Burn a Little - Bean and Feta Enchiladas and Steak

You can’t mess with time. Even if you could go back in time to change things you have done in the past, things will most probably end even worse.

What you could do, though, is a trip on memory lane, thinking about the things that you did and that happened and if you are clever enough, you could also learn from your mistakes. Or you could rediscover things you liked to do.

Anyway, today we will have at first some prawns and later something Mexican. After all we want some food. Some time ago, I bought a bag of Panko – Japanese breadcrumbs. I saw a dish on television – Panko Fried Prawns. For a long time I wanted to try it. Now I did.

Together with some chilli sauce it’s a lovely snack.

Side note: Just keep an eye on how much Panko Prawns you have going in the hot oil at the same time. If you use too many, the oil might just … eh … bubble over and spread on your oven top and … who knows what mayhem that might cause there.

Now we can go on with some Mexican food ...

Bean and Feta Enchiladas and Steak

The original idea was to make some vegetarian enchiladas, which indeed happened, but I felt I needed some more food, so I added the steak to the side. While the recipe mainly focuses on the Bean and Feta Enchiladas, I will mention a few things regarding the steak as well.

Ingredients:
Wheat tortillas
Creme fraîche
Chilli Sauce:
A splash of olive oil
1 clove of garlic, finely chopped
1 small onion, finely chopped
1-3 dried red chillies, finely chopped
400 ml tinned tomatoes
400 ml vegetables stock (or chicken stock for non vegetarian)
1 tbsp. dried oregano
1 tsp. sugar
A splash of red wine vinegar
Enchilada Filling:
A splash of olive oil
1 small onion, finely chopped
140 g sweet corn
1 red or green capsicum, chopped
250 g kidney beans
Salt, pepper
Bunch of parsley, chopped
200 g feta cheese

Method:
First of all, we need to do our own chilli sauce. Start in a sufficiently sized pan with a splash of olive oil at medium temperature.

Chuck in the garlic and the onion and have them work in the pan until translucent. Then add the chillies, the tinned tomatoes, the vegetable stock, the oregano and the sugar.

Bring it all to the boil and leave to simmer.

Now you have plenty of time to prepare the filling for the enchiladas.

Somehow, we start in a similar way, here – another pan and another splash of olive oil at medium heat. Toss in the onion and … you know … until translucent.

Add the sweet corn, capsicum and kidney beans. Season with salt and pepper and let it all simmer for a while until the vegetables have softened a tiny bit.

Remove the content of the pan to a bowl and let it cool down slightly. Then mix in the parsley and the feta.

Check the chilli sauce. If you where not super fast with the filling, you can remove the sauce from the heat now. If you don’t like all the chunks of onion and tomato in your sauce, you can pass the sauce through a sieve.

Get yourself an oven-proof dish, that will hold at least five enchiladas. Lightly oil it.

Then get yourself a plate. Place a wheat tortilla on it and spoon a bit of the chilli sauce on it. Spread the sauce onto the tortilla. Place a part of the filling on the tortilla, roll it up and place it in the oven-proof dish. Pack those enchiladas all nice and tightly in the dish. When all enchiladas are in the dish, pour over the remaining chilli sauce and transfer the dish to the oven for about 30 minutes at 180 °C.

Meanwhile you could prepare the steak, if you wish to have it.

Have some butter in a pan and cook the steak to your liking in it. Once you have removed the steak from the pan and leave it to rest, you have some pieces of tomato and some stripes of capsicum go into the fat. Season them with salt and pepper.

When everything is finished, you can plate up.

Place the tomatoes and capsicum first, the steak on top of it and some roasted onions on top of that (figure out yourself how to get those onions).

Put one enchilada on the side. You can garnish it with some chopped up parsley and add also a spoon of creme fraîche on the side to mellow the effect of the chilli sauce.

Enjoy!

Of course, I used three dried chillies in the sauce, but I didn’t feel it so much. So, don’t be afraid. While the chilli sauce itself might be quite hot, you won’t feel it so much in the finished product.

Lovely! I enjoyed my meal very much and I reckon and I keep on saying, I need some more Mexican food in my life and ... apart from that hot food will help you to burn and by that I don't just mean that it will burn in your mouth, but it could also aid you in burning off some fat you might not like in your body. I guess it always works for me.

Anyway ... keep enjoying your life and ... we will do the same here!

Burn, Burn, Burn ... Chilli Sauce, Beef Enchiladas, Chilli con Carne and ... Burn

Knock, knock, knock! Anybody home?

Silence!

I doubt it very much that anyone is home. In fact, I can't possibly be home ... at least I don't feel like it.

Pondering! Pondering! Pondering ... Error!!!

Yep, that doesn't get us anywhere. Am I crazy? I'd say, we had that subject already. So?
Fine, as things seem right now, I'm not getting anywhere soon myself, am rather tied down.
Anything we can do about it? I think I've got an idea, I am going to let things burn, burn, burn ... burn ...

For this I am going to need some chillies. Right, that could be a problem again, because it is not so easy to get nice chillies around here in the shops and if you can't even dare to think about it. Now you start to see what's wrong here.
Anyway, at least I have some dried chillies and a few home-grown windowsill chillies.

Let's burn it then and have some ...

1st burning: Chilli sauce

Ingredients:
6 tomatoes (tinned tomatoes, if you like)
2 red fresh chillies
2 dried chillies
1 onion
1 clove of garlic
A splash of olive oil
500 ml chicken or beef stock
Salt
Vinegar
Sugar

Method:
Chop up the tomatoes, chillies, onion and garlic. Heat the olive oil in a pan and let the 'chopped ups' have a taste of it. When that flavour has reached your nose add the stock to the pan, bring it to the boil and then let it simmer for about 20 minutes. Finally adjust the seasoning with the salt, vinegar and sugar. If you don't like a coarse chilli sauce, arrange a meeting with the blender.
Here you go.

What now? Let it burn some more ...

2nd burning: Beef Enchiladas

Ingredients:
Chilli sauce
Wheat tortillas (make your own with 500 g wheat flour, 1 tsp. salt, 100 ml cream and a bit of water)
A splash of oil
500 g minced beef
1 onion, chopped up 
100 g sweetcorn
1 red bell pepper, chopped up
Grated cheese
Sour cream

Method:
So, what have you decided? Are you going to do your own wheat tortillas? Just mix the above mentioned ingredients (flour, salt, cream, water) in a bowl. Use just enough water that you get a nice, non-sticking dough. Portion it into 12-16 balls of dough, cover them and  let them rest for about 30 minutes. Then briefly bake them in a dry pan on both sides. We don't want the tortillas to be brown, but still soft and flexible.
In another pan you fry the beef, onions, sweet corn and bell pepper. Yes, exactly in that order ... eh ... that is, once the beef is browned add the other ingredients.
Let's assemble! Paint the tortillas on both sides with the chilli sauce. Place some of the filling on each tortilla, roll them up and place them tightly in an oven-proof dish. Get some more chilli sauce on top of those tortillas. We want to have it properly burning. Finally grate some cheese over it ... in fact, grate a lot of cheese over it and place it in the pre-heated oven to melt the cheese ... yes ... properly.
Serve the beef enchiladas with a good dollop of sour cream and if you have to with a salad on the side.

No, it isn't over yet ...

... a bit later, we let it burn yet once again ...

3rd burning: Chilli con Carne

Ingredients:
Chilli sauce
Beef enchilada filling
1 tin of kidney beans
Rice, tortillas or ... whatever you like

Method:
Ha ha ha ha ... oh ... sorry ... mix the chilli sauce with the beef enchilada filling and the kidney beans and heat it up to eating temperature and ... don't ask me, why I didn't have any beans in the enchilada filling in the first place.
Serve it with rice, tortillas or something completely different. Your call!

Is that all? I would say so, but there is still one thing left to do. There is no way around it, there is still the need to let it burn one more time ...

4th burning: Whatever you want to call it ... burning pancakes maybe

Ingredients:
Chilli con Carne
Pancakes (flour, milk, egg, salt)
1 egg, beaten up (go for it!)
Some grated parmesan
A lot of breadcrumbs
Oil for frying
Some mayonnaise
A splash of caramel sauce

Method:
Get your lovely pancakes. At least, I hope they are. Now place some of the chilli con carne on each pancake and ... eh ... fold them, roll them tightly together in a way that minimizes the chances that any of the filling drips out. I'd say, fold a bit in on two sides and then roll up tightly ... that is, if you get what I am trying to convey.
Anyway, on one plate you have the egg ready and on another one the breadcrumbs mixed with the Parmesan. Roll the pancakes in the egg and then in the breadcrumbs. Try to get as much of the breadcrumbs and Parmesan on it as possible.
Meanwhile your oil in your frying pan has turned ... eh ... burning hot, so that you can fry your pancakes.
Before you can make a mess by eating the finished product, we have to make a little dip for the pancakes. Swirl a bit of caramel sauce into your mayonnaise and ... there you go.

Stuffed!

Now I had quite some yummy food that made me feel like home for a while ...

Coffee Liqueur Chilli

Sometimes you wake up ... it's best to wake up every day ... and you already know what you want for dinner. I just had that a few weeks ago. And it was chilli that I wanted, some really hot chilli with some coffee in it. So I had to gather all the forces of hotness and have some chilli ...

I had to do quite some harvesting on my chilli plants to do this, but still I am lucky the plants continue to produce more chillies.
Here we go then for the Coffee Liqueur Chilli ...

Hot Fusion - Hot Chilli Puff Pastry Tarte

Cold fusion: Hypothetical type of nuclear reaction that would occur at, or near room temperature. Usually you need millions of degrees for a fusion of nuclear kind of reaction. This is a controversial subject. The whole concept appears to defy the laws of physics. Some scientists believe cold fusion to be a real phenomenon and that it will be at one point in the future, however far far away, the basis for an abundant, cheap source of energy. Others say that cold fusion is impossible.

Well then, it's quite good, we are not dealing with cold fusion today, but with hot fusion. How do we come to this point?
As it happens to be I'm busy trying to grow my own chillies on the windowsill.

Having them is one part, but actually it's not for the sake of growing, but cooking. I need to do something with them. These are (were) my only two habanero chillies. Those are considered to be quite hot ... and so something else should be, too ... Yes, I'm referring to the weather. Some days it might work out.
Ahem ... what to do now with the habanero chilli? I just took the yellow one. The green one still needs some time. Fine, I could do a chilli, a real hot one ...

"Empty chairs at empty tables" ... Beef wrap and beyond

Here comes another strange beginning of a post ... after a few days of silence. Don't be disappointed, if you are not able to grasp the full meaning of what I'm going to say. I try not to stir up too much confusion ...

"There's a grief that can't be spoken.
There's a pain goes on and on.
Empty chairs at empty tables
Now my friends are dead and gone."

Well, to clear things up right away: no one of my friends died. I simply didn't want to tear the strophe apart.
While it may be of advantage to have it quiet and enjoy some peace, under other circumstances the same situation could be a cause for grieving. When all the chairs at the tables in a restaurant would be empty for a long time that would be very disadvantageous.
Fine, I don't have a restaurant, no worries! There might be empty chairs at empty tables, but no one pays me for my food anyway.
It's only I have to manage to eat up all the amounts of food by myself. 
Along that line it happened to be the case there were still some unused wheat tortillas left that needed attention. Therefore it was only natural to have some wraps. I went to buy some minced beef and then the story begins to unfold ...

Beef wrap:
A bit of oil
300 g minced beef
1 tsp fennel seeds, crushed
1 tbs tabasco ... or more (?)
1 tbs tomato puree
300 g kidney beans
Salt and flaked chili
Some wheat tortillas
Red onion, in rings
Iceberg lettuce
Grated cheese (hopefully)

Go for it:

Start frying the beef in a bit of oil until it takes on colour. Then add the tomato puree and tabasco and stir.
It's time for the beans to join. Just do it! Let it warm through and season with salt, chili and the crushed fennel seeds.
A bit more on the fire and the meat is ready.
Now heat up the wheat tortillas somehow. After that it's time to wrap it up.
Take some of the beef, a bit chopped iceberg lettuce, a few onion rings and some grated cheese. If you like you can add a bit of your favourite sauce.
Sadly I forgot to add the cheese, but originally I wanted to use it.

As you see, though, such an amount of beef and bean mixture would be just too much for one person in one go. So I had to come up with something else.
No worries! Have some pizza, I thought. While preparing the dough I got confronted with other ideas. I prepared too much dough anyway ... good for two pizzas.

A not so cleverly taken photo doesn't reveal, what happened to the beef and bean mixture, but you simply have to belief me that it is inside.
What about the other half of the dough?

Bacon and egg pizza. Can you imagine to eat those two alone? Or what about pizza for breakfast ...

... you wouldn't do that, would you?

Back now to were we began our journey of this post. For those of you who have a bit of interest in music or musicals, to be a bit more precise, may have already noticed those lines at the beginning ...

While roaming the streets of London on my own, suddenly I had the idea to go and see it. I wasn't disappointed.
Afterwards, it wasn't too late, I still needed some food. Nearby I found an empty table with empty cairs at the Cafe España. Altough the food wasn't looking too fancy, I enjoyed some good tapas.

Some patatas bravas, bread with garlic cream and some aubergine. There was also some chicken with a lemony sauce. However, that was last year and I didn't manage to take some nicer photos.
Now it happened to be the case that they managed to make a musical movie of Les Misérables behind my back. Nevertheless, I noticed it finally. So I have no chance, but to see it on it's own and see how it is.
At least, the music is already in my head and ... "Empty chairs at empty tables" ...