Spinach Enchiladas

After two weeks of really hot, appetite killing weather, we New Englanders have found ourselves experiencing some relatively cool weather.  


And why is it cool that the weather's cooler?  
Because we can now use the oven without heating up the entire house and bringing the wrath of our housemates upon us!


I've been dying to experiment with enchilada recipies for a long time.  This one came out great: comfort foody but with an undertone of pepper fire. 


The Filling

2 packages of frozen spinach
1/2 can pinto beans
3 cloves diced garlic
chili flakes to taste 
3 tablespoons olive oil
4 flour tortillas
4 slices of cheddar cheese


The Sauce

4 tablespoons of olive oil
1/2 can pinto beans
3 tomatoes, diced
cilantro, garlic, and pepper flakes to taste

Fry the pinto beans olive oil until they become slightly paste like.  Add the tomatoes and spices and cook for three more minutes.  Pour the mixture over the burritos.   




Get a large skillet. Sauté the diced garlic and the chili flakes in the olive oil.  Defrost the spinach in the pan, stirring occasionally.  Bring the spinach mixture to a boil, and then cool.  Make two burrito wraps with the cool spinach mixture.  Get a greased, large, shallow Corningware bowl and layer those two wraps on the bottom of the bowl.  Cover with cheese and the sauce mixture.  Add another layer on top of the first.  
Bake at 350 for 25 minutes.  

Spinach, Potato, and Zucchini Soup

A few weeks ago, I used my last Barnes and Noble Christmas Gift Card to buy Anna Thomas's Love Soup (Fab Ebert-penned interview on the awesomeness that is Anna Thomas here).  I've been reading Love Soup on and off over the past few weeks for inspiration, but this is the first recipe I have more or less test piloted.  Just as I do in all my recipes ganked from cookbooks, I basically tailored this dish to whatever I had lying around.  Where I used frozen spinach, Anna used fresh basil, where I used garlic broth, Anna used light vegetable broth, and, finally, I admit I used cilantro for her parsley.

1 large potato, diced
1 medium zucchini, diced
1 pint of potato peel broth
2 heaping tablespoons of pesto (I like Classico's jarred version, it has a good deal of olive oil and garlic)
10 oz of frozen spinach or 1 package (I find frozen spinach is less stringy when it cooks down in soup)
cilantro, lemon juice, pepper, and salt to taste

Defrost the frozen spinach.  Pour potato peel broth into your soup pot and slowly bring to a boil.  Add the chopped potato, and simmer until it gets tender.  Then add the zucchini and frozen spinach.  Stir in the pesto and then add your cilantro, lemon juice, pepper, and salt to taste.

Lilac Blossom, Greystone Plaza, Nashua, New Hampshire

When I'm not blogging about food, or doing my day job, I run.  It was this running hobby, and the periodic races that I get involved in because of it, that inspired my folks to reward my latent athletic chops by treating me and Eric to a meal at one of the best Chinese restaurants in southern New Hampshire.

It was sunny, it was Sunday,  I had just spent an hour running the Claddagh's Irish Classic 4-Miler, and my stomach was growling.  After a quick trip to my parents' house to shower, Eric, my folks, my mom's friend, and I got in my mom's car and headed north.  

Lilac Blossom doesn't look like much from the outside, as it's quartered in a late Eighties mini-mall in the middle of the boring, relentless schlock on the Daniel Webster Highway, but inside it's an oasis of clean white walls and the fresh, teasing scent of ginger and garlic.  There had been some confusion with the reservations, but we were quickly lead to a table and asked if we wanted anything to drink.

I ordered my usual white wine, but I was still a little dehydrated by the run, and by the end of a cold, so I don't really remember if I drank much of it or what it tasted like.  I spent most of the meal drinking water.  Not that that was a detriment to the meal, in fact, I could better taste the delicate flavors that followed because I stuck to cool H2O.

We started with steamed vegetable ravioli (pot stickers to non New Englanders).  They were chewy, but not unpleasantly gluey or sticky, and the mushroom, spinach, and caraway seeds whetted my appetite for more food.  We then moved on to the two types of tofu we ordered: fried tofu with spinach, and spicy Szechuan-style bean curd.  I have been a vegetarian for nearly thirteen years, but I am a newcomer to liking tofu, and I have never figured out how to cook it well.  If you are also a newcomer to liking tofu, Lilac Blossom's fried tofu with spinach will make you an instant tofu fanatic.  The tofu, deep fried and covered in garlic sauce, has a doughlike texture that is completely unlike the eggy consistency of silken tofu as it is more often prepared and served. The spinach was fresh, and managed to be simultaneously crisp and dripping with garlic sauce.

The next dish, the spicy Szechuan-style bean curd, did use soft tofu, but was sufficiently loaded with pepper fire that the soft tofu was a welcome reprieve from the delicious burn instead of a bland entity in an otherwise wonderful dish.  I have to admit I wasn't all that crazy about the vegetable lo mein, although it was also delicious.  I tend to prefer my lo mein pan fried, and this lo mein was not, and therefore a little too squidgy for my taste.  However, it was nicely flavored with ginger and a little sesame oil, and there was no objective reason for not liking it.

We were given orange slices and fortune cookies to finish off the meal, and we drove back down Route 3 well fed and happy.

Winter Pesto

adapted from the always useful Clare's Corner Copia Cookbook.

3 tbsps of Classico Basil Pesto (you're supposed to use fresh basil, but I am broke and this is the closest commerical pesto I can find)
1 package frozen spinach*
4 tbsps olive oil
1/2 tsp black pepper

1/4th cup Romano Cheese
1 cup water

Defrost spinach. Combine spinach, pesto, black pepper, water and Romano in a blender. Hit grate for about a minute, then hit liquify until spinach is completely pureed.

Boil angel hair pasta, then drain it and mix it with the olive oil, add the spinach puree to the pasta. Heat pasta and pureed spinach together. Add other spices (curry powder, chili flakes, more pepper) to taste.

*you could use fresh, but I find frozen purees better

Spinach Soup

inspired by Anna Thomas's The Vegetarian Epicure: Book Two

2-3 bags fresh spinach, cleaned and picked through
1 pint of potato peel broth
3 cups of water
1 really big potato
pepper, soy sauce, and lemon juice to taste

Boil potatoes in potato peel broth until soft, then add the spinach. Cover and steam for about ten minutes, adding the water as needed. Add pepper, soy sauce, and lemon juice as needed.

Best if served with tortilla chips and cheddar cheese.