Almost Enchiladas: Or, a Spicy, Cheesy Way to use up leftovers

I call these "almost" enchiladas because certain people (you know who you are) might object to calling them "real" enchiladas; these people (actually, one person) have a right to object because they make some of the best "real" enchiladas out there. So, that said, this is simply a spicy, cheesy way to use up leftover meat. I was left with some bits of tongue after the last feast, and tongue-- like any stew meat-- shreds beautifully. You can use any leftover beef, chicken, even fish.

You'll need (serves 1):

1t oil
1 minced shallot
1t flour
1T chili powder
2 chipotles in adobo, chopped (or less if you don't like spicy)
3/4-1c chicken broth
leftover meat
1 tortilla
1/2c grated cheese

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Heat oil; saute shallot 2-3 min. Add flour and chili powder. Stir, cooking, 1-2 min. Add chipotles and some of their adobo sauce. Add broth. Boil to thicken, 2 minutes. Add meat. Cook until most of the liquid is absorbed, about 5 minutes. Place tortilla in baking dish. Pour meat into tortilla, saving a bit of the sauce, top with grated cheese, and roll. Top with the rest of the sauce (it's ok if there's meat in it) and more cheese. Bake until bubbly, 10 min. Serve with lime and fresh tomatoes.

All Offal, All the Time

All Offal, All the Time

February 29, 2008

Our offal dinner-- the somewhat belated Winter Feast of the series Katie & I have been doing-- was held, somewhat appropriately, on Leap Day. I think I can wait til the next Leap Day (or bissextile day) to do this again. It was rather rushed, labor-intensive, and (at least partially) kinda gross (yes, even I can't handle prolonged exposure to gooey, goopy brains as I pull the membrane and veins out...).

I didn't help that our old meat standby, Verbrugge's, completely let us down. We were supposed to pick up the brains and kidneys the morning of the feast (they should be eaten as fresh as possible). Verbrugge's decided to call us that morning to let us know that they couldn't get them. After some very frantic phone calls, I located frozen kidneys at Andronico's (who knew? they also have hearts, tripe, and sweetbreads), and beef brains (we wanted lamb or calf) at Mi Ranchito Bayside Market (Berkeley). But when I went to buy the brains, it turned out that all they had was a frozen 5-lb tub. A little too much for this party. So, a few more calls later, we located pig brains at 99 Ranch (Richmond) and I went off in search (thanks for the company, J). 99 Ranch is a simply fantastic asian market, but they don't really speak English, so trying to get something specific is pretty difficult (I once tried to get seafood stock. Don't even try. They don't have it.). But eventually I found the pig brains, below the tocino and next to the pig uterus and bung (intestines)-- here's a good post on those products, fyi. They were fresh, not frozen, which was a little worrisome, but they were only $2, so we decided to give them a try. We had, after all, promised brains to our delighted guests.

Unfortunately, our recipe depended on lamb or calf brain-- the kind that stays together-- and this poor piggy brain fell apart as soon as it left the container. So, instead of making nice fried slices, we fried the few clumps I'd managed to clean and had them as pre-dinner snack. They were as good as anything deep-fried is, but the brains themselves didn't have much flavor. We'll try again though-- stay posted.

Thanks to Karen for the dessert and photos and to Ridwan for coming early to help (and cleaning too)!

So, the menu:

Chicken Liver Mousse
with pickled red onions


Deviled Kidneys


Braised Tongue with
Caper, Cornichon, and Caperberry Sauce
and
Potato-Chard Gratin


Blood Orange Sorbet
with candied peels
and phyllo crisps

Cooking Pictures (view at your own risk):

The Brains

uncooked, uncleaned

uncooked, cleaned

fried up in tasty clumps

The Tongue

looks like a tongue. feels like a tongue.

bubbling away with aromatics
(notice the brand!)

cooked and sliced, soaking up sauce

The Gratin

This was so pretty uncooked,
topped with chopped chard stems
in red, orange, and yellow

The Dessert

beautiful blood oranges, and a lime

candying the peels