For the Love of Food

When I was back in the US in May visiting my mom, my aunt took us out for my mom’s birthday to a place called the Red Onion Café. It was a beautiful and simple and the food was presented in a flawless and spectacular manner.

I was in foodie heaven!

The dish I had was called Chicken Tikal. It was a thin breast of grilled chicken over puréed black beans, I think there was rice, sweet platanos, thin onion rings, cheese sauce, and sour cream. After thinking long a hard about it, I decided that it couldn’t be that difficult to make and I took a try at it (without the sweet platanos…although I would have loved to have had some!).

The one dish I was worried about tackling was the thin onion rings, so I did some searching and came across The Pioneer Woman Cooks! blog and her recipe for Onion Strings.

Oh my…they were so AWESOME!!!

I am usually really good at burning food when frying, but her pictorial recipe really pulled me through. I ended up with the most fabulous crispy onion strings/rings that have ever touched my lips!

I actually made this when a guest was coming over for dinner and he was blown away…so was my husband…and my son loved the onion strings so much he refused to eat anything else for dinner (well, maybe he did eat some rice). I will definitely be making this again for the company coming over for dinner on Thursday!

Bellow are the recipes for the whole meal:

Black Bean Puré

Ingredients:
1 Cup of dried Black Beans
Water
1 teaspoon Salt
1/4 Cup Lard
to taste: Salt, Garlic Powder, Onion Powder

Directions:
Soak the beans over night. The next day (at least 3 hours before servings), drain all the old water, place beans in a pressure cooker, and cover by about 2 inches with hot water. Uncovered, bring the beans to a boil and boil for 3 minutes (skim off any foam that rises while boiling). Remove from heat, cover loosely, and let stand for 1 hour.

Drain old water, and cover with more hot water until at least 2 inches above the beans (the water should not pass the half way mark of the pressure cooker), add the salt, cover with lid, tighten all the appropriate areas to seal the pressure in, and cook on high heat. Once the pressure has built up to high pressure, cook for 25 minutes.

Remove from heat, and let stand until the pressure has released on its own. Once pressure has dissipated, carefully remove the lid of the pressure cooker.

With a slotted spoon, remove the beans from the pressure cooker to a food processor or blender. To puré the beans, add as little liquid as possible…you can always add more later.

In a medium sized sauce pan heat puréed black beans and the lard over medium-high heat. Once the lard has completely liquefied. It may swim on top and seem like too much, but it will eventually work in and reduce. Add some salt, garlic powder, and onion powder to taste. Continue to cook, stirring occasionally until the beans have reduced to a loose refried beans state (not too soupy and not too thick).

Remove from heat, set aside, cover, and keep warm while everything else is cooking.

Seasoned Rice

Ingredients:
1 Cup uncooked Jasmin Rice
2 Cups Water
1 packet Sazón Goya with Coriander and Annatto

Directions:
Place all ingredients in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil. When the water is no longer visible above the rice and larger bubbles have started to form on top of the rice, reduce the heat to low and cover. Cook for 5-7 minutes. Remove from heat, fluff rice by stirring it with a spoon. Cover again with the lid and set aside.

Cheese Sauce:

4 slices of American Cheese (like Kraft Singles)
2 Tablespoons Vodka
1 Tablespoon Tomato Sauce
to taste: Garlic Powder & Onion Powder

Directions:
In a small sauce pan over medium heat, melt all ingredients together. Stir occasionally. Once the cheese has completely melted, turn the heat to low. Adjust taste to your liking. If the sauce is too thick, I recommend more vodka. Don’t be shy…try another tablespoon or 2.

If your meal is almost done, keep warm on low heat so it stays melted. If you make at the beginning of your meal, set aside, and heat back up right before serving.

Onion Strings recipe can be found here.

Chicken Breast

Ingredients:
500 grams (4) boneless skinless Chicken Breasts
Goya All purpose Seasoning wit Pepper
Olive Oil

Directions:
Preheat grill or broiler.

Place chicken breasts on a cutting board, cover with plastic wrap, and hammer with a kitchen hammer to flatten evenly and as think as possible. The point is not to tenderize, so the plastic wrap is to protect the chicken from being torn apart by the hammer. If you have insanely thick chicken breasts, consider cutting them in half (vertically), hammering, and serving them as one.

Season each breast on each side with the Goya seasoning, pour a little bit of olive oil on each side, and rub in. Set aside and wait until the onion strings are almost done before grilling/broiling.

Grill or broil chicken about 5-7 minutes on each side.

To Assemble:

1. Spoon some black bean puré onto 1/3 of your plate
2. Spoon some rice onto other third of your plate
3. Place chicken breast on last third of your plate
   (it is ok if it overlaps the beans and rice)
   Pour some cheese sauce over part of the black bean puré
4. Dab some sour cream next to the cheese sauce
5. Top with a handful of onion strings

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