Chicken Burritos (March 12, 2010)

I made chicken burritos tonight...Ethan happily (luckily) made the black beans.  I looked online for a basic chicken burrito recipe, but didn't like any of them.  Ethan suggested a few spices I could use to flavor the chicken and veggies (cumin, chili powder, coriander, garlic powder, and oregano).  I added some chipotles in adobo sauce, orange & green peppers, onion, and a jalapeno pepper.  It turned out pretty tasty even though I had no idea what I was mixing together.

Here's the result:

Brunch at Norma's and Chicken Thighs, Potatoes, and Tomatoes (Feb 27, 2010)

We met our friend Yumi for brunch at Norma's, for her first time.  I think I've been there at least half a dozen times now and the food is consistently great.  There's usually a long wait to get a table so luckily I thought ahead and made reservations.

[NOTE: The Burger Joint is located across from Norma's.  In case you forget to make a reservation, don't just sit there going hungry.  You can eat a burger first while you wait...then you go ahead and order your "real" brunch at Norma's - yes, I have done this before.]

Yumi and I both ordered the Huevos Rancheros and Ethan ordered the Foie Gras Brioche French Toast.

a complimentary strawberry/blueberry smoothie shot

huevos ranchero

foie gras brioche french toast

We were planning to have dinner at Ippudo, but the brunch kept us full pretty late so Ethan made dinner at home.  He made Jamie Oliver's, Crispy and Sticky Chicken Thighs with Squashed New Potatoes and Tomatoes which we ate with leftover wheat berry and Chickpeas with Tomatoes and Spinach from yesterday.

Fava Bean Soup with Mint and Ancho Chile (Feb 19, 2010)

When I was in the Mexican supermarket near my work (picking up ingredients for our tamales) I noticed some interesting dried, peeled fava beans. I found a recipe in Rick Bayless's Mexican Kitchen featuring the beans, so that's what we had for dinner tonight.

I did a web search to see if I could find a copy of the recipe online to share... The first place I checked had Rick's recipe to the teaspoon (and with the exact same recipe name), but was presented as Karen Sonnessa's recipe from Vegetarian Times. The descriptive text (the copyrightable part of a recipe) was worded slightly differently than Rick's recipe, but the ingredients & their amounts were identical.

I'm don't know how the recipe was presented in the magazine, but I sure hope Karen acknowledged that it is a Bayless recipe.

Anyway, we had the soup with roasted potatoes...

And marinated chiles and cheese on top of the soup...

And jicima and corn chips on the side...

Leftover Tamales (Feb 11, 2010)

We had the leftover tamales from yesterday. Still tasty!

Tamales (Feb 10, 2010)

Today was a snow day in NYC... we had an idea it was coming, so I stocked up on the ingredients for TAMALES!

I made two kinds of fillings: chicken with chipotle & adobo sauce and mushroom & cheese.

The big question was what kind of fat to use in the masa (tamale dough). Lard is traditional, and shortening is the standard substitute. I didn't want to use shortening (transfat) and lard is so processed these days it's hydrogenated, too. We happened to have on hand some pork belly and uncured bacon, so I rendered the fat and used it with 2 parts butter. 

I beat the masa until it was light enough that pinch of it floats in water. Then made the tamales:

That's cheese (not masa dough) on top of the mushrooms.

Into the steamer they went...

And out they came on to our plates...

We had as sides some beans, homemade adobo sauce, and fresh Dominican farmer's cheese.

Yum!

The beans were great!  Especially when topped with cheese & pork belly.