Arroz con Pollo

Arroz con Pollo w/Peruano Beans

I know it's been over a month since my last post.  Thank you everybody that reads my blog for their patience & support :o)  I really do enjoy blogging, but sometimes it does feel like a chore, so I decided to take some time off from it and just post my food photos on Facebook. I still have tons of fun taking pictures of food, both my own and sometimes at restaurants.  Please "friend" me if you want to be my friend! I give kudos to my blogger friends that keep up with their daily to several times a week posts!  I'm also sorry that I haven't kept up with reading all the fabulous blogs out there too :o(

I just wanted to make sure that blogging stays fun for me and remember that the posts and photos don't need to be perfect, just entertaining.  It's so aggravating to get rejected by Foodgawker & Tastespotting, but I have to remember that just because they didn't accept me, it doesn't mean that my photo is bad...lol  Hubby has always said that I have ADD and have a hard time sticking with something for a long time, so it's a surprise that I have stuck with my blog for over 6 months.  I just know that once I do finish a post and publish it, it is an accomplishment and a great feeling :o)

I hope that everybody had a wonderful time with their friends and family over Thanksgiving.  Can you believe that Christmas/Hanukkah Season is coming on us so quickly!  Hubby & I had a lovely time visiting with his parents over Thanksgiving in the St. Louis area.  It was just the 4 of us this time, so we went out for our Thanksgiving meal, it's always fantastic spending time with his parents.  If you go to my Facebook page you can see the feasting we did while we were out there including Cracker Barrel ;o)

On to the food of this post...I love Arroz con Pollo, but it seems that every time I cook it, it turns out differently.  This is one way I like to do it, whole pieces cooked with the rice in the oven then served with whole pieces of chicken.  One of my favorite Mexican restaurants, Lares in Santa Monica, CA, serves it very brothy.  I think that they cook the chicken separately like a brothy stew and then just serves it over their regular rice.  I love it their way too, the broth is super flavorful!

Marinating...

I marinated cut-up chicken pieces in Olive Oil, Mexican Seasonings, Mex Oregano, Garlic, Paprika, Red Chile Powder, Salt, Pepper & Lime for a couple of hours.  

Browning Chicken, Skin Side Down to start...

except for some reason, the far left piece is skin side up ;o) 

Flipped Over...

I'm sure that you can use boneless/skinless chicken for this, but the bones & skins add so much flavor!  After the chicken was almost cooked through, I plated it and then sauteed onions, carrots, celery, cilantro, Mex Seasonings, Mex Oregano, Salt, Pepper & garlic in the flavored oil.

Sauteed Veggies,  Chicken Broth & Tomato Sauce

3 1/2 Cups Broth

1/2 Cup Tomato Sauce

2 Cups Long Grain Rice

Chicken Added Back in..

I also added a couple of bay leafs then cooked the chicken for about 20 mins on Med Heat partially covered.

Sauteeing Long Grain Rice

I cover the bottom of the sauce pan w/Rice Bran Oil, any oil will do....then add 2 cups of rice.

Until it's a Nice Toasty Color :o)

When the rice gets to be a nicely toasted color I add it to the chicken/broth mixture, cover it, then put it in a 350 degree oven.

After About 10 mins in Oven...

350 degree oven

Stir Every 10 mins

Another 10 mins in oven...

Add water if necessary.

Last 10 mins in oven...

Ready to serve, but cook to the doneness that you like :o)

Served w/Peruano Refried Beans & Simple Salad

This time I served the chicken in whole pieces, but sometimes I shred it and mix it with the rice :o)

Kah Tequila

I love these mini Kah Tequila bottles that Hubby found :o)  They have several types and also have big skulls too.

Burritos made w/the Leftovers the Next Day :o)

Refried Beans made w/Peruano Beans & Getaway to Morro Bay, CA

Refried Beans w/Homemade Tortilla Chips

We went to the most beautiful wedding in Los Osos, CA.  I'd never heard of the city, but it turns out it's a cute little town in the southern part of Morro Bay. The bride & groom had fond memories of the area  and picked that destination for their nuptials.  They were very kind and invited all guests that came the night before the wedding day to their rehearsal dinner!  

The rehearsal was at Mexican restaurant called La Palapa.  I loved the food there!  I especially liked the refried beans. I asked the waiter if it had lard in it because it was so tasty and creamy and he informed me, no lard, but they use a different bean called Peruano...Peru Beans.  I'm not sure why they call it Peru since it comes from Mexico.  These are creamier than Pinto Beans and make delicious Frijoles Refrito!  He told me that I could buy them at the local Ralph's, so I was on a mission to find these new beans.  I was able to find them in the bulk bin and bought about 4 lbs :o) As a bonus I was able to buy Pinquito Beans too, they are the ones that are traditionally served with Tri-Tip and are hard to find in Los Angeles.

It's much cheaper to buy Peruano beans locally, if you can find them, but I also found a couple of websites that sells them...

http://www.ranchogordo.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=RG&Product_Code=MAYB01&Category_Code=

http://www.purcellmountainfarms.com/Peruano%20Beans.htm

My Jalapeno Plant :o)

I decided to grow jalapenos, I love my new plant!  Behind it is the basil my girlfriend bought for me a few months ago, I had made pesto with it in a previous post.  I almost killed it, but I was able to revive it...love when I could do that!

My Beautiful Jalapenos ;o)

Cilantro & Parsley

I'm getting a green thumb in our small outdoor space :o)

Peruano Beans

They have a yellowish tinge to them...

Frying the Jalapenos...

It's easier and faster than roasting them if you have the oil available ;o)

Fried Jalapenos...

Nice & Blistered...

Cooking the Beans w/Bay Leaf, Onion & Garlic

After soaking the beans overnight or at least 6 hours, they need to be cooked without salt (it toughens the beans if you add salt) for at least another hour or until they are soft.  I usually don't add anything to it at this stage, but this time I decided to add an onion, bay leaf & garlic, I didn't like the results, it added an odd flavor.

Sauteeing Onions, Garlic & Jalapenos

After cooking the beans for an hour I add this saute mixture to it w/seasonings and cook it for about another 20 mins to meld the flavors.  I like for the liquid to get a little thick, but add more water if it gets too dry.

Bacon Drippings...Yum!

After the beans have finished cooking, I transfer it to a fry pan and add bacon drippings to it.  I try to leave some of the liquid behind.

Mashing the Beans...

As it heats I mash the beans and add more liquid if it seems too dry.  I like to keep it a little lumpy.  I love my bean masher!  It doesn't have holes in it like a potato masher, so it seems like it's easier to mash the beans. It's called a Machacador and I was able to purchase it here.

Peruano Frijoles Refritos

I fried the tortilla chips with corn tortillas and then sprinkled it with Mexican Seasoning.

Sand Castle Wedding Cake

The wedding theme was Beach and Sand Castles, they even went to Tahiti for their Honeymoon :o)  This cake was so beautiful and all edible!

Los Osos, CA

The view for the wedding ceremony.  It was a very intimate and casual affair, I loved it!  It was outdoors on the grass and they had the chairs assembled in a circle around the bride & groom.  They got the idea of circling the chairs from mine & Hubby's wedding 11 years ago :o)  It's nice setting the chairs that way, everybody gets a great view of the ceremony!

Los Osos, CA

Los Osos, CA

La Palapa Mexican Restaurant

This is a family owned placed.  The waiter I talked to about the refried beans turned out to be one of the family members.  They really pay attention to the small details.  They make their tortillas, both corn & flour!  We stayed next door at the Bay Wood Inn where breakfast is included.  They give you choices to several restaurants to go to, La Palapa serves breakfast on the weekends.  They serve both American & Mexican food in the morning.  I'm not sure why you'd go to a Mexican restaurant to order an American breakfast, but the table next to us was up for that...lol  I had an awesome Chile Verde Omelette and Hubby had the Chilaquiles.  They even grow their own Epazote Herb for the chilaquiles!

Los Osos Mural

Mural painted on the side of a building...

The Merrimaker Bar

We had some time to spare before the rehearsal dinner, so we decided to walk around the town.  The main area is less than a half mile stretch :o)  We poked our heads in to the Merrimaker Bar and decided to get a cocktail, err drink. It has a very interesting "local color"...we were there at 5pm on Fri night and there were only a few seats open at the bar. We normally would order Martinis or Manhattans, but at a place like this we just order "Bombay On The Rocks", you can't mess up something like that, unless they add a squeeze of lime juice to it..which they did ;o)  

Inside, we met a couple of the locals.  It first started with a woman accusing us of moving her stuff over and stealing her seat...lol  She had more than a couple of drinks, I told her we swear we didn't move her stuff over and Hubby just wanted to sit next to her.  She replies, "You are full of S*&% and I mean that in a good way."  Hilarious!  Then we had some more incoherent conversation with her.  The man on my other side heard we were going to La Palapa and he gave us the tip that the Chile Verde was really good, even better than what his deceased father used to make ;o)  I love conversations like this!  You can get a lot of info in 30 mins.

I found the  funniest thing about the place later that night. I was looking on Yelp (I have a love/hate relationship with Yelp;o) and looked up the Merrimaker, it kept mentioning that if you looked up Dive Bar on Wiki you would find the Merrimaker, I thought it was a joke, but it's not...lol  I'm easily entertained ;o)

Montana de Oro

Everybody kept telling us that we should drive to Montana de Oro and take in the view.  We didn't regret it, it's breathtaking!  It's just a few miles from Los Osos.

Montana de Oro

Big Fat Squirrel @ Morro Bay

My friend warned me of the overstuffed squirrels around Morro Bay, she wasn't kidding...lol

Noisy Bird @Morro Bay

I think this bird was looking for his Mommy, he wouldn't quit squawking...lol

Adorable Otters @Morro Bay

I loved these otters, I could have spent hours watching them.  With Hubby's long lens and lens extender I was able to get these great close-ups of all the fun!

Hatch Green Chile Rellenos w/Beefy Enchilada Sauce

Chile Rellenos

It's Hatch Green Chile season again, but this year I decided not to get 30 lbs worth...lol  I really loved the chiles, but decided I didn't want to go through the trouble of prepping them.  Maybe next year I will be up to the task again ;o)

I did get about 1 lb of them at the store and made Chile Rellenos out of it.  I love rellenos, but most of the time they aren't very good when you order them at a restaurant. I think they may make them ahead of time and then reheat and dress them right before they serve it.  I like them fried & stuffed with cheese, none of that healthy grilled stuff ;o) I'm not even really sure what an authentic Chile Relleno is, so I just improvised and made it my own way!

My post about last years ordeal of prepping my Hatch Chiles...

http://myhomecookedmeals.blogspot.com/2011/05/dinner-tonighthatch-green-chile-chicken.html

Making the sauce...

I decided to make an Enchilada type sauce and then added a little bit of meat to it since the rellenos was just stuffed with cheese, onion & corn.

For the sauce, I sauteed...onion, jalapeno & garlic and then added chili powder, cumin, Mex oregano, Mex seasonings, s&p & masa flour as a thickener.

Melding the Flavors...

For a big batch of Enchilada Sauce I would add homemade stock, but since I was only making a little, I just added water and  bouillon for flavor. I also normally would add a little bit of tomato or tomato sauce, but this time I just added some homemade pico de gallo/salsa that I had leftover from our taco dinner. After the flavors had melded for about 20 mins,  I whirled it up with the stick blender for a smooth consistency.

Enchilada Sauce w/Ground Beef & Chorizo

For the meat, I just added the leftovers from our Ground Beef & Chorizo Tacos from the night before.  I added it after I used the stick blender on the sauce and then cooked it down to a semi-thick consistency.  I didn't want it too watery that it would just all dribble off the plate.

Of course you can omit the beef/chorizo & chicken flavorings for my non-meat-eater friends :o)  That's one of the things I love about cooking, it's so versatile that you can change a lot of the ingredients around.  I'm actually tempted to try Soyrizo...Chorizo made out of soy!

Taco Post...

http://myhomecookedmeals.blogspot.com/2011/08/ground-beef-chorizo-tacos.html

Roasted Hatch Chiles

It's not quite the same as the char that you get from the Hatch Roastings that they do at the store, but the next best thing is to put them under the broiler of my oven when I have to roast more than a couple of chiles.  If I only had a few I'd have roasted them on the flame of the stove ;o)

After taking them out of the oven, I stick them in a plastic bag for about 10 mins, so they steam and are easier to peel.  I also take the seeds out, but leave the stems on.  I try not to tear it, but sometimes that's hard!

Stuffed w/Cheese, Onion & Corn

I learned this technique on a Diner's, Drive-In's episode.  I would have liked to use Jack Cheese, but I only had Cheddar on hand.  I grated the cheese then added raw onions & sauteed fresh corn.  I then formed the mixture into a cigar shape and then shaped it to fit into the chile.  I then closed it as tight as possible and then froze it for about 15 mins.  When you take it out of the freezer, be careful that it doesn't tear when you take it off the plate.

Floured...

After taking it out of the freezer, I cover it in flour.  Don't let it thaw if it's only been in the freezer for about 15 mins. Since it's lightly frozen, the cheese keeps it's shape and won't fall out even WITHOUT using a toothpick to clamp it together.  Now that I think about it, it may have been better with Masa Corn Flour...

Egg White Dip

You need to make this Egg White Mixture before taking the chiles out of the freezer.  I made it with a stick blender with the whisk attachment.  I first whisked 2 egg whites until semi-stiff peaks formed then I added 1 egg yolk and then a little flour to the mix.  It was the consistency of a fluffy pancake batter.  

I then dipped the floured chiles into the dip/batter then deep fried  it.  The batter & flour seals the chiles, so  the cheese doesn't ooze out :o)

Frying...

Keep turning it when you fry it and I go by the color for the doneness.  Be sure to fry it enough, so the cheese gets hot and melts.  The first one I served to Hubby was kinda cold and the cheese wasn't quite melted...

Ready to Dress...

Fried, Yummy Goodness :o)

Topped w/Meat Sauce & Cheese Mix

I topped it with the leftover Cheese Mix, the Beefy Enchilada Sauce, Salsa, raw onions, cilantro & jalapeno.  I served it with White Long Grain Rice flavored with chicken bouillon with corn added to it.   I think I said before that I can add corn to just about everything!