Roasted Sweet Pepper Turkey Chili With Beer and Chocolate

Ingredients:

1 lb ground turkey
approx 20-24 small baby sweet peppers (1 bag)
2 cans diced tomatoes
1 onion, roughly chopped
1 can kidney or black beans, drained
8 ounces of a dark beer
2 tsps instant coffee
4 oz dark chocolate
1 packet chili seasoning
4 tsp dried oregano (mexican if you got it)
4 garlic cloves,peeled and chopped roughly
1 lime, sliced in half
1/4 cup ketchup
4 tsp garlic powder
2 tsp salt

Directions: Roast the baby sweet peppers at 425 degrees for 45 minutes on a baking sheet. Let cool, then remove any lose skin and seeds, if you can. Roughly chop then and add to the crockpot. Brown the turkey in a skillet, add it to the crockpot with all the other ingredients. Simmer on "low" for 8-10 hours. Garnish with sour cream, fresh tomatoes, shredded cheddar cheese and some fresh chopped cilantro.

Enjoy!

Enchilada Suiza

It's no secret that the Doc and I love Mexican/Tex-Mex Food and since I had a vat of shredded Mexican blend cheese in my fridge that I wanted to use up, I decided to make enchiladas for dinner. I have never been a big fan, and would never order them in a restaurant, but the Doc is, and I like to be accommodating.

The last few times I made enchiladas, I have used a Tyler Florence recipe. They are so yummy, but I had made them recently and wanted to try something different. I went onto All Recipes and typed enchilada into the search field and then sorted by rating. It took me a few clicks before finding this recipe for Enchilada Suizas, a dish that doesn't use sour cream in the mix, otherwise the Doc won't touch it! I had never heard of this dish before but it sounded good, and it meets the NO sour cream requirement when cooking Mexican in this house!!

What You Need:
2 tablespoons butter
2/3 cup chopped Spanish onion
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups chicken broth
1 cup chopped green chile peppers
1 clove garlic, minced
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 dash ground cumin

12 (8 inch) corn tortillas
canola oil for frying (I skipped this part!)
1 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese
1 cup shredded mild Cheddar cheese
2 cups shredded, cooked chicken breast meat
1 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup chopped green onion
1/2 cup sliced green olives
1 pint cherry tomatoes

The Steps:
1. Prepare salsa verde: Melt butter in saucepan over medium heat. Saute the onion until soft. Stir in the flour. Add the broth, then add the chiles, garlic, salt, and cumin. Simmer about 15 minutes to blend flavors, then set aside. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C.)

2. In a heavy skillet, lightly fry tortillas in shallow oil, being careful not to make them too crisp to roll. Combine the cheeses and keep 1/2 cup aside for topping. Dip each tortilla in salsa verde (both sides.) Place 2 heaping tablespoons chicken and about 2 tablespoons cheese down the center of each; roll and place seam side down in a shallow dish.

3. After all the rolled tortillas are in the dish, spoon additional salsa verde over them and then cover evenly with heavy cream. Sprinkle with remaining 1/2 cup cheese mixture, and with the green onions.

4. Bake uncovered in preheated oven for 20 minutes. Serve immediately, garnished with the olives, cherry tomatoes, and with additional salsa on the side.

The Verdict:
This was SO SO SO good! I probably went a little overboard on the cheese, or a LOT overboard if you ask the Doc, but it was still so yummy! I will definitely be making this one again.

I made a few changes to the original recipe. I did not fry my tortillas. I heated them per the package directions in the oven. I also used light cream instead of heavy cream and I only used a 1/2 cup because that is all I had on hand. The package of tortillas that I bought only came with 8 but that was plenty for us with some leftover.

I made my shredded chicken by filling a pot with 2.5 cups chicken broth, 4 cups of water and tossed in some paprika, chili powder, garlic powder, season salt, pepper, onion powder, and cumin. Boil the chicken until done and then shred with two forks.

Chicken Enchiladas

I have been in a cooking slump lately. It doesn't help that recently I have had a couple of big fails either. I pulled up the Food Networks website and saw a link to the top recipes of 2009 and decided to take a look. I saw this dish for Tyler Florance's Chicken Enchiladas and decided to try it out.

Ingredients
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 1/2 pounds skinless boneless chicken breast
Salt and pepper
2 teaspoons cumin powder
2 teaspoons garlic powder
1 teaspoon Mexican Spice Blend
1 red onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup frozen corn, thawed
5 canned whole green chiles, seeded and coarsely chopped
4 canned chipotle chiles, seeded and minced
1 (28-ounce) can stewed tomatoes
1/2 teaspoon all-purpose flour
16 corn tortillas
1 1/2 cups enchilada sauce, canned
1 cup shredded Cheddar and Jack cheeses
Garnish: chopped cilantro leaves, chopped scallions, sour cream, chopped tomatoes

The How To:
Coat large saute pan with oil. Season chicken with salt and pepper. Brown chicken over medium heat, allow 7 minutes each side or until no longer pink. Sprinkle chicken with cumin, garlic powder and Mexican spices before turning. Remove chicken to a platter, allow to cool.


Saute onion and garlic in chicken drippings until tender. Add corn and chiles. Stir well to combine. Add canned tomatoes, saute 1 minute.


Pull chicken breasts apart by hand into shredded strips. Add shredded chicken to saute pan, combine with vegetables. Dust the mixture with flour to help set.


Microwave tortillas on high for 30 seconds. This softens them and makes them more pliable. Coat the bottom of 2 (13 by 9-inch) pans with a ladle of enchilada sauce. Using a large shallow bowl, dip each tortilla in enchilada sauce to lightly coat. Spoon 1/4 cup chicken mixture in each tortilla. Fold over filling, place 8 enchiladas in each pan with seam side down. Top with remaining enchilada sauce and cheese.


Bake for 15 minutes in a preheated 350 degree F oven until cheese melts. Garnish with cilantro, scallion, sour cream and chopped tomatoes before serving. Serve with Spanish rice and beans.


The Verdict:
Generally I am not a huge fan of enchiladas, these are the Doc's go to dish. I don't really care for the corn tortillas. Well THIS dish was amazing! I loved the flavor of the filling that I didn't even care it was baked in a corn tortilla. It was a nice feeling to hit a home run again with dinner!

I didn't have a Mexican spice blend in my cabinet so I improvised with paprika and hot chili powder. It had a lot of heat and next time I may just use regular chili powder. The Doc was happy to have a tasty home cooked meal again. David flat out told me that it wasn't his favorite (before even taking a bite), he just wanted a taco. And Shaun was just happy I served refried beans as a side.

I will be putting this on my list of favorites and next time I am in the mood for Mexican, I'll make these!

Fresh Corn & Crab Quesadillas with Avacado Crema

I love crab and I love Mexican so when I came across this recipe in a Hannaford Magazine (that came free with my purchase of $25 or more) I couldn't wait to make it. The picture shown in the magazine had my mouth watering. All I could hope was that it was going to taste as good as it looked and sounded.

Ingredients:

Quesadillas
1 cup fresh corn kernels (cut from 1 to 2 ears)
1/4 cup (2oz) reduced fat (Neufchâtel) cream cheese, softened
2 tsp. fresh lime juice
1/4 tsp. ground cumin
1/8 tsp freshly ground black pepper, or to taste
1/4 cup finely chopped scallions
1 tbsp. minced fresh cilantro
1/2 lb fresh lump crabmeat
4 8" flour tortillas
1/2 cup (2oz) shredded Monterey Jack cheese
1 tsp. olive oil

Avocado Crema
2 tbsp. plain non-fat Greek-style (thickened) yogurt
1 tbsp. minced fresh cilantro
2 tsp. fresh lime juice
1/8 tsp kosher salt, or taste
1 ripe avocado, diced

The How to:
1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray.
2. Prepare quesadillas. In a medium-sized saucepan, bring 3 cups water to a boil over high heat. Add corn for 1 minute just to blanch. Drain, rinse with cold water.
3. Combine cream cheese with lime juice, salt, cumin and pepper. Stir in scallions, cilantro, and corn, then gently fold in the crabmeat. (This may be prepared up to one day in advance and stored, refrigerated, in an airtight container.)


4. Place one tortilla on a work surface and spread 1/4 of the corn and crab mixture over one half. Sprinkle 2 tbsp. of the Montery Jack cheese over the top. Fold the other half of the tortilla over the filling, press firmly, and transfer quesadilla to the perpared baking sheet. Repeat with remaining tortillas and filling. Brush tuop of each quesadilla with 1/4 tsp of the oil, and bake on top oven rack 10 minutes, until lightly golden.


5. While quesadillas are baking, prepare avocado crema. Stir together yogurt, cilantro, lime juice and salt in a bowl. Gently fold in avocado.
6. When the quesadillas are done baking, cut each quesadilla into three wedges, and serve warm with a dollop of avocado crema.

The Verdict:
I was the only one who tried these. Since Shaun is still too young for shellfish and I didn't think David would enjoy it I also made Chicken quesadillas (with a little help from the Purdue precut Southwestern style chicken). The Doc decided that he was fine with a chicken quesadilla too. Oh well it was his loss as far as I am concerned. These came out just a I had hoped. The fresh cilantro was key. They were very light and just so yummy! Next time I think I will pan fry them as I do with all of my quesadillas. Some of the edges burned in the oven and the middle wasn't as crispy as I would like. Otherwise I wouldn't change a thing!


Sadly my picture doesn't give the recipe justice as the picture in the magazine did! Ah well!