Mexican Luncheon, Spinach

After all the rich foods of Thanksgiving, Sally wanted "something else" for this week's brunch with Mum.

We had a partial bottle of sangria leftover from T-Day, and I decided to start there.  Before long I came upon a Mexican recipe for 

Sangria Chicken

Sangria is a Caribbean/Spanish punch made from wine, fruits and fruit juices. Sangrias are traditionally red wine based (fruit and sugar was used to cover up the bitterness of cheap red wine with too many tannins) but in modern times Sangrias are also made with a white wine base.

For Thanksgiving, I made my friend Sara Peterson's Ham-gria, but the crockpot couldn't hold all the vino. This is what I found to do with the leftover wine (rather than just drinking it straight up over sliced fruit).

4 Chicken Breasts

1/2 Onion, diced

2 Tbsp Green Chilies, diced

1/2 tsp ground Red Pepper flakes

1 small Papaya, diced

1/2 cup Sangria

1 cup shredded Mexican style cheese

Preheat oven to 375F.

Saute the onion until soft. Remove the onion to a bowl. Brown the chicken in same skillet. Sprinkle with red pepper flakes while browning.

To the sauteed onion, add the green chilies, sangria, and diced papaya. Toss to mix.

Place chicken in an ovenproof baking dish. A 9x9 will easily hold 4 breasts.  Pour the onion mixture on top. Bake for 30 minutes at 375 degrees F.

 

Top with shredded cheese and return the dish to the cooling oven to melt the cheese a bit.

Serve with an antohito of no-salt tortilla chips and guacamole, and a glass of the wine.  I love this presentation of the guacamole:

I find it easier to find large ripe smooth-skinned Florida Hall avocados rather than the smaller pebbly-skinned California Haas (which always show up hard as the proverbial...).

California Haas

Florida Hall

Mexican Style Fried Potatoes

You can leave the dish as-is Or, you can add other things to make this a Mexican style hash. Bell peppers, carrot, green onion, zucchini, and bacon or chorizo all would be welcome to the party. I particularly like red bell pepper and green chiles.

3 med-large Russet potatoes, cut into 1/2-inch cubes, or quartered New Potatoes
1/2 medium Onion, chopped
5 cloves Garlic, minced
1/4 cup shelled raw Sunflower seeds
2 tsp ground Cumin
2 tsp Chili powder
1 tsp ground Oregano
1/2-1 tsp Cayenne
Grated cheese

Either boil the potatoes for 1-2 minutes, or nuke them in the microwave for 4-5 minutes to “par cook” them.

Saute the onions until translucent. Add the garlic and sunflower seeds and cook another minute or so. Transfer to a large bowl.

Fry the par cooked potatoes in a bit of oil until they are nice and brown outside and soft inside – 10-12 minutes. Toss with the onion/garlic/seed mixture and serve, topping with cheese.

Sally's Spinach

This recipe appeared in my e-mail box a week or so back. Sally loves spinach (I can take it or leave it) so I made this for her one night last week as a side dish to our favorite Panko Cod.

3 10-oz boxes Frozen Chopped Spinach

8 oz Sour Cream

1 packet Onion Soup Mix (I used Lipton'stm)

Thaw the spinach, squeeze every bit of water out of it.  Place in a microwave container and cook for 5-6 minutes to drive out moisture.  Shred the spinach and mix it together with the sour cream and onion soup mix.  Spread the mix out in a bowl, and bake for 15 minutes @ 350F.

What's not to like?  You've got onion flavored sour cream and spinach.  The brown around the edges in the photo below is onion sup mix that somehow ended up on the side of the dish during baking.   Serve as a side dish, or as a hot dip for fancy crackers.