Welcome to one of the most active flamenco sites on the Internet. Guests can read most posts but if you want to participate click here to register.
This site is dedicated to the memory of Paco de Lucía, Ron Mitchell, Guy Williams, Linda Elvira, Philip John Lee, Craig Eros, Ben Woods, David Serva and Tom Blackshear who went ahead of us.
We receive 12,200 visitors a month from 200 countries and 1.7 million page impressions a year. To advertise on this site please contact us.
|
|
|
RE: Arroz a la Cubana!
|
You are logged in as Guest
|
|
Users viewing this topic: none
|
|
Login  | |
|
   
Estevan
Posts: 1936
Joined: Dec. 20 2006
From: Torontolucía
|
 RE: Arroz a la Cubana! (in reply to srshea)
|
|
|
Your potaje americano sounds good.
quote:
When I was a young man I was aggressively attached to all things hot, but these days I tend to favor subtle and savory depth…
Same here. Pretty common story I think. (Any parallel to musical tastes?)
quote:
I go with the oregano since, as far as herbs go, it seems to have a bit of spiciness to it.
Sure, it's good. But thyme is my most commonly used herb.
quote:
I try to use cumin sparingly, as I really overused it during my sad, lonely days of veganism twenty years ago, and it brings up some pretty dark feelings.
Ay, pobrecito!
But cumin and coriander are made for each other - when cooked gently in the oil with the onions after the onions have softened.
quote:
And a little too much can make the kitchen instantly smell like a hippy group house, which is also an unwanted trigger.
No problem, just overwhelm it with this: 
Images are resized automatically to a maximum width of 800px
 Attachment (1)
_____________________________
Me da igual. La música es música.
|
|
|
|
REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE |
Date Feb. 27 2012 19:05:06
 |
|
srshea
Posts: 833
Joined: Oct. 29 2006
From: Olympia, WA in the Great Pacific Northwest
|
|
RE: Arroz a la Cubana! (in reply to Estevan)
|
|
|
quote:
But thyme is my most commonly used herb.
Estevan,
Yes! I was an habitual abuser of thyme for a long, uh, time. It was the first herb that I took a real shine to when I started cooking, but I try not to rely on it too heavily these days. And don’t worry, I still use cumin all the time, and almost always with coriander, I just try not to let it get too much of a foothold in a given dish and start up a drum circle…
quote:
No problem, just overwhelm it with this...
Careful, there. I'm this close to hitting the "block this guy and hide his messages" button!
|
|
|
|
REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE |
Date Feb. 27 2012 20:30:23
|
|
Richard Jernigan
Posts: 3430
Joined: Jan. 20 2004
From: Austin, Texas USA
|
|
RE: Arroz a la Cubana! (in reply to srshea)
|
|
|
All this talk of cumin..
Moroccan chicken, at the hotel Rif in Tangier:
Lightly brown a thick chicken breast in olive oil, toss in a half cup of sliced black olives, a chopped medium small tomato, crushed garlic to suit, cumin, basil, oregano and a little ground coriander seed. Cover and simmer until the chicken is done--maybe 15 minutes or a little more.
Serve with lima beans and a salad, orange juice or mint tea to drink if you're being Moroccan, a light fruity red wine if you're being an evil and decadent westerner.
RNJ
|
|
|
|
REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE |
Date Feb. 27 2012 22:06:03
|
|
Richard Jernigan
Posts: 3430
Joined: Jan. 20 2004
From: Austin, Texas USA
|
|
RE: Arroz a la Cubana! (in reply to Ron.M)
|
|
|
quote:
ORIGINAL: Ron.M
quote:
cumin, basil, oregano and a little ground coriander seed.
How much of each do you normally use? (I've only got the dried herbs)
Enough  I don't measure. I scatter the dried herbs around until the surface of the chicken, tomatoes and olives is well sprinkled. More than a pinch, less than a handful.
quote:
Also do you add any stock or water, or just braise in the oil at a low heat?
cheers,
Ron
The sliced black olives come in a 3.8 ounce (108 gram) can. I tip in about half the liquid in the can. It's pretty salty.
I failed to say that when the chicken is done, the stuff remaining in the pan is still pretty soupy. Put the chicken on a heated plate, and reduce the soupiness of the tomatoes and olives by bringing to a vigorous boil over high heat. It won't get really thick like gravy, but it will get less soupy.
RNJ
|
|
|
|
REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE |
Date Feb. 29 2012 21:17:25
|
|
Ron.M
Posts: 7051
Joined: Jul. 7 2003
From: Scotland
|
|
RE: Arroz a la Cubana! (in reply to Richard Jernigan)
|
|
|
quote:
The sliced black olives come in a 3.8 ounce (108 gram) can.
See... there are a lot of things that Americans talk about as just "off the shelf", but are not so readily available here.
Anyway I got whole Black Olives in a jar, but only used about a dozen of them.
For ages I've been looking at recipes with Black Beans.
In every Supermarket here you can get tins of Red Kidney Beans, White Beans, Black-Eyed Beans, Butter Beans, Mixed Beans etc etc...but never Black Beans.
Sure, plently of Chinese pre made Black Bean sauces and stif fry stuff...but no actual ready Black Beans.
So today I looked around in the dried pulses section and found a packet of dried Black Turtle Beans???
As I was waiting at the checkout, the lady in front of me had an American accent and was musing with the operator that she was from California.
I excused myself and interrupted and asked the lady if this is what I needed.
She examined them (actually she looked like an old ex 60's hippy) and said "Oh Yeah...that's them, you just soak them overnight and boil them, then simmer....Enjoy!"
I could see from her expression and sudden thoughtful hesitation when holding up the packet, that her mind had suddenly and unexpectedly drifted off to her younger self in a commune somewhere, wearing a mini skirt and T shirt and cooking the black beans in a pot over a wood fire and reading Jack Kerouac whilst others in the background sang Dylan and Baez songs to an untuned guitar...
cheers,
Ron
|
|
|
|
REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE |
Date Feb. 29 2012 22:05:51
|
|
Richard Jernigan
Posts: 3430
Joined: Jan. 20 2004
From: Austin, Texas USA
|
|
RE: Arroz a la Cubana! (in reply to Ron.M)
|
|
|
Ah well, I'm sure you have things we don't. Bought a can of black beans at the supermarket yesterday. They had at least six different brands, plus some others that were spiced up different ways. There are a lot more Mexican people in Austin than there were 30 years ago.
Speaking of Mexico, two friends and I spent the summer camping in Mexico in 1961, about a month of it in the high jungle in Quintana Roo and northern Guatemala. We stocked up on provisions in the market in Merida, Yucatan before heading out to the jungle. Couldn't find any red beans so we bought quite a few pounds of black.
In a Mayan village no more than three days' walk from the road it was my turn to cook. I set about preparing the fat little partridges we had shot on the trail, beans and rice. A crowd gathered to watch the strange habits of the gringos. Some of the kids had never seen beans of any kind. I suspect that most of the adults hadn't either.
It didn't surprise me that rice was foreign to the Yucatecans, but beans are a staple in central Mexico, and were throughout North America among the agricultural tribes when the white people showed up.
Jorge, our guide and translator was a kid our age, early twenties. We became good friends. Occasionally he would sample a few bites of our exotic cooking, but mostly he stuck to corn tortillas. I watched him for a full week while he ate nothing but tortillas and water.
In the 1930s while the excavations were going on at Chichen Itza, the Carnegie Institution sent a group to Yucatan to set the poor benighted Indians on the right path. They arrived at two conclusions. The Mayan method of agriculture was far more efficient than anything the Carnegie people proposed, and human life could not be sustained on the diet of the Mayans.
Jorge is about 5'2" (157.5 cm). The last time I saw him, 8 1/2 years ago, he was still going strong at age 67, working in his cornfield every day except Sunday. During our walkabout fifty years ago, on the rare occasions we had to cut brush to get to some interesting set of ruins, he could wear me down in an hour, and keep swinging his machete for another four hours.
I just read yesterday that when Cortez landed on the east coast of Yucatan in 1519, he asked the name of the place. The best the Spaniards could wrap their tongues around the reply came out to be "Yucatan". In fact their informant was saying, "I don't understand you."
RNJ
|
|
|
|
REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE |
Date Mar. 1 2012 7:07:20
|
|
 New Messages |
 No New Messages |
 Hot Topic w/ New Messages |
 Hot Topic w/o New Messages |
 Locked w/ New Messages |
 Locked w/o New Messages |
|
Post New Thread
Reply to Message
Post New Poll
Submit Vote
Delete My Own Post
Delete My Own Thread
Rate Posts
|
|
|
Forum Software powered by ASP Playground Advanced Edition 2.0.5
Copyright © 2000 - 2003 ASPPlayground.NET |
9.301758E-02 secs.
|
Printable Version
)