I am making Spanish tri-tip for Miriam’s birthday dinner. Spanish flavored meat calls for Spanish patatas bravas—roasted potatoes with a spicy tomato sauce. As served in Spain as a tapas, small chunks of potato are deep fried and the tomato sauce is poured over them. More modern—and fat conscious—recipes call for roasting the potatoes and then roasting them a second time after tossing them with the spicy sauce—producing a dryer, tomato-crusted tapas.
Karl’s Patatas Bravas
Filed under Potatoes, Sauces and Spices, Side Dishes
Daughter Miriam asked for Spanish tri-tip for her birthday dinner. Miriam had also requested a vegetable forward salad. Looking for Spanish style salads, I found Williams Sonoma ensalada mixta. The recipes I found online for this mixed salad included more protein than my last ensalada mixta.
Karl’s Spanish Ensalada Mixta
Filed under Salads, Side Dishes
Adapted from a Food and Wine recipe
Daughter Miriam asked for Spanish tri-tip for her birthday dinner. Looking for side dishes to go with the beef, gazpacho would be an obvious choice, but Miriam has been “off” garlic and onions lately—and gazpacho is really just salsa (tomatoes, onions, chilies, cilantro, and garlic) that has been blended into a cold soup. Searching the internet, I found a recipe for “white gazpacho“—made with apples, grapes, almonds and cucumber. A little tinkering and it would meet Miriam’s dietary needs.
Karl’s White Gazpacho
Filed under Side Dishes, Soups, Vegan, Vegetarian
Note: I mentioned these treats in an earlier post and I felt I could not mention them without giving the recipe.
While I am sure that my mother was not the inventor of this dish—wife Jan insisted that her mother’s name be added to the title—it was a common holiday treat in our house growing up. Sweet Medjool dates stuffed with crunchy peanut butter and dusted with powdered sugar says “Christmas” in my house. These are easy to make, but they do not last long—even when there are no children around.
Claudia’s & June’s Peanut Butter Stuffed Dates
Filed under Desserts & Treats, Holidays, Vegan, Vegetarian
Adapted from a Food and Wine recipe
Daughter Miriam asked for Spanish tri-tip for her birthday dinner. Looking for side dishes to go with it I found a tapas to use as a started. Dates stuffed with mild chorizo and wrapped with smoky bacon, what was not to love?
Karl’s Bacon Wrapped Medjool Dates Stuffed with Chorizo
Filed under Side Dishes
I made mini quiches for wife Jan’s Ethnobreakfast. Since I had never done this before, I was unsure how much of the egg mixture I would need to fill the mini muffin cups. I whipped up a dozen eggs, but found out that I only need to use ten. This left me with two eggs worth of my egg mixture. I decided to use it for my own breakfast.
Karl’s Breakfast Pan Quiche
Filed under Breakfast, California Fusion
Wife Jan is hosting Ethnobreakfast again and I am getting tired of endless variations of deviled eggs. Recently, I have discovered how to make the perfect short crust. Mini quiches came to mind as something new and different to experiment with. She is expecting 20 people to physically show up—some Skype into the meeting—so that means making at least 40 quiches.
Karl’s Mini Quiches
Mother’s Day is here and wife Jan has requested Indian tacos—to be clear American Indian. Indian tacos are most simply served as pinto beans on fry bread. Variations on the basic taco depends on tribe, available ingredients, and imagination.
Karl’s Indian Taco Bar
Filed under Beans, Main Dishes, Uncategorized
I am making Indian tacos this weekend and daughter Miriam cannot eat most of the salsas I am planning to make to top these Native American treats. Miriam is currently “off” garlic, onions, and chilies—which means I need a salsa that does not include any of these. Corn and mango came to mind and I went to work with that idea.
Karl’s Corn and Mango Salsa
Filed under California Fusion
Sunday, I made New Zealand venison hand-pies, they were very popular. One of the recipes wife Jan really likes is Volga German bierock—savory beef, onions and cabbage in a raised dough bun. She asked me to make them using the shortcrust pastry I learned to use for the NZ pies.
Karl’s a Bierock and a NZ Pie Walk into a Bar
Filed under Beef, California Fusion, Main Dishes
karllueck
Miriam
