Tag Archives: Mexican

“The World’s Greatest Chili”

Posted on April 23, 2010 by Kirsten| Leave a comment

I made this chili a couple of months ago while I was testing out various chilis for a chili cook-off, and because it didn’t end up being the one, I never got around to posting it. I kind of forgot about it until recently when I’ve found myself defrosting the leftovers for quick dinners. I realize it’s not exactly chili season, but here in Minnesota we’re heading into a cool, rainy weekend so I thought it would be appropriate.

Also, while I am not completely convinced that this is the world’s greatest chili, Rick Bayless claims that it is so I’m going to go with his name. It’s really good and definitely worth making, whether or not it is in fact the greatest. Chili seems to be a very personal thing, so maybe you will find it to be the most amazing chili you’ve ever had. The one thing that I really love about it is the addition of masa harina. It serves as a thickener and adds a great flavor – kind of like you just threw the side of cornbread into the chili, but with a slightly milder taste. Plus, since you only need 2 tbsp of masa harina, you can use the rest to make tortillas. Win-win!

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Posted in Beef, Soup

Tagged Mexican, Soup

Kyle’s D.I.M. Lengua – A Bright Idea.

Posted on November 15, 2009 by Kirsten| 3 Comments

Kirsten graciously gave me the opportunity to guest host her blog for the day. I hope I live up to the expectations of her many fans.

About a month ago, my lovely wife and I moved to Evanston Illinois, where I’m now employed as a post-doctoral fellow at Northwestern. We’re both crazy about the area. Chicago obviously rules. The town of Evanston is nice, if sleepy compared to my traditional view of college towns. It is also relatively “upscale.” As a result, I have zero access to the vast array of tacos that I had become accustomed to in Carrboro, NC at any of the 5 or 6 taco trucks that set up shop in random parking lots around town each afternoon. That wouldn’t fly here.

Now let me tell you – I’m crazy about “organ meats,” i.e. those edible organs other than traditionally-consumed muscles (liver, kidney, etc.). Mexican taquerias are an easy way to fulfill my organic needs, another is a Chinese restaurant that caters to real Chinese people, who love eating weird shit even more than I do. While not an organ as I defined above (it’s a muscle), beef tongue is one thing I always get if a mexican restaurant cooks it.

To finally get to the point of this post, I decided that since I can’t buy lengua tacos without driving deep into Chicago, I will have to Do It Myself (D.I.M.). To document this journey, I have co-opted the methods of my sister, who traditionally begins with a personal anecdote (check) leading up to a certain food being mentioned (check), cooked, and consumed with pictures taken throughout (see below).

On to the cooking. I had already decided that I would use my trusted slow-cooker in this endeavor. I typically eschew recipes in favor of intuition but, nevertheless, here is a rough ingredients list.

For the meat:

1 beef tongue – mine was a shade shy of 3 lbs and purchased at an eastern European specialty store/deli. It ran about $8.50.
1 onion – I had an additional half onion in my fridge so I threw that in also
2 bottles of Guinnes Extra Stout
1 cup of coffee
a few nuggets of garlic
a few guajillo chiles that were lying around
almost a tablespoon of sea salt – I remember seeing people online cooking their tongues with a lot of salt so I followed suit
a few teaspoons of Ground cayenne pepper
a light sprinkling of ground cloves (seriously, easy easy those cloves!)

I think that the tongue should be an ideal meat for standing up to these powerful flavors. We’ll see…

Other stuff

small corn tortillas
cilantro, a bit more onion, and a lime to make the garnish to put on the tacos

Here are the assembled components:

I had to cut the tongue in half to fit it into my slow cooker – That baby is as big as my arm from the elbow down:

I threw that in the pot…

…and added the contents of one of the bottles of beer and a cup of coffee.

As for preparation of the rest of the stuff, let’s face it, using a slow cooker is not rocket science. Chop it up and throw it in. Having said that, I tend to very coarsely chop onions when using my slow cooker because it makes it easier to remove them after everything is cooked and I don’t like mushy onions. Because I’m proud of my big blue chopping block, here’s some crushed/chopped garlic!:

Once all the chopped stuff, salt and spices were added, I bathed the beast in the second beer and set it on low.

For the record, cooking began at 11:30 A.M.

Whenever I cook with my slow cooker, even on a lazy Sunday like today when I might be tempted to sit around playing Xbox for 12 hours, I make a point of leaving the house for a while so that I can come back, walk in the door, and smell the goodness. I also think it’s good luck, like not changing your underwear during the NHL playoffs.

At 6:30, I removed the meat from the pot and sliced it cross-wise into half-inch “steaks.”

Then I trimmed the skin off, as one would do with a section of a pineapple. I sliced the tongue into half-inch strips, then half-inch cubes and, to finish it off, I browned it in a frying pan.

While frying the cubes, I heated the oven to 200 and put some corn tortillas in there to warm up. I also chopped some cilantro and onions and mixed it together with some lime juice to put on the tacos.

Final step – make tacos.

They came out very good. Excellent. I won’t try to speak too eloquently about the flavors and texture and all that, but I’ll say that they’re as good or better than the ones I was eating at the Mexican taco stands. I recommend them without reservation.

If I did the whole batch as tacos today, I think it would serve 4-5 people, but I only ended up slicing half of the tongue. I’ll cut the rest and then I can fry some up whenever I want. Maybe with eggs in the morning?

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Posted in Beef

Tagged Beef, Mexican

Enchiladas Verdes de Pollo

Posted on October 27, 2009 by Kirsten| 2 Comments

Don’t speak Spanish? Neither does my dad. He would call these “enchiladas verdes de polo.” You know, polo. That little bird whose body runs around after its head is cut off. It’s always fun going to Mexican restaurants with my dad because you get to listen to his amazing Spanish. Even after traveling to many a Spanish-speaking country, he tells waiters, “I am vegetariano. No carne. No polo…” He is pretty good with “gracias,” though. And he always buys, so I guess I shouldn’t be making fun of his Spanish skills.

I’ve been on a big salsa verde kick lately, and I don’t see an end in sight. I picked up a jar of tomatillo salsa at Trader Joe’s a while back, and I’ve been waiting for an excuse to use it. After roasting a chicken last week I had a couple large chicken breasts in the fridge, as well as a bag of corn tortillas, so enchiladas were an obvious choice. I must not be the only one experiencing salsa verde cravings, because when I started searching for recipe ideas enchiladas verdes were on the front page of Homesick Texan. Although I didn’t end up trying her recipe (yet), I took its popping up on the first page of the first place I looked as a sign. I consulted my Rick Bayless cookbook and quickly got to work on some polo enchiladas.

Enchiladas Verdes de Pollo

Adapted from Rick Bayless’s Mexican Everyday

2 large chicken breasts, cooked (or 2-3 cups of any other part of the chicken)

10oz fresh spinach*

1 tsp ground cumin

1/4 tsp cayenne

1 cup corn

12oz tomatillo salsa

8-10 corn tortillas

1-1/2 cups cheese, grated (Monterey Jack, cheddar, Chihuaua)

Pickled jalepenos (optional)

Sour cream, guacamole, and cilantro for serving

These were the leftover chicken parts I had in the fridge. I ending up throwing the wing into the bag of chicken parts I’m going to make stock with rather than trying to pull off the little bit of meat to add to the enchiladas, but I took this picture before I made that decision.

Use a fork to shred the chicken or cut it up into small pieces.

Heat a little oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Add the spinach and cook until it wilts. Season with a little salt and remove from the heat. I also sprinkled some cumin and cayenne into the mix because I have this little voice in my head that tells me to add cumin to every Mexican meal I make.

I added the chicken to the skillet because the recipe I was kind of following said to add it, but then I realized that the enchiladas don’t actually get cooked so the ingredients need to be warm. Since I baked my enchiladas, adding the chicken at this point was completely unnecessary.

Combine the spinach and chicken with the corn.

Then start stuffing tortillas.

Wedge as many enchiladas as you can into an 8×8″ dish.

Oops! I stuck the assembled enchiladas in the fridge for a few hours, and the tortillas did not fare well.

Solution: toothpicks. Pour tomatillo salsa over the tortillas, and throw on some pickled jalepenos if you’re into that kind of thing. I would have added more had I been cooking for just myself, but since Matt was going to be enjoying them as well I had to take it easy on the heat. I guess it all worked out since he ended up picking off all the jalepenos and giving them to me.

Top with a generous dose of cheese. I opted for monterey jack because it melts well and creates a nice, cheesy blanket over the enchiladas.

Look, Mom and Judy Haar, I used a full-length oven mitt so I wouldn’t burn myself again!

Bake at 350 for 15 or 20 minutes, or until the cheese is melted.

Sour cream is a must for topping these off. Guacamole is tasty, too.

The best part about having to use toothpicks was ending up with the cheesy equivalent of candles on a birthday cake.

I don’t remember this from the first night we ate these, but when I was eating leftovers the next couple of days the tortillas had soaked up some of the salsa liquid and became the consistency of tamales. It was awesome.

*One final note: I’m still not sure how I feel about the spinach in these enchiladas. I added it because 1) I had it in the fridge, 2) it made me feel a little better about the large quantities of cheese I was using, and 3) the recipe I was kind of following was for spinach and mushroom enchiladas. The flavor turned out to be a little strong, so next time I might either eliminate it or replace it with beans. Any suggestions?

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Posted in Cheese, Chicken

Tagged Mexican

Steak Fajitas with Lime Marinade

Posted on September 4, 2009 by Kirsten| 1 Comment

I love Mexican food about as much as I love life itself, but for some reason I’ve never made fajitas. I always go for tacos or enchiladas, but fajitas are going to be my new default. They are incredibly easy and require very few ingredients. Whereas with tacos I always feel like I need to have lettuce, tomatoes, cheese, salsa, sour cream, and maybe guacamole, fajitas only require meat, tortillas, an onion, and a pepper. You can add additional stuff if you want, but as long as you have four main ingredients you’re set. Because of their simplicity you can easily make them post-happy hour when your motor skills may not be at their peak.

I wasn’t planning on taking pictures of the fajitas, but my two fellow FLA (Future Lawyers of America) members and kitchen helpers were more concerned with being on my blog than getting food in their mouths as soon as possible, so you have them to thank for this post.

Steak Fajitas

Marinade from The Big Book of Easy Suppers

Marinade:

1 lime

3 oz. dry white wine

1 clove garlic, minced

1 tsp Worcestershire sauce

2 tbsp vegetable oil

1/2 tsp oregano

1/4 tsp cumin

1/4 tsp salt

1/8 tsp freshly ground pepper

Fajitas:

1lb. top sirloin

2 green bell peppers

1 yellow onion

1-2 tomatoes

Tortillas

Cumin

Oregano

Olive oil

Salt

Whisk together all of the marinade ingredients. It makes about 1/2 cup, so you don’t need a huge bowl.

Add the steak and the marinade to a large ziplock bag. Refrigerate for a few hours.

When you’re about to make the fajitas, take the meat out of the refrigerator to allow it to come to room temperature before cooking. Slice the peppers and the onion into long strips. Slice a tomato into half moon shapes.

Heat a tablespoon or two of olive oil in a pan over medium-high, and brush a griddle or grill with a little olive oil over high heat. Throw the meat on the grill and the veggies in the pan. If your pan isn’t big enough you can just add the excess to the griddle. Or if you want to save yourself from washing a pan you could cook it all on the griddle.

Add a little cumin and oregano to the veggies as they cook. It’s really fun, as you can see.

When the onions and peppers have softened up a little, add a sliced tomato or two. Cook the veggies until the onions and peppers are a little soft but still crunchy.

Hi, Kate and Garin. If anyone needs some cheese grated, a batch of guacamole whipped up, or information on acceptable times for housewarming parties give these two a call.

Cook the meat until it’s medium rare or so (8-10 minutes), and then slice it into strips.

Serve with warm tortillas and guacamole. And cheese. And hot sauce. And a cold beer.

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Posted in Beef

Tagged Mexican

Carne Asada Enchilada Bake

Posted on August 5, 2009 by Kirsten| Leave a comment

I’m sure I’m not alone when I say I’ve had many crises in the kitchen – ones that make me want to throw up my hands, walk away from the stove and head to the nearest Chipotle. It’s not often that it happens, but it certainly does happen. I’ve found that I’m much less critical of what I’m eating if I’m the one who made it, so it takes a lot for me to completely give up. Not giving up usually leads to a little improv and obscene amounts of cheese, which can mask the greatest of errors. Putting down a couple beers can also make near disasters seem not so disastrous. The following recipe is the result of one such averted crisis.

What was initially going to be carne asada enchiladas turned into carne asada enchilada bake, thanks to the unworkability of my defrosted tortillas. I realize that the jump from enchiladas to enchilada bake is not a huge one, but believe me, it was a frustrating one. I know from experience that, while maybe not ideal, it is possible to freeze tortillas, defrost them, and use them as you would normally. I’m not sure if it was the specific brand of tortillas I was using, the length of time they’d been in my freezer, or just bad luck, but I was only able to separate a few of them without ripping them in half. And, oh my god, you know what? Sometimes I don’t realize why things didn’t do according to plan until I am writing about it on here. Here I am whining about the stupid, unworkable tortillas, and then it dawned on me that I am a complete bonehead. I was about to say that the tortillas ended up brittle when I realized that I was preparing them for the wrong dish. Have you ever made migas before? You know the part where you fry the tortillas in a little hot oil to crisp them up before mixing them with the eggs? That’s what I did with my tortillas, except I wasn’t making migas! When you make enchiladas you are supposed to soften the tortillas by quickly warming them in the oven, not by crisping them up in hot oil. Sometimes I wonder how I got into law school. Or even college.

In hindsight I guess I could have made enchiladas with the tortillas that I had, although few of them remained intact after defrosting. Had I made enchiladas, however, I would not have realized that I could make a lazy man’s version of them, bypassing the wrapping process and creating a lasagna-like dish.

Carne Asada Enchilada Bake

1-1/2 lbs. carne asada or marinated skirt steak

2 cups grated cheese (monterey jack, cheddar, chihuaua…)

1-1/2 cups corn

1/4 cup cilantro

10-12 corn tortillas

1-1/2 cups enchilada sauce

Guacamole/sour cream/salsa for serving

I’m usually not a fan of buying pre-seasoned meats, but for some reason I grabbed this carne asada from Trader Joe’s. Hey, at least it’s autentica.

Grill over high heat until the internal temperature hits 160. Do not overcook it for the sake of your jaw.

You don’t even want to know how many times my smoke alarm went off while cooking this. My arms got a good workout from the amount of towel-waving I was doing.