Quick Mexican Pizza

Sometimes you find that you have several things to use up in a short time frame, and that's exactly what happened here -- I had a small avocado that needed to be used that day, some leftover bacon bits, and some shredded West Indies chicken breast. I was thinking of baked potatoes but wound up coming up with this much lower carb version. Forgive the poor lighting, but it's delicious just to look at.

You can vary the amounts of each ingredient to suit what you have on hand as long as you maintain a balance; the tortilla will be thin and crispy, so sometimes minimalist is best. You will need:

1 large tortilla
2-3 tbsp enchilada sauce
1/2 cup shredded monterrey jack cheese
2 tbsp finely diced red onion
3 oz precooked white meat chicken, cut into cubes or shredded
1 small avocado or 1/2 large avocado, diced
homemade bacon bits to taste

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees and put the tortilla on a nonstick cookie sheet. Add the enchilada sauce, cheese, chicken, and bacon bits, and turn the heat down to 420 once you put the tortilla in. Let it bake for 5-6 minutes or until the edges are becoming brown and the cheese is melted. When it's hot, add the diced avocado and red onion. Cut into triangles and serve with salsa or sour cream.

Mexican Lasagna

No, I'm not a racist for calling it Mexican lasagna -- you can never be racist against lasagna. If I wanted to be more politically correct I could call it Enchilada Lasagna but it's more than that. It incorporates many of the staple foods of the central American region like corn, potatoes and beans; although my ingredients inevitably come out of a bag or jar, even if it's a produce bag, this is pretty much as authentic as you can get whilst striving to be fancy. There's not much Americanized about this except the fact that it's made in...gasp...a CASSEROLE DISH! I have recently realized that I could be the goddess of casseroles, but that's another entry and you probably knew that already if you've read the rest of my blog.

I wanted to make a few notes here about ingredients. Don't ever subject yourself to corn tortillas that do not resemble something made out of corn -- it should look like a big round raw corn chip rather than a stiff version of a white tortilla. The latter have no flavor, no fiber and simply are wrong, wrong, wrong. Also, I use Frontera enchilada sauce because it's the best and my attempts haven't come close. However, feel free to use any sauce you like, just keep the sugar far, far away. It amazes me how many "real" Mexican restaurants around here put sugar in their enchilada sauce. It's gross and that's why I make things like this at home instead.

Alas, the beans. I've taken a liking to dried beans, although they're much trickier to work with. They're cheap too. The night before you want to make this, take a cup of dried black beans and pick through them to remove any that are split, broken or shriveled. Sometimes there are little stones in there so be vigilant. Rinse them off then soak them in a big bowl of cold water overnight. If you don't feel like all that, use a 16 oz can of black beans rinsed well.

You will need:

1 cup dry black beans, soaked overnight OR 1 can black beans, rinsed
2 cloves of garlic, uncut
1 1/2 tbsp taco/burrito seasoning (some variation of paprika, red chili flakes, cumin, etc.)
4-5 small potatoes like fingerlings, cut into bite sized pieces
2 cups chicken or vegetable stock
1 tsp salt
12 corn tortillas
oil for frying
2 cups enchilada sauce
2 cups pepper jack cheese, shredded
3/4 cup crumbled queso fresco


Take the black beans and mix with the stock, garlic, taco seaoning, salt and potatoes. Cover and simmer over medium- low heat in a medium saucepan for about an hour -- you want the beans to retain a firmness but not be crunchy either. Keep checking on them and stirring. In the meantime, take a skillet that's slightly larger than your tortillas and heat about half an inch of oil over medium heat in it. Once it's reached the right temperature, slide the tortillas into it and allow to fry for a few seconds. This may take some practice if you've never done it before, you want to fry just enough to make them pliable, so that's usually about 5 seconds. Much more and you'll just get really stiff, crunchy tortillas and those are harder to work with. Place them on a plate and allow to cool, this can take up to half an hour.

Preheat the oven to 415. Using a casserole dish, press 2-3 of the tortillas into the bottom and sides. Pluck the cloves of garlic from the beans (or mash them up and put them back in) and put about a quarter of the beans over the tortillas. Use 1/4 cup of the queso fresco over the beans, then enough enchilada sauce to cover topped with 1/2 cup of cheese. Repeat until you're out of tortillas, you don't have to put everything in exact order or use as much cheese as I did but you do want to make sure you've got the right amount of each ingredient. Leave the queso fresco off the top layer and finish it with enchilada sauce and some of the jack cheese. Let it bake for about half an hour, but keep checking to make sure the edges aren't burning. Take it out once the top gets bubbly and slightly browned.

Allow to cool for at least 30 more minutes. It's a little less runny than regular lasagna but not by much. Some people like a dollop of sour cream on the side. This also makes for great leftovers and holds its shape pretty well.

Veggie Enchiladas

I love enchiladas, and I tend to be a purist when it comes to what I enjoy -- a slightly spicy sauce, melted cheese with beans and maybe some onion wrapped in a fresh corn tortilla served piping hot. However, I know most people prefer a bit more punch to theirs so in this recipe I've added some more vegetables, feel free to omit them or add your own. I should also add that this is one of the few recipes that has turned out phenomenal on the first try; it is traditional but it's also hard to go wrong.

It's interesting to note that this is essentially one of the oldest foods in existence in the Western hemisphere. Way before the colonization and eventual invasion of North, South and Central America by the Europeans one of the staple crops was maize. They also heavily utilized various potatoes in regions of South America, but that's another entry. Corn has a complex nutritional structure and needs to be crushed to "activate" these -- the minerals the Native Americans (referring to all 3 Americas) in the stones used to do the crushing couldn't have hurt either. The practice of wrapping corn tortillas around fish originated in Mexico; the recipe for enchiladas also appeared in the first Mexican cookbook: El cocinero mexicano ("The Mexican Chef"). With basic staple ingredients and simple preparation, this traditional food has undergone very few changes since its invention centuries ago.



Ingredients:

3 tbsp vegetable oil
6 corn tortillas
1/2 onion, finely diced
1/3c finely chopped mushrooms
1c enchilada sauce (you can make your own or get it from a jar, I get mine from the jar. Frontero mild to be exact!)
~1 1/2 c shredded monterrey jack cheese

Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Using tongs, put a corn tortilla in and allow to heat for 2-3 seconds, then flip. Move to a paper towel and do the same with the rest of the tortillas. Mop up any extra grease with a paper towel. Do not turn off the heat.

Put the chili powder, mushrooms and onions in the skillet and cook, stirring often, until the surfaces begin to brown (5-10 minutes). Take off the heat and set aside.

Holding a tortilla in your hand, put some of the cheese and veggie mixture in the center of it. Fold one side 3/4 of the way over and roll it up. After a few tries this will come naturally. Transfer to a baking dish, repeat with the rest of the tortillas. Top with enchilada sauce and sprinkle with leftover cheese, if desired. Bake at 450 degrees until the cheese melts, around 5-10 minutes. Serve hot!

Southwest Salsa

This is one of my favorite salsa recipes because it's easy, the ingredients can be found in any grocery store, and it contains enough different flavors to put plain tomato salsa to shame. I encourage everyone to use as fresh of ingredients as they can find, but the only place where it really makes a difference is in the cilantro and tomatoes. Since I can't stand tomato seeds I pit mine beforehand, but if you don't mind them it doesn't make much of a difference. Enjoy!

Southwest Black Bean Salsa:
15 oz kidney beans
15 oz black beans
15 oz fresh or canned corn
1/2c chopped onion
2 tbsp finely chopped jalapenos
1 tbsp chopped fresh cilantro
1tsp vinegar
1 chipotle pepper, very finely chopped (one can usually contains 4-5 peppers)
15 oz diced tomatoes
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1/2 tbsp salt

Combine all ingredients. Allow to chill overnight. Who knew it could be this easy?!