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10 Feb 2012

Mardi Gras King Cake

The bands are playing, the krewes are parading and in less than two weeks it will all be over. Mardi Gras is in full swing down in New Orleans, among other places. I miss that city. A while back Big D, Little B and I lived in New Orleans. It was only for six months but it was an amazing six months. We got there right before Halloween and left in April – experiencing the most festive and moderate weather months available down there. I know this to be true. I have also been down there in August. You might as well not take a shower in August, because as soon as you step outside the wet heat leaves a sheen of moisture on your skin. While living there we enjoyed as many celebrations as we could – art festivals, music festivals, food festivals, buskers, as well as the general mystery and charm of the streets. Our rental was half a renovated shotgun house in the neighborhood of Holy Cross, a sub-district squeezed between the Lower Ninth Ward and the great Mississippi River. The neighborhood was briefly under water during Hurricane Katrina and gradually coming back to life when we arrived. Unless we wanted to live on junk food from the local convenience store we had to drive a few miles to find groceries, and of course there were the culinary delights of Marigny and the French Quarter a few blocks away. A lot of the restaurants and stores that were open before the hurricane were either not returning or there was so much damage to the structures that they moved further away. We want to return for another stay, but have not figured out how to do so just yet. As I said, our time there was quite festive.

While most of the country goes into a celebratory slump following New Years, New Orleans keeps on going. Christmas decorations come down, making way for the colors purple (justice), green (faith) and gold (power) of Mardi Gras, and the parties roll on. I did not make a King Cake while we lived in the Crescent City because 1) there were so many delicious looking options available at the local bakeries, and 2) we were under the delusion we could be content eating a low carbohydrate diet, so who would eat a cake if I did make it? We have now come to our senses and enjoy exploring all foods, constantly striving for moderation, so I am diving in and making a huge, beautiful celebratory pastry.

The King (and sometimes Queen) Cake is one of the many and varied traditions of Mardi Gras. They are extremely popular sweets. Many bakeries make most or all their revenue for the year during Mardi Gras by selling King Cakes. Families often have recipes they pass down through generations, but what I found most common commercially was a loosely braided or rolled brioche fashioned in a wreath shape, filled with pecan, cinnamon, cream cheese or fruit. They were usually covered with a white icing sprinkled with colorful colored sugar. A bean or plastic baby is traditionally baked into the cake – whoever gets the piece of cake with the trinket is expected to meet obligations particular to their group. The obligations vary widely. Sometimes there are strong references to Christian stories regarding the Magi and Christ Child, to others it means the holder of the trinket may have the next baby, other times it means the person provides the next king cake or hosts the next party (which start happening at the beginning of of the Mardi Gras season, January 6th). In other circles it means you will have good luck for the year, or you are King/Queen for the day and get treated like royalty. In New Orleans many Mardi Gras Krewes use trinkets in the cakes to select the king and queen for the annual Mardi Gras season. Regardless of the obligation, the bearer of the cake needs to make sure they tell connoisseurs there is a wonderful little choking hazard in their sweet delight. Most cakes sold by bakeries provide the trinket outside of the cake or not at all for fear of someone choking…liability liability liability…

My recipe is a conglomeration from numerous sources. It is hard to actually credit someone, so I will claim it as my own based on research and experimentation and give the closest credit I can give – two sources, here and here. Laissez les bons temps rouler!

King Cake

Pastry:

2 packages active dry yeast

2/3 cup warm water (about 110F)

¼ cup butter, melted and cooled slightly

1 cup milk, room temperature

2 eggs, room temperature

5-6 cups all-purpose flour

½ cup white sugar

2 tsp salt

1 tsp ground nutmeg

1 ½ tsp lemon zest

2 Tbsp oil or butter

1 heat resistant trinket

Small coffee can, mason jar or similar sized heat resistant container

Filling:

¾ cup brown sugar

¼ cup white sugar

1 ½ cups pecans, chopped

1/3 cup flour

2 Tbsp ground cinnamon

½ cup butter, melted

Icing:

2 cups confectioner’s sugar

3 ½ Tbsp milk

¼ tsp vanilla

½ tsp lemon juice

2 Tbsp purple decorating sugar

2 Tbsp green decorating sugar

2 Tbsp yellow/gold decorating sugar

Combine yeast and water in a small glass bowl and wait about five minutes until the yeast reaction starts – it foams or bubbles. In a mixing bowl with a bread hook attached combine the water/yeast mixture with the butter, milk and eggs. Mix until combined and smooth. Add lemon zest, flour, sugar, nutmeg and salt. Mix slowly until dough forms, then mix at medium speed until a ball forms and sticks to the bread hook, pulling off the sides. You may need to add more flour for the balling to occur. Place dough in a bowl greased with oil or butter. Flip the dough so it gets coated with the grease. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a damp towel, then place in a warm, draft-free place for about two hours until it doubles in size.

When the dough is almost done rising you can make the filling. Combine together all filling ingredients except butter. When the dry ingredients are well combined add the butter and mix until crumbs form. Set aside.

Grease a large cookie sheet and set aside. Place risen dough on a floured surface and roll it into a 24” x 10” rectangle. Spread filling on top of the dough, leaving about an inch along all edges. Add the trinket (I used a green bean, since I did not want to risk Little B choking on something harder). If your trinket is not heat resistant you can wait until the cake is baked and add it by pushing it into the bottom of the cake before serving. Roll dough tightly along the longest edge, until all filling is enclosed in the roll. Grease a small coffee can or other heat resistant container and place it in the middle of a large greased cookie sheet. Curve the roll of dough around the container. Connect the ends of the roll and press together, using a bit of water on your hands to seal them together. Let rise again in a warm, draft-free place for 30-45 minutes. When dough is almost done rising preheat the oven to 375F. Bake cake for about 30 minutes until golden brown.

While the bread is baking make the icing. Mix together confectioner’s sugar, vanilla, lemon juice and milk. Set aside. As soon as the cake comes out of the oven remove the can. While the cake is still warm drizzle the icing along the highest point of the bread, allowing it to drip down the sides. Before the icing hardens sprinkle colored sugar*, alternating colors in the order of purple, green then gold, over the icing. Allow the cake to cool and the icing to set. Transfer to a serving dish and enjoy!

*If you have a hard time finding purple decorating sugar like I did, but you can find or make purple food coloring (liquid or gel), here is an easy solution. Just mix some sugar and the food color (this works for more than just purple. Heh.) until you get the desired shade. Let it sit on the counter for about an hour until it dries and clumps. Loosen the clumps and you are good to go!

Posted in baked, bread, cinnamon, Seals' Kitchen, seasonal | Leave a Comment
10 Feb 2012

Pizza Amore!

Big D and I have promised each other a pizza night for quite a while now, but things kept getting in the way. Then what do I do? I have a pizza party when out of town and he is stuck at home! Evil me! So last night we had our pizza night at home. Since Big D is sensitive to wheat and I am still working on improving my gluten free baking skills, we relied on a Bob’s Red Mill mix for the pizza crust. Here at home we are not equipped with a barrage of pizza making tools (my old pizza stone finally cracked after about ten years of good service and we use an ulu instead of a pizza cutter), so we relied on a cookie sheet for the baking. Little B jumped right in, stood on her learning tower (by the way, these things are awesome for safe learning in an adult sized world!), and helped top the pizza. The result was a successful experiment with plans to tweak our next attempt, because boy to we like pizza! The miniscule imperfections were mostly our fault, but we are okay with that, because there will definitely be a next time…

Gluten Free Pizza

1 package Gluten Free Pizza Crust, prepared

1 6-ounce can tomato paste

3 links hot Italian sausage, casing removed, broken up and cooked

10 baby portabello mushrooms, sliced and sauteed in 1 Tbsp butter

3 ounces pepperoni slices

5 cloves garlic, finely diced

2 Tbsp dried thyme

4 Tbsp dried oregano

5 ounces mozzarella cheese

3 ounces Parmesan cheese

4 ounces sharp cheddar cheese

1/3 cup coarse corn meal

Salt to taste

This is what we did:

Heat oven to 425F. Sprinkle corn meal on large cookie sheet (17.25”x11.5”). With wet hands (and keep a bowl of water close by to re-wet hands) press pizza crust dough out to edges of sheet. Bake for 7 minutes without toppings. It will puff up and start browning on the edges. Remove from oven and add desired toppings. We did tomato paste, garlic, herbs, some cheese, salt, pepperoni, mushrooms, sausage, more cheese, more herbs, maybe more salt. Return to oven and bake for 15-18 minutes until cheese in the middle is melted and bubbly. Slice in squares and eat!

This is what we are going to do next time:

The crust in middle of the large rectangular pizza we made was cooked, but thick. Next time we will make two smaller, thinner pizzas (freakishly similar to the instructions on the mix packaging – go figure), knowing that the middle may rise higher than the edges. Also, the dough was substantial and held its shape when we ate it, which excited us, but we thought it needed more flavor. We plan on adding salt and herbs to the dough before we leave it to rise. We cooked the pizza for 14 minutes, but think with thinner crust it could cook longer and brown safely without burning. Yes, we were afraid it was burning and took it out early, but low and behold, it could have cooked longer.

 

Posted in baked, pizza, sausage, Seals' Kitchen, wheat free | Leave a Comment
09 Feb 2012
1 Comment

Pizza Pizza Pizza!

I returned home yesterday after visiting my in-laws and my mom. My brother was there too! What a treat! To commemorate our last evening together we made a total mess of the kitchen making pizza. One obstacle regarding the pizza crust was a lack of a recipe. The one I have relied on for years was at home (what I get for having not yet scanned all my old recipes), and the one my brother usually used was not at mom’s place either, so my brother dug around online and found this one, which worked great. Mom’s pizza stone got a good workout making FIVE pizzas and Grandma Heflin’s 80 year old cedar rolling pin did a darned good job on rolling out the dough. When the dough was ready and the toppings prepared we stuck Little B on a stool and had her help us with topping the pizzas. She loved throwing, er, placing the vegetables and pepperoni all over the place, especially in big piles. We had to make a couple of adjustments before they went in the oven, like reducing the pile of five cheese slices, but we all had blast. My brother was the work horse for the evening, watching the baking times, transferring the pizzas from the stone, and making sure everyone got what they wanted, or didn’t want, on the pizzas. Here is what we did. These things are fun and fun is good, to quote Dr. Seuss.

Pizza Pizza

2 batches pizza dough (makes about five 12-inch pizzas)

1 large can diced tomatoes

1 small can tomato paste

2 Tbsp plus ½ cup olive oil

1 clove garlic, crushed

Salt and Pepper to taste

2 bell peppers, cut into strips

10 baby portabello mushrooms, sliced about ½ cm thick

1 bunch basil, washed with stems removed

1 large can black olives, sliced into rings

½ large white onion, sliced thin julienne

5 ounces turkey pepperoni (or the fatty kind if you are not trying as hard as I am to justify eating pizza)

2 pounds buffalo mozzarella, sliced about ½ cm thick

1 cup corn meal

1 cup flour

Place pizza stone in cold oven. Turn oven on to 450-475F, depending on your oven. In a bowl mix together diced tomatoes, tomato paste, garlic, olive oil, and salt and pepper to taste. Smush some of the tomatoes, but leave some chunky. Roll out on floured surface 1/5 the dough into a 12 inch round. Transfer the round to a pizza peel (or the back of a cookie sheet) that has been sprinkled with corn meal. Spread a thin layer of olive oil (about 2 Tbsp) on the crust. Add about 1/5 of the tomato sauce*. Layer other toppings (mushrooms, pepperoni, olives, onions, basil) as desired, topping with 1/5 of the cheese. When oven and stone are hot, sprinkle the stone with corn meal then slide the pizza on to stone and cook for 14-16 minutes. If the first pizza does not brown on top you may need to raise the oven temperature.

While the first pizza is cooking, make sure you have transition stations set up (this is where the dishes and clean up time increased exponentially) – one platter for setting on the table, one surface for receiving a pizza just out of the oven, and one for a prepared pizza ready to go in the oven. If you have a pizza peel the pizza transfer from oven to cutting board is a breeze. If you don’t have a peel (like us), make sure you have the thickest oven mitts you can find, or check your grilling/fire pit supplies to see if you have at least one high temperature glove to help handle the stone. We had to remove it from the oven to slide it onto the cutting surface. It is really hot! If you don’t have a pizza stone the whole cooking time and transfer issue is completely different than what is described here, and I have faith you can figure it out. Good luck!

This baking method and timing melts the cheese, browns the surface a bit and cooks the crust, but it does not completely cook the vegetables until limp. We like ours a bit crispy. If you want your vegetables cooked a little more it may help to blanch or saute them before you start making the pizzas.

*On one of the pizzas we used a wonderful pesto instead of the tomato sauce. It was from Humble House Foods who sell at the Pearl Farmers Market. Amazing pizza results and the most delicious pesto ever!

Posted in baked, bread, Mom's Kitchen, pizza, sauces, tomato, vegetables
05 Feb 2012

Greek Salad On A Stick

I will start by saying these toothpick-mounted wonders are the closest I got to making football shaped food this year. I actually watched quite a bit of the Super Bowl today. Good game, considering I did not feel strongly about one team or the other winning. I don’t watch much professional American Football these days; mostly because I don’t have a TV at home, but even more because any attempt I make to do something for hours at a time is frequently interrupted by a lively 2 1/2 year old daughter. When I weigh time with Little B against watching football, Little B always wins.

Greek salads are things I can just eat and eat, especially with some hot grilled kebabs on top. My favorite of all time is at Papouli’s in San Antonio – they have a killer dressing. The tanginess of the dressing, olives and feta just pull me in, and are much less bad for me health-wise than my other salad love, blue cheese dressing. Yes, I know blue cheese dressing is not a salad – I need the lettuce and tomato and cucumber to hold the dressing – but the calorie and fat load of blue cheese dressing can wreak havoc on almost any diet.

I saw this idea somewhere last year but for the life of me cannot remember where. I think it was here, but it was a while back. I tried to give credit where it is due, so I get kudos for trying, right? I have made these wonderful little appetizers a number of times and love the juiciness with the dressing added. The whole stick of salad can fit in one bite. Whoa! Heaven! I sometimes include onion, but usually not because some of my nearest and dearest have a hard time with raw onion, so I present the recipe without. I most recently served these along with my smorgastarta and they were a great compliment.

Greek Salad On A Stick

24 toothpicks

1 block feta cheese, cut into 24 cubes

24 grape tomatoes

24 kalamata olives, pitted

1 English cucumber or 3 mini cucumbers

¼ cup olive oil

1/8 cup red wine or balsamic vinegar

1 tsp lemon juice

½ tsp salt

¼ tsp pepper

1 tsp dried oregano

Whisk together the last six ingredients. Set aside. Slice cucumbers into thick slices, about ½ inch in length, then again in half or quarters, depending on cucumber size. I have found that all four elements fitting on the toothpicks is directly related to the size of the cucumber pieces (or the squishiness of the olives, but that can only go so far), so do a test ‘pick before cutting up all the cucumber. Start with putting on toothpicks the tomato, followed by an olive and cucumber, ending with the feta. Place all the filled toothpicks in a deep plate or bowl that will just hold the completed ‘picks. Drizzle dressing over the ‘picks. Refrigerate for at least an hour. Before serving move the ‘picks to a serving dish and again drizzle the dressing over the ‘picks. If you use fancy decorated ‘picks, the top of which won’t look good slimed with dressing, you may need to spoon the dressing over them with a spoon.

Posted in cucumber, Mom's Kitchen, salad, tomato, vegetables | Leave a Comment
04 Feb 2012
2 Comments

Smorgastarta…sorta

I prepared food for a party this weekend. It was far from the many Super Bowl parties going on – this one was a bunch of ladies getting together to have fun at a private home. Television off. Music and conversation on. They wanted some filling food without loading up on the calories, and nix the seafood. I have reliable recipes I’ve made for years, but also like the thrill (geez I need to get a life!) of trying a new recipe for the first time and serving it at a party. The centerpiece I made was a cake…sort of. It was a spin off of a smorgastarta. If you have never heard of such a thing, it is basically a layered sandwich frosted like a cake. The original version is popular in Sweden and served at parties – bread, herring mousse, cucumber, bread, smoked salmon, sauce, lettuce, bread, then frosted with a cream cheese/sour cream ‘frosting’. A beautiful version is described and presented at Panini Happy. Since the party would include people who are not partial to seafood, I came up with a version that is about as friendly to the masses as possible. How can I go wrong with chicken, ham and turkey? It was really fun to make, much prettier than an old fashioned sandwich tray and deeeelicious! The leftover bits and pieces from the garnish made a great salad. Heh. My garnish ended up looking a little different than I originally planned (and described below in the directions), but I just went with the flow and I like my results. Let them eat cake…

Smorgastarta…sorta

24 slices large whole wheat bread
1/2 cup Butter (room temperature)
4 ounces thin sliced ham (about 15 slices)
4 ounces thin sliced turkey (about 15 slices)
8 ounces thin sliced cheese
1 English cucumber, peeled and sliced thin
7 cups diced chicken (about seven chicken breasts)
1 cup mayonnaise
1 cup diced dill pickle
1/4 cup shredded onion
1 tsp curry
24 ounces cream cheese (room temperature)
16 ounces sour cream (room temperature)
1 large round tomato
10-14 leaves of green/purple lettuce or flat leaf parsley sprigs
3 boiled eggs (10 minute boil)
1 tall red or yellow bell pepper
1 bunch green onions
1 large carrot

Make sandwich decorations and chill them while constructing cake:
-use peeler to make long thin ribbons from the carrot
-trim green onions until there is only 2″ of green above the white portion, then slice the green parts in quarters lengthwise, not cutting into the white
-make vertical cuts in radishes almost to the bottom four time around the radish
-place carrots, onions and radishes in ice water and set in fridge for at least an hour. The carrots will curl, the onion greens will curl and the radishes should open up and become ‘roses’.
-remove chilled vegetables from water and set on towel to dry (radishes and onions should be done in an hour, but carrots may take two hours to curl if thick)
-core bell pepper and slice horizontally, making rings

Peel tomato skin in one long ribbon to make a tomato rose. Lay it flat for about 30 minutes so it can relax and flatten out. It needs to be flat so you can roll it, otherwise it will try to keep the shape of the tomato and not roll tightly enough. When ready to decorate the cake, roll the skin like a roll of tape. One side of it will naturally form a rose. Garnish with some mint or basil leaves.

To make chicken salad combine chicken, mayonnaise, pickle, shredded onion and curry. Set aside.

Remove crust from all slices of bread. Butter one side of eight pieces of bread and place them butter side up in a rectangular shape on a serving tray. Spread chicken salad on bread, bringing as close to the edges as possible. Place a layer of cucumber on top of salad.

Butter both sides of eight pieces of bread and place on top of the cucumber. Arrange ham and turkey in loose rolls on bread, making sure slices are not pressed flat. Drizzle mustard over meat. Add a layer of cheese. Butter one side of eight pieces of bread and place butter side down on top of cheese.

Thoroughly blend together the cream cheese and sour cream until smooth. Use the mixture like frosting and cover the sandwich on top and all sides.

Press parsley sprigs or lettuce fans on side of frosted sandwich. Arrange egg slices, radishes, carrots, green onions, tomato roses and bell pepper rings on top to decorate. Chill sandwich for at least three hours before serving.

Posted in bread, chicken, Mom's Kitchen, sandwich
03 Feb 2012

Potato Leek Salad

I am on a quest to eat food I love while reducing the fat and calories of said food. It is difficult because I love bread and butter and beef and pasta and cheese. Oh the cheese! I understand the concept of moderation, and practice it as much as possible, but when food is good it is so easy to be bad. Where potato salad is concerned I like the kind dressed with mayonnaise and mustard, complimenting a pile of smoked brisket or ribs. The other night I could not sleep and craved the not-so-good-for-me potato salad my dad made in big batches for years. He would smoke meats for hours and hours. When the meat was a few hours from being done he would make the potato salad so it could chill and allow the flavors to meet each other. I say he made the salad, but it was actually a group effort. My mom and I would boil the potatoes and eggs, chop the onions, bell pepper, celery and herbs. Dad would inspect our work and let us know if the chop size and quantities were just right, or we needed to work on them a little more. He would pull out the huge green glass bowl from the cabinet and put all the ingredients together, taste testing to see if it needed a little more of this, a little more of that. When he was done with his part it was again time for mom and I to swoop in and decorate the top with bell pepper and egg slices, finishing with sprinkle of paprika. I loved my dad’s potato salad, but it was far from healthy. In my desire to eat healthier and not fade away from complications of diabetes, which took his life last year, I offer the following dish. It appeases my potato salad craving without as much in the way of fat and calories. Enjoy!

Potato Leek Salad

5 lbs red potatoes*
2 leeks
2 Tbsp olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste
14 oz nonfat Greek yogurt
¼ cup parsley, chopped
1 lime, juiced
2 cloves garlic, crushed
8 ounces mushrooms, diced
2 tsp dried tarragon

Cook red potatoes in gently boiling salted water until tender, about 15 minutes, depending on their size. Drain out the water, letting the potatoes cool and dry out (in the refrigerator for faster results). Separate white and green portions of the leeks, discarding the tough outer and upper dark green potions. Thinly slice white/light green sections to form rings. Heat large sauté pan to medium high. Add oil. When oil is hot add leeks. Stir regularly to prevent burning, but not so much that the leeks are prevented from browning. Sprinkle with salt and pepper to your liking. After about 10 minutes add the mushrooms and cook for 5 – 10 more minutes. Set aside to cool. Cut potatoes into bite sized pieces. In a large bowl combine yogurt, juice, garlic, tarragon, parsley and a dash of salt. If the dressing tastes a little salty do not worry – it will be spread among the potatoes which will absorb it. Add leeks and mushrooms to the dressing. Toss potatoes with dressing until coated. Refrigerate until chilled through before serving, at least two hours.

*I prefer to leave the skin on red potatoes for this recipe, but of course if you prefer they can be peeled without significantly affecting the final product. Go ahead – reject the most nutritious part of our root friends. I’m sure they won’t mind…

 

Posted in leeks, Mom's Kitchen, potatoes, salad, side dish | Leave a Comment
01 Feb 2012

Beer Bread

Last night I made an eight hour road trip with the Little Girl. We finally landed at my mom’s house about 10pm. She had made a wonderful smelling chicken vegetable soup that would just not fit in my stomach that late (yes, 10pm is now late for me). To make up for delaying her planned soup dinner I used her kitchen for making of beer bread, to go along with the soup for tonight’s dinner. Mom loves the stuff and it is really easy to make. She has a huge, well stocked kitchen. She loves sitting by and watching my brother and I invade it to create all types of delectable dishes. As a result mom has bread pans. I can make an actual rectangular loafy looking, well, loaf of bread! I have no such pans at home. I just don’t think about buying them until I am ready to make bread, so I end up with strange shaped loaves or rolls or muffins. Is it really that hard to run to the store and get pans? No, but the challenge of doing without while still succeeding is something that intrigues me. And where bread pans are concerned, totally doable. Not this time, though. I used chives and garlic tonight, but it can be made with just about any combination of herbs or flavors to compliment the meal being served.

Beer Bread

3 cups self-rising flour*

¼ cup sugar

12 ounces beer

2 tsp diced garlic

½ bunch fresh chives, chopped (about 1/3 cup)

Preheat oven to 375F. Grease rectangular bread pan. Stir together flour and sugar until blended. Add beer and stir. When beer is partially blended add garlic and chives. Finish stirring until dry ingredient are combined. Drop dough into pan, press down to fill corners, and cook for 50-60 minutes.

*If you do not have pre-packaged self-rising flour in your pantry you can substitute it with the following proportion of ingredients: 1 cup all purpose or whole wheat flour, 1 tsp baking powder, ½ tsp salt.

Posted in baked, bread, Mom's Kitchen | Leave a Comment
30 Jan 2012

Chicken Enchiladas with Cilantro Cream Sauce

My tex-mex run is coming to an end. I promise. I am ending it (for now) with a pleasant flourish. When offered enchiladas there is usually a choice between cheese, beef, chicken or spinach. I usually want chicken/spinach enchiladas, so I just go -harumph- and choose between the two, or abandon both and go for cheese. I am not complaining. It is not a curse to have four good options to choose from. There just has to be a choice made, or I resort to a combination plate that mixes them all, which also means mixing the sauces and not really getting a pure, committed bite of any one enchilada from a crowded plate. I do not usually ponder the nuances of enchilada purity, but I live where there exists only mediocre Mexican restaurants, so my mind wanders to places it normally wouldn’t. Here is my solution for being surrounded by mediocrity:

Chicken Enchiladas with Cilantro Cream Sauce

1 pound cooked, shredded chicken

4 ounces roasted green chiles, chopped

1 cup cooked spinach, well drained and chopped

8-10 ounces shredded cheese blend (such as monterrey jack, mild cheddar and asadero)

Dash of salt

10 corn tortillas

1 bunch fresh cilantro (leaves only), chopped

1 clove garlic, crushed

1 lime, juiced

1 cup heavy cream

¼ cup sour cream or Greek yogurt

1/2 cup chicken stock

2 tsp oil or butter

Preheat oven to 350F. In a small bowl combine heavy cream, sour cream, chicken stock, lime juice, garlic and cilantro. Stir together until well mixed. Set aside. Grease shallow baking dish with oil or butter. Spread a thin layer of the cream sauce in the bottom of the dish, leaving enough to cover the top of the enchiladas. Combine together chicken, chiles, spinach and about half the cheese. Season with salt to taste. Warm the tortillas right before rolling to make them easier to work with. Place in a tortilla about 1/3 cup of the filling, roll it up and place it seam side down in the dish. Repeat with all tortillas until pan is full. Pour sauce over filled tortillas. Sprinkle remaining cheese over the top. Cover with foil and bake for about 20 minutes. Uncover and bake another 10-15 minutes until enchiladas are a golden color on top. Remove from oven and let cool about five minutes before serving.

 

Posted in baked, chicken, lime, wheat free | Leave a Comment
29 Jan 2012

Mexican Rice

I used to think of Mexican rice as the bland, tomato-y part of my school lunch I did not eat. Then, it was the sticky stuff that always came with a Mexican meal, but I always left it for last in case I filled up on other stuff, and I always did. I don’t have anything against rice, but it is a starchy filler that is often my last priority after protein, fruits and vegetables. If I don’t like how it tastes I am not going to eat it. I am a big girl and sometimes choose to leave food on my plate.

Now I make my own Mexican Rice, which is not very red, not very sticky, not very bland and has just the right amount of vegetables in it. You may think using both green chiles and jalapenos is an overdose on heat, but it really isn’t. The jalapenos make it smoky and the chiles make it tangy, and both flavors are soaked up by the rice and spread throughout the dish. Just try it.

Mexican Rice

2 cups uncooked parboiled rice

1 Tbsp butter

2 cups water

2 cups chicken broth

1 tsp salt

½ tsp chili powder

1 tsp ground cumin

1 Tbsp fresh cilantro, chopped

1 Tbsp fresh parsley, chopped

1 small onion, diced

1 small tomato, diced

4 ounces green chiles, diced

1 cup corn, removed from cob

½ jalapeno, diced (optional)

Melt butter over high heat in medium pot. Add onion, jalapeno (if being used) and corn, cooking until the corn browns and the onion begins to sweat. Add rice, salt, cilantro, parsley and chili powder and stir until rice begins to brown. Add tomato, chiles* and corn, stirring until blended. Add water and chicken broth*, bringing the mixture to a boil. Lower heat to a simmer and cook until liquid is absorbed, about 20 minutes. Let set for about five minutes before serving.

*Sometimes if I am lacking for fresh chiles and tomatoes I will use a can of Rotel tomatoes and chiles instead. I drain the can and retain the juice for use as part of the water and broth liquid (within the four cups needed) to cook the rice.

Posted in rice, side dish, wheat free | Leave a Comment
28 Jan 2012

Tortilla Steak

I don’t know about you, but when I make a big batch of beans, and chimichurri and guacamole I want to mix it all up on one plate and have a feast. Here is what I did for my latest tex-mex feast. I was inspired to make this steak by a Japanese based cooking show – sort of – an Iron Chef America episode. If you know anything about Iron Chef, you probably know it was started in Japan in the ’90s by Takeshi Kaga, who pit Japanese chefs from the different regions of Japan to compete others touted as Iron Chefs. The twist of the competition is a secret ingredient presented at the beginning of the show which the chefs must use in four creative, delicious dishes in one hour. Judges then taste and score the dishes and a winner is declared. Many of the ingredients in the original Japanese show are interesting to say the least. I don’t commonly cook with eel or octopus, and only eat them as part of a sushi feast, but some ingredients were more familiar to me, like corn, mushrooms or noodles. The secret ingredients in the recent inspiring episode were very familiar – tequila and corn tortillas. One dish, a pork cutlet, was breaded with crumbled tortillas. In my constant quest to find good recipes without wheat, the breading idea intrigued me. Tortilla chips are a constant presence on our kitchen counter – what a coincidence!

Instead of deep frying pork like they did on the show I chose to flash fry the steaks on the stove top. I use the term steak here very loosely. When I think of steak I immediately picture a thick ribeye, seared over a wood fire and medium-rare in the middle. In the tex-mex world I knew from growing up in San Antonio, Texas, steaks are thin and quickly fried, then covered with a delicious sauce, based in tomatoes, tomatillos or queso. I recall scarfing down a number of these thin, saucy steaks when I was in college and working down the street at Tomatillos Café y Cantina. I used a round steak here, since a quick braise is all I was going to do to cook it.

The steak would be okay without a topper, but I still have chimichurri from a few days ago, and I am hard pressed to have a dish with beef and tortillas without yearning for a spoonful of chimi on top. And what else goes along on a plate of tex-mex food? Guacamole and beans of course.

Tortilla Steak

8 oz Tortilla chips

Salt, cumin and Pepper to taste

1 round steak cut into three or four smaller pieces

½ cup oil or butter

Crumble the tortilla chips in a food processor and place them in a shallow bowl or pie plate – you will need about a cup of crumbs. Set an iron skillet over medium high heat (maybe a little higher for electric stoves) and add the oil or butter. Season the steaks with salt, cumin and pepper. Press each steak firmly into the crumbs so the meat is covered on all sides. When the pan is hot add the steaks and cook no more than one minute on each side for medium rare, or longer until cooked to desired wellness. If you want them cooked more than medium rare, you may need to lower the heat so the crumbs don’t overcook. Serve immediately with a generous portion of chimichurri drizzled on top, along with traditional sides, like tortilla chips, guacamole, refried beans and a fresh salad.

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