Thursday, October 14, 2010

Bitchin' Kitchen Thursday

I know I've been MIA lately. Sorry. I mostly PA TV series' and features these days, but lately I've been working a few commercials. The jobs are shorter day-wise, the days are longer hour-wise, but the pay is about $50 more/day than TV or feature jobs and the long hours can easily turn into double days, so the checks go a little further. I can't really go into any of the details this publicly without the threat of getting sued, but I hope that clarifies things a bit. Onto this week's recipe.

I lived in Barcelona for a summer about 7 years ago and have since returned twice, though I wish more. I lived in Segovia the following Spring. My two favorite tapas (Translation: snackies) were croquetas (Translation: croquettes) [Pronounced like the sport croquet with a -TAHS ending] and flautas [fl-OWW-tahs]. This week I will show you how to make two kinds of flautas, one vegetarian and one not.

The name flauta comes from the Spanish word for flute. The Castillian flauta is not to be confused with the Mexican flauta, which is like a large taquito and, incidentally, looks more like a flute than its Castillian counterpart, which is so named after the thin bread used to make it. The Castillian flauta is a bocadillo [boke-ah-dee-yo] or sandwich.

Castillian Flautas


For both kinds of flautas, you will need:

A thin, crunchy baguette 
Very ripe tomatoes
A little olive oil

If it's a long baguette, cut it into halves or thirds. Split the halves or thirds like the above picture, exposing the white. At this point, I like to rub a halved garlic clove on the bread, but that's just me. Drizzle a little olive oil onto the white sides of the bread. Cut the tomatoes in half and mush their centers into the bread and olive oil. Rub the tomatoes up-and-down the bread, covering each slice until they look like the ones above.

For the main ingredient, choose:

Cheese (Idiazabal)

-or-

Ham (Jamon Iberico)

and enjoy!!




I will try to be more blog-involved next week. I HAVE been reading all of your blogs, just not commenting as much lately because I've been reading from my Blackberry. It's a new model that I'm not used to and I have trouble doing much else with it right now, but I'll get better! 

Mahalo.

Thursday, October 7, 2010

Bitchin' Kitchen Thursday

I used to order avocado eggrolls at restaurants out here all the time. Unfortunately, one appetizer of the tasty treats is more than the average person's daily caloric intake. This is my healthier homemade version and it tastes just as good.  

BAKED CALIFORNIA CLUB ROLLS

 
Eggroll wrappers or tortillas
1 avocado, peeled, pitted and sliced
Monterey jack cheese, shredded
2 Roma tomatoes, diced 
1 chicken breast, grilled or roasted and diced
1-2 strips of bacon, cooked and chopped
Butter or margarine, melted
A little red onion, diced
Garlic powder
Cilantro

(Optional) ranch or thousand island dressing, for dipping 

1) In a bowl, mix together the tomato, chicken, onion and bacon. Stir in some cilantro and garlic powder to taste.
 
2) Assemble the rolls with a little avocado on bottom (too much will bland the flavor), two tsp of the above mixture and a couple pinches of cheese sprinkled on top.

3) Aline the rolls on a baking sheet and brush with melted butter or margarine.

4) Bake at 400 degrees F 12-15 minutes for tortillas and 15-20 minutes for eggrolls.

5) Cool on a couple paper towels for 5 minutes. Halve the rolls diagonally and eat!

Mahalo.

Monday, October 4, 2010

RE-RACK!

Let's buy 20 of these things and take beer pong to the next level!