Churros

I don't really know what a good 'Churro" should be and trusting Foodnetwork, i gave their recipe a try. I think that there were too many eggs in this recipe which made the batter too soft, therefore the pattern was not there when fried. It was like eating 'eclairs' but they were fried and not baked. Too light to be a doughnut although the sugar coating was near.

Will give the 2 eggs recipe a go the next time around.



Ingredients:

Vegetable or olive oil, for frying
1 cup water
4 ounces butter
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup all purpose flour
3 eggs
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Chocolate Dunking Sauce, recipe is at bottom of page

Method:

Prepare to fry the churros by heating 1 to 1 1/2 inches oil in a deep pan to 360 degrees F.

To make churro dough, heat water, butter and salt to rolling boil in 3-quart saucepan; stir in flour. Stir vigorously over low heat until mixture forms a ball, about 1 minute; remove from the heat. Beat eggs all at once; continue beating until smooth and then add to saucepan while stirring mixture.

Spoon mixture into a piping tube with large star tip. Squeeze 4-inch strips of dough into hot oil. Fry 3 or 4 strips at a time until golden brown, turning once, about 2 minutes on each side. Drain on paper towels.

Mix the sugar and cinnamon.

Roll churros in the cinnamon sugar.

Serve with Chocolate Dunking Sauce.

Chocolate Dunking Sauce:

4 ounces dark chocolate, chopped
2 cups milk,
1 tablespoons cornstarch
4 tablespoons sugar

Place the chocolate and half of the milk in a pan and heat on low.

When the chocolate has melted, dissolve the cornstarch in the remaining milk and whisk into the chocolate with the sugar.

Cook on low heat, whisking constantly, until the chocolate is thickened, about 5 minutes. Add extra cornstarch if it does not start to thicken after 5 minutes.

Remove and whisk smooth.

Pour and serve in cups for dipping churros

Serves

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Green Chile

A completely traditional Mexican Chile Verde is a green chile stew without any tomatoes at all; however, in practice it is far more common to include some tomatoes ... some "green" chilis use so many the color becomes red and the flavor becomes heavily tomato. This recipe has just a small can of tomatoes, to lend the richer, smoother flavor they impart, but not so many to adulterate the green chile character.

The flavor of green chili is influenced most by the kind of green chiles you decide to use and i use all fresh jalapenos. There is no reason to limit yourself to jalapenos, if you enjoy experimentation, try cooking with any chille, it's similar to choosing what variety of apples you prefer - i have tried with canned pickled green chille and they turned out spicy and delicious too.


Ingredients:

2 teaspoons oil

1 pound pork loin -- cut into 1/2-inch chunks and remove all visible fat

3 small garlic cloves -- finely minced

1 red onion -- finely chopped

1 tablespoons flour -- preferably flour
20 jalapeno pepper - chopped

1 teaspoon cumin

1 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon white pepper

2 cups chicken broth

1 14 oz can crushed/diced tomatoes

Method:

In skillet, heat oil over medium-high heat. Saute pork until all pink is gone (about 5 minutes).

Remove meat and set aside

Add garlic and onion. As soon as garlic sizzles, stir in the flour. Cook until flour is cooked, then add in the pork, chopped jalapenos, tomatoes , cumin and chicken broth.

Transfer to a crockpot and cook on high. When the mixture boils, turn to low and cook until chille is thick and the texture you want - cooking time depends on your crockpot, i like to stew it for at least 2 hours.

Adjust the taste with salt and pepper.

Freezes very well.

Serve over plain or mexican rice, burritos, chile rellenos, chimichangas, etc.

Serves

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Stir Fry Prawns Delimas

As suggested in the cooking instructions at the back of the packet of 'Stir Fry Sauce Delimas' to cook this sauce with prawns and so i did. I added 100 ml of thick coconut milk and this is fantastically delicious with hot white rice. This dish was ready to serve in less than 10 minutes.



Ingredients:

1 lb of prawns

1 packet 'Delimas Stir Fry Sauce' (available online here http://mytasteofasia.com/)

1/2 cup of sliced red pepper

1/4 cup of sliced carrot

100 ml thick coconut milk

2 tbsp cooking oil

salt to taste

Lime wedges

Thai basil (optional)

Method:

Heat 2 tbsp cooking oil and add in the packet of Delimas Stir Fry Sauce, stir to heat through.

Add in the carrots and prawns. Saute until prawns are cooked.

Add in the red peppers and lastly the coconut milk.

Add salt to taste.

Garnish with thai basil.

Squeeze lime over prawns and serve with hot white rice.

Serves

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Quesadillas

"Queso" is cheese in Spanish. And a quesadilla is a toasted tortilla with melted cheese inside. But in addition to cheese, you can put practically anything in a quesadilla. I was trying to finish my roasted turkey and made this for breakfast.



Ingredients:

4 Flour Tortillas
1 cup shredded Monterey Jack Cheese with Jalapeño Peppers
A large bowl of shredded roast turkey, mix 1/2 tsp of fajitas seasoning
2 Tbsp. butter, divided
1 cup refried beans


TOP each tortilla with 1/4 cup of refried beans, 1/4 cup cheese and shredded turkey ; fold tortillas in half.

HEAT large nonstick skillet on medium heat. Add about 1-1/2 tsp. of the butter; heat until melted.

Add 1 folded tortilla; cook 3 minutes on each side or until golden brown on both sides.

Remove from skillet; cut into 6 wedges.

Cover to keep warm. Repeat with remaining tortillas, adding remaining butter to skillet as needed.

Serves

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