Enchilada Sauce

So we are huge fans of Mexican food and are often trying to create authentic, restaurant quality food at home. Sometimes we succeed, sometimes we come short. Well the other night we decided to make Enchiladas; corn tortillas? check, ground beef? check, cheese? check, sauce... umm nope. Well, I guess the reason we didn't have any sauce is because we don't much care for the canned stuff anyway, but that's besides the point. What we do always have on hand are dried California Chili pods, we get them in the bulk section of our local store, however you can find them at most grocery stores in the Hispanic isle, or at specialty stores. We keep these around to make Tamales or enchilada sauce on the fly. Want to see one of the reasons why we make the sauce ourselves, aside from it tasting better? The ingredients in our sauce are as follows: dried California chili pods (or New Mexico chili pods), dried arbol peppers (or cayanne peppers), water, salt, garlic, dried oregano, cumin, and vegetable oil.

Here is the ingredients list for Old El Paso sauce,Water, Tomato Puree (Water, Tomato Paste), Modified Corn Starch, Dried Red Chilies, Soybean Oil, Sugar, Salt, Citric Acid, Onion Powder, Mono sodium Glutamate, Spice, Garlic Powder, Red Pepper, Hydrolyzed Vegetable Protein (Corn, Soy And Wheat), Autolyzed Yeast Extract. Contains Wheat And Soy Ingredients.... wait, what?? Wheat and soy ingredients? Since when do chili peppers contain soy or wheat...oh wait, they don't. Anyway, getting off track here.

In making our own sauce we have a lot more flexibility. We can make it spicier (just add some more dried Cayenne peppers in with the California peppers), add some tomato body, runnier, thicker etc etc...the possibilities are endless. So with one base recipe and a few ingredients we are able to make this an incredibly versatile sauce in our kitchen.

Ingredients list:

8 dried California chili pods (or New Mexico chili pods)

6 dried arbol peppers (or cayanne peppers)

4 cups water

1tsp salt

1 clove garlic pressed

1tsp dried oregano

1/4 tsp cumin

1/4 cup vegetable oil.

The Process is easy. Take 8 California chile pods, cut off the stems and remove all the seeds. Cut into a few smaller pieces. Take 6 Arbol peppers (more or less depending on how spicy you want it), cut off the stems and remove all the seeds. Put in in a medium saucepan and cover with 4 cups of water. Heat water to boil, cover and remove from heat. Let pot sit for 30 minutes.

After 30 minutes, pour the water and peppers in a blender. Add 1/4 cup oil to blender. Add in the salt, oregano, cumin, and pressed garlic. Blend well.

There you go, mix it in with whatever meat you are making and reduce, and if making enchiladas, pour some of the sauce over the prepared tortillas and bake. Enjoy.

Traditional German Pumpernickel Bread

So Josh asked if I wanted to make some rye bread for St. Patrick's Day, which got me thinking of Marble rye, which got me to thinking of Pumpernickel.  I had been wanting to make this unique bread since I started bread baking a few years back, but had yet to find one that I wanted to make.  Most of the recipes that I found were for the Americanized version of the bread.  Which for the most part was sourdough bread with coffee, cocoa, and molasses to make dark.  This is not at all what I wanted to make.

So my search for a traditional German Pumpernickel recipe started.  What I learned in my research is that the color of the bread, should not come from adding things to the bread, but more from the actual cooking process.  So, any recipe that I found that had cocoa, or coffee was immediately disregarded.   What I found out is that the reason for all of those shortcuts, is that making actual traditional German pumpernickel is very, very time consuming.  So if you start this today, you should be able to eat it 3-4 days from now.

The first thing I noticed when starting this, was the lack of ingredients, especially yeast.  I remembered from my sourdough trials and learning that rye flour is often used to make a starter, as it is high in natural yeast.  So to start, I had to gather some of the ingredients, because I don't usually have an extra supply of bulgur wheat sitting around the house.  So off to the bulk bins at my local grocery store.  Many of the flours can be quite expensive if you buy them pre-packaged, so try to find them in bulk if you can. Bob's Red Mill Flour Dark Rye Organinc, 22-Ounce (Pack of 4) Cracked Wheat no.2 Bulgur, 32oz  The actual mixing of the ingredients was fairly easy, as this is a no knead dough, so you just mix them on in a large bowl.  You end up with a really thick, heavy, batter like dough.  Grease two bread pans, and divide the dough/batter between the two pans.  Smoothing out the dough was a little tough, as it was really sticky and wet.  Once done though, grease up some plastic wrap, and prepare to wait for a bit.

Once I prepared the bread pans, I put them out to rise, and develop.  Well, 24 hours later, they looked the same as when I started.  It was a big, heavy, lifeless looking pan.  I wasn't sure if it was actually going to turn out.  Then as I was going to bed on day 2, about 30 hours from making loaves, I looked at the pans once more.  I thought that they looked a tiny bit bigger, and that there was a little movement in the dough, but it was very slight, so it was hard to tell.  I wasn't sure if it was just wishful thinking.

When I woke up on day 3 I couldn't wait to see if there was any progress overnight.  Well, the dough had actually rose all the way up, and was touching the greased plastic wrap.  So I want to emphasize the importance of greasing the plastic wrap, as it was vital to preventing the bread from sticking to it when it was done rising.

Now it was time to bake the bread!  In order to get the water in the pan hot enough to be steaming, I turned the oven way up for about 15 minutes, as I forgot to put (boiling) water in the pan.  Then just opened the oven for a few minutes to get the temp back down to only 225.  I removed the plastic wrap, which made the dough make some interesting noises, as the dough was crackling and popping, and greased and tightly re-wrapped the pans with foil.  Now it was time to actually start the baking.

2 hours into the baking, I noticed the foil was rising a bit.  It was very hard not to want to look.  I just let it do its thing though.  At 3 hours, the house was becoming more fragrant.  So at 4 hours, it was time for stage 2 in the baking.  I finally got to look at it.  I was able to remove the foil, and it was interesting to say the least. I turned the oven up to 325 and once the temp on the oven got there, I put the loaves back in the oven for another 40 minutes of baking.

So after 3 days of steps to get to this point, I was surely hoping that all this effort was worth it.  I wanted to have a slice, but yet, I had to wait another 24 hours for it to "cure".  So I wrapped it up once it was fully cooled.  Below is a picture of the bread at about 15 hours of curing.  I have never had to wait so long for something that I am baking.

The moment of Truth!  I just sliced the bread, and had it with some cheese.  It is a very heavy and dense bread.  So make sure not to make the slices to wide.  I sliced them about half the width of typical sliced bread.  The bulgur made for a nutty texture, and the flavor was definitely natural.  The strongest flavors were near the edges, and it didn't matter which edge; top, bottom, or sides.  I do have to admit that this will end up being more of a novelty than a staple, as I prefer many other types of bread for my standard sandwiches, along with the 4 day cook time of this bread.  But if you are serving this to guests, and you want a great story to go along with it, then I think you have found a great bread.

Traditional German Pumpernickel Bread

Taken from The Practical Encyclopedia of Baking

4 C. rye flour

2 C. whole-wheat flour

2/3 C. bulgur wheat

2 t. salt

2 T. molasses

3 ½ C. warm water

1 T. vegetable oil

Lightly grease two loaf pans and set aside.  Combine the rye flour, whole-wheat flour, bulgur wheat and salt in a large bowl.

Mix molasses with the warm water and vegetable oil.  Add liquids to the flour mixture and combine to form a dense dough.  (You do not need to need this bread at all, just mix with a spoon.)

Divide dough between the two prepared pans, pressing it into the corners and leveling the top.  Cover with lightly oiled plastic wrap and let sit in a warm place for 18-24 hours (the longer the better).

When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 225 F.  Remove the plastic wrap from the pans and then cover them tightly with aluminum foil.  Fill a roasting pan or other large baking dish three-quarters full with boiling water and carefully place on the lower rack of your oven.  Place covered loaf pans on the top rack directly above the pan of water.  Bake the loaves for 4 hours.

Raise the oven temperature to 325 F.  Uncover the loaves and add more water to the pan below them if needed.  Bake for another 40-45 minutes or until the loaves are firm and the tops crusty.

Let cool in the pans for a few minutes before turning out onto a rack or towel to cool completely.  Wrap tightly in plastic and let “cure” at room temperature for 24 hours.  Serve sliced thinly, topped with cold cuts or  pate.

(makes 2 loaves)

Welcome to our blog

A couple years ago my partner Josh and I decided to take a serious look at how we eat.  We were the typical family.  Our cooking consisted of opening cans and boxes, jars of prepared sauces, frozen vegetables with sauce included and just-add-chicken frozen meals. We would then sit down in front of the TV and mindlessly eat what Kraft had made for dinner. We gained upwards of 50lbs, felt tired and lethargic most of the time and were ill on a regular basis. This was no way to live life so a change was in order.

Both of us already enjoyed cooking, so it was fairly easy to start the process of preparing food ourselves and it soon became our passion.  We started experimenting with all sorts of foods. Our theory being that if we can make it from scratch, then we will at least try it once.  We always try to find authentic recipes, like the ones that your grandma used to make.  We are especially interested in ethnic cooking, which can sometimes be a challenge to find authentic recipes of since those are generally passed down in the family.  

  

We have had many successes and even more failures which we are happy to share. Our goal is to make cooking accessible to anyone, and that even with no professional training, anyone can make a great meal in their own kitchen.  We will share what has worked for us and what hasn't, kitchen fundamentals, equipment in the kitchen, recipes, gardening, and about our many adventures in the kitchen.  

Hope you enjoy the postings.  Again, if there is something that you would like covered, we are always open to suggestions.  Please help us to spread the word.  Click the Follow button to become a follower of the blog.  Click the share button for Facebook, and Twitter, for both the blog, and the posts.  Thanks for visiting!