Smoked Chipotle Pork

This meal came about for two reasons:
1 - The Spanican Chicken was über tasty, so the hubs requested more meals in that vein
2 - I bought some new smoked chipotle pepper flakes, and wanted to use them.

The marinade for this started out very much in the same vein:
1/2 tsp smoked Spanish paprika
1/4tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp coriander
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp smoked chipotle pepper flakes
1/2 tsp salt
a pinch of cayenne (less than 1/8 tsp)
(above measurements are all approximations)
2-3 cloves of garlic, grated
1 1/2 TBSP olive oil

Stir all into a paste to combine and then rub into the tenderloin and refrigerate 3-4 hours.

When you're ready to cook and have let the tenderloin come to room temperature (20 minutes minimum) cook in a nonstick pan with only a splash of olive oil, about 6 minutes on the first side.

Then flip and place in a 425º oven for another 7 minutes or so, depending on the size of the tenderloin.

(.85lb-1lb tenderloins take roughly 7 minutes per side in my kitchen. 1.25lb - 1.75lb can take as much as 12 minutes per side. Read your package to determine the weight of your portion. These times are intended to leave you with a light pink center to the pork, but also, use common sense. If after 8 minutes your tenderloin is only opaque 1/4 of the way up, it needs more time before flipping.

For exact internal temperatures, refer to this post.) 

The char bits are flavor!

Remove the tenderloin to a separate plate and allow to rest 10 minutes before carving.

For the vegetable I made haricot vert, lightly sautéed with 1 very small clove of garlic, olive oil, salt,  and lemon juice. (Only about 1/4 of a lemon, or 1/2 tsp)

The brightness and crispness was a nice counter flavor to smokey tenderloin.

I rounded out the meal with a delicious side of leftover quinoa with chorizo, because what meal doesn't need more porky goodness?

If your family is craving something flavorful and smokey, this is your new go-to meal.

Spanican Chicken

First full day of Fall in NYC and the weather is still hitting 80º for the high. Tomorrow* it's supposed to be 85º!!! Apparently, what with the killer heat all Summer and tornado last week, Mother Nature is still miffed at us. And again, I don't really blame her, but it remains confusing. 

*Hey, Sassy. I know I'm seeing you tonight, but now you know what the weather will be like tomorrow, so ditch the sweater dresses until you're back from Italy! (Ya lucky stinker...)

After our delicious Mexican meal at El Vez the hubs and I were craving those fabulous flavors again. So, I tried to make a rub for our chicken that would in some way satisfy our taste buds with what I already had in my spice cabinet.

Remember: the hubs will not eat avocado, sour cream, cold tomato salsa, etc., so I couldn't make this all that authentic of a meal. However, the finished product would have gone brilliantly with some guacamole.

I have no idea if I was making something that was more Mexican or more Spanish in style, so, this is Spanican Chicken!

Please, no one be offended by my attempts outside my comfort zone of cooking.

I mixed the following herbs and spices together in various pinches:

chili powder, cumin, dried oregano, coriander, smoked spanish paprika, and ground cloves.

Once I was happy with that mixture I added one large grated clove of garlic, and just enough olive oil to make it into a paste with which to paint the chicken.

Is that a beautiful color or what?

Let the chicken marinate for a couple hours so the flavors can really infuse the chicken.

Also, I did not salt the chicken until right before cooking.

While I was cooking the chicken I decided that a side of black beans would go brilliantly with the dish, so once the chicken was done, I added half a can of drained black bean soup. (Yes, Goya's black bean soup. Not just canned black beans. I sifted the beans out. I did not dump the soup liquid. That is some tasty stuff! Also, it is what I had when I looked in my pantry... it's a TOTAL cheat, but a really delicious one.) I heated the black beans through in the flavorful oil left after cooking the chicken, and added about a tablespoon of dry sherry to the pan for an extra kick. 

Note: If using canned black beans (and thereby also cooking with onion, garlic, seasonings, etc) I would definitely do this again. However, if using black bean soup, I'd skip it as it is already quite flavorful.

Top with minced raw onion or shallot when serving.

A side of roasted potatoes, and dinner was well rounded and very tasty.

No where NEAR as tasty as the meal at El Vez, but it was a valiant effort, if I do say so myself.

And, obviously, I do.

San Francisco: Day 3

At this point we were ceasing to be hungry when we woke up, and so held out for better meals later in the day.

But first, a little more sight-seeing.

First we rode the cable cars from Union Square to the Cable Car Museum.

(Note: we bought the City Pass on Day One so we did all these museums for "free" as well as riding the busses, trolley cars, and cable cars as often as we wanted without paying. I say "free" because the passes are about $64 a pop, but if you're going to see a lot of stuff, it does end up being a good deal. The passes are good for 8 or 9 days.)

Ain't we cute hanging off a moving vehicle and taking pictures at the same time?

Both of our coats and my scarf were purchased while in SF... we planned poorly for the weather.

These giant wheels are part of what makes the cable cars run.

I'm still hazy on how the intersections work...

Ye olde(r) cable car.

Enlarge to learn how it all works.

After learning about cable car, we hopped back on one and headed down to the wharf.

This cable car brought to you by Atari.

Really.

The hubs was quite excited.

We stopped at Ghirardelli Square for some hot chocolate and espresso (and a free piece of chocolate just for walking in!), and watched two pigeons go absolutely berserk devouring someone's abandoned ice cream and waffle cone.

Ever seen avian brain-freeze?

It's pretty funny.

By this point the grandparents had arrived (remember I was going to SF for my nephew's first birthday?) so the hubs and I went to Haight/Ashbury so his dad could add to his collection of Beatles T-shirts.

Along the way I passed a bookstore that basically had my childhood in their window.

Wonder Woman, The Dark Crystal, The Muppet Show, Muppets Take Manhattan, A Wrinkle in Time, The Princess Bride, Grover...

Fraggles, Bob Ross, The Never Ending Story, The Last Unicorn (cropped below this pic), Heathers, Labyrinth...

It was all I could do not to buy the Boober Fraggle puppet.

This photo stolen from some other blog I found, as I forgot to take a picture out front.

Since it's in the area, we had scheduled our trip to Nopalito for the day we knew we'd meet the in-laws in Haight/Ashbury. And much to my surprise, it was the first time my father-in-law had eaten Mexican food! (Apparently his opinion is that all those tortillas get in the way of the meat.)

This is a great place to go and share your dishes. I started with the squid and rock cod ceviche, which had a lime and tomatillo salsa verde for sauce and sliced avocado on top. Very tasty, very tender, but I have to say the chips that came with it were stale as can be. Don Pisto's totally spanked them on that front!

Next I had the Carnitas (again) because you really just cannot beat slow-roasted pork. 

These came as kind of build-your-own, with the tortillas on the side (which I ignored) and sliced cabbage on the edge of the plate. The real deal however was the meat. Two hunks of pork, a bit smaller than my fist each, wrapped in parchment paper and served in a little dish of their own. Juicy, flavorful, and fantastic. I pretty much just dug into those with my fork and ignored the rest.

They make a decent margarita as well ;)

The hubs had the Quesadilla Roja (I think he was sold as soon as he read "crispy pork belly" in the description), my mother-in-law had the Enchilada de Mole (another first for her), and my father-in-law stuck with the Gordita, as he was wary of the menu.

Tho he had no trouble finishing my leftover Carnitas.

This meal was followed by a nap from which we really had to struggle to wake from.

But we had reservations, and I wanted to keep them.

Which brings us to Contigo, which is a little Spanish restaurant WAY past the usual tourist joints. After taking a trolley all the way to the end of its line at Castro Street, we then hailed a cab to drive us about 4 avenues south, all of which were residential. We came down an enormous hill to find a strip of stores and restaurants, including ours.

We were seated in the back garden, complete with heaters, and it was a very romantic little spot.

Unfortunately we were still somewhat full from our late lunch at Nopalito, so we didn't really get to take advantage of the small plates on the menu.

We split oxtail croquetas, which were jam-packed with meat, if a bit bland, a slow-cooked pork dish that came with peppers and some sort of farro-type grain in the gravy, and the coca (basically a flat-bread pizza) which had caramelized onions, spinach, kalamata olives, and manchego cheese.

The coca smelled divine, but every inch of the thing was coated with the onions, so it became too strong very fast, so we had the leftovers wrapped.

I was so excited to eat at this restaurant, but in the end it was my least favorite of everywhere we went. Very disappointing, especially when it was so hard to get there! (Not the traveling part... the getting out of bed part.)

So, lessons to learn: trust the locals, and trust your instincts.

Be wary of food publications.*

*Obviously you can trust THIS food publication... is this a publication? Hmm...