Wednesday 18 January 2012

Burritos


Stephanie made burritos for our bus trip and for my plane ride back to Canada. She wrapped them in foil when they were hot and they stayed warm for a few hours. Burritos are rolled flour tortillas with a warm filling. They can be served for a meal, packed for a lunch, or frozen and quickly reheated in the future. We had them for supper tonight with a salad, guacamole and salsa.

2 cups cooked brown rice
3 cups cooked black beans
2 roasted poblano chilies finely chopped
2 roasted red peppers finely chopped
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 clove crushed garlic
salt to taste

Grated cheese (optional)
Strips of cooked chicken or beef (optional)

12- 8 inch whole wheat tortillas (I buy this size at Costco. You can use 6 or 10 inch tortillas)

Method:

Mix first 9 ingredients together
Warm tortillas in microwave or on a skillet
Place 1/3-1/2 cup filling in tortilla. Sprinkle with cheese and lay meat on top if using
Roll tortilla up into a cylinder and place in an oven proof dish, seam side down

Continue until all tortillas are filled.
Cover dish and heat burritos in a 350 F oven for 30 minutes. (or warm individually in microwave)
Serve hot with garnishes as desired (salsa, sour cream, guacamole)

Burritos can be wrapped individually for bag lunches.




Variations:
The internet is full of burrito recipes for meat lovers and vegetarians. Breakfast burritos with eggs are also filling and easy to make.
I also cook onion, sweet and jalapeno peppers, mushrooms, spinach and seasoning until soft in a skillet. Add 2 ounces of cream cheese to the vegetables, heating until the mixture is creamy. Put a thin layer of refried beans on a tortilla, then a layer of vegetables and grated cheese if desired. Roll and heat as above.

Guacamole


We had a wonderful meal at a vegetarian buffet in downtown Tepic and the guacamole was the best I have ever tasted. I wanted a bowl of it, not just a condiment portion! I made some tonight to go with our burritos and it tasted almost a good as what I had in Mexico.

Mash together

2 large ripe avocados (or 3 small)
Juice of one fresh lime
1 clove garlic, crushed
A dash of cayenne pepper
2 tbsp hot red chunky salsa
3 tbsp finely chopped fresh cilantro
salt to taste

Friday 6 January 2012

Rosca de Reyes

Ingredients

4 cups flour
1-11 g package of dry active yeast
150 g sugar (3/4 cup plus 2 tbsp)
6 g salt (1 rounded teaspoon)
3 eggs
120 g melted butter (1-1/3 bars with one bar equivalent to 1/2 cup)
125 g warm milk or water (1/2 cup)
Flavouring to taste i.e. vanilla, orange peel or extract
Decorations as desired such as citron, cherries, dried fruit, slivered almonds

Filling (relleno)

3/4 cup chopped nuts such as almonds and pecans
1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk
Flavourings as desired
Plastic infants

Method

1. Dissolve the yeast and 1 tbsp sugar in warm milk or water and let it rest for 10 minutes.
2. Put flour in a bowl, make a well and add yeast, eggs and all other ingredients. Stir until well blended and smooth.
3. Knead on floured board until dough is a good consistency
4. Place dough in bowl, cover with a towel and allow it to rise in a warm place for 45-60 minutes until doubled in size
5. Roll dough into a 70 x 25 rectangle

6. Spread filling over dough, place the desired number of plastic infants on the surface and roll it up from the long edge.
7. Make a ring and place it in baking pan covering it and letting it rise again in a warm place until doubled in size.

Place decorations on dough before it rises the second time or you can glaze and decorate it after baking.

Bake at 375 F for 10 minutes and then at 325 F until done (approx 35 minutes)

Note- This recipe was taken from an insert in the package of yeast
Tradi-pan La levadura casera

Thursday 5 January 2012

Tortilla Spinach Lasagna

Stale corn tortillas are used instead of lasagna noodles in this tasty layered casserole. Tortillas can also be used with a tomato based sauce.
Ingredients

1-1/2 -2 cups milk of choice
2-3 tbsp flour
Dash of salt and pepper

Add milk slowly to flour to make a smooth paste. Add rest of milk and seasoning and heat on stove or microwave stirring often to make a white sauce.

Heat a frying pan and cook until softened...

8 ounces of spinach
1/2 cup mushroom
one diced jalapeƱo or poblano pepper
one clove of crushed garlic
1/4 cup chopped cilantro

Add vegetables to white sauce. (Feel free to alter vegetable mixture)

Using 12 stale tortillas in a greased 9 x 9 pan...

Put 4 tortillas on bottom of pan. Add a layer of vegetables and repeat layers finishing with a sauce layer. Cover the top with a layer of crumbled or grated mild cheese. You can add cheese to the layers if desired. You can also add mashed beans as a layer. I like the texture of white kidney beans in this recipe.

Bake in oven for 30 minutes at 350F until bubbly or heat in microwave for 5-10 minutes.

Serves 4-6

Wednesday 4 January 2012

Agua de Frutas

I am not a fan of sweet drinks, but the fruit drinks and teas served in Mexico are very refreshing and the sweetness is easily controlled.

Fresh fruit drinks

Blend a mixture of fruit such as strawberries, melon, mango, pineapple, orange, etc in the blender with a little water until you have a thick puree. Sweeten to taste. This is your concentrate. To serve, add some fruit to a glass or pitcher and add water a little at a time until desired consistency is reached. The drinks are thick enough that they are difficult to get through a straw. Garnish with lime if desired.

Jamaica

Add boiling water to dried hibiscus flowers and let it steep until it is a deep red color. Strain and cool and add sweetener to taste. Dilute concentrate as described above. I make hot hibiscus tea regularly and use 1 teaspoon dried flowers per cup of boiling water. For the cold concentrate I would start with 2-3 teaspoons per cup of water.

Tuesday 3 January 2012

Nut Pinwheel Cookies

Make a basic sugar cookie dough (like this or this)

Combine
3/4 cup pecans
3/4 cup almonds
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
in a food processor and process until you have a coarse paste. Add a little milk or water to bind ingredients if necessary.

Roll dough into a rectangle that is about 3/8" thick. Spread nut mixture within 1/2 inch of edges. Roll from long edge into a roll refrigerate or freeze log. Slice cookies and bake at 375F for 6-8 minutes or until set and lightly browned.