Tortilla Soup

This may sound ridiculous to all you adventurous eaters out there, but I credit the beginning of my love for cooking and food to the California Pizza Kitchen.  That's right...  Not a semester with a family in the hills of France.  Not a backpacking trip through Asia.  Not a jovial Paula Deen-esque grandmother who cooked all the classics.  Nope, for me it was my three year stint as a waitress at CPK.  Corporate, chain-ey, California Pizza Kitchen.  You see, when you're waiting tables, you don't stop for meal breaks (at least we didn't).  You pilfer ends of loaves of bread from the slicer, grab a few gulps of water out of conical paper cups (having a water bottle in the kitchen was a health code violation), and if the kitchen makes a mistake, like chicken on a pizza when the guest said, "no chicken", you eat that mistake as fast as you possibly can.  So I discovered lots of deliciousness like balsamic vinaigrette, pesto sauce, and the insanely delicious wonder known as peanut sauce.

 

 

Oh.  And this soup.  At CPK, cups of soup were one of the few items that didn't have to be entered into a computer (and paid for).  So we'd all fill up on tortilla soup before a shift started, loading it up with crispy tortilla strips and lots of Cholula.  It's one of those food memories that instantly takes me back to those superhuman nights when I could work a 9 hour shift on my feet, and then close the bar next door with my cute coworker.

Lemon Meringue Cake

A few weekends ago we celebrated my Mom's Birthday with a surprise party. I'm not going to tell you which birthday we were celebrating, because I know better than that, but I will let you know that it was a big one, one that required some fanfare and attention. My Mom however, is the kind of person who hates attention. She loathes the idea of all eyes being on her, and she would rather someone else be in the center of it all. These were all things that she told me explicitly about a month before her birthday, when she expressly said that we were not allowed to have a surprise birthday party for her. She swore to me that she would never forgive us if we threw her one. I tried to reason with her, but she would not budge in her thinking.

So when my father approached me asking me to help him plan a surprise party for her, I very adamantly told him everything that my mother had said. I explained that she would be mortified if we had one, and that she would be very upset with us. To which he quickly replied, "I don't care." Apparently my Dad can be just as stubborn as my Mom.And wouldn't you know, but my Dad was right to not care? The party was a huge success, and my Mom had the time of her life. It truly was one of those magical evenings where everyone seemed to have a great experience. I'm just happy that the guest of honor didn't pass out or start swearing at us, because either reaction might have put a damper on the whole event.

We held the party at my place, and it was the perfect day for it.
The weather was absolutely gorgeous, sunny and clear, with just enough warmth for dining outside on the deck.

Pastel de Tres Leches

Happy Cinco de Mayo everyone! Hopefully your day today is filled with margaritas, chips and salsa, and possibly a slice of muy delicioso tres leches cake. The tres leches cake has become one of my all-time favorite cakes over the past few years. The first time I tried one was also the first time I made one, and I stared in disbelief as the recipe called for me to pour what seemed like an endless amount of a milk mixture over the top of the cake. So much that I thought “There’s no way this cake is going to be anything other than a big pile of mush.” But I took that first bite, and I was hooked. This was no mush; this was a big ol’ bite of heaven.
Moister than any cake you could ever imagine, cool and creamy with delicious hints of cinnamon; a tres leches is no ordinary cake. The name comes from the fact that the cake uses three different milks, usually condensed, evaporated, and good old fashioned whole milk. The cake itself is traditionally a sponge cake, which gets holes poked all along the top of it, and a milk mixture is poured over the top, saturating every crumb. It’s usually topped with some sort of whipped cream frosting. There's a whole lot of dairy going on in this cake, and it's all a good thing.
When I’ve made tres leches cake in the past I've always used the same recipe, which follows the more traditional version of a tres leches. There’s one twist in that the three milks that get poured over the top of the cake get heated up so that they become rich and intense, with flavors similar to that of dulce de leche. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that recipe, but when I decided to bake a cake for Cinco de Mayo this year, I wanted to try something a little different.

Roasted Salsa

If it were up to me, every restaurant would serve complimentary chips and salsa. That’s right, from Asian to Italian to French cuisine, I would be thrilled to sit down at a table and find a bowl of chips and some type of freshly made salsa. It’s my favorite part of going out to eat at a Mexican restaurant and usually the reason why I’m already stuffed by the time my meal arrives. And ok maybe it wouldn't be the perfect compliment to a plate of sushi, and maybe I would get sick of salsa if I ate it at every meal, but only just maybe, because I really do love the stuff.
Back in January I gave you my favorite salsa to enjoy during the winter months when tomatoes are really at their most lackluster. And even though the peak of tomato season is still a few months away, I just had to share with you my favorite type of tomato salsa when using fresh tomatoes. It would be the perfect addition to any Cinco de Mayo bash, as you don’t want to disappoint those who love salsa as much as I do. We’re a hungry bunch.

My cousin-in-law John makes a killer salsa that is the basis for this recipe that I’m sharing with you. He’s a lot more attentive than I am when it comes to salsa making though, and you can tell in the final result. I have a tendency to just sort of throw in everything I’ve got and hope it comes out good. I envy the care that he takes with his salsa, when I think about the haphazard approach that I use.
This is really less of a recipe than a basic idea behind a roasted salsa. As in any salsa, the amounts can be tweaked until it fits your liking. For example, it’s fun to experiment with roasting all or only some of the ingredients. Sometimes I like to roast the onions alongside the rest of the veggies, which makes them soft and sweet, adding a hint of sugar to the salsa. Sometimes I want a little more punch to the garlic flavor, rather than the mellowness that comes from roasting them, so I leave them raw. The important thing to remember with salsa, is that there's no absolutely right way to do it. So go ahead and experiment to your heart's content.

Corn Tortillas

Photo courtesy James Lopez

Last summer I had the amazing opportunity to take a trip to Mexico with my friend Lori and her family. We visited her Dad's side of the family who live in Hidalgo, a state in southeastern Mexico. The town in which we stayed was about a 6 hour car ride from the airport, on single lane dirt roads, through winding mountainsides. The small rural town was miles and miles away from any other cities, perched way up in the hills.

Photo courtesy James Lopez

The landscape was much more lush and green than I had imagined it would be in the middle of summer, creating spectacular views. We stayed there for several days, and slept in the family's house. The occasion for our visit was the birthday of my friend's Grandmother and her entire family and practically the whole town, was there for the celebration.

Photo courtesy of James Lopez

The birthday party was a blast and included two different mariachi bands, that had everyone dancing well into the late hours of the night.

Photo courtesy of James Lopez

The food was a specialty, made especially for the party. They prepared a kind of goat stew, and the goat was cooked underground, wrapped in large leaves. The meat went underground the night before the party and cooked there, until the middle of the next day.

Photo courtesy of James Lopez

Flour Tortillas

Today at Butter + Cream it’s going to be all about tortillas, and frankly I couldn’t be any happier, because they just happen to be one of my favorite foods. Whether used as a vehicle for meats and veggies, filled with cheese for a quesadilla, or simply eaten on their own, tortilla's are something that I will never say no to. I have had a long-time love affair with their round, chewy goodness.

Tacos are eaten on the regular at my house, usually at least once a week. From chipotle steak, mushroom and chorizo, to jalapeno shrimp, no taco is safe. Given our love of tacos, it was not a surprise that at some point I'd have to try my hand at making my own tortillas. And ever since that first fateful attempt, and exclaiming to myself "where have you been all my life?" I've been making them from scratch ever since.

Tortillas are one of those foods that just taste so much better when fresh. There’s nothing like a still warm, freshly made tortilla to elevate any Mexican meal. Flour tortillas are traditionally found in the northwestern Mexican states, such as Sonora where they are well known for their enormous, membrane-thin, flour tortillas. They are sometimes vulgarly called tortillas de sobaco, which means armpit in Spanish, since they are flung with amazing dexterity from one arm to the other, reaching the armpits.

This version is a little different than the armpit tortillas. These are thicker and fluffier, which makes them perfect for eating plain, straight from the griddle. And that just happens to be my favorite way to enjoy them. What can I say, I'm a simple person. A simple person who loves tortillas.

Churros

My friend Miguel is an interesting guy. He has an enormous amount of knowledge about sharks and dinosaurs, is an amazing artist, and collects bugs, reptiles, and other creepy crawlies for fun. And sometimes Miguel likes to buy things on impulse, such as a giant industrial sized churro gun. Also known as a churrera, the gun is basically a giant extruder, meant to handle large batches of churros at one time. Just the sort of thing that every home kitchen needs, right?
I agreed to help him with his first batch of churros, even though neither one of us had ever made them before. Luckily the batter was a cinch to whip up, and in no time we were pumping out the delicious fried treats. Here we are making churros like pros:
And man were those first churros tasty. Crispy on the outside, soft on the inside, and sprinkled with the perfect amount of cinnamon sugar. I think we could hardly believe we had created something so good. We made that first batch of churros about a year ago, and unfortunately I don’t think the churro gun has been in use ever since. In all honesty it was a bit cumbersome, and not exactly practical for the smaller batches of churros that we were churning out. Luckily churros are just as easily prepared with a piping bag and piping tip.

Chicken Enchiladas

 

Buenos noches!  Tonight was an enchiladorama...  But before I take you straight to Tex Mex heaven, there's something you should know about me.  I'm a runner.  In a few short weeks I'll be pounding the pavement in my third marathon, and I don't know how or why that happened, but it is a fact that three mornings a week, I find myself exercising on the mean streets of Culver City at an hour when it's still dark out.

I don't do this alone, which brings me to tonight's dinner.  11 of my running pals and I have decided that it's a good idea to enter The Relay, a 200 mile relay race.  On foot.  Through the night.  In the cold.  I want my mommy.  So tonight we had our first meeting, and in order to keep people from fleeing, I made enchiladas.

If you're squeamish about having guests over on a weeknight, you're not alone.  Life is hectic, and getting an impressive dinner together after a long day at work is daunting.  But there are two words that will keep your reputation as a domestic genius in tact:  Make Ahead.  All the dirty work for this meal was done the night before my guests came over, so all I had to do today was heat and greet.  Copyright that phrase please, I just thought of it.

Start with chicken.  I bought a whole chicken already cut into 8 pieces, but you could also buy a whole chicken and cut it yourself.

Cover the chicken pieces in a pot with water, and boil them for half an hour.  Doesn't boiled chicken sound appetizing?  Why no it doesn't, but this chicken will get mixed with all kinds of yummy flavors and baked into deliciousness, so fear not.  Once the chicken is cooked through, let it cool, and shred the meat with two forks.