Culinary Adventures with Camilla

One thing I will say about this shelter-in-place order: I sure am digging deep into my cabinets and using up ingredients that I didn't even remember that I had! In any case, Jake requested fish tacos for our 20th anniversary dinner last night. So, I went to a local fish market - we are allowed to go out for groceries! - and picked up petrale sole and rockfish. Then I had the Enthusiastic Kitchen Elf make a fresh salsa; and the Precise Kitchen Elf cranked out some homemade corn tortillas with a bag of masa that I had in the cupboard and the rabbit stock I had simmering on the stove from when I made Kouneli Stifado (Greek Rabbit Stew).   Ingredients makes about twenty 4" tortillas 3 C masa harina 2-1/4 C warm liquid (you can use water or stock) 1 t freshly ground salt 1 T olive oil corn meal for rolling oil for cooking Also needed: waxed paper or parchment paper, tortilla press (if you don't have a press, you can use a rolling pin...it just w...

After a fun afternoon at the park, I put the boys to work for our Cochinita Pibil dinner. They made the tortillas while I finished setting the table and plating our food. They did a great job!! And there's not much better than homemade tortillas. Ingredients 6 C masa harina 4-1/2 C warm water 2 t freshly ground salt 2 T olive oil corn meal for rolling oil for cooking Also needed: parchment paper, tortilla press Procedure Put masa flour in a large mixing bowl. Add water, salt, and olive oil. Mix in and let sit for 5 minutes or so. Begin working the masa with your hands to make the dough. Knead the dough for several minutes. If at any point through the tortilla making process the dough seems too dry or too wet, add a little more water or masa to the dough. Let stand for, at least, 30 minutes. This batch rested for over two hours while the boys played. Take a piece of the masa dough and shape it into a ball the size of a plum, or slightly large golf ...

If you're Italian, you probably know who Befana is. If you're not, she's a good witch who brings presents to kids on Epiphany - January 6th. So, yes, I lie to my kids not only about Santa, in December, but about Befana, in January. I'm sure there's a special place in hell for this sort of parental deception. Last year, R had been asking for a new tortilla press; his old one is aluminium and has some corrosion on it. I told him to just use parchment paper so our food doesn't touch the corrosion. But, behind the scenes, I found one made of wood and "Befana" left it for him. Funny side note: he actually said, "Mom, I know you're not Befana because you told me I didn't need a new press. Befana disagrees with you." Okay. So, one night a few weeks ago, at already 30 minutes beyond his usual bedtime, we had this conversation... "Mom, I need to bring 35 tortillas to Spanish class tomorrow." What??! It's...

I wanted to do a tamale with a Poc Chuc f eel to it for our Pre-Popul Vuh Picnic .  Poc Chuc is a traditional dish from the Yucatán peninsula in Mexico, the home of the Mayans. Nacatamales are from Honduras. But we love how steaming them in banana leaves imparts a smoky flavor.  Poc chuc is made up of two Mayan words: poc which means 'to toast', especially on hot embers, and chuc which is 'charcoal.' Traditionally it's made with pork;  Poc chuc , the way the Mayans did it, was a means of preservation. Wild pig was pounded to tenderize the meat and, then, cured with a salt brine and sour orange juice. It could last in the salt for months, then, it was roasted over an open fire. I opted to braise ours instead. And since I couldn't find any sour oranges, I mixed orange juice and lime juice. Read this recipe all the way to the bottom before making your shopping list. There are two parts! This made 2 dozen nacatamales. Poc Chuc Ingredients 2 p...

When I saw that Love & Olive Oil was hosting a Tamales Kitchen Challenge  this month, I was very excited. I needed an excuse to make  nacatamales again. However, the instructions came with a caveat: "...but they do need to be traditionally wrapped in corn-husks…." Hmmm...Honduran  nacatamales  are traditionally steamed in banana leaves instead of corn husks. Not wanting to break the rules of the challenge, I sent Lindsay and Taylor a message. The answer: "They're wrapped and steamed in the same way right? If so, definitely ok!" Fantastic. Here we go. So, while R went to his mandolin lesson, the Enthusiastic Kitchen Elf and I went to the Asian market for banana leaves and the Mexican market for Salvadorean cream (it's like a thin sour cream). Our nacatamales aren't completely traditional because I cook the meat before stuffing them and I also skipped the lard. This recipe made approximately 24 nacatamales . When you're working wit...