Blueberry-avocado smoothie

I've not really been feeling particularly creative in the kitchen the last few weeks. Lots of repeating the easy, well-tried, known-to-not-disappoint dishes.

This morning though, I woke up with a hankering for a smoothie. There was a literally a hole-in-the wall juice bar near where I used to live. They made an apple and avocado smoothie which kind of rocked my world. Never thought of drinking avocado but I was open to try anything made with the beautiful green fruit. So wilth that fine memory in mind, I tried this out this morning and it was delicious.

Ingredients

1/2 cup frozen blueberries
1/2 avocado
1 tbsp orange blossom honey
1-1/2 cups of 1% milk

Waz it all up. Drink it all up.  Smile all day.

Albondigas verde

I thought I'd repurpose some of my recipes from other places so I can have all of them in this new blog. So here goes.

From the archives

For the many Sephardim that read this blog (and there are so many of you I can barely count you on one finger), you'll be familiar with the traditional version of albondigas that we've been eating (and loving!) since we were all tiny. They're red, it's all about the tomato. Well tonight I went off the beaten path, well onto the somewhat beaten path of Mexican flavours that I've embraced and turned the blessed albondiga of my youth on its ear! Tonight's were green, that's verde, yes!

I had some tomatillos sitting in the fridge that I had picked up at a farmers' market a while ago. I needed to use them. I was not willing to let those beauties go to waste but I needed something one step up from salsa verde, because that does not a dinner make. So a little searching and a little cobbling together and here's what I came up with.

Albondigas verde

• 1-2 pounds of ground beef
• 10 or so tomatillos
• 2 poblano peppers or a couple of jalapenos
• 3 cloves of garlic
• 1 big white onion (1/2 cut into chunks, 1/4 chopped super finely)
• 1/2 cup of chopped cilantro
• 2 tbsp of uncooked rice
• few tablespoons of oil
• salt 
• 1 or 2 eggs

Clean and remove the husks from the tomatillos and put them in a pot of water to boil for about 15 min until they turn a little yellowish. If using jalepenos, boil with the tomatillos and remove seeds etc once cooked.. Once ready, drain the water from the pot.

Roast the poblano peppers (either under the broiler or over the flame of a gas stove) until they are fairly charred. Put in a plastic bag and let sweat for about 10 minutes so the skin will be easy to get off. Clean the skin off, remove the seeds and rinse the pepper to get all the black bits and seeds off.  

Chuck the cooked tomatillos, poblano peppers/jalapenos, chunks of onions, cilantro, garlic, and about a cup of water into a blender and blend until it is a very nice green colour.

To make the meatballs, mix the eggs, ground beef, finely chopped onion, rice and a couple of pinches of salt into a bowl and then form into walnut sized balls. Not too tiny but not big either.

In a pot large enough to fit the balls essentially in one layer, add the oil and let it get hot. Pour the tomatillo mixture in (and enjoy the sizzle). Mix and let it come to the boil. You should add a bit of water to thin it out now (I used the blender and got all the rest of the tomatillo mixture out with the water). 

Once the sauce comes back to the boil, add the balls, turn down the heat, and let it simmer partially covered for 30 minutes. Add salt etc as required to taste.

I served this over pink rice and a little Mexican style salad with chopped onion, a few of the last stragglers from my tomato crop, chopped lettuce, and some chunks of avocado dressed simply wiht some lime juice, olive oil and a bit of salt.  They don't look all that fantastic in pictures but we're about flavour here, not looks!

(c) 2013 Gail J. Cohen

Chile powder

My love of chiles knows no bounds, so I'm always looking for different things to do with them. The reality is, though, that you can't cook every meal with chiles because the people you live with might not be quite as in love with them as you are. That doesn't mean my mind isn't always thinking about things to cook and ways to use all the beautiful chiles Mexico has to offer.

The most recent round of chile idea generation was spakred by my friend Sarah, who recently went to Arizona and came home with a big bag of cascabels. Cascabels are cutie little chiles - they look like big cherries, but, you know, with a bit of a kick. Unlike many chiles, the cascabels don't flatten out when they dry. Literally cascabel translates to "rattle" as the seed inside rattle around when the chile is dried and you shake it all about. The Gourmet Sleuth describes cascabels as "moderately hot and have a nutty flavor with a rich tannic and slightly smoky nuance."

While Taco Tuesday has become quite the thing, I am all about Taco Everyday. So I figured I'd try making some chile powder to make tacos later. This is what I whipped up it's still making my nose tickle hours later.


Yield: 2-3 tablespoons

Ingredients

2 dried cascabel chiles
2 dried chiles morito (chipotles)
2 dried cayenne peppers (I grew these in my garden last summer)
1 tsp dried cumin
1 tbsp Mexican oregano
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp dried coriander

Deseed the chiles. Then add all the ingredients to a grinder - I have a coffee grinder that I use only for spices. Grind it all up until it's a fine powder.

Use it as you would any chile powder.

(c) 2016 Gail J Cohen

*********

With this, I made some tasty beef taco. Just took 3 teaspoons of the chile powder, 1 pound of ground beef, 1 chopped/sauted onions, and a tablespoon of tomato paste and cook it all up for 20 minutes or so.  Then add the fixings and it's  Taco Saturday Night!

Corn and poblano soup

There really are few things I love more than corn and poblano peppers (well avocados but who’s counting). So any opportunity to have them together is a win-win for me. Poblanos have to be roasted before you use them, which gives them a beautiful smokey flavour. And while it’s a little finicky to do it and clean them, I absolutely adore the smell as they are roasting over the flames of the gas stove. Try it, you’ll love it. 

It sure is easy eating green.

This soup can be spicy but it totally depends on the poblanos you have. You can also add other green chiles or peppers if you want. If you want to ensure heat, toss in a jalapeno or serrano. I had some Anaheims kicking around so roasted and added one. 

And consider this my latest installment in the poblano soup series, which also includes Poblano, Leek, and Potato soup, and more to come.

Serves 6

Ingredients

2 or 3 poblanos, roasted

3 cups chicken stock (use vegetable stock for a vegetarian version)
1 onion

1 clove of garlic

1-2 tbsp butter or oil

couple of sprigs of fresh thyme

1 stick of celery

1 can corn niblets

1 can creamed corn (oh yeah!)

or one or two ears of fresh roasted corn cut off the cob

1 tbsp lime juice

salt and pepper to taste

Roast the poblanos. If you have a bbq or gas stove, char the skin over the flame. If you have an electric stove, put it under the broiler for 10-15 minutes turning it so all sides get charred. Put the hot peppers in a bowl, cover them with a tea towel, and let them sit/steam for 10 minutes or more. The skin should now come off easily when you rub it. Remove as much as you can then cut out the stem and seed. Rinse it to get all the black stuff off and remove the final few stubborn seeds. Then roughly slice or chop.

Thinly slice the onions and celery then chop the garlic.

Heat the butter or oil in a medium to large pot and then add the onions and celery. Sautee until the onions are translucent. Then add the garlic and fry for another minute or so.

Add the stock, pinch of salt, thyme, and chopped up peppers to the pot. Slowly add the corn so you don’t splash yourself.

Stir it up a bit, bring to the boil and then lower the heat to medium-low and let simmer for 30 minutes.

Take the pot off the heat and use a hand blender to waz it all up and make a smoothish soup. With the corn, it’ll never be velvety, but don’t worry about it. Just make sure there aren’t chunks.

Taste, add salt and pepper as required. Squeeze in the lime. Stir and serve.

© 2016 Gail J. Cohen

Sopa de albondigas de pollo

Wanted to try something new with the ground chicken we had in the freezer. I love soup and meatballs so figured I could Mex it up and create a deeply flavoured broth with some beautiful chiles. If you like it smoky, use chipotle or my absolute favourite pasilla Oaxqueno, otherwise guajillo would work well.

6 servings

Meatballs

1 lb ground chicken

1 tbsp chopped cilantro

1 egg, beaten

2 tbsp breadcrumbs or matzoh meal

1 tsp Mexican oregano

1 tsp tomato paste

3 tbsp chopped onion

1 clove garlic

Salt and pepper

Broth

½ onion

1 garlic clove

1-2 dried chiles

1 bay leaf

1 cup pasata or crushed tomatoes

6 cups chicken stock

¼ cup rice

Juice of half a lime

Salt and pepper

Slice an onion in thick rondelles and put that and the unpeeled garlic cloves on a comal or non-stick pan and dry roast.

Stem and seed your chiles and dry roast them quickly on the comal and then put in a bowl of boiling water for 15 minutes to soften.

Take a couple of the slices of onion and one of the cloves of garlic (peel it first) and chop them finely for the meatballs.

Put the beaten egg, ground chicken, chopped onions, chopped garlic, breadcrumbs/matzoh meal, cilantro, oregano, and tomato paste into a medium sized bowl and get your hands in there and mix it all together. Add a bit of salt and pepper to taste.

Take about a heaping teaspoon worth of the meatball mixture and roll it into a small ball with your hands. Put the balls on a cutting board. Continue until you’ve used up all the meat mixture.

For the soup broth, put the rest of the roasted onion and peeled garlic into a blender with the tomato sauce and chiles. Waz it all up and add a little bit of the chile water for extra oomph.

In a medium-large pot, pour in the chicken stock and then add the tomato mixture and bay leaf. Add a bit of salt and pepper then bring it to the boil. Once it’s boiling CAREFULLY drop the meatballs in. Finally add the rice, turn the temperature down to med-low and let it simmer away for at least half an hour.

Once it’s cooked, give the broth a try and add more salt if you need to. Add the lime juice to taste (you may want a bit more or a bit less), and then serve this up. With a salad, or all on its own, this makes a nice light dinner. Of course, if you have fresh tortillas, do eat them with the soup. Crispy tortilla strips served on the top would also be a nice touch.

It is delicious and super-low calorie! (3 points per serving if you're counting it in Weight Watchers Smartpoints)

(c) 2016 Gail J Cohen

Poblano, leek, and potato soup

I love poblano peppers. I’m not entirely sure when I discovered them, but they were a revelation and for the past few years I have been addicted. While they are a little bit finicky to prepare, I love the smokiness and slightly hot bite they lend to dishes. I try to use them whenever I can, and soups are a particularly great vessel. This is one I concocted for the first time just recently. This recipe makes quite a thick soup. You can use a bit more water or stock if you prefer it a little thinner.

This ugly poblano really packs some delicious flavour when it's roasted.

5-6 servings

Ingredients:

1 or 2 poblano peppers. I’d go for 2 as it makes it a bit hotter and gives more of the poblano flavour.

2 big or three small leeks

3 medium potatoes

3 litres chicken or vegetable stock

1 tsp. dried Mexican oregano or marjoram

2 tbsp. butter

1 tbsp. olive oil

Salt and fresh ground pepper

Roast the poblano. If you have a bbq or gas stove, char the skin over the flame. If you have an electric stove, put it under the broiler for 10-15 minutes turning it so all sides get charred.  Put the hot pepper in a bowl, cover it with a towel, and let it sit/steam for 10 minutes or more. The skin should now come off easily when you rub it.  Remove as much as you can then cut out the stem and seed. Rinse the to get all the black stuff off and remove the final few stubborn seeds. Then roughly slice or chop.

Clean the leeks: chop the top darkest green bit off, then slice the leek in half longways, but not all the way so you don’t have two pieces. This should give you access to all the dirt that hides inbetween the layers when you rinse it.

Slice the leeks. Cut the potatoes into 1 inch chunks. You can peel them if you want but most of the time, I’m not bothered with that nonsense.

Sweating the leeks

Melt the butter along with olive oil in a medium to large pot. When it starts bubbling add the leeks and about a teaspoon of salt. On a med-high heat, let it all sweat and get delicious and soft for about 10 or 15 minutes.

Add the stock, and a bit of extra water — maybe ½ a cup — as well as the potatoes, poblano, oregano, a pinch more salt and pepper to the level you prefer (I love lots of pepper but others are not so enthusiastic about it.). Bring it all to the boil and once it’s boiling turn the heat down and simmer for half an hour.

Let's get smooth and silky.

Once it’s cooked, use a hand blender to make it smooth and creamy. Do it for longer than you think you should, about 3-4 minutes because that will ensure it’s very luscious and free of chunks.  If it’s too thick, add a bit of water or stock. Taste to make sure it’s got enough salt and pepper and serve.

We like to have this hearty soup with a grilled cheese or turkey sandwich for dinner. It’s a great weekday meal and there’s usually leftovers for lunch the next day.

This poblano, leek, and potato soup is a keeper.

© 2016 Gail J. Cohen

5-pepper and cheese tamales

When I was in Oaxaca, I had the pleasure of spending some time in the kitchen with my host family making tamales. They are impossible to reproduce at home due to the lack of fresh, soft masa and lard (which I wouldn’t use anyway but it sure does make for a rich and light tamal dough). So this recipe was inspired by that cooking adventure as Eunice uses swiss chard to wrap the tamales, rather than the traditional banana leaf or corn husk. I really enjoy the flavour the greens infuse into the tamale. And this version is 100% vegetarian.

These take a while to make, so be prepared to spend some quality time in the kitchen on a weekend. Your guests will be impressed.

These unique tamales are wrapped in swiss chard, which you also eat, rather banana leaves or corn husks that get tossed.

Yield: 10-14 tamales

Ingredients:

For the tamal dough:

(This will make double the amount of dough you need, so you can double the rest of the ingredients and make lots or you can use the remaining masa to make another kind of tamal. I made some amarillo mole with chicken tamales wrapped in corn husks with the remainder). 

280 g vegetable shortening, at room temperature 
Salt
1½ tsp baking powder
3½ cups dried masa harina for tamales mixed with 2¾-3 cups hot water
1 to 1½ cups vegetable stock

For the tamales:

·        2 big bunches of swiss chard

·        1 jalapeno

·        2 serrano chiles

·        1 red pepper

·        1 anaheim or banana pepper

·        1 poblano pepper

·        200 g of mushrooms

·        2 large or 3 smaller roma tomatoes

·        ½ onion

·        100-120g of monterey jack cheese with pepper in it (or really any melty cheese you want)

·        Salt

·        1 tsp Mexican oregano

·        Juice of half a lime

·        2 tbsp olive oil

For garnish:

·        Queso fresco or fresh ricotta

·        Salsa of your choosing, but freshly made is always best

·        Sour cream

Wash the swiss chard and let it dry. Then remove the stems so you are left only with soft leaves. I added probably about ¼ cup of finely sliced stems to the filling mixture, so cut and save that while you’re cleaning the leaves.

Tamal dough:

Mix the water and dried masa harina together until you have a soft dough. If it doesn’t hold together or is still a bit crumbly, add a bit more water until you can get a good ball of it. Sometimes if your masa harina has been around a while, it can get really dry so needs more water to reconstitute. Use hot but not boiling water for this as boiling water is really hard on the old hands when mixing it all together (obviously a lesson learned the hard way).

You can make the rest of the dough by hand, but it is much easier with a stand mixer so those are the instructions I’ll provide.

With your mixer on medium-high speed, beat the shortening, 2 teaspoons salt, and the baking powder for a minute or two. Continue beating as you add the masa in small handfuls.

Reduce the speed to medium-low and add 1 cup of stock. You should be able to roll the masa into a ball without it either breaking apart or being so soft it sticks to your hands so add more stock if you need to but be careful not to add too much. Continue beating for another minute or so, until a ½ teaspoon of the batter floats in a cup of cold water (if it floats you can be sure the tamales will be tender and light).

Taste the batter and season with more salt if you think it needs some. You can, if you have time, refrigerate the batter for an hour or so, then rebeat, adding a little more stock or water if you need to bring the mixture to the soft consistency it had before. This can make your dough a bit lighter.

Filling:

Roast the poblano. If you have a bbq or gas stove, char the skin over the flame. If you have an electric stove, put it under the broiler for 10-15 minutes turning it so all sides get charred.  Put the hot pepper in a bowl, cover it with a towel, and let it sit/steam while you chop up the other ingredients so it will be easy to peel. Then remove the skin, stem, and seeds. Rinse it to get all the black stuff off. Then cut into 2” slivers.

Stem and deseed all the peppers and chiles. (You might want to wear gloves for this part). Then cut them into fine slivers about 2” long. Finely slice the onion and the mushrooms. Chop the tomatoes into small pieces.

Heat the oil in a medium-sized frying pan and add the peppers, chiles, onions, mushrooms, oregano, and a pinch of salt. Saute until soft, then remove and put in a mixing bowl. Using the same pan, cook the tomatoes, along with the lime juice, until they’re soft. You may have to add a bit of water and squash them in the pan to make it all saucy. Pour the saucy tomatoes into the vegetable mixture.

Cut the cheese into 2” long slivers.

Making the tamales

To steam the tamales you will need a really big pot with a wire rack or vegetable steamer on the bottom. Add water to the bottom of the pot until it is just below the rack. Lay a couple of swiss chard leaves or parchement paper (with a few holes poked in it) across the rack so you won’t have the steam directly hitting the tamales.

Take enough masa dough to roll into a walnut-sized ball.  Starting with pushing your thumb into the middle of the ball, proceed to flatten the ball on the palm of your hand. Add a tablespoon or so of filling as well as two or three strips of cheese onto the flattened ball. Then bring the edges up and make a bit of a dough packet.

Wrap each ball in a leaf of the swiss chard. Try to make sure that there is no dough peeking out but the wrapping doesn’t have to be super neat because once it’s steamed, you won’t be able to tell. Place the wrapped tamales into the steaming pot making sure you leave a space in the middle of the pot for the steam to travel through. If you don’t have a huge pot, you may have to steam in a couple of batches.

Once you have all of the tamales wrapped and placed in the pot, turn it on and get the water boiling. Once it has started to boil, turn the heat down to a very low simmer, cover and let the tamales steam for about 1½  hours.

Once they’re ready, gently remove them from the pot (it’s a bit tricky because the steamed chard is so soft and you don’t want to tear it) and place them on individual plates. Garnish with a bit of salsa, crumbled cheese, and sour cream on top.

You can have these as a whole meal accompanied with rice and a bit of salad or by themselves as an appetizer or snack.

(10 Weight Watchers SmartPoints per serving)

© 2016 Gail J. Cohen