Chopping onions, my way

I was chopping onions for the Stacked Enchilada's I made the other day and thought I would share how I chop them.

I know everyone has a favorite way of chopping or not chopping onions. 
 
If you don't like to chop them, it's usually because they make you cry.   And yes, they can induce tears.  I've wiped my eyes many times. 
I think I've also tried just about every trick there is to not tear up when doing the old chop.   From cutting the onions under running water, to clamping something between my teeth, I think I even tried goggles once. 

None of them worked.   Onions emit a gas that reacts with the tears in your eyes.   It's called, ready for this?

It's called syn-propanethial-S-oxide.  Which basically means it makes you cry.  

Science lesson's over.  

I like to cut the stem end off of an onion, then the root end off in thin slices.  I then cut the onion in half, lengthwise before I peel it. *here's another hint, just go to the end.

I find it irritates my eyes a lot less that way. 

Next up, I place the onion, cut side down, and slice it into thin slices lengthwise again.

I can leave them like this or turn the onion the other way, cut across into slices again which gives me a dice. 

And I'm ready for most recipes.   Depending on if I need a fine mince or a dice, I just cut the slices accordingly. 

And away we go... 

*Here's the hint.  If you wash the outside of the onion in some lightly, very lightly soaped water and rinse it off really, really well, you can use the onions, cut in half or quarters while making a chicken stock.  It imparts a lovely golden color to the stock.  And a subtle flavor as well.  

Paul's Stacked Enchiladas

A few years back, or should that be once upon a time? A friend named Peggy introduced me to this dish.  She would make it for her husband Paul from time to time, or whenever he could badger her into making it. 
She called it Stacked Enchiladas.      At any rate...

I got a hankering for this breakfast dish the other day.   For some reason I've been craving onions lately, raw, caramelized, cooked in a sauce, however I can get them.

I gave into the craving big time this morning. 

I may have onion breath for the next week, or so.  But it was worth it.  Just don't stand too close. 

Recipe:  Paul's Stacked Enchiladas with Egg  -  Per person

2-3 fresh Corn Tortillas 
1 cup shredded cheese (I love my Cojack or mixture of Cheddar and Monterey Jack)
1/2 cup chopped onions (sweet onions work great here) ( you can precook the onions for about 30 seconds on high if you don't like the onions to be a little sharp and crunchy.)
1/2-1 cup Green Enchilada Sauce, heated. 
1 egg  (or 2)

Chop the onions into a small dice.  Set aside.   Place a corn tortilla on a plate, then top with some of the chopped onion,

a handful of shredded cheese,

top with the next corn tortilla,

add some more onions, more cheese.

  Zap in the microwave until the cheese is melted, and nice and gooey.  

While it's melting away, prepare your egg.   I like mine over easy, but you can make yours however you want. 
Pour the enchilada sauce over the cheese and tortillas,

reserving 1/4 cup or so,  zap for another 30 seconds on medium high. 

Then top the stack with the freshly cooked egg,

sprinkle a little cheese on top and the reserved enchilada sauce.  

 Serve and enjoy.  Personally I love it when the egg yolk streams out of the egg, mingles with the enchilada sauce and the corn tortillas  and becomes something magical on the tongue.  
Enjoy.

Home made Tarragon Vinegar

I made some Tarragon Vinegar the other day for a recipe which called for the addition of Tarragon Vinegar in the vinaigrette.      But I did it the lazy way.
Well, the really, really, really quick way, cause I needed Tarragon Vinegar, NOW!!

 I grabbed some White Wine Vinegar out of my oil and vinegar pantry (yes, I have such a thing, well, it's more like cabinet full of vinegars and oils).
Muddled some Tarragon Leaves,(that's what you call smooshing them up in a mortar with a pestle).

from the Tarragon plant a lovely friend of mine gave me last year, and then proceeded to pour some vinegar over it.   I strained it out and added it to the vinaigrette.
And it was good.
But I realized I really wanted to keep some on hand for the Bearnaise Sauce I'm making next week.   So I went ahead and made more.
I was thinking it might be good in some home made mayonnaise as well?

Recipe:   Home Made Tarragon Vinegar

1/2 cup White Wine Vinegar
4-6 sprigs Tarragon Leaves (more if you like)

Sterilize a small jelly jar and set aside for a minute or so.
Heat the vinegar to almost boiling, just til you see little bubbles forming.  Do not boil.  While it's heating, muddle or crush the washed and dried Tarragon leaves and place into the sterilized jar.

Pour the hot vinegar over the Tarragon leaves in the jar. 

Cap and let cool.   Place in fridge and keep for up to a month. (I left the leaves in the vinegar, but will strain them out later on).  Make sure you write the date on the jar, cause if you're like me, sometimes stuff plays hide and seek in the fridge and I don't find it until it's not just a science experiment,  but a whole new world, ready to go exploring.

I'll be using some of this vinegar for the Salad I made earlier this week when I make it for a gather we're heading to next week.  That salad was so good, I'm actually going to share it with some other people, not just eat the whole thing by myself over a couple of meals.

I'm also going to play with it in some home made mayo and the Bearnaise Sauce.

Which by my calculations should use up this batch quickly.

White Bean, Celery and Carrot Salad for SRC

My Secret Recipe Club blog is Thyme for Cooking and I'm so excited.  Katie got me last month for SRC and did a total riff on one of my recipes using one of my favorite veggies, Swiss Chard.  Love that stuff.  
  
 Katie lives in France and a lot of her recipes reflect that French influence.  She's also got a couple of cookbooks out as well. 
But since we do a monthly Tapas Night and I love my appetizers, (did I mention I'm writing a cookbook about appetizers?), I had to go and check out her starters. 
 I had to share a picture first of the dish I did make. 

Back to the rest of the blog...
And there were lots I wanted to make.  But so many of them required baking.

Unfortunately my oven is on strike.  I need to replace the whole stove as some of the elements are also starting to be cranky.  I've already spent more money trying to repair the stove than it warrants.

But once I get an operating stove, I've got a list of things to make.  Like these two tarts.  What can I say, I love tarts. And I love Acorn Squash and Feta and Capers so these two are no brainers for me. 

Acorn Squash Tart
Feta and Caper Tart
  
She also had a couple of great ideas for Spring Rolls.  I always have rice paper in the pantry, it's really pretty versatile and I love my Spring Rolls anyway.   I'm going to try my hand at both of these, soon.

Avocado, Yellow Pepper and Tomato Rolls
Spinach, Mozzarella Tomato Rollups

I found this recipe, White Bean, Carrot and Celery Salad and made it for lunch, ok, I ate it for breakfast. sheesh. 
I'm really not into classic breakfast foods, what can I tell you.  But the lunch was great too. 

As I said, I ended up making the salad.  I was going to make it last week, but a hurricane and loss of power stopped me in my tracks. 

It's kinda hard to saute anything when you don't have electricity and all you have to cook on is an electric stove.

Recipe: White Bean, Celery and Carrot Salad

1 (15 oz) can Cannellini Beans, drained and rinsed.
1 cup chopped celery, about 2-3 ribs
1 carrot, sliced into thin coins
1 clove garlic, smooshed and chopped
1 small onion, finely diced 
1 tablespoon chopped Garlic Chives (I had some lovely garlic chives in the fridge so I used them)
1 tablespoons Thai Basil, cut into chiffonade  ( I substituted some Thai Basil and cut the amount in half.
1-2 tsp. EVOO 

Vinaigrette  Dressing
1 tablespoon White Wine Vinegar **
1 teaspoon finely minced tarragon leaves **
1 tablespoon Whole Grain Dijon Mustard
1/4 tsp. sugar
3 tablespoon EVOO

Chop the celery, drain the beans, and mince the chives.  Place the beans, celery, chives into a bowl. Chiffonade the basil, I used the Thai Basil I'm rooting and getting ready to transplant into some dirt.

  Saute the onion and carrot until soft, about 5 minutes, then add the garlic for an additional minute.   Add to the bowl with the beans, stir to combine. 

Mix the vinaigrette together

and pour over the bowl full of vegetables, stir to combine, then add the chiffonaded basil to the bowl

and stir once more.  Serve right away or chill for later.  This salad does taste great either warm or cold.

**I did make a couple of changes to the recipe.  I didn't have tarragon vinegar but I did have a tarragon plant and I macerated a teaspoon of the tarragon leaves and added them to some white wine vinegar and let that sit for a little while before making the rest of the vinaigrette.   I now have Tarragon Vinegar to use for other recipes.

I kept taking pictures and tasting this salad.  But I left enough for lunch...

Here's the rest of the Secret Recipe Club reveal for this first Monday of the month. 

An InLinkz Link-up

Banana Coconut Pecan Pancakes ala Tania

You've seen the two ingredient pancakes online, on Pinterest, and on different blogs and various other publications, I'm sure.  Bananas + Eggs = Pancakes.
I have.
And I finally got around to trying it out the other day. 
I had two bananas that were to be polite, a little past their prime.

Usually when that happens they get flung into the freezer to await a new life as Banana Bread, or at least that's the story I tell  myself.

I tell great stories...

To get back to the ummm, old bananas?

I decided to try that two ingredient recipe.  I figured it was easy.
Smoosh up the bananas, add an egg, and go from there.

So I did.
The taste was ok, but I really didn't like the texture.

It was kinda like a poorly set or cooked custard with major BANANA overtones.

I started to play with the recipe.  I wondered what would happen if I added some gluten free flour and baking powder to it.
And it was good.
But...

For some reason I started thinking about a friend of mine who would order these Macadamia Coconut Pancakes with Coconut Whipped Cream at the Paradise Cove Beach Cafe in Malibu.   They were a special treat and Ta would usually order them for her birthday breakfast. (she's also the one who showed me how to make Refried Beans)    Her husband taught me how to make Chicken Fajitas which I made for the Senior Lunch a couple of times when I cooked for the Senior Center. 

She loved those pancakes.

The next time I made the pancakes, I made sure I had some coconut and pecans to hand.   We have lots of Pecans here in the south.   Macadamia nuts on the other hand, not so much

.  
I ladled some of the batter into the fry pan, sprinkled some coconut on top, along with a chopped pecan.  Let them cook and flipped it over.
Then I served it with some butter and Golden Syrup and life was good.

Recipe: Banana Coconut Pancakes with Pecans   Makes 4 4" pancakes

1 large ripe banana, mashed
1 large egg
1/4 cup Gluten Free flour
1/4 tsp. Baking Powder
2 Tablespoons Coconut, divided into fourths
4 pecan halves, one per pancake, chopped
Butter for frying
Non stick cooking spray

Mix together the banana, egg, flour and baking powder into a smooth batter.

Heat a small pan over medium high heat, spray lightly with cooking spray, then add a little butter.  As soon as the butter foams, scoop up 1/4 cup of the batter and pour into the pan.

  Spread it out a little with a spoon.  You want it a little thinner.
Sprinkle with 1/2 tablespoon of the coconut, and half a pecan, chopped. (you can use more coconut and pecans if you like)   Let cook until the bottom is golden brown and then flip the pancake using a thin spatula.    Continue to cook until the other side becomes golden.  Place on a heated plate and continue with the rest of the batter until it is all gone.

Serve with a little butter and some Golden Syrup or Maple Syrup.   You can also sprinkle a little coconut on top along with some more pecans if you like.

I thought this might be a fun back to school breakfast recipe.

I have a bunch of bananas in my freezer that would be great for this.

You know, actually, this is a pretty balanced breakfast.  Egg, fruit, a little dairy, some nuts.

And they're gluten free as well.

It's all good.

There are two bananas hanging around on the counter right now, I wonder if I can interest them in breakfast?

My pancakes were featured on Full Plate Thursday over at Miz Helen's Country Cottage