Cinco de Crayo

Beer battered shrimp and fish tacos fried in hella coconut oil that was remaindered to Ashley in a break up with a cook. Feliz cumpleanos, Meghan!

Hand made tortillas!

Crayo, I think!

Killer Willard Walking Tacos

I told Nate K. about an idea for a food drama involving bags last week, and he immediately made the jump to the middle school classic: the Walking Taco. As he described it, a walking taco is a bag of hot cheetos Fritos (my bad, Nate) with nacho cheese, ground beef, and taco fixings. We decided to pitch that up a little bit.

I chopped up some leftover franken rib pork jowl  from my freezer and fried it up in a little lard with some jalepenos and onions.

Heated the chips in the oven at 200 F: unnecessary!!!

Ready to assemble!

Pork jowl + chips + beef mushroom sauce (joy of cooking recipe)

Chips, then pork and onions.

Then pepper jack.

Then mushroom sauce.

Then cilantro.

Then eat.

And eat.

"Careful," says Nate, "They are really good."

Get Busy Salsa

"Never get busy after making fresh salsa." - Becca P

Ingredients:

1 onion

3 dried chipotle chilies (soaked in hot water for 30 min)

2 dried chilies de arbol (soaked the same way)

1 can diced tomatoes

lime juice to taste

honey to taste

salt to taste

Cook it in sauce pan for 20 minutes. Onions first, then add chilies, then add tomatoes and crank the heat.

Blend it.

Strain it.

Jar it.

Get busy.
(That's why you used dried chilies!)

Spring Break: Lamb Neck Carnitas in Brookyln

Swanky Bed-Stuy kitchen.

Alex's folks moved out of New York, and he was left with some serious adult cookware (Le Creuset, All Clad, Shun). We had some cumin lamb the night before at Do or Dine, and I ate some lamb carne asada two weeks ago at Mateo's Cocina Latina in Healdsburg. This was inevitable.

Lamb with a view.

Nate took me to a butcher shop in Park Slope, after offering a variety of levels of local/sustainable, including cows that were born, raised, slaughtered, and butchered on a roof in Williamsburg. The fattier lamb on offer was a shank (left) and a neck (right). 5 pounds!

3:34 = vacation!

I basically just used the recipe for Carnitas en su Jugo from a month ago, substituting beef stock for pork, and not returning the meat to the juice. Frying the pulled meat, I shook on some cumin powder. We made tacos with avocado-cabbage salad, cotija cheese, and some salsa fresca.

Nate and Kathleen say, 'The lamb is crispy, but super soft!'

Spring Break: Providence Urbansteading

I visited Laura at her Sidewalk Ends Farm on Tuesday. She fed me some Red Russian Kale that was mega-flavorful. The farm is a new project, but is already heavily underway. Warming weather should bring a lot of new features and foods.

Spring Break: Le Poutine Cure

Peter wasn't feeling so great the morning after my first night in Providence.

So I fed him some medicine: Sweet Potato Pork Belly Poutine

Pork belly (follow the pork jowl recipe)
Baked sweet potato fries - use plenty of the rendered pork fat
Pork belly gravy
A couple raw Spanish cheeses cut into chunks
Cilantro gremolata

Anna says, 'Its super rich!'

Peter says, 'I feel better now!'

Osso Beercco

I had messed up shanks about 4 times by this point. I decided that I would not plan on eating the meat for dinner, but would just let it simmer until soft or I wanted to go to bed, whichever came first. Fortunately it finally got melty, so I'm here, announcing to the world, a better Bucco. Just make it a day or two ahead of your date, or whatever other reason you are making it.

Layers, like an ogre!

My buddy Luke at Prather Ranch Meats hooked up a teacher discount for some vitellone Ossco Bucco. Vitellone is young beef, but unlike veal, is allowed to go outside, eat grass, and so forth. 

Allow the meat to rest at room temperature for an hour. Then dust it with some corn meal or flour and salt and pepper.

Heat your pan really, really hot. Don't be afraid of the smoke, but open your window. Sear that sucker in duck fat, or in absence of duck fat, use lard, or oil and butter. 

Once you've browned the meat, set it aside and sauté some onions, carrots, and garlic. Return the meat to the pan, add some beef stock, and pour in a beer. Depending on how you want to go about braising, you can add a dark, rich beer for red wine, or a hoppy ale for white.

Let it simmer for hours.

And hours. It took 4 when I did it. Don't worry, it will melt eventually.

No photo available, but definitely top with a gremolata.