Guacamole

We missed Mi Madres in Austin, and tried to find recipes for a few of their best tacos. However, before tacos we need guacamole. This recipe was tasty.

Guacamole

The guac recipe is from this blog.

Ingredients

• 2 ripe avocados
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 Tbsp lime or lemon juice
• 2 Tbsp to 1/4 cup finely cut red onion
• 1-2 hot, green chiles, stems and seeds removed, minced
• 2 tablespoons cilantro finely chopped
• A dash of black pepper
• 1/2 chopped ripe tomato
• Tortilla chips (serve with)

Method

1. Cut the avocados in half. Remove seed. Scoop out avocado from the peel, put in a mixing bowl. 
2. Using a fork, roughly mash the avocado. Sprinkle with salt and lime juice. 
3. Add the chopped onion, cilantro, black pepper, and chiles. If you are adding tomatoes, add these just before serving. 
4. Cover with plastic wrap directly on the surface of the guacamole to prevent oxidation from the air reaching it. 
5. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Barbacoa Tacos

These were absolutely awesome. The smell of the ground chillies is amazing! This also comes from food network.

Ingredients

• 8 dried guajillo chiles, stemmed and seeded
• 2 plum tomatoes, quartered
• 1 small white onion, quartered
• 8 cloves garlic, unpeeled
• Kosher salt
• 2 pounds beef chuck, cut into 1-to-2-inch pieces
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1 cup roughly chopped fresh cilantro (leaves and stems)
• 1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
• 2 bay leaves
• Freshly ground black pepper
• Corn tortillas, warmed, and assorted toppings, for serving

Directions

1. Heat a large cast-iron skillet or Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add the chiles and cook, pressing them down with a spatula, 10 seconds per side; transfer to a plate. Add the tomatoes, onion and garlic to the skillet and cook, stirring once or twice, until the vegetables are charred in spots, about 10 minutes.
2. Peel the garlic and transfer to a blender along with the tomatoes and onion (reserve the skillet). Tear the chiles into pieces and add to the blender along with 1/2 cup water and 1 teaspoon salt; pulse until smooth. Strain the mixture through a fine-mesh sieve into the skillet, pressing it through with the back of a spoon.
3. Add the beef to the skillet and turn to coat in the chile sauce using tongs. Cook over medium-high heat, turning occasionally, until a crust starts to form on the meat, about 10 minutes. Sprinkle in the cumin, cinnamon and cayenne pepper and cook 1 more minute. Meanwhile, puree 2 1/2 cups water, the cilantro and thyme in the blender; add to the skillet along with the bay leaves.
4. Reduce the heat to low. Cover and gently simmer until the meat is very tender, about 2 hours, adding up to 1 1/2 cups water if the sauce gets too thick. Remove the bay leaves and season with salt and black pepper. Serve in tortillas with assorted toppings.

Pork Adovada Tacos

This food network recipe got pretty close to replicating that yummy stuff we miss from Mi Madres Tacos in Austin.

Ingredients

• 3 pounds pork shoulder loin, cut into 1/4-inch pieces
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 2 tablespoons ground cumin
• 2 tablespoons California chile powder
• 2 tablespoons New Mexico chile powder
• 1 tablespoon cayenne pepper
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 5 whole cloves
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 cups soybean oil
• 8 to 12 white soft corn tortillas
• Diced white onion, for serving
• Chopped cilantro leaves, for serving
• Limes, for serving

Directions

1. Place the meat into an 11 by 12-inch baking dish. Toss the meat and dry ingredients with 2 cups soybean oil. Marinate overnight or for 6 hours covered in the refrigerator.
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 C).
3. Bake, covered, in the oven for 45 to 60 minutes. Remove and allow to cool slightly.
4. When slightly cooled chop meat into small cubes. Serve on 2 warm soft white corn tortillas. Sprinkle with diced white onion and chopped cilantro, and of coarse a squeeze of fresh lime!

Asian marinated baked chicken

This was super simple and absolutely delicious. It is probably getting added to our regular rotation. I used boneless skinless chicken thighs but the recipe says that bone in, skin on chicken would work better. We only marinated it for an hour (maybe) but the recipe calls for 12-24. If it was this good after an hour of marination, I can only imagine how good it would taste after 12! I found this recipe on Yummly after googling around looking for a good chicken recipe that would use up my scallions as well. I think the original recipe is from Chow.

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup soy sauce (I used half dark soy, and half malaysian sweet soy)
• 1/4 cup dark brown sugar
• 3 tbsps fresh ginger (peeled and finely chopped, from 1, 3- to 4-inch piece)
• 1 tbsp chopped garlic (finely, from about 5 medium cloves)
• 2 tsps toasted sesame oil
• 1 tsp ground black pepper (freshly)
• 3 lbs bone in skin on chicken thigh (drumsticks, or breasts, or a combination of all three, I used boneless skinless chicken thighs)
• Scallions (bunch, I had 6) chopped 

Instructions

1. Place everything except the chicken in a 13-by-9-inch broiler-proof baking dish and whisk to combine. If I was actually going to marinate this recipe overnight I would probably do this entire marination in a big ziplock. I also added a drizzle of some hot and sour dipping sauce I had because some of the original comments suggested it needed some chili flakes.
2. Lay the chicken in a single layer in the marinade and turn to coat. Add half the scallions as well. Cover, refrigerate, and marinate at least 12 hours and up to 24 hours, turning the chicken at least once during the marinating time. (The one hour, room temp marination also yielded mind-blowingly yummy chicken. I suspect longer marination would be better for bone-in, skin-on chicken.)
3. Remove the chicken from the refrigerator and let it sit at room temperature for about 30 minutes. (This step is not necessary if using a ziplock bag for the marination.)Meanwhile, heat the oven to 475°F (250C) and arrange a rack in the middle.
4. Turn all the chicken pieces skin-side up in the dish (if you’re using drumsticks, just turn to recoat them in the marinade). Bake until the chicken is starting to turn a dark brown color, about 40 minutes. (We started with the dish covered and then removed the foil 20 minutes in and also turned the pieces over once while baking since mine were skinless.)
5. Set the oven to broil and broil until the chicken skin is crisped, about 3 to 5 minutes more. Skipped this step. Added remaining scallions over the top and ate with boiled white rice with the sauce drizzled over the top.

Delish.

Calories: As written, this marinade contains 577 calories (excluding the ginger, garlic and scallions as minimal.) As written, the entire dish contains 1617 calories (0.9 kg boneless skinless chicken thighs at 1000 calories) and probably yields about 4-5 servings (big eater servings :blush:) at 400 calories each. Add rice calories separately. Keep in  mind that you probably won't eat the entire marinade. We had most of it left over after drizzling some onto the rice. So I think a more accurate per serving calories count would be somewhere in the 300-350 range. 

Kerala Egg Roast / Egg curry / Mutta Curry

This stuff is awesome and super easy. It pairs beautifully with neer dosa, paratha, porotta, appam as well as plain white rice. The basic recipe is from here. I don't make the neer dosa in the same way (I use rice flour) so I usually only follow the recipe for the mutta curry. The ginger in this is amazing and I usually add more than the original recipe recommends.

Ingredients

• 5 boiled eggs
• 4 Onion (sliced)
• 2-3 Tomatoes, chopped
• 1 largish piece of Ginger (1-2"), finely chopped
• 2-3 cloves of Garlic, finely chopped
• 0.5 tsp Garam masala
• Handful of Curry leaves
• 0.5 tsp Turmeric powder
• 1tsp Kashmiri chilli powder or paprika, basically red colour but no spice
• 0.5 tsp Chilli Powder
• 2 small Green chillis
• Water
• Salt
• 2 green cardamoms
• 1" piece of cinnamon
• 2 cloves

Method

1. Hard boil the eggs, cool and shell. Make 3 gashes in each egg and keep aside.
2. Heat oil in deep bottomed pan and add the cinnamon,cardamom and cloves and saute for one minute. Turn off or turn down the heat and add the ginger and saute for a minute and then the garlic for another minute. The garlic should not brown at all. 
3. Add the curry leaves and the green chillis. Then add the onions and salt and cook on medium heat till the onions are translucent and beginning to brown. 
4. Now add all the powers and saute for a couple of minutes until they smell less raw. 
5. Then add sliced tomato pieces and mix well. Cover the pan for a couple of minutes and cook on high. Then uncover and cook on medium. Do this until oil separates from the masala, stirring occasionally. 
6. Now add the eggs and mix well, then add 1.5 cups of hot water and cook the curry for about 15 minutes on medium heat.

All done!

Baked Salmon with Dijon and Garlic

This delicious recipe is from Natasha's Kitchen which I stumbled across when I googled baked salmon.

Ingredients

600 gm salmon 

2 Tbsp fresh parsley, finely chopped

2 large OR 3 small cloves of garlic, chopped finely

1.5 tsp Dijon mustard 

1/2 tsp salt

1/8 tsp freshly ground black pepper

1/8 cup mild olive oil

2 Tbsp fresh lemon juice 

Oven at 200° C

Steps

1. Mix the above ingredients together in a bowl. Make sure the garlic is pretty finely chopped. It gets kind of thick and paste-y.
2. Put the salmon skin-side down (if it has skin) into a baking dish that has been lined with foil.
3. Brush the paste onto the top and sides of the salmon. It stays on pretty well because of how thick it is and we skipped the lemon slice on top part from the original recipe because it looked really pretty without it as well.
4. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes. (The original recipe uses the oven at 230° C and bakes it for 12 to 15 minutes but we always make this with the brassica extravaganza and that cooks at 200, so its just easier to cook the fish a wee bit longer.)
5. Man, its delicious.  

Aloo Gobi Ka Pulao

This is from Tarla Dalal's blog originally.

 Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups long grained rice (basmati) 
• 1 cup potato cubes
• 1 cup cauliflower florets
• 2 bayleaves (tejpatta)
• 5 to 6 cloves (laung / lavang)
• 25 mm (1") piece cinnamon (dalchini)
• 2 tsp turmeric powder (haldi)
• 1/4 tsp dried ginger powder (soonth)
• 1 tsp chilli powder
• 1 tsp garam masala
• 2 tbsp oil
• salt to taste

Method

1. Clean, wash and soak the rice for approx. 15 minutes. Drain and keep aside.
2. Heat the oil in a pressure cooker and add the bay leaves, cloves and cinnamon.
3. When they crackle, add the turmeric powder, dry ginger powder, chilli powder, garam masala powder, potatoes and cauliflower.
4. Sauté for 2 minutes and then add the rice.
5. Sauté for 2 more minutes, add 3 cups of hot water and salt and pressure cook for 1 whistle.
6. Allow the steam to escape before opening. Separate each grain of rice very lightly with a fork.
7. Garnish with the mint springs and serve hot.