Ten recipes of ours that you should make right now

This blog is almost six (!!) years old now, and we've posted quite a few recipes along the way. Here are ten of our favorites.

Go make them right now!


Lamb Rogan Josh


While Chicken Pathia is the most popular of our reverse-engineered Indian takeaway recipes, Lamb Rogan Josh is probably the one we like the best.


Pancetta Tesa


Making your own Pancetta is super easy, and doesn't require any special equipment. The rolled version is a bit more involved, but still quite manageable. Using pretty much the same technique and then smoking it afterward will get you your own Homemade Bacon.


Taco Shop Hot Sauce


We use this hot sauce almost every day - particularly at breakfast. You should, too. The green stuff is pretty darn good as well.


Cream Cheese


Cream cheese is one of the easiest cheeses you can make. Infinitely better than the store-bought stuff.


Zesty Dill Pickles


We haven't bought a jar since we started making these simple refrigerator pickles. Our version is modeled after the taste of Vlasic Zesty Dills - twangy and spicy.


Smoked Almonds


Smoked almonds are quite possibly the perfect snack food. Once you start eating them it is very, very difficult to stop.


Chile-Lime Chicken


The salty earthiness of the soy-based marinade for this chicken works so well with the acidity and chile heat from the dipping sauce.


Fish with Spicy Lentils


"Spicy" here refers to complex, intense flavors, rather than heat. It is impossible to adequately describe how delicious the lentil base for this dish is.


Cochinita Pibil


Cochinita Pibil is pork with a complexly flavored achiote marinade, cooked in banana leaves. Pure Yucatán flavor.


Chori-Migas


We first had chori-migas on a trip to Austin, and they've been a breakfast favorite ever since.

So, there you go - ten of our favorite recipes. Go make them right now!

California Kebab & Beer Garden

Now that California Kebab and Beer Garden has been open for a year, I guess it is time we let the secret out.

Great beer selection, beers brewed in house (under the name "Amplified Ales"), good food and a comfy outdoor patio with an ocean view - what's not to like? Ever since they opened in our neighborhood of Pacific Beach, they've been our go-to spot.

Their house beers have been consistently good - particularly the Electrocution IPA.



The food is really tasty as well, and different from what you typically get in other craft-beer-centric spots. As you might suspect from their name, the menu is kebab-centric. Our favorite is the lamb doner. It is really good as a sandwich on pita, but we especially like it made into a salad:



Our favorite sides are their falafel and zucchini:



If you are looking for something over the top, look no further than the doner fries:



In addition to local craft beers, they also usually have a few lower-alcohol German beers on tap. On Wednesday nights they serve them in liter steins for five bucks - a nice way to enjoy a relaxed evening.



The sunset view from the patio does not suck:



California Kebab is located at the South end of the second level of the Promenade - in the spot that once was Da Kine's Plate Lunches.

California Kebab & Beer Garden
4150 Mission Blvd #208
San Diego, CA
858-270-5222

Baja Beer Fest 2013 in Ensenada

We really enjoyed the Baja Beer Fest in Tijuana last summer, so when I found out that Craft Beer Tasters were organizing a trip to the Ensenada festival this past Saturday there was no question but that we would head down with them.

It was great to see the continued growth of the craft beer scene in Baja. While this fest maybe lacked some of the individual highlights we had at the Tijuana fest, the overall quality was at a higher level and the festival itself was much better organized.



The food was good, too. We had some fantastic ceviche tostadas from La Guerrerense and an assortment of the always great seafood tacos from Tacos Kokopelli.

The Baja Beer Fest has become a regular thing - rotating through Ensenada, Mexicali and Tijuana - so keep an eye out for the next one and make sure to go!

Taco Shop Hot Sauce Recipe Revisited

We posted our original recipe for Taco Shop Hot Sauce almost three years ago, and since then I've been continuing to making it so that we always have it on hand.

Over the course of many, many repetitions, my technique has gradually changed. While the original recipe is perfectly fine, I now do a few things differently that I think both simplify and improve the process:

• I no longer make the chile paste separately unless I am using it for something other than hot sauce.
• I make a smaller batch size. The sauce can start going a bit weird after several weeks and making a smaller amount avoids having it last past its prime.
• I broil the tomato and the garlic now, rather than cooking them in a frying pan. It is easier and works just as well.

Here is the updated recipe. Go make some right now!

Taco Shop Hot Sauce

This makes enough to fill a small (8-ounce) squeeze bottle, with a bit left over.

Ingredients:

2 medium tomatoes (approx. 8 ounces)
4 garlic cloves (skin on)
Small handful (approx. 1/4 ounce) dried chile de arbol
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
2 pinches Mexican oregano
1 teaspoon kosher salt


Use your fingers to break off the chile stems and break larger chiles into smaller pieces. Get out as many chile seeds as you can.

In a small frying pan over medium high heat, toast the chiles while constantly stirring them around until they darken but do not burn (about
5 minutes). If your stove has an exhaust fan, you may want to use it.

Place the toasted chiles in a large bowl, discarding any seeds that fell out during the cooking process. Microwave a cup of water for 2 minutes and pour it over the chiles. Place a small plate on top of the chiles to keep them submerged. Soak for about twenty minutes.

Score both the tops and bottoms of the tomatoes with an "X" to allow the skin to peel away easily.

Put the tomatoes and garlic on a sheet pan and put them in the oven on broil until the garlic softens and the tomato skin begins to blister (5-10 minutes). You may need to take the garlic out before the tomatoes.

After cooling for a few minutes until you can safely handle them, peel the skin off of both the tomatoes and garlic. Remove any hard center bits from the tomatoes.

Put the chiles and the garlic in a blender, along with about 1/4 cup of the chile soaking liquid and blend until it forms a smooth paste.

Add the tomato and vinegar and blend until everything is well mixed.

You may need to add more soaking liquid to reach the consistency you want. The amount of water will very greatly depending on how juicy your tomatoes are.

Add oregano and salt to taste, giving a quick blend to mix.

Birrieria El Rincón del Oso in Mercado Hidalgo, Tijuana

We went down to Tijuana last Sunday to revisit Mercado Hidalgo and have lunch at Birrieria El Rincón del Oso ("The Bear's Corner").



As you might expect from its name, this place specializes in birria - more specifically, birria de chivo (stewed goat). The Sunday menu is more limited than what they offer during the week, but fortunately they were serving up the dishes we were after.

We had birria three different ways. First, the most traditional - a bowl of birria. They ask you what bits of the goat you want - we went with surtida (a mix of everything):



The meat was soft and succulent, and the broth was rich with a complex mixture of flavors. It came with a big stack of warm corn tortillas for dipping and rolling your own tacos.

The place is famous for their birria gorditas, so naturally we had to try one:



The masa shell was nicely puffy and crispy from frying. The birria meat inside was good, but a bit subdued. Spooning in a bit of broth from our bowl of birria livened it up considerably.

We also got a birria quesadilla - pretty much the same as the gordita, but cooked on the flattop instead of being fried:



The place had a warm and friendly feel - some tables filled with families on a Sunday outing, another occupied by a police officer downing a massive plate of food. Our waiter was very nice, and even though his rapid speech challenged my rudimentary Spanish we managed to interact without too much trouble.

We will definitely be back.

Uncommon cuts - Baseball Steak

It has been over four years since we posted our first "Uncommon Cuts" post on Bavette steak. While Bavette remains our favorite, we like variety and we get a few other less common cuts from Brandt Beef, the meat purveyor at our local farmers market. Pictured above is one of those cuts - a Baseball steak - cooked, resting and waiting to be eaten.

Basball steak is a delicious, small cut from the Top Sirloin:



Here it is with a dusting of salt, ready to be cooked:



After rubbing it with a bit of oil, it gets cooked in a hot frying pan for about 15 minutes - turning it every 3 minutes or so.



The result is a beautiful piece of meat, with a bit of crust on the outside and a nice medium rare center. Good stuff!

Feast of the Seven Fishes 2012 - Mexican Inspired

Because most of the seafood we eat comes from Baja California (via Catalina Offshore Products), we decided that it made sense to take our inspiration for this year's Feast of the Seven Fishes from south of the border as well.

Bay Scallop Ceviche


We kept this simple to highlight the lovely sweet flavor of the Bay Scallops - marinated for a few hours in lime juice with onion and Serrano chile and then finished with some cilantro and fresh tomato from the garden (yes, we still have tomatoes growing at the end of December).

Camarones a la Plancha


Cleaned, butterflied and briefly marinated in our "Taco Shop Hot Sauce" before a quick sear on a grill pan. So good.

Bahia Falsa Oysters


This was our first experience with Bahia Falsa oysters. They are a bit on the briny side for me, but I still enjoyed them. We had some raw (with a bit of  Taco Shop Hot Sauce) and some lightly grilled in the shell so that they were just warm, but not fully cooked. The oysters paired nicely with a bottle of Allagash Tripel.

Venus Clams and Carlsbad Mussels a la Mexicana


Another simple prep - steamed and then tossed with a sauce of barely cooked tomato, onion, garlic and roasted green chile. The Venus Clams were particularly nice.

Tortitas de Cameron Seco (Dried Shrimp Fritters)


Probably the most complex dish of the night. These fritters are made using an egg-based batter much like the coating on a chile relleno, but with the addition of ground up dried shrimp. They get deep fried, and then simmered in an earthy red chile sauce. Sherry liked these. I was less keen on them.

Cabrilla Grouper


We finished the meal off with fish and saucy black beans. The fish was two different varieties of grouper. The Cabrilla Grouper pictured above had a meaty, "tastes like chicken" texture.

Baqueta Grouper


The Baqueta Grouper was perhaps a bit less photogenic, but far and away our favorite of the two fish. It flaked in big, soft chunks and had a beautiful flavor.

This year our tally was six dishes and eight fishes. Keeping the preparation simple on most of the dishes helped make it a more relaxed affair than some of our past feasts, but no less enjoyable.