Enchiladas... sort of.

Well, my version of them, anyway.  I realize they are anything but traditional or authentic, but they are delicious, nonetheless.  Besides, I've never understood why you have to choose between meat and cheese in your enchilada when you go to a restaurant.  What's wrong with both?  And even a little veg?  

I thought I’d follow Seeley’s example this week, and not have a picture of the gathered ingredients.  Ok, so I was really just scatterbrained and forgot that part, but I like blaming what I can on her.  Here’s a list of what you’ll need:

Sauce:

• 3 Tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 Tablespoon flour
• ¼ cup chili powder
• 2 cups chicken stock
• 8 ounces tomato paste
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• ½ teaspoon salt
• Secret Ingredient (see below)

Filling:

• 1 Pound ground turkey breast
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 1 red bell pepper, diced
• ½ cup prepared enchilada sauce
• 1 cup grated cheese

You will also need 6, 8 inch flour tortillas and an additional cup of grated cheese.

We’ll start with the sauce.  Enchilada sauce is a pretty simple thing to make.  In fact, I’m not really sure why someone would ever use the stuff in a can.  Then again, that’s frequently the case with me.   Here we go.  

In a saucepan, heat 3 tablespoons of vegetable oil.  When it’s hot, sprinkle in the flour. 

 

Stir it together and allow it to cook for about a minute before adding the chili powder.  The chili powder is where most of your flavor comes from, so it’s important to buy something good.  I really love the stuff you can get in the bulk section at Whole Foods. 

 

Stir that in and let it heat for about 30 seconds, then pour in the chicken stock.  Stir briskly, getting rid of any lumps and making sure nothing is stuck to the bottom of the pan.  Stir in the oregano, cumin, and salt, followed by the tomato paste.  I usually like to use a whisk at this point, to break up the lumps of tomato paste. 

 

Bring the mixture to a boil, stirring constantly, and boil for one minute.  Turn off the heat and continue to stir until the boiling stops.  Now for the secret ingredient. 

 

Yes, that’s chocolate.  A few squares of good dark chocolate bring a richness to the sauce.  Make sure it’s dark chocolate.  Milk chocolate, or even semi sweet, have too much sugar.  Break or cut the chocolate into pieces, and stir them into the sauce.  When they’re completely melted and incorporated, set the sauce aside and start on the filling. 

Heat a couple tablespoons of olive or vegetable oil in a pan and throw in your diced onion and bell pepper.  Sprinkle with a little salt to help them give up their liquid. 

 

Add the ground turkey and start chopping it into pieces as it cooks.

 

After the turkey is cooked through and the vegetables are soft, turn off the heat and stir in about ½ cup of the sauce.  It should look about like this:

 

Add 1 cup of the cheese and stir in until it’s incorporated.  Yes, I used already grated stuff this time, I was being lazy, and the pre-grated stuff was on sale.  Thank you, Tillamook, for doing the work for me.  It really is better if you grate your own, though. 

 

This is probably a good time to preheat your oven to 350°.  Also, coat the bottom of a 9x13 pan with a thin layer of sauce. 

 

Lay a tortilla in the pan and scoop in a line of the meat mixture.  I was using whole wheat tortillas, which is why they look a little on the brown side. 

 

Roll it up, somewhat tightly, and place it seam side down at the end of the pan. 

 

Repeat.

Do the rest of them the same way, coating the outside of the tortilla with the sauce, rolling them up, and sliding them right up against each other.  The last one or two are a little more difficult, but you have to kind of slide the tortilla through the sauce in the little space that’s left.  When they’re all filled and rolled, six of them should fit perfectly in the pan. 

 

Throw them in the oven for about 15 minutes, or until the tortillas become crispy on the top and ends. 

 

Top them with the remaining sauce and cheese.

 

Put them back into the oven just long enough for the cheese to melt; probably about 7 – 10 minutes.

 

Top each with a dollop of sour cream.  You could put half an olive in there like they do at some Mexican restaurants, but I don’t like olives.  Besides, it's pretty obvious I’m not trying to replicate what you might find at El Taco Gordo*.  Try my version of enchiladas and let me know what you think. 

 

*El Taco Gordo was just something I made up off the top of my head.  You know how they all have silly names like that.  If your favorite Mexican place is, indeed, called El Taco Gordo, I have not been stalking you.  It was just a lucky guess.    

Limeys and Gingers

Yikes! I'm late!

My laptop cord was shooting sparks at me last night, and the battery in this thing has nearly no juice. So after I recovered from total panic at not being able to get access to my life, I found one of those awesome little computer places. You know the ones: they have a bare minimum store front in a light industrial area, and there's virtually nothing in there but a counter, some computer guts, and a couple of geeks. I love these geeks. They are gods of hardware, and now I am no longer waiting 5 - 7 business days for a part, I have one plugged in and charging my dried up old hag of a battery.

And that means that I can not only do schoolwork and maintain contact with the other humans, I can post recipes!

And since I was so late for this very important date, I'm offering up treats for tea.

"Tea" is an actual meal in some areas of the world, a light-ish lunch in the late afternoon that could be baked beans on toast, or fried eggs with chips. Me, I prefer the version that includes sweets and baked goods. Though, I do crave beans on toast, and egg and chips sometimes. My mom's family was from England, my step-dad is also from the UK, so to me things like Spotted Dick are perfectly normal.

And one of my favourite cooking shows will always be "Two Fat Ladies." Their regular calls for moah buttah, and moah crrrream (that's a rolled r, btw) are regularly repeated in my kitchen. Though it was amusing when I had to translate their pronunciation of "scones" to RecipeGuy, who, despite being somewhat gingery, is not a Limey.

Ginger Lime Scones

(totally forgot the pic of all the ingredients together, you'll have to use your imagination for the moment)

1/2 C. butter, cold
2 1/2 C. whole wheat pastry flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 C. sugar
1/2 C. candied ginger**, diced into 1/4″ pieces
1 tbsp lime zest
3/4 C. (6 oz.) plain yogurt
1 large egg

**you can get this in the bulk area of the grocery store, or make it yourself! I'll post the recipe soon.

In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and baking soda.

Using a pastry cutter, cut in the butter until it looks like fine crumbs.

There should be no large chunks of butter, and if you squeeze and handful it should hold it’s shape, kinda like wet sand, but fall apart if you poke it.

Add candied ginger pieces, sugar and lime zest to the bowl and give it a stir.

Make a well in the middle of the mixture and pour in the yogurt/egg stuff that you’ve already mixed together... didn’t I mention that?

Oh, well, mix the egg and yogurt together (if you combine it in the measuring cup, you’ll have one less bowl to wash).

Gradually stir the flour/butter/ginger into the yogurt/egg. A soft sticky dough will eventually form.

Turn the dough out onto a floured counter, and sprinkle a little flour on top. DO NOT KNEAD. You’re making pastry, not dough. If you knead it, it will get tough. All you have to do is pat it. It’s a nice kitty... nice kitty... Pat the flour into the dough so you can work it, and pat the dough into a somewhat symmetrical shape.

Cut the shape in half.

Take half and pat it gently into a nice little disc about 6 inches in diameter and one inch thick.

Cut the disk into 6 wedges.

Do the same with the other half so you have 12 wedges.

Do your best to get them all onto one cookie sheet so you only have to bake one batch/wash one pan. If you hate washing pans, line the sheet with parchment.

If you don’t plan on icing or glazing them, now is when you should brush them with an egg wash (one egg and about a tablespoon of milk, beaten together) or with milk, and then sprinkle on a bit of sugar. I totally forgot to do this so I’m going to glaze them. Yeah, bummer, I have to put icing on something.

Bake them at 350 for about 20 minutes. The bottoms and sides should be golden, but not brown. These are delicate lady-like things. Just like me. Stop laughing.

Transfer them to a rack to cool before glazing. Yup, that’s an oven rack. My oven’s so small I can barely fit a cookie sheet in there, I have no idea why anyone thinks I’d need two racks, so I repurposed the second one for cooling.

And because I'm impatient (a very lady-like trait) I ate one.

So, for the glaze, I’m going to suggest you juice that lime you zested, and mix the juice with icing sugar until you’re happy with the consistency.

I’m not fond of pouring glaze and letting it run over the sides. It makes a mess (though, that piece of parchment you baked the scones on is handy for this) and then it never seems to set enough. And since these are going to be wrapped individually and frozen for breakfast and snacks for the next two weeks, I’m going with the glob and spread approach.

And since school is everpresent, tea time for me includes various and assorted kinds of math. Actually, most meals do. Too bad my calculator never picks up the tab. Sure would make it a better dinner date.