Tomatillo Salsa

Okay, I know I promised this a while back, and I now apologize replete with a full remedy: my tomatillo salsa procedure.

First, get yourself to your local store and buy about 12 of these bad boys. You will need to be sure they are firm to the touch, but not rock-hard. Think: the texture of a regular tomato you would buy and plan to eat about 5 days later. Get a bunch of cilantro. Buy one jalapeno. Buy 2-4 limes, depending on size. You will need 2 cloves of garlic.

Second, and this is the odd part: get a large (1-2 qt) bowl; add about 4 drops of dish soap; and run water into it to make a soapy water bath. One by one, peel the paper skin off the tomatillos, trash the skin, and then wash the fruits in the soapy water. As you'll understand when you do this, these bad boys are sticky-gooey. Give them a good soapy bath, paying special attention to the woody part in the top middle where the skin is ultimately connected to the tomatillo. Then, MOST IMPORTANTLY, rinse them off under the faucet. Rinse more than you think you need to. You do not like Dawn in your salsa, though if we know you it is probably true your mouth needs a good washing out with soap.

Third, check your tomatillos to be sure that they aren't sticky and gooey any more. This stuff doesn't really taste good in your salsa. If they are, re-clean and re-rinse them.

Fourth, now that your tomatillos are peeled and rinsed, you are ready to quarter them. So, fuckin quarter them already.

Fifth, get out your food processor or blender. Add tomatillos to fill up your receptacle about halfway. You can do this part in small batches if you need. In total, for 12 tomatillos, you'll need about half a bunch of cilantro to go with. Add about a quarter of your jalapeno. Add the garlic. Add about 1 teaspoon of salt and 2 tablespoons of pepper, give or take. YOU can always add more (salt and jalapeno) later! Squeeze in a lime. Blend this mess.

Now, once you have blended all your tomatillos and all your other stuff together, put them in a medium saucepan on medium-low heat. After about 10 minutes, taste your salsa and see if you need more jalapeno, salt, lime, or garlic. Once it comes to a boil, let it cook down for another 10-15 minutes, until the consistency is pretty good and thick. Another way to judge when your salsa is done is when it is a forest green (see your box of 64 Crayolas if you need). This is not the darker "pine green," but it is a solid, full, deep green. Remember, this is a salsa VERDE, so yea, that's what you want.

Sometimes we eat this one hot, and sometimes let it cool down. I think it is phenomenal the next day as a rule. Also, the tomatillo salsa can be used as your salsa in chilaquiles (eggs scrambled with salsa, tortilla chips crushed in while the eggs are still liquid, cheese (usually a white cheese) added as you would normally). In short, this salsa is ridiculously versatile and can be kept up to a couple of weeks in the fridge. Enjoy!

Robot out!

Nachos, Burritos and Tacos, who knows...

I dig Mexican food, as you may have noticed. One thing I'm particularly fond of is a good tamale. As you might recall, I've got a 5lb bag of Masa waiting to be turned into tamales. Whatever will I fill them with? Pork, also highly likely will be chicken, cheese and jalapenos, in some combination or another.

In preparation for my tamale-stravaganza, I decided to make some "pulled pork" tacos for dinner, and then save the leftover meat for the tamales.

Mexican shredded braised pork (aka Carnitas)
4 lbs of Pork butt (shoulder, Boston butt) -- boneless is ok, bone in will taste better
1 onion, cut into large chunks
rub -- whatever you'd use on your bbq -- these days I'm using Mesquite Country (if I don't make my own)
canned tomato sauce
beer! -- Miller Lite, the official domestic light and cold of BeefRobot
The below spice mix will season approximately 6-8 oz of liquid.
1/2 tsp Smoked Paprika
2 tsp Cumin
1 Tbsp Chili Powder
1tsp Mexican Oregano
a Bay leaf or two
1.5 teaspoons Garlic Powder
1 tsp crushed red pepper

You'd be wise to start this process two days before you really want to eat. One night will work, if necessary, and I suppose you could do this all in the same day, but, you're going to be with this thing for some time should you choose that option.

Coat the outside of your butt with your bbq rub. Heavy, on all sides; don't be shy, remember, you're seasoning at least 4 inches of meat here. Note: if your rub is of the sweet variety, this is probably not the application for it. Get, or better yet create, something savory, preferably with some heat. Once you're good and coated, wrap the whole thing in plastic and let it rest in the fridge for a few hours. Hopefully overnight.

Warm your biggest dutch oven on the stove on medium-high heat and add a tablespoon of oil. I like this Le Creuset knockoff that I got as a wedding present. This thing rules. And it's way cheaper than the real deal. Anyway, when the oil just starts to smoke, throw your hog in it. Don't move it for a good 5-6 minutes. Once it's seared nicely on the one side, flip sides and repeat. Continue this until the butt is seared all over. Meanwhile, mix up your first round of spices. I'd start with enough to season two cups of liquid and make more if necessary. What liquid are we going to season? Beer. Pretend you're making the most hardcore michelada ever. Mix all the dry seasonings, combine the beer with a can of tomato juice, and whisk in the dry seasoning.

I will tell you that I cheated at this point, and used a can of Hatch Enchilada Sauce as part of my braising liquid (along with the seasoned beer). You should feel free to do the same, assuming you can find said sauce. It is absolutely unnecessary though; you could certainly just make your own braising liquid as described above. Throw the chopped up onion in the pot and add enough liquid to the pot to come 2/3 of the way up the sides of the meat. It took about 16-18 ounces for me. Cover this and put it in your 275 degree oven until the butt is done.

How do you know when it's done? Well, its temperature should register in the 170 degree range, but, it should also be fall apart tender. This will take some time, probably upwards of 3 hours, if not longer. Don't rush it; you're developing flavor and tenderness. If it needs to cook to 200 to be tender, let it. Tough tamales/tacos = not so good.

When the pork is 170 degrees and fall apart tender, pull the meat out of the pot and allow it to cool. Pour the juice from the pot into your gravy/fat separator and allow the fat to rise to the top. When the meat is cool enough to handle, remove as much fat as you can and pull it apart using two forks, or your fingers.

Once you've got the meat shredded, add it back to the pot and add a little of the cooking juices back at a time until it reaches the consistency you'd like. I had to use ALL of the liquid from mine. If you run out of liquid, season up some chicken stock and use that. This is a divergence from true carnitas, which would cook in the pan in its own fat until crispy. If you want crispiness (for tacos or burritos) throw this mess under the broiler until it has the crispiness you desire. Then add more of the braising liquid. It's up to you. The meat is now ready to eat, but, if you can refrigerate it and wait until tomorrow, it will be so much better.

For the tacos, I made a simple slaw with cabbage, lime juice, garlic powder, oil, salt and pepper. This went atop my pork taco with some avocado slices and sautéed onions/tomatoes. Coro's tomatillo salsa would have been nice as well, but he has yet to publish the recipe. A-hole.

When you try this, you're going to like it. Prepare yourself, as this is going to be an ongoing theme until I've decided I've got enough filling to ensure making tamales is a worthwhile effort.

--Brad

Comfort Food V.1

The other day, Cory and I were chatting back and forth via email and discussing "what to do" with the pound of boneless skinless chicken thighs I had lying about. We had discussed many options, including marinating them in the Jerk seasonings I returned from Jamaica with, creating some sort of Italian chicken type dish or possibly turning them into some form of fashion of stir-fry. The stir-fry option got me thinking about another chicken and vegetable combination. The pot pie. That pot pie got me thinking about other pot pie options, so, you get a two-fer today.

I never used to like the pot pie, maybe because I wasn't really all that into vegetables when I was a kid or maybe it was the "gravy-esque" sauce inside. I don't really know, but I do know that my tastes have changed and I now love me some pot pie. The below recipe could be adapted to any cut of chicken, or even leftover chicken. Also, it could be seasoned and flavored however you like. It's your call. Do what you will. Pot pies are also an excellent way to get rid of vegetables that are nearing the end of their usefulness.

Chicken Pot Pie (Italian, in this case)
1 lb Chicken -- cooked
1 sheet frozen puff pastry
1 onion diced
3 ribs of celery diced
3 zucchini diced
2 squash diced
2 random colored bell peppers diced
3 tbsp fat (oil, butter, bacon grease)
3-4 tbsp flour
Chicken stock
seasonings of your choice -- I used garlic powder, some chicken bouillon, salt, pepper and basil.

Chop up your onion and place it in a sauté pan over medium heat with a touch of olive oil. While the onion softens, chop the rest of your vegetables (3-4 minutes). When the onion has become somewhat translucent, add the celery and the bell peppers. Cook all of this till the onion begins to turn golden, and the celery and peppers are beginning to soften, and then add the zucchini and squash. Now is the time to hit all this veggie mess with some salt and pepper (and in my case, some basil and Italian seasoning).

Once your veggies have obtained a nice golden hue, add a couple of tablespoons of butter drop the heat and stir in 3 tablespoons of flour. Stir this in and make a nice roux, and cook this roux for a few minutes, stirring occasionally. You want to cook the rawness out of the flour. If your roux looks to thin, add more flour. To thick? Is there really such a thing? You could add more butter, I suppose. Now, whisk in some chicken stock. I used about a half a cup of stock and a little bit of milk, for some added creaminess. You're going to want to make enough sauce to lube up all your veggies, and all the chicken you're about to add. While your gravy/sauce thickens, shred your chicken and add it to the pan.

Once you've achieved the desired viscosity of your chicken/veggie/sauce mix, pour it into a casserole and top with the puff pastry. Trim the edges and crimp them so you get a nice seal around your casserole. Brush the top with egg wash and jam it in the oven @ 400 degrees till the top is golden. Mine took about 25 minutes.

You'd be wise to place a sheet pan under your pot pie in the oven. Mine boiled over. It makes what some might call "a mess".

My wife really, really likes the crust, so, next time I'll likely make a bottom crust also, or use a store bought pie shell. Or, as Cory suggested, crescent roll dough. That suggestion made me think of a pocket pie made with crescent roll dough. Yum.


I was on a bit of a pot pie kick, and wanted some Mexican food. I found this recipe for Tamale Pot Pie on Texas Monthly and decided I'd give it a shot. With a few minor adjustments, of course.

Things I changed --
I used ground chicken, instead of pork
I added a diced chipotle or two, and discarded the Tabasco
I added some zucchini and squash (surprised? I didn't think so)
2 tsp of Cumin instead of a whole tablespoon, no allspice
For the topping, I used a packaged cornbread mix to which I added Velveeta, a can of green chili peppers and chili powder. I would have used another cheese, but, all I had was the Velveeta.

All in all, it turned out pretty nice. I'll probably use a mix of ground meats next time, as all chicken was just a little dry.

So, there you have two tasty pot pie type meals for your weeknight consumption. Go forth, experiment, and if you have any questions, let me know.

By the way, there are no pictures of these meals for a number of reasons. One, cause a forgot to take a pretty picture before service and two, because after service it's really hard to take a picture of a pot pie and have it come out looking like anything other than vomit.

--Brad

Post-Christmas

Hello All! We hope this finds you well-fed and ready to eat normally once again. As lunch sits on my desk, I feel remiss in not sharing the tale of its creation.

What we have here is an Orzo salad. Orzo is a delightful, rice-shaped pasta that is fairly perfect for your cold salad needs. Just cook and rinse in cold water while you prepare your other ingredients.

For today's iteration, we first took 2 links of hot italian sausage, which I cooked on the grill the other night while my steak, the shrimp, and Misty's Parrano-covered sockeye salmon got toasty. This brings to mind an important point: if you are grilling, especially with charcoal, don't waste the fire. You can bring many meats to even the most averagely sized grill at one time, and you know you've gots to eat the rest of the week. Grill up those proteins (and veggies and whatever else) and have them at the ready when you want them. Then when you're ready to use them, it'll be like you bought pre-prepared food at the store, only better 'cause you cooked it.

So, to add to the sausage chunks, we dropped in some cubed feta, green onion, diced white onion, celery, 1-2 garlic cloves, parsley, and halved grape tomatoes. Salt and (lots of) pepper. Squeeze in a lemon. Combine your goodness, add some olive oil for viscosity and flava and sit it in the fridge for 15-20 minutes. If you don't have the time, eat up, but it won't be as good.

On today's leftover lunch, we rocked this dish up exactly 2 notches: (1) sliced avocado on top; and (2) halved Kalamata olives in the mix. You really don't even need to add salt for your avocado because the olives take care of you.

This is a nice, light dish that you could make in any quantity for a cool, tasty alternative. As I eat it, I feel like I could eat buckets of this lovin, so make extra, you're gonna want it.

Glad to have you back! Robot out!

Cold in Texas

The other night, I made some chicken stock. Not just because I had some chicken parts laying around to make stock with; and not just because I wanted to freeze this stock in ice cube trays so that I could dose out a tablespoon or two at a time to make sauces. It's soup time folks.

Chicken Enchilada Soup
1 onion diced
1 Tbsp Chili powder
2 tsp Cumin
2 tsp Garlic Powder
1 Bay Leaf
1 Chipotle pepper in Adobo minced
1 Cup Masa Harina
2 Quarts Chicken Stock
1 Can of Crushed Tomatoes -- the small can (14.5oz or so)
1/2 Cup of Velveeta, diced
1&1/2 lbs of cooked chicken
1 bag frozen corn kernels
Chicken bouillon, if necessary

Alright -- dice that onion and sauté it in some olive oil. After you've got your onions nicely coated with oil, add all the powdered spices. Sautee these till they're nicely golden.
Meanwhile, take a quart of your stock, and add your 1 cup of Masa to it, whisk until all the lumps dissolve. When your onion is golden, whisk in the Masa/stock mixture. Stir this concoction until it comes to a boil, or you'll have lumps.
Mince your chipotle, and add it to the pot along with the bay leaf. Add some more of the adobo sauce from the can if you like it spicy. I like it spicy.
Let this simmer/thicken for ten minutes or so. Drink a beer, or open your mail. Whatever. Once the mixture has thickened up, add your 2nd quart of stock, the tomatoes and the cheese.
While the soup comes back to a boil, fire up a sauté pan and dump the frozen corn in with some olive oil. Let this roast in the pan until it’s well, roasted. Then sprinkle on a little chili powder. The roasting process is going to take a few minutes, say 15 - 20.
By this point, your soup should be boiling. Check it for seasoning. If it needs something (cumin, mabye?) add it. You'll note we've added no salt to this soup as yet. You're going to need some, probably a good bit. Make sure your soup is chicken-y enough first. If it doesn't have the chicken flavor you're looking for, add some bouillon. I'll admit, I added a couple of teaspoons. This also adds a good portion of salt. So, add your bouillon before your salt. And taste again. Once it tastes delicious, add your chicken. When the corn is good and roasted, add that too, but save a little for garnish. It looks pretty. If you want your soup thicker, this is the time to add more Masa. Make sure you whisk it in, or you’ll have lumpy soup.

Once your chicken is warmed up, the soup is ready to eat. However, it will be much tastier the next day, if you can wait that long. Garnish your soup with some of the reserved roasted corn, and a light dusting of paprika. Smoked if you've got it. It adds a little flavor to the mix. Maybe you want some lime? Lime might be nice.

Yeah, you're going to have to go buy a 5lb bag of Masa to make this soup, but, you can use it for other things. Like tamales. Looks like I'm going to be making tamales sometime soon. Maybe your Mexican market carries Masa in a smaller quantity than 5lbs. Mine doesn't. Oh well -- that gives us excuses for more delicious experiments.

Also, I admit this is a straight knockoff of the Chili’s Enchilada soup we all know and love. Except this tastes better, mostly because you made it.
--Brad

Indian Extravaganza?

Cory posts about what sounds to be a delicious Indian restaurant, shortly before I'm going to post about some home cooked Indian I made the other night. How odd.

I love Indian food -- What I don't like is the fact that Indian restaurants are generally expensive. I'm not talking fine dining money here, but, dinner for two @ Roti Grill is approaching $40 these days, and they don't print coupons anymore, as far as I know. I've been going to the Kroger @ 635 and Macarthur just because they print coupons for Chatt Cafe on their receipts. Chaat Cafe is pretty tasty too...

So, a few weeks ago while @ Target, we bought some Archer Farms Tikka Masala sauce. Yeah, yeah, I know I should be making my own sauce, as this is a food blog, but, I didn't want to take the time, and I didn't want to have my first foray into Indian home cooking fail miserably, so, I consulted an "Expert".

That being said, I did put a nice Indian spice rub on the chicken before I sauced it, that, I did make on my own.

Indian Rub --
1/4 tsp Smoked Paprika
1/2 tsp each: Garlic Powder, Turmeric, Thyme, Cumin, Coriander and Ginger
1 tsp of Chili Powder
pinch of cinnamon

That's it. Check your Chili Powder for salt level, and season the meat/veggies accordingly with salt and pepper before cooking. I was able to season the one pound or so of chicken I sautéed last night and still had enough left over to season the peas and shallots (slice shallots thin, sauté in olive oil. Add frozen peas, cook to desired doneness, season, serve) that I served with our Tikka Masala.

Yes, next time I'll make my own masala sauce. Once I make it to the spice market, or farmers market, to get some garam masala and cardamom.

Oh and here’s that Chili Powder I promised you weeks ago:

Chili Powder –
4 parts Paprika
2 parts Garlic Powder
2 parts Salt (table, not kosher)
1 part Cumin (maybe more, if you like it more cumin-y)
1 part Chile New Mexico powder
½ part Chile de Arbol powder (hot!)

Mix together in and give it a taste. Add more salt/garlic/Chile to your taste. Also, if you want to add some Ancho, Chipotle or otherwise, that would make an excellent addition to the mix.

--Brad

NYC Thanksgiving

Upon a recent trip to the Dutch outpost in the New World/food mecca, New Amsterdam, which people in certain circles have now presumptuously begun calling New York City, I and my wife-to-be, Misty, found several ways to fill our now-sated bellies. Though we were in the city to visit BeefRobot's vegetarian contributor, Libby, we took this meal with a high school friend of Misty's and his wife.

I will stick to a report of the finest meal, which took place at a tiny spot in the East Village, Graffiti. Operated by Jehangir Mehta, this place satisfies your food needs like few others. All the plates are small, and come out in succession, making for the perfect family style meal. Also, every bottle of wine is $25 - an excellent concept at worst. You can venture into the $35 all you can drink plan, should you choose that particular course for your evening, though we decided against this, as one of our number was preggos. For the record, el prego was/is not Misty, as far as we know.

The menu is divided by item price, which is pure genius. We started with the green mango paneer, and found ourselves enmeshed in a yummy deluge of pure goodness soon thereafter. This paneer actually had its own independent flavor: sweet, salty, milky; paired with the green mango lovin and placed atop a small piece of naan, it is truly transcendant. We then had the three cheeses plate, which starred two more-solid white cheeses and one more-soft white cheese. Memory fails, but they were all very good and were a nice second part to the meal.

Third up were the scallops, sliced thin and topped with pickled ginger and candied red chili. These were showstoppers, no doubt, and nothing I can add will further explain to you the delight the scallops caused in us. The fourth plate was a noodle roll with seaweed salad in the bottom and topped off with duck breast. This was my favorite of the night. Ridiculously good.

We followed that up with the Graffiti burger, fingerling potatoes, and chipotle mayonnaise. This was 2 mini burgers that we cut in half. The burger was deliciously juicy and starred some rockin sauteed onions on top. Next up was pork bun with apricot chutney. Uh, hell yes! This pork bun beat out the lunch pork bun we had at DimSum in Chinatown, hands down. The fluffy, pancakey bun kicked the hell out of the DimSum sweet roll version. Oh, and the meat inside was gloriously juicy, topped in some sort-of-barbecue goodness. I feel like we ate another item, but am drawing a blank; rest assured, it was awesome.

We started finishing up the meal, at the suggestion of Mr. Mehta, who was also our waiter (awesome!), with a prosecco lychee martini. Ohdeargod, this thing is ridiculous. They took lychee slushee (or whatever the proper culinary term for that is) and added prosecco. I think I just found meaning in life!!! This was a handsdown success, and even preggo had to try it!

Our dessert-dessert was a three sorbet delight: salty guava, grapefruit, and blood orange. Salty guava is delicious, especially followed up by the slow tension of the acidic-yet-sweet-undertoned g-fruit, and resolved with the front-of-the-tongue-titillating, sweet blood orange. We also had a fruit crumble of unremembered variety with ice cream, and it was good, just not stellar like everything else.

The price is your normal fine dining, $50 a person, which, considering our location, was damn good. The place is tiny, and I highly recommend reservations. They have a couple of stool spots for 2, which I understand come in very handy for the odd single diner. The kitchen is unbelievably tiny for the quality of food they put out here. Seriously, there are 2 industrial hot plates and 1, maybe 2 people cooking. You can barely scoot behind them to get to the bathroom and, once in there, have very little change of actually doing the required 180 to sit. In any event, the place succeeds completely, with expansive use of the basement via the front steps (which are outside). The constant opening of the door might be my only complaint, but it is mightily overshadowed by Mehta's and his chef's service, attention to detail (almost without a thought, but after asking our permission, they converted every dish to a 4 person dish), and overall tastiness of their food. Get a reservation now!!