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Damn Delicious: Melt-in-your-mouth Barbacoa and Homemade Flour Tortillas

March 28, 2020

There’s this moment when I’m cooking something new and I pull it out of the oven to check on it, perhaps I do a little taste test on a fork and the food it too hot and I’m doing deep breaths to try not to burn my mouth. In that moment, I just know that I turned a culinary corner. I made something so delicious that I amazed my own self.

Not to oversell it, but that’s the way I felt when I cooked this barbacoa. It was so incredibly good that I almost wanted to cry and I felt this little thrill of awe that I could cook something so nurturing and complex and hearty and just so damn delicious.

We’ve been in a bit of a chicken rut in my house lately, so I wanted to make some beef. After cooking this barbacoa, I am now on a vegetarian and healthy bend because I’m afraid I almost gave myself gout eating meat for several meals in a row, but anyway. We were in a chicken rut and I swear I decided to learn to cook barbacoa just out of thin air. I don’t know where the inspiration came from, but it was suddenly there and palpable.

Whenever I’m cooking something new, I do a stupid amount of research before I commit to a recipe. That’s why I’m so proud of my Damn Delicious posts. Sure, I’m just sharing another person’s recipe most of the time, but I’m not just sharing it, I’m vouching for it. I’m putting my picky, food-loving name behind it. I’m making you a promise that it’s worth the time and effort. It’s so disappointing to invest the time and energy and resources into a recipe for it to just be ho-hum. I don’t have time for that and neither do you!

So, trust me when I say that this recipe for homemade barbacoa is going to knock your socks off. Truly. It’s one of the best things I’ve ever cooked. Yep, I will be so bold to say that. The recipe comes from Give me Some Oven and I’m confident you could follow her slow-cooker method and find awesome results. Me? Of course I had to modify it, so here’s what I did:

  • I went through the extra step of blending all of the ingredients minus the meat and the Bay Leaf in my food processor. If you do this, beware and blend in small batches because it’s a pretty liquidy process. I had a leaksplosion with my food processor. I also added about half a cup of orange juice and a tablespoon of honey because someone in the comments mentioned that it’s more traditional to add that and I happened to have them on hand.
  • I didn’t plan ahead enough to cook in the slow cooker, so I used my oven. I don’t have a dutch oven, so I cooked in my trusty cast iron skillet covered with aluminum foil for about 45 minutes at 425 degrees and then turned it down to 350 for about two hours.
  • I went ahead and seared the meat for about five minutes or so on each side before putting it in the oven because I was going for maximum flakiness and nuance. Once seared, I poured over the sauce and popped it in the oven with the aluminum foil covering. I honestly forgot the Bay Leaf, but if you remember, I’d recommend you add it. It can’t hurt.
  • At first, it isn’t going to seem like the meat is going to get tender. It stays in the two inch chunks for quite some time – at least an hour and a half. Be patient and trust the process. Over time, the meat will just fall apart into the most tender, flaky pieces. After I shredded the meat, I put it back in the oven for a bit so that some pieces could brown further. Gah, so good!

Now, of course you can put that barbacoa on anything. Nachos, burrito bowls, you name it, you can’t go wrong. But, if you happen to have extra time on your hands (Corona virus shelter in place, what!) and want to try your hand at homemade tortillas, I am going to fully support your decision. You will be my tortilla hero.

I love a homemade tortilla more than most things in life, but I had never worked up the nerve to try them for myself, mostly because I was intimidated by lard. I found a recipe that honestly was so easy that called for olive oil instead of lard via The Cafe Sucre Farine. I was intrigued, so I decided to use my limited stock of flour to give them a go.

Holy crap, these tortillas were delicious. They are little pillows of heaven and they couldn’t be any easier to make. The Kitchenaid will do all the work for you aside from a little rolling pin action. Be sure to give them the adequate rest time before you pull out the rolling pin and don’t be afraid to really get in there and roll them out super thin. That’s going to keep it more like a tortilla versus a pita.

All you need is tortilla + barbacoa + maybe a little cilantro and diced onion to have a very memorable meal. Keep it simple my friends.

Please let me know in the comments if you decide to make this! I would love to hear of your culinary triumph and I will live vicariously through your recount. I love cooking so much and love nothing more than when you make a recipe I recommend. Happy cooking, friends!

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damn delicious, recipes I've tried and liked

Damn Delicious: Vegetable Enchilada Casserole

March 4, 2020

Does anyone make casseroles anymore? We should definitely bring back the casserole! You dump a bunch of stuff together and smear it with cheese and it comes out delectable. Dinner should be easy like this.

This Vegetable Enchilada Casserole, or ‘veggie enchies’ as I like to annoyingly call it, has graced my table for at least 5 years. It isn’t really much of a recipe, but it’s a good, stick-to-your-ribs dinner you can throw together to use up the extra veggies in your fridge and skip the meat-heavy meals every once in a while. It feels good, it tastes good, it’s easy to make and it makes ample leftovers. That’s a winner in my dinner playbook.

Here’s how you make it… the recipe looks a bit complicated, but I promise it’s really super easy. Much easier than making individually wrapped enchiladas. Who has time for that?

Ingredients:

  • 18 pack corn tortillas
  • About 2.5 Cups Pre-shredded Mexican Blend Cheese
  • 1 Large Can (28 ounces) Enchilada Sauce
  • Veggies. Go wild here, friends. You really can’t go wrong. I typically do one white onion, one zucchini, one quarter head of cabbage and one can of corn. I will say that I added shredded brussel sprouts to this version and it was a little overpoweringly brussel-y for my taste.
  • 2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
  • 1 Tablespoon minced garlic
  • 1 Tablespoon of Taco Mix Seasoning
  • 1 Can (14 ounces) Black Beans, drained

Directions:

  1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
  2. Chop veggies. Go for smaller, uniform pieces. These veggies are going to be the ‘filling’ of your enchiladas. Do you want to bite down on a huge piece of onion? Probably not. Dice pretty small, but don’t freak yourself out. Veggies cook down easy, so you can’t mess it up.
  3. In large skillet, heat olive oil over medium high heat. Add onions. Let them get nice and brown. Add garlic and stir for a quick minute.
  4. Add remaining veggies. If they’re all pretty uniform in size, you can add them all at once. Cook until the veggies start to get soft and release their juices.
  5. Add taco mix seasoning. Salt to taste. You want the veggies to have a lot of flavor because that adds the oomph to your enchiladas. If you want more seasoning, feel free to sprinkle on some garlic powder, a pinch of cayenne, black pepper. Go wild on the flavor train, but taste as you go so you don’t go overboard.
  6. Once your veggies are nicely browned, stir in black beans. Don’t overmix them or your beans will turn to mush. Turn off heat for skillet.
  7. Now it’s time to layer. Have you ever made lasagna? It’s like that. Prep your corn tortillas by tearing or cutting them into smaller pieces. Don’t overthink it. Maybe aim to tear or cut into quarters? I like a nice chunky bite of tortilla. I also zap them in the microwave for about 40 seconds covered with a paper towel to get them ready for the heat.
  8. Pour a layer of enchilada sauce to coat the bottom of the pan.
  9. Add a layer of tortillas.
  10. Add a layer of veggies.
  11. Add a layer of cheese.
  12. Repeat.
  13. If you still have more, repeat again, but DON’T PUT THE TOP LAYER OF CHEESE ON. Save that for later.
  14. Cover enchies with a layer of aluminum foil and pop in the oven for about 30-40 minutes. Once the enchiladas are heated through (but not dried out), add a final layer of cheese and return to oven without aluminum foil to melt the cheese.
  15. Let stand for about five minutes after you take them out of the oven to allow the flavors to do a final meld.
  16. Top with exorbitant amounts of sour cream and devour.

What’s your easy go-to meal to make at home? I’m always looking for new ideas to add to the rotation.

damn delicious, recipes I've tried and liked

Damn Delicious: French Onion Soup of my Dreams

February 27, 2020

Guys, this recipe is a dead ringer for the onion soup I ate in the amazing sidewalk cafes of Paris.

A dead ringer, I say!

This is a big freaking deal. I had almost resigned myself to a sad existence where I couldn’t find a soup that approximated the near-religious experience I had when I ate my first bowl of soup while in Paris. I had eaten French Onion Soup while in the U.S. and I liked it, but that soup on that rainy day took things to a whole new level and I couldn’t look back. And, I couldn’t face the thought that I would only find that soup on highly expensive, rare trips to Paris.

So, when I came home, I was a woman on a French Onion Soup mission. I tried making it in the crockpot. Good, but not close. I bought it at La Boulangerie. It was okay, but nowhere near as good. I even tried it when we were in Maui with Maui onions. Nope!

When I was deep in my onion soup resignation, I somehow came across a Smitten Kitchen recipe from almost a year ago. I read through it. It seemed so simple. I had to try again.

I decided to try my hand on a Friday at 7pm. It’s not exactly the time I recommend undertaking a French Onion Soup endeavor as my soup was ready around 9pm. But, wow, it was worth the wait.

Click over to Smitten Kitchen for the full recipe because she describes the process better than I ever could. I just want to add a few notes why I think this try took my soup over the top:

  • Cook the onions until you just can’t stand it. Mine were a deep brown when I finally deglazed the pan with the sherry. Don’t burn them, but don’t be afraid to get them to a deep, almost jammy brown.
  • Buy good broth! The best broth you can buy without feeling like you are a wasteful hedonist. I bought a bag of this beef bone broth from Trader Joe’s and also mixed in some of the Costco Kirkland Chicken bone broth. Because it’s such a simple recipe, the ingredients really matter.
  • Don’t skip the little things. I did the fresh Thyme and also the Bay Leaf. Deb says you don’t really need it. I think you might.
  • Buy good bowls that you’re not afraid to put under your broiler. I bought these from Amazon. It’s scary to put already boiling soup in a broiler, but when they come out all bubbly and delicious-looking, you’ll be happy.
  • Get the bread nice and toasty. I cooked my toasts in a pan with some butter and garlic powder and I didn’t regret it for one second.
  • ALLLLL the cheese. Put more than you think you need. Grating it helps with the ultimate meltage.

Do you love French Onion Soup? Obviously, I’m obsessed.

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