beurre blanc sauce (butter sauce)

The other day I was asked for a great sauce that would be good on fish. I thought of a beurre blanc sauce (butter sauce). This is a French sauce and can be pretty tricky, but so good on any kind of fish. Here is what you need:

1/2 cup white wine

1 shallot

4 whole black pepper corn

1 bay leaf

about 1/2 stick of butter

First place wine, shallot, pepper corn, and bay leaf in a sauce pan and reduce the wine to half. When this is done take the pepper corn, shallot, and bay leaf out of the sauce. Next is the tricky part: cut the butter into cubes, and take the sauce off heat. Then whisk the butter into the sauce.  If the sauce gets too cold or too hot, it can make the butter separate from the wine. So if you need the sauce to warm then place back on the heat quickly, continue to whisk, and enjoy.

Test kitchen update: red enchilada sauce (5) “My version”

I am sorry, I haven't had time to post about my findings on my version of the red enchilada sauce. Well here it is:

12 dried ancho chilis

4 chili de arbol

3 Roma tomatoes

1 large onion

4 cloves garlic

2 teaspoon Mexican oregano

1/8 teaspoon cumin

1 Mango

1 lime

First, rinse the dried chilis with cold water, and pat dry. Then tear them open and take the seeds and vines out. Then toast the chilis, tomatoes, onions and garlic in a dry pan. Keep turning the mixture so that it dos not burn; this will take about 5 minutes.

Then bring 6 cups of water to a boil and lower to a simmer for 15 minutes.

Next, puree the mixture in a blender. This is where I added the mango and lime juice. Blend until very smooth. Force the mixture through a strainer back into the pan.

Then simmer the sauce for about 20 minutes and add salt to taste.

This recipe is a modified version of the recipe at http://mexicanfoodie.com/red-enchilada-sauce-recipe/. This is a great recipe in itself, but I wanted to see how I could make it a little different. I added the mango and lime juice thinking that the lime and mango would give a more dominant flavor to the sauce, but it didn't. I found that it just sweetened the sauce a little more, which is not bad, but it did not change the flavor like I had hoped. Please let me know what you think. I may try this recipe with more lime juice and mango. I am also thinking that I can change the type of chilis to change the flavor a little more.

Test Kitchen update : Red Enchilada Sauce (4) "My version"

Today, I am going to test my own version of the enchilada sauce. I had to think about what I was going to change, to make it different from the traditional recipes. First, I think that I will keep the cooking methods the same and the ingredient as well. The differences are that I will add more tomato, a large onion, 1 more clove of garlic, lime juice, and 1 mango. I do not know what will happen, but I suspect that the mango will balance out the sweet and spicy flavors nicely. This is truly a gamble but it is all part of the creation of new flavors. I love mangos! I have tasted mangos with spicy flavors before, and it balances well together so I figured it will be very tasty.  I will add the mango and lime juice at the blender stage to get the maximum flavor from the mango. This may change the dominant flavor from the dried ancho chilies to the mango, as mangoes have a strong flavor.  I will post my findings tonight.

eBook review: “Cookbook Secrets how to write a cookbook that has best seller potential”

Have you ever wanted to write a cookbook?  You may be interested in this eBook “Cookbook Secrets: how to write a cookbook that has best seller potential”. This book has a lot of good information on how to write, illustrate, publish, promote, and even how to use an agent if you prefer to.  I can’t find the author but the publishing company is a “leader life style media”, and it was copy righted in 2009.  However, there is a broken link to their recourse page, and a couple of typos.  Despite these errors, I think that it is still worth the money I paid. This eBook is only 9.97, I wouldn’t pay any more than that. If you have purchased this eBook please let us know what you think. Here is a link to buy this eBook:

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Test Kitchen update : Red Enchilada Sauce (3)

Today I made the enchiladas, and it turned out a lot better than I thought. The cheese balanced out nicely with the sauce. This is what I did for the actual chicken enchiladas:

4 cups - red enchilada sauce (see http://mexicanfoodie.com/red-enchilada-sauce-recipe/)

½ pound - chicken tenders

To taste – Mexican oregano

1/3 tsp – cumin

To taste - salt

2 cups - cheese mix (cheddar and jack)

About 8 - white corn tortillas

I first cooked the chicken on medium heat, and pre-heated the oven to 350. I added Mexican oregano, cumin, and salt. At this point I threw in some of the enchilada sauce, not much, but just enough to add some more flavor. It took about 15 -20 minutes (chicken is cut small, cooking time may vary, just cook till done). When the chicken was done I mixed it with about ¾ of the cheese, and little more of the oregano. Then I rolled up some the mixture into the tortillas, covered the bottom of pan with some of the sauce and placed the rolls on top, with more sauce. Then I sprinkled the rest of the cheese on top. This was baked for about 25 minutes. Let cool for 1 minute.

This recipe I made up on the fly. I did not plan the chicken enchiladas - it just happened. I thought it came out good. Please let me know what you think.    

Test Kitchen update : Red Enchilada Sauce (2)

Today, I tested the red enchilada sauce recipe from http://mexicanfoodie.com/red-enchilada-sauce-recipe/. I did everything that the recipe instructed me to do. However, when it came to the tomatoes, all that I did was boil it with the rest of the ingredients. After everything was done, I found that the mixture with the tomatoes tasted better, but both mixtures were bitter.  I also could not tell if the recipe instructed to put the enchilada sauce in the fridge for 3 days, or if it would be good for 3 days - so I just assumed that it stays good for 3 days, for the sake of this test (and speed).  Tomorrow night I will bake the enchiladas. I decided that I will make chicken enchiladas. I plan to make the filling with chicken cooked slowly until done, with salt and pepper to taste, Mexican cheese mix, Mexican oregano, and cumin. Tomorrow I will give you results of what I did to make the enchiladas.

Test Kitchen update : Red Enchilada Sauce

I was searching for great recipes online, and I found a recipe for red enchilada sauce at mexicanfoodie.com. This recipe seems to be great; it looks like the most authentic enchilada sauce recipe that I have seen on the web. I have decided that I am going to test this recipe and come up with my own version. First I will make the recipe exactly as it is written. This article was posted on the blog “mexicanfoodie.com” published by Douglas Cullen. To see the recipe, just visit http://mexicanfoodie.com/red-enchilada-sauce-recipe/.   You will note that even though the Roma tomatoes are mentioned in the ingredient list, they are not mentioned in the method of production (MOP).  I will make it side by side, with and without tomatoes. Then later I will make my own changes to the recipe to make this my own unique version.