Achiote paste is a brick-hued tiny cube of Play-doh strength Mexican flavor. Available at most markets – and Latin shops for sure – it’s about the size of six bouillon cubes and renders chicken and some hearty fishes with earthy, semi-spicy tomato-y goodness.
The stark contrast between its formal Mexican flavor and the sweetness of the tangerine sauce here makes a perfect mid-week poultry pick-me-up to bland breasts. Oh and marinater beware – wear an old shirt and even an apron because this blood-red paste will permanently stain any cloth on contact.
Makes 4 servings
Marinade
2 T achiote paste
1 T honey
1 1/2 T red wine vinegar
1 garlic clove
1 t cumin
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts cut into about 8 evenly sized pieces (so they all cook the same)
Olive oil
1 C fresh tangerine juice (Valencia orange can be substituted)
Handful chopped fresh cilantro
Combine all elements of the marinade in a small food processor and blend until a malleable paste forms. (Add a little more vinegar or a dash of water if it needs additional moisture.) Place the chicken in a Tupperware and spread the marinade evenly all over the chicken breast mini-steaks. Let stand refrigerated for a couple hours. Turn every now and again.
Heat oil over medium-high heat in nonstick skillet large enough to accommodate all the chicken at once. Sprinkle breasts with salt and pepper and brown in oil turning once – about 2 minutes per side.
Add ½ C of juice to the skillet and bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat to simmer and cook for about 15 minutes. Turn once halfway through.
When done, transfer chicken to a plate and keep warm with foil or set in a microwave. (not on, of course.) Add the rest of the tangerine juice to the pan and cook on medium-high uncovered until sauce thickens – about 4 minutes.
Serve chicken over fluffy, white rice and spoon sauce over breasts and rice. Sprinkle with chopped cilantro.
Chopped Mexican squash (about 3) makes a nice side dish, when diced and tossed with olive oil, pepper, chicken seasoning and garlic powder. Then bake in a single layer on a foil-lined rake at 450 degrees for about 10 minutes until soft. Ole!
Tags: achiote paste, chicken breasts, dinner, Mexican food, rice, squash
If the Nietzsche axiom is true – that which does not kill you makes you stronger – Nick Galvin is one of the strongest kids alive. And a hero for survival.
He was five years old when the accident happened. Romping through the hallways of his house, he was merely a boy being a boy when fate twisted his life toward fatality in the split-second it took for him to trip, and watch a large, heavy statue fall and crack his head.
His father cradled his son and then rushed him to the hospital. Nick had a basal skull fracture that pummeled his pituitary gland. The odds were long for him to live through the night, let alone the week.
Tags: Nick Galvin, overcoming adversity, strength of character, teen disability
Other than the Jews, hardly any ethnic group does comforting soup like our pals in the Far East. From Vietnamese phos to Chinese wontons or egg drop bowl to the Korean’s cold noodle soup, folks on the other side of the Pacific know how to put the slurp into a great meal. But the Japanese bowls of heartwarming ramen noodle soups may be the best to cure the common ills.
Tags: beef curry, beer, Japanese resturants, Los Angeles restaurants, outdoor dining, ramen noodle soup, saki, sushi
The primary axiom in real estate holds true for weekend brunch spots in Los Angeles: Location. Location. Location….well, that and bottomless Bloody Marys.
Tags: Asian food, Bloody Marys, champagne, eggs benedict, Latin food, mimosas, Santa Monica restaurants, sunday brunch in Los Angeles
“Larb” in our household is Thai for throw a bunch of weird, exotic ingredients into a pan of ground chicken and taste the sensation that comes out. This dish is both fishy and limey in the best Thai tradition. You can serve it as a salad (over romaine) or over rice – the better to soak up the gamey goodness.
SAUCE
1 lime, juiced
2 T fish sauce
1 t sugar
2 t chili paste (like Sambal)
MAIN INGREDIENTS
1 lb ground chicken or turkey
A handful of uncooked white rice
1 C chicken broth
3 scallions, roughly chopped
1-2 shallots, finely chopped
1 stalk lemongrass, husks removed and chopped
1 serrano chili, minced
1/2 bushel fresh cilantro, roughly chopped
A handful of fresh mint, chopped
To make the sauce, simply whisk together those four ingredients and set aside.
Place the uncooked rice kernals into a heated pan and quickly stir until they start to turn brown. When done, remove the rice to a mortar and pestal or spice grinder, and demolish into the rice is basically powder.
Bring the chicken broth to a boil, then drop to simmer. Dump in the ground fowl and cook uncovered for about 8 minutes. Then add the scallions, shallots, lemongrass and serrano.
Keep stiring until the liquid has mostly evaporated, about 5 minutes.
Remove from heat and stir in the sauce, cilantro and mint (reserving just enough of the last two to top when on the plate).
If serving as a salad, chop the romaine lettuce and maybe some cucumbers and top with the Larb. If dumping over rice proceed as planned. Before serving either, sprinkle some of the rice powder on top along with a few leaves of the chopped cilantro and mint.
Voila! Thailand has just invaded your kitchen.
Tags: chili paste, cilantro, fish sauce, fresh mint, ground chicken, ground turkey, lemongrass, lime juice, rice, salad, sambal, serrano chili, Thai food
Think of great pastrami sandwiches in Los Angeles and inevitably Langer’s Deli pops to mind. The only problem is that Langer’s pastrami sandwiches are not great, hell, they’re not even good. Sloppy, mayo-drenched cow patties with a load of slaw and butter-greasy rye bread prove about as tasty as a wad of wet sports section from yesterday’s LA Times.
A better bet – far better – for authentic, Texas-style pastrami sandwiches requires a drive toward Pasadena into the sleepy beak of Eagle Rock for that is where The Oinkster stinks up a small town with delicious, slow-roasted pastrami sammies.
If the eyes are the window to the soul, then Vernon Biever will forever be the conscience of the Green Bay Packers.
For 60 years, his pair of vibrant 20/20s witnessed and captured the images that made the team bigger than the game and larger than life. As staff photographer, he may have been the most important Packer to never wear a uniform or stalk the sideline calling plays. During an age before television had figured out how to showcase professional football, the images of Vernon Biever brought the hometown heroes alive in the mind’s eyes of the ravenous Packers faithful.
It has become an American national holiday. On the Sunday when the Super Bowl is played, the country stops. Families and friends collect around televisions armed with beer, brats, bravado and Buffalo wings to experience the ultimate water-cooler event.
As evidenced by the 2011 game on February 7, 2011, when the Green Bay Packers defeated the Pittsburgh Steelers 31-25 to win Super Bowl XLV, the game is bigger than the sport itself. On television, nothing eclipses the power of the Super Bowl. An estimated television audience of 111 million tuned into that game, making it the most watched program in history.
“If Jesus Christ were alive today,” minister Norman Vincent Peale said in 1974, “he’d be (watching) the Super Bowl.”
Sometimes you have to go through Hell to get to Heaven. In the case of Lionel Aldridge, he took the reverse path.
Aldridge was born on February 14, 1941, in Evergreen, Louisiana, and was drafted by the Green Bay Packers in the Fourth Round of the 1963 draft after a standout college career at Utah State.
While Packers’ coach, Vince Lombardi, was always wary of starting rookies, Aldridge cracked the vaunted Green Bay lineup in his first professional year. He quickly became a cornerstone of the staunch and stingy defenses of the glorious 1960s playing right defensive end opposite fellow Louisiana native and future Pro Football Hall of Famer, Willie Davis.
The annual Long Beach Crawfish Festival is a celebration of New Orleans on the Left Coast. With a good 15 food stands serving up a variety of po’ boys, fried catfish, gumbo, jambalaya, and red beans and rice, this is as authentically Cajun as one food festival gets East of Lake Pontchartrain.
The festival runs this weekend only (July 30-31) and is a claw’s throw away from the Queen Mary in downtown Long Beach. With a large stage billowing with Big Easy blues and Zydeco music beside two beer and wine tents serving quality hops from the likes of Harp and Red Strip, this is not your boring Budweiser-fueled fest.
