I thought this was an interesting idea and a way to vary the desert fare just a bit. I'm surprised I haven't seen anything like this on a restaurant menu. It's still definitely a salsa, but has an elegance that can make for an impressive finish to a meal.
I substituted Amaretto for the Frangelico, as the only bottle of Frangelico that Jewel had was enormous and there's no way I could ever use or drink it. Using the other nut-based liquor worked just fine.
They say to serve it with gourmet vanilla wafers. I have no idea what those would be - I assume they mean something classier than Nabisco Nillas. I served it with Maria cookies, because they're about the same size as a tortilla chip and more substantial in texture, so they won't dissolve immediately when the sauce touches them.
However, I would really like to try it with desert tortilla chips. The usual version of those is fried four tortilla chips sprinkled with sugar and cinnamon. I would like to try a corn tortilla version - I think that the corn would work well with sugar and be a bit different.
While it served up well, the consistency was better immediately after I mixed it. I think I should keep the sauce and fruit separate until right before serving in the future.
Oh, yeah, and it's from Salsa! Salsa! Salsa!
Showing posts with label Tex-Mex. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tex-Mex. Show all posts
Monday, April 21, 2008
Chicken Enchiladas with Verde Sauce
I've been making these for years, but they really were more like Mexican lasagna (where the tortillas were the lasagna noodles) which was very tasty and all, but not anything like what you'd get in a restaurant. With the Dragons' dinner coming up in the near future, that just won't do.
But how to bake in the pan and then plate it, looking like the restaurants?
Answer: you don't.
I don't know why, in 15 years, this never, ever occurred to me. I guess because I didn't need to do it, but turns out, you pour some sauce on the serving plate, roll the tortillas (softened in heated oil, which I'd never done), top with sauce and cheese and then you bake them until the cheese melts. Duh. I found this technique laid out for me in a way I could finally understand in the Tex-Mex Cookbook. I got this for Christmas from Karin and hadn't really looked at it soo much until now. My God, this is a fantastic book. It's as much about the history of Tex-Mex cuisine as it is recipes and I've been to a surprising number of the restaurants they discussed. Highly recommended.
Also, since I wasn't making these for myself and since I've learned that there are times when boiling meat is not inappropriate, I used boiled chicken thighs (with a little breast mixed in) for the filling. Much, much, better.
On the down side, I used the canned green sauce, which was a mistake. This definitely needs to be fresh. The flavor was too sharp and, dare I say, tinny. The Eastside Cafe cookbook has a great tomatillo sauce recipe which I'll use next time. They are also the source for the filling recipe, so they're clearly my trusted source for flavors.
But how to bake in the pan and then plate it, looking like the restaurants?
Answer: you don't.
I don't know why, in 15 years, this never, ever occurred to me. I guess because I didn't need to do it, but turns out, you pour some sauce on the serving plate, roll the tortillas (softened in heated oil, which I'd never done), top with sauce and cheese and then you bake them until the cheese melts. Duh. I found this technique laid out for me in a way I could finally understand in the Tex-Mex Cookbook. I got this for Christmas from Karin and hadn't really looked at it soo much until now. My God, this is a fantastic book. It's as much about the history of Tex-Mex cuisine as it is recipes and I've been to a surprising number of the restaurants they discussed. Highly recommended.
Also, since I wasn't making these for myself and since I've learned that there are times when boiling meat is not inappropriate, I used boiled chicken thighs (with a little breast mixed in) for the filling. Much, much, better.
On the down side, I used the canned green sauce, which was a mistake. This definitely needs to be fresh. The flavor was too sharp and, dare I say, tinny. The Eastside Cafe cookbook has a great tomatillo sauce recipe which I'll use next time. They are also the source for the filling recipe, so they're clearly my trusted source for flavors.
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
(Turkey) Chili
When I was a kid, every year at Halloween, my mom would make us chili for dinner before we went trick-or-treating. If I remember right, it was to keep us warm on the cold October nights. But it was Texas, for God's sake. Right now, as I type this at 12:30 in the morning, it's 66F down there. It was always an agonizingly slow dinner because I just want to go run out and get the good stuff. It was really good chili, though. I appreciated it a lot more the other times she served it, when I didn't feel I was missing out on prime candy-gathering time.
In the spirit of the holiday, I decided to whip some up. I threw this recipe together from a few I found at the International Chili Society, memory of previous cookups and a few things I found in my spice collection. This works great with turkey, but should be good with beef as well. Tonight's batch was virtually fat free. If you go with beef, I would recommend adding up to another pound, to account for the loss of volume from the fat when browning and draining the meat before adding in the rest of the ingredients. A longer simmer time may be needed to tenderize the beef more.
TURKEY CHILI
2 pounds ground turkey breast
29 oz can tomato sauce
3 cups water
2 tablespoons masa flour
1 medium yellow onion, diced
1 tablespoon dried oregeno
1 tablespoon fresh sweet basil, chopped
1/2 tablespoon dried epazote
1/2 tablespoon dried jalepeno
3 tablespoons chili powder
1 tablespoon ground cumin
Brown ground (turkey) meat until cooked through. Mix masa flour with 2 cups warm water into a smooth paste. Stir into chili to tighten it and add flavor. Add remaining ingredients and simmer for 1 hour. Add water if needed during simmer.
This used up the last of the summer basil crop here. This worked out really well - I'm very pleased with the results.
One thing I've noticed - up here in Chicago, they don't sell ground beef for chili. I know, big surprise, but it never occurred to me how regional that was until I looked for it last year.
I remember my mom mentioned several times that she read one chili cookoff champion claimed his secret was to use several different sizes of meat: regular grind (i.e. hamburger), chili grind (much larger) and stew chunks. His theory was that every judge had a preference for the cut size of meat and, this way, he satisified them all. The turkey kind of naturally ends up giving several sizes of meat chunks, by the way it binds during cooking. You have to really break it up in the browning to get that consistent hamburger texture, but if you dial it back...
In the spirit of the holiday, I decided to whip some up. I threw this recipe together from a few I found at the International Chili Society, memory of previous cookups and a few things I found in my spice collection. This works great with turkey, but should be good with beef as well. Tonight's batch was virtually fat free. If you go with beef, I would recommend adding up to another pound, to account for the loss of volume from the fat when browning and draining the meat before adding in the rest of the ingredients. A longer simmer time may be needed to tenderize the beef more.
TURKEY CHILI
2 pounds ground turkey breast
29 oz can tomato sauce
3 cups water
2 tablespoons masa flour
1 medium yellow onion, diced
1 tablespoon dried oregeno
1 tablespoon fresh sweet basil, chopped
1/2 tablespoon dried epazote
1/2 tablespoon dried jalepeno
3 tablespoons chili powder
1 tablespoon ground cumin
Brown ground (turkey) meat until cooked through. Mix masa flour with 2 cups warm water into a smooth paste. Stir into chili to tighten it and add flavor. Add remaining ingredients and simmer for 1 hour. Add water if needed during simmer.
This used up the last of the summer basil crop here. This worked out really well - I'm very pleased with the results.
One thing I've noticed - up here in Chicago, they don't sell ground beef for chili. I know, big surprise, but it never occurred to me how regional that was until I looked for it last year.
I remember my mom mentioned several times that she read one chili cookoff champion claimed his secret was to use several different sizes of meat: regular grind (i.e. hamburger), chili grind (much larger) and stew chunks. His theory was that every judge had a preference for the cut size of meat and, this way, he satisified them all. The turkey kind of naturally ends up giving several sizes of meat chunks, by the way it binds during cooking. You have to really break it up in the browning to get that consistent hamburger texture, but if you dial it back...
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