Week One - Florida

Greetings from the Sunshine State, and welcome to week one of the National Grub Year!

This first stop presented me with a challenge that I will face for many of the states that I'll visit throughout the year.  The challenge: which region or recipe should I try that would be emblematic of the state?  For Florida, which direction could I take?  Something with alligator?  Something Caribbean or inspired by the Keys?  Meth?

I decided that a Miami inspired, Cuban flavored meal would be best, especially since this week I wanted to honor New Years with a traditional dinner of pork, black-eyed peas (in this case black beans), and greens.  But I also wanted to honor another aspect of the state for dessert.  More on that later.  First, dinner...

Mojo Pork

Two pork tenderloins

1 yellow onion

1/2 cup olive oil

8 cloves of garlic, pressed

1 teaspoon ground cumin (eyeballed this one)

1 teaspoon dried oregano (eyeballed this one too)

1 cup lime juice

1 cup orange juice

1 teaspoon kosher salt (eyeba...you get the picture)

This was very similar to the recipe I made for Cuba back in the Global Grub Month.  This time around, however, I made the Mojo sauce from scratch instead of using the the Goya bottle brand.

First, I sauteed the dry ingredients until they were fragrant and the garlic was lightly browned.

I mixed the juices in a separate bowl, then mixed in the spices...

I sliced the onion and layered a crockpot with the slices.  I put the tenderloins on top of the onion, and then pour the mojo mixture over everything. I set it on low for 8 hours.

I assure you, it smelled better than it looked!

Black Beans and Yellow Rice

1 16oz bag dried black beans

Water to cover beans

4 bay leaves

1 tablespoon cumin

1 tablespoon paprika

Adobo to taste

1 cup wild rice

3 cups water

One big pinch dried saffron

Adobo to taste

A must have in our kitchen

For these sides, I got to use my new pots and pans that Santa brought for Christmas.  Nothing too fancy here, just set everything on low and let them simmer until they were both at the consistency that I wanted.

Fried Plantains

2 plantains

1/3 cup canola oil

Salt to taste

I'd found a microwavable box of these that had actually come out tasting pretty great.  However, this go around, I wanted to try it from scratch.

First, I cut each of the plantains into pieces.  I poured the canola oil into an electric griddle and put the plantains in to fry...

Once the were a golden brown, set them on a plate to cool...

After adding some greens to the mix, this is what I came up with for dinner...

Dinner was fantastic.  The pork was great, and if I do say so myself the mojo sauce was even better than the kind from the bottle that I had previously used. The beans and rice tasted great together, and the fried plantains came out even better than I had hoped.  All in all, it was great meal.  But it wasn't over yet.

As I said, I wanted to honor another part of Florida with this week's meal.  When thinking about what to make for Florida, my mind kept going back to Seinfeld's parents in Del Boca Vista, so I decided to highlight that section of the state.  There has been a thriving population of Jewish people in Southern Florida since the early 1800s and they have had a significant cultural impact there.  And one of the classic Jewish desserts is rugelach.

Rugelach

Dough

2 sticks unsalted butter

8oz cream cheese

1/4 cup sour cream

2 cups all purpose flour

1/4 tsp kosher salt

2 tbsp sugar

Filling

1 1/2 cups walnuts

1 1/4 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

1/2 cup strawberry preserves

1/4 cup brown sugar

Egg wash

1 large egg

1 tsp water

Dash of cinnamon

First, I started with the dough.  I chopped the butter and cream cheese into smaller pieces and put them into a food processor with the sour cream, flour, salt, and sugar.

I pulsed the mix until it created a sticky dough...

I took this dough out and formed it into a rough ball on a well-floured board...

I cut the ball up into four smaller balls...

I let these sit in the fridge for an hour while I made the filling.  For this, I added all filling ingredients back into my (cleaned) food processor and mixed well...

Next, I took the firm dough balls out of the fridge and rolled each one out until they were about an 1/8 of an inch thick.  I used a small cake pan to cut out a circle in the dough...

In each circle I added a large spoonful of the filling mixture and spread it out...

I cut each circle into eight pieces...

I then rolled each of the pieces up and brushed them with egg wash...

I set them in an oven at 375 and let them cook for 15 minutes.  The result...

...was delicious.  I can't stop eating these things.  Seriously...send help.

For the first stop on my National Grub Year, Florida did not disappoint. It brought with it difference takes on familiar recipes, and completely new cooking challenges.  I'm hopeful that every state I visit this year will do the same.  And I'm hopeful the rest of the states will bring with them recipes and dishes that are just as tasty as those we tried this week.

Happy 2019 everyone, and happy eating!