Guatemalan Enchiladas

You’ve probably heard of enchiladas before, but you might be thinking about a rolled tortilla filled with chicken, or beef, topped with melted cheese and sauce, which is more of a Mexican enchilada. These enchiladas, our Guatemalan enchiladas, are made by topping a fried tortilla (called a Tostada) with lettuce, pickled beet and vegetable mix, ground beef and tomato sauce…and the last touch, a sprinkling of dried Guatemalan cheese (Queso Seco).

Historically, this dish dates back to the XVIII. Enchiladas do require some work, so it’s not a dish you regularly have at home. Thankfully, back at home we get to enjoy it pretty much every two months. this is one of the few ways that dad won’t get tired of eating his veggies. Thankfully, at my parent’s home we have Chila, who comes to help us with the kitchen, and is an expert when it comes to local food. So here you have it, Guatemalan Enchiladas!

Guatemalan Enchiladas

Ingredients:
4 carrots
4 beets
2 lbs ground beef
2 chayotes (güisquil)
2 celery stalks
2 red bell peppers
1 head of garlic (adjust to your taste)
1 lb of green beans
2 bay leaves (dried)
½ a cabbage
½ lb onions
10 tostadas
20 oz olive oil
10 oz white vinegar
10 lettuce leaves
10 tomatoes
3 hard boiled eggs, sliced
¼ cup dried Guatemalan Cheese (Queso Seco)
salt and pepper
chopped cilantro

Procedure:

Some of the steps need to be made a day ahead, once these ingredients are ready you can start assembling the Enchilada. Those ingredients are the filling, the onion escabeche, vegetable mix and tomato sauce. The recipe calls for 1 head of garlic, which you will use in the filling recipe, in the vegetable mix recipe and the tomato sauce recipe. Feel free to adjust the garlic amount to your own personal taste.

Filling:

Chop one of the red bell peppers, with half of the green beans, half of the carrots, half of the chayotes, half of the garlic head (or your adjusted amount of garlic), and half of the cabbage. No onions, beets, celery or tomatoes here.
Add a bit of oil to a large hot pan, and brown your beef.
Season with salt and pepper and add all the chopped vegetables.
Let it cook until all the liquid has evaporated.

Onion “Escabeche”

Cut onions into quarters, and then slice and separate the pieces.
Mix olive oil, vinegar, salt and pepper to taste.
Add onion rings and let them sit for at least 24 hrs in a covered jar.

Vegetable Mix:

Julienne or chop the rest of the vegetables you had left over. You’ll use the remaining carrots, chayotes, garlic (to taste), and cabbage this time you’ll include the beets.
Cook them in boiling water, with the 2 bay leaves, except for the beets. Those are cooked in a separate pot. Don’t over cook them, it should only take a few minutes.
Mix the vegetables, and let them cool.
Refrigerate and mix with the onion escabeche.
Let this mixture rest for at least half a day.

Tomato Sauce:

Cook the tomatoes, celery stalks and remaining red bell pepper and garlic (to taste).
Pure in the blender, return to the pot and season with salt and pepper to taste

Assembly:

Take a tostada, cover with a lettuce leaf.
Top the lettuce with the beef filling.
Top this with the vegetable and escabeche mix.
Next, top with tomato sauce.
Decorate with a few sliced hard boiled egg, sprinkle with dried cheese, and chopped cilantro.

Source: Hotel Panamerican, Guatemala

10:12 AM
2 Comments
- Chapin, Enchiladas, Guatemala, Guatemalan
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Freezer Method & Slow Cooking: Beef & Vegetable Goulash

Browsing through Pinterest (isn’t it addictive?!) I saw quite a few pins on slow cooking meals and frozen meals. I could certainly use the help this stew freezer method of cooking brings to someone with a tight schedule, like me. I tried a couple of recipes and let me tell you, this method IS a lifesaver. And not only that, the recipes are really delicious. I wouldn’t do this every day, but I do like to prepare them at least once a week, especially for my busiest day which is Monday.

First thing to do, is defrost your meat. I do that on Sunday, at noon. Prepare the recipe, which in my case, yields for two meals because you divide the whole thing into 2 resealable freezer bags and each bag is enough for 4 servings. Mark each bag with the cooking instructions (see my photo). At night I throw all the ingredients from one of the bags into my slow cooker, I turn it on Low at about 10pm before I go to sleep, and on Monday morning my meal is ready. I can forget about it and not worry about how I’m going to squeeze in the time to make lunch between house duties, office duties, picking Kristen up from school and taking her to swim class. (I have to get to all that before lunch time, which on Monday’s is at 2). I know a lot of us have hectic days like those, so I hope you will give this method a try.

The key is to organize yourself. Pick out at least 2 recipes and get the ingredients you need for one day of chopping and mixing. You’ll have a month’s worth of once a week freezer meals ready to help you out on your busiest days.

Freezer Method: Beef & Vegetable Goulash

Recipe adapted from Mama and Baby Love

Ingredients
Yields: 2 freezer bags, 4 serving each.

3 cups chopped onions
2 cups coarsely chopped green bell peppers.
2 cups of sliced mushrooms
2 cups of carrots, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
3 potatoes, peeled and roughly chopped
1 cup of cooked peas (fresh or frozen)
2-3 pounds beef stew meat, cut into one inch cubes
2 500 gram cartons of crushed pureed tomatoes
2 tablespoons of paprika
2 tablespoon flour
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 cup of white wine

Note: When you’re ready to cook, and you have transferred your prepared meal to your slow cooker, add some fresh herbs: 1 bay leaf and 1 spring of thyme.

Procedure:

Mix everything and divide into two gallon freezer bags, shake it up, seal, label and put in the freezer.
Day of cooking, defrost your bag ahead of time. dump it into your slow cooker and cook on high for 4 to 6 hours, or low 6-8 hours, depending on your specific slow cooker.
I make white rice to go with this, but cooked noodles are also a great choice. You can add a little sour cream on top before serving.
Enjoy!

10:38 AM
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- Beef, dinner, freezer cooking, goulash, Lunch, make ahead, slow cooker, Vegetables
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TFK Grilled Cheeseburgers

It’s grilling season! This is a great opportunity for me to share our homemade grilled burger recipe with you. We got together with our group of friends to take advantage of the beautiful weather we had been having in Guatemala before the rainy season began, one of them – Felipe- has a great little grill in his backyard so it was the perfect setting. Friends, food, sun, beer. Plus, I would get to try out the recipes from my new cookbook : Bobby Flay’s Burgers, Fries and Shakes.
It rained.

To entertain ourselves while the rain passed, we had a few beers and a couple of drinks…or more, and listened to music. Fortunately, the rain did pass (as well as the afternoon) and we headed outside to start grilling our prepared burger patties and vegetables. I don’t have a lot of pics like we normally do for our posts, I couldn’t get a good photo of food outdoors and at night!

Anyway, the recipe I chose for the burger patties ended up being a mixture of Bobby Flay’s tips and Saveur’s hamburger edition ingredient recommendations. I added some bread crumbs, an egg, worcestershire sauce and a few spices to my ground beef and ground pork mixture. I made a 70% beef – 30% pork combination for my patties, I just like the flavor the burgers get from pork. And also, I didn’t get lean beef. I bought 80% ground beef. When you’re grilling, you want a little fat in there for flavor. We used a lot of additions for this, which… not to toot our own horns, but we assembled a damn good burger. It had caramelized onions (thanks, Edith!), bacon, pickles, chipotle mayonnaise, a choice of monterrey jack or swiss cheese, the works!

So gather your family or friends and heat up the grill! You’ll have a great time and I guarantee everyone will love them. We served them with oven roasted fries and to finish it off, we treated our friends with Strawberry Peach Vodka Collins Poptails.

TFK Grilled Cheeseburgers

Recipe adapted from Bobby Flay and Saveur
Yields: 5 hamburgers (almost 6 oz each)

Ingredients:

2 lbs ground beef (you can mix 1 1/2 lb beef and 1/2 lb ground pork)
1 1/2 tablespoons ancho chili powder
1 teaspoon ground cumin
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
2 teaspoons onion powder
1 egg lightly beaten
2 teaspoons worcestershire sauce
2 tablespoons of herbed bread crumbs

5 Hamburger buns

Additons:
Romaine lettuce
Tomatoes, thinly sliced
Swiss Cheese, sliced
Monterrey Jack Cheese, sliced
Caramelized Onions
Crisp Bacon strips
Pickles, sliced
Chipotle Mayonnaise
Ketchup
Dijon mustard

Procedure:

In a large bowl mix all the ingredients together. Don’t overwork the meat, mix everything until it is well combined. (If you pack the meat too much and overwork it, it can cause the burger to become mealy and overly dense.
Divide meat into 5 equal pieces. You can use a scale to make sure you have an average of 6 oz patties. I find that 8oz is a bit too much, but it’s up to you. If you prefer a thicker patty, go for 8oz. Also, be aware of the circumference of your bun. The burgers will shrink a little while cooking.
Thick burger patties tend to puff up in the middle while they cook. Making a depression in the top of the patty using the back of a measuring spoon helps the burger hold its shape.
You can prepare the meat patties ahead of time, by stacking them between pieces of wax paper. Keep refrigerated and well sealed up to one day.
When grilling time comes: Heat coals in a charcoal grill until they glow bright orange and ash over. Brush the burgers with oil. Grill them until golden brown and slightly charred on the first side, about 3 minutes. Flip the burgers over. Cook until golden brown and slightly charred on the second side, about 4 minutes for medium rare.

For Assembly:

Lightly brown the sides of the hamburger buns, which will help them from getting soggy.
I have a system for assembling my hamburgers to help them from falling apart: The first thing that goes on the bread are 2 lettuce leaves, then the hamburger patty, followed by your choice of cheese, tomato, bacon, caramelized onions and pickles. I prefer to squeeze mayonnaise, ketchup and mustard right on top instead of spreading it on the top bun.
Devour.

I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as we did!