Mexican Fiesta

The blog has been a little sparse lately- mainly because I've been a bit lazy and going back to the old favs, and also because there's been a baking fail or two which I won't go into. But this will make up for it-trust me.

I've only been over to the states twice, but if somebody could bring Taco Bell here it would be much appreciated, especially at 5 in the morning on the way home from Hitch. A Taco Bell 'chulupa' is a taco where the shell/tortilla is substituted for fried bread. As in roll up your sleeves, kitchen covered in flour, homemade bread. I've struggled with bread making as I've previously mentioned-but these always turn out great so I can't stress enough how much you need to try this. It's a lot of work- and there's a lot of little things going on. If you attempt it for 1 or 2 people, you are probably out of your mind. But it's the kind of recipe that you could get lots of people round, get everyone doing bits and pieces and make a night of it.







So the chulupa consists of:
Deep fried bread (recipe below)
Refried beans
Rice
Meat of your choice (recipe below)
Chilli corn mix (recipe below)
Salad (lettuce, tomatoes, red onions)
Guacamole (recipe below)
Sour cream
Cheese

Four recipes today!!!

Panko-parmesan crusted chicken with mushroom sauce

I first put this meal together a couple of weeks ago when I felt like stuffed chicken breasts but couldn't be assed stuffing it. Now it's one of my absolute favs. I discovered panko (japanese breadcrumbs) after watching lots of cooking shows over the years and now that they have them at the local supermarket, I'm addicted. Tanuki's Cave is one of the bf and I's fav places to eat where they coat almost anything you can think of in panko-and it's delicious.

 Note: do not try this if you're trying to diet. Do try this if you love good food and want something relatively easy to throw together, even though it looks kind of complicated.

There are three parts to this meal:

Roast potatoes with buttered spinach

Washed potatoes (around 3 small potatoes per serve)

1/2 cup flour

1 tsp dried oregano

Fresh spinach (around 6-8 leaves per serve)

Butter

Salt and pepper

Panko-parmesean crusted chicken breasts and

Chicken breasts (1 per serve)

1 cup Panko breadcrumbs

1/4 cup freshly grated parmesan

1 egg

1/2 cup canola oil

Mushroom sauce

1/4 red onion

3 cloves garlic

10 button mushrooms

3 Tbsp dark soy sauce

1/4 cup chicken stock

1/2 cup cream

2 Tbsp water

1 Tbsp cornflour

Cut the potatoes into small similar sized pieces. Put the flour and oregano in a bowl and add salt and pepper. Toss the potatoes through the flour and then shake off the excess. Place in a roasting dish with a generous drizzle of olive oil and bake at 220 degrees until cooked through and crispy. Toss during cooking to make sure they brown evenly. For the spinach, melt some butter in a frypan and sauté the spinach till soft. Season with salt and pepper.

The assembly line

The remaining flour mix can be used for the chicken. Crack the egg into another bowl and mix well. Place the panko into a third bowl with the grated parmesan. Cut the chicken breasts longways into thick strips. Toss through flour mix, followed by egg mix and lastly panko mix. Heat the canola oil in a large frypan on medium heat. To make sure the oil is at the right temperature, tear off a small piece of bread and throw it in. It should brown in about 20-30 seconds. Shallow fry the chicken until golden brown, then place on a paper towel to drain excess oil. Test the largest piece of chicken to make sure it's cooked all the way through and if not, put in the oven at 180 degrees for a few minutes.

For the mushroom sauce, heat a swig of olive oil with a small knob (that's what she said) of butter in frypan. Chop the onions and the garlic finely. Cook the onions till clear then add the garlic and cook till fragrant. Slice up the mushrooms and add to the pan, cooking till soft. Add a good sprinkling of cracked black pepper. Add the soy sauce and the stock and simmer for about 5 minutes before adding the cream. Simmer again for 3-4 minutes. Mix the water and cornflour together with a fork till smooth and add to the sauce. Cook until the sauce thickens.

To assemble, toss the potatoes with the spinach, top with the chicken and pour over lots of mushroom sauce.

This sauce is amazing, and is super good with steak too.

Totally worth the couple of kilos you'll put on after eating it