Friday, February 10, 2006

Friday Food #5: Chilaquiles

I think I'm actually making the chicken/edamame dish tonight, but here's one I invented recently that worked out well. In some ways you might as well be eating seven-layer dip with chips, but the fact that you serve it out of a casserole makes it feel healthier.

Chilaquiles

Ingredients

1 bag good tortilla chips
1-2 cups salsa (or see below)
2 cans organic refried beans
1 lb. Mexican cheese (queso fresco or queso blanco, I think. Jack cheese would also be fine). Slice or shred the cheese. This was a lot of cheese to use, and I think it would have been fine with less, but the block I had was one pound so I just sliced it all up.

Layer the ingredients two or three times in a casserole dish, starting with a little salsa under some chips and ending with cheese. Bake, covered, for about 30 minutes at 350, then uncovered for another 10-15 (long enough to brown the cheese on top). You can raise the temp a bit at the end to brown faster. You can serve this with sour cream, guacamole, and/or additional salsa on top if you like.

Salsa:

I made this because I didn't have any salsa in the house, and it was pretty good!

1 onion
1 red bell pepper
1-2 tsp garlic
small amount cooking oil
1 can (14.5 oz.) no-salt tomatoes
1 small can ortega chilis, chopped


Chop the onion and bell pepper and saute in the cooking oil with the garlic until fragrant and tender, but not brown. Chop the tomatoes (a food processor or blender is great, because you want them pretty smooth) and add them and the chilis. Cook 10-15 minutes, until the flavors meld.

A dash of cumin or cayenne wouldn't hurt in the salsa, either, but of course you may already have a salsa you like This one is quite sweet because of the bell pepper--my kids don't much like spicy food so that was ok with me. Nonetheless, I have to confess that Nick didn't like this much at all, but his friend who was over for dinner that night asked for seconds and then pestered his mother to get the recipe. So I felt vindicated.

11 comments:

Susan said...

Yum! I love chilaquiles. I use the Mollie Katzen recipe, which is pretty similar. Except she uses torn up corn tortillas instead. I've done the tortilla-chip kind as well, and it's easy, like using no-bake lasagne noodles.

Wormwood's Doxy said...

Oh, man!! Now I'm starving...

I check in here pretty regularly anyway, but I'm beginning to look forward to Fridays!

Becca said...

I love seven-layer dip. What I call chilaquiles is totally different from this, though. It's onions and peppers and tortilla strips sauteed with salt and pepper and chili powder, then eggs poured in and cooked for a bit, then shredded cheese and chunks of avocado on top and slip it under the broiler. Serve with salsa and black beans on the side. This sounds delicious though, but after spending two hours making onion soup that M took one bite of the other night (and it was good), I have sworn off experimentation again.

Libby said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Libby said...

more on chilaquiles

Mamacita said...

Yummm... I've definitely got to try these! and thanks, Libby -- Now I can count my blog-reading time as professional development!

kate said...

Now that sounds delicious!

Anonymous said...

Yum. We make chilaquiles with eggs, like Becca's, for breakfast (except Ben, who doesn't eat tomatoes. I wonder if he'd eat a green salsa version?) Anyway, despite just eating an enormous peanut butter & banana & granola sandwich (really) now I'm hungry!!

Libby said...

I deleted this comment a minute ago b/c it weirdly had my full signature on it, which I weirdly didn't want. So here it is again, only semi-signed as usual!

Mmm, yum, Becca, yours sounds good, too! I don't know why this one is "chilaquiles" but it's very similar to something with that name in one of the Moosewoods, and in another veggie cookbook I have. But now I'm curious and will check into the name itself.

As for experimentation, my rule is no two-hour experiments! Or at least not for kids. This one is at least fast, though as I said Nick still didn't like it (though the example of his friend happily scarfing it down did keep him from being too awful about it.)

Anonymous said...

Chilaquiles... yum. Reading this has inspired me to post my version, which does have eggs.

Libby, I congratulate you for essentially finding a way to serve nachos for dinner!

La Valentina said...

"Bone apetit"
mexican food delicious