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Archive for the ‘Mexican Food’ Category

Chonti’s Famous Crack Salsa

Monday, September 6th, 2010

The salsa received its name from a college friend in Miami, Candace. She couldn’t stop eating it and said it’s addicting like crack — you just can’t stop. She also asked me if I put crack in it.

Chonti’s famous crack salsa

My Mommy taught me to make salsa when I was 10 years old. I came in 2nd place at a salsa making contest when my father hosted an Air Force Cinco De Mayo party on Guam. Obviously, I should have won the 1st place but I think the judges didn’t want to show favoritism. This recipe is a favorite for parties, family functions and nights I just don’t feel like turning on the stove. My husband and best friend can eat it by the spoonful.

Guam (Based on photo by Bizmac)

The secret ingredient is cactus or nopales. If you don’t have this in your salsa it’s not a real Mexican salsa!!! You can buy cut-up nopales in a glass jar in the Hispanic Food aisle of any major supermarket. Remember, when making the salsa it can come out different every time. Seasoning is a huge factor as well as how fresh your ingredients are. The salsa is best served at room temperature on the day it’s made.

Salsa ingredients;
tomato
yellow onion
cactus (nopales)
cilantro
jalapenos

Seasoning;
salt
pepper
garlic power
Adobo seasoning (Goya product)
lemon juice

You will want to cut equal parts of the tomato, onion and cactus. They are no correct measurements, you will have to eye ball everything. Cut the tomato first. When you place it in the bowl add the lemon juice. Next add the onion and cactus. Cut a hand full of cilantro. As for the jalapenos, cut as many as you can handle.

Nopales (Based on photo by Javier Lastras)

Season according to your taste. Begin small and add seasoning as you taste it. There is no exact science, it can come out different every time.

Here is a tip, you want to make guacamole? Slice 2 avocados in half and remove the pit. Don’t throw the pit away — put it on the side for later. Remove the contents of the avocado shelf and place it in a bowl. Once in the bowl mash it, a fork can work but a bean masher is the best tool for this. Simply add a copy of spoonfuls of Chonti’s Famous Crack Salsa stir and you are done. You place the pit you saved right into the guacamole, this is supposed to keep it fresh for hours.

Enjoy!!!!

Tags: cactus salsa, cactus tomato salsa, nopales salsa, nopalitos salsa, real Mexican salsa
Posted in American Food, Mexican Food, Salad, Vegetarian | No Comments »

Chipotle chili verde

Saturday, July 10th, 2010

Two days ago, I finally unwrapped a slow cooker that I had received as gift more than four years ago. Slow cooking chili verde seemed like ideal meal to serve my visiting family – something new yet familiar to their palate.

Chili verde literally translates into green chilies and used to describe Mexican (or rather Mexican American) slow cooked pork stew containing green chilies and tomatillos. Tomatillos look like green tomatoes but have meatier white filling inside them and are usually sold within dry papery husk. I find tomatillos have slightly tang sweet aromatic flavor. You should try it to get more sense of its flavor. For this recipe, I wanted to get fresh tomatillos, but couldn’t find more than handful of them after raiding three grocery stores around DC. So I decided to also use canned verde salsa made with tomatillos. However, since most people were not used to tangy flavor of tomatillos and hotness of green chilies, this is how I improvised my chili verde.

Verde salsa and chipotles en adobo

First thing I did was to substituted green chili with store bought canned Goya chipotles en adobo. Chipotle en adobo is smoked jalapeno chilies made in tomato sauce, which is spiced with paprika, onions, and other spices. I used chipotle instead of other green chilies because it has distinctive smoky flavor, goes well with slow-cooked meat, mildly hot and most importantly because I love its flavor. So let it be chipotle chili verde!

Broiled vegetables for chili verde

Other changes were adding grilled red onions, grilled bell peppers and raw chopped tomatoes . I wanted to get a fresh vegetables into my chili verde. To grill, I put my vegetables/aromatics in bread loaf pan and put inside oven set to broiler for a few minutes until I saw some vegetables were charred.

I started with big chunk of boneless pork shoulder also known as pork butt for my chili verde. Fat should be on top so that once it starts cooking, it will start to drizzle down and moisten the rest of meat.

Boneless pork shoulder (pork butt) for chili verde

I started by rubbing chipotles en adobo, salt, cumin and garlic to the pork.

Pork rubbed with chipotle, cumin and salt

I mixed grilled (broiled) vegetables, verde salsa, and lime juice with its lime zest.

Chili verde ready for slow cooking

Cooked the mixture in high setting in slow cooker for six to eight hours. I placed the slow cooker below the stove fan in order to use the kitchen exhaust fan.

After eight hours, I removed my cook chili verde. As you can notice that I added pieces of zucchini mid way through my cooking.

Cooked chili verde after eight+ hours in slow cooker

The chili verde sauce was spicy hot, mild tangy with smoky flavors. It was very satisfying!

The slow cooked meat itself was soft and fell readily apart. Surprisingly it was not that spicy. It was great because it allowed me to share my chili verde with a five year old member of our family and other adults who couldn’t stomach the hotness.

Slow cooked pork

The best way to eat was definitely over basmati rice – just like a spicy chipotle chili verde rice bowl.

Chili verde and basmati rice

Tags: canned tomatillos, chipotles en adobo, Goya chipotle adobo, pork chili verde, slow cooker chili verde, smoked jalapeno chilies, tomatillos
Posted in American Food, Meat, Mexican Food | 5 Comments »

The California Tortilla

Saturday, June 19th, 2010

My impression of California Tortilla was the place with hundreds of different types of hot sauces. Since I couldn’t custom make (ok instruct!) my burrito, I always preferred McDonald’s former chain Chipotle instead of California Tortilla.

California Tortilla’s wall of flame with hundreds of hot sauces

Few months ago, I was pleasantly surprised by fiesta burrito in California Tortilla in Clarendon. I was particularly impressed with the quality of guacamole. So, when I was forwarded a California Tortilla event invitation by DCFUD, I accepted it. The event was for rolling out their promotion on fresh ingredients and fresh menu campaign.

First thing that I learned about California Tortilla is that it’s a local DC metro based (Rockville Maryland) local chain of 38. For sure California Tortilla sounds lot better than Maryland Tortilla. In the event, they provided a complimentary meal and swags to every participant from media, yelp and even customer. I got their new California Screamin’ burrito with queso. I liked it, but since it was media event, I doubt there would’ve been any problem with the food.

California Screamin’ burrito (outside & inside)

Two California Tortilla representatives shared simple joy of making fresh salsa and guacamole. Recipes are as simple as adding fresh chopped tomatoes, onion, cilantro and seasoning for salsa. For guacamole, add avocado, chopped onions, tomatoes and seasonings.

Fresh Salsa

Here’s how they make guacamole.

Avocados for Guacamole

Potato masher was good idea for making guacamole

Mashing up avocados for guacamole

Adding chopped onions/tomatoes and seasonings

Guacamole!

Fresh salsa and guacamole were perfect. However, they were served with slightly less crunchy chips –maybe due to sitting out too long.

Chips, salsa and guacamole

Before finish writing this blog, I went to try California burrito again for fair assessment. I am glad to report that food was as decent. For fast food burrito, I still prefer Chipotle. However, when I need prefixed burrito or some hot kicking sauce, California Tortilla is the place and it’s local as well.

Tags: California Screamin' burrito, fresh salsa, guacamole, queso
Posted in American Food, Mexican Food, Restaurants | No Comments »

Eating Salt Lake City Utah

Monday, June 14th, 2010

The dining experience in Salt Lake City Utah challenged my beliefs on food culture. I stand corrected – now I believe a monochromatic city can have a vibrant diverse ethnic and local dining and drinking experience

First things first, beer. You would think predominately teetotaling Mormon Salt Lake City would have a non existence brewery scene. For being the 126th largest city in the United States, the city has impressive microbrewery selection. I had the pleasure of enjoying various brews, especially from two breweries, Wasatch and Squatters . My favorite brew had to be Wasatch brewery’s Polygamy Porter and Evolution amber ale.

Wasatch brewery’s Polygamy Porter

Next we move to America’s favorite food, the burger. Downtown Salt Lake City has many burger joints. My choice was Acme Burger Company, a restaurant completely devoted to burgers. I was pleasantly surprised to find Indian style Tandoori burger along with bison burger. Obviously Tandoori burger is one of least popular, but the fact it’s on the menu speaks volume. My Tandoori chicken burger was perfectly spiced and cooked. The portion by itself was comparatively small and little on expensive side. However, Acme is highly recommended for any burger lover, either you like Tandoori style or very old fashion bison meat.

Outside and inside of Acme Burger Company

Tandoori Burger at Acme Burger Company

Most popular ethnic food in Salt Lake City, Mexican and South American. I saw more Mexican and South American restaurants, such as Brazilian, in Salt Lake City than American restaurant. All the street food/carts vendors were in essence Mexican taco stand.

One of the Mexican food cart in downtown Salt Lake City Utah

On recommendation of a friend, we tried Blue Iguana. The ambience of restaurant was inviting, except for too many sombreros on the wall. The restaurant was famous of its mole sauces. Most Americans think mole poblano as the mole sauce. Mole poblano is type of mole prepared with dried chili peppers, nuts, cacao and other ingredients such as spice, onions, garlic, etc. However, mole (which means sauce) can refer to any Mexican sauce, with its own nuisance and can be very time consuming to make.

Enchiladas Amarillas

My enchiladas amarillas came with corn tortilla rolled around a filling of roasted pork (carnitas) smothered generously with mole amarillo. Enchiladas were good but mole amarillo, which means yellow sauce was better. I didn’t get to try more famous Iguana, the Red Iguana – next time maybe.

Another Mexican food stop was locally Utah based burrito chain called Barbacoa. The store was basically carbon copy of any ubiquitous Chipotle, except it has eco-friendly delivery option via its bicycles. By the way barbacoa refers to slow-cooked meat (whole animal) cooked in hole in the ground covered with leaves in Mexico.

Barbacoa Mexican Grill and its delivery bike

A Barbacoa Burrito

Rumbi Island Grill is another Utah based tropical (Hawaiian?) themed casual dining chain. They have island inspired entrée consists mainly rice bowls, sandwiches, and salad – a good value.

Rumbi

Rice bowl at Rumbi

Bayleaf Cafe is newage American restaurant serving globally inspired comfort food. The description sounded good but the restaurant had the slowest service for lunch even when it was not busy. Apart from that, the food was mediocre at the best.

My cold and over cooked fish at the Bay Leaf

Another surprise to me was number of Nepali/Tibetan/Indian restaurants. On a rough count Salt Lake City had at least four Nepali restaurants. I can’t vouch for their Nepaliness of their food. However, after walking through Himalayan Kitchen, it seemed more like a nice generic American-style Indian restaurant. If you want authentic Nepali food, ask a Nepali friend or politely ask waiter what Nepali food you can get.

Himalayan Kitchen Salt Lake City Utah

I have to admit that the Salt Lake City’s food unexpected diversity maybe attributed to Mormon tradition of sending off missionary throughout world or huge population of outdoor traveling group of people. Nevertheless when people travel, their palates mature and change.

More photos on DesiGrub’s Facebook page.

Tags: Acme burger company, Barbacoa Mexican Grill, Bayleaf Cafe, Blue Iguana, Chuvi Duvi taco stand, enchiladas amarillas, Evolution amber ale, Fast food rice bowl, Himalayan Kitchen Utah, mole amarillo, Mole poblano, Polygamy Porter, Rumbi Island Grill, Salt Lake City food, Squatters brewery, Tandoori burger, Utah food, Wasatch brewery
Posted in American Food, Burgers, Mexican Food, Restaurants | 3 Comments »

Glorious Black Beans

Sunday, March 21st, 2010

Out of sense of adventure and to quell my curiosity, I picked a can of Goya black beans 10 years ago. Since it had just two ingredients, black beans and salt, I cautiously tasted the frijoles negros right out of the can to determine spices and other aromatics to add. I was taken aback by its rich meaty mushroomy flavors and instantly fell in love with those minimally cooked black beans.

Goya Black Beans

Canned black beans have been part of my staple diet since then. Often known as turtle beans or Cuban beans, these black beans are easy to make, tasty, cheap, and universally liked. You can eat it right out of the can; it’s relatively healthy, and can be served with enthusiasm to a few vegetarians friend I have. One of my favorite vegetarian meals is, rice and black beans served with fresh tomato salsa on side.

Black beans are kidney shaped shiny black colored beans found rarely outside its native United States, Mexico, Cuba and some parts of Central America. Black beans are traditional staple diet in those regions, where it is served as a side dish as well as in burritos, enchiladas, soups, and salads.

During my last trip to a grocery store while I was mindlessly putting cans of Goya black beans in my shopping cart, I noticed bags of dried black beans. How difficult would it be to make these dried black beans? I can custom cook my black beans and add my own culinary signature to it. So I decided to buy a bag of dry black bean and a can of black bean for comparison.

Dried Black Bean

This is how I cooked dried black beans.

Look over the dried black beans to find any foreign substances such as small stones. Wash them.

Washed Dried Black Beans

Soak overnight 1 part black bean to 3 parts filtered water. You will find by next day, black beans will expand at least twice the initial volume and the water will be dark. Usually, 1 cup of dried black beans yields 2.5 cups of cooked black beans.

Soaking Black Beans

Overnight Soaked Black Beans

Throw or keep the excess water?

Beans consist of complex carbohydrates that humans digestive enzyme can’t convert to absorbable sugars, and are passed on to the lower intestine, where the resident bacteria digest them by producing carbon dioxide, which leads to the embarrassing bean related flatulence.

The soaked water contains some of these water soluble carbohydrates. Thus, throwing out the soaked water will help making beans less flatulence prone. For the same reason, Goya also recommends discarding the soaking water. However, the soaked water also contains vitamins, minerals, colorful antioxidant and other nutrients. Instead of discarding soaked water to reduce flatulence, try cooking longer to break those complex carbohydrates or sprouting the beans so that germination consumes the complex carbohydrates.

Add 1 part bean to 2.5 parts water for cooking.

Cook uncovered in medium heat for ½ hour. Add about 1 teaspoon salt for every cup of soaked bean.

Black beans should be cooked by 45 minutes.

Homemade Goya Black Beans

Canned Goya black beans

My taste comparison showed that canned black beans are softer, saltier, and lighter in color with smoky flavors. Goya canned beans may have got the smoky flavor by roasting or toasting its beans before cooking. The canned black beans may have looked lighter in color because Goya may have used usual method of reducing flatulence in beans by boiling them in excess water, throwing out the water and cooking again in the fresh water. Please note it often results in loss of natural nutrients.

Homemade (left) vs. canned (right) Black Beans

Overall, I was happy with the taste of my homemade black beans and amazed by all small subtle customization I could do to make them healthier and tastier.

Tags: bean flatulence, black beans, canned black beans, cuban beans, dried black beans, Goya black beans, turtle beans
Posted in Mexican Food, Vegetarian | 5 Comments »