Viewing entries tagged
cilantro
Peruvian food is new to us. We have a few favorite places to eat around us but we have barely cooked Peruvian food. We recently got a cookbook that focuses on Peru and after reading about some different sauces and chiles we decided to mix BBQ with Peruvian. There are a few ingredients that may be hard to find if you don't live in area near Hispanic supermarkets!
The first smoke of the season is always special but this one was a little more meaningful. We were using our new Mountain Weber Smoker for the first time. As you have seen from past posts we were doing just fine with the regular Weber grill using indirect heat but this summer we are taking it to the next level. These ribs were inspired by a Thai pepper pickle recipe we created using fish sauce, vinegar, lemon grass and Thai chilies. This recipe is hot like most Thai food is so if you can’t handle the heat cut down on the chilies.
Most Gringos, ourselves included, don’t know much about Mexican food. The elaborate preparations and regional intricacies are usually lost in the typical, one-size-fits-all “joints” one finds north of the border. It’s a shame. Mexican food: the soulful child of European and Mayan parents, rivals any cuisine in assertive style and compelling flavor. Lizzie and I are two certified “Gringos” from the tri-state area and have begun the journey into our southern neighbor’s cuisine with Rick Bayless, author of Everyday Mexican, as our guide. We have customized one of his recipes for Enchiladas from Mexico City, for our Enchiladas De Dos Gringos.
Real pulled pork takes a long time. That’s what makes it good. I suppose you could save time: dice up some pork loin and pour on liquid smoke after you pressure cook it. You could also buy a Honda, slap a stripe on it and call it a race car. But its not. And it never will be.
This idea was completely made up by yours truly. A couple days ago I heard about someone grilling avocados so my mind went straight to smoke. I thought about how good the creamy avocado flavor would taste with some hickory smoke. Danny and I went to the store to get ingredients. As we were walking out there was a huge bin of watermelons. It occurred to me that instead of the tomatoes used in the guacamole we could use watermelon. This dish was really flavorful. We ended up pairing it with some grilled pork tacos. The only thing I might change and Danny does not agree with this is that I would use one fresh avocado not smoked to keep some of the original flavors. He thought it was perfect this way. Try both!
Danny is always creating different sauces and spice mixtures. We decided to create some colorful sauces with our Negev Nectars olive oil for Cinco de Mayo. Negev Nectars olive oil is fruity which makes it a great pairing with peppers and spicy flavors. For all three sauces we used different peppers as the base and paired each with corresponding colors.
