Shrimp in Herb Tomatillo Sauce

After a long break, I realized I was losing track of all the recipes I loved. The following recipe is evidence of my love of trying something new and immediately forgetting about it.

I decided to change the format of the blog a bit since really I am restarting it for selfish reasons, as a way to keep track of everything I want to do, did and changed, and didn't like. Links are posted to recipes with any changes listed below the link. Also, D is potentially going back to school next year so I am starting to collect cheaper recipes. Our food bill is out of control...

Last night we made: Shrimp in Tomatillo Herb Sauce

Changes: Divine. Would not change a thing although I probably added more oil than it called for...didn't really measure that bit.

Ways to make it cheaper: make it when your herb garden is at full bloom and use white beans. The first time we made it, I used white beans. I thought it was amazing, but I should add that I am obsessed with white beans. If you use white beans, I recommend starting with the dry version since the canned ones are often falling apart. Six months after using beans, turns out Maine shrimp are in season, so we picked some of those up at the winter farmer's market and my internet search for good shrimp recipes lead me back to this recipe.

Lois' Enchiladas

So I visited home recently and started going through the family recipes. Here is the first.

Lois' Chicken Enchiladas
2 skinless chicken breasts, chopped
2 tbls cooking oil
1 med. chopped onion
1 4 oz can green chilies, chopped
1 4 1/2 oz can sliced black olives
1/2 cup sour cream, lowfat ok
1 clove garlic mixed
8-10 white corn tortillas
3/4 pound Monterey Jack cheese, grated
1-2 10 oz can enchilada sauce
1/2 c grated cheddar cheese
1/4 c chopped green onions
2 tbsp. cilantro

Cook chopped chicken in oil until no pink is left. Put aside. Cook onions in oil and cook 3 minutes on medium heat. Add 1/2 the chilies, 1/2 the olives, minced garlic, and sour cream. Heat through. Stir in chicken and set aside.

Wrap tortillas in foil and heat them in 350 degree oven for 10 minutes. Remove. Fill each with 2 tbls of onion mixture and 2 tbs grated Jack cheese. Roll up the tortillas and place seam side down in a buttered 9 by 13 baking dish. Pour enchilada sauce over each tortilla. Sprinkle with cheddar cheese, green onoins, cilantro, and remaining olives and green chilies.

Bake in a 350 degree oven for 30 to 40 minutes.

Variations: You could roast enough mild green chilies to make 1/2 cup instead of using the canned ones. Or make the tortillas by hand and the enchilada sauce from scratch. Haha.

Black Beans

So...black beans. Everyone has a recipe. Mine comes from the past. Got it a couple of years ago. Thanks, W. I cannot take credit for it or the writing that is about to follow. Hope you don't mind I am posting it...

"Soak the beans over night. Drain out water in the morning and rinse beans.

"Put the soaked beans in a soup pot, with about a finger's worth of water above the beans. Boil the beans for one hour.

"After half an hour, start sauteeing onions and green peppers in a shit ton of olive oil (as much as you can stand to add). They shoul be bathing in it. Cook them down until soft. AFter the beans have been boiling for an hour, add the onions and peppers and all the oil that they wre cooking in.

"After one more hour, add equal amounts salt and sugar and twice that of white vinager.

"I don't have particular amounts for any of the ingredients, because I always buy the beans in bulk, but I think my mother told me originally for every pound of beans add:

"3/4 c oil,
one medium onion and
one medium pepper,
2 tblsp of both salt and sugar;
4 tblsps vinager.

"I think that's it. Oh, after you've added the sugar, salt and vingager, cook for another hour. Make sure to watch the pot every now and then to make sure that the water doesn't boil all the way down. In the end, I like the beans when they're soupy, but when there's no broth apart from the beans. You can add as much water as you like, though.

"Let me know if any of this is unclear.

"bon apetit"

Things I have learned cooking this recipe:
I usually use about 1/4 cup or a little more of oil. I am a wimp I know, but it is all I can stand.
The vinegar makes it taste a little tangy. Kind of a poor man's substitute for using real lard or bacon. Great for vegans. Real nice flavor. When you don't add the vinegar, the beans have a nice, rich smoothness to them. Just depends what you are in the mood for.
Soaking the beans and then draining them is very important. It gets rid of the weird white foam that forms when you are cooking beans, and it helps break down the enzymes that cause excess gas (aka farting).
Using a red pepper makes the beans too sweet so you can use a red pepper and it adds a nice flavor but cut back or eliminate the sugar.
I like to add garlic. This time I added half a head and left out the vinegar. Very rich.
When I cooked the beans completely in a pressure cooker, I just use it to cut down on the time before you add the pepper, onion, etc. You could probably just add the pepper and all that fun stuff at the beginning and leave the beans in a little longer than an hour. I may experiment with a crock pot...
Wnari also taught me the beauty of freezing beans so I cook a whole recipe just for me and then I have beans for a month.

Salsa recipes to follow...

Arepas or Venzuelan Corn Cakes

Wnari taught me to make these. They are a recipe from her Venezuelan aunt. Two secrets exist to these little corn cakes. 1) it is what you put in them that makes them amazing. 2) The flour is special and hard to find. If you live in PDX, you can find it at 31st and Glisan on the east side at an international market. It is the only place Wnari has ever seen it in the US. It is P.A.N. Pre-cooked white corn meal. It is made in Venzuela. I bet you could find it online or if you asked around in a international or latino market.

AREPAS

Water
Pre-cooked white corn meal
Salt

Preheat 375 degrees F

The ratio of water to corn meal is about one to one with slightly more water.
The salt is to taste. For two cups of corn meal, I used more than a tablespoon. You should be able to taste the salt in the dough. My recommendation is taste the corn meal before there is salt and then afterwards so that you know what it taste like with salt. The salt is REALLY important, because there will be dough in the middle of the Arepa, and if it isn't salted, it is bland.

When mixing the dough, it should be the consistency of play dough. After the dough has been thoroughly mixed by hand, you a piece of dough that can fit comfortably in the palm of your hand. It should definitely be smaller than a tennis ball. You pat it between your hands to get all of the cracks out. In the end, you should have a nice round ball with no cracks. Then start to rotate it between your palms while your palms are cupped. It should look kind of like a toy top. The flatten it out and it should be about 3/4 inch thick in the middle and a little less at the corners. The edges shouldn't be cracked. If they are, the dough isn't wet enough. the dough will dry out as the cornmeal absorbs the water so just add a little water if you need to while forming them into discs.

Heat a non-stick skillet or a well-seasoned caste iron skillet (i.e. HR and MA style) over medium heat. When the skillet is hot, put the arepas on and brown the outsides a bit. They should be a light brown with a few patches slightly darker. This is the give the outer part a nice crunch.

Then put them in the over 20 minutes before you are ready to eat. I didn't get the exact time they should be in the oven. So I would check them at 15 minutes. They should sound hallow when you thump them. I didn't believe it would work, but it did. Also, they should be cracked around the edges.

NOTE: These are best served straight out of the oven. If you have left overs that have already been baked, forget it. But if you have ones that have only been browned, you can cook them the next day. They should be served on the table in a large bowl with a hand towel lining the inside and covering the top to keep them hot.

Eating them: When you get them out of the oven and are ready to eat, Slice the edge of one and through the entire inside while leaving most of the sides intact. It should look like a whole pita. Then fill it any combination of:
Homemade black beans (recipe to follow)
Tillamook cheddar cheese
Nancy's sour cream
Avocado
Lime
Homemade salsa
Homemade peach salsa with cucumbers
Plantains fried in butter
Or anything you can think of

The other combination that is really good is butter and jam. Usually that is my last arepa.

If you want to know more about them: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arepa