I talk about food, you read it.
Mexican
Chicken Tortilla Soup
0Since its still January, national soup month, I want to share another soup that is now on my top 5 list of soups. Tortilla soup has been something I have wanted to make for a very long time. I love Mexican food but I always seem to get hung up on the ooey gooey cheesy meals then I miss out of Tortilla soup. It’s actually pretty healthy but still super delicious, which is a great combination, as long as you don’t overload it with cheese and sour cream. Don’t let the long list of ingredients overwhelm you, it’s actually really easy!
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 1 small onion, diced
- 2 tablespoons minced garlic
- 1 jalapenos, finely diced (leave out the seeds if you don’t want spicy)
- 1 chipotle in adobo sauce, minced (or a tsp of chipotle powder)
- 1 small yellow pepper chopped
- 1 can of corn
- 1 tsp cumin
- 1 can fire roasted diced tomatoes (or regular diced)
- 1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
- 4-5 cups low-sodium chicken broth
- 3 chicken breasts, boneless and skinless
- 2 limes, 1 juiced, plus wedges for garnish
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 1/2 cup roughly chopped fresh cilantro leaves
- 1 (8-inch) flour tortilla, grilled, cut into thin strips (or chips) (optional)
- 1 avocado, pitted, sliced
- 1 cup shredded Monterrey cheese (OR SOUP CREAM)
In a large soup pot, heat vegetable oil on med-high. Add diced onion, garlic, jalapeno and chipotle, stirring, cook until they start to become soft, about 8 min. Add yellow pepper, corn, tomatoes, black beans, cumin and chicken broth. Bring temperature back up to a low simmer.
To cook the chicken, you can do this 2 ways.
One-add chicken breasts right into the soup and poach in soup for 20 min, or until done.
Or two- you can poach in a separate pot for 20 min. If you chose to cook in a separate pot, poach in chicken broth and you might want to add some seasonings like whole black pepper corns, chilli powder, chipotle powder, cumin and salt. It will help give your chicken some flavour. Just remember to taste it before you put in the raw chicken. I used this cooking method, which worked out well. I also ended up adding some of the cooking liquid to the soup because my soup reduced just a tad too much.
Once chicken is cooked, using your desired cooking method, remove it from the liquid and place on a plastic cutting board too cool. Once cooled, shred with a fork, add back to soup.
Add limes juice and cilantro, taste and adjust seasoning with salt and pepper. Garnish with tortilla chips, avocado, sour cream or grated cheese…or all of the above. I used avocado and sour cream with a few chips on the side. If you don’t like spicy as much as me, you can leave out the chipotle pepper but don’t leave out the fire roasted tomatoes. I think the Smokey flavours really go so well with the acid from the lime.
I absolutely loved this soup. It was spicy, flavourful, packed full of healthy vegetables, chicken and avocado. It made enough for me to freeze some too and I can’t wait for another tortilla soup night!
Fish Tacos
1It’s not very often that I eat alone. I always have J around to fulfill our deal of “I cook, and he cleans”. The other night J had a business dinner and was able to go to The Boathouse so I was left to dine solo. Originally I was going to break out some Mr. Noodles or KD but instead I opted to take advantage of this night and whip something up that J doesn’t prefer. It was going to be a fish taco night for one!
J doesn’t like fish tacos because they’re “fishy”. He prefers to keep his seafood and Mexican separate while I love the combination and went the extra mile to make my taco night amazing.
Ingredients
- 2-3 fillets of your favourite fish. I used Basa fillets
- Dry rub
- Yellow peppers, sliced
- Tomatoes diced
- Sour cream
- Citrus avocado slaw
- Small flour or corn tortillas
Dry Rub
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 1 tsp chilli powder
- 1/2 tsp chipotle chilli powder
- 1 tsp powered garlic
- 1 tsp powered onion
- Zest of 1 lime
- Salt and pepper
Citrus Avocado Slaw
- 2 cups grated cabbage (a mix of purple and green is nice)
- 1 cup matchstick carrots
- 1 lime, juiced
- Small bunch of cilantro (chopped)
- 1 avocado
- 1 tsp cumin
- 1 tsp chilli powder
To make the slaw. In a large non-reactive bowl mix together all ingredients and mix. Let sit in the fridge for at least an hour before serving so the flavours can meld.
Make the dry rub by adding all ingredients together and sprinkle over fish. Let sit for at least ½ hour, the longer the better. Heat olive oil in a pan and fry fish for about 2-3 min per side, until no longer opaque and flakes easily.
Once fish is cooked, assemble tacos by first putting a layer of coleslaw, peppers, fish, tomato and sour cream. You really could add anything to your taco, this is what I chose and I LOVED it.
If you are using a mild white fish like me I would just lightly dust the fish with the rub. It’s pretty flavourful and strong so you don’t want to overpower the fish. If you are using a stronger flavoured fish like salmon you might want to add a generous amount of rub. I was amazed on how easy this was and delicious it was. The crunch of the coleslaw really goes hand in hand with fish tacos especially when it’s creamy with avocado, sour with citrus and spicy with chipotle. I wish I had made more so I could have leftover. I even think J the non fish taco eater would have really liked these.
Homemade Corn Tortillas
2I don’t know if a lot of people know the difference between a wheat flour tortilla and a corn tortilla but I can. Think of the corn tortilla being a taco shell but not crunchy. I looked high and low at various grocery stores and couldn’t find corn tortillas if my life depended on it. I didn’t go into any Mexican markets which probably would have been my best bet, but instead I got fed up and bought masa flour to make my own.
J probably thought I lost my mind but I think he is also learning that I don’t mind spending a bit more time to make something from scratch. I don’t have a tortilla press but I was still determined to make these delicious little shells for my enchiladas. The bag has a recipe right on it so I didn’t even need to spend time doing research. Instead of a tortilla press I just used a heavy pot to squash my dough balls and a rolling pin to finish them off. So easy!
Ingredients
- 2 cups masa flour
- 1 1/2 cups water
- 1 tsp salt
Mix ingredients together until it forms a soft ball. It should be slightly firm and resembles the consistency of play dough. Form into 16 golf balls and cover with moist cloth until needed.
Squash balls in a tortilla press, as per directions or if you’re like me put dough ball between 2 sheets of thick plastic wrap. Mine wasn’t thick enough so I ended up using a freezer bag. Squash ball with a heavy pot and use a rolling put to further flatten until about 5-6 inches in diameter.
Preheat grill to med-high and cook tortillas for about 50-60 seconds per side. Mine didn’t brown and I am sure they would get crunchy if you cook them too long. These stayed soft enough to make my enchiladas with. I froze the remainder; I will let you know how they thaw!
Green Enchiladas
5I found this recipe in one of the cook books my sister in law gave me and I have wanted to try it for a very long time. It would be perfect for St. Patrick’s Day, since it’s green, or Cinco de Mayo. If you’re like me and can’t get enough spicy food then make it whenever your little heart desires.
I really wish the tomatillos in my garden were ready, but my plants are still just flowering. In the meantime I went to the store and picked up some along with assorted hot peppers.
This doesn’t taste like your typical enchiladas made with a spicy red sauce. Instead you have a tangy green sauce that also packs a punch. I absolutely loved these and ate myself silly. I could barely walk to the couch, my stomach hurt so much from filling my face.
Ingredients
- 2 chicken breasts bone in (I used boneless)
- 1 onion
- 1 cup chicken stock
- 1-2 cups water
- 6-8 cloves of garlic
- 1/2 tsp black peppercorns
- 1 tsp chili powder or chipotle powder (or 50/50 of both)
- 1 tsp cumin
- Bunch of cilantro
- 4-6 tomatillos (depending on size)
- 1 jalapeno
- 1 Anaheim chilli
- 2 cups jack cheese shredded
- 12 corn tortillas
- Olive oil
- Sour cream and avocado to top enchiladas with
Place chicken breasts skin side down in a sauce pan. Add chicken stock, half the onion chopped, 2 cloves of garlic whole, peppercorns, 6 springs of cilantro from the bunch, cumin, chili powder, jalapeno chopped (keep seeds in if you want the sauce spicy) and enough water to just cover chicken. Heat to medium low and simmer until cooked about 25 minutes if you use bone in chicken. 15 if you use boneless.
While chicken is cooking place tomatillos, the other half of onion (chopped chunky), and Anaheim chilli (chopped in half), and the rest of the garlic cloves onto a baking sheet. Drizzle with olive oil, salt and pepper. Use your hands to smother the oil evenly, make sure everything is coated. Put into preheated 400 degree oven. Cook until tomatillos are soft. About 10-15 min, turning once.
When tomatillos are done remove from oven, cool for 10 min. carefully put tomatillos in blender, trying not to make them burst. Scrap seeds from Anaheim pepper, discard seeds and put pepper in the blender with the roasted garlic, cilantro (about 2 tablespoons of the bunch) and baked onion. Blend until smooth. If everything is still hot cover the lid of blender with towel in case there is splatter.
Once the chicken is cooked remove from liquid and set aside to cool. Simmer sauce for 10 more minutes, taste to adjust seasoning. Strain, reserving the liquid (broth). Pour about one cup of the broth back into a saucepan. Pour in blended tomatillo to chicken broth and cook again for 10 minutes on a high to reduce slightly.
When chicken has slightly cooled, shred with fork, set aside.
Preheat oven to 350 (it’s already hot so it won’t take long). Lightly oil a large baking dish. To assemble enchiladas, pour 1/3 of the sauce into baking dish. If your corn tortillas aren’t soft enough heat in a frying pan with some oil. Once soft, fill with some shredded chicken and jack cheese, roll into a cigar shape and place in baking dish seam side down. Repeat until you’re done. Left over chicken is great on your salads if you have too much!
Pour remaining green sauce over enchiladas, cover with cheese and bake until cheese is bubbling, about 30 minutes. Serve with sour cream and avocado.
The technique of poaching the chicken adds a subtle Mexican flavour right into the meat. I probably could have just sat and ate the chicken all night long. If you didn’t want to poach chicken or didn’t have time then you could use leftover roasted chicken or you can buy a pre-cooked roasted chicken from the store and shred the meat off the bones.
Tomatillo Salsa
0I got the best text message from J today. He said that he had a tomatillo plant for me! Call me naive but I didn’t really think that tomatillos could be grown in BC. Since they’re known for being used in Mexican cuisine I assumed that need extreme heat to grow well. Apparently I am wrong. They require the same conditions as regular tomatoes. Since its still Junuary and rainy I am a little worried but they will definitely be fun to grow.
Coincidentally I had purchased some tomatillos on the weekend. I made a light roasted salsa to top grilled steak. It was fabulous and just thinking about it is making me very excited to get this new plant into the ground! This Salsa would be great on any kinds of meat as its light in flavour, slightly sweet, and has a bit of kick. I also put some on my eggs the next morning. YUM
Ingredients
- 5 tomatillos, husked
- 2-3 garlic cloves
- ½ small red onion
- 1-2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 -2 tsp chipotle sauce or 1 tsp powder.
- 2 tsp honey
- Salt and pepper
Pre-heat oven to 350. Rub tomatillos with olive oil, place on baking sheet and roast in the oven for about 20 min, or until soft. Place all ingredients into the blender and puree until smooth. You can also use a food processor once the tomatillos have cooled. Taste and adjust.
If you want this even spicier, then chop up a jalapeno, de-seed and add that to the blender as well. I ended up adding a bit more Smokey green hot sauce I bought in Mexico. I found that I really liked the Smokey flavour against the sweet flavours in the sauce.
I bought my chipotle sauce in Mexico as well, but you can purchase cans of chipotles at the grocery store. I buy them and freeze them individually so I always have some on hand.
Taco Seasoning Trader Joes
09 months ago
I am sure everyone and they’re dog has heard about Traders Joes by now. Even us Canadians who have to cross the border have at least heard someone talking about it. I have co-workers who have never been there that call it Jims or that Joe place. I have been doing my best to convince them to go down to The States and check it out. I mean really, it takes no time at all to get there and its FUN!
Every time I go I have been grabbing a packet of the Taco Seasoning. I used to make my own seaoning and still sometimes do but everything I put into my own tacos are right here in this little packet, saving me time and energy on those nights that I need to eat before I kill someone. Okay, I would never kill anyone but you get my point. Unlike other taco seasonings with partially hydrogenated junk and mono whatever, trader joes is pure seasonings and organic
Ingredients: sea salt, cumin, cayenne pepper, cane sugar, paprika, onion, garlic, black pepper, red bell pepper, oregano, chili pepper, and smoked paprika.
The seasoning also has a nice kick to it. I love spicy so I would be inclined to add the entire packet but J’s taste buds haven’t burnt off entirely like my have so I add only half. If you’re not a lover of spice then add a quarter of the packet. Easy Peasy!! Taco was a success!!
Pico de Gallo
1Cinco De Mayo is on the 5th of May every year and I am sure most people don’t have a clue as to why this day is important other then the fact that they get to celebrate by eating Mexican. In a nut shell its is a holiday held on May 5 that commemorates the Mexican army’s unlikely victory over French forces at the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862. To be honest, I don’t really know why it’s celebrated the way it is, especially when they’re independence day is September 16th. That is the day we really should be eating Mexican and drinking margaritas. Oh well, a Mexican celebration twice a year is okay in my books!
Earlier this week I made chicken enchiladas, the same recipe I made a while back. Since J loved it so much I didn’t make any changes. Whatever type of Mexican you make this year, a must, is Pico de Gallo. It’s basically a fresh made salsa and can go on pretty much anything! I absolutely LOVE it. Its also extremely easy which is a bonus!
I don’t have a recipe but I will do my best to write out what I did
Ingredients
- 3-4 Roma Tomatoes Chopped
- 1/2 small white onion Chopped
- 1/4 cup fresh chopped cilantro
- 1/2 lime juiced
- 1-2 cloves of garlic minced
- 1-2 Serrano chillies seeded and minced
- salt
Add all ingredients to a bowl and stir together.
This is your super basic recipe so you can add or adjust the ingredients to your liking. Sometimes I add avocado or mango for a different twist. I did actually add about a half of green pepper to this as well but I left it out of the basic recipe. This will also taste better and better the longer it sits so ideally you’ll want to make this the day before your Mexican fiesta! ENJOY!
Mexican Prawn Taco from 7 Seas
110 months ago
After having a very fun night with the girls the other night I woke up feeling a little less then fantastic. Perhaps it was the wine, or waking up at 5am, then again at 7am and not really getting back to sleep. Whatever it was I was in one of those moods where I wanted to eat the world. I was starting to feel like my leftover spaghetti wasn’t going to cut it. Actually I wanted the spaghetti but I also wanted a Big Mac, fries, and tacos. The taco craving started to take over to the point that everything started to remind me of tacos. Having tacos on the brain definitely meant that the spaghetti was going to have to wait and a taco search was on!
I didn’t really want to get taco bell, or taco time because my craving mostly consisted of cilantro and fresh ingredients so fresh fish tacos were my best bet. I remembered that 7 Seas Fish market and grill opened up pretty close to where I work and not only are they a full service fish market but they also search lunch/dinner items as well. Its not the lunch/dinner items you have to order and then cook at home, its cooked all there in front of your eyes. There is tables to sit as well to enjoy. Apparently they’re fish and chips are amazing! Its located at 6131 200th st, in Langley.
I ordered the Mexican Prawn Tacos, which consisted of 3 soft shell authentic Mexican taco shells filled with a blend of lettuce, onion, tomato, cilantro and freshly grill prawns with a lime wedge on the side. They actually take the seafood right out of the display so you know it’s fresh! I was asked if I wanted avocado and of course I did but unfortunately they had run out. In its place the girl suggested mango and I was immediately on board. There was also a special sauce in their too which could have been seafood sauce but I will call it “special” because I forgot to ask and I couldn’t really tell. For 8.00 this was definitely a good choice! Since everything was super fresh it had a really great tangy refreshing flavour and was the perfect amount of food for lunch! I can’t wait to go back and give the fish and chips a try!
El Gitano
210 months ago
Sometimes J and I like to take quick trips across the border for a couple hours of shopping. I have an obsession with Trader Joes so I often beg him for us to go. I recently had to renew my passport and just got it back in the mail so I was dying to give it whirl and go. When we go across the border it’s also pretty common for us to go for lunch as well, perhaps I can make this a tradition. My parents have told me about El Gitano’s in Bellingham located at 1125 E sunset dr, and it’s just about 2 minutes away from Trader Joe’s so I just drove there without J even knowing where we were going.
It’s in the strip mall where K Mart is, right beside a thrift shop. From the outside it doesn’t seem that big, but on the inside it’s quite large and advertises karaoke as well. Who knew so there were so many die hard karaoke fans in Belllingham? We were seated right away and the waiter also brought us fresh chips and salsa immediately. If you follow my blog then you’ll know how I love free complimentary starters. The salsa was so yummy! It had a good kick to it with the perfect amount of seasoning. The chips were also warm as well which was a bonus. The second someone noticed we were getting low a new bowl of salsa was brought out.
We both ordered Margaritas on the rocks. I am sure for a Sunday lunch this is pretty rare in Bellingham, people are just getting out of church or relaxing but we’re crazy Canadians and anytime is a good time for a cocktail. A word to the wise though, stir your drink first. All the tequila sits on top and if your J ( a person who doesn’t use a straw) you’ll think it’s really strong until you stir it. If you’re me (someone who uses a straw) you’re going to end up drinking the mix first and then when you stir in the tequila after your halfway done it will taste like a double. Now that woke me up!
I ordered a “small” combo, which included a taco, a tamale, rice and beans. I took a bite out of the taco first and it was stuffed full. A lot of seasoned ground beef, lettuce and tomato. Not at all spicy but it had a great taste to it. I tried to steal some of J’s sour cream and guacamole but he karate chopped my fork so I didn’t get much. The guac tasted delicious though. The tamale was also quite good, stuffed with seasoned pork. The rice was hot, fluffy and tasted great too. Quite often it tastes like its been sitting around in a warmer for 3 days.
J ordered flautas with beef. This sort of surprised me because he usually doesn’t like crunchy things but he really enjoyed these. Flautas are similar to a Taquito, which are rolled up flour tortillas stuffed with meat and cheese then fried so they’re crispy on the outside. I had to google the difference because they sound so similar. Flautas are flour torillas, and Taquitos are made of corn tortillas. However, you can also find Taquitos made from flour tortillas and Flautas made from corn……confused? Me to. Whatever you want to call it, J was in Mexican heaven and stuffed him silly. I wish I could have had more of the yummy guacamole.
There are so many Mexican restaurants in Bellingham and I am determined to try them all!!
Habanero Grill
21 year ago
Last night J and I ventured out to try Habanaro Grill located at located at 207th and Lougheed Highway in Maple Ridge. I drive past it every single day to and from work and it’s been calling my name. I absolutely love Mexican food. I know a lot people can leave it but for me it has to be in my top 5. Its messy, flavourful, jam packed with gooey goodness. YUM!
Habanero grill used to be an old tire shop so it has 2 large garage doors in front which I am sure is great in the summer so sipping drinks out in the fresh air. Tonight it was a completely empty inside except for 2 kids sitting and watching cartoons on a huge TV. There was one lady working and said that we could take our choice of table, turned the volume off on the cartoons and turned up the Mexican music. She mentioned that there was a wall of hot sauce as well which was pretty impressive. We ordered 2 lime margaritas and the mom/server/owner came back super fast with our drinks along with chips and salsa. The chips were just your usual store bought taco chips but I am pretty sure the salsa is home made. It had huge chunks of garlic in, onions, cilantro, and lime and also something I just couldn’t put my finger on. Perhaps a tad of chipotle, but I am not entirely sure. It wasn’t really authentic, and the massive amount of garlic could be significantly reduced but I still enjoyed it. I do love restaurants that offer complimentary appies!
The “eat in” menu wasn’t really that big and was missing one very important item that I had been craving all day. The Taco!!! I am not sure what happened to that menu but it wasn’t really all that appealing. The kids menu was almost as big as the regular menu.
I ended up ordering taquito grande, which was 4 taquitos filled with your choice of chicken or beef, topped with sour cream, guac, and salsa. It also came with beans and rice. I tried the taquito first and wasn’t really all that impressed. The meat was ground up into mulch that resembled course sand and was extremely dry. The toppings were also very bland and didn’t really help the dry chicken sand taste much better. I then tried my refried beans and again, very bland and unseasoned. The rice….you guessed it…bland and cold. I made a run to the hot sauce shelf and was then troubled by which type to chose. It would have been nice if they were in some kind of order of hotness but since it was a mix of random sauces I just grabbed one that I have had in the past. I made my way back, past the kids watching a muted TV, and back to my table. I popped the top off the sauce and literally covered my entire meal to add some sort of flavour to my meal.
J ordered the Chimichange, which was filled with Chicken, caramelized onions and cheese in a deep fried tortilla topped with more melted cheese and salsa. He also got the cold rice but opted for black beans instead of refried. His was much better than mine. The chicken in his meal was actual shredded chicken, resembled chicken and tasted like chicken. The cheese and onion also gave it some flavour. Compared to mine it was fantastic but J also said his bland and boring. Unfortunately he isn’t much of a hot sauce guy so he sucked it up and ate it as is. His beans and rice were cold and bland as well. I guess since they didn’t have many customers it was probably just sitting the back in a warmer.
Now, I have been going to the states a lot lately and have had my fair share of Mexican food so perhaps I’ve been spoiled and have the bar set too high but I really wasn’t impressed with either of our meals. The other thing that really confused me was the take out menu because it had way more options in. Online they have even more options including burgers, soup and even breakfast (before 4). I probably would have ordered something different if I had known about it, but I still may have stuck with bland food. It’s really too bad because the location is pretty neat and the wall of hot sauce adds something different then other Mexican restaurants.
