Week in Review

Well, it certainly has been a good week in eating, aside from the Pumpkin Sage Pasta Mishap.  I’m a new cook and I think three big meals per week actually takes up too much time.  I want to focus on quick and simple recipes – it is an interesting challenge. The eating week started last Wednesday and I used up my food budget by Monday. I thought that $50 per week on food was being very generous but I actually went over budget by almost $10 when you count getting coffee. That $50 did feed D. and me for the week, though – counting the leftover ingredients.  It will be leftovers from Tuesday to Thursday or Friday – so, that’s $60 for a week and two days.  I have some of the fixings for Coctal de Camerones left over (minus the shrimp) with tostada. I have Cucumber, tomato and avocado left over for a salad, and some bread left over for Toast or tomato sandwiches.  I need to figure out what to do with the Heavy Cream left over from the Pumpkin Sage Past.  Fresh butter, maybe?  Here is what I’m thinking for the menu for next week: Simple Roast Chicken, Thai Chicken Salad, Anne’s Jessica’s Pasta Salad.  Guest starring Chicken Soup make from the roast chicken carcass by D. 

Coctel de Camarones Y Frijoles de Cerveza con Tostada

Que Rico!
Back in 1997 I drove from S.Cal to San Francisco to visit Allison Penner and Liz Wiens who took me to Puerto Allegre. I loved the place, mainly because we scored pitchers of margaritas while still underage. I’ve been going back to Puerto Allegre ever since. Margaritas, mariachi and dark booths are still the main appeal of Puerto Allegre. The margaritas are strong enough to make you love the food. Not that the food is all that bad. It is a step up from taqueria food and can really hit the spot with saucey enchiladas, crispy corn chips, fresh salsa, grilled beef fajitas on warm and oh-so-soft flour tortillas. Since 1997 the restaurant, and the neighborhood in general has become a bit of hotspot and people on Yelp complain about hipsters. On Friday and Saturday nights the wait can be up to an hour. If you are willing to wait (more for the experience, I’d say) there is one dish that stands out on the menu: The Albondigas Soup and one that shines: The coctel de camarones.

Now that I have relocated to a place with poop for Mexican food – I’ve been craving my favorite dish from Puerto Allegre: coctel de camarones. This dish is more like a ceviche than the ‘shrimp cocktail’ ubiquitous at casino buffets and golf course country clubs. Prawns, cilantro and avocado soak in a tomato-based sauce that is vinegary, citrusy and sweet. Compared to much of the menu, the coctel de camarones is light and fresh. Puerto Allegre serves is in a large margarita glass with saltines and sells it for $10 a pop.

I poked around at a few coctel de camarones recipes but none seemed to capture the ingredients that were in Puerto Allegre’s. In the end I just threw together what seemed right and it turned out fabulous! Although lacking some of the richness of the Puerto Allegre version – this version really was very tasty. My test bunny, D, was impressed. I got the “This is REALLY good, babe” and the “this one is going in the cookbook”. That’s, like, four stars ‘n shit.

To go along with the meal I cooked up some beer beans (grab your gasX now) and threw them on store-bought tostadas. The beans were amazing. There is a black bean dish I make from scratch called “mamalitas” which is one of my favorite foods ever but takes a lot of time and prep – these beans were almost as good as my mamalitas and they were a cinch. What would have been an amazing addition is Queso Fresco – If you make these beans with the tostada or tortillas I strongly suggest crumbling on this salty-dry cheese on top. Queso Fresco is available at Mexican markets. Overall a super-yummy and fun meal.

Coctel de Camarones, Frijoles de Cerveza con Tostada. Served with Tapatío and Sour Cream.

Sidenote: I love Tapatío. Especially on Cheese Pizza. Mr. Jose-Luis Saavedra began making Tapatio back in 1971. This year Tapatío is celebrating their 35^th year producing yummy hotsauce as a successful, family owned business. Read their history here. Hopefully they don’t sellout to some soulless food processing corporation. Go Tapatio!! I love you, you make pizza and avocados super yum-yum. I even like you on sheets of fried pork fat. They are selling Tapatío birthday mugs – I want one.

Coctel de Camarones

1 pound unpeeled shrimp (not the tiny ones that look like baby fingers, get the prawns, but not the big honk’n prawns that look like fat man’s fingers)

1/2 cup fresh lime juice
1 cup ketchup
2 tablespoons Tapatio
1 tablespoon of olive oil
½ tablespoon of sugar
1 tablespoon of vinegar
½ of a jalapeño or more, seeded and diced small

1/2 medium white onion, diced
2 Cloves of garlic, pressed or chopped
1/3 cup chopped fresh cilantro or more to taste
1 cup diced peeled cucumber

2 tomatoes
1 small ripe avocado, peeled, pitted and cubed
Salt

Several lime slices for garnish
Tostadas or tortilla chips, store-bought or homemade or saltine crackers for serving
Prep:

1. Cooking the Shrimp. Bring salted water to a boil and add 2 tablespoons of lime juice. Add the shrimp. Allow the water to return to a boil then immediately drain the water out of the pot. Keep the shrimp in the pot and cover with a lid (set slightly askew to allow air circulation) and allow the shrimp to steam cook for 10 minutes.
2. Meanwhile combine the ketchup, lime, tapatio, olive oil, sugar, vinegar and tapatio in a small bowl. Make adjustments as you see fit.
3. Chop onion, garlic, cilantro, cucumber, tomato and avocado and place in a large bowl.
4. After the shrimp has cooled, peel and devein. Keep the shrimp whole or chop in half and add to the veggies in the large bowl then cover with the ketchup sauce. Stir ingredients together and allow flavors to mingle in the fridge for 1 hour to 1 day.
5. Serve with tostadas, chips or saltine crackers.

Beer Beans

Ingredients:
2 cans or bottles of beer
1 jalapeño, seeded and chopped
½ cup chopped cilantro
2-4 14oz cans of black beans
1 yellow onion, diced
2 T of Olive oil

Prep:
Add olive oil to pot on medium-high heat and sauté onion, cilantro and jalapeño for 2-4 minutes. Add cans of beans, half drained, half with juices. Add one beer. Allow mixture to come to boil then reduce heat to simmer. Cook for 1 to 1 and ½ hours keeping your eye on the beans and adding beer when the moisture cooks off.

Cost:
Coctel de Camarones
$6.00 Shrimp (1lb frozen, uncooked, deveined shrimp from Trader Joes)
$2.00 Limes
$3.00 Tostadas
$3.00 Tomatoes
$1.50 Cilantro
$1.00 Onion
$0.50 Jalapeño
$2.00 Avocado
$1.80 Cucumber
Total: $20.80
Whoa, I am surprised. This is way more than I thought it would be. It is enough to feed 4 people as a featured side dish or appetizer, maybe even 6 people as an appetizer. Plus, I had some left over Avo, Jalapeño, Cucumber, Tostadas, etc.

Beer Beans
$2.40 3 cans of organic black beans
$3.00 Beer (22oz)
$ .30 Onion
$ .30 Jalapeño
Total: $6.00

Woo-hoo! Yummy bargain. That’s how it should be with beans. Because the beans were so good and because I burnt some, we ended up not having any left over. But typically I’d say you can easily feed 3 with 3 cans of beans and have some for lunch the next day.

Chick-Chick Soup

This is good.

Yuuuuummmm…. This soup was delicious. I found the recipe off of Epicurious – it is from a 1995 issue of Bon Appetite with a few tweaks. It has been a rainy and oh-so-gray for couple of weeks here and I’ve been craving a hearty soup. The flavor of the sausage you choose will have a huge influence on how your soup tastes. I was thinking of going for a spicy Italian sausage but was too curious about the fresh saffron chicken sausage from PastaWorks. I served the soup topped with avocado and cilantro and it was a real treat. Accompanying the soup was garlic-toast made with the left over roasted garlic from Pumpkin Sage Pasta Attempt #2.

The soup is even better on the second day and all that garlic has got to be good for your immune system.

Chick-Chick Soup

A spicy soup make with Chicken Sausage and Chickpeas (Garbanzo Beans)

1 teaspoon olive oil
3/4 pound chicken sausage, casings removed, crumbled
8 large garlic cloves, chopped
1 cup canned diced peeled tomatoes with juices
2 tablespoons thinly sliced seeded jalapeño chili
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon chopped fresh rosemary or 1/2 teaspoon dried
2 15- to 16-ounce cans garbanzo beans (chick-peas), undrained
2 cups stock
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

Chopped fresh cilantro
1 avocado, peeled, sliced

Heat olive oil in soup pot over medium-high heat. Add chicken sausage and chopped garlic and sauté until sausage is cooked through, about 5 minutes. Reduce heat to medium. Add tomatoes with their juices, sliced jalapeño chili, ground cumin and chopped fresh rosemary and simmer 10 minutes, stirring frequently. Add garbanzo beans with their liquid and broth and bring to boil. Reduce heat and simmer soup 15 minutes. Stir in fresh lemon juice. Season soup to taste with salt and pepper. (Can be prepared 1 day ahead. Cover and refrigerate. Rewarm over medium heat before continuing.)

Ladle soup into bowls. Sprinkle soup with chopped fresh cilantro and top with sliced avocado. Serve immediately.

Cost:

• $5.95 Saffron Chicken Sausage
• $1.50 Canned Tomatoes
• $  .50 Jalepeno
• $  .50 Garlic
• $1.50 Cumin (I did not have any at home – I bought the cumin in the “Mexican” sectionof  the grocer ‘cause it cost 1/6^th the price of the stuff available on the baking isle.
• $1.80 Organic Vegetable Broth
• $3.00 2 Cans organic Garbanzo Beans
• $.  50 Lemon

Total: $15.25

That is much more than I like to spend on a pot of soup but this was delicious and lasted for 4 meals. I splurged on the sausage but the soup could easily take more broth and tomatoes and less sausage to make it less expensive but still tasty.

Pumpkin Sage Pasta Take 2

Okay, I give up. If I learned anything in my second attempt at making this recipe yummy it is that 1 cup of cream is not necessary. I revamped the recipe from Pumpkin Sage Pasta Take One – reducing the amount of cream by 3/4^th of a cup, upping the pumpkin and adding vegetable broth and nutmeg. Guess what? It tasted exactly the same. In both dishes it was hard to taste the pumpkin all the flavors in general were muted. I love the idea of this pasta, though. Does anyone have a yummy recipe with similar ingredients?

PUMPKIN SAGE PASTA SAUCE
Ingredients

• 1/4 cup heavy cream
• 3/4 cup broth
• 1 cup pumpkin puree
• 1/4 cup fresh-grated Parmesan
• 16 leaves fresh sage, sliced into thin strips (about 1 tablespoon)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon fresh-ground pepper
• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
• 4 Cloves of roasted garlic
  

Make the sauce: Combine the cream, pumpkin puree, Parmesan, sage, salt, garlic and pepper in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Simmer the mixture until slightly thickened — 10 to 12 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in butter. Toss with cooked pasta and serve immediately.

 

Pumpkin Sage Pasta

Or shitty Mac ‘n Cheese???

PUMPKIN SAGE PASTA SAUCE

Ingredients:
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
1/4 cup fresh-grated Parmesan
16 leaves fresh sage, sliced into thin strips (about 1 tablespoon)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon fresh-ground pepper
1 tablespoon unsalted butter

Make the sauce: Combine the cream, pumpkin puree, Parmesan, sage, salt and pepper in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Simmer the mixture until slightly thickened — 10 to 12 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in butter. Toss with cooked pasta and serve immediately.

I found this recipe on an internet news site. I was intrigued. I have a new-found interest in cooking in general and cooking with Pumpkin in particular. Plus, the ingredient list was short, the directions simple and it worked beautifully with my one pot, one pan approach to cooking. The result: a tasteless mac and cheese-like concoction. This recipe is going on the dud list. The pumpkin flavor was way too subtle, same with the sage. The sauce itself is much heavier (1 C of Cream!!) than I typically like to eat and minutes after it was out of the pan it began to congeal and resemble taco-bell nacho cheese. Because of the pumpkin, the sauce had that orange-y look of boxed macaroni. The one redeeming factor was the pasta purchased from Pastaworks - Pasta all Uovo, or, egg pasta – made that very day.

Overall, I was bummed. Basically, there was no flavor. Derek said it needed work. It is an awful opening to my new cooking blog. Being committed to spending only $50 per week on food I have decided to use the left over ingredients and give the basic recipe another go– This time with some tweaks. Per Derek’s suggestion I will be adding nutmeg and roasted garlic. I am cutting the heavy cream down to ¼ of a cup and will be using veg. broth and a little white wine to punch up the flavor. I will report on the results.

Cost

 

• $ .80 Heavy Whipping Cream
• $1.20 1 Can Pumpkin Puree
• $3.20 Parmesan
• $3.00 Fresh Sage
• $3.00 Fresh Pasta

Total $11.20

If this tasted good it would be a good value. We got about 3-4 plates worth out of this plus had plenty of leftovers to try the recipe again.