Chicken Chilaquiles

Chris and I both love Mexican food. I say that if I had to pick one type of food to eat for the rest of my life, I would choose Mexican. We recently purchased the cookbook "Authentic Mexican" by Rick Bayless. Everything looks so delicious and the cookbook really teaches you about the different types of cuisine in Mexican food. The first thing we tried was Chicken Chilaquiles. The dish turned out great, I think I could eat tomatillo sauce everyday. This weekend we might attempt Tamales. mmm...I can't wait.

recipe adapted from Rick Bayless Authentic Mexican

Chilaquiles recipe
6 corn tortillas
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 1/2 cups tomatillo sauce- see recipe below
1/2 cup boneless cooked chicken shredded- see below
1/4 cup cream
2 tablespoons queso fresco

First you need to make the tomatillo sauce

Tomatillo Sauce
11 fresh tomatillos
2 chiles jalapenos
5 sprigs cilantro
1 small onion chopped
1 garlic clove chopped
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
2 cups chicken broth
salt for taste

Place the tomatillos in a pan with water that just covers them. Boil them for about 10-15 minutes or until tender. Place the tomatillos, jalapenos, cilantro, onion and garlic in a blender. Blend until it's nice and smooth. After blending, heat the vegetable oil in a pan and pour the sauce in the pan. Stir this constantly for 5 minutes or until the sauce is thicker and has darkened. Now, add the chicken broth. Return the sauce to a boil and then reduce the heat to medium and cook until you can coat a spoon with the sauce.

For this recipe you will poach the chicken.

Chicken
small onion chopped
3 cups water
1-2 medium chicken breast- depending on how big and how much chicken you want
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1 bay leaf

Put all of the ingredients in a pot and bring them to a boil. Simmer for about 13 minutes. Turn off the heat and let the chicken cool. When the chicken is cool enough to handle, shred with a fork and knife on a cutting board.

Now it is time to put it all together. Cut the tortillas into eighths. You want them to be dry, if they are still moist you can dry them in the oven for a little at 350 degrees. Pour 1/3 cup oil into a pan and when it is hot place half of the tortillas into the pan. Turn them often until they are lightly browned. Place them on a paper towel to let them drain. Keep doing this till you have cooked them all.

Once you have all the tortillas cooked, clean the oil out of the pan. Return all of the tortillas pieces to the pan. Pour in the sauce and chicken. Stir it all up and simmer for a few minutes.
Fill up your bowl or plate and sprinkle a little queso fresco on top and enjoy!

Apple Galette

When we were in Portland this past September we had the best galette ever. We went to the Saturday farmers market and they had the most delicious food there. I was so surprised at how amazing the farmers market was. All of the different types of fruits and veggies and the most amazing food. When we got back home, we were determined to make a delicious galette. Guess what, they aren't hard to make. It is so simple. If you need to make a quick dessert, this is it.

crust
1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoons sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, chilled, cut into 1/2–inch pieces

filling
2 apple- I did 1 fuji and 1 golden delicious. Peeled and sliced thin.
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
some almond slices for topping

Combine the flour, sugar and salt in a large mixing bowl. Add the pieces of butter, you need to cut it into the flour mixture. I use my hands to get it all mixed in. The dough should be crumbly when it is fully incorporated. Add 4 tablespoons ice water to the mixture and mix well. I knead the dough in the bowl. Some people may find it easier to place it on a board. I just roll it around in the bowl. Once you have formed a ball with the dough, wrap the entire ball in plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.

After refrigerating the dough, it is time to roll it out. Sprinkle some flour onto a board and roll the dough out with a rolling pin. I rolled mine into a rectangle, but you could do a circle too. I forgot how fragile pie crust is, so be careful.

Once the dough is rolled out, place it on a parchment lined pan. Now you can fill the crust with delicious toppings. You can change this recipe up with whatever you have in the fridge. I used apples then sprinkled sugar and cinnamon on top.

Once you have filled it up, simply fold the corners up. Try not to get any holes, because you don't want any of the yummy juices to escape. Place in a 400 degree oven for 40 minutes. Lower your rack to one of the lowest notches. I sprinkled sliced almonds on top about 15 minutes before the galette was done baking. This was the simplest most delicious desert!

Soft Pretzels

Wow, has the summer flown by! We have been so busy. We went to Portland, OR for 10 days and it was amazing, especially the food. The restaurants in Portland don't mess around. We went to Newport, a small city on the coast, hiked mount St. Helens, which erupted 3 days before I was born(interesting fact). We also went to the Columbia Gorge and saw some amazing waterfalls. We went to some great wineries and brought home four bottles. Three bottles from Cor Cellars and 1 bottle from Syncline. Now, we are back home and hopefully we will have more time to post some delicious treats. We also stayed with Chris's good friend Steve Jones of Steve's Cheese. His cheese shop is amazing. If you live in the area, or ever visit, you must go there! Ok, on to the pretzels. I have always wanted to make these and I got more inspiration after we bought some delicious pretzel rolls from the farmers market. I combined a few different recipes.

2 cups warm water
1 tablespoon sugar
2 teaspoons yeast
5 cups flour- I used 3 white and 2 wheat.
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons unsalted butter softened.
1/4 cup baking soda
salt to sprinkle on top- When we were in Portland, we bought some fancy salt from The Meadow. Who knew there could be so many different types of salt?

Mix the warm water and sugar in a bowl, once it has dissolved add in the yeast and mix. Let it stand for about 5-10 minutes. It should get foamy.

In a separate glass bowl mix the flour and salt. Crumble the butter into the flour with your fingers and get it mixed together really well.

Pour the yeast mixture into the flour. I used a spatula to mix. I use the spatula to start the kneading process. If it is too wet, feel free to sprinkle in a little more flour. Once mixed, get your hands in and knead it. Some people prefer to knead on a board, but I usually just do it in the bowl. After you have kneaded the dough, give it a light coat of olive oil. I take the dough out of the bowl and pour a little olive oil into the bottom of the bowl and then return the dough to the bowl and roll it around to coat. Cover the bowl and let the dough rise for 30-40 minutes.

It is time to make pretzels! Remove the dough from the bowl cut the dough into 12 pieces. Roll each piece between the palms of your hands till they are each about 18 inches in length. Form a U-shape and then twist the 2 ends and then press them into the bottom of the U. The picture may help with this. Place them on parchment paper.

Once you have them all shaped into little pretzels it's time to start boiling the water. Also heat your oven to 475 degrees. Get out a large pot and fill it with about 2 inches of water, once it is boiling add in 1/4 cup of baking soda. Stand back because it does get pretty foamy. You can reduce the heat, so you have nice simmer. Place the pretzels into the water, cook for about 1 minute on each side. I used a wide slotted spatula to remove them from the boiling water. Place each pretzel on a baking rack. After they come out of the water you can sprinkle a little salt on the top. Once you have filled a baking pan with pretzels, place it in the oven for 11-15 minutes. They are delicious straight out of the oven. When I first took a bite, I was like, yeah, this tastes like a pretzel...so good!

Lamb Spare Ribs

This summer has flown by, I can't even believe that it is September. The weather here in Chicago was very mild, which is very strange. We were able to grill out at least a few times. Neither of us had ever cooked with any type of ribs, so we were excited about the Challenge. One Sunday we went to the Wickerpark farmers market and picked up some Lamb Spare ribs. The sign said, great for grilling. and that is what we did. We were shocked at how delicous this meat was. It was so tender.

Recipe

lamb spare ribs
salt
pepper
carrots
garlic
onion
fennel
fresh rosemary
fresh sage

First you salt and pepper the ribs. Then place on the grill for about 5 minutes a side.


After you have grilled the ribs you want to place them in either parchment paper or a french oven. Now you want to pile in all the veggies and herbs. The more the merrier and you can totally experiment with what you put in here.

Now you want to bake at 350 degrees for about 1-1/2 hours. After this time you will want to separate the meat from the herbs and veggies. You can go ahead and eat it now or you can place the meat back on the grill to give the ribs a nice little char. This meat is so delicious, because of the slow cooking in the oven it comes out so tender and succulent.

Potato and Green Bean Salad

Yes, it's another salad. But I can't get enough of all the goodies at the farmers market, and salads are an easy way to combine a bunch of fresh veggies. I don't know how I survive in the winter without all the delicious fresh produce. I think in the summer I could be a vegetarian because there are so many fresh things to eat.

Recipe
1 1/2 pound potatoes, we have been trying all sorts of different kinds. use whatever you have.
10 ounces green beans
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar, check out Bari foods, they have great oils and vinegars.
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1.4 teaspoon dijon mustard
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 cup olive oil
4 scallions chopped thinly
2 teaspoons chopped thyme

Make sure to scrub the potatoes first.Then place the potatoes in a pan with a little salt and enough water to just cover the potatoes. Bring to a simmer and cook for about 12-15 minutes, till you can poke a knife easily through them. Add the green beans to the pot and cook for about 2-3 minutes longer. I like my green beans snappy, so I don't cook them for that long.


In a large bowl combine the vinegar, lemon juice, sugar, mustard, pepper and 1 teaspoon salt. Whisk in the olive oil and get it all mixed up. Now its time to toss in the potatoes and beans, get all coated nicely. I sort of mashed a few of the potatoes with a fork just to add some texture. Lastly you want to add in the scallions ans thyme.
You can eat this as a meal or a side. Earlier, I said I could be a vegetarian in the summer, but I did eat this as a side with a bratwurst on pretzel bread, it was so so so delicious. I didn't make the pretzel bread, but it is on my list of things I want to try!

Potato, Bacon & Leek Soup

Chris came home from the farmers market with some delicious looking potatoes and leeks. I sort of wanted to make a quiche, but I decided on a soup. I know soup in the summer is a little strange, but our summer had been really cold. It is just starting to get hot here. The other day our friend Stacie was over and we were talking about her CSA and she was saying how she loved getting all the fruits and veggies. We got to talking about how our perception of what vegetables and fruit should look like is so off. Because everything we see at the store had been altered. Stacie got some strawberries in her CSA, when she opened the box, she saw these really small and sort of white berries, immediately she thought something was wrong with them. But no nothing was wrong, just her perception has been skewed from all the altered food that we see. She said they were the most delicious strawberries. Below you will see some of the potatoes I used for the soup, they had the best shape and I guarantee you would never see them in the grocery store, cause people would think something was wrong with them.

Recipe

2 tablespoons butter
4 strips bacon- chop them up, I used a scissors.
2 leeks
1/2 cup white wine
5 cups chicken stock
1 pound potatoes
1 teaspoon salt
pepper
a few sprigs thyme
2 bay leaves

Trim the leeks and make sure to rinse under water to get rid of any dirt or sand, then chop them up.

Scrub the potatoes and chop them up.

Get a stockpot out and melt the butter and then add in the bacon, cook for about 5-6 minutes. Then add in the leeks, cook until they are wilted, about 5 minutes. Now you can add the wine and bring it to a boil. Add in the chicken stock, potatoes, salt and pepper, thyme and bay leaves. Bring this all to a boil and then simmer for 30 minutes. The potatoes should be very soft.

Its time to make it all smooth. Now this is a little tricky, well it isn't if you have an immersion blender, but we don't. We used the good old fashioned one. But when you pour the soup into the blender you need to do this in batches, cause it won't all fit in the blender. We did not do this and ended up with a big mess.

Once it is all smoothed up, pour into bowl and top with chives and creme fraiche, if you have some!

Summer Salad

Mark Bittman inspired me to make a delicious salad. His article in the nytimes is fabulous. We have been trying more and more to eliminate processed foods. The salad article is a great way to make new things with fruit, veggies and even fish. I have book club tonight, and we are having it on the beach, so I thought a fresh salad would be great.

recipe
1 cucumber
2 tomatoes
small onion
1 clove garlic
1/2 lemon-for the juice
1/4 cup kalamata olives
olive oil
feta cheese
salt and pepper

This is very simple, chop everything up and mix it well. One thing I learned from Mark Bittman, when making a salad dressing you just need a fat and a acid and a flavor. For this I used olive oil, lemon and garlic.

I enjoyed taking pictures of the delicious ingredients as much as I did making the salad.