Green salsas are salsas too, ok?

Winter is officially on the way. Jackets are out, heat is cranking, and hot coffee in the morning never seemed so good. The food choices in the market start to change as more root vegetables come into season. But thanks to our west coast/Florida friends, we can still get fresh produce shipped in that reminds us summer will be back around before we know it. Or it reminds us we could be living somewhere with warm weather year round. Or maybe it reminds us how much we just loooove the change of seasons. I never believed this was a thing, until every new englander drove this into my head so much that it's starting to stick.

Next time you are in dire need of a dose of fresh citrus summer, try this salsa out. It's refreshing, and GREEN. Everyone likes green things these days. I used to see this kind of stuff in taco shops all over San Francisco, and heard it called 'taco shop guacamole'. It's definitely not guacamole as you or I know it, but it's definitely good on tacos. The best part is, it will last longer than guacamole so you can keep it around for whenever you need. Think: eggs, sandwiches, chips, hot dogs?, you name it.

So make some a 'dis, and put it on whatever you like.

What you need:

- TOMATILLOS: I always use different amounts because I'm not mr. exacto, but I would say 8oz is the magic number
- Cilantro: About a cup of leaves
- Avocado: 1
- White Onion: Half of it
- Serrano Pepper: 1
- Lime Juice: 1 or 2 fresh limes
- Salt: As much as you want you
- Chilis in Adobo: 1 or 2 (I add these, you don't have to but it gives a little extra smoky kind of flavor)



Here's what you do:
You will need a food processor or some other type of blender. The good part about having one is, it will do pretty much everything for you. Just slice things up a little bit like you see below, blend, and you are done. Taste test for salt amount, you might want to add more salt at the end.

Now enjoy your delectably dank green salsa.

Chicken Breasts: From Ashy to Classy

Need to impress your lady/guy friend? Trying to woo a potential lady/guy friend? Or just want to be good to yourself? Show them you can make a whole meal. That's right, we're talking protein, grains, AND vegetables on a plate. Separately. Maybe even go buy some fresh bread, WHO KNOWS?? She won't get angry with you next time you insist on having a full glass of water next to your bed like you do every night, and then proceed to take 2 sips. He won't get angry with you the next time you plan out his saturday 3 weeks in advance. Food brings harmony to all.

For the record, I made this meal for myself. I was woo'ed. Didn't even need another date to express myself.

The other considerable woo factor of this meal is the cherry tomatoes. These oh' sweet nuthins are anything but.



What you need:

- Chicken cutlets: 1.5 lbs. thinly sliced
- Cherry tomatoes: About half a container, cut in half
- Shallots: a few, sliced up
- Broccoli, or any other vegetable you want
- Garlic: a few cloves, sliced up
- Flour
- Balsamic Vinegar: a healthy dose
- Chicken broth (optional)
- Olive oil
- Butter
- Some kind of rice and seasoning, I used a box of Near East Rice Pilaf (because we can't make EVERYTHING)




Here's the deal:

1. First you want to pat your chicken breasts dry and coat them in flour. This may seem like a pointless step, but it helps crisp up your chicken and and gives some GOLDEN BROWN HUES. You will see the difference and be happy you did it. Mix in plenty of salt, pepper, and any kind of seasoning you have around, like a little dried rosemary, basil,  or oregano. If you don't have these don't worry, most of the flavor will come from the sauce.



Throw in some olive and a couple tablespoons of butter in your frying pan and get the heat cranking pretty high. The key for GOLDEN BROWN HUES is a hot pan.

2. While your chicken is browning, cut up your garlic, shallots, and tomatoes.

Depending how thick your chickens are, you probably want to cook them about 5-7 minutes per side. Once they are done, take the chicken out of the pan and put aside. It's time for flavor juice.

3. Add in your garlic and shallots, let them cook a few minutes to start looking nice. Next, add in your tomatoes. With the pan still hot, throw in your balsamic vinegar. Stand back, and soak in the balsamic heaven in your kitchen. 

You are almost done. After a minute or so the vinegar will cook down to more of a gravy type consistency. You can add in some chicken broth here if you want more sauce, but you don't want too much liquid. Bring your chicken back to the pan to mix it around and absorb sauce. Does this make you hungry ->>>

Final Step: Put this whole chicken tomato love fest on a pan ready for the oven. Sprinkle some parmesan cheese on top if you prefer things covered in cheese. It would be totally acceptable here. Put in the oven at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes. While the chicken is in the oven, pan fry or steam your broccoli. I mix in some soy/rice vinegar for the broccoli, but you could just eat them as is.

This is a meal you will want to have the leftovers for days, so be good to yourself and buy plenty of chicken. It's simple, but good. Happy woo'ing.

 

 

Mo' Chili Mo' Problems

More Chili? More meat?

This blog would never look like it, but I actually eat pretty light during the week. Maybe I'll get around to posting some healthy recipe soon. In the meantime, we have PORK ON PORK chili. That's right. Double dose of the good stuff. This would anger those cattle country Texans and make absolutely no sense to Carolina pork territory. Barely made sense to me, but it turned out great.

What you need:

- 1.5 lbs chorizo. If you can, get fresh chorizo (whole foods has it). It is ideal. You can take the casing off and it will brown up well. You want a fresh sausage that will crumble up. We like crumbles.
- A Few strips of bacon. Or an entire package. Has anyone ever complained about TOO MUCH BACON?
- 1 Yellow Onion
- 1 Pepper. I used a green poblano for a smoky flavor, but you could use whatever.
- 1 Spicy Pepper. I used a serrano, again use whatever you can find.
- Garlic: a few cloves
- Black beans: 1 small can (14oz).
- Diced Tomato: 1 large can (28oz)
- Tomato Paste. If you have it, this helps thicken the chili. If not just cook the chili longer or use less broth.
- Chilis in Adobo Sauce: 1 small can, you will find these if you look hard enough most stores have them. Cut them up.
- Corn: buy some frozen corn, use your judgement on how much you want.


Seasonings:
- Chili Powder. I used a mixture of Ancho Powder and New Mexican Hot. Just use something that smells good to you. Of all the seasonings, use the chili powder the most. This is chili after all.
- Cumin. Maybe a quarter of the amount of chili powder you use.
- Paprika. Same as cumin.
- Garlic Powder. As much as you want. A little extra garlic never hurt nobody.
- Hot Sauce. A few drops.
- Spicy mustard. A few drops.
- Apple cider vinegar. A few drops.


First things first, be good to your meat. Brown it up nice. Throw in the bacon and chorizo and get your kitchen smelling insane. Is it time for breakfast? Or am I at a taqueria? Maybe breakfast tacos? Brain overload.

Chorizo Bacon Heaven

Once the meat is browned up nice, take it out and set it aside. Try to keep yourself from eating all of this amazing meat mixture before it meets its impending death by chili. Try saying My Meat Meets Me Monday 5 times fast to past the time.

Now it's time for the base. Get your onion, garlic, and peppers in the pot. Let them cook down nice for 5 minutes.

 Once they have cooked down, add in your beans, corn, chili in adobo, and tomatoes. Then bring the meat plate back to the party. Let them all hangout together for a few, before blasting them with your seasonings.

 Flavor Dust

 Cornstorm

After the seasonings have cooked a bit with your mixture, you can start drowning this innocent party in beer and broth. I used about half a beer along with about 14 oz chicken broth. Let this heat up, start bubbling, and then put it on low for as long as you want. After a couple hours all the ingredients will be melded together in one big happy chili family.

This was part of a larger chili cook off this weekend with a few friends. The pork chili is in the bottom right. Props to Mitchell and Lauren on the chicken chickpea chili at the top!

Have more chili ideas? Chickpea cheeseburger?! Send them my at gdonheiser@gmail.com

Jamaican Me Curry, Mon

Keeping with the theme of fall colors, here's a pretty simple Jamaican Chicken/Potato Curry. Something tells me they don't have fall in Jamaica, but if they did, this would be perfect.

I've made different types of curries before that have turned out good, but not that good. This one is currazy good, simple, and doesn't take much effort at all. I always get scared when I see a website mention a recipe as a "weeknight dinner", envisioning a child running out of my cabinet at any moment asking when dinner is on the table. Future he/she probably won't eat this anyways, so I will be reduced to eating kraft mac and cheese. Curry mac? Man can dream. Thankfully, I'm not there yet, so weeknight dinner usually means "something with leftovers so I don't have to buy lunch/dinner the next day". So ya, I'd call this a good "weeknight dinner".

What you need:

- 1 Lb Chicken thighs or breasts, whatever you're into. Thighs have more flavor/more fat. So obviously go for the thighs if you're on the fence.
- A couple potatoes. Slice em up on the smaller side.
- 1 onion
- 1 green pepper
- 1 spicy pepper. I used a habanero and this shit was HOT. Typical Jamaican would call for Scotch Bonnet pepper, but when we ain't in Jamaica we make due with what we got.
- A few cloves of garlic
- A small piece piece of ginger. Take the skin off, dice up.
- 1 can regular coconut milk
- 1 cup of chicken broth
- a few drops of rice vinegar. If you don't have this, get some. It's a good thing to have any time you make a marinade,  but only if you're into that kind of thing, think you might like to be into that kind of thing, or just like the thought of something "marinating". It does sound lovely.
- Hot sauce




















Seasoning:
- 3 - 4 Tbsp. Curry Powder. There are tons of curry powders out there, so you can easily get lost. Every country just HAD to come up with their own version of a curry spice. I love them for it, but my cabinet does not. For this recipe, you want a yellow curry powder. One with the word "Jamaican" in it would be ideal, but you may not find that. Try. If not, a Thai version will probably work fine.


So here's the deal. Slice up the garlic, onions, ginger, throw it in a pot with some olive oil heating. Take a chill pill and LET THIS MIXTURE GET NICE.

When the onions are lookin' nice, add in green pepper, spicy pepper, and curry powder. Use plenty of curry powder as it is the showstopper of this dish.

 After a minute of the curry powder cooking, and your kitchen smelling AMAZE, throw in your chicken. Now we're getting nice.

After about 5-7 minutes with the chicken cooking, throw in the potatoes. After another minute, add in the coconut milk, chicken broth, rice vinegar, and hot sauce. Get this simmering and let it cook on low for 20-30 minutes until the sauce starts to thicken.

For a side dish, make some rice. Or buy a bag of microwavable rice if doing one thing was enough for one tired weeknight. Pat yourself on the back at work the next day when you microwave this and the entire office smells like curry. They stopped thinking about e-mails to follow up on for a few seconds and were transported to a tropical island, so job well done.

Have other curry type recipe ideas? Send them my way!

gdonheiser@gmail.com