El Diablo

My husband and I like spicy food.

No, really, we LOVE spicy food.

We also love Tortilla Soup.

On Wednesday this year, Cinco de Mayo, I had a grand plan to make some yummy cilantro lime tacos - even making the tortillas from scratch!! However,  back in January about my sweet little cat got sick. She's been holding her own, but this week did it again. She wasn't really that sick, just not eating much - which had us worried. We didn't get great news, but that's another post. My point is that my Cinco de Mayo was not a day of celebration. It stunk, actually.

So today, since I wasn't working, I had another grand plan. Make the tacos. But it was rainy. And it was cold. And it was a soup day. So I had a change of plans ... chicken tortilla soup. I had most of the ingredients. The only thing I didn't have seemed simple enough - chiles in adobo. I've seen them many times. Only today, I couldn't find them. I went to my friendly neighborhood store and all the "hispanic" goods consisted of endless jars of salsa, a few cans of enchilada sauce and a few cans of green chiles. Very disappointing. I found myself heading off to Whole Foods where I KNEW they would have them - and they did. They weren't exotic or organic or really unusual. Why didn't the store down the street have them?? Very annoying.

Anyway, so I had all my ingredients including the chiles. I was a little generous with the chiles. Perhaps a tad too generous. It was good. but it was also VERY spicy. Almost TOO much, which is a lot for me. But I liked it. It made eating it a challenge. We called it... El Diablo.

Also very filling since I needed 4 or 5 glasses of water to go along with it!

Want the recipe ?! It's a Cooks Illustrated recipe. I can't tell you how much I recommend subscribing if you are a dedicated home cook. But if you REALLY don't want to pay for it, here's someone who broke the rules and posted this yummy tortilla soup recipe. (oh, and I added corn. Both David and I felt it needed corn. I don't know why. It just did.)

Total Success

Today was meat free Monday, so I wanted to make something unique and tasty - but vegetarian. After a trip to Trader Joe's I decided on veggie tacos. Here's what made up our veggie taco bar:

Flour Tortillas
"Mexican" shredded cheese
Cilantro Lime Basmati Brown Rice (say that 3 times in a row!)
Light Sour Cream
Lettuce
"Fried" onions and red peppers (basically sauteed in olive oil fast and hot)
Corn & Black Bean Salsa.

Everyone loved it. I was so happy! No one complained, everyone got what they wanted. It's was bliss. (sorry I have no pictures, the food flew by!)

Let me tell you about 2 main ingredients listed above -- the Cilantro Lime Basmati Brown Rice and the Corn & Black Bean Salsa.

The rice come from the Jamie Oliver Food Revolution Cook Book. He has a recipe for "perfect" rice. I will admit right now, I didn't follow it. His recipe involves washing the rice, put it in boiling water, draining it and putting more water in. I have had difficulty with rice. I needed measurements. You won't hear me say that often. I stuck with the instructions on the bag - 2 cups water, 1 cup washed rice - and ran with it. It was perfect enough for me - given my past rice incidents. After cooking the rice I added zest from one lime, a bunch of chopped cilantro, lime juice from the zested lime and a little olive oil. Great. Everyone, and I do mean EVERYONE loved it. Phew....

One more thing about rice. I always used brown. I see no reason for white - honestly. Brown rice still has the bran and SOME nutrients. White rice is just filler. I will always use brown when possible.

Corn & Black Bean Salsa. I love Salsa. I love love love salsa. In fact, I love it so much, much of my garden this summer is dedicated to growing the ingredients for salsa. I like it on chips. I like it on tacos. I love it on eggs. It's like the perfect condiment. I love traditional tomato salsa, I love tomatillo salsa. I love Corn & Black Bean Salsa. How much does it normally cost? Buy a jar for $4 usually. Did you know you can make like 5 jars worth for $4??? Yes! you can! Here's what I did.

Take these ingrediants and throw them in a large-ish bowl

1 Bag Frozen Sweet Corn (or I like the roasted smoky flavor frozen corn from Trader Joe's)
1 Can of Black beans, drained & rinsed well
1 Can of Diced Tomatoes (I like the ones that have chiles or spice added already)
lots of chopped cilantro
Salt
Pepper
Juice from one lime
Heat as desired (ie jalepenos, habeneros etc. I went mild since I thought the kids might eat it)

Let the flavors blend for a while. Since the corn is frozen, I leave it out for a few hours to defrost, then put it in the fridge for storing. Great cheap tasty snack. Take it to parties or eat at home! Of course, my mind was reeling with the thoughts of using all fresh stuff this summer.

Spicy Tortilla Soup

Like Babs, I had a hankerin' for hot peppers this week (or is it every week?). Tortilla soup is a favorite in our house. I usually make it with chicken, but this time I decided to try something different. It always amazes me how freakin' delicious vegetarian cooking can be. This tortilla soup is technically vegan since there's no cheese and I rarely use sour cream. It's a Rachel Ray recipe (30 minutes) and she really scored big with us using this Corn and Salsa Tortilla Soup recipe. I'm giving it my highest rating, which is something I do maybe once every couple of months. It's that good. What I'm saying is that I'm currently trying to type while soup dribbles are running down my chin.

First you start roasting the poblano peppers in the oven until black and crispy on all sides. While that's doing its thing, brown the corn and onion in oil in a soup pot. Add garlic, brown. Add tomatoes (fire roasted is the only way to go), veg broth, S&P, and let it simmer. Peel off the skin of the cooled peppers, dice and throw into the pot.


One of the best features of this dish is that you bake the tortillas with cumin. You don't even put seasoning (except for S & P) in the soup until it's done. Put the crispy tortilla strips in the soup, add cilantro and lime juice, and top with avocado (we tend to go overboard with the last 3 ingredients). This is really really really tasty. YAM!