Enjitomatadas

This is a dish I remembered from my youth and the memory of it made my mouth salivate. The name of it literally means, "tomatoed." A vegetarian dish is rare in Mexican cuisine but this is a delicious and filling veggie-friendly treat. If a bit involved. Don't worry, we'll hold hands through the whole thing.

One thing to add about Mexicans is that we like our garnishes. I know, it's not enough that you already made kind of an involved dish, now you have to make garnishes for it. But trust me, the garnishes really make a dish, and you'll be left with something a little hollow if you skip them. Something to think about.

Now, there are easier ways to make this sauce (don't worry this isn't so complicated), but I wanted to layer flavors and it worked out pretty well. The sauce is supposed to be simple and just add a refreshing tomatoey flavor to the tacos.

To the tomato sauce!

Maybe someday I'll remember to take a picture BEFORE I start eating.

Enjitomatadas (Filled with Beans)

Serves 2 -with leftovers

Canola Oil

Corn tortillas

2 cans of black or pinto beans, drained and rinsed

3/4 cup onion, chopped

2 garlic cloves, minced

2 tsp ground cumin

2 tsp dried oregano

1tsp ground coriander

1 1/2 cups of chicken broth (or veggie broth)

Salt and Pepper to taste

Tomato Sauce (recipe to follow)

Garnishes:

Crumbled Queso Fresco

Thinly sliced onion

Sour Cream

1. Start my making the beans. Heat about a tablespoon of canola oil in a 3 quart pot over medium-high heat. Sautee onions until soft and translucent then add garlic, cumin, oregano and coriander and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds.

2. Add beans and broth, stir to combine all ingredients. Lower heat to medium and simmer for about 20 mins, until beans start to soften and are easy to mash with the back of a spoon.

3. Mash beans vigorously with a potato masher until fairly smooth. Sometimes when I'm lazy they don't turn out so smooth...Keep beans on the heat if you want them a little thick if not take off the heat and set aside.

4. Heat about 5 tablespoons oil in a medium non-stick pan for the tortillas on medium high heat. You want your tortillas to be coated but not dripping in oil. Check to see if oil is ready by placing a small portion of a tortilla in the oil, if it sizzles it's good to go. If not, then keep waiting.

5. With tongs carefully place a tortilla in the oil and cook for about 30 seconds or until it starts to become just golden. Then flip and repeat with other side of tortilla. Tortilla needs to still be soft in the middle but a bit crispy on the edges. It's ok. It takes practice.

6. Once your tortilla is ready, shake off the excess oil then put on a plate. Scoop a spoonful of beans onto half of your tortilla then fold tortilla in half. Repeat with as many tortillas as your beans will let you, adding more oil when necessary. We eat about 4 or 5 per person.

7. When finished with the tortilla/bean tacos cover your tacos with the Tomato Sauce and garnishes and enjoy immediately.

Tomato Sauce

Makes about 2 cups

Canola Oil

1/4 cup onion, chopped

1 garlic clove, minced

1 tblsp tomato paste

1 can of tomato sauce

1 large tomato, roughly chopped

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp oregano

1 cup chicken broth (or veggie broth)

1. Heat about 1 tblsp of canola oil on medium in a small saucepan and add onion. Cook until translucent.

2. Add garlic and cook for about 30 sec then add tomato paste, cook for another 30 seconds.

3. Add chopped tomato and tomato sauce and make sure you scrape the bottom of the pan to pick up all the nice brown bits. Bring to a boil and boil for about 1-2 minutes.

4. Remove sauce from heat and place in a blender and blend until smooth.

5. Return sauce to heat then add broth, cumin and oregano, salt and pepper. Simmer for about 10 minutes then take off heat and you're ready to ladle it on top of the tortillas.

You'll have leftover sauce but with if you can make a delicious alphabet soup. Stay tuned!

Eating With Your Eyes

You know how people on the Food Network are always telling you eat with your eyes first and your mouth second? Or did I make that up?

Anyway, it's true as evidenced by my making something I saw in a movie. Come to think of it, this is the second dish I've pulled from a movie. The first being a bagel Mel Gibson mentions on the smash hit, "What Women Want."

I think everyone that saw "Julie and Julia" will agree that the bruschetta Julie makes at the beginning of the movie made all of our stomachs start to grumble - then by the end of the movie we were ready to fly to France and move into a tiny bistro kitchen and live under the fridge in the hope of getting scraps.

No need. I kind of improvised this recipe and it turned out delicious so here it is. Please, please, please make sure you're using the best and freshest ingredients you can get your hands on. This recipe is so basic that without the best summer tomatoes and real basil it's going to be just meh. Don't settle for meh-ness!

Multi-Colored Tomato Bruschetta

Serves 2 (as a side)

3 tblsp extra virgin olive oil

1 large garlic clove, minced

2 medium orange tomatoes, coarsely chopped

2 medium red tomatoes, coarsely chopped

2 tblsp fresh basil, chopped

Kosher Salt (Texture and taste are better than table salt) and Pepper

Butter

1 small baguette, sliced in 1/2 inch pieces

1. In a small non-stick pan heat the olive oil on low heat. Add garlic and cook on low for about a minute, just to flavor the oil. Make sure the garlic does not burn in any way, shape or form.

2. In a medium bowl put in orange tomatoes, red tomatoes and basil. Add olive oil/garlic mixture. Toss gently to coat tomatoes then add basil and toss gently again. Sprinkle with kosher salt and fresh ground pepper to taste. Cover and put mixture aside to let flavors develop.

3. Meanwhile, in the same pan that you used for olive oil, melt about a teaspoon of butter or a small slice of butter on medium high heat. Then place a few slices of bread in the butter side by side and cook until one side has browned slightly. Remember not to crowd the bread.

4. Repeat on other side of bread slices and repeat until all the bread has been toasted with butter.

5. Put tomatoes on bread and feel happy.

I really do hope this recipe delights you the way it delighted me. It's so simple, yet so satisfying and a good reminder that the best way to make a great meal is to start with incredible ingredients.

Fresh ingredients are not only delicious but all the better for you. The longer a vegetable sits in the grocery store the more nutrients it loses, not to mention flavor. If you can, shop at farmer's markets, join a CSA or even just try to buy what's local at your grocery store. Your taste buds, stomach and health will thank you.

Quinoa: Magic? Or Cousin of the Tumbleweed?

Both actually. Quinoa is a wonderful grain-like thing I discovered a few years ago and I have never looked back. I call it a grain-like thing because that's exactly what it is. It's not quite a grain or a seed. And it's related to the tumbleweed. Make of that what you will.

Anyway, it turns out our friend quinoa is a superfood. It is a good source of fiber and phosphorous and it is high in iron and magnesium. It is a complete protein and has a very unique set of amino acids. It has a ton of folate (holla at my preggos!) and is gluten-free. It's pretty tasteless so you can put it in anything. It makes a fantastic gluten-free substitute to couscous. I mean, what more could you want out of a grain-like thingie?

So a few words about this salad: Brandon and I are partial to rib-eye steak but it's pretty marbled, so if you don't want to fight with the fat as you're cutting it, just get a sirloin. Or make it vegetarian by omitting the steak entirely.

Also, I do all of the seasoning on this salad at the very end when everything is on my plate and I'm about to eat it. I add olive oil, red wine vinegar and salt and pepper much like I would to a green salad. I put those ingredients on this recipe but please feel free to add your own fixins'. Different types of vinegar, steak sauces, you name it. And let me know how it goes!

Cold Steak and Quinoa Salad

Serves 4

1 cups quinoa

1 ½ cups of water

Steak - about 10 oz.

Canola Oil

1 red pepper, sliced

2 red onions, sliced

2 cups halved Cherry tomatoes

2 tblsp parsley, finely chopped

Feta cheese to taste, I like alot

Olive oil for drizzling

Red wine vinegar

Salt and pepper

1. Cook quinoa by placing it in a 3 quart(ish) pot and adding the water. Bring to a boil then cover and simmer until water evaporates and quinoa is cooked through – about 10 minutes. Quinoa should be transparent when fully cooked, unless you bought red quinoa....then it'll be maroonish. When cooked, place quinoa in a large bowl.

2. Meanwhile, cook steak on a non-stick pan over medium heat for 3-4 minutes on each side for medium-rare. Remove from heat and set aside to cool. Do not tent in foil, this overcooks your steak, just put steak on a plate and walk away. Once steak has cooled and rested for about 20 minutes, slice thinly perpendicular to the grain of the steak and set aside or refrigerate if you so choose.

3. In a medium pan heat 1 tablespoon of canola oil over medium-high heat. When the oil is hot it should move around the pan easily, like water. Once the oil is hot, place the red pepper and cook, stirringly often, until soft, but not falling apart - about 4 minutes.

4. Once the red pepper is done remove from heat and place in the bowl with the quinoa. Return pan to heat and repeat process with the onions, adding more oil if necessary. Then add the onions to bowl containing the quinoa and the peppers.

5. Add cherry tomatoes, feta cheese and parsley to quinoa bowl and mix gently. Spoon quinoa salad onto a plate and top with a few pieces of steak, and then drizzle with olive oil and bit of red wine vinegar. Salt and pepper to taste.

Serve this cold, or at least at room temperature. The steak and the salad keep really well so please eat the leftovers. Or I will.

Salsalicious

Poor Father-in-Law is going to get a beating on this blog. It's his own fault for not knowing the difference between a CLOVE of garlic and a HEAD of garlic. You may imagine his surprise when tasting his first attempt at salsa tasted something like skunk (garlic and skunk spray share chemicals).

CLOVE= one little segment from the head

ANYWAY, one day I was at the grocery store looking for Mexican soda and I overheard a couple discussing what kind of salsa they wanted to purchase. I stood behind them long after I had found my soda baffled at their process. "It's just salsa," I kept thinking, "just go home and make some."

There are a ton of ways to make salsa and unfortunately I don't know all of them though they are all a variation of the same ingredients. Such as these:

Can you guess what's missing? That's right. The kick. Who knows why I didn't have any chiles on hand, but it's true. For your salsa, make sure you have some.

Ok now, let's get one this straight: roasting makes everything better. Especially salsa. So before you blend all your ingredients together throw the tomato, onion and chiles on a super hot pan and let them char a little. Their flavors will deepen and sweeten and you'll be glad you took the extra step.

So now, to the blender!

Easy Every Day Salsa

1 large tomato

1/4 onion

1 CLOVE of garlic

1 small-ish sprig of cilantro

1 tblsp of salt, more to taste

1 serrano pepper for a medium salsa, then go up from there with your comfort level

1. After roasting ingredients throw them all in a blender with a pulse button. Pulse ingredients until salsa is desired consistency. I like a watery salsa that I can pour onto my tacos.
2. Optional Extra Step: I like to fry my salsa sometimes, just to intensify it a little more. Just pour salsa onto hot pan with about a teaspoon of oil and cook until it has thickened a bit.

Salsa is great on anything, tacos, sandwiches, tortilla chips, nachos, chicken-fried steak, chicken, pork, fish, and roasted veggies. And so much more.

Please go out and experiment with your own salsa and let me know how it goes.

More Mistakes, This Time with Salmon

If there is one thing I love in this world it is to multitask. I get irked if more than two things are NOT happening at once and often poor Husband is on the receiving end of some very obvious multitasking advice.

"What do you mean you can't bathe Toddler and take out the trash at the same time?"

That kind of thing.

Unfortunately this philosophy blows up in my face every so often. Like the other day when I was trying to cook salmon and do laundry. An easy task barely worthy of my bodacious multitasking skill, no? No. Our laundry facilities are in the basement of the house we live in and we live on the second floor and Toddler insists I carry her but the staircase isn't wide enough to carry her and the laundry basket and it's just takes forever, explaining why it was not a good idea to put the salmon on the heat before we embarked on the laundry expedition.

What to do, what to do with overcooked salmon.

To the salad bowl!

Salmon and Cannellini Salad

Serves 4

3 small salmon steaks

2 cans of cannellini beans, rinsed

1 cup red onion, chopped

3/4 cup sun-dried tomatoes, roughly chopped

Salt and pepper to taste

Lemon vinaigrette (recipe below)

Leafy Greens

1. Spray cooking oil on non-stick pan and place salmon steaks (skin side down, if applicable) on pan. Cook 5-6 minutes and turn over and cook until salmon falls apart easily when tested with a fork (you don’t have to overcook the salmon if you don’t want to). Place on plate to cool.
2. In a medium bowl mix beans, red onion, sun-dried tomatoes, and about ¾ of vinaigrette. Flake salmon and add to bean mix. Salt and pepper to taste.
3. Place a handful of leafy greens on a plate then place the salmon/bean mix on top. Add more vinaigrette if desired. Gobble up and lick your plate.

Serve with crusty french bread. You know it's well made if it tears up the roof of your mouth.

Lemon Vinaigrette

Makes about 1 1/4 cups.

¼ cup white wine vinegar

¼ cup fresh lemon juice

2 cloves of garlic, minced

¾ cups canola oil

1. Combine first 3 ingredients in a small bowl. Slowly whisk canola oil into the mixture.
2. Save in airtight container in the fridge and it should last about 2 weeks.

Staleness with a Side of Fried Rice

My favorite adventures in cooking happen when something goes wrong and then goes very deliciously right. Such was the case last week.

I like brown rice for its heartiness. White rice can become kind of mushy, I like it, but it's just kind of there - without personality or anything to say. It's the bimbo in rice class. Brown rice is like that nerdy girl that maybe doesn't go with the crowd, but you know she's always right and when she cleans up she's actually really pretty.

Ok, that went a weird direction but you get my point.

Brown rice offers more than regular rice in taste and in nutrition. As a plus it usually keeps pretty well. Sadly, due to overcooking, mine did not. The day after I made it, I went to heat it up for my lunch but when I finally bit into it, it was awful. So stale and flavorless, I spit it out. Yet, as always my mother's daughter, I couldn't let it go to waste. Luckily, I remembered watching a cooking show that said that when you make fried rice it needs to be stale so it can absorb all the liquids and flavors. Then I remembered I don't have soy sauce. Oh, well.

To the frying pan!

Fried Brown Rice with Green Things

Serves 2

5 tblsp canola oil and extra for rice

2 eggs

1 tblsp minced ginger

1 tblsp minced garlic

2 cups (more or less) day-old brown rice

1 cup frozen peas

2 tblsp chopped cilantro

Salt and pepper

1. Heat 5 tblsp of canola oil over medium-high heat then whisk the eggs really well and add to hot oil. Eggs should immediately start to puff up. Swish around for a little bit until eggs are completely cooked, but without too many brown spots. This happens FAST so no sleeping at the wheel.
2. Remove egg from heat, reserving some of the cooking oil in the pan, and place egg on a plate with paper towels to absorb excess oil.
3. Add about a tablespoon of oil and lower heat to medium. Add garlic and ginger and cook for about a minute until soft and fragrant. Add brown rice and stir to coat with oil.
4. Add frozen peas and cook just until rice and peas have heated through. Take off the heat and add cilantro and egg then salt and pepper to taste.

This makes a great side dish or midnight snack. So go forth and ruin some rice.

Camera Hog and Mango Chop 101

Did you know that mango is the most consumed fruit in the world? It's true.

Now that you're ready to jump on the mango band wagon, as promised, here is a guide for cutting a mango, salad style. Don't mind Toddler in the background. She's just washing dishes. No big.

I've got a ripe Champagne mango here. Make sure you wash your mango before you begin. Stand up mango and hold firmly. Start at the top and gently pierce through the skin of the mango and make an incision down one side and repeat until you have four incisions dividing your mango equally. I like to use a small knife for this part.

Now grab one of the sides and slowly and gently pull down to reveal the delicious juicy flesh. Repeat with all four sides.

Now stand your mango again and hold it firmly. Feel the mango bone with your fingers then run your knife as close to the bone as possible so you can get the most amount of flesh. Repeat with the other thick side. This is where it gets messy but it's ok because in the end you can just lick your fingers. Also, not real clear what Toddler is doing here.

Now turn mango sideways and do the same with the skinny sides. Cut off any remaining flesh.

For as long as I can remember, I've put produce stickers on my arm while cooking. Not sure why.

Cut the long way, then the short way into a rough chop...

Ta-dah! Salad ready mango. Now go put into something like this:

Also pictured: spinach, cucumber, tomato. Serve with left-over dressing from last mango recipe.

Go forth and experiment with this amazing fruit.

Oh, and a special shout-out to Toddler for doing the dishes. This blog would not be possible without all the love, support and free time you supply me with. Thank you.