I am experimenting with some ethnic recipes this week. I’m really excited about trying out the tamale recipe. It’s a traditional salvadorean recipe my hubby grew up on. It’s very labor intensive, so I hope I have the patience.
-1 jar (14 oz) of pizza sauce
–3 empty jars full of water
–1 green bell pepper, seeded and chopped
–1/2 red onion, chopped
–1 cup sliced mushrooms
–1 cup baby tomatoes, cut in quarters (or 1 can diced tomatoes, drained)
–2 already-cooked Italian sausage (I used chicken Italian sausage)
–1 cup sliced pepperoni, sliced in quarters (Hormel turkey pepperoni is labeled gluten free)
–8 fresh basil leaves, chopped (or 1/2 T dried)
–1 T dried oregano
–1/2 to 1/3 cup of dried pasta (if your pasta is tiny, use 1/3 cup. if it’s big, do 1/2. I used 1/2 cup Trader Joe’s brown rice penne)
–shredded mozzarella cheese (to add later)
The Directions.
Use a 5 or 6 quart crockpot for this recipe. Serves 4 hungry adults, or 2 hungry adults and 2 kids with enough leftovers to feed them all again.
Wash and prepare veggies. Dump them into the crockpot. Cut up the sausage into small pieces–I sliced, then cut the pieces in fourths. Add to crockpot. Cut up the pepperoni, add it, too. Add basil and oregano. Pour in the pizza sauce, and follow with three empty jars of water.
Cover and cook on low for 7-9 hours. Everything in this is already cooked, so you are really only heating through and allowing the flavors to meld.
Thirty minutes before serving, add the dry pasta, and turn to high. My pasta only took 20 minutes to soften quite nicely.
Garnish/top with shredded mozzarella cheese.
Curried Roast Beef with Coconut Gravy (this month’s chatelaine magazine)
1 tbsp thai curry paste, preferably red
1 tbsp olive oil
3 lb sirloin-beef roast
400 ml can coconut milk
1tbsp cornstarch
1/2 cup shredded fresh basil or coarsely chopped cilantro
3 green onions, thinly sliced
1 lime
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. In a small bowl, stir curry paste with oil. Place beef in a large ovenproof frying pan or pot. Rub curry mixture all over meat and roast uncovered in a preheated oven for 30 min.
Add 1/4 cup of water to pan, then continue to roast for approx. another 30 - 50 minutes (depending on how you like your meat cooked, rare or medium well). When you are done cooking the roast, remove it from the oven and place on a cutting board. Loosely cover with foil and let stand 5 minutes.
In a medium bowl, whisk coconut milk with cornstarch until dissolved. Pour into beef pan and set over medium heat. Using a wooden spoon, scrape up and stir in any brown bits from pan bottom. Stir frequently until thickened, from 5-7 min.
Chop basil and onions and stir into gravy when thickened. Taste. Add a squeeze of lime juice or salt, if needed. Slice beef, divide among plates and drizzle with coconut gravy.
Traditional Tamales (hubby’s favorite!)
Filling (quite mild, since I was feeding children):
1 (3.5-pound) store-bought rotisserie chicken
1 tsp cumin
1/2 yellow onion, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1 (4-ounce) can chopped green chilies, mild
1 (15-ounce) can corn, drained
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese, optional
Tamale Dough:
4 cups masa harina
2 1/2 cups beef broth
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp kosher salt
1 1/3 cup lard or vegetable shortening (I used crisco)
1 (6-ounce) package dried corn husks (I needed to go to a Mexican grocer)
The Directions.
There are a few parts here. I “cheated” and used a fully-cooked chicken as the meat in my tamale filling. If you’d like, you can cook a hunk of beef or pork overnight with spices and chili pods in your crockpot. The meat should shred easily with forks before it is ready to go inside the tamales.
If you’re going to use the rotisserie chicken, combine the meat with the onion, garlic, can of green chilies, cumin, salt, and drained corn in a 4 quart (or so) crockpot and cook on high for 3-4 hours, or on low for 6. The onions need to be translucent before going into the tamales. If you don’t have time for this step, skip the garlic and onion, and combine the chicken with the chiles, cumin, salt, and drained corn in a mixing bowl. Set aside.
Soften the corn husks by soaking them in very hot water until they are quite pliable.
To make the masa, combine all dough ingredients in a large mixing bowl, and beat on medium-to-high speed until everything is mixed well and the dough is spongy. Check the dough by dropping a little ball of it into a glass of water. It should float. If it doesn’t float, this source says to continue to beat the dough.
Take a bit larger than a golf-ball size piece of masa dough, and spread it into a wet corn husk. The dough should be about 1/4 inch thick–you do not want to see the corn husk through the dough. Add a bit of filling, and some cheese. Fold the corn husk over to join the edges of the masa. If you need to add more dough, do so—no filling should peek through. Fold all corn husk edges into the center and place into the bottom of an empty crockpot, seam side down (I used a 6.5 quart, and fit 19 inside).
Repeat. Many, many, many times. It took me about 2 hours to make all of the tamales. If you find that your corn husks are unraveling, you can add another the other way to secure it, and tear off a long piece to tie around. I had to do this a few times. I also needed to add more hot water to the soaking husks to keep them pliable. If you need to step away from the tamale-making-process for a bit, put the lid on your crockpot to keep moisture inside.
When the crockpot is full, put the lid on and cook on high for 4-6 hours, or until a tester tamale looks and tastes done. The tamales on the edges will cook a bit faster. Once your tester looks good (I used the same one, and kept re-wrapping it and adding it back when it wasn’t ready), unplug the crockpot and keep the lid off. Don’t unwrap any others until they’ve set for about 15 minutes. My tamales were cooked at 6 hours, but I began checking every 45 minutes at 4 hours.
Ingredients
2 cloves Garlic, crushed
1 tablespoons Butter
2 (13 1/2oz) cans Chicken or beef broth
1 (8oz) package Fresh or frozen cheese tortellini, thawed
1 (10oz) package Fresh or frozen spinach, thawed
1 (16oz) can Stewed tomatoes, undrained, coarsely chopped
Grated Parmesean cheese
Preparation
In a large saucepan over medium-high heat, cook and stir garlic in butter for 2 to 3 minutes. Add broth and tortellini; heat to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer 10 minutes. Add spinach and tomatoes; simmer an additional 5 minutes. Serve topped with cheese.
Chinese fried rice and eggrolls (my own recipe)
1 cup brown rice
1 cup chicken broth
1 egg
sliced green onions
frozen peas
cooked chicken
cook rice with chicken broth. once cooked, add to frying pan. add egg, peas and chopped green onions. cook for 5-10 min on med-high heat.
*i used store bought egg rolls.
ingredients
3 cups Low Sodium Chicken Broth
1 8.25 ounce Can of creamed corn, no added salt
1 cup Diced, cooked, and skinned chicken breast
1 tablespoon Cornstarch
2 tablespoons Cold water
2 Egg whites
2 tablespoons Minced fresh parsley
preparation:
1. Combine chicken broth, corn, and chicken pieces in a large saucepan. Bring mixture to a boil over medium heat, stirring occasionally. Blend cornstarch with cold water and add to soup. Continue cooking, uncovered, for 3 minutes.
2. In a mixer or a small bowl, beat egg whites until foamy. Add to soup and reduce heat to a simmer. Cook until foamy.
3. Ladle soup into individual bowls and garnish with parsley
4. Serve hot and enjoy!
