51 Porter with a Mexican Twist!

51 Porter had a great start to the New Year with a fun cooking adventure with our friend Eric Palilunas who is a chef at Trident Booksellers and Cafe in Boston (www.tridentbookscafe.com). We decided to go with a Mexican theme and cooked up the following items: sweet potato stuffed empanadas, chili rellenos, and Spanish rice.

Here are some general guidelines for the deliciousness that we concocted and some suggestions for ways to add a little more flavor and pop to the items we prepared, because as we all know hindsight in life and cooking is always 20/20!

Sweet Potato Stuffed Empanadas

The Filling

Ingredients:

*Sweet Potatoes

*Black beans

*Agave nectar

*Cumin

*Salt and Pepper to taste

*Cilantro

*51 Porter Suggestion: Cubed Pineapple

Directions:

1. Peel and chop the sweet potatoes, then boil until they reach a soft consistency.

2. Mash the sweet potatoes, adding the remaining ingredients. (Add the black beans last.)

2. To create more of a flavor explosion and a contrast between the empanada dough and filling, we would suggest adding in some cubed pineapple. It’d be best to cut the chunks a bit smaller and add them in after you’ve mashed the sweet potatoes.

3. Make sure to taste test the sweet potato filling...so you can adjust the taste to your liking.

Empanada Dough


Ingredients:

*Corn Flour

*Warm water

*Salt

Directions:

The dough was so easy to concoct! A great success for sure...All you need is to measure out the flour, add some water and a pinch of salt. It’s best to stir the ingredients together and allow it to sit for a bit, maybe 5-10 minutes .

Stuffing the Empanadas

Now this was the challenging part! We had some difficulty, but we have advice for the future. Rolling out the empanada dough would be your best bet, because you don’t want the dough to be too thick. Select the amount of dough that you’d like to use based upon how big you’d like the empanadas to be. Once the dough is rolled out, place some filling in the middle. You can fold over the dough to create a half-moon shape, or you could even create a flatter, disc-like shape. Life is short, so go ahead and revel in some kitchen experimentation!

Fry baby Fry!

Next, drop the stuffed empanadas in some oil. We used the huge pan below. It was pretty hard-core, friends. Brace yourself for some greasiness! (It’s very important to place the emapanadas on some paper towels once they’re done frying in order to allow some of the oil to seep out!)

Chili Rellenos

Ingredients:

*Green Chilis

*Monterey Jack Cheese

*Spanish rice (see general recipe below)

*Bread crumbs

*Eggs

*All-purpose flour

Directions:

1. First, remove the tops of the chilis and “core” them.
2. Time to fill! First, add some Spanish rice, then add some cheese, and top with a bit more of rice.
3. Breading is next...the general rule is wet dry wet dry, as in first rolling the chilis in the egg mixture, and then the flour, and repeating with the egg mixture and rolling in breadcrumbs.
4. We fried these as well, and for the future, we would definitely go a different route. The frying didn’t allow for a softening of the chili, and we’d prefer a slightly softer skin. It may be a good idea to char the chilis, then fill and bake. You could also roast these babies beforehand.

Spanish Rice

Ingredients:

*Medium or long grain white rice

*Chicken or vegetable stock

*Red Onion, diced

*Garlic

*Olive oil

*Salt and pepper to taste

*Diced tomatoes

*Cilantro

*Lime juice

Directions:

As easy as...

1. Cook the white rice. (Remember 2:1 ratio!) *Cooking in stock gives it a little more flavor.*

2. While cooking the rice, saute the onion in olive oil and crushed garlic until softened.

3. Add the diced tomatoes, sauteed onion, cilantro, salt and pepper to taste, and a squirt of lime juice.

Oh YUM! This dinner was indeed a great success. Cooking with Eric was a pleasure. Please keep a look out for further adventures of 51 Porter in our pursuit of deliciousness and fun cooking with friends in 2010!

p.s. We of course ended the night with a dance party, a fine finish to any meal.

*Dance Party Recipe Courtesy of Kelly Dumke*

Ingredients:

*Renee

*Kelly

*Steph
*Special Guests (Tim took the part here.)

Added Mixins:

MGMT

Prince

“Party in the USA”

Oldies

Old School MJ

Directions:

1. Combine all ingredients and whatever mixins you desire.
2. Heat the music gradually, increasing from medium to high.
3. Gradually stir in the dance moves: frother, food processor, gnocchi forker, shopping cart, shopping cart on-sale, shopping cart at Market Basket, shooter, etc...

4. DO IT.

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