It is guy Saturday again and the budding young chef has decided that we will have some Mexican fare for the day!
What you see in the picture:
Guacamole- yes it is Alton Brown's slightly amended recipe
Pico de Gallo-same recipe as before
Mexican Rice-something new to the blog, yes!
Corn tortilla chips-just cut up some corn tortillas and fry them up
and some taco seasoned ground beef for Mike...
and the center piece of the meal...
Beef Enchiladas with Cilantro Cream Sauce. We got this recipe from the Food Network but as I oftentimes do, we amended it slightly.
Beef Enchiladas with Cilantro Cream Sauce
2 1/2 pounds marinated flank steak (marinade recipe to follow)
1 onion chopped fine
2 cups shredded monterey jack cheese
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese (I could only find a mix of the cheddar and jack and it worked fine)
16 (or so) corn tortillas softened
Marinade for the steak
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/4 cup lime juice
1/4 cup orange juice
3 cloves garlic chopped
1 onion chopped
black pepper
Cut the steak across the grain as thin as you can. Then cut those strips into one inch pieces. Place the meat in the marinade at room temperature for one hour. I got the wok out to cook the meat. I thought it would do the job the quickest. Heat it up with a tablespoon of oil and cook the meat in batches until almost done. When the meat is done throw in that finely chopped onion for a minute or two to soften it up. Put the meat and onions in a bowl and add 1 cup of the monterey jack cheese and 1 cup of cheddar. Mix carefully. I fixed tortilla chips as well with this meal so I put three inches of oil in a pot and brought it up to 350 degrees in order to soften my tortillas. If you are just softening up the tortillas to make the enchiladas you could probably just put an inch of oil in a skillet and put it on medium high. You want to dip the tortilla in the hot oil for just a few seconds. I counted to seven doing the "one one thousand, two one thousand" thing until I got to "seven one thousand" and it worked great. Take the softened tortilla and put the meat and cheese mixture in the middle and fold the two sides over. Put the enchilada in the casserole dish seam side down and move onto the next one. When you have them all filled (and if you get exactly 16 please leave me a comment cause I don't think it would ever work out that way) pour on the cilantro cream sauce and top with the remaining cheese. Cook at 350 degrees for 8 minutes or until the cheese is all nice and melty... Oh, I didn't tell you how to make the cilantro cream sauce did I...
Cilantro Cream Sauce
4 bunches cilantro
1 jalapeno roasted and deseeded
1 cup heavy cream
1 tablespoon cumin
salt and pepper
Bring some water to boil in a pot and blanch the cilantro. That just means dunk it in the water and count to three. Put the blanched cilantro in the blender. (You roast the jalapeno by rubbing it up with some canola oil and putting it on a pan and putting it under the broiler until it turns brownish.) After you get that pepper roasted put the oven on 350 degrees for the enchiladas. Add the roasted pepper to the blender and puree with the cilantro.
Put the cream in a saucepan on medium to medium low and reduce it by half. This will take about 10 minutes or so. We did not reduce ours enough before adding the cilantro/jalapeno and cumin but we were able to reduce it after. Sometimes it's the end result not the manner in which you get there. It needed a lot of salt and pepper, probably about 10 grinds of each and it tasted better as it sat. Who knew that cilantro cream sauce would need to "marry" like a good tomato sauce.
This was very good but not spicy enough. We are addicted to spice in this house so next time I will probably add some red pepper flakes to the steak and cheese mixture. And maybe instead of cilantro cream sauce make a Mexican alfredo sauce....hmmmmm. And let's not forget the rice...
Mexican Rice
2 cups of long grain white rice
1 can diced tomatoes
1 onion
2 cups chicken broth
3 jalapeno peppers chopped fine
3 cloves garlic chopped fine
2 tablespoons chopped cilantro
Rinse your rice under cold water for at least three minutes. You want all the starch washed off. When I think I have rinsed it enough I get a bowl and set the strainer of rice drain into it and look at the water to see if it is cloudy. It usually is, so that means you rinse it some more. This step is very important. The more you rinse it the fluffier the end resulting rice will be. When you have rinsed it well let it drain. Shake it to remove all the water you can.
Put the onion and the tomatoes in your blender and puree them. You need one cup of this mixture. You could keep the remainder and freeze it for your next tomato basil soup...yummm.
Get a skillet that is oven safe and has a lid that fits and put 1/4 cup of canola oil in it. You want this on medium low. When you think it is up to temp put a grain of the rice in it and see if it spits at you. If so, add all the rice to the pan and let it cook for eight minutes stirring often. You want to toast up the rice. Add the garlic and jalapeno and cook for about one minute. Add the cup of tomato puree and the two cups of chicken broth and stir well. Bring this to a boil then lid it and put it in the oven on 350 for 45 minutes. You want to stir it at 15 minutes. When time is up fluff up the rice and add the cilantro.
Wonderful meal!!! Good suggestion Nick!!! Everyone was full and satisfied. We even got Mike to try everything but the green enchiladas. I must admit, they did look strange. Looks can be deceiving though...try them, you may like them!!
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