Fresh corn tortillas

Among other specialties available at the Buford Highway Farmer's Market are fresh tortillas, straight off the ... line. I have to admit that I'm never the one who waits over in the fresh tortilla area so I don't really know what they come off of. J patiently stands there with a collection of folks waiting his turn to pick up the packet. And I think it's like 50 of them for $2 or something insane.

I have to admit that I've always been a flour tortilla girl. Well, no. I started off as a strictly hard shell taco girl. But over time, they get boring, not to mention when they crack before you can even pick them up, you are basically screwed. So on my weekly jaunts to Willy's near the office with T, I changed up for flour tortillas. Eventually, I was able to upgrade to burritos which, if you know me, is rather amazing. So here we are a few years later. Our friends, D & R, introduced us to El Taco Veloz, which basically looks like a dive, but they have awesome tacos. Those carne asada tacos come in double-wrapped corn tortillas. And so I am okay with beef on corn.

Last night, when J picked up the corn tortillas and we had nothing in mind for dinner, we fried up some flank steak, dressed em with some avocados, onion, salsa verde that I made the other night for fish tacos, and crema mexicana. Yum.

This morning, we had warmed tortillas with scrambled eggs, shredded queso, lightly sauteed tomatoes and onions, and salsa verde. Very yum.

While I'm here yammering about tacos, I wanted to mention our fish tacos. J is in charge of the fish and the tortillas. He takes fillets of mahi mahi and marinates it in minced/diced jalapenos, lime juice, corn oil, and cilantro for 15 minutes. Then he usually grills it but the grill is not yet ready for the season, so we do it in our Krups 6-slice toaster oven.

-- An aside on this toaster oven. J and I first experienced this luxury when at my cousin's house for her wedding. It's a gift from the gods, really. It has a convection option which I admit I'm afraid to use because it cooks things SO FAST. But you actually can fit 6 slices of bread in it at once and it has nice even heat. We use it to toast all kinds of things (cheese on the top of french onion soup, a little (okay, a lot) of brie to go with apples, toast!) and also to get a nice high heat for things that can fit in there like a 2-bone venison rack. I recently picked up a Cook's Illustrated magazine, and they had a review of ~$200 toaster ovens. I'm happy to say that our toaster ranked #1! HOORAY! --

So back to our fish tacos. J takes care of the fishy, and I take care of the rest. Accoutrements for our tacos include:
- sliced green cabbage -- for crunch!
- diced tomatoes
- diced avocado
- thinly sliced red onion
- cacique crema mexicana (just crema mexicana, not agria. too thick!)
- minced cilantro
- salsa verde (recipe below)
- bottles of hot sauce. chipotle for me, habanero for J.
- slices of lime
- minced jalapenos (for J!)

Slap all that stuff in a nice warm tortilla. Yum!

V's salsa verde:
1) Blanche tomatillos in boiling water for about 1 min. Makes sure tomatillos are fully covered.
2) Let tomatillos cool slightly, then remove from the water (do not dump) and dice.
3) Drop into a blender:
- diced tomatillos
- hot water from the tomatillo blanching (I use about 1/2 cup for us)
- diced red onion (makes it sweet)
- roughly chopped cilantro
4) Puree!

There you have it. Enough salsa verde for ten. Well, that's what happens when I make it.

I know this is a very long blog, but there was one last thing I wanted to mention. On this weekend's jaunt to the library, I picked up a book called Not on Lov Alone: A Year of Delicious Dinners and More for Newlyweds by Jessie Carry Saunders. Hey, I'm not put off by any cookbooks based on premise if it looks interesting. The point of this book is to provide recipes for newlyweds that are relatively easy and so they can enjoy time together at the end of each day. I actually really enjoying this cookbook. I like the recipes and I like the stories that go along with it. Actually, now that I think about it, the author refers to herself and her husband by intials only also. I suppose it's all for anonymity.

Anyhow, at some point, the author mentions that she requested and received a pressure cooker (which she loves) for her birthday. She was so excited to receive it that she read the entire manual before bed. This immediately reminded me of my love affair with my meat grinder, which I almost hugged as I put the freshly washed pieces together and put it into the cabinet. I read the section out to J, and he patted my head and said, "a kindred spirit!" A kindred spirit indeed.

Okay, one last thing before I shut up. As you know, grey salt is all the rage. J has been patiently but unsuccessfully been trying to get me to switch to sea salt and I only really considered it after my sister said she switched. Well, we have started buying grey salt at Star Provisions and I bought three salt containers ($2.50 each and not like the $20 ones at Cook's Warehouse!) to store my grey, kosher, and sea salts. However, before I put my grey salt in its new home, I think I have to dry it in the oven and then grind it to a consistent size. The crystals as-is are huge and inconsistent.

Whew, that's quite a lot of writing. Maybe if I wrote more, I wouldn't feel the need to have such length dissertations!