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Post by Don Cuevas on Jun 21, 2009 23:48:55 GMT
We went out on a scenic ride with Chacho Johnny, a poster from TTMB; from Guanajuato, Mexico to Santa Rosa, about a half hour away up in the mountains. We decided to have our comida (main meal in the afternoon) at a small, country restaurant, "La Cabaña de Lolita." (Little Lola's Cabin). It's a bit off the winding main highway enroute to Santa Rosa, at an elevation of ~8200 ft a.s.l. I'd heard about this place from Rachel Laudan, an Englishwoman food scholar writer living in Guanajuato. The Cabaña is noted for its special way of preparing cecina. It's extremely thin, crisp, and crunchy. Not at all salty. But to start, Chacho Johnny and I both had Caldo de Borrego, a very spicy, tomato and chile (spicy capsicum) mutton soup with a few garbanzos (chick peas) in it; and we all three split the order of cecina (see earler thread for discussion), which came with guacamole (avocado salad) and semi-pureed frijoles (beans). The next course was "mixiote", in this case, a packet of aluminum foil containing pieces of very tender carnero (young beef). This was very rich but good. Traditionally, it is baked in the very thin parchment derived from pencas de maguey ("leaves" of the maguey plant, from which mescal and Tequila are somewhat related.) It was accompanied by Arroz a la Mexicana (rice pilaf in the style of a Mexican woman.). For beverages, I started with a generous shot of mescal curado a la naranja (spirituous liquor flavored with orange), from the region of San Luis Potosí. (A state neighboring Guanajuato.) Later, I finished with a bottle of agua mineral (club soda; mineral water, fizzy stuff). Mis compañeros (my dining companions) had freshly squeezed jugo de naranja. (orange juice). We all thoroughly enjoyed this meal. We ate a lot of the tortillas calientitas del comal, hechas a mano (flat griddle breads of maize, hot right from the griddle, made by hand.) picasaweb.google.com/doncuevas/GuanajuatoAndSantaRosaGto62109623PM?feat=directlinkFor what Doña Cuevas and I had yesterday for our 41st wedding anniversary dinner, see here: chowhound.chow.com/topics/581176; scroll down to Anonimo and "We dined at Las Mercedes yesterday and it was a fine experience." Today's comida was the polar opposite in style of yesterday's: both Mexican, yesterday's contemporary and creative; todays's traditional and typical of this region; both highly enjoyable in their own way. We are hoping to finally get to the bottle of sparkling wine supplied by outr B&B here in Guanajuato, and a selection of cheese awaits, and (God help us!) Spanish style chorizo, plus some German style sour rye bread I made and brought, for our cena (supper). But I have doubts that we can consume it, as well as questioning the wisdom of eating now after such a substantial lunch. Saludos, Don Cuevas (Best regards; your health, Don {honorific title for the aged, wise and/or wealthy}; "Cuevas"; caves or caverns, underground, naturally occuring cavities.)
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Post by Deleted on Jun 22, 2009 7:51:10 GMT
On hand, I have bean sprouts, red bell pepper, carrots, fresh basil and fresh mint -- and also quite a few frozen prawns.
I can feel a salad coming on, even if I don't get a chance to buy some lettuce.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jun 22, 2009 13:16:57 GMT
I thought you were going to say stir-fry. A salad of that would be sublime!
Gardened all day yesterday, which was very cool and misty, & had only a snack in the morning. Made seashells in chipotle cream sauce and yellow bell pepper sauteed in olive oil, which I fairly threw into my mouth.
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Post by tillystar on Jun 22, 2009 13:48:20 GMT
Stupid question alert - what are seashells?
Not that I care really, the description of your fairly throwing them in your mouth has made me want your dinner whatever it was!
Spaghetti and prawns with a chilli tomato sauce and a green/onion salad here.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 22, 2009 14:05:28 GMT
I figure they are pasta.
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Post by tillystar on Jun 22, 2009 14:10:56 GMT
Oh duh, of course. Well I said it was a stupid question
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Post by bixaorellana on Jun 22, 2009 14:11:45 GMT
I don't know if they have another name. Mmmm ~ sounds good, Tilly! You've mentioned the chilli tomato sauce for pasta before. Any chance of a recipe?
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Post by tillystar on Jun 22, 2009 14:32:26 GMT
No real recipe, I always make tomato sauce by slow roasting quartered tomatoes in the oven for a few hours on a really low heat (about 100C). I just add olive oil and a pinch of salt and sometimes bay leaves and red wine vinegar sometimes herbs and garlic and sometimes chilli flakes/chillis. The only attention it needs is a quick peek after an hour or so and crush the tomatoes with a fork I don't mind seeds and skin so it just gets mashed up at the end but you can push it through a food mill to get all that out if you don't like it.
Its really easy but I find that the slow roasting all day makes the sauce so much more tomatoey and good than any other method and you can really forget about it all day too. I make tons and freeze it, it gets used on everything!
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Post by bixaorellana on Jun 22, 2009 14:40:35 GMT
Oh my goodness, Tilly ~~ that's brilliant! Even though tomatoes are "roasted" on a griddle here before being incorporated into dishes, I never thought about concentrating/cooking them the way you do. Can't wait to try it.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 22, 2009 17:40:54 GMT
I did manage to go to the store to buy some lettuce and a couple of tomatoes. The prawns are in a bowl of water at the moment. The kitchen work will begin soon.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 22, 2009 20:01:52 GMT
So, here is tonight's salad although my nose is still running from the chopped Thai chilis that I added. It was fantastic. Of course, the addition of the excessively rare Parisian windowsill mint was the killer touch.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jun 22, 2009 20:48:57 GMT
How beautiful! How cheerful! How elegant! How appetizing!
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Post by spindrift on Jun 22, 2009 20:53:20 GMT
I have eaten a fruit salad composed of tasty local strawberries, blueberries, pomegrante seeds and creme fraiche.
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Post by Don Cuevas on Jun 22, 2009 23:12:15 GMT
We were traveling today on buses, so nothing very exciting happened, foodwise.
When we got home, I threw two bolillos (Mexican, spindle-shaped bread rolls), and scrambled some eggs with sweet red pepper, onion, chorizo Español (spicy dry sausage as made in Spain.) We also had a reheat of rice and green beans and musrooms plus almonds.
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Post by hwinpp on Jun 23, 2009 7:05:15 GMT
That looks very good, K. Looks like it's been bought here!
Since last Sunday was 'foreigner' food day, my cooking day, I decided to make a lentil soup.
It turned into a bit of a fiasco which I managed to salvage without losing too much face with my girlfriend.
It started by my buying not lentils but some kind of strange bean. When I started soaking them they gave off some kind of foam that looked very unappetising, had to throw them away... That's when she asked the first question, which I parried by claiming the saleswoman had sold me the wrong stuff.
By now I'd made a clear soup by boiling some meaty pork bones in water and adding potatoes. To thicken this I ecided to mash the potatoes, still too thin. So I opened a can of Campbell's Cream of Chicken and dumped that in the pot as well. Fried some chopped onions and mixed them in as well.
It wasn't lentil soup but it was ok.
So now I need a recipe for making a potatoe soup or potage. Maybe add in some diced leek and carrots? I know I need some smoked meats or sausages (couldn't be bothered to go to the supermarket in 'foreigner' town). And I will get my sister to bring lentils, beans, peas and barley when she comes at Christmas. Maybe I'll get lucky when I go to Saigon in October.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 23, 2009 7:29:29 GMT
A lot of dried beans make nasty foam when you soak them. That's why I keep changing the water.
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Post by bazfaz on Jun 23, 2009 11:57:43 GMT
Kerouac will be glad to know I am making pissaladiere as a starter tonight.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 23, 2009 12:11:51 GMT
Mmmmm... That reminds me that I need to buy some anchovies.
At least I remembered to buy rollmops over the weekend. Those might be good tonight.
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Post by Don Cuevas on Jun 23, 2009 17:56:22 GMT
"It started by my buying not lentils but some kind of strange bean. When I started soaking them they gave off some kind of foam that looked very unappetising, had to throw them away..."
Might have been dried favas. They are very prone to that, and the yellow Mexican ones smell funny.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jun 23, 2009 19:18:55 GMT
I don't soak beans, simply wash them and start cooking. There are nutrients in the soaking water that get thrown away -- waste of vitamins and water.
"yellow Mexican ones" are simply dried, peeled favas. They don't smell the least bit funny.
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Post by hwinpp on Jun 24, 2009 3:50:20 GMT
I'll get a picture next time I go to that market.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 26, 2009 19:30:26 GMT
Tonight was an écrasé de pommes de terre* with grilled merguez sausage. * boiled potatoes and garlic slightly mashed with a fork and mixed with chopped cilantro and basil, butter and milk -- spices of one's choice.No, I didn't finish that quantity of potatoes -- half is left for the next meal with the other merguez.
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Post by Don Cuevas on Jun 26, 2009 19:48:38 GMT
I don't soak beans, simply wash them and start cooking. There are nutrients in the soaking water that get thrown away -- waste of vitamins and water. "yellow Mexican ones" are simply dried, peeled favas. They don't smell the least bit funny. Maybe not to you. They also taste funny to me. Actually, I don't care for them at all. Imagine that.
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Post by Don Cuevas on Jun 26, 2009 19:51:56 GMT
Today we had a light lunch of cucumbers, tomatoes and Tillamook sharp cheddar on crusty seeded baguette, from the bakery in our new Bodga Aurrerea. (Name of supermarket chain.)
I spread mayo and freshly made spinach-basil pesto on mine. With it I drank some inexpensive white Argentine white wine from Costco. Then I had some pupkinseed brittle.
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Post by lagatta on Jun 27, 2009 2:25:21 GMT
Bison is easily available here as well. It is very good, though can be a challenge to cook, precisely because of its benefits (low-fat, high in protein and iron, not chemical-laden)... I add finely-minced mild onion to bison burgers to keep them from being too dry.
I had a romaine and herb (chives, cilantro) salad with chicken. I had slow-poached an organic chicken. too tired to go into details about the preparation.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jun 27, 2009 2:37:05 GMT
I've never had bison, but am curious about it. I imagine it as being "meatier" in flavor.
I had salad tonight, too -- lettuce and tomato, plus scrambled eggs. It was strange how much I was craving that particular combination.
(tell about slow-poaching one day when you're feeling livelier!)
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Post by imec on Jun 27, 2009 3:41:12 GMT
A pan roast of hot Italian sausage with assorted peppers (red bell, Jalapeno and Serrano), garlic, sugar snap peas, scallions and jumbo shrimp. With a pilaf of thai rice and black beans.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jun 27, 2009 5:14:48 GMT
What was the occasion, Imec? That's a brilliant combining of the Italian & Asian flavors & techniques!
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Post by imec on Jun 27, 2009 16:03:44 GMT
What was the occasion, Imec? That's a brilliant combining of the Italian & Asian flavors & techniques! Friday night! Our favorite night of the week usually reserved for just the 4 of us - and occasionally, just the 2 of us .
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Post by Deleted on Jun 27, 2009 18:07:35 GMT
K2's dish with the shrimp has me inspired. Also have some gorgeous sweet,sweet cantaloupe that I'd like to wrap some prosciutto around. Guess I need to go to the little grocery that I know will have all without dealing with Sat p.m. big grocery. Am wiped from an a.m. of weeding and whacking. Maybe my kind husband will go shop.
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