Beef heart skewers - Anticuchos de Corazon

anticuchos
Originally uploaded by chuborupert

My wife went to the South of the James farmers market and bought me a beef heart from a grass fed animal from faith farms (how romantic!) Now to her defense she did call me and walk me through what they had and I steered her towards the heart. I had been reading about peruvian street food, one dish in particular is skewered meats or anticuchos, with the heart being popular. I planned on fileting the heart marinating it then grilling it. I went with a basic chimichurri marinade instead of a more spicy version but this cut could easily take a chili based marinade. I watched an excellent demonastration video with the kids from Chris Cosentino's web site Offalgood.com



We then got the idea to record our own version... warning, it's not nearly as interesting and gets a bit redundant towards the end as I'm not very quick.

Butchering my heart from Eugenio Monasterio on Vimeo.

After the prep I marinated the heart filets in the following overnight.
5 cloves of garlic mashed
one large handfull of fresh parsley chopped fine
1/4 cup of sherry vinegar
tablespoon of salt
1/2 teaspoon of pepper
1/2 teaspoon of pimenton
1/2 teaspoon of cumin
1/4 cup olive oil

After soaking the skewers in water for a couple of hours (a step I usually forget causing them to catch fire) I threaded the meat on.
I tried to keep them a uniform size for cooking purposes.



I set the rice cooker up so we could have some white rice with it and went out to grill

peruvian grilled beef heart from Eugenio Monasterio on Vimeo.

They turned out very good with very tender flavorful beef taste, I would certainly make it again even though it requires a lot of prep. The kids really liked it, which makes me wonder if they were more into it as they were involved in the prep and anticipation of eating it.








South of the James Market
Shelter No. 2 in Forest Hill Park
New Kent Ave. & 42nd St.

Paella

ya esta lista
Originally uploaded by chuborupert

I have been practicing my paella making over the last several months. My main problem is that I tend to throw one together without much warning and subsequently don't have all the ingredients I would like to have at the time. For this paella, shrimp and tilapia make up the seafood, what it's missing is something (anything) green. some snap peas would have worked, maybe some roasted green peppers (actually I think I had some frozen but didn't think about it)
OK to start I peeled the shrimp and made a quick shrimp stock,
one onion
3-4 cloves of garlic
shrimp shells (I had a big bag of them frozen in the fridge)
I covered it all with plenty of water and set it on the burner.



At the same time I sauteed the shrimp and tilapia with garlic in the paella pan. I cooked it not quite through and set it aside.



I then grated a tomato (OK this sounds strange but it works great. You take a regular old tomato and grate it over a plate) This is sauteed with some garlic salt and pepper and then 1 tablespoon of pimenton is added. Sautee for a couple of seconds then the shrimp stock is added to the pan so as not to burn the pimenton.



The amount of stock added can be measured, but there is a trick with a standard paella pan. If you add liquid up to cover the screws that hold the handles in place (you can see the screws below, you want to just cover them with liquid)Then you can add a standard amount of rice (described below)



Once the liquid comes to a boil then you can add a single line (diameter of the pan) of rice down the middle till it reaches the top of the liquid. This is what I did and gives you the right amount of liquid to rice no matter the size of the pan.
The rice is then distributed throughout the pan.
When the rice becomes visible (as it absorbs water and water evaporates) then it is time to return the shrimp and fish to the pan.



You would also add the aformentioned greens at this time.
Several minutes later it's done



I tend to add too much fish or meat for the amount of rice in the pan, as traditionally this dish is about the rice not the other ingredients, but practice makes perfect.

Meson de Candido - Segovia

el candido original
Originally uploaded by chuborupert

A couple of pics from when we ate suckling pic and lamb in Segovia Spain this summer. Fairly evident how important the industry is to the town when you see the statue at the entrance to the city.
El Meson de Candido sits just to the side of the aqueduct of Segovia.
The suckling pig is served with a la carte sides and some good bread.



The pig is presented in grand fashion





and portioned with a plate to demonstrate it's tenderness.



It was succulent and worth the trip.

Tomato jam

tomato jam
Originally uploaded by chuborupert

Having an abundance of tomatoes I decided to make tomato jam.



I used a basic recipe from Mark Bitten,
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/20/dining/201mrex.html?ref=dining
but added some chopped green pepper as well.



It does take a long time to cook down but when done it is a thick sticky jam. Awesome on a hamburger or on a porkchop.