Meatless Mondays: Red Chilaquiles

So Stephanie and I are pretty excited to be joining the Meatless Monday movement. What is that, you ask? Well, it is a campaign that encourages everyone everywhere to cut out meat from their diet one day a week. The idea is based on studies suggesting that reducing meat consumption is linked to a lower risk of chronic preventable illnesses. Equally important, the meat industry is one of the biggest contributors of man-made greenhouse gas emissions which are leading to global climate change. And if this isn't reason enough to join in the fun, well, Paul McCartney says to do it....and by-golly, that's good enough for me.

I decided that we should start off our new weekly tradition with a great meatless meal. It is one of my very favorite foods from my mission: Chilaquiles (CHEE-lah-KEE-les). Chilaquiles are typically served for breakfast using stale, leftover tortillas from the day before. Basically, you cut the tortillas into pieces, fry them up and cook them for a bit in a chile sauce. Spread some cream and queso fresco on top, and there you go! Delicious.

You could use just a canned/jarred enchilada sauce, but you'd really be doing yourself a disservice if you don't make your own sauce. Now, cooking with dried chiles is a bit different, and to some (like me) can seem a bit intimidating at first, but it really is quite simple and definitely worth it!

So let's start with the sauce (this is good stuff.)

Red Chile Sauce

Here's what you need:

• 3 dried ancho chiles
• 2 dried guallijo chiles
• 1/4 onion (I'd typically use a white onion but red is what we had)
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• Dash black pepper
• Dash ground cumin
• Dash ground cinnamon

The first step in making our sauce is to prepare the chiles. First of all, you may want to wear gloves when dealing with these babies, and if not, then for the love of Pete DO NOT bring your fingers anywhere near your eyeballs until after a thorough hand-washing.

Anywho, there are lots of ways to do this, but I just use a paring knife to cut down the length of the chile from the stem to the point at the bottom. Break off the stem, then carefully open up the chile allowing all the loose seeds to fall onto a plate. Some chiles are very brittle and will break as soon as you try to open it. No biggie. Now, use the knife to scrape away any large veins running along the inside of the chile. Repeat with the rest of chiles, reserving the veins and seeds as you may want to use them for added heat later on.

Now we want to toast the chiles. Place the split and opened chiles (along with any little broken pieces) into a dry pan over medium heat. Really,you just want to warm them through until aromatic, maybe a minute on each side. Leaving them on too long could make the chiles taste bitter, and we don't want that.


The dried chiles now need to be reconstituted. Remove the toasted chiles from the skillet to a medium saucepan. Add the onion and cover with water (about 3 cups). Bring the water to a boil, then remove from heat and let sit uncovered for 10 minutes until chiles have softened and plumped up.


Place the chiles, onion, garlic, salt, pepper, cumin, cinnamon and 1.5 cups of the soaking liquid into a blender and puree the mixture until smooth. At this point you want to taste the sauce and adjust the seasonings to your liking. Also, if it's not quite hot enough, you can add some of the reserved seeds and/or veins a little at a time.


Once satisfied with the heat/seasoning, pass the mixture through a sieve into a skillet. Add about a tablespoon of olive oil and stir to combine. Bring sauce to a simmer and cook about ten minutes, and voila!.....

You have yourself a beautiful, rich deep red chile sauce.



Black Bean Salad

Before making the chilaquiles, how 'bout a quick side dish? This recipe from Food Network personality (and UNLV alum... Go Rebels!) Guy Fieri is one of the best "canned' dishes I've ever had.

You'll need:

• 2 cans black beans, drained, about 30 ounces
• 1 (15-ounce) can corn, drained
• 2 Roma tomatoes, diced
• 1/4 cup diced red bell pepper
• 1/4 cup diced red onion
• 1/4 cup diced green onions
• 1/4 cup diced pineapple (I used 1/2 cup canned pineapple tidbits).
  
• 1 tablespoon chopped cilantro leaves
• 1 jalapeno, seeded and minced
• 4 tablespoons sherry vinegar (I used red wine vinegar)
  
• Juice of 1/2 lime
• 3 tablespoons honey
• 1 tablespoons salt
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• Pinch ground cumin

The preparation instructions for this recipe are the greatest:

Mix all ingredients in a bowl and refrigerate for 1 hour.

....Awesome.

Yum.


Chilaquiles

Ok, back to the task at hand...

• 8-10 corn tortillas
• Your awesome red chile sauce
• Salt
• Chopped cilantro
• Chopped onion
• Queso Fresco
• Mexican table cream (Could you substitute sour cream instead? Of course you could. You could also substitute peanut butter, but that doesn't mean it'll be any good... )

First, cut the tortillas into quarters.


Pan fry the tortilla quarters in some canola/veggie oil until golden brown and crispy and remove to a paper towel-lined plate.

Sprinkle the chips with some salt.


Meanwhile, heat up the red chile sauce in a skillet. Add your crispy tortilla quarters and carefully work them into into the sauce until the sauce is evenly distributed like so....


Let the mixture cook over low heat for a few minutes. You want the outside of the chips to soften and get a little soggy with sauce, but you want to preserve a good crunch on the inside of the chips.


Garnish the chilaquiles with queso, cream, onions and cilantro and serve with the black bean salad.



And that my friends is a Muy Marvelous Mexican Meatless Monday Meal.

Yummy Southwestern Eggrolls

Alrighty.... the DAT is done and what better way to celebrate such a happy thing than to make something spicy and deep-fried? We've had the southwestern egg rolls at both Chili's and The Cheesecake Factory and they were both delicious. So I looked up a copycat recipe and we first tried them at our Super Bowl party. They were great so I decided to make them again. They are stinkin' delicious, so here you go.....

So here's what you'll need:

• 2 chicken breasts
• 1.5 cups (about 6 oz) Monterey Jack cheese ( I used Pepper Jack cuz I'm that kinda guy)
• 1/4 cup diced red bell pepper
• 1/4 cup diced scallions
• 1/4 cup canned diced jalapenos
• 1/4 cup frozen spinach (thawed and drained)
• 1/2 cup canned black beans (rinsed and drained)
• 2/3 cup frozen corn
• 2 Tbs chopped fresh cilantro (the recipe calls for parsley, but come on.... corn, black beans.... and PARSLEY??)
• 1 tsp chili powder
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 healthy dash of cayenne
• Small flour tortillas (10-12)

Okay, first we gotta cook the chicken. I like to pound it relatively thin and grill it on a grill pan with oil, salt, and pepper. Alternatively, you could bake it, poach it, saute it, barbecue it, use leftover cooked chicken, precooked chicken, rotisserie chicken, etc. Point is, you need two cooked chicken breasts.

Next, dice your bell pepper, scallions, cilantro and chicken (once cooled). Grate the cheese, and measure out the beans, corn, jalapenos and spinach.


Start the cooking by throwing the bell pepper and scallions in a pan over medium-high heat with some oil and cook a couple minutes until tender.


Next, toss the remaining ingredients (except the cheese and tortillas) into the pan and cook about five additional minutes until the spinach is all broken up and evenly distributed.


Once the spinach is distributed and the mixture is warmed through, transfer the mixture to a bowl. Throw the cheese on top and mix it in until all melted, gooey and delicious-looking.


Now it's time to assemble.... Wrap 12 tortillas in a slightly damp cloth/paper towel and warm in the microwave. Spoon some of the mixture into the middle of a tortilla. Wrap the roll TIGHTLY and secure with a toothpick.



There should be enough filling for 10-12 rolls depending on how much filling you put into one tortilla.

Freezing the eggrolls makes the frying really easy. Frozen tortillas will hold their shape better in the oil than room temperature tortillas. So once you have them all rolled up, place them into some sort of dish and pop it into the freezer for at least 4 hours. Overnight is great.



While the egg rolls are in the freezer, you can make a delicious Avocado Ranch dipping sauce.


What you need for the Avocado Ranch sauce:

• 1/2 cup mayo
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1 ripe avocado
• 2 Tbs milk
• 3.5 tsp white vinegar (I used apple cider vinegar... so shoot me.)
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp dried parsley
• 1/4 tsp onion powder
• Dash dried dill weed
• Dash black pepper
• Dash garlic powder
• Dash cayenne
• Leftover jalapenos from eggroll filling

I added the cayenne and jalapenos to the recipe because I thought the sauce should be spicy. I also put some lime juice in to make it a little more tangy.


Begin by mashing the avocado in a bowl.


Now this next step is quite complicated, so pay attention: Add all the remaining ingredients to the bowl and stir until well-mixed.


The cayenne and jalapenos weren't cutting it for me, so I threw in some hot pepper sauce. So that's it for the dipping sauce. Garnish with some diced fresh tomatoes and cilantro and keep in the refrigerator.


Alright..... remember these?


Well, it's time to get cookin'.

Mmmmmmmm.... I'm loving this picture. Sinfully delicioso. Anyway, heat up a good amount of oil to 375 degrees and CAREFULLY drop 5 or 6 rolls into the hot oil. Cook for 5-6 minutes until deep golden-brown and crispy. Remove with tongs to a paper-towel lined plate. Repeat with remaining rolls. When cool enough to handle, remove the toothpicks. (If the above picture scares you, disgusts you, or fills you with guilt, I'm sure that drizzling or spraying the rolls with some oil and placing them in a hot oven would work just fine).


Yummm......


Slice each roll on a diagonal and arrange on a plate with the dipping sauce.


And enjoy!!!.......

Fourth of July Tradition

My Grandma has always made this Patriotic JELL-O cake for our Fourth of July celebrations, and every time she does I remember how delicious it is! The JELL-O in the cake makes it so moist! Yum yum yum.

I stole this picture from someone else's blog. She makes this cake too so I guess you could check out her recipe, if you wanted to, here.

Anyway, I have never actually seen my Grandma make the cake, but this recipe looks about right. I am going to try it myself (Jeff was studying for the DAT so he stayed at home) because Jeff hasn't ever tried this cake! Crazy! But I will let you know if the recipe turns out well, or if it totally stinks.

Patriotic Jello Cake

1 box white cake mix

1 package strawberry JELL-O

1 package fresh strawberries, cut in halves
1 package fresh or frozen blueberries

1 container of Cool Whip

Bake the white cake according to the directions on the box. Remove the cake from the oven, and let cool for about 5-10 minutes. Use a fork to make several holes in the cake, so that the liquid JELL-O will seep into the cake.

Prepare the strawberry JELL-O according to the directions on the package. Once you have finished cooking the JELL-O on the stove, drizzle the liquid evenly across the white cake.

Chill the cake in the refrigerator for several hours, or overnight. Before serving, cover the cake with a layer of whipped toping, such as Cool Whip or whipped cream. To make the cake look like an American flag, place the blueberries in a square, in the upper left hand corner of the cake. Then place the halved strawberries in several horizontal rows across the cake, to represent the stripes of the flag.

Dig in and enjoy!

You'll go nuts

Caramelized Pecans. This is a delicious, delicious addition to a boring dinner. You can use it in a salad, or in yogurt, or with a little fruit salad. Last night I diced up some green apple and mixed it together with some caramelized pecan halves--tasty!

When I made them last night I just threw some butter and sugar into a pan with the nuts, but I found a recipe that looks pretty good. This recipe says to use:

1/2 tb Butter
1 tb Sugar
1/2 c Pecan halves

So first melt the butter in a saucepan. Then you will add in the sugar and pecans, and stir them together until the sugar looses its grainy appearance. According to the recipe, this will take about 5 minutes. Then remove the mixture from the pan and spread it onto a sheet of aluminum foil and allow it to cool for about 10 minutes.

Then you can use your imagination and put the pecans in anything you can think of! I think I will use the rest of my pecans in a little spinach salad with a light raspberry vinaigrette.