Menu of the Week

Our menu of the week focused on fairly healthy dinners from Cooking Light. I tried a few new recipes and had to improvise on Wednesday when dinner took a nose dive. Keep reading to find out what dinners we enjoyed.

Menu of the Week

Chicken Enchiladas in the Pressure Cooker

I've been wanting to cook with a Pressure Cooker for a long time. When I heard that the kitchen gadget made it possible to have a meal during the work week that I would normally hold for a weekend, I was instantly curious. 

My first go at Pressure Cooking went well, but the recipe I chose took me twice as long to prepare as planned. Luckily I'm on vacation and had the time to work in the kitchen.

Serious Eats has a great round up of Pressure Cooked receipes and for the New Year I chose a Chicken Enchilada meal. I loved that this was the real deal - no canned enchilada sauce here! For the first time EVER I bought bone-in-skin-on chicken thighs. I know. I know. Everyone says this is the most flavorful chicken but I've struggled with the "bones" and have only used boneless skinless chicken breast in my previous cooking.

Southwestern Eggrolls for Superbowl

It's the end of football season, and I can't necessarily say I'm sad to see it go. I'm looking forward to getting my Sunday back. During football season the games dictate what church service we go to, and when we can run errands, and what we watch on TV (obviously). With one TV in the house...well, you get the picture.

To celebrate the BIG Superbowl Game (and the end of football season) I think you should make these Southwestern Eggrolls. They are an exact replica of the Southwestern Eggrolls at Chili's and are SO delicious. A crispy flour tortilla filled with smoked chicken, black beans, corn, jalapeno Jack cheese, bell peppers and spinach. Served with cool avocado-ranch dressing, you will certainly be the MVP at your house this weekend!

To make 5-7 egg rolls (cut in half to make 10-14 pieces) you will need to gather the following:
2 tablespoons vegetable oil (or olive oil, for sauteing the veggies)
1 skinless, boneless chicken breast
2 tablespoons minced green onion
2 tablespoons minced bell pepper
1/3 cup frozen corn kernels (or canned corn)
1/4 cup black beans, rinsed and drained
2 tablespoons frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained
2 tablespoons diced jalapeno peppers
1/2 tablespoon minced fresh parsley
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
1/3 teaspoon salt
1 pinch ground cayenne pepper
3/4 cup shredded Monterrey Jack cheese
5-7 (7 inch) flour tortillas
1 quart oil for deep frying

Start by seasoning your chicken breast with your favorite spices. I used a combination of garlic powder, onion powder, salt and pepper. Sear in a frying pan over medium-high heat in a little bit of oil until just cooked through, about five minutes per side. Set the chicken aside while we prepare the rest of the filling and the chicken cools a bit to handle.

Give a red or green bell pepper a small dice. You only need 2 T of this.

Give the green onion a fine dice, you need 2 T of this.

In the same fry pan that you cooked the chicken, turn the heat down to medium and add 1-2 T of oil and add the bell pepper and green onions, saute for 3-5 minutes, until tender.

I used both canned corn and canned black beans. Drain and rinse each. We will use about 1/4 cup of black beans and 1/3 cup of corn.

Add the black beans to the pan.

The chicken should be cool enough to handle now. Cube the chicken into small pieces and add to the pan along with the corn and frozen spinach.

I took the frozen spinach and just chopped off an estimated 2 T and threw it in frozen. It didn't take long to thaw in the hot pan.

Next, chop 2 T of hot jalapeno peppers and add that to the pan.

Season the mixture with 1/2 T minced parsley, 1/2 t ground cumin, 1/2 t chili powder, 1/3 t salt and 1 pinch ground cayenne pepper. I don't know why I was so shocked, but as soon as you add the seasoning you realize this is exactly how the Southwest Eggrolls at Chili's smell.

Cook and stir 5 minutes, until well blended and tender. Remove from heat and stir in Monterrey Jack cheese so that it melts.

 I put the mixture in a separate bowl, then added the shredded cheese.

Ideally, you should use at least 7-inch flour tortillas. The tortillas I had on hand were not quite as large, so my eggrolls were a little shorter, and the filling stretched to way more than the five egg rolls. I made around a dozen egg rolls.

Wrap the tortillas in a damp paper towel and microwave for 30 seconds. This steams them and makes them more pliable to work with. One at a time, fill a tortilla with about 1-2 tablespoons of the filling and wrap up tightly. Fold the sides in, and roll up snuggly. Place seam side down on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

Note: I would suggest at this point you secure each egg roll closed with toothpicks. You will thank me later. Alternatively, I would suspect that you could use a slurry of cornstarch and water to seal these closed.

Once they are all rolled up, place in the freezer for 2-4 hours (or overnight, if you want to make these the day before).

Now we turn our attention to that AWESOME avocado dip that comes with the eggrolls. You won't believe how easy this is to make. You need a cuisinart blender (or you could do this by hand with lots of mashing and stirring.)

Here is what you need to gather:
1/2 cup smashed fresh avocado (I used an entire medium sized avocado)
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1/4 cup sour cream
1 tablespoon buttermilk  (I used milk)
1 1/2 teaspoons white vinegar
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon dried parsley
1/8 teaspoon onion powder
1 dash dried dill weed
1 dash garlic powder
1 dash pepper

Add all the ingredients to your blender, and whirl away until it is smooth. Taste for seasoning and add more of whatever you think it needs.
 

Cover and refrigerate this, I found the dip tasted better after an hour or two in the fridge!

Now for the fun part. I've always wanted a deep fryer, but never bought one because I couldn't justify the purchase and we don't really need to be eating lots of fried food. Well... I won this at a tradeshow from the Dallas Convention and Visitors Bureau. What better way to break it in than to make these Southwest Eggrolls?!?!

Fill the fryer with 4-6 cups of oil (or to the minimum fill line in your fryer) and heat to 375 degrees. I used canola oil. Deep fry the eggrolls in the hot oil for 5-6 minutes or until nice a golden brown and remove to paper towels or a rack to drain for about 2 minutes.

My first batch of egg rolls didn't turn out so well. The eggrolls opened up in the hot oil....

For the next batch, I used toothpicks to hold the opening closed. This is the way to go!

The eggrolls turned out MUCH better!

Slice each eggroll diagonally lengthwise and arrange on a plate around a bowl of the avocado dipping sauce.

Then stand back and watch them disappear (like football season soon will). The flavor of the eggrolls and dipping sauce was spot-on-identical to the eggrolls at Chili's. Yum, yum, yum.

Yum.

Want more game day food ideas?
Check out my roundup of recipes for football season!

Shrimp Enchiladas

I was faced with a fridge full of misfit foods...all leftover from a recent party and I used the leftover cooked shrimp as my inspiration for this Coastal Mexican dish.

Here are my components:
Tortillas: I used flour tortillas because that is Jim's preference. I personally like corn tortillas for their distinct flavor and texture but I agree with Jim that corn tortillas always seem to fall apart after you add the enchilada sauce and flour tortillas seem to hold up better.

Filling: I used a combination of shrimp, chives, cream cheese, prepared verde salsa and avocado. Don't let my list limit you though. A lot of the seafood enchilada recipes I looked at online had a combination of shrimp and crab with some sort of binding like cheese or sour cream. If available, crawfish tails, often sold already cooked, would be fantastic here.

Sauce: I like to put sauce on top of my enchiladas before baking. Some people like to add sauce after the fact, it's all up to you. A jarred verde salsa could be used as a topping with a sprinkling of cojita cheese to add an authentic flavor. I really wanted an ooey gooey sauce so I made my own with butter, flour, cream, fontina cheese and some seasonings.

Let me show you what I did...

My shrimp was already cooked, so I simply gave it a rough chop. You could have started with raw shrimp and cooked them on the stove in some olive oil, salt and pepper...or get fancy and add some sort of spice or salsa to the shrimp while they cook to add a flavor boost!

I ended up with two cups of cooked and chopped shrimp. To that I added about a 1/2 cup of jarred salsa verde to give it some saucy consistency.

Next, I added chopped chives to the filling mixture (only because I had it and had no plans for them.)

This is probably 1/2 cup of chopped chives.

I had an avocado that I wanted to use up. I debated whether to slice it thinly and serve it on top of the enchilada, or slice it thinly and roll it neatly into each enchilada roll up...but ultimately I diced it up and added the pieces to my filling mixture.

Lastly I added 8 ounces of softened cream cheese.

Mix all the ingredients well and taste for seasoning. I added a pinch of salt to this.

To make the enchiladas, I took a flour tortilla and stuffed it down the center with heaping tablespoons of the shrimp and cream cheese mixture.

Roll like a cigar and line up in a baking dish. Sometimes a recipe will have you add sauce to the bottom of your baking dish first before layering in the enchiladas. This helps when you remove the enchiladas after baking...but it is not necessary. For me, I had not made the sauce yet so I laid the enchilada roll ups in there naked.

Lets talk abut my mornay (cheese) sauce. This has proven to be a very important kitchen technique for me because I use it over and over again. Bechamel sauce, also known as white sauce, is one of the mother sauces of French cuisine and is used in many cuisines.

Some research online led me to this list of classic sauces all made from the basic Béchamel sauce with additional ingredients added:

Mornay sauce (cheese)
Nantua sauce (crayfish, butter and cream)
Crème sauce (heavy cream)
Mustard sauce (prepared mustard seed)
Soubise sauce (finely diced onions that have been sweated in butter)
Cheddar cheese sauce (Cheddar cheese, dry mustard, Worcestershire sauce)
Croque Monsieur (some variations)

The term "white sauce" or sauce blanche may also be applied to a simple sauce consisting only of milk and melted butter, without flour or spices.

A sweetened béchamel flavoured with rum, brandy or spices is a traditional accompaniment to steamed pudding such as Christmas Pudding.

To make a bechamel sauce, you need butter, flour, milk and salt. To make about three cups of sauce, melt five tablespoons of butter in a medium saucepan over medium-low heat. Add four tablespoons of flour and stir with a whisk allowing it to heat and cook until the mixture turns a golden sandy color, about 5 to 6 minutes.

Meanwhile, heat four cups of milk in a separate pan until just about to boil. Add the hot milk to the butter mixture 1 cup at a time, whisking continuously until very smooth. Bring to a boil. Cook 10 minutes, stirring constantly, then remove from heat. Season with salt and set aside until ready to use.

So now that you know how to make a bechamel sauce, let me show you what I did to make my Shrimp Enchilada Sauce!

In my heavy dutch oven I added about two tablespoons of butter. I would have rather used stick butter, but this soft spreadable butter was all I had on hand.

Next, I added two to three tablespoons of flour and stirred with a whisk moving it around until the flour cooks for about five minutes. Don't let it burn, just keep moving it around.

Next, I added 2% milk (yes, my picture shows whipping cream....but that was way too thick for what I wanted here.) Whisk whisk whisk after every addition.

I also added a small can of green chiles.

Next, I grated the fontina cheese, and add to the hot milk a handful at a time, whisking after each addition.

This will thicken quickly, drop the heat and taste for seasoning.

I had more shrimp filling than I needed, so I scooped it on top of my enchiladas. Alternatively I could have added this to my cheese sauce. Wouldn't that have made a wonderful dip for chips?

Next, I poured my cheese sauce over the top of the enchiladas.

Baked in a 350 oven for 30 minutes.

Topped with fresh cilantro.

YUM! These didn't last long in my house. They were meaty and full of flavor but the best part was the ooey gooey cheesy sauce.