Avocado mango salsa or salad

When avocados and mangoes are both in season I love to make this salad/salsa. It is a great on its own or as a side. It just depends on how much you make. You can use any type of chile peppers, I would recommend experimenting - half a habanero is yummy, red jalapenos make it more colorful, just use what tastes good to you. The same goes with onions, sometimes I use green onions, I prefer red onions, but sometimes all I have in the house is the workhorse yellow.

avocado, mango, onion, serrano, lime, salt (cilantro is optional)

mince your onions and chiles

peel and score your mango for easy cutting

don't peel but score your avocado for easy cutting

just gently squeeze the avocado out of the shell

add salt

and lime to taste and mix - add cilantro here if using

and enjoy as part of a healthy taco night

Mangoes and avocados best friends forever!

Dried chile salsa

This is my new favorite winter salsa. I may have canned up a bunch of salsa verde and those will still be loved as chilaquiles, but this salsa is now my go to for everything else. It is so yummy and complex without being overly spicy. That and it is super simple to make. I like mine made almost entirely with orange juice, but husband does not, so I split the difference and do 60 oj 40 water.

mixed dried red chiles, onions, garlic, salt, oj, and lime

heat orange juice and water in a large pot to just under a simmer

dry roast all your chiles on a cast iron skillet until puffy on both sides

add them to the oj/water mix and roast your onions and garlic

let the chiles soak at least an hour

take your tops off the chiles to help them soak up more liquid

deseed the chiles into the water and put the skins in a bowl

drain the seeds out and save the chile water

add back the seeded chiles, the onions, garlic, salt, and the juice of one lime

blend until smoothish

taste and adjust salt/lime as needed

enjoy on everything

I mean everything!

Salsa verde (for canning)

I already have a salsa verde recipe posted, but that is a fresh salsa only recipe. This year since we had such an abundance of tomatillos and the most prolific jalapeno plant I have ever seen, I decided to can some salsa. I had to modify the recipe for canning and I had been adjusting my recipe slightly over the season when I was making fresh salsa. If you want a milder salsa, you can always tone down the jalapenos.

Since I was canning (ie cooking) this version I threw in garlic which my husband can't eat raw and I omitted cilantro which loses flavor if you cook it for long periods. Please look up proportions for vinegar in order to properly can this, it is all relative to the weight of the tomatillos. The vinegar not only allows for safe canning, but it also help maintain the flavors of the salsa. Don't use vinegar in fresh salsa, it will taste crazy, but when you are canning the flavor mellows out and makes your food safe.

my prolific plant - 40 jalapenos still on the plant and I have picked a ton already

tomatillos, roasted peppers, onion, jalapenos, garlic, lime, oil, and salt

peel and just simmer your tomatillos - don't cook them, just bring them up to simmer and turn off

peel and seed your roasted peppers, chop your onions, garlic, and jalapenos

add chopped onions, garlic, jalapenos, salt, cumin, roasted peppers, and lime juice to tomatillos

blend until relatively smooth

now taste and see if you need more salt or lime before you add the vinegar

then add vinegar

bring up to a simmer

hot pack into sterilized jars

can for recipe time adjusted for altitude

store for use until next summers bounty

I love salsa!

Fire roasted salsa

The only thing that makes this harder than making pico de gallo is that you have to fire roast everything first, but if you already have a hot grill, it is easy. Since we like to maximize what we cook when we grill and fill the fridge with yummy leftovers for the rest of the week, this one was an easy one to do. I did add a fresh tomato to the two I roasted when I was making the salsa as the jalapeno was really, really spicy and I needed to cut the salsa a bit.

If you want to make pico de gallo skip the grill and just chop everything up instead of using the food processor and also add some cilantro.

tomatoes, onion, jalapeno, garlic, oil, and salt

grill peppers and tomatoes on a hot flame

and onion and garlic over cooler coals

drop it all into a blender with salt and oil

let her rip

serve with chips or in burritos or over enchiladas or with rellenos or in tacos...

We love salsa!

Green chile

We love making green chile in our crockpot. It is a great recipe for a potluck or for a cold winters night when bellies need warming. It is easy to prep in the morning and have ready after a busy day of fun. The ingredients are all easy to find in the winter if you like me, buy a half bushel of roasted peppers late summer and freeze them in bags for use all year. The rest should be in any larder.

This is based on a dish I used to order when I lived in NYC from a place near my work called Lupe's East L.A. Kitchen. Like most Mexican restaurants in NYC there were just a few things that were good and the rest was typical bad NY Mexican. Their best things were cheese/onion enchiladas with mole and their vegetarian green chile. Here is my rendition of their chile. For this version I decided to add celery on a whim, while good, it made it more vegetable stew-like than the previous times I have made this. Omit the celery unless you really love vegetable stew.

potatoes, carrots, onions, roasted chiles, garlic, cumin, oil, salt, pepper, veggie stock, and maybe celery

chop your onions and carrots

start them in the crockpot on high with oil and cumin
let them cook about 10 minutes

meanwhile peel and seed your chiles

dice the chiles and defrost your veggie stock

peel and chop your potatoes

soak potatoes briefly to remove a layer of starch otherwise the chile is too starchy

once onions start to crisp stir in your garlic and chiles

then add potatoes, salt, pepper, and stock or water to cover

cover and let cook at least five hours

an hour before serving remove some veggies and mash and return to pot - I do two mortars

serve with warm tortillas, sour cream or supreme, onions, cilantro, avocado, more hot sauce

Enjoy!