Vintage Aprons Discount

Check out these darling vintage aprons . . . even if you don't like to cook much, you'll still look super sexy taking that frozen pot-pie out of the oven! ;) I can't wait to get mine in the mail this week. If you're looking for a last minute Christmas gift, I know she has a few more in stock . . . email me by 5:00 p.m. Friday 12/17 at reyesdm@gmail.com and you will get 10% off your order.



*Photos courtesy Meghan Crews

Broccoli Soup - Honduran Style

One of my favorite comfort foods that Rina makes is her broccoli soup. And my girls love it too. There's nothing better than to know your kids are asking for second servings on their green veggies!

Ingredients

2 large slices of onion
1 stalk of celery
2 gloves of garlic, minced
2 heads of broccoli
1 large potato, with skin (or 2 medium potatoes)
water from potato
1/4 tsp cumin
butter
salt & pepper to taste

1. Wash and Dice potato (with skins) and place in water to boil (just enough to cover it).

2. Saute onion, celery, garlic, and broccoli until the onion is clear (broccoli may still be firm).

3. Place broccoli and other sauteed ingredients in a blender with a small portion of the water from the potato and blend until smooth.



4. Pour liquefied ingredients back into the soup pot and do the same with the potato - blend until smooth with remaining water.


5. Add potato liquid to the warming ingredients in the soup pot and bring to a boil on medium heat.
6. Add a tablespoon or two of butter, a 1/4 tsp (or more if you like it) of cumin. Salt and Pepper to taste. Mix final ingredients well.

Serve warm with bread, toast, or a tasty grilled cheese sandwich . . . or a black bean and cheese quesadilla, like I did here.

Enchiladas Hondureñas

I love visits from my mother-in-law for many reasons, but one of the biggest is that she pretty much takes over the kitchen. Some people might not like this, but for my busy life, it's like she comes to my rescue. Not only does it make Armando happy to have a visit from his mom, but we all benefit from her culinary genius. She loves cooking for others. And we love eating. It's a win-win. She's been gone for a week now and as a way of honoring all she did for us while she was here, I'm dedicating this week as "En la Cocina con Doña Rina" week ("In the Kitchen with Miss Rina"). Stay tuned for something different and delicious!

This recipe is kind of like Thanksgiving dinner: it takes some time to prepare and you might feel tired afterward, but with simple planning and preparation, all of the extra work put into it will be all worth it the moment you sink your teeth into the contrasting layers of deliciousness it has to offer.


I've come to know Hondurans from "Ceiba", Hondurans from "Han Pedro" and Hondurans from "Tegus" and they will all argue with you on how a proper Enchilada should be built, but I have to say of all that I have tried, Doña Rina's make it to the top of my list and it's not just cause I want brownie points from my mother-in-law. There's something about the contrasting flavors, textures, and temperatures that just make this something I crave when my mother-in-law is 12 hours and 2 layovers away. So, hopefully after I type all of these instructions out and cheer you all on to take the time to prepare this, I'll do the same some day and surprise Armando with one of his favorites.

If you look at the picture above, you'll see that the Enchiladas are basically like what we would call a "tostada" in the states with the fried corn tortilla bottom, a layer of well flavored ground beef and layers of cabbage and salsa on top, but what you don't know about the Honduran Enchilada is that hidden between the layer of shredded cabbage and the meat are diced boiled potatoes, sliced boiled eggs, and fried sweet plantains. Those three ingredients, flavors, and contrasting textures take this dish to a whole new level.

Step 1: Prepare meat for marinating.

Dice the following and mix well into a pound or more of ground beef:

1/2 onion
3 cloves garlic
1/2 green pepper
1 roma tomato
Lots of cumin
Sometimes I dump a bit of Worcestershire sauce into the meat.
plenty of salt and pepper
You can add ground achiote for color (also found in the mexican food spice section of your local grocer) Achiote isn't used for flavor, but plenty of it will give the meat a nice color. Color is EVERYTHING in Honduran cooking. Everything.

Cover and let flavors mix. I would even recommend prepping the meat mixture the night before so that the flavors have time to marinate the meat well. While the meat soaks up all the flavor, prep the following:

Step 2: Boil Potatoes and Eggs

Peel 1-2 potatoes and place in pot of water on stove to boil. Place 2 or 3 eggs in with them to hard boil them. While those are on cooking:

Step 3: Shred Dry Cheese

Also known as Queso Seco or Queso Cotijo from your local grocer - fresh Mexican food section. If you can't find any of these cheeses, Parmesan will have to do.

Step 4: Finely shred cabbage.

This step should be a separate post in and of itself. Latins have a way with finely shredding cabbage. It's an art. [Note to self: Hone your skills of finely shredding cabbage and teach the rest of the blogging world how to do it too.] For now, all I can say is find a super-sharp knife (for dicing) and find the most dense head of cabbage and slice it paper thin.

Step 4: The sauce.

Ingredients: Butter or olive oil, finely diced onion and garlic, tomato paste or sauce, chicken broth, salt, pepper, cumin and a bit of brown sugar. I will apologize ahead of time, but this sauce has no specific recipe. Trust me, it will all work out.

Saute onion and garlic in oil or butter until onion is clear. Add tomato paste or sauce and bring to boil. Add salt, pepper, and cumin to taste. A guestimate would be about a tsp of salt or a bit more, a dash of pepper and 1/2 tsp or more of cumin. Add broth to thin the sauce and give it a good flavor. At the end, add a pinch or seven of brown sugar and mix and dissolve in the boiling sauce. Remove from heat and cover until time to serve.

Step 5: Cook the meat.

In a large pan, fry meat mixture until cooked through. Remove from heat and cover until time to serve.

Step 6: Fry the plantains
Again, this might be a topic of another post in an of itself, but lets assume you have been successful in finding non-bruised, ripe, plantains. You've opened the peel (which is much harder to open than a banana - use a knife to slice it open) and you have sliced the plantain in half lengthwise and have heated the oil to fry them. Fry until golden brown. And try to refrain from eating them all before serving the enchiladas.


Step 7: The tortilla

If you're out for real authentic (which is so much better), then heat a pan of vegetable oil and hand-fry the corn tortillas for serving. If you're lazy like I sometimes am, I skip this step and use the ready-made tostadas. Armando hates that part. That's why it's so wonderful to have a mother-in-law that visits and cooks. :)

Finally: Putting it all together

Begin by putting a spoonful or two or three of meat on the tostada. Then add hand-picked potatoes (3 or 4), a slice of boiled egg, and 2 or three pieces of fried plantain.

Add a small amount of finely shredded cabbage on top.

Cover generously with queso seco (dry cheese).

Drizzled the sauce over the top.

And enjoy trying to fit a bite into your mouth. Have a fork on hand to finish off what falls on your plate.
Perhaps we could call it a Honduran Sloppy-Joe.

I'd love to hear if you attempt to make this. And if you live anywhere within driving radius, please call, I'll be over for dinner!

En La Cocina con Doña Rina

That's "In the Kitchen with Miss Rina" for all of you English speakers out there. This week we're remembering all of the mouth watering recipes Grandma Rina cooked for us while she was here this year. Beginning Monday, there will be a new one each day this week so check back for some delicious Honduran cooking.

Turkey Taquitos

Our turkey leftovers are now gone and I'm left with a watering mouth for these delicious turkey taquitos that we made. I look forward to these every year almost as much as I look forward to the whole traditional Thanksgiving meal.

So, if you still have some turkey leftover, I highly recommend giving this a try or keeping this recipe in your Thanksgiving idea list for next year.

Here's what you do:

1. Shred or slice leftover turkey into small pieces.
2. Heat corn tortillas in the microwave in a plastic bag for approximately one minute. (I like to sprinkle a bit of water in so they are nice and moist and don't fall apart.) You will know they are ready when you can roll them and they don't break.
3. Place turkey on one side of a tortilla on a plate. Roll it up and place a toothpick in the middle to keep it rolled together.

4. Heat a pan of oil to medium heat.
5. Place taquitos in oil and fry until golden brown and crisp on both sides.


6. Finely shred green-leaf lettuce.
7. Top taquitos with a bed of lettuce and my favorite spicy tomato-avocado salsa and a generous sprinkly of "queso seco" - basically a mexican dry cheese - I use "queso cotijo" from my local grocer. Any Parmesan-type cheese will work.

Now, try not to eat the whole plate. And refrain from cooking an entire other turkey just to make taquitos. These things aren't light on the calories. :)

[Cheap] Korean Beef from Lizzy Writes

I look at a lot of recipes online, but there are few that I actually try. In my busy life, time is of the essence. When I happened upon this one over at Lizzy Writes, it seemed simple and that it had some great flavors that my family would like. So I eventually made it and I LOVED IT! The meat has a great flavor and spice to it and the green onion is the perfect texture crunch. I love crunchy anything in my dishes.

Here is the recipe:

1 pound lean ground beef
1/4 - 1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 Tablespoon sesame oil
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon fresh ginger, minced
1/2 - 1 teaspoon crushed red peppers (to desired spiciness)
salt and pepper
1 bunch green onions, diced

Heat a large skillet over medium heat and brown hamburger with garlic in the sesame oil. Drain most of the fat and add brown sugar, soy sauce, ginger, salt and pepper and red peppers. Simmer for a few minutes to blend the flavors. Serve over steamed rice and top with green onions.

Liz added some tips that I thought were great. She mentioned that peeling and slicing the ginger root into 1/4 inch slices and freezing it was a great way to keep fresh ginger on hand since it goes bad so easily. That had always been my problem. I would buy a bit and use a few shavings for a dish and end up tossing the rest because it would go bad. Ever since I read her tip, I've had fresh ginger on hand every time I need it and it's much easier to grate when it's frozen.

Thanks, Liz, for the recipe and letting me share it here too.

Next time I make it, I'm going to try the flank steak she mentioned . . . I think Armando will LOVE it with steak.

Creamy Coconut Lemongrass Tilapia

One of the things that I love about visiting Honduras is the variety of foods and flavors. One day after running errands with Armando, we came home to the most delicious meal I ate while I was there. My sister-in-law, Ana had made her own concoction of Coconut Lemongrass Tilapia. Lemongrass was the new flavor I fell in love with while we were there. I couldn't get enough of the tea or this delicious dish Ana made. I had to have the recipe. As soon as we got back, I began the hunt for lemongrass and luckily found a grocer nearby that sells 4-5 little stems for a pretty penny (not like the bundle of huge grass stems you can get for pennies at the market down there . . . ) [sigh].

This is actually a quite simple and delicious recipe. I like it because it is quick, yet still has a flare of uniqueness that's not just your everyday dinner flavor . . . at least not at our house. ;)

Like any Latin-American "recipe" I get from our family or friends, there aren't exact measurements, but this is what I did:

Rinse 6-8 tilapia filets and let dry. Sprinkle with salt. Set aside.

Saute in coconut oil (or oil of your preference):
1/4 onion (diced)
2-3 garlic cloves

until onions are translucent and garlic starts to brown.

Add tilapia filets and cook until golden brown on one side. Turn the filets to cook on the other side. When they are just about cooked, add a can (15 oz) of coconut milk. Add 2-3 stems of lemongrass (I folded mine in half so that the stem broke and the aroma/juices would flavor the dish quicker). Bring just to a boil over med-high heat.

Serve over a bed of warm rice with a green salad or steamed vegetables.