Chicken Enchiladas Suizas

When I was oh, 18 or so, my dad got me my first REAL cook book.  The gold standard for "just starting out cooks" - The Better Homes & Gardens, red and white checkered tome.  I have no idea which edition it is, but it definitely helped me develop my love of cooking - especially with recipes like their Chicken Enchiladas Suizas.  I don't even know if that's what they call the recipe in the book, but that's what it is.  I loved this recipe so much, that at some point, I removed the page from the handy dandy three ring binder, and promptly lost it.  I made it so often, that for a while it didn't matter that the recipe was gone.  That was years ago unfortunately, and I have been missing it ever since.  Today, oh frabjous day, I found the recipe online.  I have searched high and low for this one - coming up upon many false contenders that CLAIMED to be the BH&G enchiladas but WERE NOT (though I don't remember my version using the coriander - I'll give it a whirl).  Hallelujah.  Guera-ladas will be back on the menu once again!!

Guera-ladas
8 corn tortillas
1/2 cup Chopped onion
4 cloves Garlic, minced
1 teaspoon Ground coriander
1/4 teaspoon Pepper
2 tablespoons Margarine or butter
3 tablespoons All-purpose flour
1 8-ounce Carton sour cream
2 cups Chicken broth
1 4-ounce can diced
Green chili peppers, drained
1 cup Shredded Monterey Jack
Cheese
2 cups Chopped cooked chicken or
Turkey
Sliced pitted ripe olives (optional)
Chopped tomatoes (optional)
Sliced green onions

 

Wrap tortillas in foil. Heat in a 350° oven for 10 to 15 minutes or till softened.
For sauce, in a saucepan cook onion, garlic, coriander, and pepper in margarine or butter till onion is tender. Stir flour into sour cream; add to onion mixture. Stir in broth and chili peppers all at once. Cook and stir till thickened and bubbly Remove from heat; stir in 1/2 cup of the cheese.
For filling, stir 1/2 cup of the sauce into chicken. Place about 1/4 cup filling atop each tortilla; roll up. Arrange rolls, seam side down, in a lightly greased 12x71/2x2-inch baking dish. Top with remaining sauce. Bake, covered, in a 350° oven about 35 minutes or till heated through.
Sprinkle with remaining cheese. Bake, uncovered, about 5 minutes more or till cheese melts. If desired, sprinkle with olives, tomatoes, and green onions. Let stand 10 minutes. Makes 4 servings.

Balsamic Onion Dip

 I admit - not the best photo in the world.

 For whatever reason, I got a hankering for onion dip something fierce the other day (I probably saw it on a menu somewhere).  Guess I really should go back to Phase I of South Beach to kick those cravings, but in the meantime, I decided to just try making my own, so it could be healthier.  How hard could it be right?  Well, version 1 turned out okay - yummy and definitely edible, just not as rich as I was hoping for.  I have some ideas for tweaks - onion powder, Worcestershire, etc.  I even did a little bit of reconnaissance after the fact to see if I had missed some key component that everyone else knew about and hadn't told me.  It doesn't appear so since Alton Brown's recipe looked even blander than mine (and mayo, ew).  However, I really liked the idea over here about adding tofu to the mix for more protein.  (Especially as I sit here making a meal out of baby carrots dunked in it.)  I still want to stick to the balsamic vinegar since that's a flavor profile I love, especially with onion, especially since I fell in love with these sea salt & balsamic vinegar chips in Australia (OMG SO GOOD).  I see that Kettle sells this flavor in the UK, and now I'm praying I can buy them online and have them shipped.
Maybe these ones by Boulder Canyon would be good. . . ANYWAY.  Dip.

I set my sweetie to work with the mandolin and got to caramelizing, but if you're going to chuck these in the food processor as I did, you may not need to worry about slicing quite so thinly.  Also, you can get creative with the base.  Try strained Greek Yogurt for a bit more tang, or maybe cream cheese for a cream cheese spread, or a combo of sour cream and mayo like a traditional dip.  Serve with your favorite dippables - when being healthy I go with veggies of course, but whole wheat baked pita crisps would be great as well.  If you're not a waistline watcher, just go with chips, yum!

Balsamic Onion Dip
2 yellow onions, thinly sliced
1 red onion, thinly sliced
2-3 tbsp olive oil
2-3 tbsp balsamic vinegar
Kosher salt to taste (I used about 1 1/2 tsp)
freshly ground pepper to taste (I used about 1/2 tsp)
1 16 oz container of lowfat (or non fat) sour cream

Heat up a tbsp of olive oil in a large skillet over medium - high heat.  Caramelize the onions* in batches so you don't overcrowd your pan (I did four separate batches for this amount of onions in the pan size I had, though you could probably get away with three).  If you don't listen to me now and you chuck them all in at once you'll end up just sweating and steaming your onions and they'll go all flaccid and weird, and not caramelized at all.  We do not want this.
Once the onions are nicely caramelized, stir in the balsamic vinegar and turn off the heat.  Allow to cool, and put in the food processor for a smoother dip, with the onions more evenly dispersed, or leave whole if you want folks to hit a nice chunk of yummy onion.

As I mentioned, I think I'll tweak this a bit by adding more vinegar, and maybe some Worcestershire sauce and a bit of onion powder, maybe a kick more salt.

*It should probably be noted that I am not an official onion caramelizer.  It rarely takes me more than 10-12 minutes to "caramelize" my onions, so please don't feel like you have to let them cook for 20-40 minutes as suggested by some recipes.  If you do, they'll be incredible, of course, but I don't find it necessary to let them go that long for most of my impatient purposes.

Stroganoff

Last night for the First Official Roommate Dinner I tried to combine a healthy "South Beach" version of chicken stroganoff, with beef stroganoff, which I thought McRoomie would like better.
It was kind of meh so I'm going to have to work on this.

Beef Stroganoff
1 lb or so of beef loin, thinly sliced (I freeze it for an hour or so to get it firm enough to slice easily)
1-2 cloves minced garlic
1 medium onion, chopped
1 medium red bell pepper, chopped
3 cups of sliced mushrooms
1/3 cup beef broth
1/4 French red wine
1 1/2 cups lowfat sour cream
salt and pepper
olive oil
whole wheat pappardelle pasta

Put the pasta water on to boil and chop your veggies and meat. Once the water is boiling, cook your pasta but don't forget about it or it will get gummy.
Put 1-2 tbsp of olive oil in a large pan and heat over medium high. Add garlic and onions and cook for a minute or two until fragrant and soft. Add bell pepper, mushrooms, broth and wine. It should be noted that while I liked the flavors I got from the broth and the wine, my sauce was a bit thin for my liking, so I might cut back. In fact, I might just use a tsp or so of the concentrated beef broth that comes in the little one cup packets from Trader Joe's, instead of mixing it with water as the directions on the package state. That way I'll get the meaty flavor, with a bit less liquid. The mushrooms added a ton of their own, so I think this would work well.
Lay strips of beef on top of mushrooms and cook for a minute or so, flipping and stirring as necessary to cook the meat.
Stir in the sour cream and salt and pepper to taste.
Drain the pasta and add it to the pan, stir to coat, serve, and ruminate over what you'll do differently next time. Consider sticking to the super yummy South Beach Swedish Meatball recipe from here on out.