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Now keep in mind I use the term po-boy for this recipe, and I will use it lightly. I say that only to the fact that this po-boy is not “dressed”, meaning, it is not slathered with mayonnaise and topped with tomatoes and thinly sliced lettuce.

As my wife was gone this past week, this was an opportunity for me to get my food on. As my kids were begging for me to make calamari, this was prime time to bring my clam chowder style sandwich into the spotlight, and wow, am I glad that I did.

Let’s get started.

(Makes One Sandwich)

Ingredients: [Print this Recipe]

• 1 1/2 lbs of clam strips, rinsed cleaned
• 1 cup of masa harina
• 1 cup of all purpose flour
• 1/2 tbsp salt
• 1 tsp cracked black pepper
• 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1 cup of buttermilk
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1/2 russet potato, skin on, cut into bite size cubes
• 1/2 onion, cut paper thin (mandoline works well)
• Tabasco Hot Sauce
• 1/2 loaf day old Jimmy John’s bread, or good submarine roll
• Bechamel Sauce (see below)
• 4 cups of canola oil
• More salt to taste

Ingredients for Bechamel Sauce:

• 2 tbsp unsalted butter
• 2 tbsp all purpose flour
• 1 cup of whole milk
• pinch of salt
• pinch of black pepper
• 1 bay leaf

To make the bechamel sauce, add the butter to a sauce pan and let it melt on medium heat. Once it starts to bubble, add in the flour, and begin to stir, incorporating the butter into the flour. It will form somewhat of a paste, but don’t worry. Your goal is to let the flour cook, stirring along the way, for about 3 minutes. Slowly add in the milk, and begin whisking, on medium heat, for about 5 minutes. Whisk the entire time. The flour will begin to thicken and make a nice cream sauce. Add in the salt, pepper, and bay leaf. Give a good stir, then remove from the heat.

To a medium pot, add in the canola oil, and bring it to a medium heat. Your goal is to get the oil to about 375 degrees.

To another pot add the cubed potatoes, and fill with just enough water to cover them. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat, and cook for about 8-10 minutes or until they are fork tender. Drain, and return the potatoes back to the pot.

During this time, prepare all of the ingredients as cooking the clams goes very fast, so you will want to be ready , keeping in mind that you will cook all of the clams in a few batches.

Let me pause here to give a good warning here. The goal is to make the sandwich. This is the ultimate goal. HOWEVER, when you remove the fried clams from the oil, and season with a bit of salt, YOU WILL TRY A FEW. Again, the goal is to make the sandwich. I will admit, that when I seasoned the first batch of clams and let them drain a bit on paper, and had that first bite, I was in heaven, and I began eating them like popcorn! So, if you can, stay focused!

To a bowl, add the buttermilk along with the egg, and give it a good mix.

To another bowl add the masa harina, flour, salt, black pepper, and cayenne pepper, giving that a good mix.

Add a handful of the clams to the buttermilk mixture, and while using your hands, make sure there are no clumps. Get the buttermilk spread evenly on the clams. Let them sit in there for a couple of minutes.

When your oil is ready, with a slotted spoon, remove the clams, letting the buttermilk drain back into the buttermilk bowl, then add them to the flour mixture. Using one of your hands, begin tossing the clam strips all around, making sure they do not clump up, and that all of the flour mixture is evenly distributed onto the clams. If you can, separate them, shaking off access flour, and place them on a tray or plate.

Add them to the hot oil, and begin frying. These will go extremely fast, about 1-2 minutes. Once golden brown, remove them with a large slotted spoon, or spider if you have one, letting the oil drain back into the pot, and add them to a wire strainer lined with paper. Season with salt.

Repeat until all of the clams are cooked.

Now let’s build that sandwich! You still have clams left right?

Slice your bread, lengthwise, but not all of the way through.

To the bottom, add the cubed potatoes. Drizzle with the Tabasco sauce, all along the potatoes. Top the potatoes with a good layer of the sliced onions. Top the onions with a heaping mound of the fried clams, then drizzle the top of the clams with the bechamel sauce.

PLEASE NOTE: If the bechamel sauce cooled up on you, simply bring it back to the stove on medium heat, add a bit more milk, water, or stock, and continue whisking until it is warmed through and easy to drizzle all over the clams.

Pinch both sides of the sandwich, open wide, and dig in. Not only is this sandwich super fun to eat, but it is everything you could think about when eating a clam chowder, but in sandwich form! You get the creamy potatoes on the base, the subtle hint of onion because they are paper thin, and the crunchy and awesome flavor from the clams. Not only that but you get the wonderful creamy bechamel sauce to boot!

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If you have never had, nor heard of pozole, it is basically a Mexican soup that has this wonderful corn, and is loaded with super tender pork, a simple stock (in this case a red stock), and is garnished with shredded cabbage, thinly sliced radish, and fresh cilantro. It is a soup to be reckoned with. In a nutshell, it is just plain awesome.

So lets get started on making this wonderful pozole rojo. Rojo by the way means red in Spanish.

Ingredients: [Print this Recipe]

• 2 lbs of pork shoulder, cut into 2 inch cubes
• 6 Guajillo chile peppers, stems and seeds removed
• 4 Chile de Arbol peppers, stems and seeds removed
• 2 cups of boiling water
• 2 large, white onions, diced
• 1 head of garlic, thinly sliced
• 12 cups of water
• 2 cups of chicken stock
• 1 tbsp salt
• 1 tsp white pepper
• 1 tbsp Mexican oregano, crushed with your fingers
• 30 oz can of Hominy, or Mexican corn, drained
• 1 lime, quartered
• 10 radishes, thinly sliced
• 3 cups of green cabbage, thinly shredded
• Fresh cilantro
• Fresh Jalapeno peppers, seeds removed, sliced (optional)
• Tortilla chips or fresh corn tortillas (optional)

Begin by hydrating the peppers. Add the chile peppers to the two cups of boiling water, cover, and set aside for about 30 minutes.

Next, add the pork to your soup pot. Cover with the 12 cups of water, and bring to a boil. Once boiling, reduce the heat to medium. During this time, start skimming the brown foam that comes to the top of your stock, and start discarding that. Continue this process until you no longer have those impurities. Continue cooking the pork for about 2 1/2 hours, until the meat is super tender. Once the meat is cooked, remove the meat with a slotted spoon and place in a bowl. Let the meat cool so that you can handle it with your fingers.

Once the chiles have rehydrated, add them to a blender with about 1 cup of the water that they were hydrating in. Add the two cups of chicken stock to the blender, along with the salt, pepper, and garlic.  Blend until you have a very smooth mixture.

If you have a mesh strainer, now is the time to use it. Your goal is to add the blended chile mixture through the strainer, just in case there are any portions of the flesh from the chile peppers. Strain that directly into the pork stock and give a good stir. You now have the beginnings of your red stock, the rojo in pozole rojo. Give yourself a pat on the back, and carry onward.

Once the meat is cooled, tear it up into manageable bite size pieces and add it to the stock. Toss in the diced onions, as well as the strained hominy. Give it a good stir, bring it to a simmer, cover and let it cook for an additional two hours.

Once the soup is cooked, give a couple of good ladles of the soup into your bowl, and top with the jalapeno slices, radishes, cabbage, cilantro, and lime. Not all of it, just generous serving of each.

To eat, well,  you can probably figure this one out. Get your spoon and tortilla chip ready. Mix the cabbage into the soup, along with some of the radishes and cilantro, and dig in. Every bite is amazing. Tender bites of delicious pork pairs ever so nicely with the subtle heat of the stock. Then you can the tender bites of hominy and the crunchiness of the cabbage and radish. Wow! Comfort in every bite. This batch of pozole can be eaten of the course of a few days, and gets better every day.

Classic, comforting, and truly Mexican, this pozole rojo is worth making. Trust me.

Shortly after the kids ran madly from the school bus, returning home from school, they rushed into the house with excitement knowing that they were going to Rocky Rococo. Rocky Rococo, I think, is a midwestern pizza joint, where in the past, they served up some fairly descent pizza. It was not thin crust, or deep dish, but it was a pizza unlike no other. It was, in my opinion a Sicilian style pizza. I remember it being good.

When we arrived, three people were in the very large restaurant (not a good sign on a Thursday night at 6pm), and we ordered from the somewhat, hectic manager. My eyes looked upward at their menu, and as my kids rattled off what they wanted (cheese, cheese and pepperoni x2), I decided I would go with the classic cheese and sausage. That cheese and sausage is what I remembered the last time I had Rocky Rococo’s.

The fierce intensity of making these pizzas was beginning to annoy me. I like to watch people in the kitchen cooking my food, so don’t get me wrong. What was so stressful about making four pizzas that arrive in rectangular boxes, a box design that was totally out of style? These are not enormous, single serving slices. No clue, but about twenty minutes later, our pizzas arrived. By the way, no one else had arrived to order since that time.

My first bite. Gnarly, and not in a good way. 20 minutes? Stress upon taking my order, and panic on knowing how to cook a classic? Not impressed. But as I talked about the day with my kids (the best part of the meal), they were not phased about how unpleasant I was, and furthermore, my oldest asked if he could have another ‘square’. My time is precious with my kids, so as the good father that I am, I went back to the stressed out manager and asked for another slice of cheese and pepperoni slice, or rectangle,or whatever shape, only hoping that I was not going to have to wait another 20 minutes for a slice of pizza!

With that experience, I decided that I will never go back to that Rocky Rococo. I’m sorry to say that, as after all it is an establishment that I would like to support in my neighborhood.  A classic joint with some history, but I’m sorry, your pizza did not cut it. Hence why I decided to make my own, and I will not call it Rocky Rococo style pizza, but instead a Sicilian style pizza.

Let’s get started.

Ingredients: [Print this Recipe]

• My pizza dough, or  about 2 lbs of pre-made pizza dough
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tbsp dried oregano, pinched with your fingers
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp cracked black pepper
• 15 oz can of tomato sauce
• 3 cups mozzarella cheese, shredded
• Pepperoni slices to cover, leaving 1 inch gaps
• Fresh Italian sausage, pinched, casings removed (optional)
• Sardines, flaked (optional)
• 1/2 cup red onion (diced), optional
• Black olives, sliced, optional
• Grated parmesan cheese, optional
• Your favorite pizza ingredients, optional

My kids are still, believe it or not, in the basic pizza eating style. They like either cheese, cheese and sausage, or cheese and pepperoni. I will focus on a 50/50 cheese and sausage/cheese and pepperoni, but as the man that I am, I recommend the red onion, sardines, and olives. You know what you like, so go for it. Just stick with the dough and process, and you should be good to go.

Begin by making the dough. Let it rise. It takes a few hours, so take that into consideration, or make the dough the night before, let it get to a good warmth and let the yeast do its thing.  Take in the smells. Nothing better than a kitchen that smells like yeasty dough!

Preheat your oven to 425 degrees, fahrenheit.

So you have the dough. Lightly flour it, very lightly. Take a large sheet tray, or at least 18×13, if not larger. Add the olive oil to the the sheet tray, and make sure the base is coated. Take your risen dough and place into the center of the tray. Begin massaging the dough, attempting to stretch the dough, without tearing it, to the edges of the sheet tray. Do your best.

Once you think you’ve done your best without tearing, shower it with the salt, pepper, and oregano. Cover the sheet tray and let it rise another hour, or so.

Once the dough rises a bit more, add the sauce, and gently spread all over the dough, lightly, not too heavy.

Add the mozzarella cheese, coating the sauce, then add your favorite ingredients. I was down for simple pepperoni, and sausage.

Place in a preheated oven for  about 35 minutes. What you are looking for is golden, crispy edges, a nice melted and golden cheese  crust in the center, and well, something better than Rocky Rococo’s.

Once cooked, take the sheet pan out of the oven and let it rest for about ten minutes for slicing into it.

Cut into long rectangular shapes and enjoy.

I’ve made this about four different times, and every time it delivers a crunch exterior with a fluffy interior, only to be enjoyed with your favorite toppings. Not only that, but you make a whole sheet of pizza for dirt cheap! I think I walked out of Rocky Rococo’s paying something like thirty dollars. Mine, about eleven dollars, and a much better experience. Enjoy.

By the way, my kids are just excited when they see the sheet pan of pizza, I think, more than they saw the stressed out manager, and the solo boxes of pizza.

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Lets get started.

Ingredients: [Print this Recipe]

• 4 whole jalapeño peppers, large and firm, stems removed
• 1 tbsp canola oil, to lightly coat the peppers
• 1 1/2 tsp sea salt
• Heavy cast iron skillet

That is it. Three ingredients that when combined, will knock your socks off. Let me also state that these peppers can be hot, so if you are into the hot food, this is great. Remember, the seeds are in there, but if you eat around the edges, you should be just fine.

Begin by adding the peppers to a mixing bowl. Add in the oil, and mix around until you know all of the peppers have been coated with the oil.

Add these to a cast iron skillet, and heat on medium to medium-high heat. As the skillet comes to temperature, begin moving the peppers around in the skillet, making sure all of the sides become roasted. This should take anywhere for 8-12 minutes for them to roast.

As soon as the peppers are fully roasted, carefully move them to the mixing bowl and shower them with the salt, gently mixing. Add them to a serving bowl and have your guests (that like hot and spicy) add one to their plate. You simply eat them whole, starting with the smaller tip, and eating your way down.  These can be served alongside just about anything, and they go perfect if you and your friends are drinking beer.

The flavor, although mildly spicy in my opinion, is really amazing. Something about the salt and the roasted flavor of the chile really get the meal going. Simple, fun, and delicious. What could anyone else ask for? Enjoy.

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A croque madame is essentially a French ham and cheese sandwich, but not only a ham and cheese sandwich. See, this sandwich has a coating of bechamel sauce, and topped with an egg. Now how’s that for a nice pick me up brunch item!?

Let’s get started, as staring at the photo only makes me want another one.

(Serves 2)

Ingredients: [Print this Recipe]

• 2 tbsp unsalted butter
• 2 tbsp all purpose flour
• 1 1/2 cups of milk
• 1/2 tsp salt
• pinch of nutmeg
• 1 tbsp grated parmesan cheese
• 6 thin slices of Gruyère cheese
• 8 thin slices of Black Forest Ham
• 1 cup of grated Gruyère cheese
• 2 tbsp dijon mustard
• 4 slices of thick cut French sandwich loaf
• 4 tbsp unsalted butter, room temperature
• 2 eggs, 1 tbsp butter

Begin by making the bechamel sauce. Get two saucepans, and heat one on a medium low heat, and the other on medium heat. To the pan on medium, low heat, add the milk, and let it get warm. To the other pan, add the two tablespoons of butter, and let it melt down and begin to bubble a bit. Add the flour to the butter, and mix it very well to incorporate the two. Continue whisking for about two minutes, being careful not to let the flour mixture brown. Slowly add in the warm milk, and continue whisking until you everything is nice and smooth. You will whisk this for about 8-10 minutes, until the sauce thickens. Add in the salt, nutmeg, and the parmesan cheese. Give a good mix, then remove it from the heat until it is ready to be used.

Next, get a large skillet going on the stove, and bring that to a medium heat. Butter four slices of the bread, and lay them into the skillet, butter side down. The goal here is to get them nice and golden brown, without burning them. As they begin to cook, add a tablespoon of butter to two pieces of the bread. Lay down three slices of Gruyère cheese on top of the mustard, then top each with four slices of the black forest ham. Let them continue cooking on the skillet, lifting to peak every couple of minutes, until the have reached that golden brown color, and have a crunchy exterior.

Now for the assembly.

Get your broiler going on 475 degrees.

Add the slices of toasted bread to a baking sheet. Place the toasted bread on top of the bread with the mustard, cheese, and ham. Now take the bechamel sauce and generously spread it all of the top of each sandwich. Take half a cup of the Gruyère cheese and add that to the top of the bechamel sauce.

Place this under the broiler until the cheese is nice and bubbly and everything is warmed through, roughly 4-6 minutes.

During this time, add a tablespoon of butter to the skillet, and let it melt on medium-high heat. Crack the eggs, leaving the yolks whole, and continue cooking in the skillet until the whites around the yolk are cooked through, sunny side up style.

Remove the sandwiches from the broiler, and place on a serving plate. Top each sandwich with the egg. Dig in!

What you get in a totally sexy sandwich. You get the perfect sharpness from the cheese and mustard, along with the creaminess of the egg and bechamel sauce, then on top of that, you get the tender ham. Wow. Words sometimes cannot explain, however I am extremely glad that I forgot to eat breakfast this morning! Hope you enjoy.

Let’s get started.

Serves 4

Ingredients: [Print this Recipe]

• 1 1/2 cup of masa harina
• 1 1/2 cup of warm water
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tbsp canola oil
• 1/2 cup of Deli ham, thinly sliced and chopped, per arepa
• 1/4 cup of shredded mozzarella cheese, per arepa
• Your favorite hot sauce

Begin by adding the masa harina and salt to a small mixing bowl, and mix it around with your fingers. Next add the water, and begin mixing, and kneading until the dough comes together. Continue kneading the dough until it forms a smooth dough, and no longer is sticky. At this point in time you can add a bit more masa harina if it is too sticky, or a bit more water if it is too dry. You basically want to form a medium sized ball that you can flatten down a bit, about a 1/2 inch thick by the width of your palm, approximately 3 inches.

Continue this process until you have formed all of the arepas.

Next, heat a large cast iron skillet on medium heat. The goal is to use a heavy skillet that can retain really good heat. Add the oil and swirl it in the pan. Add the arepas to the heated oil and let them cook for 4 minutes on each side. You want a golden exterior on both sides.

During this time, preheat the oven to 250 degrees.

When the arepas as golden on each side, add them to a baking sheet and place in the preheated oven for 20 minutes.

After 20 minutes, remove the baking sheet from the oven.

With a sharp knife, make an incision in the side of the arepa, cutting through the arepa, making an opening. The goal is to not slice this all of the way through, just a nice incision that will allow you to stuff them with the ham and cheese.

If you notice the knife is doughy, much like you would see when you pull a knife from cooking a cake or bread, place them back into the oven for another 5 minutes or so.

Next, stuff a bit of the cheese inside of the arepa, then some ham, then more cheese on the top of the ham. Place them back into the oven for another 5 minutes or until the cheese is nice and melted.

When you are ready to serve, plate them, and serve with a simple salad and a nice drizzle of hot sauce.

The end result is nothing but awesomeness. You have a crunchy exterior with a soft interior, the fresh aroma from the masa, and with the melted cheese and ham, well, you know where I’m going.  Give them a shot, and I hope you enjoy.

Note: I also served these with roasted chicken, cheese, and guacamole, but once again the creations are endless as to what you put inside of them.

Don’t get me wrong, a chip sandwich on its own is pretty darn awesome, but as I am always trying to get my kids to try new things, I thought I would take his idea of a chip sandwich and convert that into one of his favorite burgers. Yes, his favorite burger is a plain burger, stacked with bacon. No cheese. No condiments. No nothing.

So this led me to make this really awesome burger creation, and sure, I loaded mine up differently than I did my oldest child, and my middle son, but what did shine besides the delicious burger was the crisp, yet tender, homemade garlic chips.

Let’s get started.

Ingredients:

• 3 large russet potatoes, cleaned, skin on
• 1/4 cup of olive oil
• 3 cloves of garlic, lightly smashed
• Ground chuck, made into your preferred size burger patty
• Generous amount of salt
• Generous amount of cracked black pepper
• Thick cut bacon, cooked, bacon grease reserved
• Thick style burger buns, proportionate to your patty, and thick enough to trap any juices
• Carmelized onions, optional
• 2 slices of American cheese, per burger

If you have a mandoline (highly recommend if you do not have one), use it, and set it to about a 1/4 inch thick. If you do not have one, don’t worry. This will give you an opportunity to work with your knife skills. The point is slice the potato lengthwise, so use a very long knife, a knife longer than your potato, cutting into about 1/4 inch thick. Keep the skin on. I’m a big believer in skin on. Add all of your slices to a large bowl, and cover with cold water as you prepare the rest of the ingredients.

As the potato slices soak, cook your bacon in a large cast iron skillet. Add the garlic to a skillet and add in the oil. Cook on medium to low heat, being gentle to not burn the garlic. Your goal is to extract the great garlic flavor into the oil. After about 10 minutes, remove the garlic cloves and discard, and turn off the heat. Your bacon should be finishing up now, so once it is cooked, remove to a paper lined plate to drain any oil. Turn the heat off of the bacon skillet as well, but reserve the bacon fat. Yes, we are going to cook the burgers in the fat.

Caramelize your onions if you are using them.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Drain the water from the potatoes and lay them on a large towel. Cover with another towel and gently pat them to dry. Next, add a wire rack onto a large cookie sheet. If you do not have a wire wrack, don’t worry. Use parchment paper instead. Brush the garlic oil on both sides of the potato slices, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and place in the oven to cook for about 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, and maybe even 10 minutes into the cooking, take a peak on them. The last thing you want are burnt chips. Flip over, then raise the heat to 400 degrees, cooking for another 10 minutes of so, and once again, keeping your eye on them. If some are cooking faster than others, remove them from the oven and place on a plate. Continue until all of the chips are done.

Next, make your patties. I like to mix a small bowl of salt and pepper together, then generously sprinkle a plate with the mixture. Once my patty is made, I can set it onto the plate, absorbing the salt and pepper, then season the top. I’m always generous when it comes to seasoning the top and bottom as it helps build a nice crust, which I really love.

Bring the bacon fat up to a medium to high heat. Add in your burger patty(s) and cover with a splatter screen if you have one. Cook to your desired doneness, flipping on both sides. I prefer a medium on my burgers. Before you reach your doneness, add bacon slices, caramelized onions, then top with the cheese. The cheese will begin to melt down, covering the onions and bacon for another added surprise.

Before serving, slice your buns, and add into the warm oven. To plate, add the cheeseburger to the bottom bun, and stack with a handful of the homemade garlic chips, then top with the top bun.

This burger will grab your attention, and those around you. It is stacked with perfection. With both hands, grab that burger, give a light squeeze, and wrap your mouth around it. Crunchy and garlicky from the chips, then the really juicy burger along with the smokey sweetness from the bacon and onions, really complete the burger. Super great, and now I am glad my kid opened my eyes to a chip sandwich. Who knew? The big question is, which is better the pretzel burger, the cheese crisp burger, or this bad boy? Hope you enjoy.

I first encountered larb while living in Dallas and hanging out with my friend Kevin. Kevin and I would frequent his favorite Thai restaurant and do all of the ordering as he was familiar with the cuisine, and language at the time. It was always a real treat to dine with him. He knew how to balance the dishes making the entire meal complete. We would typically start with cold beer, and a bowl of peanuts. Often times we would move onto dishes like larb, fried whole fish, and other really good Thai dishes. All of them were balanced with sweet, salt, and spice.

Larb is something I really like to make. It is a perfect snack, any time of the day. It is kid friendly (minus the chile peppers), and it is a perfect dish to eat with jasmine rice, or better yet, sticky rice.

Ingredients: [Print this Recipe]

• 1 tbsp canola oil
• 1 lb of ground chicken
• 2 shallots, minced (approximately 3 tbsp)
• 1/2 cup of fresh mint leaves, chopped
• 1/3 cup of toasted rice powder
• 2-5 Thai chile peppers, minced
• 3 tbsp fish sauce
• 1/2 tbsp palm sugar, or regular sugar
• 1 whole lime, juiced
• Cooked rice, jasmine or sticky rice

You can find all of these ingredients are your local Asian store.

Begin by adding the oil to a large skillet and warm it to a medium, high heat. Once the oil is heated, add the ground chicken and begin cooking until it is fully cooked. This is will take about 10 to 15 minutes.

During this time, prepare the remaining ingredients. If you have never toasted rice before, add about 1/2 cup of rice to a dry skillet. Bring it to medium heat, and give it a good shake about every 2-3 minutes. Your goal is to brown the rice, and once brown, add it to a coffee grinder to make into a course powder.

Once the chicken is fully cooked, make sure you break it all up with a wooden spoon as you do not want any clumps. Drain off any excess water from the chicken, then add the chicken to a mixing bowl.

Add in all of the remaining ingredients, and give it a good mix. If you are serving kids, I would suggest removing the chile peppers from this recipe, or divide the mixture before adding the chile peppers. I would recommend 1-2 chile peppers for the mild at heart, and 3-4 chile peppers for those that love the heat. Regardless if it is one chile or four, the balance is perfect.

Serve in a small bowl with a side of rice. My entire family loves larb. It is just packed with flavor. That sweet, salty, and spice is just something out of this world, and I think you would agree. Better yet, you have just had something you have never tried before, toasted rice. Well, and maybe even fish sauce or sticky rice.

I post time and time again on how often I love visiting my local taqueria for a few tacos al pastor, and while I am eating the tacos, I really take interest to what the other locals are eating. Sure, some are eating tortas, or the daily special, but a majority of them are eating bowls of soup with large cuts of tender meats and chunky vegetables, all while having a warm, corn tortilla in the other hand.

After my snooping around and quick investigation, I realized that what the local are eating is really just a great chicken soup, with a couple of different ingredients. More rustic if you will, and it was my goal to make it for my family, and am I glad I did.

Let’s get started.

[Print this Recipe]

Ingredients for the chicken broth (caldo):

• 4 chicken drum sticks, 2 thighs, 4 chicken wings
• 3 cloves of garlic, lightly smashed
• 3 large carrots, cleaned, and cut in half
• 1 large onion, quartered
• 1 serrano chili, smacked with the back of a knife
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp black pepper
• 2 whole bay leaves
• water, enough to cover all of the ingredients

Add all of the ingredients to a large stock pot, bring to a boil, cover, reduce the heat to a simmer, and let it cook for about two hours. About one hour in, skim the top of any residue, and discard.

Discard all of the chicken and vegetables, filtering it as much as possible. If you can let this cool, and place in the refrigerator overnight, that would be great. This will allow you to easily scrape any of the fat off of the top to have a cleaner broth.

Ingredients for the Soup (sopa):

• 3 whole boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite size pieces
• 4 whole carrots, but into large bite sized pieces
• 2 whole ears of corn, cleaned and cut into thirds
• 3 yukon gold or russet potatoes, cleaned and cut into large bite size pieces
• 1 lime, juiced
• Fresh cilantro
• Corn tortillas, warmed

Ingredients for Mexican red rice:

• 3 whole roma tomatoes
• 1 cup of long grain rice
• 2 cups of water
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 tbsp canola oil

Start by adding the broth back to your soup pot and bring it to a simmer. Add all of the ingredients except the cilantro and corn tortillas. Continue cooking on simmer until the vegetables become tender. This will take about 45-60 minutes.

During this time, make the rice. Add the whole tomatoes, water, and salt to a food processor or blender. Next, heat a medium pot on medium heat. Add the oil and let it warm through. Add in the rice, and stir, coating all of the rice. Continue to do this until the rice turns a light brown color. Add in your tomato water, give a good stir, cover, and reduce the heat to a simmer. Cook for about 15-20 minutes, or until the rice is nice and fluffy. Once cooked, remove it from the heat.

Sounds like a lot, right? It’s not, trust me.

Now you are ready to serve. To a nice soup bowl, add in about one cup of the rice to the bottom, distribute the chicken and vegetables into the broth, and ladle in the nice broth. Garnish with fresh cilantro and serve with a lime wedge and some nice, warm tortillas.

The simplicity of the ingredients, which are very basic, tend to change with the flavor of a warm, corn tortilla. Those simple things will get you every time. Now I know why the locals are always ordering the caldo de pollo, and the caldo de res. I hope you enjoy.

If you have never had a pomegranate, you should. It can be a task to get to the seeds, and as I recall my mom reminding me to where an old t-shirt when getting to the seeds (a tiny bit of the juice was easy to stain your nice clothes), but once you get to the seeds, every bite into these tangy seeds was well worth it.

As I looked at these four, large pomegranates, I decided to make fresh pomegranate juice. The process only took about 25 minutes to complete, but there was nothing like a fresh glass of juice.

Let’s get started.

Yields about 4 1/2 cups

Ingredients: [Print this Recipe]

• 4 pomegranates
• Large bowl of water
• Honey, to taste
• 1/3 cup of water

Start by putting on an apron, or an old shirt that you will not be bothered by if it gets juice on it.

Then take a knife and slice a pomegranate into quarters, or into smaller segments, being careful not to slice all of the way through. Take that pomegranate, and with the slices being face down, place in the bowl of water. Let it sit in the water, softening the outer walls of the pulp, for about 5 minutes. As you wait, quarter the rest of the pomegranates.

With your hands in the water, slowly begin digging the seeds out of each quarter. You will see that the seeds sink to the bottom while the pulp will float to the top. Keep repeating for each quarter of the pomegranate. Carefully flip over the pomegranate, and remove any remaining seeds left in the walls of the pomegranate. With a large slotted spoon, skim the pulp from the top, and discard. Take the slotted spoon and remove all of the seeds, placing them in a blender.

Repeat this process for each pomegranate.

When you are ready to make the juice, add the additional 1/3 cup of water, place the lid on the blender, and pulse, breaking the seeds which produces the fine juice.

With a fine mesh strainer, place it over a bowl, and slowly pour in the mixture from the blender. Your goal is to filter only the juice, and leave the extract behind. Push down on the extract with a spoon which will allow you to get more juice. Repeat until you have extracted all of the juice.

Taste. If the juice is too sour, add about one tablespoon of honey, or more, until you get  your desired taste.

Serve over some ice and enjoy. Simple, and fresh squeezed pomegranate juice yields nothing but pure delight, plus you know that not only are you drinking the freshest of juices, but also that it is packed with great antioxidants!