Salsa Verde

Salsa Verde is one of my favorite condiments.    I use it as a dip with tortilla chips, spoon it on my tacos,  use as a topping for my eggs,  cook with it.  It has endless possibilities in my kitchen.      I love the tanginess and just the hint of saltiness of the salsa.  The tanginess comes from the tomatillos.

Tomatillos belong to nightshade family like tomatoes. In fact, when husked the tomatillo resembles a green tomato.  Tomatillos are small fruits enclosed in a husk.  The husk is inedible.

When choosing tomatillos for this salsa, they should be firm and bright green.








                                           






Salsa Verde



Ingredients:
1-1/2 pounds tomatillos
½ cup chopped onion
3 cloves of garlic
½ cup fresh cilantro leaves, packed
1-1/2 teaspoons fresh lime juice
¼ teaspoon sugar
¼ teaspoon ground cumin
2 Jalapeno peppers, stemmed, seeds removed, and cut into chunks
Salt to taste


Directions:
1. Line a baking sheet with foil.  Spray lightly with cooking spray.  Set aside.
2. Remove husks from tomatillos.  Wash under cold water.
3. Cut the tomatillos in half and place on the prepared baking sheet.  Place under a broiler until the skin of the tomatillos is slightly blackened, about 5 minutes.
4. Place the roasted tomatillos, onion, garlic, cilantro leaves, lime juice, sugar, ground cumin, and Jalapeno peppers in a blender.  Blend until ingredients are finely chopped and mixed.
5. Season to taste with salt.
6. Refrigerate until ready to serve.  Serve with chips or with your favorite Mexican food.

Makes 3 cups

Inside of a Tomatillo

Ready For Roasting

Slightly Blackened

Ready to Blend

Horchata

With Cinco de Mayo on the horizon, I thought I would devote my postings this week  to Mexican fare.  Today, I am posting a recipe I found on David Lebovitz's blog Horchata.  Horchata is a drink made from rice in Mexico sometimes with vanilla but always with cinnamon.  You start with white rice and grind it fine in a blender.  Cover it with warm water and refrigerate overnight.  The next day add either rice milk or regular milk, sugar and stir.  Serve over ice.   This is a refreshing drink for hot days or just when you need a quick pick-me-up.

Horchata
From David Lebovitz

Ingredients:
2/3 cup white rice
3 cups warm water
1 (2-inch) cinnamon stick
3/4-1 cup sugar
2 cups rice milk or regular milk
Ground cinnamon. for serving

Directions:
1. In a blender, grind the rice so it is in fine pieces, roughly the consistency of very coarse polenta. (If your blender won't go that fine, that's okay and just bread up the rice as much as possible.)

Ground Rice

2. Transfer the rice to a bowl then pour warn water over it and add the cinnamon stick.  Cover and refrigerate at least eight hours, but preferably overnight.
3. Pluck out the cinnamon stick then puree the rice and water until it's as smooth as possible.  Strain the mixture through a sieve lined with a few layers of cheesecloth, squeezing it relatively firmly to extract as much of the rice flavor as possible.
4. Stir in the sugar and milk, mixing until the sugar is dissolved.  Taste, and adjust sweetness, if necessary.  Refrigerate until completely chilled.

Serving:Serve over ice with a sprinkling of ground cinnamon on top.

Storage: Store the horchata in the refrigerator for up to four days.

Makes about 6 cups

Dulce de Leche Bars

One of my  favorite treats  to make when I need something fast consists of  cereal and marshmallows.  They are quick, easy, hard to mess up, and there is little clean up.  These cereal bars are made with Dulce de Leche Cheerios.  I didn't even know they made such as flavor.   I can say they are good. In fact, it was a good thing I premeasured my ingredients because when I went to put the box away it was practically empty -  I had "cereal tasters" in the kitchen.  To the cereal you add marshmallows, golden raisins, and butterscotch morsels.  The caramel flavor from the Cheerios and the butterscotch morsels  are a delicious combination in these bars. These treats are not only for kids - adults love them too.

Dulce de Leche Bars

From Family Circle Magazine

Ingredients:

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, cut up

1 bag (10 ounces) marshmallows

6 cups Dulce de Leche (or Original) Cheerios

1 cup golden raisins

1 bag (11 ounces) butterscotch morsels

Directions:

1. Coat  a 15x10x1-inch or 13x9x2-inch pan with nonstick cooking spray.  Melt butter in a large pot over medium-low heat.  Add marshmallows and cook until melted and smooth, about 5 minutes.

2. Remove pot from heat and stir in Cheerios and raisins.  Let stand 2 minutes (mixture will stick to pot if you wait too long).

3. Fold in butterscotch morsels until well distributed.  With greased hands, gently press mixture into prepared dish.

4. Let stand at room temperature until cool.  Cut into 24 bars.

Makes 24 servings

Brazilian Strawberry Limeade

As the days are getting hotter,  I like a  glass of something cold to drink.  Today, I made some Brazilian Strawberry Limeade.  I got the idea for this beverage from my earlier post  Brazilian Lemonade from "Our Best Bites".  I  added once cup of sliced fresh strawberries to the original recipe of limes, sugar, water,  and condensed milk.    The mixture is blended, strained, stirred,  then poured over a tall glass of ice.  The result is a  a wonderfully refreshing drink that is not too sweet or too tart.


Brazilian  Strawberry Limeade
Adapted  from "Our Best Bites"

Ingredients:
1 cup sliced fresh strawberries
4 juicy limes
1 cup sugar
6 cups  water
4-6 tablespoons sweetened condensed milk


Directions:

1. Make a simple syrup consisting of 1 cup hot water and 1 cup of sugar.  Stir until the sugar is dissolved. Pour the simple syrup and remaining water into a pitcher and chill until ready to use.
 Note:  This step can be done ahead of time.
2. Puree strawberries.  Press the mixture through a wire-mesh strainer into the pitcher you will serve the limeade in using the back of a spoon.  Discard the seeds.
3.  Wash limes thoroughly with soap.  Cut the ends off the limes and then cut each lime into eighths.

4.  Place half of the limes in a blender.
5.  Add half of the sugar water.  Place the top on your blender and  pulse 5 times.

6. Place a fine-mesh strainer over a pitcher (the one you will serve the limeade in) and  pour the blended mixture through the strainer and into the pitcher.  Use a spoon to press the rest of the liquid into the pitcher.

7.  Dump the pulp and stuff in the strainer into the trash.
8.  Repeat with the remaining limes and sugar water.
9.  Add  4 tablespoons  of the sweetened condensed milk. Stir until mixed.
10.  Taste and adjust sweetness if needed - add some more condensed milk.
11.  Serve immediately over lots of ice.

Makes 4 servings

Sloppy Joes

Last night, I made Sloppy Joes for dinner.  My husband was going to a business dinner so it was me and the kids.  Sloppy Joes is one of their favorite meals.   I like them because they are quick, easy and require  little clean up ( I had a busy day and was tired).     I start out with browned ground beef then add onions, garlic, green chili, some ketchup and spices.   Serve on a toasted hamburger bun and you have one great tasting sandwich for both kids and adults.




                                            Sloppy Joes

Ingredients:
1-tablespoon olive oil
1-pound Ground Beef
1/3 cup diced onion
1 (4 ounce) can diced green chili
2 cloves garlic, minced
1-cup ketchup
½ cup beef broth or water
¼ cup chili sauce
1-teaspoon chili powder
1-teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon ground cumin
¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes
¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
 6 Hamburger Buns
Butter

Directions:

1. Heat olive oil in a large skillet.  Add the ground beef and brown.  Drain fat.
2. Add the onion to the ground beef and cook until the onion is soft.
3. Add the garlic and green chili to the beef mixture.  Cook for 5 minutes.
4. Add ketchup, beef broth or water, chili sauce, chili powder, salt, cumin, pepper flakes, and ground black pepper to the meat mixture.  Stir and combine well. Simmer for 15 minutes. Taste and adjust seasoning if necessary.
5.  Spread butter on the hamburger buns and brown on a skillet.
6. Spoon Sloppy Joe mixture on the hamburger buns and serve.


Makes 6 servings








Piece of Trivia:   The original Sloppy Joe sandwich was made by a cook named Joe at a cafe in Sioux City, Iowa.

Coconut Friands

This week for "French Fridays With Dorie" we made Coconut Friands.  I thoroughly enjoyed making this recipe.  It is simple, quick and delicious.   Best of all, you do not need to be a pastry person to make these delicious little cakes.   The ingredients used were coconut,  egg whites, sugar, flour, vanilla extract, and of course butter.  You  whisk by  hand, then pour the batter into mini-muffin tins, bake, cool, and enjoy.  The cakes were simply delicious:)  They were moist and had a nice chewy texture to them from the coconut.  In some of my friands I put a fresh raspberry then spooned the batter over it.  MMMM, they were fantastic.  I am definitely making this recipe again.  You can find this recipe on page 456 in "Around My French Table."

Coconut Friands Batter

Batter in Mini Muffin Pan

Coconut Friands

Strawberry Curd

The April 2012 issue of "Southern Living Magazine" magazine had delicious strawberry recipes.  My blogger friend, Lizzy, from  That Skinny Chick Can Bake    made the Fresh Strawberry Meringue Cake.  I'm sure you will agree it looked luscious.   I decided to make the Strawberry Curd.  The recipe sounded delicious.  It is  made with fresh strawberries, fresh lime juice, sugar, mmmm.   It makes the perfect spread for biscuits, toast, muffins, scones, or as the recipe stated filling for tart shells. You can also use it as a flavoring for yogurt.   This recipe was well written and very easy to follow.  The time consuming  part was pressing  the strawberries  through a strainer to remove the seeds.  The result was a great tasting berry spread with a hint of lime.










Strawberry Curd
From Southern Living Magazine

Ingredients:
4 cups sliced fresh strawberries
1/2 cup sugar
2 tablespoons corn starch
1/4 cup fresh lime juice
3 large eggs
2 egg yolks
3 tablespoons butter

Directions:

1. Process the fresh sliced strawberries in a blender or food processor until smooth, stopping to scrape down sides as needed.

2. Press strawberries through a large wire-mesh strainer into a medium bowl, using back of a spoon to squeeze out juice; discard pulp and seeds.

3. Combine sugar and cornstarch in a 3-quart saucepan.
4. Gradually whisk in strawberry puree and the fresh lime juice.
5. Whisk in the eggs and eggs yolks.
6. Bring mixture to a boil over  medium heat, whisking constantly, and cook, whisking constantly 1 minute.
7. Remove from heat, and whisk in the butter.
8. Place plastic wrap directly on warm curd (to prevent a film from forming).
9. Chill 8 hours.  Serve with hot biscuits, muffins, scones, toast, or use as a filling for tart shells.

Makes about 7 cups

Strawberry Curd