What are you cooking?

[fishorama]

We're having trash day tacos with black beans. On soft shells, me flour, husband corn

 

[jaylach]

We're having trash day tacos with black beans. On soft shells, me flour, husband corn

When I lived in Texas I dated a woman that was one of the best Tex/Mex cooks I've ever met. Shoot, at one time she had a bar/restraint in Arizona that people would drive over 50 miles to get her green chill burritos that she served twice a week.

Anyway, she taught me how to do a taco shell whether corn or flour. Buy them raw and oil fry using forks or skewers to form the shells. What this does is to allow for different textures. I'm not big on crisp taco corn shells but fried to semi soft with a bit of crisp I DO like a lot.

 

[fishorama]

I like that kind but never tried to master the technique. Our best tortillas were from a place that made them, but a longish road trip away. There are a couple tortilla factories/groceries nearby but I've never been. I should...

My sister did a summer exchange student program in Mexico. Her family made tortillas often, but she said she didn't have small enough hands to get the hang of it, lol. She uses more frying oil than I feel happy doing.

 

[jaylach]

@gimme30 by your reaction take it you like kielbasa and kraut.

If you are a kielbasa fan here is one for you if you do sketti sauce but the sauce has to be cooked low and slow and long. I often add kielbasa to sketti sauce. Keep in mind that it takes me two days to make a proper sauce so definitely low and slow. Cut a kielbasa loop into chunks about as long as the thickness. They actually end up tasting like dense meatballs. As odd as it sounds the kielbasa is REALLY good in the sketti sauce.

I also often add Italian spiced grilled chicken chunks to sketti sauce which is also quite good. Many people have told me that I'm weird adding chicken. I ask if they like chicken parmigiana when they say yes I just ask what is the difference. Discussion tends to be over.

 

[gimme30]

@gimme30 by your reaction take it you like kielbasa and kraut.

Yes very much so! Even with canned kraut!
Now I'm craving a Reuben.....

 

[jaylach]

Yes very much so! Even with canned kraut!
Now I'm craving a Reuben.....

Ahhh, a Reuben! Due to the ridiculous price I don't do corned beef brisket often but, when I do, I normally do two in my two gallon crock pot. One ends up as corned beef and cabbage and the other is sliced and saved for Reubens. LOL! Ya, I DO have a powered rotary 7 inch slicer.

Curious as to the dressing you use for a Reuben. To me a Reuben is corned beef, Swiss cheese, kraut and thousand island dressing grilled like a grilled cheese. More and more I'm seeing Russian dressing used instead of thousand island. Which do you prefer? As to my preference I DO like Russian dressing but not for a Reuben. Actually I like most, if not all, red dressings but they are for a salad, not a Reuben.

 

[gimme30]

Russian on a Reuben? Sacrilege!
I don't buy sandwiches out (except monte cristos, I don't have a deep fryer) so I had no idea they came that way but.....yuck. It's not a Reuben without thousand island!

 

[Innesfan]

Russian, with its horseradish kick, is the classic way to go and what you will get at every old school Jewish deli in NYC.

 

[jaylach]

Russian, with its horseradish kick, is the classic way to go and what you will get at every old school Jewish deli in NYC.

Mayhaps it is a regional thing. In Cleveland it would be Thousand Island or at least it was when I left Ohio in 1987.

 

[Innesfan]

Mayhaps it is a regional thing. In Cleveland it would be Thousand Island or at least it was when I left Ohio in 1987.

You may be on to something. I just looked it up. There are two competing origin stories, one from Omaha in 1925 and one from NYC in 1914. It is the latter i knew of since Reuben's Deli was famous in large part because of the sandwich which bears its name. And because Sinatra hung out there with his buds. Omaha's recipe called for Russian or Thousand Island. NY's version was Russian only.

 

[Back in the fold]

Russian, with its horseradish kick, is the classic way to go and what you will get at every old school Jewish deli in NYC.

What I would give to have an authentic Jewish delicatessen or , better yet , kosher restaurant in my town .

 

[Innesfan]

What I would give to have an authentic Jewish delicatessen or , better yet , kosher restaurant in my town .

There are fewer and fewer of them, even here. I read that in the 1950's there were some 2500 Jewish delis in the 5 boroughs of NYC and about 400 in Manhattan alone. Countless more in the metro area. Today there are exactly 17 in Manhattan and comparably fewer elsewhere in the city. When the iconic Carnegie Deli closed a few years ago, after being in business since the '30s, the owner was interviewed and asked why when business was so good. She responded that she couldn't do it anymore and nobody in the family was interested in taking it over, nor were there any buyers.

Fortunately the ones that are still here are thriving. Katz's, the oldest in the USA, has a perpetual line around the block to get in. There is a recently published piece in a travel magazine about the 100 most iconic restaurants in the world. Katz's is #8, the highest ranking for an American restaurant.

FYI, they ship nationwide....

 

[Back in the fold]

@Innesfan It’s time to place an order !

 

[jaylach]

What I would give to have an authentic Jewish delicatessen or , better yet , kosher restaurant in my town .

As I've hear said there are no true delis south of Cincinnati or west of Chicago.

 

[Back in the fold]

As I've hear said there are no true delis south of Cincinnati or west of Chicago.

Yet one more way we’ve been culturally stiffed out here in The Great American West .