Green Enchilada Sauce

Last week's farmers market found me with a bag of tomatillos asking to be made into something tasty.my first foray into the husked tomatoes....  I remember when I first heard of these magical fruits. I had just moved to Texas. At the time knew tacos and were Mexican and may have just begun to enter the beautiful fried world of the chimi a few months before. We grew up pretty sheltered on that front. Tacos were ground beef, hard shells, lettuce, tomatoes, and cheese. That was it. So my friend Emily and I went out for Mexican at Chuys. I got to pick my sauce and I was introduced to this amazing thing known as the deluxe tomatillo sauce. Fast forward 12 years and I've still never used a tomatillo. That all changed today. I took the sauce from Our Best Bites and modified it slightly. 

Materials

3/4 lb tomatillos, coarsely chopped

1 small onion, chopped

1 green pepper, chopped

1 jalapeño pepper, minced

6 cloves garlic, chopped

3/4 tsp cumin

1 tbl olive oil

1/4 bunch cilantro

Methods

Started out with the onion and garlic cooking down in the oil in a small pan until translucent to release their fragrance. I added the remaining ingredients and done water and simmered them away. Finally, immersion blend until all texture is gone and it is suitable for consumption. If too liquid, I would have simmered off more water here. 

We used this sauce on chicken and bean enchilladas. It was a little sweet, with no real heat since I didn't put the jalapeño seeds in the sauce.   Still won much approval. We have some leftover to use as salsa later in the week :) I have a feeling I may make a ton more and freeze it!  This could be the gateway to my first canning adventure. 

Honey and spice sautéed pork hand tacos

Source:  porkbeinspired.com

So I have a pork problem. I'm not opposed to it. I just find it to be an awkward food. Growing up pork meant shake and bake on thick butterflies chops. Yum. That's a win in my book, even in my 30's. But that's not really my food style anymore. Now I do enjoy pork tenderloin, and hello pulled pork. We buy chips when they go on sale (hello buy one get one!), however the last several times they have seemed to be overlooked and dry. I was flipping through a magazine the other day and saw this recipe. I knew we had pork to use this week so I thought I would give it a try.  

Weather has been pretty rough here today. Like massive flooding shutting down streets. So when I came home I rushed to get dinner started and done before things got bad again. Fail. Meat was marinated but not cooked. I had electric stoves growing up and am never really comfortable but God bless gas. Out electric starter didn't work but a long lighter and the gas got us there. 

Ingredients

1 lb pork thinly sliced into strips (by the time I trimmed away the fat we had 12 oz)

1 tbl olive oil

1 tbl honey

1 tbl soy sauce

1 tbl lemon juice

1/2 tsp paprika

1/2 tsp chili powder

Methods

Mix the marinade ingredients well and add pork. Stir to coat and let it sit 15 min. Cook on the sautéed pan for a few min until cooked through (or throw on the grill in a grill pan) 

Serve taco style!

I actually ate mine with a bunch of farmers market veggies and a little cheese in classic fajita salad style. Easy. Fast. Tasty. David approved. Win. 

Sorry for the crap pic.... But we still have no power:(

Buffalo chicken enchiladas

Who doesn't live dome Mexican? Or buffalo chicken?  Why not combine them? EmilyBites did and I gave it a try. Turned out on, but I will stick with my normal Mexican. This was a but too much kick for me and really, I like my Mexican a little more traditional or just tex-mex fusiony. Even David thought these were too spicy. 

Adapted from Emilybites.com

materials

12 oz chicken, cooked and shredded  

8 oz can tomato sauce

1/4 cup buffalo sauce 

1/2 T chili powder

1/2 T cumin

1/2 T garlic powder 

1/8 t sugar

3/4 cup triple cheddar

1/4-1/2 cup minced celery

1 T blue cheese dressing 

8 small corn tortillas 

methods

Combine the tomato sauce, buffalo sauce, chili poser, cumin, garlic powder, and sugar. Take 1/2 cup sauce and mix well with chicken, cheese, and blue cheese dressing. At this point I stopped to make David's veggie free enchiladas. For mine I mixed in the celery and completed the enchiladas. Spray with a little oil and bake at 425F for 8-10 min to get crunchy. Then lower the heat to 400, top with the remaining sauce and bake for 18-20 min. 

David added plenty of extra blue cheese dressing to cool his down. Ill be using some yogurt with my leftovers for lunch.  And later this week we will just go back to old fashioned turkey and black bean enchiladas. 

Salmon Tacos

You know how fish tacos left California in like 2001 and started gaining popularity around the country. Yup it's 2013 here, you can do the math. I've had some delicious fish tacos at restaurants, but they were usually battered (not exactly how i roll at home 95% of the time) or just seemed out of reach (i have an inferiority complex with cooking fish). Meanwhile,  we've had a few less than super-successful (but still edible) attempts involving tilapia and pre-packaged taco seasoning.

I pulled this recipe out of a magazine months ago and it go shoved to the bottom of a bunch of recipe cards.  I found it last week while meal planning and thought it had potential. We generally love salmon (yay omega 3 fatty acids!) and buy it whenever it's on sale. The  magazine actually gave guacamole and rice recipes, but I was honed in on the salmon. 

I thought this tasted awesome. I put mine in a hard shell corn taco with a little cheese and some guiltless guac from trader joes that is sitting around needing to be used with a little tomato on the side. I had planned to add some napa cabbage that I have, but totally forgot to take it out and slice. Oops. But back to my point, it was light, I knew it was healthy, and it really hit the spot. David also enjoyed it - giving it approval as another good way to prep salmon. I would eat this without tacos - just prepared as seasoned fish, but I love tacos. It was so easy I for see this being added to the regulars. 

Ingredients (served 2, 2 tacos for each of us)

2 salmon fillets (4 oz apiece)

Olive oil

1/4 tsp paprika

1/4 tsp coriander 

1/8 tsp salt

Pinch pepper to taste 

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 400F. Line a baking sheet  with foil. Pat the salmon dry and place skin side down. Spray with a little olive oil to coat surface of the fish. 

2 Mix spices in a small bowl. 

3.  Rub the spice mix on the salmon. Bake for 15 minutes.

4.  Flake cooked fish into large chunks and enjoy on your favorite corn or flour based tortilla product. :)