Arepa Pie: A Meal for Veggies and Meat lovers

Earlier this month, I invited the PA’s and Interns who helped us in the production office during the recent film shoot I worked on over for a gathering. They helped keep us sane during production, and they deserved a big thank you, so I made them dinner.

I had two constraints. First, I had plans earlier that day, so I didn’t have a huge amount of time to make food to feed a group. And second, I needed to make something that would translate easily into a vegetarian version. G came up with the idea that I should make a casserole of some kind. I thought of an issue of Saveur from a while back that celebrated casseroles. Among them was a Tamale Pie I made once and I recalled that it had turned out well. It struck me that it would be easy to make a veggie version along side the meat version by substituting in vegetarian taco crumbles.

Now, in addition to making a veggie version, I planned on one other big change. I don’t typically have yellow cornmeal around, but my mom regularly sends me packages of Harina PAN -- a kind of white corn meal that Venezuelans and Colombians use to make arepas. (It can be found in a lot of Hispanic food markets, but it’s harder to come by on the West Coast). For the unfamiliar, an arepa is cornmeal patty that is grilled, fried, or baked and eaten like bread at pretty much any meal of the day. I have not been making arepas with enough frequency to keep up with the shipments of Harina PAN, so I had this in abundance. Why not use that? I made that substitution the first time and it had come out well.

In some ways, using the Harina PAN actually made things easier because it requires no additional cooking. To make the dough – or masa-- all you have to do is add 1 ¼ cup of water per 1 cup of flour and a little salt. You let it sit for a few minutes and then knead the dough until blended. I started with 2 ¼ cups to match the recipe; however, I then made another batch to make sure there was enough for the veggie version. I spread out a layers of masa into two greased baking dishes – one lasagna dish and one that was ½ the size. I put the rest of the masa to the side to be used later for the top layers.

I made the filling pretty much as indicated by the instructions. However, since I wanted to make regular version and an additional veggie version, I had to find a way to streamline the process a bit. I accomplished this by cooking all of the veggies together. But I didn’t want to loose the bacon flavor from the drippings, so l made bacon in a pan in the oven at 350° for about 15 minutes in order to keep the drippings temporarily separate. I cooked up 1 and ½ the called for quantities of veggies.

When the vegetables were cooked, I separated 1/3 of the amount into a separate cast iron skillet. To the larger batch I added the ground beef. At this point I added the bacon drippings, along with the bacon bits – what’s the point of cooking bacon and then not using it?

To the smaller batch I added one package (I think it was 12 oz) of vegetarian crumbles. I cooked each batch simultaneously, stirring occasionally.

Time to spice. Of course I added more garlic than called for, I also sprinkled in a little garlic powder, onion powder, and smoked paprika to each. I also added in some chipotle sauce. (When you purchase chipotle peppers in a can, they come packed in a thick sauce. I never throw this away. I freeze any leftovers as this makes a great flavoring. Just a little goes a long way). I have to say, each pan of filling was delicious! Either would be a great filling for any number of things.

Meat

Veggie

When both pans of filling were ready, I transferred the beef filling into the larger baking dish with the masa, and the vegetarian batch into the smaller baking dish. I then carefully spread out the remaining masa on top of each baking dish to cover the filling.

And now, to oven!

I left them into the oven a longer than suggested as I was trying to get the top to crisp up. However, here is where I think the Harina PAN masa differs from the yellow tamale cornmeal; I don’t think it crisps up quite the same way in the oven. Because I left it a little longer than I should have, the texture got a little bit chewy. Had I left it a little less time, I think the texture would have been softer, but a little more pleasant. The other tweaks I’d make in the future, would be to alter the ratio of filling to masa; I’d make the arepa/tamale layers a little thinner and make a little more ground beef mixture.

Nonetheless, it was pretty tasty. I served sour cream, cheese, and hot sauces on the side for everyone to add to their taste. It could be easily be a adapted for many types of crowds. I think it be great for a family – toning down the spicy factor of course. I’m pretty sure I will return to this one in the future, and will definitely report back on further attempts.

Falafel Fiasco

June’s Supper Club theme was Greek food. I made Falafel and it was pretty much a comedy of errors.

To be perfectly honest, the recipe itself is actually pretty easy. I picked this one for exactly that reason. I got the recipe from Joy of Cooking. Yup, the Joy of Cooking has falafel and a surprising number of other Middle-eastern recipes, as well as a good number of ethnic cuisines. Now, I actually have a Lebanese cookbook (my mom is half Lebanese) that includes another fairly easy falafel recipe, but it’s in Spanish, and quite frankly, I didn’t feel like translating. Earlier in the day, I tackled a trapeze class along with some of the other Supper Clubbers. As I’m afraid of heights, that left me completely mentally exhausted, a little drained, and pressed for time. That good ‘ol standby, TJOC was there to help.

Their recipe is as follows:

1 ¼ c dried chickpeas, soaked and drained
(I used the soaking method of pouring enough boiling water over the chickpeas to cover by 2 inches. I allowed the chickpeas to stand for over an hour to let the water soak in and for the chickpeas to swell. I then drained them well.)

½ c chopped onions
¼ cup packed fresh parsley leaves
2 glove garlic, chopped
2 tablespoons ground cumin
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon coriander seeds, rushed, or ½ teaspoon ground coriander
½ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon ground red pepper

Process until the mixture is coarsely pureed. Remove to bowl and stir in:
2 tablespoons all purpose flour

With wet hands, form chickpea mixture into 4 patties, each about 3 inches in diameter. Let stand for 15 minutes. Pour ½ inch of oil into a deep skillet and fry chickpea patties until golden brown on both sides, about 4 minutes on each side. Drain on paper towels. They claim this makes 4 servings.

Since we were going to be a group of 10, I doubled the recipe. This wasn’t much harder, it just required running the ingredients through the processor in batches. What I soon realized, however, is that if that 1 recipe was supposed to make 4 servings, they would be 4 very large servings. The resulting falafel would have been behemoths. I prefer smaller, more manageable patties and I’d say I got a little over two dozen from the doubled recipe.

As you can see, it’s a pretty easy recipe. Basically, all that is involved in this recipe is throwing all of the ingredients into a food processor. From there, you just form the dough into patties and fry. That’s about it. However, as you probably know by now, I’m pretty liberal when it comes to spicing and usually it serves me well. This time, however, it got me into trouble.

After, draining the chickpeas and running them through the food processor with the other ingredients, I began adding salt and spices. Somehow I over salted. I may have sprinkled too much in. As well, amongst the seasonings I used, I grabbed the beloved Cavender's Greek Seasoning and sprinkled some in. Of course, there is salt in the mix and this probably contributed to sending it over the edge. To offset the salt, I figured I’d add more chickpeas and a little of everything else. I had some from the dried batch that had been soaked and drained leftover. I added those but they weren’t enough to balance the flavors. I didn’t have time to soak more, so I added a can I had on hand. I didn’t read the ingredients list --- salt is definitely in there. * Sigh * From now on I will be more vigilant of salt and other additives. Lesson learned.

Even so, while the dough was still salty, it was definitely better. To make sure I wouldn’t be serving my friends saltlicks disguised as falafel balls, I decided to fry up some test subjects in my mini deep fryer. The basket for this deep fryer hinges on a pivot, but can be locked into place. I failed to this before heating up the oil and at some point between juggling forming patties and switching batches, I knocked the handle of the deep fryer basket into the boiling oil. The handle is covered in plastic.


In a moment of panic, I grabbed the nearest knife and thrust it into the oil to help fish out the handle. GAH!!!! NO!!! BAD MOVE! The knife just happened to be one of my very expensive Henkles. It came out covered in oozing plastic. Not only have I potentially ruined the deep fryer, now I’ve possibly killed one of my best knives as well!

Luckily, I was able to quickly scrape off the nasty, black plastic with a pot scraper. I also managed to rescue the deep fryer. The melted plastic that was still in the oil turned out to be pretty easy to scoop out and I was able to remove most of the remaining ooze from the handle as well. At that point I decided I’d done enough deep-frying for that afternoon.

The good news is that prior to meltdown, I managed get in a couple of batches of mini-falafel that G deemed to be slightly salty, but edible. The cooking process had ameliorated some of saltiness. Good enough.

I took the rest of the dough to Supper Club, along with my Dutch oven and a bottle of cooking oil to fry up the rest of the falafel there. These things taste better fresh anyways. I heated up the oil in the Dutch oven until bubbling and plopped in the patties. They came out ok. It turns out that there was a marked difference in the texture when fried in the Dutch oven vs. the deep fryer. It could be that I had not allowed the oil to heat enough, or perhaps it was the oils I used – canola in the Dutch oven and peanut at home – but whatever the reason, the texture was definitely far superior in the deep fryer. Still they were fine and we served them with hummus I had made and pita bread. However, melting handles aside, if you have a deep fryer, I recommend you use it.

Given all the stumbling blocks with the first attempt, I was very anxious to give these guys another try. The following Friday, our friends Max and Nicole came to stay with us for the weekend. I made the falafel again with G’s help this time. We served them with platters of pita, hummus, feta, tomatoes, and cucumber slices, so that everyone could build their own sandwich. This time everything went smoothly. This time there was no over-salting and no meltdowns. We fried them in the deep fryer and they came out delicious and crispy.

On the other hand, I slightly burned the pita bread . . . um, well, nobody’s perfect . . .

Lazy Weekend Morning Breakfast Sandwiches

There is no real recipe involved here, per se. This is more just an excuse to post G’s mouth watering pics of one weekend morning’s riff on the delicious breakfast sandwiches we love to get at our favorite brunch joints.

Simply cook up a few slices of bacon and scramble up some eggs. Make sure to season the eggs with salt and some of your favorite spices. Egg scrambling is usually G’s department and his spice mix of choice for all things egg is Cavender's All Purpose Greek Seasoning . Melt the cheese of your choice onto an onion roll. (A bagel would also be great.) Here we used a little goat cheese and baked it lightly onto the roll in the toaster oven. Then just pile the scrambled eggs onto your cheese roll along with the bacon and tomatoes slices. Some condiments are also usually in order to keep the whole thing from being too dry. I like a little mustard or Wasabi Mayo from Trader Joe’s.

For my sandwich, I made a slightly less caloric version by using high-fiber bread in place of the roll. (I will also often use and English muffin.) I used a little less bacon on mine and I added spinach for an extra veggie boost. Of course, you could also swap in egg whites for whole eggs.

In just a few minutes you have a restaurant worthy brunch that you can eat in your PJ’s, and it requires little more effort that toasting bread and scrambling some eggs.

Old Fashioned Sunday Night Supper: Stuffed Pork Chops with Apple & Sweet Potato Casserole

One Sunday night not too long ago, I decided to make a nice, old fashioned Sunday night supper. I had been working hard on a film and G was in the middle of studying hard for finals. Comfort food seemed in order.

The day before, I had paid my first visit to our neighborhood butcher. How many people actually have a neighborhood butcher these days? It seemed high time that I started taking advantage, so I took a walk down to Victor's Meats & Delicatessen to see what they had to offer. (Check out my friend Sarah Beth's review on Yelp) Amongst the many appetizing meats in the display case were some delicious looking pork chops with apple stuffing. The butcher suggested that the best way to prepare these would be to simple put them in a casserole dish with a little apple juice and put them in a 350° oven for one hour. I took two and made my way home.

The next day I plotted how to turn my pork chops into a supper. I had a vague notion that sweet potatoes would pair well. Some muse lead me to consult The Casseroles Cookbook from Southern Living– and old cookbook from 1971 that I stole from my mom at some point. (I love old cookbooks!) A search of sweet potatoes in the index lead me to this recipe:

Apple & Sweet Potato Casserole

1 2lb can sweet potatoes
2 c. sliced peeled apples
¾ cups maple-blended syrup
¼ cup melted butter
1 tsp salt

Drain the Sweet Potatoes and slice lengthwise. Place in a greased 12x8x2 –inch baking dish. Place apple slices on potatoes. Combine the syrup, butter and salt and pour over apples. Cover Bake in 350-degree oven for 45 minutes. Remove cover and bake for about 30 minutes longer or until apples are tender, basting frequently and adding syrup, if needed.

Making this recipe jive with my pork chops was going to be a cinch, but the recipe definitely needed some updates.

The first thing go were the canned sweet potatoes. I used 2 medium sized fresh sweet potatoes instead. Next, ¾ cup maple-blended syrup seemed like it be cloyingly sweet, so I used about ½ the quantity and used real maple syrup. Taking the butcher’s recommendation, I swapped in apple juice for the remaining liquid quantity. I used the unfiltered kind they sell at TJ’s, as it has a thicker consistency and better flavor than the regular supermarket varieties. I also used a little less butter than called for. Finally, I didn’t peel a thing. I just left the skins on everything, just gave it all a good scrubbing. That’s where all the fiber is anyways.

I piled everything into the pot as directed and then nestled in the pork chops, and then popped it all into the oven.

I pretty much followed all the cooking instructions as given, but I pulled out the pork chops at the hour mark. I put the pot with the apples and sweet potatoes back in to finish cooking while the pork chops rested.


The pork chops were plump and juicy and the apples and sweet potatoes had just the right amount of sweetness! I served the chops and the casserole on a bed of greens I had sautéed with a little garlic, olive oil and mustard, as I thought the bitterness from the green would contrast nicely with the sweetness of the casserole. It was just the right combo

Now, you’re probably thinking, but what if I don’t have a neighborhood butcher? I have often seen similarly prepped items in the deli section of the grocery store. Alternatively I think this would be really delicious with a regular, un-stuffed pork chop as well, but I would get them still on the bone. The result is a deliciously retro one-pot meal.

(For some reason the chops look a little pink in this picture, but it was actually fully cooked)

Marc’s Grandma’s Chicken Enchiladas

Several years ago, my friend Marc and I decided to get together and cook one night. He brought his Grandma’s enchilada recipe and I guided us through the recipe. Now, full disclosure, the recipe she sent with him is actually courtesy of Tyler Florence and you can find it on the Food Network website. However, it’s just so much more romantic to attribute a recipe to someone’s grandma whenever possible. If I recall correctly, I think Marc said that his grandma makes her own tortillas, which is a feat I have not yet attempted.

I was so happy with this recipe, though, that since then I’ve pretty much adopted it as my own. It has become part of my regular entertaining repertoire and I have made it many times over for friends. I last made it for my Book Club when I hosted a couple of months ago. Ever since I first made it for a Girl’s Night dinner, my friend Alyson will occasionally drops hints as to when I’ll be making enchiladas again. (Pretty much the best compliment a chef can get!) Alyson, Jenny and I each contributed a course to this dinner, and the arrangement was so successful that it lead to our forming the Supper Club I’ve so often alluded to.

This is another great dish for feeding a group. You can make the filling ahead of time, giving yourself a little breathing room before your guests arrive. I would even recommend making it the day before, because it does take a little bit of time and also allows all the flavors to blend. It is also far more healthy than it tastes. The filling is all vegetables and chicken. The cheese topping is really the only potentially unhealthy factor in the recipe; and you can easily moderate that to fit your needs.

Here is another recipe where I really don’t usually change a whole lot, but it’s also very easy to make simple and subtle changes to add your own signature. I occasionally add different vegetables, depending on what I have lying around. I like peppers and will tend have extras lying around, so those often make it in. Similarly, I’ve used this as a vehicle to experiment with interesting looking chiles I found at the farmer’s market. Olives are good, but you can always serve these on the side if you’re worried others won’t care for them. As always, I use more garlic than called for and I play around with the spices – smoked paprika really compliments the other flavors quite well. G prefers flour to corn tortillas, so I often swap those in. This dish is also nice in that it also allows everyone else eating a chance to customize their own plate bit if you serve it with a variety of toppings on the side.

The sauce is another great way to vary this recipe. Try green, red, mole, hot, or mild. Whatever you chose, I recommend having extra on-hand as sometimes those tortillas can soak up more than you’d think. You want to have enough to pour on top before adding the cheese and putting it all in the oven, plus a little more on the side just in case they dry out more than you’d like in the oven.

On the whole this is not a challenging recipe. Let’s be honest, making the filling basically consists of cooking up some chicken and throwing a bunch of veggies in a pot to stew. It does, however, require a good amount of time. It’s always best to cook the chicken in the same skillet as you will use to cook the vegetables, but if do you need to shave off a little time, I have cooked the chicken in one pan while simultaneously cooking the vegetables in another pan. If possible though, save those pan juices to add flavor to the veggie mixture.

I can see that the number of steps might be intimidating, but it really shouldn’t be. No step is at all difficult. Plus, making the enchiladas is a wonderfully tactile experience. I find shredding the chicken and then stuffing and rolling the enchiladas by hand to be extremely satisfying. I find it gives me an extra feeling of connection to the food. The great thing is that if the tortillas start to tear a little bit here and there, it doesn't really matter all much because they're going to get slathered in more sauce and cheese.

Here is a step by step picture guide of filling and rolling enchiladas:
(ok, ok it's really just an excuse to use more of G's pictures)

Ultimately, you just can’t get around that they're absolutely decadent to eat. MMMMMMMM!!!