Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Poncho Sanchez - Raise Your Hand

Yay! It’s Wednesday. FOOD Wednesday. Here’s the best of the most recent cooking and food related content.

First – everyone is talking about Michael Pollan’s New York Times Magazine article about cooking.

I don’t know why everyone is so hooked on prepared, pre-frozen, drive-thru crap either. Although Jason frequently reminds me that economics has a lot to do with how food $ is spent and clearly he’s got some valid points. Fresh fruits and veggies are pricier than frozen – or some prepared concoction – found canned or in the frozen food aisle. It’s also true, I am single and just cooking for one. Some (other single people) would say it’s too much trouble/hassle to cook for one, and that's why they eat the way they do. Others (people with families) claim their schedules/family member’s taste buds won’t allow them to do anything but the most quick/bland/salt ridden-one-dimensional menu preparations.

I say we’ve fed people such crap food for so long, they're unable to taste/appreciate good, economical, easy-to-prepare food.

Raise Your Hand if you have an opinion.

I made gazpacho Monday night for my Tuesday and Thursday night dinner. This is the base recipe – and here’s my tweaked version.

Ingredients:

· 1 egg hard boiled

· 2 cups chopped fresh plum tomatoes

· 1 diced pobalno pepper

· 1/2 cup chopped green or yellow pepper

· 1/4 cup finely chopped red onion

· 1/3 cup olive oil

· Juice of 1 lime

· 1/8 cup red wine vinegar

· 1/4 cup finely minced cilantro

· 2 tablespoons minced fresh oregano

· 1 tablespoons Worcestershire

· Pepper, coarsely ground

· 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

· Salt

· 2 single serving cans spicy V-8 juice

· 2 tablespoons Herdez Salsa Ranchera

· 1/2 cup plain bread crumbs

· Avocado, cojito cheese, sliced green onions to taste

Directions:

Place egg in small pot of cold water, bring to boil, and let simmer for 10 minutes.

In a pot or large bowl, combine tomatoes, pepper, pobalno pepper, red onion, olive oil, lime juice, red wine vinegar, cilantro, oregano, Worcestershire, and coarsely ground black pepper to taste. Stir.

Sprinkle garlic with a pinch of salt, and set in bowl.

When egg is finished cooking, run under cold water, remove shell, add to garlic and salt mixture, and mash together with fork.

Pour V-8 juice into large bowl with the vegetables, and add garlic, egg, and salt mixture. Add bread crumbs and stir so that they dissolve into liquid.

Taste for seasoning and add salt, pepper. Chill for at least 4 hours and serve. Garnish with chopped cilantro, avocado, green onions, minced red onion, and chopped olives if desired.

· Why mash the garlic with egg and salt? To make a garlic-infused paste that adds body and substance to the tomato broth. · Use kosher salt to bring out the flavors of the vegetables. · Try to chop the vegetables so that they're small but not minced or pulverized, and don't worry if the sizes aren't uniform. The pieces should be small enough to chew but big enough to recognize.

Happy Food Wednesday everyone!

ps: It was a quiet night last night. Or, I slept through it all after I went to bed at 9:30!

pps: If you don't know what I'm talking about - read the post below this one, I've posted twice today!

3 comments:

Gina Eaves said...

Hey!!! I'm back in the blogging sphere again after a break. Love ya!

Keetha said...

That article by Michael Pollan is fascinating - thanks for mentioning it and the link. Guess I've been under a rock as I hadn't heard about it.

Christopher Paquette said...

mmmm, I haven't had a good Gazpacho Soup in years... might have to try this!