Enchiladas Verdes & Cilantro Lime Rice

This is one for the "Possibly-Even-Better-the-Next-Day" section of the cookbook in my head...Leftovers to Love or something like that...but these enchiladas (and the rice) are so good that leftovers may be a wild dream.

I frequently make big batches of enchiladas along with rice and beans to get myself set up for a week of quick & easy dinners. I love enchiladas and I've been making and refining my recipe since Jr. High Home Ec. Yes, I'm that old.
Many months back I was inspired by a staff meal concoction our chef made of leftover enchiladas verdes that he'd chopped up and tossed with rice and kidney beans. It was so delicious and all I could think about for the next few days was how to recreate this ASAP. I planned the majority of my weekend around it.
First up was a first-Enchiladas Verdes. I've been cooking Mexican dishes all my life and have never ventured toward the tomatillo. Green sauce? no thanks. That was then.

I pulled out my trusty Big Book of Cooks Illustrated and found exactly what I was looking for. True to form, I still spent an hour+ in a Google-thon, looking for the next best thing. Turns out there wasn't, but I already knew that didn't I? All I wanted was for it to be tomorrow already with enchiladas a done deal, cold and congealed sitting in my fridge.

While the chicken was poaching, I made a up the batch of tomatillo sauce and then prepared about a dozen enchiladas, enough to fit the pan and mistakenly made burritos with the rest of the chicken. Burritos are another great make ahead meal and though I was happy to have them later, I should have made more enchiladas. They looked amazing fresh out of the oven (I took pics but night time photography in my kitchen is pointless). I ate two right away and they tasted even better than they looked. I love, love, loved them. The tangy/spicy tomatillo sauce was beautifully balanced by the pepper jack cheese. I used Vella pepper jack, hand-made locally in Sonoma. It's super moist, flavorful and sinfully spicy, something you just can't get in a supermarket block cheese.
I reheated the enchiladas again the next day, which is what I photographed here so the tomatillo sauce isn't as bright as it was when I first pulled it out of the oven. The mess of a drizzle is a crema made with sour cream, lime juice, salt and cayenne pepper.

I don't know what I was thinking, but I re-heated the cilantro lime rice and some black beans I had in the freezer. I cut up the rest of the enchiladas and tossed everything together while it was warm. What a trainwreck. It all turned to mush, but man-o-man it was tasty. I ended up using it as a burrito filling, but in retrospect it would have made pretty awesome fritters.

Note to self: triple this recipe next time and be lovin' on leftovers all week long!

.

Enchiladas Verdes

Cooks Illustrated

4 teaspoons vegetable oil

1 medium onion chopped

½ teaspoon ground cumin

3 garlic cloves minced

1 ½ cups low sodium chicken broth

1 pound boneless skinless chicken breasts

1 ½ pounds tomatillos

3 poblano peppers

1 – 2 ½ teaspoons sugar

½ cup fresh cilantro

8 ounces pepper jack cheese 

12 corn tortillas

Vegetable oil spray

Crema

½  cup Sour cream

Juice from one whole lime

Salt

Cayenne pepper

1.   Turn on the broiler. In a large skillet, heat oil and add the onion, tossing to coat with oil and cook until they begin to soften about 3 minutes. Add the cumin and 2/3 of the garlic and cook another minute until fragrant. Add the chicken broth and the chicken breasts cover and cook until the broth starts to boil. Reduce heat and simmer until the chicken is cooked to 160 degrees, 15-20 minutes. Reserve the broth and let the chicken cool.

2.   Roast the poblanos either in the broiler by slicing down one side and spreading open. Scrape out the seeds and veins if you want less heat, otherwise leave them be. Lay the peppers on a sheet pan or the broiler pan and roast until the skin is blackened. You can also do this over the open flame of the stove top leaving the peppers whole and turning with tongs. Either way, once blackened place the peppers in a bowl and cover tightly with plastic wrap and let them steam and cool down a bit. Then scrape the blackened skin off.

3.   Heat the oven to 400 degrees. Prepare the tomatillos: remove the papery skin and stem, slice in half across the widest part (the equator). Lay the tomatillos, cut side up on a parchment covered sheet pan and brush them across the top with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast until tomatillos are soft and begin to brown, about 20 minutes.

4.   In the food processor add the cooked vegetables, sugar, salt, remaining garlic and ¼ cup of the reserved broth. Pulse until the sauce is still a little chunky.

5.   In a medium bowl, shred the chicken with two forks. Stir in the cilantro, grated pepper jack and salt to taste.

6.   Transfer the sauce into the skillet and heat. One at a time, dip a tortilla into the sauce so it softens enough to roll. Lay the tortilla on a plate, place about 2 tablespoons of filling in the middle and roll up. Lay the enchilada seam side down into a casserole dish and repeat. Pour the remaining tomatillo sauce over the enchiladas. Sprinkle the remaining ½ cup cheese over the sauce and cover tightly with foil.

7.   Bake the enchiladas until heated through and the cheese is melted and serve. Drizzle with crema and sprinkle sliced scallions on top 

Cilantro Lime Rice
Martha Stewart

Prepare white rice:
1 cup white rice
1 1/2 cups water
1/4 teaspoon salt

Into the blender:

½ cup cilantro

2 tablespoons lime juice

1 garlic clove

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 tablespoons water

Toss into cooked rice

Caramelized Onion, Kale and Rice Gratin

Caramelized Onion, Kale and Rice Gratin, originally uploaded by michele wynne.

There have been many, many kitchen epiphanies over the last 6 months I've been working at Bi-Rite. There is one standout that has transformed my little kitchen: Cheese.

Previously, aside from the occasional purchase of true Parmigiano Reggiano and Azur Blue cheese from the infrequent excursion to the Whole Foods cheese counter,  those giant blocks of supermarket bright orange cheddar, jack and mozzarella were little kitchen staples.
Our cheese counter at Bi-Rite is my Happy Place and my favorite part about working The Creamery-the area in the store where we sell our amazing hand made ice cream. I love the ice cream, but I love the cheese more and the position of the cheese counter smack-dab next to me all day long...well...let's just say that there are suckier ways to spend an 8 hour work day. So when I brought home a bunch of greens and was contemplating my usual brown rice/quinoa bowl, somewhere in the back of my brain I heard the word gratin. Coincidentally, my sister has been posting on her Facebook page, her kitchen explorations of the Smitten Kitchen Cookbook I gave her for Christmas last year, so not to be outdone, I pulled out mine and made this. It's slight riff on one of my favorite recipes. 

In my kitchen, Twice Rescued Kale, Spinach, Dandelion Green, Caramelized Onion, Three Cheese and Brown Rice Gratin is a more fitting, if tedious title and probably not all that appealing I'd hazard to guess...but this one was off-the-hook good. I credit the cheeses. This pan was like crack. I finished the entire thing off, all by myself, in two days.

Earlier this week I came home with two new cheeses and I made this killer grilled cheese sandwich from smitten kitchen using what is now my favorite cheddar, Cabot Vintage Cheddar. It's perfectly sharp and melty. Unbelievably flavorful.  Along with it, I bought Beecher's Flagship Reserve, an English Clothbound Cheddar, which also produced a tasty grilled cheese sandwich. The Beecher's is harder, and flavorfully sharp. It can be used like a parmesan. I used the last bits of these along with some Parmigiano Reggiano. Good lord, I can't wait to make a mac and cheese with this.

 

Here's the recipe from the book. It's amazing.

wild rice gratin with kale, caramelized onions, and baby swiss

from the smitten kitchen cookbook

wild rice:

5 cups cooked wild rice (from 1 2/3 cups, 10.5 ounces, 300 grams uncooked)

        **I used brown rice because it's what I had on hand**

caramelized onions:

1 tablespoon butter

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 large sweet onions, halved and thinly sliced

1/2 tablespoon table salt

freshly ground black pepper

4 cups stemmed, ribboned kale leaves (from an 8 ounce or 225 gram bundle)

       **I used a mixture of kale, spinach and dandelion greens**

assembly:

2 cups (8 ounces or 225 grams) coarsely grated Emmentaler or another Swiss cheese

     **my mix: Parmigiano Reggiano, Beechers Flagsghip Reserve Cheddar and Cabot Vintage Cheddar

2 tablespoons unsalted butter (1 tablespoon to grease dish, 1 tablespoon melted, for crumbs)

3/4 cup chicken or vegetable broth

1 cup (60 grams) fine, dry breadcrumbs

table salt

freshly ground black pepper

Cook the rice according to package directions, but if you're like me and buy your rice in bulk and don't own a rice cooker, boil up a big pot of salted water, dump in your rinsed rice, boil the crap out of it until it becomes chewy and then drain the rice into a collander, flatten a piece of aluminum foil down onto the surface of the rice, add about a cup of water back into your cooking pot and turn the heat to high, put the colander back into the pot and cover, turning the heat to low once it's come to a boil. Steam the rice until it reaches the texture you like.

Pre-heat the oven to 375 degrees.

Meanwhile, caramelize the onions:

Heat the butter an olive oil in a large, heavy skillet over medium-low heat. Add onions, sprinkle with salt and a little pepper, and cook until they're tender and sweet, stirring occasionally, about 30 minutes. Add the kale ribbons, and cook until they wilt a bit, about 5 minutes. Stir together the onion-kale mixture, rice and one cup of grated cheese in a large bowl. Season to taste with additional salt and pepper if you need to.

Assemble the gratin: Use 1 tablespoon of butter to generously coat a 2 quart baking dish. Spread the rice mixture into the dish and pour broth over it. Sprinkle the remaining cheese over the top. Toss bread crumbs with 1 tablespoon melted butter and salt and pepper to taste: sprinkle over cheese.

Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until a little bubbly and beginning to brown on top.

back to some basics

 

Jamie Oliver...How do I love thee? Let me count the ways:

I love this book-I really want to make everything!
you are super cute
love the crazy-hair
love the British accent and the lisp
love the ninja-like kitchen lingo: bash, whiz, whack & bosh
love "Oliver's Twist"-my favorite episode is cooking for Elvis
love the simplicity and un-preciousness of the recipes
love the pretty pictures
love the philanthopy
love the passion
love the energy

Just when I thought I couldn't obsess over this guy more, I found this:

Yes, it's just rice. But finally I found the best way to cook it.

It started a few weeks back when I read this post from Smitten Kitchen. I first realized that I didn't really know how to cook rice properly. I felt oddly comforted that I was not alone in that rice was mostly a crap shoot for me. I was making due with sub-standard rice, following package directions that mostly produced under-cooked or over-cooked  gummy, rice. I don't own a rice cooker because I can't justify the counter space to uni-purpose appliance. I first went back to my Big Book of Cooks Illustrated and that attempt left me with way undercooked rice. WTH?!?

Then I saw this...waaaay outside the box approach to simple white rice. Thanks Jamie!

Get a large pot of salted water boiling.
Add 1 1/2 cups of well-rinsed rice (in a mesh strainer-run it under cold water for about a minute-until the water runs clear)_
when the rice starts dancing around, boil for 5 minutes from that point on.
Strain the rice in a colander and cover with aluminun foil, pressing it down onto the surface of the rice. Add an inch of water back into your original pot and bring that back to a boil.
Reduce the heat to a simmer and place your colander of foil-covered rice back into the pot and place the pot cover back on as well.
Let it simmer and steam for 10 minutes.
Fluff with a fork and you've got perfectly cooked rice! Yay!