Cook2Gether - Our Couples Cooking Class

Welcome to our new Dinner Group 

Cook2Gether, where we are going to 

do couples cooking classes throughout 

the year.  Different couples will host 

the dinner and it will include hands 

on cooking experiences culminating 

in a dinner together.  

My friend Diana and I and our spouses 

had taken a cooking class together and 

we decided this would be a fun 

experience to continue with friends.  

Our first event took place in her lovely 

backyard.  We decided to use some of 

the recipes we had received in our class, 

so the theme was Mexican cooking. 

We had aprons made for the group with 

our logo of Cook2Gether embroidered on them. 

Diana is in the red.   

We couldn't beat the view in their backyard. 

The table was set with Diana's runners, dishes and 

goblets from Mexico.  Her husband was a Mission 

President in Guadalajara, Mexico for our church, 

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  

They spent three years serving in that capacity, and 

I and my friend Barb were lucky enough to 

visit them while they were on their mission there.  

She brought home so many lovely things and 

these plates and bowls are just spectacular.  

She brought home goblets in multiple colors and 

these beautiful table runners too.  

We set up a separate table for the hands-on 

cooking, with each couple having a stone 

molcajete to make Rosemary Guacamole 

and Tomatillo Salsa in.  

We made a Mint Limeade that they could drink 

while they were cooking, and we provided 

chips that they could snack on their guacamole and 

salsa with.  

Notice the same runner only in red on this table. 

A sprig of rosemary in the guacamole gave 

it an unusual and amazing flavor.  The serrano 

chili was provided for a little heat if desired. 

The guacamole used fresh garlic, ground together 

with the rosemary, and the Tomatillo Salsa used 

roasted garlic.  Flaked sea salt was used to flavor 

both.  

And of course, we needed lots of limes 

for our dishes. 

The couples stood across from each other 

for this and they took turns with the 

molcajete and pestle.  

For dinner, I had made tamales, which I 

demonstrated for everyone.

And we served additional salsas with the dinner, 

as we sat down at the beautiful table. 

We all felt like our first couples' cooking class was a huge success and we can't wait to do more of them. 
I will be posting this with Tablescapes Thursday

Carne Asada Fries

You know how it is when you think one of

your favorite little dives has the corner

on something unique, and then you find out

this yummy dish is famous elsewhere?

That's how I felt about my new favorite

craving - 

CARNE ASADA FRIES!

Our little local dive, Betos Burritos, which is famous

for its breakfast burritos, featured a foodie picture

in it's window, and being a fry lover, I had to go 

over and give it a try.  Now I am hooked!  Juicy

carne asada steak, atop crispy fries smothered

in melted cheese

 and finished off with pico de gallo, guacamole,

and sour cream!  What's not to love right?

Well, wasn't I surprised when I looked up 

Carne Asada Fries and found they were a very

popular dish all over San Diego.  Who knew?  I

just thought someone at Betos was being creative!!!

Well, you know me, I had to give it a try at home.

Now we can have them anytime!  (And the family loves

them just as much as I do!)

Beware - these are highly addictive!

Start with a layer of french fries.  I like to use

frozen fries cooked at 375 degrees until crispy.  Drain.

 After the fries have been cooked until crispy and drained,

sprinkle a generous amount of cheese on top and

place in a 300 degree oven until the cheese melts.

Meanwhile, cook up some marinated carne asada.  You 

can make your own marinade and place some flank

steak in it, or we found this at Costco, already marinated

and ready to grill.  It is yummy, if you store has it,

or HEB in Texas has it too (I even brought some

home from Texas.)

Remove it from the grill and chop it up.

This is all a bit tricky to have going on at the same

time, so if you can get someone to help with the fries

while you do the carne asada, that helps a lot.  You want both

of them hot and ready at the same time.

Now smother those cheese topped fries with juicy, warm,

carne asada.  And I mean really cover them!  People

will be fighting over the carne asada.

Garnish with homemade pico de gallo,

homemade guacamole,

and fresh sour cream.  Finish

 with a sprinkling of chopped cilantro.

Carne Asada Fries Recipe

1 package frozen french fries 

Oil for frying

2-3 C. shredded cheddar cheese or cheddar blend

Pre-marinated Carne Asada meat

(you can make your own, but there is

just something about the pre-marinated

that permeates the beef - it is amazing!)

Pico de Gallo

Fresh Guacamole

Sour Cream

Cilantro

Fry and drain the french fries.  Cover with

cheese and melt in a 300 degree oven.  Grill

and chop the carne asada.  Pile the chopped

beef on the cheese covered fries.  Garnish with

pico, guacamole, sour cream and cilantro.

Pico de Gallo Recipe

6 Roma tomatoes, chopped finely

1/2 large sweet onion, chopped finely

1/2 fresh jalapeno pepper, chopped super finely

1/3 bunch cilantro, chopped finely

Juice of 2 limes

1 tsp. garlic salt

Mix everything together in a non-metal bowl.

Let sit for at least 30 minutes to let the flavors

blend.  Refrigerate any unused pico.

Purist Guacamole Recipe

4 ripe avocados

Juice of 1 1/2 - 2 limes 

3/4 - 1 tsp. garlic salt

Peel and mash the avocados in a bowl.

Stir in the lime juice and garlic salt.

Taste to adjust seasoning, depending upon

the size of the avocados.  We don't like anything

additional in our guacamole.  This way you

taste the pure avocado.

 Have everyone gather around and dig in!

Spoon a generous portion out on your plate,

and you will be in love with Carne Asada Fries, just like

we, and all of San Diego are.

Hurry up, because this yummy dish goes quickly!

I will be posting with 

Foodie Friday

Chilaquiles with Chicken and Roasted Tomatillo Salsa

 

Chilaquiles are popular breakfast food

in Mexico, but we like them for a quick

dinner.

They originated as a leftover dish using up

the stale tortillas and leftover red or green

sauce, meat and cheese.  Sometimes they

have scrambled eggs on top for a 

breakfast dish.  Our favorite is

with green sauce and chicken then topped

with cheese.

I chose to fry my own corn tortillas but we have made

them with tortilla chips when we were in a hurry.

I also made my own salsa verde but you can use

a bottled or canned variety too.

The tortillas are topped with the salsa and chicken

and then cheese is added and melted on top.

You can cook your finished chips in the salsa verde but

I like to keep mine crispier so I just top them with the salsa.

Chilaquiles with Chicken and 

Roasted Tomatillo Salsa

1 dozen corn tortillas cut into strips or triangles

oil for frying tortillas or tortilla chips

2 C. cooked chicken, cubed

salsa verde (homemade recipe follows or

we like World Table Salsa Verde from Wal Mart 

or Herdez Salsa Verde)

3 C. monterey jack cheese

Fry the corn tortillas in oil brought to 350 degrees in

small batches until crisp.  Drain on paper towels

Layer the chips, salsa verde, and chicken and top

with lots of cheese on an ovenproof or microwave proof

dish.  Drizzle a little additional

salsa verde on top.  Heat until the cheese is melted

in a 350 degree oven or in the microwave.

Dig in and enjoy.

Roasted Tomatillo Salsa

1 1/2 C. fresh tomatillos, rinsed

2 cloves garlic

1 jalapeno chile, seeded

1 1/2 tsp. chicken bouillon powder

3/4 C. water

1 medium white onion, chopped

1/2 bunch cilantro, chopped

Place cleaned, chopped tomatillos, garlic and

seeded jalapenos in a large skillet.  Cook over

medium high heat until tomatillos are blackened

and soft.  Do not use oil.  Remove and let cool

a few minutes.  

Place the water, bouillon and the chopped onion

in a saucepan and cook until the

onions are soft. Remove and let cool a few minutes.

Place the tomatillo

mix and the onion mix in the food processor

with the cilantro and puree.

Transfer the salsa to a saucepan and

bring to a 

boil and simmer until a nice salsa consistency. 

 Best if refrigerated for

about 3 hours, but it is great right away.

Makes about 1 quart

This salsa verde has a great fresh tangy

flavor.  We loved it.

(Adapted from Cooking With Baja Magic Dos -

a cookbook printed in 2005 that was left in 

our Cabo home for me to inherit - fabulous. You can 

buy it from Amazon.  Everything we have made in it is great.)

Click here for printable recipe.

Don't miss out on this traditional Mexican favorite.

It is super quick if you use tortilla chips

and canned salsa verde.  I really like Wal Mart's

World Table (my favorite) or Herdez's Salsa Verde.

You can have it with or without chicken and you

can also serve it with scrambled egg, but this is

our favorite way to serve it.

Carnitas

Sometimes I think I could eat Mexican food every day.

One of our favorite dishes is Carnitas, a slow roasted pork

that is seasoned, baked until it falls apart, then shredded and

baked some more until it is crispy on the top.

My friend Sue Ellen was the first person that introduced

me to Carnitas.  We have been making it for years now, but

this is a new twist on the recipe that I found and I love.

We are down in Cabo right now and when I was here last time

I found a cookbook that someone had left at the home called

Cooking With Baja Magic Dos

by Ann Hazard.

If you know me, you know I love to read through cookbooks

like novels and this one is packed with fabulous Mexican recipes,

many from restaurants.  My mouth was watering the whole time

and I had to come back and start trying some of the recipes right away.

Her recipe for Carnitas calls for the addition of some salsa verde

and that added such a flavor punch.  We won't ever want to make

Carnitas the old way again.  This is a slight variation on her recipe

as I have found that I love to use Montreal Steak Seasoning to

season my Carnitas, so I substituted that for her seasonings, I also

added my salsa verde after the pork was shredded.

Carnitas Recipe

4 lb. pork shoulder (don't use tenderloin, it is too dry)

2 -3T. Montreal Steak Seasoning

1 1/2 C. salsa verde (I used World Market's Roasted Tomatillo Salsa)

Corn tortillas

Shredded Monterey Jack or Chihuahua cheese

Pico de Gallo

Fresh limes

Season the pork shoulder with the Montreal Steak Seasoning.

Place in a roasting pan and bake uncovered at 350 for one hour.

Cover with foil and then reduce heat to 250 and bake another

4-5 hours or until it falls apart.  

Remove from oven and spoon out

excess grease if there is a lot. Then shred the meat using two forks

 Stir in the salsa verde.

Turn the oven back up to 350.  Return the meat uncovered

to the oven and bake about 20 minutes or until the top

is crispy.  Turn the meat over and repeat until the top is crispy.

Serve with corn tortillas that have been sprayed with Pam and heated

on both sides in a frying pan.  Top with Monterey Jack of Chihuahua

cheese, and pico de gallo.  Before eating, squeeze fresh lime juice 

on the top of the tacos.

See how crispy the uncovered meat becomes.  In one of my favorite

local restaurants, their Carnitas is deep fried - absolutely wicked!

This is such a great dish for a large crowd and so easy to prepare.

Everyone loves it.  You will make it over and over.

Just place everything in bowls and let everyone create their own.

I will be posting this with

On The Menu Monday

Foodie Friday

Queso Fundido Recipe - Favorite Dish From Guadalajara

A wonderful trip to Guadalajara, Mexico took us to Casa Fuerte

to taste the favorite dish of our dear friend Diana and her entire family - 

 Queso Fundido.

Diana's husband John is serving as the Mission President in the Mexico,

Guadalajara Mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day-Saints.

Their three year mission is coming to an end at the end of this month

and my friend Barb and I snuck in a short trip to see them before

they come home.

Diana had told her husband that her wish was to be able to go 

into the kitchen of Casa Fuerte and  to learn how to make 

their Queso Fundido.

When we went there, she

introduced me as an American Food Blogger who would like

to feature their restaurant and their queso fundido on my blog.

She asked if we could come into the kitchen and learn how

it was made.

Felipe was our waiter who remembered Diana from previous

visits to the restaurant and he got permission for us to enter

the kitchen and they showed us step by step how they made

this fabulously tasty appetizer.

I just love any opportunity I get to enter a restaurant kitchen and see

how it is run.

At the entrance of the kitchen we met this sweet senora who was making

the wonderful homemade corn tortillas which would be served

with the queso fundido.  Just to her right was the large pot of

tomatillo sauce which would also be part of the dish.

The stone molcajetes which are often used in queso fundidos around

Mexico are heated on this gas grill to make them piping hot.  I had

wondered how they heated them.  We asked how they cleaned them

too and Felipe showed us a stiff wire brush.

Still in the kitchen, Felipe shows us that the block of oaxaca cheese is

first breaded with plain bread crumbs and then deep fried.

The block of cheese is then placed in the piping hot stone dish 

and then steaming hot tomatillo sauce is poured over the cheese.

The sauce immediately begins to bubble from the heat of

the stone bowl.

The dish is garnished tableside with some fresh cilantro

and then the waiter cuts the cheese block into smaller

pieces with two table knives.  The smaller pieces

of cheese allows the cheese to melt into the sauce a little

easier.

The appetizer is presented with pico de gallo, soft corn tortillas, crisp whole

corn tortillas and bread and crackers.  

These are the tortillas that our senora was making.  She also had a pile

of what appeared to be overcooked corn tortillas, but later we

realized that these were to be served along with the soft ones

almost like chips but not fried.

Although we focused on the tortillas, I had to feature the bread with

the fabulous presentation of the butter wrapped up in these 

corn husks and tied at the top.  What adorable little butter packets.

Since we went for lunch we ordered a couple of plates

of guacamole and the queso fundido and that was our

entire lunch.  

Can't you just taste this?  It was amazing.

My favorite dish in Cabo is a queso fundido  at Los Deseos

also presented tableside in a molcajete.  My daughter Jessica

had just given me a molcajete for Mother's Day so I was

happy to come home and figure out a recipe to recreate it.

Felipe was so adorable and sweet.   I told him 

that I would feature this on my blog.  

He said excitedly, "WHEN?!!"

I had to laugh a little and said, "Next week?"

  I told him the next

week, but it took a week longer.  Sorry, Felipe, but I hope you

get to see this post!

Casa Fuerte's Queso Fundido

Place a cleaned and seasoned molcajete (which you can

get online or at a local Mexican market - choose one with 

very small holes in the bottom or it will be hard to clean after use,

and season it with a little oil before your first use to help with 

clean up) in a 500 degree oven for one hour to heat up.

Meanwhile prepare the sauce and cheese.

Tomatillo Sauce

3 C. chopped fresh tomatillos

1 1/2 C. chopped sweet onion

16 oz. chicken broth or water

1/2 C. chopped fresh cilantro

1/2 - 3/4 tsp. salt

Place the tomatillos and onion in a medium sized saucepan

and pour the broth over.  Felipe said they just used water, but

I chose to up the flavor with broth.  Bring the broth to a boil

and boil for about 10-15 minutes or until the tomatillos and

onions are soft.  

Remove from heat and carefully put in a blender.  Be careful

not to burn yourself as you blend it.  Blend until almost smooth

and then add the cilantro and blend it until minced.  Season to

taste with the salt.  Set the sauce aside.

(Felipe told us the sauce was made from tomatillos, onions

and water.  He didn't mention salt or cilantro, but obviously

it had salt in it and when I made the recipe without cilantro,

the sauce was pale and unappetizing.  The addition of

cilantro gave it the color and flavor it needed.  He had

garnished it with fresh cilantro so it seemed like the perfect

addition.)

Deep Fried Cheese

12 oz. oaxaca or monterey jack cheese

I couldn't find the oaxaca so I used the monterey jack

( a one lb. block is a little big for the dish so I cut a little off

to make mine about 12 oz.)

2 eggs, lightly beaten 

1 C. dried bread crumbs (I used store bought ones)

Dip the cheese block in the egg wash, making sure that all of it

gets coated with the egg, then dip in the bread crumbs, coating all sides.

Place it on a plate and let rest in fridge for 15 minutes.

Meanwhile heat 2 - 2 1/2 inches of vegetable oil to 300 degrees.

I use my electric fondue pot for this.

Carefully place the cheese in the hot oil and quickly deep fry it.

You can see from the pictures at the restaurant that the cheese

is just barely fried.  Remove it carefully and let drain.  This would

work a lot better with a commercial fryer with a basket.  I used

a slotted spoon and a set of tongs and it does pull some of 

the breading off.  Set this aside.

(So here is the deal - I was making this the week after we returned

to try and figure out the recipe and we were having company.  I had

purchased a second molcajete from our local Mexican market.  On my

first block of cheese I didn't chill it after I had breaded it and I tried

frying it at 350 degrees.  The breading just floated right off.  On the

second block, I remembered that it helped the breading to stay on if

you placed it in the fridge first, so I did that and then reduced the heat

on the oil.  This time it worked fine.  

I went ahead and used both blocks, one that was missing 90 percent

of its breading and one that had all the breading.   They both turned

out fine so if you wanted to, you could maybe skip the breading part.  I am 

sure that it makes it a little tastier, but we ate from both bowls and

loved it - you decide!)

Bring the tomatillo sauce to a boil.

Remove the pre-heated molcajete from the oven.  Place it

on a heat proof plate or pad.  I think I am going to get 

a couple of those pads you can place dutch ovens on.  Place

the block of cheese in the hot stone bowl.  Pour the sauce almost

to the top.  This will make enough tomatillo sauce for two bowls.  You

can always use it for another dish.  Let the sauce come to a boil.

Use two table knives to cut the cheese into smaller cubes so that

the cheese will all melt.  Garnish with chopped cilantro.  

Serve with pico de gallo, guacamole, fresh tortillas and chips.

Here you can see the size of cubes the cheese was cut into an the

bubbling sauce.  The molcajete stays hot the whole time you are

eating so the queso fundido stays hot.  Just be careful to not

touch it.  Mine don't have these fun little iron holders but they

worked just as well.  They do get easier to clean with a wire

brush as they get more seasoned with use.  I didn't bother to

season mine with oil before I started using it and I should have.

Here Diana shows off how she ate hers, almost as a cheese taco.

I ate mine by tearing off chunks of tortilla and placing a little cheese

on each bite.  Any way you eat it, it tastes fantastic.

I have to finish by showing you how charming the entrance to 

the restaurant 

Casa Fuerte

is.  They have some kind of evergreen boughs strewn on the floor

so it smells so great as you walk in.

This is the entrance to Casa Fuerte.

It is actually in a suburb-like area of Guadalajara called 

Tlaquepaque.  

Tlaquepaque's city center was a jewel with wonderful

shops and furniture stores.  

I am so glad Diana had her wishes fulfilled and we had such

a wonderful time learning how to make this tasty appetizer.

And thank you to John and Diana for letting us share in a little

part of their mission.  It was truly a delight.

Even if you can't get to Tlaquepaque give their wonderful dish a try.

I will be posting with

Foodie Friday

On The Menu Monday