From Downtown Portland to Cuba

I’m working on my organization for this blog, but so much I enjoy happens. So some might be posted later than when it actually occurs. Today, however, takes special note because it was a very Portland-y day: Pouring down rain with the indifference of getting soggy. But my errands were not boring enough to dampen the low key spirit I was in.

I rode the streetcar from PSU to Powell’s with a couple families who carried their young children as they explored the city via stroller. After a browsing in the Orange room for Cuban and African cookery and talking myself out of Lonely planet India since I won’t be going for a few years, I picked up my copy of “Memories of a cuban kitchen” by Mary Urrutia Randelman. This book was recommended to me by a friend.  

I bought some additional ingredients and then headed to Stumptown in the Ace Hotel on SW Stark and 11th ish. I ordered a mocha. It was not as I expected and was sort of watery, due to the decaf or new experience of Splenda. I do think something less sweet was what I needed as the first meal of the day. I went to 10th and Alder next for the food cart lunch my boyfriend and I have been doing for the past couple weeks. He wanted the famous Miyazaki pork yakisoba at Samurai kitchen and I tried the chicken  rice cart. I must say for something so simple, it is so deliciously complex. Chicken and rice at SomTuym Gai Yang is boiled chicken with jasmine and ginger infused rice. There then is a light buttery broth and a zingy but nutty brown sauce to accompany it.

Cuban Food Experimentation:
I made black beans and rice (moros y cristianos) plus the Mom's farm style chicken (pollo criollo en cazuela). About the chicken......Randelman can be a little terse in her directions even though many are strung together in a longer sentence. In my hurry, forgot to add my own concoction of sour orange juice (with about ⅛ lemon and lime juice) which is bloody fantastic on its own as well. I was supposed to add it to the marinade before the chicken had to go in the fridge. I had already started the chicken on the stove so  I added it when it was time to put the other ingredients, the sherry, stock and onions, into the pot.

Today I learned that there are a few kinds of sherry that Albertsons sells. One is called cooking sherry and has salt added to it. It also had a recipe for something french onion (maybe the soup?).  The other kinds were for drinking in big bottles from California. The cream sherry stood out because I’ve had it with dessert at Pix Patisserie. But I grabbed one marked very dry because the recipe called for dry. It tastes very sour and was a perfect complement to the orangey flavors needed for this chicken.

Sadly, I burnt the chicken but it was still salveageable despite my mistakes. It was not completely charred and tasted more garlicky and savory with a twinge of citrus. Next time I think I will use drumsticks instead and watch it more closely.

As for the black beans and rice I made as a side dish, they turned out quite nicely. Randelman mixes the beans and rice together to make a pilaf. The dish is much quicker to put together. Just add bacon (I substituted ham cubes), then garlic, slices of green peppers and onions. Fry until fragrant and then add two cans of non drained black beans, lots of rice and water. Then cook on the stove like you would usually cook rice. With both the rice and beans together, a very smokey and hearty taste emerges. See the results: