CHIMI, CHIMI

Friday, September 9 (but not really)

I'm not sure what happened, but somehow my days got mixed up this week. Labor Day? The hurricane week? I don't know; I'm sure it's a combination of all manner of things. Baton Rouge has turned into a different city this week (my local grocery store only had one bag of angel hair pasta in the whole store when I went Wednesday afternoon), new students from New Orleans have transferred to LSU for a semester, and traffic is, well, a nightmare. I try not to stray too far from home, fearing I may never return. I, for one, was glad to return to class, see my students' faces, and know that they and their families are okay (many of them are from the Slidell area). Several of my students lamented not their families' loss of property, but simply said, "We are thankful to be alive and have food and a place to stay." These times do indeed put things into perspective, possibly one positive out of this surreal disaster.

So, here is what I cooked on Friday of whatever week this menu comes from (I really am having a hard time remembering), even though I am perfectly aware that today (the day I'm posting) is Saturday. But, whatever.  I always buy ground beef in the 2 or 3 pound quantities, so I had about a pound leftover from our hamburger night. By Friday, I'm always looking for something quick, and these chimichangas really hit the spot. Yes, you have to fry them (gasp!) in about a half-inch of oil, but really, how often do you do that? And, look, I'm serving the fried thing with oranges and avocado! Doesn't that help to balance out the grease? (This is what I tell myself when I have a diet coke with a medium pizza, anyway). You can make guacamole, of course, but these avocados were so perfectly ripe and pretty that I decided not to. The salsa is leftover from quesadilla night (Wednesday, I think?). Next week will be saner (at least I hope so.)

Beef Chimichangas with Orange-Red Onion Salad and Avocado

For the filling:

1 pound ground beef

2 cloves garlic, sliced thinly

1/2 small yellow onion, ciced

1 t. cumin

1 t. chili powder

1/2 t. seasoning salt

1/4 cup salsa

4 ounces pepper jack cheese

Cook the onion and garlic over medium heat, just until tender, about 4 minutes. Add the meat and seasonings. Cook until the beef is completely brown; drain well (I use a mesh strainer so I don't lose the garlic or onion). Return the beef to the skillet, add the salsa and cheese and heat until cheese is melted and well-mixed in. Remove to a plate lined with paper towels (they will absorb more of the grease).

To assemble:

4 large tortillas

Enough oil to fill the skillet about 1/2 inch-up (I use canola)

Lay each tortilla flat, and place about 1/2 cup of the filling down the center. Fold in from the sides (like you were making a wrap), and then fold the ends up too (to make a closed packet). Heat the oil over medium and lay the chimis in the skillet, folded side down. Fry until brown, about 4-6 minutes per side. (The first ones will take a little longer, but once the oil gets really hot, they cook pretty quickly). I cook them two at a time; they should not touch in the skillet.

While they are frying, in a medium-sized bowl, toss 2 oranges, peeled and diced (I cut it into rings and then quarter each slice), about a quarter of a red onion, chopped very, very finely, 2 tablespoons of red wine vinegar, and 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Season well with salt and pepper.

Let the oranges sit and soak up the dressing while you finish frying. Remove each chimi, as it's done, to a paper-towel-lined plate. While they are cooling, slice the avocado and sprinkle with salt. Plate up, and enjoy!

RED MEAT (WITH A SIDE OF VEGGIES)

Thursday, September 8

David and I have often been accused of being vegetarians. Yes, for those of you who live in other parts of the country, being a vegetarian is something you can be accused of in the South. Possibly even prosecuted in court, although I personally have never had it taken that far. In any case, we eat a lot of vegetables and not very much meat. Especially not very much red meat. But every now and then, I really crave a big, juicy burger. I don't know if it's too many years of Fourth of July in Mississippi, or possibly just growing up in a house with my father and two brothers, but I can't escape the occasional physical need for grilled meat. David is always happy when these cravings strike--like me, he doesn't eat red meat often, but when he does, he really enjoys it. I think it makes him feel more manly somehow, but he's an artist--that's a losing battle. He proved his muscles by grilling these burgers--they were perfectly falling apart, crispy and black on the outside and tender and not-quite-pink on the inside. I mixed up some Corn Salad from The Barefoot Contessa--a delightful mixture of corn straight off the cob, red onion, and basil with cider vinegar and olive oil. David ate the corn salad leftovers--all of them--straight out of the bowl the next day. I also cooked the remaining potatoes and onions I chopped for the hash browns on Tuesday, so the vegetables in no way took backstage. We are fair-minded people, after all. Here's how we fixed the burgers:

David's Burgers

1 1/2 pounds ground beef

1/2 yellow onion, chopped finely

1/2 cup bread crumbs

1 egg

1/4 cup Worcestshire

Salt and pepper

Mix all in a bowl (with hands, he says, if you can stand the goopy-ness), and form into patties. If you have time to refrigerate the patties for a while, they tend to hold up better on the grill. Grill over a medium flame to desired doneness.

To dress the burgers:

1 cup sliced mushrooms

1/2 yellow onion, diced finely

3 T. butter

1 t. Kosher salt

Sauté the mushrooms and onion in butter until very soft and the onions are beginning to brown. Top each burger with a heap of this mixture and some Swiss cheese. Enjoy your carnivorous meal, but don't forget the veggies (or they will have their feelings hurt).

QUESADILLAS CON FRIJOLES Y POLLO

Wednesday, September 7

I love to make quesadillas. I love the idea of making an interesting filling, placing it in a tortilla, frying it, and voila!--a crispy, melt-in-your-mouth-good combination of flavors. This recipe is inspired partly by the Black Bean Enchiladas in Intercourses, which are also delish, but more labor-intensive and partly by a smoky black bean pizza that the pizza chef at the Brick-Oven used to make. For these, you just need some good salsa (I make mine with canned tomatoes, garlic, cilantro, jalapenos, lots of lemon, salt, and cumin, as a woman in Peru once taught me), leftover chicken, a can of black beans, some bacon, and some cheese. My husband really likes these, and the filling makes enough to have plenty of leftovers.

For the filling:

6 slices bacon

1/2 yellow onion

1 cup chopped green onion

4 cloves garlic, chopped finely

Chicken (I had 2 breasts leftover from grilling, so I used them, chopped, but shredded cooked chicken would also work)

1 can black beans, drained

1/2 cup salsa

Monterey Jack cheese (with peppers if you like spicy)

Tortillas (burrito-sized work well, but if you have the smaller ones, just use 2, instead of folding them in half)

In a skillet, cook the bacon slices until done. Drain off all but about a tablespoon of the grease, and sauté the onions and garlic over medium-low (be careful not to let the garlic burn). Add the diced chicken, black beans, and salsa. Cook over low for about 10 minutes, until you can begin to mash up the beans to get a good, thick consistency. Remove the filling from the skillet. Fill tortillas with the chicken mixture and top liberally with cheese. Fry the tortillas in a little bit of oil (I use the same skillet--mindful always of my sweet husband who cleans up my messes!). Serve with salsa and guacamole (Ina Garten's recipe in The Barefoot Contessa is my favorite--chunky, with lots of lemon and salt). The citrusy flavor of the guacamole works well with the smoky intensity of the quesadillas. We like to drink a spicy wine with a meal like this also--Zinfandel is our favorite. Or, of course, margaritas if we don't have school the next day. Tequila and early mornings, in my experience, are not a favorable combination, but hey, if it works for you. . .

SOUP & SALAD

Tuesday, September 6

Soup and salad is such a traditional combination--cold and hot, liquid and solid--that I like to continue the contrasts with flavors. This corn soup from Sara Foster's Fresh Everyday is divine, especially with sweet, fresh summer corn. I followed the recipe exactly, so I won't reproduce it here (if you don't have that cookbook, you really should buy it anyway), but I paired it with a salad full of contrast. I love to mix a sweet fruit with a sharp cheese on top of a salad and then top it with a sweet-and-sour dressing. In this case, the Asian pears serve as the sweet and their classic partner, blue cheese, as the sharp. If you don't like blue cheese, feta works well too. To fulfill my husband's starch needs, I also cooked some hash browns, which we really like better at night than in the morning.

Pear and Blue Cheese Salad

Salad greens of your choice (I used Romaine because that's what I had)

2 pears, diced

4 ounces blue cheese

Walnuts, chopped coarsely (I also like to toast them in the oven)

Sherry vinegar (about 1 Tablespoon per salad)

Olive oil

Kosher salt

Cracked pepper

Arrange the greens on a plate, top with the pears, cheese, and nuts. Drizzle equal parts vinegar, olive oil, and honey over each salad, and season with salt and pepper. Makes 2 servings.

Easy Hash Browns

Yukon gold potatoes (they really do make the best hash)

Yellow onions

Butter and olive oil

Salt and pepper

Dice the potatoes and onions really small. Heat the butter and oil in a skillet over medium; add the potatoes and onions. Cook in a single layer for a good 5 minutes or so to allow the bits of potato and onion to begin to brown; stir and repeat. These make a terrible mess in the skillet, but they taste so good. There are no magic proportions; if you like lots of onion, chop lots of onion. If you prefer a more potato-ey flavor, chop less onion. I usually dice as many potatoes and onions as I have on hand and save the raw leftovers for hash browns on another occasion (like with my hamburgers on Friday). The key is not to get your skillet too full; otherwise the vegetables will steam instead of sauté, which will not give you the crisp brown texture you want in hash browns.

Sans Electricity

Tuesday, September 6

Tomorrow, I will resume the menu to the left, but for now, I thought I’d share what we cooked on the grill the day our power went out. After a week of watching the harrowing coverage of the tragedy in my two home states, it seems trivial¾to say the least¾to contemplate my own inconvenience of a few day without electricity. Nevertheless, many people found themselves resorting to the grill until their refrigerators and stoves were back in action, so I thought I'd offer this recipe for what we cooked the night we lost our power.

My heart goes out to those who have lost so much, and I can only pray that the recovery efforts will help them begin to put their lives back together. In the meantime, I hope you and your family and loved ones are out of harm’s way. May all of us who have survived count our blessings and remember to reach out to those in need.

The original recipe for this antipasto, which my Aunt Prissy shared with me, comes from Angela Rhemann, a long-time friend of our family who occasionally teaches cooking classes at The Everyday Gourmet in Jackson, Mississippi. If I followed her recipe, I would bake the antipasto in the oven and serve it with crostini, which I am certain makes a divine appetizer. However, I wanted it to serve as a main dish, so I cooked it in a skillet on the grill, and then stuffed it in some grilled portabella mushroom caps and topped it with slices of fresh mozzarella.

Antipasto-stuffed Portabella Mushrooms

1 red bell pepper

1 14-oz. can artichoke hearts, chopped finely

4 cloves garlic, sliced thinly

4 oz. mixed Mediterranean olives, chopped

¼ cup olive oil

¼ cup capers

4 oz. fresh mozzarella cheese

4 large portabella mushroom caps

French bread

Over a medium flame, grill the bell pepper until it is charred on all sides. Remove from the grill and place in a shallow bowl; cover with plastic wrap to steam. While it is grilling, remove the stems from the mushroom caps, chop them finely, and mix them with the artichoke hearts, garlic, olives, capers, and olive oil in a flame-resistant skillet. Cover with aluminum foil and cook on the grill for about 20 minutes, or until the garlic is very, very soft (you should almost be able to mash the mixture to a paste). Spray the mushroom caps with cooking spray (I use the canola oil spray) and place gills-up on the grill. Cook until the mushrooms are soft. Remove the mushrooms and fill with antipasto mixture. Place each cap in a foil packet, top with mozzarella slices, and drizzle with olive oil. Cut the French bread in half length-wise, brush it with olive oil, salt, and pepper, and place it face-down on the grill.  Cook until the cheese is melted and the bread is toasty.

Breakfast at Dinner

Monday, August 29

I love breakfast food. Unfortunately, I am not naturally much of a morning person. So, often when I want eggs and muffins, I have to have it at night, instead of in the morning. My mom used to fix omelets and blueberry muffins for dinner, and so serving traditional breakfast foods when it's dark outside reminds me of her. She is much better at flipping omelets and getting them to look pretty than I am; my omelets always end up looking a lot like scrambled eggs with other stuff in them. So, to use up leftovers, I like to make frittatas instead. No flipping, and finishing it under the broiler gives the cheese on top a bubbly brown texture that I really like. This one, inspired by my leftover spinach stuffing from the stuffed tomatoes last week, is quick and easy. You can make a frittata with just about anything. The basic recipe is: sauté some vegetables in a heavy oven-proof skillet, top with beaten eggs and cheese, cook until the eggs begin to set around the edges, top with more cheese, and finish under the broiler. The muffins I made to go with the frittata are sweet and crumbly, as good muffins should be. I made them with sugary, crunchy Asian pears from Miller Farms at the Red Stick Market. The frittata cooks quickly, so I prepare the muffins first, and use the time while the muffins are cooking to chop the vegetables and beat the eggs for the frittata.

Pear-Streusel Muffins

2 cups flour

1 cup sugar

1 T. baking powder

½ t. baking soda

1 t. cinnamon

½ t. allspice

2 large eggs

½ stick butter, melted

1 cup buttermilk

1 ½ cups chopped pear

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Mix all of the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Beat together the eggs, butter, and buttermilk. Fold the wet ingredients into the dry; stir until just combined. Add the chopped pears and stir to distribute evenly. Spoon the batter into a greased muffin tin.

For topping:

1 cup chopped walnuts; reserve half to sprinkle on the tops

4 T. flour

4 T. brown sugar

½ stick butter, softened

½ t. cinnamon

Mix all together with your hands until it forms a paste. Top the muffin batter with the streusel topping, and then sprinkle on the reserved walnuts. Bake for about 20 minutes, until the topping is brown and crumbly.

While the muffins are cooking, you can prep your vegetables and get everything ready for the frittata. When the muffins are done, turn the broiler on to preheat.

Spinach-Mushroom Frittata

1 clove garlic, minced

½ yellow onion, thinly sliced

1 cup sliced mushrooms

2-3 T. leftover spinach filling

1 cup fresh spinach leaves, chopped

4 eggs

½ cup milk

½ cup feta cheese, crumbled

1 cup mild grated cheese of your choice (Swiss, mozzarella, Monterey Jack, etc.)

Sauté the garlic, onion, and mushrooms over medium-high heat in an oven-proof skillet (I use a cast-iron one) until tender, about 6 minutes. Stir frequently to make sure garlic doesn’t burn. Add the spinach filling and stir to coat the vegetables; cook another minute or two. Turn the heat down to medium-low, and add the spinach leaves, cooking until wilted. Meanwhile, beat the eggs, milk, and feta cheese together; pour over mushrooms and spinach. Salt and pepper well, but don’t stir. Let the eggs cook slowly until the edges begin to set, about 12-15 minutes. Grate cheese on top, and finish under the broiler; watch carefully, as it only takes a minute or two.

One of the great things about this meal is that leftovers can be enjoyed both in the morning and at night! I like to have the muffins with my afternoon coffee, as well.