Anticuchos de Corazon

Quite recently I became interested in learning some different ways to prepare beef heart, so I went to Google. This is what I learned:
1) Many people consider beef heart an ideal ingredient for homemade fish food. And apparently they don't seem to think it could be used for anything else because these recipes don't always state that the result is fish food (!)
2) Contrary to my expectation I couldn't find a single Mexican recipe using beef hearts. Most disappointing - I almost feel like making one up, as pseudo-Mexican as that would be.
3) One of the more popular dishes that does use beef heart is the Peruvian anticuchos de corazon, or loosely translated beef heart shish kabob. Makes me wonder if this dish has some kind of Incan roots to it. But I do know that quinoa was a staple food of the Incas - I've heard, though, that it's much less used in modern Peruvian cuisine - so I figured that would make a good side dish this time around.

Ingredients:
- 1 lb (0.5 kg) beef heart
- 4 dried puya chilies
- 2 fresh serrano chilies
- 1 fresh jalapeño chili
- 2 tbsp annatto seeds
- 1 garlic clove
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 0.5 cup (100 mL) red wine vinegar
- 0.5 cup (100 mL) olive oil
- 2 tsp salt
- 1 small onion
- 2 zucchinis
- 1 red bell pepper
- 2 cups water
- 1 cup quinoa
- 1 leek
AND finally you'll need some................. .................bamboo skewers[1]

To make the marinade: Take the dried puya chilies, cut off the stem end and shake out most of the seeds, then place them in a small saucepan, just covered with water, bring this to a boil, remove from the heat and let sit 20 minutes to soften the dried chilies. The fresh chilies can simply be cleaned (seeds removed) and diced. Combine all the chilies with the annatto seeds, the garlic, the cumin, the vinegar and the salt - use a blender to make a purée, then add the oil and mix it well.
Take the meat and clean it well, that is: cut away all sinew and silverskin, then cut it in pieces roughly 1/3 - 1/2 inch thick and 1 - 2 inches long and marinade overnight. I personally prefer the famous ziplock bag marinade technique (see pictures) over the old fashioned in-a-covered-bowl-technique.[2]

Put the pieces of meat on bamboo skewers together with chunks of zucchini, onion and bell pepper. I grilled them using the broiler in my gas oven (took about 10-12 minutes on max heat).
Serve immediately. E.g. with ...

...Leek Quinoa Pilaf:
Cut a leek in 1 cm (1/2 inch) rings, rinse well, and stir with salt in preheated oil for a couple of minutes, then add the quinoa, mix well, add the water, bring to a boil, reduce the heat and let stand till water is absorbed.

[1] As the meal was almost ready one of my guests informed me that soaking the bamboo skewers in water for at least an hour prior to use reduces their tendency to burn. I'll have to try to remember that one for next time.
[2] However, this technique actually requires far less liquid for the same amount of meat so I think the marinade could probably be made on half the scale under these circumstances.

Flounder Fajitas

I guess fajitas might be more tex-mex than straight up mexican - also I don't know if it's considered right to make it with fish, but for me fajitas represents the notion of grilled meats and vegetables in a medium sized tortilla, so here it goes anyway.

Ingredients:
- 1 flounder filet
- 1 small onion
- 1/2 green bell pepper
- 1 small tomato
- 1 lime
- 4 leaves lettuce
- 2 tortillas
- sour cream
- jalapeño
- salt & pepper

In a small improvised tray of foil I placed the fish together with coarsely diced bell pepper and onion and seasoned with salt and pepper. As I don't have a coal grill I used the broiler in my gas oven - I found the flounder needed almost 15 minutes to be fully cooked, but the onions and the bell peppers had to be taken out after 9 minutes - well, I didn't want them any more charred at that point. On warm tortillas place lettuce, tomato, the broiled fish, onion and bell pepper - add some fresh lime juice, jalapeño and a little sour cream.

Prickly Pear

Out of plain curiosity I bought a couple of prickly pears at the market - completely without knowing that they are in fact the fruit of the very same cactus I've been cooking with in the past (see e.g. here). When I took the picture on the left of the tree with fruits and all I had no idea it was something I had already tasted. As you'll notice the fruits on the tree are orange while those I bought are paler, more greenish yellow. I've read that they also come in a red variety, which is suppossedly sweeter. Well, these were sweet enough for me at any rate.

The trick to eating them is to get into it without getting the so-called glochids on you - the skin of the fruit is covered with tiny hairlike little hooks that can just perfectly get attached to your skin where they're somewhat annoying (and all the more so because they're also difficult to remove because they are so fine). I used a paper towel to hold it and that worked fine. The skin is some 3-4 mm (1/8 - 1/6 of an inch) thick - first cut off both ends, then make a cut along the axis and peel of a strip of the skin - continue like this till you can remove all the skin (try to avoid touching the outside of the skin).

The fruit has lot of seeds in it, and they are hard too - so hard I couldn't crunch them, so chewing the fruit was a little bit of a careful staccato like procedure. I don't even know how to describe the taste - it wasn't really too much like anything I had encountered before. I'd say it's a bit of an aquired taste: I enjoyed the second one I ate a lot more than the first one.

Beef Heart

Not always, but every so often I can find beef heart at my local supermarket. And it's pretty cheap too, which makes sense when I see the number of my friends who sound less than interested when I bring up the subject. Personally, I really like it, the flavour and the texture is just a little different from ordinary beef. The way I've been making it for a long time consists of simply cutting the meat in strips, seasoning with salt & pepper and searing in a pan. When almost done pour over some whiskey (I used Laphroaig, but that's not essential) and continue till somewhat dry again. This time I ate them just as a snack, but it could easily be turned into a meal by serving with e.g. polenta.

Goulash of February 9th 2002

I've only made this once before and as you can see it was well over 5 years ago, but for some reason I had taken a few notes that allowed me to recreate the experience. I guess the reason I took notes is that I really liked it - at least that's what I found this time around, shaming my lack of faith in my own notes.

Ingredients:
- 4 slices bacon
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1 small onion
- jalapeño
- 0.5 L (2 cups) coconut threads
- 100-120 g (4 oz) egg noodles
- turmeric, ground ginger, dill weed
- 1 broccoli head
- 2 eggs
Cut the bacon in smaller pieces and fry till crisp, then add crushed garlic and coarsely chopped onion and stir for a few minutes. Add the jalapeño and the coconut threads and season with turmeric, ground ginger and dill weed - turn to low heat.
In separate pots boil the broccoli and the egg noodles. When the egg noodles are done, drain and mix well with the coconut mixture, then add the eggs and stir to cover the rest with the eggs as they solidify. Serve with broccoli on top.

Tuna n' Spagheti - Director's Cut

Years ago when I lived in a dorm I for some time had this game going with one of the other guys in the kitchen: Whenever one of us was cooking and the other was there the person cooking was subject to using whatever spices the other person would tell him to. The directions could be loose or strict as the person giving them pleased. Maybe it was: "Use any three spices from the top shelf together with cinnamon". Or something similar. We had a lot of fun with it and it broadened our minds. Before this happened I wouldn't have tried to mix mint and (Madras) curry unless I had it from a very trusted source that it should be a good idea - as it happened it arrived more in form of a challenge, but I ended up really liking the result. This stands for me as the definitive version of what I've described here and here.

Ingredients:
- spaghetti (for 1 person)
- 1 small onion
- 1 can tuna
- 2 jalapeños
- approx. 10 cloves spicy pickled garlic
- 1/2 cup green olives
- dried mint
- yellow (Madras) curry powder
- oil
- sour cream

While the spaghetti is boiling, fry onion and drained tuna in a large pan, after a couple of minutes add sliced jalapeños, pickled garlic (as whole cloves) and green (pitted) olives. After an additional couple of minutes add a very generous amount of curry powder (your aim is yellow, and HOT) and some dried mint. When the pasta is ready, drain, mix with the rest and serve in a bowl with a little bit of sour cream on top.

Sweet & Sour Goulash

I made this first some 4 years ago, and I recently felt like trying it again.

Ingredients:

- 4 slices bacon
- 1 small onion (coarsely diced)
- 2 large tomatoes (coarsely diced)
- 2 tomatillos (coarsely diced)
- 2 cloves garlic
- jalapeño
- 8 oz (200 g) corn
- 1 lime (as wedges)
- 4 tbsp sugar
- salt & pepper

Cut the bacon in smaller pieces and fry till nice and crisp, add crushed garlic and onion and stir for a few minutes before adding the rest of the ingredients - then cover and leave on medium heat for 15-20 minutes. Before serving remove what's left of the lime wedges. Was served this time with quinoa.

Chicken Burrito

This actually includes elements that are very close to things I've posted previously[1], but I kinda like the way the whole thing came together - even if it ended up taking far too much time[2].

Ingredients:
- 2 chicken filets
- 2 slices bacon
- 4-5 oz (125 g) cheddar cheese
- 8 tbsp sour cream
- 1 29 oz (800 g) can pinto beans
- 1 cup red rice
- 8 burrito size tortillas
- 1 large onion
- 1 large tomato
- 2 tomatillos
- 1 lime
- 1 bunch fresh cilantro
- jalapeño (as you like)
- paprika
- ground cumin
- caraway seeds
- 2 shots Talisker whiskey
- 2 cubes chicken flavour bouillon
- 2 cups water
- oil

OK, there's quite a few things going on here - but with a little care, it'll flow nicely.

Salsa - part 1:
First put the tomatillos in the water and set on high heat - when the water boils, let them boil for about 15 minuttes, then drain BUT COLLECT AND KEEP THE WATER.

Bacon&Jalapeño Beans:
While the tomatillos are warming up and boiling, brown the bacon (cut in relatively small pieces), then add roughly 1/3 of the onion (coarsely diced), jalapeño and the beans - when they start simmering lower the heat to just maintain gently simmering.

Red, Red Rice:
While waiting for the tomatillos to finish boiling, take another 1/3 of the onion and dice it coarsely. Like with with 1/2 of the large tomato. When the tomatillo water has been separated from the tomatillos dissolve the chicken flavour bouillon in the still hot/warm water - let it stand by (you'll use it soon).
In a pot, heat up a little oil, then add the rice and stir on high heat for 5 minutes. REQUIRES CONSTANT STIRRING. When 5 minutes have passed you'll notice that some of the rice have popped. Now add the onion, and shortly after the tomato, paprika and the chicken-tomatillo bouillon - bring to a boil, cover, reduce heat to low and leave till water has been absorbed.

Salsa - part 2:
While the rice is cooking (and the beans are still are simmering) take the boiled tomatillos and some jalapeño and liquify it in a blender, then pour into a small bowl. Add to this the juice of the lime, last 1/3 of the onion (finely diced) and the last 1/2 of the tomato (finely diced also), cover and place in the fridge for now.

Chicken:
There's still more time left for the rice - take the chicken, season with paprika, ground cumin and caraway seeds. Then fry in a pan. Once browned on both sides and you're waiting for it to be fully cooked pour the 2 shots of Talisker whiskey over it - adds a nice smokey note to the taste.
When the chicken is done, slice it.

The Fixing's:
OK, almost there now - grate the cheddar cheese, set it aside. Turn on the oven at 350 F (175 C). Rinse and coarsely chop the fresh cilantro. Take the sour cream and the salsa out of the fridge now.

The Grand Finale:
Warm the tortillas in the oven, add a little bit of everything and fold it - as I promised earlier, this time I include better pictures for how to fold it. There's a few tricks: Firstly, a warm tortilla is a lot easier to fold - but don't warm it too much as it then turns crisp and is impossible to fold (about 1 minute at this oven temperature, heating them 1 at the time, works fine). Secondly, the less you put in it, the easier it is to fold it. Thirdly, try to follow these tips (as I hope you'll find nicely illustrated in the pictures) - fold over first 1 side, then carefully close in the ends (a lot like wrapping presents in a way) before closing the other side over at last. The ends should end up caught under the last side closed. This made me 8 burittos.[3]

[1] See e.g. here, here, here, here, and here.
[2] This assessment particularly influenced by how late I got started and suddenly having to go and get new tortillas.
[3] Yes, that's only 1/4 of a chicken filet per burrito, but after eating all this the other day I wasn't feeling like a lot of meat.

Fried Liver

This is an old favourite of mine, I used to make more regularly than I have been lately, but I still like it a lot. Although I haven't made this all that often in the past five years I was a little surprised to realized that I couldn't actually remember exactly how I used to make it. But now, after I've eaten it, I think I did get it right after all.

Ingredients:
- 1 lb (0.5 kg) sliced liver[1]
- 7 oz (200 g) green beans
- 1 medium onion (as rings)
- 1 large tomato (diced coarsely)
- 1/2 red bell pepper
- 3 tbsp. sour cream
- 4-5 cloves garlic
- oil
- rosemary
- salt & pepper

In a large pan, heat the oil, crush the garlic into the oil and quickly add the slices of liver, seasoned with salt and pepper. Brown the liver on both sides, then move to the edge of the pan and add in the middle the rest of the ingredients, cover and let simmer for 15-20 minutes - the sour cream should by then have become a creamy sauce.

I suggest serving with rice, e.g. parboiled rice, although boiled potatoes would certainly add an extra touch of Danishness to the dish.

[1] I used beef liver this time, but I'm sure pork liver would work as well.

Dry poaching?

This morning as I was cracking 2 eggs into the pan I realized I wanted to leave them there for a few minutes and decided to cover the pan. When I returned a few moments later I discovered that my eggs were looking rather curious (see photo), more specifically the yolk had been covered by thin film of egg white, leaving me with eggs somewhat curiously between fried and poached...

G.E.P.A.P.

That is Green Eggplant Pesto Asparagus Pasta - a typical "leftovers meal", by I'm alluding to the fact that I made this mostly because I had some aspargus and an eggplant that needed using.

Ingredients:
- 1 eggplant
- 1 bunch asparagus
- 1 onion
- 1 pound (0.5 kg) pasta penne
- 3 tsp. pesto
- 2 cloves garlic
- salt & pepper

While boiling the pasta, fry the coarsely chopped onion till translucent, then add asparagus (cut into pieces roughly as long as the pasta penne) and crushed garlic, season with salt and pepper. After a few minutes add the eggplant (cut in half slices, about 1/3" (8 mm) thick) and stir on high heat for a few minutes, then cover and leave on low heat for about 5 minutes. Stir in the drained pasta and the pesto.

Tuna n' Capellini - The Original

I decided to try out again the way I first made a dish along a concept I mentioned earlier.

Ingredients:
- 1 can tuna
- 1 small onion
- capellini (or other pasta)
- oil
- balsamic vinegar
- salt & pepper

While the pasta is boiling, fry the coarsely chopped onion together with the drained tuna for a couple of minutes, season with salt & pepper and add some vinegar and let it simmer for just a few minutes. When the pasta is ready and drained mix well and eat...

Murphy Balls v.2

In this redux I aimed for 2 things:
a) better texture so they would fall less apart
b) more interesting spice mix

Ingredients:
- 1 pound ground beef
- 1 small onion
- 1/2 red bell pepper
- 2 eggs
- fresh italian parsley
- salt, pepper, crushed dried red chilies & cardamom

Dice the onion and pepper finely, chop the parsley coarsely, mix everything together and shape into small balls. Fry in the pan.

I'm quite happy with the result. Both my initial objectives were met to my satisfaction.
I served them with baked potato wedges and tzatziki.

Bacon-wrapped asparagus

This is extremely simple to make - and makes for an excellent starter.

Ingredients:
- fresh asparagus (thin preferable)
- thinly sliced bacon
- sour cream
- salt & pepper

Clean the asparagus, wrap in the bacon and broil - just be careful not to leave them in the oven for too long (unless you LIKE the taste of charcoal). These ones are borderline overdone.

Serve with a tbsp sour cream with salt & pepper.

Prepared by Mrs. Erator.

Lamb Shawarma

In the area I'm living right now the places serving shawarma and falafel are few and far between. There's only one place I know of around here, and that has been frustrating for me while living here, so I've been seeking ways to remedy this problem. I've found that the shawarma is the easier of the two, so here goes one way to do it.

Admittedly, I don't set up a giant skewer with tons of meat and roast it rotisserie style, so I guess this isn't shawarma as such - but I do use "shawarma spice", a mixture the composition of which I'm not sure of either. Fortunately, it's not hard to get - I got the stuff I'm using now here.

Ingredients:
- 1 lb (500 g) lamb meat
- shawarma spice
- lettuce
- tomato
- pita breads
- tzatziki

Cut the lamb meat in small pieces, season with a generous amount of shawarma spice and fry in a pan. Serve in freshly warmed pita breads with cut lettuce, diced tomato and tzatziki. Delicious.

Update: For a shawarma spice mixture, see this later post.

Dragonfruit

One of the nicer things about being on vacation is finding and trying new things [1].

I was previously unaware of the existence of pitaya, but they appeared to grow locally at my vacation destination. In at least a couple of different varieties too. I bought this one at a road side fruit stand, but I saw others (which were red on the inside) in supermarkets. The taste and texture is not entirely unlike that of kiwi.

Since my return I've read that they grow also in Mexico. I'm sure I've never seen them before, but I'm not sure why - the lady I bought mine from told me they stay good for an extended period of time (I think she said up to 6 weeks) if refrigerated. Maybe too few people are interested in paying money for rather large, funny looking kiwi like fruits..

[1] Obviously the nicest thing about being on vacation is not being at work.