There are all kinds of salsa verde recipes out there. The Mexican Style Salsa Verde made with tomatillos is very popular. Other salsa verde recipes are basically herb sauces. My favorite salsa verde recipe that I’ve come across is the chef Richard Blais recipe for salsa verde. I’ve discovered that now I’m making salsa verde semi regularly. It’s so delicious and goes so well with just about any protein. The other reason why I’m making it so often is because it’s a great delicious way to use up your fresh herbs so they don’t go to waste.
Below is a picture of what I put in my no measure salsa verde.
In the orange colander is all my leftover tarragon, lots of parsley leaves, scallions and a little cilantro. (tarragon is really delicious in salsa verde………)
You need a chopped up hot green or yellow pepper ….I like using my own pickled hot peppers (the pickled adds something and it helps make the sauce stay fresh.
You need something sweet I used honey because it is a preservative.
You need fresh squeezed lemon.
You need olive oil
capers are very good in salsa verde.
Depending one how it taste you might need salt.
Maybe you might use a small amount of water to thin the sauce.
It comes out amazing all the time. You can play around with the sauce. Maybe add something like almonds for a different taste. Richard Blais uses golden raisins for sweetness and also uses anchovies for depth and salt flavor.
I had some beets and wanted to do something new and different with them. I was thinking about Moroccan Food so I looked up recipes for Moroccan Spice Rub. WOW all the recipes I found are so different. The only common ingredients in most of the recipes were ginger, cinnamon and coriander. Other than that they differed greatly. So I picked one that sounded the most delicious for beets. It is from www.BBCGoodFood.com for Moroccan Spice Rub. Well I picked a great one because these beets came out amazing! I served the beets with pickled onions, olives, gooseberries, feta cheese, urfa pepper and fresh mint so it was delicious. This recipe is only for the beets but you can easily put it together in a similar way. I do note that my idea of serving size might differ from your idea of serving size. This makes around 8 small servings.
Ingredients for around 8 servings
2 lbs beets – peeled and cut in any shape you like
water to almost cover beets in pan
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon sea salt
3/4 teaspoon ground black pepper (I rounded up to 1 teaspoon and it came out a bit spicy)
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon coriander
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
optional pickled onions to taste (recipe can be found on this site)
optional olives to taste
optional gooseberries to taste (apricots or other fruit would work)
optional feta cheese to taste
optional urfa pepper (taste really great on the feta cheese)
optional fresh mint to taste
Directions
Set oven to 400 degrees F.
Your peeled cut up beets go in a loaf shaped pan. Then I poured all the spices on top of the beets. The cumin, ginger, salt, black pepper, cinnamon, coriander, cayenne, allspice and cloves. Then I added enough water to almost cover beets. The pan gets covered tight and goes in the middle of the oven till beets are tender. Around 45 minutes to an hour. Timing will differ because all ovens differ and beets differ depending on size and freshness.
When ready to use drain beets and suggested serving is pickled onions, olives, gooseberries, feta cheese, urfa pepper and fresh mint.
Moroccan spiced beets
Most people will enjoy this! Even my husband enjoyed them and he isn’t a fan of beets!
Choyote squash is different than the other squashes that I know of out there. This one is crisp when it’s raw almost like an apple. When you cook this squash it’s slightly sweet with little flavor. I picked up one choyote squash not knowing what I’d do with it. It just so happened that maybe the next day I came across local chef Tandy Peterson’s recipe for Cocoa Pomegranate Vinaigrette recipe in a Phoenix Home and Garden Magizine. Instantly I thought her vinaigrette or a similar vinaigrette would be great with Choyote Squash. After I read her recipe I figured I’d have to make a similar but different recipe because I didn’t want to use a whole cup of oil and I didn’t have pomegranate juice at home. Instead I used only one tablespoons of oil, some dijon mustard and a few spices that Tandy doesn’t have in her recipe like smoked paprika and cinnamon. My recipe is an inspiration of Tandy’s recipe and is meant to give flavor to the squash with less fat. Tandy’s recipe is a true vinaigrette recipe. You might prefer to do Tandy’s Cocoa Pomegranate Vinaigrette – 1 t. minced shallots, 2 T. pomegranate molasses, 3 T. pomegranate juice, 3 T. apple cider vinegar, 1 cup extra virgin olive oil, 1 t. cocoa powder, 1 pinch cayenne, 1 teaspoon salt. Just shake it up in a mason jar till it’s done. Below is the recipe for Roasted Choyote Squash with Golden Raisins, Toasted Coconut, Toasted Almonds, Scallions in Pomegranate Cocoa Vinaigrette. I did make it a 2nd time and I really enjoyed it more with a little charred cabbage added so that isn’t in this recipe buy it’s something you might want to add.
Ingredients for around 2 servings
1 choyote squash – washed well – cut in rough chunks or cubes – cut around the pit
drizzle olive oil
fresh ground sea salt to taste
fresh ground black pepper to taste
2 Tablespoons unsweetened coconut flakes – toasted at 300 degrees F till brown- (maybe 5 minutes)
12 almonds – crushed – toasted at 300 degrees F (maybe 6-7 minutes)
1 Tablespoon golden raisins
1 scallion – chopped
1/2 teaspoon shallots – minced
1 Tablespoon pomegranate molasses
1 Tablespoon + 1 1/2 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
1 Tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1 1/2 teaspoon dijon mustard
1/2 teaspoon cocoa powder
1/8 teaspoon cayenne
1/8 teaspoon smoked paprika
pinch cinnamon
pinch sea salt
Directions
Set the oven to 425 degrees F
Put the squash on a small baking sheet and lightly drizzle with oil. The squash stay in till slightly brown on a middle rack in the oven. Mine took about 20 minutes but timing may differ.
While the squash is roasting make the vinaigrette.
In a small mixing bowl ass the shallots, pomegranate molasses, apple cider vinegar, olive oil, dijon, cocoa powder, cayenne, smoked paprika, cinnamon and salt. Mix till emulsified and the golden raisins and let it sit.
As soon as you take the squash out of the oven hit them with fresh ground salt and pepper to taste. If you didn’t toast the coconut and almonds do that now and lower the oven temp to 300 degrees F. The coconut toast really fast like in 5 minutes and the almonds only take a couple minutes more. When ready to serve toss the squash in the vinaigrette and top with the toasted coconut, almonds and scallions.
Roasted Choyote Squash with Golden Raisins Coconut & Almonds in Pomegranate Cocoa Vinaigrette
A SPECIAL THANKS to Chef Tandy Peterson!!!! For sharing her recipe for Cocoa Pomegranate Vinaigrette. I think similar flavors go really well with Choyote Squash Golden raisins, coconut and almonds. Actually I made this a second time and it was even better when I added some charred green cabbage to the Choyote Squash.
Safeway has had some pretty good buys on chicken breast recently so I’ve been busy making lots of different dishes with chicken breast. Today I played around with a Mexican tasting marinade for chicken breast. WOW DID IT COME OUT FORKING GREAT! It is NOT a traditional Mexican marinade but the flavors swing that way. I then pan seared the breast and they were full of juice and flavors. The outside I forgot to write down exactly what I put in my dusting mix but it was a LIGHT DUSTING of masa flour (VERY LIGHT) that was mixed with salt, pepper and Emerils’ recipe for Bam (a cajun seasoning) I just pan seared the chicken in a regular fry pan that I sprayed with non stick canola oil.
recipe for up to 2 pound of skinless boneless chicken breast
2 pounds chicken breast – skinless, boneless, pounded some, butterflied and cut in reasonable sizes – room temperature
4 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
1 teaspoon kosher salt
2 large garlic cloves – ground to paste
1 teaspoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon ground annatto
1/4 teaspoon coriander
1/4 teaspoon chipotle powder (I buy at Sprouts)
non stick spray
Directions
In a gallon ziplock bag add everything but the chicken first and squish the bag so the liquid is mixed. Then add the chicken and squish it around till the chicken looks all coated. Leave this sit on the counter and squish it around a few times during the hour.
Get your fry pan on medium high heat with non stick spray.
Take maybe a 1/3 of the chicken from the bag and blot them off with paper towels. Season the chicken on both sides LIGHTLY with a seasoned masa flour dust.
Timing will differ but put the chicken in the pan and don’t crowd it too much. Cook the chicken till it looks half way cooked on one side and then flip the chicken over to finish the other side. Timing will differ but with my stovetop and my pan mine took around 5 minutes on one side and around 4 minutes on the other side.
Place either on a cooling rack with a liner or a pan that is lined with paper towels.
Repeat till alll the chicken is cooked.
Serve with fresh cilantro, lime, pickled onions and other vegetables.
Forking AWESOME Mexican Inspired Marinated Chicken Breast
I got these lobster mushrooms so I knew that I had to do something special with them. Lobster mushrooms are different from other mushrooms and do have a faint seafood taste. I thought seafood and that is how I came up with Old Bay Beer Batter and Caper Sauce. They came out delicious but I made about twice as much batter as I needed so I also battered onion rings and a couple small heirloom tomatoes. My idea of serving size might differ from your idea of serving size. For us this made 8 small servings. I used almost a half a pound of lobster mushrooms and one large onion. (I am guessing around a total of 8 servings) I do note that reheated servings did become crisp again when reheated in the oven.
Ingredients for around 8 servings
canola or vegetable oil to fry with (about thumbs length in pot)
1 can beer (I used almost the whole can….the amount of liquid will differ slightly depending on the flour you use)
1 cup flour
1 egg – beaten
1 Tablespoon Old Bay Seasoning – plus extra to dust afterwards
1/2 lb lobster mushrooms cut in strips
1 large onion – thick slices for rings
6 anchovies
1 Tablespoon anchovy oil from can or bottle
2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 lemon – just the fresh squeezed juice
1 garlic clove – ground to paste
1 teaspoon capers
1/4 cup parsley leaves
Directions
Make sauce. Blend together the anchovies, oils, lemon juice, garlic and parsley. Set to the side.
Line a pan or two with paper towels for your fried food.
Get your sauce pot for frying. Fill about a thumbs length with oil. Set it on medium high. Once hot turn down around medium. When oil is ready make the batter. In a big bowl add the flour and old bay seasoning. then add beer and egg and mix well. Do a sample piece first before you fry all of them so you can adjust the flour and beer ratio. It will be very hot so be careful. When you are happy with it drop some mushrooms into the batter and coat them. Shake off excess batter and BE CAREFUL. Use tongs to drop them in the oil. They get done really fast but need to be turned over to brown on both sides. Do the same with the onion rings. Dust lightly with more Old Bay Seasoning. Serve.
Old Bay Beer Battered Lobster Mushrooms and Onion Rings with Anchovy Caper Sauce
I had this big jicama and I wanted to make it into shawarma because Noma That famous restaurant had a celery root shawarma on their menu that was suppose to be amazing. Celery root by me is always old and usually rotten. So I picked a different root vegetable and went with jicama. I didn’t do it the way Noma did their amazing celery root brushing it for hours with lots of fat on a charcoal bbq………but I did mine with the same flavors and almost without fat. I have to say that It came out pretty darn amazing. You should serve it with charred onions and grilled tomatoes, tahini sauce, fresh parsley and either pita bread or rice. My idea of serving size might differ from your idea of serving size. This will make around 6-8 servings.
Ingredients for 6 servings
1 very large jicama – peeled, sliced thin on mandolin
1 smaller head garlic – all cloves ground to paste
1/2 lemon – just the fresh juice
4 Tablespoons apple cider vinegar
4 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon Aleppo pepper
1 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon caraway seeds
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamon
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon cayenne
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1 Tablespoon tahini sauce (must be pourable) (tahini sauce)
1 1/2 lemons – just the fresh squeezed juice + a little ice water to desired taste and consistency (tahini sauce)
4 garlic cloves – ground to paste (tahini sauce)
salt to taste (tahini sauce)
fresh parsley
Directions
Set oven to 425 degrees F.
In a small bowl combine the head of ground garlic cloves, lemon juice (1/2 lemon), vinegar, oil, cloves, salt, Aleppo pepper, cumin, caraway, cardamon, thyme, cinnamon, nutmeg, black pepper, cayenne and ginger. Mix well. Add this mixture to the sliced jicama and mix well. Put this mixture in a baking dish. Put this in the middle rack of your pre-heated oven. Keep it in till it browns on the edges about 25 minutes. After it browns flip the vegetables over and brown the underside of the pan for around 25 minutes more so you have more brown edges. During this time you should be cooking up tomatoes and onions for the shawarma.
Make the tahini sauce
In a small bowl add the tahini and ground garlic. Add lemon juice and if desired some ice water for consistency and taste. Add salt to taste.
Top with some fresh parsley and and serve with pita bread or rice.
Thai Style Son-In-Law are delicious and easy to prepare. They are so easy that you don’t need a recipe. They are usually hard boiled eggs that are fried in either lard or coconut oil and are served with fried shallots and a delicious sauce that is made from tamarind, fish sauce and usually palm sugar.
Start by cooking eggs to either hard or less. That means slow boiling 6.5 minutes for somewhat loose. 7 minutes for jammy. Up to ten minutes for hard. Place in ice bath and when cool peel shells and set to the side.
Make sauce. Boil part of tamarind brick. For 5 eggs I used around a thumb sized piece (maybe more but I wasted some). You boil a block of the tamarind and let it get soft. It says that it is seedless but that is a lie because they always have pieces of seed in them. The softened tamarind has to be pushed threw a fine strainer….or some people just use the tamarind water…..but I think it’s to watery that way or I have to reduce too much. This gets mixed with a little bit of some kind of sugar (usually palm or brown sugar) I used a little squirt of honey and fish sauce to taste (I used Red Boat Brand fish sauce) My sauce seemed too loose so I reduced it some. Then set it to the side.
Start by frying up thinly sliced shallots till crisp. Drain on sheet pan lined with paper towels. In the same oil fry up the eggs till they brown some (this is pretty quick).
If you like spicy fried up some hot peppers for the eggs. (Thai peppers would be good here)
Safeway has been offering chicken breast on special at very low prices so I have been taking advantage of that. Here is my marinade recipe for juicy FORKING Delicious chicken breasts. I marinated mine for close to two hours dried them off with paper towels. Then I LIGHTLY dusted them with a very light dusting of seasoned flour. I whipped up the flour mixture real fast and didn’t measure it exactly. It was something like a half cup of flour with maybe 1/2 teaspoon sea salt, heaping teaspoon cayenne, teaspoon paprika, 1/4 teaspoon granulated garlic, 1/4 teaspoon white pepper. Then the chicken got pan seared in a fry pan with non stick spray on medium high heat. The chicken came out FORKING Scrumptious! Everybody will love this. I hate to brag but this came out FORKING GREAT! Very moist and incredibly delicious. Even leftovers and from frozen came out juicy.
Ingredients for up to two pounds of chicken breasts. (8 smaller servings)
2 pounds chicken breast , boneless, skinless, butterflied, pounded, cut in reasonable sizes
4 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
1 teaspoon kosher salt
2 large garlic cloves – ground to paste
1 teaspoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
1/4 teaspoon paprika
pinch of celery seeds
non stick spray
Directions
Everything except for chicken and non stick spray goes din a gallon zip lock bag. Squish the bag to mix up everything in the bag. Now add the chicken and keep squishing it around till the marinade is all over the chicken. Marinade 1 and no more than 2 hours. Blot off chicken with paper towels.
Get your fry pan on medium high heat. Chicken gets seasoned on both sides with your seasoning of choice or seasoning of choice with a small amount of flour. (Your chicken won’t come out as delicious as mine if you do something different than what I described in the beginning.)
Place chicken in pan but don’t crowd in too many pieces and cook till it looks around half way cooked and then flip over and cook the other sides. Timing will differ but on my stove top in my pan my chicken took around 5 minutes on one side and around 4 on the other side.
When cooked place on cooling rack or pan lined with paper towels.
Serve with vegetables
Forking DELICIOUS marinated Healthy Style HOT Chicken Breasts
Joel Robuchon Style carrots and Jean George Vongerichten carrots are very similar and both feature carrots with cumin and orange so that is what we are doing here. I watched someone on YouTube doing Robuchon style carrots and I thought If I cooked them that much they’d fall apart so I am doing them different and easier. I also used frozen concentrated orange juice since I had it in my freezer for a rich concentrated orange flavor. I do note my idea of serving size might differ from your idea of serving size.
Ingredients for around 10 servings
2 lbs of carrots – peeled and sliced into thinner coins on a mandolin
1 garlic clove – ground to paste
2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1 Tablespoon sugar
2 Tablespoons sweet butter
1 Tablespoon cumin seeds
1/4 cup water
12 oz frozen concentrated orange juice – thawed
1/2 teaspoon piment d’ espelette
1/4 cup fresh cilantro leaves – chopped
Directions
Steam carrots. You can do them stove top or do them much quicker with less mess in a microwave. If you do microwave it’s just- Carrots go in a microwavable bowl. Add 1/4 cup watering cover with plastic wrap. Microwave on high three minutes. Let it sit on the counter.
In a large fry pan on medium high heat add the oil, salt, sugar, butter, cumin seeds,and orange juice concentrate. Cook till it reduces and it’s like caramel. It’s not delicious until the sauce turns to caramel. Drain your carrots.
At this point you can add the garlic, piment d’ espelette and carrots. Cook a few minutes. Add the chopped cilantro and serve.
I got lots of odds and ends in my freezer that I have to use. I also stocked up on chicken breast because Safeway has had them on a sale often. I ended up making something like a pie with chicken breast as the bottom crust. It came out delicious. If you fill the butterflied chicken breast with mostly moist flavorful fillings the chicken should come out moist and flavorful. Depending on the filling you might need to add an egg or maybe two so it holds together. I’m guessing that this makes around 6 servings for most people….. I wrote down everything I made the chicken with but I don’t have exactly how I made the corn bread stuffing topping…because I winged it on Thanksgiving and used turkey drippings instead of oil. You can use any flavorful cornbread…I also used the end of my cranberry pickled beets. You can use a chunky not very drippy cranberry relish as a substitute if you want.
Ingredients for around 6 servings
1 lb chicken breast – butterfly and pound thin
1 lb pumpkin cooked and drained – I used real pumpkin
3 oz chipotle in adobo (fine chop any jalapeño)
1 Tablespoon fancy mustard (I used a dijon with some grain)
1 Tablespoon honey
3 eggs beaten (2 go in the corn bread and one holds together the pumpkin)
8 oz corn bread – cut in cubes
1/4 cup fresh parsley – chopped
bbq seasoning blend (I normally never buy a blend…think I got this was a gift and finally used it…It’s a combination oof salt, garlic, onion, bell pepper, unknown spices, natural smoke and paprika) Chicken gets seasoned well with this on both sides.
non stick spray
Directions
Set oven to 350 degrees F. NOTE I did set my oven at 350 degrees roast. My oven might not be accurate. I think my oven runs slightly less but it’s close enough.
Spray a loaf pan with non stick spray
Season butterflied and pounded chicken breast on both sides and place in pan so it’s like a crust shape.
Add Parsley.
In a medium bowl add the pumpkin, chipotle adobo, mustard, honey and one beaten egg. Mix well and that is next layer.
Next add cranberry or cranberry pickled beets……
In a bowl mix up the corn bread cubes with the two beaten eggs and that is the last layer.
Cover tight with foil and place on middle rack of preheated 350 degree F oven.
Timing will differ because we might not have pounded out the chicken the same. mine was done in 45 minutes. I uncovered mine and put it back in for ten minutes so the top would brown up a bit.
Don’t be alarmed at the juice that is around chicken.
I set mine on counter to cool and then refrigerated over night.
The next day I drained the juice and will serve with the slices.
It came out delicious! Even the chicken is very moist and flavorful from all the flavors.
