Can You Ever Have Too Many Salsas?

Thanks to some Rick Martinez Bon Appetit YouTube videos, we had an amazing Latin inspired meal last night (Saturday night). I suppose it started with his chilaquiles recipe which included a tomatillo sauce (starts at 45 seconds). From there, I decided to go with street tacos. Why am I not surprised you got this idea off YouTube?

Menu

— Appetizer: Chips, guacamole, salsa

— Beverage: white sangria with orange and rosemary.

— Dinner: street tacos with carnitas and shrimp and Jamaican slaw. Toppings: tomatillo sauce, tomatillo salsa, chopped white onion, chopped red onion, sliced radishes, shredded Monterey jack cheese, crema, chopped cilantro, sliced cabbage, and lime wedges.

Everything was homemade with the exception of the tortilla chips and the tortillas.

This is pretty much going to be a #cookingwithoutrei post although Rei does get credit for putting something in the oven and heating up tortillas. I put the main event (the short ribs) in the oven, thank you very much — you should be thanking me right now!

Friday night I started the sangria. I found an orange, Aperole and rosemary sangria recipe that seemed pretty simple and I really liked that I could use rosemary from the garden. It came together in about 10 minutes and I left it in the fridge overnight.

Ingredients: 1 bottle chardonnay, 1 cup-ish grand Marnier, 1/2 cup Aperol, 1.5 cups freshly squeezed orange juice, 2 oranges sliced, and some rosemary.

I served it over ice with some club soda. While I didn’t have any, Zeke and our friends said it was super tasty. I have another batch going in the fridge! It was delicious. I drank it all. Yes, I drank all the alcohols and the sangrias. Very alcoholy. Much sangria.

I went ahead and set the table to get ahead of what I expected to be a very busy day.

Zeke picked up most of the ingredients on Friday so I was able to get started first thing on Saturday morning. I started with the tomatillo sauce as I enjoyed my second or third cup of coffee. I was probably still asleep at this point. (Yes, since you slept most of the day.~Terri)

I peeled 4 or 5 tomatillos, washed them and put on a sheet pan with some white onion, jalapenos, poblano chiles, garlic cloves, and green onions. I added some olive oil and salt and massaged it into the veggies before putting them into a 450 degree oven for about 40 minutes.

Note: I wore a non-powdered latex glove when I worked with and cut the jalapenos. I highly recommend this to avoid accidentally rubbing your eyes with jalapeno-laced hands. Ouch!

While this “after” picture isn’t very appetizing, they veggies were nice and roasted and ready for the blender. Yum. It looks pretty nasty if you ask me.

After the veggies were cool, I added them to the blender along with some chopped cilantro, white vinegar, lime juice, salt, cumin, water, and some chicken stock. I learned from Rick Martinez that you shouldn’t add lime juice to this mixture when it’s hot because it makes it bitter. Fortunately, this was nice and cool. Is that a science I note?

Once blended, I tasted it, added a little bit more stock, and poured it into a small jar. Now it just looks like baby food. (It would be a bad idea to serve this to a baby.~Terri)

I watched another Rick Martinez video for pork carnitas (salsa starts at 6:35) and learned that tomatillos are from the gooseberry family and are great in not only pies, but also in salsas. Who knew? Pies? That’s a new one. Next you’re going to be telling me I can put tomatoes or some shit in pies (don’t @ me, pizzas are not pies).

I chopped up three tomatillos like I would chop tomatoes, added some chopped jalapeno, cilantro, and red onion, grated some garlic, squeezed in some lime juice, and added some salt.

I mixed this together and put it in the fridge to meld. Spoiler: this was one of our favorites of the night with the carnitas tacos. Oh yeah that was good.

We had a few tomatoes that were going bad so I decided to make a tomato salsa. I was thinking about using it for the guacamole or serving it separately and letting people choose whether to combine. The guacamole ended up being so good, no one really ate this beautiful salsa. I had some of it this afternoon for snack, if that makes you-of-the-past feel any better?

It was pretty simple: chopped tomatoes, red onions, and cilantro, diced jalapeno, and diced chiles (from a can). I added some salt and lime juice, mixed, and put into the fridge to meld. Did I add any olive oil? I don’t think so. Honestly, I can’t remember. Eh, it doesn’t really matter. Still tasty.

The last thing to be prepped before my 12 PM conference call and 3 PM tennis match, was the slaw. Rei wanted the cabbage slaw with mango that we made to go with the jerk chicken a few weeks ago which was perfect since we had a head of cabbage in the fridge. It was easy enough so I whipped up the dressing, put it into a jar and into the fridge, and then prepared the slaw. You can read about it here (from when we first made it).

I think that was it for the prep until I got back from my tennis match.

While I was gone, Rei prepared the short ribs for baking. We opted to use Deb Perleman’s smitten kitchen Everyday cookbook short rib carnitas as one filling for the street tacos. We wrote about it in a previous post and made it the same way but added even more garlic. I’d noted in the cookbook that extra garlic would be appreciated.

This was so good! I wish we had some leftovers for nachos tonight (Sunday night). This recipe is super easy and absolutely delicious — we never have leftovers which is a sadface moment but also okay because we get to eat it all the night we make it.

When I got back from tennis and after I’d bathed (you are all welcome), it was time to chop all of the taco toppings and make the guacamole.

Toppings: chopped cilantro, sliced radishes, diced red onions, diced white onions, and lime wedges. I’d used all of the limes and only had one half of a lime left. Sad face. Hey, that’s my line! (or, you might say, my lime)(Oh, lordy. Make it stop.~Terri)

I’ve been searching for the perfect guacamole recipe and might have hit it with yet another Rick Martinez recipe, this time created by some YouTube guy.

We had three soft avocados that I cut, removed the pits, and scooped into the mortar. Zeke opted to smoosh the avocado with a fork instead of the pestle as I added some diced jalapenos and white onions, chopped cilantro, lime juice, and salt. It was a pretty fucking good guac recipe. Not super complicated, but still interesting.

I sprinkled some chopped cilantro and salt on top, added two pits, covered with plastic wrap, and put into the fridge until our guests arrived. It was perfect! And oh so pretty. (Note: the pits keep it from turning brown. Worked like a charm — wtf Mom? Where have these tricks been all our lives?)

Zeke peeled and deveined the shrimp and set aside until I was ready to marinade in some lime juice, grated garlic, harissa spice mix, salt and olive oil similar to what we did a few weeks ago. (Really, Rei? This just isn’t as much fun without you.~Terri)

As we got closer to dinner, I heated a cast iron pan, added some olive oil, and put the shrimp in to cook. After a bit, I turned them over to finish cooking and managed to overcook them yet again. Ugh. But they were still tasty and the leftovers made a great snack before today’s tennis match (although I was burping garlic). Next time, I’m cooking the shrimp. You get too distracted talking to whoever is over at the moment. (Fair.~Terri)

See the other street taco post for more details on the shrimp and the marinade. Note: I had to refer to the post to remember what we did. :)

Once the short ribs were cooked, Zeke shredded the meat and removed the fatty hard-to-chew bits. I squeezed the baked garlic out of their skins into the meat and poured the juices over. I sprinkled a little bit of salt on it and it was ready to go. Yum, yum, yum!

And that was the last picture I took as our guests arrived as Zeke was shredding the meat.

While I enjoyed a gin and tonic and everyone else (except Rei regardless of what they might have said earlier) enjoyed the sangria, I finished up the shrimp and Rei heated the tortillas in a cast iron skillet. Those went into a basket lined with a cloth napkin that went onto the table. See? I did contribute!

I put the salsas into small bowls, put the crema into a bowl, and made sure all of the toppings were on the table.

I tossed the slaw with the dressing and got that onto the table after sprinkling with some slivered almonds.

It was all delicious but my favorite combo was the carnitas, tomatillo salsa, and radishes.

But now we have lots of leftover salsas and onions so we are having chicken nachos tonight (Sunday night). Zeke and Rei baked a chicken which we will shred and layer with all the goodies and some black beans. I can’t wait…I am so hungry right now.

These were sooooo good!

Rei, I know you didn’t do much with this but what would you say to adding some color commentary? You enjoyed dinner with us and I am sure you have an opinion about something. Hello! Are you done working on your Chem class project with your friends?

Okay, so here’s the thing: I have had a metric shit ton of chem homework this past week or so, and have been bogged down by it. Now that one project is due tomorrow, and the other right after the break, I can relax because I’m SO close to being done, and only have a bit left to do. So I will be getting back in the kitchen soon (We cooked together today, and I have a week off this upcoming week!), don’t worry.

With that said, onto the reviews!

The tacos were awesome; I loved the short ribs with the tomatillo salsa, cheese, crema, and probably some other things I can’t remember. The shrimp was nice flavor wise, but one of my biggest pet peeves is overcooked seafood, so I’m definitely claiming control over the shrimp pan next time.

Then, the nachos were absolutely delicious! We ended up making our own tortilla chips from the leftover tortillas from taco night, and they were so much better than the store-bought ones; flavor and texture. I feel like the tomatillo sauce (not salsa, that shit was perfect) was a bit unnecessary on the nacho mound (there’s really no other way to describe that thing; have you seen it?), but didn’t detract from the overall experience.

I definitely ate way too much both nights.

Anyways, I do still have a bit left to do on my first chem project (it’s a video and it’s not going to edit itself), so I’m going to dip (no pun intended; nachos are kinda dip-ish things, right).

Until next time, ciao, and have a hurlindrest day!

Rei and Terri :)