Auntie A's Choice Chili

My little sis has become quite a capable cook. Last month she came up from Pittsburgh to visit the family, but mostly to hang out with her nephew (my son), Jack.

While she was here I asked her to cook dinner for us one night and she could choose what to make.

She concocted a fabulous chili with a couple of surprising ingredients.

Here's her basic recipe for a chunky, meaty, beany chili with a good kick. I did alter the recipe slightly, but that's the great thing about chili -- it's really customizable depending on what's in your pantry. These were the ingredients in my pantry today.

Ingredients (eyeball it):
1 lb. of beef, cut into bite size bits
olive oil
1 onion, chopped
Two fresh jalapeños, finely chopped (optional)
1 orange bell pepper, chopped
2 fresh anaheim peppers, chopped
2 canned chipotle chilles in adobo, chopped finely plus 2 tsp. chile powder OR 3-4 dried peppers such as pasilla, ancho or chipotle
2 large cans of tomato (whole, chopped or crushed), with their juices
chicken stock
2-3 Tbs. cumin
2 tsp. smoked paprika
1 tsp. garlic powder
3 tsp. oregano
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
2-3 squares of unsweetened chocolate OR 1 tsp. unsweetened cocoa powder
2 cans of beans of your choice, such as cannellini, pinto, kidney or black -- partially drained and not rinsed
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
If you'd like your peppers to have a smokier taste, do the following steps. Otherwise, just chop the peppers.

Turn your gas stove to medium and place the pepper directly over the heat, on the burner itself. Blacken the peppers on all sides (the process takes about seven minutes) and place in a Ziploc bag for 10 minutes. The steam should help make the skin come off easily. When cool enough to handle, remove as much skin from the peppers as possible. You now have roasted peppers and have no need to ever buy them in a jar again. Chop them and prepare chili as follows.

Heat a large dutch oven or pot over high heat and coat the bottom with olive oil. When hot, add the cubed meat and brown on all sides. Set aside with any juices. Add a little more olive oil and cook the onion and peppers till onions are soft, about 5 minutes.

Add the meat (and any juices), tomatoes, paprika, chocolate, garlic powder, oregano and cinnamon. Stir thoroughly. Add the chile powder/chiles and cumin slowly. These strong spices are hard to chase away once added. Add a little at a time, wait five minutes, and then taste whether it's a good move to add more.

Bring to a simmer and turn down the heat, stirring once in a while so the bottom doesn't burn. If it's too thick, add some chicken stock. If you like a more soupy chili, cook with the pot covered. If you'd like it more stewy and thick, cook uncovered. Either way, cook for at least an hour. Twenty minutes before serving, add the beans and cook till beans are heated through. Salt and pepper to taste.

Serve with grated cheddar cheese in a squirrel bowl, if you desire.

Chicken Taquitos with Spinach & Wild Rice

In my ongoing quest for quick and somewhat healthy dinner ideas, I came across a tasty recipe for chicken flautas today. Usually my decision to try a recipe is based 90 per cent on whether I have all of the ingredients already. This one passed the screening and sounded tasty as can be. Since I never know what type of vegetable to serve alongside Mexican food, I tweaked the recipe slightly and added chopped frozen spinach. I also healthified it more by adding a wild rice/quinoa blend that I'd made earlier in the day and saved in the fridge.

Both boys (husband and son) gobbled this up. I think I'll have to make these a staple dinner in our house.

Ingredients (I eyeball everything, so measurements are approximations):
8-10 taco-sized flour tortillas
1 chicken breast
olive oil
1/4 cup salsa
1/4 cup cooked brown rice or quinoa
1/2 cup frozen spinach
1/2 brick Neufchatel cheese or cream cheese
nearly one cup Monterey jack cheese
1/4 tsp. cumin
1/8 tsp. chili powder
1/2 tsp. smoked paprika
1/4 tsp. garlic powder
1/4 tsp. onion powder
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Spray a casserole dish with cooking spray and set aside.

Place frozen spinach in a microwave-safe bowl and cover with water. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and microwave for two minutes. Drain thoroughly, squeezing with your hands to remove as much water as possible. Place in a medium mixing bowl.

Butterfly the chicken breast and coat both sides with salt and pepper. Coat a frying pan with olive oil and heat over medium-high flame. Add chicken and brown on both sides, about 5 minutes per side. Once chicken is thoroughly cooked, shred with two forks and add to mixing bowl.

Add all the other ingredients but the tortillas and combine thoroughly. Spoon about 1/4 cup of the filling onto a tortilla and shape it into a narrow log. Roll up the tortilla tightly and place seam-side down in a casserole dish. Do the same with the rest of the tortillas and coat the tops of the taquitos with cooking spray. Bake in the oven for 15 minutes or until they are golden and crisp on the edges.

Homemade Red Enchilada Sauce

I'm back to Blogger. Wordpress just didn't do it for me. So let's just dive in here and talk about enchiladas and how tasty they are.

We recently spent two and a half weeks in Mexico where I spent a good deal of time watching the housekeeper cook. She used to run a restaurant from her home and one of her specialties is a dish called chilaquiles. It's fried corn tortilla strips steeped in a red chile sauce. I thought the sauce would transfer well to an enchilada dish. I made a few twists and it turned out almost as well as Moña's in Mexico. I wasn't able to find the exact same dried chiles she used, but I used the kind from the Hispanic food section of the grocery store and it worked just great. Add in a little bit of slow-cooked beef, some rice, black beans and cheese and you've got yourself some amazing enchiladas.

Oh, and if you're totally lazy, you could buy the sauce and just follow the enchilada recipe below. That's what I did to obtain this pathetic photo. Trust me, it's waaaaay tastier than it looks.

Ingredients for sauce:

3 plum tomatoes

4 medium-sized dried red chiles

3 cups water

2 cloves garlic

2 Tbs. olive oil

1/2 onion, chopped fine

3 Tbs. flour

2 cups chicken stock

1 Tbs. chile powder

salt to taste

1 Tbs. chiles in adobo sauce, chopped finely

Directions:

Break the tops off the dried chiles and toss as many of the seeds as you can. Bring the water, tomatoes and chiles to a boil in a saucepan. Boil for 10 minutes. Turn off the heat, cover and let sit for 20 minutes.

Place one clove of garlic in a blender. With a slotted spoon, add the tomatoes and chiles, cover the blender and start blending. Slowly add the water from the saucepan and blend on high for a minute or so.

Mince the remaining clove of garlic. Heat olive oil in a large saute pan. Add the onion and garlic and cook till onions are tender, about 5 minutes. Add the flour and mix into a paste. Cook over medium heat for a couple of minutes.

Turn down the heat and add the blended mixture, chicken stock, chile powder, chiles in adobo sauce and salt. Bring to a simmer, turn to low and let bubble for 10 minutes or so. The sauce will be thinner than gravy. If you prefer it thick, make a slurry with 1/2 cup chicken stock and 1-2 Tbs. flour and pour it in. Stir and let simmer for five minutes or so till it thickens. 

Store in a jar in the fridge for up to a week.

Recipe for beef enchiladas

Ingredients:

1 thin, cheap cut of beef; about 1/2 lb.

olive oil

salt & pepper

dried oregano

smoked paprika

1/2 onion, roughly chopped

1 can black beans, partially drained

2 chiles in adobo sauce, seeded and chopped fine

leftover brown rice (optional)

1 cup cheddar cheese, grated

1/2 cup mozzarella cheese, grated (for the top, optional)

tortillas (flour or corn)

Directions:

Coat the beef in olive oil and sprinkle both sides with salt, pepper, paprika and oregano. Place in a slow cooker and add the onions. Cook on low for 5 hours or so. It'll be so tasty you might have a hard time getting it into the enchiladas. Shred the beef and set aside.

When it's near dinner time, preheat the oven to 375'. Add the beans to a small saucepan and bring to a simmer. Mash with a potato masher and add the chopped chiles and some salt. Cook for five minutes or so. 

Heat up your leftover rice, if using.

Coat the bottom of a square or rectangular baking pan with enchilada sauce.

Pour about a cup of sauce in a pie pan. Set up a little assembly line with the tortillas, sauce, work surface, beans, beef, rice, cheese and baking pan.  Soak a tortilla in the sauce and place it on your work surface. Add small amounts of all your ingredients, roll up the tortilla and place it seam-side down in the pan. Repeat till the pan is full. Pour a cup or so of the sauce all over the enchiladas. I never put enough and they end up drying out on the edges, so really saturate the baking dish. The tortillas suck up a lot. Top with remaining cheeses. Place, uncovered, in the oven for 30 minutes, or until it's all bubbly. 

Remove from oven and let sit for 10 minutes before serving, or, if starving, risk lava-hot amazingness.

Killer Nachos

Yum! Easy! Here's how!

Ingredients for Guacamole:
1 ripe avocado
6 cherry tomatoes, chopped
2 tbs cilantro, chopped
juice of 1/2 lime
salt and pepper

Directions:
Combine all the ingredients with a fork

Ingredients for Cheese Sauce:
1 Tbs. butter
1 Tbs. Wondra flour, or regular flour
1/2 cup whole milk
4 slices American cheese

Directions:
In a small saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the flour and whisk together. Cook for a minute and then add the milk, stirring frequently till thickened. If it's too thick, add more milk. Add the cheese and stir till cheese is melted.

Chop up two green onions.

Spread some corn chips on a plate. Pour on some of the cheese sauce. Add more chips on top. Add the remaining sauce and sprinkle with green onions. Place the guacamole on top of the nachos. Eat them!

Salsa Roja a la Moña

**AMENDMENT**
This recipe totally doesn't work with American ingredients (at least Alaskan). So be wary of this recipe. I think I can only replicate it in Mexico

Another simple recipe from a Mexican kitchen. This is a thin salsa -- not too chunky. Kind of like house salsa at a Mexican restaurant.

Ingredients:
3 Roma tomatoes
3 small hot green chilies (or two small jalapeños)
1/2 cup minced sweet onion
1/2 cup minced English cucumber
A couple of tablespoons of chopped cilantro
1 garlic clove
A couple of tablespoons of water

Place tomatoes and chilies in a small saucepan and cover with water. Bring to a boil and let simmer for about 15 minutes. Take off the heat and let cool in the water till you're able to handle them. Slip the tomato skins off and discard. Discard the stem of the peppers as well. Place tomatoes, peppers, garlic and a couple of tablespoons of water in a blender and combine. If it's too thick add a little more water. Combine this mixture with the onion, cucumber and cilantro. Serve with corn chips.

Guacamole a la Moña

This is one of the recipes that our housekeeper, Moña, makes. I'm not sure of all the proportions since the ingredients back home are slightly different. I will try and provide the U.S. equivalents.

2 roma tomatoes
1/3 English cucumber, peeled
1/4 sweet onion
2 green chili peppers (smaller than jalapeños, but 1 jalapeño could work)
3 ripe avocados
a couple of tablespoons of cilantro, chopped
juice of 1/4 lime
dash of apple cider vinegar

Directions:
Chop the sides of the tomatoes off, leaving the juicy core. Discard the core and mince the sides. Mince the cucumber, onion and pepper (choose to remove the seeds for less spiciness). The tomato, cucumber and onions should all be about the same quantity when minced. Add the cilantro and mix up with your hands. Add the avocados to a bowl and mash up with a potato masher. Add all of the other ingredients to the bowl. Serve with chips!

South Beach Taco Salad

Stephen and I need to shape up and changing our diet is of the upmost importance. After devouring a half pound of mac and cheese in bed the other night, we decided to try phase 1 of the South Beach Diet for a week or so. This is how we trained ourselves to be healthy in the first place, but the holidays took their toll....

Here's a recipe for taco salad that uses no rice or tortillas. Black beans are super good for you and ground pork isn't super fatty.

Ingredients:
Baconated Black Beans
1 bell pepper, color of your choice, sliced
1/2 onion, thinly sliced
2 Tbs olive oil
salt and pepper
1 pound ground meat (beef, turkey or pork)
romaine lettuce
sour cream
salsa (optional, since South Beach doesn't recommend it)
shredded cheese (low fat preferred)
cilantro, chopped
1 lime
1 taco seasoning packet

Brown the meat and add the taco seasoning according to package. Meanwhile, slowly cook the pepper and onions in olive oil. Add salt and pepper to taste. When beans, meat and veggies are ready, combine on a plate and top with cheese, lettuce, sour cream, cilantro, and squeeze on some lime juice. Top with Cholula!