Eat More Veg: Curried Butternut Squash and Pear Bisque
At a birthday dinner party last Sunday, I had the fortunate experience to be seated by a girl named Alex whom I had never met. As it turns out, Alex is a pastry chef at The Sugar Cupcakery in Milford Ohio so food became the subject of much of our conversation. Alex had recently been…
I lived in Morelia, Mexico several years ago. I was too young to have had the wisdom to spend any time in the kitchen with some of the women who cooked for me. The food was so simple and delicious. As I had a chance to travel throughout the region I learned that “mole”, which means sauce, can be one of a ton of varieties depending on whose grandma was in the kitchen. Some mole’s have a chocolate base while another can have bean or pepper base, they can be green, red, dark, dark brown, or even yellow.I don’t claim to give you an authentic mole from some little cantina in Mexico. I can however, give you a close second. This come from my friend and mother in law who shared this with me many years ago and has now become our family’s Christmas Eve tradition. Don’t be intimidated by the Dona Maria seasoning, you can easily find it most grocery stores.Ingredientsmole sauce
2 TBS Olive Oil
1 roughly chopped onion
1 can stewed tomato
2 TBS Dona Maria Mole seasoning or to tatse
Tostadas
re-fried beans
½ block of cream cheese *
2 avocados, chopped
2 tomatoes, diced
2 cups shredded romaine
½ diced onion
corn tortillas
veg oil for frying the tortilla
Parmesan cheese for top*
* leave out or substitute cheese for vegan option
In a medium skillet heat OO over med heat. Toss in those onions and cook down until golden and translucent, about 7 or 8 min. Add stewed tomatoes, continue to cook for 3-4 mins. In a blender add the onion tomato mixture along with the 2 TBS of mole seasoning. Zip that around in the blender ‘til fully combined and smooth in texture. How easy is that?
Heat beans and cream cheese in a small sauce pan. Meanwhile, in a small skillet or griddle heat veg oil and quickly fry up corn tortilla until crisp and golden brown.
To assemble tostadas layer corn tortilla with beans, mole, lettuces, tomatoes, onions, avocados. Top with a sprinkle of cheese or not.
New Years Day came early. Really early. On about 3 hours of sleep I was grateful to start our adventure to “Eat More Veg” month with a piping hot plate of Migas.
Migas was one of the favorite take away’s from our year long vacation to Austin Texas. If you’ve never been to Austin chances are you have not had the pleasure of Migas. An Austin staple, migas are a traditional breakfast dish consisting of scrambled mixed with strips of corn tortilla; the meatless version includes diced onions, sliced chili peppers, diced fresh tomatoes, and cheese, plus various spices and condiments. We usually top with fresh cilantro and eat them with corn tortillas. When we lived in Austin we could pick up a half dozen migas tacos for under $5. (silent pause for mourn the loss of local tacos truck in Kentucky) So we make them our selves.
Here is a simple recipe anyone who can scramble and egg can try:
Migas
Ingredients:
8 eggs
1/4 cup of milk or half-and-half
1/3 cup of peanut oil
4 corn tortillas cut into strips
1/2 an onion diced (about 1/2 a cup)
4 jalapeno peppers diced1/2 red pepper diced
1 cup of shredded cheese such as Longhorn cheddar or Monterrey Jack
1 to 2 cups of salsa
1 cup of cilantro
Salt and pepper to taste
Method:
1. In a bowl, whisk eggs together with milk. Add a dash of salt and pepper.
2. In a large iron skillet, heat up peanut oil on medium-high, and place tortilla strips into skillet, cooking for about three minutes, turning once. Remove the tortilla strips with a slotted spoon to a paper-towel-lined plate. Drain the oil from the skillet leaving 2 tablespoons in the skillet.
3. Add onions and jalapenos to the pan, and cook for a couple of minutes
4. Add egg mixture and tortilla strips to the skillet and let eggs sit for about one minute or until set on the bottom and then gently stir.
5. Sprinkle cheese on top of eggs and continue to cook until melted.
6. Add salt and pepper to taste and top eggs with salsa and cilantro.
Serves four. And note that migas go mighty fine with refried beans and
Vegetarian January off to a nice start
Dr. Pat,” as he’s known at Dogfish Head, is the world’s foremost expert on ancient fermented beverages, and he cracks long-forgotten recipes with chemistry, scouring ancient kegs and bottles for residue samples to scrutinize in the lab. He has identified the world’s oldest known barley beer (from Iran’s Zagros Mountains, dating to 3400 B.C.), the oldest grape wine (also from the Zagros, circa 5400 B.C.) and the earliest known booze of any kind, a Neolithic grog from China’s Yellow River Valley brewed some 9,000 years ago.
Today, in reasons we love Smithsonian Magazine
I just did an interview with Daniel Kessler. You can check it out at Each Note Secure. If you live in Cinci, they’ll be playing at Bogarts on the 6th of July. If you don’t, here’s some more dates.
Of course this validates everyone in the world’s claim that Dallas is a “team” and Miami is “a bunch of selfish individual d’s.” And poor Brian Cardinal! It’s because he looks like the Tucson shooter, isn’t it.
