Zucchini / mushroom tacos with our without chorizo

Source: Rick Bayless

This recipe goes out to all of you ladies (or men...I shouldn't be presumptuous) who might enjoy some sausage in your tacos. Or, for those of you who do not enjoy sausage in your tacos, you may omit and it'll still be delish. Who am I to judge? Spanish and Mexican chorizo differ significantly. Spanish sausage is firm (eh hem) and pre-cooked. Mexican sausage is more similar to Italian sausage and is not pre-cooked. This is a nice way to use late summer squashes in an unexpected way.

Ingredients
4-6 oz. chorizo
1 medium white onion, sliced
4 oz. mushrooms of your choice
1 canned chipotle in adobo (not 1 whole can...one individual pepper)
1 T adobo sauce
1 15 oz. can diced fire roasted tomatoes
2-3 medium zucchini or late summer squash (I used zephyr because I had it)
salt to taste
fresh corn tortillas
queso fresco

Instruction
1. Remove casings from sausage, brown over medium-high heat
2. If necessary, drain fat from pain leaving sausage
3. Add onions, saute until translucent
4. Add mushrooms, saute until almost cooked through
5. While mushrooms cook, blend together tomatoes (drained) with chipotles and adobo
6. Add to pan, stir, cook 3 or 4 minutes
7. Add zucchini, cook until just tender
8. Salt to taste

Serve atop warm fresh tortillas with crumbled queso fresco

Tacos Al Pastor

Tacos Al Pastor are a childhood favorite of my husband's. They are pork tacos served in taquarias across Mexico but are thought to have originated from Labanese imigrant's shawarma. The pork is slow roasted on a spit, much like lamb served in greek gyros, with a pineapple atop so that the juices run down and coat the pork as it cooks.

This cooking method has prevented me from ever trying to replicate the taco. Obviously, I don't have the equipment for it. But the May issue of Bon Appetite and then the June issue of Gourmet both featured recipes trying to replicate the flavors of Al pastor using a backyard grill. Hooray!

I chose to try the recipe from Bon Appetite, and it was fantastic. I chose to pair it with a mixed green and fresh pea salad with a lime vinagrette, Rick Bayless's Guajillo salsa, fresh corn tortillas from La Hacienda here in Nashville, and a chilled Rhone Rose.

UPDATE: I forgot to mention that these were slammin. My husband claims they are the best he's had outside of Mexico. He'll frequently order Al Pastor at various Meixcan joints, and we're always disappointed, but not these!

Ingredients
large white onion, halved
1 pineapple, peeled, cut crosswise into 1/2-inch-thick rounds
1/2 cup fresh orange juice
1/4 cup distilled white vinegar
1/4 cup guajillo chile powder ( I used 2 T arbol chile powder, because I had it on hand)
3 garlic cloves, halved
2 teaspoons coarse kosher salt
1 teaspoon dried oregano (preferably Mexican)
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 large or 2 small chipotle chiles and 1 to 2 teaspoons adobo from canned chipotle chiles in adobo
1 2 1/2-to 3-pound boneless pork loin, cut into 1/2-inch slices
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
Corn tortillas
Lime wedges
Instructions

Coarsely chop 1 onion half.

Coarsely chop 2 pineapple rounds, discarding core; cover and chill remaining pineapple.

Place chopped onion and chopped pineapple in blender. Add orange juice and next 7 ingredients; puree marinade until smooth. Marinate pork in fridge at least 4 hours and up to 1 day.

Prepare barbecue (medium-high heat).

Grill remaining pineapple until warmand slightly charred, 4 to 6 minutes perside.

Grill pork with some marinadestill clinging until slightly charred andcooked through, 2 to 4 minutes per side.Transfer pineapple and pork to worksurface; chop pineapple into 1/2-inchcubes, discarding cores. Chop pork.Transfer to platter; toss to combine.

Meanwhile, finely chop remaining

onion half and place in medium bowl.Add cilantro; toss to combine. Grilltortillas until warm and slightly charred,about 10 seconds per side.

Serve pork-pineapple mixture with

onion-cilantro relish, Smoky Two-ChileSalsa, and lime wedges.

Test-kitchen tip: To make your own

guajillo chile powder, finely grind about6 large dried seeded guajillo chiles in aspice mill to yield about 1/4 cup powder.

Grill pork with some marinade still clinging until slightly charred and cooked through, 2 to 4 minutes per side.

Transfer pineapple and pork to worksurface; chop pineapple into 1/2-inchcubes, discarding cores. Chop pork.Transfer to platter; toss to combine.

Meanwhile, finely chop remaining onion half and place in medium bowl. Add cilantro; toss to combine. Grill tortillas until warm and slightly charred,about 10 seconds per side.

Serve pork-pineapple mixture with onion-cilantro relish, Salsa, and lime wedges.

Mango Fruit Salsa

Is it obvious that the weather has turned warm here for good? Warm to me means MANGO (insert man in shiny pants slapping his bottom). MANGO. And I am all about the yellow mango, aka, champagne mango, aka Ataulfo mangos. You can find them in whole foods and even Publix, Teeter, or Kroger when they are in season like RIGHT NOW. They are smaller and more tart than a normal mango. I really love a lot of acid in my food. Always have and always will. I first had yellow mangos when I visited my husband's family for the first time in Mexico City. They probably just thought of me as "the crazy lady who doesn't speak Spanish by the fruit bowl". And now they probably think of me as "the crazy daughter in law who doesn't speak Spanish by the fruit bowl....but she has been making a lot of Mexican food." I'd like to say it is in preparation for our future children....to learn their heritage....ah but it's more like because there is a lot of great produce is Mexico and I dig that.

My grad school roomie, Brandi, originally found this recipe. Isn't it funny how people in our lives affect what we eat. I associate each one of my roomies with a distinct style of eating / cooking and each has left a definite mark on how and what I cook. Don't remember where this recipe comes from, but everyone I know requests it. Eat it with chips, or by the spoon, or by the bucket.

Ingredients
1 large or 2 small mangoes, cubed
3 kiwis, cubed
0.5 red onion, diced
kernels 1 ear of corn, blanched and cut off cob
0.25-0.5 cups cilantro chopped
Juice 1 lime
salt to taste

Instructions
Mix and shovel into mouth

Fish Tacos with Guac

Okay, so this isn't really a recipe at all as much as it is an idea for a dinner. Fish tacos is just one of those dishes that lends well to winging it

Ingredients
Fish
Firm white fish (I used mahi)
Lime
olive oil
salt
pepper

Guac
2 haas avacado, cubed
1/2 cup tomatoes, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1/4 cup white onion finely chopped
1/4 cup cilantro
juice from 1 lime
1/4 cup olive oil
salt to taste

Corn or Flour tortillas

Instructions
1. Marinate fish in lime, olive oil, salt, and pepper 15-20 minutes
2. Grill
3. While fish grills, mix together ingredients for guac
4. Grill tortillas 15 second on each side, just until starting to brown a bit
5. Serve fish and guac atop hot tortillas

Tomatillo-Sauced Enchiladas with Spinach and Mushrooms

Source: Rick Bayless Mexican Everyday

This recipe is phenomenal. Make this recipe, that's all I can say. Also, you can omit the chicken and substitute vegetable broth for the chicken broth to make it vegetarian. Neither really add much to the flavor, they just beef up the protein content. The key of the dish is really the yummy yummy sauce.

Ingredients
garlic cloves, peeled
Fresh hot green chiles to taste (I used 2 serranos, 1 jalapeno would work too), stemmed and quartered
1 1/2 pounds tomatillos, husked, rinsed and cut into quarters
3/4 cup roughly chopped cilantro
3 tablespoons vegetable oil, olive oil, or bacon drippings
2 cups chicken or veggie broth
8 ounces mushrooms, stemmed and sliced
1 large red onion, thin sliced
10 ounces spinach
1 cup shredded cooked chicken (optional)
Salt
12 corn tortillas
3 tablespoons Crema, sour cream, heavy cream or creme fraiche
1/2 teaspoon sugar (optional)
1 cup Queso Fresco or feta

Instructions

Turn on the oven to 350 degrees. With a food processor or blender running, drop in the garlic and chiles one piece at a time, letting each piece get finely chopped before adding the next. Add the tomatillos and cilantro; process until smooth.

Heat 1 1/2 tablespoons of the oil or bacon drippings in a medium (3-quart) saucepan over medium-high. Add the puree and cook, stirring nearly constantly, until the mixture has reduced to the consistency of thick tomato sauce, about 7 minutes. (The more you cook it the richer and sweeter it will be). Add the chicken broth and simmer over medium heat for about 10 minutes to blend the flavors.

While the sauce is simmering, heat the remaining 1 1/2 tablespoons oil or drippings in a very large skillet over medium-high. Add the mushrooms and cook, stirring nearly constantly, for a couple of minutes, until they begin to brown. Add about three-quarters of the onion and continue cooking, stirring frequently, for another minute or two, until the onion looks translucent. Add the spinach and optional chicken and cook, stirring constantly, for a minute or so, until the spinach is wilted. Season with salt. Cover to keep warm.

Lay out the tortillas on a baking sheet and spray or brush lightly on both sides with oil or bacon drippings, then stack them in twos. Slide the tortillas into the oven and bake just long enough to make them soft and pliable, about 3 minutes. Remove from the oven and stack them in a single pile; cover with a kitchen towel to keep warm.

Stir the crema into the sauce. Taste and season with salt (add the sugar here too if you’re using it). Holding a tortilla by the edge dip it into the sauce, then lay it on a plate. Spoon a heaping 2 tablespoons filling down the center, roll up and lay seam side down on a dinner plate. Repeat with 2 more tortillas, arranging them on the same dinner plate. Douse the enchiladas with about 1/4 cup of the warm sauce, sprinkle with a quarter of the crumbled cheese and garnish with some of the reserved onion and cilantro sprigs. Assemble the rest of the servings, and carry to the table without hesitation.

Vegetarian Enchiladas

These are really not authentic at all, but are wonderful. I got the recipe from my college roommate, Robin who got it from her mother, so I don't know the original source. Regardless, this dish epitomizes comfort food to me.

Ingredients
1 onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 T olive oil
1 16 oz. can tomatoes, diced, undrained
1 15 oz. can tomato sauce
1.5 T. Chili powder
.5 t. oregano
.5 t. cumin
15 oz. can black beans, drained and rinsed
12 oz corn, drained
.5 c. sliced black California olives
1 c. ricotta
4 oz. chopped green chilies, drained
2 c. shredded cheddar (8 oz.)
10 6" corn tortillas.

Instructions
Sauté onion and garlic in oil.
Add tomatoes & next 4 ingredients, bring to a boil. Reduce, simmer uncovered for 25 min.
Place 1 c. sauce into greased 9 x 13 cake pan.
Add black beans, corn, olives to remaining sauce.
Combine ricotta, chilies, & .75 c. cheddar.
Fry tortillas in .25 c. oil, 5 seconds per side. Put 2 T. cheese mixture in each tortilla, roll, place in pan.
Spoon remaining sauce over them, bake at 350 (F) covered for 20 minutes. Uncover, add the rest of the cheese, and bake uncovered for 5 minutes.

Chicken in Tangy Escabeche of Caramelized Onions, Carrots, and Jalapenos

Hopefully, this is what we're having for dinner tonight. This recipe is from our favorite American-born Mexican cuisine chef, Rick Bayless (Everyday Mexican). It's always funny to me that my husband is native Mexican, and we go to a white dude from the midwest for authentic Mexican recipes. Anyway, we love this recipe because it is easy, heathy, and has an awesome balance of sweetness, spicey-ness, and acidity. It's one of our weeknight go-to recipes. We serve this with roasted red potatoes.

Ingredients
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
2 teaspoons dried oregano, preferably Mexican
Salt
3 (2 pounds total) chicken breast halves, bones and skin intact
2 tablespoons vegetable or olive oil
1 large white onion, cut into 1/4 inch slices
2 large carrots, peeled if you wish and sliced 1/4 inch thick on a diagonal
4 garlic cloves, peeled and halved
1/4 cup vinegar (apple cider vinegar is traditional)
2 to 4 canned pickled jalapenos, stemmed, seeded and thinly sliced
1 cup chicken broth

Instructions
1. In a small bowl, combine the black pepper, allspice, oregano and 1 teaspoon salt. Sprinkle half of this mixture over the chicken breasts.
2. Heat the oil in a very large (12-inch) skillet over medium heat. Lay in the chicken, skin side down, and cook, turning once, until richly browned, 3-4 minutes on each side. Remove the chicken to a plate, leaving behind as much oil as possible.
3. Add the sliced onion and carrots to the skillet and cook, stirring regularly, until the onion is browned, abut 7 minutes. Add the garlic and stir for about 1 minute, then add the remaining seasoning mixture, the vinegar, jalapenos and broth.
4. Nestle the chicken pieces skin side up in the onion mixture, cover the skillet (a cookie sheet works if your skillet doesn't have a lid) and simmer gently over the medium-low heat until the chicken is just cooked through, about 15 minutes.
5. Taste the broth, and season with additional salt if you think it’s appropriate.
6. Transfer a piece of chicken to each dinner plate, spooning a generous portion of the juicy vegetable mixture over the top. Dinner’s ready.

(Photo is from www.greatfood.ie)

Tortilla Soup

A Mexican Recipe from a German you ask. Yes, this soup is delicious. Be sure to add all of the garnishes. You can make this vegetarian by replacing the chicken stock with a good vegetable stock and omitting the chicken breast. I blend the soup using an immersion blender.

Ingredients
2 ears fresh corn, husks removed
4 or 5 large garlic cloves, peeled
1 small onion (about 3 ounces), peeled, trimmed, and quartered
1 small jalapeno pepper, trimmed and seeded
2 tablespoons corn oil
2 corn tortillas, cut into 1-inch squares
2 large ripe tomatoes (1 pound), peeled, seeded, and coarsely chopped
2 tablespoons tomato paste
2 to 3 teaspoons ground cumin
2 quarts chicken stock
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Garnish:
2 corn tortillas
1 ripe avocado
1 large chicken breast, cooked, boned, and skinned
1/2 cup grated Cheddar
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro leaves

Using a large knife, carefully scrape the kernels off the corncobs and set aside, reserving the cobs.

Using a food processor fitted with the steel blade, or a large knife, coarsely chop the garlic, onion, jalapeno pepper, and corn kernels. Reserve.

In a large soup pot, heat the oil. Add the squares of tortillas and cook over low heat until they are slightly crisp. Stir in the chopped vegetables and simmer just until the vegetables are coated with the oil. Do not brown.

Add the tomatoes, the tomato paste, and 2 teaspoons of the cumin and continue to simmer for about 10 minutes to maximize the flavor. Slowly pour in the stock, add the corncobs, and cook over low heat until the soup is reduced by one third.

Discard the corn cobs and puree the soup, in batches, in a blender or food processor until smooth. At this point, the soup can be passed through the fine strainer, if desired. Return to a clean pot and season with salt, pepper, and additional cumin to taste.

Prepare the garnish: Preheat the oven or toaster oven to 350 degrees F. Cut the tortillas into thin strips and arrange on a small baking tray. Bake until the strips are crisp, 10 to 15 minutes. Peel and dice the avocado. Cut the chicken into thin strips.

To serve, add the chicken and avocado to the soup and reheat over low heat. Ladle the soup into 6 to 8 warm soup bowls and garnish with the baked tortilla strips, Cheddar cheese, and chopped cilantro. Serve immediately.

Slow-Cooked Chicken with Tomatillos, Potatoes, Jalapenos, and Fresh Herbs

This is another one of Rick Bayless's recipes from Mexican Everyday. If you are at all interested in authentic Mexican cuisine, I encourage all of you to buy this cook book. Rick Bayless has been traveling Mexico for decades learning of their regional cuisines. This book is his attempt to pair down the traditionally labor intensive dishes to dishes that are accessible to the home cook. Being a bit of a health nut, all of his dishes are very nutritious.

I'm a little bit ill right now with a cold, and this dish is exactly what I needed. Being one of the few slow cooker recipes I truly love, it is low maintenance and perfect for a weekend dinner. Also, the consistency of the dish ends up as somewhat of a thick stew. I love the balance of the tangy tomatillos with the rich chicken thighs, sweet onions, and velvelty texture of my favorite potato, the yukon gold.

It's time to bust out your crock pot and MAKE THIS DISH.

Serves 4-6

Ingredients
1 medium white onion, cut into 1/4 inch thick rounds
1.5-2 lbs. skinless chicken thighs (bone in or out)
1 cup cilantro leaves or 1/3 cup epazote leaves
4 medium red skin or yukon gold potatoes, sliced 1/4 inch thick (I use yukon gold)
1 1/4 lbs. tomatillos, husked, rinsed, and sliced 1/4 inch thick
1/4 cup sliced canned or jarred pickled jalapenos
2 TBLSP jalapeno pickling juice

Preparation
1. Spread the onion over the bottom of a slow-cooker. Sprinkle with salt.
2. Continue with layers of the potato slices, chicken thighs, cilantro or epazote, and then tomatillow sprinkling salt evenly over each layer before moving to the next (this is the only salt in the dish, so make sure to add enough).
3. Scatter the jalapeno slices over everything, then drizzle on the pickling juice.
4. Cover and slow-cook on high for 6 hours.

Tangy Chicken Fajitas

This is from allrecipes.com. It is one of a small handful of recipes that Bernardo found and makes himself. Authentic? No. Delicious? Yes. This is one of our go-to recipes. In reality, we don't marinate it for more than 20 minutes as it is usually an after-work meal. We serve with a full buffet of toppings: cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, beans, rice, and sour cream.


Ingredients

• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 1/2 cup distilled white vinegar
• 1/2 cup fresh lime juice
• 2 (.7 ounce) packages dry Italian-style salad dressing mix
• 3 whole boneless, skinless chicken breast, cubed
• 1 onion, sliced
• 1 green bell pepper, sliced

DIRECTIONS

1. In a large glass bowl combine the oil, vinegar, lime juice, and dry salad dressing mix. Mix together. Add chicken strips, onion and bell pepper. Cover dish and refrigerate. Marinate for 3 to 6 hours.
2. In a large skillet, heat oil. Remove chicken, onion and bell pepper from marinade and saute in oil until chicken is cooked through (juices run clear) and onion is translucent.
3. Serve on warm flour tortillas with toppings.
   

Grilled Salmon Vera Cruz

Rick Bayless is one of our favorite chefs, and conincidentally a Chicago restaurant owner (our three regular blog readers and commenters are all IL natives). He cooks classic and updated Mexican cuisine, but not what you think of Mexican. His dishes are frequently light, quick, and flavor packed. Tonight, we made this grilled Salmon which lived up to our expectations of his recipes. We served with a side of grilled quash. I only used 2 salmon steaks tonight, and plan use leftover sauce over grilled chicken tomorrow. For you vegetarians, this sauce would be nice over a mixture of grilled summer veggies and a bed of white rice.

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for oiling the grill and the salmon
1 medium-sized onion, thinly sliced
4 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
7 cups diced (1/2 inch) ripe tomatoes
2 tablespoons chopped fresh thyme leaves, plus a few sprigs for garnish
2 teaspoons finely grated lemon zest
1 cup pitted, roughly sliced green olives (preferably manzanillo olives)
1/4 cup capers, drained and rinsed
3 pickled jalapeño peppers, stemmed, seeded and thinly sliced
Salt, to taste
6 salmon steaks (7 to 8 ounces each), about 1 inch thick

1. Prepare the sauce: Place oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring, until just beginning to brown, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook 1 minute more. Raise the heat to medium-high and add the tomatoes, chopped thyme, lemon zest, and half of the olives, capers, and peppers. Simmer briskly, stirring, for about 5 minutes to evaporate some of the liquid. Reduce the heat to medium-low, stir in 1 cup water and simmer for 15 minutes. Taste and season with salt. Cool.

2. Preheat a gas grill to medium-high or light a charcoal fire and let it burn just until the coals are covered with gray ash and very hot. Reduce the heat on one side of the gas grill to medium-low or set up the charcoal grill for indirect cooking by banking all of the coals to one side, leaving the other half of the grill empty. Set the cooking grate in place, cover the grill and let the grate heat for 5 minutes.

3. Oil the grill and both sides of each salmon steak; sprinkle fish with salt. Cook the salmon over the hottest part of the grill for about 4 minutes, until nicely browned underneath. Carefully flip over the fish onto the cooler side of the grill; cook 2 to 4 minutes more for medium-rare.

4. Spoon the sauce into a deep platter and nestle the fish in it. Let stand at room temperature for about an hour to bring together the flavors of the fish and the sauce.

5. To serve, sprinkle the fish with remaining olives, capers, and peppers; garnish with the thyme sprigs. Serve immediately.

Per serving: 460 calories, 15g carbohydrates, 42g protein, 25g fat, 110mg cholesterol.
Nutritional Breakdown: New Wellness, Richmond, Va