Get Piggy With It

Oink!

Ground pork never looked so good. Spotted by my cousin at Savemart butcher's counter in Oakdale, California.

Mas Malo - New Location in Downtown LA

Now my hair stylist won't have to come to Silver Lake for taco night, I can join him downtown. The hip local Silver Lake neighborhood hot spot, Malo, opens their second restaurant downtown this Friday, Mas Malo.

I can't wait to check out this new location. I like their current location with the indoor patio, bar and dining area. The outside of the building is really great with this bold, graphic, black and white zig zag design. They have quite a good logo too. A cute flying goat.

Ground beef pickle taco

Malo is a mexican-inspired "taqueria". It's well know for it's Monday Night $1 Taco Nights which we love to go to for a good local deal. I love that Potato-Chipotle-Cheddar Taco. Oh and the ground beef pickle taco. It's like a cheeseburger and taco at once. They have some tasty side dishes too. The elote (mexican style corn on the cob) and mushrooms are a good bet. Make sure to try the burnt habanero crema salsa - it's a taste sensation.

Mexican style corn

Be warned if you go on taco night (and many other nights) at the Silver Lake location, you will have terrible service. It happens every time. It starts with a bad attitude from the "hostess" - I use this term loosely. It continues with the server. Last time we had the experience of ordering a second round of drinks half-way thru our meal. This round consisted of three bottled Corona's. Literally 20 minutes past. After we were finally able to wave down our waitress, we asked her about our drinks because we were almost done with our meal. She replied "They're still making them". Making bottled Corona's? Wow, that's fresh! I understand they are busy, but the management should compensate and have extra staff to accommodate their clientele.

Malo Restaurant (Silver Lake)

4326 W Sunset Blvd.

Los Angeles, CA 90029

Opening Friday:

Mas Malo Restaurant (Downtown)

515 W. 7th Street - 1st Floor

Los Angeles, CA 90014

Art & Food: Burger Mural

Lovely hamburger character line the wall of this San Francisco Mission District alley.

Food n Fashion: Mmm... Bacon

Local growler, Jeff, rocks a MMMM...Bacon T-shirt. From pig to plate.

Leftouts: Making Beef Broth

I try to use all of my resources to their full potential - even all my leftouts. After Christmas I had some leftover prime rib bones with alot of meat and fatty tissue still attached to the bone. I decided to make a beef broth. It was fairly simple. There really is no "recipe" you can do it all to taste, say with bone, a carrot, couple green onions and couple cloves of garlic. Just reduce the ingredients accordingly and to taste. Anything goes.

From this process you will yield three products for future use: Beef Broth, Beef Tallow and Beef Meat.

1. I took a large stock pot and filled it with water (about 8 cups) and set it on high.

Use leftover prime rib bones to make beef broth. 

2. I then added:

• Leftover Prime Rib bones with meat and fat on bone
• 1 carrot cut into 3 pieces
• 6 cloves of garlic
• 4 green onions cut into thirds
• 
  
• 2 tsp thyme
• 4 bay leaves
• 1 tsp of salt
• 1 tsp fresh ground black pepper
• 1 tsp fresh ground green pepper

3. Bring all ingredients to a boil. This takes about 15 minutes.

4. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer for an hour and a half.

5. Add two more cups of water. Salt and pepper some more. 

Bring all ingredients to boil and reduce to simmer

6. Simmer until meat falls off the bone. About another hour. Just keep checking on it.

Remove and discard bones, carrot pieces and onion.

7. Remove from heat. Remove and discard the bones, carrot pieces and any large chunks of fat. You probably wont see much left of the garlic and onion. After they cook this long, they basically dissolve.

Strain broth from meat

8. Have a large bowl with a strainer ready. Empty and strain stockpot with remaining beef broth and beef pieces. Set aside strained meat pieces. Remove large pieces of fat and carrots in the meat mixture and reserve the meat for later use.

Set meat aside and refrigerate broth for about an hour.

9. Refrigerate bowl with broth for about an hour until it "sets". You will see a white solid layer form on top of the broth. 

White solid layer of "tallow" will form on top.

10. After solid layer forms on top of broth, remove from fridge. This solid white layer you are seeing is the fat (which when was raw was called "suet") now solidified into a "tallow". You will save this part to use later.

Gently remove top layer with fork.

Take a fork down the edge of the bowl and gently separate the solid layer from the layer below by slowly lifting it up. Do this slow and be careful to try to keep it in one piece and it will be less messy. Remove this piece and set aside on a piece of foil. 

11. Below the fat layer you will see a gelatinous brown liquid. This is your broth base. Put in airtight container and freeze for future use or use immediately to make soup.

You now have three resources from this process to use:

Broth base - use immediately or freeze for future use. Gently heat on low and add a little water until mixture returns completely to a liquid. You can use this for a base to make delicious soups.

Beef Meat - use immediately or freeze for future use. This meat is great for taquitos, tacos and pasta sauces.

Beef Tallow (Fat) - freeze this fat to use for the future. To use, gently reheat in a skillet. Use beef suet to make refried beans, fat base for gravy or to fry french fries.

Enjoy your new cooking resources!

English Muffin

I saw this cardboard box for english muffins laying on the street as a I walked in the rain. It made me want McDonald's.

Deal of the Day: Half off at Border Grill

see more photos on Border Grill's website gallery

Border Grill in Downtown Los Angeles, is offering a special thru Groupon (one of my favorite sites). You can get $40 worth of food for only $20. Click here to get todays' Deal of the Day.

When you go to Border Grill try the Panuchos with Citrus Chicken and the Yucatan Pork roasted in banana leaf. It's oh so good.

Border Grill is located at 445 S Figueroa St. Los Angeles, California 90071.