« January 2009 | Main | March 2009 »
February 03, 2009
Cauliflower "Tortilla"
When I was a teenager, my mother used to often make tortilla for weekend brunch - the thick Spanish potato omelette, not the thing you wrap tacos in. We'd eat it inauthentically, but deliciously, smothered in fresh tomato salsa.
These days, with my trying to eat a low glycemic index diet, potatoes don't feature all that much in my cooking. So tonight, when I was thinking about an omelette for dinner, I thought, "Why not try to do a tortilla with that old stand-by of low carb potato substitutes: cauliflower?"
The Ingredients
- 1/2 a medium onion, diced
- about half of a medium-sized head of cauliflower, cut into small florets (you want enough to make a nice even covering over the bottom of a 10 inch skillet, without the cauliflower being so packed together that you can't stir it around. Cut the florets pretty small - they'll cook faster.
- 5 eggs, beaten
- smoked paprika, to taste (optional)
- salt and pepper to taste
The Steps
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
- Put a bit of olive oil in a deep 10 inch skillet or saute pan with an ovenproof handle. Heat it over medium high heat.
- Add the onion and cauliflower and saute, stirring.
- Season with salt, pepper, and paprika to taste.
- When the onions are browned and the cauliflower is cooked through and browned a bit, add the eggs. As the egg begins to set around the edges, lift up the edge with a spatula and tilt the pan to let the uncooked egg run underneath.
- When the egg is mostly set except on top, pop the pan into the oven and let the egg finish cooking. This took about 5 or 6 minutes for me.
- Cut into wedges and serve. Smother inauthentically with salsa if you like.
Serves 2 if it's pretty much all you're eating. Could easily serve 4 if you served it with a nice salad and maybe a bit of good bread.
Posted by spaceling at 09:09 PM
February 01, 2009
Pork and Tomatillo Chili
I'm on a quest to use up a collection of stray bottles of leftover beer that have accumulated from various parties we've thrown. As a first experiment, this turned out really well.
The Ingredients
- ~ 2lbs. pork shoulder, trimmed of excess fat and cut into 1 inch cubes.
- 1 onion, sliced
- 2 cloves of garlic, slivered
- 2 chipotle chilies, minced, plus 3-4 tsp. of the adobo sauce they're canned in
- 4 oz. can roasted diced green chilies
- 5 medium-sized tomatillos, husked, rinsed, and cut into bite-sized chunks
- 1 can kidney beans, rinsed and drained
- 1 can pinto beans, rinsed and drained
- 1 12 oz. bottled of beer (I used a Gordon Biersch pilsner)
The Steps
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- Season the pork with salt and pepper and brown it in a dutch oven or large ovenproof pot, working in batches if necessary. Remove from the pot and set aside. Pour off any excess fat.
- Add the onions, garlic, chilies, and tomatillos, and cook over medium-high heat until the onions start to get soft.
- Add the pork, the beans, and the beer and bring to a simmer.
- Cover the pot and stick it in the oven for about 3 hours.
When it's done, the beer will have cooked down to a thick, delicious broth, and the pork will be tender enough to eat with a spoon. Mmmm. Oddly, though, I think the tastiest part of this recipe might have been the beans - I think I'm going to try just cooking a big pot of pinto beans with chilies and beer.
Makes 4-6 servings.
Posted by spaceling at 08:23 PM