Category Archives: supper

Tamales

lunch, supper 5 Comments

It’s another recipe from The Cousin! You remember her, right? The Cousin of Salsa Roja fame? Yeah, that girl. So you know it’ll be good. Let’s get to it!

Before you do anything, get a bunch of corn husks soaking in water.

You will need for the tamale sauce:

  • 3 tablespoons oregano
  • 4 tablespoons cumin
  • 2 onions, quartered
  • 2 cloves garlic
  • 3 oz. package dried Ancho chiles
  • 3 oz. package dried California chiles
  1. Bloom the oregano and cumin in olive oil: warm a bit of olive oil in a small skillet, and toss in the spices; stir till you just start to smell them, then remove from heat
  2. Put onions, garlic and chiles in a large pot and cover with water. Bring to a boil, then let it rest
  3. When cooled off, run through a food processor, then warm back up
  4. When hot again, add 2 tablespoons sugar, and salt to taste

For the tamale masa:

  • 1 cup grease, Crisco, or pork fat (I had bacon grease in the fridge, of course)
  • 3 cups dried corn masa (such as Maseca)
  • 1/2 tablespoon baking powder
  • 1/2 tablespoon salt
  • 1/2 cup tamale sauce (above)
  1. Beat grease in a stand mixer with the paddle attachment
  2. Mix dry ingredients in a separate bowl
  3. Add tamale sauce to dry ingredients
  4. Add a bit of water if it looks too dry — you want it to feel kind of like Playdoh
  5. Slowly add mixture to grease in stand mixer and mix until smooth; add more water or dry masa as necessary

To make your tamales:

  1. Remove husks from water and pat dry (don’t have to completely dry, just make them a little easier to handle)
  2. Spread masa on smooth side of husks
  3. Put filling in the middle of the masa; roll the husk tightly, then fold up the end (see video here — not mine — for a very quick demonstration)
  4. Stand them upright, open side up, in a tamale or vegetable steamer for 90 minutes. Fantastic hint from The Cousin: put pennies in the bottom of your pot under the steamer; if they start clanging around you’ll know you need to add more water

After they’re finished cooking, discard husks and serve with your tamale sauce. SO YUMMY, and great comfort food for the cold weather upon us. Enjoy!

Mojo fajitas

lunch, supper 1 Comment

Hungry yet?

This was one of the prettiest dishes! We had a couple straggler peppers in the garden and some yummy skirt steak in the fridge.  Add in some shrimp, some onions, some mojo sauce and a squeeze of lime, and life is good.

It was the weekend so the Yankee and I made this together. Into a large bowl we put:

  • Thinly-sliced skirt steak (cut against the grain, not with it)
  • Sliced red peppers
  • Sliced green peppers
  • Chopped jalapeños
  • Enough mojo marinade to cover
  • Shrimp in mojo marinade in a separate bowl

And let that sit a couple hours. Then you’re ready to cook!

  1. Put a large skillet over medium heat and add about a tablespoon of oil
  2. Pour off most of the marinade (you don’t want things swimming in the skillet), then pour the meat/peppers mix into the skillet
  3. Cook and stir until meat is almost cooked and vegetables are starting to get tender
  4. Add in shrimp (you’re doing this last so it won’t overcook) and continue to cook the whole mix until everything is done
  5. Squeeze a lime over the whole thing and eat up! Serve with homemade tortillas, mashed black beans and fire roasted salsa or salsa roja.

Chili

lunch, slow cooker, supper 3 Comments

This, like a lot of my recipes, is cobbled together from so many different recipes and word of mouth that I’m not even sure where it started. It involves my Mama’s concoction of spices, though, so it’s awesome. And spicy. Feel free to tone down the spices and add more later if it looks like too much!

  • 1 lb. breakfast sausage
  • 1 lb. ground chuck
  • 1 medium chopped onion
  • 1 can condensed tomato soup
  • 1 can dark kidney beans
  • 1 can light kidney beans
  • 2 cans diced tomatoes
  • 1 can Rotel
  • 1 small can green chiles
  • 1/3 cup chili powder
  • 1 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 1/2 tsp paprika
  • 1 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
  • 2 tsp garlic powder
  • 1 tsp cumin
  • 1 tsp oregano
  • Water or beer

To assemble:

  1. Brown the meats and onion together till the meat is cooked through
  2. Add all the cans and all the spices and stir well
  3. Adjust consistency as you like it — add a little beer or water till it looks just right
  4. Simmer at will. I love this cooked all day in the slow cooker, or on the stove top in a heavy pan (such as a cast iron dutch oven)
  5. Serve with cheese, Fritos, and cornbread!

Pizza Rolls

kids, lunch, snacks, supper 22 Comments

I was trying to get the kiddo to bed one day this week, and I was thinking about cinnamon rolls. Look, I’m not proud, but that’s what it was. Then I was thinking that it would behoove me to actually think about what to make for supper the next day instead. And then I was thinking that I had dough in the fridge that I should use.

And then I was thinking about pizza rolls.

So the next day, here’s what I took out:

  • My icebox dough (you can also buy dough in the deli at Publix, which I love)
  • Pizza sauce (pick your favorite)
  • Pepperoni, chopped (or whatever toppings float your boat – but chopped so it’s easier to slice through)
  • Mozzarella cheese
  • Dental floss (but not for what you think)

From there it was easy!

  1. Preheat the oven to 350
  2. Roll out the dough into a rectangle
  3. Top with a thin layer of sauce — you don’t want things getting soggy
  4. Sprinkle with chopped pepperoni (etc.) and cheese
  5. Roll it up! I rolled from the short end because I didn’t need to end up with that many rolls — just the Yankee and I were eating
  6. Break out the dental floss and use it to cut the rolls: slide the floss under the roll, cross the ends over the top like you’re going to tie a knot, then pull them all the way through the dough so the floss is straight again; this slices it clean and keeps your rolls from getting flattened as you slice
  7. Place the rolls in an oiled casserole dish with the pretty sides showing (if you’re making these for a party and want them easier to handle individually bake them in a muffin tray instead)
  8. Sprinkle the top with more cheese
  9. Bake at 350F till the cheese on top is melty and bubbly

Enjoy!

Homemade corn tortillas

lunch, supper, tools 3 Comments

I have a new toy! After doing a few batches of flour tortillas rolled out by hand, I realized that, um, I’m not very good at rolling out an actual circle. I bought this cast iron tortilla press from Amazon and I love it! I went with cast iron rather than lighter weight aluminum because the weight of the press does a lot of the work for me, and because I just have a thing for cast iron. It makes me happy.

I started by watching this clip — Alton Brown making tortillas. The step of lining the tortilla press with a ziploc bag is not one to be skipped! The negative reviews of the tortilla press on Amazon were folks complaining that the masa sticks to the press, but the dough should actually never come in direct contact with the press. Issue solved!

I used the recipe on the back of the Maseca bag The Cousin bought when she was here for salsapalooza — for four tortillas:

  • 1/2 cup Maseca
  • 1/3 cup water
  • pinch of salt

Really, could that be any easier? Mix the ingredients for about 2 minutes to form a soft dough, then divide into four equal portions.

After lightly pressing the tortillas (the first time I pressed too hard and ended up with paper-thin tortillas — not good!), I slapped them on a hot griddle for about 45 seconds on each side. Since these tortillas were destined for quesadillas I didn’t want to cook them all the way through, since they’d be meeting the heat again:

See how they’re just barely cooked? And already yummy?

Then I added last night’s leftover steak, sliced thin against the grain, with some tomatoes from the garden and some cheese. Sandwiched between two tortillas, this all went in the quesadilla maker (which gets a ridiculous amount of use in our house).

End result:

Love it! Crispy outsides, warm gooey/cheesy insides. Served with sliced tomatoes, this was fantastic. And quick. And easy! Definitely give this one a try.