Presley's Pantry

Calling all dessert lovers! Could we really celebrate Easter without a gorgeous dessert? I’m taking the fuss out of our Easter meal this year with a simple and easy Carlota! I decided to add cherries to my Carlota and change it’s traditional color of white to a festive pinkish-purple pastel. It’s the prettiest color but aside from that, the fresh cherry flavor only adds to this already delicious dessert…. pushing it all the way up in dessert ranks. Lucky for me, I was able to find all my ingredients at Northgate Market and pick up a few extra goodies while I was there. I hope you’ll try this Easter Cherry Carlota and make it whenever you have a bag of cherries hanging around.

Ingredients for Cherry Carlota:

• 1 ½ cups fresh cherries (pit and stem removed) + 6 more to decorate
• ½ cup fresh lime juice ( I used 3 large limes) (reserve peelings for zest)
• 2 cans (28 ounces) La Lechera Sweetened Condensed milk
• 2 cans (24 ounces) Carnation Evaporated milk
• 75 Marías Cookies
• Chocolate Easter bunny
• Jordan almonds or candy eggs

Directions:

Blend cherries, lime juice, La Lechera, and Evaporated Milk on high until cherries are completely pureed and mixture is a fluffy thick consistency.

Spray a springform pan lightly with a non-stick baking spray.

Pour ½ cup of cherry mixture on bottom on springform pan and spread it out to coat the bottom evenly.

Place cookies along the edge of the pan and then fill the bottom with a single layer of cookies.

Pour 1 cup of cherry mixture over cookies and continue to alternate between cookies and cherry mixture ending with the cherry mixture on top.

Refrigerate for 4 hours or preferably overnight.

Garnish top with lime zest, fresh cherries and Easter candy.

Serve cold and Enjoy!

Hoppy Easter.

If you are planning an Easter picnic, consider making my Torta De Milanesa De Calabacita!

I usually repurpose one of my senior pie photos on #PiDay because I make pie all year round. I felt this year deserved a brand new photo and something a little fantasy and hopeful. Mini apple pies seem to be a good portrayal of how I’ve been feeling. It’s almost as if I could touch the beginning of Spring and am anticipating some happy changes in the next couple of months. Fingers crossed. To be completely honest, I’ve hit the pandemic fatigue wall and know we are in the final stretch… just gotta hold on tight a little longer.

I’ve been making Fried Bean And Cheese Empanadas for a while now. When I first started sharing my food creations back in 2011 I made a potato corn and cheese version of these empanadas… at the time I was calling them ‘Presley’s Pantry Veggie Gourmet Empanada/Pockets!’ – I know that’s a mouth full. I had decided to share them back then after hosting my extended family over for dinner one night. It was something to document since they had been a huge hit.

I remember it like it was yesterday.  I had just crossed the border into Tijuana, Mexico with my Dad (which was a rare occasion, since I hardly ever spent time with him).  He was determined to take me on an adventure and show me all the customs of TJ. From the stories that my Dad shared, TJ was a place with no rules, a grown-up fun house where you could take your shoes off and run through the streets and no one would say anything or look twice.  He also had a big love for the food and was hard set on taking me to his favorite torta shop.  My Dad has always loved a good torta de milanesa and this is one thing I know for sure about him, so I wasn’t surprised when this was the first thing he had on our agenda.

Enchiladas Rojas de Queso make me really happy because I know I’m about to bite into the most heavenly dish. I think it’s fair to say enchiladas are my most favorite thing to eat of all time. They hold such a heavy anchor to my childhood, and my grandfather making them for our family. He would make his own enchilada sauce, and my little eyes would watch worried they might be too hot. They never were…. they were perfect.

As I got older I realized enchiladas were a source of comfort for me, wanting them for birthdays or anytime I needed a little extra pop of pizazz in my life. I learned many ways of making them over the years from canned enchilada sauce to various types of fillings and cheeses. Gotta be honest, it’s only been on a very rare occasion I’ve met one I didn’t like, but nothing quite hits like the ones my grandfather used to make.

I have taken his enchiladas rojas de queso recipe and made it more times than I can count, and have the homemade enchilada sauce down. At this point I believe mine taste just like his and am grateful that I still have that little piece of him here on earth… even if only through an enchilada.

Ingredients for Enchiladas Rojas de Queso:

• 1 white onion
• 2.5 oz New Mexico Chile
• 6 garlic cloves
• 2.5 oz California Chile
• 2 Pasilla-Ancho Chiles
• Salt (to taste)
• corn tortilla 
• vegetable oil
• queso fresco 
• 1/4 of red onion, sliced in rings
• cilantro
• crema

Directions:

Enchilada sauce:

1. Let’s make enchilada sauce! Boil onion, New Mexico chile, garlic, California chile, pasilla-ancho chiles, and salt until chiles soften about 35 minutes. 
2. Remove chiles from water and discard stem and (optional seeds). 
3. Place all chile skins, onion, garlic, and 3 cups of boiled chile water to blender. Blend until smooth. 
4. Pour chile sauce mixture through a sieve and into a bowl. Press chile flesh against sieve to squeeze out all the liquid. Discard any seeds and skin collected in sieve. Place to the side until ready to use. 

Enchilada time:

1. Fill a frying pans with 1 cup vegetable oil over a med-high flame.  Allow to get hot.
2. In a seperate frying pan, fill with 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil over a medium flame and allow it to heat. Pour in 3 to 4 cups of your enchilada sauce. Let the oil and chile combine then lower your flame very low to simmer the chile.
3. Dip your corn tortilla into the frying pan filled with oil, and let it fry on each side for 30 seconds. What you’re looking for is a tortilla that is slightly hard but still bends.
4. Dip the fried tortilla into the enchilada sauce with tongs.
5. Remove the dipped tortilla from pan and place on a clean surface.
6. Fill the center of the tortilla with 2 tablespoons of cheese.
7. Gently roll into a tube shape.
8. Place in a 9×13 baking dish. Then start the frying process all over again until you fill your baking dish with as many enchiladas as you can.
9. Once the baking dish is filled take remaining enchilada sauce from hot pan and spoon over top. 
10. Drizzle crema over the enchiladas, then sprinkle a couple tablespoons of queso fresco and chopped cilantro over the top. Lastly adorn with red onion slices.
11. Enjoy!

Looking for a delicious bowl of lentils? Click here.

Dear Valentine,

I am so grateful for your existence, and feel super lucky to call you my partner.  I wanted to surprise you with a special breakfast, and I know that pizza is your favorite.  Since you are my warm and fuzzy I desired to do something sweet for you.  I ordered everything I needed from Northgate Market so I could give you my Cupid’s Arrow Breakfast Pizza. I made it with Mozzarella cheese, papas, roasted red peppers, and jalapeños. Each time you tear into this heart-shaped pizza pie remember how much I adore you.  Thank you for putting a smile on my face, and for being so supportive always.

xoxo – Presley’s Pantry

Ingredients for Cupid’s Arrow Breakfast Pizza:

• a batch of pizza dough – Click here for recipe
• 2 tablespoons Olive oil
• 2 tablespoons cornmeal
• 4 cups Mozzarella Cheese
• 1/4 cup sliced pickled jalapeños
• 1/4 cup roasted red bell pepper
• 2  potatoes, cooked and cut into heart shapes and arrow
• 4 eggs

Directions:

Bring dough to room temp

Rub a baking sheet lightly with olive oil an hour and half before you’re ready to bake.  

Pull plastic wrapped dough out of the refrigerator to come to room temperature.

45 minutes before ready to put your pizza in the oven, place a pizza stone on rack 1/4 of the way up from bottom of oven.  Preheat oven to 500 degrees Fahrenheit.

Prepare the ingredients

Fry your potato hearts and arrow pieces. Set to the side.

Take one of your dough balls and place on a lightly floured surfaced and shape into a disk.  Then continue to pull out into the desired size of your pizza by draping it over the back of your hands, and continue to rotate dough with the back of your hands in a clockwise motion with the aid of your thumbs.

Sprinkle your lightly olive oiled baking sheet with a pinch of cornmeal then lay pizza dough directly on top to form shape.  Continue to go around the edges forming a slightly raised rim with the tips of your fingers by pinching and gathering the dough. Then shape into a heart.

Drizzle a 1/2 tablespoon of olive oil on the inside of the heart and then spread it around the inside with you fingers avoiding the rim.

Top with 1 cup mozzarella cheese,  a few jalapenos, red roasted bell pepper, and a few potato hearts. Break a raw egg in the middle and place pizza in oven for 11 minutes or until crust is golden!

Bake

Bake each pizza one at a time. Place your heart shaped  pizza on a plate and decorate with potato arrows, and serve with coffee,  fresh fruit, a little salad.

Almond Coconut Nanaimo Bars…. these unique bites make the perfect valentine sweet for that special someone in your life. I think they will work great for your treasured galentines too! If you never had a Nanaimo Bar before …. they start off sweet but as you continue chewing they become creamy and full of texture. I would describe them as a cross between a truffle and a cookie…. gifting you the best of both worlds. The three layers are also a nice touch and oh so inviting.