Life is like your freezer. It starts out empty, then proceeds to fill up with odds and ends. What is powdered egg doing in mine? I don’t really care for the answer to that, but somebody obviously thought otherwise. As for the pack of andouille sausages, why did I ever think I would be making gumbo one day? I don’t even like gumbo. The squid ink I have been saving up I am at least looking forward to have enough of for the darkest paella or pasta negra. The bulk are remnants of meals past, with the occasional fruit of an unsuccessful undertaking or experiment that I just did not have the heart to throw away.
This here was my attempt at redeeming the over-dried, over-salted tapa (the local version of beef jerky) I made a while ago. I boiled those things for almost three hours, and still they were not as tender as I would have liked. It took lots of water, and I had to add a touch of soy sauce because the beef had turned pale, plus some sugar to counteract the saltiness. Meanwhile I was sleepy, so I decided this was as good as the darned tapa deserved and left it to cool overnight before shredding.
The inspiration for the dish was something I had at Andok’s years back. It was good, if skimpy on the beef. Mine could have used a lot more rice. Not because it was good or the topping generous, but because it was wickedly salty as ever. With the benefit of hindsight, I realized I should have thrown out the water, then replaced it instead of letting the salt seep back into the meat. Even our dog refused to touch it.
What do I hope to achieve telling you this? If I have to be honest, it’s really just an excuse to use a decent photo. But now that I’ve raised the question, maybe this is a good time for a little social experiment, see who among my Facebook friends actually read this blog. If you are one of them, click here, and in the comment box there type in the title of your favorite movie. Then I will know you have made it to this part. Amuse me — my freezer is doing a lousy job of that at the moment.
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