Enchilada Sauce

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Homemade Enchilada Sauce

Enchiladas are probably our favorite meal. Whether it’s chicken, pork, shrimp, or a simple bean and cheese filling – they’re so comforting, and relatively easy to make. The easiest part of all being making your own homemade enchilada sauce. So many recipes I’ve seen on the internet call for canned sauce – and it always makes me feel sad for them, a “bless their heart” type situation. It’s basically seasoned tomato sauce, taking only minutes to come together . No excuses.

And the flavor, wowza. Out of this world! The stuff in the can will just seem bland and watery if you ever have the misfortune of tasting it again. Often I’ll double the recipe, and freeze half in a Ziploc bag for a rainy day. It’s also great as a base sauce for taco pizza, which is another one of our favorites.

If you’re still buying your enchilada sauce from the can, do yourself a favor and try making it at home. You can thank me later!

Homemade Enchilada Sauce

1 Tbsp olive oil
1 small onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 Tbsp chili powder
1 Tbsp ground cumin
1 (15 ounce) can tomato sauce
1 cup chicken stock or water
1 tsp kosher salt

Heat oil in medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Add onion and saute for a few minutes, until starting to brown on the edges, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic, chili powder, and cumin. Cook for an additional minute to toast the spices.

Add in the tomato sauce, as well as the chicken broth. Stir to combine, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 10 minutes.

Remove from heat, and pour the sauce through a fine-mesh strainer set over a bowl. Using a rubber spatula, push down on the onions, forcing as much sauce out as possible. I like to just toss the strained onion mixture into whatever enchilada filling I’m making, but you can discard it if you like.

Season sauce to taste with salt and black pepper before using. Will keep in the refrigerator for up to a week, or in the freezer for up to 3 months.

Makes about 2 cups enchilada sauce.

Source: adapted from this Chicken Enchilada recipe, from America’s Test Kitchen.

Rustic Dinner Rolls

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Rustic Dinner RollsAs I mentioned a couple of weeks ago during the New Year’s round up posts, I’ve gotten a lot more into bread baking the past year. One thing I had the opportunity to make yet was crusty breads. To achieve that crusty effect, most recipes require a “sponge”, which usually is made the night before you plan to bake the bread. Which, of course – I never seem to have my act together enough to plan ahead for that.

We were having soup for dinner last week, and I wanted some French-type rolls to go along with. But, it was cold and rainy – really wasn’t feeling going to the store. So, I turned to my cookbook for inspiration. Cook’s Illustrated had a recipe for dinner rolls that claimed the crunch of a crusty roll, without the time commitment. It was a few more steps than your standard yeast roll recipe, but I was pretty sure the finished product was going to be worth it.

The rolls were airy and chewy on the inside, with a nice thick crunchy crust. This will definitely be my go-to bread when I want something with a little more body than a traditional yeast dinner roll. The batch made enough for one dinner’s worth for us, as well as another meal’s worth that I stuck in the freezer for a rainy day.

Rustic Dinner Rolls

1 1/2 cups plus 1 Tbsp water, room temperature
2 tsp honey
1 1/2 tsp instant dry or rapid-rise yeast
3 cups plus 1 Tbsp bread flour (16.5 ounces), plus extra as needed
3 Tbsp whole-wheat flour
1 1/2 tsp salt

Whisk water, honey, and yeast together in the bowl of a stand mixer until dissolved. Transfer bowl to stand mixer fitted with dough hook. Add bread flour and whole-wheat flour and mix on low speed until a cohesive dough forms, about 3 minutes; cover bowl with plastic wrap and let sit at room temperature for 30 minutes.

Sprinkle salt evenly over dough and knead on low speed for 5 minutes. Increase speed to medium and continue to knead until dough is smooth and slightly tacky, about 1 minute. If dough is too sticky, add 1 to 2 tablespoons flour and continue mixing for 1 minute. Transfer dough to large, lightly greased bowl; cover tightly with plastic and let rise at room temperature until doubled in size, about 1 hour.

Spray rubber spatula with vegetable oil spray. Fold partially risen dough over itself (in half)by gently lifting and folding the edge of the dough toward the middle. Turn bowl 90 degrees; fold again. Rotate bowl again and fold once more. Cover with plastic and let rise for 30 minutes. Repeat folding, replace plastic, and let dough rise until doubled in size, about 30 minutes longer.

Grease two 9-inchround cake pans. Transfer dough to floured counter and sprinkle top with more flour. Using bench scraper, cut dough in half and gently stretch each half into 16-inch log. Cut each log into 8 equal pieces and dust top of each piece with more flour. With floured hands, gently pick up each piece and roll in palms to coat with flour, shaking of excess. Arrange rolls in prepared pans, placing 1 in center and 7 spaced evenly around the edges lengthwise, making sure cut side faces up. Loosely cover pans with lightly greased plastic and rise until doubled in size, about 30 minutes.

Thirty minutes before baking, adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 500 degrees. Spray rolls lightly with water, bake until tops of rolls are brown, about 10 minutes, then remove them from the oven.

Reduce oven temperature to 400 degrees; using kitchen towels or oven mitts, invert rolls from both cake pans onto rimmed baking sheet. When rolls are cool enough to handle, turn them right-side up, pull apart, and space evenly on baking sheet. Continue to bake until rolls develop a deep golden brown crust and sound hollow when tapped on the bottom, 10 to 15 minutes. Transfer rolls to wire rack and let cool to room temperature, about 1 hour, before serving.

Source: The Science of Good Cooking by America’s Test Kitchen

Classic Hot Fudge Sauce

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Classic Hot Fudge Sauce

Hot fudge has to be one of my favorite things on this planet. On ice cream, drizzled over cake or brownies, mixed into milk – you name it, I love it. Sadly, I’d always relied on the kind from the jar to get my fix. But, as with some of my other favorite store-bought items, I wanted to learn to make it at home.

I came across this recipe right before Christmas, and made it for Andrew’s teachers at school – along with some peanut brittle. It’s everything that hot fudge sauce should be. Thick, smooth, and chocolaty. The best part? It only uses 3 ingredients, all of which are pantry staples in my home.

I’m still trying to decide if this is a good thing, or a bad thing…

Classic Hot Fudge Sauce

1/2 cup butter
8 ounces bittersweet or dark chocolate, chopped (chips work too)
1 (14 oz) can sweetened condensed milk

Melt butter and chocolate in medium saucepan over medium heat. Once melted, add the sweetened condensed milk and stir to combine. Don’t worry, it will take a couple of minutes to fully incorporate. Just keep stirring!

Remove from heat and store in an airtight jar or container in the refrigerator for up to 1 month.

Source: adapted slightly from Simply Gourmet

Vanilla Bean Caramels

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Vanilla Bean Caramels

If I had to choose one accomplishment in the kitchen that I was most proud of this year, it would definitely be caramel. I remember being so terrified of it, for years, before I finally tried my hand at it. I’m so glad that I overcame that fear, because the results are SO rewarding.

It’s amazing what a few ingredients put together can transform into. It’s also amazing how 2 degrees can make or break said transformed item. Luckily, sugar and cream are relatively inexpensive – so a bum batch isn’t going to break the bank. Some people swear that they can eyeball color and temperatures, which you can, for some things like caramel sauce. However, a candy thermometer is very important for this recipe. If you don’t have one, go ahead and invest in one. I’m using mine more and more these days!

These caramels are rich and chewy, yet melt in your mouth at the same. The use of the vanilla beans adds beautiful flecks throughout the candy, and adds a tremendous depth of flavor. To make them extra special, sprinkle a little coarse sea salt on top before cutting. Truly amazing.

Vanilla Bean Caramels

1 cup heavy cream
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 vanilla bean pod, split and scraped
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/4 cup light corn syrup
1/4 cup water

Line bottom and sides of an 8-inch square baking pan with parchment paper, then lightly butter the parchment.

Bring cream, butter, vanilla, vanilla beans, pods, and sea salt to a boil in a small saucepan, then remove from heat and set aside.

Boil sugar, corn syrup, and water in a 3- to 4-quart heavy saucepan, stirring until sugar is dissolved. Boil, without stirring but gently swirling pan, until mixture is a light golden caramel.

Remove pods and carefully stir cream mixture into the caramel (mixture will bubble up) and simmer, stirring frequently, until caramel registers 246-248 on thermometer. 246 will give you a softer caramel that will stretch when you bite it but is easily squished or flattened, especially in a warm house. 248 will give you a firmer, still chewy caramel. Pour into baking pan and cool 30 minutes.  If you’d like, sprinkle a pinch or two of salt over the top of the caramel . Cut into 1-inch pieces (I buttered a pizza cutter), and then wrap each piece in a 4-inch square of wax paper, twisting 2 ends to close.

Source: slightly adapted from Confections of a Foodie Bride