I used what I had that needed to be used up and came up with this delicious salsa. You can adjust the heat and acidity to your liking. Serving size is difficult to judge because I don’t know if you need a small amount for a mini taco or a lot to cover a big burrito. This recipe made around four cups so that might be around 8 servings.
Ingredients for around 8 servings
1 1/2 lbs tomatillos – peeled, washed, rough cut
1/2 cup cilantro (leaves & fine stems, rough cut)
1/2 cup parsley – leaves only
2 teaspoons sea salt
5 garlic cloves – fine chop
2 serrano chili peppers – fine chop
2 pickled jalapeños (preferably home made or purchased from a farmer’s market) – fine chop
1 avocado – pit removed, flesh scooped out and rough chop
1 med onion – diced
brine from the jalapeños to taste (I think I used around 1/3 cup)
This is tasty and easy to make but it takes a while to fry the parsnips crisp….I didn’t time it because you just have to keep an eye on it but it seemed to take forever to me. The crisp parsnips taste amazing. They are much more flavorful than any crisp potato. I also fried up the parsnip sticks so they came out like French fries. The carrots got done in 13 minutes in my microwave while the parsnips were still frying. This dish got seasoned with equal amounts of curry powder, cumin, and coriander. his makes around 4 side servings.
Ingredients for around 4 servings
canola oil – for frying
4 parsnips – peeled, woody center removed, one parsnip thin shaves from vegetable peeler, the rest fry shaped
6 carrots – peeled, small dice
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon curry
sea salt to taste
ground black pepper to taste
optional some clipped chives or scallions
Directions
Put a pot of canola oil (around 3 inches) to heat at slightly higher than medium heat.
The peeled parsnips go in till golden and crisp.
While you are making the crisp parsnips. Parboil the French fry shaped parsnips. You can do in either stove top or microwave. Boil around 5 minutes stove top or pop in microwave with water for around 9 minutes and drain.
When the crisp parsnips are done drain on a draining rack or sheet pan with paper towels. Fry up the parsnips till slightly golden. While the parsnips are frying boil the carrots either stove top or in the microwave and add 1/2 teaspoon sea salt. I did mine in the microwave for 13 minutes and they were perfect. Then drain carrots and add 1/2 the seasoning to them (1/2 teaspoon cumin, coriander, curry) also add a few tablespoons of the parsnip oil to them and water to thin as you like. Add salt and pepper to taste while you are whipping them up.
Toss the parsnip fries in the seasoning and add salt and pepper to taste. Top with the crisp parsnips. Sprinkle with chives or scallions if you like.
someone is fascinated Parsnips two ways with whipped Carrots
A couple Thai restaurants in Phoenix offer this delicious Thai Treat called Miang Kham. It’s a minty type of leaf that not always but usually contains a combination of (sometimes shrimp), small whole pieces of lime, coconut, peanuts, shallots, hot chili (Thai or Birds eye), and ginger and also come with a tamarind based sauce. It might not sound as great as it really taste! It really is delicious and you should try it when you see it on a Thai Menu. Chada Thai AZ & Soi 4 Bangkok Eatery both are located in Scottsdale and both serve slightly different versions of this dish. I did an easy quick version of this dish. I think you can use almost any lighter protein if you want to add protein to this dish. Today I added some chicken breast. I think any fish would taste great here too! Portion size is difficult to judge because it depends on how much protein that you add and also on how many leaves that you want to eat. I’m guesstimating that this will make around the amount of stuffing and a light amount of sauce for around twenty leaves. I’ll guesstimate 4 servings. Also around here Perilla are easy to find at Asiana Market. They are not actual sesame leaves but are also called sesame leaves because of their appearance.
Ingredients for around 4 servings
4 Tablespoons cooking tamarind (nuuc me chua)
1/2 teaspoon galangal powder (sold at Asiana market)
1/4 teaspoon coconut extract
1/2 teaspoon ginger powder
2 Tablespoons date syrup (can substitute honey)
1 teaspoon Red Boat Fish sauce
1/2 lime – slice thin on mandolin and then cut into small pieces
1/2 cup toasted coconut chips
1/2 a small red onion – sliced thin and rough chopped
1/3 cup roasted salted peanuts – lightly crushed
1 Thai Chili pepper – fine chop (the smaller the better)
1 teaspoon crystallized ginger – fine chopped
optional protein
Directions
In a small mixing bowl combine the tamarind, galangal, extract, ginger, date syrup, and fish sauce. Mix well and set to the side.
In a small bowl combine the lime, coconut chips, onion, peanuts, Thai chili, ginger, and if you are using protein add that too in small pieces. This is what gets added to the leaves. I used mini bite size paper cupcake liners to hold the leaves. Serve sauce on the side and enjoy!
Perilla Leaf Thai Style Treats with Tamarind Sauce
I was reading a recipe about Turkish Stuffed Pasta that was served over yogurt leeks. They made a green Chile butter for the Turkish pasta….So I thought that a Calabrian Chile Brown Butter would taste good on any pasta. I made my own ricotta gnocchi…you can make any pasta that you desire. I don’t have a pasta recipe with this one but I do have ricotta gnocchi recipes on my blog so you can find them if you want. I didn’t think that yogurt leeks would be very appetizing so I made up a creamy version that taste delicious. The recipe might need some adjustments to the leeks because I thought mine were unusually small inside….This makes only enough brown butter and leeks for only around two portions. You might get more if your leeks are bigger than what I had.
Ingredients for around two servings
2 ounces unsalted butter
1 dried Calabrian chile – crumbled
pinch dried mint
2 leeks – cleaned, dark greens removed, sliced thin
2 garlic cloves – ground to paste
2 Tablespoons unsalted butter
1 Tablespoon flour
4 Tablespoons white wine
1 ounce cream cheese (or a splash of heavy cream)
1/4 cup vegetable stock
sea salt to taste
black pepper to taste
Directions
Heat the butter on medium heat till it turns brown. Strain it and add the crumbled Calabrian pepper and a pinch of dried mint. Set to the side.
The leeks take 15-20 minutes to prepare. Have you pasta done accordingly.
Make your leeks – Melt butter on medium/low and add the leeks. Cover pot and let them go around ten minutes. Add garlic and cook another two minutes. Stir in flour cook one more minute. Add wine and cook till the wine has evaporated. Then stir in cream cheese and vegetable stock. Stir till smooth. Taste and adjust seasoning (add salt and or pepper)
Plate the leeks. Toss the pasta in the Calabrian Chile Brown Butter. Top on top of the leeks.
Calabrian Chile Brown Butter Pasta and Creamy Leeks
I can’t write about everything that I cook or I won’t have time to cook lol! Up above are brined oven fried crispy juicy turkey wings. I do them a few times a year and they are insanely delicious. I wrote about them a few times on my blog already but this is my favorite photo of them.
Recently I made beef shanks braising with bay leaves, tomatoes lots of vegetables and seasoning. I wrote about how I did osso buco a few months ago. This one was pretty much the same but was cut into thicker slices so I braised them for 5 hours. I also blended up the vegetables this time and made a celery leaf gremolata for it.
osso buco
Instead of the usual polenta or risotto that normally goes with osso buco I made sunchoke gratin.
It taste amazing and I learned a new trick about softening the sunchokes in cream…..That recipe that I followed added that cream back into the dish….I knew it wouldn’t work out…..but I did it anyway because I trusted the source. It was too much liquid ( and maybe too much fat) that broke my sauce…(could be a misprint….or maybe something was left out?) So with some of the remaining sunchoke gratin I made mackerel cakes with that sunchoke gratin.
These were easy to do and came out great! I first marinated 2 mackerel steaks in curry oil and fried them for around 5 minutes on each side. Cleaned up the skin and bones. Broke them down into chunks. Mixed them up with some of the sunchoke gratin, two eggs, a small amount of. panko and some dried fruit. Baked them off and they are pretty darn good! Actually really great! Topped the mackerel cakes with honey mustard.
Had a really nice filet mignon out at. dinner. Could only eat. half. The other half made two lunches.
I broiled off some baby bell peppers. After they cooled I cleaned them out and stuffed them with thinly sliced filet tossed with morita salsa, some pickled onions, scallions and some got cheese.
Made another eye roast….(last was in November).
The hardest part is to trim off all the fat and silver skin.
We used to have a Mediterranean/Israeli Restaurant in Phoenix Arizona called Zabari Mediterranean Grill. It was there I tasted an amazing salad that I never heard of before called Matbucha (a slightly spicy cold cooked tomato and roasted pepper salad). My gosh it was one of the most delicious things that I never knew that I liked. So I studied every recipe that I could find for Matbucha, made a chart of every ingredient that every recipe had in Matbucha and picked the ingredients that I wanted to use and the amounts that I thought were correct and tried to make a salad similar tasting to the Zabari’s Matbucha. I think I did it right because it came out amazing…..like I can sell it amazing…..Anyways today I made an even better batch of Matbucha (I got the textures better and the flavor even better) I started to think that since these flavors are so great that I can make a completely different salad with the same flavors and I did! I had around 5 cucumbers that I had to use….added onions and celery and then I was thinking chick peas but went with butterbeans because butterbeans have a more melt in your mouth texture that I thought would be better. Anyway it’s a winner. This will make around 4 servings. Feel free to add a few small sweet tomatoes if you have any…I would have added a few if I had some.
Ingredients for around 4 servings
5 cucumbers – peeled and seeds removed and sliced
1 large onion – sliced very thin and lightly rough chopped
2 stalks celery – small dice
1 – 15 oz can butterbeans drained and rinsed three times
11/2 – teaspoons sea salt (or to taste)
3 garlic cloves – ground to paste
1 Tablespoon Aleppo pepper
1/4 teaspoon smoked paprika
1/4 teaspoon hot paprika
1/4 teaspoon sweet paprika
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
big splash (I didn’t measure but think it was about a 1/3 of a cup of rice wine vinegar)
ground black pepper to taste
Directions
Everything above goes in a large mixing bowl. Mix and season to taste!
I bought Morita Chili Powder from Milk Street so I thought that I should make a morita chili salsa. I think your results will differ if you use whole dried morita chili peppers because there is. more work to them…The powder was easy. Whole dried chili peppers usually need to be fried and soaked. This recipe is easy. Just burn all the vegetables under your broiler. They all get blended with a few other things…..Mine came out spicy but not too spicy. Serving size is very difficult to judge because I don’t know if you are using it for a few chips or coating a big ear of corn with it…..but it goes really well on steaks. Based on the amount of tomatoes I used I’d guesstimate between 8-16 servings depending if it’s a small or large portion.
Ingredients for around 12 servings
2 oz morita chili powder
1 fresh habanero (wear gloves and goggles, mask for safety…at least gloves) cut in half and remove core and stem
2 pickled jalapeños – (preferably home made) – cut in half long ways
2 pounds tomatoes rough cut – You should use sweet tomatoes, pre roasted, or italian canned for best results.
2 heads of garlic – break out all the cloves but leave the garlic cloves in their skins. (you broil them with skins on and then peel)
2 onions – remove skin, cut in half, slice thin.
1 Tablespoon sea salt
4 Tablespoons sherry vinegar
3/4 C apple cider vinegar
3 Tablespoons toasted sesame seeds
Water to thin sauce
Directions
Set your oven to broil.
You need sheet pans.
Put the peppers (peppers skin side up) onions, tomatoes and garlic in single layers on sheet pans. They all go under the broiler until they look burnt. A WORD OF WARNING…They all get done at different times Most of the garlic gets done first and the peppers get down next. Onions in my oven got done next and the last to burn were the tomatoes.
When the garlic cool a little they will slip out of their skins easily.
After the garlic is peeled been together the dried morita chili powder, habanero, jalapeños, tomatoes, garlic, onions, salt, sherry vinegar, apple cider vinegar and sesame seeds. You can thin if you care to with water.
Had an idea today and thought about making Mexican flavored meatballs. I did something similar before but today I thought that instead of adding breadcrumbs I’d add crushed tortilla chips instead for more of a taco taste. Then I needed sauce so I thought a guajillo chili laced tomato sauce would be good with them. This came out tasty and delicious. I note that I did use lots of ingredients for the meatballs that you might not have. I also might have made more sauce than you will use for the meatballs. Extra sauce can be used for tacos, enchiladas, and burritos or can be frozen for. a latter use. For most people the meatballs will be six servings.
Ingredients for around 6 servings
2 oz guajillo dried chilies – washed off, stems off, shake out the seeds (sauce)
4 cups hot water (sauce)
2 lbs tomatoes (skins removed and slow roasted) or use Italian canned (sauce)
6 garlic cloves – ground to paste (sauce)
1 onion – fine dice (Sauce)
2 Tablespoons (slightly heaping) reduced sodium vegetable bouillon paste (I use Better than Bouillon Brand…..(this is healthier and tastier than salt) (sauce)
4 Tablespoons apple cider vinegar (sauce)
2 Tablespoons fresh epazote – chopped (sauce)
2 Tablespoons fresh cilantro – chopped (Sauce)
1 lb ground meat (I used lean 93% ground turkey)
2 oz tortilla chips crushed to crumbs (preferably Calidad Brand White Corn Chips)
2 eggs – lightly beaten
1 Tablespoon (slightly heaping) reduced sodium vegetable soup paste (preferably Better Than Bouillon. Brand reduced sodium vegetable soup paste…this is less sodium than salt and better tasting than salt)
1 hot chili (or to taste) (I used one fire roasted hatch chili) – chopped fine
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1. teaspoon chili powder
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon ground annatto (also called achiote)
1 teaspoon ground chipotle
1/2 cup. scallions sliced thin ). a few. extra. for finishing
1/2 cup cilantro chopped (fine stems are ok to use) a few extra for finishing
1 Tablespoon fresh epazote
3 garlic cloves – ground to paste
1/4 small onion – grated or mince fine
1 Tablespoon water
non stick spray
Directions
Set oven to 350 degrees F.
The guajillo chili pods go in a single layer on a sheet pan to toast. Put them in for two minutes on the middle rack and then turn them over and give them one more minute. The pods should have darkened and should smell aromatic. Many more seeds are in them and now you can shake the rest of the seeds out.
Put the chili pods in very hot. or boiling water 4 cups of water. Leave them soften up. for around 30 minutes. After 30 minutes put this water and chili pods and soup paste on medium high heat. Add the onions and when this boil use a stick blender to blend it. up. Let it cook about ten minutes. Now add the tomatoes and blend again. Add the garlic, vinegar, epazote, and cilantro. Blend again. Taste and adjust seasoning iif necessary.
Make the meatballs. Set oven to 350 degrees F.
Use non stiick spray and spray sheet pans for around 20 meatballs.
In a large bowl mix together ground meat, tortilla chips, eggs, soup paste, hot chili, black pepper, cumin, chili powder, cayenne, annatto, chipotle, scallions, cilantro, garlic, epazote, onion. Mix well. The mixture will be kind of soft. But might need to be slightly softer. I added just one tablespoon of water. Too much water will make mushy meatballs. Not enough water and the meatballs can be dry. I do warn you that this mixture will be sticky and is hard to work with but does make great meatballs. I make my meatballs about 1.3 ounce each and space them out a little so they can cook. Use the middle rack for most of the meatballs and the lower rack for the rest. Cook till cooked threw. In my oven this takes 15 minutes.
Serve with the guajillo sauce. Finish with a small amount of fresh cilantro and epazote.
Mexican Flavored Meatballs with Guajillo Tomato Sauce
This goes well with chipotle lime butter green beans.
Mexican flavored meatballs with guajillo tomato sauce and chipotle lime butter green beans
I had a good idea so I thought I’d share it. I bought a Korean Radish from Asiana Market and I thought I’d use it o make low carb radish tortillas that taste really great with Mexican flavors. All you do is clean the radish and slice thin with a knife. Stuff it with your choice of protein. Then add a very good salsa. Add cheese if you want cheese (In Jalisco they say only gringos use cheese). Add pickled onions and it’s pretty darn good.
I had cucumbers and tomatoes to use up so II thought I’d make a basic gazpacho. I was considering adding my extra mandarins to blend in but ten the idea of yuzu kosno just popped into my head……and I went with it….You might be wondering what is yuzu kosho? Yuzi Kosho (also spelled koshu) is a Japanese condiment of yuzu zest (a citrus) garlic, hot pepper that is fermented…It doesn’t taste as savory or as funky as you might think……To me it taste sort of like a delicious tangerine zest that finishes with a little heat….You can mail away for yuzu kosho or fake it with the zest of one grapefruit, lemon, lime, 2 tangerines, one garlic clove, and one small hot pepper. Usually I only think of yuzu kosho to enhance a fish dish but it is delicious to flavor gazpacho. I think I really came up with something! Serving size is impossible to say for sure because the vegetables differ in size and some people want tiny servings and other people want big servings. This makes around 4-6 servings or around 7 cups.
Ingredients for around 6 servings
4 heirloom tomatoes – stem removed, rough chop (mine good medium sized)
1/4 onion – rough chopped
1 red bell pepper – stem, membrane, seeds removed, rough chopped
1 1/2 English cucumber rough chopped ( I was going to use two but one of mine was 1/2 not good)
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
1/2 teaspoon yuzu salt (you can substitute sea salt)
2 oz yuzu kosho (you can substitute citrus zest ((grapefruit, lemon, lime, tangerine)) with ground garlic and a ground small hot pepper)
