Wild boar tacos

Yes, it has been another long lapse since my last post. A second daughter in the house consumes the time that I had finally carved out after dinner as our first daughter was becoming increasingly independent. Now that the younger child is about four months old, we are finally beginning to find some routines once again, and tonight's dinner was special enough to write about. I don't know if I'll be lucky enough to get another one of these done any time soon, and frankly, I'm just glad I still get to make dinner most nights. Writing about it is just a bonus, anyway.

My wife picked up an online deal for Artizone recently; not that recently, actually, but recently enough that she passed it my way before it expired. Some of the speciality shops here in Chicago would be regular haunts for us if we lived closer to them, but parking is an ordeal without the kids; with them, it's just a royal pain. Artizone let's us order from several of the shops we like (and some we have yet to try), and have the goods delivered to our home. I have been to Gepperth's Meat Market in the past, and was impressed with their shop. When I found that they had some game meats available via Artizone, well, I was giddy.

The bottom line - having the little ones around makes us appreciate having things delivered. 

The wild boar I had them bring had to wait in the fridge for a couple of days before I was able to cook it. We had a few other things on our family agenda this week, but tonight I was finally able to bring it to the table. I knew when I ordered it that I wanted to make some kind of tacos with the meat. I browned the meat with some chopped cilantro, garlic, and green onion in a smattering of olive oil. It was clearly lean meat, and I knew I'd need a bit of extra oil for this to work. Once browned, I added a splash of liquid smoke, followed by a blend of corn starch, chili powder, cayenne, ground cumin, garlic salt, kosher salt, and smoked paprika. Unfortunately, I was out of guajillo chili powder, and I think that may be on my next Artizone order (or my next trip to the spice place in Old Town). To create the sauce, I opted to use Pepsi tonight in place of water. I wanted a bit of sweetness, and the cola seemed like a nice idea. 

I chose corn tortillas for my tacos, and my wife opted for whole wheat. We topped things with more of an American spread - lettuce, sour cream, salsa, green onion, cilantro, and cheddar tonight. 

The verdict

I was quite pleased with the result. The mild game undertones were present, but with everything else happening in the flavor column, that was a welcome and expected taste. We kept things pretty simple tonight, skipping wine or beer. It was a nice end to the family time after a wonderful weekend together, and a real treat having a few minutes to write about it.  We were also glad to spend some time celebrating a milestone birthday with a neighbor last night. Our older daughter really appreciated the chocolate fountain at the shindig (I have NEVER seen her so hyper), and I was pleased to contribute some chicken marsala to the festivities. I wish I had a bit more time to write about it, but I'm sure I'll make that dish again and again. Wild boar isn't the kind of thing I'm likely to make quite as often, but after tonight's meal, I wish it was more readily available (and less expensive). If I ever move back to Florida, I'll have to befriend some boar hunters, I suppose...

Fish and Chips... and neighbors

We are really lucky people. We get to share meals from time to time with some of our fabulous neighbors, and tonight was one of those nights. I couldn't resist picking up some Atlantic cod this weekend when shopping, and knew exactly who I wanted to share it with; our neighbors Ami and Craig (and their 2 sons). I felt a little guilty popping it in the freezer on Saturday, but we knew we wouldn't be able to get it cooked before tonight, so that eased some of my guilt. And since I knew it was going to become part of a fish and chips dinner, well, that pushed all my guilt aside. Some careful defrosting can actually help keep the fish moist when it gets cooked in such high heat, I find.


I found myself on the hot seat tonight, because one of our neighbors has strong roots in the Boston area, a real New England-er who loves quality seafood, and is not afraid to wax passionately about the dearth of good seafood out here in the Midwest.  As an east coast guy, I can relate. I'm not a huge seafood fan, but when I do indulge, I'm pretty particular myself. And fish and chips is pretty often poorly done, quite frankly. As finicky as I can be about the quality of the fish, I am even more of a snob about a good batter. I pride myself on having learned some great secrets from a host of great chefs/cooks over the years, and think I do a better than average job batter-dipping a good dinner.


I had a bit of a scare early on in the cooking tonight. I try to keep folks out of the kitchen as much as possible when I deep fry, even more so now that we have a young daughter in the house (and the next one coming soon...). Unfortunately, I was less prudent with my pug, and as I did the first fry on the first batch of fries, there was a bit of a spatter that bubbled up just as he was passing under foot. I was able to get him scooped up, rinsed off, and noted no harm, although I think he thought I was a bit nuts for my dramatic reaction. After a good long "oh-my-G-d-I'm-glad-you're-OK" hug, I got back to work. Knowing that I'd be holding the fries in the oven for a few minutes while I cooked the fish, I wanted to be sure they would be as crispy as possible, so I did the twice-fried method, partially cooking them the first time at a lower temperature, draining them, cooling them, and setting them aside to finish them up later.


After the second trip to the fryer, the potatoes were seasoned and kept warm, and I turned my attention to the main attraction. I like to keep things on the simple side with my batter, and for fish and chips, I'm a big fan of using beer. In general, carbonated liquid is my rule of thumb, as I find the batter that results is substantially lighter and "puffier" than with a non-carbonated liquid. And since the beer packs a whole lot of flavor-punch on its own, I tend not to add much more to the mix. For my flour dredge, I did add a bit of a slightly-sharp Hungarian paprika, something with the slightest bit of zip right up next to the fish itself. The batter was simply flour, salt, pepper, and a nice wheat ale that had a slightly sweet flavor. Sadly, I can't seem to recall what I used, and the bottle is down in the recycle bin now. No matter; just as long as you cook with something you'd actually drink, it works out just fine. It's mostly important to avoid overpowering the food with something too strong; Guinness would be a deal-breaker on this one, for sure.


I asked that the neighbors bring some malt vinegar (something I was surprised to discover was absent from our collection of vinegars) and some cole slaw (I just love a nice cole slaw with fried fish), and they obliged my request, rounding out the meal.


The verdict

I got a pic before my wife could dig in ...
Wish the fish was in the foreground. Oh well.

I've been thinking a lot lately about how disconnected folks often are from their neighbors, from their extended families, and sometimes even from immediate family. As a nation, we have spread out, and more than ever, I think, we could do with a good dose of re-connection, finding points of commonality with those who are around us and building on them to strengthen our roots where we live in the face of such distances. Sure, we get to connect up in virtual spaces easily, and we do build and strengthen relationships in them, but there is something special about the day-in, day-out bond shared with the people who live in the neighborhood. I suppose I've ranted about this before, but it bears repeating.


So for those of you who live far from family and haven't connected up with someone in the neighborhood, I urge you to reach out and share a meal together. Share your stories, find the things that you have in common, and build some kind of relationship with them. Food is a great way to start a rich dialog about your pasts, your upbringing, your families, and the things you value and cherish. We shared some great stories tonight about "house rules" for mealtimes growing up, and that led to some great laughs, sure, but more importantly it let us know a little more about what shaped us into who we are now. As much as I like to preach about having family mealtime, it is also important to open that up once in a while and invite in the people you like. For us, living in a city, that means people we share the sidewalk with, gripe about parking and transit with, and in our case, share a deck space with, back doors just inches apart. Having had the great fortune of getting to know them over the past few years, I knew they would appreciate my effort at good seafood, and they did.


The verdict is simple; the fish was moist and tasty, and the beer added just enough flavor to make things interesting. I don't think the neighbors were at all disappointed. The fries held up great, and I managed to avoid over-salting them for a change (I've had some heavy-handed moments on that front recently). The slaw was a nice, cool, crispy addition, and the malt vinegar was spot-on.  I would love to have a kitchen where deep frying was a simpler option. Deep frying gets a bad rap; it can be done sensibly, and if you do it right, you shouldn't be eating a ton of the oil anyway. But since it is an ordeal to set up the fryer, and even bigger ordeal to tear it down, clean it up, and contend with the oil, I'll probably keep it in the "sometimes food" category for now (it certainly isn't a half-hour-to-the-table meal making fish and chips). Well, at least as long as we live here, with our reasonable but modest-sized kitchen, alongside some of the best neighbors we could ever want, I'll keep it that way.