Cilantro - - Page 2

by BS

The Endless Road Trip: Not All That’s Euro is Trash

Portland is known for its incredibly diverse food cart scene, with over 700 of them clustered around town in various Food Pods. As I browsed one of the larger pods downtown, Brett Burmeister of Food Carts Portland (the definitive expert on Portland street food) strongly recommended one called Eurotrash. While it wouldn’t have been my first choice based on the name, I had to give the inventive menu—Portugese-influenced with pan-Euro touches, a hint of Indian spice, and a generous helping of good old fashioned American gluttony—a chance.

And glad I did. Above: “chorizo and chips,” a serving of thinly-sliced, golden-brown fried potatoes mixed with slivers of grilled chroizo, cilantro and a creamy curry aioli. Yep—potatoes, curry and pig—all that’s good about food in one bite. Alternatively, they’ll top your chips with a heaping serving of foie.

More after the jump.

by Miss K

Eating Down the Fridge: Egg Foo Young

Lately, when it comes to reconstituting my leftovers into dinner, it seems that there has been an “Asian-inspired” theme. (I say “Asian-inspired” so that I can sidestep any claims about the dishes’ authenticity. I made it from stuff I found in the fridge. I know it is not authentic.) Whether it’s a weekly dose of fried rice or a bowlful of curry, I have definitely been getting the Far East vibe when I open my refrigerator door.

The other day, as I contemplated dinner, I spied a half-empty bag of bean sprouts in the vegetable drawer. I knew at that moment that I had received my mission. Here’s why: Once every few months, I go to my favorite cheap, exotic produce shop, LA Mart in Silver Spring. I marvel at how inexpensive everything is, fill my cart with vegetables, and spend less than $30. Without fail, a bag of bean sprouts materializes in my cart. I take it home, use half the bag that night, and forget about the rest until I find the sad little sprouts, brown and slimy, in the bottom drawer a week later. But no! This time, I have seen them in time. I would not let them go to waste.

I like bean sprouts a lot. My husband is a bit more iffy. Thus, I needed to use lots of them without serving something that appeared, despite whatever delicious dressing I concocted, to be just a bowl of bean sprouts. Enter egg foo young. A childhood favorite of mine, it is the perfect EDF dish because once you have bean sprouts and eggs, the rest is quite flexible.

Egg Foo Young

in Eggs / Recipe / Veggie 4 comments

by BS

Cocktail O’Clock: Salsa Verde

Find yourself with leftover tequila from Cinco de Mayo? Here’s a way to use it up that won’t make you gag on a moldy lime.

Firefly in Washington, D.C. infuses tequila with poblano peppers (how-to here), then mixes it up with cilantro and lime for a garden-fresh cocktail that makes drinking on Monday sound downright healthy.

Salsa Verde

1.5 oz. Partida Blanco tequila infused with roasted poblano peppers (how-to here)
1 oz. Cointreau
2 oz. fresh lime juice
2 oz. cilantro-agave puree (agave syrup blended with a few springs of cliantro)

Shake together and strain over ice into a Collins glass with a peppered salt rim.

Find more creative drink recipes in Endless Cocktails.

(Photo: Dakota Fine)

in Drinks / Endless Cocktails / Recipe 1 comments

by BS

Happy Grilling Season! Endless Simmer’s Top 10 Favorite Things to Cook Outside

Not that we wait until Memorial Day to pull out the grills, but the unofficial start of summer does mean it’s time to start getting serious about BBQ season. Need some help? Here are Endless Simmer’s top 10 favorite things to throw on the grill.

10. Grilled Pickles

Just trust us on this one, it works. Grilled pickles.

9. Grilled Pizza

Any pizza is better with a few char marks. Grilled pizza recipe + the perfect pizza dough recipe.

8. Grilled Ribs

Of course you already know if you have a beautiful rack like this, it’d be a sin not to cook it on the grill. But you don’t have our secret hoisin sauce BBQ ribs recipe. Now you do.

7. Grilled Sweet Corn with Chili Lime Butter

This one doesn’t need any sales pitch, does it? Grilled corn on the cob with chili lime butter recipe.

6. Grilled Sliders with Onion Marmalade

Why eat one burger when you can have 14 tiny ones? Grilled sliders with onion marmalade recipe.

Next: Our Top 5 Favorite Things to Cook Outside

in Bacon / Fish / Lists / Now Simmering / Pig / Top 10 Lists 2 comments

by gansie

Eggs and Sweet Potatoes with Cottage Cheese Chipotle Sauce

It’s been happening more this winter. Last Saturday Bennett and I stayed in and watched a high-pitched, giggling Mozart in Amadeus. And this Saturday, after a large group birthday dinner for a friend, we snuck off for our sweats and lumpy couch; I pined for young (handsome and bumbling) Hugh Grant and attacked the acting ability of Andie MacDowell in Four Weddings and a Funeral. And is it just me, but wasn’t it difficult to determine the (link is a spoiler!) gay couple until the very end? I guess that’s 1994 for you.

Because of our tame night, breakfast became more than the usual scrambled eggs and bagels. I decided our first meal should include vegetables, particularly sweet potatoes, after I read this glowing article from the NYT.

Eggs and Sweet Potatoes with Cottage Cheese-Chipotle Sauce

in Breakfast / Eggs / Recipe / Veggie 4 comments

by gansie

Tahini: Round Two

I seriously never stick to my kitchen word. I had, well, still have, grand desires to cook Japanese food since I returned from my trip, which I earnestly documented. Have I bravely entered the world of miso soup? No. Nothing. (Although more on miso later.)

A beautiful tagine has been sitting on a high-up shelf in my current kitchen for 3 years now. And I actually think it sat unused in a previous kitchen. In fact, I am so out of touch with this clay vehicle that I referred to it as a taNgine at a press lunch at J&G Steakhouse the other day. Although a fellow writer was nice enough to correct my pronunciation before I started blabbing about it in public.

Tahini, however, has proved a powerful tool in the kitchen and as I try to use what I have in my over-stocked life, I have returned to this paste of sesame seeds. Round two.

in Recipe / Veggie 2 comments

by gansie

Tahini: Round One

The bottle of tahini in my cupboard expires August 2012. However, I’m not sure it will last that long. One, because I plan on using it, but two, can something like that be open for almost a year and still be okay to eat?

Anyway, my boyfriend and I recently went on a cleaning binge and although we didn’t tackle our food storage situation, I thought I would help out by using what we had in house and not buying cream cheese or sour cream as a base for my pending dip. And believe me, it is KILLING me not to have cream cheese in the house, especially with all of the pumpernickel loaves I’ve been buying lately.

Pumpernickel, I’ve been noticing, certainly has a wider meaning than I realized. I’ve found some fairly plain, some with caraway seeds (my favorite) and I just bought a loaf at the Columbia Heights far mar that has broad sections of poppy seeds on the top, and was nicknamed ‘Black Russian.” Now I’m on a mission to discover all the different intricacies in pumpernickel, a very underutilized bread.

In the meantime, here’s a dip that is fantastic with pumpernickel crutons.

in Cheese / Recipe / Veggie 9 comments

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