Fajita Grilled Cheese. It's a Grilled Cheese with Fajita Meat Inside

This TexMex treat first originated after a long day on Lake Austin in 2003. A somewhat ravished and raucous crew of lakegoers ventured to Maudies for some post lake drinks and a hearty meal. Good times led to good drinks which led to a yearning, nay a hankering, for a grilled cheese by a younger El Smokeador. Originally met with quite a bit of "we can't do that" and "tell me again" my hunger (and quite a bit of the El Smokeador Y Smokehopper trademarked unadulterated gumption) prevailed and the waiter/cook finally agreed to make me a grilled cheese with fajita meats on the inside.

I have tried to make this for the blog twice in the past 3 years to no avail. Turns out as El Smokeador gets older the ratio of good drinks to bad pictures has a direct relationship in which the correlation grows closer and closer to 1 as amounts of both variables in the test are increased. Never thought the MBA would make an appearance on the ol' blog. Statistics!!

It should be noted that I cooked all of this on the stove top in the house I am currently leasing. Gas grill with a cast iron skillet. Here are the spices I used for the chicken. I am not going to go into great detail on certain amounts of what that I used because everyone likes it different, but lets say it was two tablespoons of olive oil and about a teaspoon of the rest of what you see in the picture. NOT THE METAMUCIL AND OATMEAL. THOSE ARE FOR A FORTHCOMING BRISKET. But the salt, pepper, cumin, paprika, coriander, garlic powder and olive oil were all used.


Bought three chicken breasts from the store. Washed. Patted dry and sliced into fajita like strips. Put them all in a bag with the spices and olive oil.



Found a couple of small limes, halved them and added the juice of both to the bag. I did this at lunch today and let them sit until about 7. So thats 7 hours if you are not counting along at home. I am pretty sure and hour or two would have been ok.


Bought this stuff for the toppings to go inside the sandwich with the cheese and chicken. Cut it all into 3-4 inch strips and tried to keep the onion in a circular manner. No real science to that.



Before slicing all of that up I threw the skillet on high heat and it got hot. Once everything was sliced in the most meticulous manner and the skillet was hot, I dumped the whole bag of chicken on (no oil as there was already oil in the marinade) and let it brown until the juice had simmered off. This is what we in the business of food call the wise mans gambit meaning its always better to have a little bit dried out chicken than the alternative of undercooked chicken. A wise man told me that once as I was huddled over a trash can nevermind. A little stream of consciousness folks. Tip your waitress.


When your chicken is thoroughly cooked it will look like this. Off of the skillet and on a plate so you can add the red pepper, white onion and jalapeno slices.



When the onions are carmelized to your liking and the peppers are soft enough for you, add the chicken back in. I don't know why but pretend your Nike. Hello Nike.


Based on previous posts you would think that buttering bread is not something this blog is about. Wrong.


In an ideal situation I would have used a nice thick piece of bread but I didn't have any and Stephsmoke is saving up her bread making abilities for Bagel Bites that will be made soon. That said, there is some cheese at the store that I have been enjoying, I think its New York Cream and Habanero Pepper-jack. I used two slices here. Could have used more to get a really cheesy sandwich, but I had a turkey sandwich for lunch and there is such a thing as too much cheese in one day.


Added the peppers and chicken to both sides of the bread and combined them into a singular being. Put the whole thing on a new non stick skillet and let it cook for about 2.5 minutes per side. You can do it longer if you want to burn your sandwich but I don't particularly care for burned bread. Toast on the other hand is delicious.



Finished product with a side of Guacamole. The guacamole was just avocado, half of a smallish tomato, some red onion, garlic and lime juice with salt and pepper. Couple of different views for you.



All in all it's a pretty cheap, somewhat healthy meal. No it's not healthy at all, but not much that tastes good is. If you try it at home please send us a pic and we will post it.

Also, from a musical standpoint if you don't have the new J. Mascis album get it. It's fantastic.

And there is this:


~El Smokeador~

Chili Sunday

I made chili on Sunday for three reasons.

First, its been really cold lately.

Second. This guy told me I needed to make Chili.

Third. The greatest sporting event in the World was being played that day.

Runner Up Reasons include “Chili is Awesome” and “Meat is good”. Also the Super Bowl was on.

Long story short, the Chili ended up being a megajam. The Super Bowl was not bad either. The commercials I liked are as follows:

• The one where the Aztecs created a dimensional warp to steal the Kia from the aliens who stole it from Poseidon. (Oh yeah.....I went with Poseidon rather than Neptune. I roll like that. Hardcore.)
• The one where the monkeys crashed into the guy's car.
• The Super 8 preview looks amazing.

Thats pretty much it.

Also, there was some sort of luxury prison ad that I didn’t quite get. What was going on there? Feel free to comment if you understood it.

Anyway, Next Stop: Chilitown, USA.

Chili:

Caveat: This is not your standard Chili. StephSmoke and I kind of modified a pork stew recipe to make this chili. So all you chili purists out there can suck it. Because it was delicious.

Boom. Roasted.

We really just braised some beef in a vegetable rich liquid and added chili powder at the right time. It really was good. Here's how we did it.

First, we seared off some beef chunks. Beef chunks is a technical culinary term. Set aside.

Next, we seared up some ground beef.

Remember to get the pan really hot.

Set Aside.

Next, we made the braising liquid. We pureed cilantro, garlic, tomatoes, jalapeños, tomatillos, and some chicken stock.

It was good enough to drink. (and I did).

Step 11: Sweat some vegetables.

We chopped up an onion, some garlic, and 3 different types of chili peppers. I just grabbed every kind they had at the store. One each. It cost under a dollar.

These are just some of the peppers.

Next we put in pan with oil salt and pepper and heated it up. (aka cooking)

When it started to get translucenty we added 4 or 5 quartered tomatillos, browned them, and then we added a few of the remaining cherry tomatoes and let them break down.

When it all was soft and delicious, we added two or three tablespoons of the chili powder. We added this brand because it is amazing. We let it cook for 5 - 10 minutes on low to absorb the flavor.

Mix it up NICE.

Next, we added all of the vegetable stock puree to the pan.

And added back in all of the meat. Make sure to pour all of the oil and juice from the container back into the pot. That's where the healthiest stuff is.

Then we brought it to a boil and reduced it to a simmer.

Then we added some tomato paste for a little extra flavor.

We covered and cooked for two hours. After that we added the bay leaf we forgot to add originally and cooked for another 30 minutes.

And thats pretty much it. The chili is cooked. The stew chunks have all broken down and the tomatillos and tomatoes have released all of their goodness into the mix, and the cilantro stems and leaves have dissolved, and the chili powder has rehydrated and the whole thing has gone delicious. We let it cool and went to work on some extravagant toppings, including chopped red onion, jalapeño, fresh chopped cilantro, sour cream and sharp cheddar cheese.

We used this type of Cheese. IT WAS INTENSELY SHARP.

We put it all on top of the piping hot chili.

Boom. Delicious.

That is where the flavor is. Right inside there. But really, it was amazing.

Thanks for reading everyone!!!!

Kangaroo Tacos coming soon!

(not really)

Welcome New Reader

You read my book you magnificent bastard.

Found Treasure and Habanero Jelly

I'm pretty awesome...so its needless to say that I had TWO vegetable gardens this year. We planted a ton of peppers and herbs and miscelaneous home depot plants in both of them in April/May'ish. One garden got a lot of attention and the other was left to waste away and grow wild. One was enough work.


Anyway, I was taking a look at the basil chaos that had become of the second garden last week and low and behold, I struck pay dirt. The Habanero had survived the insanity and made a bunch of peppers. See above.


Habaneros have great flavor, but they are very very hot. Burn the mouth. Singe the nostrils. If I was to take payment to rub one in my eye, the minimum payment would have to be $4,300. What is the minimum amount that you would accept to rub a habanero in your eye? Think about it.



So I had all of these peppers, and I had no idea what to do with them. A freeze was coming, so I got them all off of the plant. Luckily, Kimistry Kitchen was in town and she and StephSmoke both wanted to harness the flavor of the habaneros in a long lasting jelly. I thought Jelly would be more fun than rubbing them in my eyes. So, we immidietly had the helicopter come pick us up and we went to the store for provisions.

Apparenty you need:

1) Peppers
2) Vinegar of some sort
3) Red Bell Peppers
4) Sugar
5) Pectin. Which is like bone marrow for plants.
6) A Helicopter

Mix it all up and you've got Jelly. Heres how its done:

So you start out by chopping the lid off of the peppers. Do this.

Next you put them in a measuring device. As you can see from the picture, I wasn't really being serious about measuring an actual quantity of habanero. Here, I believe the recipe called for a certain amount of habanero, but I just went ahead and used what I had. Its not an exact science.

Then you put em in here. (This is why I didn't chop them up and measure. I didn't want capsicum hands if the machine was going to chop them up anyway).

Next measure out a quarter cup of vinegar. We used Rice Vinegar.

Next seed a red bell pepper.

...and put it all in a blender.

Again, dont get this in your eyes. It would really hurt. Its not often that a toast spread can double as a rape defense weapon. Not sure what else to say about that idea.

Mixing.

The Smell.

Very Intense.

Pur the mix in a pot.

Add a few cups of sugar.

Mix it up.

This is Pectin. It comes in a box. Its like gelatin, but from plants.

Pour in one package.

Kick it up to a boil, whisk, and reduce to simmer.

While that is going down, chop any leftover red bell pepper or jalapenos that you might have. You can drop them in the finished jelly product and it looks much more festive.

(it finally boiled)

(cooking action shot)

After 5 mins or so, let it cool, and skim off the foam on the top.

Some people would strain it here. I call those people less lazy than I am. So we didn't strain ourselves and we just put it in the jar. It was wicked wicked hot for a really long time. Be careful.


Add the festive pieces.

Mix in the bits i.e. GET FESTIVE

Finished Product!

Keep it refridgerated, and use it as any other jelly. We've been adding it to sauces instead of sugar. I also used some in a cocktail the other day, and its pretty good on sandwiches. Good glaze for pork. It's also good at parties, poured over cream cheese. On one occasion, I actually blended it with some left over cream cheese, spread it on toast, and made a turkey cilantro sandwich. Amazing.

Thanks to Kimistry for coming out of retirement and teaching me how to do this, and help with the blogging. Your audience misses you. Restart the blog, we implore you.

Sorry for the long gap in posting everyone. Should have more soon.

Thanks for reading!!

-SmokeHopper