Today is Valentine’s Day…
I don’t try to get caught up in the hype and try not to go out or get concerned whether I’m getting anything or not (I’m pretty low maintenance). However, I do find it a good time to try to make food at home as a special gesture.
Yesterday, my husband made me his special dinner and tonite I was going to return the favor. However, my plans changed a little bit due to some oversights and a pinky that is bugging me more than it has the past few days. Part of the dinner remains unchanged, but the big difference is in the dessert and that my hubbie will have to do a good chunk of the cooking.
The menu:
Spinach Salad with lime dressing (eaten beforehand…we got hungry while cooking the arepas)
Arepas with shredded beef
Refried Black Beans
Mexican Hot Chocolate (last minute change, was going to do Tres Leches)
First, the shredded beef for the arepas…
I slightly adapted the marinade from use real butter for my beef…
Recipe:
1 1/2 lbs eye of chuck (I got this specially cut at HEB Central Market)
4 tbsp vegetable oil (I used Canola oil, as it’s all we had)
2 tbsps vinegar
2 tbsps fresh lime juice (I used HEB Fresh Lime juice rather than bothering with limes and a bum finger)
1 1/2 tsps ground cumin
1 1/2 tsps chili powder
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 cup beef stock
This is the cut of meat I used, cut it into ~1 inch strips and trim as much of the fat away as you can.
Get together ingredients for the marinade and chop the garlic.
Pour all of the ingredients for the marinade (I didn’t worry about mixing it in a bowl first, just more dishes to do).
I put the beef stock in the marinade. You really don’t have to do this, you can add the broth when you are ready to cook. Marinate for an afternoon, preferably overnight. I probably didn’t marinate it for long enough but with these marinades, the longer the better is a good rule of thumb.
Place in baking dish and cook at 350F for a couple of hours until tender enough to shred.
Finished product out of the oven, it took ~2.5 hours for us to get everything ready and it was ready to shred!
While that was cooking, I started on some Strawberry flavored whipped cream to use as a topper for the Mexican Hot Chocolate…
Ingredients:
1.5 cups Heavy Whipping Cream
1 lb Strawberries
1 tablespoon and 1 teaspoon of sugar (more depending on taste, I don’t like it too sweet)
0.5 teaspoon of double strength vanilla extract (1 teaspoon if using regular)
Directions:
Puree 1 lb of strawberries in food processor (or blender if you feel like cleaning it up). Some recipes say to drain out the pulp, I think that’s crazy! That gets rid of the nutrients in this otherwise unhealthy dish.
Add 1.5 cups of Heavy Whipping Cream to large bowl and begin whipping with hand mixer.
When ~90 percent of the way being done (this will take 5 min or so, even on a high mixer setting), add in strawberry puree.
Once Strawberry puree is folded into the mixture, blend with hand mixer on high until of desired whipped cream consistency.
Yields a crapload of whipped cream! I filled a ziploc container and a half with this stuff…
Arepas:
Arepas are cornmeal patties common in Venezuelan culture, they are also pretty easy to make. This was our first try to make them ourselves. We loved arepas ever since the late restaurant Patio Loco in Chapel Hill, NC. These came out just as good as theirs, just need a little work on the meat, but all things considered, it was a great first try!
Ingredients:
1 lb Masa Harina Flour
0.5 teaspoon salt
20 fl oz warm water (got this recipe off a British site)
Mix flour, salt, and warm water in large mixing bowl. It will form a paste-like substance. Let sit for 5 minutes. After sitting, knead the dough and form into 3/4″ deep patties with ~3″ diameter. This recipe makes 8 patties (most of which we are saving for lunches)…
Once patties are formed, fry for ~3-4 minutes on each side with a small bit of vegetable oil. The outsides should be golden brown in places (won’t be entirely consistent).
Below is the golden-brown coloration you should see…
Here is where we got a little hungry and had our spinach salads…
After pan frying arepas, place on cooking sheet and place in oven at 400F for 15 minutes.
We lined our baking sheet with foil for easy cleaning…
Fresh out of the oven.
Assembled product!
Arepas, pocketed with shredded beef. Add Queso Fresco cheese and diced tomatoes (if you wish) and serve with Goya Refried Black Beans (also top with Queso).
My hubbies plate (he doesn’t care for tomatoes)
My plate…a little bit out of focus, but I was hungry!
Nutrition:
Salad (1 cup spinach, 1 tbsp Newman’s Own Lite Lime Dressing):
35 cal
3 g fat
3 g carb
1 g fiber
1 g protein
Arepas (not including oil for frying, will vary):
200 cal
2 g fat
43 g carb
4 g fiber
6 g protein
Beef:
233 cal (not including marinade, 3 oz beef)
18 g fat
0 g carb
15 g protein
Cheese:
23 cal (0.25 oz)
2 g fat
0 g carb
1 g protein
Refried beans:
150 cal (1/2 cup serving)
3 g fat
25 g carb
8 g fiber
9 g protein
Dessert time…
Mexican Hot Chocolate!
Abuelita is a great Mexican chocolate typically used for hot chocolate.
Ingredients:
1/2 block of Abuelita
2 cups skim milk
1 tablespoon of sugar
Strawberry whipped cream (see above)
Strawberry for garnish (optional for the dorks like me)
Serves 2
Directions:
Coarsely chop Mexican chocolate and begin to heat milk in medium saucepan.
Add chocolate and sugar to milk, be sure to keep whisking the whole time, chocolate burns VERY easily.
Keep whisking until frothy, bring to boil (keep heat constant at med-high for this process).
Take off heat and pour into mugs…
Allow chocolate to cool enough to be able to add whipped cream.
Add whipped cream (I used ~3 tablespoons) and garnish with fresh strawberry.
Nutrition:
233 cal
~5 g fat
35 g carb
10 g protein
Bon apetite!
