Main Dish
We went food shopping this morning and the supermarket was full and the people there behaved like animals. Actually that is insulting animals as most behave better than that. We absorbed so much bad energy that we returned home dead tired. I was planning to prepare something nice for this afternoon’s meal, but we returned so late and tired that we decided to eat the leftover pork curry from yesterday with the leftover chicken soup from Friday. This way we will clean the refrigerator and get rid of and clean all of the pots stored there.
I spent some time in the kitchen anyway as I prepare some nice banana bread for breakfast tomorrow and marinated something for tomorrow meal. I will see if I have the energy to post my banana bread recipe later tonight while Normita attends a webinar, and I will adjourn to the kitchen now to reheat the soup and the curry. Until later…
Lucito
I did not post the pictures yesterday because I could not get the digital camera to connect to the graphics computer last night and I was too lazy to even simply reboot the system to see if it would help, let alone actually diagnose the problem. Everything is fine today so I assume that it was just a transient glitch, though the camera is starting to show its age and is starting to act strange at time.
Yesterday’s curry turned out even better than I had thought and the meat was extremely tender and juicy. I had asked Normita how she wanted the curry and she had requested on the medium side, and it turned out that I aimed for that, but ended up more on the medium-hot side. Actually before I knew Normita, and then moved to Mexico I probably would have said it was extremely hot and probably inedible to me at the time, but now my taste has changed and I got accustomed to eat chiles and it was perfect for my taste and Normita devoured her plate so I guess it was good for her too.
I started with part of that nice piece of pork thigh we bought last week. Before freezing it I had cut it in 3 and froze each piece individually. Here is one of those pieces.
A nice juicy piece of pork thigh
I cut it in small cubes so it can cook a tad quicker as it was getting late and then I floured the pieces in a mixture of flour, garlic salt, onion powder, cumin and curcuma.
Cubed pork thigh
Floured pork cubes
I then quickly chopped a piece of leftover onion, some garlic cloves, and ginger. I sauteed the onion in plenty of olive oil and then added the garlic and ginger. Once the onions had taken a bit of color I added the floured pork cubes and browned them.
Some onion, ginger, and garlic
The pork cubes browning with the onions, garlic, and ginger
Once the pork was well browned I added a few cups of beef stock, so salt, pepper, cumin, curcuma, lots of curry powder, and some chili paste. I stirred everything together and let it simmer for about 30 minutes while I prepared some simple steamed rice.
Simmering pork curry
I very simply plated the dish with some rice at the bottom and a nice portion of curry on top. It was simply heavenly!
Plated pork curry on steamed rice
Lucito
Today we spent the day working in the office. Normita is doing updates to a website for a client, and I am building an update business plan for our food/wine course business. The day is somewhat dull outside and now it is raining a bit. I decided to spice things up by making some nice pork curry with one of the pieces of pork thigh we bought last weekend. It is still thawing slowly and I am not sure exactly how I will prepare it. I will let the gods of cooking inspire me when I enter the kitchen.
To keep things easy I will prepare a simple steamed rice to serve with the curry. As usual I will try to post some pictures later.
Lucito
We just finished eating a short time ago and the meal was both very satisfying and very tasty. Normita’s chicken soup had its normal effect of settling our stomachs and relaxing us. Something very needed this week. It is so effective it should be sold in every pharmacy…
Normita's World Famous Chicken Soup - A cure for all ailments
The tacos and accompanying sauce were also very satisfying and we both left the table well fed and in a better mood. What more do you want from a good meal? Now it’s back to work and we both hope to be very productive tonight!
The corn tortillas pre-heating on the comal
Normita preparing the chicken tacos
The tacos cooking on the comal
The plated tacos, one with a bit of homemade salsa and heavy cream inside
Lucito
Today Normita will be doing the cooking duties. I feel a bit off-the-weather and I had a craving for her incredible super-duper chicken soup. It is a simple soup to make and soups are really her specialty. I call her “Normita la Sopera” (Normita the soup maker) all the time…
The recipe for this great soup was published HERE years ago. Have a look at it if you want a great tasting soup that is easy to prepare. We thawed two nice and large chicken thighs an drumsticks and she will use that for the soup with plenty of noodles.
For the main course she will shred the meat and then make some “taquitos dorados de pollo” (golden chicken tacos) with it. Normally those tacos are made with soft corn tortillas rolled with the chicken inside and then deep fried. We prefer cooking them without fat directly on a “comal” the traditional griddle used in all kind of Mexican cooking. Our stove even has one built-in that covers the middle 2 burners of the 6 burner stove top. You simply roll some shredded chicken meat in the soft tortillas and then place them on the very hot “comal” and turn them until they are evenly golden and crisp. She will serve the tacos with some homemade salsa and them with some heavy cream.
I’m starting to salivate just writing about this… I guess that the strange noises I am hearing right now are from my stomach that is growling from hunger… I’m really looking forward to the meal…
Lucito
Today’s day is only marginally going better than yesterday’s, but I prepared a decent meal anyways. I was not sure what the fish I thawed yesterday was, as I have the bad habit of putting stuff in zipper bags and then freezing them and trying to rely on my memory to know what it is. It does not work and I really need to make an effort to start systematically labeling things with content and freeze date as opposed to only occasionally do it.
It turned out to be one of the last pieces of local “dorado” (mahi-mahi) from the over 1 meter fish we bought some months ago. At the same time we also bought a few large “huachinango” (red snapper). We are now down to our last few packs, so we need to plan another trip to the central fish market. The two pieces in the pack were from the tail tip of the filet and not well cut to cook as a whole.
Yesterday I had though of baking them in a tomato sauce, but today I was pressed for time and I wanted something quicker to prepare and something that gives a satisfying crunch when eating, as everybody knows that crunchy food is fun food. I decided to cut the pieces in small chunks, then bread them quickly with some savory breading.
I prepared a quick bound breading with first some flour mixed with garlic salt, herbes de Provence, citric chile powder and white pepper to lightly flour the pieces. I them passed them through a wash with eggs mixed with a bit of sesame oil, salsa “Maggi”, and heavy cream. Then I completed the bound breading with some hand-crushed Corn Flakes.
Dorado breaded in Corn Flakes
I pan-fried the fish in a few tablespoons of soy oil and it yielded incredibly crunchy pieces of fish with a moist juicy interior. I served it with the leftover sweet potato purée from 2 days ago. It turned out to be an very quick and easy meal to prepare that was very satisfying and very tasty.
The plated Dorado ready to serve
Lucito
Today was a hectic and bad day for us in the office as a lot of things happened that put a lot of projects behind schedule or canceled completely. It was “One of those days” as they say… To make things even funnier I had taken out of the freezer some nice fish to prepare for lunch today and by the time I should have started cooking the fish was still mostly frozen. I guess we will have that tomorrow.
In any case due to our moods we were not very hungry anyways, so we decided around 6pm to finally have lunch and we just made a few plain grilled cheese sandwiched. The easy kind with simply two slices of bread and a slice of cheese in between. Very boring and half an hour later I am starting to get hungry again, but it will have to do for now. We will see later if we decide to eat something in the evening.
Tomorrow will be another day, and hopefully a better one…
Lucito
As mentioned earlier I decided to prepare some thinly sliced pork chops that we bought on sale last weekend. We also bought half a small pineapple and I was planning to use that too. Here is a look at those very thin chops. Thinly sliced meat is very popular here in Mexico.
Here are those thinly sliced pork chops we ate
I ended up removing the flesh from the pineapple husk and chopping it roughly. I mixed it with some quartered mushrooms, tomato ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, balsamic glaze, cumin, salt and pepper. I oven-baked the chops in the pineapple mix on a bed made with pieces of pineapple husk. Here is a picture of the dish as it came out of the oven.
The dish coming out of the oven
The dish turned out fantastic and I will post the recipe in the coming weeks. I prepared some sweet potatoes purée to go with it as it had been ages that we had some. All in all a great meal! Now I need to go take a nap…
Here is the plated dish ready to eat
Lucito
I am about to go to the kitchen to prepare the meal and I am starving. I have been working in the office preparing various proposals since early this morning and I have yet to take a 5 minute break, so I feel understandably lightheaded.
When I got up I thawed some of those thinly sliced pork chops we bought on sale last weekend. I plan to bake them with some fresh pineapple we bought at the same time. I am not sure exactly yet how I will do that, and I will let whatever inspiration that hits me when I actually start cooking take over.
If it turns out well I will post the results later this week. Wish me luck…
Lucito
We have been doing house chores since around 7am today and it is now 4pm. We do not have time or the inclination to do anything in the kitchen so it wil be the leftover pizza from Saturday, at least the few slices that the Boyz did not steal from us. We'll see about preparing something interesting tomorrow.
Lucito