Set to Sea 51
The story so far…
There’s more blood to come.
I met a certain baby last night. I think he was still a little cranky about the whole “being born” thing, but I’m sure he’s going to get over that soon, cause he’s got pretty awesome parents.
One thing Eleanor and I were a little sad about leaving behind all of the awesome Asian stores and restaurants when we left Savannah, but Athens almost makes up for it with its strong Mexican presence. There’s a great little market hidden away just a few blocks from our house, so we have to start figuring out how to make Mexican food. We tried making chilaquiles last night, which is basically fried up tortillas, eggs and salsa… it was pretty excellent. We had prickly pear fruit on the side. Anybody have any beginner-level type Mexican recipes that you recommend?
Oh yeah, vegetarian or seafood-based recipes would be awesome.
Hank’s Refried Beans
1 Jumbo can o refried beans
(I think it is like 16oz, I prefer the non veggitarian kind with the lard in it but you may not)
1/2 Jar of Cheap Salsa
(usualy Chi-Chi or Old El paso don’t waste good Paul Newmans Sala on this)
1/8-1/4 lb Cheese
(Monterrey Jack or a maix of cheeder and Monterray Jack)
Habenero peppers to taste
(These little guys are amazingly spicy I would use 1/4 or 1/2 of one WITH NO SEADS)
This is a great bean dip to be eaten with corn chips or used as the base for a burrito
Maria’s Sho Nuff Enchilada Sauce
1 blender
1 bag of red chili peppers
they look like these babies
http://www.photo.net/photo/pcd1680/chili-peppers-35.4.jpg
you probably only need about 15 or more?
then you’ll need tortillas and some cheese. maybe queso blanco. that stuff is delicious. but it’s the sauce that makes the enchiladas.
so.. first open up all the peppers and take out all the seeds and stuff inside and cut off the tops and such. (unless you want it to be spicy.)
Then you are going to boil the peppers. It doesn’t take very long. as soon as they start to change color i think they are done. it’s really easy to burn them. you don’t want them to get too dark.
now you just put them in the blender. there should be enough water in the peppers now that you don’t need to add any more. but if it looks like you need to add some.. just add a smidge. you don’t need much.
blend that shit. and you’ve got realllllly really good enchilada sauce. just start dipping stuff in it. or finish makeing your enchiladas and pour it on.
you might want to combine that sauce recipe with a real enchilada recipe to make it super. I’m a filthy bachelor chef. I only made the sauce once and i burned it a little and then i spilled it all over my carpet in a big circle. …. but it’s still the best enchilada sauce ever.
-pen
Gotta try out some other Latin American foods, Mexican stuff is great but there is a wide variety of stuff out there.
Honduran Conch (or Scallop) soup
1 pound of conch
2 shredded coconuts
3 green bananas
2 carrots
2 pounds of yucca root (sometimes called cassava or manioc, make sure you shave the skin off and wash it well, yucca skin is mildly toxic but the skin has most of the toxins and cooking breaks the rest down)
2 garlic cloves
2 large onions – yellow or white
2 green peppers
2 bouillon cubes (chicken or vegetable flavour)
1 cup of coriander leaf (cilantro or Chinese parsley)
1/8 cup of butter
1 cup of coconut milk
Cut up the onions, garlic, green peppers. Peel and cube all vegetables (except the bananas) and fast fry them in the butter. Add the bouillon cubes and the coriander. Blend together the coconut flesh and the milk, sieve the mixture – you may need to add some water to get it all out. Should end with approximately 3/4 liter of coconut milk. Add this to the fast fried vegetables, let it simmer around 15 to 20 minutes. Add the bananas and simmer for another 7 minutes or until the bananas are soft. Add the conch, peeled, and cut in small pieces; let it simmer for five more minutes.
If you can’t get broad leaf coriander substitute regular coriander or cilantro leaf (add half again as much because broad leaf is sharper tasting). It’s difficult to get conch in parts of the US or Canada so you can substitute fresh scallops. When you’re ready to serve, you can add lime juice for a little extra flavour.
Yucca makes great chips, a nice change from potato chips. It can also be boiled as a side-dish.
To top it off, you serve your soup with home-made Coconut Bread:
COCONUT BREAD
1 1/2 coconuts grated
3 lbs. all purpose flour
3 tbs. yeast
1/4 cup warm water
1 tbs. low-salt butter
3.5 tbs. sugar
3 tsp. salt
Chip and grate coconuts. Add approximately 2.5 cups of warm water. Mix well. Squeeze out milk. Dissolve yeast in 1/4 cup warm water, add 1 tbs. sugar and 1 tbs. flour, mix well, let rise. Then add remaining ingredients and knead until smooth and satiny. If dough is a bit stiff, add a little more coconut milk. Set aside in a pan, cover and let rise until double in bulk, about two hours. Divide into portioins, depending on the size of the pans for baking, knead and form loaves. Place in greased pans to rise again until double in bulk. Bake at 350 degrees F for 40-45 minutes. When done take out of pan and cool on rack.
Hey thanks for all the recipes! We’ll try all of ’em. Tho I don’t know about 15 chiles, pen… 4 was pretty intense for us the other day! We’ll definitely try some other Central/South American foods, I only said Mexican because the little nearby grocery store is specifically Mexican. I know there’s some Salvadoran places around too, though.