$1.00 Taco Tuesday

Tonight we decided to have Erin stop by Rubio's for $1 taco Tuesday. For those of you who have not been to SOCAL Rubio's has the best fish tacos around. For those of you not familiar with Rubio's you can read about it here http://www.rubios.com/about.html Along with the tacos I decided to make a basamati rice. I was shooting for a Mexican style but was not sure how to do it. I used a standard recipe which my dad had given us. I adjusted it for that Mexican taste!

1/4 cup chopped onion

2 garlic cloves chopped

1 tbsp olive oil

1-1/3 cup Basmati Rice

2 cups chicken broth

1 tbsp tomato paste

1 tomato (diced)

1 small green bell pepper diced

1 small zucchini diced

pinch of red pepper flakes

salt to taste

Heat olive oil in pan and add onion, saute for 3-4 minutes then add garlic and saute another 2-3 minutes. Add the the rice and saute until lightly brown 3-4 minutes, then add the chicken broth. Cover and let simmer for 12-15 minutes or until rice is just tender. I time a lot of this based on taste. I have never had my cooking times down perfect so keep an eye on what you are doing. When the rice is just tender I added the tomato paste, tomato, bell pepper and zucchini. I then turned off the heat and let sit for another 5 minutes. Before serving I added the red pepper flakes and salted to taste

The vegetables were all fresh from our garden! I will post more about that later!

ENJOY!

Hot Dogs and Tater Tots

OK, so we do not always eat fine food and drink fine wine! Last night we had the classic all American meal! Ball Park beef franks and Ore-Ida tater tots! I also had a Keystone Light beer with mine. Erin and I both did mustard alone on the dogs. I used the standard yellow mustard and Erin used Trader Joe's Dijon Mustard(YUCK!). The tater tots were the extra crispy type and we just baked them in the oven. This is a meal we do not eat very often in fact I think it is the first time we had this combination, at least as a couple. As a single guy I ate this quite a lot, sometimes adding chili to the mixture!

Butchers a Lost Art?

Just thought I would post my thoughts on butchers tonight. Growing up in Cupertino, CA we had a local butcher by the Cali Brothers Feed and Grain Mill at the corner of Stevens Creek Blvd and DeAnza Blvd, right across from St. Josephs where I attended grammar school. Cupertino was really a huge agricultural town before it became part of the "Silicon Valley". I used to work in the Camardas apricot drying fields during the summers. It was quite a different city back then! I remember going to the butcher when I was just a child. It had these hardwood mats on the floors with saw dust all over. The thing I remember the most is that the people we used to hunt with all used the butcher to prepare their meats after a successful hunting trips. My dad had killed a dear once and I am pretty sure we had it butchered there after field prepping it at Captain Burches, which is the place we used to hunt at. The butcher shop always had this great smell of fresh meat. Sorry vegans wrong blog! The butchers always had their white smocks on and looked like some type of doctor that had a mishap in the operating room due to the blood and other stuff all over their smocks. I think that would be very disheartening to people these days. You really do not see that many "pure" butcher shops anymore. With stores like Vons, Safeway and Albertsons I think the butcher has become a lost art. Yes they still are butchers, but if you ask for something special, for example a 3lb bone in rib eye. You would have to order it or if they if they did have a un-cut length of rib eye they would disappear behind some doors and reappear in a few minutes with a piece of meat in a tray wrapped in saran wrap all nice and pretty. I like my meat wrapped in white butcher paper! My preference is a place like http://www.bishersmeat.com/ they have a location here in Poway and one in Ramona. They used to be owned by the same person but now I think they are ran separately. I have been frequenting them for about 4-5 years now. I wish I would have known about them earlier! Thanks to the great San Diego morning radio show Dave, Shelly and Chainsaw I learned about Bishers. Erin and I have come to know the General Manager, Randy quite well. Tip: make friends with your local butcher if you have one!
Bishers certainly does not resemble the old butcher shops as I mentioned above. Much cleaner of course. It is wonderful being able to see all the meats on display so you can pick your exact cuts. Need something special and he can grab it out of the back and cut it right there for you. Randy has an excellent knowledge of meats and how to prepare them. What ever you buy he can tell you how to cook it. Would you trust the kid behind the counter at Vons? Although I usually do not use his suggestions because I have my own plan already, they always do sound tempting. We did use his suggestion when we barbecued Elk and Kangaroo! They both turned out perfect. Sometimes we go in there and explain to him that we saw this recipe but we are not sure about the cut of meat they used. He quickly comes up with a great suggestion. A great example of this was when we wanted to braise some short ribs he suggested taking a 3-4 pound chuck roast and butchering it into smaller cuts. It was a great suggestion and we have done it 4-5 times!
So if you do not know where your local butcher is I suggest you go out and find it! They are great resource for expanding your culinary knowledge!

Sidenote: For you San Diegans bishers always has a great selection of marinted meats and chicken as well as exotic meats! If you like mushrooms try the stuffed ones!

Vinturi Wine Aerator

I was given this wine aerator for my birthday. It was from my friends Todd and Suzzane. It is the coolest wine aerator around. it makes a cool gurgling/sucking noise as you pour the wine. There are two holes on the sides that draws air in as you are pouring wine. Below is from the website http://www.vinturi.com. Cost is $39.95

There's a lot of engineering in there bernoulli's principle states that as the speed of a moving fluid increases, the pressure within the fluid decreases. When wine is poured in the vinturi, its design creates an increase in the wine's velocity and a decrease in its pressure. this pressure difference draws in air, which is mixed with wine for perfect aeration.

But what really matters is vinturi's affect on wine.

Better Bouquet
sample the nose. you'll appreciate the subtle aromatic differences and the full aroma of the wine. vinturi allows wine to display its intended aromas.

Enhanced Flavors
go ahead, take a sip. vinturi's wine tastes better. it is more flavorful and has better mouthfeel. it tastes like a richer, more expensive wine. it tastes like it was intended to and is more enjoyable.

Smoother Finishahh. vinturi's aeration is very effective at softening tannins which results in a much more pleasant finish. any bitterness or bad aftertaste is reduced or eliminated.

Steak au Poivre with Sauteed Fresh Corn

Erin and I were sitting around last night going from the fridge to the cupboard and back again. Had we lost something? Were we bored? Were we hungry? I would have to go with the latter of the 3. We are saving for a vacation in September(Hawaii!) so we have cut back on our gourmet shopping trips! So here what we did!

I had a frozen Rib Eye in the freezer. I decided to make a peppered steak or as the French would say, "Steak au Poivre". My dad had made this for Erin and I once and it was very good. He used the Julia Child book "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" If you love to cook I think this book is a must for the kitchen! I just used my mortar to crack about 1/4 cup of fresh pepper. I also mixed in 2 -3 pinches of salt. I then lightly coated the steak with olive oil and then rubbed on the pepper mixture. I let the steak rest for 10-15 minutes before placing it in a med-hi well seasoned cast iron skillet and 3-4 minutes per side. I feel the cast iron is the only way to cook a steak on the stove. We finished in a 400 degree oven for about 7-8 minutes and let rest for another 10 minutes under aluminium foil, this gave us a medium rare steak.

We also had 4 ears of corn sitting in the fridge and decided to remove it from the cob and do something with it. We just used a sharp knife and placed the flat end of the corn on a plate and cut down to remove the kernels. Remember you do not want to go to deep! I learned a great tip via Food Network, which is after you remove kernels take the back of your knife a vigorously rub against the cob. What this will do is get any left over juices or pieces of kernel. It looks like a thick paste. We just mixed it in with the corn when we cooked. We sauteed the corn in a pan with butter, some fresh zucchini from our garden, cut up cherry tomato and onion. It had a wonderful taste and accompanied the meat well!

PS: Sorry about the picture quality! Have been taking pics. on the cell phone. Things will get better as I learn how to blog!