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!

Sugar spice Craisin nuts

baking, snacks 15 Comments

Let’s just run into the mall real quick. It’ll take five minutes. I need black pumps, a white shirt for your dad and…. um… a white…. um… nope, now I’m hungry. Are you hungry? What smells so good?

A hint: it’s these.

You know how it works. They pipe the smell of this stuff through the mall at the height of Christmas shopping season. And they offer free samples. You know, the first one’s free. Mm hmm. Well now you can just say no. Well, you don’t have to. You could actually buy some to eat while you’re shopping until you can come home and make more, which will have Craisins, making them even better.

I found this recipe at Buns in my Oven and went to the grocery store about an hour later. I had no idea these were so easy! Crazy good, crazy easy. Speakin’ my language.

So gather this (I roughly halved her recipe and added Craisins)

  • 1 pound nuts, any kind – I used the 1.4 lb jar of mixed nuts
  • 1 egg white, room temperature
  • 1 tbsp water
  • 1/3 cup brown sugar
  • 2/3 cup white granulated sugar
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
  • 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper (this will not light you up. I promise)
  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1/2 – 1 cup Craisins, depending on your level of love for them

Now do this:

  1. Preheat oven to 300 F
  2. Pour nuts (not Craisins) into a large bowl — bigger than you think you need so you have room to stir
  3. In a small bowl whisk together egg white and water until frothy, then pour over nuts, stirring to coat
  4. In another small bowl mix together sugars, salt, cayenne pepper and cinnamon, then sprinkle over nuts, stirring to coat
  5. Spread nuts onto a parchment-lined cookie sheet; we’re going to bake for a total of 30 minutes
  6. Bake for ten minutes and stir, then bake another ten minutes
  7. Fold/stir in Craisins and bake another ten minutes
  8. Move the sheet of parchment to a cooling rack, breaking up any giant clumps (little clumps are yummy) and allow nuts to cool completely before storing in an airtight container
  9. Eat for breakfast, lunch, and supper. And snack
  10. Put in Mason jars and give as tasty Christmas gifts. Try not to eat them in the car on the way to deliver them

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.

Fire-Roasted Tomato Salsa (Salsa de Molcajete)

sides, snacks 9 Comments

The salsa roja recipe is popular. Ridiculously popular. But we had some company in town and I needed salsa fast — nigh onto immediately. Rick Bayless recipe to the rescue! This is quick and easy, and simple to tweak:

You’ll need:

  • 1 to 2 fresh jalapeño chiles (my late-season ones from the garden weren’t that hot so I used 5)
  • 3 garlic cloves, unpeeled
  • 1 15-ounce can diced tomatoes in juice, preferably fire roasted
  • 1/4 cup (loosely packed) chopped fresh cilantro
  • 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
  • Salt

Easy steps to yum:

  1. Heat an ungreased skillet over medium heat and roast the chiles and garlic, turning often until they’re splotchy and brown and soft — this takes about 10 minutes for the chiles, and 15 minutes for the garlic
  2. Cool until you can handle them, then roughly chop the chiles, discarding caps, and drop into food processor
  3. Peel the garlic and scoop the softened cloves into a food processor; pulse until very finely chopped
  4. Add the tomatoes with their juice to the food processor then pulse until puree is coarse
  5. Pour into serving dish and stir in cilantro and lime juice, and salt to taste — about 1/2-3/4 teaspoon
  6. Serve and enjoy!

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!