Recipes

[Carol1229]

OR how to morph any leftover cooked pork, chicken, turkey or beef into one delicious new meal.

I had cooked a roast pork one day last week-we had it a couple nights and I still had quite a bit of it left over. I didn't want to make something with gravy, I didn't want to stir fry since we'd had chicken with a sort of Oriental-based flavor already that week......what to do???????

It was grocery shopping weekend so I had limited things to work with.....I had a few Roma tomatoes I wanted to use, a big red bell pepper and a smaller green bell pepper....some cilantro.........Bob said sounds like a Mexican theme to me.

We had just finished the Easy Restaurant Mexican Rice the week before so I wanted to give that recipe a rest. That's when it hit me-I went looking and sure enough-there was a package of whole wheat tortillas that needed used up too.

PERFECT........at that point I knew just what I wanted to do.


I went looking through my stash of recipes and found this one, I knew the minute I read through it that I could make it work for what I wanted to do.

I don't like frying anything in a lot of oil if I can help it. All I wanted was a crisp outside on the tortillas, so I opted to brush them with a little vegetable oil rather than pouring oil in the pan to brown them. It worked beautifully. Even though the skillet I use is nonstick-I always give it a light squirt of nonstick cooking spray just in case.

Once the tortillas were browned, I used the same skillet to sauté the peppers, onions and garlic. Bob trimmed and sliced all the roast pork I had left over into thin strips. He forgot to weigh the roast after he got done slicing so I don't know exactly how much I had. The goal in recipes that I do like this one is to use up ALL the roast-if there's more than 1/2 lb, then the stack is taller...it doesn't matter. The strips got added to the vegetables along with the spices and tossed lightly to heat the meat.

I knew I wanted to use something on the tortillas for a "glue" to keep the meat mixture in place. I had a can of fat-free refried beans in the cupboard-that would add just the flavor I wanted and do the job I needed. I just eyeballed the amount that I spread on each tortilla. I had about 1/3 of the can left over.

I then topped the refried beans with 1/4 of the pork mixture, "eyeballed" some of the sour cream mixture and spread it over the pork, added some of the chopped tomatoes, then sprinkled that with some of the shredded cheese. I had a Mexican blend cheese to use up, but this would be wonderful with a pepper-jack, cheddar or colby-jack cheese too.

I chose to use a springform pan-it made it easy to transfer into the oven. Feel free to use a baking sheet if you prefer.

You can use jarred salsa if you want but we didn't find we needed much more garnish than a little dollop of sour cream and a few more chopped tomatoes and sliced green onions.

This stack gave us all the wonderful Mexican flavors we were looking for. It is DELICIOUS. The photos show 1/4 of the stack-for us-that's 2 servings. It was easier to cut a wedge that size for photos than to cut it in half and try to balance a smaller wedge.

One-eighth of this stack with a side salad made for a fantastic dinner on Saturday-AND we're enjoying the leftover slices for lunches.

What I love about this is you could use ANY cooked meat with the filling, or if you prefer-just use vegetables. It's a great "clean out the refrigerator" dinner. I use however much meat and vegetables I have-the recipe is VERY adaptable. If you have more meat to use-the stack will be higher-spices can be adjusted up or down to suit your taste. There's no "cast in concrete" rule here-just have fun and make it yours.

I love morphing leftovers into something new-this one's a winner, folks.

Carol


TORTILLA STACK
(Source: adapted from recipeland-original recipe found HERE)

5 (8") whole wheat tortillas OR flour tortillas of your choice
2 tsp. vegetable oil

FILLING:
2-3 tsp. vegetable oil
At least 1/2 lb.leftover cooked roast pork, cut into thin strips...leftover sliced chicken, turkey or beef can also be substituted-OR add more vegetables and make this a meatless meal
1 large onion, thinly sliced
2 cloves garlic, finely minced
1 large red or green bell pepper, seeded and thinly sliced
1 1/2 tsp. chili powder
1 1/2 tsp. ground cumin
3/4 tsp. dried oregano
1/4 tsp. black pepper
1 c. light sour cream
1 (4 oz.) can chopped green chiles, drained
1/4 c. freshly chopped cilantro
1 (15 oz.) can fat-free refried beans
4 Roma tomatoes, chopped
2 c. shredded Mexican blend OR cheddar cheese (Pepper-Jack cheese would be great in this too as would Monterey Jack or Colby-jack-use what you have on hand)
Sliced green onions and extra chopped tomatoes for garnish

Brush both sides of each tortilla lightly with vegetable oil. Spray a large skillet with nonstick cooking spray. Fry tortillas over medium-high heat 10-15 seconds per side or until golden brown, pressing down bubbles with spatula. Place on paper towel and pat off any excess oil, if necessary.

For the filling, in the same large skillet, heat 2-3 tsp. vegetable oil over medium heat. Sauté the onion and pepper until crisp tender; add the minced garlic and cook for 30 seconds. Stir in the sliced pork, chili powder, cumin. oregano and black pepper; cook and stir until mixture is coated with spices, about 2 minutes.

In a small bowl, combine the sour cream, green chiles and chopped cilantro; stir until well combined.

Spread about 2 Tbsp. of the refried beans over 1 tortilla; place it in a 9" springform pan. Top the refried beans with 1/4 of the pork/vegetable mixture, then spread about 1 1/2-2 Tbsp. of the sour cream mixture over the top of the pork. Top the sour cream with some of the chopped tomatoes, then sprinkle with 1/4 c. of the shredded cheese.

Repeat the layers, ending with a tortilla. Press down lightly on the top of the stack to adhere each layer.

Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 10-15 minutes or until filling is heated and cheese is melted. Sprinkle the remaining cheese over top; return to the oven and bake @ 350 degrees for 5 minutes or until cheese is melted.

Remove the side of the pan and let the stack sit for 5 minutes before slicing into wedges. Garnish each slice with any of the leftover sour cream/green chile/cilantro mixture OR plain sour cream, chopped tomatoes and sliced green onions. 6-8 servings.