THE DARING COOKS MAY, 2010 CHALLENGE: STACKED ENCHILADAS

Our hosts this month, Barbara of Barbara Bakes and Bunnee of Anna+Food have chosen a delicious Stacked Green Chile & Grilled Chicken Enchilada recipe in celebration of Cinco de Mayo! The recipe, featuring a homemade enchilada sauce was found on www.finecooking.com and written by Robb Walsh.

Daring Kitchen- Empanadas, not really

Last month I joined daring kitchen because it looked like a fun and creative community. For anyone who is not familiar with daring cooks, it is a monthly cooking challenge where each participant must whip up a recipe according to the specification of the host. The members are cloaked in secrecy until the middle of each month when they publicize their results for the world to see, from the spectacular to the flops (actually I have not seen any flops). It is also a great way to diversify cooking, adding new flavors and aromas to family meals which may delight or shock, but will always make a memorable meal. In my case my first challenge happened to be as far as I could possibly get to my comfort zone- Mexican cuisine. Coming from Israel the recipe became one big substitution- no tortillas, no tomatillos, no idea what Monterey Jack Cheese is…. But in the face of this challenge I improvised until I created a dish completely and utterly different than the original.

Lastly, I have noticed that some participants have created recipes for chili sauces which are awe inspiring with more components in one sauce then I use for an entire dinner party. I felt like I should at least double the number of ingredients to make mine look more respectable but at the end I left it as it was.

Instead of tortillas which I could not find, I used two layers of warka,  a thin Moroccan pastry dough. I marinated deboned chicken thighs with lemon juice, ground coriander, cumin and black pepper for a few hours, then grilled and shredded it. Two warka leaves, one on top of each other were stuffed with the shredded grilled chicken,the hot sauce and a few fresh coriander leaves. Cheese can be added at this point as well, I omitted it. I fried the stuffed warka in shallow oil on both sides until golden and then placed it in an oven heated 180 C for a few more moments. Serve at once.

Roasted Pepper and Tomato Salad

I know that I can use green tomatoes and lime juice  instead of tomatillos but even those are pretty rare. While choosing the greenest tomatoes, other customers kept handing me red ones, trying to be helpful.

Salata Meshweya

2 sweet red peppers

1 light green pepper

1 tomatoes

1-2 cloves garlic, finely chopped or crushed

3 tablespoons olive or vegetable oil

3 tablespoons of vinegar

Salt

Roast the peppers and the tomatoes over an open flame or broil in the oven until they are charred all over, rotate them as necessary. The tomatoes will be ready sooner, remove them when the skin begins to char and separate. The peppers will turn black, but this is supposed to happen. Once the peppers and tomatoes are soft, place them in a bowl and cover with plastic wrap. This facilitates the removal of the skin. When the peppers and tomatoes are cool enough to handle remove the skin, preferably near the sink to rinse off the sticky skin. Remove the seeds of the tomatoes and roughly chop them. Chop the peppers and add the tomatoes, garlic, salt and oil. Serve at room temperature.