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	Create New Topic   My Posts   My forum buddies   Invite friends   Private messages Russian brides > Main Forum > taco shells Author Post Harvey Member send PM   block PM add to buddies Send: 1/10/2010 10:15:26 AM   I took a pack of 18 old el paso taco shells -- they survived the trip. Found chicken thighs and had sister cook chicken the next morning whil we shopped for ingredients. Try to find canned (glass jars) tomatoes. You cannot unless it has whatever kind of weeds in the jar. Finally in the back of a shelf there are three jars of tomatoes -- plain tomatoes in juice -- chile cook is on if I can find spices. In grocery stores (markets) there is no such thing as a spice section as you would find in US. Some things but moslty black pepper with a few things tossed in. Got some things at market then headed to the real market. Open air place with individual vendors selling their goods. If you have the patience and time to search you can find almost anything. the crazy thing is as we were walking along I spotted this plastic container up on the corner of a shelf in one of these booths. I asked to see it. Chile sauce was the translation. I took it on a gamble. Gamble paid off. It was perfect taco sauce. I prepared the fixins and set everything out with taco shells. They looked at me like I was from mars. I demonstrated how to put together a taco -- I am the new hero! It didn't take long for family to become make your own taco experts. I could not find masa. But in the flour section section there was a bag with a picture of corn on it. After making sure it was not corn meal but flour I took it. I was ready. Because after taco feast sister wanted to know how to make taco shells. First of all I could not find find lard and couldn't explain it to anyone. For people who eat as much pork fat as they do one wonders why not know how to refine lard. I made a dough with the corn flour but couldn't get the right consistency. It rolled out fine but just wasn't right so I scrapped the idea. I must figure out a way to get a recipe to sister to make taco shells with the ingredients they have available. Sure flour tortillas are easy enough. But no corn tortillas or even chips are available in their corner of the world. Chile! I would have rated the chile I made a three by my standards. Would have gotten honorable mention at most chile cook offs. But it was okay. They loved it. She took leftover and had for breakfast next morning and also for lunch. Funny thing, when cutting peppers honey had an attack of chile pepper vapors getting into her system -- I bit into one on the chiles -- holy shit! Only put in quarter cup of chopped, put in a few more sliced so you can remove them. Found two spice stands at open air market. Bags of spices. Had to go by look to ask for sample to smell and taste. As I said, patience and knowing what you want is the key. Decided to go for beef with chile. I have been eating way to much pork since I landed in Russia. Found a good lean cut of beef. The markets and shops had everything -- just not all in the same place. Picture this: Try to prepare and cook in a kitchen space as big as my powder room with whatever availble pots, pans and utensils available. It was quite a humbling experience to say the least. beemer18 Member send PM   block PM add to buddies Send: 1/10/2010 3:18:16 PM   Julian.....oops Ralph, found with interest your experience with mexican food, truely with an american flavor. I do agree with using chicken, ground meat is 'taco bell'isk, rest of your story I cracked up, should have asked me if you were going to make corn tortillas. First of all lard or any oils are NOT used to make corn tortillas( used in flour tortillas). Second your 'corn flour' if that truely what it was, is not normally used, there is something called 'masa harina' used because of added calcium hydroxide(lime), next you don't 'roll' corn tortillas, you press them or use your hands to make a pancake shape(wax paper is best). I usually use some baking soda for addl thickness. An iron skillet is best used for cooking tortillas. One other thing, why didn't you use fresh tomatoes? If needed, you could have roasted them, you certainly had the time!!! Not sure what kind of chiles they had in ukraine, only found one kind other than bell pepper, which is called chile pepper in ukraine. Harvey Member send PM   block PM add to buddies Send: 1/10/2010 4:16:04 PM   It was a weak attempt to make tortillas. Can you imagine trying to find masa harina in Russia? Hell it is difficult to find on the east coast. Imagine what I had to work with. After attempting to roll them. I tried pressing with hand. Amazingling enough there was the perfectly seasoned iron skillet available. But it is very difficult to explain the kitchen I had to work with. I tried frying my hand pressed corn flour mixtures. I was already too shot from trying to put together a decent chile to care anymore. And trust that time was not what I had. I make better cooking arrangements when I set up deer camp kitchen in a tent than I had... At the market there was the classic three pack of bell peppers, green yellow red or yellow orange red. Went to outside market instead, no green bell peppers to be found. But plenty of red and yellow. Hot peppers were very hot. There were also a couple different green and yellow hots. What east coast people sell as anahiem peppers, etc... I was amazed at the available produce. It is a port town. You can only get one kind of lettuce though. Good lettuce. Fresh fruit from all over, even ate a couple kiwis (can't wait for it). Over all, food shopping was a pleasure in Tuapse and Krasnodar. Even on bus journey first days we stopped at a small vilage in the middle of no where with an outside market. Available food and variety is one think not lacking. I'm thinking about becoming Julian again :) Christmas is over. aucklander Member send PM   block PM add to buddies Send: 1/11/2010 5:03:23 AM   Ralph, are you trying to set up the backs of an entire nation? You did not eat kiwis, which are our national bird, are totally protected, and I hope have never formed any part of the diet of anybody on this (or any other) forum. What you ate were kiwiFRUIT (originally called Chinese Gooseberries, and now, just to confuse things, are marketed under the name Zespri). I had some for lunch at the wonderful Peterhof Palace near St Petersburg, and had to explain the same difference to the waiter there (who spoke perfect Englsh). He promised to try to convert his fellow staff, but I don't know how much success he would have had. However, as they say, even the longest journey begins with one tiny step... Ben and Maxirat will back me up on this! ben2006 Member send PM   block PM add to buddies Send: 1/11/2010 12:22:30 PM   Yes, unfortunuity they call them kiwis in the US! But a kiwi is a bird not a fruit. RodanTsunami Member send PM   block PM add to buddies Send: 1/11/2010 4:56:51 PM   And I thought it was a person from New Zealand Harvey Member send PM   block PM add to buddies Send: 1/12/2010 7:43:59 AM   aucklander - can't believe you fell for the bait... I knew it was coming - ha-ha-ha, if you read my original post about it you see parentheses following the kiwi statement... :) aucklander Member send PM   block PM add to buddies Send: 1/13/2010 5:07:48 AM   Ralph, I just thought you meant it was your favourite fruit! kiwinorth Member send PM   block PM add to buddies Send: 1/14/2010 4:17:04 AM   the butchering skills over there are the worst I've ever seen: )) the Texas chainsaw massacre would be given a gold star compared.. it shows all they cut up is pork and chicken and are very lost with beef.. but anyway they do make a great sausage, its sold in supermarket's mainly "ready warm",,, full of half garlic cloves and course minced meat, yum.. i would love the recipe if anyone knows please tell.. i was also given a recipe by a cake shop for their "sour cream cake". that is something else, worth making and easy,,,, its on the net. it really is to die for.. 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