Two Tacos for Cinco de Mayo!

Happy Cinco de Mayo!!!! This day is widely celebrated in the states and regionally in Mexico, most people think it is a Mexican holiday. It celebrates the Mexican army’s unlikely victory against the French army at the Battle of Puebla in 1862 under General Ignacio Zaragoza Seguín. What is so interesting about this battle is that it was believed that Napoleon was going to give aid the south Confederacy during the Civil War, and it was this great victory that helped prevent the French from splitting America in two!!

What we have for you today is a mango margarita, a pork taco with salsa verde, and a chicken taco with what we like to call lazy mole! So when you are enjoying your Mexican beer and your Mexican fare, don’t forget to cheers General Ignacio!

Ingredients: makes 10 tacos

Tacos:
10 corn tortillas
3 skinless chicken breast
3 Tablespoons old bay seasoning
1 ½  Lb pork
2/3 cup pomi or any plain tomato sauce
½ cup heavy cream
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
½ teaspoon cumin
2 ears of sweet yellow corn
1 green Chile
5 tomatillos
Cabbage for topping
Sour cream for topping
Salt and pepper to taste

Margarita: serves about 5

¼ cup grand marnier
¼ cup tequila
10 limes
2 mangos
½ cup limeade

Make the margaritas first so you can have one while you are cooking, and then chill the rest. Simply place all liquid ingredients in blender, then juice the 10 limes, and then cut the meat out of the two mangoes, and blend! Yay!

To start the tacos you will want to get your meat going first. Heat a grill pan on medium high heat, and heat oven to 425 degrees. Season chicken with old bay seasoning, and season pork with salt and pepper. Place both meats on grill pan to get some nice grill marks, about 5 minutes each side. Next place in oven and cook chicken and pork for about another 25 minutes, or until both internal temperatures are a 160 degrees. Be sure to check the internal temperature with a thermometer, because not all ovens run the same heat, mine can be a bit hot! Or shall I say caliente!

While those are cooking shuck your corn and take all the kernels off my holding it by one end, and using a knife, run it down away from your, cutting the kernels off. Set aside.

Next, peel all the leaves off the outside of the tomatillos, and roast them. You can roast them as simply as turning the flame on your stove and using tongs, hold tomatillo in the flame and turn, until it browns all around. Let cool. Cut top of Chile and remove seeds, then roasting the same way. Let cool. Once all cooled, blend in blender with a pinch of salt.

Now for the lazy mole, my favorite part. In a sauce pan heat the tomato sauce, cumin, cayenne, cinnamon, and paprika until it simmers. Let simmer for about 5 minutes, then adding corn and heavy cream, stir and simmer another 5 minutes. Remove from heat and cover.

Your meat should be done about now. Remove from oven, and place on cutting board and let rest for about 7 minutes. Next slice both meats in thin strips.

Place tortillas in oven for about 4 minutes to heat.

Serve all your components on separate plates, along with cabbage and sour cream, so everyone can have a margarita and put together their own tacos! Have a blast, and Happy Cinco De Mayo!!!

Game Day Nachos!!!

Oh joy! It is that time of year again…when people gather together around the television to watch the great American sport of football. Friends gather to drink beer, eat chips and dip, yell at the television, all the fun stuff, this is when I know that the fall has truly arrived. Michael’s family all lives in Cherry Hill New Jersey, and Philly, so we are big Eagles fans over here, and we all know that their color is GREEN! To bring together the great joy of football food, the hearty flavors of fall, and the color green, we present our game day suiza nachos.

Suiza sauce is so incredibly delicious, I cannot even begin to describe. It is usually used on enchiladas, but it is so flavorful, brings a bit of heat, and because it is made with tomatillos, serranos, and cilantro, you will achieve a beautiful light green color…go EAGLES!!!

*Make sure you use a skillet or a pan that can go in to the oven.

Ingredients:

Suiza Sauce:
1 Lb. tomatillo
2 small Serrano chiles
2 large cloves of garlic
¼ cup cilantro
1/3 cup sour cream

Nachos:
2 bags tortilla chips of your choice
3 cups Mexican three cheese blend
1 large tomato
1 red onion
1 can pinto beans
4 medium fryer chicken breasts
2 cloves garlic
2 Tlb. olive oil
Salt and pepper
Sour cream

 

 

The nachos are made in 4 steps 1) cooking chicken, 2) make suiza sauce  and at the same time cook beans 3)layer your yumminess 4) finish off in oven.

So start by preheating the oven to 300 degrees. Coat the chicken with olive oil, salt and pepper, and the two cloves of garlic chopped. Heat a sauté pan with a little bit of oil, once hot, cook the chicken so that it is cooked just to the point of being cooked, because remember that you will be putting the chicken in the nachos and then in the oven for another 5 minutes.  Once the chicken is done chop into small pieces and put aside.

In a deep sauce pan place all of your tomatillos ( make sure you take the husk off) and serranos in the pan and then fill with water so that they are submerged. Bring the water to a boil and cook until they are all soft to the poke of a fork. At the same time in another pan take half of your onion, chop it, and cook with your pinto beans for about 10 minutes, flavor with salt and pepper. Back to the sauce. Once the tomatillos and serranos are done, take them out of the water reserving ½ a cup of the cooking liquid. Place tomatillos, serranos, garlic, silantro, and cooking liquid, and blend until pureed. In the same pan that you boiled the water in, pour the puree and cook for 10 minutes on medium heat. Remove from heat and add sour cream and a pinch of salt.

In your skillet you are going to layer everything…this is how we did it. We start with a layer of chips, layer of chicken, layer of beans, layer of suiza sauce, then layer of three cheese blend, then repeat this two more times for a total of three layers! Cheesey goodness! Make sure you save a fairish amount of suiza sauce for the top layer, and be sure to really cheese it up. Put the skillet in the oven for about 7-10 minutes, so all the cheese looks melted.

Take out of oven, chop the tomato and sprinkle all over, and use the rest of the chopped onion and do the same, now smother with that tangy, creamy, superb suiza sauce and DEVOUR!!

Ooh it’s good, even typing this my mouth is watering.

Chip and Dip Fiesta!!

Summer fiestas are upon us. What better food gift to bring then homemade chips and dip. Summer to me always embraces spice and bright fresh flavors. So we decided to create a spicy dip, a spicy chip, a bright dip, and a bright chip! Here we made a bright olive oil salted rosemary chip, a roasted red pepper feta dip, a spicy roasted tomatillo salsa, and a cayenne lime chip. Mix and match and you won’t disappoint!

Ingredients

Roasted red pepper feta dip:
1 cup cream cheese
1 cup feta
2 med red bell peppers
1 Tlbs. Water
½ a lime

Tomatillo Salsa:
7 tomatillos
Salt and pepper to taste

Chips:
3 packs of pita, approx. 15 pita breads
4 limes
2 sprigs fresh rosemary
4 Tlbs. Salt
2 Tlbs cayenne
¼ cup olive oil

Chips:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Cut your pitas into 16ths and lay out on to 4 baking sheets. Set aside two sheets of pita slices. Take the two you have and drizzle with olive oil. Remove rosemary from stem and finely chop. Sprinkle salt and rosemary over your pita slices. Take your other two sheets of pita and squeeze as much lime as needed to get the pita wet. Sprinkle cayenne, so the bread appears slightly dusted. Place in oven and let bake for about 25 minutes or until crispy and browned. Check half way through and maybe flip around if your over is temperamental like ours.

Dips:

*be sure to remove outer layer of tomatillo and wash all the stickiness*

On an open flame (we literally place vegetables on stop top burners) roast your bell peppers and tomatillos. You want the skin to blister and blacken, which is how you know your vegetables are fully roasted. Set asides tomatillos. We are now going to make the cheese dip.

Cut green tops off over your bell peppers, wash off blackened skin, wash out all of the seeds, and chop. Place feta cheese, cream cheese, bell peppers, water, and a squeeze of half a lime in blender and blend on high until all fleck of red blend together. Pour mix into a sauce pan on low heat and whisk until mi thickens as it reduces, about 5-7 min. Pour serving bowl and serve hot or chilled.

Now, super simple, place the tomatillos with blackened skin into a blended with a pinch of salt and pepper and blend. Pout into serving bowl and you can garnish either how you like.

Place chips around your dip and get to dipping!