Tostadas, Rice, and Many Leftovers

The tostadas were, of course, excellent but it was the rice recipe I created from two recipes in the cookbook that rocked my week.

The Best Spanish Rice in Illinois

Brown 1 onion and 2 coves garlic, both chopped, in cast iron with much Crisco.
Add 1 cup dry white rice. Brown for 10 mins or so.
Add 2 large tomatoes and 4 or 5 green chilies, all chopped.
Pour in 3 or so cups of chicken broth(how ever much comes in those fancy broth boxes)
Add some salt and pepper.
Bring to boil.
Reduce heat.
Let simmer uncovered until liquid is absorbed.
Try your hardest not to stir it.

It was pretty dang good!

With ample leftovers of chicken, tortillas, beans, and cheese I was able to make to following...

Chicken tacos (fried up con queso) with rice.
Chicken, bean, and cheese quesadillas with rice.
Chicken, bean, cheese and rice burritos.
Chicken, green chile, cheese sandwiches (grilled up and wonderful).

It was a good week.

On the left, my kitchen was a mess, which never happens. I blame the full moon. On the right, notice the huge bite taken out of the tostada. I guess Matt just couldn't wait! Also notice the fried-at-home tortillas. ;)

Tostadas

First two Dan ate...
He added a little salsa... My plate is prettier...
These are taken with my phone! I'm too lazy to get out my camera. That's why they are blurry.

Tostadas Estilo Patricia

Or: Tostadas in the style of Patricia (whoever that is!) I just call these YUMMY tostadas.

I cheated. I had no chicken so I used ground beef. OH MY GAWD! They were good. Dan ate FOUR!

Fry some corn tortillas until crisp and hard. Spread with refried beans. Then add in layers: Shredded boiled chicken, sliced avocados (or guacamole), sliced tomato, salte, grated Monterrey Jack chees, shreed lettuce, green chile sauce, top with sour cream.

Okay, this is how I did it :)

Bought some tostada shells at the store. Made refritos from some leftover beans. Fried up some ground beef. Combined the beans and ground beef (stays on the tostada better that way). Sprinkled cheese on top. Put them in the oven until the cheese melted. Then, I added chopped onion, lettuce, tomato, and put a HUGE dollop of guacamole on top. Served them with salsa on the side. I must say, I could eat them again tonight. Too bad there weren't any left over!

Sopa De Mexico Recipe

1 Pound Pork Loin
2 T. Fat
1.5 Cups canned corn
2 cups chopped zucchini
4 large tomatoe peeled and chopped
2 quarts beef stock
1 t. salt
1/2 t. pepper
1 to 2 ounces Monterrey Jack cheese
2 avocados, peeled and sliced
Cut the pork into small prtions and fry in fat fifteen to twenty minutes, pouring off fat as it accumulates. Five mintues before removing, add corn, zucchini and tomoatos. Heat stock, add meat and vegetables and simmer, covered, thirty minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Before serving add cheese and avacado slices.

OR (this is how I made it):

Fry the pork and put it in the beef stock. Simmer it for a really long time while you watch movies and do laundry so it will be really tender. Saute the corn in butter. Remove it and saute the zucchini, remove it and saute the tomatoes. Put all the sauted stuff in with the simmering pork and simmer for a few more minutes. I didn't add the cheese but I did add the avacado!

Sopa De Mexico

This soup is DELICIOUS! I will post the recipe tomorrow. Don't have the cookbook with me. As Sarah said, it IS simple and delicious. I made cornbread with it. I added 4 HOT green chiles to the cornbread mix. I ate THREE pieces.

Mexican Soup

I kept thinking I was leaving something out. This recipe -- which someone, as she lies in bed all sickly and bored, will hopefully supply readers with later -- was beautifully simple and quite tasty.


I was brave and included the cheese cubes, although that doesn't mean I ate them! I also simmered the crap out of it all for about and hour and a half instead of the half hour the recipe suggests.


I think we will enjoy these left overs far more than we did the Tamale Pie. The meal itself wasn't very photogenic, despite my killer plating skills, so I have included instead a picture of my new dining "room". Above is a close-up of my new table cloth. I wish I had a matching apron...

Bunuelos

I forgot to mention that I made bunuelos from the cookbook on Saturday night! They were muy bien!! I cut the recipe in fourth. The recipe made 24 bunuelos. I made 6. Also, I didn't roll them out as thin as the recipe called for because they were sticky and I couldn't roll them. I probably didn't alter the recipe perfectly and put too much water in the dough. Anyway, they were so good I ate five of them. Dan ate one!! They puffed up to about 1/2 inch in thickness so they weren't crispy like they should have been. But, they were very good. I will definately be making them again. Next time I may try to make them thinner. Also, the recipe said to punch a hole in the middle. Didn't do that, either, because of the stickiness. They were like fried dougnuts without a hole and sort of "eggy" (due to the eggs in the recipe!) Recipe and page number to follow at another time.

Tamale Pie (Oklahoma Style)

I should have known from the title…

This dish was not good, at least it wasn't good on the first day. Today, the third day, it is tolerable. The recipe should have had us refrigerate the concoction for 24 hours before eating. It helps the mush set up a bit and resemble pie, slightly.

What was absolutely great about this meal -- and what actually made it a meal -- was my very successful attempt at refried beans. The cookbook gives a recipe for pinto beans y refritos, but neither seemed very interesting. Instead, I tried to make pinto beans as close as possible to my mommy's and then mashed them up in a skillet with much butter, vigor, and zest. I bought and used salt pork for the first time, which was exciting…probably only to me. I also put four cloves of garlic in there, some onion (just the spare parts from the Tamale pie onion), a little cumin, and a lot of pepper. Amazing.

I'm not sure it's even worth the time to provide our readers -- who am I kidding? reader -- with the recipe, but I will do so for the opportunity to annotate it with ingredients I added to make this mush into flavorful mush. Also, this is a good opportunity to point out how badly written this recipe was, as many of them are. Gives the book character, I guess.

"Tamale Pie (Oklahoma Style)

1 c cornmeal
4 c water, 1 t salt
1 medium onion
1 green bell or chile pepper [I used a green-orange bell pepper and four or five green chilies]
3 t cooking oil [reserved meat grease]
2.5 c cooked tomatoes [Mexican festival Rotel]
1 t salt
dash cayenne or chile powder [A dash equals a tablespoon or two. Like mother like daughter. ]
[garlic? yes, lots.]
[cumin? sure!]

Cook corn meal, water and salt in top of double boiler for 45 mins. Chop onion and pepper and fry in hot oil. Add tomatoes, meat, salt and cayenne or chile and cook until thickened. Line greased baking dish with half the mush [RED FLAG: this meal will not be good. It will instead be mush.] pour in meat mixture, cover with remaining mush and bake in hot oven [oh, a hot oven. Good idea!] (375 degrees). 30 min. or until top is slightly browned [adding some cheese to the top is not a bad idea either]. Serves 6 to 8. Use 3 cups of cooked rice instead of first 3 ingredients, if desired [yuck]."


I don't have an opinion on what we cook next, just mo' beans please!

Pastel de tamal

Monday night Sarah and I used the same recipe from Cocinando en dos Idiomas (Cooking in Spanish and English). Sarah chose the recipe on page 106 for Tamale Pie. As I cooked I remembered that my Aunt Bessie used to make Tamale Pie. This was the same type of dish only she used bisquit dough for the crust. This recipe called for cooked cornmeal.

I had my doubts about this recipe when I read the ingredients for the meat mixture that went between the cooked cornmeal. BELL PEPPERS??? I substituted 7 roasted green chiles (HOT not mild). Instead of a "dash" of chile powder I used two tablespoons. I was trying to turn gringo cooking into a mexican dish! I don't think I would try making this again. But, if I did, I would use masa harina so the batter would be more like that of a tamal instead of like corn mush.

This dish was like sloppy joes in corn pone. It was not good. HOWEVER, the corn mush with butter and sugar I ate before I compiled the cassarole was DELICIOSO!

I get to choose the next one!