Mexican Lasagna

I’ll admit it. I spent a recent period of my life turning my nose up at Trader Joe’s. After surviving on a Trader Joe’s diet through grad school, and adhering to a strictly budgeted weekly visit that never amounted to more than $50 and included ingredients for just about all 21 meals and 7 snacks for the week, I was done with TJ’s. As a full-time working adult, I could treat myself to $25/lb soft cheeses, organic Rainier cherries, and $8 gluten free personal pizzas from the Whole Foods 2 blocks away from my apartment.  I felt it was far too plebeian and I was too much of a cosmopolitan career woman to waste time and energy schlepping myself to the Trader Joe’s over a mile away to save on my grocery bill.

Yup, I was an asshole. I drank the Whole Foods kool-aid for several years and only occasionally found myself in TJ’s if it happened to be on my way to an event or if I was really craving kettle corn. Now, with my new residence and place of work both only a few blocks from TJ’s, I’m back to reality.

One of the things I have always liked about TJ’s is the variety of products that facilitate a semi-homemade kitchen and weekday menu at a reasonable price i.e. not living off a $10/lb salad bar. I would love to spend evenings steaming my face over pots of coq au vin and watching dough rise for homemade pizza dough, but that’s not feasible. I must balance my time limitations with my personal goal of preparing no more than one meal a day in the microwave or toaster oven, meaning I can’t go too overboard in the TJ’s freezer/prepared food section.  Also, although their pre-packaged salads and meals are a good deal, I often find I can buy all the ingredients and make enough salads or bowls of curry for more than one meal for roughly the same price.

Last time I made enchiladas, I made Enchiladas Suiza. Although I use a rotisserie chicken when I make them, I make the sauce from scratch, and there is quite a bit of labor in terms of frying each corn tortilla, rolling the filling up, assembling, etc. I wanted to make a simpler enchilada, and I wanted to do it on a weeknight. Weeknight meals to me never require more than 20-30 min of prep and 20-30 of cooking, often, they take 10 minutes. My goal Monday-Friday is that I will eat within an hour of my first chop of an ingredient.

 I purchased a can of refried beans, a can of corn, a bottle of enchilada sauce, and a pack of corn tortillas from Trader Joe’s. A lover of olives in my enchiladas and on my nachos, I also purchased a tub of olive tapenade for good measure. Not exactly a Mexican ingredient, but a great flavor booster.

I try to stick to a vegetarian/semi-vegan diet during the week as well. I won’t elaborate on specific reasons for this, it’s just something I do (although I rarely pass up on a Monday wing night). Enchiladas didn’t feel right without cheese, though, and I had about a ½ cup of cheddar leftover from brunch in my fridge. That much cheese over an entire dish was not going to break the calorie bank or my digestion.

I decided that I was not willing to spend time frying each corn tortilla before assembling the enchiladas. It was also a Sunday after a weekend of rose indulgence and I was feeling I could go without frying for a few days.   Quickly, the dish turned into a Mexican Lasagna, with layers of corn tortillas, rather than traditional enchilada roll ups. I don’t regret this decision at all.

My Mexican Lasagna turned out great and I was able to check off all my weeknight meal needs--- vegetarian, painless, and tasty. I used a 7 x 10 baking dish and ended up with 4 large portions. Four hot, healthy meals taken care of for < hour work? Perfecto.

You could easily make this a little more sophisticated by using fresh corn, or sauteeing some chopped onion and garlic to throw in the filling. You could also put cheese between all the layers, or use something different than cheddar, like Cojita or Pepper Jack to bump up the flavor.

Note: I ate a piece of this for breakfast with a fried egg on top after a tough am workout. Delicious! Lots of protein and flavors. 

Vegetarian Mexican Enchiladas

1 can refried beans
1 can of corn, drained
1 package corn tortillas
1 jar of enchilada sauce
1/2 cup - 1 cup shredded cheese
chopped black olives or olive tapenade (optional)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Mix the refried beans and corn in a bowl. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Apply a layer of enchilada sauce to the bottom of a ceramic baking dish. Place a layer of corn tortillas on top of the sauce (some will overlap). Drizzle with more enchilada sauce (about a 1/3 cup each layer). Top with another layer of bean and corn filling and more sauce. Repeat layers as desired. After final tortilla layer, top with sauce, and cheese. Bake for 25 minutes, or until browning on top and bubbling around the edges.

Let the dish stand for 10 minutes to set up. Serve topped with a heaping spoonful of chopped olives and/or tapenade. Sliced avocado or sour cream would also be tasty! 

  

Sorta Seder

If you have eaten brisket more than once, you have probably had it prepared in more than one style. Smoked, braised, grilled, in a taco, on a sandwich, in a bowl of pho, or with a side of kugel. Brisket is versatile and tastes just as delicious nearly naked with a minimal rub just off the smoker as it does after hours in a hot oven smother in sauce--- or eaten chilled straight from a ceramic dish in the fridge two days later. 

before going under the broiler

after broiling

I love brisket off the smoker, Texas Style.  Even more, though, I love braised brisket. Tangy, tender, smothered in a sauce of it’s own juices, red wine, and spices. I can’t pinpoint where I first had this kind of brisket, or when I became so fixated on it. Most of my early memories of brisket are at a Jewish deli or a BBQ joint, where the brisket is served with some sauce or jus, but mainly on the side.  The brisket of my dreams have always been made of is the kind someone’s grandmother would serve. The kind there wasn’t even a real recipe written down for---just a list of ingredients and sage kitchen wisdom.

brisket in a sea of vegetables

I don’t know, maybe it’s one of those I loved you before I met you situations.  Growing up, we had sour beef and pot roast, both similar dishes.  Maybe I had a Bubbe in a past life and enjoyed a lifetime of Seders. I don’t know, but whatever it is, I’ve been dying to prepare my own brisket for some time.

Brisket is a great meal for a crowd, so the weekend I would be down in Maryland with my immediate family, brother in law, and sister’s mother in law seemed like the perfect opportunity to test my chops of the cut of meat I had mostly held in my hands between a roll before.  It was also the weekend of Passover, and being that we would be eating together on Saturday and not Friday when most celebrated the holiday, I dubbed this meal my Sorta Seder.

brisket in a graveyard of veg

Being that it was a Sorta Seder and not a real Seder, I Googled Passover menus and recipes with a selective mindset.  I wanted a bright, festive plate with lots of vegetables and a light starch option, not just a square of Kugel and a rabbit’s helping of bitter greens. Everyone in my crowd loves Middle Eastern food, but I didn’t want the meal to mimic a typical plate at the neighborhood Mediterranean BYO.

hubba hubba

arms trembling post barre

This is the menu I decided on:

• Green Salad (mache, endive, and baby arugula) with radishes, orange segments, and green onions. Shallot vinaigrette.
• Roasted carrots and parsnips served over radicchio with a sweet fig dressing, topped with toasted pistachios.
• Israeli cous cous with lemon and parsley.
• Middle eastern spiced brisket with leeks and apricots
• Pavlova with whipped cream and tropical fruits (mango and kiwi)

Anne showed me proper cutting technique, although maybe a dessert fork wasn't the best stabilizer here, it was next to the cutting board

Every plate had lots of vegetables---were we eating country ham, grits, and pineapple bake the next day, after all---and there were a lot of bright notes among all the fruity elements.  We even ended the meal with ginjinha my Dad brought back from Portugal that week, and the cherry flavored alcohol rounded out many of flavors perfectly (as well as our digestion). 

le plat

I followed the recipe to a T, as I try to do whenever I make something the first time. My timing was a littttttllllle off if you read the recipe word for word,though. I let the brisket marinate about 12 hours, woke up at 5 am the next day, got it in the oven, went to Barre, came back and waited a few more hours to take it out of the oven (about 3.5 hours of cook time).  It was out of the oven by 10 am, so it had time (about 8 hours before dinner) to sit and let the flavors meld together. I stuck it back in the oven about an hour before we ate to slowly reheat.   Maybe it would have tasted even better if it had another day to sit, but I’ll figure that out next time. It definitely would've been easier to have it done the night before and not have to spend so much time with it the kitchen day of, but it was worth it! (link to recipe below picture of the gorgeous pavlova)

Spiced Brisket with Leeks and Apricots