Lots of fresh corn, okra, tomatoes, & peppers are available now in KCMO.
Two links of italian sausage, skinned
one chopped medium onion (I used red onion) {one could use shallots, I reckon}
two crushed cloves of garlic
1 tbs olive oil
Cut corn from 3 ears of fresh sweet corn
1 cup of chopped okra
1 cup of chopped tomatoes
1 cup of chopped peppers ( I used red & “yaller” peppers and about a tbs of minced jalapeño, or more, si tu quieres)
1 tbs Mexican oregano
1 bay leaf
Serve with rice.
I’m having to learn how to use a gas grill for something other than straight grilling.. it’s not like my smokers where I can use offset heat.
Here’s a nice pork roast I did for Memorial Day.
Got some of these yesterday at El Torito #3. My friend Marta was there (she’s the main cook at El Korita and was buying a passel of poblanos for the restaurant) and asked what I could do with them. She said “put them in a caldo or a soup”. So I did.
I had some stock from a dish I made last weekend, Chicken with Lemon & pine nuts. I sauteed a chopped onion and parboiled the garbanzos in salted water. I added a chopped red bell pepper to the onions and softened it. I added the garbanzos, some cooked chicken, then three pints of stock, and some cooked brown rice and simmered this for about 45 minutes. Here’s how the soup came out. It was great.
I was pleasantly surprised yesterday when I picked up a half dozen tamales for our lunch at Carniceria Camecuaro. I was expecting them to be in hojas de maiz (corn husks), but they were wrapped in banana leaves. These turned out to be estilo salvadoreño and were full of chicken & vegetables. Sort of like a chicken pot pie, but better.
Here’s a series of photos of one of these tamales.
Nearly done…
The vegetables included corn, potato, carrots, & poblano chile. The banana leaf wrapper adds a different flavor to the tamale; it’s more earthy than the regular hoja de maiz wrapper.
This one has wonderful adobado and al pastor tacos. The fish tacos are great, too. And they have carne machacada! I still haven’t had their pozole or menudo which are said to be some of the best in Kansas City.
They make their tortillas by hand and the people there are most pleasant. We like the signage.
It’s across Independence from the new (and spiffy) El Torito Market.
Wow.. this was great. They made their own beans and the cole slaw was not some bland and overly sweet grocery store salad bar mush. I was most impressed. This was for the grand opening at Local Pig, a an artisanal butcher shop that produces charcuterie in the East Bottoms. This is about two blocks from Knucklehead’s, a music venue where have I occasionally sat in on accordion at the blues jams, just north, across the railroad tracks.
There was quite a crowd, even when I got there a bit after noon. It was chilly and windy, in the 40s, but pleasant. There seemed to be a rather well-behaved crowd.
The plates were quite nice. The buns/rolls were amazingly good. Not some sort of Bunny Bread/burger bun dreck.
Here’s a photo of my plate.
If I had known, I could have gotten some ribs. But I didn’t. Here’s a plate of rib remains. Sigh. Whimper.
Lest we forget, the guest of honor… a noble beast..
And here’s the guest of honor with the woman who was nobly serving the Boulevard Ales on tap. Good work, folks!
Not forgetting, EL TORITO #3 (I think it’s number 3) just opened its new supermercado on the north side of Independence Avenue, across from ACE Hardware. It’s a really nice place to shop for comida and has a great carniceria.
22 guests chowed down on Praline bacon, BBQ shrimp, muffaletta olive salad bruschetta, spinach salad with tomato, red onion dressed with creole vinaigrette, shrimp creole over rice, onion and tomato pie, cheese souffle, sweet potatoes with cognac and pear, garlic cheese grits, king cake and bananas Foster… and much wine, beer, champagne and absinthe Suissesse.
Here’s the King Cake:
I had forgotten how lacking RVA was in regards to pan dulce. LA SABROSITA (on Midlothian) uses that horrid palm oil shortening and much of the pan dulce is shipped in from elsewhere.
Not so in KCMO & KCKS. Each panaderia has its own take on the maranito (or ginger pig). The taste is much the same, but each bakery produces a cookie with a different texture, shape, or glaze.
Here’s one from the La Reyna Bakery on Kansas Street in the Argentine (the actual name since there used to be a silver smelter here) neighborhood in Kansas City, Kansas.
The taquerias are also quite diverse in their takes on such fillings as carne al pastor. I shall report on this later.
Boy howdy! I’ve been seeing how easy it is to procure tamale-making materials and hardware here in Kansas City. The tiendas and carnicerias in the barrio where I live have several models of tamale steamers for sale. Here’s the bucket version, which probably works well on a cajun Cooker.
Of course, there are several options for masa, from the Maseca & Masa Harina commercial brands and the stores sell five-pound plastic bags of fresh tamale masa.
And the hojas de maiz are readily available nearly everywhere. I was at the big Asian supermarket downtown a few days before Christmas and Latinas were buying scads of packaged frozen banana leaves “para tamales de Navidad”. Just down the aisle I found a display of baluts (a Filipino bar snack of unborn duck eggs) right next to the durians. Nummers.
So fill up your steamers with tamales, folks!
Buen provecho, y’all. Y un prospero año nuevo!
Hijole! El Torito makes some of the best chorizo mejicano I have ever had. Just made some breakfast tacos with aigs, taters, serranos and their chorizo. Que rrrrico!
Carniceria El Torito
4901 Saint John Ave, Kansas City, MO 64123-1842
(816) 920-5307
Chickenfoot Soup 