Chorizo and Potato Quesadillas

I saw the host of Food Network's Mexican Made Easy make these quesadillas on her show this past Saturday and they looked so yummy I just had to make them. My husband loves chorizo, so I knew he would enjoy them. This is my spin on her dish. Click here to see all of the recipes from this episode.

What You'll Need:
Olive oil
2 links of chorizo sausage, about 1/2 a pound
1/2 cup onion, chopped
4 medium Yukon gold potatoes, peeled and cut into small cubes
4-6 corn tortillas, about 2-3 per person
shredded monterey jack or cheddar cheese
sour cream, optional

How to make them:
Preheat a nonstick skillet over medium to medium high heat. Add a little olive oil, about 1/2 tablespoon. If the sausage is in a casing, remove it from the casing and add to the pan, break it up with a wooden spoon while it cooks until it is brown and crumbly, about 10 minutes. Remove from the skillet to a plate lined with paper towel to drain some of the fat and oil. Set aside.

Return the skillet to the burner. Add a little more oil if needed. Add the onions and potatoes, cooking until the potatoes are tender, about 10-15 minutes. Stir and toss often. Once the potatoes are done, return the sausage to the pan to reheat and mix with the potatoes.

Meanwhile heat a nonstick skillet or griddle over medium heat. Once hot add the tortillas to warm and soften, add the cheese to melt. Once melted, move the tortillas to a plate, fill with a little of the chorizo and potato mixture, top with a little sour cream. Fold and enjoy.

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Chicken Tostados with Fresh Salsa

My husband and I love the blackened chicken tostados at Tijuana Flats, so I thought we should try making them at home. I must say, our first attempt was pretty successful. My husband did a great job blackening the chicken and making fresh salsa, but I was the mastermind behind the whole thing!

What you’ll need:
Olive oil
Corn tortillas (about 2-3 per person)
1 lb chicken cutlets
Blackened seasoning (we used a combo of cumin, chili powder, cayenne pepper, garlic powder and salt and pepper)
1 can refried beans
Queso Fresco (a Mexican crumbling cheese that I have only seen at Super Walmart) or you could substitute Monterey jack cheese
Toppings: hot sauce, salsa (see our recipe below), sour cream (my favorite condiment in the whole world), guacamole, jalepeno peppers, green or red onion

How to make them:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

With a basting or pastry brush, lightly coat both sides of the tortillas with olive oil and season with kosher salt. Place evenly on a baking sheet and place in the oven for about 15 minutes, until crispy, turn halfway through.

Meanwhile, season the chicken cutlets with the blackening spices - cumin, chili powder, cayenne pepper, garlic powder, salt and pepper. Place in a cast iron skillet if you have one or you can use a nonstick skillet with the just a little bit of oil. Preheat the skillet to medium-high to high. Cook on both sides until cooked through, about 8 minutes total. Remove from the pan. Let cool slightly, then chop up.

Heat the refried beans in a saucepan on the stove. When the tortillas are done, spread a little refried beans on the tortillas, top with some chicken, crumbled queso and additional toppings of your choice.

What you’ll need for the salsa:
4 vine ripened tomatoes, cut into smaller chunks
Half a large white onion, cut into smaller chunks
2 garlic cloves
Salt and pepper
A handful of fresh cilantro, roughly chopped
If you like it spicier, add a jalepeno, remove the seeds and ribs

How to make it:
Place the tomato chunks, onion, and garlic (and jalapeno if using) into a food processor fitted with a metal blade. Pulse until it reaches the consistency you like. Season with salt and pepper, add the cilantro and pulse a couple of more times to incorporate.


You could also use ground beef, ground turkey or sirloin instead of blackened chicken.

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Update: Cinco de Mayo

As previously posted, I planned to make Food Network's Pork Carnitas for Cinco de Mayo. See the post here. Well, I did make them and they were absolutely delicious. I think I only made one substitution in the recipe and a couple of changes to the process.

Instead of the fresh chiles, which I couldn't find at my store, I used a small can of diced green chiles. And where it says to microwave the garlic and chiles to soften, I just skipped that step. So you basically throw everything in the food processor for the sauce and reduce it down with chicken broth.

I suggest making the sauce the night before, so in the morning all you have to do is cut up the pork shoulder into big chunks and pour over the sauce. I also cooked it on low for 8 hours instead of on high for 5 hours. Hope you'll try this recipe and enjoy it. They were a little spicy, but not overwhelming.

I also made a big batch of fresh guac to go along with the tacos.

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Alton's Enchilada Lasagna

I love enchiladas and I have tried a couple of different recipes, but have never been totally satisfied. Plus, I find rolling them up very frustrating. They never roll up easily and the filling ends up spilling out of the sides. This recipe fixes both of these issues. It has great flavor and you don't have to roll everything up, just lay out flat.

Ingredients:

For the sauce:

2 dried chipotle chiles, stems and seeds removed, diced

3 large garlic cloves, minced

2 and 1/2 tsps chili powder

1 and 1/2 tsps cumin

2 cups chicken broth

3 cups tomato sauce (a large can)

1/2 tsp kosher salt

1/4 tsp ground black pepper

For the filling:

1 Tbsp vegetable oil

1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breast, cubed

1 and 1/2 cups diced onion

pinch Kosher salt

1 large garlic clove, minced

1 tsp dried oregano

12 (6-inch) corn tortillas

3 cups shredded Monterey Jack cheese

Nonstick cooking spray

Combine the chiles, garlic, chili powder, cumin, chicken broth, tomato sauce, salt and pepper in a medium saucepan over high heat. Bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to low and simmer for 15 minutes or until the chiles are soft. Set aside until ready to use.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Heat the vegetable oil in a medium skillet over medium-high heat. Saute the chicken until cooked through, approximately 7-9 minutes. Remove the chicken from the pan and place in a medium bowl. Add the onions to the same pan along with a generous pinch of sale, decrease the heat to medium-low and sweat for 4-6 minutes. Add the garlic and oregano and cook until the onions are tender, 2-3 minutes more. Add the chicken back to the pan and remove from the heat.

Spray a 13 by 9-inch glass baking dish with non-stick spray. Place 1/2 cup of the sauce into the bottom of the dish. Dip 4 tortillas into the remaining sauce and lay them into the bottom of the dish. Cut 1 of the tortillas in half to evenly cover the bottom of the dish. Top this with half of the chicken mixture and 1 cup of the cheese. Starting with 4 more tortillas, repeat the layers, ending with the last 4 tortillas on top. Pour remaining sauce over the dish and top with reamining 1 cup of cheese.

Cover with aluminum foil and bake in the oven on the middle rack for 30 minutes. Remove the foil and bake an additional 10 minutes, or until the cheese on top is bubbly.

Serve with sour cream and sliced scallions for garnish.

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Carne Asada

My husband made this delicious carne asada a week or two ago. It is a marinated flank steak that is then grilled. Great to make into fajitas with sauteed peppers and onions. We sliced the steak thin and then served on tortillas with cheese, sour cream and guacamole. Flank steak is great because it is inexpensive and can serve a crowd. The key is marinating it overnight. It allows the meat to get really tender.

Ingredients:
2 pound flank steak
olive oil
Kosher salt and ground black pepper
Marinade:
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 jalapeno, seeded and minced
1 tsp ground cumin
1 large handful of fresh cilantro, leaves and stems finely chopped
salt and pepper
2 limes, juiced
2 Tbsp white vinegar
1/2 tsp sugar
1/2 cup olive oil

Mix all the marinade ingredients together in a bowl. Place the steak into a sealable plastic bag. Pour the marinade over the steak. Seal the bag, letting all the air out. Toss around to coat the meat. Refrigerate over night.

Remove the steak from the bag. Season with salt and pepper. We don't have a grill, so we cooked it indoors on our grill pan by heating a little olive oil first, then grilling the steak for about 5 minutes per side. It is very important to not overcook the meat. Medium-rare is ideal. Thinly slice the meat across the grain. (The grain is the lines running through the meat. Slice the opposite way the grain runs.)

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Chai Thai Teriyaki Turkey Tacos

This recipe is courtesy of my friend Michele, the brilliant creator of Intensity Academy gourmet sauces. I first had these at my first tastecasting event for Save the Tortillas. She made these then and the next time I made tacos I asked her for the recipe. It is really easy and the best turkey tacos you'll ever taste. Plus, they're healthy because a.) it's ground turkey and b.) the sauce is all natural. Thanks, Michele for a wonderful recipe! You can find Michele and her award-wining sauces at local farmer's markets and festivals. Check out the St. Pete Saturday Market every saturday at Al Lopez Park. Check out all the sauces and order at www.intensityacademysauces.com. Here is the recipe, plus a few seasonings my husband added in.

Ingredients:
1-2 Tbsp. olive oil
1/2 an onion, chopped
1 package ground turkey
1 tsp cumin
dash of crushed red pepper
1/2 bottle of Intensity Academy's Chai Thai Teriyaki
flour tortillas - I like TamXico's low-carb wheat tortillas
toppings: shredded cheese, sour cream, lettuce, tomato, avocado, hot sauce

In a large skillet over medium-high heat add the olive oil. Once hot, add the onion and cook for about 5 minutes, until softened. Add the ground turkey and brown while breaking it up with a wooden spoon or spatula. Season the meat with the cumin and crushed red pepper. Once browned, add the teriyaki sauce, reduce the heat and simmer allowing the meat to absorb the sauce.

Serve on warm tortillas and top with desired toppings.

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Shrimpy Breakfast Burrito

I had some leftover shrimp from last night's quesadillas and had a great idea to make a breakfast burrito with them for my husband. He loved it.

Ingredients:
Leftover Old Bay seasoned shrimp, chopped
1 green onion, chopped
2 large eggs
1 tortilla (I used my low-carb wheat Tam-X-icos)
salt and pepper

Crack the eggs into a bowl, season with salt and pepper and whisk with a fork. Set aside.

In a skillet over medium low heat, add a pat of butter. Once the butter melts, add the shrimp to re-heat. Then add the green onion and saute the two for just a bit, less than a minute. Add the eggs and scramble the mixture slowly. You never want to scramble eggs real fast over high heat. They'll become rubbery and that is not good. Be patient and scramble slowly over low heat.

While the eggs are cooking, heat a tortilla in the microwave for 30 seconds to soften it. Add some shredded cheese on the tortilla. Place the cooked eggs and shrimp over the cheese. Add a few drops of hot sauce. Roll up the tortilla into a buritto and enjoy!

Obviously, if you have enough shrimp leftover to make two burritos, go for it. I just had a few leftover.

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Shrimp Quesadillas

These quesadillas were great! By the way, when you say quesadillas, you gotta say it like as if you were in Napoleon Dynamite. Pronounced as "quesadilas", not "quesadiyas." Anyway, this is another recipe incorporating Old Bay Seasoning and I got some great low-carb, whole wheat Tam-X-icos tortillas from Tampa's La Bonite Ole (http://www.savethetortillas.com/). The texture was very soft and tender for a whole wheat product, even my husband liked them. The local movement to save this company must be paying off because I bought the last package of Tam-X-icos that Publix had.

Ingredients:
3/4 lb. shrimp, peeled and deveined
Old Bay Seasoning
olive oil
red pepper, chopped small
2 green onions, chopped
4-5 tortillas
shredded cheese, I used a Mexican blend
hot sauce (I used my friend's carrot-based hot sauce, Intensity Academy)
sour cream, avocado, salsa for garnish

Liberally season the shrimp with old bay seasoning. In a large skillet over medium to medium-high heat, add a little olive oil, about 1 tablespoon. Once hot, throw in the shrimp and cook on both sides for a couple minutes, until cooked through. Shrimp will be bright pink and curled up. Remove to a plate. Add a little more oil to the pan, add the red pepper and cook for about 5 minutes. Add the green onion and cook for just a minute longer. Remove the pepper and onion to a plate. While the pepper and onion are cooking, chop up the shrimp.

Wipe the skillet clean. Turn the heat down to medium-low. Brush with a little oil. Add a tortilla to the pan. Sprinkle with an even layer of cheese. On half of the tortilla, add some shrimp, red pepper and green onion. Be careful not to over fill it. Add a few drops of hot sauce. Once the cheese melts, fold the tortilla over the side with the toppings. Let cook for a minute or so longer. Slide onto a plate and top with sour cream, avocado, salsa and any other toppings you like.

Repeat until all the filling is gone.

I like to cook my quesadillas this way. Alternatively, you could place a few tortillas on a baking sheet, top with cheese and the other items, place another tortilla on top and bake in the oven for a few minutes.

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First TasteCasting: Save the Tortillas

Last night I had my first tastecasting event. Future tastecastings will be held at locally-owned restaurants, but this one was a little unique. There is a local tortilla company, La Bonita Ole, that manufactures Wrap-Itz and Tam-X-icos products. You may have seen them at a grocery store near you. They are readily available in the Eastern states, and some Midwestern states.

Unfortunately in 2008, they were forced into chapter 11 bankruptcy, but after some changes they remain profitable. Even so, the bank, which is Sun Trust, may move to sell. A community effort and campaign has sprung into action to try and help save this company. I met the owner last night and she is a very impressive woman. She started the company in 1992 with only $13,000 and grew it to over $12 million in sales. Forty employees are at risk as well if the company is sold.

Let's help Save the Tortillas! I urge everyone to check out http://www.savethetortillas.com/ and sign the petition telling SunTrust to save this company! And if they're available in your area, buy La Bonita Ole tortillas and wraps. There are various flavors and are the best tortillas around. I will be posting some recipes in the next few days using the La Bonita Ole products.

The community outpouring that has taken place to try and help save this local company has been amazing and inspirational. Everyone can help, visit http://www.savethetortillas.com/ today! Viva the tortillas!

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