Summertime Fajitas (no iron skillet required)

Yes, I've been on a mexican kick these past few weeks.  So sue me. :-)

So almost everyone I know likes fajitas. Think about it. Whenever you go to a Mexican restaurant, everyone stops and stares as the sizzling platter goes by. When someone at your table orders some, you look longingly across the table wishing you had them... And for some reason, they're one of the most expensive recipes on the menu. By they way, you know that the majority of the sizzle comes from the lime juice they squeeze on the skillet at the last minute, right?

So I created a fajita recipe that is tasty, easy and you can use almost any type of meat. You don't need the customary iron skillet, so don't go buy anything if you don't already have it. This is great for a summer meal out on the patio for 4-5 people. Feel free to double or triple it depending on the size of your party.

Fajitas

Serves 4

Marinade
1/2 cup vegetable or canola oil
two limes
2 cloves of garlic
1 1/2 teaspoons cumin
1/4 teaspoon coriander
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 1/2 teaspoons garlic powder
2 teaspoons chipotle sauce (either bottled or from a can of chipotle peppers)
1 teaspoon hot sauce (Cholulu, Tapatio, Tobasco, or your favorite)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon freshly ground black pepper
*Spicy version, add one finely chopped jalapeno (include seeds if you really want to bring the heat) and 2 teaspoons cayenne pepper

Meat: 1 1/2 pounds flank steak, sirloin steak, chicken breasts or shrimp (with tails removed)
Veggies: One onion, one large green pepper, one large red pepper

In a large Ziploc bag, combine all of your marinade ingredients and either shake or squish the bag to mix everything together. Add the meat to the bag and roll it around until the meat is completely covered by the marinade. Place that bag in another Ziploc bag to make sure nothing spills in you fridge (trust me, that's an ugly mess) and let it chill for anywhere between 1 to 24 hours (it's flexible).

When your ready to cook the meat, prepare the vegetables. Slice the top and bottoms off of the peppers. Slice up the peppers lengthwise so you have strips that are about 1/4 inch wide and 2-3 inches long. Take the top and bottom off the onion and then cut the onion vertically so you get a number of small slivers. Place all of the veggies in a bowl for later...

Fire up the barbecue and set it to medium heat. While that's happening, heat a large pan or skillet to medium/meduim high and place 3 tablespoons of vegetable or canola oil inside to prepare to fry the veggies. Once the grill is nice and hot, pull the meat out of the marinade and place immediately on the grill (if you're doing shrimp, place them on skewers so they don't fall through the grates). As the meat is cooking, dump the onions and peppers into the heated pan. Stir occasionally for about 10 minutes.  When the meat is done, slice up the steak or chicken into small edible strips. If you're using flank steak, make sure to slice across the grain of the meat so the meat is as chewable as possible.

After about 10 minutes in the pan, the peppers will char and the onions will caramelize. Remove the veggies from the pan.

How you present the concoction is up to you. If you want to serve it family style, I prefer to place the veggies on a plate, and then place the meat on top, but if you want to mix it all together, that's fine. If you have enough cash to own individual cast iron skillets, then why aren't you at a restaurant having someone cook them for you... but you could also heat those skillets in an oven for 15 minutes while you're cooking the meat and veggies and place a good portion when ready. Squeeze the juice of half of a lime onto each skillet so you can get the requisite sizzling sound, that's how they do it in the restaurants.

And when it comes to tortillas, go for the best you can. Store bought is OK, but the fresher they are, the better. If you have access to authentic tortillas from a Latin grocery store, definitely use them. If not, you can buy uncooked tortillas at Costco or your local grocery store. It's a little more work, but I think freshly cooked tortillas really bring a better flavor to the party.

Make sure to have all the condiments on hand. Lettuce, cheese, sour cream, and some good pico de gallo or your favorite salsa. Also, have slices of lime on hand to add that little bit of tanginess.

I like to have a little Spanish rice on the side, and I just happen to have a recipe for that as well, so find it and use it if you'd like.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Truffles and How to Temper Chocolate

Yes... I'm weird...

I know, those who know me well are saying "What's new?".

But I started thinking about Christmas the other day. Five months to go and I'm already starting to get into holiday mode.  So since we're in a new neighborhood, I started to think about neighbor gifts.  Now my wife is the master baker and candy maker.  She has great recipes for Christmas cookies, popcorn balls, etc.  If I ask really nice, she'll let me post those recipes in December.  But I wanted to add something of my own.  So I started to search for some truffle recipes on the web and found Alton Brown's Chocolate Truffle recipe.  In case you don't know who he is, he's a chef on the Food Network with a show called Good Eats.  He doesn't just tell you what the recipe is, he explains the science behind it.  I've used his frying technique to perfect my Stuffed Chicken Parmesan which my wife sampled while we were dating, and said to me later that after trying that meal, she knew she would marry me one day.  So I obviously hold him in great regard. 

Anyway, I used his recipe that is posted on the Food Network website, but I changed it up a little. I tried making it 'as is' but substituting out the brandy for raspberry liqueur.  They came out a little squishy, even when the centers were chilled.  So I removed it and added the half cup of peanut butter and it solidified nicely.  Now I used dark chocolate for the centers, but you could use bittersweet, or semisweet, or even milk chocolate instead.  I'm also trying a few other the variations of the recipe, testing out a different raspberry truffle, as well as coconut, orange, mint, and rum.  As I get the recipes locked down, I'll post them, hopefully by Christmas so you could use them too.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Truffles

Makes roughly 32

Truffle Centers
12 ounces bittersweet, dark,semi-sweet or milk chocolate (according to your taste), chopped fine
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
3/4 cup heavy cream
1 tablespoon light corn syrup
1/2 cup peanut butter

Outer coating - options include
16 ounces of dark,semi-sweet or milk chocolate (according to your taste)
10 ounces dutch processed cocoa
2 cups crushed peanuts
2 ounces white chocolate chips

Slowly melt the butter in a saucepan over medium low heat.  Dump the chocolate into the saucepan and stir until all the chocolate and butter is melted. Next slowly pour in some of the cream and mix until it's incorporated.  Keep repeating until all of the cream is included.  Pour in the corn syrup, then drop in the peanut butter.  Continually stir again until the peanut butter is blended into the mixture.  Once it's all melted, remove it from the heat and pour the contents of the pan into a brownie pan (8x8) and chill in the fridge for an hour or two. 

Once the truffle mix is chilled, remove it from the fridge.  Using a melon baller, scoop out some of the mixture and then form the little balls of goodness.  You can use your hands to form them, but it gets messy.  If you have kids, this can be a lot of fun for them...  But if you want to stay clean, or if you're a very warm blooded person like me and chocolate instantly melts in your hand, use latex gloves. 

When you're ready to coat them you have a number of choices. 

If you want to go the easy way, just warm the coating chocolate up in a pan until it's melted, coat the truffle with the new chocolate and let set for about 15 seconds.  Take the truffle and roll it in the dutch chocolate or peanuts and place it on the wax paper again.  Chill for an hour in the fridge and eat as many as you can handle.

Now you can go fancier if you'd like... For that, the base should be a shell of tempered chocolate. Tempering chocolate means taking it to a higher temperature to melt all of the cocoa solids, then taking it back down to a magical temperature where it coats the truffle perfectly.  It makes a smooth, shiny shell that allows you to decorate them later.  You want to warm the chocolate up to around 110 degrees, and then let it cool down to between 88 and 93 degrees and keep it there. 

If you want to attempt to temper the chocolate, melt the dipping chocolate in a saucepan over medium low heat and check the temperature with a digital thermometer.  As soon as it gets to 110+ degrees, pour the chocolate out of the pan and into another container.  Stir it, trying to mix in a little air to cool it down.  Check the temperature regularly and as soon as you hit 93 degrees, you can start dipping the truffles.  You will want to keep the dipping chocolate between 88 and 93 degrees, since the chilled truffles will cool the chocolate as you dip.  So wrap the container holding the dipping chocolate with a heating pad and check the temperature often.  Don't let the temperature go over 94 degrees, or you'll have to heat it over 110 again and let it cool back down.  If the chocolate gets too cool, you can heat it back to 88-93 again as soon as you can, but the exterior may not be as shiny unless you go through the heating process again.

To get that very smooth exterior, I've found stabbing the centers with a bamboo skewer to dip them works best.  Dip the chocolate center and roll it around until it's complete covered.  Place the truffle back on the wax paper cookie sheet and use another skewer to push against the truffle until the first skewer slides out.  Repeat with the others, but make sure that dipping chocolate stays between 88-93 degrees.  Once all are coated, place them back in the fridge for an hour. 

If you want to pipe designs on the top of them, melt white chocolate (or any other type of chocolate) in the microwave for about 30 seconds.  Stir the chocolate and microwave again for another 30 seconds until it's melted.  The pour the contents into the piping bag and decorate them any way you wish.

I cheated on the one in the picture and placed a white chocolate chip on the top.  I poured hot water into a glass, then rubbed the bottom of the chip against the warm glass just long enough to melt it, then stuck it on top.

Feel free to coat them, roll them in candy, nuts, coconut, pipe designs, whatever you want to fit your taste.  Remember, it's not wrong if you like it!

Spanish rice - as easy as the rice in the box, without the rice in the box taste

OK, so I really like Spanish rice. I'm like a long distance runner, I love to carb load... except that I don't believe in running unless I'm being chased by a grizzly bear, land shark or Godzilla, so I guess I'm not like a runner at all...

Anyway, Spanish Rice! I got addicted to great rice when I used to frequent a little hole in the wall taco joint in Seattle. Great street style tacos, but the rice was the perfect. The grains were tender but not mushy, the spices accented the meal well, but weren't too overpowering.

When I moved back to Salt Lake, I attempted to relive the experience but couldn't find something similar anywhere. I tried a number of the boxed Spanish rices for years and none of them were very good. Some were sticky, some were dry, some were the right color, but had no flavor. Some were a nuclear red-orange that looked like sweet and sour rice.

You know... nothing is worse that restaurant Spanish rice that has been soaked in a bland tomato sauce and is passed off as "a delicious side dish". No, Bad tacquiera!!! That kind of rice is just lazy and the affront to the senses should be pulverized and used as a substitute for kindergarten paste.

So I started tinkering with a few recipes that I found on the web and distilled it down to what I like. It has a few more steps than the boxed rice mixes, but has much more flavor. I actually will make extra so I can take the leftover to work the next day. Drench it in hot sauce, salsa and melted cheese, and then spread a little cubed chicken on top. You now have a great Mexican bowl. Here's the details:

Spanish Rice

Serves 4-6


1 1/2 tablespoons vegetable shortening
1 1/2 cups long grain rice
1/4 small onion, diced
2 cloves garlic
2 14.5 ounce cans of chicken broth
1 tablespoon taco seasoning (or 1+ teaspoons each of chili powder, cumin and coriander)
heaping 1/8 cup salsa
(Spicy version: add any of the following to taste (not all of them unless you want to burn out all of your nose hairs) : a couple teaspoons of hot sauce/habenero sauce, 2 teaspoons cayenne pepper, or one small minced jalapeno)

Dice the onion into small pieces. Mince the garlic cloves into very small pieces. Place the results of each to the side to add later.

Place a 2 quart or bigger saucepan on the stove over medium-high heat. Add the shortening and allow it to melt. Pour in the rice and slowly stir it until the rice begins to brown. At that point add the onions and stir for another two minutes so the onions start to become translucent. Add the garlic and stir for another 30 seconds. Add the chicken broth (watch out for the steam!), followed by the spices and the salsa. Stir until the concoction comes to a boil for two minutes, then drop the heat to low (add any spicy ingredients at this point too) and cover. Let it cook for another 20 minutes. Do NOT uncover unless it begins to boil over, and then uncover only long enough to let the bubbles subside.

Remove from the heat and let stand for another 5 minutes.

Place the contents into a bowl and fluff slightly with a fork and serve with any Mexican style dish. It pairs up well with the Beef Enchiladas, Tacos, Fajitas or Tequila Lime Enchiladas (coming soon).

Beef Enchiladas

My mother is the reason for my Mexican food addiction. First, we ate tacos about every other week as far back as I remember. Second, my mom had a recipe for enchiladas using canned chili that was really good. Third, she cans a few dozen cans of homemade salsa every year. It was a cooked/stewed salsa that probably more of a picante sauce, but still... man... it is AWESOME!!! She blends all of the ingredients before putting them in a 20 quart stock pot and slowly cooking it for almost 8 hours before pouring the heavenly sauce into the mason jars. This salsa spoils you for any other. I've yet to find anything that comes close. She still makes it every year when the the tomatoes come ripe at the local farmers markets and I always get a dozen or so. They sit in my freezer and I treat them like gold.

This enchilada recipe is something I've compiled after some experimentation. I like it a little better than the enchilada sauce in a can. It's got a fuller flavor and it's thicker, so it sticks to the tortilla and doesn't end up all over the plate.

Beef Enchiladas

serves 4-6

Enchilada sauce
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 tablespoon flour
1/4 cup chili powder
2 14.5 oz cans chicken broth
2 6 oz cans tomato paste
1 1/2 teaspoons oregano (Mexican oregano if you have it)
2 tablespoons ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon garlic powder

Meat
2 tablespoons cooking oil
1 1/2 pounds ground beef
1/2 onion, diced
2 cloves garlic

Other ingredients
4 cups Mexican blend cheese ( or cheese of your choice)
12 corn tortilla or 8 flour tortillas

Start with the sauce. In a saucepan, heat the oil over medium heat. Add the flour and mix together. Once the flour lumps are gone, add in the chili powder and mix until it's completely incorporated. Add the chicken broth and the tomato paste and stir until the tomato paste is completely mixed in. Add the oregano, cumin, salt and garlic powder and bring to a boil. After reaching the boiling point, drop to low heat and cook for about 15 minutes so it thickens up. Stir occasionally. While this is cooking down, move to the meat.

In a large skillet or saute pan, heat the cooking over medium high heat. Add the onions and garlic and saute them until the onions start to become translucent. Add the meat and stir until completely brown. Set aside for the assembly process. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

If you're using corn tortillas, I recommend that you either briefly fry them in oil or microwave them to make them more pliable so they don't tear when you roll them.

Once each ingredient is ready, it's time to assemble the enchiladas. Spray a 9 x 13 inch pan with cooking spray, then pour a little bit of the sauce in the pan to cover the bottom. Then take one tortilla, spoon and spread a small amount of the sauce on the inside of the tortilla. Add as much meat and cheese as you'd like. Roll the tortilla up and then place in the pan, laying the edge of the tortilla down so they don't roll open. Repeat until the pan is full. Cover the enchiladas with the rest of the sauce and sprinkle on as much cheese as you'd like. Wrap the top of the pan with foil and cook covered for 15 minutes, then uncovered for 10 more.

Serve with any greens or salsa you like, refried or black beans and Spanish rice, which is the next recipe you'll see...

Hot Fudge! Drizzle it on anything and it tastes better!

I've always been a sucker for GOOD hot fudge. Nothing's better than a chocolate mess that melts crevasses into a gob of ice cream, sliding off the face of the dessert and then pooling into the freshly melted but still chilled cream in the bottom of the bowl.

Now most of the bottles you can buy in the store have some chocolate in them, but there's a lot of corn syrup and congealing agents as well. And there's always that little bit of a waxy texture as well. I was partial to the Letherby's hot fudge for a while, but there were a number of times where the fudge's sugar would crystallize in a container I brought home, so it would go from smooth and silky to gravelly overnight in the fridge.

So I decided to make my own. It's simple, you can make a batch in about 15 minutes, and even make it with your kids. Place it in a mason jar when you're done and then store it in your fridge for up to a month. And you can freeze it for as long as you'd like.

Hot Fudge

1 stick butter
5 ounces of semi-sweet or dark chocolate, your choice
1 ounce unsweetened chocolate
3 cups powdered sugar
1 cup evaporated milk
1/2 cup whole milk
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

Melt the butter in a saucepan over low heat, then add the chocolates, increase to medium heat and fully melt them into the butter. Add half the powdered sugar and milks and stir until well blended. Add the other half and stir. Bring the mixture to a simmer over medium heat and simmer for about 15 minutes until it’s thick and creamy. Remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla. The sauce will thicken as it cools. Store in a mason jar or other airtight container in the fridge if you aren’t using it immediately.

To reheat, place the desired amount in a small bowl and microwave on high for 30-40 seconds.

There are lots of uses for this hot fudge. Ice cream, chocolate cake, the Peppermint Fudge Pie, and ... well, extra-curricular activities... wink, wink, nudge, nudge, say no more.

The Award Winning Peppermint Fudge Pie

I won a contest with this pie.

No... really. It's true. I didn't believe that I would, but I did.

So I've already talked about how I've taken pies to the Radio From Hell group for X96. Back in 2008, they had their First Annual Tasty Pie contest. Now they had tasted my pies before and they said they liked them, so I figured I should enter and try my luck. But I thought that I would try something a little out of the ordinary and see if it would fly.

I created this veriation out of the blue and tried this recipe once to see how it turned out. I thought it was quite tasty, but my usual guinea pig, my wife, has never been a mint fan. So I was flying blind when I brought my pie to the station.

And after seeing some of the other entries, I was sure I wouldn't win. There were some absolutely beautiful entries. I even tried three different slices by contributing money to the Road Home shelter. Hey, pie can be breakfast food! Why do you think pop-tarts are so successful?

Anyway, there was an apple pie that made my mouth very happy and a tart Blueberry with an extremely flaky crust. So I went to work and resigned myself to losing. But they announced the winners at the end of the show, and I was SHOCKED to hear that I had won first prize: A concert flyaway to Chicago.

I took my older brother (my wife was pregnant, so she couldn't fly, no nasty comments about leaving her home) and it was the perfect weekend. It was two weeks after Obama was elected, so we experienced some of the hometown euphoria. It was the weekend before Thanksgiving, so we saw the Holiday Parade roll down the Miracle Mile. And it was the weekend of the annual BYU/Utah football game, so we saw the game on a 108" screen at the ESPNZone in leather recliners with food and drink brought to us at regular intervals. Absolutely GREAT weekend.

Back to the pie... this pie is just another variation of the Cream pie recipe and works especially well around the holidays when candy canes are prevalent. I highly recommend using the best chocolate you can find for the hot fudge. It's definitely worth it.

Peppermint Fudge Pie

First the Oreo Cookie crust....

1 package Oreos
8 tablespoons butter

Scrape the filling off of the cookies and place them in a gallon Ziploc bag. Eat the discarded centers, if you really want to...or just throw them away. Then using a rolling pin, rollover the cookies until they are at the desired consistency, somewhere between very small chucks to almost powdered. Melt the butter over medium heat in a saucepan. Then add the cookies and stir the cookies in until they have soaked up the butter. Scoop the mixture into a pie plate and press the mixture flat until the plate is covered. Cook in a 350 degree oven for 7 minutes. As the pie crust has cooled, move onto the filling.

30 starlight mints or 15 candy canes
2 1/2 cups milk
3/4 heavy whipping cream
1/2 cup sugar
5 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch
3/4 teaspoon salt
3 egg yolks
2 1/2 tablespoons butter
2 teaspoons vanilla
1/4 teaspoon peppermint extract

Before you start cooking the filling, crush the mints or candy canes in a Ziploc bag until they are crushed into very small pieces. Measure out 1 cup worth of the candies and set them in a bowl. Leave the remnants in the Ziploc bag for garnish later.

Separate out the three egg yolks, place them in a small container and mix them thoroughly. Hold onto them for later.

In a medium saucepan, thoroughly combine the sugar, cornstarch and salt to reduce the chance of lumps. Add the milk and cream to the mixture and whisk to ensure there are not any lumps present. Cook over medium heat and stir constantly to prevent any scorching. Once the mixture begins to thicken from the consistency of milk to that of warm pudding, scoop a small amount of the mixture into the egg yolks and immediately stir the yolks. This warms the yolks slowly so they don't curdle. (Tricky part is to keep stirring the filling and the yolks at the same time). Add more of the filling to the eggs two more times, then SLOWLY add the yolks back into the mixture. Once they are completely mixed, add the vanilla, butter and the peppermint candy. Remove from heat after another minute of cooking and stir the mixture until the candies are melted. Add the extract and food coloring until the color is thoroughly mixed and then pour into the Oreo crust. Place in the fridge for 3 hours.

Serve with whipped cream and garnish with the remaining crushed peppermints. And of course, drizzle or douse the slice with hot fudge. You could buy it from the store, but I have a homemade recipe that is much better than almost anything you would find on the shelves. And that is the next post...