Sunday, December 8, 2013

Recipe: Chile Con Carne Nachos

All of Dallas has been iced in over the weekend, with no signs of thawing.  With hazardous road conditions, I've had to curb my weekend grocery runs in favor of pantry and freezer meals.

I made this Seven Chile Texas Chili from the Homesick Texan a while back.  I'm not much of a chili con carne person, but loved the flavors from the chiles!  However, since the recipe called for 4 lbs of chuck, we had a LOT of leftover chili in the freezer.

When life hands you chili...make chili cheese nachos!

I love nachos as a kitchen-sink sort of dish.  Tortilla chips and cheese are great vehicles to help using up odds and ends of chopped vegetables.  This is a highly adaptable recipe.  For a vegetarian-friendly nacho, top the nachos with black beans and roasted corn instead of chile con carne.

Here, I use the microwave instead of the oven or broiler to melt the cheese.  Since I'm usually cooking for one or two, the microwave is fine for a smaller portion.  If you're making a lot of nachos, using the oven would certainly be more efficient.  

RECIPE:  Chile Con Carne Nachos
Serves 2-3 as a large snack

4-6 oz tortilla chips (about 1/4 or 1/3 of a 16 oz bag)
Chili con carne (other options: vegetarian chili, leftover beans)
1 chopped tomato (canned diced tomatoes are okay as well)
1/2 finely chopped onion (or substitute finely sliced green onions or shallots)
Shredded cheddar cheese to taste (start with around 1/2 cup)

Optional toppings:
1/4 bunch finely chopped cilantro
Sliced jarred pickled jalapenos
Jarred salsa or hot sauce
Sour cream or plain yogurt

Directions:
Spread chips in a thin layer on a serving plate (if using microwave -- you may need to use 2 plates if you're using dinner-sized plates) or baking sheet (if using oven).  Crumble chili con carne over chips in a thin layer -- try to make sure the chips are evenly covered.  Then scatter chopped tomato, onion and cheese over the top.  



Microwave for 1-2 minutes, or until cheese is melted.  Alternately, place in oven under broiler for 1-2 minutes.  Top with optional toppings -- here, I used a few jarred salsas, plain yogurt and a few extra dashes of Tapatio.  And I took a few bites before I remembered to snap a photo!



These are my current favorite jarred salsas -- Papalote's salsa will always have a special place in my heart, but when in Texas...

Zukali Salsas are local (based out of McKinney, Texas) and have have some fantastically robust flavors.  If you're in Texas, Central Market carries their products.

Thursday, December 5, 2013

Recipe: Roasted Asparagus with Farro Salad and Balsamic Fried Egg

I love sunny-side up eggs for breakfast.  I'm a savory breakfast person, and toast dipped in a perfectly runny egg yolk followed by a bite of egg white with crisped edges is as perfect as breakfast gets.

Improving on perfection should be impossible.  But this version of a balsamic fried egg, based loosely off the version at Foreign Cinema in San Francisco, may prove me wrong.  Paired with a farro salad and roasted asparagus, it's a perfectly decadent breakfast which still has aspirations towards being 'healthy.'


RECIPE:  Roasted Asparagus with Farro Salad and Balsamic Fried Egg
Serves 2

This is a mildly strenuous weekend breakfast, since there are three components.  None is particularly hard -- it's just a bit tricky to get the timing right so everything is done close to the same time.  You'll find that if you have some leftover farro salad, that this goes much more quickly!

Farro Salad tossed with Garlic, Olive Oil, and Rosemary
1/2 c quick-cooking farro
3/4 c water
1-2 cloves garlic, finely minced
1-2 T olive oil (per your preference)
1/4 t dried rosemary
Salt to taste

Place farro and water in a small pot; bring to a boil and then lower to a simmer.  Simmer for 10 minutes, covered.  Turn off the heat and leave pot covered for another 15 minutes.

In the meantime, whisk together the olive oil, minced garlic, dried rosemary and 1/4 tsp salt in a medium mixing bowl.  Once farro is done, toss with this mixture, and add more salt to taste.  (This part can be done in advance the night before.)

Roasted Asparagus
1/2 lb medium to thick asparagus spears
1-2 T olive oil
Salt
Pepper
1 lemon

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.  Rinse and clean asparagus.  Break off the tough ends and discard.

Lay the asparagus spears out in a single layer on a baking dish or a roasting pan.  Drizzle with olive oil; toss the spears until they are covered in a thin layer of oil.  Season with a little salt and pepper.

Roast in oven for 8-10 minutes, until spears are lightly browned and tender when pierced with a fork.  Squeeze juice of half a lemon (or to taste) over spears prior to serving.  (You could also slice your lemon in half and throw it on the roasting pan with the asparagus to get a roasted lemon flavor.)

Balsamic Fried Eggs
2 eggs
2 t olive oil
3-4 T balsamic vinegar

In a small frying pan, add 2 t olive oil (or enough to prevent eggs from sticking).  Crack each egg into the pan.  Cover and cook for 3-4 minutes for sunny side up, or until whites are opaque but yolks are still bright and jiggly.  Slide the eggs out of the pan when done.

With oil still in the pan, add balsamic vinegar (add more if you want to make more balsamic reduction).  Reduce by about half -- should take no more than 2-3 minutes if pan is still quite hot from the eggs.

To serve:
Mound a small amount of farro salad on the plate.  Lay 4-5 asparagus spears next to the farro salad.  Top with a fried egg which bridges the salad and asparagus.  Drizzle balsamic reduction on top when done.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  Crack open yolk and let it run over the farro and asparagus and enjoy!

Recipe: Oatmeal Banana Smoothie

I'm always in search of delicious, fast breakfasts -- who couldn't use a few more minutes in the morning?  This is a great, quick breakfast provided you have a blender handy.  The oatmeal gives bulk and texture -- if you don't like bits of oatmeal in your smoothie, you may want to add less and blend until the smoothie is very fine.  Personally, I blend until the ingredients just start to come together, so there are sometimes still small bits of banana at the bottom of the glass.



This blueberry version is a recent incarnation -- I imagine a strawberry variation would also be fantastic!  To keep things simple though, start with the oatmeal banana version and then go from there.

RECIPE:  Oatmeal Banana Breakfast Smoothie
1.5 cups of milk
0.5 cups of plain yogurt*
1-2 teaspoons granulated sugar, depending on the ripeness of your bananas.
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 bananas, broken up into 3-4 pieces each
1 cup of old-fashioned rolled oats**

Add ingredients to blender in listed order and blend to desired consistency.  Makes two super-tall glasses.

For the blueberry variation, add a scant 3/4 cup fresh or frozen blueberries.  (Or substitute another fruit of your choice.)  This will make a little over two glasses (as pictured, except I drank most of one before taking the photo!).

One of the beauties of this recipe (as with any smoothie) is that it's quite open to adapatation.  For milk, I usually use 2% but you can use your favorite.  Soy is the best substitute for a non-dairy version.  I've tried this with almond milk and didn't think the flavors were quite as spot-on.

*If you use Greek yogurt, I would suggest 1/4 cup of yogurt mixed with an additional 1/4 cup of milk -- otherwise the texture gets too thick.

**Because of the amount of oatmeal, you can't make this smoothie too far in advance -- otherwise, the oatmeal will absorb a lot of the liquid and the smoothie will become quite thick.