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The Javalina Cantina
This is for south of the border foodies, or those who want to eat like one.
Those who know me know that I am passionate about music, those who really know me know I also love to cook. Living where I do I love southwestern or Mexican food. I don't know how far I will go with this, but my hope is to share some recipies for different dishes, some authentic, some simple (throw together things) that are still very good. I hope to do this somewhat like my music blog and keep adding to it. I have learned so much from freinds, coworkers, and my latina ex wife, who was a horrible cook.............and a psyco, but gave me some good starting points for things I improved on.
Tortillas
(tor tee' yas)
I know this is a bad way to start this but this is one thing I have never made from scratch. Where I live there are probably thousands of tortillarias where you can just walk in and buy a dozen fresh homade tortillas that are still warm from the griddle. You can also buy pretty good ones from just about any grocery store. You can also buy very bad tortillas from just about any grocery store. The key is the shortening that is used and you don't really have to even read the lable to know the difference. The really white, or light colored ones, yeah, those are NOT tortillas. They are sawdust flavored throwing disks. Authentic tortillas are made with lard and are a little darker in color and they taste much better. They may not be the healthiest but there really is a difference. I have had a recipie for tortillas for half my life but have always been to lazy to make them when I can buy them just as easy, In Mexican homes tortills are also torn into strips at the dinner table and used as spoons to eat beans and soups, or pinched around cut up meat to pick up and eat your meat and you eat the tortilla with whatever you pick up with it.
Mix 2 cups of flour, 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp baking powder. Cut in 2 tbs shortening, (preferably lard) until mixture resembles corn meal.
Gradually add 1/2, to 3/4 cup warm water, mix until the dough forms a ball. Knead 15 to 20 times and let stand for 15 minutes.
Devide dough into 12 equal portions, shape into balls. Put the balls between two pieces of wax paper, or on a floured surface and roll them into 7 inch circles. Cook on a medium-hot griddle for about 20 seconds on each side. You can use these to make burro's or make quesadillas by puttting one on a medium griddle and cook one side until it just starts to brown. Flip it and cover it with sharp cheddar, or a mixture of cheddar and jack cheese. I like to top mine with green chili strips, and sometimes with a little salsa.
Salsa
If you go to Mexico and ask for pico de gallo, you will get a cup of chopped fruit with chili sauce poured over it, sounds strange but is really good. Here in the states, pico de gallo, or pico, is a chunky salsa. I almost always have fresh home made salsa in the house and I grow most of it in the back yard. It's very easy to make and once you eat it you won't buy it in a jar ever again.
Pico De Gallo
(pee' co day guy' yo)
Core and cut 6 or 7 large tomatos into 1/4 in slices, then cut the slices into 1/4 inch strips, turn and cut the 1/4 inch strips into 1/4 inch chunks. Put into a bowl. Cut !/2 of a large onion the same way, or use about two bunches of green onions cut into 1/4 inch pieces. The green onions give a little more color and presentation to the salsa. Add the onions to the bowl. Next is garlic, and I should tell you that I LOVE garlic. I mean I think Ben and Jerry's should make a garlic ice cream. I will always back off a little what I actually use but two of the biggest (flavors) in good Mexican food are garlic, and lard. I use 6 to 8 cloves of garlic, I recommend at least 4. The garlic needs to be crushed and minced. Half each clove, peel the skin off, and cut off the the hard dark stem at the top. To crush, you can use the side of a knife blade and sqush it on a cutting board. I use a metal meat tenderizing hammer to crush mine. Minse it and add it to the bowl. Next you need the fire, and using fresh chilis you never know what you are going to get. Sometimes 1 is too much, sometimes 3 aren't enough. I grow my own so I know what to expect from my plants, you will have to experiment. I say start with one Jalapeno, or serrano pepper. Cut the top off, cut in half length wise, and keep slicing it that way untill it is a bunch of very thin strips. Then turn it and mince it. Either wear food service gloves when you do this or don't plan on touching your eyes until tomorrow. Add them to bowl. Next is celantro, coarse chop about half a bunch, (about a cup, or a little more), and add to bowl. Sprinkle some salt in the bowl and stir, sprinkle some more salt and stir again. You should always make your salsa at least 6 hours before you plan to eat it. It will taste better 6hrs, to a day after it's made and the flavors mix. Put it in the refrigerator and stir it periodically. I usually start tasting it after about three hours and see if any thing needs to be (bumped up). Be carefull about adding chili's because sometimes they may not be mixed through and you may taste "all tomatoes" and may get a reall big surprize later if you add chili.
You can prepare this in a blender or food proccessor but two things, do it one ingrediant at a time separately, and mince the garlic and chop the celantro by hand. Your salsa will not look the same doing it mechanicaly but will still taste good. It just depends on how you want it to look.
Salsa Verde
(green salsa)
Green salsa is much less work and has a little different taste. It is spicy and a little sweet. You can do almost anything with any salsa but in addition to eating the green with corn chips, I think it is really good on white meats and seafood. If you are making fish, shrimp, or chicken tacos, this would be my choice.
Take 10 tomatillos, and I really have no idea how available they will be for some of you. If you don't know what they are, they are a type of, or related to tomatoes. They are small, about an inch and a half, to two inches thick. They are always green, they never turn red on the plant and they grow with a waxie loose skin wraped around them. They are sweeter than a regular tomatoe. They are an excelent choice for an uncovered garden because the birds won't touch them because of the cover skin. They sell them here in most grocery stores and you can even buy seeds for them in garden departments. Anyway, take about 10 to 12 of them, peel the waxie skin off them, core them, and put them in a blender or proccessor. Chop a 1/4, to a 1/2 of a yellow onion and put it in with the tomatillos. Crush and mince about 4 cloves of garlic, put them in with the other ingredients. I like my green a little spicy, it's a nice contrast to the sweet of the tomatillo. I use 2 jalapenos or two serranos. Chop them small but you don't need to mince. Add them to the other stuff. Turn on your blender and let it run untill everything is liquified. Add salt, about a 1/4, to 1/2 tsp. Run the machine to mix it well. Put it in a bowl, add celantro, less than with the pico de gallo. maybe 1/4 of a bunch finely chopped. You just want it for color and to add a little flavor. Like I said earlier, this is very good with fish, shrimp or chicken tacos. It's good on corn chips too.
Easy Red Salsa
Use all the ingredients from pico de gallo but substitute a large can of chopped tomatoes for the whole tomatoes. Put the chopped tomatoes, the chopped onion, the jalapeno or serrano and minced garlic in a blender and liquify it. Add 1/4 tsp salt and run it again. Move it to a bowl, fine chop a 1/4 bunch of celantro and stir it in. Canned tomatoes have "that taste". You can eliminate the canned taste by increasing the garlic and celantro a little. Good for corn chips or beef tacos.
Guacamole
Half two or three very ripe avacodos, romove pits. Scoop the avacodo into a bowl. Crush and mince two garlic cloves and add to mix. Add juice from half a lime. Salt to taste. Optional - half a minced jalapeno, one very thin slice of onion, finely minced.
Side dishes
Frijoles - "beans" refried
(free ho' lays)
You can ask a hundred different people how they make their beans and probably get a hundred different answers when it comes to ingredients, this is how I make mine. The entire process takes about a day and a half, or there is a quicker version that takes about 5 hours, but it's not hard work. The difference is how you prep the beans. I prefer the slow version but there really is no difference in taste. It is said that doing them the slow way makes them..................less leathal. If you know what I mean.
Prep the beans, take one pound of dry pinto beans and rinse them, remove all the half beans. Slow method - put them in a covered pot with 6 cups of cold water before you go to bed and let them sit over night. Fast method - put on the stove on high, bring to a boil and let boil for about five minutes. Remove from heat and let stand for at least one hour.
Cooking the beans - add one and a half tsp salt, 1/4 of a yellow onion finely chopped, one medium tomatoe, finely chopped, one four ounce can of diced green chilis, 6 cloves of minced garlic..........no, really, 6 cloves, ok, a little less if you want, and a pinch of oregano.... a small pinch. Cook where they are just barely boiling for about 4 hrs. The beans should be tender when they are done.
Preparing for the next step - when the beans are almost done, get a large frying pan, not a teflon coated one unless you want to ruin the pan and eat a lot of teflon., I prefer cast iron because the weight of the pan will help during the last step. You will also need about a 1/4, to a 1/2 pound of bacon. Less if it is fatty, more if it is lean. You will also need a hand potatoe masher. Cook the bacon till it is pretty crisp and put it on a plate. Now this is the most important step of the process. EAT THE BACON. You only cooked the bacon to get the bacon grease. I hope you didn't toss it already. When the beans are done and the bacon grease is fairly hot. Remove about half of the liquid from the beans but save it, you will probably need it. Make sure the bacon grease is pretty warm but not really hot. We all know what happens when you throw water into a pan of hot grease. Very carefully dump the beans with half of the liquid still in them into the pan and turn up the heat to medium high. As the beans start to fry begin smashing them with the masher. As you mash the beans they will absorb more liquid and become dryer. Add the left over bean juice as needed to keep them kind of runny. It is possible that you may even need to add water if you run out of bean juice and they are too dry. If you are using the type of masher that has a wire masher it works best if you use very quick up and down strokes. I used to have one that was a flat plate with holes in it and it worked really well for this. When they are done you can put them in a plastic container and microwave them before you serve them. A pound is a lot of beans but we usually will have them with different meals for a few days or make bean burros one night. You can top them with a little cheddar, or a little canned enchilada sauce, or both, or they are very good plain. They will be much better than any canned beans you have eaten.........but perhaps not as healthy. Again, it's the bacon grease or lard that makes taste so good. Enjoy
Arroz - rice, or spanish rice
This is a pretty easy side, and a little healthier than the beans. You can do them two ways, completely from scratch, or cheating just a little. From scratch, you will need about a cup and a half of the pico de gallo from further up the page. To cheat just a little, I use one 7oz can of salsa, the better the salsa, the better the rice will taste. I use Herdez salsa casera, it is a really good quality canned salsa that is available in most grocery stores, although if you are in Canada or the UK, all bets are off. I usually start with one cup of uncooked rice, This should be enough for four people, or two with leftovers. You will need a large frying pan with a lid, some extra vigin olive oil, unless you WANT to go the lard route, a metal spatula, and a large measureng cup. One that holds at least 4 cups, and the salsa, either the canned, or the home made. The olive oil is good and more healthy, but I would never do beans with it. Put either the can of salsa, or the cup and a half of the home made pico in the large measuring cup, add enough water to the salsa to bring the cup up to four cups of liquid. Add one and a half tsp of salt to it and stir to desolve the salt. Don't use a teflon pan. Heat the pan up to medium high and put just enough olive oil in the pan to cover the bottom of the pan. When the oil gets hot, just about the point where it starts to smoke, pour the rice into the oil and start stirring it right away. Keep stirring it continuosly, don't let the rice brown, it should change to a different shade of white, I can't explain, you will know it when you see it. When almost all of the rice has changed color, lower the heat a little and VERY CAREFULLY add the water, salsa, salt mix to the rice. Again, we all know what happens when you pour water into hot oil, be very careful. Stir it a couple of times and cover it. Stir every few minutes to make sure it doesn't stick. If you have the heat right it should be just barely boiling. The closer it gets to being done, the dryer it will get and faster it will stick and burn so watch close when it's almost done. If you did everything perfect it should be almost dry right when the rice is fully cooked. I will eat a bite when it's almost dry and if the rice is still a little firm, I will add about a half cup of water and continue cooking. You can prepare this in advance also, it microwaves very well. Just add about a half cup of water to it before you put it in the microwave. Some people will put different things in their rice for presentation, I don't. But I have eaten at good Mexican restaurants where they have put a very small amount of cooked carrots, or even peas in it. The only thing I do to give it a look is use home made pico made with green onions, they stand out and add to the flavor. Enjoy
For the grill
Marinade for white meat. This works really well on white meat and seafood, I have tried it on pork and didn't care for it, but it's great for chicken and seafood. Mix 8 oz of orange juice, the juice from five limes, 3/4 cup chopped celantro, 1/2 cup chopped parsely, 1/8 cup chopped basil, 1/8 cup extra virgin olive oil, tsp salt, 1/2 tsp cumin, 1/4 tsp fresh ground black pepper, and 6 cloves crushed and minced garlic...........(6 CLOVES), and a tsp of onion powder. Marinate you meat in the refridgerator at least 4 hrs, preferably a day. If you are doing seafood use a large container to marinate and put the meat on bamboo skewers before you put it in the marinade. This way the skewers will be in liquid the whole time you are marinating and won't burn when you put them on the grill. I wanted to get a whole meal done today before I quit, I'm not going to make it. I will put the last few things in tomorrow. But, remember when grilling seafood that it only takes about 3 minutes a side and it is done.
Tacos de Mariscos - Sea food tacos
I like to use a mixture of shrimp and scallops, but sword fish is also good on the grill. Use medium shrimp, 1 lb, small scallops (about the size of a marble) 1 lb, and/or one or two sword fish steaks. I buy my shrimp already deviened and peeled, I alternate shrimp and scallops on a bamboo skewer or if using swordfish, cut it into 3/4 inch squares and alternate them into the mix too. I alternate them so when I serve them, everyone can just grab a skewer and make their own tacos. With just the shrimp and scallops you will get about 6 to 8 skewers and each skewer will make two, to three tacos. Use the marinade listed above and marinate the skewers in the refridgerator at least 4 hours, sometimes I will put them in marinade one afternoon and cook them the next afternoon. I use a cake pan to marinate them in, the skewers fit very nicely in it. I always mesquite smoke my meat on the grill but oak, apple, or even pecan would probably work well with sea food. If you don't live in the desert, I just walk down to the corner and pick my mesquite up off the ground, you can probably find smoking chips of these woods in the charcoal section at the grocery store. Soak the wood chips in water for about 15 minutes before cooking. I drop mine in water about the same time I start my fire if I am using charcoal. When you spread your coals after they are ready push a few to the outside edge and put the smoking chips on those. That way if they "light up" they won't burn your food. Cook the skewers on a medium hot grill for about 3 minutes on one side, turn and cook 3 minutes on the other side. The shrimp will be pink when done, over cooked shrimp is rubbery so be careful. You should have almost everything else you need from the stuff listed above. The only additional things are sour cream if you want it, some lime wedges, and grated cabage. Which to some may sound different but lettuce on a taco os an american thing. You can use it if you like, I do on beef tacos, but a little grated cabage is better in my opinion on the seafood tacos. Warm your flour tortillas a little, and put a couple on a plate. I spread the guac on one half of a tortilla, the sour cream on the other half. Lay some of the sea food mix down the middle. Squeeze a lime wedge over it. Sprinkle some grated cabage over it and top with the green salsa. Or they are very good without cabage or lettuce too. Fold and eat. For a side the rice is a little lighter with the seafood, it goes well.
Tacos de Pollo - Chicken tacos
Use all the same ingrediants and steps as the seafood tacos. Marinate the chiken in the same marinade. I use bonless skinless chicken breasts but skin on chicken is very tasty in these. I also cook the chicken breasts whole and then cut them up to make the tacos. I use no cabage or letuce on my chicken tacos but it's all a matter of taste. Don't forget the lime wedges.
