Monday, July 23, 2007

Sunday Mexican

While in Zurich on Saturday we went to a shop Andrea found that sells Mexican ingredients. It's in Zurich, so the place is super overpriced, but it was still nice to find things like decent corn tortillas and dried Mexican chilies.

To celebrate, last night I made Mexican. I started by making a pot of black beans cooked with onions and garlic; I added some toasted cumin and coriander at the end. Then I made a bowl of fresh salsa: biokiste tomatoes, red onion, garlic, cilantro, lime juice, habanero (or the same family) peppers, and salt.

Shortly before eating, I cut up a yellow summer squash and cooked that covered over medium heat with some olive oil, onions, and garlic.

Our main course was thinly cut pork chops (nierstuck) that I seared in a pan and then topped with the salsa. Next to that we had the squash and the black beans topped with fresh cilantro and sour cream. Warm corn tortillas were on the side.

What a nice meal it was. I need to make salsa more frequently as long as we're getting tomatoes.

Of course we had a green salad as well.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm a big fan of Mark Miller's Pico de Gallo recipe (from his Coyote Cafe cookbook.

2 tbsp diced onion (more, really; rinse with water and drain well)
2 c tomatoes chopped into 1/4 inch dice
2 serrano chiles, finely chopped (substitute any chiles; I usually use jalapenos; vary the heat by de-veining or not)
2 tbsp finely chopped cilantro (parsley is a poor substitute, but I'm stuck with it as my wife thinks cilantro tastes like soap)
2 tsp sugar
2 tsp salt
1/4 c Mexican beer (really, any German lager will do; don't use anything too hoppy, like, say, Pilsner Urquell)
juice of 1 lime

combine all ingredients, stir and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes before serving to let the flavors meld. about the time it takes to sip your way through the rest of the beer bottle.

this also works well as a blended salsa, IMO.

greg landrum said...

hmm, the mention of blended salsa makes me think of chipotle salsa; which it's been WAY too long since I made.

I'm going to have to remedy that shortly