Sunday, June 24, 2012

Green Salsa

 For all my fondness quoting my own cooking laws, you'd think I'd pay attention to them... Well, long story short, I found out two-day old tortillas are edible, but too stiff for enchiladas. I'll try again soon.

The good news is the salsa came out well. So here's the recipe:


6-7 green tomatoes without the husk
1/3 cup chopped onion
A small piece of onion.
1.5 cloves garlic, minced
1/3 teaspoon cumin
Cilantro to taste
1 or 2 serrano chilies (without the tails)
Water
3 teaspoons white vinegar
1 teaspoon olive oil

Boil the tomatoes until they begin to change color. Plunge them into a bowl of ice water for a few minutes. Quarter them and toss them in the blender. Add one clove of garlic, the small piece of onion (and I mean small), cilantro, chilies, some water, cumin and vinegar. Liquefy the whole thing.

In a deep sauce pan heat the olive oil and saute the minced half clove of garlic and the chopped onion, but only for a minute. Reduce the heat to minimum, add the salsa from the blender and stir. Bring to a slow boil uncovered, stirring occassionally. When it begins to boil, turn off the heat and let the salsa cool.

Once it cools you can make enchiladas with it in any way you want. Or you can use it as regular salsa on any dish.

I put the serrano chilies in whole, except for cutting off the tail part. If you prefer a  milder salsa, you can remove the veins and seeds, or just use half a chile instead of a whole one. The time to taste whether the spiciness level is too high is after you've blended everything. If it's too mild, you can add more chile. If it's too hot, I recommend tossing in another tomato and some water.

Saturday, June 23, 2012

Barley Stew

Sorry I haven't posted. Last week I tried some new recipes and they didn't come out quite right. But I've fixed them, and here's the first:



3/4 Cup barley
4 Turkey sausages, sliced thinly
2 Cups shredded red or regular cabbage
1 Cup soybean sprouts
1 Carrot, sliced thinly
1 Small green bell pepper
1 Clove of garlic, minced
1/3 Chopped onion
5 Cups chicken broth
1 Tablespoon oregano
420 grs. Tomato puree
Ground black pepper to taste
4 Tablespoons barbecue sauce (I used Kraft Original flavor, but any kind will do)
1 Teaspoon olive oil.

In a soup pot heat the olive oil and slightly brown the sausages and bell pepper, for about 4-6 minutes. Add the rest of the ingredients, except the barbecue sauce and bring to a boil. If you use chicken bullion cubes rather than chicken broth, wait for the water to boil before adding the cubes; they don't dissolve well in cold or warm water. Stir well and reduce the heat. Let simmer covered for about an hour, stirring every 10 minutes or so. You want to let the fluid almost be consumed.

When there is little liquid left, add the barbecue sauce and stir well. Check to see if the remaining liquid feels thick. if it does, remove from the stove, allow to cool and then serve. If not, let it simmer a little longer, keeping an eye on it at all times. When only a little liquid is left, it goes fast.

If things go well tomorrow, I'll post my recipe for cottage cheese enchiladas.

Sunday, June 10, 2012

Ginger Chicken

This is one of my first recipes, the very first to use chicken. It's very simple, but there's a lot of chopping involved.



Ingredients:

3 Chicken breasts
Sesame seed oil
Half an onion, chopped,
2 Cloves of garlic, chopped,
1.5 Carrots, chopped
2 Stalks of celery, chopped.
1/3 of a head of cabbage, shredded
1/3 cup jicama, chopped.
10-15 snow peas
2.5 teaspoons fresh ginger (2 minced, 1/2 grated)
3 teaspoons soy sauce
1/3 teaspoon turmeric
3 teaspoons corn starch dissolved in 1/4 cup of water
1 1/2 cups chicken broth






First saute 1 teaspoon of minced ginger with some sesame seed oil for 2 minutes, then cook the chicken. Cut it into bite-sized pieces and set it aside. In the same wok, stir-fry the vegetables with the rest of the ginger and 1 teaspoon of oil. Cook until the vegetables are as soft or crunchy as you want them.


Add the soy sauce and turmeric to the chicken broth and stir well. Add the chicken to the vegetables, pour the chicken broth on top and mix well. Add the corn starch mix and again mix everything well. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer for about 5 minutes, mix occasionally so that everything is covered in the sauce.


This dish goes well with plain white rice or with  curry rice

Sunday, June 3, 2012

Fettucine with Poblano Chile Sauce

This is a new recipe I tried out today. I was going to make Enchiladas, but I forgot to get tortillas. Some other time.

I based this on an older recipe I've yet to post. It's a very versatile base, which serves well for creamy, yet low-fat pasta sauces. It's a bit odd, in that it uses cottage cheese.



Ingredients:

250 gr. fettuccine cooked to taste
5 Green tomatoes without husks
200 gr. of Pobalno chile rajas ("rajas" are thin strips of chile, usually Poblano, sauteed with a little oil; I buy mine frozen at any local supermarket), these are to be divided in half.
2 Cloves of garlic
1 Chicken bullion cube, low-fat and low-sodium
4 Cilantro branches, stems and all (you can remove the leaves from the stems; I find the stems as good as the leaves)
2 Scoops or about 220 gr. cottage cheese, either regular or low-fat.
1/3 Teaspoon powdered cumin
2 Tablespoons oregano.

1/2 Onion cut into thin slices and separated into rings
1 Teaspoon olive oil
2 Teaspoons corn starch, dissolved in 1/3 cup of water.

Place the green tomatoes whole in boiling water until they begin to change color. Get them out and place them in a bowl with ice water for a few minutes. When getting tomatoes, or anything else, in and out of a pot of boiling water, remember to be cautious. I use a slotted spoon.

Quarter the tomatoes and remove the core (not the seeds), then toss them in the blender with a trickle of water. Liquefy the tomatoes. With the blender off, add 1 clove of garlic, half the Chile Poblano in rajas, all the cottage cheese, cilantro and chicken bullion cube. Liquefy everything thoroughly.

In a deep saucepan, heat the olive oil. Once it's heated, add the onion and 1 minced clove of garlic. Saute until the onions begin to turn flexible. Add the rest of the Chile Poblano and cook for one more minute; you just want to soften them a little. Remove from the heat and let the pan cool for a few minutes.

When the saucepan cools, put it on the stove on low heat and add the sauce from the blender. Bring to a boil while stirring on occasion. When you begin to see bubbles forming, add the cumin and oregano and stir well (BTW I like to crush the dry oregano leaves before adding them to the mix). When the sauce begins to boil, or when larger bubbles form, add the corn starch dissolved in water. This last is a thickening agent only. If you think the sauce is thick enough, you may not want to add it. Keep on the flame for one or two more minutes, then pour the sauce over the pasta.

Please note that Poblano chiles are considered to be very mild, but some varieties can be quite hot. If you prepare the rajas yourself, think about removing the veins and seeds first. And try them before cooking, too, whether you make them or get them frozen, so you can decide how hot the dish will be.

As I said near the beginning, I like mixing cottage cheese and corn starch with liquefied vegetables in order to make creamy, low-fat sauces. In the future I'll post similar recipes, like Green Bell Pepper Pasta Sauce, and Elbow Macaroni with Chipotle Sauce.

As always, comments are welcome.

Friday, June 1, 2012

Textured Soy in Chipotle Sauce

Time for something a little off-beat (do you suppose "off-beat" might be a shortened version of "Off the beaten path"? Not that it matters).

Soy is a good source of protein and has about zero fat content. This gets it touted as a meat substitute. As far as nutrition goes, this may be so. But as far as texture and taste goes, it mostly doesn't work. Here and there you find pre-made dishes using soy which claim to taste just like beef or chicken, but all too often they're loaded with beef or chicken fat (a great deal of beef's flavor comes from fat, after all).

Just the same, I thought it was a reasonable ingredient to try in my diet. It took some doing, but I found ways to make it rather tasty. The problem lies in the fact that textured soy is almost devoid of flavor. The remedy lies in the fact that it absorbs flavors of things it's mixed with.

Please let me know if you try this recipe and like it, as I have a few other all-textured soy recipes, as well as some consisting of textured soy mixed with ground beef.

To begin with, textured soy (or textured soy protein, as it's often called) requires some preparation. First you need to hydrate it by soaking it in water for a few minutes. Then you drain it, and finally you squeeze the excess water out of it. You're left with a spongy stuff that looks and feel a little like cooked ground beef (but it doesn't taste like ground beef).

How to squeeze it best is a matter of some contention. I drain it into a large colander and squeeze it by hand. Some people put it in a clean rag and squeeze that. I suggest you look up the means online and choose whichever works for you.

However, in all my textured soy recipes, I assume the soy has been hydrated, drained and squeezed beforehand. if you sue it dry, the results will be disastrous.

Well, then.

Ingredients:

300 gr. of prepared textured soy (its about 125-150 gr. dry, give or take)
2 red tomatoes, peeled (you can remove the seeds, too, though I opt to leave them in)
2 cloves of garlic, quartered
1/5 onion, quartered
A handful of cilantro leaves, stems and all, chopped
1 cube chicken bullion cube, low fat and low sodium
1 or 2 whole chipotle chiles in adobo and some of the thick juice from the can (these are common in Mexico, naturally, and I think they are not too hard to come by in the US).
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 bell pepper (whichever color you like), chopped
1 or 2 stalks of celery, sliced.


Peel the tomatoes by whatever means you prefer (I blanch them, which makes the skin just peel off easily), remove the core, quarter them and put the in a blender. Add the onion, garlic, cilantro, chicken bullion cube and chipotles with their juice, along with a  trickle of water. Liquefy in the blender. The mix will be a little chunky, especially if you do not seed the tomatoes. Set it aside.

In a deep saucepan or a pot, heat the olive oil and then saute the bell pepper and celery. If you like, you can add some chopped onion and/or garlic as well.When done to your taste, add the textured soy and cook for about five minutes, stirring constantly so it won't burn.

Reduce the heat and add the sauce you prepared in the blender.Mix very well, and let it come to a slow boil. Then simmer for a few minutes, all uncovered.

Ideally, it should look like this:


Now, I must warn you I use even more chipotles and don't find it very hot. But I was raised on hot, spicy food and snacks. If you can't take hot, spicy food, use a single chipotle, or even half of one. However, be advised chipotles have a subtle, smoky flavor, so the less you use, the less savory the end result will be.

Finally let me leave you with some trivia:

Chipotles don't exist in a "natural" state. They a re actually dried, smoked JalapeƱo peppers. The canned variety are coked at a processing plant with some tomato paste and spices to produce the adobo juice you'll see in the can.

Just a little tidbit  picked up working in the food distribution business...

PS this dish goes rather well with Mexican rice. I'll post the recipe for that shortly.


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