I made a really good thing but I only took pictures of the end product. I often forget along the way I want to take pictures and then I don't want to post something because I like having photos of the process. These were so good that I decided to plunder Google Images and post it anyway. Since I did all my shopping at Trader Joe's last night I used pictures of those products.
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Last night I wanted something like comfort food but didn't feel like eating a bunch of meat. I saw a recipe somewhere for canned crescent rolls filled with some sort of beef mixture and it sounded good. But I still didn't want a bunch of meat. Enter soyrizo. I have used Trader Joe's Soy Chorizo before in tacos and it is really good. I thought I could make a delicious type of thing with that as my starting point. They turned out similar to empanadas or samosas (which seem to basically be the same thing anyway, just from different cultures). These were a hit, they were very easy, and very inexpensive. When talking about them to our friend Alex over Facebook chat he named them "Alien Flavor Pods From Beyond The Stars" and I said this would be acceptable. Then he drove over to our house just to eat some.
Alien Flavor Pods From Beyond The Stars
oil
1 small onion or half of a larger one, diced small
12 oz. soy chorizo
1 large or two small cloves garlic, minced
4 oz. diced green chiles
2 medium yukon gold potatoes, diced very small (1/4-1/8 inch erring on the small side)
4 oz. cream cheese
cumin
paprika
salt
pepper
2 tubes of canned crescent rolls (8 rolls inside)
Turn on your oven to 350.
Heat up a couple of tablespoons of oil and sautee your onion until soft, 5-7 minutes.
Crank up the heat some and put in the soyrizo. Just cut the tube open and squeeze it out. Stir every few minutes so the soyrizo starts to brown and get some nice crispy parts.
Add your garlic and cook about 30 seconds.
Add all the green chiles and stir around. Add a pinch of salt and a few shakes of cumin and paprika.
Remove to a plate and heat a little more oil. Add potatoes and cook until they are tender and starting to brown. This probably takes 10-15 minutes. If they aren't cooking fast enough you can cover them for a bit. Crank the heat at the end to get some nice color. Add a pinch of salt and a few grinds of pepper if you want.
Add soyrizo mixture back in and mix well. Heat through and add cream cheese. Stir around until well blended. Taste to make sure you like it.
Open your crescent rolls. You will want to have two triangles per Alien (that is the short version we came up with). Pinch them together in the middle so you have a rectangle shape.
Put some filling in the middle and then seal up like a triangle, corner to corner. Just pinch them all together, it will be fine. You can probably put a healthy couple of tablespoons in there. Put these on a greased (I used foil with a bit of oil on it) cookie sheet and cook in the oven until a lovely golden brown. 15-20 minutes. Turn pan once to ensure even cooking. Let cool for a few minutes and enjoy!
P.S. This made extra filling and I am going to put it in tortillas tonight as that sounds rad.
We were talking about linguica sausage the other day and the fact that I never use it. We have access to Zenner's sausage, which is a local sausagier. That is not a word but I am making it one. Zenner's makes excellent sausage. I use their andouille sausage all the time. So, I looked at the ol' internets to see what people do with linguica besides eat it for breakfast. Potatoes and kale seem to be pretty popular with it. I like the way those Portuguese people think. This was an easy, relatively quick (if you don't cut your potatoes quite as huge as I did) meal.
Cover and cook for around 20 minutes or until potatoes are cooked through, stirring occasionally.
Add kale and cover for a few minutes so it wilts. Taste for seasonings, I added a bit more salt. Consume!
