Rania's Recipes: Cheese Nachos & Soft Pretzels
In honor of baseball returning to PNC Park, Rania Harris stopped by Pittsburgh Today Live to show off some great ballpark food you can make at home!
Cheese Nachos
- 8 ounces good quality tortilla chips
- 1 ½ cups refried beans, warmed,
- 2 poblano chiles, roasted, peeled, seeded, and diced
- 2 to 4 canned, pickled jalapeno chiles, stemmed and thinly sliced crosswise
- 1 ½ cups finely shredded Monterey Jack cheese (about 6 ounces)
- ½ cup sour cream
Directions
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
Spread half the chips out in a large shallow casserole dish or on an ovenproof platter. Top with half the beans, in small spoonfuls, and scatter with half the chiles. Repeat with the remaining chips, beans, and chiles. Sprinkle the top of the nachos with the cheese. Bake until heated through and the cheese melts, about 3 to 5 minutes. Top the nachos with dollops of the sour cream and serve.
Soft Pretzels
- 2 loaves frozen white bread dough, thawed
- Flour, for dusting surface
- 1 egg, beaten
- ½ cup coarse salt
Directions:
Divide each loaf of dough into 7 pieces. On a lightly floured surface, roll each piece of dough into a 18-inch rope, and then form into a pretzel shape. Transfer dough to the refrigerator until ready to boil.
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
In a large pot, bring 4 quarts of water to a boil. Add pretzels, 3 at a time, and cook until pretzels rise to the surface, about 2 minutes. Remove and drain on paper towels. Arrange pretzels 3 inches apart on buttered sheet pans. Brush with beaten egg. Sprinkle with coarse salt or with choice of toppings. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until browned.
Serve with yellow mustard or cheese dip (recipe follows)
Yield: 14 pretzels
Chile Cheese Dip
- 1 cup whole milk
- 3 dried ancho chiles, stemmed, seeded and deveined
- 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
- 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
- 12 ounces shredded Monterrey Jack cheese
- Salt
Directions:
Heat the milk in a small pot on medium heat until warm. Remove from the heat, add the chiles and soak for about 20 minutes. Transfer to a blender and process until smooth.
Melt the butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add the flour and cook for 1 minute. Whisk in the chile-seasoned milk (the color will be red) and cook slightly until thickened. Remove from the heat and stir in the cheese. Season with salt.
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