Sunday night football snacks, Mexican style

The Bears game was on TV on Sunday night, meaning Crayton would spend the evening wearing his Bears jersey and glued to the screen.

I’d told him I’d watch with him, but when it came down to it, I found myself too busy. The kitchen needed cleaning. We planned to grill vegetables for dinner, so I needed to slice the eggplant and squash. How long did it take to grill eggplant, anyway? I needed to consult Google. Oh, and I needed to read up on yoga ashrams in India, since we decided last week that we’re traveling to India in January. (Which is completely insane, amazing news.)

Plus, since this was game day, we needed game-time snacks. I put on a frilly white apron — very appropriate for the game-day hostess persona I had suddenly created for myself — and unearthed a package of pre-sliced jicama from the fridge. Drizzled it with lime juice and chili powder.

Opened a package of nopal tortillas, cut them into triangles with kitchen shears and baked them. I adore nopal tortillas, made from a mix of cactus and corn, because they’re bright green and slightly healthier than regular tortillas. (Meaning: less calories and a tad more nutrients from the cactus.) You can find them at pretty much any grocery store here, and they’ve got kind of a light, vegetal taste. Unfortunately they tend to fall apart if you use them for tacos. But as psuedo-tortilla chips, they’re perfect.

While my chips baked, I made a quick, creamy tofu dip with cilantro and chipotle peppers.

Placed everything on a platter and took it into hubby, who was yelling about the defense, or a fumble, or something. He didn’t look up when I sat down. I munched on some jicama and thought: Wow, jicama with chili and lime might be the new chicken wings. It’s really that good.

“Isn’t this good?” I asked Crayton. I was still wearing my white apron.

“Yeah, it’s great,” he said. He took his eyes from the screen only to dip his chip in the dip cup.

The Bears ended up losing. I considered the day a win, though. Found and emailed an interesting ashram in India. And we had lots of jicama and dip leftover. Crayton, sweet man that he is, finished the dishes after I’d gone to bed.

Baked nopal tortilla chips with creamy cilantro tofu dip
Serves 4 to 6 as an appetizer

Note: This dip has a really strong cilantro taste, and as a cilantro-lover, I find you can’t use too much. Canned chipotle peppers in adobo freeze really well, so don’t worry about using such a small portion in this dip. If you can’t find nopal tortillas, corn work fine too. The dip can be refrigerated in an airtight container for about two days.

Ingredients

6 nopal tortillas
1 349g box silken tofu (about 12 ounces)
1/2 c. cilantro leaves, loosely packed
1 teaspoon diced chipotle pepper in adobo
1 to 2 tablespoons olive oil
Salt to taste

Preheat oven to 375F or 200C. Using kitchen shears, cut nopal tortillas in half, and then cut each half into five triangles. Place on baking sheet and cook about 5 to 10 minutes, until golden brown.

While the chips are baking, add silken tofu, cilantro leaves and chipotle pepper to food processor. With the motor running, add olive oil in a slow stream. The dip should be spoonable but not runny. Taste and see if it needs more cilantro, or more chipotle pepper. When you’re satisfied, scoop with a spatula into a serving bowl and add salt to taste. Drink with cold beer.