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Welcome to the FoodCraft Blog. Created because eating and cooking delicious foods can lead to a more kick ass day. Even the most mundane of days can be something special and worth talking about if you had a good meal. Even if it's as simple as some finely crafted toast or discovering the perfect milk-to-cereal ratio for breakfast. One good meal can set the mood for the rest of your day to be filled with optimism and understanding, no matter what the circumstances. If I can help at least one person have a better day with this food blog, my goal will be met.
In this issue of FoodCraft, I was partially inspired by the user HackBenjamin who commented on the last issue. He specifically asked if I would be doing any StarCraft themed meals, which I think I would only do if I got an idea that was really interesting and fun. However, his comment did trigger the question "I wonder what a baneling would taste like?" And after many water cooler style conversations, I have come to the conclusion that banelings are filled with delicious, marine melting guacamole.
In addition to the guacamole recipe, I will also show you how to make some "EZ PZ" homemade flour tortillas that will make you never want to buy the packaged tortillas again.
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- - For the Guacamole -
- 2-3 Hass Avacado's
- 1/3 cup Cilantro
- 1 Vine Tomato
- 1/2 an Onion
- 1 1/2 Limes
- 1/2 Lemon
- A pinch of minced garlic
- 1/2 tsp. coarse Sea Salt
- 1-2 shots of the best Tequila you can get your hands on.
- - For the Tortillas -
- 2 Cups Flour
- 1/2 tsp. of Fine Sea Salt (table salt is fine)
- 1/2 tsp. of Baking Powder
- 1/4 cup of butter
- 3/4 cup of warm/hot water (not boiling)
*Notes about Ingredient choice*
-You can use any kind of onion you like. I personally use a vidalia onion(yellow onion) because of it's subtle flavor compared to white onions and red onions. With that said, this dish looks amazing when you use a red onion. The complimentary greens and reds within the dish make it look very attractive/appetizing when you use a red onion.
-Make sure you use BAKING POWDER not baking soda. I can't tell you how many people I have seen make tortillas and end up with a kitchen disaster because they used baking soda instead.
-I love the taste of sea salt so I use it all the time but you can use any kind of salt. Considering I recommend using coarse sea salt for the guacamole, you can crush the sea salt with a mortal and pestel and use it for the tortillas as well. If you don't have a mortar and pestel, you can use a plastic bag and a hammer. <3
-Hyphenated ingredients are accounted extras. As an example, hass avocados vary in size but are generally on the small side(about 3in diameter in the fatter part). So if you end up with 2 smaller avocados and the guacamole turns out too watery, you have extra avocado to add just in case.
-You can use lard instead of butter. Lard actually makes the dough a bit more elastic and easier to work with.
-If you want to make the guacamole with a spicy after taste, go ahead and add a few chopped up Serrano peppers.
-Get the best Tequila that you can find. And yes, it's worth repeating.
The tequila is actually a crucial ingredient in my guacamole. It's not here to get you drunk but it is here to provide a similar effect. When you drink tequila and you feel that subtle, delicious burning sensation of destruction as it passes through your throat. That is exactly what you want to happen in the bowl. The tequila destroys and exfoliates all of the other ingredients in the bowl. Effectively intensifying all of the flavors so that the guacamole can reach it's maximum potential. If you would prefer a more nerdy metaphor, the tequila is the Namekian Grand Elder.
And just like how I added tequila to my batch, feel free to try to modify the recipe to your tastes. If you really love lime, add more lime and use less lemon. If cilantro is too potent for you, use less and add some more lemon. Which is why I recommend getting a little bit of extra of certain ingredients anyway. It is very possible that you may go a little bit overboard on the tequila(or one of the other wet ingredients) and the guacamole becomes watery. If this happens, don't worry, it is not ruined. Go ahead and add an extra half of an avocado and a pinch more salt and the entire mixture should balance out. Be confident. ^^
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As we begin, nothing too challenging. Grab a knife and chop all of the veggies into tiny bits(minced). Then move onto the fruit and cut the lemon, limes, and tomatoes in half. To avoid the guacamole being too watery, remove the water and pulp so you are just left with the outside layer(See the picture). Go ahead and leave the avocado alone for now because we are not actually combining ingredients yet. Lets move on to the tortilla preparation.
Get a good size bowl, one that can hold the ingredients plus room for mixing. First dump in the flour, salt and baking powder then begin to mix them together for a few moments. Then go ahead and add the butter by cutting it into half slices over the bowl. If you need a size reference, the peices of butter should be about the width of a pencil as they enter the bowl. Once the butter is in, go ahead an mix it by hand until the contents of the bowl achieve a corn meal like state. The real goal here is to make sure that the fat is broken up into as much of the flour as possible. Once, you get this consistency, go ahead and add the warm/hot water. If you did use lard, make sure it's hot water. As you mix the water in you will feel it starting to change to a more solid state in your hand. Mix it until it's one large mass then begin to knead it in your hands. Keep doing this until the dough achieves an elastic but firm state. It will be very fun to play with but try to restrain. Over kneading can lead to some very stiff tortillas in the pan. Go ahead and break the dough into approximately 10-12 golf ball shaped sizes, set them aside and put a damp towel over them for about 15-20.
Now it's time to get messy. ;D
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Take those micro/macro machines you call "hands" and get ready to re-purpose them into top quality cooking utensils! And by that I just mean go wash your hands because the only way to do this right is by using your hands to mix the guacamole. You technically can use something like a potato masher to mix this but the problem with that is the ending guacamole normally ends up like a puree or the avocado doesn't get broken up enough, leaving you with over sized chunks. Using your hands and having a feel for the guacamole will ensure that the end product is more to your liking.
Go ahead and grab a large mixing bowl and your avocados. The easiest way to peel at separate an avocado is by performing a rotational cut around the center of the seed and separating it into 2 halves and removing the seed. Make sure when you are scraping out the flesh of the fruit into the bowl that your try to get as much as possible off the insides of the skin. The darker green portions near the skin are full of flavor and will really help you get the most out of your avocados. If it helps, you can use a spoon to scrape the inside skin. Add all the vegetables and dry ingredients and mix thoroughly. At this point the whole mixture should be a bit thick but it's important that you reach that overly thick state first so you can watch it scale back as you include the liquids.
Begin with adding the half of a lemon and and the lime. I recommend putting these in now just so it's still easier to pick out any seeds that may fall in. Mix the juices in until you get a feel for the new consistency, then begin adding the tequila. This is the crucial moment of when the guacamole will begin to take on it's final shape. So pay close attention to the consistency and how much tequila you add in. Like I said before, if you put in too much tequila and your guacamole becomes more distilled then you wanted, go ahead and mix in some extra avocado and salt and it should balance out. Be sure to taste the guacamole as you are mixing it to make sure that it's too your liking. Once it reaches a state you like, go ahead and cover it and move over to your tortillas.
-( For those skimming this section for the tortillas, it starts here. )-
I will not lie to Team Liquid.net. Cooking the tortillas is the hardest part of this recipe. There are so many little things that can go wrong that this will require the utmost attention. An example of these little things is the pan heat. The required temperature to cook a tortilla right is just below boiling point of water (appx. 190-200F or 90-95C). It took me forever the first time I made them to find the heat-sweet spot but the only way to find it is to just try it. Go ahead and get a regular small-medium sized frying pan and heat it up to boiling temperature then reduce it. You don't have to lube the pan because the fats from the dough will cause the tortillas to self lubricate.
Be sure to cook them 1 at a time at first, just so you could get the hang of what you are looking for. Start by taking a ball of dough and forming it into a small disk with your hands. You can use a rolling pin to flatten it out afterwards but make sure you do it by hand first. Normally the dough tends to give me problems if i try to roll it right away. Also avoid rolling it so thin that it becomes transparent. The way tortillas cook involves them cooking from the inside, so when it's too thin, the proper air pocket can't form and the tortilla doesn't cook right. Just keep this in mind when you are cooking them but don't fret if they don't turn out 100% like I describe. They will still be edible and will just give you something to aim for next time.
Once the tortillas hit the pan, you need to watch them. It will actually only take a couple seconds before dark brown spots begin to form. Once you get a couple of those spots, flip the tortilla and to the same thing to the other side. After a few brown spots on the opposite side, flip it back to the original side and wait a bit. This is when the air pocket should starts to form and grow. This is how you can tell that the baking powder is working and doing it's job of cooking the inside of the tortillas. Keep flipping the it every so often and let the air pocket form and gently press it down with your spatula to release the gas occasionally. It will not take too long to cook. Only about a minute to a minute and a half. When they are done, put them in a bowl or basket with a towel over top to keep them warm.
Once the tortillas cool down a bit, this meal is ready to be served. Use any left over limes, tequila and salt with some friends and have yourselves a good time (see the last picture of this section). When I was preparing/cooking this, some of my guests were vegetarian so I had to make sure that this meal was Artosis friendly but if you are craving some meat, you can cook up some steak or chicken fajita style meat with peppers and onions.
Enjoy!
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There is only one way I can start this epilogue... I'm so sorry it took me this long to put another issue out. (T_T) I wrote at least 70% of this issue 3 weeks ago and just never got around to finishing it.There is a long list of excuses I could give you but I don't want to do that. I just want you all to know how sorry I am and that in the future I will try to stay more focused. Moving on.
Does anyone feel like I am making these issues too long? I personally don't think I am just because the details I include I feel are all relevant. I don't really want someone to get half way through making something I post and get stuck and panic because they aren't sure what to do or how to solve a problem. Panic is never the correct answer to a situation in both life and the SC2 ladder. And generally, the more information people have, the less likely they are to panic.
Last but not least... Thank you for reading! ^^ Any comments, questions or concerns are more then welcomed by me and I will do my best to answer as many as possible!
GL HF
-Cfood
