Main Courses

Next up on Hispanic.com’s food section - a popular Peruvian pasta dish called “Tallarines Verdes”. It’s a great pasta dish made with fusilli-style pasta and a green sauce similar but different to Italian Pesto - as it's made with basil, spinach and cheese.  It's really delicious!  In Peru it's typically served with a steak on top of the pasta - and do note: leftovers are great!  Just add 2 friend eggs on top of a serving of pasta the next day...and yum.  I learned how to make this from a Peruvian friend who is an awesome cook!

Note: I rarely measure anything – so these are rough estimates…feel free to add more of anything as fits your palate!

Ingredients for pasta main dish:
-1 medium sized bag of Fusilli pasta
-1-2 bunches of spinach, washed and coarsely chopped
-1 big handful of fresh basil washed
-1/4-1/2 pound fresh cheese, I use Mexican Queso Fresco (as I made it it was a really large fist sized chunk of cheese…maybe even a tad more. Also reserve an extra 1 cup of crumbled cheese for sprinkling over when eating
-1/2 cup toasted almonds ground (OPTIONAL)
-water
-evaporated milk or whole milk, not too much - I'll specify in the instructions (OPTIONAL)
-1/2-1 purple onion minced
-3 cloves minced garlic
-1 aji amarillo (a Yellow Peruvian Chili Pepper OPTIONAL some don't use it, you may sub another spicy chili pepper)
-salt to taste
-pepper to taste I use about 1/2- 1 teaspoon
-1/4 teaspoon monosodium glutamine "Ajinamoto" (OPTIONAL)
-oil to cook

The dish
Black eyed peas, which in Spanish many Cubans call them “Frijol de Carita”, or the Spanish call them “Alubias Carillas” are one of my favorite legumes. You can buy them dried at most grocery stores, or pre-cooked and frozen. I often stew them with meat, or like I do here inspired by the Cuban “Moros” (black beans cooked with rice) or “Congri” (red beans and rice) I steam them together with rice. This dish may be served as a main vegetarian course with fried plantains and a light salad dressed in olive oil, lemon or lime, and salt. If you’re a meat eater like me it makes a great side dish with stewed, grilled, or roasted meat and a side of vegetables.

 What is Birria?
"Birria" is a rich Mexican stew, made with very mild dried chilies, and a combination of spices that have hints of sweet, peppery, earthy and smokey flavors. The version I am familiar with is more of a rich consomme/stock with tender moist meat. Traditionally it is prepared using a whole goat, though folks who aren’t fans of goat will often use bone in or fattier cuts of beef or pork. Keep in mind turkey can be used as well and in this case I’m using chicken. Note, that depending on the region of Mexico the dish can greatly vary (from braised in the oven, to baked, to cooked in a pit, stewed, or in the form of a soup). Spices can vary but the common elements of the dried chilies, garlic, and a type of smokey and earthy spice with an aromatic herb remains a common element in all recipes I've seen. 
Scroll down for step-by-step recipe & photos

This BIrria
The first Birria I ever cooked was made using my grand-aunts recipe - which was good but I always felt it was missing something. Then I experimented one day and used a combination of sweet and earthy spices as well as using chile ancho which I suspected was a contributor to the brown tinge of many of the ones I've seen at Mexican eateries. For the first Birria I fried all the spices and chiles to prepare the meat, resulting in a tasty but I must admit excessive result.

 We are really excited to have a chat with Nathan Gutierrez from “La Cocina de Nathan: Cuban, Spanish, Mexican Cooking & More”.  We love this blog!  Nathan has GREAT recipes that our moms used to make growing up, and he talks about how the food fits into his own family in his blog, as well as walking readers through his recipes. Nathan shares some cooking tips with us here in our interview.  Check out Nathan's blog for more! That's his caldo here in the pic to the right.

Q. Nathan tell us about your food writing and why you started your blog. 
Well I started getting interested in cooking when I was about 16.  It happened right around when my grandma moved away - she's from the Cuban side of the family.  I missed her cooking so my mom who is Mexican, started teaching me about the food that my grandma used to make.  After that, I started learning about food from family and friends.  Then it became a hobby for me.  Back when MySpace was really popular, I started joining food groups and just talking about cooking and food online.  From there - somebody encouraged me to start a blog! 

Hispanic.com is very excited to have the opportunity to speak with Diana Jimenez, a bilingual Butterball Turkey Talk-Line representative to talk Butterball turkey and “latin style” turkey preparation.  The Butterball Turkey Talk-Line is staffed in English and Spanish at 1-800-BUTTERBALL. (The English Q&A follows the Spanish Q&A below.)  

Diana Jiménez de Butterball habló con Hispanic.com sobre cómo cocinar el pavo.  El teléfono de la Línea Butterball de Ayuda para Cómo Preparar Pavo es 1-800-BUTTERBALL. La llamada es gratis.

P. Infórmenos sobre la línea de Butterball de Ayuda para Cómo Preparar Pavo.
R. La línea de Ayuda para Cómo Preparar Pavo está disponible también para la comunidad hispana.  Cuando se llama, hay una opción para presionar el número 7,