Salsa Verde / Mild Green Sauce

I've been making this salsa at home lately that everyone seems to like. You know it's a winner when EVERYONE likes it, so I thought it would be a good idea to share it.

Ingredients:
4 tomatillos
2 jalapenos (add more if you want it spicy, but two will ensure it's mild)
2 cloves of garlic
1/2 bunch of cilantro
salt to taste
pepper to taste

 
Boil the tomatillos until they're cooked through, around 8 minutes. Do not throw out the boiled water. Place all ingredients in a blender. Add some of the boiled water, just a little so you can add more later if needed. Blend until desired consistency is reached. If you'd like it more runny, add more boiled water. Refrigerate until it chills and enjoy.

This can be served over tacos, eggs, quesadillas, chilaquiles and even for dipping tortilla chips.


Enjoy!

Sonia

Posole

I love me a bowl of posole. Specially on a nice, crisp, chilly day. I've always thought it was difficult to cook, since we used to only have it on special occasions growing up. But I've also always wanted to learn to cook it. So when my son asked me for posole for his 13th birthday, I knew it was time. I called up mom. Hanging on to every last instruction she gave me over the phone, I wrote everything down...and I couldn't help to but say "that's it?". Really? That's it? This didn't sound difficult at all. And it wasn't! 

Mom's posole recipe is made with pork and red sauce. Many people will make it with chicken and with no "color" to their broth, aka red sauce. But given that my intent here is to cook like my mom, I've used her recipe.

For those of you who are not familiar with posole, it is a hearty Mexican stew made with pork or chicken, hominy and aromatics. Some of us add a red sauce to it for extra flavors...yum!

Ingredients:

1 can Juanita's Mexican Style Hominy, drained and washed

*3 lbs. Pork shank or shoulder

**3-4 dried guajillo chiles, soaked in warm water for 20-30 minutes

3 garlic cloves

salt to taste

For garnishing:

lemons cut in quarters

chopped onion

shredded green cabbage

sliced radishes, I don't use these but mom does

Tabasco

salt

tostadas- I buy Guerrero tostadas, or you can fry your own.

*I purchased my ingredients at a Mexican market and requested the "carne para posole", pork meat specifically for posole. Make sure you get the bones too, it adds flavor. You can take the meat off and shred it later.

**Sometimes you can find the dried guajillos as chile entero, chile New Mexico, and other names. But here is a picture of what it looks like and if it looks like this, it works!

Place the pork in a pot of water, a garlic clove and salt. Bring to a boil and boil for about 15 to 20 minutes. Make sure there's enough water in the pot to cover the pork and the hominy that will go in it. 

While pork is boiling prep the sauce. Cut the stem off the chiles and take out the seeds if you dont' want it too spicy. I just cut off the stem and whatever seeds come out I just leave out, but I don't make it a point to empty out the chile entirely. You can also take out the seeds before you soak them, it might be easier that way. Blend the chiles with 2 garlic cloves. Add the chile sauce to the water with the homini. Continue boiling until the pork is cooked and tender.

Take the meat out and cut into bite size pieces or shred, if the pieces of meat are too big to serve. Put the meat back in the pot with the hominy.

Serve in bowls and provide lemon, cabbage, onion, radishes, salt, and Tabasco for garnishing.

So a Happy Birthday we celebrated for the new teenager in the house. He loved it and nothing warms my heart more than my family enjoying my home cooking! Well, maybe sometimes a bowl of my mom's posole... ;-)

Provecho!

Please tell me how it went if you try this recipe, or send in your questions either on the blog or on Facebook.

Cooking School Day 6: Meat

Although I intended to take one class per day, following the schedule TheKitchn had set up, I ended up getting busy with a temporary full time decorating gig and got sidetracked. But I'm back to finish my cooking lessons.

I have to admit, meat intimidates me. I never quite know which cut is good for what. So I rely on my butcher or what's called out in recipes to know what to buy and how long to cook. This lesson was somewhat helpful, but for me, I'd have to spend a lot more time on this subject to really learn more about the different cuts of meat...and I will. Just not now.

What I took away from this lesson were two very cool tips:

1) Cook perfectly tasty meat, pork chops or chicken everytime with a quick brine.
2) How to make sauces

Quick Brine in 6 easy steps:
1) Mix 4 tablespoons of any type of salt with 4 cups of water.
2) Place your meat in a shallow dish.
3) Pour the brine over your meat until it's submerged completely.
4) Add aromatics like peppercorns, bay leaves and thyme.
5) Let it sit for 15 minutes up to 4 hours. If you're going to let it sit for more than 30 minutes, place it in the refrigerator.
6) Pour out the brine, pat dry and cook as per your recipe.
Voila!

I tried this last night and I must say it worked. Tasty and moist grilled chicken. I used basil leaves, peppercorn and fresh rosemary from my garden :-) I love saying that...or typing it! One day I will have a good sized herb and vegetable garden. For now, it's basil and rosemary...but it's a garden and it's mine...so I get to say "fresh from my garden" :-)
 

Brining my chicken for 30 minutes

Making Quick Sauces:
You know when you go to a restaurant they always have these delicious sauces over meat that just makes the dish even more delicious...my boyfriend loves these! They're actually very easy to make.
1) Clear the pan you cooked your meat in, but don't clean it! Pour out all fat or cooking oil except for 1 tablespoon.
2) Saute a minced shallot in the fat for about 3 minutes. You can skip this if you don't like shallots, or substitute with mushrooms.
3) Pour in 1/4 cup of wine, beer, bourbon, or alcohol of your choice and let it come to a quick simmer, scraping the bits from the pan.
4) Reduce the alcohol by half.
5) Pour in 3/4 cup of vegetable, beef or chicken stock and let it come to a rapid simmer.
6) Reduce by about half, 3-5 minutes.
7) Pour in 2 tablespoons of butter or a splash of cream and whisk until dissolved.
8) For a thicker creamier sauce, whisk in 1 1/2 teaspoons of cornstarch pre-whisked in 2 tablespoons of water. Let it simmer for a few seconds until thickened.
9) Pour the sauce over your meat and presto!! 
I intended to make a sauce last night to, but since I grilled the chicken on the barbeque grill outside I didn't have a pan with bits stuck on it to use. I thought maybe I'd scrape the grill grates and use that, but it was dark and cold outside and just didn't want to take the time to do that. But when I do try it, I will come back and update this post.

Now go impress your guests with a quick and delicious sauce and tell me all about it please, either here or on our Facebook page!


Until next time!

Sonia

PS: I guess this isn't much of a Meat lesson recap...

Cooking Class Day 5: Chicken & Poultry

Today's lesson was all about poultry which includes chicken, quail, turkey and other winged birds. Apparently chicken is now the most popular animal protein in American beating out beef in 2012. That's good news for health.

My take away from today's lesson is that a chicken is cooked when it reaches 165 degrees F. 

Chicken is one of those foods that can be cooked right out of the package, with a sprinkle of salt and pepper. I liked to add spices ranging from spicy chili, to lemon and herbs, and sometimes even marinade it in different sauces.

Just a couple days before this lesson I decided to slow cook an entire chicken. Wow! Super delicious, easy and no fuss. I just spread butter all over the chicken, stuffed it with chopped onions, and sprinkled dried thyme, salt and pepper all over. I then squeezed an entire lemon over it, covered it and let it cook for five hours. Once, done I just let it sit in the slow cooker until the rest of the meal was ready. I cut it up and served it with mashed potatoes and gravy. Oh, and I used the juices from the chicken to make the gravy with some butter, flour, salt and pepper. Yum. The chicken was so tender it was falling right off the bone and it was perfectly delicious, and healthy.

Take a look at the lesson. They included a recipe for roasting a chicken which is very similar to my slow cooker method, just throw it in the oven and cook for an hour. You can use your chicken in salads, quesadillas, tacos, tostadas, etc.

I'm really enjoying The Kitchn's Cooking School and really feel that I learn something daily I can put to use immediately. Have you checked it out?

Good cooking!
Sonia

Best QUESO FRESCO this side of the border

I love my cheese and one of the foods I miss the most from my days living in Mexico City is queso fresco. You can now find queso fresco in just about every grocery store packaged up in a round bag from various different food manufacturers. 

I've been following Chef Marcela Valladolid from Tijuana. She had a show on The Food Network by the name of Mexican Made Easy and a cookbook by the same name. As of late, her Food Network show is The Kitchen, which I love to watch. She recently introduced a line of foods at Vons and it's affiliated stores and I have not been disappointed by one yet. These foods include the most delicious tortillas, marinated meats, chips and my latest buy....QUESOS! This is by far the best queso fresco I've had this side of the border. Try it and check her out on Instagram under @chemarcela

I can eat it straight out of the package! Provecho!!

Sonia