Quesadilla

First post in a very long time. Did I mention that my Tom and I got married recently? Or that we are in Japan teaching English (again!) You might like to have a read of my other blog if you'd like to hear more about that kind of stuff.

The only way to propagate good habits is to do good things regularly. So, here we are! At the start of a new post for Em's Recipes. And a vegetarian one at that!

Mexican food is great. You should eat more of it.

Of course, most food that is served outside of Mexico isn't really faithful to it's Mexican ancestors. It's more the Tex-Mex variety that has become our global juggernaut. If you'd like to know how to discern Tex-Mex from Mex, it's quite simple. Cheese is terribly uncommon in Mexico. If it's full of cheese, it's Tex-Mex.

In The US, Mexican food's dirt cheap and readily available from numerous Mexican eateries. Not so in Australia! Even though it is still made with cheap cuts of meat, beans, rice, spices and flour, Mexican restaurants in Australia are usually terribly expensive - and for no good reason, usually, (unless you go to Blue Corn in St Kilda, which is a delightful eatery that I recommend heartily, that does tend to use more deluxe ingredients in its version of Mexican.)

A lot of Mexican and Tex-Mex dishes are just permutations on the idea of sloppy sandwiches, chips and sloppy dips, and slop on rice. As my lovely American friends Glenn and Krista have reminded me on occasion - "it's Mexican food, it's not meant to be pretty!"

Just briefly, for those of you not well acquainted with Mexican or Tex-Mex dishes:

Tortillas - Mexican flat breads made from either corn or wheat flour. A very simple, unleavened bread - ostensibly flour and water - pressed into flat round shapes, and then cooked on a flat hot-plate until not sloppy. Used to hold slop.

Salsa - a red tomato sauce made with onion and spices. Sometimes salsas are made with fruit or other ingredients. Tomatoes are not essential.

Salsa verde - a green sauce, often made with green tomatoes or tomatillos.

Burritos - Large flour tortillas wrapped around beans, salsa, and/or whatnot.

Yukatan Burritos - Large flour tortillas, rolled up into a cigar shape with beans, salsa and/or whatnot on the inside, then lined up next to each other, smothered in salsa, grated cheese over the top, stuck in an oven and baked.

Enchiladas - Corn tortillas rolled into a cigar shape with salsa, beans and/or whatnot on the inside, then lined up next to each other, topped with salsa and cheese.

Enfrijoladas - Corn tortillas, folded in half, sandwiching some beans, salsa, and/or whatnot, that are then fried until crunchy on the outside.

Chimichanga - Burritos, folded in a square shape around some meat and then deep fried - the meat is usually stewed until it is very tender and flaky before being used in a Chimichanga. Originally from New Mexico, as I understand.

Chilaquiles - Corn tortilla pieces marinated in chile, layered with a filling, sauce and cheese, and baked in a casserole - kind of like Mexican lasagna!

Tostadas - Tortillas, fried flat, topped with beans, salsa, and/or whatnot. Cut up and made into corn chips in Tex-Mex to make Nachos.

Tacos - Corn tortillas, baked in a "C" shape, used to make a big mess when you're a kid.

Soft tacos - Soft tortillas, rolled up around some kind of beans, salsa and/or whatnot.

Quesadilla - Two tortillas, lying flat to make a sandwich. Usually the sandwich has cheese in it, though you might like to put beans, salsa and/or whatnot in it. It is then fried or grilled to melt the cheese. A Mexican cheese toasty!

However you wish to procure your corn or flour tortilla for this recipe is up to you - frozen, fresh, or home-made - but tortillas will be required. Of course, frozen is the least desirable option, and home-made is the best, but really, don't chose not to make this recipe because you don't have time to make your own tortillas. It's yummy no matter what!

Ingredients

12 flour tortillas
Refried beans
Grated Cheese
Fresh lime
Fresh coriander leaves
Chili sauce

Method

1. Grab yourself a tortilla and a butter knife. Use the butter knife to spread some of your refried beans on to the surface, leaving a little bit around the edge so it doesn't get to messy when you heat it in the pan. Sprinkle on some of your grated cheese. Tasty will do, though if your fancy, you might like to try something else, like gouda, or philadelphia, or whatever. Pop another tortilla on top and press down a little. Repeat these steps until you've made yourself 6 delicious little sandwiches.

2. Heat a heavy fry pan, cast iron if available, to a low, melting, not burning heat. Add a tiny, little, bit of oil to the pan to prevent sticking. Pop one of your tortilla sandwich type things in the pan, and pop a lid over it. When the first side is browned nicely, flip it over. I find it takes about 1-2 minutes a side.

3. Cut into four equal segments, pie chart style. Serve with coriander leaves sprinkled over the top, and a lime wedge to squeeze over it and some chili sauce to add to taste. Serve immediately whilst the cheese is still lovely and melty.

*You don't necessarily have to use refried beans. You can use whatnot... for instance, tonight I made spinach and cheese quesadillas. Whatever you think might work...

And you know, I never stopped being busy...

...but nor did I stop cooking!

Apologies

No new posts have been made recently due to overwhelming busy-ness, but rest assured we will be posting more in our new kitchen in our new house when we finish moving.

Boeuf Bourguignon

English - Burgundy Beef

(With apologies to Simon Bryant)

I first came across this wonderful recipe among the pages of Mapie, the Countess du Toulouse Lautrec's wonderful La Cuisine De France. But it is Simon Bryant's version that has made this a regular at our table, and it is his version I would like to share today.

If you have no Madeira in your kitchen, you may use brandy infused with orange rind, or orange juice instead. Tom and I also use a lot more zest than Simon's quantity, but we're mad for citrus, so I've put down the original quantity rather than the orange or so worth of zest that Tom and I get. Although I have written Simon's ingredients, I must admit that I have rarely had all the ingredients on hand when I have made this recipe. I used big Dutch Creams tonight rather than tiny new potatoes, we put carrots in it, I had no pickled onions so we omitted them, and we used porcini mushroom stock instead of beef stock, and we had no muslin, so we used a paper towel to strain it instead, but you know... it's a recipe, not a tax return. You've got to make the best of what's on hand and fudge the bits in the middle. Although I have written the ingredients faithfully to Simon’s original, I have elaborated in the method, as the version on The Cook and The Chef website is quite open to mis-interpretation if you’re not au fey with the whole concept. Might I also add that I have never been bothered with straining the marinade properly prior to this evening, but Tom did it properly and the result was a massive change in the quality of the colour. It’s worth doing, but if you don’t do it, it will still be edible.

The beef we have been using is topside roast. If you buy the roast, you can trim the fat, and cut it yourself, reading the grain of the beef to guide your slicing. I have found that this is a far better way to purchase your beef than buying it already diced. Speck is double smoked bacon. The best way to buy it for this recipe is to buy it in one half inch slice. That way you end up with juicy cubes of crispy bacon. Enjoy with a good glass of your favourite red wine and some buttered bread to mop up the gravy.


Ingredients

The Braise

1kg of Topside beef, cubed
120g streaky bacon
2 onions
4 sprigs of thyme
1 bunch of parsley
2 Bay Leaves
100ml of Madeira
250ml of red wine
500ml of beef stock
6 cloves of garlic
1/4 cup plain flour
80ml of olive oil
100g of butter
2cm square orange zest
Salt and pepper to taste

The Garnish
200g speck
2 cups baby button mushrooms
12 pickled onions
12 baby new potatoes



Method

1. Firstly, put aside at least 2 hours (but preferably an overnight) to marinate the beef. First, cut the beef into cubes and place it in a shallow wide bowl. Add the onions (cut into moon shaped segments), roughly cut herbs, and orange zest.

2. Once the beef has marinated, turn on the oven to 180ºC to pre-heat. Drain the wine from the marinating bowl into a pan and boil it. By boiling the marinade, the proteins and blood contained within it will congeal. You may then remove these by running the marinade through muslin. Discard the lumps and set aside the liquid. This will stop your braise from taking on a grey colour or lumpy texture.
3. Add oil and butter to a crock-pot (or heavy based saucepan with lid) and add the bacon, onion, before adding the garlic and herbs. Dust the beef in the flour and add to the pan to seal. Stir occasionally for 5 minutes until the beef is browned off. Deglaze the pan with Madeira.

4. Once you have browned the meat, add the red wine and boil down by half. Then add the stock to cover the meat. Put the lid on your crock-pot and pop it in your pre-heated oven for two of your Earth hours. Pull it out and stir every hour.
5. Whilst your braise is braising, boil your spuds in some salted water and set them aside once they are cooked through and soft.
6. Whilst your braise is braising and your spuds are boiling, cut your speck into 2cm cubes and fry it over a low heat in a little butter. Once the speck is lightly browned on all sides, add mushrooms and fry until they are also browned. Set these mushrooms, speck and spuds aside. Roughly cut a bit more parsley for garnish.
7. Once the two hours are up, stand the braise for 10 minutes or so to make sure that you don’t burn your mouth on the hot deliciousness. Slice and butter your bread, place the potatoes in the bottom of the bowl, place the braise over the potatoes, and then scatter the mushrooms, speck and parsley over the top. Serve with salt and pepper. Small children (and myself sometimes…) enjoy ketchup with this dinner.

Serves 4

Pimms Cup

Refreshing!

1 jig of Pimms
Cucumber
Orange
Lemon or lime (whatever's handy)
Ice
Mint
Strawberries
Dry ginger ale
Lemonade

1. With a vegetable peeler, slice at least 3 thin strips of cucumber into a tall glass. Hull two strawberries for each glass, and set aside.
2. Slice orange and lemon into segments, placing 2 slices of each in the glases.
3. Arrange ice in the glass, and add a couple of sprigs of mint and your strawberries. Pour your Pimms over the top.
4. Top with equal parts lemmonade and dry ginger ale.

*Today I had no strawberries. The strawberries and mint are optional extras. What's most important is the cucumber. For some reason it doesn't work without the cucumber.

Swordfish Tagine

(with apologies to Sam and Sam Clark)

I have adapted this recipe to use local ingredients. Ain't no Hake or Charlotte potatoes in my 'hood as used in the original recipe. Other fish that would work would be Pink Ling or Trevalla. The Swordfish was a bit of a revelation, as it keeps it's shape well, but can become dry and flaky easily. Not in this dish. It's succulent and deeply flavoured by the charmoula, which is a fancy word for marinade/sauce from what I can tell. The original recipe is form page 183 of the wonderful Moro cookbook, a book that I strongly recommend for anyone who enjoys Spanish and Middle Eastern flavours. I have adapted it slightly to suit my kitchen and cooking techniques. If you wish to compare it to the original, off to amazon.com with you.


Tagines sound a bit wanky, don’t they? If you've not heard of one, they're earthenware cooking pots that look a bit like a casserole dish with a distinctive triangular lid. Tom’s sister gave us one from the store she works in the other day, so we thought we’d give this one a go. The technique is such that you use a layer of potatoes to hold the fish steaks above some boiling water, thus steaming the spiced steaks of white firm fish fillets. The tagine collects the juice from the tomatoes, fish and capsicums and the potatoes stew a little bit in this delicious, light sauce. You could successfully do this in any wide bottomed pot that allows you enough height to raise the fish above the water level. Any adequitely sized crock pot would do.

Ingredients

4 swordfish steaks
20 small waxy potatoes, peeled (Pink Eyes would be ideal, but I didn't have any so I used Dutch Creams.)
3 tablespoons of olive oil
4 garlic cloves, cut into slices
15 cherry tomatoes (today I couldn't get any cherry tomatoes, so I used roma tomatoes. They were not quite as good, but passable)
3 large green capsicums
A handful of black oily olives
100ml water
Sea salt and black pepper

Charmoula
2 garlic cloves
1 level teaspoon of sea salt
2 teaspoons of cumin seeds
Juice of one lemon
1/2 tablespoon of good-quality red wine vinegar
1 teaspoon of paprika
1 small bunch of fresh coriander
1 tablespoon of olive oil

Method

1. Put the garlic, the sea salt and the cumin seeds into your mortar and pestle and give it a good bash. Once the garlic has been mashed up, add the lemon juice, vinegar, paprika, roughly chopped coriander and olive oil. Rub two thirds of the charmoula on to the fish steaks, and pop them in the fridge for at least 20 minutes (preferably 2 hours).

2. Peel and boil your spuds in salted water for 10-15 minutes in a medium sized saucepan. Once the potatoes are done, arrange them in the bottom of your tagine (or substitute). Set aside.
3. Cut the cheeks away from your green capsicum, slicing down from the core to the base, removing the seeds and pith as you go, and coat the skins with a little olive oil. Grill your green peppers in large slices under the griller until they are charred and blackened on the skin (this takes about 20 minutes). Put the capsicum in a plastic bag to soften for a few minutes (this makes them easier to peel). Remove the skins and discard them, and cut the remaining soft, grilled capsicum cheeks into bite sized pieces.
4. Rinse your saucepan, heat your olive oil and fry your garlic slices for two minutes until they begin to brown. Add your cherry tomatoes and toss them for two minutes until they begin to soften. Stir in the green peppers, and the remaining charmoula and taste for seasoning.
5. Scatter three quarters of the capsicum and tomato mixture over the potatoes in the tagine and then place your fish steaks on top. Add the last of the tomatoes and capsicum and pour the juice into the bottom. Scatter the olives over the top and pour the water in the bottom. Put the lid on and place on a medium-high heat for 10-15 minutes until the fish is cooked through.
6. Serve in bowls with a slice of bread and butter.

Pad Thai

Thai la Thai in Lygon Street is a reason to move to Melbourne in itself. Their Pad Thai is the best Pad Thai I've ever wrapped my chops around. My other half has concocted plans to have friends send him Thai la Thai Pad Thai in the mail, but it's probably illegal. In the meantime, we have this recipe to keep us going between visits to Melbourne.



Ingredients

1/4 of a block of tamarind or 3 tablespoons of tamarind concentrate
The juice of half a lime
3 tablespoons of fish sauce
2 tablespoons of palm sugar
White pepper, to taste

250g packet of dried, flat, long life, noodles
1 free range chicken breast
8 prawns (pre-boiled makes this easier)
1/2 a block of firm tofu
2 eggs
1 cup of peanuts

2 cloves of garlic
1 inch of lemongrass
1 inch of ginger
100g of bean shoots
2-3 spring onions
1/2 a red capsicum
Fresh coriander to taste
Wedges of lime to serve

Method

1. Prepare the tamarind by mincing it with a knife, put it in a heat proof bowl and pour 2 cups of hot water on it. Mush it around with a fork, and let sit for 5 minutes. Force through a sieve to get the lumps out. Add the lime juice, fish sauce, and sugar to the tamarind. Set aside whilst you prepare the rest of the dish.
2. Put the noodles in a big bowl and cover them with water. Let soak until soft. Alternatively you can cook them as per the instructions on the packet. Wrap the firm tofu in a fresh, clean, tea towel and place a weight on top of it. I like to use a carton of unopened soy milk to weigh upon the tofu. This will remove excess water from the tofu, and improve its texture when you fry it.
3. Slice the chicken breast into strips. Melt some butter in a wok and brown the chicken pieces in batches on quite a high heat. Set aside.
4. Crack the eggs into a bowl and beat with fork. Using the fat and butter still in the pan, empty the eggs into the pan. Flip when solid enough to do so. Cook until it is completely solid, take out of the pan and slice into strips.
5. Throw out the oil that's in the wok. De-vein and shell the prawns, leaving the tail on for decorative purposes. Fry in a little oil until cooked through. Set aside with chicken and omelette.
6. Pour 1cm of peanut oil into the bottom of the frying pan. Slice the tofu into 2cm x 2cm x 5cm rectangles. Shallow fry in the peanut oil until the tofu is puffy. Set aside with the chicken, prawns, and omelette.
7. Drain the noodles and shake well to get as much water as you can off them. Mince the lemongrass, ginger and garlic. Put 4 tablespoons of peanut oil in the wok. Fry the lemongrass, ginger and garlic for about 1/2 a minute, add the noodles, and fry for a further 2 minutes, being careful not to let it stick. Add the tamarind sauce and cook for another minute or two, stirring constantly. Put the chicken, omelette, prawns, and tofu in the wok, along with 1/2 the peanuts and bean shoots and the sliced spring onions. Heat through all the ingredients.
8. To serve, arrange the noodles in a bowl, put bean shoots, peanuts, coriander, slices of red capsicum, and lime wedges on top. Heavenly!

*Eat the prawn tails. They're crunchy and have lots of calcium. My friends in Japan got me into it, and now I think it a terrible waste to discard these tasty little morsels.

PS: I had the left overs for breakfast. It's even good cold.