She was happy, happy, happy, and she ate some beans

My in-laws have an impressive garden, and we get to enjoy the fruits (and vegetables!) of their labor! Lucky us! This week she gave us some zucchini.

Granny enjoyed the enchiladas!

I made the in-laws a round of my enchiladas non-auténtico whilst visiting their house. It's a simple concoction. Into the sauce pan, add a glug of oil and sautée onions (this time omitted because of the granny's diet, but still tasty, I promise). Combine with 1 ample tbsp flour, spices (my beau-père is not a spice enthusiast so I didn't use the cayenne as per usual; I also didn't want to aggress the granny's stomach). I normally use some paprika, chili powder, the afore mentioned cayenne, and cumin), and mix. Slowly add a bit of stock of choice and a small can of tomato paste. Once all is combined, keep adding stock--maybe 2+ cups worth. I like saucy enchiladas so I make plenty. Bring it all to a boil  and simmer for about 15 minutes. It'll start to get thick. Add more spices or herbs to taste. I don't add salt because I figure the stock has plenty. Remove it from the heat and let it cool. You'll be dipping your tortillas into it, so it's in your fingers best interest to wait. For this batch, I used sweet potatoes and chard for a filling. Sometimes I throw in beans, sometimes I throw in shrimp, or corn. I oven roasted the sweet potatoes with cumin, sautéed the stalks of the chard, and wilted the leaves. Sweet potatoes are not a regular part of the swiss diet, so the in-laws were curious what I was up to. They had this same reaction when I made them Thanksgiving dinner.  To assemble the enchiladas, I dipped a corn tortilla into the sauce, placed it into the pan, plunked the sweet potatoes and chard into the middle of the tortilla and rolled it up, making sure the seam was on the bottom. Once the pan was filled, I covered it with more sauce and sprinkled on some asiago. I find that asiago is a better replacement for jack or "Mexican" cheese mixes.  These suckers get baked at 200 for about 20-25 minutes, until the cheese is ooey gooey on the top.  On the side, I served charred corn with shrimp and cilantro and lime juice. My beau pére was super brave! sweet potatoes AND corn AND spice! In one meal! I put out sour cream and avocados as well. 

The in-laws wanted to know what mom thought--were they the right taste? did I do a good job? Mom answered that, in short, my enchiladas kicked ass. I am paraphrasing. She really said that they were comparable to what one might find at a restaurant. Thank you, mumsie! 

This morning I decided to make us another round of brunch. I made us a team USA brunch mom's first morning here. She's also had some Greatest Hits: mojo sauce with dorado and canary island wrinkled potatoes, zucchini pie, baozi, and a variety of salads because it has been freaking H O T. 

Because I am always dreaming of beans, I made us a beancentric brunch. A sort of huevos cuauhtemo, inspired by this post.  

First, I toasted strips of corn tortillas  and sautèed onions in my cast iron, liberally adding chili powder and cumin. Then I threw in some zucchini from my in-law's garden. I let that hang out, and used the immersion blender to combine a can of beans and the remaining tomato paste from the tube in the fridge. Again, I added some spices. Because spices are good. I threw the bean mess into the skillet, made three holes for the eggs, sprinkled some cilantro on top, and shoved the whole thing into the oven at 200° for 15 minutes. 

good, filling, and yum.

Rouler quelqu'un dans la farine: lentils

it's not that i dislike lentils. i like them fine in stews and soups... ive always enjoyed dal dishes when out at an indian restaurant... and i KNOW that they are good for me. like, super good. like, they are an iron superfood. i know that. and yet, i have a hard time getting excited about lentils.

the other day i read that a lovely friend's partner had made lentil hummus that their 10 month old was over the moon about. and i thought to myself, that's IT! i can make something i lovelovelove with something i needneedneed! perfect (thank you, q!).

i took 1/2 cup dried lentils and cooked 'em, waited for them to cool, and then into the food processor they went along with:
tahini
lemon juice
olive oil

and what i got was a beautifully creamy yummy tasty treat. victory is mine! HA! take that, body! you shall have your lentils!

but then i thought, hmmm, we need to eat this hummus with something.... so after poking around ye olde internet, i found a recipe for flatbread i wanted to try.











and then i went ahead and made us a nice salad for lunch, with grapes, kalamata olives, hummus, and flatbread.

for dinner, i made shrimp and rice. these spices worked well with the hummus, but would be equally scrumptious on their own.

i used:
1 onion
2 cloves garlic
shrimp
cranberries
fistful of fresh parsley
whole almonds
good squeeze tamarind juice
curry powder
cumin
lots and lots of coriander
sprinkle of anise
basmati rice
good knob of butter, melted

i let the onion and garlic dance with some oil in the pan, then i added the shrimp and parsley.  meanwhile, i prepared some basamati rice.  i added the spices to the shrimp, once the onion and garlic were browned, and then the tamarind juice, cranberries, and almonds.  I pulled the mixture off the heat.

once the rice was prepared, i set it aside.  i melted some butter in my fondue pot and then poured it into a separate bowl.  i layered the rice and shrimp mixture in the fondue pot, poured the melted butter on top, put on a lid, and let it steam on low heat for about 30 minutes.  my hope was to make the bottom rice layer crispy--i miss this crispy rice dish we used to get in china.  i failed at that.  but i did not fail to make something awesomely tasty.  

it's another potato sunrise

this week i made this curry for lunch. two days in a row.  it is going to become a staple, methinks. it is easy, fast, and intoxicating. imagine this: golden onion smell commingling with coriander, cumin, cayenne, cardamom, and fresh ginger... and that is just the beginning. enter tomato paste and chickpeas and coconut milk. i might have been caught sneaking spoonfulls of leftovers...and someone else might have finished off the second batch...  clearly this is a sign.  we are hooked.  and since i regularly have chickpeas, coconut milk, and onions at my disposal...well...

so delicious.

also this week, i made two kinds of vegetarian sausage. first up, a spicy sausage from the PPK for us to eat with bell peppers and pesto rosso.

later in the week, i made a sage apple sausage for dinner -- a favourite. this time i served the sausage breakfast style, along with a twice baked breakfast potato. since the sausage recipe calls for mashed potatoes, it felt like a perfect match.

two potatoes were baked in advance. then i lopped the top off and scooped out the guts.


i put down a layer of mushrooms, some fresh parsley, and some gruyere cheese.

next, i cracked an egg inside the potato cave and shoved it in the oven at 175/350 for what seemed like forever. in reality, it was only 25 minutes.

and dinner.


bon app!

mojo you di'n't! (oh yes i did)

the cuisine of the canary islands is not what i expected.  i should have known because 1) we were in a touristy town and 2) menorca was the same.  we were expecting to find awesome local foods to sink our teeth into, and we did, but it took some serious trial and error.  emphasis on the error.  however, even in the not-so-awesome-i-think-this-paella-came-from-a-box restaurants, there was one thing that was always present and most of the time awesome: mojo sauce.  mojo is a staple condiment--it came out with bread (bread was brought to the table whether or not you asked for it, and even when you specifically said you didnt want bread so please dont bring it but it was brought and you were charged for it anyway)--much like msg in china.  it's awesome on bread before dinner, it's awesome with the potatoes that usually came with dinner, it's awesome on one's vegetables... i was in love.  i fell hard and fast.  and so, i decided to try and recreate it myself.  and i was pretty darn successful.

there are two mojo sauces--red and green. after scouring ingredients list in the supermarket, i discovered that the red one was pepper based and the green one was cilantro based. but what else was in there? garlic, certainly, oil, yes, but what spices? i decided to try cumin and paprika. and i think i'm right.

first up, mojo rojo.
into the food processor i threw:
2 roasted red peppers
about an 8th of 1 spicy wow hot hot hot pepper
a few garlic cloves
cumin
paprika
a pinch of salt
a splash of vinegar and a healthy glug of olive oil

whirl whirl whirl and done!

the whoa-oh mojo rojo tasted pretty much spot on.

next, verde!


i decided to approach this one like one might take on a cilantro pesto without nuts or cheese.

i usd:
garlic!
2 bunches of cilantro
1/2 a bunch of parsley
a little cumin
a pinch of salt
a splash of vinegar
a healthy glug of olive oil

this one is my favourite.  now, it did not taste like the sauce we were served at one particular restaurant in costa adeje (the rest of the food was subpar but their mojo verde... i just wanted to drink it in mass quantities. [all the restaurants had their own version of the sauce and some were better than the others]).

victory is mine!

as i mentioned earlier, mojo is usually eaten with bread or potatoes. or both. i boiled us some potaters to go with our sauce since i had some handy. i used a firm potato--one that is used for raclette--as it doesnt disintegrate when boiled. i boiled the taters with salt to try and approximate the papas arrugadas from canaria.

and then i baked some fish.

the fish was stuffed with lemon and bell pepper. and parsley.  



and they all lived happily ever after.

seriously, mojo is delicious.

later in the week, i made tacos...

stay tuned...