Snacking State-by-State: Utah I - I'll just DIE if I don't get this recipe!

Like most Americans, I really had no idea what Utah's cuisine was like.  A little investigating cleared that up.  It's very hearty.

Official Name: State of Utah
State Nickname: The Beehive State
Admission to the US: January 4, 1896 (#45)
Capital: Salt Lake City (largest)
Other Important Cities: Provo (3rd largest), Orem (5th largest), Ogden (7th largest)
Region: West, Southwest; Mountain (US Census)
RAFT Nations: Pinyon Nut
Bordered by: Idaho (north), Wyoming (northeast), Colorado (east), New Mexico (southeast), Arizona (south), Nevada (west)
Official State Foods and Edible Things: Beehive (emblem - for the honey inside it). Bonneville cutthroat trout (fish), cherry (fruit), Dutch oven (cooking pot), Indian rice grass (grass), Rocky Mountain elk (animal), Spanish sweet onion (vegetable), sugar beet (historic vegetable)
Some Famous and Typical Foods: pioneer and Western foods, and Mormon cuisine (stereotyped as bland and hearty, though a new generation of Mormons and Utahns are redefining it): funeral potatoes, fry sauce; Jell-O, especially green Jell-O salad

Apparently, Utah cuisine - essentially Mormon cuisine - has a reputation for being, well, simple.  Simple and hearty.  And dull.  Note that today, Utahns, and Mormons in particular, are trying to retake their state cuisine and make it exciting.  The New York Times [Moskin 2012] reported recently that a new generation of Mormons are redefining Latter Day eating.

Food blogging and online recipe sharing are now thriving among these young mothers. “I didn’t know what to do with myself” as a stay-at-home mother, [Food blogger Kate] Jones said. She embraced academic work as a student at Brigham Young University in Provo, and planned to be a writer or teacher before her children were born. Writing about and photographing food for the blog “brought me back to who I was before,” she said.

Many Mormon women are accomplished and enthusiastic bakers — a logical development, because “sugar is the only vice we’re allowed to have,” [fellow food blogger Rachael] Hutchings said. [Moskin 2012]

That said, some in Utah are still quite defensive about the traditional cuisine as it is.  For example, take Mary Brown Malouf [2012], writing for Salt Lake Magazine.  Far from redefining Mormon cuisine, she sticks up for it - not as it is, but as it could be.

Utah's food is regular fodder for snobby foodies like myself. A survivalist frontier mentality—including reliance on foods that keep well—together with Utah’s famously large families means that convenience foods are popular recipe ingredients and that thrift often comes before flavor, both bad indicators for fine food. 

But just as every Thanksgiving feast has one beloved dish that’s utterly traditional to the family but slightly gross to outsiders, every culture’s cuisine has its questionable side. In Texas, Velveeta melted with Ro-Tel is part of the canon. In the Upper Midwest, people don’t blink at Watergate salad. The list goes on: Pork rinds. Peanuts in Coca-Cola. Waldorf salad. 

So I say: Embrace Utah food, instead of eschewing it. By embracing it, you’ll improve it. [Malouf 2012]

One of the first recipes she showcases is the Utah-famous casserole known, morbidly, as funeral potatoes.  Yes, funeral potatoes.  Of course, this dish is brought to a grieving family in the event of a funeral, but it is prepared and brought to so many potlucks and covered dish events where nobody so much as has the sniffles, much less is dying.  It even led comedienne and singer Glozell to rave about them during one visit:

There are many family recipes for funeral potatoes - best described as a combination of hash browned potatoes, cheese and some sort of cream soup, covered in something crunchy.  Malouf says that this is "the most famous and maligned Utah recipe besides Jell-O salad, but it’s a cherished part of many Mormon family menus" [2012].  She may take umbrage to my description, but it isn't a put down, really (and you saw the YouTube video!).  Seriously, it isn't the healthiest thing to eat, but if I had made sure only to make healthy stuff then I probably would have written about three recipes over the last year.

Malouf presents two of the thousands of variations on funeral potatoes in her article.  One, by Ogden housewife Tammy Hanchett, was passed down from her grandmother.  It features crushed corn flakes on top, but could never quite figure out exactly what went into it, since she threw a handful of this or that in as she felt the mood.  The other recipe comes to us from SLC resident Jessica Yestas, winner of the Utah's Own Best Funeral Potatoes Contest (presumably for 2012? 2011?).  Yestas zhuzh's hers up with panko bread crumbs on the top and sautéed onion inside.  I tried to do a combination of Mss. Hanchett's and Yestas' recipe, but ended up mostly just adding onions to Hanchett's recipe, which I halved.  Both recipes can be found in Malouf's article [2012].

The Recipe: Funeral Potatoes

For Hanchett's funeral potatoes, with a little added from Yestas' recipe, you will need:

* hash browns (the thinly sliced ones.  It was easiest to buy the 32 oz frozen bag for about $4)
* Monterey Jack and cheddar cheese (both recipes called for a mixture of these two cheeses.  Shredded Mexican blend of Monterey Jack and cheddar cheese went for about $3)
* milk (had this)
* sour cream (I went for light sour cream this time, for about $2)
* cream of chicken soup (one can for $1)
* butter (had a stick)
* onion (one was less than 50¢) 
* corn flakes (no I didn't have any, so I bought a box of generic ones for about $3.50.  I wanted to add panko bread crumbs, but assuming I had them I didn't buy any extra.  At least I had the corn flakes)

Chop and sauté your onion until translucent in a little bit of the butter.

Melt the rest of the butter and pour into a separate bowl.

To the butter, add your cream of chicken soup...

Your sour cream...

Your milk...

Your cheese...

Your hash browns...

And of course your onions.

Spread the potato mixture into a baking dish.

To prepare your corn flakes, pour them into a ziploc bag.

Crush the corn flakes in the bag.

Spread the corn flake crumbs over the top of the dish.

And bake in a 350° oven for 30 to 40 minutes.

Mmmm...

I only wish I had left it in a little bit longer, which could have made the potatoes a little crispier.  This is best eaten fresh out of the oven, because upon reheating the corn flakes, of course, don't stay crunchy.  But I must admit, it is a tasty, hearty casserole.  It's one that won't kill you - unless you just eat this and nothing else to excess.  But anything will do that.

Sources:

Badger Jensen, Julie.  The Essential Mormon Cookbook: Green Jell-O, Funeral Potatoes, and Other Secret Combinations.  Deseret Book Company: Salt Lake City, UT, 2004.

GloZell.  "I am Honorary Mormon in Utah ... Green Jello and Funeral Potato".  Video posted November 4, 2011.

Lindeman, Scarlett.  "Jell-O Love: A Guide to Mormon Cuisine".  The Atlantic Monthly, published March 24, 2010.

Malouf, Mary Brown.  "In Defense: Utah Food".  Salt Lake Magazine, posted June 18, 2012.

Malouf, Mary Brown.  "In Defense: Funeral Potatoes".  Salt Lake Magazine, posted June 18, 2012.

Moskin, Julia.  "Not Just for Sundays After Church: A New Generation Redefines Mormon Cuisine".  The New York Times, published January 24, 2012.

Peek, Alison.  "Utah comfort snack food: Onion rings and fry sauce" Examiner.com, posted February 5, 2012.

Tiffany (blogger).  "Utah's Famous Green Jello Recipe".  Raindrops on Roses, posted March 13, 2010.

Some information also obtained from Wikipedia's "Utah" page and other pages, and the Food Timeline State Foods link to "Utah".

Snacking State-by-State: Texas IV - Paciendo Estado-por-Estado: Coahuila I - ¡Qué enchiladas tan sabrosas tienen!

In my previous Texas post, I noted the difference between New Mexican and Tex-Mex food.  So what distinguishes Tex-Mex from Mex-Mex?

Official Name: State of Texas
State Nickname: The Lone Star State, The Republic of Texas
Admission to the US: December 29, 1845 (#28)
Capital: Austin (4th largest)
Other Important Cities: Houston (largest), San Antonio (2nd largest), Dallas (3rd largest), El Paso (6th largest),
Region: South, Southwest; West South Central (US Census)
RAFT Nations: Cornbread & BBQ; Chile Pepper; Gumbo; Bison
Bordered by: Oklahoma (north), Arkansas (northeast), Louisiana (east), Gulf of Mexico (southeast), Tamaulipas, Nuevo León & Coahuila (Mexico) and the Río Grande (south), Chihuahua (Mexico) (southwest), New Mexico (west)
Official State Foods and Edible Things: cast iron dutch oven (cooking implement - not edible, of course, but used for cooking), chili (dish), chiltepín (native pepper), Guadalupe bass (fish), jalapeño (pepper), longhorn (large mammal), pan de campo (bread), pecan (tree and health nut), prickly pear cactus (plant - for the pads and the fruit), sopaipilla and strudel (pastries), sweet onion (vegetable), Texas purple sage (native shrub), Texas red grapefruit (fruit). tortilla chips and salsa (snack)

Some Famous and Typical Foods: Where to begin?  Texas-style barbecue (specifically beef and beef brisket), Texas chili, chicken fried steak, Mexican (specifically Northern Mexican) foods, Tex-Mex foods (including migas, chile con carne and sopaipilla)Perhaps it is more instructive to say that "Mexican" is more similar to "New Mexican" cuisine (with a predominance of New Mexico chiles) than it is to "Tex-Mex" cuisine: fewer creamy sauces, fewer starches, less meat, little cumin.  But note also that Mexico has its own regional and state cuisines, so to define "Mexican" cuisine is almost as much a folly as defining "American" food (which I've been trying to do over the last year and a half, but still).  

To bring this discussion full circle, much of the cuisine of northern Mexico - the northeastern states of Chihuahua, Coahuila, Tamaulipas and Nuevo León, which all border Texas, plus Sonora (bordering Arizona) and Baja California (bordering California) has more meat (carne asada, barbacoa) and cheese (chile con queso, crema de queso) than cuisines farther into central and southern Mexico.  So maybe "Tex-Mex" and "northern Mex" have some similarities after all (more info from the notoriously unreliable Wikipedia's "Mexican cuisine" and "New Mexican cuisine" pages).

Like the other states that border Texas to the south, Coahuila is known for its barbecue, carne asada and various things it does with beef and goat.  But one very common dish that you find all over Texas and the Southwest is the humble enchilada.  The Spanish-language Guía de Tacos website [date unknown] has a recipe for Coahuila-style enchiladas.  I can only take their word for it that this is how enchiladas - Spanish for "covered in chiles" - are done in Coahuila:

Este tipo de enchiladas se preparan todas juntas en un recipiente o refractario bañadas de una deliciosa salsa tradicional de Coahuila. Son uno de los platillos más populares entre la comunidad estatal y se disfrutan calientes y ligeramente picosas. [Guía de Tacos date unknown]

(Translation: This type of enchilada is prepared [all put] together in a container or  oven-proof dish bathed in a delicious traditional sauce from Coahuila.  They are one of the most popular dishes among the state population and is enjoyed hot and lightly spicy. [translation mine])

I use this recipe from the Guía de Tacos website for my enchiladas al estilo Coahuila, below.

The Recipe: Enchiladas Norteñas (al estilo de Coahuila)

For these Coahuila-style enchiladas you will need: 

* corn tortillas (had them from the previous recipe)
* Mexican cheese (in this case, queso fresco, about $6 at H-Mart, the Korean supermarket with a very well-stocked Latin American selection.  Note that the original recipe calls for a quarter kilogram - 1/2 a pound - of shredded cheese.  I just crumbled up the queso fresco instead)
* ancho chiles (Productos Mirasol brand dried chiles, for about $1.50)
* garlic (had it)
* corn oil (had it too)
* onion (just needed half of one)
* salt (had it)

Seed the chiles and remove the stems.  You will dehydrate them in a minute...

But I wanted to toast them just a little first.

Soak the chiles for half an hour.  This will make them easier to pulse into a sauce.  Set aside the water you soak them in; you will use some of it later.

I found my typically useless blender was more useful than my food processor in pulsing the chiles (with a little chile water - I eyeballed it) into a sauce.  I still didn't get a terribly smooth sauce, but it worked well enough for me.

Boil down the chile sauce until thickened slightly.  Set aside.

Fry your tortillas in a skillet with some of the chile sauce.  The recipe actually wants you to boil down your homemade enchilada sauce in the skillet, set it aside, and heat up those tortillas.  I didn't do that, so i poured a little of the sauce into the skillet.

Toast each tortilla briefly on either side.

Now for your enchiladas: Take each tortilla, fill it with some cheese, and roll it up.  The recipe says "[Envuélven] las tortillas [como] si fueran tacos" (wrap the tortillas up as if they were tacos - they didn't spell the Spanish words too well) [Guía de Tacos date unknown].  I don't usually wrap tortillas up this way.  Maybe I'll try it sometime.

When you have enough of these tortillas wrapped up and lined up in a baking dish, cover with more cheese and onion pieces.

Cover the tortillas in the enchilada sauce.  Now they are "en-chile'd", enchiladas!

This is quite a filling dish, and it was satisfying to make my own enchilada sauce instead of using a bottled variety.  These taste even better heated up the next day, with the cheese and the sauce all warm.

Sources:

DallasVegan.com.  "Simple Vegan Migas…Brownsville Style".  DallasVegan.com, posted January 19, 2009.  Copyright 2010 DallasVegan.com.  All rights reserved.

Dr. Dan (blogger).  "Spicy 3 Chilies Texas Chili a la Crock Pot".  101 Cooking for Two, posted February 25, 2012.

Fain, Lisa.  "My Oven-Baked Brisket".  Homesick Texan, posted December 16, 2008.  Copyright Homesick Texan.  All rights reserved. 

Goldwyn, Craig "Meathead".  "Barbecue Beef Brisket Texas Style".  Amazing Ribs updated March 2, 2012.  Copyright Amazing Ribs.  All rights reserved.

Guía de Tacos (Guiadetacos.com).  "Enchiladas norteñas".  Date unknown.

Johnson Miller, Ruthie.  "Banh mi, oh my! The top five Vietnamese sandwich shops in Houston".  Culture Map Houston, posted February 26, 2011.  Copyright 2009-2012 Culture Map, LLC.  All rights reserved.

Nguyen, Andrea.  "Daikon and Carrot Pickle Recipe (Do Chua)".  Viet World Kitchen, posted May 17, 2009.  Copyright 2002-2012 Andrea Nguyen.  All rights reserved.

Nguyen, Andrea.  "Master Banh Mi Sandwich Recipe".  Viet World Kitchen, posted June 17, 2009.  Copyright 2002-2012 Andrea Nguyen.  All rights reserved.

Shuttlesworth, Patrise.  "Tex-Mex vs. New Mex: Not Just About Jalapeños or Green Chiles".  On the Road, a Houston Press Blog, posted March 26, 2012.  Copyright Houston Press.  All rights reserved.

Sliter Satterwhite, Shannon. "Make a Batch of Texas Chili".  Southern Living Magazine, October 2005.

von der Mehden, Fred R. "Vietnamese".  Handbook of Texas Online.  Date unknown.  Published by the Texas State Historical Association.  Copyright 2012 Texas State Historical Association, published by the Texas State Historical Association, and distributed in partnership with the University of North Texas Sponsors.  All rights reserved.

Some information also obtained from Wikipedia's "Texas" page and other pages, and the Food Timeline State Foods link to "Texas".