Eat Around the Pitt is a Transplant's View of Pittsburgh and Food.
January 28, 2009
A quest completed
Posted by Kathryn @ 3:52 PM
Many of my friends know that I love sour cream enchiladas. One of my favorites restaurant versions was the Carnitas ones at the Ninfa’s in Waco, TX with a few slices of avocado. Now at home I am not likely to make carnitas and then make enchiladas too… so instead I have settled on perfecting a different version called smoked chicken enchiladas more similar to Trudy’s in Austin, TX. I am not going to claim that these are low fat, but they are good for you in the good for your soul kind of way. This must be my 10th version of these, so I hope they please.
• 16 corn tortillas ( flour tortillas may turn out too gummy for this)
• vegetable oil for pan-frying about an inch in the pan will do
• 3 boneless skinless chicken breast halves
• Several drops liquid smoke
• ½ teaspoon cumin
• ½ teaspoon ground coriander (optional)
• Pinch of red pepper flake ( omit if you want this more mild)
• 1 can Rotel (optional… makes filling moister)
• 16-18 ounces shredded Monterey Jack cheese, divided
• 3/4 cup minced onion
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 can chicken broth
• 1 cup sour cream
• 2 (4 ounce) cans chopped green chiles, with juice
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
I started out this recipe by cooking the chicken breasts in strips in my stovetop smoker with some alder chips for 2 hours. At the end of the two hours they were a bit smoky, but certainly not smoky enough to taste the flavor through all the enchilada components. Resigned, I succumbed to the little bottle of liquid smoke. It worked wonderfully and I would say in the future just start with cooked chicken breasts and add the smoke from a bottle unless you have an outdoor smoker.
Saute the onions in a skillet until softened. Turn off heat. Add the can of Rotel (you can drain off most of the juice), Cumin, coriander and chicken and cilantro. Mix and set aside. Check for salt and pepper.
Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Add the flour and whisk until mixture begins to boil. Slowly add the broth, stirring with a whisk until thickened. Mix in the sour cream and chiles, heat thoroughly but do not boil, stirring occasionally. Add 3-4 ounces of cheese to the sauce and stir until combined. Add red pepper flakes if desired. Check for salt and pepper.
Fry tortillas (one at a time) for 5 seconds on each side to soften and make them pliable. Add more oil to pan as needed. Drain between layers of paper towel and keep warm. Other people just microwave their tortillas in a damp paper towel. I find that this usually doesn’t work for me in the land where tortillas are not delivered every day to the grocery store called Pittsburgh. They usually end up splitting and the tortillas seem to lack texture against the substantial sauce.
Take a casserole pan. Pour a quarter cup or so of sauce on the bottom. Assemble the enchiladas by dividing the chicken and 10 oz of cheese among the tortillas. Roll the tortilla and place seam side down in the pan. After all enchiladas are in the pan, pour enchilada sauce over the top ( there may be more sauce than you need… no need to drown them). Sprinkle 3-4 more oz of cheese on top. Cook in 375 degree oven until bubbly.. about 25 minutes.
One nice variation is to actually make the enchiladas on a cookie sheet with sides where each enchilada is separated and just has some sauce poured on top. This makes them a little crunchy/chewier sort of like the enchilada edges which were always my favorite and I think they seem more like restaurant style, but this does make serving less elegant if the pan comes to the table, but as this is casual food, it didn’t matter to me.
The other day when I got my haircut, the stylist mentioned that a Dunkin Donuts would be going in near Greenfield. In most towns this would be of little note, but as newcomers my husband and I have struggled to find a source for donuts other than the grocery store. The few bakeries we have found with donuts have focused almost exclusively on glazed raised varieties. I am a bit finicky and don't actually like glaze on my donuts, so the possibility of Dunkin Donuts means that I can get plain cake and double chocolate with ease maybe even the occasional coconut or nut!
Of course I am aware that there is a DD location downtown, but unfortunately it has the sorriest selection of Dunkin Donuts I have ever seen, so I fear that the Greenfield location should it come to be will suffer a similar problem. As the store doesn't exist yet, I will just have to make do. I found an interesting option in a cupcake cookbook I flipped through at Joseph Beth Booksellers this week, Doughnut Muffins..
Unfortunately I neglected to look at who the author was when I jotted down the ingredients quickly.
6 oz of butter ( 1 and 1/2 sticks)
7 oz superfine sugar (1 cup) ( I actually substituted regular and just beat it with the butter longer.)
2 large eggs
13 oz flour (2 1/2 cups generous)
3/4 tbsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
pinch of salt
1/2 tsp nutmeg
9 oz milk ( generous 1 cup)
cream butter and sugar. Add egg slowly. Mix dry ingredients together and add half with half of milk stir until just combined, don't over mix. Add second half of dry ingredients and milk. Fold together.
Grease 12 large muffin tins or 18-20 in regular muffin tins. I actually did half grease and half in paper cups. The greased ones got a nice crispy crunch reminiscent of a donut, so that is a better way to go. Fill each cup 3/4 of the way full.
Bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes. Meanwhile mix 1/2 cup sugar with 1 tsp cinnamon to top the muffins. I actually took my muffins out a couple minutes shy of being done, added the topping, then returned them to the oven for the last bit of brownness. The author suggested brushing the muffins once they are finished cooking with a bit of melted butter and then sprinkling with the sugar/cinnamon mixture.
I of course couldn't leave well enough alone. I tweaked the recipe a little trying to get more flavor. I put in some buttermilk instead of a couple oz of the milk. I was trying to achieve the tangy flavor of a cake doughnut. Next time I would really up the amount of nutmeg. I felt like the flavor was tame. In addition the crumb was larger than your typical doughnut. So I need to do a bit of research on how to make this even better, but it does act as a decent breakfast stand in when you have the doughnut craving.
What makes a cookie deluxe? I really am not sure here, but I do know that they leap off the plate... especially when I sandwich raspberry jam in between two cookies. I like the very smooth texture that using confectioners sugar ensures.... I have been known to search out only confectioners sugar based shortbread cookies... it may not be traditional but boy is it good
1 c butter soft
11/2 cup confectioners sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp almond extract
2 1/2 cup flour
1 tsp. Cream of tarter
1 tsp. Baking Soda
Beat Butter with sugar then egg and extracts. Finally add the dry ingredients slowly. Chill dough for 2-3 hours.
Preheat oven to 375 roll out dough anywhere from 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick. Cut into desired shapes. Make sure to leave space around the cookies as they may spread significantly. It may be worth chilling the cut cookies prior to baking if you have an intricate cookie cutter or want to reduce spreading.
Bake 7-8 minutes until light brown on edges. Remove cookies from sheet immediately to cooling racks.
During the Holidays it is a great time to make food gifts and while some of my cooking and baking at this time of year is quite involved. I like to throw in a couple easy options so that the whole process goes faster. This year I made a selection of 9 cookies and candies for the season but this was definitely one of the fastest.
It is a long time Connor family Christmas tradition so I hope you enjoy it!
12 oz peanut butter chips
14 oz can sweetened condensed milk ( I find that off brands tend to be grainy, so I use Eagle for this)
1/4 cup butter
6 oz semi sweet chocolate chips
Butter an 8in square pan.
Melt peanut butter chips, 1 cup condensed milk and 2tb butter. You can do this over the stove by stirring constantly or by zapping it 30 seconds at a time in the microwave. I don't generally bother with a double boiler because it happens pretty quickly at low heat.
Pour Peanut butter fudge mixture into square pan and spread into an even layer. Then put this layer in the fridge (or out on the back porch in Pittsburgh when it is chilly to start setting ( Just make sure to cover it as I have seen squirrels get very interested by the pan.)
I spend a bit of time cleaning up my original pan and then make the chocolate topping by melting the chocolate chips, remaining condensed milk, and butter over the stove. Once the mixture is smooth remove from heat and pour over the peanutbutter fudge in the pan. Return the mixture to the fridge and let set before attemping to cut it into squares. I usually end up making one pan to give away as gifts. The other batch I cut up and freeze the pieces to take out over the holiday season. At my mom's, we take out an assortment of cookies from the freezer every night before christmas to thaw and eat after dinner. The fudge is a fun addition.
Yesterday, we ventured down to the South Side Works for the McCormick and Schmick Happy Hour and a movie. Little did we know that neither would come to be. Apparently everyone else in Pittsburgh had also descended on this small section of town with similar ideas. We found a parking spot and because we had a few minutes ( so we thought), we went into the book store to look around. Once again I got sucked into the cookbooks, while Ian looked at what was in science and math writing. After the relaxing trip to the book store we entered McCormick and Schmick hungry for a 2 dollar burger and quickly realized that there was no way we could get served in the bar area before happy hour ended. Not sure where we should head next we considered our options. I decided that to continue to the bar food theme , Claddaugh's would be our best option. We get there and there is a line, but it is not as crowded as M&S.
I ordered Guiness and fish and chips. The fish was crisp and typical cod. The table had the requisite malt vinegar. The plate came with a very vinegary tartar sauce that was called "irish tarter".... I had hoped that this would be the pleasingly pink concoction sometimes called Rose Marie.... but no luck there. I think the chips may have been sitting a bit and had some sort of unnecessary coating on them. I would suggest that Fish and Chips fans stick to Piper's pub, but in a pinch these were ok.
DH chose a turtle sandwich which had turkey, irish rasher, hard boiled eggs, lettuce, tomato, mayo. It certainly looked appetizing and was well liked. I am happy to report that our Guiness and Harp were very tasty. Unfortunately service was not very responsive and did not bring everything that was requested. In fact compared to a recent excellent experience at Red Robin ( and I usually avoid chains) the service was downright crummy.
We did try to go to the movies but the place was a zoo and we didn't think we would get good seats, so instead we walked around a bit and I spied a new coffee place. Big Dog. I wasn't in the mood for an espresso so we just went over to see whether they had any dessert and what the ambiance was like. The place had a lot of character, colorful walls, comfortable seating, and a fun selection of sweets. I picked out a bakery made version of a HoHo.... it was really really good. So consider this a qualified review of Big Dog.... the sweets are good... the atmosphere is nice, but I can make no comment on the coffee quality.
Restaurants in Pittsburgh are hard to read. The exterior does not always give you a good read on how good the food is. I moved here thinking that this would be a great place to check out some dives and get cheap eats. I have found several good dives and several expensive and decent restaurants. For every good dive though, there are many many that are no good at all.
So the other night I was in Bloomfield at the Crazy Mocha picking up a 6 pack of tickets for the 3 Rivers Film Festival. I was in the mood to not cook even though I had a set of meatballs ready and waiting in the fridge. My husband suggested we eat out and I remember there was a local joint that I really wanted to check out, Thai Cuisine.
What a name. No pretty descriptions it just cuts straight to the point. With a name like that you don't know if you are going to get the best or the worst food of your entire life. It is going to be an adventure. So we walk in to the unassuming but clean restaurant and order some appetizers. The place is BYOB but we didn't bring anything along that night, so we stuck to water which was frequently refilled.
I started with Tom Kha Gai and my husband picked out golden pockets which were similar to wontons but with a curried potato filling. My soup was excellent although light on the meat.
I then ordered Panang vegetables with tofu (the watiress asked how hot I wanted it on a scale of 1-10) and Ian ordered Cashew Nut Chicken. At 6 the Panang was spicy but not blistering. The tofu was very soft, not my top choice, but the vegetables were overflowing and I had plenty of curry for two meals. I was afraid the Cashew Nut chicken would be like bad chinese take out, but fresh crisp vegetables dominated the dish and the chicken was nice cuts without grizzle. All in all it was a lovely meal. Not super cheap, but very reasonable and good flavors. I will be back!
