Chinese Sweet and Sour Chicken with Sesame Seeds

I'm so excited, I did this recipe a few weeks ago and somehow the recipe disappeared, could it be I have too many recipes, anyway Leslie called Rlynn to tell him they were coming to fertilize our lawn, and I asked her if I could have this recipe again as it had been in a Fertalawn newsletter. She e-mailed it to me and here it is.  Leslie did this in a crockpot, I adapted it to the pressure cooker.  I will do this recipe  again. The crock pot took 3 to 4 hours and the pressure cooker took 20 minutes.

Ingredients:
One 3 to 5 pound broiler/fryer.
2/3 cup soy sauce
2/3 cup brown sugar or 1/3 cup agave
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup apple juice
2 Tlb. ketchup
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes, optional or reduced, it does make it spicey) (My favorite spice)
1 clove garlic, pressed
2 green onions, trimmed and halved or 1/4 onion cut up
4 Tlb. cornstarch
2 Tlb. water
1 or 2 Tlb. sesame seeds.
Cooked rice

Directions:
Wash and dry the chicken thoroughly. Cut off any lumps of fat, can also remove the skin.  Put the chicken in the cooker, breast side up. Leslie doesn't say too, but I browned the chicken.  Combine the soy sauce, brown sugar, water, apple juice, ketchup, red pepper flakes and garlic in a small bowl.  Pour over chicken.  Pressure cook for 20 minutes, natural release.  If it doesn't seem done enough, cook 10 more minutes.  When I did it, it was done enough for me. Transfer chicken to a platter and pull off all the meat from the bones and cut or shred in small pieces.  Combine the cornstarch and water and stir into the juice mixture.  Cook until thickened. I had to do the cornstarch mixture twice as I didn't stir fast enough and the cornstarch went into one big blob.  Put cut up chicken over rice, then sauce, then your green onions and sesame seeds.  So Good!

Sweet Potato and Black Bean Enchiladas

I made this recipe once and loved it, some how I had the first page of the recipe and couldn't find the 2nd page.  A friend gave us a pkg. of tortillas and I wanted to make this recipe.  I went online to WholeFoodsMarket.com and believe it or not I found the recipe.  I made it today for lunch and it was delicious. I've changed the recipe a little bit.  If you want the original recipe from Whole Foods go to their Web Site and look under Vegetarian recipes and type in sweet potato and black bean.

Sweet Potato and Black Bean Enchiladas

Ingredients:
1-10 oz. La Victoria Enchilada Sauce-Green Chile/Chile Verde, Mild Poco Picante.
1 pkg of white tortillas
Shredded Monterey Jack cheese or Mozzerella.

In one bowl mix:
2 cups black beans, rinsed, drained
4 cloves garlic, minced
Fresh lime juice from 1 big juicy lime.

In the 2nd bowl mix:
2 heaping cups cooked diced sweet potatoes ( pressure cut up sweet potatoes in a electric pressure cooker for 10 minutes, natural release)
1/2 cup chopped roasted mild green chiles.
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp chili pepper, I put 1/2 tsp chipotle pepper.
2 tlbsp.chopped fresh cillantro.

Instructions:
Make sure your baking dish will hold 6 tortillas.  The recipe calls for 8 tortillas, but I had only enough fillings for 6 tortillas.
Pour about 1/4 cup of the Green Chile Sauce into the bottom of a baking dish.
Lay the first tortilla in the sauced baking dish; wet it with the sauce.  Add 1/6 of the sweet potato mixture down the center.  Top with 1/6 mixture of the black beans.  Wrap and roll the tortilla to the end of the baking dish.  Repeat for the remaining tortillas.  Top with the rest of the sauce.  Top with cheese.
Bake 350 degree oven for 20 to 25 minutes, until the enchiladas are piping hot and the sauce is bubbling around the edges.