Gorditas

Hi friends! Recently, my Aunt Kelly has been staying with my mom and I. She is couch-surfing until she moves to Brazil. We enjoy having her with us; we call ourselves the three bachelorettes! We have been cooking each other delicious meals and making fun frosty adult beverages. Needless to say, we are fat and happy. Tonight Kelly taught me how to make Gorditas. It is a recipe shown to her by her ex-sister-in-law, Elisa, who grew up in Mexico. This recipe is not written down, but is passed down from generation to generation in Elisa's family. Not a lot of measuring involved, but a fun and easy dish to make.

We started out by cutting up some chicken. You can also use pork if you would like. Cut about 2 or 3 pounds of meat up into 1 inch or smaller cubes.

Peel the paper layer off of 12-15 tamatillos and rinse well. Cut out the stem part, and on the opposite end, cut an X into the flesh.


Spread about 15-20 dried hot red chilis, we used Japanese chilis. Broil or roast them for a couple of minutes, just until they start to turn brown. Put them into a blender.
Meanwhile, boil the tamatillos in a pot until they start to turn a little yellow.
You can start the gordita shells while you wait for the tamatillos to boil. We took corn masa and added a bit of salt and water, until we got the consistency of play-doh.

Once the tamatillos are done, take them out of the water and let them cool. Peel them again, trying to just take the first layer off of the fruit. This is where the X that you cut into them earlier comes in handy. Throw the peeled fruit into the blender with the roasted peppers, salt and about a half cup of water.
Blend until thoroughly pureed. This will be like a thin salsa.
Add most of the salsa to the chicken in a pot, and cook until the chicken is cooked and the sauce thickens up a bit. Save some of the salsa for later.
While the chicken is cooking, form the gordita mix into flat balls and fry them in a pan until golden brown, about 3 minutes each side.
Set aside. With a fork, open the gorditas and scrape out the soft, uncooked batter on the inside.
Stuff the gordita shells with the filling.

Fry the stuffed gordita shells in a pan with plenty of oil, flipping after a couple minutes.
Remove from pan and top with remaining salsa mix. Enjoy!
I really liked the texture of the gordita shells, and the filling was delicious, with a little kick! We ate the rest of the filling with regular store-bought tortillas and a little guacamole.
Hope you like today's post! We will have another recipe sometime this week. Adios! ;)

First Post: Snowed In - Great-Grandpa Jack's Buttermilk Pancakes

Hello! Welcome to my blog! Today is January 18th, 2012. There is about 18 inches of snow on the ground! Western Washington got pounded with snow last night, and Olympia is paralyzed. The above picture is the bird bath in our backyard. So, today is definitely a day for lounging around in our pajamas, drinking hot cocoa, cooking good food, and starting a blog. :)

My mom's coveted recipe box:
The first recipe I am posting is my Great-Grandpa Jack's Buttermilk Pancakes. He used to make these for us all the time at the ranch in Grand Mound/Centralia, WA. He would make them with sausage links and scrambled eggs. I used to gorge on these, one time eating 17 of them in one sitting! Here is his famous recipe (we decided today that it needs just a little more flour):
1 cup buttermilk

1/2 cup milk

1 egg

1 cup flour (and a little extra, maybe 2 tablespoons)

1 teaspoon sugar

1 teaspoon baking soda

Serves: 3-4 people

We did not have any buttermilk on hand. Being that we are snowed in, there is no way we can go to the store. So, we looked on the internet for a buttermilk substitution, and found that you can add one tablespoon vinegar (we used apple cider vinegar) to one cup of milk. Stir well and let rest 15 minutes, until milk starts to curdle. Stir well again and add the other ingredients. We used medium heat.
This batch was a little overlapped! Haha. Mom said the trick to knowing when to flip the pancakes is when all of the bubbles on the batter pop. It works perfect!
Yum. Turned out delicious! I liberally buttered the pancakes. I ate mine with peanut butter and my friend Karma's homemade blackberry jam. Mom ate her's with peanut butter, peanuts and maple syrup.