Latinize Your Sandwich

I don’t generally spend too much time writing about sandwiches but I take every opportunity to share Warren Zevon’s words of wisdom: “Enjoy every sandwich.” March Madness is a good excuse for tailgating menus and sandwich porn. 

Why bother? A sandwich is just a piece of bread, some meat and possibly cheese, perhaps a spread to bind it and veggies to make it healthier, or crisper… No, I am not talking a deli ham and cheese! If you want ham and cheese, what I am suggesting is that you Latinize it and make it Serrano ham and Manchego cheese on a crusty roll lightly toasted, on which you’ll scrape a piece of garlic and then spread a dash of olive oil on the bread.

Try a gourmet grilled ham and cheese with fried eggs, recipe here

Sexy, no? ¡Si!

Latin America offers a variety of sandwiches that will make your taste buds to screams in ecstasy. You may be familiar with some of these. I suggest trying them all.

Torta Ahogada, Mexico

Patacón Maracucho, Venezuela (gluten-free)

Chivito al Pan, Uruguay

Cuban Sandwich, Cuba

Cemita, Mexico

Choripán, Argentina

Milanesa, Argentina

Chacarero, Chile

Arepas Rellenas, Colombia (gluten-free)

Four tips to Latinize your sandwiches just a touch:

·         Chipotle in adobo – smoky, a little sweet, and spicy (but not too hot). These are sold in stores and can be found in markets with international foods. Otherwise, they can be bought online. We use La Morena.

Escabeche – red onions love the treatment. Jalapeños and carrots also work and give your sandwich an earthy and vibrant dimension (check recipes here).

Black beans – blended or puréed, it makes for an earthy and sophisticated spread (check recipes here).

Avocado – mash up and add a little lemon juice, salt and pepper, and it makes for a creamy spread.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

For those who'd like to explore other tailgating menus, I share these resources (which I offer in no particular order) for you to check out and bookmark to plan out your weekend parties:

Pocket Change Gourmet

Come Home for Comfort

Sporting Parties

Southern Living

Feed Blitz

Cupcake Diaries

You’ve Been Waffled

My uncle bought my grandmother a waffle iron for mother’s day. I’m not sure she thought it was the coolness he thought it was. I was mystified by the four-clover leaf design and could not wait until we made these Belgian waffles that were all the rage!

I loved it. I was hooked the moment the batter hit the iron and the sweet aroma filled my nostrils.

“Get away from there,” Mami warned me. “And don’t touch it, it’s hot!”

As I remember, my grandmother had two waffle recipes. One was pretty much a pancake batter. The other contained corn flour and those waffles were really crispy.

In the past year or so, I have seen waffles used in sandwiches (instead of bread), and a host of recipes for non-waffle stuff you can make in a waffle iron – none originating in Belgium.

Mami’s little waffle maker, with the green top, drowned a horrible death after a hurricane hit Puerto Rico and the river overflowed. In the same manner the river stole one of my dolls decades before, it absconded with Mami’s waffle iron.

In my own kitchen, my George Foreman grill includes waffle plates and I highly recommend it.

We recently replaced the unit, and these recipes seem like great ways to use the little grill (which remains one of my favorite gadgets for its ease of use and removable/interchangeable plates that help keep it clean).

There are at least a handful of non-waffle things I want to try:

Bacon

Hash browns

Churros

Brownies

Falafels

There are plenty of waffle variants to make for breakfast, brunch, snacks or desserts. Breakfast for dinner is a fun possibility: making eggs in the waffle iron or a breakfast quesadilla (there are a few different recipes in the Pinterest board I create for your reference)…

Queso frito. Crab cakes. Soft pretzels. Philly Cheesesteak. Ramen. Oh yes, ramen. Mash potato waffles with cheddar cheese and chives. Pizza!

There’s even a book called Will It Waffle?: 53 Irresistible and Unexpected Recipes to Make in a Waffle Iron. I do not own a copy yet, but it is on my wishlist as it includes a recipe for calamari salad.

My vegan and gluten-free folks get at least one recipe they can play with.

Of course, if I find other recipes that look palatable, I will add them to the Pinterest board, FoodGoddess: Waffled.

The beauty of the recipes I have collected is that most are relatively easy and novice cooks can look like geniuses. If a cook gains experience and confidence in the kitchen, I love it!

Pantry Staples: Black Beans

Pantry essentials depend largely on how big a pantry you possess.

I had a friend years ago, that lived in a one-bedroom apartment and her cupboard consisted of three-tier hanging mesh baskets, the top of her fridge, and the floor space below the sink.

My late aunt used to have a hole in the wall pantry, a literal nook-with-shelves built into the wall under the stairs (like Harry Potter’s room!), that she covered with a little curtain.

We live in a house, so our kitchen – while not luxuriously large – is comfortable and we have a small hutch and cabinets.

Your diet and cooking abilities also dictate what your pantry looks like. It may consist of nothing but Oreo cookies in all their glorious varieties and girth! Your cupboard may have nothing but instant ramen. Or it may house your cat...

I will not tell you what you need in yours. That is a very personal choice. I’ll share some of my favorites from time to time, starting with black beans. I love black beans!

Beans are a great source of protein and fiber, and each variety has minerals that are good for you. I love black beans for their earthy flavor and creamy texture, and their endless flexibility.

Some of the better tasting canned black beans available

You can have black beans for breakfast, lunch, dinner, a snack, and even dessert; and they are substantial enough that if you have them with grains and vegetables, you’ll have a perfectly filling meal without meat. In my experience, black beans go well with seafood, poultry, beef and pork.

You can explore a variety of international dishes, such as Cuban frijoles negros, Brazilian black bean stew (feijoada), or Mexican black bean soup. You can snack on black beans in fajitas, burritos, enchiladas, and salsa. You can go healthy with black bean burgers or for total comfort and indulgence with black bean chili. Finally, you can finish off any meal with black bean ice cream and brownies.

The first time I had black beans, I was visiting a family friend. Doña Sylvia was a Cuban émigré who’d moved to Puerto Rico after the Revolution and befriended our family, becoming a de facto member in a short time.

Doña Sylvia was one of the best cooks whose food I have ever had the fortune to sample. Her black beans were both silky and velvety, and had a hint of tart, spiciness, and that alluring muskiness that lingers on the tongue.

My own frijoles negros vary each time I make it. Sometimes I substitute lemon juice for vinegar. I will use red, green, and sometimes yellow bell peppers – and on occasion something hotter. I may sauté garlic or squeeze roasted garlic into the boiling mixture. I will switch from vidalia to red onions. Sometimes my beans have cuttlefish added to them. If I have a ham hock, it goes in the beans. I may use capers or green olives.

Black beans from a can benefit greatly from fresh ingredients, but you can make the same dish entirely out of pantry ingredients (oregano, pepper, powdered garlic and onions, salt, oil and vinegar). To me, black beans always feel like a treat.

There is a Pinterest board with a variety of recipes that you should check out and try out at your discretion, and tease your palate.

I Haz Ice Scream!

We have regained control of our kitchen again and one of the things I wanted to do most was break out the ice cream machine.

Do your ice cream dance to this!

We received the ice cream maker as a gift and I wanted to open it and use it the moment I got it, but our freezer was tiny and (frankly) it sucked. I put the machine aside, knowing that I would replace the fridge, but other priorities got in the way.

I put it aside but I longed to play with it. I can be incredibly patient but this was torture!

To prepare for the day when the ice cream machine and I were to have our first date, I started collecting frozen dessert links. Some of these do not require a machine and many are for non-dairy, vegan, gluten-free, and every variation you can imagine:

Click here to go to the Pinterest board

With a new fridge in the house and the threat of death by snowmageddon, I scoured through dozens of homemade ice cream recipes and tried out my hand with a strawberry ice cream.

My first try was a complete disaster. It was entirely too sweet. It was gross. The less said about it, the better.

My second try was a chocolate ice cream and the Matriarch and one of the kids declared it both delicious and a success.

I combined about three different recipes and concocted a recipe of my own (given the ingredients at hand). It was an educated guess and it paid off. The result was rich and chocolaty, it had a slightly piquant finish that lingered on the tongue, and was well worth the ice cream dance!

Homemade Chocolate Ice Cream

1 pint heavy cream

1 cup chocolate syrup

1 can condensed milk

¼ teaspoon ground 

• Chill all wet ingredients.
• In a bowl, mix all ingredients until fully incorporated.
• Churn for 20-30 minutes until it reaches a soft serve texture.
• Freeze for at least one hour.
•  Serve.

The process could not be simpler. Technically, I should have churned the cream mixture first and added the chocolate syrup in the last five minutes. Again, I took a shot that it would work because the syrup did not sufficiently affect the viscosity of the mixture.

Next time I make chocolate ice cream, I’m adding cayenne pepper and either chocolate chips or crushed candy canes for a minty finish.

The next project will be an orange sherbet. 

Eventually, I want to try a Neapolitan sherbet too. The kid wants me to make a red bean ice cream and a green tea gelato. My dream is to recreate Cherry Garcia (I want to make the frozen yogurt but Mom requested the ice cream version).

I continue to dance the “I haz ice scream!” dance. (That GIF is so, so wrong!)

Food Porn Movies

We are still experiencing technical difficulties involving our kitchen, so we’ve been keeping the food relatively simple for the time being. But we dream big! In the meantime, I fantasize about having a dinner party… I’ve even dreamed about it.

Until we settle down at Chez Food Goddess, there is food porn!

Netflix and Hulu are our go to entertainment right now, and to whet my appetite for some good food porn, I tried out “Tasting Menu” (notice I did not link to anything because I really don’t want to recommend it). 

It sounded right and I liked Claudia Bassols from her involvement in the PBS series “On The Road Again” – a trip through Spain with Mario Batali, Mark Bittman, and Gwyneth Paltrow. Claudia was the anti-Gwyneth.  Although to be fair, Gwyneth was almost fun (which is to say she wasn’t in full-Goopness).

If you prefer, ignore the show and just check out the recipes.

But back to “Tasting Menu,” the movie left me cold. They could have placed it at a Chuck E. Cheese’s and it would not have significantly affected the plot. Hell, the setting could have been a giant hot tub! For a foodie movie, they seemed distinctly disinterested in food. In fact, you barely saw the food. It broke my heart.

It also made me yearn for better food porn.

Some of these movies are exceptional works of dramatic art, some I chose because the food parts were fascinating and enthralling, sexy and enticing (and the last five are on my to-see list, as soon as I convince Mom that a cartoon, cooking rat is not as gross as she thinks).

Babette’s Feast 

Eat Drink Man Woman 

Vatel 

Big Night 

I Am Love 

Chocolat 

Kings of Pastry (documentary) 

Tortilla Soup  

Like Water for Chocolate 

Dinner Rush 

Ramen Girl 

Mid-August Lunch 

El Bulli 

Chef 

Jiro Dreams of Sushi (documentary) 

Ratatouille 

Mostly Martha 

Tampopo

Finally, I have no idea what A Woman A Gun and A NoodleShop is about, but it has this scene and now I must watch it: 

Did I miss anything? I'll take compelling food scenes, if the whole movie doesn't hold up or isn't really about food. 

Chasing Harissa

Sriracha may be the king of chili sauces right now, but harissa is quickly gaining on it. Harissa is a North African hot pepper paste used as condiment, dip and marinade.

It’s a simple thing: roasted peppers (red, serranos, chilis), herbs and spices (garlic, coriander); and oil (vegetable, olive). 

It may be bought (jarred, canned, and in tubes), but it is also relatively easy to make your own, whether you have a good Middle Eastern area or a premium market near you. 

You can also purchase directly from Amazon: Dea paste from France; Mina Moroccan sauce; Mustapha’s red pepper harissa; and Moulin Mahjoub’s spread in olive oil among others.

Cook and Be Merry did a comparison of some harissa products that you ought to read to give yourself an idea what is available and, perhaps, factors to consider when you shop for a brand.

It is just as easy to make your own, and it may be better because you can regulate how much heat you can handle.

The New York Times has a 15-minute preparation if you want to try it out but have trouble making commitments. The Seattle Times has a more substantial recipe. Saveur has a relatively easy and delicious version with dried Mexican chiles. The blog Food52 has a version that uses a variety of peppers for a more sophisticated, deep flavor.

If you’ve tried it and love it (trust me, you will!), you can try other variations. Bon Appetit has a green harissa. The Kitchen Confidante blog has a fire roasted tomato harissa.

The beauty of the sauce/dip/condiment is that it keeps for weeks, and it may be used in a variety of food preparations: you can flavor soups and stews, you can use it as a spread over breads, you can use it as a marinade for fish, meats, vegetables and grains.

No matter what kind of diet you’ve chosen to torture yourself with to begin the New Year, harissa is a perfect addition to your repertoire.

We are in the midst of a refurbishing project and as soon as we have our new fridge and stove, we want to try out some of the recipes below (I’ve been saving some of these with delectable anticipation).

Chase that capsicum euphoria with any of these recipes:

Dijon Chickpea Fritters with Harissa Aioli

Harissa Shakshuda, Egg and Tomato Breakfast Skillet

Bacon-Wrapped Roasted Potatoes with Harissa Aioli

Sweet and Sticky Harissa Chicken

Gluten-free Squash Soup with Harissa and Orange

Sweet Potato Fries with Creamy Baked Harissa Feta

Harissa Bloody Mary

Harissa Chicken Wings

Roasted Corn with Harissa Butter

Halibut in Kadaifi with Harissa Sauce

Panko-Crusted Barramundi with Harissa Aioli

Harissa lentils and Cauliflower

Homemade Naan and Harissa Yogurt Sauce

Eggs Benedict with bacon, Avocado Hollandaise and Harissa

Chorizo, Bacon-Wrapped Stuffed Dates with Harissa Tomato Sauce

Israeli Salad with Oranges, Olives and Harissa

Winter Squash Tamale Pie with Harissa

Polenta Bites with Green Harissa and Feta

Grilled Apricot Shrimp with Harissa Aioli

There is also a Pinterest board for future reference:

Feliz Navidad

Feeling a little nostalgic about spending the holidays in Puerto Rico, because it has been years since I’ve done this.

No offense to the Anglo Christmas carols 

(which always remind me of mourning instead of celebrating), 

I prefer an aguinaldo with a cuatro or two.

I try to make a traditional 'Rican meal for my Mom on, at least, one of the bigger nights of the season (somewhere between Thanksgiving to the day of the Epiphany). 

This year we are doing fish for the holidays and a spread of rich appetizers (just to keep things interesting).

Before we close the year, I offer you these gifts – companion pieces to the blog – and a new tradition to the meatier entries to come. You may click on each image for a direct link to the boards. 

The last one, my PR Xmas board is food porn for Latinos.

Buen Provecho! Happy holiday (whichever you choose to celebrate). See you in 2015.