Corn & Flour Tortillas

I wanted corn tortillas, but not the difficult rolling job of making them.   Since I don't have a nifty tortilla press, I made tortillas with half corn and half white flour today.  The enchilada sauce I made, was needing some tortillas, so they could be enchiladas together.  These tortillas have a destiny, but you are welcome to eat them however you want.

 Homemade tortillas, these are a hybrid of corn and white flour together in happy tortilla bliss.

Ingredients for this recipe are: 1 1/2 cups white flour, 1 cup Maseca, 1/4 cup Canola Oil, 1/2 cup
warm water, 1 Beaten Egg, and 1 Teaspoon Salt.

 Add flours together in large bowl.

 Mix eggs, oil, water, and salt together.

 Bring wet and dry together to make this.  Knead until the dough forms a uniform ball.

Divide into golf size balls.   I doubled the recipe (I have a big family).

 Roll out dough, preferably into a circle.  I'm told rotating dough quarter turn after each roll and
 using a much smaller rolling pin will make more round tortillas.

Preheat griddle on high for 5 minutes.  If you have cast iron use that instead.

 Cook tortillas on griddle till golden brown bubbles form.

 Flip and repeat.

 Repeat with other balls of dough.

Enjoy!

Enchilada Sauce

My sister Adrienne introduced me to making enchilada sauce.  As sisters, we would get together to make enchilada sauce and can it.  Since moving here to Queens, I have missed that enchilada sauce. Recently when I made the chili I posted here, I thought about changing the way I make enchilada sauce too.  Enchiladas are so yummy and I wanted to use the chilies I had left from making chili.  This recipe for sauce has me thinking about what I like in sauce and about those sauce making days with my sisters. 

 I really do love seeing jars fresh from the pressure cooker and ready to be stored on my shelf,
waiting for whatever destiny I have in store for it.

 Ingredients for this recipe are: 1 #10 Can Tomatoes, 1 Teaspoon Coriander Seeds (Or ground),
1 Teaspoon Cumin Seeds (Or Ground), 1 Tablespoon Paprika, 1 Yellow Onion, 6 Cloves
Peeled Garlic, 2 dried Ancho chilies, 2 and Costeño Chilies (Or Chili Powder).  

Use less chilies if you don't like spicy sauce.

 Toast chilies, cumin, and coriander in a dry pan over a medium flame for 3 minutes.

If you are using dried powder, disregard this step.

 Grind cumin and coriander in spice/coffee grinder.  If you are using powder forget
about this step.

 Freshly ground spices, mmmm.  Of course if you opted for pre-ground spices you will not
enjoy the aroma emanating from your spice grinder, sorry.

 Soak dried chilies in hot water for 15 minutes. You may skip this step if you chose chili powder.

 Finely dice the onion and push garlic through press. I love cutting onion really small, I don't
 know why.   I'm weird I know.

 Saute onion and garlic in 2 tablespoons olive oil over a medium-low flame...

 Until translucent, and done.

 Add tomatoes and ground spices. Increase flame to medium.

 Add chilies (removing seeds) and blend with an immersion blender. Cook until boiling, reduce
heat to low and simmer for 30 minutes. 

 Isn't it pretty?

 Pour into clean sterilized jars.   Mine fit into 7 pint jars.

Pressure can on high for 10 minutes.

Enjoy!

Banana Walnut Multigrain Muffins

This week when I bought all that wonderful $1 produce. I bought a bag of bananas too.  Those banana's were just begging me to make them into muffins.  I know what you're thinking. My goodness, this woman is obsessed with muffins.   What is her problem?  Good news, this will be my last muffin recipe for a while.  The muffin girl is retiring her quest to make all sorts of muffins.   I'll make them, just not new recipes to share with you.  I have found my four go to muffin recipes as of today!  Go forth today knowing I have given you a sure foundation of muffins to create your own muffindom, and you didn't have to go to Drury Lane!

 THIS is the culmination of muffindom!

Preheat oven to 350 Fahrenheit

 Ingredients for this recipe are: 1/2 cup unsalted butter, 1/2 cup turbinado sugar (brown sugar
would also work), 3/4 teaspoon baking soda, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon,
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract,  1 1/2 cups mashed ripe banana
(approximately 3 medium-large bananas), 1/4 cup Agave Syrup (honey would also work), 2 large
eggs, 2 cups Wonderflour (whole wheat would also work, and 1/2 cup chopped walnuts.

 Cream butter, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and baking soda in a mixer with a whisk.

 Creamed mixture.

 Add bananas, and agave, beat till smooth.

 Add eggs and beat till smooth.

 this batter is looking smooth.

 Add walnuts, and flour and stir with a silicone spatula or wooden spoon.

 This batter is ready for baking.

Make sure you use muffin liners!  This recipe makes 12 muffins, I doubled it for my family.

Place filled muffin pans in oven and bake for 23-28 minutes, check if they are done with a toothpick.

 They are done!

This is a wonderful end to my muffin week.

Enjoy!

Stephanie's Kitchen Drawer: Pressure Cooker Part 2

My mom was telling me about this pressure cooker, pictured above.  This is a FAGOR 3 in 1 Multi-cooker.  She bought it from Amazon here.  Chef Brad also recommends this Pressure Cooker because it is so versatile and has more functions.  His review can be found here.  This particular pressure cooker works as a pressure cooker, rice cooker, and slow cooker.  My mom has used the slow cooker function to make a one pot meal of beef roast and vegetables, and also the pressure cooker function to make split pea soup.  If ever my pressure cooker should stop working, this will be the pressure cooker I get next.

California Beach Roll

Today in honor of California, the beach, and by request from Fernando, I made sushi.  More specifically I made what I have decided to name California Beach Rolls.  For my celebration of my California roots I also wore my California beach t-shirt.  Last night I made these rolls, and well my kitchen is really too dark to photograph food at night, so today I got a second chance to show you how I made California Beach Rolls (My own name, and creation).  

I have not always liked sushi, but a few years ago my sister Jenifer treated me to a wonderful weekend in Carlsbad for my birthday.  Carlsbad has the most beautiful flower farm, in case you love to see rows and rows of amazing flowers.  On our way back home, we stopped at a sushi restaurant and the roll I ordered had tempura shrimp and avocado.  My recipe today is my take on that fabulous sushi roll I ate a few years ago.

With the help of my friend Bridget, we made Sushi to share with my husband and his co-workers (Especially Fernando) today.

 

 Look at it, doesn't it look gorgeous?

 Ingredients for sushi rice: 4 cups cooked room temperature Nishiki White Sushi Rice (NO you
may not substitute any other sad rice that isn't Nishiki), 1/3 cup cup Rice Wine Vinegar, 2
tablespoons sugar.

Ingredients for tempera batter fried shrimp: 10 large peeled and de-veined shrimp (Save yourself
 the headache and spend the extra for the peeled and de-veined), Cornstarch, 1 cup flour, 1 egg,
and 1 can of Seltzer water.

Other ingredients for the California Beach Roll: 5 sheets Nori (seaweed, the nori pictured is from Costco but it is not the correct size, the correct kind is pictured below), and 1 ripe avocado.

Mix rice, vinegar, and sugar together.

 Assemble sushi on parchment paper or bamboo sushi mat (covered with Ziploc bag) if you
have one.  Place a baseball size amount of rice on Nori sheets and with hands wet with water
flatten rice onto Nori.  The pictured Nori was purchased from an Asian market.   I HIGHLY
recommend buying it from an Asian market (cheaper) or buy from Costco (like they do in
California in full size sheets) if they have them.

 Dredge shrimp in cornstarch and skewer on wooden skewer.   Try to make the shrimp as straight
 as possible on the skewer.  We only want straight shrimp for our rolls.   That is your goal.

 Crack the egg into a measuring cup, add enough seltzer to equal 1 cup.  Whisk the egg and
seltzer gently, we don't want to burst all the bubbles.  Add the flour, whisk gently again.  

In a tall small saucepan over medium-high heat, bring vegetable oil and 1/4 cup Toasted
sesame seed oil to a boil.

 Dunk the shrimp into the batter...

 Then into the oil, cook until outside is golden brown.  Remove to a paper bag lined platter.
Repeat with all ten shrimp.  The paper bag will wick away the oil and keep the shrimp crispy
 and not soggy.

 This recipe will make 5 sushi rolls.

Flip Nori over, so rice is facing down and Nori is facing up.  Slice avocado into 20 pieces.
Place two slices of avocado on edge of each Nori sheet.

 Add shrimp next, remove tails if you kept them on.  We kept them on and fried them and
realized they should have been taken off.  Shrimp tails don't taste good.

 Roll tightly from the avocado side forward. 

 Using a serrated knife cut the rolls into 1 inch slices, dunking the knife between each cut
into a bowl of water to prevent sticking.

 You know you want one.   What are you waiting for?  Go get the ingredients.
Lets make some sushi!

Enjoy!