We made soup the other day and discovered that I didn't have any bread or tortillas to go with it. I did have some flour and some masa (corn flour) in the pantry so I decided to try making some pupusas. Pupusas, if you didn't know, is a corn tortilla that is stuffed with either meat or cheese, commonly found in Salvadoran restaurants but it is also common in other Latin American cuisines. It is different from a quesadilla where you sandwich the filling between two pieces of tortillas in that the filling is wrapped in the dough before cooking. It sounded interesting, so we picked a recipe online and gave it a try.
These came out a bit dry for my taste so I won't put a recipe up yet. Here are a few recipes online though if you're interested:
Pupusas on Whats4Eats
Salvadorian Pupusas on RecipeZaar
Pupusas Recipe on 101 Cookbooks
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I ran across a delicious sounding recipe for turkey chili, which I have never tried before, so I ran to the market and got the stuff together. I really liked the turkey chili recipe because it was much lower in fat than the one made with beef. I didn't even have to add any oil and there was hardly any rendered from the turkey. The original recipe was super spicy though so I had to cut it down a bit for the girls. The result was delicious and just perfect for a cold night. The chili was still spicier than what I usually make, but surprisingly, the girls loved it spice and all!
The cornbread with cheese and jalapeno was a perfect pair to the spicy chili. It was slightly sweet but scented with the aroma of jalapeno. It didn't get spicy at all.
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I am finally getting to the point where I am not overly amazed that I can cook certain things ever since I joined groups like the Daring Bakers and Recipes to Rival. There are a ton of these types of groups online and if I joined them all I would probably be cooking something new everyday. Check out some of them by following some of the links on peoples food blogs. You might find a group that is right for you.
If you'd like the recipe for these tamales with pork filling, just click on the link.
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This is one of my daughter's specialty dishes. They can now prepare this dish and change it up to suit their taste, all by themselves.
This is a perfect dish to cook with kids because one, which child doesn't like quesadillas? If they like it, and it's easy enough to make, then they will like making it and eating it even more. I've always said that the kitchen is one of the best classrooms in the home. Teach kids to cook early, supervise them, and they will come away with much more than just a full stomach.
Here'e how to make these Spinach Quesadillas...
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We love Mexican food at our house. We especially love making tacos and burritos because everyone gets to help preparing the meal, then they can customize their tacos or burritos to fit their exact taste.
We ran across this box of Ortega Grande Pizza Kit that was on sale at the market. It was such a huge mark down that even though we don't normally buy kits and prefer to make our own pizzas from scratch, we decided to try this one out.
It came with all these flavor packets and a small box of tortilla disks. We soon realized why the kits were on sale. They were probably close to expiring as the tortillas were a bit hard and stale. No worries though, we had lots of tortillas in the fridge and all we did was fry up a new batch and we were good to go. The flavor packets were of spices for the ground beef which I ended up amending and some salsa in the other packets, which you bet we also added to. In essence, we pretty much ended up making our own fixin's. We just got the idea to make it from the kit. :)Visit our new blogs:
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This is one of the girls' favorite snack and they have become quite adept at making this snack themselves. We like to make our own tortilla chips by frying up leftover corn tortillas. They taste so much better than the store bought ones, we think.
For best taste, we like to make everything from scratch from the tomato salsa, the guacamole to the melted cheese.
MELTED CHEESE. If you've never melted cheese before, there are more than a couple of ways to do it. I will tell you about the two methods that the girls use. One is to simply melt it in the microwave; but if you're not careful you can end up drying the cheese out instead. To be on the safe side, add a little liquid, like a little salsa if you like it spicy, or a tablespoon of milk, to the cheese you are melting. Microwave on high for a couple of minutes, stop and stir. Keep doing this until the cheese is melted.
Another way is to melt it on top of the stove. Place the cheese and liquid in a small pot or saucepan and melt over low heat, stirring constantly until the cheese is melted.
GUACAMOLE. The taste of fresh avocados is hard to replicate and preserve so try to use fresh when you can. The pre-made and packaged guacamoles just cannot compare to freshly made ones. I have previously posted a recipe here. When the girls are being really lazy, they just mash up avocadoes and season it with salt pepper, and a spritz of lemon. You can adjust the guacamole recipe to suite your taste.
SALSA. All you have to do to make a refreshing salsa is mix together tomatoes, onions and cilantro. You can add hot peppers for spice. For this version of their nachos, the girls put the salsa ingredients through the blender and got a finer salsa. You can leave it chunky, or blend it as the girls did. Either way, it's still delicious.
This dish was cooked by Jade sometime ago. She got the recipe from a cookbook that she gave me for my birthday last year, One Pot - simple & delicious easy to make recipes
INGREDIENTS:
2 TBSP vegetable oil
1 lb. boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cubed
1 onion, chopped
1 green bell pepper, seeded and chopped
1 potato, diced
1 sweet potato, diced
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 or 2 green chiles, seeded and chopped
7 oz (1 can) canned chopped tomatoes
1/2 tsp. dried oregano
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
4 TBSP chopped fresh cilantro
2 cups chicken stock
Heat oil in a skillet and lightly brown the chicken. Add the onion, bell pepper, potato and sweet potato. Saute' for a minute or two until the vegetables begin to soften. Add the garlic and chilies and stir for a minute until fragrant. Add the tomatoes, oregano, salt & pepper, and half the cilantro. Stir. Pour in the stock and let it simmer over low heat for 15 to 20 minutes until chicken is cooked through and vegetables are tender.
Sprinkle with the remaining cilantro just before serving.
With me working, I like either quick and easy dishes or dishes that cook long but without a lot of fuss. This dish requires a long braising time in the oven, but it is easy to cook even by remote. All you need is a 14 year old girl and a phone. While at work, I told Asi what to throw in the baking dish, cover it, put it in the oven to bake and by the time I got home from work, dinner was ready! This was served with black beans & rice (recipe later), pico de gallo(my version is here), and fried tortillas.
INGREDIENTS:
2 lbs. Country Style Ribs
1 10 oz. can of Enchilada Sauce
1 onion, chopped
Black Pepper
Put all the ingredients in an oven safe dish. Notice that
What do you do when tomatoes from your garden start filling up your kitchen counters and the freezer too? Canning would be a good answer, but I haven't had much time to do that. What we do, we make salsa instead! These will keep in the refrigerator for a few days, so they come in handy to serve with just about any meal or to use as a dip for chips.
The ingredients are your usual:
Tomatoes
Onions, sweet vidalia preferred
Fresh jalapeno or serrano peppers
Cilantro
Lemon or lime
Salt
Chop the tomatoes, onions, peppers and cilantro finely or coarsely, depending on your preference. Squeeze the juice from half a lemon or whole lime and season with salt to your taste. Mix well.
With this batch, we took about half of the mixture and blended it then mixed it back in. Depending on our mood sometimes we leave it all chunky, sometimes we blend the whole thing, or do it half and half like this time around.
We love cooking and eating Mexican food, and guacamole is one of our favorites either as a dip or as an accompaniment to any Mexican dish. However, we have also gotten into the habit of making it every time we cook out on the grill. It just pairs up well with grilled meats. This is a very simple version, and I find it works best with picky kid palates.
2-3 avocadoes, peeled, seeded and coarsely chopped
1 lime, juiced
2 roma tomatoes, seeded and diced fine
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon garlic, finely minced and mashed
2 tablespoons cilantro, chopped
Mix all ingredients together, slightly mashing the avocado in the process. We like to leave some avocado chunks in our guacamole. Great to dip tortilla chips in or just a condiment for grilled meats.
You can tell by the number of soup posts lately that the weather has gotten cold. This is a thick and hearty meal that also provides a lot of warmth within. We had this with corn casserole, and it was wonderful! As usual, I had to make two pots, one spicy and the other not spicy for the kids. Here is the spicy version. For the kid's version I merely omitted the additional jalapeno peppers.
2 lbs. coarsely ground beef chuck
1 head garlic, chopped
2 large onions, chopped
1 lb. mushrooms, sliced
1 20 oz. can of diced tomatoes
1 20 oz. can of tomato sauce
1 8 oz. can of tomato paste
1 15 oz. can of red kidney beans
1 15 oz. can of pinto beans
1 15 oz. can of black beans
3-5 jalapeno pepper, seeded and diced
1 bunch cilantro, chopped
1 tsp. oregano
1 tsp. cumin
1 tsp. chili powder
2 bay leaves
pinch of cinnamon
Salt & pepper to taste
Heat a large pot and brown the ground beef. Add the garlic and onions and sautee until fragrant. When the onions are translucent, add the mushrooms and sautee until browned on the edges. Season with oregano, cumin and chili powder then add the diced tomatoes, tomato paste, and beans including the liquid. Add the bay leaves. Simmer for 1 to 1 1/2 hour stirring occationally until thick. Add a pinch of cinnamon, salt, and pepper. At this point, I take some of the chili out for the kids' mild version. For the spicy pot, add the diced jalapeno peppers and half of the chopped cilantro. Simmer for another 20 minutes, stirring occationally.
We like our bowls served with a dollop of sour cream and a sprinkling of chopped cilantro.
