Tag: vegetarian
Encremadas (Cream Enchiladas)
Encremadas (Cream Enchiladas)
Encremadas are enchiladas with sour cream added to the sauce. You can make either a green or red sauce. There is really no wrong. In this recipe, I made a simple tomatillo sauce. Instead of filling the corn tortillas and pouring the sauce over, each tortilla is dipped in the sauce and folded in half. Plate up 4 per person. Scoop a ladle of the sauce over the enchiladas. Top with crumbled queso fresco, avocado, white onion, and cilantro. If you wanted to make filled enchilada with cheese, chicken, pork, or beef and pour the sauce over that way, please give that a try.
Equipment
- Food processor or blender
Ingredients
- 5 medium tomatillos
- 2 serrano peppers
- 3 garlic cloves
- 1 cup sour cream
- salt to taste
- 12 corn tortillas
- vegetable oil
Toppings
- queso fresco crumbled
- avocado sliced
- white onion finely chopped
- cilantro chopped
Instructions
- Add the tomatillos, serrano peppers, and garlic cloves to a pot of boiling water. Boil for 10 minutes.
- Add the vegetables to a food processor with a 1/4 cup of the boiling water.
- Purée.
- Add in the sour cream and purée again.
- Pour the cream enchilada sauce into a sauce pan. Bring the sauce to a simmer then reduce the heat to low. Season with salt.
- Lightly brush oil on the corn tortillas and bake in the oven at 400 degrees for 2-3 minutes, just enough to make them pliable but not crispy. This is a good method for cooking multiple tortillas.
- Place 1 tortilla in the sauce. Dredge on both sides. Fold in half and place on a plate. I would serve 4 per person since they are lighter and not filled enchiladas.
Khumb Matar Malai
Khumb Matar Malai (Mushroom Curry with Cardamom, Cashews, and Peas)
Cooking Indian cuisine is not for beginners. The more I delve into regional Indian cooking, the more I’ve learned the complexity of how to properly prepare these dishes. Their cuisine has significantly more ingredients than any other ethnicity I’m finding. Some of the ingredients are fairly expensive(nuts, saffron, etc.) There is a very specific order in which you add the ingredients. If you don’t the recipe won’t turn out right. But…The end results have been nothing but amazing, and this recipe is nothing short of that.Mushrooms aren’t typically used in a lot of Indian cuisine. Khumb Matar Malai translates to mushroom curry with cardamom, cashews, and peas. What you get out of this curry is a creamy mushroom gravy thickened with a cashew paste and aromtically spiced with cloves, cinnamon, cardamom, and Kashmiri chili powder. This dish is vegetarian, but can be made vegan by substituting non-dairy yogurt and almond or cashew milk. Serve with steamed basmati rice and paratha.
Equipment
- Spice Grinder or mortar and pestle
- Food processor or immersion blender
Ingredients
Spice Powder
- 4 whole cloves
- 1” cinnamon stick
- 5 green cardamom seeds
Khumb Matar Malai
- 8 oz button mushrooms sliced
- 1/3 cup cashews soaked in warm water for 20 minutes
- 2 tbsp Greek yogurt
- 3 tbsp vegetable oil
- 1 small white onion finely chopped
- 1 birds eye green chili finely chopped
- 2 tbsp ginger garlic paste
- 1/2 tsp Kashmiri chili powder
- 1 cup whole milk
- 1/2 tsp sugar
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 cup frozen peas
Garnish
- 3 tbsp cilantro chopped
Instructions
- Soak cashews in hot water for 20 minutes.
- Purée the cashews in a blender along with the Greek yogurt and 1/4 cup of the water the cashews soaked in until a smooth paste is formed. Set aside.
- In the same blender, add the onions and purée into a paste. Set aside.
- Grind the cloves, cinnamon stick, and cardamom seeds in a spice grinder. Set aside.
- Heat up cooking oil in a large sauté pan over medium. Sauté the green chili for 1 minute.
- Add in the onion paste. Sauté for 8 minutes.
- Add in the ginger garlic paste. Sauté for 1 minute.
- Add in the Kashmiri chili powder and spice powder. Sauté for 30 seconds.
- Add in the cashew yogurt paste. Sauté for 2 minutes.
- Pour in the milk. Simmer for 2 minutes.
- Add in the mushrooms, sugar, and salt. Simmer for 5 minutes, covered.
- Add in the green peas and continue simmering for 5 minutes.
- Garnish with chopped cilantro.
Peruvian Beans
Peruvian Beans
Beans are a staple in Peruvian cuisine. The first known beans in the Americas were found in Peru during an archeological dig, dating back thousands of years. We now know the bean as mayocoba, canary, or Mexican yellow beans. They are kind of similar to a pinto bean, but are creamier in texture. These beans can be used in soups, stews, salads, refried, and as a side dish like in this recipe.Mayocoba beans can be found in any grocery. For this particular recipe, I used dried beans instead of canned. I personally prefer dried over canned because they absorb more of the juices. They are also half the price and don’t contain extra salt. I cooked them in my Instant Pot. They take only 30 minutes without soaking. Peruvian beans will always contain onions, garlic, carrots, some type of pepper, sugar, tomato paste, and a vinegar; sweet and savory with a touch of acidity. These beans can be garnished with cilantro, slices of avocado, a dollop of plain yogurt, or lime wedges. You can also eat these beans as a main course over rice.
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 large onion diced
- 6 garlic cloves minced
- 1 carrot julienned
- 1 red bell pepper diced
- 2 chipotle peppers chopped
- 1 tsp cumin
- 1 tsp smoked paprika
- 3 tbsp tomato paste
- 2 cups vegie or chicken stock
- 1 tbsp red wine vinegar
- 1 tbsp honey
- 4 cups mayocoba beans
- 1 tbsp corn or tapioca starch
- 1 tbsp water
Garnish
- avocado sliced
- cilantro chopped
Instructions
- Heat up cooking oil in a large pot over medium high heat. Add in the onions and garlic. Cook for 4 minutes.
- Stir in the carrots and bell pepper. Sauté for another 4 minutes.
- Add in the cumin, smoked paprika, chipotle peppers, and tomato paste. Cook for 2 minutes.
- Pour in the stock, honey, and red wine vinegar. Bring to a boil.
- Stir in the beans. Reduce the heat to medium. Cover and let simmer for 20 minutes.
- Uncover. Make a slurry from the cornstarch and water. Add to the beans and stir. The beans will thicken in a minute or two. Turn off the heat.
