Daily Loaf

When it comes to being a Howard, there are some things that are just inherent. Enjoying Southwestern food is one of them — due to the amount of extended family and roots planted in New Mexico and the cuisine there. I’ve been eating enchiladas since I was old enough to chew. Red or green, spicy or mild, they are truly a staple of my culinary heritage.

My paternal Grandmother taught me much of what I know when it comes to cooking. I vividly remember watching her making red enchiladas, which were always very simple. They amounted to dried chilies, de-seeded and pureed with olive oil and water in a blender. Fresh corn tortillas were doused in hot oil before a quick swim in the sauce, then layered with grated cheddar and baked until bubbly. The green version was a different story and always involved fire-roasted chilies with pulled chicken and a varying degree of spice that was dependent on that season’s batch.

When I decided to reinvent this dish, marrying the green and red became compulsory. Read the rest of this entry »

Mexican and Tex-Mex definitely top my list of favorite cuisines. Their use of spices elevate and enhance simple ingredients to create delicious, comforting dishes. One of my favorite Tex-Mex dishes is Tamale Pie, which is a casserole that is supposed to mimic the flavors of a traditional Mexican tamale: shredded or ground meat encased in a masa (cornmeal) mixture, wrapped in corn husks and then steamed.  Tamales are very time consuming to prepare, so I decided to take the easy road and make tamale pie.

The following is a recipe for tamale pie I “Katie-fied” from one I saw on “Simply Delicioso with Ingrid Hoffman” on Food Network. Most tamale pie recipes I’ve seen use ground beef, but you can use ground pork, chicken, turkey, boar, ostrich, whatever your heart desires. I don’t usually use canned items but I decided to in this one, just to make it easier for those of you at home to save time. Read the rest of this entry »