Quinoa Enchilada Casserole To-Go

Our Thanksgiving celebration is delayed this year. We are going to have a potluck tomorrow with some of our friends. The actual day was a quiet affair though. Husband was of town, and so were most of our friends. My parents, who are packing bags as the end of their trip approaches, and I wanted to steal the last weekend to enjoy the beautiful San Diego weather. We decided to pack some lunch and head over to Del Mar beach. Although not very picnic-y, I had just the right dish in mind. Last week I had bookmarked this Quinoa Enchilada Casserole recipe, and had (almost) all the ingredients on hand. This casserole was perfect for various reasons - it was an easy one pot, rather casserole, dish; it stayed quite hot until we got to the beach; it was easy to carry in the car; and it was tasty with all the Mexican flavors, yet fit into my mom's restricted diet plan.

A few modifications made this dish perfect for us. I added fresh poblano pepper rather than canned chiles, tossed in lots of fresh spinach instead of cilantro for a dose of healthy, and used regular instead of mild enchilada sauce. The only cheese I had on hand was paneer. Mom can't eat cheese anyway, so a little bit of paneer to bind everything worked just fine. Some ooey gooey cheese would've been nice, but we didn't miss it. Even after using regular sauce though, the dish lacked serious heat to our Indian palates. I would have certainly liked either hot enchilada sauce or some jalapenos thrown in there. We topped the casserole with fresh avocados before serving. 

Quinoa Enchilada Casserole

Ingredients:

1 Cup uncooked quinoa

3/4 Cup canned black beans, rinsed

1/2 Cup corn kernels

3/4 Cup chopped fresh spinach

1 Poblano pepper - seeded and chopped

1/4 Cup grated paneer (or use mozzarella/cheddar)

1 Bottle hot/regular/mild enchilada sauce (depending on how spicy you want it)

1 Teaspoon cumin-coriander powder

1 Teaspoon red chili powder (if needed)

Salt to taste

1 Avocado, seeded and diced

Cilantro for garnishing (optional)

• Cook quinoa according to package instructions. You can use any kind of quinoa. 
• Mix all the ingredients, except avocado and cilantro, in a casserole. Taste before you add salt, as the sauce is quite salty. 
• Preheat oven at 375F. Bake quinoa mixture for 15 minutes, or until you see a crust on top. 
• Garnish with cilantro and avocado. 

Thursday was a pretty hot day. I had expected it to be cooler by the beach, but it wasn't so. By the time we finished lunch it was too hot to be on the beach without any shade, especially for the baby. Mom and dad said their goodbyes to the Pacific, and we returned home. We made an unsuccessful trip to the mall yesterday. The lane to the entrance was blocked forever. It was black Friday..what was I thinking?? It didn't bother me much though, as we ended up taking a U-turn and going for a nice lunch instead. Somehow we circle back to food :). 

I am looking forward to our feast tomorrow. Are you done with all your feasts for the holiday? What did you gobble gobble gobble?

Mexico In A Bowl

For someone living in San Diego, I have surprised myself by not posting many south of the border recipes. Today I had all the right ingredients to put together a fabulous salsa using a can of black beans that was pushed to the back of the pantry. Don't you feel just as happy when you find the perfect ingredients for a dish you weren't expecting to make?? This salsa has everything you expect in Mexican cuisine - roasted corn, black beans, mango, avocado - the whole nine yards. Hence, I call it 'Mexico In A Bowl'! Of all the salsas that I have ever made/tasted, this is by far my most favorite combination. The contrasting textures and flavors marry really well. My love for using sweet fruits in savory dishes is no secret to anyone. And wouldn't one love a zesty salsa with bits of mango bursting with sweet juices? Digging into a bowl of this was like taking a vacation to a tropical paradise.

I couldn't stop myself from taking one scoop after another of the salsa while husband was clicking pictures. He sure makes my food look good! This salsa bowl, exactly like the ones in Mexican restaurants, was a gift from my company for participating in the Salsa competition last month. Thinking back, I should've made this salsa for the competition to secure a spot..oh well. The look of this bowl makes me feel like I'm dining out =D.

Roasted Corn, Mango, And Black Bean Salsa

Ingredients:
1 Corn on the cob - white or yellow
1 Ripe mango - chopped into small pieces
1 Cup cooked black beans
1 Small or 1/2 large avocado - chopped into small pieces
1/2 Small onion finely chopped
1 Small tomato finely chopped - take out the seeds
1 Whole chipotle in adobo sauce
Lots of chopped cilantro
Juice from 1 lime
Serrano hot sauce - to liking
Salt to taste

• Roast corn on open flame until you get beautiful char marks. To separate the kernels, hold the stem of the corn in one hand and rest the tip on a cutting board (holding the corn at an angle). Now run the knife through the base of the kernels from top to bottom - away from you. 
• Mix corn kernels, chopped mango, black beans, avocado, onion and tomato. 
• Finely chop chipotle and add to the above. Sprinkle plenty of cilantro. 
• Add juice from one lime, salt to taste and mix everything well. Taste the salsa and add some hot sauce if you would like. It tastes better on the milder side since it has so many sweet elements. You can add more of one or more of the ingredients - suit yourself!

Serving suggestion: 

• The salsa is perfect with tortilla chips as an appetizer. 
• I used it in hard shell tacos - All you need is sauteed red and green bell peppers (cut them in strips and saute in some oil on high flame. This will give them nice charring) and some queso. Add bell peppers to taco shells, add a big scoop of this salsa, and top it with some shredded cheese and more hot sauce if you want. The tacos were just perfect! Husband especially enjoyed them. 
• You could make a nice burrito/burrito bowl with soft tortilla, Mexican rice, salsa, lettuce and sour cream if you like. 

Cooking For Fun

I've found a new hobby in blogging. It has made me more conscious of 'what and how much' while cooking. But in all honesty, I don't want that to take away from cooking for the fun of it. My favorite kind of cooking is without measuring spoons and cups. All the recipes I post are approximations without the exact measurements. Today, I decided to celebrate cooking for the simple joy of it. Not caring to make a mental note of the measurements. There was something almost liberating as my mind wasn't preoccupied with remembering every little detail and whether there was 1 teaspoon or 2 of something.

On the menu tonight: A healthy burrito & my hubby's ultimate favorite baked sweet potato fries.

I'm going to share what went into the dishes without attaching numbers to them!

Burritos with low-fat whole wheat tortillas, home-made guacamole, cooked kidney beans seasoned with cumin powder, cayenne and paprika, salad mix (lettuce, carrots, red cabbage), yogurt & some shaves of colby-jack cheese. Topped with a little more cheese & lots of hot sauce. Don't get scared - this sauce is not super hot.

*I'm real stingy when it comes to the use of cheese, oil or the likes. I substitute yogurt for sour cream or mayo whenever I can. Fresh and light!
*Having a whole bag of shredded cheese in the fridge gives me sleepless nights (because it means I have to use it for more recipes than I planned on). A smarter option - I picked up a couple of small cheese snacks and shaved some on my burrito. Smart portion without leftovers.

Baked Sweet Potato Fries (shouldn't they be called 'bakies' if they're not fried? Okay, lame..I know): Peeled sweet potato cut up roughly into equal sized strips for even baking, tossed in a little bit of EVOO, cayenne, chipotle, fresh cracked black pepper, salt and a little bit of rice flour for crunch. Baked at 350F until thoroughly baked and slightly crunchy on the outside. Garnished with finely chopped cilantro.

*The baked sweet potato fries at restaurants have excessive amounts of oil making them not much better than the fried ones. I loved the home-made version where I could control the amount of oil. Of course, it was important to coat the fries enough to lock in moisture while baking.
*I added just a little bit of rice flour to the mix at the very end. Perfect crunch!

I reminded myself to cook because I love it. And I enjoyed it all anew :). 

A Bithday Celebration

While going to the moon and plucking stars from the sky remain bollywood movie favorites, I haven't found a better way to make someone feel special in real life than cooking for them! What's more special than having a whole meal cooked with some love? It was my husband's birthday last week and I decided to go for a surprise dinner that was quick to make and fit for a celebration. It was a work day and I wanted to be able to cook, plate and be ready before my hubby arrived from work. Having visited a few really great tapas places recently landing on the decision was pretty easy. Although originally meaning appetizers from Spanish cuisine, tapas has become synonymous to small plates or snacks. Some fun tapas along with a few drinks to keep us going through a long night of board games was the plan. That's the way you  to do it into the thirties! 

*The recipes being quite simple do not have any specific measurements. Use your own judgement*

Cheese plates are quite standard in tapas restaurants. This was my attempt at recreating the cheese and fruit plate from a restaurant in Pismo Beach, CA. 

Cheese 'n' Fruit

Ingredients:

Brie cheese - your favorite brand

Green apple

Almonds - you can experiment with other dry fruits

Honey - I used apple honey

Crackers

Sugar 

Water

• Make simple syrup using sugar and water
• Glaze the almonds with syrup
• Slice the apple thinly and cut a couple of wedges of the Brie. 
• Plate the cheese, apple slices and glazed almonds and drizzle some honey. 

For the perfect bite, spread cheese on a cracker, add some honey and top it with an apple slice. Take a bite and eat an almond. Brie is my favorite cheese and the combination of it with honey and fruits makes me say 'cheese' :).


Next up, Mini Pizza Thins. I saw the recipe for these in some commercial. Amazing where we can learn cooking!

Mini Pizza Thins


Ingredients:

Onion-chive cream cheese

Sun-dried tomatoes

Whole Wheat thins

Brown mushrooms – sliced

Garlic – finely chopped

Italian herbs

Olive oil

Salt for seasoning

Preheat oven to 300F. 

• Finely chop the sun-dried tomatoes. You can use your knife skills, but I chose to chop them in the mixer.
• Mix the cream cheese and the sun-dried tomatoes. This will be the spread for the pizzas.
• Heat a couple of spoons of olive oil in a sauté pan and add garlic to it.
• Add sliced mushrooms to the pan, sprinkle some Italian herbs mix and salt to taste and sauté for a few minutes until the mushrooms are tender. I cut the mushroom in small pieces since the wheat thins are quite small.
• To get the pizzas ready, spread some cream cheese prepared earlier on the wheat thins and top off with mushrooms. Put them in the oven for a 4-5 minutes and the mini pizzas are ready to serve!

The next recipe was inspired by Flautas I had at a Mexican restuarant. Flautas are corn tortillas filled with some kind of meat or cheese and crisp fried. I decided to go healthier and grill them instead. My alternative to cheese - creamy avocados. 

Flautas with Cilantro-Lime Aioli 

Ingredients:
White corn tortilla

Cilantro

Low fat Mayonnaise

Jalapeño

Lime zest of one lime

Lime juice

1 Large avocado

Sweet corn

Salt

• Grind cilantro, jalapeno in the mixer.
• Combine mayonnaise, cilantro-jalapeño paste, lime zest and some lime juice for extra punch and salt and mix well. The aioli is ready.
• Mash the avocado as you like it. I like it a bit chunky instead of extremely mushy. I use a traditional mortar –pestle to mash the avocados.  Anything pounded/mashed in mortar-pestle always tastes much better :).
• Add the corn, finely chopped jalapeño(remember, there’s some jalapeno in the aioli so don’t OD it), salt and lime juice to the avocado. This is the filling.
• Roast the corn tortilla on one side using a regular flat pan. On the roasted side, spread some aioli and add the avocado-corn filling in the center. Roll the tortilla and grill it well until the tortilla is roasted on the outside. You roast the tortilla on the inner side so that it’s done well on both sides and you don’t bite into a tortilla that’s crispy on one side and not done on the other.
• Cut the flauta in half with a slanted cut in the center. Serve the flautas with some more aioli on the side.

The corn kernels plum up after roasting the flauta and are fun to bite into. Along with the lime juice, they cut the heat of jalapeños. Yummy!

The last course, a semi-dessert. I had made this at a BBQ party a couple of years ago and has become a favorite since. 

Grilled Balsamic Glazed Nectarines


Ingredients:
Balsamic Vinegar
Nectarines

• Reduce the balsamic vinegar over medium heat until it thickens up like maple syrup.
• Glaze the nectarines/peaches with the BV reduction and let them marinate for 15-20 minutes.
• Grill the fruit for a couple of minutes on each side.

A sweet ending to the meal!

We enjoyed the tapas with some yummy drinks. Below, gin and olives stuffed with habanero concocted by my husband! Mmm...mmm...good!!!