Fun Food for the OSU vs. U of M Football Game

Whenever Ohio State plays Michigan, I like to make good food and invite Michigan fans over.  Why would a lifelong Buckeye want Michigan fans in his house?  Easy talking smack is what makes the game fun.

Menu for the game this year is:

Tacos

Carne Asada

Halibut

Refried beans

Mexican rice

Guacamole

Hot sauce

See bottom of post for complete recipe list.

The recipes for the beans and rice are both from Authentic Mexican, by Rick Bayless.  I cannot recommend this book more, especially for people who left California and can’t find Mexican food you like in restaurants.  I will still explain the process I used to make these dishes.

 

First, Carne Asada, or grilled steak if you prefer, is simple.  I prefer to marinate the meat for a couple hours minimum, for this preparation I marinated it for a day.

3 Skirt steaks is what I use here.  You can use any steak you like, here in Michigan it is difficult to find pre-marinated and thinly sliced meat, like Carnicerias in California offer.  So typically I try to find skirt steak, or I  cut a nice flank steak into thin slabs.  Thin is important, because you want your Carne Asada to cook fast, and if you have nice heat, it will develop a nice crust on the edges.

I cooked on a standard charcoal Weber grill.  I wanted a lot of heat, so I bought a second chimney charcoal starter, to have two chimneys of blazing hot hardwood charcoal.

I use 1/4 cup canola oil, the juice of 1 lime, chipotle, ancho, and garlic powder, a few cloves of fresh garlic smashed, fresh cilantro, and pepper.  Rub this into the meat, no need to be gentle about it.  Put in the fridge for as long as you plan, I try to flip the meat in its container, halfway through the marinating process.  It is also important to remove the meat from the fridge 30 minutes before you plan to cook, this allows the meat to come back up to room temperature.  The meat being at room temperature ensure more even cooking.

When your grill is ready, slap the meat down.  I went 4-5 minutes per side, but it really depends on the thickness of the meat.  At 4-5 minutes a side, I achieved nice crunchy edges, with perfect medium pink, in the thicker parts of the cut.  My wife prefers less rare meat.  The nice thing about Carne Asada is what you may consider overcooked, when eating a steak can taste awesome in a taco or burrito.

You could use chili powder, which is essentially: salt, chile powders, garlic powder, etc.  But by using separate chile powders, first you get to choose which chile powder you like, and you get to control the quantities of everything involved.

Halibut steaks for fish tacos.

Not everyone present liked fish, so I only bought two Halibut steaks (made 6-8 fish tacos).  The first order of business was to trim the fish.  I removed the skin and separated the meat from the bones.

Next, I seasoned the fish lightly with chipotle, cumin, and pepper.  Considering, I am not a master fish chef, I sautéed the fish on the stove, rather than grilling it.  I cooked it on each side for 2-3 minutes.  The fish was not really thick, so I tried for a little color on each side, and just cooking through the center.  It was a nice even doneness, with no drying out.  In the midst of my frantic cooking, I missed taking a picture of the fish in the pan.  Here is one of the finished product though.

 

Salsa Blanco and cabbage for fish tacos.

No recipe here, basically mix 2-3 parts yogurt or sour cream (I use yogurt), to 1 part mayonnaise.  I also add cumin, coriander, salt, and pepper.  For the cabbage, you just need to thinly slice some raw green cabbage.  Since fish tacos should be served on corn tortillas, remember the tortillas are smallish, so you don’t want pieces as long as the head of cabbage.  I typically quarter the cabbage head, then thinly slice down the side of each quarter (or as many quarters needed, for enough shredded cabbage).

Now lets talk beans, the more you eat the more…

There are really 2 bean recipes involved.  Both from Rick Bayless, first is brothy beans, basically the simmered beans.  These beans are delicious if you prefer whole beans, or do not want the added fat, from refrying.  The second of course is the refried beans, in which you use the brothy beans and the liquid they cooked in.

The Brothy Beans recipe calls for 2 cups dried pintos, I used 1 lb.

First I rinsed the dry beans discarding discolored and floating beans.  Then I covered the beans in cold water, about 2 inches above the beans.  They are supposed to soak anywhere from 4-8 hours, or even over night.  For this dish I had 4 hours while I was in class to soak them.

After soaking, drain and rinse thoroughly.  Now you can add 6 cups water, chicken stock, or any of liquid you want to simmer your beans.  I used 6 cups of water, 1 large poblano pepper halved, 1 large onion halved, 3 cloves smashed garlic, and a few cilantro sprigs.  The recipe calls for epazote, I did not have any, and they still tasted great.  I used a couple tablespoons of canola oil (lard is best, but I was out of manteca).  Bring the liquid to a boil and add your beans.  Let this simmer for 1-2 hours (1.5 for me), or until the beans are tender.

Time to refry our frijoles.

Again lard is preferred here.  I was out of lard, but I remembered I had bacon in the freezer, so I rendered 4 Tbs of raw chopped bacon, to get some fat in these beans.  Once the bacon is rendered add 1 medium onion diced.  Cook the onion until you start to get some nice brown color on it.  Once the onion gets some color add your beans, I also added some cumin.  Here you are supposed to use a potato masher/back of a spoon/Blunt device to mush your beans.  Being that I was cooking all this food during TV timeouts, so I wouldn’t miss any football, I was lazy (or was I smart!).  I broke out my stick blender, and started to buzz my beans, slowly adding some of the simmering liquid from the brothy beans, as needed.  Once I had a nice thick, but loose texture I threw a nice poblano on the burner to char the skin.  When nice and black throw it in a paper bag for a couple minutes, then 1 dry paper towel later, your pepper is skinless and ready to chop up.  Add the roasted, chopped poblano to the beans, stir it up, top with cheese, and serve

Rice

Sautee onion until soft, then add rice fry it for a minute of two (this will keep it from sticking and add a nutty flavor), add tomatoes (fresh or canned), add chiles, pour in liquid.  Once your liquid and rice mixture comes to a boil, reduce to a simmer and cover.  Leave it like this for 20 minutes, do not peek.

 

Guacamole

This is my guacamole, there are some differences between it and traditional recipes.  The most obvious is no tomatoes.

The number of avocadoes depends on how many servings you want.  Typically, I find 3 ripe avocadoes to be sufficient.  I halve the avocadoes and scoop out the meat with a spoon, reserving the pits.  Next, I halve a lime and squeeze both halves over the avocadoes.  Then I use a potato masher to smash up the avocadoes.  You can use a fork/wooden spoon, or whatever you are comfortable with.  Now, I add 1/4 to 1/2 a finely diced white onion, 1/3 to 1/2 a bunch of fresh cilantro chopped, 1-2 cloves of garlic smooshed into a paste.  Remember to taste as you go on this, I tend to need to add more salt and pepper.  When my wife isn’t looking, I like to finely dice a serrano or jalapeno pepper, and add it too.

 

Hot sauce (Salsa Rojo)

Rick Bayless has great salsa recipes as well, but I freelanced on this one.

I used 5-6 Aji Rojo (Peruvian hot red pepper dried), 3-4 guajillo chiles, and 2-3 ancho chiles.  These were all put in a bowl of hot water to rehydrate, meanwhile I prepped my tomatillos, and opened my can of chipotle.  Once the dried peppers were somewhat hydrated (I did not keep track, but I would guess 1-2 hours in water, reserve the water), I put the rehydrated peppers and tomatillos on a half sheet pan, and roasted it all at 150º, for a little over an hour.  Keep an eye on this, because you do not want to turn the chiles black.  Once roasted, everything goes in a food processor, I added 1 large chipotle pepper and 1tbs of the adobo sauce the chipotle is packed in.  Buzz these ingredients up, add reserved rehydration liquid as needed, to reach the consistency you want.  This is on the spicy side, if you prefer mild, use less chiles and less adobo.  You can also use milder chiles as well.

Unfortunately, I have no pictures for this, but you can see the hot sauce in some of the other pictures of the table.

I cannot express how much better the steak tacos are with fresh fried corn tortillas.  My wife and I use a small frying pan to heat the oil, then cook one side of the tortilla at a time, using tongs to ensure when they harden a little they make a nice U shape.  Shredded pork and beef tacos, are the best with these fried corn tortillas.

 

Ingreient List

Carne Asada

3 nice skirt steaks (substitute flank, hanger, or any other steak you like)

Chile and garlic powder (any chile powder works, I like chipotle and ancho).

1 Lime

1/4 cup oil (canola, peanut, vegetable, etc.)

Few sprigs of cilantro

1 head of garlic (use as many cloves as you like)

 

Beans

1 Lb. of pinto beans

1 Large Onion (Brothy Beans)

2 Large Pobalno peppers

4-5 Cloves of garlic

Lard, bacon, or pork fat 4-5 tbs.

Few sprigs of cilantro

1 tsp. Cumin

 

Halibut

2 Halibut steaks

Seasonings of your choice

Oil for sautéing

Guacamole

3 ripe Avacodoes

1 Bunch Cilantro

2 Cloves garlic

1-2 Limes

1 Small white/purple onion

 

White Sauce (Salsa Blanco)

1 Individual container of plain yogurt or equivalent amount of sour cream

2-3 Tbs. mayonnaise

1/2 tsp. Cumin

1 pinch of coriander

 

Rice

1 Cup long grain rice (La Preferida)

1.5 cups water/chicken stock

1/2 15 oz can of diced tomato or equivalent fresh tomato chopped

1 chile serrano chopped fine

 

Hot Sauce (Salsa Rojo)

8-10 dried chiles of your choice

1 Can chipotle in adobo

1 Can tomatillos, or fresh tomatillos if you have them local