Monday, June 27, 2011

Letting Myself Be Human

Dear Readers,

This will be the second week I won't be posting. Sometimes you have to admit that you're only human and that you need a break, and this is one of those times. I just got back from an incredible trip to the Yucatan Peninsula, and when I do write again I will have a lot of amazing things to talk about and pictures to show, but for now I need to rest.

Thanks for understanding.

Love and human kisses
Morgan

Monday, June 13, 2011

Sweet Potato Enchiladas

I consider myself a concoctionist. When I'm hungry, I open the fridge, pull out whatever looks appetizing, and concoct something to eat out of it. At one point I was working at a company in Bellevue, and every day one of the girls in my group would ask me what strange-looking thing was in my Tupperware for lunch that day. My answer was usually something like, "Morgan's Concoction #473...mashed squash with golden raisins, spinach, red peppers and cheese."
The problem with being a concoctionist is that you can rarely reproduce your concoctions, because you're just throwing stuff in a pot, stirring it up, and adjusting spices and seasonings to make it edible. Even if I usually manage to make something delicious, it doesn't mean I could make it again.
My first repeated concoction was for Sweet Potato Enchiladas. I got the idea after my friend Tara made acorn squash burritos for a road trip we were going on, and it got me thinking about what else you could use for filling in a tortilla. I love sweet potatoes, so I started playing around with the idea, and eventually figured out something I liked and made so much I actually remembered it and wrote it down.
Now I bring it to most potlucks I'm invited to, and it's usually a huge success.
Like any great concoction, this recipe is not set in stone: add more of your favorite vegetables, or chicken, or use fruit juice and leave out the cheese to make it vegan. It's also really good if slather sour cream on the tortillas before you fill them. However, if you make it as-is, it's pretty healthy, low calorie, high in vitamins, and vegetarian. Enjoy!

Morgan's Sweet Potato Enchiladas

1/4 cup olive oil
2 cloves garlic, diced
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 tablespoon red chili flakes
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 red peppers, diced
1 white onion, diced
5-7 pickled jalapeño wheels, diced (optional)
1/4 cup golden raisins
4-6 large sweet potatoes or yams, peeled and diced
1-2 cups fruit juice or chicken broth

10-20 tortillas, depending on their size

2 12 oz. jar of salsa, fruit salsa recommended (mango or peach)

2 cups sharp cheddar, shredded

Cilantro

Pour olive oil into a large pot, crock pot or rice cooker and turn on medium/high heat. Add garlic, salt, pepper and red chili flakes. Let cook until the garlic starts to brown and add cinnamon.

Add the peppers, onion, jalapeño and raisins and stir until coated with the oil and spices. Let the mixture cook with the lid off until the onions have begun to turn clear and the red peppers are softened. It’s ok if some of them start to brown. Slowly add in the diced sweet potatoes, mixing them into the peppers and onion mixture until they’re lightly coated.

Once the sweet potatoes have started to brown, add 1-1/2 cups fruit juice (peach, orange, pineapple, apple, etc.), water or chicken broth (depending on how sweet you want it), cover and cook on medium heat until the sweet potatoes are softened enough to mash, about 30 minutes. Stir occasionally to keep the mix from burning on the bottom. If it starts to burn, add more fruit juice or water.

Preheat oven to 350°F and grease a 9”x13” baking dish. Heat a griddle or large fry pan over medium heat (no oil needed) and use it to heat the tortillas for about 30 seconds a side, turning once. After each tortilla is lightly browned or starts to puff up (or, if using corn tortillas, if the edges start to curl) fill it with the sweet potato mixture, fold it into a roll and place it in the baking dish, fold side down.

Once you have filled the pan, cover the enchiladas with salsa. Sprinkle cheese over the top and bake in the oven for about 20 minutes, or until the cheese and salsa start to bubble. Broil for an additional 5 minutes, or until the cheese starts to bubble and brown. (Watch it so it doesn’t burn!)

This recipe makes two full pans of enchiladas. If you don’t anticipate eating all of them at once, place the enchiladas in the pan, top them with salsa and cheese and freeze for later use. You will need to bake them for at least 45 minutes if they’re frozen.

Sunday, June 5, 2011

How to Cut a Mango



We talk about all the ways to cook, bake, fry or toss a fruit, but we rarely talk about just eating a fruit, just as nature made it.
We talk about ways to enhance a fruit’s flavor, or adding them to traditionally savory dishes where they might not belong, or making them into desserts and adding sugar until they turn into a hyperactive version of what we were looking for, complete with a high and a crash.
We talk about incorporating more fruit into our diets, but we rarely talk about the pure, unadulterated pleasure of enjoying a fruit ALL BY ITSELF.
Yes, you can derive comfort from a traditionally prepared dish, and get satisfaction from sitting with a group of people around a table laden with deliciously prepared foods, but there is something viscerally amazing about plucking a fruit simply to eat it by yourself, with your bare hands, while its juice runs down your chin.
Fortunately, many fruits seem to be created with just the hand in mind: apples and pears especially seem to be just the right size to hold in your hand and eat your way around; if you’re lucky you’ll only get one hand covered in sticky fruit juice. Cherries are an even easier fruit to devour – you can pop them into your mouth whole and simply chew around the pit. One of my favorite fruits, however, is not quite as easy to eat: the mango.
As far as tropical fruits go, the mango does not travel well. It is best – like all fruits – fresh from the tree, during its harvest season – in Southern Mexico, throughout most of May. Regardless of how or where you get your mango, its rubbery skin is not meant for eating, and its monstrous pit makes it hard to cut up.
It took me a long time to finally ask someone for a good way to cut a mango, but once I did I was glad. Once you know the trick, it is much easier to want to enjoy them on a regular basis.



You start by cutting the mango in thirds: stand it on its end and cut just to one side of the center, therefore slicing all the flesh off one side of the pit. Repeat on the other side, so you have two sides of just flesh with a flat egg-shaped piece with the pit in the middle.



You can either scoop the flesh out of the two sides of the mango, or you can score it to get cubes. You do this the same way you would an avocado: cut vertical strips into the mango flesh down to the skin, then horizontal strips to create what look like squares.


Turn the mango skin inside out, and cut the mango squares off the skin into a bowl.



For the flesh around the pit, peel the outer strip of skin off, then take a bite (it’s so delicious, how can you avoid it?)



Cut the flesh off the sides of the pit; you can also cut any additional flesh off the front and back if you didn’t cut close enough when you cut it into thirds.





Mangoes are good in many things, but for best results, take a spoon and the bowl full of mango squares and eat them all by themselves. Feel free to let the juice drip down your chin.