tex-mex in the house

Considering the fact that I was born and raised in Texas, it makes perfect sense that I would love love LOVE Mexican food, and hold a special place in my heart for Tex-Mex. When I lives in Texas, I had Mexican and/or Tex-Mex multiple times a week. One might think that with so many fresh ingredients and native Mexicans around me that I'd have gotten some amazing authentic (or not so authentic if we're talking Tex-Mex) recipes and have perfected several scrumptious dishes. One would be very very WRONG. The thing about living in Texas is that every time you turn a corner, you see a Mexican and/or Tex-Mex restaurant. To put it simply... it was easier and cheaper to but it from a restaurant than to make it myself. Sundays at the local grocery store boasted homemade tortillas... warm, fresh and glorious... so I *could* have bought some, taken them home and made a wonderful dish... or I could take them home, throw some cheese or sour cream or, um nothing, on them and shove them in my mouth while they were still warm. Guess which route I chose.
Since moving to Chicago, there a few things I simply can't easily find. One of those things is great salsa. I am picky when it comes to salsa. A bowl or raw veggies chopped up and served with chips? not salsa. That's pico de gallo and it is ick. Pureed tomatoes with chunky raw veggies? not good salsa. In the past few years I have perfected a few great salsas that I make on a regular basis (thanks to Mexican food god, Rick Ballis). This weekend, I brought to Chicago a Tex-Mex classic that I love so dearly and have not been able to find, Sopapillas. It's basically, fried dough. The dough it rolled out like this...

Then popped into hot oil and fried for 2 minutes. The dough puffs up and leaves an empty center. Once done, sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar

For tasty results, slather with HONEY.

I found a recipe Here. And it was great! Although I really am not a fan of frying food, this? totally worth it! It was a perfect dessert! I froze most of the dough for future sopapilla cravings.

Now I should back track and tell you about dinner. I originally wanted to try my hand making tamales, but while researching how to make them, I realized it called for some cookware I don't have and well, the kitchen is already bursting at the seams so the purchase of more stuff is a no-go right now. After poking around at a few other options, I settled on enchiladas. I'm not a huge fan of the standard red enchilada sauce, so I went with an enchiladas verdes. I found a recipe by Tyler Florence from the food network (note my adjustments in bold blue)

Ingredients:

Roasted Tomatillo Chile Salsa:
1 pound tomatillos, husked
1 white onion, peeled, sliced, quartered or whole (I used 1/4 onion )
4 garlic cloves
2 jalapenos
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup chopped cilantro leaves
1/2 lime, juiced

Enchiladas:

Extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 medium onion, diced (1/4 onion, again)
3 garlic cloves, chopped
1 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 cups chicken stock, store bought
Chopped cilantro leaves
1 deli roasted chicken (about 3 pounds), boned, meat shredded ( I cooked and shredded 4 chicken breasts)
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
10 large flour tortillas (flour?? no. I used corn)
1/2 pound Monterey Jack cheese, shredded (I used a combo of pepper jack and quesadilla queso)

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

For the salsa:
On a baking tray, roast tomatillos, onion, garlic and jalapenos for 12 to 15 minutes. Transfer the roasted vegetables and any juices on the bottom of the tray to a food processor. Add the cumin, salt, cilantro, and lime juice and pulse mixture until well combined but still chunky.

Enchiladas:
Meanwhile heat a 2 count of olive oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion and cook until soft and caramelized - this should take 5 to 7 minutes. Add the garlic and cumin then cook for a further minute. Sprinkle on the flour and stir to ensure the flour doesn't burn then gradually add the chicken stock to make a veloute. Continue stirring over a low simmer until the flour cooks and the liquid thickens. Turn off the heat, add half of the roasted tomatillo chile salsa, some additional fresh chopped cilantro and fold in the shredded chicken meat. Season, to taste, with salt and pepper.

Change the temperature of the oven to 350 degrees F and begin assembling the dish. Take a large baking dish and smear the bottom with some of the reserved tomatillo salsa. Now take the flour tortillas and briefly flash them over the stove-top flame (or put them briefly under the broiler if using an electric stove). Using a shallow bowl, coat each tortilla lightly with the reserved salsa mix. Put a scoop of the shredded chicken-enchilada mix on top of the tortilla followed by a sprinkle of the shredded cheese. Fold the tortilla over the filling and roll like a cigar to enclose it. Using a spatula place the tortillas in the baking dish and continue to do the same with all the tortillas. Finally pour over some more of the salsa and top with the remaining shredded cheese. Bake uncovered for about 30 minutes until bubbly and cracked on top. Garnish, cilantro and tomato.

Additional notes: I added about a cup to a cup and a half of my cheese mixture to the enchilada filling- what can I say? I love me some cheese! Also, the salsa is actually really mild. I would probably add an additional pepper next time. Possibly a serano or maybe even a habañero if I could get away with it without killing the hubs!

Here's the finished product:

It was a pretty tasty meal... the only issues I had were 1. it could have been spicier, I love me some heat! and 2. the bottom and sides of the tortillas became a bit mushy. perhaps I squeezed too many in the pan? or maybe they are supposed to be that way. Afterall, since the recipe calls for coating the pan in salsa first, it makes sense that the bottom of the enchiladas won't by crispy.

I'll admit, the recipe took quite a while and required tons of multi-tasking. I ended up having to call my husband into the kitchen and have him help out with things like shredding the chicken and shredding the cheese. It would be one of those dishes that you could prep most of the components beforehand and throw together at dinner time. Also, pretty inexpensive... ingredient-wise.



*apologies for the crappy photo quality... it was late, lighting was bad, and I was too hungry to try and improve the lighting for the photos.

love a man that can cook

It is no secret that I love to cook. But honestly, sometimes I just want to sit on the couch and let dinner magically arrive in front of me without having to lift a finger.
The hubs and I have started a new cooking challenge... every other weekend we take turns and pick a dish we've never made before and cook it, in hopes of finding new easy recipes to add to our normal rotation of meals or something for special occasions or even guests. Two weeks ago I made tandoori chicken, which you can read about here. This past weekend was the man's turn. He waffled about with several ideas and finally landed on a dish from one of the Rick Bayless cookbooks I bought for him a few years back (which has only gotten used twice... just sayin'). I have a bit of an obsession with Rick Bayless, I admit. I'd pretty much eat anything he cooked and put in front of me, which is saying a lot because I'm a picky eater! But this man... this man is MAGICAL in that super dorky/slightly creepy white boy that knows more about Mexican culture/customs than anyone on this planet kind of way. Needless to say, I was pretty pumped for dinner and luckily, I was not disappointed!

Jalapeno-Baked Fish With Roasted Tomatoes and Potatoes

Ingredients:
• 4 medium (1 pound) red skin boiling or Yukon Gold potatoes, sliced 1/4 inch thick
• 1 tablespoon jalapeño chili pepper pickling juice
• 2 tablespoons vegetable or olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 can (14.5 ounces) diced tomatoes (preferably fire-roasted), including their juice
• 1 large clove garlic, cut in half (we love garlic and use 3 cloves)
• 1/3 cup coarsely chopped cilantro, plus extra for garnish
• 1/4 cup sliced, pickled jalapeño chili peppers
• 1 tablespoon jalapeño chili pepper pickling juice
• 4 to (1 to 1/1/4 pounds) skinless fish fillets, such as mahi-mahi, halibut, grouper, snapper, black cod or striped bass, preferably 3/4 to 1 inch thick, patted dry (we used mahi-mahi, from the freezer section)

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
In a microwaveable 8-by-8-inch baking dish, toss together the potatoes, 1 tablespoon of the oil and the salt, and spread out evenly. Cover the dish with plastic wrap and poke a few holes in the top. Microwave on high (100 percent power) until the potatoes are nearly tender, about 4 to 5 minutes.
Meanwhile, in a food processor or blender, combine the tomatoes with their juice, garlic, cilantro, jalapeno chili peppers and the tablespoon of pickling juice. Process with a few quick pulses until well combined but not quite smooth.
In a large skillet over medium-high heat, heat the remaining tablespoon of oil and quickly sear the fillets on both sides, about 15 seconds per side. Remove from the hot pan and set aside.
When the potatoes have finished cooking, place the fish fillets in a single layer over the potatoes. Pour the tomato mixture evenly over the fish and potatoes. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until the fish can be flaked easily with a fork.
Divide among individual plates and garnish with cilantro. Serve hot.

Let me just say, YUM! He used mahi-mahi as our protein. It is one of my favorite fish, but I couldn't find any fresh at the local grocery store and ended up picking up frozen fillets at Trader Joe's, and they really worked out great. The real gem of this dish is the salsa. In fact, last night I made the salsa from this recipe and chowed down with a hand full of tortilla chips, it is just that good.
The man raved about how easy and quick it was to prepare and we (us plus our dinner guest) raved about the great flavor, so it was win win! We'll be adding this as a somewhat regular dish in our house. I can see this recipe working great for chicken as well, but since I have a more difficult time getting my husband to want fish for dinner (and I love fish!) we'll probably stick with fish here.  

  the "judge" for our cooking challenge, aka a hungry college student

If you try the recipe, let me know what you think... and if you're not a meat eater, then totally just make the salsa. You'll thank me.

nomnomnom

One of my favorite hobbies these days is cooking. I LOVE LOVE LOVE to cook (and to eat, obviously!). However, I must admit that I am not terribly adventurous when it comes to cooking. I can make some mean southern food, I can rock the basic meat and potatoes and veg and if you want italian food? I gotcha there. but honestly, I don't branch out much from there. I never really learned to make mexican food, because I grew up in Texas and there's a mexican joint on every corner. And honestly, it was cheaper to just buy a taco from the neighborhood place than buy all the ingredients yourself. The thing is, while I love Thai, Indian, Greek, Mediterranean, Spanish food etc etc, I'm just not familiar enough with the ingredients to make dishes myself.
Part of my 2011 bucket list is to make dishes from different cuisines that I don't normally cook and find 3 keepers.
Last night was attempt #1. I made the indian dish Tandoori chicken with white rice and homemade naan.
I admit that i sorta cheated a little, in that I bought a Tandoori spice blend from The Spice House instead of all the individual spices that blend together to make the dish, but despite that, it was still something new I'd never attempted to cook. I am pleased to report that the dish was a huge success! The hubs and a friend both gave it a 7.5 and I gave it a solid 7. We all agreed that the dish could use a little more heat (as it spice). Now that I know that this is a dish that is here to stay, I can justify buying individual spices that made up the blend and can alter the recipe a bit to add a little more heat. I'm pretty excited about this victory and am looking forward to trying additional Indian dishes.
A few photos from last night's table...

Thanks to everyone who sent me messages and FB notes and comments and such regarding the anniversary question. The hubs and I decided on a nice little way to remember the anniversary of our first day, which is today! We plan on cooking up the same dish I made on our first anniversary of dating, Chicken Spaghetti Carbonara, which is freaking rich and luscious and to die for! hopefully I can talk him into a re-shoot of these fine photos from that meal...