Tag Archives: cheese

Loaded Twice Baked Potatoes

17 Jun

I love to eat baked potatoes… I remember when we first got a microwave oven, way back when, I was always in charge of making the baked potatoes. Prick them a few times with a fork… bake in the oven… wrap them in foil paper to retain the heat… and eat them just like if you were at a steak house.

That was AGES ago… now, I no longer have a microwave in my kitchen and steakhouses are not part of my restaurant rotation. But I still love to bake potatoes. But they take FOREVER in an oven… even in a toaster oven which is what I usually use if it’s just me and a few others to feed.

My sister gave me an Express Cooker last Xmas as a gift. One of the recipes in the booklet that comes with the Express is how to bake potatoes… and to do it in just 15 minutes. In the regular oven, it usually takes about 1 hour to properly bake a potato. So this is a real time-saver. But the real kicker is what to mix it with… Anybody can bake a potato, but the fixings are what make it special.

LOADED TWICE BAKED POTATOES

1 large baking potato
1 tbs butter
2 tbs sour cream
2 tbs cream cheese
1 large garlic clove, minced or grated
2 scallions, chopped
1 tbs of Vegan Bac’n
2 handfuls of shredded cheddar cheese, divided
Olive Oil
Salt and Pepper to taste
  1. I baked my potato using the Express… but you can do it in a regular oven or toaster oven. I cut the potato into 2 halves, oiled it with olive oil and sprinkled with salt and pepper. And cooked it cut side down for 15 minutes.
  2. When the potato is baked, I allow it to cool off a bit so I can handle it easily. But it needs to still be warm for you to easily be able to remove the flesh of the potato and leave the outer skin with a bit of potato so it has still some structure.
  3. Place the flesh of the potato in a medium sized bowl and mix in your favorite fixin’s… mine has butter, sour cream, cream cheese, garlic, scallions, these new Vegan Bac’ns I found at the health food store the other day and shredded cheddar cheese. I use a bit of cheese inside the mash and leave some for the topping.
  4. Mash all the ingredients together… season with salt and pepper to taste. Add a drizzle of olive oil if you feel the mixture needs some moisture.
  5. Take the potato mash and spoon it back into the potato shells. I like to mound the mixture so it looks luscious and abundant. Place what’s left of the shredded cheese on top.
  6. Place in a toaster oven on 450F or broiler for about 10 minutes to melt and brown the cheese on top.

To me, half a potato is plenty for me as a side dish… and both halves are good as a main course with a salad on the side.

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Spinach Cannelloni

6 Jun

My sister invited us to a full long weekend of merriment to celebrate my BIL 40th birthday… It was jam-packed with surprises and food.

I traveled with the excuse of spending time with my nephew, Ale. So he never ever suspected the conga-line of people that would appear each night to celebrate the weekend. First, we started the celebration last Thursday, the official birth date, with his mom and brother coming in by surprise. I had to buy groceries and make everything that same day because I couldn’t let the birthday boy know we were cooking for 12 that day…

I was planning to make a taquiza/taco bar menu for dear BIL, something he had enjoyed a lot once before. But when he insisted all he wanted was his favorite tiramisu for a birthday cake, the menu quickly shifted to Italian and the poblanos and corn were set aside for another day.

Make a crepe and fill it with Nutella or gruyere cheese and you immediately think Paris or French… But take the same crepe and fill it with ricotta and spinach and what do you get? Cannelloni…

I know… there are a lot of ingredients in the list, but it’s really an easy assembly recipe. This recipe is very easily halved for a smaller crowd.

SPINACH CANNELLONI

Makes about 24 cannelloni to serve 12 people

24 crepes
24oz of ricotta cheese
2 cups of shredded mozzarella cheese
4 cups of Italian-Blend shredded Cheese
1 cup of grated parmesan cheese
1 bag of frozen spinach, thawed and squeezed dry as much as possible
1 large onion, diced
3 cloves of garlic, minced
2-3 tbs of chopped fresh Italian parsley
2-3 tbs of chopped fresh basil leaves
3 tbs of olive oil, divided
2 packs of Pomi chopped tomatoes
2 cups of half and half
2 tsp dried basil
2 tsp dried oregano
Garlic Salt, Salt and freshly cracked Black Pepper to taste
  1. I make my own crepes using this batter recipe right here. I make the batter the night before and allow it to rest in the fridge overnight.
  2. In a medium skillet over medium-high heat, add a few drizzles of olive oil, onions and garlic. Season them liberally with salt and pepper. Cook for a few minutes to allow the onions to release their moisture, but do not brown them, just until they’re soft. Set aside.
  3. Pre-heat oven to 425F.
  4. To make the filling… In a large bowl combine ricotta cheese, the cooked onions/garlic mixture, 2 cups of the Italian cheese blend, ½ cup parmesan cheese, the chopped fresh parsley and basil and the chopped thawed and squeezed spinach. Season it with salt, pepper, garlic salt and a few drizzles of olive oil. Mix well to combine. Set aside. If you want to make some cheese cannelloni without the spinach, just omit the spinach or set some cheese mixture aside before adding the spinach. The flavors will work really well.
  5. To make the sauce… mix together in another large bowl the chopped tomatoes, half and half and season with salt, pepper, dried oregano and basil, garlic salt and a few drizzles of olive oil. Mix together well to combine and create a pink sauce and set aside.
  6. Now we assemble… I had to use 2 large 9” x 13” glass oven-proof dishes for this amount of crepes. Pour 1/4 of the sauce in the bottom of each baking dish. Take each crepe and smear about 1 large soup spoonful of cheese/spinach mixture and roll into a cannelloni. Place on top of the sauce. Repeat with all the crepes and place them side by side on the baking dishes.
  7. When you’re done assembling the crepes in the baking dish, spoon the sauce that’s left on top of the crepes. Sprinkle the rest of the Italian blend cheeses, the mozzarella and the parmesan cheese on top of the cannelloni to create a cheesy crust on top.
  8. Bake in oven for about 30 minutes to allow the tomato sauce to cook and for the cheese on top to melt and brown. If the cheese is not browned to your liking, you can always turn on the broiler on low and watch it for 10 minutes or so until it’s brown and beautiful.

You can certainly make this for a large crowd like I did, or make it into individual dishes and serve for a smaller group or even just one. I did some filled with just cheese and some with the spinach… the kids ate the ones with spinach even though I had mentioned I had ones with just cheese. They were skeptical at first, but they ate it all in the end.

And if you have any creamed spinach leftover from another side dish or from making a stack of crepes…  you can indeed use it and skip the step of cooking onions and garlic beforehand.

We served these cannelloni with a caprese salad and delicious garlicky bread…

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Spinach Polenta

20 May

What to eat next to some Creamy Stuffed Mushrooms??    Well Spinach Polenta, of course…

It’s so easy to make. This was the first time my mom ate polenta… at least called polenta. – because she told me that when she was little they would serve something similar but with another complicated name in Spanish.

This is a great way to repurpose creamed spinach or cooked spinach you may have made for crepes…

SPINACH POLENTA

1 cup vegetable broth
½ cup milk
5 tbs quick cooking polenta – but make sure to read and make it according to your package suggested measurements
½ cup of creamy spinach mix – like the one I use to stuff crepes…
2 handfuls of shredded 5 cheese blend
Salt and Pepper to taste
  1. Pour vegetable broth and milk into a medium pot over medium-hi heat and bring to a boil.
  2. Add the polenta slowly while whisking the liquid to avoid any lumps. Stir occasionally until the mixture reaches your desired consistency. I like it smooth for this preparation.
  3. Turn off the heat and add the creamy spinach mix and the shredded cheese. Mix well using a spoon until it’s all well combined. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
  4. Leave covered until ready to serve.

If you’d like, you could also add about ¼ cup of Parmesan cheese to add more flavor to it…

 

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Gluten-free Sun-dried Tomato Stuffed Mushrooms

16 Mar

I’m into mushrooms… they’re delicious and they’re easy and quick to make. And when recently I was invited to make something “different” for the Vegetarian Festival at the Yoga Center, I decided I wanted to make some stuffed mushrooms.

I love to buy white button mushrooms at Costco, but the package is SO BIG that it’s usually too much for just me at home. But if we’re cooking for the Yoga Center, I would certainly need 2 packages. Mushrooms are used in the yoga center, but they’re not a usual main dish occurrence because they’re usually expensive when cooking for lots of people. But I thought this is my chance to highlight how you can embellish a little old mushroom and make them be your main dish.

I used gluten-free crackers instead of regular breadcrumbs because there are a lot of people at the center who keep a gluten-free diet. They work just the same, you’ll see and taste.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

GLUTEN-FREE SUN-DRIED TOMATO STUFFED MUSHROOMS

2 large packages of white stuffing mushrooms – about 40-45 mushrooms
1 medium onion, chopped finely
½ green bell pepper, chopped finely
2 garlic cloves, minced or grated on a microplane
2 sprigs of fresh thyme
10 sun-dried tomatoes, chopped in small pieces – make sure they’re made without sulfites as a preservative
½ cup of vegetable broth
1/2 packet of gluten-free crackers – I use Energy brand because that’s why I have available
1 cup of shredded parmesan cheese, organic preferably- divided
1 cup of shredded mozzarella cheese, organic preferably
1 cup of loosely-packed fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped finely
Salt and Pepper
Olive Oil

 

  1. Clean the mushrooms well using a damp paper towel. They sometimes have traces of the dirt they were growing in. Remove the stems and chop them into small pieces and set aside. Reserve the caps for later use.
  2. In a small saucepan, heat the vegetable broth to a simmer and add the sundried tomatoes. After it simmers for a while, turn off the stove and let the tomatoes just sit in the hot broth for a few minutes to help them reconstitute a bit.
  3. Meanwhile, in a medium skillet, pour a little olive oil and sauté the onions, peppers, garlic and the mushrooms stems you already chopped. Cook until the mushrooms are browned. Season with the thyme, stripping the leaves from the stems, salt and pepper. Add the reconstituted sun-dried tomatoes all together with the broth that’s left. Allow the mixture to cook some more to evaporate a bit, about 5 more minutes. Remove from pan into a bowl and allow cooling a bit.
  4. While the mixture cools, process the crackers into crumbs in a food processor.
  5. Mix together the cooled mushroom stem/onion/tomatoes mix with the crackers, mozzarella, ½ the parmesan cheese, and chopped fresh parsley. Drizzle some olive oil if you see the mix a bit dry… but chances are it’s not.
  6. Preheat oven to 425F.
  7. In a large baking dish drizzled with a bit of olive oil, place all the mushrooms stuffed with the mixture we just made. Don’t push the stuffing too much into the mushrooms cavity, but do heap any additional stuffing generously on top of mushrooms. No need to discard or leave any stuffing for future use.
  9. Take the extra parmesan we saved and add a small mound on top of each mushrooms. I usually drizzle a a bit of olive oil and sprinkle some additional salt and pepper to season the mushrooms themselves.
  11. Bake for about 20 minutes, until the mushrooms looked cooked and cheese on top is golden brown.

Serve immediately…

But if you want to make this for a party, you can place these on a steam table with about ½ cup of vegetable broth and allow them to steam to keep warm. If you place in a steam table dry, the mushrooms will shrivel.

I know… this Vegetarian Festival was filled with dishes; hardly these mushrooms seem like a main entrée. But I have served these, just like I have served my better-than-Maggiano’s Stuffed Mushrooms as a main dish with a side salad at home.

The positive comments kept on coming the whole night. Gabriel, Angie, Tania and many others came up to me to share their compliments on the mushrooms and asking for the recipe. I told them they needed to wait until we published here… you know, it’s easier to just hit print than write this all down. I actually repeated this recipe again at the center just a week later – people were left wanting some more.

So for all the fans… here’s the recipe now. Now you can make it at home whenever you want, not just when I make it at the Yoga Center. I hope it does not disappoint.

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Poblano Pepper Rajas

20 Jan

When I went last year to Guadalajara, I fell in love with a taco filling they call RAJAS… Rajas are translated directly as STRIPS of something. I had the pleasure of having RAJAS made from Jalapeños, Nopales and Poblanos.

The Rajas de Jalapeños were delicious made in a creamy sauce with corn and little pieces of some other crumbly cheese. They served me three corn tortillas with the filling and you top them with your favorite veggies – lettuce, tomato, crema, etc. Something that surprised me about all the Pepper Rajas I had while in Mexico is that I always expected the dishes to be so spicy that I would not able to handle them. This was not the case… All dishes were mild, even to my wimpy palette.

I saw this recipe from Marcela Valadolid on making Poblano Rajas and I had to try it… I am almost certain I used some other chile other than a POBLANO, because after seeding and deveining, it was WAY SPICIER than what I remembered in Mexico. Maybe one of my peppers started to ripen and I’ve been told this adds to the spicy level of a pepper.

Who knows what happened… but the results were delicious. You should try this too…

POBLANO PEPPER RAJAS

6 fresh poblano chiles
3 tablespoons canola oil
1 medium white onion, thinly sliced
1 medium clove of garlic, minced
2 fresh ears of corn, kernels removed
1/4 cup heavy cream
½ cup plain yogurt – or Mexican crema…
¼ cup vegetable broth
1/2 cup, shredded Mozzarella cheese
¼ cup mild feta cheese, crumbled into small pieces
Kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper
For Accompaniment:
Fresh baby spinach
Fresh tomatoes
1 cup of strained plain yogurt – or Greek yogurt
Slices of lime
Corn Tortillas

 

  1. Char the poblano chiles under the broiler of your oven until blackened on all sides. I did mine in a toaster oven. Enclose in a plastic bag and let steam for about 10 minutes.
  2. When the chiles have cooled a bit, peel and seed them. Cut the chiles into 1/2-inch strips (rajas) and set aside.
  4. Add the oil to a heavy large skillet over medium heat. When the oil is hot, add the onion and garlic and sauté until translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the corn kernels and cook for an additional 3 minutes.
  5. Add the strips of chile to the onion and corn mixture and sauté until the corn is tender, about 5 more minutes.
  7. Add the heavy cream, vegetable broth and yogurt. With the back of a knife, scrape all the liquid that resides in the corn hull left behind. Cook until bubbling, about for 8 minutes more. Add the cheeses and stir until melted and smooth. Season the rajas with salt and pepper, to taste.
  8. Transfer to a serving dish and serve as part of a Taquiza.
  9. Warm the corn tortillas in a dry skillet and place inside a clean cloth surrounded by aluminum foil to maintain warm and pliable as long as possible.

What’s a Taquiza??? When you set out all the fixings for making TACOS buffet-style… just like they do in Guadalajara. Buen Provecho!!!

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