Cilantro - - Page 3

by Borracho

Gridiron Grub: Roasted Tomato and Chevre Chiles

I can explain the merits of a 3-4 versus a 4-3 defense. I know the 3^rd string running back on your favorite team, what college he went to and can discuss why I think his downhill running style will compliment their style of offense. The first professional photograph I ever took was a 10 month old Borracho in a Philadelphia Eagles sweatsuit! I love football and have watched countless hours of games and been to numerous stadiums.

Fans go to stadiums hours (and sometimes days) before games to tailgate. They set up in parking lots across the country with everything from disposable charcoal grills to elaborate set-ups of culinary ingenuity that fill the pre-game air with delicious scents. Once you’re inside a stadium, there are always options; different towns have their own signature foods and some stadiums even go as far as: sushi, Rocky Mountain oysters , lobster rolls, ahi tuna sandwiches and even pork chops on a stick!

While the hospitality is great, I have seen too many burnt wings, lukewarm dips, stale chips and flat beer. This is the year that I say no more! I am on a quest to sack traditional edibles and up the quality of football food. Some will be familiar gridiron grub, some tributes to various cities and some will come from your suggestions. Because sometimes you need to call an audible to make something happen.

I’ll Take that as a Condiment….

Salsa! Like any good condiment — ketchup, mustard, soy sauce, sriracha, horseradish, kimchi, hot sauce, chutney, etc… — we’ve all got a jarred version in the cupboard that we turn to when needed to cover up a dish that would otherwise be a mistake. But a good condiment shouldn’t just enhance our food, it should also be good enough to stand alone.

Salsa, of course, just means sauce, and can come in many varieties. At their best, they’re straight-forward to make, but their beauty is in the abundance of fresh local ingredients available this time of year. Here are my four favorite recipes using the season’s great tomatoes, tomatillos, avocados, corn and more…

Playing with Perfection: Cilantro Latkes with Cranberry Miso Dip

I’m sure I’m not alone in sometimes feeling that the best things about Hanukkah are the potato latkes (even better than the gifts or the gelt)! Is there anything more perfect than the pairing of starchy crispy fried goodness of a hot-from-the-pan potato latke and the sweet cooling fruitiness of applesauce? Is there? This is the question I set out to answer on the second night of Hanukkah 2009. After all, what good is the culinary part of the commemoration of a struggle against oppression if we feel our creativity is chained by the bondage of how things have always been done?

Okay… really, to be absolutely truthful, I didn’t set out to make a political statement with my cooking this Hanukkah. It was actually Gansie who inspired me to play with the traditional Hanukkah fare: When I told Gansie that I was going to my parents’ house to make potato latkes, her first reaction was, “Any interesting dipping sauces you’re going to try?”

Well… I hadn’t thought on that… because why mess with perfection? But this is ES, and at ES we are nothing if not experimenters (and no, I wasn’t tempted to throw a fried egg on them, eat latkes ala Gansie and call it a day).

As Hanukkah came early this year, and Thanksgiving was still very much at the tip of my palate, I thought to inject the holiday with something slightly reminiscent of T-day flavor.

Enter cranberries, a fruit I believe we use all too seldom in non T-day festivities, and one I love to experiment with.

Cilantro or Cilant-no?

Is cilantro the bacon of 2009?

That’s what our pal So Good was wondering last week, and he’s got good reason. The world’s most controversial herb has been burning up the blogosphere in 2009, most notably on Fuck Yeah, Cilantro, a new tumblelog with perhaps the most specific food porn focus we’ve ever seen: daily money shots of cilantro-covered foods, from pizza to hot dogs and even drinks. Fuck yeah, indeed!

But not all is well in cilantro-land. Over at I Hate Cilantro, anti-coriander activist Erin has been chronicling her hatred for what she calls “the pubes of Beelzebub itself,” even creating a cilantro-free restaurant guide.

I’ve always been intrigued by the passionate feelings this simple spice elicits. I don’t think there’s any other food quite like it. Half the people seem to think it’s the nectar of the gods; the other half think it tastes like soap. I’ve heard it said this is due to some kind of weird genetic split, but wiki says this has never been proven. Ah, cilantro. You are a mysterious one.

So let’s do a highly scientific survey. What do you think? And why?

[poll id=”34″]

(Photo: Chrismar)

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