Dehydrated Citrus Ideas and a Menu Plan

I love citrus fruit. Oranges, clementines, limes, lemons, grapefruit - I love it all! And the best thing about winter time is that citrus is in season. Since it keeps fairly well for a fruit, I tend to load up when a good sale hits. A few times this year I bought a 4 pound bad of oranges for $1.49 (maybe even a few cents less). A couple bags of oranges, a bag of limes (from Sam's), and a box or two of clementines, as good as they are, don't get eaten in lightening fast speed. So I decided to do some preserving.

The first thing I tried to make was a citrus marmalade. I follow the recipe exactly, and it turned out incredibly bitter. Bummer. Maybe next year I'll try a different method - we'll see.

I then went to my dehydrator, but if you don't have one you could easily use your oven to dehydrate citrus. I dehydrated limes and oranges. To do this I cut them thinly into rounds - about 1/8 inch or less in thickness. They took about 16 hours to dehydrate to the dry, brittle place I wanted them to be. The limes did turn dark - not sure what's up with that. They taste fine, however!

So what do you do with dehydrated citrus? Well, that's a great question! So far I've ground up the oranges and added the powder to a simple Chinese stirfry and made orange beef. That was pretty awesome. Tonight I made a rub with the limes and some other seasonings and used it as a fajita seasoning packet.

Fajita Seasoning Mix (note these amounts are approximate to what I made)

4 slices dehydrated limes, ground in a coffee grinder
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp garlic powder
2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp chili powder
1/4-1 tsp cayenne powder (just depends on how spicy you like it!)

Cut meat (I used beef) into strips. Toss with seasoning mix (the above recipe will make enough for about 2 pounds of meat). Allow to sit for 15 to 30 minutes.

Saute your onions and peppers in a canola oil. Remove from the pan when softened. To the pan add extra canola oil (like 1 tablespoon) and then saute your meat over high heat. Add back the onions and peppers. Serve with the toppings of your choice on a small flour tortilla. I like pico de gallo, guacamole, and sour cream.

This weeks menu plan:

Monday: Beef Fajitas, Zesty Black Beans, Chips and Pico De Gallo
Tuesday: Harvest Pork Stew and Salad
Wednesday: Chicken and Olive Bake and Salad
Thursday: Chicken, Mushroom, and Brown Rice Soup
Friday: Shepherds Pie and Salad

Puts-Hair-On-Your-Chest Salsa

So a couple of weeks ago, before my tomatoes were ripening in larger quantities, I had loads of peppers. The nice thing about peppers is that you can use them when they are immature (why did that statement make me think of junior high kids?). Anyway! Yes, almost all peppers will turn another color when they are ripe but they are still usable in many different ways. In fact, it is often desirable to use an green pepper as opposed to a fully ripe one.

Take my jalapeños. I prefer them green just as I do my Anaheim peppers, Anaheim peppers are just like the diced, roasted chillies that you buy in the little cans in the Mexican aisle at your grocery store. So coming across a recipe for jalapeño salsa pricked my interest. The bulk of this recipe is using peppers, not tomatoes or tomatillos. Great for when your tomato harvest isn't quite ready yet but you still want some fresh salsa. Here's my variation.

5 Jalapenos, roasted then seeded and chopped
3 Anaheim peppers, roasted then seeded and chopped
1/3 cup diced tomato
1 small red onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
Juice of one lime
Salt to taste

To roast the peppers, I simply grilled them on the grill over med-high heat, turning them as the blackened. I removed most of the blackened skin, took out the seeds and gave them a rough chop. Then I threw them into a food processor with the onion, garlic, tomato, cilantro, and lime juice. And let it whirl! Then I added salt to taste.

This salsa has the potential to put some hair on your chest (hence the name). But it's not an unbearable heat. And it all really depends on the heat of your peppers. Jalapeños are notorious for not having the same heat level across the board. If it ends up being too spicy, then stir it into some sour cream. Or make a queso dip with some melted cheese. I have the feeling that this would make an excellent base for an enchilada sauce - simply add it to a simple white sauce and poor it over some chicken enchiladas. If you try it, let me know how it turns out for you!

Venison Empandas

For this year's Wild Game Feast, I made some venison empanadas. If you are looking for some game day food, then I would suggest these. In fact, I think you can make almost anything into an empanada and come out with some yummy food - isn't everything better when wrapped in pie dough?

The original recipe came from this site here. I made it as directed the first time but felt some changes were needed - just my preference - feel free to work off of my variation of this recipe too. Cooking is all about what YOU like to eat.

One recipe for pie dough (two 9 inch pie circles worth). I used this recipe here and really liked it for this dish. One, because it was super easy. Two, because of the protein from the egg, it had a stronger structure to the dough - good for when you need to fold the dough in half. It is not so fun to have your pie dough cracking! Of course, you can always buy refrigerated pie dough at your local grocery store and it will certainly save you time (but it will increase the over all cost of the dish). *Note that the above linked recipe will give you enough for one and a half need for the filling recipe (or just make a cream pie to go along with the meal) ;)

Venison Filling :

1 lb ground vension
1/4 cup butter
1 medium onion, chopped
1 celery stick, chopped
1 Tablespoon paprika (I actually got a "Spanish" one from the bulk section of Hy-Vee super cheap)
2 teaspoons chili powder
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 cup Spanish olives, chopped (you know, the green ones stuffed with pimentos?)
1 8 oz. can tomato sauce
1 Tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar (I actually think it is okay if you omit this - try it and see)
Salt and pepper to taste


In a large sauté pan, melt butter over medium/high heat. Add the venison and brown well. Add the onion and celery and cook until softened. Add the chili powder and garlic powder cook to start waking up their flavors (about a minute). Add the olives, tomato sauce, Worcestershire sauce, and vinegar. Add salt and pepper to taste. Simmer for 15 minutes on low/medium heat.

Roll out your pie dough to a usual pie dough thickness. For the WGF, I cut 3 1/2 inch circles. Why? Because I had some tubberware that size - lol. Most recipes call for 5 inch circles, a little too big for sample size BUT the bigger you make them the faster the process will go. Now, for the smaller size that I made I suggest filling them like this (listen up because it took me some trial and error). Hold the pie dough round in your hand, slightly cup it so it looks like a "taco." Scoop in your filling - about a tablespoon's worth, then starting at one end, start pressing the edge together. If the filling starts coming out a little, just use a finger to press it back in and maybe adjust your filling amount for the next empanada.

Bake in a 375 degree oven for 20 minutes or until golden brown. Enjoy!

Now, some prepping tips, you can make the pie dough in advance. You can make the filling at least a day in advance. In fact, I found it easier to use cooled filling - no melting of the pie dough! You can assemble the empandas a day in advance and then store covered in the refrigerator. Bake as previously noted. AND I haven't tried it but I do think you can make and then freeze these. I think allowing to thaw in a single layer in the fridge and then reheated in a 350 degree oven would be your best bet.

Enjoy!

Creamy Enchilada Sauce

Here's how I do it:

Creamy Enchilada Sauce

1 Tbl butter
1 Tbl flour
1/2 cup green salsa (medium)
1 4oz can green chilis
1 tsp cumin
1 cup chicken broth
1/2 cup milk
1 cup shredded Co Jack Cheese

Melt the butter in a medium sauce pan. Stir in the flour and cook in the butter for a few minutes. Add the salsa & green chilis and stir. Add the cumin, stir. Slowly add the chicken broth as you stir. Then slowly add the milk. Melt in and stir the cheese. You can use this as a queso dip for chips or as a sauce for chicken enchiladas. Adjust the heat of the salsa to your taste if you like.

Chicken Tortilla Soup

Here it is, the famous soup recipe. Well, famous in our house at least. lol I've also decided to include the price break-out just to see how much this costs. I think it is interesting to do that when I can...

CHICKEN TORTILLA SOUP

1 medium onion, chopped - .60
3 cloves garlic, minced - .05
1 4 oz. can diced chilis or 2 fresh Anaheim peppers -1.00
1 Tbsp cumin - .20
2 Tbsp cooking oil - .10
1-1/2 cups corn - .44
1 15 oz. can diced tomatoes - .44
4 cups chicken broth (made from chicken soup base) - .15
1 1/2 cups coarsely shredded cooked chicken - 1.00
1 1/2 cups black beans (pressure cooked from dry) - .20
1/2 cup snipped cilantro - FREE from my garden (you can leave out if you don't like)
1 lime juiced -.30
2 cups coarsely crushed tortilla chips - .50
1 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese - 1.00
Sour cream (optional)

Meal total: 5.98 (and there is usually leftovers from our family of 2 adults and 3 small children)

In a large pot, cook chopped onion, garlic, peppers, and cumin in hot oil about 5 minutes or till tender, stirring constantly. Add corn kernels, tomatoes, chicken broth, shredded chicken, black beans, cilantro. Bring mixture to boiling; reduce heat. Simmer, covered for 10 minutes. Ladle into bowls, top with crushed tortilla chips & cheese. If desired, add a dollop of sour cream.

Refried Beans - My way

As stated previously on this blog, I love Mexican food. So does the rest of my family. And a staple of any good Mexican meal is beans. Now, I like two types of beans in Mexican cuisine the best: the black and the pinto beans. I remember that month I spent in Mexico City in the kitchen of one of my friend's aunts and having "refried" black beans with my eggs for breakfast. I was surprised at how much I enjoyed them! So if you haven't tried them, I suggest you do!

Black beans (photo from bearlyedible.com)

I use the pressure cooker to make all of my beans now. This means I save cost by using dried beans as opposed to canned beans. Now, canned beans are very cost effective too. However, many times they have a lot of salt added and then there is that canning liquid that I almost always like to wash off. So all in all, I think dried beans are the way to go. Here's what I do for all the beans I cook.

Pinto beans (photo from dkimages.com)

First, I wash them off in a colander. As stated on most packages of dried beans, they are from an agricultural process and bits of foreign matter are not unlikely so this is an important step. Then I throw in them in the pressure cooker and add water until they are covered by about an inch. I let them soak for about 4 hours. I've found this to be a decent amount of time. After they have soaked (not a neccessary step but it does improve the final texture I've found), I drain the beans and return them to the pressure cooker pot.

Now, Lorna Sass has great charts in her book Pressure Perfect
that contain information on the ratio of liquid to bean and cooking times. Cooking time will vary from bean to bean. (Lima beans only take 7 minutes!) To the drained beans I add, 2 cloves garlic, 2 bay leaves, 1 teaspoon salt, 1 Tablespoon chicken base, the called for water and 1 Tablespoon oil. The oil is very important as it inhibits foaming. Then, I fit the top to the pressure cooker onto the pot. Bring to pressure under high heat. All cookers have different signals of when pressure is reached and when to begin timing. Mine has an indicator rod that comes up that lets me know high pressure has been reached, and I begin timing when steam comes out of the release valve. When this happens I turn the heat down to just maintain this steam and begin the timer. So for black beans it takes 18 minutes under high pressure and pintos take a bit longer at 21 minutes. Then, I let the pressure naturally release, meaning - just let it sit there until the pressure indicator rod is no longer up. This can take just as long as the cooking time but it really depends on how much you made. More equals a longer pressure release time is how it goes.

I like to take some of the liquid out as I do not like my beans to be too soupy and I also remove the bay leaves. Then I take another gadget which I LOVE, the immersion blender, and make quick work. You can leave the beans at any stage of puree that you want. For the black beans, I sometimes add the juice of one lime and a teaspoon of cumin and a dash of cayenne to kick it up a notch as one famous chef would say. Serve and enjoy!

Always make extras, they can be frozen for several months in the freezer. You don't even have to blend all of the beans. The beans can be frozen in whole form and thrown in chilis and soups and quesadillas and so on....

Hot Sauce!

I love it when the garden and the kitchen collide. And this is the season when there is one collision after another. I've made pickles, salsa, tomato juice, peach butter and so on. Now I have three hot pepper plants loaded with peppers. So what's a girl to do? I was planning on pickling them (and I still may do that) but after watching Rick Bayless's "Mexico One Plate At A Time" I decided to make some hot sauce. I followed the recipe exactly as listed on his Frontera Kitchen website and have included it here. I guess the only difference is that I used a different hot pepper entitled "Little Boy" pepper (I've come to realize the joke intended by my darling husband's grandfather).

Habanero Hot Sauce

Makes about 2 cups

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Ingredients

5 cloves garlic, unpeeled
½ cup peeled, roughly chopped carrot (you’ll need 1 medium carrot)
½ cup roughly chopped white onion (you’ll need about half of a small onion)
12 medium (about 5 ounces) orange habanero chiles, stemmed
1 cup apple cider vinegar
About 2 teaspoons salt
¼ teaspoon sugar

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Directions

Roast the garlic in a skillet over medium heat, turning regularly until soft and blackened in spots, 10 to 15 minutes. Cool and peel. In a small saucepan, combine the carrot, onion and habanero chiles with the vinegar and 1 cup water. Partially cover and simmer over medium-low heat until the carrots are thoroughly tender, about 10 minutes. Pour into a blender jar, add the roasted garlic, salt and sugar. Blend until smooth. Thin with a little additional water if you think your hot sauce is too thick. Taste and season with additional salt if you think necessary. Pour into jars or bottles and store in the refrigerator until you’re ready to add some dazzle to a dish.

Here is the lovely results and it is quite tasty. If you like that super hot punch-in-the-mouth type of flavor (which I do!).



As you can see, I did not purchase this bottle especially for this little project. I've been saving olive oil bottles, soy sauce bottles... you know the little bottles with the plastic regulator on top for items just as this. It is recycling at it's best in my book!

Whole Wheat Flour Tortillas

I LOVE Mexican food. Literally, I could eat it every day and never get tired of it. I'm a lot like Rick Bayless in that manner I would suppose. I mean, we are both as "gringo" as can be when it comes to our physical appearance and probably our heritage. But we both have fallen in love with the culture and cuisine that is all Mexican. Thus, with the rising cost of whole wheat tortillas (bought not for their authenticity but for their health benefits) I thought I would give my hand at trying to make some at home.

Here is the recipe I went off of to get an idea of what to do. Then, I futzed and came up with my own variation.

Whole Wheat Flour Tortillas

1 cup all purpose flour
2 cups whole wheat flour
2 tsp salt
1/3 cup canola oil
1 cup boiling hot water

Mix together flours and salt. Add oil and mix until the oil is equally mixed throughout the flour. Make a well in the center of the bowl and add the hot water. Mix together until a soft dough is formed. If dough is sticky then add a little flour until it is not. Likewise, if dough is too dry and will not pull together, add water teaspoons at a time until the right consistency is reached.

Roll into small balls. This picture is after they have rested for an hour covered.


Roll into tortillas between two sheets of parchment paper.


Or instead of rolling them out, purchase a Tortilla Press and use that. I thought I would be brilliant and use my cast iron skillet to press out the tortillas (very Alton Brown, I would say).



Well, if I had wanted my tortillas to be a 1/4 inch thick than that would have been a great solution. I did use the cast iron skillet to start out my flat disk and then I used a rolling pin to do the rest of the work. So, the result was not perfect round tortillas but maybe that will come with practice. Oh, and at first I tried to use wax paper and found out that it does not hold up very long and it is best to use parchment paper. Then you need to cook the tortillas. Everywhere I have read it seems you need to have one skillet at medium-high and another at high heat. So that's what I did. The pressed tortilla goes first onto the medium-high skillet for about 30 seconds and then onto the high heat to finish cooking.



Store these in an air tight container. I happen to be keeping mine in the fridge. You do need to warm them up to make them pliable again but hey, you need to do that with the store bought ones too! The kids loved them slathered with butter, cinnamon and sugar then rolled into little cigars. They made a good snack! All in all, I would say they were a success. However, I think they would be even better made with lard. I am going to get some masa mix at Aldi's and try that next time to make fresh corn tortillas. I'll report back with the findings.