Chapter Four: Mexican Recipes for people trying to eat rich on a poor budget (~jinghan)
In Chapter 1 me and my housemate were doing a lot of cooking on the weekend. Here are the recipes of what we made (for my further reference as well as yours.)
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Mexican Chicken Broth: (approx. $10 serves about 10+ single meals and cooked chicken can be used in other recipes to make about 8 servings )
Time: Give yourself an hour and a half.
Ingredients:
- Whole chicken (about $5-7. This is probably the cheapest way to buy chicken, what you’ll want to do is take out the organs if they are included, pull off as much skin as possible, keeping a little bit on the wings and legs, cut away all fat or this will make your broth very oily and separate into large pieces including bones. Rinse before putting in pot. )
- Three tomatos roughly chopped (approx. $0.50)
- Third of a bunch of cilantro/coriander, pick off just the leaves (I don’t know how much this costs actually, probably $2 for the bunch)
- Two cloves of garlic roughly chopped
- Quarter cup of onion chopped
- Carrots (optional)
- Salt
Cut and rinse chicken, this took me and my housemate about 30mins, but probably only takes 10mins once you have some experience with it. Put chicken in large pot of water with enough water to just cover chicken, add about a tablespoon of salt, garlic and onion. Bring to boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 45minutes. Chop tomatos and carrots and pick cilantro leaves. At the end of 45minutes of simmering add vegetables and simmer for a further 15minutes or until tomato mostly dissolves.
Serve with/over rice or with warmed tortilla. Pick out decent piece of meat that can be used for other dishes. Put left overs in containers (you’ll need more than one) and keep in fridge and reheat in saucepan as necessary. Serve it with just about every meal and it will still last you more than a week.
Things to do with chicken: put in sandwich or on tostada with mayonaise, add to pasta salad to bring to uni for lunch, put in pita wraps. Or! What we did was make Enchiladas and Tostala de Tinga (see below)
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Green Enchiladas: (Under $10 – Serves two)
Ingredients:
- 10 tomatillos (Green tomatos with papery wrapping)
- 2 sierra green peppers
- one clove garlic
- tablespoon’s worth of onion
- yellow corn tortillas
- shredded cooked chicken (about a third of what came out of the broth)
- Optionally serve with: sour cream and Queso Fresco cheese (ricotta would be a good substitute)
What to do:
Peal and rinse tomatillos and remove stalks. Boil tomatillos and green peppers until tomatillos turn yellowish. Place peppers and tomatillos in blender with garlic and onion. Put sauce in a wide pan and simmer on low heat. In a dry flat-pan heat tortillas until warm on both sides, then transfer to sauce simmering for about half a minute before turning over and simmering for a further half minute. Place sauce-covered tortilla on place and wrap chicken with it. Makes about 6 enchiladas if using small tortilla. Serve immediately with a dollop of sour cream and crumbling of cheese. (And/or with seasoned rice.)
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Tostada de Tinga: (Under $10, makes about 4-6 single servings, can be also packed and served cold for really yummy lunches away from home.)
Ingredients:
- Tw0 tomatoes
- Half a 200g can of Chipotle peppers in Adobo sauce
- one clove of garlic
- Half a green cabbage, cut into slaw
- table spoon of chopped onion
- Shredded cooked chicken (what ever is left from the broth)
- Tostada (Like a large round corn-chip that looks like a tortilla but is crisp.)
- Recommended that you serve with: sour cream and Queso Fresco cheese (ricotta would be a good substitute)
What to do:
Cut tomatos into halves. Heat tomato in dry pan until skin is scorched and flesh is soft (will require systematic balancing of tomatos so that all surfaces are heated adequately, and vigorous scrubbing of pan later.) Will take about 5minutes. Put tomatos, chipotle peppers, garlic in blender. Chop cabbage and onion. Heat oil in pan, fry onion until soft, add cabbage and fry until cooked. In a medium-large saucepan place blended sauce, cabbage and chicken with a little bit of extra water. Cook until hot. Serve on Tostada with sour cream and cheese.
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and while I was writing this post I had totally forgotten about some sweet potatoes that I had left on the stove in an experiment with candied yams… they’re… say… sufficiently soft now, but still nice mashed with brown sugar…
I am. So making. All of the above.
When I have time spare and my housemates have stopped acting like lost ducklings…