Oh, so yummy

I checked out Madhur Jaffrey's Step-by-Step Cooking from the Mérida English Language Library and now I want a copy of my own! Her World of the East, Vegetarian Cooking is one of my favorites. This one has wonderful meat recipes too. So far I have made Sichuan Shredded Beef with Carrots and Chiles, Pork with Long Beans and Chives ,Chickpeas with Garlic and Ginger, Miso Shiru (Pacsadelli has Aka miso in the refrigerated section) , Easy Beef Curry and Summer Soup with Pork and Cucumber.
The Sichuan Beef is really good, in fact I think it's good enough for company. The portions were very generous so next time I am going to use half the amount of meat, and maybe more carrot. Because I was feeling timid, I only used one green jalapeño rather than the 3 or 4 red or green chiles the recipe called for. I am going to search out some red serranos and use more. I think the red will look prettier. I generally use jalapeños when a recipe calls for chiles and doesn't specify the type.
Today we had the Summer Soup with Pork and Cucumber followed by Pork with Long Beans and Chives (except I used frozen string beans), Chickpeas with Garlic and Ginger, instead of rice there was quinoa.
To be honest, I had my misgivings about cucumber in soup, but it is a lovely to look at, delicate tasting soup. We´ll be having it again.
Husband really liked the Easy Beef Curry. It is a Thai recipe, and every mouthful was a little burst of individual tastes. Since I had sour orange at hand, I substituted sour orange zest for the lemon zest that Madhur Jaffrey suggested as a substitution for kaffir lime leaves, someone more discerning might have tasted the difference, but I didn't notice. The recipe calls for fish sauce, and honestly, I think I would prefer it without but I am not a fan of fish sauce.
If you want to add some exotic dishes to your cooking repertory, I recommend getting your hands on a copy of this cookbook.

Making spring rolls

I ran out of rice wine vinegar. Normally, I buy it at Megabalcones, which is part of the Mexicana Comercial chain. They were out, Walmart was out, Chedraui was out. Husband suggested Pascadeli. Pascadeli is a wholesale grocery outlet which stocks various foreign food ingredients. I now have what seems like a lifetime supply of whole cardamon seeds in my freezer.
The rice wine vinegar however was available in a normal size bottle. On the shelf were it was located were also some other interesting including Vietnamese Spring roll wrappers.
I looked in my cookbooks, I searched online, then I looked in the refrigerator. Here are my ingredients for Spring Rolls waiting to be combined, minus the soy sauce.
Here are the ingredients for the sauce minus the ginger. The cute little bowls came from the state fair, they have a large metal roofed building where they sell kitchenware and blankets.


I didn't have any bean sprouts, so I left them out. I also only had red cabbage, so I used that. The spring rolls came out a decidedly pink colour.

The results were delicious none the less. There are bean sprouts available at the supermarkets, they just don't appeal to me. I did make some lentil sprouts recently, and they were really,really good. Today, I am going to start some more sprouts. I have Thai Basil growing in the garden and it was a good touch, ideally I would have like to combine some mint, but I can't seem to keep mint growing and the bunches at the market were not worth buying. I'm thinking of using some purslane since it also grows well here and would add a nice crispness and a little bite.
The dipping sauce was okay, Husband thinks we should have had a peanut sauce, so I am going to do that next time too.

Dipping sauce for Spring rolls

Dipping sauce for spring rolls

• ¼ cup soy sauce
• ½ cup water
• 1 tbsp corn starch
• ¼ cup rice vinegar
• 2 cloves garlic, minced and crushed
• ½ inch fresh ginger root, grated
• ¼ cup sugar

Combine all ingredients in small saucepan and simmer for 3-5 minutes, stirring, until sugar dissolves and corn starch is well mixed. Cool before serving.

Spring rolls

Fresh Spring rolls

• 12 Vietnamese Spring roll wrappers 9 inch (if you use 6 inch makes then you will need more rolls)
• quarter of a cabbage shredded (I used all red, but you can use a mix of both or just green cabbage)
• 5 green onions, chopped
• 1 cup thin noodles, pre-cooked bean thread noodles*
• 1 cup fresh herbs (I used Italian parsley and Thai basil you can use cilantro,basil or mint too)
• 2 small carrots, grated
• 1 tbsp lime juice
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• 1/2 tsp fresh ginger, grated

Toss together all ingredients together except wrappers in large bowl. Submerge wrappers in hot water until pliable, about 15 seconds. Place about 1/4 of mix on wrapper and wrap like a burrito or egg roll. Refrigerate until cold. Serve with your favorite dipping sauce


*to precook rice noodles (also called rice vermicelli),Bring a medium saucepan of water to boil. Boil rice vermicelli 3 to 5 minutes, or until al dente, and drain.

jocote de marañón

If you want to know what fruit is in season, check out the guys who sell fruit on the street. I don't mean the roadside stands, I am talking about the brave souls who hang out at the stoplights on the major intersections, passing between cars like matadors slipping aside from the charging bull. Like matadors they entice, waving clear plastic produce bags bulging with colourful fruits.
We stopped, the vendor gestured with his bags, bored I started to look away, then, I spotted what looked like apples, no they looked like chiles, hmmm, what was that fruit? It didn't take long for him to notice my interest.

Husband asked "¿Que tipo de fruta es?
The answer was" mamey".
I leaned across Husband "No, no el mamey, el otro. ¿Que es y como lo usas?".
"Marañón, haces licuado" time was getting short so he added "treinta pesos".
I fumbled for the money, Husband passed me the fruit and off we went.
When he could take his attention off the traffic, Husband asked me what I had bought. I hemmed and I hawed and finally I admitted that I wasn´t sure. They looked really familiar and I thought that maybe they were mangosteen. I also had a second idea but I didn't want to admit it.So before I did anything I looked those puppies up. If you click on the link, you'll learn all about the mangosteen, including the fact that these aren't them.
Look at the little thing on top of the fruit, it looks like a cashew. It is a cashew! I bought fresh cashews! The red psuedo fruit is called a cashew apple or in Spanish jocote de marañón. The nut shaped thing is the actual fruit.
The fruit doesn't ship well, but you can buy the bottled juice. I am off to make my licuado de marañón.

Caldo Tlalpeño

This recipe originally came from Authentic Mexican by Rick Bayless. I added more vegetables and changed it a little.

2 quarts chicken broth
1 large chicken breast*
1 teaspoon dried parsley
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 large onion, diced
2 large carrots, peeled and sliced
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 can garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed**
1 teaspoon dried epazote
salt to taste
1 to 2 tablespoon(s) chile chipolte en adobo diced and seeded***
1 ripe avacado,peeled,pitted and diced
1 lime or sour orange cut into wedges

1. If using chicken breast, place chicken breast and broth in a 4 quart saucepan,bring to a simmer. Skim off any gray scum that rises to the top. Add the parsley and simmer for 15 minutes. Remove the breast, skin and de-bone it, shred the meat and set aside. Strain the broth and skim off any fat that rises. If you are using canned chicken, combine the broth with liquid from the chicken and parsley, reserving the meat, bring to a simmer.
   
2. While the chicken simmers, heat a frying pan over medium heat,add the olive oil. When the oil is hot, add the diced onion and carrots. Cook until the onions and carrots begin to brown, add the garlic and cook an additional minute.
   
3. Add the vegetables, garbanzos and epazote to the broth. Bring to a simmer, cook at a low simmer for half an hour.
4. Add the chile chipolte and the reserved chicken to the soup. Serve in bowls topped with diced avocados accompanied by lime wedges.
   

Notes:
* I have used canned cooked chicken breast successfully, in which case, I skipped the simmering
** I have left the garbanzos out before, it's better with!
*** I buy chile chipoltes en adobo that is pre-seeded and already chopped

I made jelly!

Not being able to sleep I started making jelly last night around 10 pm and I finished this morning at 7am. I did go to bed around 11pm, so I really can't say that I stayed up all night making jelly.
I did my internet research, I also looked at every cookbook that I own and finally settled on a recipe for Jalapeño Jelly to adapt. This recipe for Pinapple Habanero Jelly looked really good too but it called for pectin which I haven't found or made yet. I did a cross between the two. My recipe can be found here.
I didn't have any fresh cranberries so even though I was making a half recipe I used almost as much water as the original recipe called for, I also used an entire bell not a half,so my recipe still yielded almost 4 cups of jelly. I wasn't sure if my granny smith apples were tart enough so I still used an entire cup of the dried cranberries.
I think that I might use one more habanero next time, but it's hard to say. The thing about chiles is that the amount of heat varies from chile to chile.
I haven't found any canning jars so I recycled a jar. I am not trusting it to seal properly so I am storing my jelly in the refrigerator.
Now I need to make some bread to go with that jelly.