Guacamole

This guacamole is a great dip for chips. It also works great as a condiment for beef tacos, fish tacos and enchiladas.


Ingredients
2 avocados
1 small onion, finely diced
1 garlic clove, minced
1 lime, juiced
Salt and pepper to taste.
1 tomato, chopped







Directions
Cut the avocado in half lengthwise. The best way of doing this is with a pairing knife. Cut into the top of the avocado and cut down till you hit the stone. Using the knife, guide the blade around the stone, cutting through the opposite side you originally cut on.

Take the avacado in the palm of your hand and twist the top half with your other hand counter clockwise. It should come off easily.

Cut a small wedge into the stone and dig your knife in. Be very careful doing this, because the stone is very slippery with avacado flesh. I have cut myself doing this and it hurts.

When the knife is is place, twist the knife counter clockwise while firmly holding the avacado. The stone should come out.

With a pairing knife, make incisions into the avocado length and width wise.
















Take a spoon and nudge it in between the flesh and the skin. Scoop out the flesh, it should fall off in cubes.

Add to a bowl. With a large pestle, mash the avocado.

Add the remaining ingredients except the tomato. Adjust the lime juice and salt to fit your preference.

Lastly, add the tomato and give it a gentle stir.

Enchiladas with Cilantro Rice

These enchiladas are delicious! A few days ago, I had made some homemade tomato sauce with my KitchenAid juicer. I had lots of tomato sauce as a result, so I decided to make the enchiladas. They were superb!  Chicken is cooked in a spicy tomato sauce and then shredded. The cooked chicken is then rolled in a fresh tortilla with cilantro rice, covered in cheese and more hot sauce is added. It is then baked for 10 minutes. The result is pure deliciousness. I got this recipe from a blog called Annie's Eats, which I highly recommend.  She's got good recipes!Although the Cilantro rice was my own addition, but it gives some filling and texture to the enchiladas.


Ingredients
1 batch of Cilantro Rice
1 medium onion, chopped fine (I used a food processor)
2 jalapeno peppers, seeded and diced
1 teaspoon vegetable oil
3 garlic cloves, minced
3 tablespoons Korean chili powder
2 teaspoons cumin
1 tablespoon sugar
2 cups homemade tomato sauce (or 1 15 oz can tomato sauce if you don't have any)
1 cup water
1 tomato, seeded and chopped
Salt and pepper
1 lbs boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 cup shredded cheese
1/2 cup minced fresh cilantro
12 8 inch tortillas (I used a green chili tortillas from a brand called Mi Abuelita Bonita "My Cute Grandmother")
Cooking spray

Condiments
Guacamole
Fresh salsa
Salsa Verde

Directions
Add some oil to a large pot. Add the jalapeno peppers and onions. Stir often for 8-10 minutes, until the onions have lost their raw taste and have turned transparent.

Stir in the garlic, chili powder, cumin and sugar. Cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds.

Add the tomato sauce, water and chopped tomato.

Bring the sauce to a boil, reduce heat to a simmer and cook for 5 minutes, or until the sauce thickens.

Nestle the chicken into the sauce. Reduce heat to low, and simmer for 12-20 minutes or until the chicken is completely cooked (160 F). Remove from heat and set aside.

Strain the sauce in a large mesh bowl into a medium bowl, pressing down to extract as much juice as possible. Season the sauce with salt and pepper. With a fork, shred the chicken in the mesh bowl and set aside.








Shred the chicken with a fork and add to the bowl with the other solids.













Preheat oven to 425 F.

Spray a baking dish with olive oil spray. Stack the tortillas on a plate and microwave for 30-60 seconds.

Spoon a little bit of the chicken mixture onto the tortilla. Spoon a little cilantro rice on the tortilla.










Roll into a cigar shape and place on the baking dish, folded side down. Continue until your plate is full! Lightly spray the tops of the tortilla with olive oil, and place in the oven for 7 minutes, or until the tortillas start to brown slightly and turn crispy.











Reduce the oven temperature to 400 F. Remove the tortillas from the oven. Pour the tomato sauce over the tortillas.
















Sprinkle with shredded cheese.

















Cover the dish with foil and bake for 20 minutes. Remove the foil and bake for 5 minutes more. Remove from oven and cool for 10 minutes.

To serve, spoon some guacamole, fresh salsa and salsa verde over the enchilada.

Pork Barbacoa

I was recently at a farmer's market in Sonoma and got some pork neck. Neck meat is really great for stews, because of all the bones, and it is relatively inexpensive. I had some spicy barbacoa sauce that I had made previously and froze in an ice cube tray. This is a really simple and delicious dish in a slowcooker.







Ingredients
1/2 cup of spicy barbacoa sauce (about 4 cubes, if you freeze them)
1 cup of homemade lamb stock (you can use homemade rich dark chicken stock if you want to, about 8 cubes, if you freeze them)
Red wine, about 1 cup or so (day old wine works best, don't waste the good stuff)

1 or 2 lbs of Pork or Lamb neck (with bones)
1 tomato, chopped
5 cloves of garlic


Directions
Melt the barbacoa and lamb stock in a sauce pan.

Add the red wine to the sauce. Taste. If the barbacoa is too spicy and overpowering for you, add more lamb stock and red wine to get a flavor profile you like.

Once the stock and barbacoa has melted, transfer to the slowcooker.

Add the neck bones to the slowcooker. Add the tomatoes and garlic to the slowcooker.






























Cook for 4 hours on low heat. Check the meat after 4 hours. If should be falling off the bone. If not, let it cook for another hour.

Season with salt and pepper.

Serve with barley or farro and rustic bread.

Delicious!  

Fish Tacos

Fish Tacos scream summer! Nothing beats a plate of fresh fish tacos, with freshly squeezed lime and a cold beer.


Ingredients
4 lbs Halibut steaks, snapper fillets or any fish you can get hold of (you can always reduce the amount of fish)
Salt and pepper
Taco Seasoning
1 small green cabbage, shredded
juice of 2 limes
1or 2 limes, thinly sliced
Cilantro sprigs
Lime wedges
3 dozen corn tortillas
Fresh salsa

Guacamole







Clean the fish. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Sprinkle the taco seasoning generously on the fish. Rub the salt, pepper and seasoning into the fish. Cover and refrigerate for 2-4 hours. Bring the fish to room temperature before cooking.

Shred the cabbage with a mandoline or a sharp knife and put it in a bowl. Lightly salt the cabbage and toss well. Add the lime juice and toss again. Let sit for 10 minutes or so.

Fire up your grill. When the coals are hot, lay down the lime slices and place the fish on top of the lime slices. This way, your fish won't stick to the hot grills. Grill for 3 minutes on each side, until just opaque.










If you don't have access to a grill, the broiler in your oven works just fine. Place the oven rack as close to the broiler as you can. I usually use the rack that comes in my toaster oven. Just place the rack on a cookie sheet. Cook the fish for a few minutes, until opaque and then flip.









Heat the tortillas. If you have the grill going, spread out the tortillas and heat them well on both sides, they will puff up a bit. If you are using an oven broiler, heat the tortillas in a good cast iron skillet. Wrap the tortillas in a clean dishcloth to keep the steam in and keep them toasty warm. 

Spicy Pork Stew

This recipe is really a combination of three separate dishes--chicken fat left over from making Pan Fried Southern Chicken, the leftovers of Lamb Barbacoa and a recipe for Green Chili Stew from David Tanis's book A Platter of Figs.

Its a pretty simple preparation. Pork is first fried in chicken fat, so the outer skin is nice and crispy, sealing in the juices. The sauce from the lamb barbacoa, which I had frozen, is thawed with a can of beer and homemade rick dark chicken stock added to dumb down the spices. Onions, garlic, cumin, tomatoes are then stir fried and added to the barbacoa sauce. The pork is then slowly stewed in the sauce! Its delicious!


Ingredients
1 lbs pork (preferably boneless, but boned pork would work fine)
Salt and pepper
Chicken fat from Pan Fried Southern Chicken (lamb fat, pork fat or vegetable oil is fine as well)
Lamb Barbacoa sauce, thawed
1 cup Homemade rich dark chicken stock
1/2 bottle of Corona or a light colored beer
2 large white onions, finely diced
4-6 garlic cloves, finely diced
2 teaspoons cumin seeds, toasted and finely ground
1/2 cup chopped tomatoes
3-4 green chilies, chopped (optional)
2 russet potatoes, peeled and chunked
2 Carrots, roughly chunked
Fresh raw corn (optional)

Preparation
Trim any fat off the pork. Dice the fat into small bits and freeze for another use (scallion pancakes anyone???).

Cube the pork and salt and pepper generously.

While the pork is sitting for a few minutes, take a sauce pan and combine the barbacoa sauce, chicken stock and beer. Bring to a boil and then reduce to a simmer. Stir occasionally so nothing sticks to the bottom of the pan and burns.

You will need a good stewing pot for this dish. I used my trusty LeCreuset. This way, I can fry my pork in the pan and then use the same pan for stewing the meat.

Dollop a few spoonfuls of the chicken fat into your stewing pot.
Allow the fat to melt then slowly and carefully add the pork pieces, making sure not to crowd the pan. Do a few pieces at a time. Turn the pork over slowly, so not to splash hot oil on you. You don't need the pork totally cooked at this point, just the outside skin seared to lock in the juices. Once all the sides are fried, remove with a pair of chopsticks or a slotted spoon and set aside.




















In the same stewing pot, add the onions and garlic and stir fry for a few minutes. The onions will absorb the oil and get a little orangy. I tried to cut some corners here and used my food processor to cut the onions. I got a little carried away, and the onions were really small, almost liquid. It worked out okay, and saved some time and some tears!

Add the cumin, tomatoes and chili (I recommend going easy on the chili-- the barbacoa sauce is plenty spicy) and stir.

Add the barbacoa sauce.

Add the pork back into the pot.

Add the potatoes. Cover and reduce the heat to low, cooking for 30 minutes. 

After 30 minutes, add the carrots and cook for another 10 minutes.

Continue to cook on low heat until the carrots and potatoes are done to your likeness (I prefer my potatoes and carrots a little firm).

Taste the sauce and add salt and pepper to taste!

Serve with rice or freshly toasted rustic bread!

Green Chili Stew

Now it was the winter of our discontent.
Richard III may be, but he didn't have this delicious green chili stew! So much for him!

I got this from David Tanis's "A Platter of Figs".
The meat I found at a farmer's market in Oakland. The pork was from Prather Ranch (see listing here).
The recipe calls for 5 lbs of boneless pork butt, but we got away with around 2.5 lbs--definitely the cheaper option!

Ingredients
5 lbs boneless pork butt, cut into 2 inch cubes
salt and pepper
2 tablespoons vegetable oil or lard
2 large white onions, finely diced
4-6 garlic cloves, chopped
2 teaspoons cumin seeds, toasted and finely ground
1/2 cup chopped tomatoes
6 large carrots, peeled and chunked
1 cup roasted  green chilies
2 tablespoon all purpose flour
8 cups chicken stock or water.
3 lbs russet potatoes, peeled and cut into large rough dice
chopped cilantro


Season the pork with salt and pepper generously.

Take a large stock pot and add oil or lard. Add the meat in several batches, without crowding, and brown them lightly. This will seal in the moisture and make the meat soft and juicy! Transfer to a platter after browning.

Add the onions and brown. Then add garlic, cumin tomatoes, carrots and green chilies. Sprinkle with flour and stir. Add salt and stir. Then return the meat to the pot.  and stir well. Cover with water or broth. Bring to a boil.

Reduce the heat to low, cover the pot and simmer gently for 1 hour.

Taste the broth, add more salt and green chile to taste. The broth should be well seasoned and fairly spicy.

Add the potatoes and continue to cook for 30 minutes or until the potatoes are soft and the meat is quite tender and soft.

Remove from heat and let cool for 1 hour or more. Reheat to eat right away or store in the refrigerator.







To serve, sprinkle with some cilantro and hot tortillas.


Alternatively, I made this stew a second way: This time, I coated the pork as before with flour, but deep fried it, to give it a crispy skin and lock in the juices and moisture.

I then used a crockpot and slowly cooked the concoction for several hours.It was delicious!

Feeling Mexican Part Doux: Chicken Tomales with salsa verde

This was my first time making tomales, and I must say, I impressed myself. Well, my fiancee also helped, so, really, we impressed ourselves. This is a big chore and takes quite a while. I highly recommend that you make the salsa verde a day ahead and let it sit in the fridge. It will develop more flavor and lighten your work load the day you are making the tomales. I also recommend you invite over a friend or two to help you make the tamales, as the more people the merrier! (It also really lessens your load)

Ordinarily, I roast a chicken for dinner. While the chicken is roasting, I will make the salsa verde and soak the corn husks. This way, the next morning, I can use the meat from the chicken, and will be ready to make the tomales-chicken, salsa verde and soaked corn husks-all ready to go. You can also use one of those store bought, precooked chickens. I found one at a Mexican grocery store in Fruitvale that was seasoned with salt and limes. It was delicious and make excellent filling for the tomales!


Ingredients
Corn Husk shells
1 8 oz package dried corn husks

Filling
1 recipe for salsa verde
4 cups coarsely shredded packed chicken
2/3 cup chopped fresh cilantro

Dough
1 1/3 cup lard
1 1/2 teaspoon salt (omit if masa mixture contains salt)
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder (omit if masa mixture contains baking powder)
4 cups freshly ground masa dough for tomales (if you can't get hold of masa dough, you can make your own. Add 3 1/2 cups of masa harina with 2 1/4 cups of warm water.
2 cups rich dark chicken stock

For the corn husk shells:
Place the dried corn husks in a semi-deep baking pan. Add water to the pan, so the husks are submerged.  Place a metal baking sheet over the husks and a heavy weight on top of the metal baking sheet (I used a wine bottle). Let it stand, turning occasionally, for 3 hours minimum or overnight (see note above).















For the Filling
With a good carving knife, slice all the flesh from the roasted chicken. With your hands, begin to shred the chicken by peeling the flesh off in strings.

Combine the shredded chicken, cilantro and salsa verde and mix well. You can also make this filling a day in advance--the flavor will only deepen in the fridge!





For the Dough
Using an electric mixer, beat the lard (with the salt and baking powder, if using) in a large bowl until fluffy. I got one of those Kichen Aid Electric Mixer's from William Sonoma for Christmas last year and used that. It worked brilliantly. Beat in the masa dough in small additions, making sure that the flour, dough and lard mix well. Reduce the speed to low and gradually beat in 1.5 cups chicken stock. The dough should be soft and somewhat silky. If the dough seems firm, beat in more chicken stock, 2 tablespoons at a time, until it is soft.









Assembly
You will need to make ties to tie the tomales together, so the filling won't come out. After the corn husks have soaked for the appropriate amount of time, tear 3 large husks into 1/4 inch wide strips.








Open 2 large husks on a work surface. Spread 1/4 cup of the dough onto the center of one of the husks, leaving a 2-3 inch plain border at the narrow end of the husk. Take a heaping tablespoon of the filling and spread it in a strip down the center of the dough. Fold the long sides of the husk and dough over the filling to cover. Fold up the narrow end of the husk. Tie the folded portion with the tie to secure, leaving the wide end  of  the tomale open.

Cooking
Take a large stock pot and place a metal steamer in the bottom. Add water until the water level is just barely touching the metal steamer. Take a few of the corn husks and place them on the steamer.

Stand the tomales in the steamer, so the wide open end is facing up towards you. Now, when you first start placing tomales in there, the weight will be uneven and the steamer will want to fall off. I usually try to balance that out by placing one tomales on the outermost edge of the steamer at 12 o'clock, and another one at 6 o'clock. Place on at 9 o'clock and another at 3 o'clock, etc.

Once you have 4 tomales or so in the pot, add water until the water line is barely touching the tomales. (Adding water at this point lets you see if the water line is touching the tomales or not. If you put in more tomales before adding the water, you wont be able to see if the water level is right, and it will be difficult to pout the water into the pot).

Continue placing the tomales on the outer edge of the steamer in a similar manner. Once the entire outer circumference of the pot has been filling, start place the tomales in the next inner circle. If the tomales need to lean on the original circle that is fine. Continue placing the tomales in a similar fashion until you have reached the center of the pot. I usually do not place a tomale in the exact center of the pot, but leave it empty. This way, if I need to add more water for steaming I can easily aim and shoot the water in the pot, without disturbing the tomales. If you have more tomales, but have no more room to place a tomale upright, then you are done--steam this batch and then steam a second batch later. Don't place the tomales sideways, because all of the filling will seep out.

Once you have placed as many tomales as you can in the pot, bring the pot to a boil with the cover off. Cover the pot and let the tomales steam until the dough is firm and separates easily from the husk, about 45 minutes. It helps to have one of those see through covers, as you can check the water level. If the water level is getting too low, add more water.

After 45 minutes, turn off the heat and let the tomales rest for about 10 minutes. This accomplishes two things: 1) it will allow the tomales to continue to cook even when the heat is off and 2) The tomales will cool off enough so you can pick them up by hand.

Take out one of the tomales, tear off the skins and dig in. The dough should be thoroughly cooked and soft. If it is not, continue to cook the remainder of the tomales for another 5 to 10 minutes.

The brilliant part of this recipe is that since you are using cooked chicken to start with, you don't have to worry about raw chicken, salmonella or if the chicken cooked thoroughly.

You can serve these tomales with more salsa verde. I made them with a fresh salsa of black beans, tomatoes, onion and coriander. They were absolutely fantastic!

Unless you are having a bunch of dinner guests over, chances are you will not be able to eat all of the tomales in a single sitting. Chuck the rest in a ziplock bag and place in the freezer. They retain their flavor and integrity just fine! To reheat, I will put them in a Chinese bamboo steamer and steam for 10-15 minutes. They taste absolutely delicious!