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Tag: tomatillos

Tomatillo Sauce with Avocado

Tomatillo and Avocado Sauce1 I have trying to get reservations at a place called La Esquina in New York. The restaurant is divided into a taqueria, a cafe and a brasserie. It is the brasserie that takes reservation and it is very hard to make them! A few weeks ago I got an email featuring the chef and his signature sauces. One of them was the salsa verde.. it was like a typical green Mexican style sauce but it also included avocado.

I immediately wanted to make the sauce and I decided to serve it on top of grilled shrimp. The recipe was quite easy to follow but tried to tweak it a bit to my taste. I added all the ingredients into a blender including tomatillos, jalapeno, an avocado, lime juice, onion, cilantro and a tad bit of olive oil. This sauce goes amazing with seafood. I grilled some shrimp and we enjoyed it with a salad. It can also be served with tortilla chips and it can be used as a taco topping.

I used the leftover sauce to make a delicious one pot rice dish… recipe to come tomorrow…
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Spiced Chicken Enchiladas with Tomatillo Sauce

Chicken Enchiladas with Tomatillo Sauce

I really like this dish. It is simple and fairly quick to make. I had chicken drumsticks in the freezer which I needed to cook. I also had fresh tomatillos from the farmer’s market. I love using them for salsas. The have a wonderful tart taste that complements South western cuisine really well.

I came up with a spicy mixture to put on the chicken drumsticks. A combination of coriander, cumin and paprika- not spicy but very flavorful. I fired up the grill and cooked the chicken outside. My favorite part of the chicken are the thighs and the legs- the meat is so flavorful!

My husband loves enchiladas. Whenever we go to our favorite Mexican joint, that is what he gets- enchiladas with green sauce. I decided to replicate that. The green sauce was easy to make – I added all the ingredients in a pot and cooked them for a bit and then processed them into a sauce- done. Once the chicken was golden brown and cooked, I cooled it and took the meat off. Now I had all the components to make an enchilada. I always have corn tortillas in the freezer- I like them better than the regular flour ones- these have more flavor and taste more authentic. I grated some cheese and began to assemble then and placed in an oven proof dish. I baked them till the cheese was gooey and melted.

I was trying to be healthy and decided not to serve any rice. Instead I served an avocado and fresh corn relish. It was a good, healthy dinner – we all enjoyed it- my daughter had the enchiladas but stayed away from the relish.

Tomatillo Sauce

  • 6 tomatillos, husked and rinsed
  • 1 white onion, quartered
  • 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
  • 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
  • 4 cloves garlic
  • 1 cup chicken broth
  • 1 lime, juiced
  • Salt
  • ½ cup cilantro, chopped

Put the tomatillos, onion, cumin seeds, olive oil and garlic cloves in a saucepan. Saute for 4-5 minutes on medium heat and add 1 cup chicken broth. Bring to a boil, and reduce heat and cook until tomatillos are soft- about 7-8 minutes. Put the vegetables in a blender and puree. Add the cilantro, lime juice, and salt, and pulse to combine. Set aside.

Chicken Stuffing

  • 8 chicken drumsticks

Preheat outside grill.

Spice Mix

  • 2 teaspoons coriander powder
  • 2 teaspoons cumin powder
  • 2 teaspoons coarse salt
  • 1 teaspoon paprika

Mix all the spices together and sprinkle all over the chicken drumsticks. Grill the chicken legs till both sides are golden brown, about 30-40 minutes. Let cook and take the meat off the bones and shred with hand.

12 small corn tortillas
3 cups Monterey jack cheese, shredded

To assemble the dish: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Drizzle some olive oil in a large baking dish. Dip a tortilla into the tomatillo sauce and put it on a cutting board. Put about a ¼ cup shredded chicken in the center and sprinkle a little cheese and roll the tortilla like a cigar to enclose the filling. Use a spatula to place it seam side down in the baking dish. Continue to fill all the tortillas. Pour the remaining tomatillo salsa over the top and sprinkle with the remaining cheese. Bake uncovered for about 20-30 until bubbly and cracked on top.

Mushroom and Sausage Quesadilla with Gruyere Cheese

Sausage and Mushroom Quesadilla with Salsa Of late, quesadillas are my favorite things to make. I love using the whole-wheat tortillas from Trader Joes. In fact my daughter takes them for lunch at least once or twice a week. I feel good about the low-fat cheese I use and the whole-wheat tortillas. A bag of carrots completes the meal for her.

They make a good snack or even a meal. In this case I made a meal out of them. I wanted to use mushrooms and maybe sausage to add some protein. I bought some cremini mushrooms and Gruyere cheese for the meal. I use creminis because of the brown color, I love the way they look- in terms of taste, they are very similar to the white ones- so use any you want. I love Gruyere, it is typically used for fondues and so it melts really well. I prefer it’s mild, nutty flavor- it goes with any thing!

For this meal I sauteed the mushrooms with chicken sausages I had in my freezer, and some garlic. The mixture took a few minutes to make. In the meantime, I grated the cheese and was ready to make the quesadillas.

I had fresh tomatillos from the farmer’s market. I wanted to make a vibrant salsa to serve with the quesadillas. The processor did all the work for me and I had a yummy tasting condiment in no time.

Overall, it was a simple, fast and delicious weeknight meal. I served a green salad with it and called it a night!
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Smoky Tomatillo Rice with Avocado and Mango Salad

mexican-rice-with-turkey-and-tomatillosOnce in a while I come up with an absolutely genius one pot meal. Well, this is it- I even surprised myself when I tasted it. I wanted to make something with spanish and mexican flavors but didn’t want to make the normal quesadillas or fajitas or even burritos. I thought about it for almost the whole day and then finally came up with this fabulous dish. I had bought some ground turkey from Trader Joes the day before- I was actually planning to make meat balls with veggies but somehow didn’t feel like it. I have noticed that if I force myself to cook a dish, it doesn’t taste very good… I have to really want to make it – I usually visualize it in my head before I cook the dish- it sounds a little cooky but that is how my brain works. Anyway, I wanted to incorporate the ground turkey somehow in the dish, so I decided to pair it with rice and beans. When I think of Mexican food- tomatillos come to mind – I love using tomatillos– they have a very tart and creamy flavor.  I also wanted to create a smoky dish but didn’t want to add any heat since I wanted Sia to enjoy it- so I decided to use smoked paprika which has a little bit of heat but a lot of flavor. I also decided to use one of my favorite ingredients- roasted frozen corn.  It also has a nice roasted smoky flavor.  I blended the tomatillos, garlic, cilantro and vidalia spring onions and used that as the underlying flavor for the rice.  I don’t know if you all have noticed huge vidalia spring onions every where??  They are delicious- mild enough to use in salads but also have a lot of flavor for sauces, etc.  Once the rice was cooked with all the delicious ingredients, I decided to take it to the next level and add cheese. My first thought was to add queso blanco but then I remembered I had a blend of shredded mexican cheeses in my fridge.  It included monterey jack, queso blanco and a bunch of other cheeses- perfect!  I love sweet and savory flavors in my dishes and decided to add raisins- they are optional but I would highly recommend them.  The little burst of sweet juice midst the smoky rice was very pleasant.  Now as we all know my daughter is obsessed with mangoes- so we have plenty in the house at all times.  I wanted to make a cool salad to go with the rice and decided to combine avocados with mangoes.  I thought very hard about this since both the ingredients have similar textures- my initial idea was to add some crunch to it but at the end I decided to keep it simple- some salt, lime juice and cilantro.  I served the salad on top of the hot rice- it was out of this world!!!  If you cook just one dish from this blog I would recommend this one- it was truly delicious.  All the flavors went really well together- the hot smoky rice with the cool creamy salad- a match made in heaven!

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