Molletes

Oo, I love these : )
I used to eat them a lot 3 or 2 years ago while I was still in high school until I found some beef bits lying within the melted cheese
-_- !
Maybe the refried beans came out of a can, and contained lard... Lesser vegetarian options for me.

Anyway, there are many things that still keep me from ordering them at school and have not eaten them in a while.

Pico de Gallo

Ingredients:
1 diced tomato
1/3-1/2 cup diced white onion
Bunch diced cilantro (about 1/4 cup)
1 diced serrano or jalapeño pepper
Juice of one lime
Salt

Too easy !
Just mix everything and add enough salt (and pepper too if you like).

Molletes

Ingredients:
1 Bolillo bread
Refried bayo beans
Shredded vegan cheese of choice (mozzarella or monterey jack style)

Cut the bread lengthwise and toast
or brown a little in a skillet or griddle.
Spread the refried beans on the bread and sprinkle desired amount of cheeze.
Microwave for a minute and add some Pico de gallo and avocado slices.

: )

Tofu en Achiote

Hello.. I was in the mood for some achiote smothered baked tofu.This is the first time in years that I eat something with this sauce. I used to eat fried tacos filled with chicken with achiote sauce (yeah, that sounds pretty unhealthy !) as a kid and really missed its tangy flavor.

Ingredients:
1 block firm or extra firm tofu (frozen; then thawed)
1 Achiote (annatto) paste block [3.5 OZ.]
1/3 cup Orange juice (use fresh squeezed -bitter is better for this recipe-)
1/3 cup Water
Dash of salt

Preheat oven to 400°F
Blend all the ingredients until no lumps are visible.Cut the tofu in 8 slices (I cut the block widthwise half and then halved the two pieces lengthwise and repeated 'til i got the 8 slices).
Cover the tofu slices with the achiote sauce and let marinate for 20-30 minutes.
Put the slices in a baking sheet, put more sauce over them and bake for 15 minutes.
Turn over the slices, put more sauce if desired and bake for another 15 min.Let the pieces cool a bit and then, they'll be ready to eat ; )

You can slice them and use as taco filling, along with chopped lettuce, avocado and some hot sauce.

Chilaquiles (rojos)

This is one of my favorite things to eat.. Chilaquiles (red, to be specific, because there are variations; like green and in mole sauce) : D !
Basically, they're tortilla chips (totopos) covered with sauce.
The usual toppings are sour cream, crumbled cheese, diced/sliced onion and other things you can mix in, like meat (beef or chicken) and/or scrambled eggs.

I like them plain, and sometimes eat them along some refried pinto or bayo beans.
You can eat them just like I do : p or pour over better than sour cream and "cheese" (grated is better ;) ).
You can use tofu to substitute the scrambled eggs or seitan, chik'n strips or soy curls to substitute the meat.

PS.
I like mine all soft and saucy, but if you don't, just put desired amount of tortilla chips in your plate and pour over the sauce when ready to eat.






Ingredients:

4 tomatoes
2 1/4 cups plain tomato sauce
1 tsp. guajillo pepper powder
1 tsp. de árbol pepper powder
1 tsp. california pepper powder
veggie (vegan) bouillon powder as needed (or salt and dried cilantro or spice of choice)

12 handfuls of tortilla chips (less, if you plan to pour the sauce over them)

Put in the blender all the ingredients (except for the bouillon or salt) and blend until smooth.
Pour the sauce in a pan and let it heat a bit (stir if needed).
Add the bouillon powder/salt; stir and add the tortilla chips.
Turn the heat off and stir gently to get all the tortilla chips covered with the sauce.
Enjoy : )

Champiñones al Ajillo

This one's pretty easy and nice : D, but i had a problem with the guajillo peppers (sometimes, they don't cook enough..so i'll just show you what i did and tell you what i will do next time to make them taste as perfect as they were meant to taste).

Well...
Hello there, meet the Guajillo pepper.

Usually, you can find them dehydrated (just like those in the pictures).
And because of that, i put them to soak in some hot water while i sliced the mushrooms.

pretty mushrooms waiting to be sliced by me, muahahah...

Ingredients:

5 (more or less) Guajillo peppers
6 cups sliced mushrooms
2 1/2 tsp. Diced garlic
Aprox. 1 tsp (vegan) veggie bouillon powder



OK.. first of all, i washed and then soaked my peppers in some hot water and meanwhile, sliced the mushrooms.
When I finished slicing the mushrooms I put them on a side and started working with the peppers.

I pulled the stem of every pepper and shook them to get all the seeds out.
(follow this onlt if you prefer my wrong method [don't think you'll do that, but just in case...]).
I recommend you use a pretty sharp knife to slice the peppers (lengthwise). Once you do this, slice them widthwise.

Put a pan in medium heat and cover all its surface with olive oil spray.
Sautée the garlic and the pepper; add the mushrooms when garlic gives any sign to start popping around.
Keep sautéing until mushrooms are well cooked.

Okay..now, the other method for the peppers.

Pull the stems, shake the seeds out and boil them 'til soft (not too soft; you probably won't be able to slice them).
Slice them and if some seeds are left, you can discard them or leave them if they're just a few.

Now you can sautée the peppers and the remaining ingredients ; ) !

I'm looking forward to post some more recipes the next week : D

Remember to pull the stems.




Sautéing the guajillo peppers and the diced garlic.



The good and messy result.

school and recipe testing..

I've been pretty busy (mostly because of school and someone else's cookbook testing), but yesterday was the last day of this semester -at least for me :p- !

So, you may stay tuned for more recipes : D

While i make up some veganized goodies, I'll get ready to leave young TJ (for 1 or maybe 2 semesters) for a bigger and more contaminated city; México City.
This is good news for me and for this blog, because DF has a lot more traditional mexican food/ingredients available than TJ.


"If a tree falls in the forest, does anybody hear? Yes. Chuck Norris hears it. Chuck Norris can hear everything. Chuck Norris can hear the shrieking terror in your soul."

Hah..

Bean-crumble burrito

Tried to make beanballs; they were too soft, but tasty.

I was planning to serve them with rice and some sauce from the post above...but someone got rid of the cooked rice that was in the fridge waiting to be eaten by me.
So, I said something like "pff.. ya qué?!" and thought it would be nice to put those beanballs in a flour tortilla and call it a burrito.

I mashed the beanballs when rolling and pressing the tortilla to make the eating part a little easier, hah.

I'd post the recipe for the beanballs but the balls didn't turn out right enough to do that (i will, but first, i have to perfect it).
These are the main ingredients i used: low fat refried (bayo) beans, morning star grillers crumbles and vital wheat gluten.