Salsa!

On the heels of Cinco de Mayo, let's talk about salsa!

After living in Phoenix for 20 years, I have become accustomed to doing something on Cinco de Mayo. Here in Florida, it's not a big deal, but on May 5 I had some friends over and we enjoyed a few Mexican delicacies (and Shepard's Pie - but that's another story).

Unless you live in a Tundric wasteland and you work 16 hours a day and never have access to fresh produce, there is no reason not to make your own salsa. Granted, there are a lot of decent-to-good salsas on the grocery store shelves, and in the winter, when you can't get good tomatoes (unless they are from Chile), then buying a jar or two might be in order. But it's Spring, followed by Summer - and salsa making time is upon us!

 A Word on Cilantro

 If you are not a seasoned salsa maker, you might take issue with cilantro. Cilantro is a much misunderstood herb. However, if treated properly, it adds just the right layer of flavor to your salsa. It won't overpower and it won't taste soapy. Trust me on this one.
 
The cilantro plant, once blooming, will produce coriander pods that taste nothing like the leaves and stems. And speaking of cilantro stems, you can use them along with the leaves. Unlike parsley, cilantro carries a lot of flavor in the stems.

A Note about Peppers

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Obviously, you will want to put peppers into your salsa, since that is one of The Main Components. There are about a jillion different types of chile peppers, all of which have varying tastes and heat levels (refer to the Scoville Heat Chart over there <--).

If you know how to treat chile peppers, you can make salsa with no heat at all, or salsa that will blow off the top of your head - up to you. A good pepper to use for salsa is the jalapeno. Jalapenos have a medium heat level. The red jalapenos are usually a bit hotter and go well in fruit salsas to offset the sweetness. 

If you are sensitive, wear latex gloves when treating the peppers. The majority of capsaicin  is held in the membranes of the pepper. It can mess you up! Therefore, be careful when processing peppers. To make a salsa with almost no heat, cut the flesh away from the seed pod and membranes and toss the rest in the trash. If you want some heat, include a bit or a lot of the membranes. The seeds are really useless. They don't hold a lot of heat and they are not digestible. 

Serrano peppers are also nice in salsa. They are much smaller than jalapenos and somewhat hotter. I love their fruity flavor. Habaneros or Scotch Bonnets are evil, evil peppers. They have an awesome flavor if you can get past the insane heat they lend to a dish. Handle with care! One eye-rub with a habanero infested finger and you will suffer. Not to mention that capsaicin can actually produce skin irritation akin to second degree burns. However, not wanting to be an alarmist, proceed with confidence! 

Let's get started with an actual recipe before I lose you all to my ramblings.

Pico de Gallo

This is a raw salsa that is incredibly fresh and bright. You can eat it with some good tortilla chips, over a quesadilla, on your morning eggs, and so forth.

If you don't have a food processor or a little chopper, just chop by hand. It takes a moment, but is well worth it. This pico will keep in the fridge for about a week, but is best eaten in the first few days.

Halve 5 tomatoes and squeeze over garbage bowl to remove some or all seeds if they are loose and watery. Chop remaining tomato.

Chop 1 white onion

Press or chop lots of garlic – 4-5 cloves

Cut out seeds and ribs of 3-4 jalapenos and chop fine

Chop ½ bunch cilantro

Mix tomatoes, onions, garlic and cilantro and put them into the salsa processor in batches – pulse until desired consistency. Add about 1 tsp salt and pulse to combine. You don't want to make a puree, but rather still be able to see what is actually in the salsa.

Place salsa into the designated bowl and add the juice of one lime and some salt to taste. Let it sit for a bit and then enjoy! This will make about 3 cups (I'm just guessing).

 

Onward to Tomatillo (or green) Salsa! 

The tomatillo is not related to the tomato, though it is also a nightshade. It is rather related to the gooseberry, and as such is quite tart. It's used a lot in Mexican cuisine, and once you get into Mexican cooking,  you sort of get the hang of  when to add tomatillos.

This fruit is surrounded by an inedible papery husk. When you remove it, you'll find that the tomatillo is sort of sticky. You can wash that off with ease. Though are firm when raw, they give it up easily when faced with a blender or chopper. For this salsa, you will roast the tomatillos on one side so that they are half cooked and half raw - lends itself to an interesting depth of flavor. If you roast them all the way, they are very mushy and taste a bit blah for the sake of salsa.

Roasted Tomatillo Salsa

2 pounds tomatillos

1 medium white onion

4 large cloves of garlic

4 jalapeno peppers

1/2 bunch of cilantro

2 tsp salt (approximately)

Juice of one or two limes

Heat the broiler.

Peel off the papery skin and wash tomatillos well. Pat dry and place stem side down in a baking pan. Place pan under the broiler until the tomatillos are brown on top, and the juices start to flow. Place roasted tomatillos and any juice the blender.

Peel onion, cut it in half and slice into thin slices. Pull the onion rings apart, place onto a baking pan, sprinkle lightly with salt and place under the broiler until the onions are starting to brown. They might look dry and unevenly browned – but not to worry - we're just going for a little caramelization here. Add the onions to the tomatillos in the blender.

Wash the jalapenos and pat them dry. Rub the garlic cloves until all loose skin has been discarded, but leave the cloves intact with the skins on. Place both jalapenos and garlic cloves in a dry frying pan. Over medium heat, jiggle the pan frequently to toast/roast the garlic and peppers fairly evenly. This will take about 10 minutes. You may have to turn the garlic by hand. The peppers should have a light char on several sides. The garlic should have browning on the skin. 

When the peppers and garlic cloves are cool enough to touch, peel the garlic and remove the seeds and stem from the peppers. Toss garlic cloves and peppers into the blender.

Now add about 1 tsp salt. First pulse then blend the mixture until well combined. (If the tomatillos are still hot, pulse with care.) The tomatillos will liquefy, and the salsa will be fairly thin.

Cut off the big, course stems from the bottom of cilantro (previously washed and patted dry). Place the whole bunch, along with smaller stems, into the blender and pulse until incorporated but you can still see pieces of cilantro leaves. 

Pour the salsa into a container and check for salt – you will probably have to add more. Once seasoning is balanced, add the lime juice. Stir and refrigerate until ready to eat. 

This will make about 3 cups and keep in the fridge for about a week. You can eat it with tortilla chips, of course, but also with eggs or anything else. The tomatillo salsa will gel up in the refrigerator; it's good to let it come to room temperature before eating.  

What's this? 

Yummy stuff! If you want to get really Mexican with all of these salsas, try eating them with plantain chips. OMG - so good! I'm pretty sure you can buy them pre-made, but seriously - this is a food blog. So here's how you make them:

Plantain Chips

 First, get some green plantains - they have to be underripe to make chips, otherwise you just have fried mush. Peel them - this takes some doing - and cut the plantain in half. Then slice thinly on a mandolin. Thinly, you say? Well... how about 1/8 inch? You can try doing this with a knife, but a mandolin really works best. And if you don't have one, get one. They are very handy.

Heat about 1/2 inch of oil in a frying pan (I use cast iron) - vegetable, peanut - an oil that can stand high heat. It should have some ripples but not be smoking. Drop a piece of plantain in and it should bubble around the edges. When your oil is ready, put in as many pieces  in the pan as will fit comfortably. Fry until pale brown on one side and flip with tongs. When they are browned, remove and place on paper towels. Sprinkle with salt. Repeat until all your plantain has been fried.

If you live in a humid climate like I do, you can spread the plantain chips onto a baking sheet and give them a little crisp treatment in the oven before you serve them. Once they are cool, you can store them in a plastic bag for a few days. Check to see if they have become rubbery and pop in the oven, otherwise serve and enjoy!

These also go well with fruit salsas (coming soon) and ceviche (also coming soon)!

The Magnificent Egg

Easter is rapidly approaching and in deference to spring fertility rituals  of yore, I want to advocate for The Egg. Here are a few things you can do with eggs, but first, some information. 

Chicken eggs are full of incredible nutrients. (Duck and quail eggs are even bigger powerhouses of nutrition, but we are going to celebrate the chicken egg today.) They contain 11% protein, vitamins B1, B12, D, and A. They are full of potassium and iron. Eggs are a whole food that strengthens the immune system, promotes brain swiftness, and stabilizes the nervous system. It should also be mentioned that eggs contain HDL - the good cholesterol, and they can actually help you lower your LDL - the bad cholesterol. I could go on and on, but you can research the benefits of eggs as well.

And now a note about egg whites: 

It is generally advisable to eat whole foods. The moment you separate out one element, you don't have a whole food any more - as widely seen in white flour, white sugar and processed-to-death food-like products. Eat the whole egg - just do it! The yolk is where all the goodies are. Egg whites alone leach vitamin C out of your body and have hardly any nutritional value. But a whole egg or two make for a great meal. Of course, if you are making meringues, those rules don't apply - ha!

And now a note about organic, free-range, naturally fed chicken eggs: 

I don't want to get too soap boxy, but do you know how laying chickens in mass producing chicken farms are kept? It is incredibly inhumane. The chickens "live" under hideous conditions. Moreover, they are fed hormone laced foods, chicken meal (ground up chicken leftovers like beaks, claws, bones, eyeballs). This all translates into the egg you eat. "Grain-fed" is not as wholesome as it sounds. Chickens are not grain eaters. So being fed grains (instead of former fellow chickens) messes them up and translates into their eggs. If you buy the really cheap, mass produced eggs you are supporting this animal abusing, federally subsidized industry. Plus, you are eating eggs that are less than desirable as far as nutritional value and additives go.

Get your eggs at a local farmer's market or from a health food store that carries eggs from happy chickens. Are you going to pay more? You betcha. But think about it - if you pay $3 for 6 eggs, it will cost you a buck to make a 2-egg omelet. One dollar for a meal. Big whoop. Think about how much money we pay for meat (not a dollar, for sure), junk, soda, etc. etc.

Eggs from chickens that get to run around and peck have shells in all colors - which reflects their diverse diet. The shells are thick and sturdy. The yolks are really yellow - with no additives. Eggs in mass production are yellow because the birds have been fed stuff to make them yellow.

Chickens are really cool birds. Who knew? A few friends of mine keep chickens who become very attached to their humans. They will hop on your lap to be petted and have well defined personalities. It is not awesome to treat these darlings who give us their precious eggs with cruelty and lack of respect. Okay - I'm done now.

Eggs are - of course - delicious morning, noon, and evening. Cooked, poached, fried, scrambled - whatever you choose, they are versatile. I am not an egg-cooking genius. When I boil eggs, most often they crack and make a mess in the water. But I am good at making frittatas, and I'll share this wonderful one-pan meal concept here.

Here we go!

For 1 person, use 2 eggs. For 2 people, 4 eggs. For 3 people, 5 eggs. For 4 people, 6 eggs. Depending on how many other goodies you add, those egg quantities will e sufficient. You really don't want leftover eggs. They are like leftover French fries - not good.

Crack your eggs on a flat surface. That way the crack (!) is even and it's easy to pull the two halves of shell apart. Crack two eggs into a bowl and add about 3 tablespoons of milk, 1/2 & 1/2, or cream and whip the eggs until there are no more strings. This will ensure even cooking and good texture.

Vegetarian Frittata

Start heating your pan over medium high heat and add 1 tablespoon of olive oil, butter and a little olive oil, coconut oil, bacon fat - in other words, your fat of choice. When the fat is hot - but not smoking - add one or two chopped green onions (white and green parts) and salt - a few pinches, according to taste. This will be your salt for the dish. You can add about 1/2 cup of diced zucchini, or summer squash, or red and/or green bell pepper, olives, jalapenos, grape tomatoes. Let your imagination go wild! Add some freshly ground black pepper, too.

Cook your vegetables until they have a little color but are still firm. They are going to continue to cook in the oven. If you want to use herbs, such as parsley, dill, basil, etc. chop and add to your beaten eggs.

Turn off the heat under the pan and slowly pour your eggs evenly over the saute, so that every part of the pan is covered in egg. Sprinkle the top with Parmesan, grated cheddar, crumbled feta, crumbled goat cheese or any combination of any cheese you like. Pop your pan in a in a 400 degree oven for about 10 minutes. If you are only cooking a 2-egg frittata, you can put the pan under the broiler for a few minutes.

Before and after cooking

The eggs will cook, the cheese will melt. You will pull a picture of deliciousness out of the oven! After loosening the edges with a flat spatula, Flip the frittata in half and slide onto a plate. If you are making a larger frittata, loosen edges and slide the whole thing onto a warmed plate and cut in wedges to serve.

You can accompany your frittata with salsa, guacamole, hot sauce, sour cream with herbs, salt and pepper, and so forth.

Frittata with Meat

Bacon, Chicken sausge, ham... anything will do. If you are using bacon, cut it into bits and place in a cold frying pan. Heat slowly and stir to separate the bits. Keep frying the bacon until all the fat is rendered. That will be your fat (and most of the salt) for your whole frittata. 2 pieces per person should do. The more bacon you use, the more grease you'll have. You might have to remove some.

Remove the bacon and saute your vegetables in the grease. Add eggs, sprinkle bacon and cheese on top and bake or broil.

If you using sausage - and there are amazing sausages out there: chicken/basil, chicken/sun dried tomatoes/feta etc. - I recommend using some olive oil to fry your cubed sausage pieces. Cook until brown and scrumptious, then proceed as described above in the bacon part.

For an amazing dinner, add a fresh salad. A frittata is nutrient rich and very delectable. Your combination of vegetables is unlimited.

Try this and let me know how it goes! Get in touch with questions, too. 

Deliciously, 

Alicia

Unbelievable Cauliflower Pizza

I just did a whole huge post on things to do with cauliflower, but this pizza really warrants its own section. If you are doing low carb or no carb, or eating anything at all - it doesn't matter. This is deeeeelicious!

The premise is that you use cauliflower for the crust and top the pizza with whatever you want. But we'll get into that later. First the crust.

Crust

1 cup cooked and thoroughly mashed up cauliflower (make sure to salt your cauliflower when you cook it)
1 egg
1 cup grated whole milk mozzarella cheese
salt, pepper, oregano, fennel seed, parsley - whatever you want to flavor the crust

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Heavily grease a baking sheet, or line a sheet pan with parchment and grease that. This crust has a tendency to stick. 

Mix the cauliflower, egg and cheese, as well as the spices. With this mixture, make a nice flat circle on your greasy pan. Try and get it even - not too thin and not too thick. It'll probably be the size of a dinner plate.

Now place the to-be crust in your very hot oven and bake for 20-25 minutes. It should be nice and brown, but not burned.

Remove and let it sit for a second, then either take it off the parchment or run a flat spatula under the crust to loosen it from the pan.

Now for the toppings. 

You can use a jarred sauce, I suppose. But really - yack.

So you can make an awesome tomato sauce  and use leftovers for more pizzas or whatever. Here's what I do:

1 can of really good tomatoes - with or without basil. If you want, get the fire roasted kind.
3-4 cloves of garlic
1 tsp salt
1 tsp ground pepper
1 tsp dried oregano, crushed in the palm of your hand

Put all that in the blender and whir it to a pulp. That's it.

Put several spoonfuls of this (or other) sauce on your pizza crust.

Top with things like 

Pepperoni slices
Cooked sausage
Cooked bacon
Cooked chicken
Fried tofu
Anchovies

Green and/or red bell pepper slices
Olives
Zucchini - finely diced
Onion - thinly siced

... and so forth. Main thing is that your meats are cooked. Veggies should be fast-cooking or pre-sauteed.

Top your creation with grated cheese - whatever cheese you like:

Cheddar
Parmesan
More Mozzarella
Pepper Jack

And now put this loveliness under the BROILER. Keep a close watch on it. Broilers can get pretty vicious by burning your food in seconds. Depending on your broiler, this last step can take between 5-10 minutes. You want your cheese to be nice and melty, and perhaps also browned.

Let the whole thing sit for a minute to set, and then cut in pizza slices. This is even good the next day, cold out of the fridge.

I served it to someone that way once: "Hey, do you want a slice of cold pizza?"  - "Hell, yeah!"
They ate and I asked if they noticed anything - no, they said, it was delicious! And then I revealed that the crust was cauliflower - they did not believe me.

So you see, another magic cauliflower trick! 

 

Two Years Later...

Meanwhile I have found a new way of making cauliflower crust  that involves not using cheese. There's really only so much cheese I'd like to eat during one sitting, and since cheese is used for the topping, I came up with this solution for the crust:

2 cups of cooked, pureed cauliflower (works best in the food processor)

2 eggs

3/4 cup flax seed meal

1 tsp salt

Spices of your choosing - I just used garlic powder, aleppo pepper, and black pepper

Heat oven to 500 degrees.

Combine all ingredients - preferably in the food processor. Liberally oil a baking sheet (I use coconut oil). Make two disks of the cauliflower batter - take your time to spread it evenly so it won't burn by being too thin in places.

Bake for approximately 10-15 minutes - keep an eye on it. You want the edges to be dark brown and the center to be light brown.

Remove from oven and turn the oven to "broil". Carefully loosen the crust from the baking sheet with an offset spatula or a thin, long knife.  

Top as described above and pop the crusts under the broiler until everything looks to your liking.

Personally, I like this crust better. It is nutty and gets crispier. Give it a try and let me know how it goes!

Things To Do With Cauliflower

I want to advocate for cauliflower. It is one of the most versatile vegetables ever. Plus I really love it. And it is full of goodie goodie nutrients. I mean, come on!

I like it just straight up steamed with butter, salt and pepper.

You want to cut off all the leaves and cut out the core to create a cone-shaped hole in the middle. Wash the cauliflower really well - upside down in running water for quite a while. That way you can get a lot of the chemicals, bacteria and dirt out of it. Cut off any unsightly spots on the surface.

Put the so prepared cauliflower in a pot with about an inch of water. Sprinkle with salt and place a lid on the pot. Bring water to a boil and the reduce heat to about medium. Steam the cauliflower until you can insert a knife down the middle and there is little or no resistance.

If you are going to eat it just steamed, don't overcook it. If however you are going to make a delicious mash, cook it until it's quite soft, but not falling apart.

Mashed Cauliflower

You'll never look back after you've had this. It is divine!

Cook a cauliflower as described above, but let it get pretty soft. Lift it out of the water with a slotted spoon - or whatever you have and set on a plate to let the last moisture evaporate.

You can now put the cauliflower in a bowl and mash it with a masher. But I like to whir it around in the food processor, which makes for a much silkier mash. Either way, once the cauliflower is mashed, add in some dairy - here you can use either heavy cream, half and half, or milk. Just enough to give it a nice creamy texture. Add some butter - be conservative or liberal depending on your diet and preferences. Check for salt and adjust the seasonings. At this point you can add some black pepper - or if you don't like the black specks, add white pepper. Maybe a grating of nutmeg. Nutmeg and cauliflower love each other.

At this stage, you can just eat it and it will be delish. But you can also take it a step farther:

Butter an appropriate sized Pyrex dish and put your cauliflower mash in it. Top with parmesan cheese or white cheddar - or whatever you want. You can toss your grated cheddar with bread crumbs and put that on top. You can even whip some cheese into the mash AND top it with cheese. You can stir in some chives, or parsley, or both. Use the ol' imagination.

Bake this beautiful concoction in a 350 degree oven for about 20 minutes or until the cheese is browned.

Cauliflower mash can most definitely stand in for mashed potatoes, and I actually prefer it.

Roasted Cauliflower

Whenever you roast someone from the cabbage family (and cauliflower belongs to that family), you can unleash some pretty unsavory smells and tastes. Roasting brings out sugars and these types of vegetables don't contain a lot of sugar. Therefore you want to coax out what they do have without spoiling the taste. Cauliflower is one of the easier cabbage members to roast. Once roasted, you can use it for a vegetable or toss it with beautiful greens and a vinaigrette for a salad.

Prepare and wash a cauliflower as described above. Break or cut it into flowerettes. Now you are going to have huge flowerettes and small ones. So cut or break your huge ones until everyone is about the same size.  Make sure your cauliflowerettes are well drained, too - the less water they have on them (preferably none), the better they will roast.

In a large bowl toss the flowerettes with 2-3 tablespoons of good olive oil and about 2 teaspoons of kosher salt. If you have a tiny cauliflower, adjust your amounts accordingly. Both the fat and the salt will bring out those sugars of which we spoke.

Spread cauliflower evenly on a baking sheet and pop it into a 450 degree preheated oven for about 25 minutes. You can toss things around with a spatula after about 20 minutes and see how it's doing. The cauliflower should be tender and toasty looking. Let me just say: Yum.

Cauliflower Mishat

Here is a recipe for cauliflower that will blow your mind to little bits. Cauliflower patties with deep, rich flavors that taste nothing like cauliflower. People can't believe there's no meat in them. These following directions are based on a Middle Eastern recipe. I took the concept and created my own. Try it and let me know how you like it.

1 head cauliflower, trimmed of stems and core

1 onion finely chopped

2 cloves garlic pressed or chopped

Zest of a lemon

Juice of a lemon
3 eggs
1/2 cup panko crumbs (or other bread crumbs)
½ bunch parsley chopped finely
2 tsp salt

1 tsp cumin
1/4 cup oil - but you probably need more

Process the raw cauliflower in batches in a food processor – or chop it to micro bits with a knife and place in bowl. Chop onion super fine and add, along with pressed garlic. Chop parsley and add to the vegetables along with the lemon zest. Stir to combine.

Stir in beaten eggs, lemon juice salt, cumin and combine well. Add bread crumbs stir lightly.

Heat oil in skillets until it ripples a bit. Drop batter into oil by the tablespoon-full, pat the piles down to patties and cook at medium heat. When the patties have set, after about 7 minutes, carefully turn over and finish cooking until brown.

Place on paper towels and keep warm in the oven. Cook the next batch until you are finished.

Serve with Raita 

And here's the raita recipe: 

 

Cucumber Raita – to accompany the cauliflower mishat

1 ½ cucumbers

32 oz of whole milk or Greek yogurt

Many cloves of garlic

2 tsp. kosher salt

½ bunch chopped parsley

¼ cup chopped mint

Scrub the cukes and cut off the ends. Cut the cuke in half lengthwise and scoop out the seeds with a spoon. Grate on the large side of the grater. 

Peel and press 4-5 cloves of garlic. Add to grated cucumber. Add salt and yogurt. Add herbs. Combine very well.

Chill until ready to eat. Can be made a day ahead.

I also have a recipe for cauliflower pizza - but I'll save that for another day. It's carb free and totally delicious.