) 4-5 chopped scallions

Dressing

1 garlic clove, peeled
1 large bunch of cilantro (about a cup)
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 T lemon juice
kosher salt and pepper

Cut the tomatoes in half, and add to a large bowl with chick peas and scallions

With food processor running, drop in whole garlic clove and mince. Turn of processor, scrape down sides, add cilantro, olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper. Pulse to combine. Drizzle dressing over salad, toss and serve.

Grilled Swordfish with Sun-Dried Tomato Vinaigrette

Those who know me well know that I tend to fixate. I crush hard on things, they consume me and all my thoughts and then, like fleeting summer love, they pass and I move on to obsess on something new. It has always been that way. I've been obsessed with pie making, mexican food, asian food, weight loss (you would figure, after all that pie and mexican food,) healthy eating, vegetarian eating. There's been a pomegranate phase, a mango phase. The creme brulee phase, a kabob phase, potato gratin phase, a whole gratin phase not confined to the potato. Oh, it goes on but that's between me and my therapist.

Right now, it is all about the salad and mostly, the vinaigrette. I've been trying all sorts of new ones, especially those from the book Mediterranean Fresh by Joyce Goldstein ("A compendium of one-plate salad meals and mix-and-match dressings.") Can anything sound better than that in the middle of summer? The sun-dried tomato vinaigrette I'm about to share is from this book. I love it on grilled chicken or swordfish (as I did above and served with swiss chard from our garden). I think it would be good on a steak salad too, especially if one were to add a little chipotle in there.

Sun-Dried Tomato Vinaigrette

1/2 c extra-virgin olive oil
1/4 c sun-dried tomato oil (from the jar)
3 T red wine vinegar
2 T chopped sun-dried tomatoes
salt and pepper

Whisk it all together.

Here I've made a salad of leftover grilled chicken breast, sliced with the vinaigrette spooned over it. Also currently enamored with pickled green beans, which also on the plate.

Here's what the lettuce looked like 10 minutes before it was washed, dried and ready to go into my salad.

Status Update: Garden

Lettuces that were planted next to the tomato plants when they were small. Now the tomatoes are big and the lettuce is about ready to come out.


Soy beans, a little crowded in a barrel. I understand soybeans can grow in crowded conditions. Just the beginnings of flowers on these, hoping for edamame in the near future.


Green beans, little but with teeny tiny green beans on them already. And two healthy, very giving chard plants alongside. We've had a good many servings of chard from just these two plants and that will continue.

Tub 0'lettuces and beets.

Here's what things look like after about 6 weeks. The cucumbers seem as though they will be my one great failure this summer as the plants are not doing anything. And it's weird because last year I had so many cucumbers I couldn't keep them all in my fridge. I didn't photograph the beets or the tomatoes, but both are doing great. Some small person interrupted my photo session. The pumpkins are way in the back and will eventually overrun everything as the vines are now sneaking up the sides of the bed along the garage. They might have been a mistake. But that is the fun of gardening, the failures and the successes keep it interesting.

More food posts on the way...