In these ‘Economic Times’ I feel it’s an obligation to push out a couple of pauper-esque reviews.  We have daily reminders of our recessed economy in the news, our television programs (What’s that? Dunder Mifflin is declaring bankruptcy?! Oh you sneaky writers for ‘The Office’, making your show so topical), and our daily life.  I am thankful that I do have a job and I can afford to run a semi-comical website that bitches about and praises food.  So, in that vein, a review about a meal had at home!

On a juicy Thursday in September  (it just doesn’t seem to cool down in Tampa until December), my old lady and I decided to cook a hearty homecooked meal.  We chose to create a veritable ‘smörgåsbord’ of Mexican food.  I made ‘Mexican Rice’ on the suggestion from my brother.  Sia made Carne Asada with a side of fresh lettuce, sliced avacados, tomatos, and sauteed onions/garlic/mushrooms.  We also prepared some Pinto beans dressed with finely chopped and sauteed Galric and Onions.

Here you can see a video of my idiotic-ass attempting to take a picture of the ‘Mexican Rice’, I managed to engage the video instead.

List of ingredients in the Rice:
2 cloves of Garlic (finely chopped)
1 white Onion
½ Jalapeno (I kept the seeds in)
2 cups Rice (browned in Oil prior to cooking with water)

Season to your likening with:
Ground Cumin
Salt
Fresh Tomatos
Bouillon

Preparation steps:
Sautee onions, garlic and jalapeno for 5 minutes.
Add 2 cups of rice to the mixture.
Brown the rice without burning it.
After the rice has browned, add 3 cups of water, bring to a boil, turn the heat to low and let sit for roughly 20 minutes.

I did find a recipe that follows the same guidelines and outlines exactly what to do fairly well; you can see that here.  A rule of thumb when cooking rice is typically 1:2, 1 part rice to 2 parts water.  You do need to modify this relationship as you increase the amount of rice you’re cooking.  So when I cook 2 cups of rice I use 3 cups of water.  If I’m cooking 3 cups of rice I’ll use 4 ½ cups of water.  The rice came out fairly well, but I felt it was a little too moist.  I likely needed to brown the rice more prior to introducing the water.

The Pinto beans with Onions and Garlic was fairly easy to prepare.  Sia heated up a sauce pan with a bit of Olive Oil and sauteed the Garlic and Onions.  Next, I turned the heat to low and poured a can of Pinto beans into the pan (I rinsed the beans first). You can focus on the other parts of the meal while this comes to heat.  Prior to serving, I topped the Pinto beans with a bit of Parsley and Cilantro.  The Pinto beans went very well with the Mexican Rice they had a considerable kick from the garlic.

At this point, you could stop and make this a vegetarian day.  The Pinto beans would give you enough protein (as well as flavor) and all I would introduce would be freshly cut veggies as a side.  If you are a ‘Meatatarian’ then you should gladly proceed with making the Carne Asada. I did find a much more complicated version of what Sia did here (the recipe in the link has you add Cilantro and Sugar). We only let the Flank Steak marinate for 45 minutes or so.

Ingredients:
1 or 2 packages of Flank Steak
Salt and freshly Ground Pepper
4 cloves of garlic (finely minced)
2 Jalapenos (kept the seeds in and minced)
1 tsp gound Cumin
3 Limes juiced
½ cup Olive Oil

Preperation:
Score the Steaks lightly with a fork and then put them in a ziplock bag.  Next, add the remainder of the ingredients and give it a couple of good shakes to get everything mixed together.  Make sure to try and remove any excess air in the bag before sealing.  Rest in the refridgerator for 1-2 hours if you have the time.

Cooking:
In a non-stick pan, with a splash of oil, bring the heat to medium-high and cook each side of the steak for a few minutes (until brown).  If you like your meat well down clearly let it cook a bit longer.  Cut and serve.

(you can see our terrible dog hoping for some scraps to fall through the glass to him)

As you can see, the result came out very well.  The marinade helped make the Flank Steak much tenderer as well as infused a whopping amount of flavor.  Each bite had a citrus punch that was refreshing.

Everything went very well together and I would suggest that anyone with some time and a taste for some spice try making this.  If I had a chance to do this meal over I would marinate the Flank Steak a bit longer and make the Pinto Bean dish from dried Pinto Beans.

The meal merited Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars.

-Matt in Tampa

I decided to review a meal I made at home.  Specifically a samich I made.  One thing to note, I love junk food.  I seriously love junk food. Pizza, burgers, tacos, wings, Thai, American influenced Chinese food… shit, you name it and chances are that I like it.  So, on a lazy Sunday I sometimes get lazy and order something or pick something greasy up from a drive through. Today, I was strong and picked up some fresh goods from the store, made a healthy meal, and arguably ended up having something tastier and likely ended up more satisfied/satiated.  The bonus of eating at home as I’m sure everyone knows, you generally get fresher products and you spend far less than you would going out.

I do most of my shopping at Publix.  Publix is a chain of grocery stores that started in Florida and is only available in the South.  According to Wikipedia, Publix can be found in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Alabama. For those of you from the North, it’s similar to a classier Kroger.  You can see a Kroger akin to Publix located in the Detroit area (Coolidge north of 14 Mile).  The only other way I can relate Publix would be to call it a less-hip Wholefoods.  It’s also considerably less expensive.  Publix does carry a decent amount of organic foods, at a premium of course.  Why am I describing Publix?  The reason is that I believe to make a great samich, you need to have great resources or components to include.  If possible I like to hit up one of the fruit/veggie stands to get my greens (as well as fruits), but Publix is a good stand-in when you can’t make it there.  A bonus of making it to the fruit/veggie stand is that you generally spend less and you generally get a larger amount of fruit or vegetables to pick from.  Here is what I used to make my samich:

First, the bread.  I love a great Rye bread or a Pumpernickel/Rye swirl. Depending on what you’re having, sourdough can also be great.  Unfortunately Publix didn’t have a great selection of fresh baked bread so I opted for Pepperidge Farm’s seeded rye.  Apparently this bread is ‘Jewish Rye’, I’m guessing it was somehow Chosen? In a literal sense I did choose the bread, and placed it in my basket so maybe that’s their angle:

The kicker for me after the bread is the primary component of the samich.  What should you slap between those 2 slices of carbs?  Why not something you love?  I happen to love pepper, thus I love Pastrami.  There is nothing better than a meat that has been brined, smoked, and then encrusted with pepper, garlic, coriander, paprika, cloves, allspice and mustard.  It lends a bit of crunch as well as some kick.  Today, I decided to go low-cal and got the Turkey Pastrami.  Publix offers their brand of lunch meats that are mediocre yet passable, but they also offer Boar’s Head.  Boar’s Head isn’t cheap but it’s worth the price… it’s like the difference between a hotdog and a good bratwurst.  The first will do if you’re in a bind for cash or it’s all you have but unless you’re 5 years old, you’ll probably want the meat that isn’t composed of tails and assholes.

Now, to take a samich worthy of putting in your mouth you need to add toppings.  I happen to love anything green and I wanted some crunch today.  I went with Alfalfa Sprouts, Cucumber, Tomato, and Baby Spinach.  The other direction I sometimes take is to add Avocado (in which case I’d skip cheese) or include pickles.  You can substitute Baby Spinach with some other leafy green like Romaine Hearts or Iceburg Lettuce, but I like the substantive taste and texture of fresh leaf-Spinach.  To note, I also added Swiss to top off the mix.

I don’t think it’s necessary to include this, but perhaps some folks don’t know… with Pastrami you always go with Mustard.  In particular, you should be using a Brown Mustard, it has a kick that normal mustard won’t deliver and will round out your samich.

For sides to my samich I included some fresh carrots, cucumber slices and stuffed Green Olives.  The olives were stuffed with Blue Cheese and tossed in some olive oil.

Now that you’ve been introduced to the components of my samich here is the assembled beast:

I love this samich because it has a little bit of kick from the meat and the brown mustard, but it also carries a diverse range of textures.  The sprouts add a somewhat earthy flavor that gets balanced by the clean flavor of the cucumber and the juiciness of the tomato.  The baby spinach added a great degree of roughage as well as added it’s own great flavor.  The olives were salty and acidic but were balanced well by the strong blue cheese. This is a samich I would highly recommend to anyone that loves a little bit of kick and is open to anything that will please the taste buds.

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

-Matt in Tampa