Ricotta Cheese Crab Tortillas

By Paul Briand

My wife Jane alerted me to this recipe. As news editor for the Eagle-Tribune in North Andover, Mass., she had edited the copy for a story on healthy recipes that included this one for Ricotta Cheese Crab Tortillas.

We love crab, and I was intrigued by the combination of the crabmeat with the ricotta. It isn’t a hot dish, since a cool to room temperature filling is used in a pan toasted tortilla. I mentioned to Jane that you could almost cut up the tortillas into appetizer sized portions and serve this as an hors d’oeuver.

Since I bought a pound of lump crab and since this recipe called for half a pound, that left a half a pound of crab for me to make crab cakes the next night for dinner -- definitely, a win-win in my book.

Ingredients
1 cup part skim ricotta cheese
2 tablespoons finely chopped jalapeno pepper
2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh cilantro
2 tablespoons finely chopped green onion
2 tablespoons lime juice
1/4 teaspoon of each; salt and pepper
1/2 pound fresh crabmeat, drained and flaked
4 (8-inch) whole-wheat flour tortillas
Vegetable cooking spray
Salsa on the side

Directions
1. Combine first 6 ingredients in a small bowl and mix well;
2. Fold in crabmeat, set aside;
3. Place 1 tortilla in a non-stick skillet over medium high heat coated with cooking spray;
4. Spread some of the crab mixture over half of tortilla in skillet, leaving a 1/4-inch margin on sides;
5. Cook about 3 minutes or until underside of tortilla is golden brown.
6. Fold in half. Transfer to a serving platter, serve with salsa.
7. Repeat with remaining ingredients;
8. Serves four.

Click here for recipe card.

Chorizo-Tortilla Tortillas

By Paul Briand

Eggs for dinner, you bet. Especially when they’re part of a richly flavored, densely packed recipe like this one.

It comes courtesy of Rachael Ray. I saw her making it as I was doing a treadmill workout at the gym recently and couldn’t wait to go home, do the shopping, put it together and feast on it.

I liked the introduction of chorizo into the mix. Chorizo is a Portuguese-style pork sausage. It isn’t your typical Mexican dish meat filler of beef, chicken or pork, which is one reason I was attracted to the recipe.

Note: I toned down the heat on this by forgoing the chile pepper. I opted to garnish it on my plates with jalapenos and hot sauce.

Ingredients

2 tablespoons olive oil

1/3 pound cured chorizo, casings discarded and meat chopped

4 plum tomatoes, seeded and chopped

1 medium onion, chopped

4 cloves garlic, chopped

1 red bell pepper, seeded and chopped, or 3 drained Spanish Piquillo peppers, chopped

1 red chile pepper, such as a Fresno, thinly sliced

Salt and pepper

A handful cilantro or flat-leaf parsley, chopped

4 handfuls unsalted thin yellow or blue tortilla chips, lightly crushed

12 extra-large eggs, beaten

1 1/2 cups shredded young Manchego or Monterey jack cheese

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. In a 10-inch, oven-proof non-stick skillet, heat olive oil over medium-high heat;

2. Add the chorizo and lightly brown, 2 to 3 minutes;

3. Add the tomatoes, onion, garlic, bell pepper, chile pepper, salt and pepper; cook for 5 minutes;

4. Scatter in the cilantro (or parsley) and tortilla chips;

5. Add the eggs and season with salt and pepper;

6. Stir to combine; let the eggs settle, then cook until set at the edges (some of the tortilla chips will pop up);

7. Transfer the tortilla to the oven and bake until cooked through, 15 to 18 minutes;

8. Turn the oven to broil. Top the tortilla with the cheese and melt under the broiler.

Click here for recipe card.

Wrapped Brats

By Paul Briand

For my Super Bowl spread, I wanted pigs in a blanket. I figured if I was going to go whole why not a bit of pig in dough.

But I couldn't find any pigs in a blanket when I went shopping for my Super Bowl food. What to do?

I came up with Wrapped Brats -- basically cooked Bratwurst wrapped in tortillas.

Ingredients
Bratwurst
Burrito size flour tortillas

Directions
1. Cook the Brats -- fry or grill -- and set aside;
2. Take a tortilla and trim from the edges in to the width of a brat, then cut that tortilla in half;
3. Take trimmed tortilla half and roll over the Brat, secure with a toothpick at each end;
4. Continue process until all Brats are rolled;
5. Arrange on a cookie sheet sprayed with cooking spray;
6. Bake in pre-heated oven at 350 degrees for about five minutes or until the tortillas start brown at the edges;
7. Remove from oven and cut each Wrapped Brat in half;
8. Serve with your favorite dipping mustard.

A package of eight Brats will require four tortilla shells and will yield, according to directions above, 16 Wrapped Brats.

And don't throw away those trimmed tortilla edges. Cut those into halves or thirds to make them into chip size. Arrange chips on a cookie sheet and spray lightly with cooking spray. Cook in the oven on a separate rack while the Wrapped Brats are baking. Remove the chips after a few minutes to check for brownness; use a spatula to flip to make sure both sides get crisp. Serve the chips with your favorite dip ... such as guacamole.