May 3, 2013 Three Great Meals: Brunch – Crab and Shrimp Salad Sandwich, Late Lunch-Rose’s Café and Dinner-Crawfish Etoufée Couscous and No Prep

May 3, 2013 Three Great Meals:  Brunch – Crab and Shrimp Salad Sandwich, Late Lunch-Rose’s Café and Dinner-Crawfish Etoufée Couscous and No Prep

At around 10:00 I decided to see how the flavors had melded in the crab/shrimp salad, so I cut a piece of French sourdough bread (Bosque Bakery) and toasted it for a minute and slathered it with crab/shrimp salad and poured a glass of Le Ferme Julien rosé and had a great breakfast/brunch. 

 

 

At 1:30 p.m. I drove to Rose’s Café at Mesa del Sol to meet with the owner, Rose, who is a client. Rose treated me to one of her Yucatan Specialty Dishes, pollo pibil soft tacos (Rose was raised in the Yucatan).  The plate included three warmed corn tortillas filled with chicken pibil, pickled red onions, a slice of avocado, lettuce and tomato and were served with moros y christianos (black beans and rice formed into a column in a timbale or ramekin and then inverted onto the plate plus a ramekin of what appeared to me to be a fiery hot yucatecan style salsa made with habanero chili that definitely lit up my taste buds ($7.75).

I apologize for not taking a picture of the dish but after lunch and our meeting I asked Rose how she made pibil.  It is complicated but easy.  First, you go to Pro’s Ranch Market and buy a box of El Mexicano Achiote Rojo paste, fresh banana leaves and a bottle of Goya Naranja Agria “Bitter Orange” juice.

Then you grill the banana leaves on a gas grill until they become soft and start to darken.  Then you remove the stem from the banana leave so you have flat strips of smoky soften leaves and you remove any extra charring from the grill. 

Then you make the marinade for the meat (either chopped boneless chicken thighs or pork cushion).  Rose starts her marinade with equal parts of achiote paste and naranja agria.  She grabbed about three or four Tbsps. of the block of achiote paste to show me the quantity she uses for a bucket that holds about three or four pounds of meat.  After the marinade is mixed into the meat, she sprays the bottom of her bucket with Pam and places about 2 oz.  of water in the bucket and then lays a layer of banana leaves on the bottom of the bucket and up the sides so she can wrap the meat completely in leaves (Rose freezes the grilled banana leaves so they are available at any time). 

Then she lays the marinated meat on the banana leaves and wraps the meat completely with banana leaves.  Then she places saran wrap over the top of the bucket to seal the juices in and then covers the bucket with aluminum foil.

Then she bakes the meat in the sealed bucket in a 225˚ oven for 2 to 3 hours until tender and it falls apart when flaked with a fork.

The pickled red onions are also easy.  She covers sliced red onions in white vinegar in a bowl and adds a dash of salt, pepper and some sugar and lets it sit 3 or 4 hours in the fridge. 

Here is a picture of Rose holding her pibil bucket and the ingredients for pibil. 

 

 

 

Pibil has a subtle indescribable flavor, is reddish orange in color, and is tender and delicious.  As you can see the flavors are driven by natural herbs and ingredients without the aid of any salt, pepper or other seasoning we usually associate with food.  Sort of a pre-historic dish and prep.

After going to the "Off Center" small house opening at Sumner and Dene Gallery, we went home and decided we needed to eat some of the accumulating PPI.  We both wanted Crawfish Etoufée but when I offered to make rice, Suzette said, “We have PPI couscous and greens in the garage.”  I immediately fetched the couscous from the garage and then fetched the etoufée and a couple of bottles of beer from the basement.

The etoufée had frozen solid, so we put its casserole on the stove to thaw out and heat.  I made some fish stock with the instant dashi and hot water and added about 1 cup of stock to the casserole to loosen up the etoufée.  Suzette heated a pasta bowl full of couscous and when the etoufée was heated to a simmer, we filled bowls with hot couscous and ladled etoufée over it for one of the best couscous dishes I have ever had.   It had all the attributes I think of a great dish of couscous having, soft steamed couscous filled with lovely greens and a spicy hot meat sauce to make a kind of meat and couscous and vegetable stew, in this case without the need for any harissa.   

I loved all the food I ate today and, unusually for me, did not lift a knife to prep or cook any food all day long other than to cut one piece of bread for breakfast.  

Bon Appétit