Bread & Ink Cafe
3610 SE Hawthorne Blvd
Portland, OR 97214-5144
(503) 239-4756

Recently, my friend Patty came down from Camas to spend the morning shopping on Hawthorne. Whenever we do these excursions, we typically find someplace to have breakfast or lunch, depending on the time of day. On this occasion, I suggested Bread & Ink, a restaurant that jwa and I head out to quite frequently.

A Saturday morning, around 10:00-ish
When we arrived, they were busy, but we got seated right away as there were a couple of tables open. Coffee came quickly and we gave our orders. It’s funny, occasionally I will get a special they have on the board but my old standby seems to be the Smoked Trout Scramble. Eggs, cheese, smoked trout, pepper bacon and red onions with a generous dollop of horseradish sour cream — yum! Patty ended up getting the same thing and liked hers as well. Oh, and I can not say enough about the catsup that they have…I really love it on the breakfast potatoes!

Speaking of which, I am a big fan of the aforementioned herbed breakfast potatoes. And that being said, my favorite item, I think, is the bread. I love Bread & Ink bread — this applies to the baguettes and the bagels and well, whatever other kind I am forgetting about. For a while, you could get their Bread at Zupan’s, but I’m not sure this is still the case. I should go check that out soon.

The breakfast menu itself contains a lot of scramble dishes, black bean cakes, sometimes salmon cakes, pancakes, assorted egg dishes and Yiddish favorites like bagels with lox, onions and eggs. They offer mimosas and now that they have a full bar, I’m guessing bloody marys as well. I usually stick the scrambles and have always left quite happy with my choice and this last time was no exception.

To Recap:
Atmosphere:
Bright and open. Big flower arrangements on the front counter. Two mid-sized seating areas. White walls with interesting, changing art work. I think it’s comfy and inviting.

Food: Brunches are really good. The potatoes are well seasoned and usually, a bit crispy. Amazing catsup and very tasty bread products. One other thing that struck me about this last visit is that the food was very, very hot (heat-wise). Not that it’s usually not, but when it got to our table it had obviously not sat around for even a second. That was very nice. They also serve lunch and dinner, both of which we’ve had before and enjoyed. Oh, and incidentally, the lavender lemon drop I had there a while ago at a dinner was really, really good!

Service:
We had prompt and pleasant service. We even asked another passing server to ask our server to bring us our bread pre-meal and miraculously it arrived a couple of minutes later. No problems at all. I know service is sometimes an issue at Bread & Ink for some people, but honestly, we’ve never had bad service there over the last five years we’ve been going. Once, there was a mis-communication about an after dinner espresso, but that’s about it — nothing major. Perhaps we have just been lucky, but that’s been our experience.

Overall: I like Bread & Ink a lot. It’s comfortable. It’s in the neighborhood (for us). We walk there, have a nice meal and walk home. We’ve had a dinner there two Valentine’s Days in a row — both of which were good. We’ve taken visiting family and out of town guests there. All in all, it’s probably one of our favorite places to go for a casual meal out. So, give it a chance if you haven’t yet and maybe if you’ve had a so-so experience, give it another try.

Bread & Ink gets three baguettes out of four.

My favorite Fall salad is a combination of whatever lettuce I am in the mood for (mixed greens or baby spinach work great), sliced apples or pears, toasted walnuts, sweet onion slices and parmesan. I use a simple balsamic-dijon vinaigrette to top it all off. It’s especially good to have on the side with a tasty pasta meal or if you ate something, uh, less than ideal at lunch, you can make a huge version of this salad and make up for it with a healthy, lighter dinner!

It also makes a nice impression on Thanksgiving, as I learned last year, if you want to have a salad as part of your meal on that occasion.

Apple, Parmesan & Walnut Salad:
1 bag pre-washed mixed greens or baby spinach
1 apple or pear, sliced — squeeze a little fresh lemon juice on the fruit slices to keep them from browning
1/4 to 1/2 cup shaved parmesan cheese
1/4 to 1/2 sweet onion, sliced
1/4 cup walnut pieces (this also works well with candied walnuts — see below)
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar (I prefer a 2:1 rato between oil and vinegar, but feel free to adjust this to your tastes)
1/2 tsp dijon mustard
salt & pepper

Pre heat the oven to 350 degrees. Arrange the walnuts on a baking sheet and toast about 5 minutes. Typically, when you can smell them, they’ve toasted enough. Set aside.

Wash and dry lettuce and arrange in a big bowl. Add the apple through the onion. Make the dressing by combining the vinegar & mustard, then whisk in the olive oil. Salt & pepper to taste. Toss with the salad and sprinkle on the toasted walnuts.

—
Here is a fairly easy way to make candied walnuts. Watch them very carefully in the oven — they go from golden and caramelized to burnt and unusable very, very quickly!

Sara Moulton’s Recipe for Easy Candied Walnuts:
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/8 teaspoon salt
4 ounces walnuts (about one heaping cup; don’t use pieces)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

In a medium sized bowl, mix together the sugar, cayenne and salt.

Bring a small saucepan of water to boil. Add the walnuts and blanch them for 3 minutes. Drain well and then immediately roll the walnuts in the sugar mixture until thoroughly coated. The sugar will melt slightly. Transfer the walnuts to a baking sheet or pan and bake, stirring occasionally, until they are a deep golden brown, about 10 minutes. Watch carefully because the sugar can burn easily. Let cool completely before serving.

My introduction to hummus came while I was in college at the University of Minnesota. There was a deli — The Mediterranean Deli, to be exact — conveniently located by my dorm and I came to love the hummus there. Creamy, garlicky and really different from any kind of dip I’d ever had before. My friend Terri and I would walk over to the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood, go get some hummus, go to the liquor store and then hit the video store and we’d be all set for a movie night.

Since first discovering the yumminess of hummus in Minneapolis, I’ve added baba ghanouj, tabouli and other exotic snacks to my palate but hummus remains my favorite. It’s hard to match my memory of The Mediterranean Deli hummus, but I manage to make a fairly tasty version.

Aside from its all-around snackability, another reason I am a big hummus fan is because it can be made in all kinds of different varieties: black olive hummus, roasted red pepper hummus, feta hummus, spinach hummus — the list could go on and on. Below, is one such variation, lightened up a bit and with some crunchy green onions in the supporting role. It incorporates a trick from a hummus recipe in Mediterranean Light by Martha Rose Shulman — mainly cutting down on the olive oil and tahini and adding a little plain non-fat yogurt in addition. Sure, it’s not traditional but it works fairly well in lightening up the texture and lessening the fat content a bit. Give it a try — it’s really good!

Green Onion Hummus
1 can chick peas (garbanzo beans)
3 tbsp tahini
3 tbsp olive oil
Juice of 1 lemon
2 large cloves of garlic
1/4 to 1/2 cup plain, nonfat yogurt
1/2 to 1 tsp salt to taste
3 - 4 green onions, roughly chopped
Garnish: Diced green onion & kalamata olives

Puree the drained chickpeas, tahini, 2 tablespoons of the olive oil, lemon juice, green onions, half of the yogurt and garlic in a food processor. Add more yogurt if you want it creamier. Taste and season with the salt. Here is where I might add more lemon juice or garlic if I feel the need. When it’s perfect, transfer to a bowl. Drizzle the remaining olive oil over the hummus and garnish with chopped green onions and sliced kalamata olives. Serve with warm pita bread triangles.

Behold — my entry for IMBB #19: I Can’t Believe I Ate Vegan!, hosted at Becks & Posh. So, I didn’t really set off to fool anyone — jwa knew he was getting a vegan dinner and quite honestly, yeah, we could believe it was vegan. ::laugh:: But that’s not a bad thing! We liked it and I can see making it again.

While trying to decide what recipe to use, I went back and forth between making a dessert and making a main dish. I finally opted for this soup because it did sound really good and I was hoping to find a new dish to make regularly this Fall & Winter. In my vegan research, I rediscovered this site, The Vegan Chef, a great resource for getting vegan recipe ideas. I’ve actually used this resource once before to get a recipe for dinner guests that were actually of the vegan persuasion.

But for this IMBB event, I reverted back to my old standby for vegetarian recipes, The Best 125 Meatless Main Dishes. The recipe I chose was flagged as vegan and here it is:

Spicy Greens & Red Lentil Soup with Cinnamon
1 tsp olive oil
1 cup dried, red lentils
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cumin
6 cups vegetable stock
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 tsp dried chili flakes
1/8 tsp salt
1 medium carrot, diced
1 medium onion, diced
1 1/2 pounds spicy greens (I used a mix of arugula and spinach — if you can find some mustard greens, those would work great too)
1 tsp low-sodium soy sauce
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 medium tomato, diced
lemon wedges

Sort the lentils — there may be tiny little non-lentils or pebbles in with the bunch. Place in a bowl and add cool water, stir with your fingers and pour out the starchy water. Repeat a few times.

Add the onions and carrots to a large stock pot with the olive oil. Sauté until soft and slightly golden in color.

Meanwhile, place drained lentils in another pan (I know — two pans — sorry!) and stir over medium heat until they are fairly dry. Sprinkle the cinnamon and cumin on the lentils and continue to roast for about five minutes. The lentils and spices will smell really good!

Carefully add water, garlic, chili flakes and salt to the carrots & onions, then add the roasted lentils and spices. Bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce to medium-low and simmer for 20 minutes.

Wash greens and tear leaves into bite-sized pieces.

After the 20 minutes of simmering is up, stir in soy sauce, wine and tomato. Pile washed greens on top of soup and cover with a lid, cooking five more minutes. After cooking time stir wilted greens into soup and serve very hot with the lemon wedges.

PS: Happy Belated Birthday, Christy!!

Tagged with: IMBB # 19 + Vegan

A Huge Grilled Chicken & Rosemary Pizza w/ a Garlicky White Sauce & Every Single Vegetable We Had in the House
Along with Slashfood, I’m a big fan of pizza. We try to make our own every so often and usually a couple times a month or so, we’ll get pizza from Trader Joe’s and doctor it up a bit with more cheese, veggies and what-not. My current choices for that treatment are: the cornmeal crust ones (not frozen) and the frozen Italian varieties — the goat cheese and the gorgonzola/pear being my two current favorites.

Delivery/take-out/dine-in is also good. We’re fortunate to live close to a number of different places: Oasis Cafe, Rovente, Vincente’s and Apizza Scholls.

But, alas, this post is mainly about the pizza we made Saturday night. A monster of a rustically-shaped pie with a rosemary-garlic white sauce, mozzarella, grilled chicken, kalamata olives, onion, yellow bell pepper, roasted garlic cloves, portobello mushrooms and tomato slices.

Garlic-Rosemary White Sauce:
The first thing I did was make the sauce — and I made way too much of it. I am thinking there will be a pasta bake dinner later in the week.
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp flour
1 1/2 cups milk
1 tbsp chopped rosemary
3 cloves garlic
1/4 cup parmesan cheese
pinch of red pepper flakes
salt & pepper
(Optional): 1 tbsp sundried tomato tapenade

Make a roux with the butter and flour. After the flour has had a chance to cook a bit with the butter (1 minute or so), whisk in the milk. Bring back to a boil and let it thicken. If it’s too thick, you can add a bit more milk. Next, add the rosemary, garlic, pepper flakes and cheese. Taste. Add salt, pepper and adjust any other seasonings. I added about a tablespoon of sundried tomato tapenade to the sauce because we had some in the fridge and I like rummaging around for last minute ingredients — it is my way. Set sauce aside.

Pizza dough — we cheated and bought dough at Trader Joe’s

Toppings:
mozzarella
parmesan
grilled chicken pieces
sliced onion
sautéed portobello mushroom slices (I added a splash of wine towards the end of cooking and some fresh thyme)
tomato
roasted garlic cloves
kalamata olives
bell pepper
artichoke hearts, quartered

Prepare the crust. We pre-baked ours for about 10 minutes as we knew we were going to be making an ingredient-laden, top-heavy pizza. Speaking of which, I know there is a pizza school of thought that thinks 1-2 toppings is all a pizza needs and I totally respect that. Sometimes that approach yields great results and is really good — and sometimes, you just want to construct a pizza that’ll hit the roof of the oven.

This was one of those times.

To start, jwa spread some garlic olive oil down on the pan and we baked the crust on that — rendering a nice crunchy, crispy bottom. After it came out of the oven from its pre-bake, we started with a thin layer of the white sauce and didn’t look back. The mozzarella followed, then the chicken, bell peppers, portobellas, onion, olives, artichoke hearts, tomato slices, roasted garlic cloves, a sprinkling of parmesean and finally, a bit more chopped rosemary. Whew!

Into the oven it went at 450 degrees, until it was all bubbly and the cheese had started to get golden on top. While it baked, two super cold Blue Heron Ales were uncapped and waiting, Broadcast News went into the dvd player and an excellent pizza dinner was had by all.

After this delicious but somewhat huge and heavy pizza, it’s nice that tomorrow’s post is I can’t believe I ate vegan for IMBB#19! For that, I made very sensible & healthy red lentil soup with cinnamon and spicy greens.

Last week, we splurged and got some salmon from New Seasons to grill up for dinner. I used my Jake’s Orange and Mango glaze on the salmon and it turned out really well. As a side dish I roasted some butternut squash and garlic and then mashed it all up — so, so good. Kind of like mashed potatoes but very healthy for you. One cup of mashed squash has: 2 grams of protein, riboFLAVIN, iron, Vitamins A and C!

Add some sautéed asparagus on the side and you have a dinner that’s both tasty and good for you!

Roasted & Mashed Butternut Squash w/ Garlic
1 bag peeled and cubed butternut squash (from Trader Joe’s if there’s one by you — otherwise you can always peel & cube your own…but be careful!)
6 large cloves garlic, peeled
1 -2 tsp olive oil — orange infused if you have some — if not use regular olive oil but add a bit of orange zest (maybe 1/4 tsp) to the mashed squash when it is done
Salt
Pepper
1 tbsp (or less) butter
Chives for garnish

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Put squash and garlic in a bowl. Toss with some olive oil to coat and then spread out on a baking sheet. Add some salt. Roast for about a half and hour or until the squash and garlic start to get a little caramelized and are soft (start checking after about 20 minutes).

Transfer to a big bowl and mash squash and garlic up — I use a potato masher. Add butter. Taste. Season with salt and pepper. Garnish with chives if desired and serve. Yum!

***
Crockery Corner:
I love these plates so much. They are by Villeroy & Boch, pattern Citta & Campagna (Novi). They are out of production now and I am so, so sad because when I found them, I only got two place settings. I have looked and looked for more over the past couple of years, but the only place I have found them is this store in Australia and even though I begged profusely, they won’t ship them to the US.

*sniff*

Anyone planning a trip down under soon?

I love Fall. No really, I am completely ensorcelled with the season that is Autumn. I think some of it is my 18+ years of being on an academic calendar but it’s also the layering and the sweaters and Halloween and the cool crisp air. Ohhh, and the apple crisp. And stew. And pancakes.

And risotto!

I started making risotto a while ago, using recipes in this book — Best 125 Meatless Main Dishes. It’s to the point now, where I really don’t even need to consult the book (although the black bean, tequila and jack cheese risotto recipe in here is amazing). One cup of Arborio rice to 3.5 cups of hot broth and 1/2 cup wine, veggies, cheese and baby, you’ve got a risotto goin’.

So, after raving about my pork chop sauce the other week and with the drop in temperature, I decided the time was right to make the first risotto of the season. I decided to base it on the sauce flavors — mushrooms, Madeira wine, fresh herbs and uh, zucchini because we had some in the fridge that I needed to use. Oh, I also threw in a little chopped yellow bell pepper, because I had that too. So, the rule here is, feel free to improvise.

Wild Mushroom & Zucchini Risotto
2 tbsp olive oil
a mix of mushrooms, sliced — I used shitake and cremini, but any combination (or all white button) would work
1 small zucchini, chopped
1 small onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1 cup Arborio rice (the kind of rice is important — you want a very starchy type that will produce a creamy consistency)
1/2 cup Madeira wine (Port will work here too, so will sherry, if all you have is a bottle of open red or white wine? Go ahead and use it!)
3.5 cups chicken stock, simmering on the stove
1/4 (or less) cup goat cheese
1/4 cup parmesan cheese
1/4 cup chopped herbs (I used parsley, chives and tarragon)
salt & pepper

After getting the stock in a pot and heated up, sauté the mushrooms in 1 tbsp of the olive oil. I do these first (and by themselves), as they tend to soak up a lot of liquid. When they are done, set aside. I let mine go until they are soft, have released some liquid and are just a little bit golden.

Next, add the other tbsp of oil to the pan and sauté the onions and zucchini over med-high heat. Cook until soft. Add the garlic and cook for about a minute more. Next, add the rice and stir to coat. Incorporate the wine into the rice and veggies — stir until absorbed. Now, start adding the hot chicken stock about 1/2 a cup at a time, stirring until it is absorbed each time, before adding the next 1/2 cup. Personally, I may go a minute or so without stirring, but I really try to stir it very often. I know there’s one school of thought that says you don’t have to stir but I’ve never tried it that way. I learned that you stir — so I stir.

Before you add the last 1/2 cup of chicken stock (the risotto should be looking pretty creamy by now), add the cooked mushrooms. As the last batch of stock absorbs into the risotto, it’s time for the cheese and herbs to join in. Taste. Season with salt, pepper and — if you like things a little spicey — a couple of red pepper flakes.

Feel free to sprinkle a little more parmesan on top of the individual servings.

Put on a sweater, uncork the wine, serve and enjoy.

Sub Rosa
2601 SE Clinton St
Portland, OR 97202
(503) 233-1955

Last Thursday, we had a very nice meal at Sub Rosa on SE Clinton. I usually drive past it on my way home from work during the week and I’ve been curious about it for a while, so I’m very glad we finally tried it. Yeah, I know, it’s been open for months — but this is extremely quick for us! Although, we hit Lauro Kitchen the first week it was open. Ha!

Er, but back to Sub Rosa. After you sit, the first item that greets you is a plate of bread with olive oil and (if you order one) a glass of wine. Armed with these at your disposal, perusing the menu while you people watch on Clinton can be very pleasant.

The menu is on the limited side with just a couple of salads, a soup of the day, a few lighter plates and then pasta and pizza for the main dishes. There is an additional pasta and a pizza special each night. When we were there, these included a mushroom pizza and a roasted vegetable lasagna.

A more detailed listing of the menu because I sneakily took a picture of it while we were there:
Starters include two salads — a House Salad (”mixed greens w/ spicy walnuts, blue cheese, cranberries & vinaigrette”) and a Caesar Salad (”traditional Caesar w/ parmesan & garlic croutons”). Both of the salads come in small and large sizes for $4 and $7 respectively. The Cheese Plate, Olive Plate and Rustic Pizza Bread round out the smaller dishes along with the previously mentioned soup of the day — tomato on our visit.

The pastas run $8 - $9 with Spaghetti with Marinara, Spaghetti with Meatballs, Fettuccini Alfredo, Penne with Pesto and a Penne with Rosa Sauce (a creamy tomato sauce), completing the line-up. The pizza choices consist of Cheese ($10), Pepperoni ($12), a Margherita (garlic-infused olive oil, mozzarella, tomatoes and basil — $14), and a Vegetable (tomatoes, artichoke hearts, kalamata olives & feta — $14). I would be interested in seeing the pizza size and if they are two-person splitable or more of a one person/one pizza type of arrangement.

The two desserts on the menu are Ice Cream with Homemade Chocolate Sauce and a Cookie Plate. Simple yet tempting, but we were actually quite full after the roasted vegetable lasagna and pasta with rosa sauce so we skipped these offerings. But — with the check came two little extremely good chocolates. No. These were really, really good little truffle-like chocolates. I hope they have those all the time and it wasn’t just a special occurrence.

Wines go for about $4 a glass or $20 a bottle. We both got a glass of the house red (I wasn’t fast enough to catch what she was pouring) and it was perfectly fine. In fact, the whole meal was just that — comfortable, pleasant and friendly. I would definitely go back there again and hope to do so soon. Are you reading this, you-know-who? Good.

To Recap:
Atmosphere: Open, bright and airy with very colorful artwork on the walls and a large table in the middle of the room. Smaller tables surround it and there are about four tables outside. I thought it was really comfortable and pleasing — a great place for a relaxing dinner after work.

Service: Friendly and attentive. At one point, our server took about five minutes to bring me another glass of wine — she apologized for taking so long and gave it to me for free. It was very nice of her but it was really no big deal but it’s good to know that they are proactive about comping things.

Food: If you’re in the mood for pasta or pizza it’s really quite good. I got the Caesar and jwa got the house salad — both were tasty. Lots of crounchy croutons of the Caesar and , which I like. The pasta came in a big bowl and the lasagna in its own individual baking dish.

Overall: We liked it. It’s not super fancy or anything and it doesn’t offer a ton of menu variety but what they do have is satisfying and the atmosphere is very nice. Two people can eat well (salads, wine, pasta) for about $35. You probably wouldn’t take someone there to impress but if you just wanted to sit down and have a nice, unrushed, pasta meal and talk — Sub Rosa would be a great option in the Southeast.

Sub Rosa gets three out of four pasta forks.

Second choice title: Squeal like a Fig. You know, because it’s a recipe for stuffed figs and…oh, never mind.

Fig Trouble (but not) in Little China Yeah, I could do this all day.
Well, not so much trouble as a sort of head-scratching dilemma. There were pint containers of figs at Limbo this past weekend and they were too dark, pretty and exotic for my Midwest-born self to pass up. So I got some but then I had to do something with them. Now what?

After searching around a bit, I found a recipe from Emeril* that calls for stuffing the figs with gorgonzola, roasting them and serving with honey and rosemary — that sounded very interesting but alas, I had no gorgonzola. Duh-duh-duhhh: Goat cheese to the rescue!

Roasted Figs with Goat Cheese
12 ripe figs
1 1/2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1/4 to 1/2 cup goat cheese
1/4 cup or so good-quality honey
finely chopped fresh rosemary

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Using a paring knife, carefully trim any tough portion of the stems from each fig. (Here, I just cut the stems off completely. To my fig-novice thinking, it seemed to be the easiest thing to do so I could stuff the figs with less trouble). Rub each fig all over with extra-virgin olive oil, then slice down through the stem about 3/4-inch. Make a second cut perpendicular to the first cut, so that you have an X-shaped cut in the top of each fig. Gently pry the edges apart and stuff each fig with about one half to one teaspoon of the goat cheese (depending on fig size). Place the figs upright on a baking sheet and bake until the figs are plump and shiny, about 10 minutes.

Here, you can either place all the figs on one plate and be resigned for sticky hands during the meal or divide the figs into four servings of three figs each. Quelle surprise — I went with the sticky hands. Place roasted figs on a serving plate and drizzle some honey down on top of them. Sprinkle with a pinch of the fresh, chopped rosemary. Serve immediately.

I thought they were good and I definitely liked the goat cheese — nothing was overwhelming here. If I had used gorgonzola, it seems to me, that it would have overtaken the whole dish. In this version, even the rosemary seemed laid back. The figs themselves were very mild and not super sweet. I definitely think I’ll try this again and maybe next time, work on my x-making-by-the-fig-stem skills, so that they are more stuffed and less coming open at the seams with goat cheese.

*Emeril. It’s weird — the show itself I can take or leave but to be honest, every single recipe of his that I have tried has turned out very well. He’s kind of a little too, uh enthusiastic about food on his show maybe, but the guy seems to know what he’s talking about.

—

In completely unrelated news, I tried to watch Kitchen Confidential last night because:
1. It was on after Arrested Development (yay!),
2. Anthony Bourdain can be entertaining and I was hoping for some of that on this show, (eventhough I don’t think he has much to do with it now after supplying the basic premise), and
3. Xander! (who is now apparently pastry!xander).

Impression: I thought I was going to like it. But, I turned it off after 15 minutes to go take out the recyclables and garbage. Yet, last week I sat thru the whole episode of Supernatural, surprisingly interested (when I thought it was going to be pretty stupid). Go figure.

My enchiladas are never pretty. They’re cheesy and bubbling from the oven and gooey and messy. But pretty? Nope. I felt bad for a while — all the pictures of the nice and neat rolled tortillas, being plated still in their cylindrical, pristine shape made me feel lacking in some way. I’m sure it’s possible to achieve this perfect look by baking them separately, each serving in its own dish (too lazy!). Or, perhaps cut down on the sauce and cheese so that each rolled tortilla is easily identifiable and thus can be removed nicely from the baking dish. Uh, no.

See, my enchiladas never come out of the baking dish in a way that’ll make for a pretty picture and I’ve decided that I’m okay with that. Because they’re really, really good. Add a margarita or two, some black beans and perhaps even some guacamole and chips and I’m in heaven.

Messy, Gooey, Garlic Chicken Enchiladas
2 chicken breasts, extra fat trimmed off
container chicken stock
1/4 onion
8 - 10 garlic cloves, peeled
1 tbsp or so of Mexican seasoning or a few shakes of hot sauce or something to give it a bit of a kick (this last time, I used a spoonful of concentrated mole sauce in a jar — Trader Joe’s had/has a surprisingly good product)
1 lime
handful of cilantro, chopped
1 jalapeno, roasted, peeled & diced
3/4 onion and a small zucchini, diced and sautéed until soft

6 corn tortillas

Enchilada sauce (you can either make your own or buy a jar). Hatch green chile enchilada sauce is very good and what I have been using lately.

Shredded cheese — a combination is works well. This last time I used cheddar and smoked jalapeno gouda.

Garnishes: Sliced tomato, olives, diced, raw onion, more diced jalapeno, etc.

The steps to a non-photogenic (yet very tasty) dinner:
The first thing I do is sauté the onion and zucchini (or whatever vegetables I have on hand). These I set aside when done.

Next, fill a stock pot up with the container of chicken stock, 1/4 raw onion, the garlic cloves and Mexican seasoning. Bring to a boil. Add chicken and simmer until it’s done, around 15 minutes or so. Strain out the liquid into a container to save the leftover stock. Discard the onion. Set the chicken and garlic cloves aside to cool.

While waiting for the chicken to finish, get a pan going over high heat. Heat the tortillas separately, on each side so that they are softer and easier to work with. I usually let them get a little color and blister a bit. I keep mine warm in a tin foil packet until I am ready for them.

When the chicken is cool enough to handle, shred it up and add the cooked garlic cloves, cilantro, salt & pepper, roasted jalapeno and sautéed vegetables. Add the juice of half the lime. Taste. Add more lime juice if desired and season with salt and pepper as needed.

Prepare your baking dish. I spoon a little enchilada sauce in the bottom of the dish to just coat lightly. Take a tortilla, spread a little sauce on it, then add some of chicken and a small amount of cheese.

Roll the tortilla up and place in dish. Do this five more times. Take any extra chicken filling and add to the leftover stock. Continue to set this aside.* Cover the enchiladas generously with sauce. Next, the cheese. Do not be shy. It’s not like you eat enchiladas every night — go a little crazy with the cheese if you want. Top with some garnishes. Tomato slices are good, so are black olives and diced onion, or even more diced jalapeno if you have some.

Bake in a 400 degree oven, until the cheese melts and starts to brown a bit and everything gets all bubbly. Start checking after 20 minutes — feel free to go for 40 minutes. Remove and let sit at least five minutes.

Make a pitcher of margaritas. Taste to make sure they’re okay. You never know!

Then, do the best you can to get two enchiladas out and onto a plate. Serve with black beans, corn, more cilantro, sour cream and chips. Eat and drink and laugh and watch Battlestar Galactica and be happy because it’s the weekend.

* So, the stock and leftover filling? Chicken tortilla soup! I either store it in the fridge to make later that week or pop it in the freezer if I think I’m not going to get to it until later. This is actually why I cook the chicken in the stock to begin with, so I can use all of that for soup later on. Just reheat it all, add more veggies like frozen corn, sautéed onion, bell pepper and maybe some black beans. Taste for seasoning and adjust as needed. Simmer awhile and serve with diced avocado, shredded cheese and fried tortilla strips on top. Yum!

Messy enchilada-makers unite!