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What Are The Best Spanish Ingredients For Cooking - Yahoo Recipe Search
Food.comFlat iron steak is a tender cut from the chuck top blade roast. If flat iron steak is unavailable, you can use flank steak, skirt steak, or chuck steak - but you will have to adjust the cooking time to a time that is appropriate for their thickness. Steak should marinate overnight in the refrigerator. The sauces can all be made the night before as well, cover and refrigerate. Pico De Gallo is Spanish for "rooster's beak". It is traditionally a relish chopped ingredients. The version below is similar to what you would find in Mexico and makes about 1 1/2 cups. Guacamole makes about 1 cup. Cilantro Cream Sauce makes about 1/2 cup. The Fajita Marinade makes about 2 cups.Food and WineSalted pumpkin seeds, toasted shell-on, are a super-popular snack all around Mexico. They form the base of pipián, a minimalist, savory mole sauce famous in states like Puebla, and they are an indispensable ingredient in Yucatán’s famous “pumpkin seed guacamole” called sikil pak. While they aren’t the most celebrated Mexican ingredient, they certainly deserve to be, especially when you taste these albóndigas (that’s Spanish for meatballs) made from ground pumpkin seeds, cooked rice, and tomatillos.We first sampled these vegetarian albóndigas at Planeta Vegetariano, a hidden-away, old-school vegetarian buffet that's been open for a couple of decades now in Puerto Vallarta, my wife Paola's hometown. This dish is a weekly staple for its loyal customers—it’s served every single Tuesday. We didn't know what to think about a meatless meatball, but at first bite, we fell instantly in love with the surprisingly meaty texture and satisfying flavor. They were so delicious and so memorable that one night Paola found herself thinking, why don't we try to make these at home?In Mexico, albóndigas are traditionally served in a stew with vegetables, which is how I grew up eating them. The broth includes mint as an aromatic, and the actual meatballs are typically made of ground beef, chicken, or pork, with rice to hold them together. (In coastal parts of Mexico, albóndigas tend to be much more delicate and made of fish or shrimp.) My mother would make a steamy one-pot meal of albóndigas in broth to eat on cold days. It easily fed the whole family, and we still had leftovers.These albóndigas are every bit as comforting, but don’t have a bit of ground meat in them. The ground toasted pumpkin seeds impart flavor and aroma, so the “meatballs” actually kind of smell like freshly crisped chicharrones. How?! That's the magic of this rich, savory seed. Tomatillos keep the albondigas moist and add an enticing flavor while the tomato broth (whether you go with vegetable or chicken stock) adds a layer of umami goodness. But perhaps the best part of this whole dish is how it comes together so quickly with things that you may already have in your pantry, and how many times it will feed you.We like to eat a bowl of these meatballs alongside some homemade or just really good-quality corn tortillas, fresh guacamole (the baller version without tomato fillers, just minced red onion, lime juice, and cilantro), and if you’re really, really hungry, some quesadillas. They make fantastic leftovers: albondigas taste even better the next day—and even tastier the day after that. (If you have any left, that is.)Food52I took the title quite literally: Your Best Cheap Feast. First, nothing says feast like lasagna, and its slide immediately slotted into view. Next, cheap. That meant working with ingredients I tend to consistently have on hand: carrots because I have bunnies; the same goes for spinach (though I siphon off my share for salads); I couldn't live without mushrooms - plain brown ones, though white will do nicely, too; goat cheese aleays; I discovered a 28-ounce can of roasted yellow peppers in the pantry,pilfered from a booth I'd worked at a food show, as good a money in the bank; and once every couple of years, I order a full ounce of Spanish saffron (let me know if you want my source). I'd intended to make my own pasta, which for lasagna is extremely easy because it just has to be long, thin, and flat; however, when poking through the pantry I found two partial boxes of oven-ready (no pre-cooking required, in other words) lasagna noodles. I know, I know, some are cringing at the very thought, but remember: cheap, and to me that meant working with what I already had. Besides, this is supposed to be a feast, which infers fun, not forced labor. As well, there is always milk in the refrigerator, and vegetable stock in the freezer. And olive oil on the counter. All of which made the whole most certainly mine, and the best I could do under the circumstances. The one ingredient I needed from the store was mozzarella cheese. As I rode over on my bike (I'm campaigning for sainthood, you see), I scrolled through the layers as I saw them in my mind. When I thought about the mushroom layer, wondering what to sauté along with them, I yelped out loud at the thought of, oh yes!, leeks. But when I got there and saw that two of them would cost four dollars and realized that I'd need at least 4 if not more, I decided to pull from the pile of onions waiting back at the so to speak ranch, and splurged instead on some heavenly fresh mozzarella. You know how messy lasagna can be to serve, even when it has rested for a while after emerging from the oven? You know, also, how much better it tastes as leftovers, once all the flavors have blended? Well, think about thinking about this as a giant leftover. Bake it at least 24 hours before you plan to serve it. Cool it, cover it with plastic, refrigerate it. Remove it from the refrigerator a couple of hours before you begin reheating it. Set the oven to 350 degrees. Remove the plastic and replace it with a sheet of parchment, followed by foil. Fit about at least an hour of reheating time into your timetable. To be sure, stick a thermometer through the covering layers into the center. It should read 165 degrees. Continue baking until it does. And when it does, remove it from the oven, let it sit for about 15 minutes, then serve your feast with great joy. You might not use all of both of the sauces. No matter. Stir together the leftovers and refrigerate. In a couple of days, cook some of your favorite pasta, stir isome pesto alla genovese (the green stuff) into the sauce mixture and toss with your pasta and a couple of ladlesful of pasta water. Salute!
