Mexicali Corn, Just Another Name for Corn Salsa.

I'm getting ready to make a noodle side dish to go with my seared chicken and wanted to add corn to it. In my pantry I find a can of Mexicali corn, it has corn and diced bell peppers in it, so that would work fine. The corn is a nice yellow color and firm; the peppers, however, have much to be desired as in "where the heck are the diced bell peppers!?!" They're more like flakes than actual pieces of the vegetables; there are also listed sugar and salt on the can and I'm wondering why do I need sugar in a vegetable dish? Think about the cost too; an 11 ounce can of Mexicali corn is approximately 25 to 50 cents more in cost than a 14.5 ounce can of whole kernel corn. Believe me, flakes of bell pepper do not justify a smaller quantity costing more; and if I want sugar and salt in my vegetables, I'll add them myself, thank you very much!

What exactly is Mexicali corn (aka Fiesta corn) anyway?  The name infers a cuisine fusion of Mexico with California, but both areas have corn and bell peppers; where is the distinction?  Looking up recipes in books and on the internet I have made a profound discovery; Mexicali corn is nothing more than a salsa and ingredients are determined more by the cook's tastes than locale.

Well then, instead of wasting my money on a canned product which obviously has ingredients I do not want, and actually is pretty useless altogether; I might as well make my own.  Oh wait, I already have and I named it Confetti Salsa.

Confetti Salsa

Ingredients:

 3 medium sized tomatoes, ripe and firm
1 ¼ cups whole kernel corn
1 small red onion, diced
1 large jalapeno pepper, seeded and diced
¼ cup each diced red, green and orange bell peppers
2 tsp minced garlic
1 tsp fine sea salt
¼ cup lime juice
¼ cup chopped, fresh cilantro

Preparation:

Cut tomatoes in half and scoop out fleshy pulp and seeds; cut into strips and dice. Steam the corn over boiling water until just tender; place in refrigerator to cool. Into a medium mixing bowl, add all ingredients and gently mix. Refrigerate for one hour before serving.

Makes 4 cups of salsa.


When I make the noodle side dish, I will be leaving out the tomatoes, jalapeno pepper, lime juice and cilantro; as I said, it's up to the cook's tastes.  The complete recipe?  That's for another posting at another time.

Mary Cokenour

Bruschetta Without the Bread.

Whenever Bruschetta is on a menu, it is usually listed under "Appetizers"; an Italian antipasto made with grilled bread as the base ingredient. Recently I received an eggplant and figured I would make the same old, same old eggplant parmigiana; Roy and I don't like eggplant, so this dish usually goes to his mom. Then I saw a recipe on Facebook that used eggplant as the top and bottom of a sandwich type appetizer/main course item with spaghetti and sauce as the filling. While the photo looked pretty, I truly didn't see the point of it; but it did get my mind going into a creative direction.

To the refrigerator I went to look for ingredients that would work with the eggplant; Roma tomatoes and mozzarella cheese, but then I spied the chicken cutlets I had defrosted for another recipe.  Suddenly the picture of the recipe I was to make came into my mind like little photos, and I was off!  The eggplant would be the base ingredient, just as bread was for bruschetta; olive oil, garlic, , Italian herbs, tomatoes and cheese were a given.  The chicken, however, would give the entire dish a new dimension in flavor and texture; this would be one of those recipes that could be an appetizer or a main meal.

Enough chit chat and lets get to cooking...

Eggplant-Chicken Bruschetta

Ingredients:

1 medium sized eggplant cut into 12 (1/4" thick) slices

3 tsp salt
1 tsp garlic powder
4 Tbsp olive oil, divided in half
1 Tbsp Italian herbal mix
6 pieces boneless, skinless chicken breasts (1/4" thick, cut to equal or slightly larger size than eggplant slices)
6 slices Roma tomatoes
6 slices mozzarella cheese
3 tsp grated Parmesan cheese

Preparation:

 

 

 

Line a platter or baking sheet with paper towels; lay out eggplant slices, sprinkle with salt and cover with additional paper towels.  Wait a minimum of one hour before pressing the paper towels onto the eggplant to remove excess water that has been drawn out by the salt. 

 

 

 

 

 

Heat 2 tablespoons of oil, medium-high heat, in a large skillet; place eggplant into skillet, brown one side, turn to brown other side and sprinkle garlic powder over first browned side.  Remove to paper towels.

 

Put remaining oil into skillet plus herbal mix; place chicken into skillet and brown both sides; remove to paper towels.  Preheat oven to 375F; line a baking sheet with aluminum foil.

 

Build a stack: eggplant slice, chicken piece, tomato slice, cheese slice, eggplant slice.  When all stacks are made, place on the baking sheet and top with 1/2 tsp of grated cheese.  Bake in oven for 5 to 7 minutes to allow mozzarella cheese to melt.

 

Makes 6 servings for an appetizer; Makes 3 servings for a meal.

Mary Cokenour

Yes, I Do Enjoy Going to Hong Kong.

The Hong Kong Chinese Restaurant in Cortez, Colorado that is.

Hong Kong Chinese Restaurant

332 West Main Street
Cortez, Colorado, 81321

(970) 564-8423
(970) 564-8419



Website: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Hong-Kong-Restaurant/111629405540104?rf=138238292921800

Since moving to Utah in 2009, the first Chinese restaurant we discovered as we entered Cortez was Hong Kong; and we still enjoy dining there.  We were just there recently and begged the staff to please open up a second establishment in Monticello.  The menu variety is large and we have never been disappointed in the quality or portions; the staff have always been friendly and attentive.  We usually dine in after having a shopping day in Cortez, and always notice that their take out service is busy.  While there are a few tables, the seating area is mainly booth which are comfy and clean.

There is a separate lunch menu (served 11am to 3pm), again with a large variety, and it includes soup, fried rice, egg roll and the very American fortune cookie.  In case you weren't aware, the fortune cookie is an American invention, but now it goes hand in hand with Chinese cuisine.  The prices vary from $6.55 to $7.55 and you will definitely not walk away hungry; the service is fast also for those with limited time for lunching out.





Now after a day of hiking the North Rim of Canyon de Chelly and visiting the rebuilt Four Corners Monument, we ended up at Hong Kong Chinese Restaurant starving!  We could not decide on appetizers, so ordered the PuPu Platter for Two: egg roll, paper wrapped chicken, bbq spare ribs, beef stick, fried shrimp, fried cheese wonton (filling so creamy!).  Everything was delicious and there was not a crumb left; well, ok, we didn't eat the bone on the spare rib.  My absolute favorite was the beef stick; a thin strip of steak on a wooden skewer; crisply seared edges and melt in your month tender, flavorful beef.  The usual sweet and sour sauce was served, but what we really like is that they put a dollop of Chinese hot mustard in it...love that stuff!



PuPu Platter for Two

Main entrees are two of our favorites; oh lets be honest, everything we've ever had there is on our favorites list. Anyway, from the House Specialties list we ordered "Happy Family" - shrimp, beef, chicken, vegetables in a delectable brown sauce. We also asked for fried rice to go with this dish. Tender slices of beef and chicken; the shrimp has that fresh "scrunch" to them and the vegetables were crisp; oh so good!

From the Noodle section, we ordered "Beef Chow Fun"; not the broad noodle that we became so fond of in east coast Chinese restaurants, but just as yummy. Tender slices of beef, green scallions and those wondrous noodles; this is my idea of comfort food!







I'm giving Hong Kong Chinese Restaurant a huge recommendation to you; in the mood for Chinese cuisine, then give them a try.  You will be thanking me later on.

Mary Cokenour

Improving on an Alton Brown Recipe.

Now I enjoy watching Alton Brown's show, "Good Eats", on Food Network, and, most recently, the Cooking Channel during its free preview on Dish Network. Seriously, I enjoy the Cooking Channel, but have no intention of paying more for an increased package deal when I don't want the other channels offered. Anyway, Alton did an episode on casseroles and pot pies, basically improving on the current versions that use many processed foods. I liked his newer take on the Broccoli and Cheese casserole, but not having broccoli in the vegetable bin was a deterrent. Instead, I did have a number of firm green zucchini and yellow squash and thought, "What the heck, lets try something different!".  Not only did I change the vegetable assortment, but several other ingredients like Greek yogurt instead of regular, ranch dressing instead of bleu cheese and French fried onion strips instead of Ramen noodles.  No need to use a seasoning packet from the Ramen noodles which is loaded with salt, when it's already in the French fried onion strips.

Now I'm not a big veggie eater myself, but I have to admit that this recipe came out pretty darned well.  I gave half to my mother-on-law and she loved it too, as well as my hubby.  It was not your typical broccoli and cheese casserole; the zucchini and squash picked up the flavorings from the sauce mixture and onion strips.  It is akin to a luxurious comfort food; the sauce coated the tongue and you simply wanted more.   Alton Brown was correct when he proved that using a popular processed product, Cream of Mushroom Soup, is obsolete; creating your own sauce is so much better!

Vegetable Casserole

Ingredients:

16 oz. chopped mushrooms
2 Tbsp butter
1 Tbsp saltless seasoning mixture
3 medium sized zucchini, chopped
3 medium sized yellow squash, chopped
1/2 cup mayonnaise
3/4 cup plain Greek yogurt
3/4 cup ranch dressing
2 eggs, beaten
12 oz. package shredded sharp Cheddar cheese, divided in half
1 tsp ground black pepper
6 oz. package French fried onion strips

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 350F; spray a 2 quart casserole dish with nonstick cooking spray. In a large skillet, medium heat, sauté' mushrooms in butter for five minutes. Add seasoning mixture, zucchini, yellow squash; mix together, sauté' for additional minute and remove from heat. While mushrooms are cooking, mix together in a medium bowl the mayonnaise, yogurt, ranch dressing, eggs, half the shredded cheese, black pepper and onion strips.


Into a large bowl, put in the vegetable mixture; add the wet mixture from the medium bowl and mix to coat the vegetables evenly. Spoon all into the casserole dish; cover with aluminum foil and bake for 45 minutes.






Remove foil, sprinkle remaining half of cheese evenly over top and bake for an additional 15 minutes. Let cool for 10 minutes before serving.





Makes 8 servings.

Mary Cokenour

Simple Chicken and Rice, but it's Not Average.

For about a 24 hour period, our little town didn't have any natural gas; human error had caused the lines to depressurize which meant no heat or hot water for many residents. It also meant no using the gas stove which meant no cooking up anything fresh for meals, except via the microwave. Yeah, that wasn't happening. Luckily the gas was back on before I went to work, and as soon as I came home I went to work on a very simple, comforting and delicious chicken dinner.  I call it "Simply Seared Chicken" due to that being the main method of cooking, searing; the side dish is "Risi e Bisi" or "Rice and Peas".  The side dish is a risotto which originated in Venice and goes very well with poultry or the other white meat, pork.

Now when picking out your chicken, I like using plump, boneless, skinless chicken breasts; however, they take a little longer to cook because of the thickness and usually need to be finished off in the oven.  Keeping them searing in the skillet is not a good idea for while they will finish cooking completely, the seasonings will end up burning.  A thinner cutlet can be used, or pound out the chicken breasts if you do not want to use the oven to complete the cooking.  Personally, once I cut into that thick section of chicken breast, the juices begin flowing out, mixing with the seasonings and olive oil; there is no need for any sauces or gravies!

 

Simply Seared Chicken

 

 

Ingredients:

 

1 tsp each of medium sea salt, paprika and garlic powder

1/2 tsp ground black pepper

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

3 Tbsp olive oil

 

Preparation:

 

 

 

 

 

Mix together the seasonings and sprinkle on both sides of chicken.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Heat the olive oil in a 12 inch skillet on medium-high heat; as it just begins to sizzle, add the chicken (skin side down) into the pan.  All four pieces will fit with a slight space in between each.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sear the chicken for five minutes, turn over and sear the other side for another five minutes. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Test the doneness by slicing open the thickest part of the breast.  If it is still undercooked, place the chicken into a baking pan and finish off cooking in a 350F oven for three to five minutes.

 

 

 

The Risi e Bisi can be cooking at the same time you are preparing the chicken; a main and side dish done at the same time!

 

Risi e Bisi (rice and peas)

 

1 Tbsp olive oil

2 Tbsp butter

1 Tbsp minced garlic

1 cup Arborio rice

4 cups warmed chicken stock

1 cup frozen peas, defrosted and warmed

3 Tbsp grated Parmesan cheese

 

Preparation:

 

In a deep, large skillet, medium-heat, melt the butter with the olive oil; add the rice and toast it for two minutes; add the garlic and mix thoroughly.  Add 1 and 1/2 cups of stock, bring to a low boil (just beginning to bubble); stir until the liquid is fully absorbed into the rice.  Continue adding in half cups of stock, letting it be fully absorbed by the rice before adding more; stir constantly.  The rice should be al dente within 20 minutes at which time the peas and cheese can be added and mixed in.

 

Both the chicken and side dish recipes are for four servings.  Simple, easy, comforting and very delicious; how can you go wrong!?!

 

Mary Cokenour

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Umami Slow Cooker Boneless Pork Ribs.

A friend of mine shared a recipe on Facebook about making a pork tenderloin in a slow cooker.  I wanted to try it out and the local market happened to have pork loin roasts on sale for $1.99 per pound.  However, just above the roasts were these lean and lovely looking "Boneless Pork Ribs" also known as "Country Style Pork Ribs".  Essentially these ribs are a pork loin roast that has been trimmed and cut into thick strips that resemble ribs, and they just happened to be the same price as the roasts.  If I can have the easy way out, I'll take it; the butcher had already trimmed off the fat, so I wouldn't waste money buying the roast, trimming it down and throwing away the fat cap which was part of that price per pound.  I bought the boneless ribs and already knew I would be changing that shared recipe to make it my own.




First thing I had to do was brine the pork; brining will open up the fibers in the pork meat to allow it to absorb the liquid and flavors it is being cooked in.  It's a simple three step process; step one is put the trimmed pork meat into a ceramic, glass or plastic container.  Don't use a metal container as the salt will have a chemical reaction with the metal elements.








Second step is to put cold water into the container and enough to cover the meat.







The third step is to add the salt; I usually add one tablespoon per two pounds, so the six pounds of ribs required three tablespoons.  I just sprinkled the salt on top of the water, used my hand to mix it into the water (water will get cloudy), and moved the ribs around to make sure they were loose in the water.  I covered the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerated them for two hours.  Because the pork was cut into pieces, the brine would be able to get into the meat quicker, since there was more surface exposed.  If brining a large piece of meat, such as a roast or an uncut slab of ribs, give it a good six to 12 hours for the brine to make it completely inside and tenderize those fibers.




Now the sauce for the original recipe required: soy sauce, yellow mustard, maple syrup, olive oil, dried onions, garlic salt or powder.  Well I already had salt in my recipe by using the brine technique, so garlic salt was out, garlic powder was in.  Soy sauce also has salt in it, so I needed to think of another substitute and Hoisin sauce was it because of the smoky flavor it contained.  Olive oil?  I wasn't understanding the addition of that; that was now out, but I did spray the inside of my crock pot with nonstick cooking spray.  I began to think about the different flavors all these ingredients were going to give to the pork meat, and that is when I decided to look up that new fad word on the cooking shows...Umami.  Umami is the "fifth taste"; savory - a pleasant brothy or meaty flavor which makes the mouth water.  It is long lasting on the tongue and coats the inside of the mouth which contributes to the mouth watering experience.  My sauce ingredients needed to have sweet, salty, bitter, sour and savory; but I didn't stop there, I decided that heat and smoky needed to be added.  It was pork and it needed to party!


Sweet - maple syrup
Sour - yellow mustard
Bitter - onions
Salty - hoisin sauce and the brine
Savory - hoisin sauce and garlic powder
Heat - ground cayenne pepper
Smoky - hoisin sauce

Notice that Hoisin sauce plays a major role with the different flavors; when it comes to Asian cooking, instead of sticking with only soy or teriyaki sauces, experiment with Hoisin.


Using the slow cooker, any meat or poultry will exude juices and a "gravy" will form.  Adding cornstarch to the sauce ensured a luscious gravy that would be rich, flavorful, not too thick or thin, and perfect over the meat or poultry and a side such as rice, potatoes, noodles or stuffing.   Now if you want your meat to have a glaze or crust of some kind, then skip the slow cooker and roast in the oven instead.   Place the meat or poultry on a rack, so the juices go to the pan's bottom (make sure you put broth or water in the pan) and you can make your gravy later on.

So here is my new take on the recipe posted on Facebook; it did make my mouth water and I kept going back for one more piece; then one more piece; oh one more wouldn't hurt.

Umami Slow Cooker Boneless Pork Ribs

Ingredients:

6 lbs boneless pork ribs (aka country style ribs)
water
3 Tbsp salt

Sauce:
1/2 cup Hoisin sauce
2 Tbsp yellow mustard
1/2 cup pure maple syrup
1 cup diced onion
3 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp ground cayenne pepper
4 Tbsp cornstarch

Preparation:

Place the pork inside a large bowl, cover with water; add salt and move meat around to mix salt throughout. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for two hours.

Spray the inside of a 6 quart crock pot with nonstick cooking spray; remove pork from water(do not rinse), pat dry and place inside crock pot.

Mix together ingredients for sauce; pour over meat and work down between pieces with a spatula or spoon. Cover, set on low and cook for 6 hours.


Makes six servings.

Mary Cokenour

Bitter Bertolli Face.

Did you ever see those beer commercials with the tag line of "Don't have bitter beer face!"?  When it comes to Bertolli's Rustico Bakes or Al Dente microwave pasta meals, I get bitter Bertolli face.  Even though I do not like Bertolli's Meal or Soup for Two (available in frozen section of supermarket), I had two $1.50 coupons for the new microwave meals, so decided to give them a try; one Rustico Bakes and one Al Dente.  I should have known, from not liking their frozen bagged meals, that these new ones wouldn't stand up to taste either, but I had to find out for myself.

Lets begin with Rustico Bakes - Ricotta and Spinach Cannelloni; the portion is generous (3 cannelloni); however the taste and texture are severely lacking.  The cannelloni pasta is undercooked; it is not al dente ("to the tooth"), but more like too starchy and sticking to the teeth.  The ricotta cheese filling is smooth and tasty,  but are those flakes spinach?  I could not tell as they are so small and flavorless; I could not tell the difference between them and the herbal flakes in the sauce.  The Alfredo sauce I do not understand for this dish; white on white sauce; cheese sauce flavoring a cheese filling, and very garlicky.  The petite diced tomatoes are what really killed the meal; they were so bitter that I couldn't help but make that "yuck!" face.

Bertolli Rustico Bakes - Ricotta and Spinach Cannelloni

Now comes Al Dente - Chicken Chardonnay and Penne; a generous portion of penne pasta cooked perfectly this time; sadly that is all that is right with this meal.  The chicken looks like two chicken nuggets that were cut in half, giving you four total pieces.  The breading was bland, the chicken meat was dry and stringyThe sauce was very bitter and tasted heavily of wine; again with the bitter tomatoes.   After giving it a good 3 forkfuls of testing, into the trash it went; so I may have saved with the coupons, but I still ended up wasting money on both meals.

Bertolli Al Dente - Chicken Chardonnay and Penne

 



















Bertolii might consider their products an example of fine and classic Italian cuisine, but they are way off the mark. Save yourself the money and either go to a real Italian restaurant or learn to make it from scratch.

Mary Cokenour