Category Archives: Family Recipes

Appetizers, Eggs and Cheese

Queso Fundido con Rajas (Cheese and Chiles)

Queso Fundido means melted cheese, and Rajas is a term applied to chiles cut into long strips. They can be roasted or fried or sometimes pickled or preserved in vinegar. The term can apply to different types of chiles, such as Rajas de Chile Jalapeño, which can be very spicy. This recipe, applies to Poblano chiles, a mild, somewhat elongated, dark green chile from the Puebla area of Mexico. Poblanos are used for making Chiles Rellenos or Mexican Stuffed Chiles.

Ingredients for Queso Fundido con Rajas

  • 1/2 cup minced onion
  • 1/4 cup oil
  • 2 Poblano chiles, roasted, peeled, and cut into strips
  • 1 lb. Manchego or Mozzarella cheese, cubed
  • 1/4 cup heavy cream, optional
  • Salt to taste

Saute onions in the oil. Add the chiles and fry well. Add the cheese and salt and allow cheese to melt thoroughly.

The chiles and cheese cubes may also be combined and placed in the oven until melted. Top with cream before serving, if desired.


Appetizers, Eggs and Cheese, Meatless Main Dishes

Cracker-Cheese Blintzes

Here is a way to satisfy your blintz craving even when you can’t find the right ingredients (such as in Mexico in the 1970s). This recipe is from Gert Cohen, who used to make this quick and easy treat some mornings for her family and others (me, for example) who were around at that fortuitous time.

  • 1/2 lb. cream cheese
  • 2 t salt
  • 3 beaten eggs
  • 24 soda crackers
  • 1/2 cup milk
  • 6 T butter

Whip up the softened cream cheese. Add 1 t salt and 4 T of the beaten eggs. Mix well. Spread on 12 of the crackers. Top with the other 12 crackers. Beat milk, 1 t salt, and rest of eggs together. Dip crackers in the egg mix, soaking well. Fry cracker blintzes in butter until golden. Serve hot.

Appetizers, Vegetables and Salads

Garlic Bean Spread

A vegan recipe for a savory spread or dip made from white cannellini beans, often known as white navy beans or haricots and in Mexico called alubias.

  • 2 heads garlic
  • 2 cups cooked white cannellini beans, drained (reserving liquid)
  • 2 T olive oil
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1/8 tsp cayenne pepper

Remove loose skins from garlic heads and place whole heads, root-side down, in a 350 F oven for 1-1/4 hours, or in microwave for about 5 minutes, until soft. Squeeze the soft garlic into a blender or food processor, discarding skins.

Add beans, oil, salt and cayenne. Blend until smooth.  If the mixture doesn’t blend easily, add a bit of the reserved bean liquid.  Refrigerate until ready to use. Serve as a spread for crackers or as a dip for veggies. Will store up to 3 weeks.

Separated garlic cloves can also be roasted in their skins in a cast iron pan on the stove top. Shake the cloves often while toasting so that they don’t burn. They’re ready when they are soft.

 

Desserts and Sweets

Pull Taffy

Pull Taffy was a great sweet treat when we used to have sleep-overs of friends and everyone could help pull and cut the candies (less work for us!).

  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1/3 cup water
  • 1/4 cup light corn syrup
  • 1 T vinegar
  • 1/4 t baking soda
  • A few drops of vanilla

Mix sugar, water, and corn syrup together and stir over low heat until the sugar dissolves, then allow to cook with stirring until a candy thermometer registers 270ºF, or hard crack stage.

Remove from heat and add vinegar, soda and a few drops of vanilla. Pour onto a buttered platter.

When cool enough to handle, pull until the taffy is white and porous. Cut into pieces with scissors.

CherryTaffy

Beverages

Beso de Angel

“Angel’s Kiss” – Mexican beverage

M. Angel Guerrero, 1977. Pen and ink.
M. Angel Guerrero, 1977. Pen and ink.

  • 1-1/2 oz Kahlua (coffee liqueur)
  • Cream
  • Ice

Pour Kahlua into a short, ice-filled glass. Top with cream.

 

Besito de Angel variation: Replace half of the cream with soda water and use a tall, ice-filled glass. Lighter and more refreshing.

Meatless Main Dishes, Vegetables and Salads

Chiles Rellenos de Queso o Frijoles

Chiles Rellenos are Mexican stuffed peppers. They are made with mild Poblano peppers and can be stuffed with ground meat mixtures, cheese, potatoes, and a variety of of other ingredients. You can often find seafood-stuffed peppers in coastal regions. The stuffed peppers are usually dipped in egg, fried in hot oil until browned, then smothered in tomato sauce.

This version uses Manchego cheese (or mozzarella) and refried beans to fill the peppers.

Chiles Rellenos de Queso o Frijoles

 Ingredients for Cheese or Bean-stuffed Chile Peppers

  • 6 chiles Poblano (dark green, slightly hot fresh chiles)
  • 3 cups refried beans or 6 large sliced of Manchego  or mozzarella cheese
  • 2 eggs, separated
  • Flour
  • Oil for frying
  • 1/2 cup thick, seasoned tomato sauce
  • 1/2 cup heavy cream

Hold chiles on a fork over heat (this is usually a gas flame in Mexico) until skin blisters and darkens. Wrap in a damp cloth or a paper bag for half an hour. Peel.

Slit the chiles down one side and remove the seeds. Stuff each pepper with either beans or cheese or a combination of the two. Seal with a toothpick.

Beat egg yolks until thick; beat whites until stiff and shiny. Fold yolks into whites. Dust chiles with flour and dip into eggs.

Fry chiles in hot oil until brown. Place on a serving plate and cover with preheated tomato sauce and a dollop of cream.

NOTE: If all the above sounds too hard, cut open the chiles and layer them with the cheese and beans in a casserole. Mix the eggs and flour together with the cream and pour over the layers. Bake at 350º F. for about 30 minutes or until set. Pour tomato sauce over the top (use only enough to moisten without drowning the layered chiles), and top with 1/4 cup grated cheese, if desired. Bake an additional 10 minutes. Allow to stand 15 minutes or so before serving. Serve with additional warm tomato sauce.

Noodles and Dumplings

Spatzle

Spatzle is one of the simplest types of noodles to make, basically a free-form cut or pressed egg dough dropped into boiling water. They just beg to be drowned in thick gravy.

  • 4 cups flour
  • 1 t salt
  • 4 large eggs
  • 1 cup milk
  • 1/2 cup water

Mix dry ingredients. Whisk together eggs, milk and water. Stir into dry ingredients. Beat with a wooden spoon, then let rest. Push through a spatzle maker (a metal pan with round holes in the bottom) or cut into salted boiling water.

Cook 8 minutes. Drain and place in bowl of cold water. Dry on paper towels and saute with butter.

Vegetables and Salads

Greek Salad

Crunchy, chunky, savory Greek salad with olives, basil, and oregano can be eaten as a side dish or a meal in itself. Greek salad always reminds me of Anna.

Greek salad ingredients

Ingredients:

Greek salad
That looks like an olive tree in the background… (by Anna)

  • 1 small red onion, sliced
  • 1 large tomato, chopped
  • 1 green pepper, in strips
  • 1 red pepper, in strips
  • 1 cucumber, pared and diced
  • 2 T olive oil
  • 1 T lemon juice or vinegar
  • 1 clove garlic, crushed
  • 1/2 tsp. oregano
  • 1 T fresh basil, minced
  • 1 tsp. salt
  • 1/4 tsp. thyme
  • Freshly ground pepper
  • 12 large black olives
  • 1/4 lb. feta cheese, cubed

Toss vegetables together. Mix oil, lemon juice, garlic, herbs and seasonings. Shake. Pour over vegetables and chill. Toss with feta cheese and olives and serve.

Vegan version

Easy: Just omit the feta cheese or substitute cubes or crumbles of well-drained tofu that’s been marinated in a mixture of oil, vinegar or lemon juice, nutritional yeast, garlic, oregano, and other herbs to your taste.


Eggs and Cheese, Vegetables and Salads

Potatoes Gratin

  • 1 cup Swiss cheese, grated
  • 1/2 to 1 cup consomme
  • 1/8 lb. butter
  • 4 large potatoes

Peel and slice potatoes. Add salt. pepper, and a pinch ot nutmeg, Butter a baking dish. Put in 1 layer of potatoes, cover with half the cheese, add another layer of potatoes, and cover with remaining cheese. Pour over this the consomme. and sprinkle with lumps of butter. Place in 375°F oven until done, with the consomme absorbed. Servings: 4