Fried plaintains
Today was a cooking day: arroz con pollo, Puerto Rican style. Fried plantains, too.
I really miss the Puerto Rican food I grew up with in New York City. Diana, an older friend I had when I was 17, made the best arroz con pollo on the face of the earth. She tried to teach me how to replicate it but I never even came close. I decided to try again when I discovered that a couple of the Mexican food centers in Berkeley carry Goya products.
Goya, oh Boya! Their advertising catchphrase sounded wonderful when the company’s 1980s spokesperson, actor Zohra Lampert, of Let’s Scare Jessica to Death fame, semi-whispered it on TV.
Goya is ubiquitous in New York City. Anyone who has taken the subway would have seen their ads even if they never cooked.
Making these things reminds me of trips to Orchard Beach with Diana and her large family. We would haul enough arroz con pollo there to feed an army, and pick up tropical sodas and other family members in the Bronx on the way. It took us a couple of hours to get there because there was no end to the stops for this or that.
Diana’s annatto-laced reddish rice — moist but still crumbly and never gummy — was the star of her arroz con pollo show. She had gandules (pigeon peas) in there, and capers, and sofrito, a fresh seasoning mix. So many wonderful things. She put it all together by feel and the dish was always spectacular.
We would eat it warm, and the chicken pieces – still on the bone – would loosen and pop out of the rice when you dug into it with a big spoon.
I still hear clashing music and family mayhem coming from all those jam-packed picnic tables at Orchard Beach on hot summer days. Now and then I’m sitting in the back seat of that loaded station wagon heading down the Grand Concourse full tilt as happy as WKTU’s disco beat.
I won’t bother giving you the recipe for the chicken because I need to work on it, but plantain instructions follow.
Senior prom tonight, and look out!
Matthew Valencia and Jon Hampton-McKean are heading out in style to the Stanford Court Hotel in San Francisco, California, for Albany High School’s 2006 Senior Prom.
There will be international food stations and dancing.
My senior prom was in the gym of my high school. Clearly things have changed.
Getting these two ready was a challenge since they wanted to look JUST SO.
Berry seems to have a built-in antenna that draws him directly to people who are going to a special event and cannot afford to have his hair all over them. The more you need him away, the more suspicious he becomes and the more tenacious. Throughout the late afternoon there were cries of, “Berry, get away from me!” and “Berry keeps trying to rub his neck on my tux!”
When they left, Steven, my mom and I had a nice dinner and watched a movie.
Matt and Jon rolled in about 3 a.m. – having taken the night owl bus to the East Bay from the Transbay Terminal – with stories of the grand food and class that pervaded the affair.
Ah, to be young men about town in the magic that is late-night Nob Hill and Union Square!
My friend Marq, an always-vegan, threw a surprise party for his partner, Tom, a mostly-vegetarian, often-vegan, where vegan food was served. Including the cake.
Now, as many of my friends know, I like to eat what grows in the earth and have nothing against vegetarian cuisine. What I don’t like is gluten that parades around as New York strip. You’ve heard the comments: “Oh, that braised portabella and tofu cutlet was sooo rich, just like steak!” No it wasn’t. It was a good braised mushroom and tofu cutlet.
When you think about it, carnivorous cooks often prepare vegan food without paying attention. Some dishes are intrinsically vegan, like hummus, and almost everyone likes them. Really, who among us doesn’t appreciate a nice bruschetta?
As long as there’s mouthfeel and a flavor profile it can put its shoes under my bed.
The food served at Tom’s party was like that. Methinks the chef went through quite a bit of olive oil.
Roast potatoes in duck fat
Today, Easter Sunday, we made a nice dinner of roast duck, potatoes roasted in duck fat and braised red cabbage. Duck fat…….mmmmmm. I was able to harvest enough to use for a couple of months.
Tea eggs
I also made some tea eggs. Wanna know how to make them? Check out the story I wrote for the SF Chronicle last year.
Easter eggs
We also made a nice batch of regular old colored eggs, too.
Happy Easter, all!
