My Idea of a Pre-Packaged Dinner

I may have forgotten to defrost something for dinner but fortunately I have back-up meals that can quickly be thrown together. Tonight it is carnitas that I purchased pre-cooked from Trader Joe's. They are frozen but easily defrosted in the microwave. I remove the carnitas from the packaging, place in a microwave safe bowl and set the timer for 2 min increments.

On top of that I picked up a can of whole organic pinto beans during my last shopping trip so I open those and throw them into a saucepan to heat up. Luis is a bean purist so he prefers I leave them plain. However, adding a crushed clove of garlic enhances the flavor a bit.

My first plan was to make some fresh guacamole since I had a large avocado, some tomatoes and cilantro. Unfortunately, when I cut open the avocado I find it is has gone bad so I have to change my plan and make a fresh tomato salsa. This salsa has to be made quickly since my meat is already warmed up and Luis is making the quesadillas as I set everything up. I core two tomatoes and slice each into eight wedges. I remove some of the seeds as I go but don't get too picky about it. I mince some onion (about 1/4 cup worth) and add the juice of 1/2 of a lemon. (Lime would be preferable but I am making due with what I have.)

As I look for the cilantro to finish it off I realize that I threw it out two days ago. Fortunately, I purchase frozen herbs as a backup. Many grocery stores sell little flats (4x3 inches) of cubed servings of frozen herbs and garlic. I keep basil, cilantro and garlic in the freezer in case I happen to have a recipe that calls for them and I have either run out or not had time to buy fresh herbs in advance. I throw three cubes of cilantro into the salsa and add a pinch of salt.

While I have been setting everything up, Luis was making quesadillas on the comal. He briefly heated each corn tortilla on the comal, add a bit of shredded monterey jack (about 2 tablespoons per tortilla), folded and placed back onto the comal to heat them each enough to melt the cheese. (If you don't have a comal you can us a skillet for this. A pan typical to what you would use for a grilled cheese sandwich but don't add any oil.) You want to time them so that they come off the comal as you are serving your food since they get cold really easily.

Re-tooling and Re-using Leftovers

RE-TOOLING

Last week when I made the cornmeal crusted pork I had quite a bit leftover so I decided to re-use it two nights later but with different side dishes. Originally, I used the quinoa with peas and oven roasted cauliflower. Today I decided for something lighter and more summery to accompany the pork.

Since I had only used 3/4 cup of ricotta cheese for the dinner crepes I still had more than half a container to use up. I decided to make the ricotta sauce pasta to complement the cornmeal crusted pork and serve a tomato and red pepper salad with it. The pasta will take about 20 minutes and you will merely heat up the pork briefly in the microwave right before you are ready to serve. Unfortunately, re-heating the pork in the microwave will soften the cornmeal crust but it is an efficient way to get it warm. Alternately a toaster oven might be a good option - I don't happen to own one but if anyone tries it please let me know.

For the pepper and tomato salad, I simply cut one medium tomato in quarters and gently de-seeded it. I repeated the process with a red pepper and then I cut the tomato and pepper into bite-size portions. I tossed them with a bit of olive oil (1 tablespoon) and balsamic vinegar (half a tablespoon). This salad adds a light, crisp complement to the thyme and lemon flavoring of the pork and the cheese sauce of the pasta and is purposely simplistic.

RE-USING

The next night dinner was again made with leftovers. I had enough of the dinner crepes leftover to re-heat for the two of us as well as the last of the vegetable soup. I set to oven to 350 degrees, placed the remaining crepes in a pie plate, and set into the oven to re-heat for 10-15 minutes. I set the soup in a small pan on very low heat on the stove top and set the table for dinner. I rounded it out with some wheat crackers and iberico cheese to go with the soup.

Warming the crepes in the oven is perfect - the bottom side that lays on the pie plate is lightly crisped, the filling is warm all the way through and the top part is soft. The crepes go well with a nice bowl of steaming vegetable soup.

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So with a bit more effort in making dinner sometimes you are rewarded with multiple meals: the pork made dinner one night for four people; three lunches and dinner another night for the two of us. The package of sukiyaki pork wasn't more than 1.5 pounds either. The crepe recipe was good for dinner on two separate nights and two lunches. For flexibility and convenience, I sometimes just freeze leftovers of larger recipes on the same night so we can have them for the future rather than being obligated to eat them the same week. Most of my meals typically serve dinner for two and there is enough for two lunches the next day.

Cornmeal Crusted Pork and Quinoa

My mother showed me an Asian market on Irving Street between 25th and 26th Avenues - Sunset Super - that has a butcher and seafood counter. I am excited because it is a few blocks down from my favorite produce market - 22nd & Irving - so that means I can now park once (if I happen to drive over) and get more ingredients within walking distance.

They have some very nice looking meat and seafood including sukiyaki cuts of meat. (Sukiyaki is a japanese one pot meal. Since all the ingredients are typically cooked and assembled at the table, the meat is sliced paper thin for quick cooking.) I purchased several items; one of which was a package of sukiyaki pork.

We had some friends over for dinner on last week so I decided to use the pork and serve it with oven-roasted cauliflower and quinoa. I also decided to serve the quick vegetable soup as a starter since I had frozen some of my most recent batch. Since the cauliflower will take almost 40 minutes, I set that up and start pre-heating the oven. Additionally, I drop my frozen soup into a pot with about an inch of water on the bottom and set it on my burner with the lowest BTU at low. This will defrost the soup and allow me to ignore it while I am cooking.

Next, using I decide to dip the pork in egg and coat with a cornmeal mixture. Since the pork is so thin it will be almost the last thing I cook, however I want to coat it now and give it some time to dry so that the crust will be crisper. (Another method is to do a three part process; coat in flour, dip in egg and then coat in breadcrumbs or corn meal. This method is very effective but I always mess myself up by rinsing my meat and putting it right into my egg wash. At the same time, you save a step which isn't bad either.)

For my egg coating, I use the two egg yolks left over from my souffle and one whole egg all whisked together with a bit of water (otherwise I would use two whole eggs and some milk). For the cornmeal coating, I put 1 cup of cornmeal in a pie plate and add approximately a teaspoon each of salt, pepper and thyme as well as 2 tablespoons of grated parmesan cheese. I set up a couple of cutting boards to place the coated pork to dry; carefully remove a piece of pork from the egg coating; and lie it on top of the cornmeal coating and gently cover the meat. I flip the pork piece around, pressing into the coating to make sure it is fully covered and set the coated piece onto the waiting cutting board. I continue this process until all the meat it set aside and ready to cook. (If you start to run out of the cornmeal coating, it should be sufficient to simply add a bit more cornmeal - if you gauge it right you shouldn't have to add more seasoning.)

The cauliflower has been cooking and it is time for me to turn it for the final 10 minutes. I start the quinoa; I put 1 cup of quinoa in 2 cups of chicken broth in a medium saucepan. As it begins to boil, I add 1/2 cup of frozen peas, cover the pot and let cook for 10 minutes. When done, the grain appears soft and fluffy; the germ ring will be visible around the outside of the grain.

Finally, I take a bit of butter and lemon-infused olive oil and heat it in a large skillet over medium-high heat. I gently brown each peice of cornmeal coated pork for about 2 minutes per side. I remove the cooked pieces to a warm plate and continue cooking until they are all done. This recipe made a lot of leftovers - even serving to four people we will have enough for dinner another night this week. Just by making different side dishes it will be like a whole new meal...

Tamale Making on Mother's Day

For years, my mother-in-law and I have been making tamales around Christmas time; just the two of us would spend a whole day making hundreds of them. Friends always expressed interest in learning how to make them but the timing of doing them in the midst of the holidays was always bad. Last year I decided to see if Mother's Day might be a better time and it was so successful that we decided to make it an annual event.

A few weeks in advance I send out an Evite so that I can get a sense of how many people will be able to attend and then estimate how much of the ingredients need to be purchased. Gathering all the ingredients is a big project but living in San Francisco makes life a bit easier. La Palma Mexicatessen is a great source for masa (the primary ingredient) and the corn husks that we use to wrap our tamales. You can purchase masa that has been pre-mixed with lard, broth and baking powder but we prefer to mix these ingredients in ourselves. In the past we have purchased the pre-mixed masa and still spent a lot of time working the masa with our hands to get it aerated enough. The secret to light and fluffy tamales is aerating the dough until a small lump floats in a glass of water.

I spent over a week gathering ingredients; first for the green mole which will be used to flavor the meat fillings and gradually gathering other items that will be needed. I would prefer to stick to one type of meat - pork - but over the years there have been requests for other fillings and even for sweet tamales. La Palma sells a sweet tamale dough; it is fully mixed with all the ingredients as well as raisins and flecks of cinnamon. Unfortunately, I have been spoiled by strawberry and pineapple tamales we found during our travels in Mexico and don't find this sweet mix to be up to par at all. Trinidad, my mother-in-law, has tried jam and even dried fruit or candy but I still have dreams about perfectly flavored, light and fluffy strawberry tamales.

This year I have made it my mission to achieve that sweet tamale as well as make seven other fillings: red and green chicken; red and green pork (carnitas); beef; picadillo; grilled corn and cheese; and rajas (poblano chili and cheese). It will be quite a feat but I have 20 estimated helpers and I am going to cheat - I purchase three roasted chickens from Costco and six packages of Pork Carnitas from Trader Joe's - this saves significant time on cooking meat fillings. I purchase 70 pounds of masa quebrada simple (that is rough ground hominy and unmixed), 4 pounds of lard (you can substitute solid vegetable shortening), 2 cups of baking powder, six bags of pre-washed corn husks, a flat of strawberries, two pineapples, and 4 pounds of ground beef.

My reference for ingredient measurements is Authentic Mexican by Rick Bayless. His recipe for tamales using 1 pound (approximately 2 cups) of masa, 1/2 cup lard, 2/3 cup broth, 1 teaspoon of baking powder and about 1/2 teaspoon of salt (depending how salty the broth is). This recipe estimates it will make 16 medium-sized tamales; therefore 70 pounds of masa should yield over 1,100 tamales and each helper will leave with over 50 tamales each. This is exactly why this is a full, day; fully staffed function.

Before the event, I set most of the corn husks in a large pan full of hot water and weigh the lid down to keep the husks fully submerged. (Unfortunately, I will have to do this in two or even three batches because I don't have a large enough pan to accommodate all the corn husks). I cook the picadillo and make sure all my ingredients are handy and ready.

When everyone arrives, I give them a moment to grab a bagel, some coffee and even champagne before I set them up kneading masa. We separate the 70 pounds of masa dough into four, 20 quart bowls and add the requisite amounts of shortening/lard and baking powder. Kneading the masa is the longest part of this process so the bulk of the work will be there.

My first helper, Danielle gets to work cutting up some pineapple and strawberries. The fruit tamales require the addition of a cup of fruit puree per pound of masa rather than broth. I plan to set aside about 10 pounds of the masa (five pounds per flavor) and for the moment I am going to add sugar and shortening to this 10 pounds then separate it again to add the respective purees.

When I have enough people working on the masa, I set the next batch of helpers to shredding the meat. Since both the chickens and pork carnitas are pre-cooked the meat just needs to be shredded and seasoned to be ready as a filling for tamales. When all the meat is shredded, I separate it into batches and season some of the pork and chicken with green mole and the rest I season with a bit of mole poblano and a can of spicy tomato sauce (El Pato Sauce). Additionally, I add a lot of salt - you want the flavoring to be pretty intense (spicy, flavorful and/or salty) to offset the blandness of the masa dough.

Rajas are a "vegetarian" tamale (fully vegetarian if you use solid vegetable shortening and vegetable broth). It is made by placing thin strips of slightly grilled, poblano chilis and queso fresco on the bed of masa. The cheese melts when the tamales get steamed and it is a really delicious filling - especially if you are a fan of chili rellenos (poblanos stuffed with cheese; battered; fried and covered with light tomato sauce), which is one of my favorite dishes. Another vegetarian tamale we created last year was to use a bag of frozen, roasted corn - a Trader Joe's item - and mixing it with shredded cheese; approximately two cups.

I spend the whole day funneling ingredients to the workers and checking the masa for float worthy status, plus setting up the tamales to cook. I have a large, 30 quart pan which I placed a steamer at the bottom with about 2 inches of water. I then take some of the wet corn husks and made a bed in which to place the tamales. I place enough tamales in the pan so that they can stand up so that the open part of the husk is pointing toward the lid of the pan. At around 6:00 pm (we started at 11:00 am) the first batch of tamales is fully cooked.

The tamales that are taken home will be uncooked and I tell everyone to freeze them when they get home. By freezing the tamales uncooked, you get a much fresher tasting tamal. You can remove tamales right from the freezer and steam for about 90 minutes. (If they are unfrozen or fresh they only take about 60 minutes.) It is easy to tell if a tamal is fully cooked because the masa goes from a soft mush to a spongy dough. You can just open the corn husk to confirm doneness.

Everyone worked tirelessly to knead the masa and fill tamales. Luis kept the workers hydrated by refreshing champagne, beers, sodas, agua frescas, etc. He also took the vacuum out numerous times to clean up masa from the floor. His justification is he wanted us all to impress any random arrival with our ability to keep the floor clean during such a massive project.

So next year, I will purchase masa fina, mixta (finely ground, masa mixed with everything) and just knead it to aerate it better. We spent too long kneading the masa again and it wasn't salty enough. Unfortunately, I totally forgot that the puree replaced the broth in the sweet tamales so my quest for the perfect sweet tamal is as yet unfulfilled.

Pork with Green Mole

Since I cooked green mole in the afternoon, I am going to take advantage of that for dinner and make something quick. I have some pork tenderloin spears (the package is a bit over a pound) in the freezer so I defrost those and slice them into smaller pieces; almost bite-sized.

I want to brown the pork prior to adding the mole for better flavor. (This method of browning and then finishing the cooking in a moist heat is referred to as braising.) I heat some oil in a medium-sized skillet on medium-high heat and just as it starts smoking I add the pork a batch at a time but work quickly to avoid overcooking the meat. When all the meat is a browned (few signs of raw, pink meat) I add a ladle of green mole (approximately 1/2 cup); cover and let cook for about 5 minutes.

I serve the pork with steamed rice, corn and some quesadillas or just plain tortillas. In this case, we have enough leftover oven-baked rice (recipe from Fish for Dinner) that I will reheat that. However, if you have to cook the rice start it in advance since it takes about 20 minutes; 1 cup of raw, long grain rice to two cups of water or broth and bring to a boil over medium to high heat; reduce to medium low, cover and cook for about 15 minutes.

Green Mole - Pronounced Moe-Lay

This week involves prepping for Mother's Day Brunch and Tamale Making party. I typically make pork or chicken for the tamale filling and flavor the meat with this green mole or mole poblano (rich sauce flavored with several types of chilis, chocolate and spices). Green mole is the easier mole to make; it takes about 90 minutes to two hours and much of that time is unattended cooking. Mole poblano is a whole other story since it is at minimum a six hours process and that is only if you have all the ingredients on hand.

Since green mole is less time consuming and what I consider to be a fresher sauce, I tend to make it closer to the time of using it. However, if you make a big batch and don't plan to use it right away it freezes well and can last awhile stored that way. Green mole is a good sauce to use for chicken, pork or fish. I also tend to make it with vegetable broth so that my vegetarian friends can just eat it with rice. It would probably go very well with tofu even.

In a large pan filled with water, add 8 medium (approx 12 ounces) fresh, green tomatillos that have been husked and washed; one medium tomato; 1 poblano chili ; and 3 jalapeno chilis. Do not cut any of the vegetables; you will de-stem and de-seed the chilis later and the tomatillos and tomato will be left whole. Turn on the burner and cover, bring to a boil and simmer for 10-15 minutes. (You can used canned tomatillos - use 1 1/2 13-ounce cans- and if you do you will not need to simmer them with chilis.)

Next place a medium-sized skillet on burner, put the heat to medium and when the pan is hot add one cup of hulled, un-toasted pumpkin seeds. The seeds should start popping and you need to stir constantly to prevent them from burning. When they have all popped and nicely toasted (approximately 4-5 min) remove from the heat and place in a pie plate or cool cookie sheet. This will stop the seeds from cooking and start the cooling process.

Now clean five large romaine lettuce leaves and half a bunch of cilantro. You want to make sure to remove any grit from both of these items. Shake out excess water but don't worry about completely drying. Tear the lettuce into rough smaller pieces for easier processing in the blender. Next, rough chop half a medium onion and three cloves of garlic. Set aside near the toasted pumpkin seeds.

By this time, the tomatillos and chilis should be cooked. You will drain them and let cool slightly. When you can, remove the poblano and jalapenos from the pan and cut away the stem, slice the chilis in half and scoop out the seeds using a small teaspoon. Then roughly chop the chilis and set aside. (When working with chilis it is always a good idea to wear thin latex gloves. If you don't, even after washing your hands, the oils can linger and you discover - after gently rubbing you eye sometime later - that they had quite a kick. Rinsing your eye with cool water will help but it might take awhile for the burning sensation to go away.)

Now that all the ingredients are prepped, you will use a blender to pulverize everything together into a smooth puree. You will have to add the ingredients to the blender in small batches and pour each batch into a large pan (I typically use the same pan I used to simmer the tomatillos and chilis). Since most of the ingredients are dry add enough broth to each batch (1/4 to 1/2 cup per batch is usually enough) to help with the pureeing. You will need at least 4 cups of vegetable or chicken broth. After pureeing all the ingredients, add any leftover broth to the pureed ingredients in the pan.

You will turn the burner onto low and let the mole simmer for approximately 30 minutes. It will change from a fresh, avocado green color to a more grayish, green color similar to the color of overcooked/canned peas.