everyday experiments with food
Last night I made my best ever batch of corn tortillas. I have a great love of Mexican food, and I’ve been making tortillas from wheat flour and corn (maize) flour for some years. Thanks to the most excellent book “Tacos” by Mark Miller (also full of fantastic recipes for fillings) I now understand corn tortillas a lot better. Of course, I’ve never seen a Mexican cook make them, so I’m still an outsider to the secrets. But here’s what I’ve learned….
Yes, you read it correctly. When I was in Brazil in 2008 I ate some charcoal cooked chicken hearts and they were fantastic! No, really! So, when I saw chicken hearts at the supermarket this week…
The first few I simply cooked quickly on high heat in a pan with smoked paprika and pepper and then glazed them with brandy. Excellent.
Tonight’s batch were BBQed on the Weber with hickory wood for smoking. The recipe comes from Stephane Reynaud’s Barbecue. Reynaud is a French chef who has some excellent and left-field BBQ ideas.
The chicken hearts were marinated in the following
1 tbsp smoked paprika
1 tbsp ground turmeric
1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1/3 cup olive oil
50 ml brandy (recipe said rum)
2 tbsp sweet soy sauce (keycap manis)
The hearts were put onto rosemary sprigs (courtesy of our local library’s rosemary hedge).
Cook over charcoal for about 10 minutes. Mine took longer, so they needed higher heat. They were a little rubbery. They ought to be crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside.
But I have to say that I loved them.
Chicken marinade
3 cloves minces garlic
1/3 cup garlic oil
Juice of 2 limes
3 tbsp smoked paprika
3 tsp dried chiptole chilli flakes
Zest of 1 lime
Handful of chopped coriander
Cracked black pepper
Sea salt
Served with fresh corn and tiny tomatoes from our garden, lime wedges and more coriander, with couscous on the side.
