Tacos and Ice Cream

Nothing like the weekend to break out the new Christmas gadgetry.  Today we made beef tacos with homemade tortillas on the new cast iron griddle with refried beans and rice.  For dessert I made banana ice cream.  I love tacos and there is something so good about making the tortillas from scratch.  We use Robert Rodriguez’s recipe from the Sin City DVD.  I’m not a huge fan of the industrialized trash that is sold in the stores, so the work involved in making tortillas is definitely worth it.  The filling is organic ground beef, cumin, chipotle chili powder, garlic, onion, sea salt, pepper, a bit of mole, and a little Roja sauce – something I had in the pantry.  The refried beans recipe can be found over at Simply Recipes.  I used lard (for the beans and the tortillas).  I think lard lends a richness that is lost when other fats or fat substitutes are used.  Aside from the 2 1/2 hour cooking time, refried beans are a simple dish to make – no reason to buy the canned stuff any more.

The banana ice cream was my first frozen treat experiment.  I used an Alton Brown recipe since I tend to think his recipes are usually right on the money.  This particular one, though, called for corn syrup, which I thought was suspect.  It turned out fine, but was too airy and syrupy.   Next time I think I’ll use a more traditional recipe with egg yolks to see if I can get better density.

Tonight’s beer was an Italian Belgian pale ale called Super Baladin.  Super, indeed – this beer is easily the best Italian beer I’ve had and is quite good as a Belgian pale ale.  Sweet, fruity, spicy – all things a Belgian should be.   I received a bottle for Christmas and hope to find more somewhere.  There is also a Super Baladin Sour edition.  I enjoy sours, so finding the sour edition would be nice.  I have a bottle of Rodenbach Grand Cru in the fridge for New Years.  I can’t wait to crack that baby open.

Jamaican Jerk Steak

An unseasonably warm today in Michigan (63 degrees!) gave me an opportunity (maybe the last of the year) to grill. I had a piece of chuck roast left over from my pot roast experiment last month. Our last trip to the Mt. Clemens Farmer’s market on Saturday is yet another sign that fall is soon giving way to winter, but we did come out with quite a bounty. Tonight’s dinner: Jamaican Jerk steak, oven baked seasoned steak fries, and steamed romanesco.

I purchased a bunch of hot sauces and spice mixtures from Jamaica last year. Prior to grilling, I liberally sprinkled the jerk seasoning on both sides of the steaks. The potatoes (locally grown) were cut into thick steak fry pieces then drizzled with olive oil and seasoned with lots of cumin, Holiday Market seasoned pepper, Trader Joe’s Red Hawaiian sea salt, chipotle chili powder, and dried garlic. They took about 30 minutes in a 400 degree oven flipping after 20 minutes of baking. They went well with a side of Cabot Farms Sour Cream. Romanesco is an Italian broccoli also known as fractal broccoli (great for those who love geometry!). Its flavor is very similar to cauliflower or broccoli – Heather pointed out that it has a distinctly sweet flavor as well. It paired well with the steak and potatoes.

I drank a Sam Adams Hallertau Imperial Pilsner with dinner tonight. An incredibly hoppy beer, maybe even overly hoppy, the intense flavors actually paired well with the other intense flavors in the steak and potatoes. By itself, the Hallertau Pilsner is not easy to drink, but with food it becomes much tastier.

Barbequed Flank Steak Sandwich with Tzatziki and Sugar Roasted Asparagus

Just about every ingredient used in tonight’s meal came from Trader Joe’s. The flank steak came from Australia – hormone/antibiotic free. A simple store bought rub was used to season the steak. Subsequently, the rub relied way too much on salt, so the steak’s flavor was overwhelmed by the rub’s large amount of sea salt. From now on, I’ll be making my own. As you can tell from the picture above, the steak was cooked thoroughly as well. Heather likes her meat to have little to no pink. I’m a fan of very rare meat, but when cooking for both us – well done wins out. I placed the steak on a piece of grilled Tuscan pane with a few chunks of grass fed New Zealand cheddar. The other piece of bread has around 2-3 tablespoons of tzatziki, or cucumber yogurt sauce. To make tzatziki:

16 oz. of Greek style yogurt
1 medium size cucumber – seeded & diced
Fresh mint – chopped
Sea salt
Garlic (4-5 cloves) minced or roughly chopped
olive oil
red wine vinegar

Mix it all together in a bowl and there you have it. Tzatziki can be eaten with pita bread, but more famously, it can be found on gyros. It worked quite well with the steak offering a cooling component to a rub that was fairly spicy.

The asparagus is made by drizzling olive oil over the asparagus and then liberally sprinkling sugar all over them. Grilling can take anywhere from 7-15 minutes depending on how crisp you like you asparagus or how caramelized you’d like your sugar. Heather really enjoyed these and I couldn’t help but think that sugar roasted asparagus would well with ice cream or blended into an ice cream. Ah, a future endeavor.