Chicken Fajitas

I don't know how does this happen, but every time I go shopping for something I finally buy something completely different! Like today for example, we went to buy candles and ended up in front of the stand with ingredients for ethnic food. So, eventually, we bought tortilla wraps, special spice mix and Mexican salsa and made Fajitas for dinner! Yum!

INGREDIENTS:

4 large corn tortillas

1 whole skinless, boneless chicken breast

1 medium onion, cut in wedges

1 green and 1 red bell peppers, sliced

2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

1 cup spring onions, finely chopped

3 tbsp fresh parsley, finely chopped

juice of half lime

1 cup canned red kidney beans, mushed

2 tbsp avocado oil for frying (I used chilly flavored avocado oil for extra spicy taste)

3 tbsp fajitas spice mix dissolved in 1/2 cup water

1 cup Mexican salsa (I chose mild salsa but it's totally up to you!)

1/2 tsp ground coriander

1 tsp hot smoked chilly flakes

salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Guacamole or low-fat thick yogurt to serve (optional)

1. Season the chicken breast with salt and pepper and grill it until golden outside and cooked through. Cut in small stripes.

2. In a heavy pan heat the oil. Stir fry the peppers, onions and garlic. Do not overcook the vegetables! They should be slightly cooked but still crunchy. Set aside.

3. Pour some more oil to the pan and add the chicken, diced tomatoes, salsa and fajitas mix and cook for few minutes until the most of the liquid evaporates.

4. Return the vegetables to the pan and add spring onions, parsley and lime juice. Mix well, season with coriander, chilly flakes, salt and pepper and set aside, allowing for flavors to mix.

5. Brush the tortillas with some oil and warm them in a pan.

6. Divide the mushed kidney beans in 4 parts and spread each part over one tortilla. Place some of the chicken mix in the middle of the tortilla, pour some guacamole or yogurt if using, and roll into a tight wrap. Enjoy!

Red Bean Chilli con Carne

Last weekend I really wanted to cook some new, saucy Mexican dish. As I was turning the pages of the cooking book I saw the following recipe and it was so colorful that I immediately felt my mouth getting wet. It was really hard to resist, especially given that I had all the necessary ingredients in my kitchen. The only alternation that I made was to use canned beans instead of dried once (more or less double amount compared to the dried once). This way I avoided the overnight soaking part of the recipe so I could start directly.

INGREDIENTS:

1 1/2 cups dried red beans

500 gr lean beef steak, chopped in bite-size pieces

2 tbsp avocado oil (you could use any vegetable oil as well)

2 large onions, chopped

2-3 cloves garlic, minced

1 fresh green chilli, seeded and finely chopped (you could use dried chillies as well)

1 tbsp paprika

2 1/2 tsp ground cumin

2 tsp ground coriander

1 can (400gr) chopped tomatoes

1 1/2 cups beef stock or water

1 tsp dried chilli flakes

1 tsp hot pepper sauce or tabasco

1 fresh red bell pepper, seeded and diced

3-4 tbsp fresh coriander and some extra to garnish, finely chopped

salt to taste

1. Wash the beans well and soak them overnight in a large amount of water. The next day cook the beans in water for about 2 hours or until almost soft.

2. Heat the oil in a large, flameproof casserole pot. Add the onion, garlic and green chilli and cook over a medium fire until soft. Transfer to a plate.

3. Increase the heat, add the meat to the pot and brown on all sides. Season with paprika, cumin and coriander.

4. Return the onion mixture to the casserole, add the tomatoes, beef stock or water, chilli flakes and hot pepper sauce or tabasco. Drain the beans and add to the pot.

5. Bring to simmering point, cover and cook in the preheated oven at 180°C for about 2 hours. Stir occasionally and add extra water if the casserole gets dry.

6. Season the casserole with salt, add the chopped red pepper and chopped coriander and continue cooking in the oven until the beans and the meet are tender. Garnish with some chopped coriander and serve with steamed white rice.

Grapefruit and Avocado Salad

In my opinion Greek salad is one of the best on earth! It contains lots of vitamins from all the vegetables, good fats from the olive oil and even some proteins from Feta cheese. There is only one "but" about it. To make it good, you really need good, ripe tomatoes. Too bad it's impossible to find them in Amsterdam in winter. That's why after September I usually switch to green, lettuce-based salads. The problem with them is that they are... boring! I mean, what is so exciting about shredded lettuce, with some onions and olive oil - vinegar dressing?!

Luckily there is always a way to improvise a bit. This time I added an avocado and a grapefruit and it was great! Very fresh and juicy. To be honest I took the idea from a Caribbean cooking book (for one more time), and changed a bit the dressing. Stratis doesn't like neither the avocados nor the grapefruits. However, he liked the combination. The hilarious thing about it is that he thought that the red in the salad (grapefruit) was actually a tomato. Once I told him what it was he said: "If this fruit tastes like tomato, no wonder it's juice has such a bad taste". Well that's his personal opinion. I love anything made of grapefruit.

INGREDIENTS

1 large red grapefruit
1 large ripe avocado
5 lettuce leaves
4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 tbsp red wine vinegar
1 tbsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp sweet mustard (optional)
1/2 tsp dried thyme
salt and ground black and red pepper to taste

1. Peel the grapefruit, separate the pieces, remove all the membranes and place the flesh in a large bowl.
2. Cut the avocado around the length and separate 2 halves. Remove the pit. With a large spoon separate the flesh from the skin, then slice the avocado with a sharp knife. Place the slices at the same bowl with the grapefruits.
3. Cut the lettuce into large pieces and add the to the salad.
4. In a small bowl mix the oil, vingar, lemon juice, mustard, thyme, salt and pepper. Pour the dressing over the salad, mix well and serve immediately.

Another great thing about this salad is that it is full of vitamins, particularly vitamin C which is very essential during the winter months.

Eschovished Fish

I have to admit, I had no idea what does the word "eschovished" mean. I was looking for additional fish recipe to complete the Latin American dinner party menu and I found a recipe in a Carribean cooking book, liked how it looked and decided to try it. Later when I checked the meaning, I found that it actually refers to a particular way of marinading and cooking the fish, which is popular across the Caribbean islands, particularly in Jamaica.

I started preparing the recipe something about half an hour before the guests came so I adopted a "fast-version" of the recipe, which practically means that I skipped the marinading part. I also used a bit less vinegar than required, because honestly I was a bit afraid to use too much. But people liked it and so did I, which makes it... a success!

INGREDIENTS:

1 kg cod fillet
juice of half lemon
flour, for dusting
oil, for frying

For the sauce:

2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 large onion sliced
1/2 red and 1/2 green pepper, sliced
3 cloves garlic, sliced
1/3 cup malt vinegar (I used white vinegar instead)
5 tbsp water
8-10 grains allspice
2 bay leafs
1 dry hot chilly pepper, whole
2 tbsp brown sugar
salt and ground black pepper to taste
parsley, chopped, for garnishing

1. If you decide to marinade the fish in advance, just sprinkle it with salt and pepper, place it in a shallow dish and pour over the lemon juice. Marinade for one hour. As I said, I skipped the marinading part.
2. Cut the fish in pieces and dust with some flower.
3. Heat some oil in a heavy frying pan and fry the fish until it is golden brown. Wile frying the pieces should not "overlap" so it may take a couple of rounds until all the fish is fried. Remove from the pan and set aside.
4. Make the sauce. In the same pan where you fried the fish add 5 tbsp of oil. Fry the onions until soft. Add pepper and garlic and cook for a couple of minutes more.
5. Pour in the vinegar, water and all the spices and sugar. Season with salt and pepper. Cook for 5 minutes.
6. Mix the fish with the sauce and serve garnished with some chopped parsley.

At this point some of the original recipes that I found online require leaving the fish to absorb the flavors for a couple of hours. Since I didn't have the luxury of time I skipped this step too. It was still very tasty but I think next time I will try to prepare it well in advance, follow all the steps and see what is the difference.

Red Pepper and Green Bean Salad

Yesterday we had a little dinner party. It was nice to get together with people that I haven't seen for quite some time and I was really happy that I had the opportunity to cook for many people because this usually means that you could prepare many different dishes and all the food will be eaten and not thrown away!

Since I already had the Mexican Cod Caramba prepared, I decided to go with the Latin American cuisine. So, apart from the cod, I cooked Jamaican eschovished fish, Colombian cheesy potatoes, some home-made Guacamole and a Mexican pepper - green bean salad. I think the combination was pretty successful and the people seemed to enjoy it. :)

Here is the recipe of the salad. The rest of the recipes are coming the following days.

INGREDIENTS:

1/2 iceberg lettuce, shredded
200-250 gr cooked green beans
1/2 red and 1/2 sweet bell pepper, seeded and chopped
2 spring onions, chopped
3-4 drained pickles, chopped
1/4 cup whole green olives, seeded
2 tbsp canned sweet corn, drained
3 tbsp red wine vinegar
6 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
salt and ground black pepper to taste

1. In a b0wl combine the green beans, peppers, spring onions, pickles and olives.
2. Pour in the vinegar and olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Mix well.
3. In a large flat dish lay the lettuce. Arrange the vegetable mix on top, garnish with corn and it's ready to eat!

Cod Caramba

One of my most favorite cuisines is Latin American, starting from Mexican and finishing with Brazilian, Colombian and Caribbean. Apart from being extremely tasty it is usually very healthy and colorful because of all the different vegetables used. So when I was thinking what to cook today, I automatically picked the Caribbean cuisine book from my book shelf. Whenever I decide to cook something from this book it is really hard to stop the decision on something. Everything looks amazingly delicious. So this time I just decided to open the book at some random page and cook whatever was there. I slightly changed the recipe, since I can't stand the real Mexican-spicy food (the original recipe requires some Tabasco sauce instead of chili flakes). But I would absolutely recommend this dish!

INGREDIENTS:

600 gr cod fillets (you could use half raw and half smoked fillet too)
1 cup fish stock or water
2 tbsp butter
1 onion, sliced
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 green and 1 red pepper, seeded and diced
2 zucchinis, diced
150 gr canned sweet corn, drained
3 small tomatoes, diced
3-4 tbsp lemon juice
1/2 tbsp hot chili flakes
100 gr tortilla chips (better unsalted)
1/2 cup grated Cheddar cheese
slat, ground black pepper and cayenne pepper

1. In a baking tray lay the fish and the fish stock or water. Bake in the oven at 200°C until the fish is cooked and the flesh breaks easily. When ready separate the fish into large flakes and keep it hot. Leave the juices in the tray.
2. In a large pan melt the butter. Add onion, garlic and peppers and cook over low heat until the onions is soft and transparent. Stir in the zucchinis and cook for some more minutes.
3. Add corn, tomatoes, chili flakes, salt, black and cayenne pepper. Cook for few minutes, then add the mixture to the tray with fish. Mix well.
4. Crash the tortilla chips (not too small), mix with the cheese and sprinkle over the fish. Cook under the grill until the chips are crunchy and slightly brown.

If you have all the ingredients in your fridge (I had to visit the store) its really a matter of 30-40 minutes to prepare, so you could absolutely cook it during the week to make a really nice and different dinner.