JCC Tomo-spiced karkana ribenes - the foodies' thread

Just wanted to provide a picture for this. He added some red pepper this time to give it a bit of a kick on the back end, it was really nice.

 

Horchata - Cancun International Restaurant, Tulsa, OK



So, horchata is a drink that varies wildly depending on where you are in Latin America or Spain. The version served at Cancun, a tiny little Mexican restaurant, is essentially the Guatemalan version, which is basically a kind of rice-milk. It also includes vanilla and cinnamon. It is served ice-cold and it is absolutely delicious. It’s the only horchata I’ve ever had, so it feels kind of hard to rank this in terms of how good it is. I don’t know if it’s average horchata or way better than horchata usually is or what. But I know I loved it. It’s got a nice smooth texture, very milky of course, and it’s really refreshing. I swigged down more than one glass during my meal. So, yeah, I mean, this is really uninformed as far as how Cancun stacks up against other horchatas, but definitely recommended. 3 ½ stars.

 

I had one at this place:

http://www.tonysmexgrill.com/

It's amazing.

 

I love Horchata!
The burrito place near my house had a decent one for the summer... I'm super sad they've stopped serving it.

 

Spanish horchata über alles.

 

Oh, sure, way to Godwin's the foodie thread!

 

A 7 course wine and dine package for $77? That's the best value I've ever heard.

 

I'm glad someone else brought this up because I felt like I was maybe going crazy or something. That's a really great deal.

 

dp4m Just to say that we had this tonight, with the last of the rocket from the garden, on sioufikta pasta (a distant relative of gnocchi). It was a resounding success!

I told mavjade on another thread that I'd post here the recipe of my all-time favourite dish: baked chick peas with spinach. Here it is:

What you need:
250g dried chick peas (not canned - canned chick peas are disgusting and should be banned by law)
500g fresh (or frozen) spinach leaves
4 onions, finely chopped
1/2 cup olive oil
Juice of 2-3 lemons
Salt, pepper and cumin
Aaaaand... an unglazed earthenware pot from the island of Sifnos in Greece. This is what it looks like:



But if you don't have one, don't worry! You can use any deep oven dish instead: ceramic, glass, metal, anything. If you have one with a lid, use it. If not, use whatever you have and cover it with aluminum foil while baking the peas. It's just that, for some unfathomable reason, it's much tastier when baked in an unglazed earthenware pot.

What to do:
Soak the chick peas overnight. Throw away the water. Put the peas and the onion in your pot. Sprinkle with salt, pepper and cumin, add the olive oil and add enough water to cover the whole lot + 2-3 cm. Mix with a spoon, cover with the lid or aluminum foil and throw in the oven.

Here you have two options: you can bake your chick peas very, very slowly (i.e. at 130°C for 8 hours) or more quickly (i.e. at 250°C for an hour and a half or so, it depends on how hard your peas are). It goes without saying that it's a lot, lot better if you go for the slow version, but if you work and don't want to leave the oven on while you're away, plan B will do. If you're going for plan B, especially if using a metal dish covered with aluminum foil, check every now and then if you need to add more water. You should be able to see the liquid in the pot at all times. If going for plan A, there's nothing to worry about, the water won't evaporate.

Once your chick peas are ready, remove the pot from the oven, add lemon juice and spinach (that'll take some squeezing in), cover again and bake for another 30 minutes or until the spinach is done. And voila! You have a delicious, healthy, filling dish that's even suitable for vegans.

The bad news with this recipe is that, if you want to do it properly, it takes time - not work, but time, to soak the peas and then bake them. The good news is that you can't EVAH go wrong. You want more onion? Put more onion. You want less spinach? Put less spinach. You don't like spinach? It's okay, don't put any. You forgot the dish in the oven? It's fine! You can't overcook chick peas anyway. Your oven is out of order? Boil the chick peas in a pot. Whatever you do, it's always, always scrumptious.

Another dish I mentioned to Nyota's Heart on another thread is fried feta cheese with honey and black sesame. It's also very easy, provided that you do it really fast. If you don't do it fast enough, it becomes all soggy and yuck.

All you need is a slice of feta cheese, a sheet of filo pastry, frying oil (sunflower, sesame, whatever), a spoonful of honey and a sprinkle of black sesame. Heat the oil in a skillet. Once it's very hot (when throwing a drop of water in it causes it to jump to the ceiling), spread the filo pastry, put the feta cheese in the middle and fold in such a way that the feta cannot leak while frying (otherwise you'll have a culinary disaster on your hands and your kitchen will need renovation). Throw it in the oil and fry on both sides until golden and crisp (that won't take more than a minute). Move to a plate, put the honey and black sesame on top and serve immediately. This is served as part of a mezze, so if you're entertaining a lot of people you have to make several pieces (one slice of feta cheese the size of your hand is for 4-5 people.)

 

Is there any reason I couldn't do the slow (8h) part overnight in a slow-cooker (also enamel/ceramic-based)?

 

I'm not usually a big fan of chick peas (unless they are made into hummus!), don't dislike them, just kinda eh... about them, but maybe it's because I've only had the canned variety. I look forward to trying that. Sounds great!

The fried feta cheese sounds amazing!

 

I also think I read that wrong. It said "a slice of feta cheese the size of your hand" is for 4-5 people... what the hell are the other 3-4 people going to eat?

 

I'm pretty sure you can, I just never used one (actually, I've never even seen one). In Greece there are many bakeries in rural areas, and some neighbourhood bakeries in cities, that will bake your dish for a small fee, so slow cooking is never an issue here

That's a mistake you need to correct But honestly, dried chick peas are entirely different. The canned ones are too soft and mushy, and they have this weird taste from the canning juice.

You can make one per person if you really want to, but give it a try the two of you first. I find it too rich to eat more than a few mouthfuls.

 

As an example, I make myself the simplest of curries by tossing 1 lb. boneless lamb stew and three chopped up potatoes and a quartered onion into the slow cooker with 2 jars of curry and just turn it on Low for 8 hours overnight and then just make rice the next day and have 3 meals worth of curry and perfectly soft lamb stew without burning anything.

 

Trilingual ftw!

Seriously, how is Spanish horchata different? I know there's like a thousand different varieties but it seems the rice version is the one that's mostly served in the States.

 

Anyone seen Ang Lee's Eat Drink Man Woman? Just curious. I hated it.

 

today i had rømmegrøt. it's delicious and you all need to eat it. but i'm not sure you have the right ingredients there so sucks to be you i guess

 

The last two weekends, I've decided to do some practicing for my new job and made some rolls. Today's have fresh parsley and rosemary and they'll be awesome with the chicken soup I've got cooking right now.

 

So I tried another pasta dish today; cool day outside, I'm vegetating after a 36 hour deployment Friday/Saturday and wanted to cook stick-to-ribs food. Plus, I forgot to buy eggs (this will be important).

Basically it ended up being a quasi-mishmash of three different kinds of pasta recipes -- puttanesca, arrabbiata and carbonara (no, it's not as gross as that sounds -- it's non-dairy).

So, basically it started similarly to the recipe mavjade posted above (and I can only make this one when she's not here as she hates tomato): large saute pan, good olive oil*, fresh chopped garlic (I used what I had left, probably 5-6 cloves worth) and anchovies (a bit more than normal; 'bout 8 filets) and getting that all good and pulverized with the fish.

Then I added about 1/3 lb. of coarsely chopped butcher/slab bacon to simmer in the anchovie/garlic/oil mixture and tossed in some dry crushed red pepper for kick (do it to your own flavor; I went a little heavy given the state of my body's systems at the moment) and saute it at about moderate heat (a good simmer) for a few minutes until one side of the bacon is browned, then switch to a low-heat and leave for approx. 5 minutes. Your pasta water should be ready to go at that 5m mark.

Boil the pasta (and salt your pasta water, you damned infidels!) to a good al dente (I go 1m short of recommended time). I also use a dry and short, thick pasta (fusilli normally) so it's about 10-12 minutes of pasta cooking; add a jar of puttanesca sauce (or can make your own) to the bacon/anchovy/garlic/oil mixture and stir together to mix the bacon grease in with the sauce, so it's not around the sides only. Turn that sauce up to a moderate heat to simmer everything in.

When pasta is done, drain and put back into pot on lowest stovetop setting. Add the sauce to that pot and cover on low for 3 minutes after stirring everything in. DO NOT scrape the saucepan wholly in (just get all of the good bacon/garlic bits) to leave some of the fat out of the dish, unless (of course) you want to; your call (I did not).

Serve with a normal parmigiano reggiano, not a salty romano; the dish should end up spicy and with an underlying bacon and slight anchovy flavor -- you should not need salt from the cheese to cut it, in my opinion.

* = JoinTheSchwarz -- of course, I use an organic, unfiltered olive oil from the Cordoba area...

 

Does this recipe sound about right?

Trust me, you don't want to open this debate here. We need a whole new thread

 

An unfiltered Lakonia region Greek is my second favorite?

 

Okay. I surrender

 

Having an herb - crusted salmon fillet with a baked potato.

 

1) whaaaaat? do tell
2) since we're both apparently set in the food industry, when are we going into business together

 

I would eat at that restaurant in a heartbeat.