Cookbook of Author Sandra Gutierrez includes spicy Taco Truck Sauce
By Linda Cicero
It’s hard to believe Miami Book Fair International is celebrating its 30th anniversary. Remember when it was simply a street fair? Now there’s a heaping helping of culinary events alone. Besides cookbook presentations by authors there will be a VIP dinner and a roster of cooking demonstrations next week at Miami Dade College’s Miami Culinary Institute (see today’s Nibbles & Bits column for details).
The taco truck recipe here is from Latin American Street Food: The Best Flavors of Markets, Beaches and Roadside Stands from Mexico to Argentina by Sandra Gutierrez (University of North Carolina Press, $35). This is a wonderfully different cookbook, with expected recipes like guava and cream cheese pastries and Cuban sandwiches along with street foods that are less familiar to most Americans, such as Brazilian avocado ice cream, Peruvian fried squid ceviche, Salvadoran pupusas and Guatamalan Christmas tamales.
Gutierrez, whose Book Fair presentation will be at 1:30 p.m. Nov. 23, says of the sauce, “This is perhaps the most popular avocado sauce used by taco truck vendors in Mexico. A little sour and very creamy, it’s used to top everything from totopos (fried tortilla chips) to tacos and chilaquiles. The acidity of the tomatillos keeps the avocado fresh and vibrantly green for up to three days, if properly refrigerated. You can put it in a squirt bottle or spoon it directly onto your food. This recipe has a spicy kick, so if you desire a milder flavor, seed and devein the chiles.”
Q. I love the fish dip appetizer at The Federal on Biscayne. Can you find out how to make it?
Thanks to chef Cesar Zapata and Aniece Meinhold, who identifies herself as “Bar Wench, Pot Stirrer and Co-Conspirator,” we now know that the heat comes from sriracha hot sauce and the creaminess from a combination of mayonnaise, sour cream and Greek yogurt. They smoke their own fish at The Federal, over applewood, and marlin is preferred. But I simply relied on my favorite seafood market’s smoked fish and the dip was creamy and delicious with just enough punch. By the way, Food & Wine magazine recently declared The Federal’s Rocky Road Moon Pies with Salted Caramel and Bourbon Pecan Milk one of the best gluten-free desserts in America.
Savory pudding
Rosie, of Hazleton, Pa., asked if anyone knew of a Pennsylvania Dutch recipe for a savory bread pudding, made with vegetables. It was her grandmother’s favorite way to use up leftover vegetables or a too-bountiful harvest.
Betty H. of Hanover, Pa. sent the recipe here, which she said was a favorite of her own grandmother’s. “We come from a long line of thrifty farm people,” she said.
“We would never waste a thing. So this pudding would be made with the stale bread, the too-soft-to-put-up vegetables, or whatever was in the larder. It usually had no meat, but if there was some bits of bacon or ham or pork chop we’d stir it in before baking. My favorite way to make this is with butternut or delicate squash, but I’ve made it with zucchini and tomatoes or with pumpkin or even corn and peppers. This is an old, old recipe.”
I am always charmed by recipes that have a story, and I can imagine this one evolving one day when the bread was stale and the squash was ripening too fast. I think it makes a grand main dish, but if you see it as a side, pair it with something plain to offset its richness.
Source : http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/11/14/3751059/author-sandra-gutierrezs-cookbook.html
It’s hard to believe Miami Book Fair International is celebrating its 30th anniversary. Remember when it was simply a street fair? Now there’s a heaping helping of culinary events alone. Besides cookbook presentations by authors there will be a VIP dinner and a roster of cooking demonstrations next week at Miami Dade College’s Miami Culinary Institute (see today’s Nibbles & Bits column for details).
The taco truck recipe here is from Latin American Street Food: The Best Flavors of Markets, Beaches and Roadside Stands from Mexico to Argentina by Sandra Gutierrez (University of North Carolina Press, $35). This is a wonderfully different cookbook, with expected recipes like guava and cream cheese pastries and Cuban sandwiches along with street foods that are less familiar to most Americans, such as Brazilian avocado ice cream, Peruvian fried squid ceviche, Salvadoran pupusas and Guatamalan Christmas tamales.
Gutierrez, whose Book Fair presentation will be at 1:30 p.m. Nov. 23, says of the sauce, “This is perhaps the most popular avocado sauce used by taco truck vendors in Mexico. A little sour and very creamy, it’s used to top everything from totopos (fried tortilla chips) to tacos and chilaquiles. The acidity of the tomatillos keeps the avocado fresh and vibrantly green for up to three days, if properly refrigerated. You can put it in a squirt bottle or spoon it directly onto your food. This recipe has a spicy kick, so if you desire a milder flavor, seed and devein the chiles.”
Q. I love the fish dip appetizer at The Federal on Biscayne. Can you find out how to make it?
Thanks to chef Cesar Zapata and Aniece Meinhold, who identifies herself as “Bar Wench, Pot Stirrer and Co-Conspirator,” we now know that the heat comes from sriracha hot sauce and the creaminess from a combination of mayonnaise, sour cream and Greek yogurt. They smoke their own fish at The Federal, over applewood, and marlin is preferred. But I simply relied on my favorite seafood market’s smoked fish and the dip was creamy and delicious with just enough punch. By the way, Food & Wine magazine recently declared The Federal’s Rocky Road Moon Pies with Salted Caramel and Bourbon Pecan Milk one of the best gluten-free desserts in America.
Savory pudding
Rosie, of Hazleton, Pa., asked if anyone knew of a Pennsylvania Dutch recipe for a savory bread pudding, made with vegetables. It was her grandmother’s favorite way to use up leftover vegetables or a too-bountiful harvest.
Betty H. of Hanover, Pa. sent the recipe here, which she said was a favorite of her own grandmother’s. “We come from a long line of thrifty farm people,” she said.
“We would never waste a thing. So this pudding would be made with the stale bread, the too-soft-to-put-up vegetables, or whatever was in the larder. It usually had no meat, but if there was some bits of bacon or ham or pork chop we’d stir it in before baking. My favorite way to make this is with butternut or delicate squash, but I’ve made it with zucchini and tomatoes or with pumpkin or even corn and peppers. This is an old, old recipe.”
I am always charmed by recipes that have a story, and I can imagine this one evolving one day when the bread was stale and the squash was ripening too fast. I think it makes a grand main dish, but if you see it as a side, pair it with something plain to offset its richness.
Source : http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/11/14/3751059/author-sandra-gutierrezs-cookbook.html
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