Wings 2-Ways

Well hello Ladies and Gents :)
Here is my Last recipe of 2010!!!!

Hot wings are a typical favorites amongst the appetizers we love.

I however, was one of the few people (maybe only person..lol ) who didn't like them.
I never ordered them ANYWHERE. They were never made to my liking : Not crispy enough, not flavorful enough, not spicy enough...

I'm always saying "If you don't like something, then it most likely wasn't cooked right" (this is how I get my friends to try new things!! :) shh! )

I challenged myself to making Hot wings! :)

I am aware that some people don't eat spicy food, so there's a Garlic-Butter-Cheese 'sauce' you can use!

Try it. Enjoy it. Tell me about!

Butter-Garlic-Pecorino-Romano Wings

Ingredients:
About 24 Chicken Wings (You can use boneless if you like)
12 Cloves Garlic
2 Sticks of Butter (Not Margarine)
8 oz of Grated Pecorino Romano or Parmesan Cheese
All Purpose Flour
Salt to taste

Pepper to taste

Preparation:
1. Mince the garlic really small
3. Add garlic and butter to pot and let it melt and simmer on LOW heat
4. Add salt and pepper to taste
5. Rinse and pat dry the chicken
6. Season the chicken with salt and pepper

7. Dredge/Cover in flour
8. Pat of excess flour (Make sure its covered in flour)
9. Fry the wings (I used a deep fryer at 375 degrees. until golden brown or internal temperature is 165)
10. Once done, let drain on paper towel
11. Add cooked wings to a bowl, and pour the garlic and butter sauce and sprinkle the cheese
12. Cover and shake/toss to ensure wings are completely covered in sauce and cheese

13. ENJOY!!!!

For the Hot Wings sauce you will need:

10 oz of Buffalo wing sauce ( your choice)

5 cloves of garlic -minced

1 Tbsp Butter (not Margarine)

1 Tbsp of  Sriracha Hot Sauce

1 Thai pepper

1/2 a tsp of Dried oregano (crushed)

Salt to taste

Black pepper to taste

ADJUST THE SPICE/ AS NEEDED!!!!!!!!!!

1. In a sauce pan simmer together the butter and garlic, then add the buffalo sauce, and other ingredients, simmer, and season to taste.

2. Like in the previous procedure, you fry the wings the same and once the buffalo wing sauce is done, you toss/mix in a bowl.

3. Enjoy!!   

 

Seasons Greetings

Hello Bloggers.
hope all finds you well!

I hope everyone is enjoying the season!!!
I have really enjoyed sharing recipes with you, thank you for allowing me to do that for you  :)

There has been a few things going on on my side...
For starters,
I have changed my diet in a few ways, and I'm excited
 to share with you guys the reason behind it, the process and outcome... so stay tuned :)

I have a great recipie to share!!

in the mean time, I hope you all are doing well and have a VERY  MERRY CHRISTMAS !!! and a Happy new year, may God bless you more in 2011!!!

Enchiladas!!!

Hello bloggers
Thank you for following me and enjoying my posts :) I appreciate your support!
I'm getting more comfortable to the whole blog thing and i definitely enjoy sharing my love of food with you!

I have been cooking a lot more Mexican food lately and I'm really enjoying it! ( so is my tummy lol)

Please give me feedback on the post i have already shared with you, also if you have any special requests please let me know.

I have a few request for Healthier, lower calorie dishes, or even alternative cooking for those who are Lactose intolerant, or have food restrictions to things such as yeast or corn.

while I continue to think up those recipes, I'm going to share another one of my favorites:

Today's recipe is going to be Beef Enchiladas

Enchilada is the past participle of Spanish enchilar, which means "to add pepper to" or to season  with chilis

We are using typical ingredients in Mexican cooking such as corn tortillas, chilies, cheese (Queso Fresco) Protein of your choice, today we are using beef

 Beef Enchiladas

Yields 18

6 servings - 3ea  per serving

-2 lb Tenderloin roast

-18 Corn tortillas

-1 Roma tomato

-4 Cloves of garlic whole- peeled

-10 Guajillo peppers-dried

-1 small onion

-1 bay leaf
-4 Sprigs Cilantro

-Salt- to taste

-Pepper- to taste
-4 oz of tomato sauce
-chili powder- to taste
-Chicken Bullion- to taste
-8 oz Oil - canola or vegetable

-1 Tbsp of flour- for roux-(cooked mixture of flour and fat, oil is fine) used as a thickening agent

-1 Tbsp Oil

-Mexican Crumble Cheese (Queso Fresco)

-2 cups shredded Lettuce -ice burg is fine

-If you have a crock pot  it would be quite practical for this recipe

-If using a crock pot you can cook the meat in it at what ever setting you have time for submerge the meat in water and add 1/4 of the onion, 2 cloves of garlic, 4 sprigs of cilantro and bay leaf cook until fork tender; if you're not using a crock pot : in a regular pot you would do the same as above but simmer on med-low heat until fork tender

-once beef is cooked, let cool, then shred. Discard the remaining cooked ingredients in pot(onion, cilantro, bay leaf, garlic you will need 1/2 a cup of the beef stock, but you can save the rest for other recipes)

-Mince 1/4 cup of onion and toss in with shredded beef

-In a sauce pan simmer the guajillo peppers(make sure you remove the stems first), tomato, 2 cloves of garlic and 1/4 of small onion in 6 cups of water- simmer until cooked through or until softened
-discard half of water used
-in a blender liquefy remaining water with ingredients- strain through a chinois or fine strainer- to extract any pepper skins, seeds or large debris (this is the base for your sauce)
- you can use same size pot- heat up the 1 tbsp of oil for roux, once hot, add flour and mix thoroughly to avoid clumps ( you can use a whisk)
-once you mix roux well, slowly whisk in sauce base and whisk thoroughly to avoid clumping
-season with chili powder, chicken bullion and simmer (thickness of the sauce should be enough to coat the back of a spoon- not too thick)
-set sauce aside

-in a skillet heat up 8 oz of oil
- once hot- submerge 1 corn tortilla at a time for 3 seconds and then flip over and cook another 3 seconds ( we are not making them hard or crispy they need to keep their flexibility- we are only cooking them and preventing breakage when we roll them)
-Drain them on a paper towel
-once all cooked dip tortillas- one at at time, completely in sauce to cover both sides (you can use tongs for this)
-place a pinch- about 1oz of beef and onion mixture in the center of sauced tortilla, roll and place on plate crease side down to maintain shape
-once you do this with all of the tortillas- you can pour additional sauce over and top them with lettuce and crumble cheese to taste
-Enjoy!!!

Scratching the surface

Hello people...
Just like i promised you on my last recipe that I would post a 'non-sea food' recipe next... here it goes :)

The title of this post is 'scratching the surface'... of  my Mexican roots!
I really enjoy exploring different types of cuisines and anyone who knows me knows how much I LOVE Asian food of all types!

Although I get distracted by other food and very rarely cook Mexican food of course I LOVE it.

I'm going to share one of my personal favorites with you: Beef Tostadas!

I Love them and its some what of a 'comfort food' for me... it reminds me of home (Arizona)

Beef Tostadas

Yields 10 Tostadas

5 Servings

-10 Corn Tortillas

- 1.5 lbs tenderloin roast

-1 Onion

-5 Garlic cloves

-Cilantro

-Salt
-Mexican white Crumble cheese ( Queso Fresco)

-1 Can of Pinto Beans

-2 cups of oil ( of your choice to deep fry your tortillas)

-chili powder -to taste

-Sour Cream - to taste

-1 bay leaf

The salsa

-2 Tomatoes

-1 Jalapeno

-Oregano

-If you have a crock pot  it would be quite practical for this recipe

-If using a crock pot you can cook the meat in it at what ever setting you have time for submerge the meat in water and add 1/4 of the onion, 2 cloves of garlic, 4 sprigs of cilantro and bay leaf cook until fork tender; if you're not using a crock pot : in a regular pot you would do the same as above but simmer on med-low heat until fork tender

-once beef is cooked, let cool, then shred. Discard the remaining cooked ingredients in pot(onion, cilantro, bay leaf, garlic you will need 1/2 a cup of the beef stock, but you can save the rest for other recipes)

-in a hot skillet add 1 tbsp of oil, and add 2 minced garlic, to this add beef, season with salt and black pepper and chili powder  to taste and 1/2 a cup of beef stock for moisture, simmer adjust seasoning done with the meat

- is a sauce pan , heat up 1 tsp of oil, add 1 clove of garlic, let the garlic roast a little bit. to this add the pinto beans, season with salt to taste  and simmer on low heat; once beans are thoroughly cooked ( you can squish a bean in between your fingers and it should be soft)remove the garlic clove and mash the beans with a potato masher until it reaches the consistancy above
-in sauce pan add the salsa components , tomatoes jalapeno and garlic clove with 1/4 of an onion, simmer in 1 cup of water, when ingredients are cooked through(softened) blend together, season with salt , pepper and oregano(not too much oregano, it is quite potent)  AND THERE YOU HAVE YOUR SALSA!!!

-in a small skillet heat up the 2 cups of oil *oil is hot enough to fry tortillas when you put it in the oil (using tongs) and it immediately starts to bubble, you leave it in 10 seconds and turn over , fry for another 10 seconds
-you can drain fat on paper towel
-when you are done frying the tortillas you are FINALLY ready to assemble!!!
-you spread about 1 tbsp of beans on the fried tortilla , add tbsp of beef on top of that , add sour cream and crumble some cheese to taste, top with salsa and cilantro leaves
-ENJOY!!!

a bite... of the bay

As I'm getting ready to post my second recipe (yay!), I notice it too is a sea food recipe...

for my non-sea food lovers:  I apologize... I promise the next one won't be!

As I make my way home from a long day, I made a stop at the local grocery store near by.
Trying to get inspired for dinner time, I walked by the proteins and wandered into the sea food section.

My eyes were drawn to the scallops... immediately I thought PASTA!!! (carbs... love/hate relationship).

Seared Scallops over linguine pasta.

I hope you enjoy making it!!!



Seared Scallops in a garlic, white wine and butter sauce over Linguine 

Yields 4 portions

• 1lb of bay scallops (if not available, any type of scallops should be fine)
• 1Tps oil
• salt -to taste
• black pepper-to taste
• 2 cups of flower
• 6 oz of butter
• 1/4 cup of white wine
• Juice of 1/2 of  Lemon (adjust to taste)
• 6 cloves of garlic- minced
• 1/4 cup of cilantro- minced
• 1/4 cup of parsley-minced
• 13.5 Oz box of Linguine (regular or whole grain

1. In a pot, boil  4 quarts or 1 gallon of water
2. once water is at a boil, add raw noodles and cook until aldente (heres a trick, if you think the noodles are done, throw it at the wall and if its done, it should stick to it!)
3. the scallops, season with salt and black pepper
4. toss in flour, pat off excess flour
5. in hot pan, add oil and butter - add minced garlic
6. add to this the scallops
7. turn over when golden in color
8. add white wine- let it simmer for about 5 minutes 
9. add lemon juice
10. add salt and pepper to taste- this is also a time to add more butter if you need more sauce
11. add minced cilantro and parsley- toss well to incorporate all components in pan
12. serve drained noodles on plate as desired- top with 1/4 of scallops along with sauce
13. Enjoy!!!



Tacos with a healthy twist

After watching one of favorite competative cooking shows, I was inspired to make something quick yet delicious as it was probably past my dinner time (maybe I should have had a celery stick instead)  but my appetite was awakened by the enthusiasm of the show...

I decided to make Fish tacos.

As a society,  we are trying to become more health cautious (easier said than done if you ask me) we are becoming more aware of what we consume. As a result, I am trying to incorporate that state of mind in with my cooking from time to time. (I wish it was more often, but im trying )

Sea food is one of those foods, that is either a hit or miss with people, not everyone likes it, but some people are more receptive to trying it.

I'm a firm believer that when it comes to food, if you dont like it, (it being what ever type of food you dislike) then it probably wast cooked right.


Refreshing.Delicious. Healthy-er :)

Tilapia Tacos with Mexican-slaw topped with avocado

Yield- 8 tacos

Portion Size-2 tacos

• 
  
  4 Tilapia fillets
• 
  
  8 Corn Tortillas
• 
  
  1 cup of all purpose flour
• 
  
  Salt- to taste
• 
  
  Black pepper-to taste
• 
  
  1 Tsp Olive Oil

• 
  
  2 Cups of slaw mix (store bought-pre made)
• 
  
  2 tbps of mayo (can use low fat/lite)
• 
  
  1 Tsp of Olilve Oil
• 
  
  2 Tsp of lime juice
• 
  
  Salt -to taste
• 
  
  Black pepper-to taste
• 
  
  2 Roma tomatoes- small dice
• 
  
  1/2 of a jalapeno-small dice
• 
  
  1/4 Cup onion-small dice
• 
  
  1/2 garlic clove- minced
• 1 Tbsp Cilantro- minced
• 1 Haas Avocado

1. Season fillets with salt and pepper to taste
2. Cover seasoned fillets with fllour on both sides, and pat- off excess flour
3. in a heated skillet add  1 tsp of Olive oil, wait untill oil is hot
4. sear fillets in skillet, until golden brown on both sides
5. when cooked, place on paper towell to extract excess oil
6. for your pico de gallo , in a bowl, combine tomatoes, onions, jalapeno, garlic,salt, black pepper, 1 tsp of lime juice, and cilantro
7. in a separate bowl puor in remaining llime juice (1 tsp) wisk in 1 tsp of olive oil, and wisk in the mayonaise
8. once all the fats and lime juice are incorporated , mix in the slaw, toss to ensure full distribution of dressing
9. to the slaw add the pico de gallo, mix well adjust seasonig
10. warm your Corn tortillas well on hot grittle, or you can also use your microwave - if using your microwave, wrap corn tortillas in paper towells to contain steam
11. cunstruct taco by adding half of a fillet to 1 corn tortilla, add Mexican slaw and avocado to taste 
12. Enjoy!