Hispanic - - Page 7

by tvff

Endless Simmer Goes Behind the Bell

I’ll be honest with you: I’m not a big eater of fast food. Takeout items like Chinese and pizza are much more likely options when I’m looking for a quick, convenient and inexpensive dinner. The fact of the matter is, with most of the big chains, I just don’t find their offerings interesting enough. Of course, there is one exception…

I’ve always had a thing for Taco Bell. Why? It has some spice. It uses cilantro (which I think we’ve definitively said is a good thing). It’s just different enough from the usual American fast food offerings to have held my interest.

This is why the Beef Baja Chalupa (those shells are addictive) has been occupying a spot on my bio since I came aboard ES.com and it’s likely why I received an offer to be flown out to Taco Bell headquarters in Irvine, California along with a number of other bloggers to tour their test kitchens and discuss product development. The opportunity for a behind-the-scenes look at the kitchen and make one last attempt to be reunited with a long-lost friend from the Taco Bell menu were too much to pass up…

in Personal 9 comments

by tvff

TVFF, Tacos & Twitter

As you read this, I’m being spirited away to a highly coveted, one-of-a-kind foodie destination that I’ve dreamed of visiting my entire adult life but never thought I’d actually make it into. No, it’s not El Bulli. It’s the secret, underground compound where the folks at Taco Bell formulate their latest menu items.

The tour will include a look at a number of different topics, including the development of the new Volcano Menu items. Once I’m released back into the wild, I’ll be sure to bring you the full story of my visit via right here on ES. But if you just can’t wait to hear my breaking news from Chalupa City, be sure you’re following Endless Simmer on Twitter for occasional, semi-coherent messages direct from the test kitchens.

in Food Travel 1 comments

by Maids

We Can Have the Mango!

Saturday Night Live – Mango: Garth Brooks

Just like Garth Brooks, Romeo can’t have the Mango. He used to be able to consume the divinely delicious fruit to his heart’s delight, but he OD’ed on mango during a tropical hiking trip some years back (in which at every pit stop he picked mangoes from low-hanging branches, peeled and devoured them.) Legend has it that on that journey Romeo ate a full 15 mangoes in the space of 12 hours. Romeo’s lovely face swelled up to twice its original size, he ran a dangerously high fever, and he developed painful blisters inside his mouth. Some thought it was an allergic reaction to the mango. Others suspected Romeo was the victim of a chupacabra or a voodoo curse.

Unfortunately, it was the Mango. Romeo has tried mango and mango products since and always suffers similarly grotesque results (never quite as bad as the first time). Out of deference to Romeo’s sensitivity I do not partake in mangoes around him (I even forgo that nectar-of-the-gods commonly known as the mango lassi in subcontinental restaurants when we dine together) and I restrain myself from preparing dishes featuring mangoes in our kitchen. Ah, the sacrifices we make for love.

But when I was invited to an island-themed potluck recently, on a night when Romeo was otherwise occupied, I couldn’t resist the temptation of the mango. I CAN have the Mango damnit, and so can you! Sorry Romeo ?! (And sorry Liza, I know how much you hate it when a fruit is the MVI of a dish.)

The easy, delicious, and refreshing mango salsa recipe for the rest of us after the jump….

by Maids

Bean-a-holic

I’m going to let you all in on an open secret: I’ve been told I have a way with beans. I know, what a glorious claim to fame. But I have to admit that I LOVE beans. I NEED beans. All kinds of beans, prepared in all sorts of ways (as long as they aren’t refried…. I don’t do refried). I’m a particularly big fan of chick peas/garbanzos, black and red beans. I cook some kind of bean dish about once a week. My Romeo complains on occasion. He claims his at-times, ahem, flatulent tendencies are a result of my overuse of beans as a staple food in our diet. Whatever, my stomach is not affected thusly and beans are good for your heart, right? Romeo should be thanking me! I know, I overshare! But, the cabal of smarty-pants USDA scientists do recommend that American adults consume at least 3 cups of beans a week to promote health and reduce the risk of colon cancer, etc. My friends, I’m totally beating the curve!

Another secret: if you soak beans overnight and then rinse them, cook them for a while, and then rinse them again you can eliminate most of the sugars that promote gas formation. In the wise words of one of Bart Simpson’s chalkboard etchings: “Beans are neither fruit nor musical.” (BTW- shouldn’t the Simpsons creators convert the chalkboard to the much maligned, but now ubiquitous, dry-erase board in the newer episodes? Who’s with me?)

Now, I prefer to make some bean dishes from canned beans (especially when I’m making a bean-based puree like hummus). When I have time, however, I like to cook the thin-skinned beans (navy beans, black beans, red beans) the long way. The difference in taste and texture between dry black beans and canned beans is really worth the planning and work that goes into cooking them. But, ladies and gentleworms, cooking dry beans does require time. So do feel free to take the following recipe and use it with canned black beans instead of dry black beans.

My Amazing Black Bean Recipe after the jump

in Recipe / Trends / Veggie 10 comments

by BS

Lard: So Hot Right Now?

Every cook has been there. You find a much-wanted recipe — usually for something with an international flair, like tamales, arepas, or dumplings — you read through it thinking, “yeah, I can totally make this at home,” but then the recipe gets to the point: Lard. Oh right, that’s why it tastes so frigging good.

I always flip past a recipe once I realize it calls for lard, and I think many Americans are the same way. We’ll drown our dishes in pounds of butter, cover them in gallons of EVOO, and of course we’ll batter and deep-fry anything. But lard is just beyond the pale. So I was rather intrigued by this line in today’s NYT piece about Chilean-style empanadas:

The dough is made with lard.

“Though we’ve started producing very good olive oil in Chile, and it’s used more and more, dough or pastry is never made with it,” Ms. Hamilton said. She added that she finds it a little odd that United States cooks are reluctant to use lard, because it has less saturated and more unsaturated fat than butter.

Wait a minute, does this mean lard is OK now? Better than butter, even? We can use it without feeling like we’re pushing every dinner guest a big step close to a certain early death? This could open up a whole new world of cooking possibilities. But of course I have to check with ES-ers first. What do you think? To lard or not to lard?

(Photo: Another Pint Please)

in Trends 12 comments

by BS

Panamaniac

Hola! As I’m sure all you loyal ES-ers noticed, I was totally MIA last week. Thanks to all you contributors for picking up the slack while I was off chillaxing in the Caribbean. I’m sure I don’t have to tell you how mad I am to be in front of a computer and not on the beach right now. I’m also sure no one feels the slightest bit bad for me. If it’s any consolation, a large section of my forehead is peeling off as I type (it’s not easy being this white!)

OK, enough about non-edible topics. Let’s talk food. A bunch of people had told me that Central American food outside of Mexico can be disappointingly bland. This was not remotely the case in Panama. Sometimes it was really simple, like plain black beans over plain white rice with a simple slab of beef or chicken, but it was always tasty and there was almost always some spicy chili sauce on the table to add. On with the show:

Carimañolas are a Panamanian specialty. Boiled yuca, stuffed with ground beef and deep fried. Effing delicious. It’s like a fried mashed potato bite with a juicy meatball inside. Proving once again that anything can be improved by deep-frying it.

Far and away our favorite thing. We kept going back to this tiny little counter place to pick up more of these “tortillas.” They’re little deep-fried balls of cornmeal, kinda like hushpuppies but even greasier and more filling. I thought it was weird that they were called tortillas but I guess when you think about it that just means “little cake” so it works. By the end of the week we were totally regulars with the lady who sold these.

Mas fotos despues del jumpo…

in Drinks / Fish / Food Travel / Photos / Pig / Red Meat 11 comments

by Maids

ES Okra, Okra ES – An Introduction

A couple of weeks ago, I finally decided to try the 3-dollar-per-pound okra that is sold in decidedly environmentally-unsound styrofoam packaging at the local Latino corner store, Bestway. I grew up eating okra. I’m not sure which branch of my mother’s family tree the okra eaters were on, but it was apparently a staple food of mother’s childhood and thus it became a staple of my own.

My mother typically made her okra smothered in a mixture of: hot peppers, tomatoes, chili/cayenne powder, caramelized onions and garlic. I wanted to try something a little different so I looked to ES, hoping someone had blogged about venturing into uncharted territories with okra dishes. In short, I looked to ES for inspiration (as I often do) and made a startling discovery….

in Veggie 8 comments

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