Tacos de Papa

Ingredients:

-2 lbs of Russet potatoes, cut into 1-2 inch chunks

-2-3 small cloves of garlic, chopped or minced

-Fresh cilantro

-2 green onions (as topping)

-3 tablespoons of olive oil for coating potatoes

-1/4* cups of olive oil for frying

(*depending on size of pan-I used a small one)

-Salt and black pepper to taste

Heat oven at 400 degrees.  Cut potatoes and toss in a bowl with olive oil, garlic,

salt, pepper, and fresh cilantro.  Make sure the potatoes are generously coated.

Place in a baking pan and heat for about 30-35 minutes, or until the potatoes are

soft to a fork's touch.

Once the potatoes are thoroughly cooked, place in a bowl and mash 'em up!
(I chose to add a small amount of shredded cheese here.)
Meanwhile, heat up some olive oil over medium/high heat.  I chose a small deep pan since
I'm only cooking for one tonight-by choice. ;)
Anyways, taste the mixture to see if it needs more salt, it probably will.

To prevent tortilla breakage, heat tortillas slightly in a microwave before
you spoon some of the potato mixture onto them.
Use a piece of tortilla to test
if the oil is ready for frying...

Fold the tortilla in half and fry on each side for about 20 seconds.
Notice that I prepared a drying area with paper towels.
Please be careful not to place the paper towels too close to the open flame!
Just sayin'...

Serve immediately with toppings of your choice.

There are so many choices of toppings to dress up these tacos.

I dressed mine up with some avocado salsa and a side of avocado slices.

I've seen them topped with chopped tomatoes and lettuce.

My mom tops these with the same sauce used on the tostadas from a previous post:

http://mexicanfamilyrecipes.blogspot.com/2010/08/tostadasjust-like-moms.html

I have so many ideas to improve this recipe!  Feel free to share your variations

We would LOVE to hear from you!

Easy and Delicious Holiday Buñuelos

Buñuelos are tortilla-like fritters covered in cinnamon and sugar.  These delicious treats are always a hit so make a BUNCH!!  The following steps make approximately 2 dozen (I should have made more for the cookie party I went to; I didn't even have any leftovers to bring home...no bueno!).  Anyways, read on and pay attention to my "secret" ingredient... ;)

I bought this white flour tortilla mix at a local Mexican market grocery store.  To make 2 dozen you mix 4 cups of the mix with 1 cup of WARM water (I ended up adding about 1/4 cup of water extra...you want to the dough soft enough to knead.)

Knead the dough for 5 minutes then cover and let stand for 5 minutes.

Divide the dough into separate balls.  If you were making tortillas, you would make a ball for each tortilla in the size of your choice.

In this case, I used LARGE holiday themed cookie cutters on the rolled out dough. 

I used gingerbread man and Christmas tree shapes.  The gingerbread men came out looking kinda funny.  But it's always fun to bite their heads off. :D

This is what they look like before they get fried!

I heated up some vegetable oil over medium-high heat.  I used enough oil so that each buñuelo would be submerged just barely (so the amount depends on the size pot you use).  I tested the oil's heat by dipping the end of a buñuelo.

Poor gingerbread man!  I fried for about 10 seconds on each side sometimes using the spatula to flatten them out.  This gingerbread man was looking pregnant at one point. Oh, and cover a plate with some paper towels to set the freshly fried fritters on.

Make sure you have a container ready with a white sugar and cinnamon mix.  After the buñuelos are done frying they get tossed in this sweet concoction.  Now....here's my secret ingredient: honey. I LIGHTLY DRIZZLE some honey on the buñuelos (I do one side only) before I coat them in the sugar and cinnamon mix.

Your done!  Now make sure you try one before you serve them.

Perfect with a hot cup of coffee.....drool....

Holy Mole!!

Finding a mole recipe we felt capable to try was not an easy task.  The Tonaya recipe book we had used before did not have a mole recipe.  Mom admitted she hasn't cooked traditional mole in a long time.  We decided to look online.  Yeah, I know.  SO many recipes to choose from!  Yikes! Some recipes more traditional-meaning more complex and labor intensive-than others.  It was hard to choose.  We finally made a decision so we could get started.  We opted for one of the simpler versions. 

SO....you know how on our blog headline, you are asked to join us and to learn from our delicious mistakes as we embark on the journey to learn a traditional family recipe every month?  Well, we thank you for taking this ride with us.  

Now, buckle up.

The ingredients:

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

1 (3lb) chicken, cut into pieces

1 bay leaf

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1/2 teaspoon paprika

1/2 teaspoon ground cloves (I recommend a little less so it doesn't overpower)

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 (14.5) can dived tomatoes

2 teaspoons brown sugar 

1 cup chicken broth

1/4 semisweet chocolate chip

1/4 cup raisins (we omitted this ingredient)

2 tablespoons sesame seeds (to garnish)

Heat the vegetable oil in a large pot over medium-high heat.  Cook the chicken pieces in the hot oil until golden brown on all sides-about 10 minutes.  Remove from the pan and set aside.

Reduce heat to medium and stir in the bay leaf, black pepper cayenne pepper, paprika, cloves, and cinnamon until fragrant-about 30 seconds.  Add the onion and garlic; cook and stir until the onion has softened and turned translucent- about 5 minutes.

(Meanwhile we are also cooking white rice with a little bit of butter and a bay leaf in a Pampered Chef Rice Cooker...hey, it works.)

Stir in the tomatoes, brown sugar, and chicken broth, and bring to a simmer over medium-high heat.  Once simmering, stir in the chocolate chips until melted, then return the chicken pieces to the pot.  Reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer until the chicken is tender and no longer pink at the bone-about 15 to 20 minutes.

The recipe then asks to stir in the raisins and cook an additional 3 minutes.  

But we skipped the raisins, feeling the sauce was already sweet enough.

Finally, you sprinkle sesame seeds to serve with white rice and warm corn tortillas.

Provecho!

By the way, we got the recipe here:  

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Chicken-Mole-2/Detail.aspx

Reflection Notes:

What key ingredient seems to be missing from the recipe above? Chiles, of course! It seems we should have looked for a mole recipe that included chiles.  The sauce could definitely be spicier and would simply benefit from the flavor of chiles.  I also mentioned that the sauce turned out a tad too sweet.  Perhaps we will use less chocolate, or less brown sugar.   

The good news is that mom finally found a mole recipe among her many handwritten recipe notebooks.  You know, I still have recollections of my mom sitting at the table or kitchen counter copying recipes from notes and the recipes of others.  With a pen, on notebooks with lined paper.  Wow, handwriting... remember that?  I joke. :)

Perhaps we should scan her recipes to preserve them.  I can see those notebook pages turning yellow...

...but I digress.

In conclusion, Sonia and Sandy shall try mole again!!  We feel this recipe deserved another try!  There is a plethora of mole recipes out there!!  In fact, we are curious if you have a mole recipe you would like to share.  If so, please include it in the comment box below; we would love to see your yummy versions of mole!

Nos vemos!

Nearing 300 Facebook friends. Who knew?

Hi there friends. Been a while since we've blogged a recipe. But the day is coming up quick. Planning on making something delicioso this weekend. Maybe mole? That should be interesting.

On another note, I just checked our Facebook page and was quite surprised to see we're nearing 300 Facebook friends. Wow! Who knew? All because two sisters want to learn to cook like mom.

We began this journey about a year ago and I have to say, its' been a quite rewarding journey for me. I can now cook frijoles refritos (refried beans), carne con chile (beef in chile sauce), chiles rellenos (stuffed chiles), arroz (spanish rice), tostadas de lomo (pork loin tostadas), camarones a la diabla (spicy shrimp), micheladas (a yummy beer and Clamato concoction), pan de muerto (day of the day bread)...just to name a few.

For those who follow our blog and all our dear Facebook friends, thank you for accompanying us in this journey of food love. Here's to another year of good food, good company and good times.

~Sonia

PS: sign up to follow our blog directly from this site ;)

Dia de la Candelaria (Candlemas)

Today is another feast day. Whomever got the Baby Jesus figurine in the Rosca de Reyes on January 6th, traditionally hosts a party today with tamales and champurrado. Sandy got the figurine, but since it's a "school day" and we all have commitments, our Candlemas celebration will be this Friday at her place.

Check out fellow Latina blogger's Muy Bueno Cookbook blog for a more descript article on Candlemas and a slew of yummy recipes!

Did you get the Baby Jesus figurine in the Rosca de Reyes? Are you celebrating Candlemas?