Mexican Egg Bake

Our neighbors Barb and George inspired me to make this recipe.  When I told Wanetta's daughter Denise, I would be making it again, she asked for the recipe.  Hmmm.  No real recipe.  So just for Denise I had to document this recipe and decided to share it on my blog. 

Barb and George were just returning from a sojurn in Florida and I decided to surprise them with my favorite Mexican Egg Bake waiting on their kitchen counter for them!  They've had this before and always love and appreciate it!

I started making this about 10 years ago.  But the original recipe was a strata, a wonderful egg and bread dish that is a great use of stale bread!  You can refrigerate the strata mixture over night and then bake in the morning, in time for company for breakfast or brunch! 

But one day I had some corn tortilla chips that were just getting crushed in the bag and some left over salsa.  Why not try them in the egg mixture I thought! 

I started with the usual egg custard type mixture of 2 c milk and 4 eggs.  But this recipe doesn't call for cornstarch (which you don't really need for a custard anyway).  I've found this recipe and the strata to be so adaptable you can use just about any leftovers for it.

Grease or use Pam on an 8"x x 8" baking pan, or aluminum foil pan. 

Crush up enough corn tortilla chips to measure about 1 1/2 c.

Beat together 4 eggs, then add 4 c milk (I use whole milk, but you can use 2%).

Spread the chips in the bottom of the pan. 

Have on hand your favorite salsa and some sort of Mexican cheese blend (shredded).

For this recipe I had a left over mixture of chicken, onions and manchego cheese from making enchiladas a few weeks before.  I had put the chicken mixture in the freezer.  So I just thawed it out and spred in it the pan on top of the chips. 

We love spicy salsas.  Sometimes I make my own, but sometimes I just pick up a good hot salsa or a good chipotle salsa at Sam's Club, Costco or BJs.  In this case I had two kinds of salsa on hand. 

Then I put about 6 big soup spoon fulls of salsa over the the mixture. 

Next I poured the milk and egg mixture.  I then took a fork and gently mixed it all up in the pan.  On other occassions I have mixed all the ingredients except the chips in a big bowl and then poured it in the pans.  It really does not matter how you do it. 

NOTE:  At this point you can put this in the refrigerator overnight, and then go to the next step in the morning. 

Bake for 1 hour at 325 degrees F.  Check the egg bake by inserting a clean knife.  If it comes out clean, it's ready for the final step.  If it doesn't come out clean, bake for another 10 minutes, check again, etc until done. 

Sprinkle a 3 or four blend of shredded Mexican Cheese (jack cheese, sharp cheddar, manchego, etc) on the top and bake for another 10 minutes to melt the cheese. 

Remove from the oven and allow to cool for about 10 minutes.  This recipe can be easily doubled or quatrupled for a large crowd.  You can serve this with a side of sour cream, a green salad, beans and rice, or just the egg bake. 

I served the Mexican Egg Bake to Ken, my husband, for breakfast with a side of papaya. 

Great way to start the day! 

Rack of Lamb smothered in Nut Brown Ale mustard and fresh from the garden Rosemary

As I have said before I am a big fan of Sam's club, Costco and BJ's.  One of the biggest reasons is at Costco and Sam's club you can get rack of lamb and lamb chops (from Australia) for a mere pittance of what it costs at the local grocery store.  Oh sure, if I was able to buy a whole lamb and have it butchered it might be cheaper...but for that I would need a bigger freezer which I don't have. 

Anyhow, recently I broke down and bought a package of two racks of lamb at the local Sam's club.  I decided that this would make a fabulous Shabbas dinner for Ken and I.

But I have to tell you that rack of lamb or lamb chops always reminds me of my friends Janet and Vivian.  Both are adventurous travelers and a real kick to join!  We're always laughing and having the best time together. 

Viv on the left, Janet on the right

Janet retired about 10 years ago, after 30 years of working for the city of Anchorage.  She wasn't about to sit around in a rocking chair, she was much too young for that.  So she took a summer job working for Princess Cruises.  Thank you Janet!  We have reaped so many rewards of her job as her friends over the years.  Vivian's been on several cruises with her.  I went on a cruise with her back in the spring of 2001, during which we visited Puerto Rico, went through the Panama Canal and up to Costa Rica on the Pacific side.  Janet, Viv and I, have also had many fun trips to some of the Princess lodges in Alaska.

One of my fondest memories was a weekend we took a room at the Kenai Princess Wilderness Lodge.  See it here at http://www.princess.com/learn/destinations/alaska/highlights/wilderness_lodges/kenai/index.html

Janet arranged it so we had a cabin right next to the hot tub.  This was a real bonus as it was mid-January, the temp was -5F,  and we couldn't think of a better time to go hot-tubbing!  After chasing out some raucious kids by playing Dean Martin music on OUR little boombox, we laughed and joked about our frozen hair as steam rose around us in that marvelous outdoor hot tub!  If you've never hot tubbed in minus farenheit weather then you haven't lived a full life!  What a time we had!  After a good long soak we ran back to our cabin and dressed for dinner. 

On the menu that night was a lamb chop smothered in mustard and rosemary.  Well, that was something I had never had, so of course I had to be adventurous and order it.  Oh, what a delightful dish that was!  I was over the moon for the rich aroma of the lamb joining the fresh resiness from the rosemary.  The heat of the mustard hit my tongue and made a wonderful unforgettable combination! 

The rest of the weekend we ate in the cabin, having brought all manner of goodies with us.  I'm glad we did, because I kept savoring that meal in my mind and developing the recipe based on what the waiter said, and what my tastebuds told me about the ingredients.  We also couldn't afford to eat at the restaurant every nite of our visit! 

So this past Friday I made sure I had plenty of my latest batch of Nut Brown Ale mustard, picked a few big branches of rosemary from my herb patch out back and started. 

Click here for the recipe for the mustard: http://brewmaven.blogspot.com/2009/11/nut-brown-mustard.html.  If you don't want to make your own mustard you can use any mustard you like, but a nice whole grain, or a brown mustard goes very well! 

Make sure the lamb is dry. 

Strip several branches of rosemary of their leaves and chop very fine.  I had about a 1/2 cup of chopped rosemary. 

Rub about 3 or 4 tablespoons of mustard on the lamb, making sure you get the ends if doing a rack of lamb.  If doing chops, rub the mustard on both sides.  If you are using a good whole grain mustard you just put a thin layer on because the whole grain mustard is usually much spicier and has more heat.

Roll the lamb in rosemary leaves, coating evenly all around.  Sprinkle with a bit of sea salt. 

I baked these racks in my convection oven at 350 degrees and used a Accurite probe thermometer to cook them to a temperature of 155 degrees.  Lamb should be cooked to 160 degrees for rare, but remember that meats continue to cook once removed from the oven.  According to Emeril Lagasse the meat will cook another 5 degrees after being removed from the oven. 

Ken's plate

We had our rack with boiled turnips, corn, salad, and homemade challah (egg bread).  The challah had been in the freezer for a few months, but because I bake using the "Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day" method...it still tasted fresh as the day I baked it when I warmed it up.  I added cantalope for dessert. 

My plate

What a fabulous way to bring in Shabbas!  If we had gone out to a restaurant for this dinner it would have cost us $75-100 for two dinners.  I paid less than $19.00 for the rack of lamb, which carved into 8 lambchops each.  All totalled our dinner cost less than $22.00 for the two of us!  Although I will say, at a restaurant we wouldn't have to do our own cleanup! LOL!

Thanks Janet and Viv for the added great memories! 

Osso Bucco as a symbol for a great New Year!

May you have an Osso Bucco year! 

In other words, may it be a richly flavored, easy type of year for you!

I love the symbolism of starting a new year. Ken and I are very lucky because we enjoy two New Year’s! We celebrate Rosh Hashanah, the beginning of the Jewish New Year usually sometime in September or October. THAT New Year tradition is filled with honey and challah. The common New Year has always posed a dilemma however. What to eat to symbolize the New Year?

Here in Central PA, my friends and neighbors celebrate with pork and sauerkraut. While we love sauerkraut, especially the homemade version that I get from Dorothy ( a wonderful Mennonite woman) at the Eastern York Farmers Market, we don’t eat pork at all.

I had to think about what kind of year I want 2010 to be. I decided I want it to be a year filled with the living and enjoying of life, rich and flavorful with new wonderful adventures, and tender moments, that started with a sizzling heat! Yeah, that’s it! And the days after are to be even better, more rich and full bodied. Hmmm. Sounds like Osso Bucco to me, so that’s what I made. We had Osso Bucco at a friend’s house down in Florida a few years ago (not for New Year’s) and I’ve never forgotten what a wonderful meal that was. Great conversation, lots of laughter, and a fabulous dining experience put on by our hosts Brad and his wife, Suzy.

Julia Child’s "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" probably has the perfect recipe for it. Alas, I don’t have my own copy yet. I’m trying to find one at a used book store. If no luck there I’ll order on sometime the first part of 2010. In the meantime I perused James Beard’s Theory and Practice of Good Cooking. No luck there. Joy of Cooking has a braised lamb shanks recipe but she doesn’t call it Osso Bucco. I finally got online and looked at several recipes, and decided that Giada De Laurentiis' was the recipe that best epitomized what I want in 2010.

Although Giada makes hers with veal shanks, I found some very nice looking lamb shanks at BJs. Lamb is a favorite for Ken and I, and we make it numerous ways throughout the year. The shanks were really meaty and plump and the price was within my budget so I snatched them up!

Giada’s recipe ingredients were perfect for me. I had everything except the fresh parsley. But that I could leave out this time I figured. I wasn’t going out to the store again.

I started by cutting fresh rosemary and thyme out of my little herb garden in the back. That in itself was a minor miracle since we again have snow on the ground! At least this time it only snowed three inches!

Scupper surveying the snow

Here are the ingredients list for Giada’s Osso Bucco

1 sprig fresh rosemary
1 sprig fresh thyme
1 dry bay leaf
2 whole cloves
Cheesecloth
Kitchen twine, for bouquet garni and tying the veal shanks
3 whole veal shanks (about 1 pound per shank), trimmed
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
All purpose flour, for dredging
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 small onion, diced into 1/2-inch cubes
1 small carrot, diced into 1/2-inch cubes
1 stalk celery, diced into 1/2 inch cubes
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 cup dry white wine
3 cups chicken stock
3 tablespoons fresh flat-leaf Italian parsley, chopped
1 tablespoon lemon zest

I cut the sage leaves so I can dry them, but the rosemary and thyme went into the bouquet garni, along with the cloves and bay leaf. I filled the cheesecloth with the herbs and then tied it all up with butchers twine.

I quickly diced the carrots, celery and onions and set them aside in a bowl. I measured out a tablespoon of tomato paste from the squeeze tube. By the way if you haven’t tried the tomato paste in a tube, do so at your earliest convenience. I love the stuff! I seldom need more than a tablespoon or two at a time and have wasted too many cans of it in the past. Now I buy it in the tubes and keep it in the frig once I’ve opened it.

I went ahead and measured out the Martini & Rossi Vermouth and chicken stock while I was at it. I wanted to be able to move from step to step without stopping.

After taking the lamb shanks out of the package I rinsed them quickly, patted them dry, and trimmed some of the fat. Harking back to my days in Alaska and rendering bear fat, I put the trimmings in the pot and let the fat ooze out as the little pieces of meat became nice and crispy. Yes, I have actually eaten bear, matter of fact we were very happy to have it one winter as that was just about our only red meat that year. That was years ago when I hunted with my former husband. I haven’t hunted in years but still conjure up my cooking techniques from those days every once in awhile.

While the fat was rendering I wrapped each shank with twine to keep the meat on the bones when it became oh-so-tender. I seasoned with salt and pepper, and then dredged in flour. Once I had garnered as much fat as possible out of the gribbins (that is what I call it) I removed them then added olive oil instead of vegetable oil and heated it up. I dropped in the shanks and browned them all over.

Once the shanks were browned I put them on a plate to the side, I dropped the vegetables in and sautéed those until the onions were translucent. In went the tomato paste next and I stirred it until it was blended in. Then it was time to drop in the shanks. I poured in the vermouth and cooked it down to reduce the liquid to half. It doesn’t take long, so I had to monitor it closely. Finally I dropped in the bouquet garni, and added the chicken stock. I felt the College Inn Bold Stock Rotisserie Chicken Broth would be best for this since it is rich, and full bodied.

I brought the liquid up to a full boil and put it into an oven at 325 degrees. Giada says to simmer it on the stove, but Joy of Cooking said to put it in the oven, so I chose J of C for the final part. I checked it about every 20 minutes and did add a bit more broth about half way through. The idea is to keep the liquid about ¾ ways up the shank according to Giada. After about 1 ½ hrs I took it out of the oven and put it on a low burner to keep it warm.

Since I had a batch of “light” semolina” Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day dough (1 cup of semolina pasta flour in place of one cup of All Purpose flour) in the frig I decided to bake a few loaves of ciabatta and serve some with the Osso Bucco.  About ½ hr before taking out the Osso Bucco I cut off a grapefruit and orange size of dough. I quickly flattened the two sections of dough out on the floured counter, and then covered them with plastic wrap that I had sprayed with Pam. I only let them rise for about 20 minutes.

Once the Osso Bucco was out of the oven I turned the heat to 450 degrees, and put my baking stone back in to warm up. Just before baking, I wetted my fingers and quickly and deeply jabbed the risen dough with my fingertips, making sure to go to the ends. Then I spread on olive oil, sprinkled some freshly ground sea salt, and some chopped fresh rosemary on the dough. At last, I slid the parchment paper with the two loaves of ciabatta on it into the hot oven. I poured a cup of water into a pie pan in the bottom of the oven and closed the door. Ciabatta doesn’t take as long to bake as a big loaf of bread, so it was ready after only 23 minutes.

Because I had a variety of some small potatoes in the frig I decided to boil them up while the bread baked. I also took this time to zest a lemon for the final plating.

Once a simple salad and a glass of my homemade Chilean Carmenere/Acabernet Sauvignon 2007 were on the table, I was ready to plate the Osso Bucco.

I had to be careful with the lamb though as once I cut the twine I knew it would want to fall off the bone. So first I scooped out the vegetables with slotted spoon, and put them on the plate, then carefully lifted out the lamb shanks and placed them on top. Using a ladle I poured some of the sauce over the shanks. I cut the twine with a few quick snips, added the drained boiled potatoes, dropped the lemon zest onto the lamb shanks and added two pieces of bread to each plate.

Our dinner was everything I hope 2010 to be; richly flavored, tender and juicy. The fresh bread sopped up the sauce with the added flavor of the rosemary. AHHHHHH.

Dessert was just a dish of vanilla ice cream which Ken drizzled with our chocolate raspberry port.

What a delicious feast and a wonderful way to toast in 2010!  May we all have an Osso Bucco Year!