This simple dish is a leftover delight. By leftover delight, I mean it's a delightful use of leftover bits and pieces. This receipe also shows the use of left over rice when out of tortillas and you're still hungry.
The first step is to assemble the ingredients. As this is a left over dish, the first thing to do is to browse about in the refrigerator looking for various bits to include into the dish.
We are in luck, there's some left over chicken in a baggie and since there is no indication that it is being held for some special purpose, it's fair game. And it is already cut up so its less work. Looking about a bit further we find some black bean salsa and an opened bag of field greens which look to be reasonably fresh.
Presto we now have the main ingredients for "Chicken with greens and salsa". Looking a bit further, we discover a package of non-fat tortillas with a single one left.
Double Presto we now can turn the simple and plebian "Chicken with greens and salsa" into "Chicken wrap with greens and salsa". Yes, God does bless those who help themselves.
So we pull out the 8" omelete pan (a Caphalon that I bought from Riche's 15 years ago and still going strong) and the olive oil and are about ready to go.
The first step is to wilt the greens a bit. So we put a splotch of olive oil into the pan and lets add some garlic for a wee bit of extra flavor. Onions sauteed with the garlic would also be a nice addition but, alas, there don't appear to be any readily available. We'll use the already chopped and bottled sort of garlic. Turn on the fire, let the oil heat and in to the pan with a teaspoon of garlic.
As the oil starts to heat up, lets spread the garlic about a bit so as to give the oil a good garlic flavor. Keep the heat low. We shan't cook it brown rather we just let the garlic wallow about in the oil like a pig in a puddle.
After a minute or so of watching the garlic wallow happily in the oil, its time to add the field greens. These field greens are the pre-packaged sort and they do quite nicely. The problem with the pre-packaged sort is that after a couple of days after being opened, they begin to go bad becoming mushy and brownish. These however are still good as they've been open for only a day or so.
So its in with the field greens. A note to you dear reader is that the field greens will wilt and cook down losing about 2/3 of their volume. So though it may look a large portion, it actually is not.
As you can see in this next photo, the greens cook down quite a bit. I suppose there is tons of water in them which is why they have so little calories. It's a wonder that cows should fatten on food of this kind. I suppose this is why cows are fattened on a diet of grains. By the way, have you ever read Diet for a Small Planet? A bit old but an interesting view of an alternative culture with some excellent information about combining protein sources on a vegetarian diet. Receipes aren't that good though.
With nicely wilted greens, its time to add chicken and the black bean salsa. As you can see the salsa is basically black beans, cut up fresh tomatoes, kernel corn, with a bit of cilantro added. There may be other things in it; Elaine made this the other day and I wasn't watching when she did so.
Let the added ingredients heat through. While everything is warming, lets warm the tortilla. The tortilla has been in the fridge so we warm it so that it is pliable letting us wrap it. We zap it in the microwave for a few seconds, flip it over, then zap it again for a few seconds. By a few seconds, I mean no more than 5. Wheat products tend to toughen when microwaved so you want to zap several times for short periods rather than just a single long zap.
Now listen carefully to the following step. Field greens tend to be a touch bitter and the bitterness appears to be enhanced by cooking. So lets add a touch of honey to cut the bitterness.
Put our tortilla onto a large plate, put some of our filling onto the tortilla and fold it. Notice that the first fold is from the bottom. This technique makes it less likely for filling to goosh out the end and drop into your lab. I suppose you could call this the Mexican Burrito technique as opposed to the Indian Masala Dosai technique which doesn't do the fold. (Masala Dosai is basically a rice flour crepe into which cooked potatoes warmed in oil with sauteed onions is dropped, spread about, and then rolled up.)
Notice in the previous image, I've added a bit of shredded cheddar cheese, Kraft sharp cheddar to be exact. Now it's time to eat, yum yum.
Well we have some left over filling and we are still a mite peckish so lets see what we can do with these left overs of left overs.
Hunting about in the refrigerator like a coon dog looking for a racoon, I discover some left over rice. Nice. And since it's in a covered plastic bowl, it's home made rather than left over from Chinese takeout. That means its Basmati rice rather than the standard stuff. Basmati rice is better than the standard, it's an Indian rice which is also grown in Texas and has a slight fragrance and taste lacking in standard rice which doesn't really taste of anything.
Left over rice has a tendency to become hard. This hardening phenomena is especially marked with left over Chinese takeout rice since most chinese restaurants use standard American rice. So it is best to add just a touch of water to the rice, the amount depending on how dehydrated the rice is, and then microwave it for a short spell in a covered container. With Chinese takeout left over rice, I usually just use the take out container which is paper though with metal handles.
WARNING: Remove the metal handles before microwaving Chinese takeout left over rice.
When the rice is warmed through, add it to the pan with the left over chicken with greens and salsa filling. Now you have chicken with greens and salsa over rice. Yum yum.