Chicken Enchiladas (Serves 4)

Chicken Enchiladas by The Fat Foodie

I love Mexican food, but I must admit that I do tend to stick to making the same meals all the time simply because they’re so tasty. I don’t think it’s necessarily a bad thing though because it means that you can perfect your own version until the seasoning mix is just right. That’s the case with these chicken enchiladas.

I didn’t realise until I started reading into Mexican food that the word ‘enchilada’ simply means ‘to season with chilli’ and that, traditionally, enchiladas are quite simple  snacks, involving little more than a fried tortilla that’s wrapped around a plain, spiceless filling of meat, beans or vegetables (or a combination of the three).

According to Mexican food expert Diana Kennedy’s quintessential book on the subject of Mexican cookery The Essential Cuisines of Mexico, traditional enchiladas served on the streets of Mexico tend to see their tortillas fried in oil before being stuffed, but I don’t really think that’s necessary when you’re cooking at home. I don’t really like oily food so I’m quite happy to skip that step towards authenticity. Plus you’ve got a grated cheese topping that’s going to add oil to the enchiladas anyway.

Although a traditional enchilada doesn’t contain any spices other than freshly chopped chilli, I like to flavour mine with cumin, oregano and smoked paprika because it makes the whole dish much tastier. As a result, this chicken enchilada recipe yields a large casserole dish filled to the brim with soft tortillas that are stuffed full of delicately spiced tender chicken strips and slices of sweet bell peppers and is topped with a tangy tomato sauce and encrusted with golden grilled cheese. It’s simply the perfect Mexican meal.

Ingredients for the enchilada filling:

8 corn tortillas (or gluten-free tortillas)

1 tbsp of vegetable oil

180g of tinned chopped tomatoes

4 chicken breasts (cut into thin slices)

100g green bell pepper (cut into thin slices)

100g red bell pepper (cut into thin slices)

2 tsps ground cumin

2 tsps dried oregano

2 tsps smoked paprika

1 tsp asafoetida powder

Ingredients for the enchilada topping:

180g of tinned chopped tomatoes

1 tsp asafoetida powder

1 tsp dried oregano

150g grated cheddar cheese (or non-dairy alternative)

Method:

Preheat your oven to 200C/180C Fan/400F/Gas mark 6.

Get a large rectangular casserole dish out to cook the enchiladas in and keep it to one side.

Place a saucepan over a medium heat and add the oil, sliced chicken breasts and spices. Fry until the chicken is almost cooked.

Add the sliced peppers and continue to cook until the chicken is fully cooked.

Add a tin of chopped tomatoes and cook until hot.

Pour the other tin of chopped tomatoes into a jug and add the sauce spices and stir.

Lay a tortilla out on a chopping board and place some enchilada filling inside it before wrapping it up and laying it in a large rectangular casserole dish. (Bear in mind you’ve got 8 tortillas to fill so try to distribute the filling evenly between them.)

Chicken Enchiladas Being Filled by The Fat Foodie

Chicken Enchiladas Awaiting Their Topping

Once you’ve filled all the tortillas and they’re in the casserole dish, pour the enchilada sauce over them and top with the grated cheese.

Chicken Enchiladas by The Fat Foodie About to be Baked

Bake in the oven for about 30-40 mins or until the cheese is crisp and golden brown.

Serve with a fresh green salad.

Chicken Enchiladas by The Fat Foodie

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Butter Bean Quesadillas (serves 4)

Butter Bean Quesadillas by The Fat Foodie

Butter Bean Quesadillas by The Fat Foodie

As much as I love tortilla wraps I really think they come into their own when they’re stuffed with a filling and then folded and dry fried to be turned into a quesadilla. I think that a crispy tortilla is particularly complemented when it’s filled with soft fillings, such as butter beans.

These bean quesadillas are very easy to make and require very little preparation. The traditional Mexican recipe for refried beans calls for black beans, pinto beans or kidney beans, but I just used a tin of butter beans that I had in the kitchen and they were lovely. Butter beans are also a low FODMAP bean in portions under 35g, so it’s a win-win all round really.

The beans have a lovely subtle Mexican spice flavouring from the ground coriander and smoked paprika and go wonderfully with sliced avocado or guacamole. Mexican foods, such as these bean quesadillas, have become a bit of a staple in my house because it’s a cuisine that tends to be naturally pretty dairy-free, but there are so many variants to Mexican food that I doubt I’ll be getting bored with it any time soon.

I know it seems like a bit of extra work to fry your tortilla to turn it into a butter bean quesadilla instead of just eating it like a fajita, but it really adds a lovely crunchy, toasted dimension to the flavour of the tortilla and enhances the smokiness of the beans. It’s well worth the couple of extra minutes it’ll take before eating your tortillas.

 

Butter Bean Quesadillas by The Fat Foodie

Butter Bean Quesadillas by The Fat Foodie

Ingredients for the refried bean quesadillas:

6 corn tortillas (or gluten-free tortillas)

1 tbsp garlic-infused oil

Salt and pepper

1 tsp ground coriander

1/2 tsp smoked paprika

140g of tinned butter beans (drained and well rinsed)

200g red bell peppers (cut into bite-sized pieces)

The juice of 1 lime

Method:

Put the garlic-infused oil in a frying pan over a medium heat and add the beans, spices, salt and pepper, and lime juice and cook for 10-15 mins until the beans are soft.

Put the bean mixture into a bowl and wash your frying pan.

To make the quesadillas place your tortilla on a flat surface and put 3 tbsps of refried beans in the middle. Fold the left and right sides of the tortilla over the beans and then the top and bottom sections until it forms a square parcel.

Put the frying pan over a medium heat and place your quesadilla in the pan. Fry on both sides until golden brown. (I just fry mine in a dry frying pan, but feel free to add some sunflower oil if you like.)

Serve with lactose-free sour cream, jalapeños and a 20g low FODMAP portion of sliced avocado.

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Vegan Chilli Con Carne With Baked Tortilla Chips (Serves 6)

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Vegan Chilli Con Carne With Baked Tortilla Chips by The Fat Foodie

For a while now I’ve been hearing about people making their own low-fat and low-salt versions of tortilla chips by cutting tortillas into little triangles and baking them in the oven until they’re crisp and golden. I was making a vegan chilli con carne the other night and because I wasn’t in the mood to serve it with boring old white rice, I decided to make the baked tortilla chips to go with it.

It worked really well, with the corn tortillas making a small mountain of crisp, biscuity baked tortilla chips I could use to scoop up the chilli con carne. The baked tortilla chips were also very good with the salsa and guacamole dips I served alongside the chilli con carne.

I don’t like to keep bags of tortilla chips in the house because they’re not the healthiest of snack and let’s be honest, sometimes once you start munching them it’s hard to stop, so it’s great knowing that should the need arise and I fancy making something that would go well with some tortilla chips I can bake some within 15 mins.

This vegan chilli con carne with baked tortilla chips takes hardly any effort to make, but is very rewarding in the taste department and is fantastic as leftovers the next day because the flavours of the spices have a chance to marry overnight in the fridge. Although you’d normally use kidney beans in a chilli con carne, they’re a high FODMAP food, so I’ve used the much lower FODMAP option of butter beans instead and they’re just as lovely. As you can see in the photo below, I served the chilli con carne and baked tortilla chips with ‘the works’ (hot salsa, jalapeños, guacamole, cucumber and grated dairy-free cheese). I’ll definitely make this again sometime because it’s a great recipe to have on standby for a quick dinner.

Ingredients:

12 corn tortillas (or gluten-free tortillas)

1 tbsp coconut oil

1 tsp asafoetida powder

300g chopped bell peppers (green and red)

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp ground coriander

1 tbsp ground smoked paprika

200g of butter beans (drained and well rinsed)

250g vegan mince

400g (1 tin) of chopped tomatoes

Method:

Place a large saucepan over a medium heat and put the tbsp of coconut oil in it. Once it’s hot add the spices and chopped peppers and cook for 5 mins.

Add the vegan mince, butter beans and chopped tomatoes and cook for 10 mins.

Taste the chilli con carne and add salt if required.

Preheat the oven to 180C/160C Fan/350F/Gas mark 4.

Using a pizza cutter, cut your tortillas into little tortilla-sized triangles, place on a baking tray and bake them in the oven until they’re golden brown and crisp. (I turned my baked tortillas over halfway through so that I could make sure they were really crisp.)

Serve the chilli con carne with the baked tortilla chips, guacamole, salsa, jalepenos, grated cheese and salad.

Vegan Chilli Con Carne With Baked Tortilla Chips

Vegan Chilli Con Carne With Baked Tortilla Chips by The Fat Foodie

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Steak Fajitas with a Side Helping of Science and Guacamole (serves 4)

Steak Fajitas by The Fat Foodie

Steak Fajitas by The Fat Foodie

Some time ago a friend of mine asked me if I’d consider doing a blog post on fajitas, but every time I made chicken fajitas I never felt as though they were interesting enough to feature on my website. However, I came to realise that this was down to two reasons. One, I’m utterly bored to death with eating chicken in fajitas when there are much more interesting options out there instead. And two, I needed to know more about how Mexicans created authentic fajitas (i.e. what meat did they tend to use? How did they marinate it? And what herbs and spices did they use?). This realisation led me into an investigative journey into the chemistry that creates a fantastic fajita.

WARNING! SCIENCE AHEAD! READ ON AT YOUR PERIL!

(But it’s quite interesting so I’d keep reading if I were you…)

The perfect fajita is made up of a number of components which come together to produce a wonderful medley of Mexican flavours: a warmed soft tortilla; juicy, slightly seared around the edges meat which is encrusted in paprika, cumin and chilli; and soft, buttery guacamole that’s sharp, but aromatic, with freshly squeezed lime juice. Bliss.

Although, there’s more to it than just serving the right combination of ingredients for people to cram into a tortilla, the meat’s got to be treated right in the first place in order for it to give its all to the diner’s palate. That’s where the chemistry comes in. Upon investigation, I’ve discovered that the best meat to serve when making fajitas is beef. To be precise, good quality lean skirt steak (also known as flank).

The unique structural fibres of steak enable it to absorb the oils, acids and salts of a marinade much better than chicken or pork ever could and allow it to retain the flavours of the herbs and spices we choose to add, but it’s the important chemical effect of the marinade that leads to the production of a beautifully soft and juicy piece of cooked beef.

The best steak fajita marinade will always contain three elements: oil; acid; and salt. The oil works on three levels: it emulsifies the marinade and allows it to coat the beef efficiently; it dissolves the oil-soluble flavour compounds within the spices, enabling them to be absorbed into the meat; and it also provides a protective layer around the meat when you cook it over a high heat, hopefully helping it to retain its natural moisture. The acid, in the form of fresh lime juice, tenderises the meat and breaks down the connective tissue, leading to a softer and easier to chew mouthful of beef. And lastly, the marinade’s salt content dissolves myosin (a muscle protein) which gives the beef a slacker texture and helps retain its moisture. Also, by using soy sauce instead of plain old salt it introduces glutamate and protease (found naturally in soy sauce) into the marinade which add umami flavours and tenderise the meat further.

I did warn you there’d be science.

In an ideal world I’d marinade the steak fajita strips overnight to really let the flavours be absorbed by the meat, but if you take the notion to make these I think you can get away with an hour’s marinating (that’s what I did, to be honest). And in terms of cooking the meat, cook it fast over a really high heat and try to cook the steak medium to enable the natural juices of the steak to remain.

Serve the steak fajitas with a plethora of delicious accompaniments so that the people at your dining table can build the perfect fajita to suit themselves. Sombreros and stick-on handlebar moustaches are entirely optional though.

Ingredients for the marinade:

500g of skirt steak (cut into strips)

1 heaped tsp paprika

1 heaped tsp smoked paprika

½ tsp celery salt

½ tsp ground cumin

¼ tsp ground chilli

¼ tsp ground black pepper

2 tbsps. tamari (gluten-free soy sauce)

1 tbsp. vegetable oil

The juice of 1 lime

Additional ingredients:

100g red bell pepper (cut into thin slices)

100g green bell pepper (cut into thin slices)

8 corn tortillas (or gluten-free tortillas)

To make a basic guacamole:

80g avocado

The juice of ½ a lime

8 cherry tomatoes (quartered)

¼ tsp fine salt

Method:

Put the steak strips in a large bowl and add all the ingredients into the bowl with it (apart from your guacamole ingredients, obviously). Stir it all thoroughly and leave to marinade.

When you’re happy that your meat’s marinated enough put a griddle pan or a large frying pan over a high heat.

Drain and discard the liquid from the steak marinade before putting the steak and the slices of pepper into the hot pan.

Cook the steak to your preferred liking. Once cooked, put the steak in a serving bowl and cover with foil and let it rest for 5 mins while you make the guacamole.

To make the guacamole:

Half your avocados and remove the stone. Use a spoon to scoop out the avocado flesh and mash it in a bowl before adding the rest of the guacamole ingredients. Mix them all together and place in a serving bowl.

Serve your steak fajitas with warm, soft tortilla wraps, the guacamole, chopped fresh coriander, salsa, crème fraiche or sour cream (or a non-dairy version), re-fried beans, grated cheese (or a non-dairy version), and slices of fresh chilli.

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