Chile Verde Burrito

Chile Verde Burrito

I wanted to eat something different but I just couldn't put my finger on it until I spoke to my sister Cynthia Vogelsanger of San Jose, California. She told me that she was serving up Chile Verde Burritos for dinner. The big "light" went on in my head and I said to myself, "That's what I want!!" I asked her for her recipe and I set out to cook me some Chile Verde.

Here is Cynthia's recipe...

Chile Verde Burritos 

by Cynthia Vogelsanger 

• Chop up cooked pork meat and 1 whole white onion 
• Heat a 2 Tbs. of butter in a skillet 
• Sauté onions 
• Add pork or any other meat you may have. 
• Add your favorite salsa
• Add 1 small can chopped green chilies ( She likes Ortega) 
• Salt to taste 
• Lower heat and simmer for 20 mins. 

Assembly: 

• Heat a flour tortilla 
• Put chile verde mixture on the tortilla 
• Sprinkle some shredded cheese (Mexican 4-cheese) 
• Sour cream 
• Roll tortilla 
• Serve with retried beans, rice, or whatever sounds good. 

You can pretty much add your own Mexican spices like cumin, dried oregano, fresh tomatoes, etc. or whatever you think would spice it up. I like easy, and I pretty much make this recipe by throwing everything together and taste.

That's her recipe and a very tasty one at that.

Now I did use fresh Anaheim green peppers and I did add a little water while the chile verde was simmering. Avocado slices or guacamole would go great with this burrito also.

And of course I just happen to have a jar of my Mother's fantastic salsa that I made. Here is her recipe....

Mom's Salsa Recipe

by Connie Centeno Quigley of Santa Maria, California

• 14 serrano chilies 
• 10 jalapeno chilies 
• 10 yellow chilies 
• 4 cloves minced garlic 
• 1 medium red onion, cubed 
• ½ tsp ground cumin 
• ¼ tsp ground cloves 
• 1 cup loose, chopped fresh cilantro or more to your taste 
• 3 cubed fresh tomatoes 
• 1 15 oz. can of tomato puree 
• Salt to taste 

Directions:

• Cook all chilies on a comal (flat pan) until they are soft; 
• Take all the seeds and stems off; 
• Put everything in a blender and liquefy. 
• Taste test and adjust the salt and/or cilantro if desired. This will make about 2 quarts.

And here are a few photos of the process...

Here, the chile verde is simmering as I reduce the liquids.

I am heating up a flour tortilla in a pan.

Next step is to place the filling onto the tortilla and fold it.

And finally I cover the burrito with salsa and more chile verde. But you can put whatever topping you like.

This is a very simple way to use up any leftover meat you may have on hand.

Enjoy and don't forget to put plenty of hot stuff on the burrito. You know you enjoy the sufffering!! But it's a "good" suffering.

Until next time....

Mango Jam.....Homemade!!!

Guam has mango trees galore!! And when it's mango season, like right now, we have so many mangeos they are literally falling on the ground. We can only eat and give away so many. But when we do harvest we find no shortage of recipes using our mangoes.

Fresh mango jam is one such island favorite and here is how I make it...

Here is our mango tree. This one tree provides us with more than enough mangoes for our needs.

These are the flowers that will eventually turn into mangoes.

And here are some of the mangoes hanging on the lower branches.

This is just one mornings pickings. All these came from the ground. Gotta be early or the chickens and wild pigs beat you to them.

Lupe slices the meat off of each mango and preserves it. There are layers of mangoes in this freezer.

Here is the basic recipe and directions...

Ingredients: 

• 40 ounces of fresh mango chucks, pureed
• ½ cup of mango juice
• 6 hot peppers (optional)
• 1 pkg. of Sure Jell Premium Fruit Pectin
• 1 envelope of Knox Original Gelatine
• About 1 cup of sugar (to taste)

Directions: 

1. I pureed the cut mango pieces in the blender (Ninja Blender does a fantastic job);
2. Then I cook the mangoes in a non stick pan over medium heat, stirring constantly;
3. I add in the pectin and continue to stir until it dissolves well;
4. I bullet blended the ½ cup of mango juice and gelatin with the hot peppers and stir this to the mixture;
5. I then add in the sugar incrementally, to taste. I ended up adding about 1 cup of sugar. I didn’t want the jam too sweet;
6. I cook this for about 10 more minutes while it boils (still at medium heat) stirring constantly. You will see it start to thicken up;
7. Then I turn it off and pour into canning jars and refrigerate. As it cools, it really starts to thicken up.

Mango puree cooking.

All jarred and ready for chilling.

That's all there is to it. And once the jam sets up in the refrigerator, it is the perfect consistency.

Make this and try it out yourself. I think you will love fresh, homemade mango jam.

Until next time....