Shredded Chicken Enchaladas with Roasted Tomatillio sauce and Habanero Salad

This is a quality recipe. Many thanks to Ash from A Year in the Kitchen for posting her enchalada casserole which was the inspiration for this recipe.


You will need

• Jalapenos
• 1 or 2 Onions
• Dozen or so Tomatillios
• 4 Cloves of garlic
• 1 whole chicken
• Adobo seasoning
• Corn Tortillias
• 1 Habanero
• Scallions
• Roasted Corn Salsa 
• Cheese (mexican or cheddar or manchego if you're super fly)

So let's start with the chicken.
Pictures of me hacking apart a chicken aren't entirely pleasant so I'll just tell you what I did. I quartered the chicken into 2 leg/thingh pieces and two breast/tender pieces. Throw those into a pot and cover with water. Just enough to cover all the chicken, Add 2 tbsp adobo seasoning boil for 30-40 minutes.

Crank your oven up to 350 after you have the chicken going and wash and roughly cut up 1 onion 2 jalapenos, 4 cloves garlic and tomatillios.

Throw those in the oven and let them bake 15-20 minutes till the tomatillios are tender.

After they come out of the oven we go right into a blender and that is our salsa verde.

After your timer goes off for the chicken we are going to pull it off the bone. It'll be hot so I use a pair of tongs to get everything separated you want just meat no skin or bones/cartilage.

Save your stock!
Shred the chicken with a fork and add some of the remaining liquid from the pot you boiled everything in until chicken is moist and juicy but not swimming.

After you have all the ingredients prepped we can go into assembly mode.

Put a little of the salsa verde in the bottom of the pan to prevent burning.


From right to left. 

1. Tortillia
2. Green onion (largepieces)
3. Shredded Chicken
4. Roll
5. Place in pan in a vague geometric shape (a row)

Now you're ready to cover with the rest of the salsa verde. Top with shredded cheese and bake for 20-30 minutes until the cheese looks nice and pretty.

I made a little habanero salad to go along with the dish because I like it HOT. 

Thinly slice habaneros, onion and scallion.

 I was cooking at night so the artificial light did not help the pics but the salad was beautiful orange white and green.

To plate put them on the plate top with roasted corn salsa and habenero salad.

Enjoy!

Yum.
 

Jambalaya done the right way

So I came across this recipe for jambalaya from Jerry Odum down in Louisiana. I decided to whip some up and here's what happened.

You will need

• 1 lb smoked sausage ($3.00)
• 4 chicken leg quarters ($4.50)
• 1 lb uncooked shrimp, mussels, clams, crayfish, oysters or other seafood of your choice
• Jasmine Rice (4 cups)
• Bayou Blast (Emeril's spices) 4 tbsp
• 3 Large stalks celery (diced)
• 4 large sweet onions (large chop)
• 2 bunches scallions (green onions)
• 2 red bell peppers (diced)
• 1 qt fresh chicken stock

So I started this one out by heating up my cast iron skillet over an open flame. Luckily I have a green egg so this was not that difficult. I put some Rajun Cajun Spicy smoked sausage on the edge and let it smoke some more (twice smoked sausage anyone) while I heated up the pan. (to about 300-350 it has to be cast iron)
I recommend de-boning the leg quarters. If you need help learning how to do that leave me a comment and I'll post it.

First prep your veggies like a good sous. Or be like the professionals and have someone else do it.

Put a drop of oil on the pan and spread it around with a paper towel. Start them skin side down after making sure there are no little bits of cartilage or gristle on the non skin side. Let them brown in the pan for a while 5-10 minutes then flip.

Like so.

Ok now set all that stuff aside and add in the onion and celery. Leave the grease in the pan. That is bayou culinary gold.

Now Jerry Odum makes this astute observation "[about the onions] Don't burn them or the whole recipe is screwed." I agree.

So this will cook for maybe 30 minutes or so while the onions get nice and soft and yummy.

You can use this time to cut up your chicken and sausage.

When the onions are ready add your meats and chicken stock till it just about covers everything. Let that simmer for another 15 minutes and you can add your other veggies.

Oh man. I just love these pictures.

Let that simmer for another 15 minutes before adding the rice and the shrimp/seafood.

Editor's note: when I made this I had to take 1/2 the recipe out of one pot and put it in another because I overflowed. You need a Large pot. This recipe will probably feed 10.

Make sure you get the pot off of direct heat after you add the rice or you will end up with crispy rice. Which is fine if you like that sort of thing.

Cook for 15 minutes until the rice starts looking good and then flip everything in the pan so that the rice from the top is buried. Add stock if necessary.

That's a lot of jambalaya.
Yum.

Bacon, Cheddar and Cream Cheese Stuffed Jalapenos

Hmmm. What are those? Well they used to look like this.

Yup. Let's take a trip down jalapeno lane.

Bacon, Cheddar and Cream Cheese Stuffed Jalapenos

You will need

• Jalapenos (let's start with 20)
• Cream cheese (1 block)
• Shredded Cheddar (2 cups)
• Apple wood smoked bacon (1 pound chopped and cooked till you have bacon bits)
• 1/4 cup bacon grease
• 6 eggs (beaten)
  
• breadcrumbs

So you start this one by putting on gloves. 

These things are spicy and if that spicy gets on your hands you could be signing up for some pain. Anyway all that aside cut all the jalapenos in 1/2 length wise and remove all the white stuff and seeds. (A spoon usually works best for that task)

Now we need the filling. Throw the cream cheese, cheddar cheese and the bacon grease (ouch, my arteries) and mix it up in a Cuisinart.
These things can run you from $30 to a couple hundred. Regradless, you need one.

Throw in the bacon at the very end so it retains it's bacony goodness. At this point you can probably just fold it in with a rubber spatula.

OK now the fun begins. Get a good friend and get to work.

You will need to take a spoon and put a dollop on each jalapeno half. Don't skimp. These are going to end up round like a jalapeno but only half of one is in there.

Then while one person is stuffing the other is shaping them and ||: putting them through egg wash, then the breadcrumbs. Then on a rack to dry. An oven rack works just fine. :||

So those of you who are musically inclined know what ||:    :|| are... Repeat signs!

Let the japs dry for 30 minutes and put them through the egg and crumbs again.

Do it again.

And FREEZE!

These after they are frozen are ready to be fried at 350 degrees.

For a dipping sauce you can do ranch OR you can take Hot Squeeze and add tons of orange zest. 

Yum.

There's no picture of the finished product because they didn't stay out long enough for me to snap one.  Oh well.

Habanero Garlic Roast Beef

Woah! That'sa onea spicy roast beef sandwich.

You will need

• 1 large piece of beef suitable for roasting (this is a sirloin roast)
• 4 or 5 Habaneros
• 5 or 6 large cloves or garlic
• Salt
• Pepper
• Cooking String 
• Baguette (toasty)

Yup that's it. Oh, and a really sharp knife.

So let's get this show on the road. First you'll need to trim some (not all) of the fat off the beef. This was my first attempt at a sirloin roast and you can see some of that really tough stuff running through it. So I just cut it out after it was done. Once I have a solution to that I'll let you know.

Anyway I cut along the fat patterns until the roast has pretty much unrolled. Then you can trim some of the fat and any gristle you see as long as you don't cut the roast into pieces.

Next go horizontally across the meat to basically butterfly it. Be careful that you don't go all the way through.

Now thinly slice the habaneros and be careful to wash your hands after handling them.

Also with a stout knife, smash the garlic flat. You can do this with the skin on and the peel will come right off.

From cute little peppers to devilishly hot diabolical green goodness.

Whack! Press scrape place.

So the inside of the beef should look nicely covered in all the stuff. Then you'll want to roll it all up. Like a so.

keep going.

Looking good.

Tie it together. I just used one string. One thing you can try and do to keep it all together better is tuck the edges while you are rolling.






Ok now that the hard part is over crush up some pepper. Grab some kosher salt and rub the outside of the meat. You gotta love a good crust.

just put it in an appropriate pan and bake for 2 hours at 325.

Or until internal temp reaches 245

After the timer beeps.

Take it out.

Wrap it up

When you unwrap there will be a bunch of jus.
DO NOT THROW AWAY.
Pour it over the beef right before you serve over crusty baguette bread.

Slice it thin.

Scarf it down.

Yum.

HOT Italian Sausage Pasta

Mi piace davvero.

It's time to get down on some sausage pasta. 


What you will need

• Hot Italian sausage
• 1 large onion
• 8 Roma tomatoes
• 1 can tomato paste
• Parmigano / Pecorino
• Crushed red pepper
• Olive oil 2 tbsp
• Red wine  
• Fresh or dry oregano

So I like to start off by grilling up the sausage and getting some lines on it. You can do this in a pan or cast iron skillet if you have to.

This will really just help firm up the sausage so that you have pieces instead of ground pork in the pasta. If you prefer remove the casing and just saute in the pan for a ground pork pasta.

Anyway after these are done cut them in half lengthwise and cut little half moons. Like so.

Ok, so now that your hands are all greasy pour a couple glugs of olive oil into a dutch oven and heat on high. When it starts to get nice and hot, right before it begins smoking, add the pork and sizzle and stir. Don't worry if some of the stuff gets stuck to the bottom of the pan we'll get it off later.

Once everything is nice and browned add 2 tbsp red pepper plakes and stir for 30 seconds then add
1 roughly chopped onion to the mix.


When the onion starts to brown add 1 cup red table wine. Really whatever you're drinking is fine. What? Then go open a bottle and pour yourself a glass. Anyway at this point you can use a wooden spoon to scrape all of the stuff off the bottom of the pan.

Let that go for a while till 60% or so boils off.

Now you can add your  roughly chopped tomatoes. And any tomato parts you might have left over from pasta salad.

let them go for about 10 minutes and add 1 can of tomato paste. I prefer the organic kind because it tastes better. I hope that ad
is for a case... it's like $1 at Publix. Oh it's for 24. That's not too bad.



Well, we're almost there.
Now feel free to turn down the heat and add some oregano from the garden. Or from the garden from last year in my case.

Let the stuff simmer.

Now go ahead and boil up some rotini pasta. You want to subtract about 2 minutes from the cooking time on the box because we are going to finish it in the sauce and let the noodles soak up all the goodness instead of just water.

If the sauce gets too dry just add a scoop of pasta water. When your noodles are almost aldente strain but reserve some of the pasta water just in case. place the noodles in the pot, stir to coat evenly and put a lid on it! Right. 2 minutes later and check for doneness. If it tastes good go with it. If not salt and pepper to your taste.

Top with cheese and some fresh parsley.

Yum.

Habanero Mango Hot Sauce

Right,
So I don't usually share my recipes for hot sauce with people but this was just me tinkering around in the kitchen with some beautiful habaneros that I happened by at the farmers market the other day. Remember these amounts are not too specific as I usually just throw things together.

Prep time 30 min
Cook time 1.3 Hours
Yields 3-4 5oz bottles

Ingredients
Two large handfuls Pretty Habaneros
1/2 Mango
4tbs honey
1-2 cups apple cider vinegar
1 small onion
3 cloves garlic

First if you really want to do it right you want to smoke the peppers and onions for 10 minutes. If you cant do that then just bake them at 400 for those same 10 minutes. This gives a chance for some of the heat to mellow and trust me, you want the heat to mellow even if you LOVE hot stuff. It also brings out some of the sweetness in the onions.

Next, de-stem the peppers (with gloves on) and put em in a pot with the onions and garlic (peeled) and enough vinegar to cover the mixture. Boil for about an hour with a tight fitting lid to retain moisture.

Next add the 1/2 a mango (cubed) and the honey. Let that cook for another 10 minutes and then remove the pot from the heat. Stir it up a little and check the level of the vinegar, if you don't have much now would be a good time to add some, more for a thinner sauce and less for a nice thick sauce (the way I like it) Wait for it to cool 20-30 minutes.

While you're letting it cool think about how great it's going to be when you finally get that vinegar smell out of your kitchen and how awesome a giant hood vents are. You can even cry over the pepper juice that got in your nose when you picked it and has been burning for the last 30 minutes. I hope I made my point here. This is a smelly slightly dangerous recipe here and can cause chemical burns if you don't protect yourself.

OK, Last step is to blend and bottle the volatile substance. I use an immersion blender that is easier to deal with than a stand up blender. The sauce should still be warm when you blend it so that when you transfer it to the bottles it will create a seal with the negative pressure of the cooling air in the bottle. All you scientist people out there can correct me if I'm wrong.

Next, you need to put it on something and eat it.
If your really adventurous try mixing 1/2 and 1/2 with butter for a mango habanero buffalo sauce for wings. I bet you cant eat more than 5.

P.S. Pictures will be forthcoming as I learn how to use this web-site.