Links: Food

Recipes and techniques I want to try:

• Pan-Crisped Potatoes (from Mark Bittman at the NY Times)
• Roasted chicken breast (cooked with two pans - from The Cooking Loft on FoodTV)
• While I'm mentioning The Cooking Loft, I also want to try her Mac & Cheese.
• Chicken & Green Sauce (with tomatillos - this is more concept than receipe - found via Mario Batali)
• Enchiladas Suizas (Rick Baylee recipe, from Sur La Table; now that I know I can get what looks to be authentic creama at HEB, I should try this one)
• Lava Cookies (like molten chocolate cakes)
• Lasagna rolls from Giada on Food TV. I tried these once before and liked it overall. I think I want to review how America's Test Kitchen did manicotti recently and combine that technique with the flavors in this dish. Might work (or might not).
• Piquillo Pepper Pesto from Bobby Flay for HGTV Dream Home (skip to middle of page). Matt used this recipe as a jumping-off-point for our a sauce for our Valentines's Day dinner. He substituted Anaheim peppers, and it was delicious.
  

I can't get a link to show up, alas, but we are taking a class on Thursday at Central Market. It's another Tex-Mex class (we don't really need these for technique anymore, but it's a fun date-night for us). This one will be: Tacos al Pastor, Carnitas, Posole con Puerco, Refried Beans, Guacamole & Salsa, and Mexican Pralines. YUM!

Restaurants:

• So happy that Saccones has re-opened in our part of Austin (we've been driving out to Round Rock since the old location burned). Our verdict (after visting on Thursday - during their "soft open" stage) is that the oven isn't quite hot enough and staff not fully trained yet. But, my mouth was happy as I bit into our meatball-and-pepperoni pie. The new restaurant, located just south of Anderson Mill on 620, looks more high class than the old 183 location (nicer looking finishes, not many Jersey-themed-items or license plates). Not sure if that's good or bad, though. :)
• Continuing to enjoy Cupprimo. I admit I haven't gone all-out on the cupcake fad (or has it passed out of fad status by now?). But, among the places I've tried, Cupprimo is the best. Their carrot cake (special on Saturdays) is excellent -- good cream cheese frosting that's not super-sweet.
  

Best. Sauce. Ever.

I made this sauce for the second time tonight. Matt declared it to be "even better than your tortilla soup" which is high praise in our household. Great on tacos or rellenos, and would probably also be great on enchiladas, or perhaps also just as a dip.

I modified this from several versions I found online. I made it first last summer - in some small way inspired by an avocado sauce we had while at Frontera Grill in Chicago.

Avocado Tomatillo Sauce:
Ingredients:

• 3 to 5 tomatillos (3 if they're big, 5 if they're small).
• Small handful of cilantro (don't bother chopping it)
• 1/4 to 1/3 cup of onion, roughly chopped
• One serrano pepper, seeded and stemmed, then chopped pretty small (in case your blender doesn't chop it enough, you should start with this in smaller pieces)
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt
• 1/4 of a small container of sour cream. I think that's a 1/4 cup.
• 1 large avocado or 2 small ones
• Juice of 1/2 lime
• 1 (or maybe 2) cloves of garlic, roughly chopped (your blender will do the rest)

Process:

1. Remove tomatillo husks and rinse thoroughly (these are so sticky!). Put in a small pan, cover with water, then boil until they first turn a bit brighter green, then turn darker green. Allow to cool a bit, while you cut other ingredients. Then, drain off the water (but don't puncture the tomatillos) and put into the blender.
2. Put all ingredients into the blender and blend until quite smooth.
3. Divide into several of your tiniest storage containers (1/2 cup size are great). Keep one container out for this week, and the rest go into the freezer for later.
   

Tastes great when fresh (and still slightly warm) or also good cold (when unfrozen). A spoonful or two over grilled chicken in hot flour tortillas is most excellent.