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Saturday, February 17, 2007
We got to have some really awesome Mexican food in TN - yeah, I said TN! Not at a restaurant, mind you, but at the Igarashi's house. Gena makes a mean Flat Taco (ok, she calls them tostadas, and I am gonna be in trouble for calling them flat tacos, but that's just too Taco-Bellish for me!...). Her meat was wonderful and so was the Mexican Corn dish, which I had never had before.
We're not mexican by heritage, but I suppose we consider ourselves connoiseurs of mexican food, since Matt grew up in NM with his Grandma and his Mom making homemade, authentic mexican food, and then we lived there for about 10 years. We do not do the canned mexican foods or the already-folded taco shells. No, we cook the corn tortillas ourselves and make beans, rice, sauces and meats ourselves, from scratch. Ok, I do use canned green chiles sometimes, but we clean red chiles and prepare the sauce from the pods.
I hope to make some corn tortillas from scratch someday soon... anyone have a good recipe? And, something I know Matt likes, but I have never made is tamales. He used to get them from a little lady selling them to the business at lunchtime in NM. I'm sure it's pretty simple; I just don't have a recipe for that either and haven't looked for one, so I haven't done it yet.
Here are the Mexican Food/Recipes info I have for our Enchiladas, etc. If you know me, you know I guesstimate, so adjust it as you need to.
Corn tortillas, about 3 per person
2 C. Red or Green Sauce (recipes below)
1 1/2 lbs. Ground Sirloin, browned
1 lb. Monterey Jack cheese, shredded
sea salt, to taste
Bake corn tortillas in single layer in the oven.
You could pan-fry them in a skillet, if you prefer, but we have found this is just as good, without the added oil and takes less time.
You can layer enchiladas into a 9x13 pan or on individual plates.
Put a spot of Red or Green Sauce on the plate/dish
Dip the corn tortilla into the sauce, place it on the plate.
Layer Sirloin, cheese and tortillas, until you have as many on the plate as desired.
Place pan/glass plate in oven to melt the cheese, if you wish.
Serves 8.
Serve with Mexican Rice, Pinto Beans, Whole Wheat Tortillas and a Green Salad
Red Chile Sauce:
You can already have your red sauce prepared. If you do it in bulk, it makes it easier.
water
2-3 cloves garlic
onion
cumin
You will want to clean the Red chile pods with warm water before you start.
Tear the meat from the stems and clean the seeds out.
Put the chiles into a saucepan. Add water to cover them. Cook them until they are tender.
When they are tender, cool them a bit. Put them into the food processor or blender a bit at a time with some of the juice and puree them.
You can add onion, cumin to season.
We usually just freeze them in small-medium-sized bags, but you can always can them.
Just make sure you make it a portion-size for your family to break open.
Green Chile Sauce
1 chicken breast
(I use this instead of a can of cream of chicken soup)
1 clove garlic
1/2 c. onion
1/2 c. Dried milk
2 c. water
1/2 c. green chiles, diced
1 tsp. cumin
Cook the chicken in a bit of water. Dice it up and puree it in a processor or blender.
Add broth/water if it gets too pasty. Add garlic and onion to processor.
Pour into mixing bowl.
Mix dried milk with water or use watever milk you normally use and mix into into chicken.
Add green chiles and cumin.
Mexican Rice
2 c. brown rice
3 1/2 c. water
1/2 c. tomato paste
1 clove garlic
Brown rice in iron skillet. Mix water and tomato paste. Dice garlic and add.
Stir rice to outsides of pan and slowly pour tomato/garlic mixture into center of pan, stirring.
Bring rice to boil. Simmer on low until water is gone, about 20m.
Fluff with fork and serve with your favorite mexican dish.
Pinto Beans
2 c. pinto beans
5 c. water
1 clove garlic, chopped
1 small onion, chopped
cumin, if desired
sea salt, to taste
Mix all ingredients into boiling pot. Cook until beans are tender.
Add more water if you want more juice. We like more juice, to spoon it iver the enchiladas.
*If you want to serve this in place of a meat dish, it is good with potato chunks in it, topped with cheese. Is great served with Whole Wheat Tortillas, below.
Making Your Own Flour Tortillas from Grandma (Judi) Starr
Ingredients:
3 cups whole wheat flour
2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp sea salt
5 Tbsp oil, butter or lard
About 1 ¼ cups warm water
Mix dry ingredients in large bowl. (We actually use our bread machine on dough setting.) Add oil. Use a fork (or pastry cutter) to cut shortening into the dry mixture until it becomes crumbly. Add water and mix until the dough forms a ball. (use your hands ) to knead until smooth and elastic, about 5 minutes. Cover bowl and let set for at least 10 minutes: 30 minutes is better.
Divide the dough into 12 equal portions (½ , then ½ again then 1/3’s worked best for me.)
Use a rolling pin and roll out into an 8 “ circle on a lightly floured surface, layering the circles between sheets of plastic wrap as you go.
*It works best to keep circles if you roll it and turn it a 1/2 turn each time.
To cook the tortillas, heat a heavy skillet, griddle, or comal over high heat just until it begins to smoke. Place a tortilla in the skillet and cook for 30 seconds. Turn and cook other side for about 30 seconds.
Remove immediately and continue until all tortillas are cooked, stacking them as you go.
Best served immediately…
Recipe makes 12 tortillas
Please email me if I left something out.... LOL, and I will fix it!!
Be Blessed!
Jacque
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Saturday, February 17, 2007 - Untitled Comment
Posted by Arla
Thanks for the recipes. Where did you live in NM? We live in Texas along the NM border. We eat lots of mexican food around here. I make our flour tortillas using a flat bread maker. Enjoyed looking at your blog.
Arla
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