(no subject)
Nov. 13th, 2007 10:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
which_chickApparently all I have to do to make Thai curry paste appear in my grocery store is to post whining that there isn't any. Fuck. I wish I'd known this ages ago...
I bitched about the Thai ingredient shortage here, including the line There is no Thai curry paste of any sort within fifty miles of my house. It was, as far as I knew, correct at the time I wrote it. However, in the grocery this evening, there was red Thai curry paste. I check religiously, see, on the grounds that it just might be there some day. Today was the day. I bought all they had, which was only two packages. I don't know if it's any good or not and I don't really want curry right now because I just finished up the green curry on Monday as a work lunch. It is not time yet for more curry... perhaps in a week or two.
Tonight for dinner, I took a swing at ropa vieja. I had shredded beef from the arm roast that I made on Monday and didn't eat because I was having pot roast for dinner at Heather's house. Crock-potted arm roast shreds into strings just perfect for ropa vieja ("old clothes" in Spanish). I looked at some internetwebmotron recipes to see the lay of the land and then (as usual) I didn't follow any of them.
In a large frying pan, I put some glug of olive oil. I added thinly-sliced red pepper (1) and thinly sliced green pepper (1) and smashed garlic cloves (5) and two jalapeno peppers sliced really thinly. I sauteed until everything was soft and floppy. I put in some apple cider vinegar. I put in some rice wine vinegar. (1 Tbsp each, probably. I don't have any white wine and maybe I should get some.) I added 1/4 teaspoon cumin and 1/4 teaspoon oregano. I added 1/8 teaspoon red pepper. Finally, when all of that was good, I added 1 cup of cooked, shredded, stringy-tender beef, salted everything well, and cooked it enough to heat up.
How was it? It was good. It had more vegetables (a lot) and less beef. It had no rice because I'm not doing as much rice as I used to do. There will be ropa vieja for lunch tomorrow at work, then it will be all gone.
I bitched about the Thai ingredient shortage here, including the line There is no Thai curry paste of any sort within fifty miles of my house. It was, as far as I knew, correct at the time I wrote it. However, in the grocery this evening, there was red Thai curry paste. I check religiously, see, on the grounds that it just might be there some day. Today was the day. I bought all they had, which was only two packages. I don't know if it's any good or not and I don't really want curry right now because I just finished up the green curry on Monday as a work lunch. It is not time yet for more curry... perhaps in a week or two.
Tonight for dinner, I took a swing at ropa vieja. I had shredded beef from the arm roast that I made on Monday and didn't eat because I was having pot roast for dinner at Heather's house. Crock-potted arm roast shreds into strings just perfect for ropa vieja ("old clothes" in Spanish). I looked at some internetwebmotron recipes to see the lay of the land and then (as usual) I didn't follow any of them.
In a large frying pan, I put some glug of olive oil. I added thinly-sliced red pepper (1) and thinly sliced green pepper (1) and smashed garlic cloves (5) and two jalapeno peppers sliced really thinly. I sauteed until everything was soft and floppy. I put in some apple cider vinegar. I put in some rice wine vinegar. (1 Tbsp each, probably. I don't have any white wine and maybe I should get some.) I added 1/4 teaspoon cumin and 1/4 teaspoon oregano. I added 1/8 teaspoon red pepper. Finally, when all of that was good, I added 1 cup of cooked, shredded, stringy-tender beef, salted everything well, and cooked it enough to heat up.
How was it? It was good. It had more vegetables (a lot) and less beef. It had no rice because I'm not doing as much rice as I used to do. There will be ropa vieja for lunch tomorrow at work, then it will be all gone.
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no subject
Date: 2007-11-14 07:14 pm (UTC)I guess sometimes we have to give the universe a clue as to what should be going on.
when you say vegetables in your ropa vieja, did you use anything besides peppers and garlic?
thought you might enjoy the pictures in this article
http://www.arktimes.com/blogs/eatarkansas/2007/07/arriba_swlr.aspx
no subject
Date: 2007-11-14 10:42 pm (UTC)Dinners at my house are not usually "Big hunk of meat w/ minimal supporting cast of veggies". Mostly I eat "Lots of Veggies w/ a small side order of meat" or "Lots of veggies, full stop." The reason I had so many peppers and onions in my ropa vieja was that I didn't want to add rice (b/c I'm watching my starches) and I needed something to fill up the plate because "dinner" is not half a cup of shredded, defatted beef.
Also: I have grocery store envy, big time.
no subject
Date: 2007-11-15 02:32 am (UTC)and onions and garlic aren't vegetables, they are staples of life. ;-D
most recipes I've seen call for carrots and tomatoes, in addition to the peppers and oniony stuff.
I think i've seen at least one referencing potatoes, instead of rice. if I were watching carbs, I'd consider subbing turnips in place of taters.
while I luvs me a big ole hunk of meat, we do eat a lot of veggies.
we had lunch at DH's mom's last weekend, and we had mashed potatoes, corn, dressing (turkey), greens, sweet potatoes, green beans, field peas and white beans. It would have been a good traditional southern meal, except there was nothing fried.
I'll send you more pictures later. I've still got some more groceries to explore. at the other end of the parking lot from Super Mercado Fresco is a Vietnamese grocery.