Rick's Mild Chili for a Party

Made a big pot of mild (but mighty tasty) chili for Ruth's garden club meeting last night. Folks seemed to like it, so here is the recipe;

Ingredients:
2 lbs ground beef (chuck)
8 ounce Heintz Ketchup (1 cup)
1⁄2 cup chili powder (I use Mexene brand, available on Amazon)
1 can Rotel Mild Tomatoes and Green Chile
2 cups water
2 teaspoons paprika
3 teaspoons ground cumin
1 tablespoon dried onion flakes
2 teaspoons Mexican oregano
1⁄4 teaspoon granulated garlic
1 teaspoon Kosher salt (or to taste)
1 Tablespoon Lea & Perrins Worcestershire
1 15.5 oz. can Dark Red Kidney beans
(note: add 1 or more teaspoons ground cayenne pepper if you like hotter chili)

Directions:
Brown beef in a Dutch oven; drain.  Add ketchup, 2 cups water, paprika, cumin, onion flakes, garlic salt, chili powder and the Rotel Tomatoes and Green Chile.  Cover and simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the kidney beans and optional ground cayenne pepper to taste.  Simmer an additional 15 minutes.  Serve with shredded cheddar cheese, sour cream, tortilla chips or diced peppers for garnish.

"Day After Thanksgiving" Turkey Enchiladas

With Thanksgiving behind us, I thought about what to do with all the leftover turkey.   Then, I remembered our trip to Santa Fe several years ago, and the wonderful cooking class that Ruth and I took at the Santa Fe School of Cooking.  We made chicken enchiladas in the class, and I figured that turkey would make a good substitute.

Enjoy!

Green Chile Turkey Enchiladas

Ingredients:
1 tbsp butter
1 medium onion, peeled and diced
1 tsp minced garlic
2 tbsp flour
1 cup chicken broth
2-4 ounce cans of chopped green chiles
¼ tsp cumin
1/3 tsp oregano
1/3 tsp coriander powder
1 ½ cups shredded turkey
2 cups cheddar and Monterey Jack cheeses
1 pack corn tortillas
1 pint sour cream
2 green onions, chopped
Salsa for topping (optional)

Directions:
Add the butter to a warm sauté pan, then add onions and sauté until translucent. Add garlic and cook until it becomes aromatic. Add flour and cook for 1 minute, stirring to incorporate the flour and eliminate lumps.  Pour both cans of green chiles into the pan and add cumin, oregano, coriander, chicken broth and a little salt and pepper.  Simmer for 5 minutes at low heat. Cut the turkey into bite-size pieces and place in a mixing bowl. Add 1/3 cup of the cooked green chile mix, 1/3 cup of sour cream, 1/3 of the cheese mixture and salt and pepper. Mix well.  Grease a 13x9 baking dish.  Put 1 to 2 tablespoons of filling in each tortilla and roll up. Place the rolled tortillas in the baking dish seam-side down. Continue to add rolled tortillas until the dish is filled.  Pour the rest of the green chile on top of the enchiladas and sprinkle with remaining cheese.  Bake at 350 degrees for 20 to 30 minutes or until hot and bubbly.
Serve with sour cream, green onions and salsa.

Rick's Tuna Salad Tacos

If you ever get bored with tuna salad sandwiches, make some of these tacos.  It's a refreshing change!

Ingredients for the tuna salad:

2 cans tuna
1 small red bell pepper, diced
2 scallions, sliced thin
2-3 Tbs Mayonnaise
2 tsp OLD BAY® Seasoning
2 tsp Lea & Perrins Worcestershire
1 tsp horseradish
1 Tbs fresh cilantro, chopped fine

Ingredients for Serving:

taco shells, toasted
fresh tomatoes, diced
sharp cheddar cheese
Lettuce, shredded
hot sauce, to taste

Drain, rinse and squeeze the excess water from the canned tuna.  Add all the ingredients for the salad and mix well. Toast the taco shells in the oven.  Add the tuna to the tacos and top with fresh tomato, cheddar cheese and lettuce.  Top with hot sauce, if desired.  Enjoy!

Marinated Steak and Chicken Fajitas

Marinated Steak and Chicken Fajitas

Ingredients

1/2 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup lime juice from 6 to 8 limes
1/2 cup peanut oil
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 tsp Wright’s Liquid Smoke
2 tsp ground cumin seed
2 tsp  freshly ground black pepper
1 Tbs chili powder
3 medium cloves garlic, finely minced (about 1 Tbs)
1 pound trimmed skirt steak (cut crosswise into 5 to 6-inch pieces)
1 lb boneless, skinless chicken thighs
1 large green bell pepper, stemmed, seeded, and cut into 1/2-inch-wide strips
1 Vidalia onion, cut into 1/2-inch slices
6-8 fresh flour or corn tortillas, heated
Guacamole, for serving, if desired
Pico de Gallo, for serving, if desired
Sour cream, shredded cheese, salsa and hot sauce for serving, if desired

Directions

Combine soy sauce, lime juice, peanut oil, brown sugar, cumin, black pepper, chili powder, liquid smoke and garlic in a medium bowl and whisk to combine. Transfer 1/2 cup of marinade to a large bowl and set aside. Place steaks and chicken in a gallon-sized zipper-lock bag and add remaining marinade. Seal bag, squeezing out as much air as possible. Massage bag until meat is fully coated in marinade. Lay flat in the refrigerator, turning every couple of hours for at least 3 hours and up to 10. Refrigerate until ready to use.  When ready to cook, remove steaks from marinade, wipe off excess, and transfer to a large plate. Light one chimney full of charcoal. When all the charcoal is lit and covered with gray ash, pour out and arrange the coals on one side of the charcoal grate. Set cooking grate in place, cover grill and allow to preheat for 5 minutes. Clean and oil the grilling grate.  Place a cast iron skillet over the cooler side of grill to pre-heat. Place the steaks and chicken directly on the grate on the hot side of the grill. Cover and cook for 1 to 2 minutes, basting with the reserved marinade. Flip the steaks and chicken, cover and cook for another minute. Continue cooking in this manner—flipping, covering and basting until the steaks and chicken are well-charred and an instant-read thermometer inserted into their center of the steaks registers 125 to 130°F for medium. The chicken should be cooked to 175 to 180°F. Transfer cooked steaks and chicken to a large plate, tent with foil, and allow to rest for 10 to 15 minutes.  Meanwhile, transfer cast iron skillet to hot side of grill and allow to preheat for 2 minutes. Add pepper and onion mix and cook, stirring occasionally, until vegetables are softened and beginning to char in spots, about 10 minutes. When vegetables are cooked, transfer the steaks and chicken to a cutting board and pour any accumulated juices from the plate into the skillet with the vegetables. Toss to coat.  Transfer vegetables to a warm serving platter. Thinly slice meat against the grain and transfer to platter with vegetables. Serve immediately with hot tortillas, guacamole, Pico de Gallo, and other condiments as desired.

Rick's Ragin' Baked Beans (for a crowd)

I published the recipe for making my "secret recipe" BBQ Ribs. Now it ain¹t
a BBQ without great "sides," so here is the secret recipe for Rick¹s Ragin¹
Baked Beans. This recipe serves 15, so it¹s great to take these to a party
or family gathering. You can cut all the amounts in half to make a "family
sized" batch. Now the first secret to my beans is to wash off all the
"goop" that they came in and replace it with my "good stuff!" I use BOTH
hickory smoked bacon and ground beef in my beans, so they are rich and
meaty. The spices give the beans their Southern flavor.

Ingredients:
1 #5 can (or four 1 quart cans) of Bush¹s Pork and Beans, drained and rinsed
1-1/4 cups Vidalia Onion, chopped
6 strips thick-cut hickory smoked bacon, cut into 1" pieces
1/2 lb ground beef (chuck)
1/2 lb dark brown sugar
3/4 cup "Rick¹s BBQ and Broilin¹ Baste", or other BBQ
sauce )
1 Tbs Lea & Perrins Worcestershire Sauce
3 Tbs Rick¹s BBQ Rub , or use the rub from my rib recipe)
1 Tbs chili powder
1 tsp granulated garlic
1 tsp ground black pepper
2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp yellow prepared mustard

Heat a large skillet over high heat. Add just enough vegetable oil to coat
the bottom of the pan. Fry the bacon pieces until they render out some fat
and become translucent, but do NOT brown them. Add the chopped onion and
cook, stirring constantly, until they are also translucent. Remove the
cooked mixture to a large bowl lined with paper towels to absorb the excess
fat. Wait several minutes and remove the saturated paper towel and discard.
Clean the pan and place over high heat again. Add 1 Tbs vegetable oil and
swirl to coat the pan. Add the ground beef and cook until it is well
browned. Turn off the heat and push the beef to one side. Tip the pan
slightly toward the empty side so the fat collects there. Place a crumpled
paper towel in the pan to absorb the excess fat and discard the saturated
paper towel. Mix the beef with the bacon and onions cooked previously.

Wash and drain the beans to remove the liquidy goop they come into into a
"doubled" disposable aluminum roasting pan (nest 2 aluminum pans so they are
strong enough to hold the heavy ingredients). Place the beans into the
roasting pan and stir all the remaining ingredients together. Bake
uncovered in a pre-heated 375 degree oven for about 2 hours, stirring gently
once every half hour. The beans are done when the BBQ sauces caramelizes,
but the beans near the center are still slightly loose when the pan is
shaken.

It's Hatch Green Chile Time!

Labor Day weekend heralds the beginning of the annual Hatch New Mexico Chile Festival, a two-day celebration of their world-famous crop. The festival attracts over 30,000 visitors from all over the United States. Festival goers can sample famed green chile recipes, watch the crowning of the “Chile Festival Queen”, or toss a horseshoe in celebration of their most famous crop.  In a “wonder-of-wonders” moment, I found out that Wegman’s in Hunt Valley was having a “Hatch Chile Event” this weekend.  I got some on Friday and made Green Chile Cheeseburgers (See my recipe here: http://ricksragin.blogspot.com/2013/03/green-chile-cheeseburgers-ala-owl.html )

Having been to Albuquerque and Sante Fe, Ruth and I savored these delicious chiles in everything from Omelets, Green Chile Stew and Green Chile Cheeseburgers. I went and bought 6 bags of them at Wegman’s to process and freeze for the coming Fall and Winter nights when you need a heart-warming bowl of Green Chile Stew to warm you up. (See my Green Chile Stew recipe here:  http://ricksragin.blogspot.com/2013/03/hatch-green-chile-stew.html)

To savor these delicious chiles, you first need to remove the skins.  This is done by roasting them over an open flame. Wegman’s had two big roasters on-site and would roast the chiles for you if you bought a 40 lb case.  Since I have a 160,000 BTU wok burner, I decided I would do that myself.

After charring the chiles, I put them in a big covered pot to steam for about 20 minutes.  This makes removing the skins much easier, which you do by gently scraping them with a sharp knife.

Once the skins are removed, you can cut them open and remover the seeds and veins.

Then you run the roasted and cleaned chiles through a food mill.

I use the coarse grinding blade so the chiles retain some texture. 10 pounds of chiles yielded about 7 cups of pureed chile.

To prep them for storage, I lightly oiled a muffin tin and spooned in the chile puree.

I popped them in the freezer until they were frozen solid.  Once frozen, the 1-cup portions are removed from the tin, put in a vacuum bag and sealed.  These can be stored in the freezer and thawed to make your favorite Southwestern dishes!
 

'Aw Shucks' Grilled Corn

Years ago, there was a food vendor at the PA wine festival called "Aw Shucks" that sold grilled ear corn slathered with a delicious mixture of cheese, mayo, sour cream, fresh cilantro and spices. Since they didn't share their recipe, I reconstructed it from my taste memory. It's a great side dish with grilled meats or steamed crabs, although it could almost be a meal all by itself!  Enjoy!

Ingredients:

1/4 cup mayonnaise (I use Duke's)
1/4 cup sour cream
1/2 cup finely crumbled feta cheese, plus some additional to add at the table
1/2 tsp each chili powder and Old Bay Seasoning mixed together (also, make some to use at the table)
1 medium clove garlic, finely minced (about 1 teaspoon)
1/4 cup finely chopped fresh cilantro 4 ears shucked corn
2-3 Tbs butter, melted
1 lime, cut into wedges

Directions:

Light a chimney full of charcoal. When the charcoal is lit, build a two-stage fire by spreading most of the coals evenly over half of the grill and just a few coals on the other half.  Set the grill grate in place, close the lid and allow the grill to preheat for about 5 minutes. While the grill is heating, combine the mayo, sour cream, cheese, chili powder, Old Bay, minced garlic, and chopped cilantro in a large bowl. Stir until mixed well and set aside.  Place the shucked ears of corn in a one-gallon Ziploc bag and microwave them on high for about 3-4 minutes to partially cook them.  Uncover the grill and using tongs, brush the grates with a folded paper towel dipped in vegetable oil to both clean them and keep the corn from sticking.  Brush the microwaved ears of corn with melted butter and then place them on the hot side of the grill.  Rotate the ears occasionally and move them to the cool side of the grill (as needed,) until they are slightly and evenly charred on all sides (about 8 minutes total.)  Transfer the grilled corn to a shallow bowl and slather the ears with the Feta cheese mixture, using a large spoon or spatula to evenly coat the ears on all sides.  Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese, some additional chili powder and Old Bay, if desired, and garnish with some cilantro.  Serve immediately with sliced lime wedges to squeeze over the corn.