Uncrocked!

A few weeks ago I mentioned a recipe I grew up eating. Something my mom loved to make in the crock pot for dinners as well as potlucks at work. It’s called Tijuana Sandwiches.

In this frenzy of slow cooking, I finally had a craving for them. So I offered to finally make them for Nancy last weekend.

We went out and did our shopping Sunday morning, getting everything we needed for the recipe. I would get everything prepped and cook it that day because it only takes a couple of hours. It’s not a leave-it-all-day kind of crock pot recipe.

Well, the day kind of got away from me and by the time I got around to prepping, it was too late for them to cook in the crock pot.

So I did a daring thing. I made the recipe in a regular pot on the stove!!

I know…scary, huh?

Since I didn’t actually have the recipe, I had to go looking for it on the internet. Thank goodness for this wealth of information! I found it!!

The Tijuana Sandwich recipe does not fall into my category of perfect crock pot recipes. It requires meat to be cooked beforehand. It requires vegetable chopping. And then it’s pretty easy from there.

Here’s the recipe from the Better Homes and Gardens Crockery Cookbook (c. mid-1970s)

3 C chopped cooked beef
1 can (16 oz) refried beans
½ c chopped onion
½ c chopped green pepper
1 small can chopped ripe olives
1 can (8 oz) tomato sauce
¾ c water
1 tsp salt
2 tsp chili powder
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
¼ tsp garlic powder
¼ tsp pepper
¼ tsp paprika
1 dash celery salt
1 dash nutmeg
1 cup crushed corn chips

Put all ingredients except corn chips into crock pot. Cook on high for two hours. Add the crushed corn chips immediately before serving.
Serve with taco shells, lettuce, chopped tomato and shredded cheese. Pass hot pepper sauce.

That’s it. Easy, right?

Of course, if you don’t happen to have three cups of cooked beef hanging around, you have to cook some. My mom always used ground beef. I used ground turkey this time and didn’t notice the difference.

Reading the recipe for the first time in years, it struck me how odd the combination of seasonings always seemed to me. Especially the Worcestershire sauce. And then I saw a bottle of Jarritos tamarind soda and thought it probably wasn’t all that weird. I don’t particularly associate tamarind with south of the border fare; I think of it more in Asian food. But then this isn’t exactly anywhere near authentic Mexican food anyway. :o)

It’s a very middle-American approximation of Mexican food. Especially with the addition of the crushed Fritos.

And you know what? It’s delicious.

It worked very well on the stove top. Instead of cooking for 2 hours in the crock pot, I let it simmer, covered for about 30 minutes or so. Just until the veggies are tender. I let it cook uncovered for about another 15 minutes to let some of the liquid evaporate.

We enjoyed it for four nights, which was awesome! When we ran out of taco shells, we ate it from a bowl with tortilla chips. We think we’ll try it with rice next time we make it.

It’s probably partly a trick of memory that makes me love it so. It’s something I associate very closely with my mom. But then love and memory are sometimes the best seasonings.

In other news, it was my birthday this past Tuesday and I got a culinary related gift from my lovely Nancy. It is the most gorgeous, well-balanced knife I have ever had the privilege to cut with, a Shun Ken Onion 8-inch chef’s knife.

I made stir-fry for dinner tonight so I could use it. That thing sliced through the middle of a head of cabbage like it was a baked potato. It allowed me to slice my still partially frozen boneless pork chops so thin that the meat took maybe two minutes to cook in a hot skillet. I thought I was going to weep, and not because I was chopping onions! It is a thing of beauty.
If you ever want a good knife, consider investing in this one. You really only need a good chef’s knife, a paring knife and a pair of kitchen scissors to do most things. If that’s all you’re buying, you might as well invest in good equipment. You’ll thank yourself or a loved one later.