I Smell Smoke - On Sunday Anyway

Yes, boys and girls there was smoke rising over Brooklyn this weekend. With the help of my daughter and brother, we pulled out a grill and built a lovely charcoal fire and cooked.

I guess I must be feeling my Latin roots as this weekend's menu was definitely in keeping with my culinary heritage. First up was Chicken with Brown Rice and Chorizo which was published in Issue 111 of Saveur Magazine which is this month's issue. Basically it was Arroz con Pollo with a little sausage stuffed in the pot for good measure.

Boy hardy, it was damn good and I highly recommend this recipe. It's been a long long time since I made Arroz con Pollo and I'm wondering why. It's easy and definitely one of my favorite dishes.

The picture above is taken from Saveur and is what your finished dish should look like. My was a little darker as I cooked it in a cast iron dutch oven and over cooked it a bit. I should have checked the rice before the timer went off. Life goes on.

On Sunday, Mother's Day, we broke out the grill and made the Surf and Turf Tacos which was published in the June/July issue of Everyday With Rachael Ray. The recipe isn't on line yet, so here it is...

• 1 Small head napa cabbage chopped.
• Juice of 6 limes (Way too much in my opinion, use 3 limes)
• 2 cups of sour cream
• Sixteen 6-inch flour tortillas
• 1 Tbsp garlic powder
• 1 Tbsp paprika
• 1 Tbsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp chili powder (I used Ancho Chili)
• Kosher salt to taste
• 1 pound trimmed skirt steak cut crosswise into 1/2 strips
• 6 Tbsp vegetable oil
• 1 pound red snapper fillets, cut crosswise into 1/2 strips
• Pepper to taste
• 1 cup guacamole
• Salsa

Method

• In a large bowl, toss the cabbage with half the lime juice. Cover and refrigerate.
• In a small bowl, whisk together the remaining lime juice with the sour cream. Cover and refrigerate.
• Preheat the oven to 250 degrees. Spread the tortillas on a baking sheet, cover with foil and warm in the oven for 10 minutes.
• Meanwhile in a large bowl, whisk the garlic powder, paprika, cumin, chili powder and 2 teaspoons salt. Add the steak tossing to coat with the spices.
• In a large skillet, heat 1/4 cup oil over medium-high heat until rippling. Add the steak, lower the heat to medium and cook, turning occasionally, until browned, about 5 minutes. Transfer to a large plate.
• Add the reaming 2 tablespoons oil to the skillet. Season the fish lightly with salt and pepper. Cook the fish in the skillet, turning once until golden, about 5 minutes.
• Lay the tortillas on a work surface. Spread 1 tablespoon guacamole on each, then top with some of the cabbage. Divide the meat among the 8 tortillas and the fish among the remaining 8. Fold to form tacos. Server with more guacamole and cabbage, the lime sour cream and the salsa.

All in all a pretty good meal, but not exactly what we did. I'll get into that tomorrow.

Blowin' Smoke

We all know that Rachael Ray shills for Dunkin Doughnuts. Rachael " Exudes a certain air of authority that should be useful to Dunkin', especially when she takes a sip of her coffee and authoritatively declares it "delish,"" according to the Chicago Sun Times.

But does she actually drink their coffee? I'm not so sure.

Back in January, Grub Street published the following...

"A friend of Grub Street writes us:

So a friend of mine was on set last week as Rachael Ray filmed her latest Dunkin' Donuts commercial. According to her, Rachael stormed onto the set and snapped at everyone. Not news, I know, everyone knows she's actually a gigantic asshole. BUT! I am also told she took one sip of her Dunkin' Donuts coffee, yelled “What is this shit? Get me MY coffee,” and would not continue until she was given “her” coffee — i.e., Starbucks."



It gets worse. Look at what the mail man delivered today, Every Day With Rachael Ray. In the June/July 2008, Every Day With Rachael Ray on page 36, Rachael sings the praises of Newsbar, writing....

"I always drop by this bustling coffee shop for the the great iced coffee and tea and yummy sandwiches."

Hmm, what exactly does Dunkin Doughnuts sell? Coffee? Iced Coffee? Tea? Yummy Sandwiches? All of the above if you listen to Rachael's TV ads.

So which is it Rach? Dunkin Doughnuts? Starbucks? Newsbar? Do you even drink Dunkin Doughnuts coffee or eat their food? Or are you just another corporate shill?

March Madness: Rachael Ray

Dinner tonight was inspired by Rachael Ray. I'm really tired of her as she seems to be everywhere, but her Everyday with Rachael Ray magazine is pretty good. I really like the way it's laid out with recipes and shopping lists to get you through the week. I should be so organized.

The February issue of Everyday with Rachael Ray had a recipe for Nacho Spuds that looked interesting. Basically it was taking nacho toppings and putting them on roasted potato slices. That looked good, but I decided to take the same ingredients and turn it into Tex-Mex inspired Shepherd's Pie.

I took 2 1/2 lbs of potatoes, peeled them and boiled them in salted water with 2 cloves of minced garlic until soft. I mashed the potatoes with butter, a little milk and added some shredded cheddar cheese.

As the potatoes were cooking I browned one pound of ground beef, drained it and added a pack of taco seasoning, some additional cumin, pepper and "Mexican" seasoning, a drained can of diced tomatoes, a drained can of black beans and about a cup of water. I let that boil then simmer to the consistency I wanted as the potatoes cooked.

Once the potatoes were all mashed up, I put the meat into the bottom of a casserole, topped it with the potatoes and more shredded cheese and baked it at 350 degrees until the cheese was melted and golden brown.

Damn. No leftovers. The photograph above really is Rachael and I think it originally appeared in FHM, but I got it from The Hollywood Gossip.