Kitchen Anecdotes

I can’t believe I finally got the crunchy rice figured out! And it is the second time! I wanted to make sure it was not a one time thing before writing about it. The secret to making crunchy rice is NOT using parboiled rice. This one day I decided to buy dry beans instead of canned. Even though it is a more tedious process, it is more cost effective in the long run. While I’m still trying to master the art of cooking dry beans (once achieved, it will be another post), I’m managing so far. I’ve tried the fast soaking method and I don’t really like it. I will try soaking them overnight and see how that goes. Anyway, I figured I would fix rice with the home made beans. That same day, I had gotten a package of regular long grain rice (not Uncle Ben’s). I prepared the rice the same way. Brought water, some salt and some olive oil to a boil. I always use the 1:2 ratio (for one cup of rice; two of water). When boiling, added the rice and cooked until all the water had evaporated (fought the urge to turn the rice. When the liquid had evaporated, lowered the heat to medium low, more to the low side, and finished cooking. If you are making this, it should take like 10 minutes or less to finish cooking, depending on the amount of rice. At this time though, pay close attention because you don’t want the rice to burn and you want to make sure there are no raw grains left. Once done, fluff the top and you should have a nice golden, crunchy rice in the bottom of the pan (if all went well). If these instructions are not very clear, let me know and I will to make them better.

If you have worked with dry beans before and have any suggestions, please share them. It is not very often that I like eating this, but every now and then I do get the urge. I will keep trying until I get the dry beans. I believe buying dry beans is especially good because they are cheaper and you can determine how much you are going to prepare and avoid throwing away food. Anyway, to finish a classic Puertorican meal, fry some tostones and chicken breasts. If frying home made tostones, be very careful when peeling the green plantains. They are really tricky and I have the scars to prove it.

Suggestion: buy frozen tostones (look for Goya tostones on the frozen food section). Enjoy!

It has been a long time since my last post. I have been away attending a training in the mainland. Probably, one of the most unforgettable things I carried with me was the mother of all colds. Once I arrived home and wanted to go to the beach, it got me. So, it is during times like this when you feel worse than shit, that you need comfort light food. It is funny how soup has become the official food of the ailing person, but it is true. Add to that the fact that is raining. After work (yes, employers seem to prefer you spread the disease than stay at home), I stopped at the grocery shop and got some boneless chicken thighs. I also stopped at the local bakery and got pan de agua, a.k.a. French Bread.

This is an easy recipe for chicken noodle soup. Here’s what I did. I got home and sliced a carrot about half inch thick. Sliced some celery same length. Since I’m sick I cut the onion into big chunks, forget about fine chopping. Added some minced garlic, and a little of the local sofrito ( a puree of green peppers, sweet green peppers, cilantro, oregano, among other stuff). Drizzle some olive oil in a 5qt dutch pan. season the chicken pieces and brown. Remove and add the vegetables, garlic, tomato sauce (if not available use marinara sauce), and the sofrito. Sautee until vegetables are soft, though not too soft. Add back the chicken, and pour enough chicken broth to cover all the ingredients. I’m sorry, but I don’t work well with measurements. Boil until all vegetables are soft and the chicken pieces are done. You may need to add some water or chicken broth if it becomes to dry. Now, this part I really haven’t figured out. My soups always come out to thick (really thick!). Anyway, about six to eight minutes before you can add some fidelini (noodles) to the soup and boil until the fidelini are tender. Serve with the crusty bread. You can alter this and substitute the fidelini for rice. Then cooking time will vary. Hope this makes any ailing person feel much better.

photo by BocaDorada

This weekend I was determined to use my wok for the first time. See, my boyfriend makes fun of me about all the kitchen stuff I’ve managed to acquire throughout the years and never use. So, I’m on a mission. The other days, I made an extra serving of rice because I know that old rice (one or two days old) is used for traditional fried rice. I had a bag of stir fry vegetables. I defrosted some boneless chicken thighs and marinated them in soy sauce, ginger, scallions, sesame oil, garlic, sugar, cornstarch and lime juice (to tenderize). Marinate for an hour. Heat the wok and drizzle sesame oil. Never preheat the wok without oil in it. Once the oil is hot, add the vegetables. You can make this with your choice of vegetables. Stir fry until done (which will depend if using fresh vegetables or frozen). You want them to be crisp. Transfer to a plate.

Add more oil to the wok and cook the chicken until no longer pink. Add hoisin sauce and the vegetables back to the pan. Add little water and cornstarch to create a thick sauce. Transfer this to a plate.

At this point, I may be complicating my life but I’ve always wanted to fry the rice in the wok. So, I heat the wok again, drizzle some sesame oil, add a generous amount of soy sauce, scallions and then add the old rice. The sound is magic. Once the rice has acquired the color of the soy sauce, I added everything to the wok again and topped with many many sesame seeds. Please keep in mind I am not a professional chef. If you want to try any of these recipes, you should adjust the seasonings to your taste. I just hope that I can inspire ideas for you to try on. Happy cooking!

This Sunday morning for breakfast, I asked my boyfriend what he wanted to eat. He always leaves it up to me to decide what I want to fix for breakfast or brunch. Well, today I had a different approach. I asked, “if you were in IHOP, what would you order?” I didn’t finish asking when he answered crepes. I thought, crap! I’ve never made that before. But, I said “good, crepes it is”.

I immediately went to foodnetwork.com to research how to make crepes. I found a great basic recipe from Alton Brown (love his show!, he must have a solid background in chemistry). I prepared the batter and got everything ready. Be aware that once you make the batter, you have to let it rest for an hour. To make the crepes, you just pour a little of the batter and swirl it around the pan. The idea is to get like a pancake but as thin as you possibly can. Then as I always do, I like to personalize everything, by adding, subtracting, replacing some kind of ingredient (sometimes I just have no choice because I’m missing an ingredient). Before cooking the crepes, I cooked some prosciutto and turkey ham until crisp and set it aside. I then sliced some Brie cheese. When the crepes were ready, I put them in a plate and placed a slice of Brie in one corner, topped the cheese with the prosciutto and ham and rolled the crepe as nicely as I could. Once I did this with all the crepes, I buttered a baking dish and baked them in the oven until the cheese melted.

I also prepared a blueberry sauce with frozen blueberries, water, sugar and some maple syrup. You can make the sauce with mixed berries, which I intended to do originally, but lost some strawberries to the ethylene gas. By now you may have gathered I love blueberries. Anyway, the sweetness of this sauce went really well with the crepes. It is a little work, but worth the while.

I don’t think I really know what exactly is Puerto Rican cuisine. All I know is that most of us grew up eating lots of rice, beans and meat. One of my all time favorite local dishes is white rice and canned corned beef. To some people, this is what poor people eat. Thinking about it, this is what we used to eat towards the end of the month, hum… Anyway, I liked it. My grandma made the canned corned beef with potatoes. This dish is one of the easiest to prepare. So in honor of this, I decided to prepare it for my boyfriend.

I do have a problem with rice. Many people here in Puerto Rico make “pegao”. This word is a slang and literally means glued. Of course, it doesn’t mean that you use glue to cook the rice. The word is used to describe the layer of rice closest to the bottom of the pan when it is crunchy. I love pegao rice! So crunchy, so good, so unattainable.  I can’t do it.  I can cook regular rice, but if I try to make the pegao, I end up with either oily rice in the bottom, or burnt rice. Many people have offered their expertise and advice on how to get the pegao. I’ve tried them all, to no avail. It kills me. Anyway, I gave it yet another try tonight. I got close, but no pegao.

To make regular white rice, in a 3 qt. pot, add one and a half cups of water, 2-3 tablespoons of oil and salt and bring to a boil.  When boiling, add 1 cup of dry rice.  I always use long grain rice, but I never follow the standard ratio of water to rice.  I don’t know, I always get mushy rice.  This way, if the rice is to hard, I add some water and cook longer.  It works for me.  Anyway let it cook until all the liquid evaporates.  Don’t turn.  Lower the heat to medium low and cook for like 10-15 minutes.  Fluff with a fork.  At this point, some people turn up the heat and cook a little longer to get the pegao.  This trick is really not working for me.  Good luck.

For the corned beef, set a pan to medium high heat and add the meat.  Break it down and add tomato sauce, sofrito*, olives, and roasted red peppers.  Mix while is cooking.  This will take like 5 minutes or less, no kidding!  I like adding fried potatoes.  Dinner is ready.

If you want a true challenge, peel a green plantain, cut it in half inch slices and fry until it subtly changes color (brown is not a subtle change, by the way).  Drain.  If you don’t have a tostonera, you can use an aluminum can.  Just make sure you line it with foil.  Place the plantain slice on a cutting board and press down on it with the lined aluminum can.  Repeat with all the slices and fry again until this time, they begin to turn golden.  These things can burn easily so keep your eyes on them.  If you don’t want the hassle, buy the frozen ones.  You only have fry them once.  And here my friends, you have a classic Puerto Rican meal in little time.  If anyone manages to get the crunchy rice in the bottom of the pot, please send me the step by step instructions on how you accomplished it.  I will be eternally thankful.

*Sofrito is a mix of pureed seasonings packed in a bottle and used in lots of Puerto Rican dishes.  The traditional sofrito contains garlic, green peppers, onions, sweet chiles, cilantro, oregano, salt, vinegar, etc.  The powdered kind is called sazon.  They are used for stews, soups, sauces, and rice.

I hate when I have to prepare a meal in a rush. Today was one of those days. I have to take my car to the warranty tomorrow and I wanted to make sure the car was presentable. I try to schedule things to avoid as much conflict as possible. I am rarely successful. First I get off from work late, as it never fails the day preceding a leave request. Then my car. All I have to say is that if you need to get your car detailed, do it yourself. Car washes here in P.R. truly suck!

I get home and I have to rush to make dinner because I don’t like eating late, plus my boyfriend and I voluntarily spent the day fasting. Luckily, I always fix a quick salad with either fish or chicken. Today I made a ceasar salad with Mahi Mahi. Amazingly, this was the first time I tried this fish. LOVE IT. The great thing about fish is that it cooks fast. Usually faster than I can make the salad (if you remember from a previous story, I am extremely careful with the mandoline slicer). Here is an idea for anyone who has to make a quick meal in a rush.

I always buy the shredded Parmesan cheese for the Ceasar salad only. You will notice that any recipe/idea I provide will require eye measurements. You can choose the appropriate mix of spices and ingredients that best suits your taste buds. Anyway, for the Caesar salad, just cut some romaine lettuce, shred some carrots, add shredded Parmesan cheese, croûtons and Caesar dressing. Et voile! For the fish, season a Mahi Mahi fillet with sea salt and pepper. Prepare a mojito (not the drink, though you can get creative) by mixing olive oil and garlic. To that, you can add some herbs and lime juice. Heat a skillet to medium high heat. Brush the fillets with the mojito and cook until golden and flaky (you would cook them approximately 2-3 minutes per side depending on the size). This is really simple and quick. Another good thing about such a light meal is that it allows you to have some , like from the ice cream truck.

Even though I feel kinda silly, I wanted to share with anyone out there a trick I discovered. I don’t fry food a lot, but when I do, I usually prefer my deep fryer. It is a little faster and more convenient. Still, every time I used it I hated cleaning the basket. So much so, that sometimes I would just prefer to fry some food on an almost flat pan. I had another epiphany. The other days I made home made fries and this time, for some reason, I decided to spray the basket with PAM cooking spray. It worked like a charm! No more food glued to the basket. I did not have to scrub hard at all. I had been thinking that it would be much more convenient for manufacturers to make a nonstick basket for deep fryers (maybe they’ve manufactured this already, but since I cannot buy any more kitchen stuff I’m stuck with the one I have). I found my remedy. I’ve tried this with fries and cheese sticks (you know how messy they are!). If you didn’t know about this, try it next time. I think it will be worth your while. You can try it with this recipe:

Mahon cheese (this is a Spanish cheese from Menorca) or Mozzarella cheese (actually any kind of melting cheese would do) cut in half inch sticks, 2 eggs, all purpose flour (enough to dip the cheese pieces), Progresso Italian style bread crumbs (also just enough to coat the cheese pieces) or you can use any brand, even pulse some croutons in the food processor, and vegetable or corn oil for frying.

Heat oil in the deep fryer to about 350 degrees. Don’t forget to spray the basket with PAM cooking oil. Beat the eggs in a bowl and set aside. Arrange the flour and the breadcrumbs in separate bowls and put them close together. Coat the cheese entirely with the flour. Dip the floured cheese stick in the egg bath. Make sure it is covered with the egg all the way and finish coating it with the bread crumbs. Do this with all the cheese sticks. Place them in the basket, submerge in oil (be careful with any splash) and fry until golden. Strain and serve with your favorite marinara sauce. My boyfriend enjoys Ranch dressing.

Enjoy and Happy frying!

photo by Olly F

As if trying to figure out what to fix for dinner was not stressful enough during the week, on weekends is what’s for breakfast or brunch. I stress about these things, my boyfriend thinks is funny. Here are some ideas of what to make for breakfast/brunch. If you have blueberries, whether fresh or frozen you can make blueberry muffins (I love them), or you can make blueberry pancakes/waffles. I once tried making some brioches for breakfast, but that didn’t turn out right. Note to self, I have to try that again.

Another thing I love are eggs. I remember when growing up, on weekends my grandmother would fix my brother and I fried eggs (yes, fried in oil!) with either toast or soda crackers. We would dip that in the egg. Yummy for us! I’m glad our cholesterol levels are so far normal.  I was so used to seeing the egg yolk pink outside. Oh well. Omelets are great. You can use your imagination. I like putting tomatoes, onions, peppers, ham and cheese. Another idea is to add chorizo, onions and manchego cheese to the omelet.

You can also buy the frozen pie shell and make a spinach, ham, and cheese quiche. You can get creative and add as many or as few vegetables as you want. Frittatas are one of my favorite too. This is the only way my boyfriend will eat vegetables. I have to disguise them so well.

In the end, if you want to make something mega fast, you can never go wrong with a sandwich. No bread? no problem. I always have flour tortillas and pita bread. If you have a bakery nearby, get a fresh loaf of bread. In Puerto Rico, we love getting pan de agua or sobao (I pesonally love pan de agua, I hate sobao) and spread butter, really yummy! Hope you find these ideas helpful.

photo by lonelysandwich

If any of y’all are anything like me, you are planning your meals days ahead, if possible. It is funny how sometimes this is a little stressful for me. I’m constantly trying to get cooking ideas. You’re thinking, o.k. I need to defrost the meat overnight in the fridge, but will it be poultry, meat or Will I need an extra ingredient? Will I have to run out to the market again because I forgot a key ingredient? Sucks! I never like preparing the same meat two days in a row, especially red meat. I try to keep red meat down to once a week only. I also like having meatless dishes every once in a while. This sequence helps me get an idea on what to cook. However, the most resourceful place for me to get ideas is foodnetwork.com. I love it because you can enter an ingredient, and it will bring recipes containing that ingredient. This is very useful when you overstock on one or two things at the grocery store, and they are about to spoil.

And go figure, I just had an epiphany! Try to focus your dishes around a main component. Think on what the main ingredient will be. If meat is the principal or more elaborate dish, then the accompaniment should be as simple as possible. If pasta is the main thing, then you don’t even need meat. If you decide to have meat, again make it as simple as possible. Hope this is helpful to anyone out there.

photo by cygnoir

As you can imagine, the knife tops the list of dangerous instruments in the kitchen. I have nicked my nails with this controversial instrument.  I always try to be careful when handling them. Not always lucky though but, I still have all digitalis in my hands. I was surprised to find out the hard way that a simple hand grater could be a menace to my fingers. Whenever I cook pasta and warm up bread I like to grate cheese on top of the dish. This makes everything look so pretty. I can’t by any means buy the already grated or shredded cheeses (you know those that make life simple and convenient). I have to buy the block and do it myself (more flavor!). As I like demonstrating to my boyfriend my “culinary” skills, I grate the cheese in front of him. I’ve had some incidents when I accidentally grate my skin. Not good times, I must say.

Not happy with this, I decided to buy a mandoline slicer (this took a lot of convincing). When I saw how sharp that thing was I started having second thoughts on my purchase. I gave it a chance. It makes the crinkles for potato chips! I’m proud to say I’m injury free. Of course, it takes me half hour to clean the thing (most of the time is thinking how to get the blades out). If you have a chance, buy one of these things. It is well worth it, especially if you enjoy french fries (always double fry them, believe me you’ll notice the difference).  I bought the OXO V-blade mandoline slicer.  They make great kitchen utensils and even cookware sets.