talking about food.

i spent my day off baking,
and cooking,
and stirring,
and chopping,
and boiling,
with a trip to the grocer for even more ingredients when i started running low.
mmmhmmm.
i think about food all day.
hell,
i made food all day.
i started with seitan.
i did.
i had cake in the oven, already, for sure,
but i got a big ol' pot of wheaten-meaten boiled up extra firm.
i needed it.
i followed that with a very slooooooooooow simmered sauce.
a ranchero sauce, actually.
yeah.
because you can't have seitan racheros without those two things.
i mean,
the name of it is what it is.
so,
i grilled up some seitan, with a few spices, some nootch,
and a caramelizing glaze of ho' sauce and tamari, together.
that made it brown,
and gave it that little bit of almost-burnt that activates an extra-layer
of g.p.o.p.'d tasty crustiness along the outsides.
it's essential, really, to make sure your protein has power, and pep, and strength.
don't worry, neighbors-i did that.
i wouldn't want to ruin everything from the jump, y'feel me?
ha.
ranchero is super simple, so i tried to complicate mine just a little-
green bell pepper, sweet red and orange peppers, red chili, green chile, and poblano,
all diced up teentsy-weentsy,
with red onion, and halved baby-size tomatoes....
and some supplemental shallot when my mise en place looked kinda shystie.
that's real.
i sweated that vat of veg into semi-limpness,
and added broth, bay leaves, black pepper, oregano, basil, g.p.o.p,( obvi),
roasted cumin, and a dash of hot paprika.
when that reduced down, i added in a cup of crushed tomatoes,
and did it all over again....
once it was thick, i blasted in a batch of fresh coarse chopped cilantro,
and a few more of those firm tomato domes,
for a little good-lookin' fresh-to-death homemade lumpiness.
anyway, that's how seitan racheros gets ready-
now, here's how it gets served.......
check the mama-say-mama-sah-mama-pupusa-type teleport:

arepas y pupusas!!!
masa flour, water, salt, and pepper.
that's it.
that's all you need to get expert as F* with some arepas griddle cakes, kids.
mmmmmhhmmmm.
but,
if you wanna take it to eleven?
y'gotta pinch it up, fill it all with daiya mozzerella, fold it over,
and flatten it back out again, for some purposeful pupusa proliferation.
guys,
the strips and the sauce, on the alternating stuffed and unstuffed corncakes?
too flippin' good.
and with the crawnch of that red cabbage sprankle jauns on top?
c'mon.
don't be stoopid.
that's dope.
you'd think that'd be enough, wouldn't you?
SIKE!
i just said, don't be stoopid.
jeez.
rules is rules,
and the rules say too much is the right amount.
yuuuuup.
i doo-do that freaky sh!t,
and i do a whole lot of it.
heated, folded, and filled tortillas, like little half-burritos?
i thought that'd be neat, so i gave it a shot....
...and it worked out pretty well.
onion, vegan roast, peppers, fire-roasted chilis, garlic, kale,
with spicy spices and just regular ol' savory ones, too,
stuffed right in there, and baked up all kinds of proper.
(that means just until the tortilla was toasted)
and topped with gently pickled carrots and cabbage.
a little bit of cold tart crawnch on a hot cuppa hottness
really goes the distance in completing the profile of a superlative side dish afterthought.
i'd eat 'em again. that's what i'm trying to tell you.
*
i've got a holy trinity of blarpity blops that i make whenever we're eating anything
remotely suggestive of spanish-speakeasiness.
si. es verdad. palabra.
*refried beans, with sweet onions, and a little bit of garlic, and nootch,
*my guacamole masterworks, this time with sexxxy little red chili pepper accents, too!
*and salsa fresca from the future.
here's the thing, kids...
if you aren't reppin' tomatillos in your fresh salsa,
well,
then your salsa is bullsh!t.
i've got garlic, and muy mas mucho peppers of all sorts,
and onions everywhere,
with lime juice, and salt and pepper,
and cilantro, of course,
and roma tomatoes and toma-F*ing-tillos.
i don't know why you wouldn't put 'em in.
you can really tell when they're absent, though,
because your salsa is blatantly and overwhelmingly bullsh!t.
hahahahha.
i'm a jerk, and that's okay,
but my salsa is still the TRUTH.
...
fancy hexagonal blue corn chips?
yes.
cilantro sprankles?
yes.
so much food it crosses the borders of the plate, and precariously dangles over the edges?
yes.
i want more and more,
and better and better.
perfect practice makes perfection in process.
i'm steady on my grind in this Folk Life & Liberty Fortress.
this kitchen is where most of the work gets done,
and it's where i spend most of my time.
yesterday, that was certainly the case.
i think i do more on my day off than on any other day.
why?
because it's all mine,
and i want to maximize the most moments per minute with MORE.
it's all really happening,
i can't keep up,
but i'll fall down fast asleep before i slow down and watch it escape;
never quiet, never soft.....