Ninja Cow Farm LLC

In my last tribute to chorizo before sharing recipes with other Ninja Cow meats, I wanted to share this recipe that is sure to please the whole family–kids and parents alike.  Loaded tater tot nachos with a homemade ooey gooey cheese sauce!

What you need:

• 1 bag of frozen tater tots
• 1/2 pound of chorizo
• Salsa verde (recipe is here)
• 8 oz of fresh shredded cheddar cheese (pre-shredded loses flavor/aroma and is akin to pre-ground versus fresh ground pepper)
• Your favorite hot sauce
• 1 tablespoon of corn starch
• one 12 oz can of evaporated milk
• 4-5 roma tomatoes
• 1/2 of a white or red onion
• 1-2 jalapenos
• salt
• 1 lime
• 1/2 of a bunch of cilantro

What you do:

1. Make your pico de gallo.  Slice the roma tomatoes diagonally and remove the excess moisture and seeds with your fingers.  Dice.  Mince your onion and jalapenos (remove the jalapeno seeds if you don’t like spice–this way you mainly get the flavor).  Chop your cilantro.  Mix everything in a bowl, salt and squeeze the juice from 1 lime into the mix.  Let rest.
2. Brown your chorizo after removing it from the casing, drain the excess fat and let rest on a paper towel lined plate.
3. Do you own a deep fryer yet?!?  I alleviated my guilt by using coconut oil in my deep fryer 🙂 Deep fry the tots at 375 until they are a nice, crispy brown and salt. About 4 minutes.   Alternatively, you can bake the tots per the package instructions.
4. Meanwhile, toss the cheddar cheese with the corn starch.  Throw it in a pot on the stove over medium heat and add the evaporated milk.  Stir constantly until it starts to simmer and immediately take it off the heat.  Add a healthy dose of your favorite hot sauce and serve immediately.  No worries if your timing is off.  You can easily reheat on the stove and stir.
5. Plate and serve!  I added the ingredients in this order:  tots, cheese sauce, chorizo, charred salsa verde, pico.

The cheese sauce is a real hit in my house and goes well with lots of dishes.  I have had it with cheese fries and burritos when going for more of a Tex-Mex type of dish.  I have also used half cheddar and half pepper jack with great results.

Tacos are the perfect vehicle to eat meat.  If you have good meat, just about any combination will be delicious.  This recipe calls for Ninja Cow chorizo and shrimp.  Like Dan, I only get my seafood from Earps.  Period.  That place is amazing, locally owned by good people, and has the best fresh seafood around.

What you need for the tacos:

• 1 pound of peeled and deveined shrimp;
• 1/2 pound chorizo (about two links)
• 1 tablespoon of butter
• 1 tablespoon of olive oil
• salt & pepper to taste
• corn tortillas (flour if desired)
• 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda

What you do:

1.  Dry brine (i.e. toss) the shrimp in 1 teaspoon of kosher salt and 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda and let rest for 30-45 minutes. This will result in more firm, crisp shrimp.
2. Brown your chorizo after removing it from the case.  Add cayenne or any other chili desired if you want to kick up the spice.  Drain excess fat and place on plate with paper towel.
3. Toast your tortillas.  I like to toast corn tortillas in cast iron three at a time in one stack.  Toast, flip the whole stack, flip the toasted tortilla to expose the raw side, flip the stack, and repeat until they are ready to be removed 1 at a time. Place cooked tortillas in a clean kitchen towel to keep them warm.
4. Cook the shrimp on medium/high heat in olive oil for 1-2 minutes per side.  I add a tablespoon of butter for flavor once the shrimp are in the skillet.  You want to cook the shrimp until lose their transparent appearance and remember, they will keep cooking even after you remove them from the skillet.
5. Assemble and enjoy.

The real star of this recipe and many of the Mexican themed meals I make, is the salsa verde.  Pictured above is normal salsa verde and you can also make it “charred”.  The difference is boiling the ingredients before blending versus roasting the ingredients in the oven (or on a skillet) before blending.   I find that charred salsa verde has a more complex flavor with smokey notes.  Boiling the tomatillos can be difficult because if you let them go too long and they split, you will lose a ton of flavor.

What you need for charred salsa verde:

• 8-10 tomatillos (remove the husk/stem and wash to clean off the sticky residue);
• 2-3 jalapenos with/stems removed;
• 1/2 of a white an onion quartered;
• 2 cloves of garlic peeled;
• cilantro;
• salt;
• 1 lime

What you do:

1.  Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil and place tomatillos, jalapenos, onion and garlic cloves on it;
2. Broil for 3-4 minutes per side until all of the ingredients start to get black and charred;
3. Place ingredients into blender including draining all of the juice from the baking sheet (that is where the best tomatillo flavor comes from!).  Add half a bunch of cilantro, juice from 1 lime and blend;
4. Add remaining bunch of cilantro chopped;
5. Add salt to taste, but don’t be shy with it.  Salt is needed to bring out the full flavor of this salsa.

I hope you guys like this recipe and the salsa verde.  The salsa verde is a great recipe to have in your tool box.  It is extremely versatile and it is forgiving with entrees that are not perfectly cooked.  In an upcoming recipe, I will share a salsa roja before we move on to some French sauces!

One of my favorite kitchen gadgets that I have acquired in the last year is a pressure cooker.  This amazing device can achieve consistencies in 30 minutes that would take all day to achieve in a crock pot.  It really shines with meat that has bones and skin because it can pull out all of the flavor and have the meat falling off the bone in no time.  It also can turn dried beans into creamy goodness without soaking them in 30-40 minutes.  This dish works because it is loaded with flavor and keeps well in the refrigerator.

What do you need for the enchiladas:

• 1-1.5 pounds of chicken.  I went with Ninja Cow quarters, but I also highly recommend chicken thighs.  Keep the skin on and the bones in;
• 0.5 pounds of Ninja Cow chorizo (about 2 links removed from the casing);
• 8 oz of dried black beans;
• half of an onion minced;
• 2 garlic shallots minced;
• 32 oz carton of reduced sodium or no sodium chicken stock
• 1 tablespoon of olive oil
• 1 tablespoon of ancho chili powder (paprika is a good substitute)
• 1 tablespoon of cumin
• 1 teaspoon of corn starch
• Quesadilla cheese
• Queso fresco
• Corn tortillas
• lettuce
• cilantro for garnishing

What do you do:

1. Put the olive oil in the pressure cooker and set it to saute on high. Brown the chorizo for 4-5 minutes and then add the minced onion and garlic.  Sweat the onion and garlic until the onions are translucent and fragrant (2 minutes).
2. Add the chicken stock, the chicken, the beans, and stir in the ancho chili powder along with the cumin.
3. Seal the pressure cooker and cook on high pressure for 40 minutes.
4. Release the pressure using the quick release method (open the valve on electric pressure cookers or run a stove top pressure cooker under cold water).
5. Take the chicken out, remove the skin and bones and discard.  meanwhile, turn the pressure cooker on saute and bring the broth up to a boil.  Place the chicken back in the broth.
6. Reduce the volume of liquid by boiling and stirring.  The goal is to have a sauce not a soup.  So, let it boil for at least 5 minutes.  Then slowly add a corn starch slurry to thicken the sauce.  A corn starch slurry is just a teaspoon of corn starch mixed into a cup of water.  When the bubbles are very viscous and pop like magma, then your sauce is ready and you can take it off the heat.  Salt to preference at the END of the process. Reducing liquids concentrates flavors and it’s best to salt at the end to avoid adding too much.
7. Assemble the enchiladas by briefly soaking warm corn tortillas in salsa, add the meat then roll them up in your dish.  Add quesadilla cheese on top, cover with aluminum foil and bake at 350 for 20 minutes.  You can remove the foil and broil for the last few minutes to brown the cheese.
8. Add shredded lettuce, crumbled queso fresco, cilantro, more salsa and serve.

Ahh, chicken and chorizo or “chori-pollo” as I like to call it.  This is a divine combination that can be served an infinite number of ways.  You can serve it as tacos in corn tortillas, flour tortillas, in burritos, straight on a plate or pretty much any way that tickles your fancy.  A few months back I got a deep fryer (which you should get btw if you don’t already have one) and I decided to make chori-pollo sliders on fried potato slices.  These delicious morsels packed a ton of flavor and hit the spot in 30-45 minutes including preparing a homemade salsa verde.  More on that in my next post.

What do you need for the chori-pollo sliders:

• 1 pound of Chicken.  I used breasts here, but feel free to use any cut of chicken you want.  Lately I find myself gravitating towards dark meat like thighs because they are cheaper,more juicy, and pack much more flavor due to the higher fat contents, which can be mostly rendered depending on how you cook it;
• 1 pound of chorizo;
• 1-2 russet potatoes.  it really is amazing how far a single potato can go. I can easily feed 4 people reasonable french fry servings from a single potato, which goes to show how crazy portion sizes are at restaurants with entire baked potatoes;
• Melting cheese to preference.  I like the Mexican melting cheeses for this one like quesadilla cheese or oaxaca cheese.  You can easily use any cheese you like that melts well such as pepper jack, Monterrey jack, cheddar or whatever you have around;
• Salt & pepper;
• Ancho chili powder or paprika;
• garlic powder;
• cumin;
• 1 tablespoon of virgin olive oil.

How do you make them:

1. Season the chicken however you like it. I typically keep it simple and allow it to complement the Ninja Cow seasoned chorizo.  I usually roll with some salt, pepper, ancho chili powder, garlic powder and cumin.  No need to marinade this one and no need to go super heavy with the seasoning.  Mix up the seasonings in a bowl and lightly dust the chicken with it.
2. Add olive oil to the skillet at medium to medium high and saute your chicken on each side until cooked (feel free to cut into it if you are not sure whether it is done. It should feel firm and not rubbery.  Touch the tip of your ring finger to the tip of your thumb and feel the muscle beneath your thumb.  That is the firmness you are looking for).
3. Meanwhile, add your chorizo to another skillet and saute until well browned.  You can break it up fine or leave it in course chunks for a more juicy end result.  Render the fat from the chorizo, drain the fat and place the chorizo on a paper towel lined plate to remove excess grease.
4. Cook your potato slices in the deep fryer at 375 until a nice, golden brown for 4ish minutes (the potatoes in the pic above could have gone longer to be honest).
5. Throw the chorizo back in the skillet and add your cheese over medium heat until melted.  If you like it ooey and gooey, add a lot of cheese.  If you are not a huge cheese fan, just use a little or none at all.
6. Salt the potato slices and plate.  Garnish with salsa, cilantro and/or your favorite hot sauce.

Immediately enjoy or if you are in my house, be called strange and usual as everyone else eats while you take pictures of your creation as your plate gets cold 😉