Triple cheese quesadilla

When I lived in California, I would most often choose a cheddar cheese for quesadilla. I remember others favouring a blend of cheddar and Monterey Jack cheese. While cheddar is available here, Monterey Jack isn't. Lately I've taking a liking to mixing cheddar with Jarlsberg which is readily available here.

Most recently, I've found that I get a nice result mixing in a third cheese - a creamy, salty white cheese (think feta or similar).

I would use a roughly 2:2:1 mixture of cheddar, Jarlsberg and white cheese.
A pan is heated on heated, then a tortilla, then cheeses, then another tortilla - flipped over when the cheese is about halfway melted.

Goes well with sour cream and a roasted salsa.

Roasted salsa v.2

Very similar to roasted salsa, but I think I prefer it like this.

Ingredients:
- 4 tomatoes
- 2 red chillies
- 2 cloves garlic
- juice of 1 lime
- salt

Tomatoes, chillies and garlic were roasted under the broiler - the garlic was not pealed before roasting - until the skin of the tomatoes was well charred.
The tomatoes and chillies were both used with the charred skin, but the skins of the garlic cloves were removed. Everything was liquefied in a blender with the lime juice and a good teaspoon of salt.

Bean quesadilla

Just a quick idea that turned out really well.

Ingredients:
- wheat tortillas
- grated cheddar
- beans

Here I used the mashed red beans, but I think any kind of suitably thick bean mash would work.

A tortilla was placed on a dry non-stick pan on medium heat, added grated cheddar, bean mash and cheddar again, then another tortilla. Flipped over when the tortilla is lightly browned and the cheese melted.

Served with sour cream, pico de gallo, lettuce and avocado.

Delicious.

Red Beans with cumin

Another variation of beans. I made this with red kidney beans, but I guess it should also work for other varieties.

Ingredients:
- 1-2 tbsp duck fat
- 1 small, brown onion, finely diced
- 1 clove garlic, crushed, then chopped
- 1 jalapeño, finely diced
- 1 can red kidney beans
- juice of ¹/₂ lime
- ¹/₂ tsp ground cumin

The duck fat was melted in a pot on medium high, and the onion was cooked in the fat for about 5 minutes before adding the garlic and the jalapeño. When the onion was turning golden, the beans and their liquid was added, plus some water used to rinse out the can. The beans were brought to a boil before adding lime juice. After about some 5-10 minutes, the beans were mashed and cooking was continued - with occasional stirring - until the texture was thickened just right.

I was very happy with the resulting beans.

Bacon Hueva-/Quesadilla

Remember the 'huevadilla' ?

I must admit I forgot about it for a while myself, but now it's back.

And how! ..in the shape of a hearty breakfast: bacon, eggs, cheese, beans and all.

Ingredients:
- 50-60 g (2 oz) thinly sliced bacon
- 4 wheat tortillas, ~ 22 cm (8-9 inches) diameter
- 4 eggs
- cheddar, grated
- 1 avocado
- pico de gallo
- refried pinto beans



The pinto beans were refried and left over low heat while preparing the rest.

Thinly sliced bacon was fried crisp, then removed from the pan and cut in smaller pieces. The fat was poured off (and saved for other cooking purposes).

Over medium heat a tortilla was placed in the pan. Grated cheddar was put in wide ring along the rim leaving a spot for 2 eggs and half of the bacon bits in the middle. This was topped with another tortilla and left on medium heat for a few minutes - it was flipped over when the eggs were sufficiently set to do so without making a mess of it.


When suitably done on both sides, it was removed from the pan and cut in slices to be served with avocado wedges and crude salsa on top and refried pinto beans on the side.

This I'll do again for sure.

Carne de res con sol

One day I was flipping through my copy of Diana Kennedy's The Essential Cuisines of Mexico looking for inspiration, when I noticed the recipe for Carne de res con sol - ground beef with cabbage. After trying it out, I decided I would like it better by adding a little ground cumin and allspice to the recipe.

And so, with slight modification from Diana Kennedy, it goes...

Ingredients:
- 360 g (~ 13 oz) ground beef
- 2 cloves garlic, crushed
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp black pepper
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- ¹/₄ tsp allspice
- 1 yellow onion, diced
- 2 tomatoes, diced
- 1 jalapeño (w/ seeds), diced finely
- 800-900 ml (~ 3.5 cups) cabbage, chopped finely^[1]
- fresh coriander, chopped
- oil
- ~ 1 dL (~ ¹/₂ cup) water
served in:
- hard taco shells

Crushed garlic, salt, black pepper, cumin and allspice was mixed into the ground beef (using the hands), which was then allowed to stand while chopping the other ingredients.

In a pan, the onion and chilli was cooked in a little oil for 1-2 minutes before adding the tomatoes. When most of the juices from the tomatoes were absorbed the spiced meat was added to the pan. When the meat as browned, the cabbage, fresh coriander and water was added. After about 15-20 minutes of cooking over medium heat with occasional stirring, the amount of liquid was reduced significantly (but not completely gone).

I like serving it in hard taco shells.

^[1] Personally I like it equally well with white or red cabbage, but Mrs. Throat-Erator finds the dish visually unappealing with red cabbage.

Russian Tea Cakes

This is how it happened: We were getting close to the day that it would yet again be my turn to provide some egg-free baked delicacies for a work gathering, when suddenly Mrs. Throat-Erator tugged my sleeve and said: "Please make these so I can bring some to work for my birthday". I checked the recipe .. no eggs required. Then I checked with my boss about the detail of the nut allergy: "I'll survive pecans". And so I decided to make a large batch of cookies.

Ingredients:
- 760 g (~24 oz) margarine
- 860 g (~30 oz) flour
- 140 g (~5 oz) powdered sugar + more for rolling
- 3 tsp vanilla sugar
- 3 tbsp water
- 350 g (~12 oz) pecan nuts^[1]

The margarine was worked into the flour using the hands - the resulting mixture was quite sticky. The vanilla sugar, powered sugar, water and chopped pecans were worked into the dough - which was still rather sticky.

The dough was rolled into balls of about 2.5 cm (1 inch) diameter - in the end the cookies were a bit on the large side of what I'd expected, so I guess I'll aim for smaller somewhat balls next time, say 1.5-2 cm (³/₅ - ⁴/₅ inch) instead. The balls were placed on a baking sheet lined with baking paper and flattened slightly - to about 1 cm (²/₅ inch) thickness with the bottom of a drinking glass (this required a little patience and practice since the dough tended to stick to the glass). I got some 80 cookies out of this batch.

The cakes were baked at 162.5 C (325 F) for 25 minutes, then moved to a rack to cool.

The cool cakes were rolled in powdered sugar - and mighty delicious.

Since these go both by the name of Russian tea cakes and Mexican wedding cookies, I don't really know if they are truly Russian (or Mexican) - both seems unrealistic. But I do know that they go very well with tea, and I find them most appropriate since I'm currently drinking mainly Russian tea.

^[1] You'll find these cookies made with hazelnuts, walnuts, pecans, almonds, macadamias... you name the nut, basically. I think I'd like to try some other nuts in this recipe one of these days.

Huevadillas

One Sunday morning I found myself with a few taco-sized flour tortillas that needed using and a couple of eggs. Thinking back to how I like melted cheese sandwiched between tortillas, I decided to have eggs in a similar fashion.

Ingredients:
- oil
- small flour tortillas
- eggs
A little oil was heated in a pan, and a flour tortilla was placed in the pan - on top of the tortilla, an egg was placed, the yolk was punctured and a second tortilla was placed on top. Cooking on medium-high heat the egg quickly solidified sufficiently to flip the thing over without getting bits of egg all over the place.


I call them 'huevadillas' - and ate the first batch with some ketchup, but I think I will revisit them later with some more elaborate fixings.

Green Enchiladas with Prawns and Chèvre

I admit it: when I was living in California, I neglected enchiladas. Why? I'm not sure, I was vaguely aware that they existed, but for some reason I underestimated their potential. Last year I realised this had been a mistake when I went to dinner at a friend's place and had some enchiladas there. Then I kinda forgot about it for a while, until I saw a recipe for green enchiladas in bon appetit, but thought I couldn't do anything about it as I hadn't seen tomatillos anywhere since leaving California. But recently I found some at a market right here in Stockholm, and here follows the result.

Ingredients:
- 12 tortillas (medium sized)
salsa verde:
- 4 tomatillos
- 7 jalapeño peppers
- 2 cloves garlic
- juice of 1 lime
- salt
filling:
- 400-500 g (1 lb) tiger prawns
- 1-2 tsp ground cumin
- 1 large red onion
- small bunch fresh oregano
- 2 jalapeño peppers
- 8 scallions, chopped
- 150 g (¹/₃ lb) chèvre
topping:
- 1 bunch cilantro
- 1 avocado

I started with the salsa verde:
The tomatillos were de-husked, rinsed and boiled for 15 minutes, then blended with crushed garlic, jalapeño peppers, lime juice and a little salt.

The prawns were fried with ground cumin, then added onion boats, oregano, and finely chopped jalapeño peppers.

The bottom of an oven-proof tray was coated with a little less than half the salsa verde.
Working one at the time, the tortillas were added a line of prawn-onion mixture down the middle, then added chopped scallion and a little chèvre. The tortilla was then rolled and placed in the tray. The tray was nicely filled up once all the tortillas were rolled and the rest of the salsa verde was spread over them. They were baked at 200 C (400 F) for 20 minutes.

The enchiladas were served with freshly chopped cilantro and avocado wedges.

Delicious! Now I really want to make more enchiladas...

Chicken Spinach Quesadilla

Heavily inspired by real simple, this variation on the quesadilla was tried.

Ingredients:
- oil
- 1 chicken breast fillet
- salt & pepper
- juice of 1 lime
- 70 g (2.5 oz) fresh baby spinach
- 200 g (7 oz) white cheddar, grated
- 6 flour tortillas, 22 cm (8-9 inches) diameter
served with:
- sour cream
- guacamole
- black beans

The chicken breast was seasoned with salt and pepper and browned on both sides before adding the lime juice and covering. While the chicken breast was cooking, the beans and the guacamole was prepared.

When done the chicken breast was sliced and then mixed in a bowl with freshly grated white cheddar and rinsed spinach leaves. A tortilla was placed in a pan over high heat, loaded with ¹/₃ of the cheddar-spinach-chicken mix and another tortilla on top. After a few minutes the cheese had melted enough to allow flipping the whole thing over on the other side without things falling out (with a little luck and/or experience). Care should be taken not to leave them for too long as they char quickly after being done. The finished quesadilla was removed from the pan and parted before continuing making the rest.

The spinach actually worked quite nicely.

Beans - Re-revisited

Before moving to Sweden, I was worried bout the availability of black beans here (having been really disappointed with options last time I looked around for beans in Danish supermarkets).

As it turns out, I needn't have worried at all. The Swedes apparently are much more up on exotic foods than the Danes.

After buying my first bag of black beans in Sweden, I saw just how different beans can be - unlike the black beans I bought in Geneva, these black beans needed only a little over one hour of boiling (after overnight soaking).

Ironically, I might not have to boil dried beans here, as it appears canned beans are again available at a more reasonable price relative to the dried ones...

Carne Adovada

Some time last summer, Mrs. Erator asked me if I shouldn't try my hand at this art... taking the author's note to heart, some time later I bought a pork shoulder when one was on sale at the supermarket, put the pork shoulder in the freezer and forgot about it for a couple of months.

In the mean time I bought some (quite a few) dried red chillies for making this - in some ways similar - dish, and there we were .. it was time to try.

Ingredients:
- 1.35 kg (3 lbs) pork shoulder, cut in 8 longish pieces
- 12 dried red (puya, I think) chillies
- 2 tsp salt
- 3 cloves garlic
- fresh oregano
- water
to serve:
- tortillas
- bunch of scallions, cut
- cheddar cheese, grated
- pinto beans, on the side

The seeds and stems were removed from the dried chillies, which were then soaked in hot water (boiling just prior to soaking, but not during the soaking) for 20-30 minutes. The chillies were liquefied in a blender together with 2-3 dL (approx. 1 cup) of the soak water, salt, garlic, and fresh oregano.


The pork shoulder was cut in 8 longish cuts, placed in a sealable plastic bag together with the marinade and left in the fridge overnight (it got some 18 hours). When I took it out and opened the bag, I was surprised at just how much the smell resembled the famous barbecue spareribs of one of my previous house mates.. I started getting really excited to find out how the final result would be.


The marinated pork was placed in a oven-proof tray which was wrapped in foil before going in the oven at 160 C (325 F) for 4.5 hours. The meat was quite tender as promised, but I found it that I wasn't very good at shredding it using two forks, I'm not sure if this due to bad shredding technique on my part or this meat wasn't quite right after all. So I ended up chopping most of it.

It was served on soft tacos with scallion rings and cheddar and beans on the side.


We were very pleased with the result - although different, the taste was somewhat reminiscent of the barbecue ribs mentioned above. Said Mrs. Erator: "It's nice because you can eat pork without it tasting too much like pork...".

I think I will try this (or a very similar) marinade in other combinations.

Beans - Revisited

I guess I was aware that canned beans are already cooked - but it certainly wasn't very much on my mind back when I wrote this post. In fact, it's fair to say this fact wasn't on mind at all until I moved from California to Switzerland and was suddenly faced with a sharp decline in the available options of canned beans in the supermarket.

Not to be discouraged (well, in truth I have come to crave beans on a fairly regular basis) I started shopping for dried beans and read up on the subject of how to cook dried beans, primarily in my copy of Diana Kennedy's The Essential Cuisines of Mexico. What I learned was that cooking times would be dependent on the type of bean, their state of drying, and whether or not they were pre-soaked. Pre-soaking, apropos, was considered decidedly un-Mexican. hmm...


As illustrated I armed myself with black beans, pinto beans, red kidney beans, and white beans .. and patience. Then I started cooking, varying the method a bit every time. And by now, after I don't know how many times of cooking dried beans from scratch I present my guide on it.

As in my original post on the subject, there are two fundamentally different versions: with or without bacon. With bacon starts by frying some bacon in a large pot, then adding onions - without simply cooks the onions in a little oil. Either way, when the onions are translucent, beans, water, and chillies (whatever I happen to have) are added, and the pot is brought to a boil. While boiling, keep an eye on them - you don't want them to foam too much, nor to dry out (especially some of the longer cooking times might require additional water).

As mentioned the cooking times vary quite a bit, so I've tried setting it up in a little table:


Cooking times are approximate - once the beans are fully cooked they will be pleasantly soft. At this point, I reduce the volume by cooking uncovered at medium-high heat with occasional stirring.


Et voila... lovely beans, to be eaten with all the lovely Mexican fare that makes my exile from California more tolerable. As a side note, I've found that it's nice to sometimes cook a large batch, freeze the rest, which can then be quickly warmed up later.

UPDATE: The text above does state that cooking time is dependent on state of drying - the black beans I've bought in Sweden so far need only a little over an hour of cooking after overnight soaking.

Applied Mathematics (Burritos)

My favourite kind of mathematics is applied mathematics. Especially when applied to food.

So this is how it went: I knew this recipe gave me some flour tortillas that were perhaps a little on the large size for tacos - but no where near what I'd want for a burrito.

The pan I used for making those has a diameter of 17 cm (~6.5 inches) and my largest pan has a diameter of 23 cm (9 inches). The area of a circle is proportional to the square of the radius, so in this case the area of the larger pan is (11.5 cm)²/(8.5 cm)² ~ 1.8 times larger than the area of the smaller pan. So if I want tortillas of the same thickness I should use about 1.8 times as much dough for each. Last time I divided the dough in 7 portions - dividing it instead in 4 portions is close enough to the ratio I was aiming for.


Ahhh .. it was great to enjoy a beans-cheese-salsa-avocado burrito again ... although, as happens too often, I tried to put too much inside the first one so it was hard to fold it right. The second attempt, as usual, was much better.

Guacamole Herring

In my quest for new ways to serve pickled herring I came up with this combination of Danish and Mexican foods. Two pickled herring filets were cut in smaller pieces and mixed with guacamole (half portion of recipe given here - with fresh green chillies added) and the mixture was covered and left in the fridge overnight.


As always, herring was eaten on dark whole grain rye bread. To drink: dark beer, and - since I don't have any Danish snaps in the house right now - a shot of tequila. The guacamole goes quite nicely with the pickled herring: it has an appropriate freshness. If anything, I would maybe use more herring for the same amount of guacamole some other time as the guacamole was almost too dominating in the overall taste.

Roasted Salsa

I'm not sure exactly how this idea was born - I guess I just had tomatoes, red chillies, garlic and lime handy and had been recently reminded of the nice effect of broiling...

Ingredients:
- 6 tomatoes
- 4 red chillies
- 2 clove garlic
- juice of 2 limes


The chillies were halved lengthwise and the seeds and veins were removed. They were placed skin side up next to rinsed (whole) tomatoes and broiled for 7 minutes. The tomatoes were then easily peeled and the insides were put in a blender together with the roasted chillies, mashed garlic and lime juice. The mixture was liquefied, resulting in a red salsa with dark specks from the charred chillies - and the taste had a nicely smoky touch.

Since I still haven't been able to tomatillos here and therefore can't make salsa verde this comes in a nice alternative. I've tried it with tongue tacos (made on flour tortillas), fish tacos (broiled white fish, fresh scallion, and queso fresco on yellow corn tortillas - same recipe as white corn tortillas, only using yellow corn flour) and with tortilla chips.

White Corn Tortillas

Not too long ago I made my first home-made flour tortillas, but of course I also had to try to make corn tortillas. Fortunately I found a store that sells corn flour suitable for this purpose.

Ingredients:
- 2.5 dL (1 cup) water
- 2-2.5 dL (ca. 1 cup) white corn flour
- pinch of salt

The water was placed in a bowl together with the salt. The corn flour was added little by little while stirring with a spoon. The recipe on the pack recommended a 2.5:2 ratio of water:flour but I found that it needed a little more flour in order not to be too sticky. In the end the dough was kneaded by hand for 1-2 minutes and shaped into 8 little balls.

The recipe called for a tortilla press, but since I'm against the owning of too many unitaskers I do not have a tortilla press. I do however have two wooden cutting boards and kitchen wrap. The dough balls were placed one at the time between the cutting boards (each protected with a piece of wrap) and flattened by pressing. When the top board was removed the pressed dough would stick to one of the pieces of wrap, and it could be carefully transferred to a hand by lifting and turning the wrap over the hand so the dough lets go of the wrap by the assistance of gravity (trying to lift the dough off of the wrap still lying on the table was very unsuccessful). The dough was flipped onto a hot (maximum setting on my stove), non-greased pan and turned over a couple of times until the tortilla puffed up (indicating the right amount of water had evaporated). The tortillas were stacked (which kept them nicely warm until eating time) while cooking them one at the time.

They were perhaps a little thick, but I think they turned out quite well anyway.
Served with red beans and guacamole.

Update: Now that I've made them several times, I should add here that they do not always puff up, so one should keep an eye on how 'done' they look as well.

Also, as mentioned above they are relatively thick, which I think goes at least part of the way towards explaining why they are somewhat stiffer (tending to break if one tries to roll them too tightly). The stiffness gets a little worse upon storing and re-heating, but other than that storing and re-heating works fine.

A Different Avocado (Guacamole Update)

One day while shopping at a small local store I noticed these avocados, which were somewhat bigger than those I normally get (shown next to a standard sized lime in the picture)... of course I had to get some. At first I assumed I needed to put them in a paper bag together with a banana while waiting for the skin to darken and the flesh to soften, but then I noticed that they were already quite soft with the skin green. Apparently it is a variety where the skin doesn't darken upon ripening.


Once I cut one open I noticed that the pit was also quite big, and the flesh was more yellowish than what I'm used to - it still made for a very nice bowl of guacamole..


The only significant adjustment from the previous recipe is the inclusion of fresh, hot chilli.

Flour Tortillas

Although I'm all for trying out new food in the new region I'm living in, I'm not ready for a complete withdrawal from the Mexican cuisine I've come to love over the past 6 years of my life while living in California. Although tortillas can be bought in the store here, the selection is rather slim and the prices are somewhat steep - so I decided to try my own hand at making them. If it wasn't for this kind of attitude, would I blog about food in the first place?!

Ingredients:
- 225 g (1/2 lb) flour
- 65 g (2 oz) margarine
- pinch of salt
- 1 dL (1/2 cup) water

The margarine was cut into small cubes and then worked into the flour by hand. The water was warmed and the salt dissolved in it - the resulting salty water was added in small portions (in order not to use too much), working it into the flour by hand. Once a cohesive mass (not very sticky) is obtained the dough was kneaded by hand for 2-4 minutes before forming little balls (in this case 7) which were put back in the bowl, covered and left for about an hour.

A pan was heated on medium high setting (2.5 out of 3 on my electric cooker) - it's advisable to turn it on well in advance so the pan is hot by the time the tortillas are ready to be cooked. No grease needed.


Each ball was flattened first by hand, then rolled into tortillas on a floured surface (as I don't have an ordinary rolling pin in this kitchen yet using instead a 0.5 L beer can - full works best.. I'll get back to that beer in a future post). The tortillas were cooked one by one, roughly some 15 seconds on each side when the pan is properly hot - the latter part of the process and the result looks quite similar to making these pancakes.

I was quite happy with these tortillas - I'll be doing this again.

Chorizo Omelette

After 5 weeks of not being able to cook Sunday morning eggs, it was truly wonderful to have the option again. Loosely inspired by reading from the period in question I wanted to this type of omelette. It turned out to be quite the hearty breakfast.

Ingredients:
- 3 eggs
- milk
- 1 mild chorizo
- 2 raw pepperoncini ("poivrons cecei")*

served with home fries:
- 5 potatoes
- 1 onion

The potatoes were cut in small dices (say 6 mm (1/4 inch) to the side) and fried in a large pan with a coarsely chopped onion.

The chorizo was peeled, and halved along the axis and sliced - then fried in a second pan together with the coarsely chopped peppers. After a few minutes a mixture of eggs and milk (beaten together with a fork) was poured over the chorizo and peppers, the heat was reduced and the while thing left till the eggs had solidified.

* I think these are unpickled pepperoncinis - the colour and shape certainly looks right. The French name is what they're called in the store I where I buy them.