Wednesday, November 29, 2006

Huitlacoche enchiladas

This recipe does not have a lot of garlic, but I thought it was interesting to post.

Huitlacoche, or corn smut is the mushroom (fungus) that grows on corn (or maize). Some people think it's gross because it's black, but it's really delicious. It tastes like a combination of mushroom and corn. Here is the whole Wikipedia article on corn smut (link).
There are two steps in making the enchiladas. The first is the huitlacoche filling.
Go to Kensington Market and get a can of huitlacoche at Perola's.
You will also need onion, garlic, serrano chiles, corn oil and salt. The challenge here is actually figuring out the amounts, since I just chopped the ingredients and made the filling without measuring. I used about 3/4 of an onion, 4 cloves of garlic and 3 chiles.
Ingredients
Place the onion, garlic and serrano chiles in the food processor and chop.
Step1
Saute the onion+garlic+chile combination with a pinch of salt on medium heat and about 2 teaspoons of oil.
Saute
When the onion is brown, add the contents of the can of huitlacoche and saute for about 10 minutes at reduced heat. The huitlacoche is black, do not be turned off by that.
Do not add more salt since the canned huitlacoche is usually already salted.
Huitlacoche
Set aside and proceed to make the sauce.

The ingredients for the green sauce are:
Tomatillos, onion, garlic, cilantro, serrano chile and the "secret" ingredient, a teaspoon of Knorr vegetable broth. Again I don't have specific amounts, I just calculated according to what I had.
Ingredients sauce
Chop all the ingredients in the food processor until smooth. This is a really good green salsa and you can keep some of it for later use on quesadillas or tacos.
Chop
For the enchiladas you need to cook the salsa, I used about 2 teaspoons of corn oil and cooked it in a pot simmering for about 12 minutes.
Cook

To make enchiladas, the tortillas have to be fried. I calculated 3 enchiladas per person, so I fried 6 tortillas. This has to be done at the last minute because you don't want the tortillas to be cold and soggy when your guests eat.


To serve the enchiladas, just after frying the tortilla, fill each one with some hot huitlacoche filling, fold them and cover them in sauce. Serve with sour cream on top. I also served a side of sliced avocado.
Serve

Here's a link to my previous enchilada recipe, another vegetarian meal that I prepared back in May, corn enchiladas.

Thursday, November 23, 2006

Sorry for the lack of posting, I've been SUPER busy. Here's a link for Thanksgiving Turkey with 140 cloves of garlic.
What? 140 cloves of garlic?
Yeah, delicious!

http://www.ibiblio.org/uncpress/chapters/barker_recipes.html

Tuesday, November 7, 2006

Rice with Veggies

This is garlic-intensive, and has one of my favourite ingredients: chick peas!

Ingredients:
1 Cup Chopped onion
1 cup rice
8 large garlic cloves, slivered
1 cup canned chick peas, rinsed and drained
2 cups water
2 teaspoons chicken bouillon powder
1 Cup frozen green beans, thawed
1 Cup butternut squash
1 Cup broccoli florets
1 Cup canned and drained corn kernels
2 Teaspoons soy sauce

Directions:
1. Heat oil in large skillet. Add onion and saute until golden.
2. Add garlic and fry it being careful not to burn it or it will turn bitter.
3. Add rice saute 1 minute.
4. Add 2 cups water and chicken bouillon; bring to boil. Reduce heat, cover tightly and cook until rice is tender and almost all liquid is absorbed, about 35
minutes.
5. Uncover skillet and place green beans, chick peas, squash, broccoli and corn evenly over surface of rice. Cover and cook until vegetables are
crisp-tender, about 10 minutes.
6. Remove from heat. Mix in soy sauce. Toss.
7. Enjoy!

Thursday, November 2, 2006

The Garlic Rose Bistro

Looking around for garlic recipes I ran into this restaurant
The Garlic Rose Bistro in New Jersey
As Garlicster readers know, I have been to Garlics in London Ontario and I sent my parents and sister to go to The Stinking Rose in California.
Has anyone visited The Garlic Rose Bistro? I am seriously thinking of scheduling a trip to New Jersey to visit this restaurant, the menu looks delicious:
Three Onion and Garlic Soup
West Coast Garlic Chowder
Garlic Rose Pork Chop
Garlic Rose Crab Cakes
And other really really delicious things.