Steve's a pretty good cook. He likes making more unique dishes, unlike me who generally sticks to pasta, stews, soups, etc...it's a good balance! He's been wanting to make THIS pork dish forever (well since our pal, Jeff told him about it) but finding the annatto seeds that it calls for was pretty much impossible. Steve googled it and found that a little family run Mexican shop in Fitzroy might have them, so off we went on a wee seed finding adventure.
It was the cutest, littlest, busiest shop ever, with everything imported from Mexico or California. It made me think of and miss my beautiful Mexican friend, Mariana.
Thank goodness for iPhones. I snapped these shop pics with mine. Much more subtle than a big ole camera in a small, busy shop.
Also, quite possibly the friendliest service ever at this little shop! We'll definitely be going back for all our Mexican cooking needs!:)
Once back home, Steve set to work. Grinding the seeds was a bit of an ordeal. You're meant to use a coffee grinder, but we don't have one, so it was and hour and a half of Steve grinding seeds, me taking pictures and one very sore shoulder at the end of it all! What? The camera gets heavy! Just kidding.
Steve assessing the damage halfway through the grinding! The beer helped to numb the pain! I enjoyed the view;) There's something sexy about a man grinding seeds, I just can't put my finger on exactly what it is...the bulging arm muscles, the arm muscles that bulge...something.
Annatto seeds, before and after grinding. They weren't easy to grind but they had nothing on the cloves! Wow, they're like little rock hard sticks!
Have I ever talked to you about my "Happy Chopper"? Oh.My.Goodness. I bought this through Tupperware and it is quite possibly one of the best things I've ever purchased! All you need to do is throw your peeled garlic cloves or quartered onion pieces in, put the top on, twist and...
...Voila! Three seconds later, perfectly chopped garlic or onion! Brilliant! This is especially great if chopping onion makes you cry, which isn't the case with me, it's my superpower. That and the fact that I can feel rain fall before most people. Steve never gets ice cream headaches. That's a cool superpower!
Steve's dish was delicious, both for dinner last night and leftovers tonight. Sadly, no final photo because our neighbor joined us for dinner and we were too excited eating and chatting to take pictures. You'll just have to trust us that it was a not only a tasty dish, but a pretty yummy looking one too!I love it when Stevie cooks!
PS. It's Steve's birthday tomorrow! :)
3 comments:
In an hour and half would think you could have gone out and bought a coffee grinder. But you do need a pretty good one to do spices. And then it is no good for coffee.
Your husband is very handsome. It could be the muscles. It could be that he's cooking. As my mother-in-law says, "No woman ever shot a man while he was doing the dishes." Of course, her son doesn't do dishes, but I digress.
I'm glad you enjoyed you dinner and your company.
I meant to say, "In an hour and A half, I think..."
It is great that you guys have found a mexican store that has some products. When I was in Brisbane it was none and it made it very hard to cook for good mexican meals. I've heard Melbourne has more options, so use them!!! =) If you happen to have a food processor it might help to crunch those annato seeds. Nice "molcajete" hehe. You should try to do some salsa on it (like the one I pass you the recipe but instead of using the belnder use the stone)!! Cheers
Mariana
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