Homemade Tortillas and a "Baboon Moon"

Lately I've been making loads of homemade tortillas.  I can control the ingredients--no preservatives, low sodium, and a reduced amount of oil (no lard here!)--and they're super fresh.  You can just make a big dough ball and leave it covered in plastic in the fridge, pulling pieces off as you go through a couple of days--the flour actually incorporates better over time.

I adapted my recipe I found at Cooks.com.  

When I make them just for myself, I use:

1 cup of flour (you can substitute whatever crazy hippy thing you please)

1 pinch of salt

1-1 1/2 tbsp of olive oil*

1/3 cup of water

*Note: your tortillas take the taste of your fat source, so some people prefer tasteless oils, though you can really use what you like.

I mix everything by hand in a big bowl and go for it.  It should mass together without being too dry or too sticky. I don't have a tortilla press, or even a rolling pin.  I cover my cutting board with plastic wrap, sprinkle on some flour, put on a little dough ball, and roll it really thin using the side of a smooth, tall drinking glass I've covered in flour.  Then, I put it in a dry pan over medium heat to cook it up. NOMz.

Best fresh, but still good later after 10-20 seconds in the microwave.

For my dinner tonight, I used two to make "Sloppy Josés".  It's basically a reworked version of Vegan Dad's Red Lentil Sloppy Joes.  

I used: Caramelized onions, Soyrizo or real chorizo, tomatoes chunks and a little juice, lentils, BBQ sauce, mustard, vinegar, cumin, salt, pepper, hot sauce, cheese, and a dollop of yogurt or sour cream.

Maybe I'll put some pictures up later.  But a baboon is waiting for me.

Healthier-style dessert quesadilla in the making...

Final product.  The Surfing Baboon.

 Silly name for a fun dessert: The Surfing Baboon. (1 serving)
1 tortilla
1 small pat of butter
1/2 a plantain or small banana, thinly sliced
2-3 tbsp chopped pineapple
1/2 tbsp honey*
1 tbsp shredded coconut (I used unsweetened)
pinch cinnamon
*Feel free to add more or swap with brown sugar/agave, etc.
Topping: natural skim yogurt, another drizzle of honey, and some more sprinkled coconut and cinnamon

Heat a pan.  Spread a very thin layer of butter on the tortilla, and put the butter-side down on a plate.  (I butter first, then fill because I don't want honey everywhere.)  Fill 1/2 of the tortilla with the plantain slices and pineapple pieces.  Drizzle honey and sprinkle cinnamon and coconut over the top.  Fold it, and hustle that goodness into the pan.  Flip it after about 2-3 minutes (when it's golden and almost irresistible).  Finish off the second side, and top it as you please.  Try to keep from screaming with delight as you inhale it.

So, to sort of explain the half-jokey name of my quesadilla: 

Nils Petter Molvær's Baboon Moon                                                     2398040293 root-beer floats
What a very interesting album.  I think it is one of those works that you can listen to many times and take something very different from each experience.  It is difficult to classify.  I guess I'll explain it as a dark, self-styled experimental jazz.  Trumpets, bass-lines, electric guitar, willful drumbeats.  It's very contemplative, but not in a brooding way.  We need more musicians to make self-reflective music of this style.  If nothing else, the novelty of the album should be its biggest selling point.

Madrid and Andrew Bird

I spent a wonderful weekend in a city blooming with spring.

In the middle of one of the busiest capitol cities in the West is a beautiful park bustling with people enjoying the space and sun.  Rollerblading is still alive and well in Spain...  

Behold: (thanks to my photographer) El Parque del Retiro.  

Yes, that's a duck.

I also had one of the best meals I've ever had in Europe at Restaurante Alboroque.  The dishes were cooked to perfection, using simple, high quality ingredients. The staff was very professional and accommodating.  The prices were also quite reasonable for the quality.  3 courses and a bottle of wine for two at 100 Euros.  

Finding this little gem wasn't easy, though.  It is off of one of the busiest streets in Madrid, Calle Atocha, tucked away in a building that is far too easy to pass by without noticing.  Although it's possible to make reservations, they're not required, and I walked in wearing regular clothes from my day as a tourist.  

Though it would've been awkward in such a nice place, I wish I'd taken pictures of the meal. The website only has pictures of the restaurant’s interior, but the food really deserves its due.

My meal: duck liver over a polenta cream with a red berry reduction (Higado de pato sobre crema de maiz y frutos rojos con mandarina); a risotto with hare, artichokes, and mushrooms, (arroz meloso con liebre, alcachofa y setas); and a molten chocolate cake with an orange scented shell (pastel caliente de chocolate con cascara de naranja); paired with a very good Spanish red wine, Dominio de Tares Cepas Viejas 2007. My companion had an exquisite warm vegetable salad followed by seared Iberian pork over a spinach and mango salad, followed by a trio of homemade ice-creams. 

If you've not checked out the new album from Andrew Bird, do yourself the favor and give it a listen!  What an inventive way of making a truly unique contribution to music.  Though the audio isn't directly available through this link to NPR any longer, there is a nice review.
UPDATE!  Andrew Bird performed on NPR's World Cafe.   Click.  it.

Music from Nick Lowe and Honey Hobo Cheesecake

Two fantastic new discoveries made within the last 24 hours that I couldn't wait to blog about!  
1. Thanks to my semi-professional music discoverer, I have been introduced to Nick Lowe.
2. Through my endless roaming of food blogs, I found a fantastic recipe which I've adapted into my own "Honey Hobo Cheesecake" or "Single Lady Honey-Yogurt Cheesecake" pick the name you prefer.


Nick Lowe's The Old Magic                                                                        2343243543 Creme Eggs
iQue guay!  It's a bit difficult to classify because Lowe seems to have had a very wide array of influences, but you can definitely hear pieces of his former father-in-law Johnny Cash.  Personal, a bit rusty/retro.  Lots of fun guitar, piano, and trumpets to a great tempo.  Maybe one could call it British Rockabilly?  Whatever it's name, it is well worth a listen.  Pronto.
G'head: http://nicklowe.com/

Honey Hobo Cheesecake, or Single Lady Honey-Yogurt Cheesecake (4-6 servings)
I've mentioned in previous posts that I have no oven but a crazy love of sweets.  However, I've never directly said that I have no cake pan, and that I live alone; so what treats I do make are in small air-tight containers.  Life is sometimes sad.
But hobo cheesecake is not.

I got a little too impatient to wait for it to set all the way...

Crust:

1 Tbsp. raw sugar

2 Tbsp. butter, melted

1/4 c. crushed fiber cereal flakes

1/4 c. crushed quick oats

1/4 c. crushed digestive biscuits

(Because I wanted a kind of earthier flavor and heartier crunch, I mixed my crust ingredients.  I squashed the cereal, then the oats, and finally the biscuits a few at a time until I got the amount of crumbs I wanted in my measuring cup.  You could easily substitute a bunch of graham crackers or cinnamon-flavored cereal and use the same plastic-bag crush method.)

Filling:

8 oz. light cream cheese, extra water drained, softened

1/4 c. raw sugar

Dash of caramel liquid or vanilla extract (vanilla is super hard to find in rural Spain!)

Dash of ground cinnamon

3/4 c. natural skim yogurt, extra water drained

3 Tbsp. honey

Directions: 

Open up a corner of the yogurt cups and flip them upside down to let them drain, and place them off to the side.  Getting rid of the liquid really helps it set up later. 

Mix the crushed oats, biscuits, and cereal with the sugar.  Mix in the melted butter.  Transfer the mixture to the final container, and press firmly along the bottom, and if desired, up the sides. Put it off in the fridge.

Mix the cream cheese, sugar, caramel liquid, and cinnamon together until well incorporated.  Measure the yogurt, and add the honey to the measuring cup on top.  (This makes clean up a lot easier!)  Mix into the rest of the cream cheese mixture.  Give it a taste and see if a little more cinnamon or caramel is needed. When you're satisfied, get the crust, pour the mixture over the top, and put it all in the fridge for a several hours to firm up--or the freezer to speed up the process.  
I sprinkled some cinnamon and drizzled a little caramel over the top for serving.
*Make this in the morning the day of, or on the night before you hope to enjoy it!*

Unpretentious, single dish, hobo-style.

Sort of the ugly duckling of the cheesecake world.