From our Food Goddess, TaMara:
I live within walking distance of one of the best family owned Mexican restaurants around, they have some of my favorite green chile sauce ever, so I rarely go to all the trouble of making a Mexican style meal.
But JeffreyW is always making some yummy south of the border treat. He was burning up the blog with some great recipes this week, so I’m going to highlight those tonight. Then the featured recipe is a simple and tasty wrap I often make for a casual meal when I have company.
First up, JeffreyW makes some excellent Chimichurri that I can’t wait to try.
Chimichurri is a green sauce used for grilled meat, originally from Argentina. It is based on finely-chopped parsley, minced garlic, olive oil, oregano, and white or red wine vinegar.
Photos and recipes here and here (he changes things up a bit the second time around).
Pictured above are JeffreyW’s Chicken Enchiladas, recipe and more photos here.
For a quick kid-friendly dinner, I make a fun and popular with the kids Burrito Pie, recipe here.
What’s cookin’ this weekend? Anything fresh from the garden making it to your table yet? Hit the comments and don’t forget to share some of your favorite recipes, you guys have been great at giving me new recipes to try.
The featured recipe tonight is one of my quick and easy meals that works great when I have a house full and I want a casual build-your-own main course.
Santa Fe Wraps
(There is a full dinner menu at this link).1 cup uncooked rice
14 oz can black beans
14 oz can red beans
14 oz can diced tomatoes
1 lb sirloin, London broil, or flank steak thinly sliced
2 tbsp oil
1 red pepper*
½ yellow onion
1 pkg. taco seasoning
12 oz shredded Jack Cheese
4-8 burrito size flour tortillas (maybe try a flavored style)
2 saucepans, skillet and 4 serving bowlsIn saucepan, add rice, 2 cups water and bring to a boil, cover, reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes until all the water is absorbed. In other saucepan, add beans & heat on med-low until heated through. In 300° oven, place tortilla shells between two pieces of foil and warm. In skillet, heat oil, sauté onion & pepper add steak, cook 5 minutes, reduce heat & add tomatoes, taco seasoning and simmer an additional 5 minutes on medium. Put rice, beans, cheese and meat mixture in separate serving bowls, let everyone assemble their own wrap at the table.
*Go wild, use a couple of different colors for added flavor and a pretty presentation.
Also, please note my friend who lived in Santa Fe says it needs chopped green chiles to be authentic. So add as desired.
That’s it for this week….happy Friday the 13th. – TaMara
Santa Fe
Well, glad to see that final note! I was composing an angry comment in my head about calling something “Santa Fe” and leaving off green chile.
Santa Fe
Also too, “taco seasoning”??!! Santa Feans know of no such ingredient. Powdered red chile from the Mexican section would work. Would definitely benefit from fresh garlic too. And if you can find pico de gallo as a topping, you’re getting there. OK, enough defense of my adopted hometown’s cuisine! :)
John (MCCARTHY) Cole
I just drooled like a dog.
dexwood
It makes me happy to see you spell chile with an e.
John (MCCARTHY) Cole
Shawn is diabetic. Do you think I could make this qith a little bit less quinoa and the result would be the same?
WaterGirl
I harvested my first zucchini today. I am ridiculously excited.
I can’t wait for my hot peppers and my Krimson Lee red peppers. Flowers but no peppers yet.
Half the time in the summer my dinner is made up of zucchini, hot peppers, the Krimson Lee red peppers, all from the garden, and some store-bought onions. Sometimes I stir fry them, sometimes I roast them in the oven.
Sometimes I add rice, sometimes I add cheese and avocado and roll it up in naan. I have even been known to add slices of chicken.
TaMara (BHF)
@John (MCCARTHY) Cole: In the Santa Fe wraps? I don’t see why not. I usually use brown rice myself, because, well, it’s yummy.
@Santa Fe: I know, I usually use homemade fajita seasoning, but when I put these recipes together, I was trying to help those who were afraid of their kitchens. A package of taco seasoning seemed less intimidating.
NotMax
No draining and rinsing of the canned beans first?
Yuckies.
Tommy
That is almost my most cooked meal. Althought chicken and not London broil.
dexwood
@Santa Fe:
We oven roast dried, locally grown, whole red chile pods to darken it and bring up the flavor. A few minutes on a cookie sheet at 350 Then make a paste using a blender or a food processor. Toss in a a few chile pods, add some water, blend until you have a thick liquid. Add more water, toss in a garlic clove, and a bit of blue corn meal to bind it and add flavor. Easy enough to keep going if you need more. Great as is on tacos, spread over burritos, use as a base for red chile stew, put a spoonful over eggs in the morning.
karen
Not sure if it’s only Mexican food but I made a chicken salad by sauteeing.bacon ends and pieces with diced apples, onions, sherry, paprika, brown sugar and a spice mixture of sage, rosemary, black pepper and savoury. Then I sauteed the chicken breast. Finally I put the whole mixture on a bed of lettuce and cucumbers. Yum.
Wag
As a fellow denverite, which family owed establishment are you recommending? Always on the hunt for great food!
TaMara (BHF)
@Wag: Santiagos. Yum. I used to have another favorite, they only had one location, but they changed hands and it’s never been the same.
ETA: Speaking of walking distance, they’ve shut the downtown down, a weekly occurrence, for a concert. I can sit on my deck and listen but I think I’ll head out, it’s a short walk and watch.
JPL
@karen: That sounds so good. Just reading the recipe caused me to drool ..
Tommy
@TaMara (BHF): I have six type of peppers planted in my garden. But as a kid “taco seasoning” was “foreign.” Then a strange thing happened. I went to grad school, and IL guy, in Baton Rouge. Dirt poor. I found the cheapest food, things like crawfish and collared greens, about the best. A whole other world out there from a food point-of-view.
Svensker
How long does it take the tortillas to warm up? I can never do it successfully that way, they always get dried out and dull — I usually dampen them, then heat in a lightly oiled hot skillet, but that’s a lot more work than plopping them in the oven!
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@Tommy: You have said multiple times that you were a military brat and lived all over the world growing up. During all those travels, didn’t your family sample the local cuisine?
Howard Beale IV
@Svensker: Use two moist paper towels, put one on the bottom in a microwave, put the tortillas on the moist paper towel, then cover them with the other moist paper towel, and nuke ’em for 45-60 seconds.
TaMara (BHF)
@karen: Yum.
WaterGirl
@Svensker: Get yourself a nice little terra cotta tortilla warmer and they are perfect every time.
Edit: not recommending this one in particular, just wanted to give you a photo of what you might want to look for. don’t get one with lead in it. :-)
Tommy
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name): Nope. Honestly something I don’t understand and have asked about. My parents were in Germany a few years ago. I guess asparagus time. Served with every meal they had. Breakfast to dinner. I was like that is so cool. They said they didn’t even try it. Never had it before. Again I can’t explain.
Wag
@TaMara (BHF):
Santiago’s is good. I like Chubby’s too. Used to love Pete’s Satire Lounge on E Colfax, but haven’t been there in years.
Denver trivia. Bob Dylan played the Satire in 1963.
Santa Fe
Heating tortillas is a snap if you’ve got a gas range; just toss one straight on a burner on a high flame and flip a couple of times and you’re done in half a minute. Best with bigger burrito size tortillas. You can try the same thing on an electric range, but it’s a really poor substitute.
Wag
More Denver trivia. This Tuesday is the 50th anniversary of the Beatles concert at Red Rocks Amphitheater. I would have loves to have gone, but I was only three.
Tommy
@Wag: More trivia. Red Rocks was a depression era workers program. Darn liberals …..
Corner Stone
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name): I think Tommy is a spoof.
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@Corner Stone: Heck, no.
Howard Beale IV
@Santa Fe: That’s why if you have a microwave the damp paper towel trick works way better and is actually more energy efficient than an electric range (with the possible exception of an induction range.)
Corner Stone
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name): Heck that’s the kind of thing that might happen in a surprisingly blue place to a son whose parents have more money than they can spend and a history of familial military tradition who lives in a 10Ksqft house all by himself.
Corner Stone
Just ask them! They’ll be happy to pay more taxes. Happy, I tells ya!!
Corner Stone
Heck they’re the kind of common sense Republicans who do things and say things we’ve all thought non-Fox Republicans do.
Heck. Even.
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@Corner Stone: You feel strongly about this?
Corner Stone
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name): Heck yeah.
Glocksman
Since this is an open thread, I’ll post the beginning of my disillusionment with the Republicans.
It didn’t begin with the Iraq war 2, instead it stirred from listening to Living Colour’s Vivid album.
The song Funny Vibe was the cause.
It compelled me to rethink many of the things I’d grown up thinking were ‘acceptable’ at the time.
Music and other forms of art can cause one to rethink beliefs one has raised to believe were acceptable at the time.
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@Glocksman:
Which is why exposure to the arts during early education matters.
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@Glocksman: Didn’t Flavor Flav have a guest appearance on Funny Vibe?
Mnemosyne
@Glocksman:
That’s why Huckleberry Finn gets banned over and over again. Not because it has the n-word in it, but because Huck realizes that the morality his elders have been teaching him is bullshit.
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@Mnemosyne: It is amazing how much art and literature does exactly that. It makes one wonder why there is an emphasis on practical education and STEM. History, philosophy, literature, and art make people thing about stuff. That can be scary.
Violet
@John (MCCARTHY) Cole: Confused by your comment. “A little bit less quinoa?” Was there quinoa in the recipe to begin with?
As for adjusting for a diabetic recipe, you can leave off the carby stuff–tortillas and rice and beans–completely if you want and just stick to the meat, peppers, cheese, salsa, that kind of thing, kind of like a taco salad. Maybe just have a tortilla chip or two as a garnish. Mexican food is actually pretty easy to adjust for a diabetic recipe.
Violet
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name): That’s why Texas GOP wants to ban critical thinking and other higher-order thinking skills. Can’t have those kiddos challenging their parents’ authority.
Gin & Tonic
@Corner Stone: You guys rehearsed this routine, right?
Corner Stone
@Gin & Tonic: Heck no.
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@Violet: Exactly.
Without going all Tommy, my nephew and niece (12 and 11) ask all sorts of questions. “Why can’t everyone be able to go to a doctor if they are sick?” Fair question. I try to answer them honestly. “Sometimes people are jerks. This is one of the situations, but people are trying to fix it.” Sex related questions will come soon. I know my s-i-l won’t like what I say. I think my brother will be fine with what I say to his son, but be a bit bothered when I say the same thing to his daughter. Younger than me but, far more traditional along those lines.
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@Gin & Tonic: Golly gee, no.
ETA: Tommy may actually be a real commenter who believes what he says, but it as likely that he is not. If he is, my apologies for my doubts, but I still have issues with him for his “I never served, but, as a military brat, my first instinct is to fight” comments*
*Paraphrased. Actual comment can be dug up if requested.
sacrablue
@John (MCCARTHY) Cole: Skip the rice altogether and try to find some low carb tortillas. I love this kind of food, but rice is just too high in carbs without the benefits of the fiber content in the beans. I’ve been working at this since August and my blood glucose is rarely over 100 now. And I know this isn’t a problem for Shawn, but I have managed to lose 58 lbs in my quest to reduce or get off some of my medications.
Violet
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name): Why do you think the kids will ask you sex related questions? They most likely have already had plenty of questions and have asked people those. Have they asked you those kinds of things before?
Good to be honest with kids in an age-appropriate manner. And it’s great for kids to have input from trusted adults who aren’t their parents. It can really help provide a more rounded perspective and they also have a place to go if they need advice but aren’t comfortable talking to their parents.
Gin & Tonic
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name): I envy you people who can edit comments. Never works for me.
Villago Delenda Est
@Mnemosyne:
Hence, we have things that are just paragons of bullshit, like the Texas GOP platform.
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@Violet: Both have talked to me about a wide variety of personal issues. I am a non-judgmental adult who demonstratedly loves them. If they raise the question with me, they won’t get judged, either explicitly or implicitly. Plus, I am the divorced and decidedly slutty uncle who knows about these things.
@Gin & Tonic: I got mad skilz and shit.
Violet
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name): You may or may not get the questions specifically about sex. Depends on the kid, probably. Definitely will get the questions about relationships, though. It’s always good for kids to have adults who love them, who aren’t their parents, and who are willing to listen to them without judging. The more of that the better. Your niece and nephew are lucky.
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@Violet: Agreed that the questions won’t be directly about sex but rather about relationships and what is appropriate and reasonable.
ranchandsyrup
mark yer own taco seasoning Super easy and customizable.
WaterGirl
@Gin & Tonic: Are you on an iPad? Because the only way I have any luck editing comments on my iPad is to open “edit” in a separate window in Safari on the iPad. Then it works for me.