Salsa Round 1

Spouse 1.0 and I moved 500 miles away from our usual Mexican food spots, and 500 miles from the store that sold our favorite store-bought salsa.  Love the new digs, but not digging the lack of good Mexican food.  

True story: We asked the taco truck guy at the fair where to get good Mexican food locally, and he said, "There isn't any."  Then he backpedaled and said his food was pretty good.  (It was, but the salsa was still not quite what I need.)

My mom made awesome salsa, but she took her recipe to her grave over 40 years ago.  All I remembered was that she used Serrano chilis and a blender.

I asked Baby Sister how she made salsa.  She replied by sending a picture of ingredients. (She then described what she did with the ingredients.  No measuring, of course.  That's just now how Mom did things.  But, since Baby Sister doesn't do chilis at all, I figured I needed to keep looking. 

My Ingredients

So, I googled a bunch of restaurant salsa recipes.  Putting them together with my vague recollections of mom's salsa and my sister's photo, below is what I came up with.  It's a bit runny, but pretty good.  Spouse said it tasted too much of tomatoes.  I think that's because I'm using fresh, ripe tomatoes instead of the underripe, mass-produced tomatoes that high-volume salsa chefs have to use. But, it's the best we've had since moving here, so worthy of noting.  

8 medium tomatoes on the vine,  quartered

1 very large serrano chili, about 1 ounce before stemming and chopping

About 2.5 ounces yellow onion (next time, try white)

About 4 good sized cloves of garlic

Cilantro to taste

1 1/4 tsp salt

2 tsp lime juice

3/4 tsp cumin

Pulse blend until everything is coarsely blended

Pour into stainless steel pan and cook briefly (maybe longer next time to thicken it more?)

Pour into clean glass jars with corrosion-resistant lids. Makes a little less than 2 pints. It's fresh food, so use it before it ferments.

Salsa!

Southwest Lime Basil Pesto and Lemony Lemon Basil Pesto

I think you can't be a basil geek without being something of a pesto adventurer.  So, with the recent frosts threatening to destroy my miniature basil crop, it was time for some creative pesto creations. 

The first creation, lemony lemon basil pesto, was pretty simple: Using my favorite pesto recipe (the Williams Sonoma recipe in their muffin cookbook), use all the lemon basil. Supplement with enough Italian basil to make 1 cup. Add a splash of lemon juice. Other than that, follow the recipe.

Using up the lime basil called for something with a little more of a southwest inspiration. Alas, I didn't have any cilantro.  But then, Sis-in-lalala will be visiting soon, and she loathes cilantro. So, for now, we stick with flat leaf parsley. Plus some Mexican oregano, since I have enough to feed a small nation. But, next time, I will use cilantro and oregano. 

Next, the nut. Almonds immediately came to mind. While I was rummaging for almonds, I thought about using pepitas.  Next time maybe.  Or maybe next time, sunflower seeds. But, for now, almonds.

Oil: Either olive or sunflower. I used both.

Other seasonings: chipotle powder, ancho chile powder, smoked paprika, cumin.

Ready, set, Pesto:

Ingredients:
1/2 cup raw almonds (or pepitas, or sunflower seeds, or combo)
4 cloves garlic
6 Tbsp unrefined sunflower oil or extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup flat leaf parsley, loosely packed
1/4 cup fresh Mexican oregano, loosely packed
1 cup lime basil leaves (can use part Italian)
1/4 tsp chipotle powder
1/4 - 1/2 tsp ancho chile powder and/or smoked paprika
1/4 tsp cumin
salt to taste
3-4 Tbsp grated pecorino romano cheese

Directions:

1. Pulse almonds and garlic together in a small food processor until finely minced, but not quite ground.
2. Add parsley, basil, and oil.  Pulse until well-incorporated, stirring periodically.  If it seems a bit dry, add more oil.
3. Pulse in the rest of the seasonings. Stir, taste, and adjust. 
4. Stir in the pecorino romano, adding more oil if needed.

Top with a little extra oil to keep the basil from turning brown.

Thai Basil Pesto, Take 2

Beautiful Downtown Santee rarely gets frost, but we're getting it this year.  A lot. And, covering the veggie corrals with old sheets only goes so far in protecting this sun-loving plant. So, I've been on a pesto-making frenzy all afternoon:

• Classic pesto (Italian and Greek basils)
• Lemony lemon basil pesto
• Southwest lime basil pesto
• Thai basil pesto

I looked at my last recipe for Thai basil pesto and figured I could stand to be a little more precise. And, I could stand to play with it a bit more.

So, here's another version of Thai basil pesto, plus a variation.

Ingredients

3 Tbsp sesame seeds, lightly toasted
1/2 cup raw cashews
4 cloves of garlic
2 Tbsp toasted sesame oil
4 Tbsp regular sesame oil
1.5 cups Thai basil leaves
Salt & pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Pulse sesame seeds, cashews, and garlic until cashews are finely minced, but not quite ground. 
2. Pulse in the oils.
3. Pulse in basil leaves. Periodically stir. If it isn't mixing well, add a little more sesame oil.
4. Season to taste with salt and pepper, and add some garlic powder if needed.

Variation: Spicy gingery Thai Basil Pesto

Stir the following into the pesto, then taste and adjust seasonings:

1.5 to 2 tsp crushed/minced ginger. (Or, use about 1/2 tsp powdered ginger)
Dash of galangal (or more ginger)
Dash or two of cayenne
A little extra black pepper



Thai Basil Pesto and Spicy Gingery Thai Basil Pesto

Thai Basil Pesto

What do you do when you want to make pesto, but only your Thai basil is doing well, while your other basils are barely hanging on for dear life?

Well, you could make normal pesto using Thai basil, but that would be just too weird.  Thai basil is its own thing.  It really isn't a substitute for other basils.

So, embrace the Thai-ness of it.  Make Thai basil pesto.  I know that sounds weird, but it's weird in a good way. Whereas normal pesto using Thai basil would be weird in a bad way.

So, what might that look like?  Going ingredient by ingredient....

Garlic: Keep.  Thai food and garlic are friends.

Pine nuts: Nope. No way. Sesame seeds would be good, but using only sesame seeds would be kind of... seedy.   Almonds would be tasty, but they're too hard. Cashews have a good texture. Sesame seeds and cashews. Definitely!

Olive oil: Absolutely not! Toasted sesame oil is lovely, but a bit strong.  Using part untoasted sesame oil would be lovely, but I don't have any. So, maybe walnut oil along with the toasted sesame.

Pecorino romano: Cheese? Yuck! Not for Thai pesto. Just leave it out. Or increase the nuts.

Salt:  Yes. And black pepper.

So, more or less using my favorite pesto recipe, I just madke the substitutions above.  Except, I've been making pesto so long, I don't use a recipe and have no idea how much of each ingredient I use. I just do everything to taste. Here are some rough guidelines:

Ingredients (quantities are very approximate):

1-2 Tbsp toasted sesame oil
2-3 Tbsp walnut oil
2 cloves crushed garlic, or 2 garlic ice cubes, plus a dash of dry roasted garlic
1 fist full of cashews
2-3 Tbsp sesame seeds
2 cups loosely packed Thai basil leaves
Sea salt & freshly ground black pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Pulse everything except basil, salt, & pepper until minced. 
2. Pulse in basil leaves, being careful not to over process. 
3. Add salt & pepper to taste.
4. Store in refrigerator.

Serving suggestions:

• Toss some with poached chicken and cooked rice noodles.
• Plop some on cooked vegies to give them a little excitement.

Roasted Tomato Dipping Sauce

Two weeks ago, Dawn the Lovely and I were enjoying a beautiful Sunday afternoon, visiting, drinking coffee, shopping.  The perfect girlie day. And then....

Dawn bought a bistro box containing a delicious tomato dipping sauce. Channeling my mother, I made the rash and spontaneous statement, "We could make this!"  But would it be the same? "Of course not. We'll make it better!"

(Yup, definitely Bettye's child, here.)

And, we did.

I shopped for organic canned roasted tomatoes and balsamic vinegar. Decided that either my avocado oil or walnut oil would suffice very nicely in lieu of olive oil.

Dawn came over. We went into the back yard so she could shop for herbs.  Pinching each one and getting high off the fumes, Dawn decided to use a combination of Greek and lemon basil, maybe a few leaves of the lime.  We added Rapunzel (aka my wild and overgrown Mexican oregano) and some Italian parsley.  And rosemary.  Because, for Dawn, life without rosemary would probably not be worth living.

Back to the kitchen to choose oils.  Dawn sniffed each oil, then tasted. She decided on walnut oil.

Maybe everything else should have been fresh, too.  But I'm pretty sure the commercial stuff used a lot of dried ingredients. So, here we go.... As always with this kind of thing, everything is really "to taste".   If you don't like it, it's your own fault.

Ingredients
2-3 tbsp. balsamic vinegar (we used three in the 2nd batch, which Dawn liked more)
4 pinches of salt
Fresh ground pepper
1/2 tsp. granulated roasted garlic
1 tsp. dried minced onion
1 tsp. freeze dried shallots
About 2.5 tbsp. fresh basil
About 1 tbsp. fresh Italian parsley, maybe a little more
About 1 tbsp. fresh Mexican oregano
A few leaves of rosemary
About 4 tbsp. walnut oil (or olive, or....)
About 8 to 10 ounces canned roasted tomatoes

Directions

1. Blend everything except oil and tomatoes with a stick blender until herbs are nicely chopped.
2. Blend in the juice from the tomatoes, reserving the solids.
3. Taste and adjust seasonings, keeping in mind that you will be adding the oil and more tomatoes. 
4. Slowly drizzle in oil while blending on low to create a gorgeous emulsion.
5. Make sure tomato solids are finely chopped, then spoon them in.
6. Taste and adjust.

A note about the herbs:  Measuring full, unchopped herb leaves is an imprecise business at best.  You may stuff your measuring spoon more loosely or more fully than I do. So, the above measurements really are only suggestions. Also, you can use dried herbs.  Start with 1/4 to 1/3 the amounts suggested for fresh, and take it from there.

(Special thanks to Dawn the Lovely for staging the above photo.)

Yes, Anything Can Be a Pancake -- Even Lentils

A while back I purchased a GF magazine that had a recipe for chicken pancakes (oh, yeah!).  They also had one for garbanzo pancakes that used whole beans instead of flour.  That seemed like a good idea for any legume.

So, I decided to do it with lentils.  But, I didn't bother reading the recipe before cooking the lentils.  The recipe used soaked, but not cooked beans. And didn't use eggs or other binders.  Hmm...

OK. So, I'll make up my own lentil pancakes.

And I did.   You're welcome.

Lentil Pancakes

Ingredients

2 cups uncooked lentils
Your favorite lentil seasonings
2 T oil
1 T pepper vinegar, or your favorite vinegar
5 eggs, beaten
1/4 cup tapioca starch, or your favorite starch
3/4 tsp xanthan gum
1/2 tsp baking soda

Directions

1. Cook lentils in water to cover plus a little more with your favorite seasonings.
   I used about 1/3 cup dehydrated mixed vegetables, a little dry onion, some garlic, salt, and pepper.  Cook them until they're mushy, adding water as needed.
2. Using a strainer, drain as much liquid as you reasonably can from about 3 cups of the cooked lentils.  Put the lentils in a mixing bowl and let them cool. Reserve the remaining lentils for soup or another batch of pancakes.
3. Add oil, vinegar, eggs, starch, and xanthan gum.  Stir until thoroughly mixed.
4. Stir in the baking soda.
5. Cook as you would any other pancake, but make them pretty small so they don't break. 
6. Serve with cashew cream ranch dressing.

Cashew Cream Ranch Dressing

Ingredients
Cashew cream  (A little more than 1/2 cup)
Organic mayo  (A little less than 1/2 cup)
Apple cider vinegar
Lemon juice
Dehydrated minced onion
Garlic powder
Freeze-dried parsley
Dill
Salt & pepper

Instructions

1. Add cashew cream and mayo to a bowl using about a 60/40 ratio. 
2. Add a splash of vinegar, a squirt of lemon, and other seasonings to taste.
3. Stir it up, then taste. 
4. If it needs more zing, add more lemon or vinegar.  If it needs more kapow, add more pepper or salt.  If it needs more Mmmmm, add more garlic, onion, parsley, and/or dill.  If it has too much zing or kapow, or if the Mmmm is more like Ohhhh, add more cashew cream and mayo.

I won't bother giving instructions for cashew cream.  There are zillions of cashew cream recipes out there already. 

I (Mostly) Know What's In It Barbeque Sauce

Last weekend I cooked up some pork with good intentions of making barbeque sauce to go with.  Luckily I froze some of the pork, because I only today got around to making the sauce.

Have you ever looked at what's in commercial barbeque sauce?  Mostly it contains scary stuff.

Even the organic ones sold at the expensive organic-minded stores can contain "spices" or "flavorings" -- without bothering to tell you what's in the spices or flavorings. Could be anything. Could be monosodium glutamate.

Some simply contain corn syrup -- which is on the naughty-for-us list.

Most recipes for homemade barbeque sauce contain ketchup.  Even organic ketchup contains the ubiquitous and unnamed "spices."  There might be an organic ketchup out there that gives full disclosure. If there is, I haven't found it. And it's probably $10 per bottle.

Sorry. I want to know what's in it before I put it in me.

And, if it's going to have unnamed ingredients, then I'd rather pay $2 per bottle to poison myself than $10.

I had seen a recipe online for homemade barbeque sauce that started with tomato paste.  I couldn't remember what else was in it. Besides, it's so much more fun to just throw things in a pan and see what happens.

The first thing to go in was some dehydrated onions and a can of tomato paste.

Next, some water, molasses, garlic, allspice, cumin, cayenne, black pepper, wine vinegar, Dijon mustard, raw sugar. Oregano.

Too thick. Add some more water. And some more.

Stir and taste.

A little more molasses, garlic, cayenne, vinegar, Dijon.

Stir and taste.

A bit of bamboo salt.  More vinegar and Dijon and raw sugar.

Too thick.

A dribble more water.

Stir and taste.

A few more sprinkles of dry onion. A pinch more raw sugar.

Stir and taste.

OK, I think this will do.

Most Americans would want it sweeter, though it seemed I'd already dumped an alarming amount of sugar into it.

Well, at least I (mostly) know what's in it.  I just couldn't tell you how much of what's in it, is in it.

Peanut-free Thai Peanut Sauce

Spouse 1.0 and I aren't supposed to have peanuts.  This breaks my heart because I love miniature dark chocolate peanut butter cups. It breaks Spouse's heart because he loves Thai peanut sauce.

Even if commercial Thai peanut sauce didn't have peanuts, it'd probably have a zillion other things we're trying to eliminate... So, why not make my own?

First: What nut to substitute? Cashew butter seemed the most likely choice, if for no other reason than it was already in the fridge.

Next: Google up a likely candidate for a recipe, and read the ingredients and the reviews.

I didn't bother printing the recipe. The reviews said it had too much lime, not enough flavor, blah blah blah.  The important thing is knowing roughly what kind of ingredients to use, and a rough idea of proportions.

So, off to the kitchen to experiment.

Chunked off about 1/2 cup of the cashew butter and put it in the sauce pan. Added a splash of bottled lime juice and a big splash wheat-containing soy sauce.  If I were a loving wife, I'd have squeezed the lime fresh, and used the new bottle of g-free soy.

But, my hands hurt too much for fresh lime, and I figured that a man who still ate a Starbucks sausage sandwich every day wasn't entirely committed to the g-free life yet. So, why not save myself some money and use up some of our old wheat-containing soy sauce.

I really am a horrible person.

OK, back to the sauce. 

Sprinkled in a bunch of sesame seeds, added a big pinch of powdered ginger, and a dash of cayenne. And a small splash of rice vinegar.  Started heating it up, and boy was it thick.  I didn't recall the recipe saying anything about water, but using less lime juice justified adding some other liquid. And some more. And some more.  Maybe a half cup of water in all. Maybe three quarters.

Oh, yeah.  The sweet stuff:  Maybe 2 or 3 coffee scoops of raw sugar.

A little taste test, and it needed more kick. So, another dash of cayenne.  And some black pepper. I should have added garlic, but I think I forgot.

Still a bit thick, but now it tasted pretty good.  I took a teaspoon of it upstairs and woke up the Spouse.  He declared it a little spicy, but generally worthy. Hurray!

Next time, I'll remember the garlic.