Showing posts with label mexican. Show all posts
Showing posts with label mexican. Show all posts

Wednesday, 3 August 2011

Stewed Pork, Veggie Salsa & Flatbread.

I don't know if stewed pork is the right word. Or vegetable salsa, for that matter. But that's what I'm calling it.



They made flatbreads on This Morning, errr, this morning, and I was all "OOOO. I shall make that."

Serves 2, but there was a lot, and some leftover salsa...

Need:
One pork chop, fat/bones removed
One red onion
One courgette
Two cloves garlic
One tomato
4 medium mushrooms
Half a tin chopped tomatoes

Plain flour
Water
Coriander
Tarragon
Cayenne Pepper
Chilli Powder
Salt
Pepper
One vegetable stock cube
Olive oil
Honey

Lettuce + 1/2 an avocado per person to serve.

That seems like a lot, but a lot was leftovers/things that needed to be eaten!


Do:
Remove the bones/fat from the pork. Flatten and tenderise (translation - hit it with a rolling pin for a bit), and chop into cubes. Place in an oven proof dish.

Take half of the onion and half of the courgette and chop finely, adding to the dish. Crush a garlic clove into the dish (I used a garlic crusher as opposed to the garlic card. You want minced garlic, rather than puree, if possible, but finely chopped will do). Add sprinkles of salt, pepper, coriander, tarragon and cayenne pepper, then a drizzle of olive oil. Cover and place in fridge for at least an hour (I made mine at about 3pm and we ate about half 6...)

For the flatbreads, mix plain flour, salt and water. Roll out to desired size an shape - seriously, they can be any size or shape. I went for a naan-y look, and probably made enough dough for 4 decent sized ones rather than the 3 big ones I made, but you can always make more flatbreads than needed and eat the others cold for lunch the next day or something. Simple and versatile!

To the pork mix add a veggie stock cube and enough water to cover the ingredients (It'll make a watery sauce but we don't need to serve this...), then put in the oven at around 200 degrees - it should take about 25/30 mins for the pork to be tender. I had a sit down for 15 mins before finishing the rest, but then I had pre-prepared by flatbread dough...

Finely chop the other half of the onion, the other half of the courgette, one tomato and the mushrooms (you can use any amount of any of these, really, just we had mushrooms and courgette to use up and not that many tomatoes in the house...). Add the onion and the other minced garlic clove to a pan (I recommend a large saucepan rather than a frying pan) with olive oil. After 2 mins, add the other veg. Fry until soft, then add the chopped tomatoes. Again, this was a leftover, and if you only have full tins use one of those - I had to add a bit of water and some ketchup to get a decent amount of tomato-y sauce!

Add a big squirt of honey and salt, pepper, coriander and chilli powder and simmer, reducing the sauce so that all the veg is covered but it's not runny.

While the salsa is reducing, fry the flatbreads in a little olive oil - preferably in a griddle pan, for that nice patterned burn look, yknow.

Serve!

Friday, 13 August 2010

Tortillas.

decided on a whim that i'd like a wrap for tea the other night, but had no change on me to pop to the corner shop for tortilla wraps. a quick google told me i had all the ingredients and so i set about making em from scratch!
scroll down for tortilla recipes and some filling suggestions inc. one veggie/vegan option...

chicken & avocado tortillas with spicy rice

tortillas
this is really still in trial and error phase - i've made them on two occasions, both producing great tortillas, but of different sizes and amounts of tortillas. as such, this will, i think, make 2 decent sized tortillas (about 10 inches across, but very unlikely to be circular!)

4 heaped tablespoons plain flour
large dash of salt
1 tablespoon olive oil
warmed up milk (add as necessary)
pepper (optional)

you can also add other herbs/spices/flavourings as desired, but these make great plain tortillas!

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add flour, salt, pepper and olive oil to a bowl and stir together with a spoon. gradually add the milk (i heated a little through in the microwave) and stir or whisk 'til you have a slightly sticky dough. turn it out onto a floured surface and knead, knead, knead for a few minutes - it should take the stickiness out of the dough! split the ball into smaller balls (one for each tortilla) and leave to rest in the fridge for about half an hour.

heat a little olive oil in a non-stick frying pan.
flour up a rolling pin and a bench and roll out your tortilla - they should be as thin as possible, and you're trying to get them round (but mine were either square or wonky; no matter). you can also pick them up and let gravity do it's thing if they're thin enough! whack them in your pan for about a minute on each side (they should crisp up a bit and, well, look like tortillas!) then stick them on a plate. they can then either be filled or you can cover them in cling film and leave them in the fridge for a couple of days - great if you like to eat wraps instead of sandwiches!


**the website i got this from also included baking powder but i had none and didn't notice a difference!


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now you've got your tortillas, you can fill 'em. these are three fillings i've had in my tortillas over the last couple of days - 2 chicken-y numbers for tea (with homemade fries and spicy rice, respectively) and one for veggie lunch option.

chicken and humous - fills two tortillas (or one large one)

one small chicken breast, cut into strips & marinated
half a tomato, thinly sliced
1/2 a small white onion, sliced
1/3 red pepper, sliced
1/3 yellow pepper, sliced
a big dollop of humous
1 heaped tablespoon natural yoghurt
mint

for the marinade: olive oil, plus squirts and splashes of ketchup, honey, worcester sauce and fish sauce, and some chilli powder, basil, salt and pepper.

- slice your chicken and stick it in the marinade (i did this while my tortilla dough was resting), then put it in the fridge.

- the mint yoghurt is THE EASIEST THING EVER and is great. literally, sprinkle mint into some natural yoghurt. keep tasting it to get to the desired mint-y level and leave to one side...

- fry your chicken in a little olive oil for a minute, then add in the peppers and onions and continue frying until cooked through.

- spread humous on the tortilla - you should keep your fillings to the centre of the tortilla, leaving space at the bottom too! - then lay the sliced tomato on top. if you want to add salad (spinach is a great choice) put this on too, then top it off with your chicken-y mixture. dollop the mint yoghurt on top then fold the bottom up and the sides over each other! (i'm keeping mine together with skewers in the pic...)


chicken and avocado - fills two tortillas (or one large one)


one small chicken breast, cut into strips & marinated
half an avocado, sliced
dollop of cream cheese

relish:
half a tomato, roughly chopped
1/3 large red onion, sliced
2 small mushrooms, roughly chopped
chilli powder
large squirt of ketchup
a little worcester sauce

marinade:
tablespoon natural yoghurt

tablespoon lemon juice
teaspoon honey
big sprinkle of coriander
little sprinkle worcester sauce
pepper
salt

- as before, slice and marinade the chicken.

- for the relish, add the onion and tomato to a little olive oil in a pan and fry for a minute, then add the mushroom and fry for another minute. add the other relish ingredients and keep it simmering until the rest is ready.

- fry the chicken for a few minutes; until cooked through.

- spread the cream cheese as before. add the sliced avocado and the chicken on top of that, then place



the relish on top


and wrap. this was my favourite wrap of the three! the chicken marinade is wonderful.





(leftover relish goes into spicy rice, along with some peas. alternatively you can leave it in the fridge for another time!)




humous, tomato and avocado - fills one tortilla

one big dollop of humous
half a tomato, thinly sliced
1/4 avocado, thinly sliced
a little salad

this is simple - just layer up the ingredients, starting with the humous (i find wraps are best when they go like this: spreadable things/slices of things/chunks of things/sauces&relishes).
add some basil or pepper if you'd like!
this would probably be great with some cheese on top too!