SouthwesternHam & Rice Casserole

This Southwestern Ham Casserole is perfect for using up that last bit of baked ham — you know, when you've got too little to feed two people and too much to throw away. If you happen to have some leftover rice all the better, but if not rice is easy enough to make. You can use a commercial chile powder if you wish, but my recipe for chile powder has a nice smoky flavor from the chipotles.

Recipe here...

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Chicken Enchiladas

My Fearless Neighbor



My next-door neighbor, Richard, is absolutely fearless. Most people are afraid of feeding me. It's not that I'm that great a cook, but that I have a reputation for being a great (even "gourmet" as people used to say) cook. I'm seldom asked over to friends' homes for dinner because either A) I don't bath often enough or B) they're afraid of me judging their food. Given that I almost never hear complaints about my personal hygiene but when I do get asked to dinner I get tons of apologies about the food I suspect the reason is B.

Richard, though, wants me to taste his cooking and, more, demands a no-holds barred critique. It took him a while to convince me he was serious, but he was. So last night when he brought me a bowl of chile to taste I was completely honest: Needs a tad more vinegar, needs more onion or garlic, excellent spice balance, and so on. These are my opinions, neither right nor wrong, but he likes my food and he ignores my usual comment about the lack of salt. He takes everything I have to say in stride. I envy this.

I marinated the chicken in tequila, lime juice, and chili powder for a couple of hours, then poached it in the marinade until done.

My neighbor has the advantage of not being invested in cooking. He loves good food and enjoys cooking, but that's about as far as it goes. He can take my thoughts as suggestions without feeling put down. This is something that comes much harder to me because cooking and writing about it is what defines who I am. Say something critical about my food and I take it personally. I will try to hide that fact. I will find time to think about and consider the criticism — whether pro or con — and accept or reject it consciously and not with a jerk of my knee. But, well my knees do jerk.

I have no idea if anyone but me will like this version of Chicken Enchiladas, but I certainly did. I marinated the chicken in tequila, lime juice, and chili powder for a couple of hours, then poached it in the marinade until done. Then I reduced the marinade and combined it with some tomato sauce to make the enchilada sauce. The sauce was delightfully complex and knee jerk good - at least in my opinion.

Chicken Enchiladas
Serves 4.

3 chicken thighs
1 c tequila
2 limes — juiced
2 tbsp chile powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 c chicken broth or stock
1 c tomato sauce
1 tbsp corn oil
1 md onion — cut into half rounds
1 md green bell pepper — cut into strips
2 cloves garlic — minced
1 jalapeno — minced
8 corn tortillas
1 c shredded cheese

Mix together tequila, lime juice, salt, and chili powder. Pour into a large, lidded skillet and add thighs. Marinate for one hour and turn thighs over. Marinate another hour.

Place skillet over high heat. Add chicken broth and bring to a boil, then reduce temperature to low, cover, and simmer very gently for 25 minutes. Remove chicken from pan and set aside. Increase heat to medium high and reduce liquid to 1 cup. Add tomato sauce and cook for another 5 minutes. Taste and adjust seasoning. Set aside.

Cut thighs into strips. Heat oven to 375F.

While chicken is poaching, Heat corn oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add onions and bell pepper and sauté, stirring often, for 5 minutes. Add garlic and jalapenos and cook 1 minute longer — stirring 2 or 3 times.

Wrap tortillas in a paper towel and microwave at 50% power for 30 seconds. Lay them out on a piece of waxed paper. Smear a bit of the enchilada sauce in the bottom of an 8x8 baking dish — just enough to moisten it.

Divide onion/pepper mixture and chicken evenly between tortillas. Drizzle filling with a soup spoon full of sauce, roll up, and place seam-side down in an 8x8 baking dish. Pour remaining sauce over the tortillas, sprinkle with cheese, and bake until cheese browns. Serve topped with sour cream.

Try these enchiladas with...
Mexcican Rice
Braised Brussels Sprouts
Fried Okra

Technorati: Food | recipe | kevin d weeks | seriously good | chicken | mexican | main dish

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Southwestern Pulled Pork

Spicy-licious



We're now into our third day of fall showers. The rain comes and lasts for two - three - four hours interspersed with periods of clouds and sunshine. Unlike Tennessee's summer storms, the autumnal rain is steady, not violent, and extended, not brief. Unlike Northwestern rains they aren't day-long middling drizzles and perpetually overcast skies. In fact, when I moved from Knoxville to Eugene I discovered Knoxville gets about the same rainfall as Eugene. But in Eugene you get six months of drizzle and six months of sun. Here you get genuine rain throughout the year.

There's something ineffably sweet about Tennessee's autumn rain. Like the summer storms the rain begins with an odor of hot rock and hot soil — granite and iron — but without the lightening the acidic ozone element is missing. Which isn't to say lightening doesn’t also play a role in the fall. There was a long roll of thunder just minutes ago. A deep sonorous voice that gave me a shiver.

Unlike Tennessee's summer storms, the autumnal rain is steady, not violent, and extended, not brief.

But as the rain wears on and the air clears you notice sweet, grassy notes from still-green leaves and lawns. Hiding behind the scenes is the coming decay. Dusty smells of leaves nearly turned and mushrooms turning death into life as everything dies back for winter.

For the past hour I've been sitting out on my (covered) balcony enjoying the latest rain and getting a bit wet. Bella, my companion, was sitting just inside the door grumbling as only cats can about my exposure to an element as negative as rain. My only complaint was that my balcony is exposed to the neighborhood and so I had to wear clothes to enjoy the experience. Summer and early fall rain is much better indulged in while naked.

The rain ended and I moved back inside to listen to" All Things Considered" and figure out what to do with the Boston Butt in my fridge, I decided on something Southwestern -- replicating in some way the smell of hot rock and soil from summer and the cooler, darker flavors of fall. Oregano, thyme, and basil add the grassy notes. Dried and smoked peppers bring in lightening, musk, and granite. Stout adds more musk, shifting the dish closer to fall, while fresh parsley added fresh as a garnish reinforces summer.

Served on my standard Mexican/Southwestern rice it was pretty damned good.

Southwestern Pulled Pork
Serves 6 - 8.

1 3 - 4 lb Boston Butt roast — trimmed of visible fat
Salt and pepper
2 tbsp lard or oil
1 lg onion — diced
1 md bell bepper — diced
2 lg cloves garlic — minced
1 lg jalapeno pepper — seeded and minced
3 tbsp ground cumin
2 tbsp chile powder
2 tbsp cocoa powder
1 can chopped green chiles
1 bottle stout
1 c tomato sauce
1 c chicken stock
1 tbsp white vinegar
2 bay leaves

Heat oven to 250F.

Season the roast well with salt and pepper. Heat in oil in a dutch oven over medium-high heat then brown roast well on all sides. Remove roast to a platter and reduce heat to medium.

Add onions and peppers to pot and cooking, stirring frequently in they soften. Add garlic, jalapeno, cumin, and chili powder. Stir and cook 1 minute longer. Stir in stout, tomato sauce, cocoa, chicken stock, vinegar, and bay leaves.

Return the roast to the pot. The liquid should come about halfway up the sides of the roast, add water if needed. Bring just to a boil, then cover and place in the center of the oven.

Cook 1 hour and turn roast over. Taste and adjust seasonings and cook 1 1/2 hours and turn roast again. Cook 30 minutes longer. Remove from oven and skim off as much fat as you can. Serve over rice garnished with fresh cilantro.

Technorati: Food | recipe | kevin d weeks | seriously good | main dish | pork | mexican

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Mexican Pot Roast

Deeply, Darkly, Delicious



I'm not sure what prompted this Mexican Pot Roast. Although I like Mexican food very much, I don’t make it very often, but as I was trying to decide how to cook a chuck roast I'd bought this recipe leapt to mind and, in my mind's mouth, it tasted absolutely delicious. So of course I had to make it. I also decided to steal a couple of licks from other Mexican/Southwestern dishes and shredded the beef before serving it on corn tortillas.

Recipe here...

Technorati: Food | recipe | kevin d weeks | cooking for two | beef | main dish | mexican

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Tex/Mex Chicken

Grilled Chicken: A Tex/Mex Take



I have never paid any attention to Cinco de Mayo. With Easter and Memorial Day I have enough food events for late spring. But for some reason the holiday caught my culinary interest this year. This prompted the Southwestern Chicken and Rice a few days ago and resulted in some leftover Mexican rice and some leftover raw chicken. So what to do with it?

I have never paid any attention to Cinco de Mayo. With Easter and Memorial Day I have enough food events for late spring.

I rooted through my memory, mentally snorting and snuffling like a hound dog following a scent trail through the detritus of my mind. I tracked a few false scents, I sometimes circled around, but eventually my coon-dog instincts took me deep into the hollows of my memory and I remembered marinating chicken in tequila years ago and then grilling it. Surprisingly, I'd actually added it to the recipe management program I used back then — perhaps more surprising I never deleted the program although I haven't clicked on it in ages.

So I printed the recipe out, tweaked it a bit (I can't even leave my own recipes alone), and fired up the grill (pan). Sadly the local fire marshall hasn't relented in prohibiting people who live in multiple-occupant buildings (I'm in a condo/apartment) from grilling over flame. But although I missed out on the smoke flavor, I did get the taste of carbon from the grill.

Tequila Chicken
Serves 4.

12 chicken tenders
1 c tequila
1/2 c orange juice
4 limes — zested and juiced*
2 tsp chile powder**
2 tsp ground cumin
2 clove garlic; crushed
3 tbsp salt (optional***)

Whisk together all ingredients except the chicken. Pour into a ziplock bag and add chicken. Refrigerate for 8 to 12 hours, occasionally shaking to redistribute marinade.

Remove chicken from bag and pat dry with paper towels. Grill chicken over medium high heat for about 2 minutes per side. Serve over Mexican rice.

**Chile Powder
Makes 1/2 - 2/3 cup.

2 ea Ancho chiles
3 ea Pasillo chiles
2 ea Chipotle chiles

Stem chiles and break them up. Then process them in one or two batches in a spice mill or coffee grinder.

*Note 1: You need about 1/2 cup of lime juice so more limes might be needed.

***Note 2: In my original version I only used a teaspoon of salt and then reduced the marinade by 2/3's and added some arrowroot to make a sauce. This time I used more salt to carry the marinade deeper into the chicken (and used tenders instead of breasts) and replaced the marinade sauce with salsa. I can't say which was a better choice as I can't compare last night's meal with one I had ten years ago.

Technorati: Food | recipe | kevin d weeks | seriously good | main dish | chicken | mexican

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Southwestern Chicken and Rice

Editorial Bonding



When I lived in Oregon and edited a programming magazine one of the editorial crew's favorite eateries was a Mexican restaurant within easy walking distance of our offices. We didn't eat together a lot, I usually went home for lunch, others went out for burger, a couple of folks brown-bagged, but about once a month we'd have an "editorial bonding lunch."

In fact, the editorial staff at Oakley Publishing was pretty well bonded when I got there. It was a family — somewhat dysfunctional — but then most families are. However there was certainly a great deal of affection in the group. And we enjoyed our monthly lunches. I just didn't enjoy them quite as much.

Although I enjoyed the comradery and most of the flavors every meal had an element that put me off.

I'm one of those people who cannot abide the taste of cilantro and this was a real Mexican restaurant — lot's of cilantro. So although I enjoyed the comradery and most of the flavors every meal had an element that put me off. But that's not why I seldom cook Mexican food. I think it's because eating it five or six times a year in restaurants is enough, so why make it myself?

Nevertheless, this year Cinco de Mayo got me thinking Mexican and so I decided to see what I could do. My decision was to simmer chicken in a chile sauce and serve over Mexican rice.

Mexican Chicken
Serves 6.

2 lb chicken thighs — cut into 1" square pieces
Salt and pepper
3 - 5 tbsp corn oil (or other flavorless oil)
1 md onion — cut into chunks
1 md green bell pepper — cut into chunks
2 tbsp chile powder (or more to taste)
2 tbsp ground cumin
2 tsp dried Mexican oregano
2 cloves garlic — minced
1 jalapeño — trimmed of pith and seeds and minced
1 1/2 c chicken broth
1 15 oz cans diced tomatoes in sauce
1/2 c fresh lime juice

Heat oil in a large sauté pan over medium high heat

Season chicken well with salt and pepper. Then brown in three or four batches (adding more oil if needed) and setting aside as each batch is browned. Then reduce heat to medium. Saute onions and green pepper until you see hints of browning. Add jalapeño, garlic, oregano, cumin, and chile powder and cook one minute longer.

Increase heat to medium-high and deglaze the sauté pan with 1 cup of chicken stock, scraping up fond. Add tomatoes, remaining chicken stock, and lime juice. Bring to a vigorous simmer, then cover, reduce heat to low, and cook gently for 10 minutes.

Serve over Mexican Rice (note, this is a recipe for two and needs to be scaled up).

Technorati: Food | recipe | kevin d weeks | seriously good | chicken | main dish | mexican

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