What was the question? Tex-Mex-Chickiladas (and PAPERCHEF #53 ingredients)

It was a simple question that came from my brother's wife: "When you come home to visit your mom, do you think you could show us an easy stir-fry recipe with ingredients that I've heard of before?" I was so excited, so thrilled to share, that I planned out a whole cooking workshop. The "simple stir-fry" request turned into a 6 hour hands-on cooking lesson that ranged from breaking down a whole chicken, making stock to creating six different meals.
My wonderfully creative brother and his equally awesome and patient wife stuck with me, laughing and cooking through our culinary marathon.
We began with knife skills and moved into flavor combinations. I prepared flash cards that broke down three techniques: Roasting, Saute, and Braising. I had vocabulary cards to help with the pronunciation of Mira Poix and Mise en Place.
At the end of the night, with droopy eyes and a refrigerator packed with 2 weeks worth of food, they were still laughing and practicing the concepts.
PAPER CHEF:

During my travels, the time for picking the next ingredients for Paper Chef (one of the oldest running online cooking events) arrived and I used my brother as a human "randomizer". He didn't realize what he was picking, but was relieved to find out it had nothing to do with cooking yet another entree.

I had set up to make my first mobile posting to my blog from my phone (I didn't have a computer with me). The tech-gods were not on my side. After a couple hours trying to post from my phone, I gave up and saved the reveal for when I returned to California.

The ingredients for Paper Chef #53 are:

DRIED MUSHROOMS
THYME
VODKA

And the fourth of my own choosing came from feeling like the whole posting fiasco was like swimming upstream: SALMON

I was more than happy to see that these are all workable and I think pretty exciting. I can't wait to see the creations. This would be a great month to ask a friend if they would like to join in the fun. I'm thinking of asking my newly educated brother and sister-in-law to give it a shot.

The Paper Chef Challenge gives the cook a free range to create anything they want from the four given ingredients, take a picture of them, and either send the post you create or the pic and info to Paper Chef. Read all about it here.

One of my brother and sister-in-law's favorite entrees we prepared were the Tex-Mex-Chickiladas. A tray of these are real flavor-pleasers and freeze well, too.

RECIPE: Tex-Mex-Chickiladas

2 chicken legs and 2 chicken thighs
2 tbls. olive oil
2 cups chicken stock
1 large can tomatoes
1/2 cup corn kernels
1 lime (juiced and zested)
1 jalapeno pepper (minced)
1 small onion chopped
1 clove garlic minced
4-6 tortillas
3 Tbls. Cilantro (fresh and chopped)
1-2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese
Sour cream, chopped green onion for garnish
salt/pepper to taste

1) Salt the chicken pieces, then saute in olive oil until browned on all sides.
2) Add 1/2 cup of the chicken stock to deglaze the pan, then pour in the rest of the stock.
3) Bring to a simmer, cover and cook the chicken til tender. Remove the chicken. After cooling, pull the chicken meat off the bones and reserve the meat, discarding the bones. Keep the pan sauce for later use, also.
4) In a small bowl, mix together the tomatoes, corn, lime juice and zest. Hold.
5) In a skillet, cook the onion, garlic and jalapeno on Med. til tender.
6) Pour in the reserved pan sauce, and the tomato mixture. Cook on Med/High until reduced by 1/3.
7) In an 8x8 inch baking pan or glass baking dish, spread about 1/2 cup of sauce on the bottom.
8) Dip each tortilla in the remaining cooked sauce and lay flat in the baking dish. Place a few pieces of the reserved chicken down the center of each tortilla, fold in thirds and lay seam side down in the baking dish.
8) After all the tortillas are filled, folded and lined up in the pan: pour the remaining sauce over the Chickiladas, sprinkle the top with chopped fresh cilantro, then cover in shredded cheese.
9) Bake at 350F for 20 minutes (OR Freeze and bake later).

Tomatillo & Chile Sauced Vegetarian Enchiladas - Daring Cooks May '10

Years ago I would have said Mexican food was when you bought a box of hard taco shells from the grocery store and filled them with ground beef that had been cooked with a packet of Taco Seasoning Mix and garnished with a squirt of Taco Sauce from a plastic bottle. As a kid, I really liked it, but obviously I was missing an entire country's worth of flavor, products and culture.

Tomatillo and Chile Sauced
(Hand-made Corn Tortilla)
Enchiladas with Mushroom & Spinach

Our hosts this month for Daring Cooks, Barbara of Barbara Bakes and Bunnee of Anna+Food, have chosen a delicious Stacked Green Chile & Grilled Chicken Enchilada recipe in celebration of Cinco de Mayo! The recipe, featuring a homemade enchilada sauce was found on www.finecooking.com and written by Robb Walsh.

I opted for a vegetarian recipe and my inspiration came from Everyday Mexican by Rick Bayless (a wonderful and simple to follow cookbook). I added a few tweaks, including the roasted Anaheim Chiles that gave the sauce little nibblets to chew.

It will not surprise anyone, who has read my posts, that I am a huge Rick Bayless fan (as raved about here), so this month's challenge was a regalo del cielo.

The first prep I did was to char-roast a few Anaheim peppers. It was too breezy to strike up the grill, but one of my favorite little cooking devices is this inside top-of-stove grill rack.
You could also use the oven on 400F, or a cooks torch (if you're very familiar with its use.) It's important to cook til the skin is completely black for optimum flavor, I find. When completely charred, remove from heat and quickly wrap in plastic wrap and set aside for a few minutes. The steaming inside the plastic helps make the cooked skins peel off so easily. When ready to continue, unwrap, split in half and remove core, seeds and stem.
Then peel, or use knife to help scrape, skin from the outside. Please resist washing the pepper as you'll wash away the very smokey flavor you just created. Slice the pepper and chop into medium pieces and hold for further use.

The next prep was to husk and chop the fresh green Tomatillo~

RECIPE: Tomatillo-Sauced Enchiladas with Spinach and Mushrooms - adapted and tweaked from Rick Bayless


Grilled (or oven roast at 450F, or stove top grill) 3 Anaheim peppers - seed, peel and chopped

SAUCE:
4 garlic cloves - peeled
6 med. tomatillos - shucked and cut in half
1 Jalapeno pepper
1 Serano pepper
1 cup Fresh Cilantro - chopped large

1 Tbls. oil,
2 cups Veggie (or chicken) stock


In a blender, puree: garlic, tomatillos, peppers and cilantro.
In a saucepan, heat: oil, then add puree and cook til smooth and thick (about 5-7 minutes)
Add the stock and simmer for 10 Minutes, stirring.
Hold and keep warm while prepping filling (or you can refrigerate and reheat later).

FILLING:
1 cup sliced mushrooms (bella, shitake, etc)
1 red onion, thinly sliced
6-8 oz. fresh baby spinach
1-2 Tbls. oil
salt/pepper

8 Corn Tortillas
3 Tbls. Sour Cream
1 cup crumbled Queso Fresco (or other Mexican cheese, goat cheese, or feta)

In a large skillet, heat the oil on Med-High. Add the mushrooms, cook til browned, and add the onions (holding out a few for garnish). Continue cooking til onions are soft. Add the spinach and stir often as the leaves wilt - about a minute or so. Season with salt/pepper, cover and remove from heat.

In the saucepan with the Enchilada sauce, add most of the chopped chiles (keeping some for garnish), and the sour cream and stir to combine.
Dip each tortilla into the sauce and place flat on plate. Add a little filling down each center of the tortillas, roll up and lay on a plate seam side down. Spoon the sauce over the top of rolled tortillas, sprinkle with crumbled cheese, onions and more chopped cilantro. Serve immediately.
I've made hand-made Corn Tortilla before and always have a blast doing it. It is much easier than you think, once you get your rhythm going.

A lesson I learned a while back was to NOT substitute just any corn flour to make tortillas. The corn flour used for tortillas, and tamales, etc. has been treated so you must find the right kind and then, it couldn't be easier. I used a brand I found in a common grocery store, although well stocked with Mexican ingredients. Maseca makes Masa Harina that is sold in a large yellow and beige bag usually found with wheat flours.

RECIPE for CORN TORTILLAS: adapted from Rick Bayless

1 3/4 cups Masa Harina
1 + 2 Tbls. hot tap water

Mix these together, by hand, in a large bowl until completely combined and making a dough.

Cover and rest for 15 minutes. Divide the dough into golf-ball size balls in the palm of your hand.

Using a Tortilla Press (or a heavy cast iron skillet) and two pieces of plastic wrap (a large ziploc bag cut apart makes the perfect weight for this) press each ball into about 5" circles.

With each press, peel the top plastic off and lay the plastic aside - then place the dough circle down on your flat palm and peel away the remaining plastic from the top. Place each tortilla on a hot griddle pan (see picture for my favorite one to use) that has been heated to med.

Cook until it releases, about 30 seconds, flip and move to a hotter part of the griddle and cook on each side for another 30-45 seconds each side. If it puffs a bit, just press down gently with a spatula.

As each tortilla is done, remove carefully from the griddle and place in a towel to keep warm. I usually cover the towel with foil for extra heat containment.

My family barely spoke during this dinner, we were all so enthralled with the flavors and brightness of these Tomatillo and Chile Sauced Enchiladas.
I used the leftover corn tortillas as baked chips the next night with a quick guacamole. ¡Olé!