Retro Recipe Redo - Impossible Turkey Taco Pie

Way back when, there were a whole bunch of recipes for what were called Impossible Pies. They were magical recipes that made their own "crust" as they baked. And they all used Bisquick to make that magical crust.

I was browsing through some old newspaper and magazine clippings I had saved and scanned, and I found a recipe for Impossible Taco Pie. I had made that recipe many times back in the day, and I really liked it. I decided to make it again, to see if I still liked it.

But of course I made some changes.

I used turkey instead of beef, and I have to say that I doubt anyone could tell the difference in this recipe. Which is a good thing.

I didn't have any Bisquick in the house the first time I made this, but there are a lot of "make your own Bisquick" recipes online, so I figured I could do that rather than run to the store.

Nope. It didn't work. Not at all. I made it with Bisquick, and it was perfect. So, although that "make your own" recipe is probably a fine substitution for some recipes, it didn't work for this one. Maybe if I fiddled around with it some more, I could work it out, but that doesn't seem like a good use of my time.

Or my ingredients.

So now I have Bisquick. So it's a pretty sure bet I'll be making this again. Or maybe some other version of it. Because, seriously, this is comfort food, in the best possible way.

Panela cheese is interesting. It's a fresh cheese with a mild flavor. It softens when warm, but it doesn't really melt. So you'll end up with soft pockets of cheese in the pie, but they won't melt and get disappear into the pie.

Impossible Turkey Taco Pie

1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 large onion, diced
1 pound ground turkey
2 tablespoons chili powder (or to taste)
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon salt (or to taste)
1 fire-roasted red pepper, diced
4 ounces panela cheese, cut in small cubes
3/4 cup Bisquick
1 1/4 cup milk
3 eggs
1 4-ounce can diced Hatch chiles
4 ounces shredded provolone cheese
Diced tomatoes (as needed for garnish)
Diced avocado (as needed for garnish)
Green salsa (for garnish)

Green Salsa

8 medium tomatillos
1 small green pepper, cored and seeded
1 serrano pepper, cored and seeded
1 small bunch cilantro
1/2 teaspoon salt (or to taste)
2 teaspoons lime juice (or to taste)

Heat your oven to 400 degrees and have a 9-inch pie plate standing by.

To make the taco pie:
Heat the olive oil in a saute pan. Add the onion, turkey, chili powder, cumin, garlic powder, and salt. Cook, stirring as needed, until the turkey and onion is cooked through. Take it off the heat and add the roasted red pepper and the panela cheese.

Add the meat mixture to the pie plate and level it.

Mix the Bisquick, milk, and eggs in a medium bowl. Pour over the meat in the pan. Sprinkle the chiles on top.

Bake at 400 degrees for 25 minutes. Sprinkle the provolone cheese on top and return the pie to the oven. Bake for an additional 10 minutes, or until a knife inserted into the center of the pie comes out clean.

Let the pie rest for 5-10 minutes for easier slicing.

Garnish with chopped tomatoes, avocados, green salsa

To make the salsa:
Put all the ingredients in a blender, and blend until smooth.

Yum

Watermelon Gazpacho

Spouts, one of the food chains in this area, has started a monthly blogger get-together, and the second one I attended was at a cooking school called Cook Street School of Culinary Arts. And I've got their Watermelon Gazpacho recipe for you.

This is a view of where we had our class.

The theme was pizza. 

Pizzas are baking!

Here's another shot of the pizza oven. Isn't it great?

Needless to say, I rocked it with the dough-making, kneading, and shaping. Maybe I showed off a little bit. Diego, the sole Sprouts representative at the event, seemed like he had a lot of fun even though his pizza wasn't exactly round. He was a good sport!

We also stretched mozzarella, which was fun. They suggested that you can buy mozzarella curd, but you can also make your own - I've actually done it, and it's fun. (Why haven't I blogged about it? I have no idea!) To make it easier, you can buy a kit for making the cheese from scratch. Or actually from milk. But you knew what I meant, right?

They gave us a bunch of recipes to take home, for pizza, sauce, green goddess dressing, and a basil pesto, but the one that really intrigued me was the watermelon gazpacho. Which was one of the few things we didn't have our hands on. It was served to us as a little starter as the people from the cooking school introduced themselves and told us about what we were going to be doing.

Here's my finished pizza. And yes, that's a glass of wine.

The thing I thought was most interesting about the watermelon gazpacho was that it really didn't taste like watermelon. The tomato flavor was much more pronounced. What the watermelon added was a freshness and lightness. It wasn't like drinking pureed tomatoes.

And then there was the dollop of cheese on top - a blend of creme fraiche and feta that I wanted to steal off of everyone else's glass. I didn't know what it was, but I have to say I was pleased it was so simple. I can imagine using it as a dip with the addition of some herbs or as a dressing on fresh tomatoes and cucumbers.

I usually don't publish other people's recipes here, but I liked this so much I wanted to save it to make later. The recipe makes quite a bit, but it should be easy enough to cut this in half or even make just 1/4 of it.

Watermelon Gazpacho
Courtesy of Cook Street School of Culinary Arts

5 cups watermelon, small dice
4 tomatoes, cored, small dice
1 English cucumber, small dice
1/2 cup red onion, small dice
2 Fresno chiles, roasted, peeled, seeded, and brunoised (a really small dice)
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 teaspoons cumin seeds, toasted and finely ground
2 ounces feta
1/2 cup creme fraiche
Salt, to taste

Puree half of each of the watermelon, tomato, cucumber, onion, and chile with the vinegar, oil, and cumin in a blender until smooth. Taste and adjust the salt and vinegar, as desired. If it's too thick, add more cucumber or tomato.

Fold in the remaining watermelon and vegetables.

Puree the feta and creme fraiche.

Serve the gazpacho with a small dollop of the feta mix.

Thanks to Sprouts and Cook Street School of Culinary Arts for sponsoring and hosting the event. Some photos are courtesy of Sprouts; photos with captions are mine.

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Tomato Rolls with a Herb and Cream Cheese Swirl

Let's just get this out there. I love tomato powder. I use it sort of like tomato paste or tomato sauce, but it's more concentrated, and it doesn't add extra liquid, so it's easy to work with.

So, when my buddies at 37 Cooks hooked up with The Spice House and we could pick anything we wanted, of course I wanted the tomato powder. Along with a few other things.

Well, actually a lot of things. I stocked up on things I use all the time and I also picked up a few new things to try, like the ancho-coffee rub and the porcini salt.

Even before the tomato powder arrived, I knew I wanted to use in in bread, somehow. I've made breads before with tomato powder and cheddar cheese, with tomato powder and olives, and I've made flatbreads with bits of sundried tomatoes.

I even made rolls with a swirl of tomato bread along with white bread.

After I pondered a while, I decided on tomato swirl rolls, and I decided that the swirl would be filled with cream cheese and the Sunny Greek seasoning that I also got from The Spice House.

And then I got to work.

I don't know what it is about swirl rolls, but I love making them, no matter if they're sweet or savory. They're just fun.

And the rolls are pretty much never identical, which I also like. It's not ideal if you're baking for a bakery, but I like the idea that I can have a small roll if that's what I want, or a larger roll. Or one with more or less filling. Because that's how I am. Sort of random and chaotic.

Tomato Rolls with a Herbed Cream Cheese Swirl

For the filling:
8 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
1 tablespoon Spice House Sunny Greek seasoning

For the dough:
1 1/2 cups water
2 1/4 tablespoons Red Star active dry yeast
1 tablespoon sugar
13 1/2 ounces bread flour
1 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons tomato flour
1/2 cup potato flakes (instant mashed potatoes)

To make the filling:
Combine the cream cheese and herbs in a small bowl and mix until well combined. Set aside at room temperature until needed.

To make the dough:
Combine all of the ingredients in the bowl of your stand mixer and knead until the dough is smooth, shiny, and elastic. Cover the bowl and set aside until the dough doubles in size, about an hour.

When the dough has risen, flour your work surface and heat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9x13 baking pan with baking spray.

Turn out the dough and roll it into a rectangle about 11 x 16 inches. With one of the long sides of the dough facing you. spread the filling over the top of the dough, leaving about an inch uncovered on the far side. It can be easier to spread the filling with your fingertips rather than using a spatula.

Roll the dough up, jellyroll-style, and not too tight, and seal the seam when you reach the far end.

If the roll is very uneven, roll and nudge is so it's a fairly even thickness, then cut the roll into 12 even pieces. Place the pieces, with one of the cut sides up, in the baking pan.

Cover the pan and set aside until the dough has doubles, about 30 minutes.

Bake at 350 degrees until lightly browned on top - the sides tend to brown more than the top. Remove the pan from the oven and turn the buns out to cool on a rack.

I received products to work with from The Spice House through 37 Cooks.

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Whole Wheat Focaccia with Olives, Cheese, and Rosemary

This bread actually started out as an idea for a sandwich. Well, it started with salad, but then it quickly turned into a Salad Nicoise sandwich with tuna and kalamata olives.

I decided that foccacia would be the perfect vehicle for my sandwich, and I decided to embed the olives in the bread. I mean, why not?

The bread was also a great way to use a new flavored olive oil I got from a company called Pasolivo. They have a lot of flavored oils, but the one they sent me was a rosemary oil. I adore rosemary, but it can be kind of strong, so I was fairly conservative with it here - I just used it for drizzling on top of the bread. The rosemary flavor isn't super-strong, but that's exactly what I wanted - a hint of rosemary that would compliment the olives and the final sandwich, without overpowering.

If you're using this bread as a stand-alone and you want more rosemary flavor, you could drizzle more oil on right after baking, or substitute rosemary olive oil for the regular olive oil in the dough. Or, even more fun, you could use the rosemary olive oil as a dipping oil for the bread.

Because I'm still in love with my new grain mill, I ground my own whole wheat flour for this. If you don't have a grain mill, of course you can buy flour. It's what most folks do, right? But ... if you want a grain mill ... well, check out this post.

Whole Wheat Focaccia with Olives, Cheese, and Rosemary

4 1/2 ounces (1 cup) bread flour
4 1/2 ounces (1 cup) whole wheat flour (I used freshly ground flour)
1/2 cup (about 3 ounces) semolina flour
2 1/4 teaspoons Red Star* active dry yeast
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup water (or more, as needed)
2 tablespoons olive oil (divided)
1 tablespoon Pasolivo rosemary-flavored olive oil
1/2 cup pitted and halved Kalamata olives
1/4 to 1/2 shredded mozzarella cheese

Combine the bread flour, whole wheat flour, semolina flour, yeast, cheddar cheese, sugar, salt, water, and 1 tablespoon of olive oil in the bowl of your stand mixer. Mix slowly with the dough hook until it comes together. The dough should be soft and sticky at this point. If it's not soft, and is dense instead, add more water as needed.

I've found that freshly-ground flour tends to require less water, so if you're using store-bought whole wheat flour, you're likely to need another 1/4 cup of water, or possibly a little more.

Increase the speed to medium and continue kneading until the dough is elastic.

Cover the bowl and set aside until doubled in size, about an hour.

When the dough has risen drizzle the remaining tablespoon of olive oil into a quarter-sheet baking pan. Turn the dough out onto the pan and stretch, poke, and cajole the dough to fit the pan. Heat the oven to 375 degrees.

Cover the pan (another quarter-sheet pan turned upside-down makes a great lid) and set aside for 30 minutes.

Drizzle the rosemary olive oil onto the dough. Use your fingertips to dimple the top of the dough randomly. Top the dough with the kalamata olives, spreading them evenly over the dough. Push the olives into the dough. Scatter the mozzarella cheese over the top of the dough. If you want more cheese, I wouldn't say no. But remember - it's not pizza.

Bake at 375 degrees for 30 minutes, turning the pan around halfway through the baking time if your oven tends to bake unevenly.

Let the focaccia cool in the pan for a few minutes before turning out onto a rack to cool completely.

Remember that sandwich?

I cut a piece of the focaccia in half and added mayonnaise, tomato, and tuna. It was really good.

*If you use a brand other than Red Star, let it soften in the water before adding the other ingredients.

I received the Pasolivo Rosemary Olive Oil as a sample for review. I decided to use it in a recipe, instead.

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The Ultimate Cheesecake for Fall with Pumpkin Spice, Maple, and Pecans

So, every once in a while, the nice folks at General Mills Cereal send me a little care package. Recently, the package contained exactly one thing: a box of Pumpkin Spice Cheerios.

I've said many times that Cheerios have been my favorite cereal since I was a kid. Chex are a close second, but if you offered me a bowl and some milk and told me to choose a cereal from every possible option, I'd choose Cheerios every time.

Pumpkin Spice Cheerios, though?

The first thing I thought of when I saw the box was cheesecake. I happen to love pumpkin cheesecake, and I thought the Cheerios would be perfect as a crust. And once I got the idea into my head, I absolutely had to do it.

Of course, pumpkin reminds me of fall, and once I had those ideas in my head, my imagination went a little wild. What could I flavor the cheesecake with?

Hmmmm. 

How about a little maple? And then I started thinking about pecan pie ... I thought about adding pecans to the crust, but then decided to top the cheesecake with a little dulce de leche and chopped pecans.

This cheesecake is like all of fall's desserts wrapped into one tiny little dessert.

And I mean small. Very small. Not quite a single serving, but small enough that it only uses one single 8-ounce package of cream cheese.

This recipe is inspired by the pressure cooker cheesecake in The Great Big Pressure Cooker Book. If you have a pressure cooker - either electric or stovetop - you should get that book. It's amazing!

Tastes Like Fall Cheesecake
With Pumpkin Spice, Maple, and Pecans

1 cup Pumpkin Spice Cheerios (These are seasonal - use another type if you can't get them.)
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1 8-ounce package cream cheese (not lowfat or fat-free)
1/4 cup sugar
1 egg at room temperature
2 tablespoons creme fraiche* (or sour cream)
2 teaspoons all purpose flour
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon maple extract
Dulce de leche, for garnish (optional), as needed
Chopped pecans, for garnish (optional) as needed

Set a rack into your electric pressure cooker (I used my Instant Pot) and add 2 cups of water. Have a 6-inch springform pan standing by.

Note: I have what appears to be a 5(ish) inch springform pan, which is pretty unusual. I suggest using a 6-inch springform pan for this recipe, if you have one. Your cheesecake will a little wider and a little less tall than mine, but that's fine. Mine overflowed the pan just a little bit, but you should be fine with a normal 6-inch pan.

Use your food processor fitted with the steel blade to turn the Cheerios into tiny bits and crumbs. If you have a food processor with multiple bowls, use the small bowl so you don't have to wash the bowl after. Add the butter and process until the Cheerio bits are all wet. You can also mix by hand.

Add the crumb mixture to the springform pan. Press the crumbs into the bottom of the pan and a little but up the sides.

Put the cream cheese and sugar in your food processor fitted with the metal blade and process until smooth. Wipe down the sides of the bowl as needed to make sure everything is well mixed.

With the processor running, add the egg and process until smooth. Next, add the creme fraiche, then the flour. Process for 1 minute.

Add the lemon juice, and vanilla, and maple extract and process again until it's combined. Scrape down the bowl as needed to make sure it's all well-mixed.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Don't cover it. I know you want to, but don't.

Fold a double-thickness of foil (about 24 inches long) in half lengthwise. Use this to form a sling that will hold the pan and allow you to lower it into the pressure cooker and to remove it when the cooking is done. Lower the pan into the pressure cooker and crimp the ends of the sling to fit neatly inside the pot.

Note: my metal rack has handles, so I didn't make the sling. I've used a metal sling before, and it's pretty handy.

Lock the lid on the pressure cooker.

In an Instant Pot or other electric pressure cooker: Cook at high pressure for 20 minutes. When the time is up, turn cooker off so it doesn't switch to the warming setting and let it reduce pressure naturally. After 15 minutes, vent any remaining pressure manually. (I haven't made this in a stovetop pressure cooker, so I don't know the timing for that.)

Unlock the pot and carefully remove the pan.

Let the cheesecake cool until you see that it has stopped deflating. It only takes a few minutes. Dollop small amounts of dulce de leche over the top of the cheesecake. Use as much dulce de leche as you like. I love the stuff, but I didn't want it to overwhelm the cheesecake. Let the dollops sit for a minute or so to warm up and soften, then spread the dulce de leche over the top of the cheesecake. Sprinkle the chopped pecans over the top of the cheesecake.

Let the cheesecake cool for 1 hour on a rack, then refrigerate it overnight before removing it from the pan to serve. To make it easier to loosen the ring, run a thin knife around the inside edge of the pan before opening the lock..

*Creme fraiche can be expensive, if you buy it. I make my own. Instructions are here to make it in and Instant Pot. Here's how to make it the old-fashioned way.

Thanks to General Mills for sending me fun products to work with! I was not obligated to write about this, or even eat it. But I just had to. Because ... cheesecake!

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Cheese and Scallion Enchiladas with Salsa Verde #sponsored

I didn't grow up eating Mexican food. I was on a date when I first tried it. And I fell in love.

With the food. Not so much the date.

Tacos have become my go-to food when I have leftovers. I pretty much always have tortillas here, and I have cilantro growing in my herb garden. There's always some kind of salsa, too.

So it's easy to turn leftover steak or chicken or pretty much anything into a quick taco dinner.

But enchiladas are still one of my all-time favorites. They're a tiny bit more work than simply tossing food bits into a tortilla. On the other hand, they're great for times when I want to make enough food to have leftovers for a meal or three. The best thing is that enchiladas reheat really well.

This recipe makes 12 enchiladas, with some extra green sauce. You can serve the extra sauce at the table, use it as a salsa or dipping sauce, or make a few extra enchiladas later.

This post is sponsored by my good buddies at OXO who sent me a really sweet 14 Piece Glass Bake, Serve & Store Set that I used for both baking my enchiladas and for storing and serving all the extras. The round containers are sturdy and they look nice enough to use for serving, which is a huuuuge bonus. Fewer dishes to wash!

The lids for the SNAP containers are interchangeable between the OXO glass and plastic containers, so I don't need to worry about which ones I'm grabbing - I already have some of the plastic ones that I use all the time, and the lids fit really tightly. I haven't had one that has leaked yet. The containers nest when they're empty for storage and they stack well in the fridge when they're full. And they're microwavable for reheating. Even the lids can be used in the microwave, if you want to leave them on to contain splatter (but loosen them, first!)

The glass is a thermal shock-resistant borosilicate, so the bakeware can go from freezer right into your oven or microwave. That's not something I do often, but it's nice to know that it can withstand up to 250 degrees of temperature change without cracking, so I don't have to worry about taking something from fridge to microwave. The lids on the bakeware are handy for keeping foods neatly contained for travel or storage, and the handles are big enough to be able to grab while wearing oven mitts. Which you really do need.

One thing I really like is how clear the glass is, so I can see how things are cooking. As far as cleaning, I just rinsed the baking dish and put it in the dishwasher and it came out perfectly clean.

Cheese and Scallion Enchiladas with Salsa Verde
Makes 12 enchiladas, plus extra sauce

Salsa Verde
Salsa verde simply means green sauce. This one is tart from the tomatillos and a little spicy from the jalapenos. 

2 pounds tomatillos
4 jalapenos
1 onion
1 yellow bell pepper
1/4 cup cilantro
2 tablespoons adobo seasoning
Salt, as needed

Remove the papery skin from the tomatillos and rinse well. There's a sticky coating on the outside of the tomatillos that can be bitter, and you don't want that in your sauce.

Quarter the tomatillos and place them in a blender or food processor. Remove the stem and seeds from the jalapenos and add them to the blender. Peel the onion, cut into quarters, and add to the blender. Remove the core and seeds from the bell pepper, cut into chunks, and add to the blender. Add the cilantro and adobo seasoning.

Blend until smooth.

Add the sauce to a saucepan and cook on medium heat until it simmers. Continue cooking until the sauce loses the raw onion flavor. Taste for seasoning and add salt, as needed. If your adobo seasoning was salty, you might not need additional salt.

Set aside until needed.

Cheese and Scallion Enchiladas
The first enchiladas I ever had were cheese and onion, and it's still one of my favorites. This time, I used scallions. They're a little milder, and the green adds some extra color.

8 scallions
4 cups shredded mild or medium cheddar (plus more for garnish)
1/4 cup vegetable oil
12 corn tortillas
Salsa verde, as needed
Cilantro, as garnish

Remove the roots and any wilted or damaged green parts. Slice the scallions thinly. Combine the cheese and scallions in a medium bowl and set aside.

Heat the oil in a small frying pan on medium heat. One at a time, dip the tortillas into the hot oil, cooking just a few seconds on one side before flipping over to cook another few seconds. This softens the tortillas and makes them easier to roll without breaking. You don't want to cook them so long that they start to become crisp.

Let the tortillas drain on paper towels and pat off any excess oil on top.

Put about 1 1/2 cup of the sauce in the bottom of a 9x13 glass baking dish. A little more or less is fine - you just want to make sure the bottom is covered.

One at a time, add about 1/3 cup of the cheese and scallion mixture to a tortilla and roll up. Place it in the baking pan, seam-side down. Continue rolling the cheese in the tortillas and adding them to the pan until all the tortillas are used up.

Pour another cup or more of the sauce on top of the enchiladas, as desired. If there is any cheese and scallion mixture left, sprinkle that on top of the enchiladas. Add extra cheese on top, if desired.

Bake the enchiladas in a 350-degree oven until the cheese is melted and the sauce around the edges is bubbling, 25-35 minutes. Sprinkle cilantro on top, as a garnish, if desired.

Serve the enchiladas with your favorite sides and toppings. I served mine with black beans and seasoned rice as sides. Guacamole, and sour cream were the extra toppings for the enchiladas.

Thanks to OXO for sponsoring this post!

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Three-ingredient blue cheese dressing

Blue cheese dressing seems so fancy, but it's really pretty simple. The flavor is mostly from the cheese, so you want to let that shine.

This dressing has only three ingredients, and it takes just a few minutes to prepare. I think the flavor is better after it's been refrigerated for a while - the blue cheese flavor seems to infuse the creamy dressing rather than just being bits of blue. But it's not a bad thing that it improves with age. If you're making this for a party or event, you can make it the day before, so it's one less thing to do on party day.

I was tempted to add herbs or other flavorings to this - a pinch of hot pepper or perhaps some other spice. But then I realized that additions would just take away from the blue cheese flavor. And if I wanted something else, I could simply add those flavors to my salad. Some fresh chopped parsley, perhaps?

You can make this as smooth or as chunky as you like. Just blend longer for a smoother dressing. But I do like the little pops of blue cheese, so I left it a little bit lumpy. The dressing gets thicker when you refrigerate, and the thickness depends a little on how this your Greek yogurt is. If it's too thick, just mix in some milk or buttermilk to thin it - or you could even add water to thin it. Or, you can leave it thick and use it as a dip for vegetables.

Blue Cheese Dressing

1 cup Greek-style yogurt
1/2 cup mayonnaise mayonnaise
4 ounces blue cheese, cut into chunks

Blend the yogurt and mayonnaise in your blender until combined. (You could also do this in a food processor, or by hand, but a blender makes it sooo easy.)

Add the blue cheese and pulse until the blue cheese is in bits as small as you like. Or keep blending until it's smooth, if that's what you prefer.

Taste and add salt or pepper, if desired. I liked it the way it was, but, hey, it's your taste buds you need to please.

Transfer to a container and refrigerate until needed.

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Enchiladas Suisas and a #giveaway

I love enchiladas, so the fact that there's an entire book about them makes me just a little giddy. I was invited to participate in a book tour for the book and I got the chance to make some amazing enchiladas.

Enchiladas suizas were one of my favorites, dating way back to when Bob and I were dating. Suizas, I was told, meant that the enchiladas were Swiss-style, which refers to the dairy products used. These enchiladas have a creamy green sauce and are topped with cheese.

Mmmm. Cheese.

The instructions are long, but that's because they're detailed. These are actually very easy to make, and you can make some of it ahead of time, like the sauce that can be made and refrigerated until you need it, and the chicken that can be cooked, shredded, and refrigerated until you're ready to assemble.

I had more sauce than I thought I needed, but when I reheated, I added more sauce, because it's really good. I've also used some on tacos. Next time I make these, I might mix some sauce into the shredded chicken. It's a really good sauce. I can see using it for a LOT of things.

Here's what you can WIN in the Giveaway (see the entry at the end of the post):

Enchiladas Suizas
Reprinted from Enchiladas: Aztec to Tex-Mex Copyright © 2015 by Cappy Lawton and Chris Waters Dunn. published by Trinity University Press.
Makes 12 enchiladas

Ingredients:
For the sauce:
1 pound (454 grams) tomatillos, husks removed, cored
1–2 serrano chiles, destemmed
1⁄2 medium white onion, peeled, coarsely chopped, and root end removed
3 cloves garlic, peeled
3⁄4 bunch cilantro
Chicken broth as needed for thinning sauce
1 tablespoon (15 ml) vegetable oil
1 cup (237 ml) crema Mexicana
Kosher salt to taste

For the filling:
2 cups (260 grams) poached and shredded chicken

For the assembly:
12 white corn tortillas
Vegetable oil as needed for softening tortillas
2 cups (240 grams) queso asadero, queso Chihuahua, or Emmentaler Swiss, grated

For the garnish:
1 cup (237 ml) crema Mexicana, or to taste
1 medium white onion, peeled and thinly sliced
Cilantro leaves to taste

Directions:
Start with the sauce:
Place the tomatillos, chiles, onion, and garlic in a saucepan, cover with water, and
bring to a boil.

Reduce heat to a simmer and gently cook until the tomatillos change color but
do not burst.

Using a slotted spoon, transfer vegetables to a blender.

Blend the vegetables until smooth, adding chicken broth as needed to achieve a
medium sauce consistency.

Add cilantro and process for a few seconds more.

In a saucepan over medium heat, place 1 tablespoon (15 ml) oil.

When it is hot, add the sauce and cook for a few minutes until warmed through
and slightly thickened.

Reduce to a bare simmer and stir in crema Mexicana. Heat the sauce through,
but do not let it boil.

Remove from heat and season with salt to taste. Cover, set aside, and keep warm.

Assemble the enchiladas:

The authors.

Preheat the oven to 350°F (177°C).

Pour oil to a depth of 1⁄2 inch (12 mm) in a heavy skillet over medium-high heat.
Heat to low frying temperature, about 300°F (150°C).

Place each tortilla in the oil and fry for a few seconds, just long enough to soften.
Drain on paper towels.

Fill the lower third of a tortilla with 2 tablespoons shredded chicken, roll, and
place seam side down in an ovenproof baking dish large enough to accommodate
the enchiladas in a single layer.

Repeat with the remaining tortillas.

Generously cover with the sauce, making sure the edges of the enchiladas are
well covered.

Sprinkle queso asadero or queso Chihuahua on top.

Bake in a preheated oven until the enchiladas are heated through and the cheese
is melted and brown in spots, about 15 minutes.

Garnish with crema Mexicana, onion slices, and cilantro leaves.

Note: These enchiladas are intended to be flavorful but not spicy hot, so use chiles accordingly.

I used purchased tortillas (we have some good ones out here) but there's a recipe for homemade tortillas in the book, and the authors created an awesome video as well. Check it out!

For more information, check out the book's website, Pinterest, and Facebook.

Giveaway has ended.

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Olive and Feta Swirl Rolls

I don't know what it is about swirl rolls, but I love making them. And I fill them with all sorts of things.

I'll bet a lot of people would think of cinnamon rolls first when someone mentions swirl rolls, Or maybe they think of sticky buns.

Those are great, but swirl rolls don't have to be sweet.

Nope, savory swirl rolls are pretty amazing, too.

These rolls are filled with olives (I used kalamatas) and feta cheese, and the dough is flavored with oregano. They're tasty all by themselves, but they're also perfect with dinner, particularly when you're serving something with Greek or Mediterranean flavors.

This recipe is sponsored by my friends at Red Star Yeast, which makes a whole lot of sense for this blog. It's the brand that I buy exclusively, because I like it.

I use the active dry yeast most often, but I'm also a big fan of the Platinum yeast, particularly for finicky breads. The Quick Rise is great when you're in a hurry, and it's also a great yeast for bread machines.

But enough about yeast. Let's get back to the rolls!

These rolls are best when they're refrigerated overnight for the final rise, so you can bake them when you need them - right before lunch or dinner.

But, if you want to, you can let them rise at room temperature and bake the same day. Just let them rise for 30-45 minutes after shaping - if you poke one with a finger, the indent should remain. Then they're ready for baking. Personally, I think the flavor is better with the long, slow, overnight rise, so if you have the time, give that a try.

Olive and Feta Swirl Rolls

1 cup plus 2 tablespoons water
2 1/2 cups (11 1/4 ounces) bread flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1 1/4 teaspoons Red Star active dry yeast
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 cup instant mashed potato flakes
1 tablespoon oregano
1/2 cup pitted kalamata olives (or your favorite pitted olives)
4 ounces crumbled feta cheese

Combine the water, bread flour, sugar, yeast, salt, olive oil, mashed potato flakes and oregano in the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the dough hook.

If you prefer, you can mix the ingredients in a bowl and knead by hand. I like using the stand mixer for kneading, but I know that not everyone has one.

Knead until the dough is elastic.

Cover the bowl and set aside in a warm place until the dough has doubled in size, about an hour.

Flour your work surface and spray a 9 x 13-inch baking pan with baking spray (or, if you're confident, you don't need to spray. I usually do, for extra insurance.)

Roll the dough to a rectangle about 9x13 inches. It doesn't need to be precise. You can just eyeball it to see that it's about the same size as your pan.

With one of the long sides of the dough facing you, sprinkle the cheese and the olives over the surface of the dough, leaving about 1 inch uncovered on the far end. Use the rolling pin to gently press the filling into the dough.

Starting with the end closest to you, gently roll the dough, jellyroll-style. Don't roll super-tight. When you reach the opposite end, pinch the seam to seal the roll.

Cut the dough into 12 even pieces and place them, with the cut side up, in the prepared pan. If you've managed to cut them unevenly, it's not a big deal - I actually like having some rolls bigger than others, so people can choose a larger or smaller roll. If there are some that are taller than others in the pan, press them down gently so they're all about the same size.

Cover the pan (it's handy to have a pan that has its own cover, or you can cover with plastic wrap.)

Refrigerate the dough overnight or up to 24 hours. It will rise during that time.

When you're ready to bake, take the pan out of the refrigerator while you let the oven heat. Preheat to 350 degrees.

When the oven has heated, remove the cover from the pan and bake the buns at 350 degrees until they're nicely browned and cooked through - about 50 minutes.

Remove the buns from the pan (you can flip them out onto a rack, then from them over onto another rack so they're right-side-up) and let them cool before serving.

Want to see lots of pretty bread photos? Follow Red Star Yeast on Pinterest.

Thanks to Red Star Yeast for sponsoring this post!

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