Friday, August 31, 2007

Minimalist Cooking

I had a miserable cooking night last Friday! I somehow did succeed in making 2 complicated dishes beautifully. I made 2 great loaves of Cuban bread from the 3 Guys from Miami recipe found at http://icuban.com/food/pan_cubano.html. Not as good as in Miami, but far better than anything I've found north of Tampa. I think the trick really is making it with lard, no substitutions. I've never had success with it before & I've never used lard before. I also made a quartet of gorgeous chocolate espresso soufflés. I can't figure out why those dishes turned out and I couldn't make rice for shit. I can always make good rice, have never screwed it up. J says I was distracted. I burned it the first time because I forgot the second cup of water. The second time, it came out all mushy and gross. The bistec empanizado I tried turned out crappy, too, again my fault.I didn't look carefully at the recipe and bought the steak too thick, so I couldn't pound it to the thinness it requires. We ended up with this very thick, very chewy breaded sirloin. Yuck! Especially disappointing after the fabulously tender filet with béarnaise J made Thursday night. The plantains for the maduros weren't ripe enough so I just scrapped that plan. Thank goodness I got pre-seasoned Cuban-style canned black beans. I make them all the time & have never bought them pre-seasoned, but I spotted them at Trader Joe's & decided to give them a try. They, along with the bread and dessert, were the saving grace of the meal. If I'd tried to season them, I definitely would have gotten it wrong somehow.

The rest of the week, aside from J's pork chops Tuesday, we've just had very simple meals. Tacos Saturday, Marie Callender's pot pies Sunday, Pizza Hut Monday (we always order whatever kind of pizza the kids want on the night before school starts...Pie requested sausage & mushroom pan pizza), chicken sandwiches Wednesday and sloppy joe pizza last night. I have only really cooked twice since Friday. Tuesday, J made fried pork chops, mashed potatoes, peas and pearl onions and applesauce (the Trader Joe's chunky is great). I made some cinnamon monkey bread and we all loved it. Last night, I made sloppy joe pizza. J and Pie both were skeptical since they both abhor sloppy joes. It turned out to be a hit, though. Next time, I will call it hamburger pizza. Geez.

Bistec Empanizado
2 cloves garlic, peeled
Salt & pepper
1/2 c. sour orange juice (or 1/4 c. each sweet orange juice and lime juice, if you can't get sour oranges where you live...I can't)
1 lb. sirloin or flank steak, cut 1/2" thick (and no thicker or you'll screw it up like I did!)
2 eggs
1 c. dry bread crumbs
2-3 tbsp. oil
4 lime wedges

Mash the garlic into a thick paste with the salt & pepper. Mix with the orange juice. Pound the steak to 1/4" thick and cut into 4 pieces. Marinate in the garlicky orange juice 20 minutes. Blot dry. Beat eggs with salt and place in a flat dish. Dip the steaks in the eggs, then dredge in the breadcrumbs. Fry a few minutes per side, until golden brown. Serve with lime wedges. This is truly scrumptious if you have the meat the right thickness. It's not at all hard to do if you are paying attention! LOL.

Chocolate Espresso Soufflés
1 tbsp. butter
1/3 c. plus 1 tbsp. sugar
1/2 c. heavy cream
2 tsp. instant espresso powder (if you want to be very Cuban & can get instant Cafe Bustelo, use it instead)
2 1/2 oz. unsweetened chocolate, chopped
10 1/2 oz. semi-sweet chocolate (2 1/2 oz. chopped, 8 oz. cut into 8 chunks)
2 egg yolks
5 egg whites
Powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Butter 8 3 oz. ramekins & dust lightly with the tablespoon of sugar. Chill in fridge on baking sheet. Heat cream on low until it's steaming. Add the coffee, stirring to dissolve. Remove from heat and add all the chopped chocolate, stirring until it melts. Whisk in the egg yolks, one at a time, along with half of the 1/3 cup of sugar. Beat the egg whites to soft peaks. Add the rest of the sugar and beat to stiff peaks. Add 1/3 of the egg white mixture to the chocolate mixture and mix well. Gently fold in the rest of the egg whites. Spoon into the ramekins, filling almost to the rims. Put a chunk of chocolate in the center of each. Bake 7-10 minutes. Sift powdered sugar on top and serve immediately.

Cinnamon Monkey Bread
1/2 c. butter
1 c. brown sugar (packed, of course)
3 tbsp. cinnamon
1/2 c. sugar
2 (12 oz. size) tubes biscuits, cut in quarters

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Melt the butter with the brown sugar and a tablespoon of the cinnamon. Cook it until it's bubbly. Mix the sugar with the rest of the cinnamon. Roll the biscuits in it & arrange in a greased bundt or tube pan. Pour the brown sugar mixture over the top. Bake 1/2 hour or until golden. Let stand 5 minutes before turning out onto a serving plate. This is at its best warm, so serve it that way. Of course, kids don't care and will happily eat any leftovers stone cold, as they stand at the counter (or over the sink once you harrass them about getting crumbs on the clean counters or floor).

Sloppy Joe Pizza
3/4 lb. burger (I used 90% lean to good effect)
1/2 c. chopped onion
1 can diced tomatoes with garlic & onion
2 tbsp. brown sugar
2 tbsp. white vinegar
12" pizza shell
8 oz. cheddar cheese (the recipe called for "taco cheese" but I had cheddar & think it goes better with sloppy joes anyway...I used 2% cheddar but I think the regular kind melts better)

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Cook burger with onion until burger is browned. Add tomatoes, sugar and vinegar. Cook & stir until sugar melts. If it is too runny, like mine was, stir a little cornstarch into a smidge of cold water and stir it in to thicken the sauce. Spread on the pizza shell and bake 12-15 minutes.


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