Cook time is the same. Just gives a more even cook to the whole dish.

Busy day with many meetings, including one that ran past the time I usually start cooking dinner. So, a real quick prep tonight . . .


Thumbalina Carrots
I pinched this pic from my CSA's website. I'm not usually much of a carrot guy but when we got these cool looking Thumbalinas -- a variety I'd never seen before -- in our box, I decided they had to be made on their own, rather than be included in another dish.


Plated Up
Charcoal-grilled pork chop, instant-potted Thumbalina carrots with brown butter & toasted garlic, and leftover broccoli "salad" with tahina vinaigrette.

=R=

Enamored with Morelia Supermarket lately. Veg, meats, deli, in particular the hot line stacked with grilled chicken, stews of lengua, short rib, meatballs, Chile relleno. Meats, in particular house made chorizo, a step above most neighborhood Mexican groceries. Honorable mention Carniceria Guanajuato, terrific Mexican grocery with tip-top in-house taqueria.

Meatballs and rice from Morelia. Quesadilla homemade.
click to enlarge


Morelia, count me a Fan!

Morelia Supermarket
7300 N Western Ave
Chicago, IL 60645
773-761-3291

Carniceria Guanajuato  
3140 N California Av
Chicago, IL 60618
773-267-7739

Simplified mexican adobo tacos.

Stem and deseed guajillo chilies. Toast chilis in dry pan. soak in orange juice for 10 minutes. Put chilis, orange juice, vinegar, honey, coriander and oregano in blend and blend until smooth.
Simmer boneless thighs until done and take out, let cool and chop into bite size pieces. While thighs cool, reduce sauce until thick. Put chicken back into sauce and serve with tacos.

lougord99 wrote:Simplified mexican adobo tacos.

Kind of like a chicken tingas variation. Nice.

=R=

I had a hunk of pork shoulder in the freezer that needed to be used. I landed on a coconut and green curry pork recipe from TheKitchn.com. I did it in my dutch oven rather than crockpot. I cut the pork into four smaller pieces and browned them in two batches. Setting aside the pork, I deviated from the recipe by cooking down a diced onion before adding the Thai Kitchen green curry sauce. From there, I basically followed the recipe. I did stir in some chicken stock because it didn't seem like enough liquid. That was a good call on my part. I also dumped in a handful of peas near the end.

This dish smelled great while cooking. The taste was very mild, which was disappointing. It may be that the curry sauce is meant to be delicate. With almost 4 pounds of pork and 2 pounds of potatoes, I wanted more punch. What would you do to amp this up? (Sorry, no pics. I started cooking this when I was still on the clock for work. )

The GP wrote:What would you do to amp this up?

Which green curry paste did you use? Most of the commercial ones are not great, although Maesri is decent.

Anyway, purée some Thai green chilis and mix them in.

cilantro wrote:

The GP wrote:What would you do to amp this up?

Which green curry paste did you use? Most of the commercial ones are not great, although Maesri is decent.

Anyway, purée some Thai green chilis and mix them in.

Yeah, add some extra chiles. Pureed, minced or pounded into paste would all amp it up.

=R=

ronnie_suburban wrote:

cilantro wrote:

The GP wrote:What would you do to amp this up?

Which green curry paste did you use? Most of the commercial ones are not great, although Maesri is decent.

Anyway, purée some Thai green chilis and mix them in.

Yeah, add some extra chiles. Pureed, minced or pounded into paste would all amp it up.

She said she used Thai Kitchen brand (hence the blandness problem!). Pureed green chili sounds like the best first fix (if all you have is serrano or jalapeno, either ought to help).

Maesri Green Curry Paste contains green chilies, garlic, wild ginger, shallots, lemon grass, salt, kaffir lime, sugar, galangal, and spices (coriander seeds, cumin, cardamom, and turmeric). Depending on what you have at hand, maybe also add pureed garlic and/or ginger or whatever seems to be lacking. When my Thai cooking needs some help (as is usually the case) I often find a little shrimp paste adds a lot. Same for fish sauce, but the two are significantly different.

Thanks everyone. I was going to mince up some jalapenos we had but needed to get back to work. I figured the Thai Kitchen curry was going to skew to the less flavorful side, but it went much farther than I expected. I'll have to seek out the Maesri.

Rene G wrote:I often find a little shrimp paste adds a lot.

Yes. I added some of this . . .



. . . to a green curry I made last week and it had a big impact.

=R=

ronnie_suburban wrote:

Rene G wrote:I often find a little shrimp paste adds a lot.

Yes. I added some of this . . .

. . . to a green curry I made last week and it had a big impact.

Aha! I had a vague memory of someone mentioning kapi recently, but completely forgot it was you specifically mentioning its beneficial effect on green curry. I first learned of shrimp paste in the previous millenium (it was belacan and my friend had a little device made especially to roast it). More recently I recall Abe Conlon saying if your SE Asian cooking seems to be missing something, there's a good chance it's shrimp paste. Of course, it's very important not to overdo it.

Rene G wrote:More recently I recall Abe Conlon saying if your SE Asian cooking seems to be missing something, there's a good chance it's shrimp paste. Of course, it's very important not to overdo it.

Yes. I added what couldn't have been more than 1/2 teaspoon to a relatively large batch and it was very noticeable.

=R=

Once again, my pesky day job and some other unavoidable nonsense had me away from the kitchen during what is typically my prime dinner prep window. But because I foresee some carry-out coming up over the weekend, I felt like I needed to cook something tonight. The result: tonight's dinner was the wurst!


Plated Up
Charcoal-grilled sausages (hot Italian, mild cured/smoked pork), Mrs. Suburban's household-renowned roasted cauliflower and homemade coleslaw.

=R=

Cauliflower looks great. Recipe?

G Wiv wrote:Enamored with Morelia Supermarket lately. Veg, meats, deli, in particular the hot line stacked with grilled chicken, stews of lengua, short rib, meatballs, Chile relleno. Meats, in particular house made chorizo, a step above most neighborhood Mexican groceries. ...
Morelia, count me a Fan!

Morelia Supermarket
7300 N Western Ave
Chicago, IL 60645
773-761-3291

Appreciate the mention. I needed Oaxacan cheese at 6pm for dinner and didn't feel like running down to La Ordena, so I gave Morelia a shot last night (probably only 5 minutes quicker each way though). They had one variety of their own at 30% less than Ordena's and the quality was more than serviceable for the price. Very well stocked and priced produce selection (not a complete offering a la Fresh Farms), and that hot food selection at the end is really something. I could see that being a perfect option to load up for a group to share for lunch. I don't know how good their carnitas are, but is there such a thing as bad carnitas? Definitely worth a look if you like mercados and are in the area.

bweiny wrote:I don't know how good their carnitas are, but is there such a thing as bad carnitas?

Glad you liked Morelia, I'm really digging on the place, in fact I'm going there today as, and I know this sounds weird, have fallen hard for their fresh bunch radishes. For whatever reason Morelia's bunch radishes are terrific, just this side of fresh from the field farms market picks.

Re Morelia's carnitas, we had them last week and thought them terrific, maybe not quite 18th street Sunday morning perfect but damn good without crowds or an early morning drive.

Morelia Supermarket, count me a Fan!

Jazzfood wrote:Cauliflower looks great. Recipe?

This is directly from the Mrs . . . . rough chop cauliflower and lightly toss it in olive oil. Then season it with salt, pepper and whatever other dry seasonings you like. We often use my bbq rub. Bake it on a sheet pan at 400F for ~30 minutes, then stir it around. Return it to the oven for another 20-30 minutes -- until cauliflower is soft and slightly charred on the edges. Then remove it from the oven, crank up the oven to 500F convection (or broil) and crisp it up for another 3-5 minutes.

It cooks down quite a bit and we usually use two heads. But if you're using a different amount, you may want to adjust the cooking time accordingly.

=R=

Thought it might be carry-out tonight but that kind of fell through, so another on-the-fly, quickie dinner. Had some green beans on hand and wanted to do something a bit different, so into the pantry I went . . .


Thai Pantry Items
In addition to a couple of freshly smashed cloves of garlic, I used a small glob of the sour tom yum paste and a big glob of the sweeter chili paste. Hard sear the green beans in peanut oil, add the garlic, then a bit of water, turn down the heat and cover until they just about reach the desired softness. Once there, uncover, crank the heat back up, add the pastes, stir to combine and reduce until thick.


Plated Up
Charcoal-grilled chicken thighs, "Thai" tender-crisp green beans and more of the never-ending homemade coleslaw. I really hope those two thighs weren't from the same bird!

=R=

I had about 1/3 of a butternut squash left over from something I mentioned above. Roasted on a sheet pan with slices of leek and bone/skin chicken breasts (marinade of lemon, zaatar, garlic and EVOO), made a great meal. Toasted walnuts with cilantro and zaatar, tahini sauce with lemon and clementine juice, garlic, salt and my favorite sun-dried chimayo chile.

G Wiv wrote:Morelia Supermarket, count me a Fan!

Question about the hot items available for sale: is it an open hot bar or do you request a quantity from a staff member?

I'm really off of open foodbars like Mariano's these days.

Probably forever, actually.

Giovanna

Giovanna wrote:Question about the hot items available for sale: is it an open hot bar or do you request a quantity from a staff member?

Good question, should have mentioned how the hot bar is run.

Customers stand in a well regulated line, 6ish feet apart, wait their turn. Two to four masked gloved workers behind the high long counter with at least a dozen items, some change daily.

You ask for what you want, tell them a quantity, its ladled into deli containers or clam-shells, cater wrapped with plastic and handed to you over the counter, about shoulder high.

Only wrinkle is to know exactly what each item is, some are not obvious, some command of Spanish is required. I've tried 7 or 8 of the items, loved the lengua, meat balls and cross cut short ribs. The sauces are slightly spicy, nothing overboard.

Next time I go I will take a picture of the hot line and post.

Morelia Hot Line, count me a Fan!

Chilaquiles.

I am confused by the terminology. I believe that most or all references here on LTH are to breakfast dishes with eggs. Rick Bayless, in his ' One plate at a time' definitely approaches them as dinner. He has red and green. Following is his red.
Thick cut corn tortilla chips. 1 can of 'Old Gold' tomatoes blended into a rough mixture with a chipotle chili in adobo with a little adobo. Thin sliced white onion. Chopped garlic. Better than bullion chicken stock. Grated parmesean. Sour cream and left over grilled chicken thighs.

Heat a large pot with oil and add 3/4 of the onion. Saute until golden. Add garlic and cook for 30 seconds and then add tomato mixture. Stir until thickened and then add broth. Dump in tortilla chips and let stabd with a cover for 5 minutes. Tortilla chips should be soft, but not mushy. Spoon into bowls and sprinkle with parmesen, chicken, left over raw onion and sour cream.

Wonderful.

lougord99 wrote:Chilaquiles.

I am confused by the terminology. I believe that most or all references here on LTH are to breakfast dishes with eggs.

I can't recall ever seeing them not served with eggs but I'm guessing the fact that they so often are is the reason they're typically counted as -- and referred to -- a breakfast food. I take it you didn't serve yours with eggs?

We have lot of good tortilla chips right now leftover from our One Off Supper Club dinner on Friday (Big Star) and I was actually thinking about making chilaquiles for brunch today (neither breakfast nor dinner! ) but we also have a lot of leftover jambalaya, so that got the nod instead.

=R=

lougord99 wrote:Chilaquiles.

I am confused by the terminology. I believe that most or all references here on LTH are to breakfast dishes with eggs. Rick Bayless, in his ' One plate at a time' definitely approaches them as dinner. He has red and green. Following is his red.
Thick cut corn tortilla chips. 1 can of 'Old Gold' tomatoes blended into a rough mixture with a chipotle chili in adobo with a little adobo. Thin sliced white onion. Chopped garlic. Better than bullion chicken stock. Grated parmesean. Sour cream and left over grilled chicken thighs.

Heat a large pot with oil and add 3/4 of the onion. Saute until golden. Add garlic and cook for 30 seconds and then add tomato mixture. Stir until thickened and then add broth. Dump in tortilla chips and let stabd with a cover for 5 minutes. Tortilla chips should be soft, but not mushy. Spoon into bowls and sprinkle with parmesen, chicken, left over raw onion and sour cream.

Wonderful.

This sounds and looks like tortilla soup to me—I’ve made it almost exactly like that. Except used Queso cheese instead of Parm ans crema instead of sour cream. And topped with avocado & cilantro in addition to the onion.

We make chilaquiles regularly and it always includes eggs.

Took a shot at Gaeng Hung Lay and for the most part, I was really pleased with the results, especially since it was my first attempt. Prep was basically broken down into three phases: curry powder, curry paste and overall pork belly dish. First up, the hung lay curry powder . . .


Hung Lay Curry Powder Mise
Black peppercorns, cinnamon, cloves, cardamom seeds, cumin seeds, fennel seeds, cardamom pods, coriander seeds, star anise, turmeric powder and freshly ground nutmeg.


Hung Lay Curry Powder Prep
Toast the whole spices, grind them and mix them with the powdered spices to create the curry powder.

Next up, making the curry paste . . .


Dried Chiles
Seems like no matter what I cook these days, my path crosses with dried chiles. This was an assortment of some ends of bags: pasilla, guajillo, puya and arbol. Without toasting, these also went into the grinder.


Hung Lay Curry Paste Mise & Knife Duo
Garlic, fresh turmeric, powdered chiles, fermented shrimp paste, shallots, galangal powder (could not score fresh), hung lay curry powder and lemongrass. These all went into the food processor until they formed a paste.
Knives: Tanaka Ginsan Nashiji Petty, ebony, 120mm and Konosuke Fujiyama FM Blue #2 Gyuto, 210mm


Baby Back Ribs
This is essentially a pork belly dish but a few recipes I saw online called for using some bone-in meat, too. I had these ribs, delivered in error by Whole Foods, in my freezer and figured this would be a perfect way to use them up. The left-handed Kanehide Bessaku Honesuki 150mm did a great job separating the ribs but the notion that I was going to use Big Dexter to break them into smaller pieces was laughable. That was a major, bone-shattering failure. At least, I figured it out right away.


Gaeng Hung Lay Mise En Place & Konosuke Fujiyama FM Blue #2 Gyuto, 210mm
Ribs, ginger, palm sugar, whole garlic, hung lay curry paste, fish sauce, dark soy sauce, whole baby onions, tamarind paste and pork belly.


Searing The Belly
Once seared, the ribs are added, followed by the curry paste. Before I added the paste, I removed quite a bit of rendered fat from the pot. I wish I'd been even more diligent about that, though. More on this later.


Adding The Curry Paste
Drop it all in there and stir to evenly coat all the meat.


Curry Paste Coverage
Once the meat is coated, water is added to just above the level of the meat.


Water, etc. added
Along with the water, at this point, the palm sugar, dark soy sauce, fish sauce and tamarind are also added. Loosely cover and simmer for 90-120 minutes until the meat is tender and the liquid is reduced to a thick consistency.


Ginger, Baby Onions and Garlic Cloves
With 30 minutes to go, these items go in.


Plated Up
With rice-cookered jasmine rice.

I really loved the funk, heat and richness of this dish. Of course, subbing dried galangal for fresh probably dropped it down a bit. And it seems silly to complain about fat in a dish in which the main ingredient is pork belly but even though I removed a bunch of it after the sear, a lot more of it rendered out during the simmer. There must be a way to mitigate this but I'll have to do some digging and give it some more thought. Maybe shoulder would have worked. Lastly, I probably should have given the baby onions and garlic cloves a bit more time. I threw them in when there was about 30 minutes to go. Some were perfectly tender, others were not. Another 15 minutes would have solved that issue. Still, I'm really glad I made this (learned a bunch) and really happy with how it turned out.

=R=

boudreaulicious wrote:This sounds and looks like tortilla soup to me—I’ve made it almost exactly like that. Except used Queso cheese instead of Parm ans crema instead of sour cream. And topped with avocado & cilantro in addition to the onion.

We make chilaquiles regularly and it always includes eggs.

OK. I don't mind calling it tortilla soup.

lougord99 wrote:

boudreaulicious wrote:This sounds and looks like tortilla soup to me—I’ve made it almost exactly like that. Except used Queso cheese instead of Parm ans crema instead of sour cream. And topped with avocado & cilantro in addition to the onion.

We make chilaquiles regularly and it always includes eggs.

OK. I don't mind calling it tortilla soup.

Did a little googling and chilaquiles appears to be anything “stewed” on top of tortillas—so it can be a soup or a more concentrated sauce with eggs. Red or green. Only common denominator is sauce over chips. Learned something new—thanks!

Shrimp quesadillas.
Chopped poblano, chopped jalapeno, chopped red onion, bowl with 1/4 cup wh. wine and 1/4 cup lime juice and 2 TBSP dark brown sugar, ancho chilli powder. Shrimp brined in kosher salt / baking powder mixture and then diced.

In non-stick skillet a couple of TBSP of mixed canola and chili oil and saute until soft poblano, jalapeno, onion and chili powder. Add liquid ingredients and cook until all liquid is gone. Add shrimp until just cooked.
Dump onto cutting board to cool and keep shrimp from cooking further.
Heat flour tortillas directly on the gas flame and lay 3 onto baking sheet. Grate white cheddar onto hot tortillas and add mixture on top. Grate white cheddar on top and top with another hot tortilla directly off the burner. Squeeze together to further cheese melting into mixture and bake for 10 minutes at 350 until crispy on top. Cut into quarters and serve.

I made shrimp quesadillas this week El Parador style(NYC's oldest Mexican restaurant)...flour tortillas and little dog/desert cheese...I cannot spell either