Category Archives: Mexican

Chile Relleno with Zucchini and Mexican Rice

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In the Mexico edition of Saveur, Diana Kennedy was described as being the “Julia Child of Mexico.” I received two of her cookbooks from my dad last Christmas, and finally decided to open them.

First I felt the need to make chiles rellenos (literally “stuffed chiles”). I decided to make a vegetarian chile relleno because I had zucchini and squash leftover in my fridge. They were delicious – spicy chiles filled with tender squash, salty cheese, and tangy onions.

And after reading Diana’s recipe for Mexican rice, I realized I was wrong on my previous Mexican rice blog post. While my made up version of Mexican rice is delicious, it’s not the traditional Mexican rice (which I have since realized is made with tomatoes). I must say, though, I am quite happy that I’ve realized the error of my ways. This rice is WAY better.

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Mexican Rice

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I’ve really had a desire to cook more authentic Mexican food lately. I don’t know if I’m longing for my days in Southern California, or if it’s just one-quarter of my heritage calling (I’m one-quarter Mexican), but I’ve really been wanting to cook Mexican food and to cook it right. I did some research on Mexican herbs and spices so I could put together dishes with more authentic flavor profiles. I bought Mexican oregano (surprisingly different from Italian oregano), epazote, achiote/annatto seeds, among others. I’m ashamed to say that they’ve just been sitting sadly in my pantry – until tonight.

I decided I wanted to put my new spices to use tonight no matter how long it took, so I poked around for some Mexican rice recipes. I know many recipes say that Mexican rice is red because of a tomato base, but I also know that achiote/annatto seeds are used for both flavoring and coloring food. I decided to go with the achiote/annatto seeds over the tomatoes.  Some recipes were complicated with lots of ingredients that I didn’t have and didn’t feel like buying tonight, so I winged it. The only change I’d make moving forward is using more annatto seeds (which I reflected in the recipe below). This rice tasted great as the annatto seeds really brought a lightly nutty, lightly peppery taste to the rice. The flavor is really quite difficult to describe, other than saying it tastes like the flavor infused into the oil by the annatto seeds. You’ll have to just make it and see for yourself.

Mexican Rice

  • 2 cups long grain white rice, uncooked
  • 1 onion, chopped
  • 1 clove garlic, chopped
  • 2 tbsp oil
  • 1.5 tbsp annatto/achiote seeds
  • 4 cups low sodium chicken or vegetable broth
  • kosher salt
  1. Heat oil in bottom of large saucepan over medium-high heat.
  2. Once hot, add whole annatto seeds.
  3. Allow annatto seeds to cook in oil for 2-3 minutes, swirling the pan constantly to keep the seeds moving. You should see your oil turning a very dark red.
  4. After 2-3 minutes, strain by pouring oil through a strainer into a small bowl, with the strainer catching the annatto seeds. You don’t want the seeds in your rice.
  5. Put oil back into the saucepan and heat again over medium-high heat.
  6. Add onions to the oil. Cook until they just begin to get soft, around 2 minutes.
  7. Add garlic and dry rice to the oil/onions in the pan. Mix until everything is bright red.
  8. Cook for 2-3 minutes. Add vegetable broth.
  9. Turn heat up to high. Bring to a rapid, rolling boil.
  10. Once boiling, cover pan and turn heat down to medium-low (closer to the low side)
  11. Cook, covered, for about 15 or 20 minutes, until the rice is cooked through when you taste it. If the rice is cooked but there is extra liquid, cook with lid off for a few minutes until the extra liquid has evaporated. Taste, and add salt as needed.
  12. Serve piping hot with ground beef, chorizo, tacos, fajitas, anything you want!

onions, after being mixed into annatto oil

rice, onions, and garlic after being mixed into annatto oil

final product, half eaten. i couldn’t help myself.

Queso Fundido, Rick Bayless Style

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As you all should know by now, Rick Bayless is my absolute cooking idol. I love his food, his restaurants, and basically everything about him. I honestly feel like Mexican food is my true culinary calling. It must be the quarter-Mexican side of me (yes, really. I am a quarter Mexican). It also doesn’t hurt that he’s totally in love with me, as demonstrated in our Twitter convo:

Anyway, not the point. I recently made a slightly altered version of his Green Queso Fundido for a little feast I hosted for my mama and friends. That link is to his exact recipe, but I’ll tell you what I did. I will say this, the Queso Fundido was a HUGE hit with all my friends. Everyone gobbled it up in like 2.2. Here’s the recipe:

Queso Fundido

  • 2 tbsp vegetable oil (or olive oil. I just like cooking better with veggie oil)
  • 1 medium white onion, chopped
  • 5 ounces of chorizo, chopped (Chorizo has many forms. It’s hard for me to find Mexican chorizo where I am in Boston, so I end up using Portuguese Chourico. Still tastes great)
  • 3 tablespoons dark beer (I used an Gonzo Imperial Porter, and drank the rest of the bottle)
  • 1.5 cups roughly chopped spinach leaves
  • 8 oz Monterey Jack cheese (according to Senor Bayless, monterey jack goes best if you’re using beer)
  • Chips, to serve with

Directions:

  1. Pre-heat oven to 325 degrees
  2. Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the chorizo and onions and cook until the chorizo is cooked through, stirring regularly so the onions don’t burn. This will take about 10-15 minutes.
  3. Add the beer and the spinach to the skillet, and stir until most of the liquid has evaporated and the mixture looks dry again.
  4. Once mixture looks dry, turn off heat and let it cool a bit. Add cheese to skillet, on top of all other ingredients. Place in oven for about 10 minutes, until cheese is melted and bubbling.
  5. Serve with big bowl of chips, and salsa if you’d like.

Enjoy!

The Mexican Meal-Tacos, Rice, Beans, Sangria

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Saturday night Andrew and I decided we really wanted Mexican food, and we felt extra inspired because of my new torilla press, so we made a HUGE Mexican feast. As you may or may not know, I am actually 1/4 Mexican. Mixed in with my Irish (obviously, my last name is Murphy), French, Russian, Jewish (I know that’s not an ethnicity, but still interesting), is Mexican. And for some reason, Mexican flavors just seem to make sense to me. I’ve tried my hand at Asian cuisine (epic fail), and Irish cuisine (Shepherd’s Pie is pretty easy to make), Indian cuisine (I let Andrew handle that), but nothing comes as easily as Mexican food. That being said, Andrew and I made at FEAST.

the feast

andrew + feast

Working from left to right, I’ll explain what we have and how we made it.

From left, Andrew. I didn’t make him. Store-bought.

Far left pot: Black Beans with Chorizo

Ingredients:

  • Black Beans, canned, half drained
  • Chorizo, finely chopped (I used Chourico, which is Portuguese (not Mexican) but similar enough to Chorizo to use. There’s a big Portuguese population in Massachusetts, so this was easy enough to find. I’ve just researched Mexican markets out here and they do exist, so next time I’ll hit one up and get Mexican chorizo)
  • 2 shallots, chopped

For these beans, I finely chopped up the chorizo and cooked it almost all the way through. When the chorizo was almost done, I added the shallots, allowing them to cook and soften up (but not too much). Then I added the half-drained black beans and allowed everything to heat up. Season as you’d like with cayenne, chipotle chilis, chipotle chili powder, ancho chili powder. I know I did. Delicious.

Middle pot: Cilantro Lime Rice

The recipe for this rice is in my recipes section.

Far right pot: Cubed Steak (for Tacos)

Ingredients

  • 1 lb flank steak
  • Salt
  • Pepper
  • Ancho chili powder
  • Chipotle chili powder

I cut up the steak into bite-sized cubes so that they fit nicely inside a tortilla for a taco. Because the pieces are so small, they cook very quickly. Season the steak as it cooks in a pan with the salt, pepper, and chili powders (to taste).

Tortillas:

These tortillas in this picture are homemade. They are SUPER easy to make. I know making tortillas can sound intimidating, but I promise it’s not

Ingredients:

  • Masa harina (I use Maseca brand. Cheap, and easy to find in your local grocery store, often in the baking section next to regular flour, or in the international foods aisle)–this is just corn flour. Don’t be alarmed.
  • Water
  • Salt
  • Tortilla press

Yes, you only need three ingredients to make tortillas. I told you it was easy.

The back of the Maseca bag will tell you the exact proportions of flour to water, but all you do is mix the flour, water, and salt into a doughy ball.

Line your tortilla press with plastic wrap (very important) to prevent the tortilla dough from sticking to the press. Take a bit of tortilla dough and roll it into a ball (about 1 in. diameter). Place it on the middle of the tortilla press, and press down. This will flatten the dough into, you guessed it, a tortilla. Peel this tortilla off the press and put it into a hot skillet. When the sides of the tortilla begin to curve upwards, flip the tortilla to allow the other side to cook.

If you are going to flatten all tortillas ahead of time, then cook them, make sure you cover the uncooked ones with a wet paper towel so they do not dry out.

Taco Sauce

Andrew felt inspired to make a sauce for our tacos because we had so much extra cilantro. He made his with mayonnaise, but I felt it would be better with sour cream. Your choice.

Ingredients

  • Half a bunch of cilantro
  • 1 cup sour cream
  • Jalapeno slices, to taste
  • Red pepper flakes
  • Juice from 1/4 of a lime
  • Salt
  • Pepper

Combine all ingredients in food processor and process until smooth. Then put them on your tacos. Yum.

SANGRIA

The sangria I made for this dinner was DELICIOUS, and I hope you all try to make this recipe soon. It’s so easy, classic, and delicious.

Ingredients:

  • 1 apple
  • 1 orange
  • 1 lemon
  • 1 lime
  • (Add any other fruit that you want to, I just find these fruits worked out amazingly)
  • 1.5 cups rum (make it a good rum, because this taste is what you taste the most)
  • 0.5 cup white sugar
  • 1 bottle red wine (can be cheap)
  • 1 cup orange juice

Cut up the fruit and mix it with the rum and white sugar in a pitcher. Put this into the fridge and allow to rest for at least 2 hours to allow the flavors to meld.

After the mixture has rested, add the red wine and orange juice. Serve cold over ice. When the ice melts, it actually enhances the overall flavor of the sangria.

This sangria really only gets better the longer it sits because the fruit continues to add flavor.

I hope you try some of these recipes soon and enjoy them as much as Andrew and I did!

Cilantro Lime Rice

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This first recipe I have to publish because it is definitely one of my favorites in mexican-esque recipe repertoire (alliteration much?). I borrowed it from Gina of Skinny Taste (www.skinnytaste.com) and it is a great side dish to any Mexican meal. I get a lot of my recipes from Gina because her recipes are usually incredibly delicious, easy to make, and healthful as well.

Cilantro Lime RiceCilantro Lime Rice

Yield: 4 servings

Serving size: 3/4 cup

  • 1 cup long grain rice
  • 1/2 lime, juice
  • 2 cups water
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 3 tsp vegetable oil
  • fresh chopped cilantro to taste

In a small pot, bring water to a boil. Add rice and salt. Bring back to boil and continue to boil until the water evaporates to the point where you can barely see the rice at the top of the water.

Reduce to low, cover, and let cook for around 15 minutes. When rice is fully cooked, add the juice of the lime, the oil, and the chopped cilantro. Adjust the lime juice and salt to taste.