I am...not sure how I should feel about being unemployed. For one thing, it's not as though we need the money; we don't exactly live high on the hog, our car's paid off and Dan's student loans are not unreasonable. My job has not exactly been my favorite place in the world lately, and the daily dread of what fresh hell awaited me every morning isn't something I'll miss. On the other hand, I was looking forward to getting pregnant again (hell, I've been looking forward to it for a year now) and I liked all the not worrying about money. But to all my real-life friends who've been so sweet and supportive and wonderful, my work people who were shocked and sympathetic on my behalf, and of course my husband and my son, thanks so very much for being everything that you are.
As usual, when I'm feeling a little bruised, I'm craving spicy. This is a widespread, modernized version of a rustic classic Southwestern stew. The easy thing to do here is to use canned chilles, available in the ethnic food aisle of almost any grocery store in the country, but for a real treat, find fresh Anaheim peppers and roast and peel them yourself. This goes great with a sprinkle of cilantro, a few diced tomatoes, and maybe a drizzle of sour cream over the top.
Chili Verde
3 pounds boneless pork, cut into 3/4 inch cubes
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 large onion, diced small
6 garlic cloves, coarsely chopped
2 jalapenos, stemmed and coarsely chopped
1 tablespoon oregano (fresh) or 1 teaspoon dried
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 cans peeled whole green chiles, drained
2 cups reduced sodium chicken stock
Heat oil in a large pan over medium heat. Add onion, garlic, chile peppers, oregano, and 3/4 teaspoon salt. Cook until the onion is softening, about 5 minutes. Remove the mixture to a large stew pot.
In the same frying pan, add as much pork as will fit in one layer. Sprinkle lightly with salt and pepper and cook over medium-high heat until browned. Remove to the stew pot and repeat with pork until all of it is cooked.
While the pork is browning, cut the canned chiles into 1/4 inch dice. Add the chiles to the pot, along with the stock, and 3 cups water. Bring to a biol. Reduce the heat to the barest simmer, and partially cover the pot. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 2 1/2 hours, or until the pork shreds easily when pressed with a wooden spoon. Serve with garnishes and flour or corn tortillas
Showing posts with label Mexican. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mexican. Show all posts
Saturday, April 26, 2008
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
April 23: California-Style Fish Tacos
Things My Son Mostly Refused To Eat Or Drink Tonight
1. A peanut butter sandwich
2. A banana
3. A hot dog
4. Whole wheat pasta
5. A sloppy joe (he refused to believe that it was food; he thought it was a TV show. He threw the TV remote at me after I refused to let him watch sloppy joe.)
6. A slice of leftover mushroom pizza
7. Milk
8. Fruit Punch
9. A chocolate chip cookie (Seriously! A chocolate chip cookie! He said that he couldn't eat it because "it has brown in it." What?)
10. Green beans (this did not surprise me; he always refuses green beans, but I still offer them)
What he asked me for for dinner:
1. "Fackers." If anybody knows what a "facker" is, besides what my kid was acting like tonight, please tell me. He also refuses to go to sleep. Oh, this kid. There are nights when I consider medicating him, and settle for medicating myself. With wine.
I haven't wrapped a tortilla around anything in awhile, which is unusual for me. When I went to San Diego for the first time, my freshman year of high school, before my mother and stepfather were married and while he was finishing out his last year as a high school, we ate a lot of what I think of as "San Diego Mexican" food: queso fundido with fried and crumbled chorizo, chips with lots of cilantro-laden salsa, huevos rancheros with truly great ranchero sauce, everything served with freshly-made tortillas.
San Diego is famous for fish tacos as well, not a delicacy I have much of an appreciation for. I do, however, acknowledge their popularity, both in California and out of it. I also acknowledge the zen beauty of simple, fresh, beautiful food, and the joy in preparing and serving it.
My husband, a solidly midwestern boy, loves fish tacos, and despite the fact that they make my house smell like fish, I love making them. Fish chunks are generally cheaper than filets or steaks, as they're generally the trimmed parts, but if you can't find them, you can cut them from bigger pieces. Pick a good, oily, strong-tasting fish, like swordfish, shark, salmon, or tuna.
California-Style Fish Chunks in a Dipped Tortilla
2 1/4 pounds fish in 1-inch chunks
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/2 cup soy sauce
2 jalapeno peppers, stemmed and minced
1/2 a medium Napa cabbage, thinly shredded
Olive oil
18 corn or 12 flour tortillas
Tomato salsa of your choice
Thinly sliced red onion
Farmers cheese or queso asidero, crumbled
In a large bowl, mix together the lemon juice, soy sauce, and chili peppers. Add the fish chunks and turn to coal all over. Set aside to marinade for 20 minutes to an hour.
Coat the bottom of a large frying pan with olive oil. Set over high heat until the oil begins to smoke. Add as many fish chunks as will fit in one uncrowded layer. Fry for 3 minutes, then turn andfry until flaky but still moist in the centers, 3 to 5 minutes more. Remove to a platter and keep warm. Continue cooking until all of the fish is cooked.
Add more oil to the pan. Add the cabbage and stir-fry until the cabbage is barely wilted, about 2 minutes.
Just before serving, dip the tortills in 1/2 cup of the salsa. Heat in a frying pan or the oven.
To assemble, spread about 1/3 cup of the fish chunks in the middle of a tortilla. Top with some cabbage, salsa, and cheese. Fold and serve.
1. A peanut butter sandwich
2. A banana
3. A hot dog
4. Whole wheat pasta
5. A sloppy joe (he refused to believe that it was food; he thought it was a TV show. He threw the TV remote at me after I refused to let him watch sloppy joe.)
6. A slice of leftover mushroom pizza
7. Milk
8. Fruit Punch
9. A chocolate chip cookie (Seriously! A chocolate chip cookie! He said that he couldn't eat it because "it has brown in it." What?)
10. Green beans (this did not surprise me; he always refuses green beans, but I still offer them)
What he asked me for for dinner:
1. "Fackers." If anybody knows what a "facker" is, besides what my kid was acting like tonight, please tell me. He also refuses to go to sleep. Oh, this kid. There are nights when I consider medicating him, and settle for medicating myself. With wine.
I haven't wrapped a tortilla around anything in awhile, which is unusual for me. When I went to San Diego for the first time, my freshman year of high school, before my mother and stepfather were married and while he was finishing out his last year as a high school, we ate a lot of what I think of as "San Diego Mexican" food: queso fundido with fried and crumbled chorizo, chips with lots of cilantro-laden salsa, huevos rancheros with truly great ranchero sauce, everything served with freshly-made tortillas.
San Diego is famous for fish tacos as well, not a delicacy I have much of an appreciation for. I do, however, acknowledge their popularity, both in California and out of it. I also acknowledge the zen beauty of simple, fresh, beautiful food, and the joy in preparing and serving it.
My husband, a solidly midwestern boy, loves fish tacos, and despite the fact that they make my house smell like fish, I love making them. Fish chunks are generally cheaper than filets or steaks, as they're generally the trimmed parts, but if you can't find them, you can cut them from bigger pieces. Pick a good, oily, strong-tasting fish, like swordfish, shark, salmon, or tuna.
California-Style Fish Chunks in a Dipped Tortilla
2 1/4 pounds fish in 1-inch chunks
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/2 cup soy sauce
2 jalapeno peppers, stemmed and minced
1/2 a medium Napa cabbage, thinly shredded
Olive oil
18 corn or 12 flour tortillas
Tomato salsa of your choice
Thinly sliced red onion
Farmers cheese or queso asidero, crumbled
In a large bowl, mix together the lemon juice, soy sauce, and chili peppers. Add the fish chunks and turn to coal all over. Set aside to marinade for 20 minutes to an hour.
Coat the bottom of a large frying pan with olive oil. Set over high heat until the oil begins to smoke. Add as many fish chunks as will fit in one uncrowded layer. Fry for 3 minutes, then turn andfry until flaky but still moist in the centers, 3 to 5 minutes more. Remove to a platter and keep warm. Continue cooking until all of the fish is cooked.
Add more oil to the pan. Add the cabbage and stir-fry until the cabbage is barely wilted, about 2 minutes.
Just before serving, dip the tortills in 1/2 cup of the salsa. Heat in a frying pan or the oven.
To assemble, spread about 1/3 cup of the fish chunks in the middle of a tortilla. Top with some cabbage, salsa, and cheese. Fold and serve.
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
April 1: Chicken Chile Rellenos
I am struggling with...well, with everything, I guess. My job is really pretty awful lately. Our house search has stalled out. We have a couple of small vacations planned, but they are all a million miles away (with the exception of my best friend's baby shower later this month, which I am REALLY looking forward to.) I live with a not-quite-three-year-old tyrant who is challenging my notions of life with a three-year-old (I suspected it would be awful; I underestimated dangerously.) My husband is preparing to start graduate school and is facing some fairly substantial challenges at work this year. I am partially in a rut and partially bending under the weight of my daily life, and that, on top of not being pregnant, still...I'm having a tough time.
So, there's that; plus, I'm on a diet. That always sets me up for an excellent frame of mind. When my soul is feeling beaten up like it has been, I usually like to soothe it with food that gets my endorphines firing--chips and salsa and guacamole, chile rellenos, steak fajitas, spicy glazed pork tenderloin. Mostly, though, I've been able to resist this time around, since these aren't exactly the greatest thing for being on a diet.
In 1999, I had just broken up with a guy who I had been ass-over-teakettle for. I had a job I hated and housemates that annoyed me beyond all compare. I was living without internet access and I was drinking entirely too much too often in an effort to make me mind the rest of this a little less. One of the things I did about it was to invent this recipe in an effort to ease the pain.
I like to cut my own chicken cutlets rather than depend on what's in the grocery store. Take a boneless, skinless chicken breast half and place it on a cutting board. Put your hand on top of it to hold it in place. Take a sharp knife, hold it parallel to the counter, and slice through the chicken breast, more or less evenly. Then take each breast half, wrap it loosely in sturdy plastic wrap, and pound it to a more or less even thickness with a meat pounder, heavy can, or rolling pin.
Also, thin-sliced bacon works better in this recipe--it crisps up nicely and the chicken doesn't dry out while the bacon cooks. I would serve this sort of overly-decadent dish with garlicky white rice and some fresh fruit like mango or pineapple.
Chicken, bacon, cheese, peppers: all good for what ails me. Especially when what ails me is a monstrous case of the early-spring blahs.
Chicken Chile Rellenos
3 chicken breast halves, sliced horizontally into halves and lightly pounded
salt and pepper
4 oz. brick style cream cheese, softened
1 medium onion, chopped finely
1 can chopped green chiles, or 3 roasted, peeled, and chopped poblano peppers
12 oz. shredded cheese: cheddar, pepper-jack, Monterey jack, brick, or queso quesadilla are all good choices, divided
1 cup fresh bread crumbs
6 slices bacon
Preheat oven to 375.
Lightly salt and pepper chicken breast halves on both sides. In a medium bowl, combine cream cheese, onion, chiles, 10 oz. shredded cheese, and bread crumbs, and salt and pepper to taste.
Put 1/6 of the cheese mixture on each of the chicken breasts across the widest part of the breast. Starting from the rounded "top" of the breast, roll up the chicken breast tightly around the cheese mixture.
Use a toothpick to anchor one end of a slice of bacon near the bottom of the chicken "roll." Wrap the bacon around the roll and anchor at the other end with another toothpick. Arrange the bacon-wrapped chicken breasts on a wire rack over a sheet pan.
Bake until bacon is browned and crispy and chicken is cooked through, 25-35 minutes. Let rest 5 minutes, serve.
So, there's that; plus, I'm on a diet. That always sets me up for an excellent frame of mind. When my soul is feeling beaten up like it has been, I usually like to soothe it with food that gets my endorphines firing--chips and salsa and guacamole, chile rellenos, steak fajitas, spicy glazed pork tenderloin. Mostly, though, I've been able to resist this time around, since these aren't exactly the greatest thing for being on a diet.
In 1999, I had just broken up with a guy who I had been ass-over-teakettle for. I had a job I hated and housemates that annoyed me beyond all compare. I was living without internet access and I was drinking entirely too much too often in an effort to make me mind the rest of this a little less. One of the things I did about it was to invent this recipe in an effort to ease the pain.
I like to cut my own chicken cutlets rather than depend on what's in the grocery store. Take a boneless, skinless chicken breast half and place it on a cutting board. Put your hand on top of it to hold it in place. Take a sharp knife, hold it parallel to the counter, and slice through the chicken breast, more or less evenly. Then take each breast half, wrap it loosely in sturdy plastic wrap, and pound it to a more or less even thickness with a meat pounder, heavy can, or rolling pin.
Also, thin-sliced bacon works better in this recipe--it crisps up nicely and the chicken doesn't dry out while the bacon cooks. I would serve this sort of overly-decadent dish with garlicky white rice and some fresh fruit like mango or pineapple.
Chicken, bacon, cheese, peppers: all good for what ails me. Especially when what ails me is a monstrous case of the early-spring blahs.
Chicken Chile Rellenos
3 chicken breast halves, sliced horizontally into halves and lightly pounded
salt and pepper
4 oz. brick style cream cheese, softened
1 medium onion, chopped finely
1 can chopped green chiles, or 3 roasted, peeled, and chopped poblano peppers
12 oz. shredded cheese: cheddar, pepper-jack, Monterey jack, brick, or queso quesadilla are all good choices, divided
1 cup fresh bread crumbs
6 slices bacon
Preheat oven to 375.
Lightly salt and pepper chicken breast halves on both sides. In a medium bowl, combine cream cheese, onion, chiles, 10 oz. shredded cheese, and bread crumbs, and salt and pepper to taste.
Put 1/6 of the cheese mixture on each of the chicken breasts across the widest part of the breast. Starting from the rounded "top" of the breast, roll up the chicken breast tightly around the cheese mixture.
Use a toothpick to anchor one end of a slice of bacon near the bottom of the chicken "roll." Wrap the bacon around the roll and anchor at the other end with another toothpick. Arrange the bacon-wrapped chicken breasts on a wire rack over a sheet pan.
Bake until bacon is browned and crispy and chicken is cooked through, 25-35 minutes. Let rest 5 minutes, serve.
Sunday, March 23, 2008
March 23: Cheese Enchiladas With Rajas
The brisket was delicious and tender and flavorful, the potatoes were...oh, just so good. I steamed some broccoli to go with, and I put half of that aside to saute with garlic and olive oil and crushed red pepper flakes and toasted pine nuts and some hot pasta tomorrow. It's one of my favorite things to do with leftover broccoli.
At the risk of maybe telling you too much, I have to admit that I am on a new medication in my apparently neverending quest to have a second baby and it is wreaking total havoc on both my digestive system and the number and type of calories and insulin both that I need to consume to keep my blood sugar in line. For dinner tonight, I am going to have a tall cup of chicken broth with a few egg noodles in it in an effort to calm my churning and miserable stomach, but what I'm craving is a red-chili-sauced cheese and onion enchilada with a few strips of roasted poblano peppers, a puddle of beans, and a big pile of chopped romaine lettuce with thinly sliced radishes and a crumble of queso fresco.
So that's the recipe you'll get tonight. I make fabulous cheese enchiladas, if I may say so, and they're really one of my favorite meals. This is a great thing to serve to some non-meat-eating friends with lots of chips and a spicy-smoky salsa to start, cold beer or fresh limeade to drink, and some fruity sorbet and a couple of ginger cookies for dessert. I am hoping that these lousy side effects will get up off my ass sometime soon so I can go back to eating like a person who likes food again.
Cheese Enchiladas With Rajas
8 corn tortillas
2 1/2 cups enchilada sauce, canned or homemade
8 ounce brick-style cream cheese, softened
8 ounces shredded sharp cheddar cheese
1 medium white onion, half chopped fine and half very thinly sliced
salt and pepper
2 poblano peppers
Garnishes: your choice of thinly sliced radishes, hot sauce, additional shredded cheese, sliced hot peppers, pickled or fresh, sliced black olives, additional slivered onions, diced avacado, diced tomato, chopped cilantro, sour cream.
Under a pre-heated broiler, roast poblano peppers until all sides are blistered and blackened. Put peppers in a bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and set aside for at least ten minutes.
Preheat oven to 400. Mix together diced onion, cream cheese, cheddar, and salt and pepper to taste.
Peel roasted peppers (the skins should slide right off), seed, and slice into thin strips.
Wrap tortillas in plastic wrap and microwave on high for 1 minute. Spread about 2/3 cup of enchilada sauce in the bottom of an oven safe rectangular baking dish. Dip tortillas, one at a time, in enchilada sauce, spread 1/8 of the cheese-onion filling down the middle of the tortilla, top with 2-3 peppers, and roll. Place seam-down in the baking dish.
Bake 8-10 minutes, until heated through. Serve with garnishes of choice.
At the risk of maybe telling you too much, I have to admit that I am on a new medication in my apparently neverending quest to have a second baby and it is wreaking total havoc on both my digestive system and the number and type of calories and insulin both that I need to consume to keep my blood sugar in line. For dinner tonight, I am going to have a tall cup of chicken broth with a few egg noodles in it in an effort to calm my churning and miserable stomach, but what I'm craving is a red-chili-sauced cheese and onion enchilada with a few strips of roasted poblano peppers, a puddle of beans, and a big pile of chopped romaine lettuce with thinly sliced radishes and a crumble of queso fresco.
So that's the recipe you'll get tonight. I make fabulous cheese enchiladas, if I may say so, and they're really one of my favorite meals. This is a great thing to serve to some non-meat-eating friends with lots of chips and a spicy-smoky salsa to start, cold beer or fresh limeade to drink, and some fruity sorbet and a couple of ginger cookies for dessert. I am hoping that these lousy side effects will get up off my ass sometime soon so I can go back to eating like a person who likes food again.
Cheese Enchiladas With Rajas
8 corn tortillas
2 1/2 cups enchilada sauce, canned or homemade
8 ounce brick-style cream cheese, softened
8 ounces shredded sharp cheddar cheese
1 medium white onion, half chopped fine and half very thinly sliced
salt and pepper
2 poblano peppers
Garnishes: your choice of thinly sliced radishes, hot sauce, additional shredded cheese, sliced hot peppers, pickled or fresh, sliced black olives, additional slivered onions, diced avacado, diced tomato, chopped cilantro, sour cream.
Under a pre-heated broiler, roast poblano peppers until all sides are blistered and blackened. Put peppers in a bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and set aside for at least ten minutes.
Preheat oven to 400. Mix together diced onion, cream cheese, cheddar, and salt and pepper to taste.
Peel roasted peppers (the skins should slide right off), seed, and slice into thin strips.
Wrap tortillas in plastic wrap and microwave on high for 1 minute. Spread about 2/3 cup of enchilada sauce in the bottom of an oven safe rectangular baking dish. Dip tortillas, one at a time, in enchilada sauce, spread 1/8 of the cheese-onion filling down the middle of the tortilla, top with 2-3 peppers, and roll. Place seam-down in the baking dish.
Bake 8-10 minutes, until heated through. Serve with garnishes of choice.
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
March 12: Orange Flan
It's been awhile since I posted any kind of a dessert. I love dessert, but I don't eat it very often. Besides being diabetic, I'm just not a "sweets" kind of person. I would rather skip dessert and have an extra serving of sweet corn, or some chips and salsa, or a really luscious appetizer.
But oh boy, flan. I am crazy about flan. It's a not-overly-sweet custard, rich and creamy, topped with a fabulous caramel sauce, made from scratch. It's simple, and at the same time, totally luxurious.
The best flan I've ever tasted--no kidding--cost $.95 in a Mexican restaurant at the back of a Mexican grocery store in Western Michigan. The restaurant had about nine tables and while the servers in the restaurant mostly spoke a little English, you would do well to speak a little Spanish there. We are usually in Michigan around Christmastime, which also coincides with my birthday. More often than not, that's the restaurant that I choose for my birthday dinner, and that's the dessert I choose too. Nobody seems to do it better than them, and it's always better than birthday cake.
Serendipitously, my email today held a recipe for this orange flan. I am really looking forward to making this. Maybe to follow a simple dinner of fried potato tacos and Rick Bayless' drunken pinto beans and a simple salad of romaine, red onion, radish, and tomato wedges.
It'll have to wait until this weekend though. I'm really having a swell week at work.
Here's one note though: the water bath keeps the custard from curdling, over-cooking, or cracking in the harsh heat of the oven. The easiest way to set it up is to put the roasting pan on the oven rack with the towel folded in the bottom, then set the filled cups on the towel, and then pour in the water. Not so much carrying and sloshing.
Orange Flan
Cooking Spray
2/3 cup granulated sugar, divided
1 can (12 oz) evaporated milk
3/4 cup Egg Beaters
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon grated orange peel
1. Preheat oven to 350° F. Spray six 6-oz custard cups with cooking spray.
2. Place 1/3 cup of the sugar in heavy 1-quart saucepan. Heat over medium heat without stirring until sugar is melted and golden brown, swirling pan occasionally to heat evenly. Pour and divide syrup evenly among prepared custard cups. Tilt custard cups to coat bottoms evenly. Let stand 5 minutes.
3. Combine the remaining 1/3 cup sugar, milk, Egg Beaters, vanilla, and orange peel in medium bowl; mix until blended. Pour evenly into custard cups. Line a roasting pan with a folded towel to prevent the cups from sliding, place custard cups in the pan, and using a kettle with very hot water, carefully pour water into the roasting pan to come about 1 inch up the side of the custard cups.
4. Bake 25 minutes, or until knife inserted in center of custard comes out clean. Immediately remove from water. Unmold and serve warm, or refrigerate 4 hours and unmold at serving time.
But oh boy, flan. I am crazy about flan. It's a not-overly-sweet custard, rich and creamy, topped with a fabulous caramel sauce, made from scratch. It's simple, and at the same time, totally luxurious.
The best flan I've ever tasted--no kidding--cost $.95 in a Mexican restaurant at the back of a Mexican grocery store in Western Michigan. The restaurant had about nine tables and while the servers in the restaurant mostly spoke a little English, you would do well to speak a little Spanish there. We are usually in Michigan around Christmastime, which also coincides with my birthday. More often than not, that's the restaurant that I choose for my birthday dinner, and that's the dessert I choose too. Nobody seems to do it better than them, and it's always better than birthday cake.
Serendipitously, my email today held a recipe for this orange flan. I am really looking forward to making this. Maybe to follow a simple dinner of fried potato tacos and Rick Bayless' drunken pinto beans and a simple salad of romaine, red onion, radish, and tomato wedges.
It'll have to wait until this weekend though. I'm really having a swell week at work.
Here's one note though: the water bath keeps the custard from curdling, over-cooking, or cracking in the harsh heat of the oven. The easiest way to set it up is to put the roasting pan on the oven rack with the towel folded in the bottom, then set the filled cups on the towel, and then pour in the water. Not so much carrying and sloshing.
Orange Flan
Cooking Spray
2/3 cup granulated sugar, divided
1 can (12 oz) evaporated milk
3/4 cup Egg Beaters
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon grated orange peel
1. Preheat oven to 350° F. Spray six 6-oz custard cups with cooking spray.
2. Place 1/3 cup of the sugar in heavy 1-quart saucepan. Heat over medium heat without stirring until sugar is melted and golden brown, swirling pan occasionally to heat evenly. Pour and divide syrup evenly among prepared custard cups. Tilt custard cups to coat bottoms evenly. Let stand 5 minutes.
3. Combine the remaining 1/3 cup sugar, milk, Egg Beaters, vanilla, and orange peel in medium bowl; mix until blended. Pour evenly into custard cups. Line a roasting pan with a folded towel to prevent the cups from sliding, place custard cups in the pan, and using a kettle with very hot water, carefully pour water into the roasting pan to come about 1 inch up the side of the custard cups.
4. Bake 25 minutes, or until knife inserted in center of custard comes out clean. Immediately remove from water. Unmold and serve warm, or refrigerate 4 hours and unmold at serving time.
Saturday, March 8, 2008
March 8: Huevos Rancheros with Spicy Ham
Here's a recipe. It's for huevos rancheros. I would tell you more about it, except that I am exhausted and need to crash for the night. I had this dish last year in San Diego, and like almost everything else I ate there, it was delicious. If I weren't on a ridiculous diet, one where I've cut my calories down to almost half of what I was on before I was on a ridiculous diet, I'd go to my kitchen right now and cook this dish, because I am so hungry I could cry. Ironic, isn't it?
Huevos Rancheros with Spicy Ham
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
10 ounces smoked ham, cut into 2-by-1/4-inch strips
4 large garlic cloves, thinly sliced
2 medium red onions, thinly sliced
2 Scotch bonnet chiles or jalapeños—halved, seeded and thinly sliced crosswise
1 large green bell pepper, thinly sliced
1 teaspoon sweet paprika
2 medium tomatoes, coarsely chopped
Salt and freshly ground pepper
Eight 6-inch corn tortillas
8 large eggs
Preheat the oven to 475°. In a large skillet, heat 1/2 tablespoon of the vegetable oil. Add the smoked ham and cook over moderately high heat until browned on the bottom, about 2 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the ham to a plate. Add 1 1/2 tablespoons of the vegetable oil to the skillet along with the garlic, onions, Scotch bonnet chiles and green bell pepper. Cover and cook over moderately low heat, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are softened, about 12 minutes. Stir in the paprika and cook over moderately high heat for 1 minute. Add the tomatoes and cook until they release their juices, about 2 minutes. Stir in the ham and season the sofrito with salt and pepper.
Meanwhile, wrap the tortillas in aluminum foil and warm them in the oven. In a large cast-iron skillet, heat 1/2 tablespoon of the vegetable oil. Crack 4 of the eggs into the skillet, season with salt and pepper and fry sunny-side up over moderate heat, until the egg whites are set and the egg yolks are still slightly runny, about 3 minutes. Transfer the eggs, yolk side up, to a plate and keep them warm by tenting them with aluminum foil. Add the remaining 1/2 tablespoon of vegetable oil to the skillet and fry the remaining eggs.
Set 2 tortillas on each plate. Top with the fried eggs, spoon the sofrito on the side and serve.
Huevos Rancheros with Spicy Ham
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
10 ounces smoked ham, cut into 2-by-1/4-inch strips
4 large garlic cloves, thinly sliced
2 medium red onions, thinly sliced
2 Scotch bonnet chiles or jalapeños—halved, seeded and thinly sliced crosswise
1 large green bell pepper, thinly sliced
1 teaspoon sweet paprika
2 medium tomatoes, coarsely chopped
Salt and freshly ground pepper
Eight 6-inch corn tortillas
8 large eggs
Preheat the oven to 475°. In a large skillet, heat 1/2 tablespoon of the vegetable oil. Add the smoked ham and cook over moderately high heat until browned on the bottom, about 2 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the ham to a plate. Add 1 1/2 tablespoons of the vegetable oil to the skillet along with the garlic, onions, Scotch bonnet chiles and green bell pepper. Cover and cook over moderately low heat, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are softened, about 12 minutes. Stir in the paprika and cook over moderately high heat for 1 minute. Add the tomatoes and cook until they release their juices, about 2 minutes. Stir in the ham and season the sofrito with salt and pepper.
Meanwhile, wrap the tortillas in aluminum foil and warm them in the oven. In a large cast-iron skillet, heat 1/2 tablespoon of the vegetable oil. Crack 4 of the eggs into the skillet, season with salt and pepper and fry sunny-side up over moderate heat, until the egg whites are set and the egg yolks are still slightly runny, about 3 minutes. Transfer the eggs, yolk side up, to a plate and keep them warm by tenting them with aluminum foil. Add the remaining 1/2 tablespoon of vegetable oil to the skillet and fry the remaining eggs.
Set 2 tortillas on each plate. Top with the fried eggs, spoon the sofrito on the side and serve.
Sunday, March 2, 2008
March 2: Casserole-Style Chiles Rellenos
I have collected a few very old-fashioned, very retro cookbooks, full of ingredients like unflavored Jello and cream of something soup. One is the Better Homes & Gardens Biggest Book of Casseroles. This cookbook is crammed full of things I wouldn't dream of making, unless someone discovered that either:
A. Sandra Lee and Rachel Ray are not, in fact, in some kind of job-share arrangement as the antichrist. (Unlikely.)
B. Preservatives have the effect of making people live longer. (Equally unlikely.)
However, there are a few adjustments that I make when something calls for a can of Campbell's Cream of Mushroom soup: a handful of mushrooms, chopped, a few tablespoons of minced onion and a clove garlic, crushed, all browned together in two tablespoons of butter with a pinch of salt and a little pepper. Two tablespoons of flour mixed in, and a cup of reduced-fat or whole milk and a half-cup of chicken or vegetable broth stirred in until it all comes together. Simmer until thickened. Cream of Mushroom soup, just like that.
This particular recipe doesn't call for a can of soup. It has poblano peppers in it, which I think are vastly improved by roasting and peeling, not blanching, and I've adjusted the recipe to reflect that. Also, feel free to replace the "purchased picante sauce" with whatever fresh salsa you have around.
I love chiles rellenos. One of my favorite things ever comes from a little Mexican restaurant in Michigan: a roasted poblano chile, stuffed with cheese and fried, then wrapped in a double layer of homemade corn tortillas. Food that's flavorful, luxurious, simple, and authentic, all in equal measure, is the heart of the reason that I like to write about food. It makes for such gorgeous reading.
I am not fooling myself into thinking that this recipe will be an authentic recreation of chiles rellenos, but I don't typically have the time to make them. It's fairly involved: roasting, steaming, peeling, seeding, stuffing, battering, and frying. I am hoping this will be a reasonably easy imitation of the real thing.
This is incredibly high in saturated fat, about 13 grams per serving. Consider it a treat, not a nightly side dish. I would make this with grilled, sliced chicken breasts and soft tortillas, and a big crunchy salad of romaine lettuce, sliced radishes, halved cherry tomatoes, and slivered red onions.
Serves 8.
Casserole-Style Chiles Rellenos
4 large poblano chile peppers (1 pound)
2 cups shredded Pepper Jack cheese
6 eggs
1/2 cup milk
2/3 cup all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon cayenne powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups cheddar cheese
1 cup purchased picante sauce
1/2 cup sour cream
Gas stove: prop peppers on a stove burner and put heat on high. Turn peppers with tongs until they are blistered and blackened all over. Turn off heat; transfer peppers to a bowl and cover tightly with plastic wrap. Let sit for 10 minutes, then remove from bowl. The skins should slip off the peppers easily, discard skins. Quarter peppers, remove seeds, veins, and stems. Place peppers, cut sides up, into a non-stick sprayed 3 quart square baking dish Top with pepper jack cheese.
Warning: the oils in poblano peppers can be absolutely incendiary. Wear rubber gloves, or coat your hands very lightly in vegetable oil, and wash very thoroughly with soap and water afterwards, especially before handling contact lenses. Otherwise, you will pass by being afraid you're going to die, and swiftly reach the stage of praying for it.
In a medium bowl, whisk together eggs and milk. Add flour, baking powder, cayenne, and salt. Whisk until smooth. Pour mixture over peppers and cheese in dish.
Bake, uncovered, in a 450 oven for 15-20 minutes, or until a knife inserted near the center comes out clean. Sprinkle with cheddar cheese. Bake 2 to 3 minutes more, or until cheese melts. Let stand for 5 minutes. Serve with salsa and sour cream.
A. Sandra Lee and Rachel Ray are not, in fact, in some kind of job-share arrangement as the antichrist. (Unlikely.)
B. Preservatives have the effect of making people live longer. (Equally unlikely.)
However, there are a few adjustments that I make when something calls for a can of Campbell's Cream of Mushroom soup: a handful of mushrooms, chopped, a few tablespoons of minced onion and a clove garlic, crushed, all browned together in two tablespoons of butter with a pinch of salt and a little pepper. Two tablespoons of flour mixed in, and a cup of reduced-fat or whole milk and a half-cup of chicken or vegetable broth stirred in until it all comes together. Simmer until thickened. Cream of Mushroom soup, just like that.
This particular recipe doesn't call for a can of soup. It has poblano peppers in it, which I think are vastly improved by roasting and peeling, not blanching, and I've adjusted the recipe to reflect that. Also, feel free to replace the "purchased picante sauce" with whatever fresh salsa you have around.
I love chiles rellenos. One of my favorite things ever comes from a little Mexican restaurant in Michigan: a roasted poblano chile, stuffed with cheese and fried, then wrapped in a double layer of homemade corn tortillas. Food that's flavorful, luxurious, simple, and authentic, all in equal measure, is the heart of the reason that I like to write about food. It makes for such gorgeous reading.
I am not fooling myself into thinking that this recipe will be an authentic recreation of chiles rellenos, but I don't typically have the time to make them. It's fairly involved: roasting, steaming, peeling, seeding, stuffing, battering, and frying. I am hoping this will be a reasonably easy imitation of the real thing.
This is incredibly high in saturated fat, about 13 grams per serving. Consider it a treat, not a nightly side dish. I would make this with grilled, sliced chicken breasts and soft tortillas, and a big crunchy salad of romaine lettuce, sliced radishes, halved cherry tomatoes, and slivered red onions.
Serves 8.
Casserole-Style Chiles Rellenos
4 large poblano chile peppers (1 pound)
2 cups shredded Pepper Jack cheese
6 eggs
1/2 cup milk
2/3 cup all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon cayenne powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups cheddar cheese
1 cup purchased picante sauce
1/2 cup sour cream
Gas stove: prop peppers on a stove burner and put heat on high. Turn peppers with tongs until they are blistered and blackened all over. Turn off heat; transfer peppers to a bowl and cover tightly with plastic wrap. Let sit for 10 minutes, then remove from bowl. The skins should slip off the peppers easily, discard skins. Quarter peppers, remove seeds, veins, and stems. Place peppers, cut sides up, into a non-stick sprayed 3 quart square baking dish Top with pepper jack cheese.
Warning: the oils in poblano peppers can be absolutely incendiary. Wear rubber gloves, or coat your hands very lightly in vegetable oil, and wash very thoroughly with soap and water afterwards, especially before handling contact lenses. Otherwise, you will pass by being afraid you're going to die, and swiftly reach the stage of praying for it.
In a medium bowl, whisk together eggs and milk. Add flour, baking powder, cayenne, and salt. Whisk until smooth. Pour mixture over peppers and cheese in dish.
Bake, uncovered, in a 450 oven for 15-20 minutes, or until a knife inserted near the center comes out clean. Sprinkle with cheddar cheese. Bake 2 to 3 minutes more, or until cheese melts. Let stand for 5 minutes. Serve with salsa and sour cream.
Sunday, February 24, 2008
February 24: King Ranch Chicken Casserole
Every now and then I run into a total food oddity. Fried pickles, for example: who would have thought that fried pickles would taste so good? A great fried dill pickle is battered and deep-fried until golden and crispy, and they are so straightforward and unpretentious that I can't resist them. It's like that aunt who everyone but you dreads seeing at family gatherings because she's so outspoken, dresses flamboyantly, and embarasses all her sisters, but you find completely hilarious.
Enter the King Ranch Chicken Casserole. According to one of my very favorite food bloggers, Homesick Texan, this casserole has simple roots: named maybe after a giant ranch in southern Texas or maybe after retro classic chicken a la king, this recipe is almost an enchilada casserole, and almost a chicken lasagna, Tex-Mex style.
In addition to being a big fan of Tex-Mex and Mexican food, I am a fan of casseroles as well. They are great comfort food, they freeze well, feed a crowd, and make great leftovers. I like the simplicity of a one pot meal coming to the table on a Monday night, giving you all your meat, starch, and vegetables in one spoonful and leaving minimal cleanup in the kitchen.
This casserole sounded incredibly weird to me the first time I heard about it, but after reading Homesick Texan's redux, I am a convert. This is her recipe, a grownup version of a casserole that originally contained two kinds of canned soup and a whole roasted 2 1/2 pound chicken. She calls this "slightly fancy-pants." I am okay with that.
King Ranch Chicken Casserole
Ingredients
1 1/2 pounds of chicken, without skin and bones
4 teaspoons of lime juice
1/4 cup of olive oil
3 cloves of garlic, minced
4 tablespoons of butter
1/2 an onion, diced
1 red bell pepper, diced
1 poblano pepper, diced
1 10oz. can of Ro-Tel tomatoes (or you can use a can of regular diced tomatoes and a 4 oz. can of diced green chiles, or if tomatoes are in season, can use two cups of diced fresh tomatoes with 1/4 cup of diced green chiles, such as a jalapeno)
4 teaspoons ancho chile powder
1 teaspoon of cumin
1 cup of chicken broth
2 tablespoons of flour
1/2 teaspoon of cayenne pepper
1/2 cup of half and half
1/3 cup of sour cream
1/2 cup of cilantro, chopped
3 cups of grated pepper jack and cheddar
10 corn tortillas
Salt and pepper to taste.
1. Cook the chicken in the olive oil on medium, adding 2 teaspoons of lime juice, 2 teaspoons of ancho chile powder and salt to taste.
2. When chicken is done (after about 20 minutes), shred it with two forks and set aside. Should yield about 3 cups.
3. Melt the butter in a saucepan on medium, and add the onions, red bell pepper and poblano pepper. Cook for 10 minutes.
4. Add the garlic, flour, cumin, cayenne pepper and 2 teaspoons of ancho chile powder, and cook for 1 minute.
5. Add the chicken broth and cook on low until mixture is thickened, a few minutes. Stir in the half-and-half and Ro-Tel cover the pot, and simmer for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.
6. Uncover the pot, and add the sour cream, 2 teaspoons of lime juice and 1/4 cup of cilantro, and add salt and pepper to taste. Turn off heat.
7. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
8. Heat up the tortillas (you can do this by adding a bit of oil on an iron skillet and then cooking the tortillas for about 30 seconds on each side).
9. Ladle 1/2 cup of the sauce onto the bottom of an 11 x 7 inch baking pan.
10. Layer half the tortillas along the bottom of the pan (on top of the sauce). To make sure entire pan is evenly covered, you can rip some of the tortillas into strips to fill any gaps.
11. Add half the chicken, half the remaining sauce, half the remaining cilantro and 1 1/2 cups of grated cheese.
12. Repeat the layering, leaving the cheese layer on top.
13. Cook uncovered for 30 minutes or until brown and bubbling. Serves 6-12, depending on how big a portion you distribute. Goes great with sour cream and cilantro on top.
Enter the King Ranch Chicken Casserole. According to one of my very favorite food bloggers, Homesick Texan, this casserole has simple roots: named maybe after a giant ranch in southern Texas or maybe after retro classic chicken a la king, this recipe is almost an enchilada casserole, and almost a chicken lasagna, Tex-Mex style.
In addition to being a big fan of Tex-Mex and Mexican food, I am a fan of casseroles as well. They are great comfort food, they freeze well, feed a crowd, and make great leftovers. I like the simplicity of a one pot meal coming to the table on a Monday night, giving you all your meat, starch, and vegetables in one spoonful and leaving minimal cleanup in the kitchen.
This casserole sounded incredibly weird to me the first time I heard about it, but after reading Homesick Texan's redux, I am a convert. This is her recipe, a grownup version of a casserole that originally contained two kinds of canned soup and a whole roasted 2 1/2 pound chicken. She calls this "slightly fancy-pants." I am okay with that.
King Ranch Chicken Casserole
Ingredients
1 1/2 pounds of chicken, without skin and bones
4 teaspoons of lime juice
1/4 cup of olive oil
3 cloves of garlic, minced
4 tablespoons of butter
1/2 an onion, diced
1 red bell pepper, diced
1 poblano pepper, diced
1 10oz. can of Ro-Tel tomatoes (or you can use a can of regular diced tomatoes and a 4 oz. can of diced green chiles, or if tomatoes are in season, can use two cups of diced fresh tomatoes with 1/4 cup of diced green chiles, such as a jalapeno)
4 teaspoons ancho chile powder
1 teaspoon of cumin
1 cup of chicken broth
2 tablespoons of flour
1/2 teaspoon of cayenne pepper
1/2 cup of half and half
1/3 cup of sour cream
1/2 cup of cilantro, chopped
3 cups of grated pepper jack and cheddar
10 corn tortillas
Salt and pepper to taste.
1. Cook the chicken in the olive oil on medium, adding 2 teaspoons of lime juice, 2 teaspoons of ancho chile powder and salt to taste.
2. When chicken is done (after about 20 minutes), shred it with two forks and set aside. Should yield about 3 cups.
3. Melt the butter in a saucepan on medium, and add the onions, red bell pepper and poblano pepper. Cook for 10 minutes.
4. Add the garlic, flour, cumin, cayenne pepper and 2 teaspoons of ancho chile powder, and cook for 1 minute.
5. Add the chicken broth and cook on low until mixture is thickened, a few minutes. Stir in the half-and-half and Ro-Tel cover the pot, and simmer for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.
6. Uncover the pot, and add the sour cream, 2 teaspoons of lime juice and 1/4 cup of cilantro, and add salt and pepper to taste. Turn off heat.
7. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
8. Heat up the tortillas (you can do this by adding a bit of oil on an iron skillet and then cooking the tortillas for about 30 seconds on each side).
9. Ladle 1/2 cup of the sauce onto the bottom of an 11 x 7 inch baking pan.
10. Layer half the tortillas along the bottom of the pan (on top of the sauce). To make sure entire pan is evenly covered, you can rip some of the tortillas into strips to fill any gaps.
11. Add half the chicken, half the remaining sauce, half the remaining cilantro and 1 1/2 cups of grated cheese.
12. Repeat the layering, leaving the cheese layer on top.
13. Cook uncovered for 30 minutes or until brown and bubbling. Serves 6-12, depending on how big a portion you distribute. Goes great with sour cream and cilantro on top.
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
February 20: Chicken Enchiladas With Tomatillo Sauce
I love great Mexican food. I even love sort of mediocre Mexican food, when it's pulled off. What I don't love: Taco Bell, Chi Chi's, or any of those other sorry fake Americanized Mexican restaurants with fishbowl-sized ultra-sugary margaritas (I was actually offered a pineapple-banana margarita recently, and I think I may have laughed right in the waiter's face) or bowls of melted Velveeta and Old El Paso salsa mixed together.
Enchiladas are the ultimate in horribly abused food. I've seen awful things done to what should be great Mexican street food, or at worst, sort of a comforting, Tex-Mex version of lasagna or manicotti. I love a simple cheese and onion enchilada with red chili sauce, or if I'm feeding some non-meat-eating friend, a spinach-and-mushroom enchilada sauced with a simple cheese sauce made from just a little butter, flour, milk, and Monterey Jack.
This is a great recipe, modified from America's Test Kitchen. If you haven't tried making your own enchilada sauce, do it. This is a simple dish that really benefits from fresh flavors and great-tasting ingredients, and the difference between this and a canned enchilada sauce is big. You won't be interested in boring restaurant versions of this dish ever again.
Simplify: use leftover chicken, either from a grocery store rotisserie or one you cook yourself. You'll want about a pound of chicken total. I like to double this recipe and have the leftovers for dinner the next night. Occasionally I made Mexican rice for a side; more often, I just make a big, crunchy salad with salsa vinaigrette.
This makes 10 enchiladas, and this is not a dish that freezes well without modification. If you're interested in freezing it, email me and I can send you some suggestions.
Chicken Enchiladas With Tomatillo Sauce
Sauce
2 teaspoons vegetable oil or corn oil
1 medium onion, chopped fine (about 1 cup)
3 medium cloves garlic, minced or pressed through garlic press (about 1 tablespoon)
3/4 pound small tomatillos , husks and stems removed, each tomatillo quartered (about 1 1/2 cups)
3 large jalapeño chiles , seeded and coarsely chopped (about 1 cup)
1 teaspoon granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon table salt
Filling
2 teaspoons vegetable oil or corn oil
1 medium onion, chopped (about 1 cup)
1 tablespoon ground cumin
16 ounces cooked chicken, cubed or cut into thin strips
2 teaspoons vegetable oil or corn oil
1 medium onion, chopped (about 1 cup)
1 tablespoon ground cumin
16 ounces cooked chicken, cubed or cut into thin strips
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro leaves
8 ounces sharp cheddar cheese, grated (2 cups)
8 ounces sharp cheddar cheese, grated (2 cups)
Tortillas and Toppings
10 corn tortillas (six-inch)
Vegetable cooking spray
10 corn tortillas (six-inch)
Vegetable cooking spray
3 ounces grated sharp cheddar cheese (3/4 cup)
3/4 cup sour cream
1 avocado , diced medium
5 leaves romaine lettuce , washed, dried, and shredded
2 limes , quartered
3/4 cup sour cream
1 avocado , diced medium
5 leaves romaine lettuce , washed, dried, and shredded
2 limes , quartered
1. FOR THE SAUCE: Heat oil in medium saucepan over medium-high heat until hot and shimmering but not smoking, about 2 minutes; add onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened and beginning to brown, about 5 minutes. Add garlic, tomatillos, jalapeños, sugar and salt; cook, stirring constantly, until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add 1/3 cup of water and bring to a simmer; reduce heat to medium-low and simmer, uncovered, until tomatillos are softened, about 8 minutes. Transfer mixture to blender and puree until smooth, about 30 seconds; set aside. Rinse out saucepan.
2. FOR THE FILLING: Heat oil in saucepan over medium-high heat until hot and shimmering but not smoking, about 2 minutes; add onion and cook, stirring ocassionally, until beginning to soften and brown, about 3 minutes, then reduce heat to medium and continue to cook until browned, about 3 minutes longer. Add cumin and cook, stirring frequently, until fragrant, about 15 seconds. Add chicken and cook, stirring frequently, until chicken is heated through, about 2 minutes. Transfer chicken mixture to large plate; freeze for 10 minutes to cool, then combine with cilantro and cheese in medium bowl and set aside.
3. Adjust oven racks to upper- and lower-middle positions and heat oven to 300 degrees.
4. TO ASSEMBLE:
Smear entire bottom of 13 by 9-inch baking dish with 3/4 cup sauce. Place tortillas on two baking sheets. Spray both sides lightly with cooking spray. Bake until tortillas are soft and pliable, about 4 minutes. Place warm tortillas on counter-top. Increase oven temperature to 400 degrees. Place 1/3 cup filling down center of each tortilla. Roll each tortilla tightly by hand and place in baking dish, side by side, seam-side down. Pour remaining chili sauce over top of enchiladas. Use back of spoon to spread sauce so it coats top of each tortilla. Sprinkle 1/4 cup grated cheese down center of enchiladas.
Bake enchiladas on lower-middle rack until heated through and cheese is melted, 20 to 25 minutes. Uncover and serve immediately, passing sour cream, avocado, lettuce, and lime wedges separately.
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
February 19: Ancho-Coffee Dry-Rubbed Flank Steak
A couple of years ago, when we were in Michigan at Christmas, my husband and I were visiting the Saugatuck Spice Merchant, a local shop that carries a broad variety of dried herbs, spices, rubs, teas, and other implements of flavor, the man working in the store at the time suggested I smell the Coffee Barbecue rub. "It's very different," he said, "not hot, but spicy, with depth."
I never would have guessed that two flavors like this would have gone together this well, but they do. It has the warm dark notes of espresso-roast coffee, and the fruity, almost floral notes of chile peppers. I bought a 2-oz. bag and took it home, rubbed it into a piece of flank steak, let the steak sit in the refrigerator for several hours, then grilled it medium-rare on a hot barbecue.
Wow. Smoky, spicy, rich, and roasty--the most complex-tasting food I've ever prepared myself. I took one bite and was imediately glad I'd bought the biggest steak I could find, so that there would be leftovers. We ate the thinly-sliced steak on crusty bread with garlic mayonnaise the next day for lunch, chopped it and tossed it with a splash of lime juice and cilantro, and broiled it under cheese on open-faced quesadillas with guacamole and fresh salsa on the side the next night for dinner.
Since then, I've looked for a coffee barbecue rub--Michigan is a long way to go for this stuff. Here is the best of what I've found, at a food discussion website a few weeks ago. Haven't had a chance to try it out, but all the elements are there. The recipe does call for granulated garlic, which I don't care for. I've altered the character of this slightly, I'm sure, by suggesting fresh garlic, well minced or crushed, and worked into the rub. The garlic makes this almost more of a paste, but I would think the slightly sour, generally stale taste of granulated garlic would be distracting. The recipe calls for 1/4 cup of granulated garlic, if you want to put it back in, by all means, do so, and omit the four cloves of fresh.
Ancho-Coffee Dry-Rubbed Flank Steak
For the rub:
½ cup Salt
1/4 cup Brown sugar
¼ cup Ancho chili powder
¼ cup Espresso Grind Coffee (very fine grind)
¼ cup Ground black pepper
4 cloves garlic, very finely minced or pressed through a garlic press
1 2-pound flank steak, trimmed of visible fat
Vegetable oil for oiling the grill grate
Thoroughly combine all ingredients for the rub in a plastic bag or bowl. You will have enough for several applications of this.
Coat both sides of the steak liberally with the rub, pressing it into the meat with your impeccably clean hands. Cover lightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate for several hours at least, up to 24 hours.
Light a medium-hot fire on a barbecue grill. When the coals are lightly covered with ash, put the steak on the grill for 4-5 minutes each side for medium-rare, 3-4 for rare. Turn once, grill an additional 2-3 minutes for rare, 3-4 for medium-rare. (This steak is at it's best cooked no more than medium rare--absolutely no more than medium.)
Let steak rest, loosely tented with foil, 10-15 minutes. Slice thinly across the grain on the bias. Serve immediately.
I never would have guessed that two flavors like this would have gone together this well, but they do. It has the warm dark notes of espresso-roast coffee, and the fruity, almost floral notes of chile peppers. I bought a 2-oz. bag and took it home, rubbed it into a piece of flank steak, let the steak sit in the refrigerator for several hours, then grilled it medium-rare on a hot barbecue.
Wow. Smoky, spicy, rich, and roasty--the most complex-tasting food I've ever prepared myself. I took one bite and was imediately glad I'd bought the biggest steak I could find, so that there would be leftovers. We ate the thinly-sliced steak on crusty bread with garlic mayonnaise the next day for lunch, chopped it and tossed it with a splash of lime juice and cilantro, and broiled it under cheese on open-faced quesadillas with guacamole and fresh salsa on the side the next night for dinner.
Since then, I've looked for a coffee barbecue rub--Michigan is a long way to go for this stuff. Here is the best of what I've found, at a food discussion website a few weeks ago. Haven't had a chance to try it out, but all the elements are there. The recipe does call for granulated garlic, which I don't care for. I've altered the character of this slightly, I'm sure, by suggesting fresh garlic, well minced or crushed, and worked into the rub. The garlic makes this almost more of a paste, but I would think the slightly sour, generally stale taste of granulated garlic would be distracting. The recipe calls for 1/4 cup of granulated garlic, if you want to put it back in, by all means, do so, and omit the four cloves of fresh.
Ancho-Coffee Dry-Rubbed Flank Steak
For the rub:
½ cup Salt
1/4 cup Brown sugar
¼ cup Ancho chili powder
¼ cup Espresso Grind Coffee (very fine grind)
¼ cup Ground black pepper
4 cloves garlic, very finely minced or pressed through a garlic press
1 2-pound flank steak, trimmed of visible fat
Vegetable oil for oiling the grill grate
Thoroughly combine all ingredients for the rub in a plastic bag or bowl. You will have enough for several applications of this.
Coat both sides of the steak liberally with the rub, pressing it into the meat with your impeccably clean hands. Cover lightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate for several hours at least, up to 24 hours.
Light a medium-hot fire on a barbecue grill. When the coals are lightly covered with ash, put the steak on the grill for 4-5 minutes each side for medium-rare, 3-4 for rare. Turn once, grill an additional 2-3 minutes for rare, 3-4 for medium-rare. (This steak is at it's best cooked no more than medium rare--absolutely no more than medium.)
Let steak rest, loosely tented with foil, 10-15 minutes. Slice thinly across the grain on the bias. Serve immediately.
Saturday, February 2, 2008
February 2: Roasted Tomato Salsa
If I were told that I had to accept only one nationality of food for the rest of my life, it would be Mexican. It really would. I have loved Mexican food all my life, and I would rather have a bowl of great chips and really good spicy salsa than any other kind of snack on earth. Just this week, a blogger who goes by the name Homesick Texan wrote about nachos, how the best were just a great corn chip topped with longhorn Cheddar cheese and a slice of jalapeno. I couldn't agree more. That is a great nacho. Pure. Straightforward. A thing of beauty.
The thing about real Mexican food (I am not talking about a burrito from Chipotle either) is that it is simple ingredients made to taste good by poor people. Why do you think southern food tastes so good? Who first started cooking black eyed peas and greens with the pieces of the meat that rich people threw away? The slaves, that's who--they were carrying on their culinary traditions the best way they could with very few real resources. Real Mexican food isn't covered in melted cheese and Old El Paso taco sauce. It isn't folded inside a perfectly round, thinly-pressed, flaky flour tortilla or in a fried corn taco shell.
I am crazy about my husband but I have a tiny crush on Rick Bayless. He is an American chef who is as crazy for Mexican food as I am. He has two Mexican restaurants in Chicago, Topolobampo and Frontera Grill. The Frontera brand salsas you see in grocery stores? Those are his. He also has a PBS cooking show that I miss more often than I see it, which is a shame because he is always cooking something like a spice paste-rubbed pork shoulder wrapped in avocado leaves and slow-cooked over a low fire for hours. Man oh man.
Luckily for me, he writes cookbooks. My mother gave me one in 1999, called Salsas That Cook. I can count the number of actual jars of salsa I've purchased since then on one hand. Why should I buy a jar of tomato-paste-flavored, dull, over-processed, additive-laden imitation salsa when I can make my own so easily? Even in the dead of winter, when tomatoes are...well, how many times have I mentioned what I think of mid-winter tomatoes? Anyway, Rick Bayless makes flawless, amazing, delicious salsa of every imaginable variety, and the importance of the quality of the ingredients is diminished substantially by his cooking methods.
Roast a tomato in a very hot oven, even a bad tomato, and it becomes, at worst, entirely tolerable. Roast it along with thick slices of onion and whole peppers and cloves of garlic and it becomes something magical. This is my go-to guy when it comes to salsa. It is as great on chips as it is next to a cheese quesadilla or on top of a chicken enchilada. Something about the oven transforms these ingredients, which are perfectly fine raw--I am a big fan of pico de gallo, that staple of your local Mexican restaurant--into a complex, rich, great big taste.
This makes about a cup of salsa, which isn't enough. I double it, and occasionally, I make three or four times this recipe and freeze it. It freezes really well.
Roasted Tomato-Jalapeno Salsa
4 medium vine-ripened tomatoes
1 white onion, sliced into 1/2 inch thick rings and separated
4 cloves garlic, peeled
1-2 fresh jalapeno peppers
1/4 cup finely minced cilantro
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
salt to taste
Preheat broiler. Place rack in topmost position under broiler.
In a sheet pan lined with foil, arrange the tomatoes, onions, garlic, and peppers. Broil, stirring occasionally, until onions are very dark. The tomatoes may need a few more minutes until they are losing their shape. Remove from oven, let cool slightly, 10 minutes or so.
Put all ingredients into bowl of food processor fitted with chopping blade. Pulse in one-second pulses until ingredients are well chopped and combined. Taste for salt. Cool until chilled, stir, and serve.
The thing about real Mexican food (I am not talking about a burrito from Chipotle either) is that it is simple ingredients made to taste good by poor people. Why do you think southern food tastes so good? Who first started cooking black eyed peas and greens with the pieces of the meat that rich people threw away? The slaves, that's who--they were carrying on their culinary traditions the best way they could with very few real resources. Real Mexican food isn't covered in melted cheese and Old El Paso taco sauce. It isn't folded inside a perfectly round, thinly-pressed, flaky flour tortilla or in a fried corn taco shell.
I am crazy about my husband but I have a tiny crush on Rick Bayless. He is an American chef who is as crazy for Mexican food as I am. He has two Mexican restaurants in Chicago, Topolobampo and Frontera Grill. The Frontera brand salsas you see in grocery stores? Those are his. He also has a PBS cooking show that I miss more often than I see it, which is a shame because he is always cooking something like a spice paste-rubbed pork shoulder wrapped in avocado leaves and slow-cooked over a low fire for hours. Man oh man.
Luckily for me, he writes cookbooks. My mother gave me one in 1999, called Salsas That Cook. I can count the number of actual jars of salsa I've purchased since then on one hand. Why should I buy a jar of tomato-paste-flavored, dull, over-processed, additive-laden imitation salsa when I can make my own so easily? Even in the dead of winter, when tomatoes are...well, how many times have I mentioned what I think of mid-winter tomatoes? Anyway, Rick Bayless makes flawless, amazing, delicious salsa of every imaginable variety, and the importance of the quality of the ingredients is diminished substantially by his cooking methods.
Roast a tomato in a very hot oven, even a bad tomato, and it becomes, at worst, entirely tolerable. Roast it along with thick slices of onion and whole peppers and cloves of garlic and it becomes something magical. This is my go-to guy when it comes to salsa. It is as great on chips as it is next to a cheese quesadilla or on top of a chicken enchilada. Something about the oven transforms these ingredients, which are perfectly fine raw--I am a big fan of pico de gallo, that staple of your local Mexican restaurant--into a complex, rich, great big taste.
This makes about a cup of salsa, which isn't enough. I double it, and occasionally, I make three or four times this recipe and freeze it. It freezes really well.
Roasted Tomato-Jalapeno Salsa
4 medium vine-ripened tomatoes
1 white onion, sliced into 1/2 inch thick rings and separated
4 cloves garlic, peeled
1-2 fresh jalapeno peppers
1/4 cup finely minced cilantro
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
salt to taste
Preheat broiler. Place rack in topmost position under broiler.
In a sheet pan lined with foil, arrange the tomatoes, onions, garlic, and peppers. Broil, stirring occasionally, until onions are very dark. The tomatoes may need a few more minutes until they are losing their shape. Remove from oven, let cool slightly, 10 minutes or so.
Put all ingredients into bowl of food processor fitted with chopping blade. Pulse in one-second pulses until ingredients are well chopped and combined. Taste for salt. Cool until chilled, stir, and serve.
Monday, January 28, 2008
Meatless Main Dish Monday: Fried Potato Tacos with Pears and Roquefort
Almost any food that I like tastes even better wrapped up in a tortilla. One of my favorite meals of the past year was eaten in a Mexican restaurant in Western Michigan and consisted of a roasted poblano chile stuffed with cheese and onions, fried, and wrapped in a flour tortilla. It was simple and perfect, the kind of meal I will spend the next 11 months thinking about, or until the next time that we're in Michigan.
Dan and I had plain old ground beef tacos tonight, and as we did, we talked about our favorite taco fillings. We both love ground turkey tacos with sweet corn; we both love tacos with stewed chicken, fried beans, and olives. But even better, we both love fried potato tacos in soft flour tortillas.
This taco lends itself really well to big flavor accompanying it. Rich, sharp, stinky cheese melted over top, and sweet diced pears scattered over the whole thing--oh, man. There is nothing like it.
Save yourself some time: buy diced, frozen hash browns--not the shredded ones but the ones that are cut into little cubes. Otherwise, you're scrubbing, peeling, dicing, parcooking, and frying instead of eating tacos. Believe me, you'd rather be eating these.
To easily warm flour tortillas, put a stack of them on a paper plate, cover them tightly with plastic wrap, and microwave 1-1 1/2 minutes.
Serves 4 generously.
Fried Potato Tacos with Pears and Roquefort
1-pound bag frozen southern-style hash browns (the cubed ones, not the shredded ones), thawed and drained
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 tablespoon chile powder
1/3 teaspoon cayenne powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup finely diced white onion
2 medium pears, seeded and finely diced
1 cup crumbled Danish bleu cheese or roquefort
1/2 cup chopped cilantro
1 red bell pepper, seeded, diced medium
12 6-inch flour tortillas, warmed
In a 12-inch nonstick skillet, heat the vegetable oil over medium heat. Add the onions and fry until they are translucent and soft, 6-8 minutes. Add the chile powder, cayenne, and salt, stir over medium heat until they are fragrant, about 1 minute. Add the potatoes to the skillet and cook over medium-medium high heat until browned and crispy, stirring occasionally, 8-10 minutes.
Lower the heat to low. Spread the diced pears and the roquefort over the fried potatoes and cover the pan to let the roquefort melt over the potatoes.
To serve: put about 1/4 cup of the potato-cheese mixture down the center of a warm tortilla. Garnish with diced red bell peppers and cilantro, a dab of sour cream, diced avocado, or a drizzle of salsa. I especially like a hot green salsa with this dish.
Serve immediately.
Dan and I had plain old ground beef tacos tonight, and as we did, we talked about our favorite taco fillings. We both love ground turkey tacos with sweet corn; we both love tacos with stewed chicken, fried beans, and olives. But even better, we both love fried potato tacos in soft flour tortillas.
This taco lends itself really well to big flavor accompanying it. Rich, sharp, stinky cheese melted over top, and sweet diced pears scattered over the whole thing--oh, man. There is nothing like it.
Save yourself some time: buy diced, frozen hash browns--not the shredded ones but the ones that are cut into little cubes. Otherwise, you're scrubbing, peeling, dicing, parcooking, and frying instead of eating tacos. Believe me, you'd rather be eating these.
To easily warm flour tortillas, put a stack of them on a paper plate, cover them tightly with plastic wrap, and microwave 1-1 1/2 minutes.
Serves 4 generously.
Fried Potato Tacos with Pears and Roquefort
1-pound bag frozen southern-style hash browns (the cubed ones, not the shredded ones), thawed and drained
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 tablespoon chile powder
1/3 teaspoon cayenne powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup finely diced white onion
2 medium pears, seeded and finely diced
1 cup crumbled Danish bleu cheese or roquefort
1/2 cup chopped cilantro
1 red bell pepper, seeded, diced medium
12 6-inch flour tortillas, warmed
In a 12-inch nonstick skillet, heat the vegetable oil over medium heat. Add the onions and fry until they are translucent and soft, 6-8 minutes. Add the chile powder, cayenne, and salt, stir over medium heat until they are fragrant, about 1 minute. Add the potatoes to the skillet and cook over medium-medium high heat until browned and crispy, stirring occasionally, 8-10 minutes.
Lower the heat to low. Spread the diced pears and the roquefort over the fried potatoes and cover the pan to let the roquefort melt over the potatoes.
To serve: put about 1/4 cup of the potato-cheese mixture down the center of a warm tortilla. Garnish with diced red bell peppers and cilantro, a dab of sour cream, diced avocado, or a drizzle of salsa. I especially like a hot green salsa with this dish.
Serve immediately.
Saturday, January 19, 2008
January 19: Chips and Tomato Salsa, Guacamole, Chile Con Queso
This is, no kidding, the best salsa in the world. And let me say this about it as well: it is almost a blank canvas. The great thing about salsa is that it can embrace a thousand different ingredients. I use this salsa not just as-is, but I have added the following at different points:
Do you see where I'm going here? Possibilities are limited only by your own imagination. This also addresses the problem of winter tomatoes. Winter tomatoes are generally inedible, hard, pale, and flavorless, but the marriage of flavors and the other ingredients coax a little breath of life into the grocery store travesties that pass as tomatoes in January.
I love that this salsa is as great on chips as it would be over a piece of broiled fish, or tossed with hot pasta and olive oil, or on a taco or nachos. And guacamole? How can anything that looks so awful taste so great? It does though, and it's full of heart-healthy fat and I can eat it by the boatload. Enough guacamole is never enough.
Let me say this about guacamole: If the avocados aren't great, if they are rock-hard and emerald-green on the outside, if they squish under light pressure, put them down and move on. Your guacamole will only serve to disappoint you.
If the avocados are unsuitable, go with the chile con queso. It sounds complicated, but it just really isn't. We were visiting family in San Diego in April, and had dinner in a Mexican restaurant in Old Town. There were little old Mexican women in costume making fresh tortillas in the storefronts, and they served an appetizer called queso fundido, which was a big crock of hot, oven-baked cheese with crumbled chorizo sausage. You scooped up gobs of it in fresh flour tortillas, wrapped it up, and tried to not let it dribble down your chin. Ohh, just the thought of it makes me miss California a little bit. It's not exactly practical for a party, since it really has to stay bubbling hot or it sort of hardens into a rubber-cement consistency, but chile con queso is a great alternative. The list of ingredients is sort of long, and make no mistake--this is spicy. But it's a crowd-pleaser.
Start here, with the salsa. If you make it ahead, wait to add the salt--everything will weep a little, and your salsa will be watery. Also, for more spicy, leave some or all of the seeds from the jalapenos in.
Tomato Salsa
1 1/2 pounds firm, ripe tomatoes , cut into 3/8-inch dice (about 3 cups)
1 large jalapeño chile, seeded, flesh minced (about 2 tablespoons)
1/2 cup minced red onion
1 small clove garlic, minced (about 1/2 teaspoon)
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro leaves
1/2 teaspoon table salt
pinch ground black pepper
2 - 6 teaspoons lime juice from 1 to 2 limes
1. Set large colander in large bowl. Place tomatoes in colander and let drain 30 minutes. As tomatoes drain, layer jalapeño, onion, garlic, and cilantro on top. Shake colander to drain off excess tomato juice. Discard juice; wipe out bowl.
2. Transfer contents of colander to now-empty bowl. Add salt, pepper, and 2 teaspoons lime juice; toss to combine. Taste and add minced jalapeño seeds, sugar, and additional lime juice to taste.
Guacamole does not hold very well--it tends to oxidize and turn brown. Don't make it much ahead of time if you can help it, and it you can't help it, spray the top with lime juice--the acid will help to prevent browning--and place a layer of plastic wrap directly against the guacamole, pressing out as much air as you can, and cover tightly.
Make this recipe en masse, if possible--it multiplies well, and it will be popular.
Guacamole
2 small ripe avocados
1 tablespoon minced red onion
1 clove garlic, minced or pressed through garlic press
1/2 small jalapeño chile, minced (about 1 1/2 teaspoons)
2 tablespoons minced fresh cilantro leaves
Table salt
1 tablespoon lime juice from 1 lime
Halve, pit, and scoop flesh from avocados into a bowl. Sprinkle lime juice over and mix lightly with fork until mashed, with a few pea-sized chunks. Add onion, garlic, chile, and cilantro. Adjust seasoning with salt, if necessary, and serve. (Can be refrigerated up to 1 day. Return guacamole to room temperature, removing plastic wrap just before serving.)
You can make the chile con queso with chorizo. Brown 1/2 pound bulk chorizo sausage in a skillet over medium heat, breaking up with a wooden spoon. Drain very well, and stir into the finished queso. Keep this dip warm in a fondue pot or Crock pot or a chafing dish, and stir it occasionally to keep it from separating. Serve everything with lots of tortilla chips--regular ones, blue corn tortilla chips, whole-grain, even the new flour tortilla chips, if you like.
Chile con Queso
1/2 pound fresh poblano or Anaheim chiles
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 cup chopped white onions
1/4 teaspoon cayenne
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 large tomato, peeled, seeded and diced
2 cups milk or cream
2 cups grated Cheddar
1 cup grated Jack or Pepper Jack
Roast the peppers by placing them on an open gas flame, turning them frequently with tongs until all sides are charred black, about 7 to 10 minutes. Place the blackened peppers in a plastic or paper bag, and let rest until cool enough to handle, about 15 minutes. Peel the peppers, split in half lengthwise, and discard the seeds and the stems. Roughly chop and set aside.
In a large pot, heat the oil over medium heat. Add the onions and cayenne. Cook, stirring, until very soft, about 6 minutes. Add the flour and stir until thickened, 1 to 2 minutes. Add the tomatoes and chopped chilies, and cook for 1 minute. Slowly add the milk or cream and stir until thick, 3 to 4 minutes. Add the cheeses and cook, stirring, until melted and well incorporated. Remove from the heat and adjust the seasoning, to taste.
- Small-diced radishes
- Small-diced seeded and peeled cucumber
- Sweet corn, cut off the ear and toasted in a dry skillet
- Canned black beans, drained and rinsed
- Minced chipotle in adobo
- Small cubes of mango
- Grilled pineapple, diced
- Different peppers
- Heirloom tomatoes
- Different herbs
- Roasted, chopped red peppers
- Toasted pine nuts
- Chopped oil-cured black olives
Do you see where I'm going here? Possibilities are limited only by your own imagination. This also addresses the problem of winter tomatoes. Winter tomatoes are generally inedible, hard, pale, and flavorless, but the marriage of flavors and the other ingredients coax a little breath of life into the grocery store travesties that pass as tomatoes in January.
I love that this salsa is as great on chips as it would be over a piece of broiled fish, or tossed with hot pasta and olive oil, or on a taco or nachos. And guacamole? How can anything that looks so awful taste so great? It does though, and it's full of heart-healthy fat and I can eat it by the boatload. Enough guacamole is never enough.
Let me say this about guacamole: If the avocados aren't great, if they are rock-hard and emerald-green on the outside, if they squish under light pressure, put them down and move on. Your guacamole will only serve to disappoint you.
If the avocados are unsuitable, go with the chile con queso. It sounds complicated, but it just really isn't. We were visiting family in San Diego in April, and had dinner in a Mexican restaurant in Old Town. There were little old Mexican women in costume making fresh tortillas in the storefronts, and they served an appetizer called queso fundido, which was a big crock of hot, oven-baked cheese with crumbled chorizo sausage. You scooped up gobs of it in fresh flour tortillas, wrapped it up, and tried to not let it dribble down your chin. Ohh, just the thought of it makes me miss California a little bit. It's not exactly practical for a party, since it really has to stay bubbling hot or it sort of hardens into a rubber-cement consistency, but chile con queso is a great alternative. The list of ingredients is sort of long, and make no mistake--this is spicy. But it's a crowd-pleaser.
Start here, with the salsa. If you make it ahead, wait to add the salt--everything will weep a little, and your salsa will be watery. Also, for more spicy, leave some or all of the seeds from the jalapenos in.
Tomato Salsa
1 1/2 pounds firm, ripe tomatoes , cut into 3/8-inch dice (about 3 cups)
1 large jalapeño chile, seeded, flesh minced (about 2 tablespoons)
1/2 cup minced red onion
1 small clove garlic, minced (about 1/2 teaspoon)
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro leaves
1/2 teaspoon table salt
pinch ground black pepper
2 - 6 teaspoons lime juice from 1 to 2 limes
1. Set large colander in large bowl. Place tomatoes in colander and let drain 30 minutes. As tomatoes drain, layer jalapeño, onion, garlic, and cilantro on top. Shake colander to drain off excess tomato juice. Discard juice; wipe out bowl.
2. Transfer contents of colander to now-empty bowl. Add salt, pepper, and 2 teaspoons lime juice; toss to combine. Taste and add minced jalapeño seeds, sugar, and additional lime juice to taste.
Guacamole does not hold very well--it tends to oxidize and turn brown. Don't make it much ahead of time if you can help it, and it you can't help it, spray the top with lime juice--the acid will help to prevent browning--and place a layer of plastic wrap directly against the guacamole, pressing out as much air as you can, and cover tightly.
Make this recipe en masse, if possible--it multiplies well, and it will be popular.
Guacamole
2 small ripe avocados
1 tablespoon minced red onion
1 clove garlic, minced or pressed through garlic press
1/2 small jalapeño chile, minced (about 1 1/2 teaspoons)
2 tablespoons minced fresh cilantro leaves
Table salt
1 tablespoon lime juice from 1 lime
Halve, pit, and scoop flesh from avocados into a bowl. Sprinkle lime juice over and mix lightly with fork until mashed, with a few pea-sized chunks. Add onion, garlic, chile, and cilantro. Adjust seasoning with salt, if necessary, and serve. (Can be refrigerated up to 1 day. Return guacamole to room temperature, removing plastic wrap just before serving.)
You can make the chile con queso with chorizo. Brown 1/2 pound bulk chorizo sausage in a skillet over medium heat, breaking up with a wooden spoon. Drain very well, and stir into the finished queso. Keep this dip warm in a fondue pot or Crock pot or a chafing dish, and stir it occasionally to keep it from separating. Serve everything with lots of tortilla chips--regular ones, blue corn tortilla chips, whole-grain, even the new flour tortilla chips, if you like.
Chile con Queso
1/2 pound fresh poblano or Anaheim chiles
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 cup chopped white onions
1/4 teaspoon cayenne
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 large tomato, peeled, seeded and diced
2 cups milk or cream
2 cups grated Cheddar
1 cup grated Jack or Pepper Jack
Roast the peppers by placing them on an open gas flame, turning them frequently with tongs until all sides are charred black, about 7 to 10 minutes. Place the blackened peppers in a plastic or paper bag, and let rest until cool enough to handle, about 15 minutes. Peel the peppers, split in half lengthwise, and discard the seeds and the stems. Roughly chop and set aside.
In a large pot, heat the oil over medium heat. Add the onions and cayenne. Cook, stirring, until very soft, about 6 minutes. Add the flour and stir until thickened, 1 to 2 minutes. Add the tomatoes and chopped chilies, and cook for 1 minute. Slowly add the milk or cream and stir until thick, 3 to 4 minutes. Add the cheeses and cook, stirring, until melted and well incorporated. Remove from the heat and adjust the seasoning, to taste.
Thursday, January 17, 2008
January 17: Baked Orzo With Peppers And Cheese
Orzo is one of my very favorite pasta shapes. It is so versetile and so easy, great in so many applications. I've had it hot, tossed with chopped spinach and garlic and olive oil, cold with a salsa vinaigrette and grilled chicken breast, plain with butter and parmesan and sprinkled with toasted breadcrumbs.
Orzo is small, rice-shaped pasta, and it can be prepared much like rice can--toasted in oil or butter with an aromatic like onion or garlic, then simmered in liquid until tender and most of the liquid has evaporated. Alternately, you can throw a half-cup of orzo in a vegetable or bean soup in the last 10 minutes of cooking. Yum.
I like the looks of this recipe. It's almost like macaroni and cheese with a Mexican spin on it, and along those lines, I think it'd be a great side to something like a spice-rubbed pork tenderloin, with some sauteed apples or something on the side, or instead of rice with a green-sauced chicken enchilada. Serves 4.
Baked Orzo With Peppers And Cheese
2 teaspoons salt
1/2 cup diced roasted red peppers
1/3 cup diced green chilies
1 cup sour cream
2 tablespoons butter, cut into small bits
1 cup orzo
1 cup diced Monterey Jack cheese
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
Add salt into boiling water, add orzo; boil 10 to 12 minutes until tender; drain. Put orzo into lightly buttered dish with peppers, chilies and Monterey Jack. Spread sour cream evenly over top, sprinkle with Parmesan cheese, dot with butter. Bake at 450 degrees for 15 minutes, top shelf of oven until golden and puffy. Cool slightly.
Orzo is small, rice-shaped pasta, and it can be prepared much like rice can--toasted in oil or butter with an aromatic like onion or garlic, then simmered in liquid until tender and most of the liquid has evaporated. Alternately, you can throw a half-cup of orzo in a vegetable or bean soup in the last 10 minutes of cooking. Yum.
I like the looks of this recipe. It's almost like macaroni and cheese with a Mexican spin on it, and along those lines, I think it'd be a great side to something like a spice-rubbed pork tenderloin, with some sauteed apples or something on the side, or instead of rice with a green-sauced chicken enchilada. Serves 4.
Baked Orzo With Peppers And Cheese
2 teaspoons salt
1/2 cup diced roasted red peppers
1/3 cup diced green chilies
1 cup sour cream
2 tablespoons butter, cut into small bits
1 cup orzo
1 cup diced Monterey Jack cheese
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
Add salt into boiling water, add orzo; boil 10 to 12 minutes until tender; drain. Put orzo into lightly buttered dish with peppers, chilies and Monterey Jack. Spread sour cream evenly over top, sprinkle with Parmesan cheese, dot with butter. Bake at 450 degrees for 15 minutes, top shelf of oven until golden and puffy. Cool slightly.
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
January 15: Chicken Mole
I'm on drugs. No, seriously. My cough has gotten so bad that I have been throwing up from coughing so hard. My body hurts, from head to hips, from coughing. I am just really not enjoying all of this, and I have never felt quite this awful. But my very kind doctor was nice enough to write a prescription for Phenergan syrup with Codeine. The first I've received when I was throwing up uncontrollably, mostly while pregnant, and it is so powerful that I generally request to be given half the usual dose because it makes me so thoroughly stupid. The second is a narcotic, a painkiller, and I don't mind telling you that I am actually in quite a bit of pain here. I said that already. Oh well. I'm on drugs.
Merseydoats is truly a woman after my own heart, confessing to her addiction to dark chocolate. No worries, Mer, there are much worse addictions you could have. Between that and Kimberly's description earlier this week of Haagen Daas' Mayan Chocolate flavor ice cream has me thinking about chocolate. I love chocolate too.
I also love Mexican food, a love that drew my husband and I together. The Mexicans had the right idea: dark chocolate and peppers and cinnamon are amazing together. My immediate thought was absolutely chicken mole (mo-LAY), chicken in a dark, rich sauce with cinnamon and dark chocolate and lots of other flavors. It is rich and so complex, and so don't be intimidated by the long list of ingredients--it comes together really easily, and it just can't be beat.
This recipe comes from a cookbook that I stole from my mother when I first moved out on my own--not college, but afterwards, when I had a kitchen and began to cook for myself. The cookbook is called The Well-Filled Tortilla, and anything you would think of wrapping in a tortilla is included in there, from a simple ground beef taco to wine-simmered vegetables. Their basic chicken fajitas are my go-to recipe for a Mexican meal, This recipe, for chicken mole, takes 40-60 minutes, and serves 4-6. Serve it with corn tortillas.
Chicken Mole
4-5 pounds chicken pieces; a combination of breasts, legs, and thighs
2 dried ancho chile peppers, stemmed, seeded, and cut into 1/4-inch thick strips
3 garlic cloves, chopped
2 cups canned crushed tomatoes
1 ounce bittersweet chocolate, chopped
3/4 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups water
18 corn tortillas
Heat oven to 450 degrees. Place chicken pieces in a non-reactive baking dish. Distribute the chili strips and garlic around the chicken. Spread the tomatoes and chocolate pieces over the top of the chicken. Add the oregano, salt, and water.
Bake uncovered for 15 minutes. Turn the chicken pieces over and stir the chocolate into the sauce. Bake, turning one more time, until the meat is cooked through and pulls away from the bones, about 35 minutes. Remove the chicken from the oven and transfer to a platter to cool.
Separate the chicken meat; discard the skin and bones. Return the meat to the baking pan and mix into the sauce.
Spoon about 1/3 cup of chicken and sauce into the middle of a warmed tortilla. Top with the salsa of your choice and drizzle on a little sour cream if you like. Fold and serve.
Edited: Oh golly, I really am stupid. This is not the authentic Mexican mole I was thinking of. I woke up in the middle of the night and realized that. The one I was thinking of was Rick Bayless' from Mexico: One Plate at a Time and contained somewhere in the neighborhood of 60 ingredients, including nuts, seeds, Mexican cinnamon, and a few other things. This recipe is much simpler and still delicious--although it lacks some of the rich complexity of Bayless' mole.
Merseydoats is truly a woman after my own heart, confessing to her addiction to dark chocolate. No worries, Mer, there are much worse addictions you could have. Between that and Kimberly's description earlier this week of Haagen Daas' Mayan Chocolate flavor ice cream has me thinking about chocolate. I love chocolate too.
I also love Mexican food, a love that drew my husband and I together. The Mexicans had the right idea: dark chocolate and peppers and cinnamon are amazing together. My immediate thought was absolutely chicken mole (mo-LAY), chicken in a dark, rich sauce with cinnamon and dark chocolate and lots of other flavors. It is rich and so complex, and so don't be intimidated by the long list of ingredients--it comes together really easily, and it just can't be beat.
This recipe comes from a cookbook that I stole from my mother when I first moved out on my own--not college, but afterwards, when I had a kitchen and began to cook for myself. The cookbook is called The Well-Filled Tortilla, and anything you would think of wrapping in a tortilla is included in there, from a simple ground beef taco to wine-simmered vegetables. Their basic chicken fajitas are my go-to recipe for a Mexican meal, This recipe, for chicken mole, takes 40-60 minutes, and serves 4-6. Serve it with corn tortillas.
Chicken Mole
4-5 pounds chicken pieces; a combination of breasts, legs, and thighs
2 dried ancho chile peppers, stemmed, seeded, and cut into 1/4-inch thick strips
3 garlic cloves, chopped
2 cups canned crushed tomatoes
1 ounce bittersweet chocolate, chopped
3/4 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups water
18 corn tortillas
Heat oven to 450 degrees. Place chicken pieces in a non-reactive baking dish. Distribute the chili strips and garlic around the chicken. Spread the tomatoes and chocolate pieces over the top of the chicken. Add the oregano, salt, and water.
Bake uncovered for 15 minutes. Turn the chicken pieces over and stir the chocolate into the sauce. Bake, turning one more time, until the meat is cooked through and pulls away from the bones, about 35 minutes. Remove the chicken from the oven and transfer to a platter to cool.
Separate the chicken meat; discard the skin and bones. Return the meat to the baking pan and mix into the sauce.
Spoon about 1/3 cup of chicken and sauce into the middle of a warmed tortilla. Top with the salsa of your choice and drizzle on a little sour cream if you like. Fold and serve.
Edited: Oh golly, I really am stupid. This is not the authentic Mexican mole I was thinking of. I woke up in the middle of the night and realized that. The one I was thinking of was Rick Bayless' from Mexico: One Plate at a Time and contained somewhere in the neighborhood of 60 ingredients, including nuts, seeds, Mexican cinnamon, and a few other things. This recipe is much simpler and still delicious--although it lacks some of the rich complexity of Bayless' mole.
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