I made chef Nud Dudhia’s Vegetarian Eggplant Pibil recipe. Words can not do justice to explain how delicious it was. My gosh it might have been made with some of the best flavors that I’ve ever tasted. I wanted to taste the same flavors in a salsa that I could use for anything so here are all the flavors of the vegetarian eggplant pibil in a salsa. It is hard to judge serving size but my guess is that it will be around 8 servings.

Ingredients for around 8 servings

3 habanero peppers (wear gloves, a mask and protective eye ware) – seeds and stems removed cut in half

3 large tomatoes – remove cores, rough cut

1 onion- slice thin

3 garlic cloves in husks

3 1/2 oz water

1 Tablespoon sherry vinegar

2 Tablespoons white vinegar

1 Tablespoon ground achiote

1 teaspoon dried oregano

1 clove

1 cinnamon stick

1 Tablespoon black peppercorns

1/2 Tablespoon cumin seeds

4 allspice berries

1 orange – just the fresh squeezed juice

1 teaspoon sea salt

1/4 cup cilantro

2 tablespoons mint

2 Tablespoons scallions

Directions

Turn on your broiler. Be careful and wear gloves. The habaneros, tomato, onion and garlic all get blackened. They get down at different times so don’t mix them up. Garlic stays hot a while. When cool enough to handle peel them.

The whole spices get toasted (clove, cinnamon stick, peppercorns, cumin seeds, allspice berries). You can do this in a pan on medium high…you toast till fragrant. But I like putting the spices in the oven while I’m broiling the vegetables. I left mine in until I smelled the spices. (around a minute) Spices need to cool and then you grind them.

You blend up all the blackened vegetables, the spices that you toasted and ground, the 3 1/2 oz water, vinegars, achiote, oregano, orange juice, salt, cilantro, mint, and scallions.

This salsa is FORKING. FORKING FORKING FANTABULOUS!

I used some with my tacos. Made blue tortillas, lime pickled onions, and a few other salsas.

A special THANKS!!!!! To chef Nud Dudhia for his FORKING AMAZING Vegetarian Eggplant Pibil Recipe so I could make this as salsa too!

I came across this recipe by chef Louis Robinson and decided to give it a try. It’s delicious. It is also very easy. Mix up easy marinade. Then marinate your boneless, skinless chicken thighs for 2-3 hours. Cook them up and enjoy!

Ingredients for 4 servings

4 boneless skinless chicken thighs

2 Tablespoons soy sauce

1 Tablespoon sesame oil

2 Tablespoons yuzu juice

1/2 teaspoon togarashi

1 Tablespoon sesame seeds

Directions

Mix up the soy sauce, sesame oil, yuzu juice, and togarashi. Put your chicken thighs in a gallon zip lock bag and then add marinade, squeeze out air and zip it up. Squish the marinade around the chicken and refrigerate around 2 hours but no longer than three. Take chicken out of the refrigerator and let it warm up around 30 minutes. You can can cook it however you like. I did mine in a fry pan on medium high heat at around 5-6 minutes a side. Add sesame seeds.

Serve with vegetables or a salad. (Mine is with Asian style cucumber sesame scallion salad. (That recipe was posted only two days back)

A special THANKS to chef Louis Robinson so I could do this Forking Amazing Dish!

Enjoy!

I was looking for those blocks of achiote because that tasted amazing with the vegetarian pibil I recently made. For some reason I couldn’t find the achiote at the store and picked up a box of Sazon seasoning instead. So I made Spanish Style Stewed Turkey leg quarters with it and man did this come out FORKING Great! I also used local award wining James Beard Nominated chef Silvano Salcido Esparza’s BBMEXQ seasoning salt. I don’t mean to brag but I am very good at stewing chicken and turkey so I knew exactly how to come up with this. This recipe made 6 – 4oz portions of turkey for me. You might have to thin it a little with some water or stock. The next day the potatoes and vegetables will absorb even more liquid…Your idea of serving size may differ.

Ingredients for 6 servings

2 whole turkey leg quarters (preferably brined or dry brined)

4 carrots – peeled, chopped

2 parsnips – peeled, chopped

4 celery – chopped

2 small onions – diced

1 head garlic – fine chop

2 – 14oz cans chopped tomatoes (preferably Italian so they taste better)

2 teaspoons ground black pepper

2 teaspoons cumin

2 teaspoons chilli powder

1 cup water

4 small bay leaves

2 teaspoons sugar

2 (heaping) Tablespoons reduced sodium better than bouillon vegetable base. (I use this as a substitute for salt sometimes…It adds more flavor and has less sodium in it)

1 lemon – quarter

24 olives

2 potatoes – quarter

1/2 oz fresh thyme sprigs

4 packs Sazon (4 unopened packs weigh 24g)

2 teaspoons BBMEXQ Saladito seasoning salt made by chef Silvano Salcido Esparza

Directions

Set the oven to 350 degrees F and have a middle rack ready for your two pans. Do not use the oven for cooking other things or your cooking time will be increased.

Use either two large baking dishes or two buffet half pans.

Fill the pans equally with the carrots, parsnips, celery, onions, garlic, chopped tomato, black pepper, cumin, chili powder, water, bay leaves, sugar, vegetable bouillon, lemon, olives, potatoes, fresh thyme.

It should look something like this.

Get your 4 packs of Sazon.

Rub one packet on the front of each leg quarter and one pack on the back of each leg quarter.

Then place one leg quarter in each pan.

Sprinkle the BBMEX Saladito seasoning salt evenly over the tops of everything.

Cover tight with foil. Place on middle racks in the oven.

This stays in the oven till fully cooked and you can pull the leg apart. Ovens do differ so timing may differ. Mine took 3 1/2 hours. The house smells insanely delicious just before this gets done.

I don’t use thermometers for meat anymore because every thermometer that I have reads a different degree and they differ by a lot.

You want the turkey to be fully cooked with no blood and you want the leg to fall apart between the leg and thigh and you know it is done.

Pull the turkey quarters out of the pan to cool and in about an hour you can pull the skin off and pull the turkey meat from the bones.

In the stew part you want to remove the lemon wedges, the bay leaves and the thyme sprigs. This needs to cool to room temperature and then you can refrigerate it or freeze what you don’t need.

You might want to add some cilantro and pickled onions to serve.

DELICIOUS! ENJOY!

I was reading a recipe on how to make creamy Jalapeño salsa. I was shocked at how much oil was used in their recipe. I only used a quarter of the oil, added way more jalapeños and added a small avocado that I had hanging around. My jalapeños that I used were on the mild side. Serving size is difficult to judge. This makes 8 or more servings.

Ingredients for around 8 servings

1 lb jalapeños – cut in half long ways, remove cores and stems

12 garlic cloves

2 cups water

1 teaspoon sea salt

1 lime – just the fresh squeezed juice

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

1 avocado – seed removed, flesh scooped out and rough cut

1/4 cup cilantro or epazote or a combination

1/4 teaspoon ground white pepper

Directions

The water goes in a sauce pot on high heat. Add the jalapeños and the garlic. Reduce to simmer and let them simmer 10 minutes. After 10 minutes of simmering drain the jalapeños and garlic. They get blended with the salt, lime juice, olive oil, avocado, pepper and herbs. Make any adjustments to the seasoning.

Enjoy!

I made this chipotle lime sauce for a squash and then I got the idea to flavor beef in a similar way so I did. This recipe makes 14-15 five ounce mini meatloafs. I think they might be gluten free too because I used masa flour for that flavor and leftover white rice in them instead of breadcrumbs to bind. You don’t have to stuff peppers like I did and just cook off meatloafs if you prefer. I like the pepper cooked so I pre roasted the peppers cut in half for 15 minutes at 450 f. If you want your pepper crisper and more raw don’t precook the peppers.

Ingredients for around 14 servings

3 pounds ground beef (we grind our own brisket and remove most of the fat)

7 peppers – cut in half longways, seeds & seed membranes removed (I used Anaheim peppers)

1 onion – fine chop or grated

6 garlic cloves – ground to paste

2 Tablespoons chipotle powder (you can remove seeds from a dried chipotle pepper and grind it up or buy chipotle powder I buy it from Asiana Market and have bought it from Sprouts too)

2 teaspoons ground black pepper

1 Tablespoon dried oregano

1 Tablespoon Old Bay Seasoning

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds

1 cup fresh cilantro (leaves and only the very tender stems) – chopped

6 eggs – lightly beaten

1 Tablespoon (heaping) reduced sodium Better Than Bouillon Vegetable Base (I use this instead of salt because it gives more flavor and has less sodium than salt

1 cup corn masa flour

2 cups cooked rice

1 lime the zest and fresh squeezed juice

1 Tablespoon honey

2 avocados

1/2 cup water ( a little less if your avocados are small)

1/2 cup hot pepper brine (preferable from home made pickled hot peppers) If you don’t have just substitute some vinegar or use more water

1 lime (just the fresh squeezed juice)

1 Tablespoon + 1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil

Directions

Set oven to 450 degrees F.

Roast off the half peppers cut side down around 15 minutes or until cooked.

When the peppers are out of the oven turn the oven down to 350 degrees F.

In a large mixing bowl combine the beef, onion, garlic, chipotle powder, black pepper, oregano, Old Bay Seasoning, cumin, cumin seeds cilantro, eggs, corn masa flour, and rice and mix well.

In a small mixing bowl mix together the lime juice and zest with the honey and add that to the meat mixture and mix well.

Measure out 5 ounces of meat mixture and fill peppers.

Put the peppers on the middle and lower racks of the oven and let them cook till done. (about 20 minutes)

While the stuffed peppers are cooking whip up the avocado cream. Blend together the avocado, water, brine, lime juice, and olive oil.

Serve.

ENJOY!

I got the idea in my head that romesco sauce made with roasted Anaheim peppers would be delicious and it is. Romesco sauce is a Spanish sauce that often is used on fish. It is usually made from roasted red peppers, tomatoes, almonds, sometimes thicken with bread and a few other ingredients. It’s a delicious easy sauce to make. Servings are difficult to judge because I don’t know if you are using only a little or a lot. This makes a good 4 servings.

Ingredients for around 4 servings.

6 small roasted Anaheim peppers – peeled, stems removed, seeds removed, chopped (my 6 small peppers were 200ml in my measuring cup)

3 garlic cloves – fine chopped

1/4 cup roasted salted almonds

1 Tablespoon sherry vinegar

1 lemon – the fresh squeezed juice

3 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

sea salt – to taste

ground black pepper to taste

Directions

Blend.

I used it with smoked paprika roasted cauliflower, pickled onions and crisp apples.

Enjoy!