Favorites Week: Mexican Baked Eggs

Because I'm always trying out new things in the kitchen, sometimes I'll go long periods of time trying out and working on different techniques (and creating some delicious dinners in the process)... but forsaking the tried and true favorites. Sorry, favorites.

 Kenny is great about supporting me in my culinary adventures, always providing helpful and honest feed back, but also in drawing me back to the forsaken favorites. So after mandating Friday a taco night (taco recipie for another time... that recipie is one favorite to rule them all!) he proclaimed that this week shall be Favorites Week! And because all good things have a jingle, He began to sing "Happy Favorites Week to you..."; this is the man I love.

Day 1: Mexican Baked Eggs! These are very healthy, full of veggies and hitting all the right food groups, as well as low cal. And quick! And obviously delicious! You seriously can't go wrong. You can make them in individual ramekins, but I've found that they cook way faster in a cast iron pan (read: I did not know this and have accidentally turned eggs into rubber ... there might be a scientific discovery in there somewhere but it was NOT edible). 

Napolitos, or cactus, are available in specialty grocery stores or Hispanic grocery stores. They are prickly- if you are clumsy like me you will definitely get pricked once or twice. No pain, no cactus, right?  Because they are slimy, you need to salt them to make them edible. If you like olives, you'll like the salty crunch these bring to the dish. Además, es muy divertido comer cactus!

Mexican Baked Eggs

Serves 2

1/2 large white onion, chopped

1/2 green pepper, chopped

1/2 red pepper, chopped

1 napolito cactus, salted and chopped*

1 jalapeño 

1 14oz can of diced tomatoes 

Splash of red wine 

1 1/2 tbsp chile powder

1 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp lemon pepper

3 cloves garlic, diced

4 eggs

1 avocado, sliced 

1 lime, quartered

Cheddar cheese (optional)

First, peel and chop the cactus. Put in a small bowl and cover it with salt. Toss to coat. Let sit for a couple minutes. Then, rinse the cactus and let some of the slime out of the bowl. Once the napolitos are dry, add more salt and repeat the process. After the second rinse they should be mostly slime free and crunchy.

Pre-heat the oven to 375F.

Heat a tbsp of olive oil over medium heat in a cast iron pan. Sauté the onions until translucent. Add the peppers and continue to sauté for 5- 7 minutes. Add the chili powder, garlic, cumin and jalapeño to the pan and sauté for a minute or until fragrant. Add the red wine and reduce for 3 minutes. Add the can to tomatoes and their juices and reduce heat; simmer until there is no more excess liquid (about 10 - 15 minutes). Add the salted napolitos and combine.

With a spoon, create shallow beds in your mixture in which the eggs will sit. Crack eggs into pan, cover with cheese if desired, and put in the oven. Eggs need to cook for approximately 7 minutes- once they are set in the pan take out of the oven and serve immediately (they will continue to cook in the pan if you 

don't!). 

Serve with slices of fresh avocado and a lime. Buen provecho! 

Chiles Rellenos with an Ancho Chipotle Sauce

One of my favorite new things I've discovered in my cooking adventures is dried peppers. You know all those packages in the grocery store that you have no idea how to use? Well, let me tell you. They are easy to use and also YUM. They add an awesome smoky flavor to your concoction that you will just love.

 It makes me a little excited inside every time I successfully create something using these peppers... trying new things and having new experiences is what makes life worth living!

Anyway, I had some guests over for dinner last night and decided to make some chiles rellenos. I tried out this recipe for plantain fried rice via Rick Bayless. It was great... but not as good as when I had it at Xoco (Wicker Park). Missing that Bayless magic! I've never cooked rice like this before, and I'm interested to try it again. FYI I quartered this recipe and there was enough to serve 8 people! My friend Kimmy snapped some pictures of the food and preparation... I am trying to get better with this. Or maybe I should just have her over every night for dinner to be my photographer?

In my pantry I have a few different kinds of dried pepper. Guajillo, ancho and chipotle are my favorites. Ok, they are the only ones I've tried but they are my favorites already! I used 2 ancho chiles and 2 chipotle in the sauce. It was a BIG hit and super versatile. I'd cook any kind of meat in it. You could thin it out with more wine or broth and use it an a sauce for enchiladas, or use it as as a dipping sauce/ salsa. It's smoky, spicy and has a great depth of flavor.

Chiles rellenos are easy of customize to your taste. I chose mine to compliment the spicy sauce. Love to get creative with these!

Ancho Chipotle Sauce
2 Ancho peppers
2 Chipotle peppers
4 cloves garlic
1 1/2 tbsp chile powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tbsp cumin seeds
1/2 tbsp coriander seeds
1 tbsp oregano
1 jalapeno - half of the seeds removed
2 tbsp honey
1/2 cup red wine (and more to reach desired thickness)
1 14 oz can tomato puree (or diced tomatoes... pureed)

Bring a small sauce pan of water to boil (enough to cover the 4 dried peppers, about 4 cups). Toast the peppers over a hot pan, a couple minutes per side until they begin to brown. Put them into the pot with boiling water and turn off the heat. Let sit for 20 minutes, covered. Meanwhile, toast the cumin and coriander seeds until fragrant and then grind with a mortar and pestle.

Seed the peppers and place in a blender with 1/2 cup of the soaking liquid, and the next 8 ingredients. Blend. Heat a skillet over medium high heat and sauce for a couple minutes. Add the red wine and continue to cook about 5 minutes as it reduces. Add the tomatoes and reduce to a simmer, about 20 minutes. Salt and pepper to taste.

Chiles Rellenos (Stuffed Poblano Peppers)
6 poblano peppers
1/2 lb ground turkey
2 ears (or 1 can) of corn
1 red bell pepper, diced
1/2 white onion, diced
1/2 cup cheddar cheese
2 garlic cloves
1 tbsp oregano
1/2 tbsp cumin
Vegetable oil for frying
1 cup flour
1 1/2 Panko bread crumbs
1 egg
1/4 cup milk

First, char your poblanos over your kitchen burners, rotating them to get a good char on all sides. The peppers should be black all over. Wrap them in foil as you take them off the burners and let sit for about 10 minutes. Then, rinse the peppers in lukewarm water, peeling the skins off carefully as to not rip the pepper (they will be fragile). Cut slit in the pepper on one side from and inch above the tip to the point where you can easily seed the pepper. Seed it and set aside.

To make your filling, sauté the onion for 5 minutes until translucent. Add the red pepper and sauté  for another 5 minutes. Add the corn, garlic, oregano and cumin and sauté  unit fragrant, about 1 minute. Add the group turkey and season generously with salt and pepper. Sauté until the meat is cooked, and then add the cheese and cook until melted.

Assemble your breading station and heat about 1 cm of vegetable oil in a pan. Beat the egg and milk together lightly in a bowl. Stuff the peppers to the point that they are full but you can still close the pepper. Coat with flour, cover with the egg/milk mixture, and then with the Panko. Place the pepper cut side down in the oil and fry for 2-4 minutes until golden brown. Flip, and repeat.

Serve on top of the Ancho Chipotle Sauce, with a side of plantain friend rice (above)... and enjoy!

Beet Pasta with Béchamel and Pancetta

I've been craving carbs lately, which is not unusual, but I don't usually crave pasta. I feel like I still carry a negative stigma about pasta in terms of a "healthy diet"...  but really it's not that bad. I am a firm believe in everything in moderation. So, when I want pasta, like today, I'm going to get it! And I'm not going for the boxed store bough version either; I'm going to make myself some fresh homemade pasta because it really is super easy and WAY better than anything you can buy in the store!

And... I'm going to hit the gym to burn off my delicious dinner tonight. I've been doing a great job staying focused on my fitness goals. Mantra up!

Today's workout: some core circuit work inspired by my total body conditioning class on Saturdays that I love, followed by an hour on the elliptical. Watching criminal minds of course. A great way to pass the time... and develop a phobia of strangers.

Today's meal: beat pasta with pancetta and bechamel sauce. It doesn't really taste like beets, but it's got this wonderful exotic color and added nutrition. Well, the belchamel on top and the pancetta might take away from that. But hey, all that time on the elliptical!

I've made pasta couple times before, but that was usually for ravioli. It took me a couple tries to get ravioli right, but making straight noodles is much less complicated. I also discovered that they have pancetta in my grocery's deli and it's way cheaper than the prepackaged version (read: I will be eating a lot more pancetta!).

I used the recipe here. It made about 3 - 4 portions of pasta. It calls for a juicer for the beets - I don't have one yet so I just blended some canned beets and their juices together. The color was not as vibrant as in the recipe's photo - it faded as you boiled the pasta. Add more rather than less, and adjust the amount of flour as you do. The recipe also says to boil the pasta much longer than you should - 1:30 - 2 minutes max.

Belhamel is a french mother sauce that is super simple and delicious. Recipe here. Simply fry up the pancetta, cut into small pieces, and toss into pasta. Even the guy loved it, and he is not a pasta fan!

Next time I make pasta, I'm trying the spinach version. Making my own momentum one dinner at a time!