"Chile Rellenos," Spanish "Rice" and "Refried" Beans

Said in the voice of Chandler: Could this blog title have any more quote marks? But, they're all used correctly. I don't belong on the "Blog" of "Unnecessary Quote Marks".

This is what I make sometimes when I'm tired of regular ol' tacos or burritos for dinner but still want "Mexican" food. They are a take on chile rellenos, which is a lovely dish wherein mild-ish peppers are roasted, filled with filling (usually cheese) and breaded and fried. Since "breaded and fried" rarely takes place at Chez Stadium, I did everything except for this step.

First off, I roasted the chiles under the broiler, roatating as each side got blistered.

See?
After they were done in the oven, I put them in a bowl and put the baking pan on top of the bowl so they would steam right out of their skins.

Then I made some Spanish "rice." The rice was actually quinoa. Normally I would just make brown rice, but we were out. So quinoa it was! I sauteed some vegetables, added the cooked quinoa and then squirted tomato paste and spices like cumin, chile powder, paprika and S&P into it to make a very flavorful dish that tasted pretty damn close to Mexican rice. Go me!

Quinoa close-up!
For the "refried" beans, I simply warmed up some pinto beans, then mashed them with a potato masher until they turned creamy, then added some chicken stock to thin them out a bit.

Ok, I know my photography skillz are severly lacking, but I bet even the Pioneer Woman couldn't make refried beans look nice in a photo.

Hmm... here is a picture of a Full Sail beer. I don't remember why I photographed this! I bet it was because I cooked some chicken in it in my Crockpot. But don't hold me to that. Just enjoy this lovely picture of a beer!

And here is the cooked chicken I used to stuff the rellenos. It is mixed with the aforementioned spices, chipotles, corn and some wilted spinach. I heaped all of this into the roasted chiles after peeling off the skin (the steaming part is really necessary to do this easily). Then I garnished with avocado and sour cream for me (Cookie Monster doesn't like sour cream. Do you think he's a communist?).

Oh yeah. I made these. Always rocks with salt. Or in this case, shaken with rocks so it gets cold.

Lovely plate o' food. "Refried" beans, "chile rellenos" and Mexican "rice," with some warm tortillas on the side.
Ole!

Soy Cream Banana Split

I love ice cream. But I try not to buy regular ice cream because it makes me... ahem... get larger. So, for a lovely substitute, I like this stuff: So Delicious soy cream.

Here is a fun banana split I made with this stuff. A half a banana, a scoop of soy cream, a chocolate-covered chile mango (which were decidedly not delicious. They are one of the few Trader Joe's products I have not fallen in love with) and some animal crackers to guard the split should any Cookie Monsters come 'round.

It was magically delicious!

Crepes! (Sweet and Savory)

Deciding to honor World Nutella Day, I wanted to make crepes, since Nutella-filled crepes are so good they may as well be filled with crack. They are also one of Cookie Monster's favorites (although, Nutella straight from the jar with a spoon is also acceptable). To seal the deal, I've been wanting to make crepes at home for some time, so I decided to embark upon the crepe adventure. Coincidentally, this place also makes some killer crepes.

Not wanting to make a separate dinner and then a fancy-pants dessert, I opted for asparagus, turkey and asiago crepes for dinner, then Nutella and lemon curd crepes for dessert.

I started by making the (whole wheat, since all I have is whole wheat flour) crepe batter in a blender the night before, then letting it sit overnight (they tell you to do this so the bubbles that can cause tears in the crepes can calm down). The recipe came from my Better Homes and Gardens cookbook.

I then sauteed the asparagus simply, with just S&P and some garlic. Ready to be put into yummy crepes.

I was really worried about my crepes sticking to the pan and ending up with crepe crumbs, as opposed to a "delectable pastry-type thing" (what the French call them), so I doused the nonstick pan in cooking spray after every crepe came out. Even after pouring the batter in, I was worried I'd have to scrape out the cooked batter with a spatula, yell "Shit!" and stomp around the kitchen angrily whilst coming up with Plan B for World Nutella Day at 7:30 p.m. on a weeknight. But, happily, none of that occurred, as I carefully loosened the edges of the crepe and flipped it over without any of the aforementioned drama.

Mmm! Thank you, little crepe, for not sticking! This recipe made several, and they require a good amount of babysitting while they're cooking, so it took a long time for them all to cook. I cooked all the batter at once, and ended up with about 14 or so crepes. I just kept the already cooked ones warm in a low oven while I made the rest.


To go along with the asparagus crepes, I made a simple salad of spinach, leftover roasted sweet potatoes, apples, almonds and bleu cheese. Mmmm!

Asparagus, turkey and asiago crepe, anyone?

And then, on to the good stuff!

I also had this. And this stuff, lemme tell ya, also has crack in it. I could sit down with a spoon and eat the whole damned jar. But I don't particularly enjoy vomiting lemon-flavored... well, anything... so I won't.

Here we have deux crepes a la ChezVCK. Lemon curd and strawberries, topped with some homemade vanilla ice cream I made ages ago, and the beloved Nutella, melted slightly from the warm crepe and topped with a scoop of SO Delicious chocolate soy cream. Tres magnifique!

Hello, lover.


NOM NOM NOM.

Rice Paper Rolls and Soba Noodle Stir-Fry

One of the staple meals that appears in Chez Stadium is an Asian-style stir-fry. I like to chop as many vegetables as are in the vegetable drawer, saute them all up and add soy sauce or Soyaki or some other form of Asian-flavored sauce. I'll serve it over whatever starch is convenient. Usually this is instant brown rice (c'mon, real brown rice takes forever to cook!) or whole wheat spaghetti noodles. Sometimes it's quinoa. But today I had some whole wheat soba noodles from Uwajimaya, so I opted to cook those up for the stir-fry.

Usually appearing in my vegetable drawer are carrots, onions, broccoli, sweet peppers (either red or green) and zucchini. All that went into the stir-fry, plus button mushrooms and some frozen snow peas. I also had some leftover roasted sweet potato I threw in at the end.After it's all cooked, I usually grate in fresh ginger (stored already peeled in the freezer) and add Soyaki or soy sauce or some combination thereof.

Feeling ambitious, I decided to make rice paper rolls to accompany the stir-fry. I really enjoy these at Thai restaurants (especially E-San), but they are fairly easy to make at home--just a bit time-consuming to prep all the fillings. I keep it simple, going all veggie, and today I put in the following: julienned cucumbers and red peppers, grated carrots and radish, alfalfa sprouts and avocado (not pictured). Some directions call for boiling the rice paper for a few seconds, but I don't bother with that. All I do is run them under warm water for 10-15 seconds, then quickly fill as they soften. You want to make sure your toppings are all ready before you start working, since when wet, the rice paper gets really sticky.

Here's my rice paper, which I also got at Uwajimaya.

And my rice paper roll-making station:


Basically, you just run the wrapper under warm water for ~15-20 seconds, lay it flat and quickly fill with your prepped toppings. Then just roll like a burrito and seal. I served these with Trader Joe's Sweet Chili Dipping Sauce.

Aww, a poor roll has become a bit flaccid. How embarrassing.

And here is the stir-fry. Pictured on top is the chicken I cooked all day in my Crockpot. I threw various Asian ingredients in, like soy sauce, peanut butter, ginger and garlic and just let it do its thing all day. De-lish! Crockpots are delightful contraptions.


So, pets, it's not hard to make a foreign cuisine at home.

Wheatberry Salad

I recently bought some wheatberries, inspired by Kath. I cooked up all of them in my new Crockpot, and, since we now have a shit-ton of them, decided to make a cold salad. This is just cooked wheatberries, blue cheese, Greek olives, chickpeas, pepperoncini and giardiniera (spicy Italian pickled vegetables). Tossed with a little olive oil, balsamic vinegar, S&P, it was tasty, flavorful and really healthy!

White Girl Samosas

Sometimes I get random ideas in my head about things to make. They stem from perusal of the approximately 14,598 food blogs I regularly read. I see something, then think about what I have at home and if I can make a version of it.

I recently bought a jar of green curry paste at Uwajimaya and have been thinking of ways to use it aside from the typical coconut milk curry. Here's what I came up with, something I've lovingly dubbed "White Girl Samosas," since, you know, I'm about as Indian as Dick Cheney. I don't like to fry anything, so making a dough to deep-fry was out. Phyllo dough has a similar consistency, and it's lower in calories, so I used that for the pastry. Then it was just a simple matter of filling it with samosa-like fillings. And voila! White Girl Samosas were born. (Check out what a normal samosa is here.)

I opted to go with a typical filling of potatoes and peas, not because it would be more authentic that way, but because that's what we had.
Here we have the filling, looking just lovely and not at all like poop or baby food or some combination thereof. I think I should be a photography instructor my photos are so good!


Here's what I did to make the filling: I started by sauteeing onions, carrots and garlic in a big saucepan. Then I added some frozen corn and about 2/3 of a package of frozen peas, along with 2-3 tablespoonsish of the green curry paste. I cooked 'til warmed through, then added a dollop of Greek yogurt. Adding some potato I'd already cooked in the microwave, I then, with my handy-dandy immersion blender, pulverized the shit out of the vegetables, making them more of a paste-like consistency, like you'd find in samosas. Stirring in some soft tofu was the last step. I had hoped it would remain firmer and resemble Indian paneer, but it broke up and absorbed all the flavors of the curry, which was fine too.

After assembling 4-5 layers of phyllo, each brushed with a little olive oil, I wrapped up the whole thing. Isn't it cute? Doesn't it look like a little bundle with a baby inside*?

I brushed the top with a little more olive oil, then stuck in the oven 'til it looked like this:


Crunchy, flaky outside, creamy and spicy on the inside. This one's a winner! It may not be authentic, but it is original.


*Ok, so I couldn't find the exact image I had in mind, but it totally made me think of that scene where the stork drops Dumbo through the train and Jumbo unwraps the little bundle, and there's Dumbo, looking like the most adorable animated pachyderm you've ever freakin' seen. Ok, now I have to put this movie in my Netflix queue, because it is one of the best Disney movies! So sad, but so satisfying when Dumbo gives a big "Fuck you!" to all the bastards that were mean to him. And I dare you not to feel hearbroken when Jumbo rocks him to sleep from her jail circus car. It tugs at the ol' heartstrings, lemme tell ya!