Cheese Corner: Havarti

Havarti is a buttery, semi-soft cheese that works well as a snack with crackers, melts nicely for grilled cheese or quesadillas, and is mild enough so that no one could be offended by its taste or smell. One can purchase it plain or, if it is too mild for one's tastes, flavored with herbs and spices such as dill and caraway. Havarti is relatively inexpensive and makes a good substitute for Monterey Jack in sandwiches. My only gripe about Havarti is that it is often difficult to cut due to its softness (it tends to cling to the knife or cheese slicer), so that it is best to cut it with a sharp knife immediately after removing from the refrigerator, and then to let it come to room temperature.

Chili Lime Popcorn

For a spicy, healthy snack, make a large bowl of popcorn through airpopping or in a pot on the stove. Or, if you don't have an air-popper or lack the patience to make popcorn over the stove, heat up a bag of plain or natural flavored popcorn (butter flavor will not do for this recipe.) Cut up a lemon or lime into 4 pieces and while tossing the popcorn, squeeze 2-3 pieces into the popcorn (depending on how much you like sour flavors). Season with salt and chili powder while tossing, to taste.

Maui-Style Fish Tacos

Since I have been getting some mail from readers about fish tacos, I would like to share my recipe for Maui-Style Fish Tacos.
First, some background on these tacos. It has been several weeks since I was in Hawaii. While on Maui, fish tacos became an after-snorkeling staple that I enjoyed along with a cool cup of shave ice. These tacos were different from the ones I had eaten previously in Baja California. They consisted of grilled mahi-mahi over cilantro rice, topped with a garlic mayonnaise sauce, salsa, shredded cabbage, and served in a corn tortilla. Here's the version you can make at home:

Ingredients
Package of Corn Tortillas
Head of Cabbage, finely sliced
1/4-1/2 lb mahi-mahi, defrosted or fresh, cut into 3/4 inch squares
Olive oil for sauteeing
Mayo
Ketchup
2 cloves garlic
Jar of Salsa Verde (Green Salsa)
Bunch of Cilantro, chopped
White Rice
Garlic Salt
Lemons/Limes
Salt and Pepper

Cook a small amount of the white rice. Once the rice is cooked, add the chopped cilantro and garlic salt to taste and fluff. Set aside.
In a food processer or blender, add 2 tbps of mayo, 1/2 tbp ketchup, 3 cloves garlic, a squirt of lemon or lime juice, and a couple of shakes of salt. Process until the sauce is pink and there is no evidence of individual garlic cloves. Taste, and add more salt if appropriate.
Heat a pan with a tablespoon of olive oil in it. Add your mahi-mahi and season with salt and pepper. Saute until flaky.
Heat corn tortillas.
To assemble a taco, take a corn tortilla and apply 1 teaspoon garlic mayo sauce from top to bottom at the widest point. Spread a heaping tablespoon of cilantro rice along the strip of garlic mayo. Next, place enough mahi-mahi on the rice so that the rice is covered. Add a teaspoon of salsa verde to the mahi-mahi. Finally, top with as much cabbage as can fit in the taco and fold. Do this with the other corn tortillas until you are satisfied with the number of tacos you have made. Enjoy, and think of Maui.

The Ideal Barbecue Food

Today being Memorial Day, I am writing on The Ideal Barbecue Food as suggested by a reader. While I don't have outdoor space for a grill presently (though I'm thinking about getting a small grill for the roof of my apartment building), and hence had rotisserie chicken for dinner instead, I can still reminisce about the best food to marinate and slap on a hot grill. To keep you, the current reader, in suspense for a few more seconds, my hint about this item is that my vegetarian friends can enjoy it without reservation.
The Ideal Barbecue Food is...the grilled mushroom. This can be a white or crimini mushroom tossed on the grill as an afterthought, a marinated portabella mushroom, or, if you want to get fancy, shitakke or other exotic mushrooms from the market. The earthy, smoky taste of the grilled mushroom, along with its lack of cholesterol, and the element of surprise and sophistication it can add to summer dishes, is why I have chosed to elect this charred fungus to the prestigeous title of Ideal Barbecue Food. Served alone, on a sandwich, or with rice, grilled meat, and a squirt of Sriracha hot sauce, the grilled mushroom is incomparable.

14th Street Tacos

Editorial note: I realize I've been neglecting this blog for the past month, but weddings and banquets and Maui have kept me away from the computer. I'm back, though, and will be posting on a (more) regular basis. Still planning to officially "re-release" The Gourmet Gazette in all its blog-glory within 1-4 weeks. Below is a post I started working on in April...

On 14th Street between 8th and 9th in Manhattan, several women set up a taco cart on Sundays. This cart is the same one that sits near 97th Street on weekdays. Two dollars bought me generous serving of carne asada (grilled steak) on two soft corn tortillas. Metal containers hold condiments: avocado-cilantro salsa, salsa roja (the spicy stuff), pico de gallo (a mix of tomatoes, onions, and cilantro), and lettuce. Other choices are tacos with other meat such as chicken and pork, quesadillas, and gorditas--all sold for the same low price. A gordita was freshly fried and served with crumbed white cheese (queso fresco?) and bits of fried pork, which I promptly doused in avocado-cilantro salsa and a shower of lettuce. Nearby are other intriguing food vendors--a man hawking churros, women in front of glass pitchers of horchata and aguas frescas, and piles of tamales next to assorted odds and ends for sale. I plan on returning another Sunday morning for a two dollar taste of heaven.

Spicy tofu rolls

I am eating a lunch of spicy tofu rolls, along with cucumber rolls. Here's how you make them.

Make sushi rice ( short grain white rice + salt+sugar+rice wine vinegar, to taste). Spread on sheet of nori (seaweed). Add toasted white sesame seeds. Add slivers of cucumber and 3 long pieces of tofu, about the thickness of an asparagus spear. Top with generous squeezes of Sriracha hot sauce. Roll, then cut into 1/2 inch pieces with a sharp knife. Enjoy right away with soy sauce, or put in container and fridge for later.

Chipotle Websites

Who ever knew Chipotle had such a huge fanbase? For those who are shaking their heads in confusion right now, Chipotle is a fast food chain that serves burritos, tacos, and something called a "burrito bol". While Chipotle's menu is limited, and the majority stockholder is McDonald's corporation, Chipotle does manage to serve burritos that resemble those from California more than the ubiquitous "Fresca Tortillas"/"Happy Taco Grill" venues in NYC, and its Mexican-inspired fare was recently featured in an article in the Sunday New York Times magazine. Chipotle's ingredients taste fresh, credit cards are accepted, employees are happy to give you a sample, and Bell and Evans chicken and Neiman Ranch pork are on the menu.

Given these factors and others, there seem to be an array of websites with strong opinions about Chipotle. www.chipotlefan.com gives nutrition information (that convinced this writer to cut her burritos in half), forums for discussion (including a posting about the plausability of the "Chipotle diet"), recipes and advocates for a smaller burrito. This website also has an entertaining and somewhat silly feature, called a "burrito soulmate" search. There are websites that contain Chipotle fanlistings, and a site called www.chipotlelovers.com that contains articles, polls, and loads of other " 'potle"-related information/opinions.
On the other hand, Chipotle often inspires long, negative posting wars on the website www.chowhound.com and the New York blog www.gothamist.com recently published an entry bemoaning the sudden appearance of Chipotle on every corner.

While perhaps the buzz (and controversy) about Chipotle will die down in the future, at present there seems to be a great deal of interest--in traditional publications and cyberspace--in this tacqueria-style chain.

Bacon

Bacon isn't quite the villian it's been made out to be. While I don't recommend having two slabs of bacon with your eggs and toast on a daily basis, I've found that bacon is a vital component of several dishes. Take Cobb Salad, for one--bacon adds a neccesary savory flavor and crunch. And who ever heard of pasta carbonara without the smoky, charred taste of bacon?

When using bacon, there are certain rules one should follow:
1) Use small amounts to add depth to your dishes. People will wonder what's different about your bolognese sauce, fried rice, or chili.
2) Add it to tomatoes. Pungent, crisp bacon loves the acidity, sweetness and juice of tomatoes--some ideas are pizza topped with thin slivers of bacon, roasted tomatoes served with bacon slices, the classic BLT, and macaroni pasta fried with chopped tomatoes, onion, and bacon.
3) Use it to flavor seafood. My mother used to wrap trout in bacon, and shrimp and scallops beg to be wrapped in it and grilled.
4) Marry bacon to something sweet. Bacon-wrapped roasted figs or dates are a delicious starter to a meal.
5) Try it crumbled on top of: mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese, risotto, romaine salad, and soups (such as mushroom or clam chowder).
And finally, other considerations....
6) Don't eat everyday. Aside from the obvious health implications, the delicious smokiness and salty flavor will lose its novelty.
7) Give your cat (or dog) a piece. She or he will love you for it.

Exciting Link

The other day, while surfing one of my favorite food websites, www.chowhound.com, I discovered a poster's recommendation for a Vietnamese food website. Interested and a little suspicious (some posters are very enthusiastic about Vietnamese food but not very knowledgable), I clicked to check it out. The site is called Viet World Kitchen, and it is a creation of a writer named Andrea Nguyen from Santa Cruz, CA. It's fantastic, entertaining, and somewhat useful, with a list of common Vietnamese cookbooks out in print, archives of articles she has written (including a fascinating one on the ubiquitous, savory table condiment, Maggi), and a short list of recipes, among other things.

http://vietworldkitchen.com/

Bananas

Helpful tip--if you're heading out for a long day, place a banana in your bag. You never know when it'll save you....