The Tinga That’ll Make Ya Sing-a
Behold the first meaty dish I’ve made in some time: Tacos de Tinga Pollo
On Monday, I was surprised by a buzz at the door. When I walked down the stairs to see who it was (our intercom system goes in and out…it was out that day), I discovered a package addressed to me at the bottom of the stairs. It was obviously from Amazon, and I had an idea that it was one of the cookbooks on my wish list. It was Rick Bayless’ Mexican Everyday, sent to me by Andrew’s parents. I imagine that they decided on this one after recalling the flank steak and poblano tacos I made for them when they visited in June. I also made a point of showing them all of the “exotic” and essential ingredients for Mexican cuisine I can find just a half-mile away at a Mexican grocery. It was a good choice on their part, and of course, I’ve already read through it, each and every page, including the introduction and index. OK, maybe not the index, but I definitely did sit down and read through all of the recipes and the introduction on Monday night before going to bed. And I decided which recipe I’d start with: Tacos de Tinga Poblana con Augacate y Queso Fresco. While Bayless’ recipe calls for boneless pork shoulder,
I used chicken breasts. Andrew ate pork tamales last night at Neuvo Leon and I wasn’t really up for pork tonight. I also did something a little questionable. Instead of buying some homemade (Mexican) chorizo to sprinkle on top, as the recipe suggests, I defrosted some soyrizo that I knew we had in the freezer. Like I said, questionable, but surprisingly good. Especially if you fry it up pretty crispy in some oil. It’s not like I was using it for my health after all, rather it was one less thing to buy (and carry home).
Again, I find myself writing this when it past my bed time, so I’ll post the recipe later in the week with some more thoughts and comments.
Figgin’ Focaccia
Andrew was wary when I bought figs last week. He said, “I don’t like that weird fig fruit spread that you and Johnna like. The seeds are weird.” I said, “You’ll like whatever I decide to make with these. I promise.”
And when I handed him a slice of warm Fig and Toasted Fennel Focaccia, he said, “Mmmm, this looks great!” But I could tell that he was suspicious. Then, he bit into it and raised his eyebrows in pleasant surprise. “Told you,” I thought, sing-songy in my head. His socks, however, were still on his feet, so I went into the fridge to find the saltiest thing I could find to compliment the slight sweetness of the bread. Kalamatas? No. Capers? Nope. Asiago cheese? Yikes, that’s been in there for a while. I need to pitch that. Ah ha. Chicken sausage. Yes, that will have to do. (I had looked at some pancetta yesterday while grocery shopping and decided against it. Now I wish I had picked it up.)
I sliced up the chicken sausage length-wise into about five or six pieces and grilled them in a hot pan. When the sausage was ready, I cut each piece in half and placed two smaller pieces next to each other on 2-inch x 2-inch squares of the flat bread. Then I brought this plate out for Andrew.
His response? “It’s like it’s my birthday, not yours! Thank you, thank you, thank you! This is amazing!” (It’s not actually my birthday until tomorrow.)
Again, I thought “I told you.”
Here’s the recipe. It’s somewhat of a hybrid between a recipe for Fig and Fennel Bread from Bon Appetit (which uses dried figs and untoasted fennel–is that a word? untoasted?) and Fresh Fig Focaccia from Cooking Light.
