This week is loaded with Latin favorites. Most of these offerings can be frozen, and they all make it easy to feed and please a crowd.
Carnitas are back! We cook pork shoulders for hours, shred, and cryovac pack it so all you need to do is reheat and crisp it in a pan. You can stuff your carnitas in Tehachapi grain project’s tender Sonora flour tortillas, or all-natural corn tortillas, made fresh for us on Wednesday morning by La Gloria Foods. You could also stuff your tortillas with El Mexicano brand Oaxaca cheese for quesadillas times.
This week’s raw provisions are all taco friendly. We’ve got local, wild halibut, grass-fed hanger steaks, free-range chicken thighs, and Peads and Barnetts chorizo. We’re also marinating wild shrimp so it’s ready to grill, sear, or fry. And just in case you want to batter and fry them, we’re selling Mel’s favorite tempura batter (just add soda water and ice) and chipotle crema so you’re all set for shrimp tacos. Our classic green tomatillo salsa can dress any taco, but it’s also a great sauce to braise chicken thighs in or ladle over tamales.
We’re thrilled to bring back organic blue corn tamales. This collaboration between Tehachapi grain project and Chef Michelle and Company features Oaxacan blue dent corn masa filled with roasted poblano chili, queso fresco, and manchego cheese. You can steam and eat them next week or freeze them for later.
Burritos Las Palmas’s Zacatecan-style burritos are wrapped in Mejorado’s prized flour tortillas and filled with either refried beans and Chihuahua cheese or shredded beef birria, refried beans, and cheese. They come four to a pack with a side of salsa Roja. Jonathan Gold once referred to these birria burritos as one of the "finest bites in all of LA."
To stock your freezer and have on hand for breakfast, lunch or dinner are Delmy’s pupusas; classic bean and cheese, or her latest creation of mixed mushroom and cheese pupusas. The pupusas come frozen, three to a pack, with accompanying salsa and curtido (cabbage slaw). They’re also great with a drizzle of El Salvadorean crema, which we are selling as well.
Our friends at Forage are making us another batch of tortilla soup, that will be delicious and vegan as is, but you could also add beans or chicken to make it heartier. The last time we had this, I gently cooked the marinated shrimp and large pieces of halibut in the soup and then garnished it with fresh lime, cilantro, avocado, fresh tortilla chips, and shredded cabbage for a quick seafood stew.
We’ve also got some organic dragon beans from Two Peas in Pod, that are similar to pinto beans in taste and texture and make a great creamy bean to serve with rice and everything we’re offering.
For something sweet, we have super choc-o-food bars from Valerie confections. This oversized chocolate bar wrapped in Commune Design’s stunning packaging is gift-worthy. But once you taste the darkened milk chocolate with a hint of caramel that’s loaded with dried pears, apricots, golden raisins, macadamia nuts, cashews, almonds, sunflowers, and peanuts, you might just want to keep it all for yourself.