Stepping it up with more seafood tacos

So with the recent Mexican food feasting that I have been doing, mostly in my dreams due to the lack of some place better, I have been craving some good homemade tortillas. Sure, the ones down from down the road work in a pinch. But they could not be described as authentic, and why can’t I make my own. So I started to do a little research. First step: pork fat, and my local butcher pulls through easily with that one. I return home, dice it up into cubes, throw it in the oven at a low temperature, and leave it for a couple hours. Then I strained it into jars and let it cool in the fridge. Later that day, I had lard. After that, I played around with different ratios of flour to water to lard, a bit of salt, and soon came up with what I thought was a pretty good dough.

With the time that went into tortilla research, I went with the simpler taco filling. While at the store, I came across some good looking shrimp and scallops. I still had plenty of achiote paste, picked up a couple of limes, red onion, and cilantro, and the filling was taken care of. I mixed the achiote with lime juice and salt, brushed it on the skewered seafood, and threw it on the grill. I diced up the onions and some tomatoes from the garden, and i chopped the cilantro.

Meanwhile, the tortilla dough had rested for about 40 minutes, and I had formed 12 little balls. I put a cast iron skillet over medium heat rolled out each little ball. One by one, each six inch, round piece of dough was placed in the skillet, maybe 90 seconds a side, until a few slightly brown blisters formed.

While doing this, I asked a friend of mine to help me out and grab the shrimp and scallops off the grill, and when he returned, the tacos were ready to be assembled. My friend and I sat down with my parents and enjoyed some very good tacos. The produce and seafood was fresh. There was no slowly simmered tongue sitting in the middle of the table, but what these tacos lacked in tongue, they made up in freshly made tortillas with lard. The flavor of the lard was there, they were soft and chewy, and the freshness of a homemade product is always obvious. These tortillas were not very complicated to make, but made a huge difference to the quality of the tacos. It adds a new dimension to tacos made at home. Store-bought tacos may never be an option again…

07/23/2009

New World Tortilla in Burlington, VT

New World Tortilla is a good place for lunch in Burlington, especially if you want to leave full. You get a lot of food, and the variety in the burritos and wraps is solid. The first time I came here, I had slow-cooked and pulled some beef tongue, and then threw it in with some sauteed onions and garlic, some of the braising liquid and some tomatoes. I was making tongue quesadillas, but I did not have time to worry about making a good tortilla, and I was not about to buy a dry supermarket variety that could ruin it. I had read a couple of reviews mentioning there house made tortillas, so I gave it a try. At $3.50 for a half dozen, it was a deal, and the quesadillas were great with them. The tortillas were fresh, had a nice chewiness to them and a good crisp on the outside after being thrown in the pan.

Having had this good experience with the tortilla, I went back to try their burritos. I was eating with two others, so we ordered three different ones and tried them all. We ordered the thai chicken, the veggie, and the sesame pork special on Wednesday. The thai chicken had some well grilled chicken, a ginger slaw, and a peanut sauce. The peanut sauce was very flavorful, and the slaw provided a nice crunch. It was good. The veggie sautee came with the ginger slaw and salsa. The veggies had great flavor. The sesame pork had the slaw as well, but the pulled pork was very flavorful with some nice spice that was definitely not overwhelming. All three of these burritos would be a lunch I could recommend. The only thing I would say that might be improved would be to use less rice. The tortillas are very big, and the pork and chicken sandwiches I got had a little too much rice. I want the meat and veggies in my burritos to be somewhere around 80-90% of what’s inside, with a little bit of rice. Maybe they could add some beans or fresh herbs like cilantro…?

Anyway, they are burritos with good flavor, a lot of food, and the house-made tortillas are awesome. Oh, and there are five different flavors of tortilla. The white and wheat are both very good, and they have also had curry, tomato, and spinach when I’ve gone. I will most likely head back here with friends, but most likely this will be when I am in the mood and do not have time to whip something up at home.

07/18/2009

Lingual Adventures of the Culinary Kind

Recently, I have become quite interested in Mexican food. Because of this, and the fact that I live in Vermont, I have spent a lot of my time on the Internet. Vermont is about as far a away as you can get in the United States from good Mexican food, or the ingredients to make your own for that matter. I have researched different dishes and their preparations, and I placed an order at  an online grocer aiming to stock up my pantry. I am a big fan of hot sauce, so in addition to a collection of hot sauces showing up at my door, I had things like epazote, Mexican oregano, and achiote paste that would now be readily available to me.

In terms of Mexican food, their is almost nothing that people think of more than tacos. This traditional Mexican street food has been around for many years not only in Mexico, but in the US as well. As I was growing up, I spent ten years in Los Angeles. Having moved away when I was twelve, I was aware of the great Mexican culture which surrounded me, but I did not appreciate the culinary aspect of it.  I have since returned, experiencing a taco truck or two, but wish to return again to gain a broader view.  Something that comes to my mind in particular is “lengua.” Tongue is something that I hear a lot associated with Mexican food in the US. I have tried it in tacos on a couple of occasions, and I was recently introduced to the fresh, uncooked variety at my local co-op. I have a good relationship with the butcher there, and this week he convinced me to take home a beef tongue.

So I decided to make tacos. While at the store, I purchased some extra onions and garlic, more cilantro, tomato, and of course, the tongue. Lucky for me this was relatively early in the day, and I did not have plans. When I got home, I roughly chopped the onions and garlic, some jalapenos from the garden, and I placed them in a pot with water, some vinegar, a fair amount of salt, brought everything to a boil, and let that simmer for a couple of hours.

The tongue came out more tender than I could have imagined. I removed the rough outer skin, and began pulling it apart. The aroma was certainly one I had yet to experience in my culinary adventures. It was reminiscent of beef, but stronger than any beef I had come across. When it was ready, i began to sautee some onions and garlic for a few minutes with a couple diced jalapenos, then added the tongue and a can of chopped tomatoes. I cooked of some of the tomato liquid, then added some Mexican oregano and epazote. After a few more minutes, I was satisfied. The tongue was ready.

During all of this, I also prepared some swordfish for the tacos. This was much simpler and did not involve nearly as much time. I took some of the recently discovered and purchased achiote paste and mixed it with the juice of a couple of limes and some salt. I ended up with a paste, very red, with the viscosity similar to a beurre blanc. I brushed this on the swordfish, both sides, and threw it on the grill. During all of this, somehow, I had forgotten about tortillas. I was not about to use the dry, flaky, cardboardish variety from the local supermarket, so I made a call to a local burrito place. Fortunately, they were going to be able to sell a package of their tortillas, made right in the store. Near the end of the cooking, I sent a friend down to pick them up. By the time he returned, I had chopped up plenty of fresh cilantro, red onion, and diced some tomatoes from the garden.

We sat down in the kitchen, not making it to the dinner table as often happens, and began out feast. One friend of mine is not so adventurous when it comes to food, hence the grilled swordfish, but the overwhelmingly awesome aroma of the steaming pile of tongue was enough of a selling point. We were drooling as we all assembled both fish andtongue tacos, and before we knew it, themeal was over. We were stuffed. It was certainly a meal of firsts. My two friends had never eaten tongue. I had never cooked with tongue or achiote paste. Nothing failed. Tongue will become something very familiar to my kitchen, and I will certainly play around with variations on the theme. It was too good not to.

07/18/2009

Cabrito in New York, NY

Hmm… I went here after reading a good review of some of the food. Because of this, I was very surprised to find quite a few negative reviews. I guess after rereading the review, I think it was from some well-known newspaper’s website, the reviewer was saying that the food was great… if you ordered the right items. This was a place at which I had an incredible experience. A recent review I read complains about being shoved into a two top right next to the kitchen window, and my friend and I had actually requested to sit there. So I guess the atmosphere isn’t for everyone. I went a little before ten on a saturday night, and the place was fairly crowded with groups of fairly young people who were mostly enjoying drinks at this point. My friend and I got a lot food, and chose to drink water to keep the bill down. We ended up spending a little over 25 dollars including tax and tip, and this got us an appetizer, as well as an entree and 3 tacos. We decided to split everything in order to try the many dishes.

We started out with a special, the queso de puerca. This pig’s head terrine was good, although not quite as flavorful as the one my butcher at the local coop in Burlington, VT had given me that was full of spring garlic. The terrine at Cabrito had a nice pork flavor, and a hint of a roasted, pretty mild chili pepper (maybe poblano?). They served this with house-made, whole grain mustard, and some homemade pickled veggies (radish, carrot, and jalapeno). Overall, the appetizer was an excellent beginning to the meal, although they brought everything out to us at the same time, so our small table was pretty crowded.

After this, we dug into the huitlacoche. When we mentioned this in ordering, our server got a little excited, so needless to say, we had some expectations. It did not disappoint. I wouldn’t say that they were necessarily truffle-esque, but they were incredible. They are marble sized and close to black. They are a fungus that grows on corn at some early stage in the development of the corn. Actually, they are infected, enlarged cells. But they are fantastically delicious corn infections. They had a great earthy flavor reminiscent of a mushroom, but had a much sweeter background than any mushroom or fungus I have tasted before. They are certainly less pungent than a truffle, but I could see it being described as a poor man’s truffle. This little known edible is something I had never heard of or seen before, but may be becoming a delicacy in Mexico, and is something that must be tried. It is served over huaraches and a thin layer of beans, and topped with lettuce and a nice creamy sauce on top. The tortilla-like bottom (a little thicker than tortilla) was not soggy at all and the beans spread over were an excellent complement to the dish.

After this, we had a sampling of the tacos. Simply served and probably about 3-4 bites each, I very much enjoyed these. We got one from the specials menu, the goat belly (I figured the place was named after goat, so I wanted to try it without getting the 26 dollar goat entree), the al pastor (chicken with a pineapple habanero salso), and the al carbon (marinated steak). The goat belly was probably the least outstanding part of our meal. It was fairly fatty, and not nearly as flavor as pork belly. The Al pastor was excellent, and I found that the sweet and spicy notes provided by the salsa was the star of this dish. The al carbon was both my and my friend’s favorite of the three. The meat had tremendous flavor, and it was served rather simply with a creamy sauce under it. I thought that it was perfect to serve this so simply. The meat shined in the dish, and each bite was full of tender steak and full of flavor. Overall, the meal was fantastic. My friend and I thought both the food and the atmosphere were outstanding. Our waiter was outrageously nice and friendly, while also being very helpful. I also appreciate the philoshphy behind using as much of the animals as possible in their preparations. They started getting whole animals from their supplier, and this is both economical as well as part of a movement that I appreciate. I will definitely be returning to New York and Cabrito as soon as I can. Maybe there are certain dishes to stay away from (something I only imagine because of some of the reviews I have read), although I didn’t find them. The huitlacoche may be the best deal on the menu, as it was a very large portion, certainly more than the three tacos combined, and it was only 14 dollars. I would recommend getting here as soon as you can…

07/16/2009