Carne Asada Marinade*

 

* spicy

1 cup orange juice

1/3 cup lemon juice

⅓ cup lime juice

1 bunch fresh cilantro, chopped fine

½ cup soy sauce

5 cloves garlic, minced

1 tablespoon ancho powder

1 tablespoon Aji Amarillo 

2 tsp cumin

2 tablespoon sweet paprika

1 tablespoon ground black pepper

2 teaspoon finely chopped canned chipotle pepper 

1 teaspoon dried oregano

½ cup olive 

Marinate skirt steak 24 hour before cooking, the grill slices of steak until just done

Steve’s Steak Sauce

The destination of this sauce is your larder. No longer it ages, the better it gets. I save other sauce bottle for my own.

1 chopped onion

2 tbl olive oil

1 small can tomato paste

Start with 1 cup water, more to adjust thickness

2/3 cup orange juice

1 tbl kitchen Bouquet browning sauce

1/8 cup red wine vinegar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup sugar or enough to correct sweetness

1 tbl minced ginger

1/8 cup lime juice( juice from two limes)

1/8 tsp ground cloves

1/8 tsp ground coriander seeds

1/2 tsp mustard powder

1 1/2 cup raisins

1/3 cup honey

2 cloves crushed garlic

7 tbl tamarind paste

1 tbl ground orange rind

White, black and red pepper to taste

Pinch of thyme

Salt to taste

Sauté 1 chopped onion in two tbl of olive oil. Cook until onion is translucent. Add ginger and garlic, cook 1 minute then other ingredients and water. Cook to well blended, about 1/2 hour. Using a post blender, blend to a fine consistency. Correct the pepper and salt. Add more lime juice or vinegar as needed. Bottle in sterilize jars. The sauce will develop as it ages.

De Felici Artichokes Roman Style (Carciofi alla Romano)

Italy is the world formost grower and consumer of Italian artichokes. This recipe was described to me in detail by my waiter at Da Felice Trattoria in Rome’s Tedesco district. The restaurant has mixed reviewsdue the gruff nature of the owner, signore Felice, who has the tendency to bounce those he does not like but if you look like a “foodie”, your welcomed. The menu is not written down, the waiter will tell you about the days offerings. For many Italians, this place is a favourite and tend to fill up early for lunch. As I recall, it’s cash only.

This recipe is for globe artichokes.

12 young artichokes with stems attached

1 cup olive oil

3 crushed cloves of garlic

Pinch red pepper

1 cup table white wine

1/3 cup wine vinegar

1 cup water

Preheat the oven to 350F. Prepare a tin foil to cover the pan. In a small pan, add the olive oil and water. Heat the pan to a boil, add the crush red pepper, turn down the heat to medium, let cook for a minute or so. Turn off, add the garlic. Cover, and let stand for 90 minutes covered. This allows the garlic to infuse the oil. Add vinegar to taste.

Wash the artichokes. Using a sharp knife trim the outer leaves show the inner lite greener leaves show. Cut the top off, leaving 3/4 inch of the choke above the hearts. Using a peller, peel down the stem leaving the stem free of the outer tuff parts. Rub each artichoke with lemon juice as you prepare the chokes as you go so as the keep the colour. Place each choke, wash in water, then inverted, stem up, face down in cooking pan with our water/oil mixture. With all the chokes done, cover them with a large sheet of tin foil. Place in over for 90 minutes or until easily pierced with a knife.

Remove from oven. Carefully crack the foil, careful to avoid being burned by escaping steam. Allow these to cool, the either leave on counter or refrigerate to use the next day.

To serve, add chokes stem up to a small frying pan, add some liquid from the pan we oven cooked the artichokes in. Heat the frying pan to hot, put in preheated oven at 350F for 10-15 minutes until hot.

This restuarant is on Via Mastro Giorgio 29, Roma.