I had a craving for bruschetta, so we grabbed the ingredients to make it today. Really... basil, garlic and tomatoes are one of my most favourite flavour combos! They're so perfect together. I didn't realize we didn't have a recipe for bruschetta posted! You don't really need a recipe for bruschetta, you can make it any way you please. But if you need a base recipe, this is a great one. It's how I make it!
Fast and easy and a great way to use up tomatoes if you're one of those lucky people with a garden! Or if you've been gifted with a bagful from a friend that's lucky enough to have a garden.
I don't think we've had any Ten Foot Pole with our recipes. You might have known them in their previous incarnation of Scared Straight. We're getting our rock on with their "Final Hours". -jen
BRUSCHETTA Time: 15 minutes Difficulty: Easy Makes: about 12
1.5 pounds of tomatoes (about 4)
1/2 cup finely diced red onion (about 1/4 onion)
1 tablespoon minced garlic (2 large cloves)
1/4 cup julienned basil
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil plus extra
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
10 cranks of fresh ground blacked pepper
dash of balsamic vinegar
fresh mozzarella sliced thinly
1 baguette loaf
Julienned basil
Cut tomatoes into quarters and using your thumb, scoop out the seeds and juice. (You can save this for a different recipe later or discard.) Small dice remaining tomato meat. In a mixing bowl, combine tomatoes, onion, garlic, basil, 1/4 cup olive oil, salt, pepper and balsamic vinegar. Toss and set aside.
Turn your oven onto broil. Slice baguette on the bias to make large ovals. Brush both sides with olive oil and place on a foil-lined baking sheet. Toast one side under the broiler until golden brown, watching closely (it only takes 1-2 minutes to brown). Flip and toast the second side until browned and remove. Top toast with a slice of mozzarella and the tomato salad and serve.
I've been making this salsa over and over and over again the last few weeks. We've just been plowing through it.
Ridiculously fast to make if you need something for guests or a party or late night munchies, which is generally our case. I'm having a hard time deciding if I like this salsa more? Or pico de gallo more? I think I must like them equally for different reasons.
I'm not sure why I didn't take better pictures of any of the batches I made. All I did was take a quick pick in a plastic storage container. We fancy. Next batch (which won't be long) I'll try for some better pics.
Here's a band from my home state, Illinois - Blue Meanies with "The Infidelity Song". -jen
RESTAURANT STYLE SALSA Time: 5 minutes
Difficulty: Easy Makes: 4 cups Need: Food processor or blender
2 cans (14oz each) diced tomatoes, drained
1/2 onion, rough chopped
1 jalapeño, rough chopped*
5 medium-sized garlic cloves
1/2 cup packed cilantro
juice of 1 lime (about 1-1.5 tbsp)
1 teaspoon dried Mexican oregano
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
*For a medium spicy salsa, leave seeds in. For a mild salsa, remove seeds. For a hot salsa, add a second jalapeño.
No Cook Version: Place all ingredients in a food processor or blender and pulse until desired consistency.
Cooked Version: I prefer to actually cook the canned tomatoes in a sauce pan over a medium-high heat for about 15-20 minutes, then let them cool about 10 minutes before placing in a food processor or blender with all the other ingredients and pulsing until desired consistency. Cooking them takes away some of the "tinny" taste from the can. I've made it both ways and they're both good! This is just my preference.
We don't eat a lot of pasta, but lately I've been craving a lighter pasta dish. Generally, I love marinara and bolognese sauces, but don't really dig putting them on pasta - I'd rather put them over some spaghetti squash. This time, I felt like pasta, but didn't want one of those heavy sauces, so I did my own version of Puttanesca. It's mostly traditional, but a little of my own preferences thrown in there. Came out really delicious. When I minced together the garlic, anchovies, sun dried tomatoes and olives, it looked like a tapenade of the Gods! I just wanted to spread it on some garlic toast! Admittedly, I was spooning some of it onto the tomato halves, sprinkling some basil on top, and munching them that way as I was cutting them in half, heheh. The dish was really quick and easy to make!
I was reminded the other day that I hadn't used anything from Rancid's new album with one of our recipes. So here is another Rancid Recipe - the title track, "Honor Is All We Know". -jen
PASTA PUTTANESCA Prep Time: 10 minutes Cook Time: 10-15 mimuntes Difficulty: Very easy Serves: 4-6, depending on serving size
6 large garlic cloves
6 anchovy filets (I'm inclined to use the whole 2oz can)
1/4 cup sun dried tomatoes, diced
1/2 cup pitted kalamata olives (or green, or black, or D-all of the above)
12oz dried pasta (your choice: spaghetti, bow tie, rotini)
2 tablespoons olive oil
4-5 large scallions, diced (about 1/2 a cup)
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
3/4 cup dry white wine (or chicken broth)
1 pint grape tomatoes, halved
2 tablespoons capers, rinsed
1/4 cup pasta water
juice and zest of 1 lemon
1/4 cup basil, chopped or julienned
4oz Romano cheese, crumbled
Bring large stock pot of salted water to a boil while preparing the following steps.
Mince together garlic, anchovies, and sun dried tomatoes. Roughtly chop the kalamata olives right into the minced mix. Set aside.
Add pasta to boiling water, bring back to a boil, and then turn down to a low boil, cooking 6-8 minutes until al dente (still slightly under-cooked. Pasta will cook more in skillet.) Drain and reserve 1/4 cup of pasta water.
Heat oil over medium-high heat in a large, deep skillet. Saute scallions and red pepper flakes for 1 minute. Add white wine and simmer for 2-3 minutes, until wine has cooked down by half. Add grape tomatoes and cook for 2 minutes. Add the minced garlic, anchovies, sun dried tomatoes, olives and the rinsed capers. Cook for 2 more minutes or until sauce is reduced and thickened.
Add pasta to skillet mixture with 1/4 cup pasta water. Cook another 1-2 minutes (sauce will mostly absorb into pasta). Remove from heat and toss with lemon juice and zest, basil, (a dash more of wine, if you like,) and crumbled Romano. Add salt and pepper to taste (careful with the salt since the olives, capers and cheese will add a lot of salt). Serve immediately while hot, however, it is quite tasty left over cold, straight out of the fridge.
I'd like to take credit for this awesome dish, but I really feel like I need to give credit where it's due - Ina Garten's Scalloped Tomatoes. I went through and added what I wanted, subtracted what I didn't want and my methods were a little different. But I still wouldn't feel right if I didn't give Ina credit, as her recipe is great. Ours is just better. (Sorry, Ina! We love you!) Justin was baking us a loaf of boule the other day, but whether it was due to temperatures or humidity, it just didn't rise as much as he'd hoped, so it came out a little dense. I'd remembered seeing Ina make her Scalloped Tomatoes recipe and thought our dense bread would be perfect for this... and it was!
I wondered why this dish was called "scalloped"; it was my understanding that meant a dish was made with a cream sauce. So I did a little researching on the magic interweb and it seems there are a few different definitions of what "scalloped" means in the culinary world. While I didn't find a solid answer, I did find this article that summed up the variances nicely. Still, I didn't know if I really wanted to call this recipe Scalloped Tomatoes - I didn't know if it would really explain what the dish was to someone browsing recipe names. Now, the same website that broke down "scalloped" has this to say about "au gratin": "Au Gratin means garnished with crumbs (usually bread) and grated cheese, then baked or grilled (aka broiled.)" I think this definition fits the bill for my recipe more. Now, because I don't speak french, I don't know if it's grammatically correct to call the dish a "tomato gratin" or "tomatoes au gratin" and I couldn't find an answer on that.
I'm not sure how we've done all these recipes and not used a Black Flag song yet. What the hell is going on?! Rectified now... Black Flag (with a long-haired Rollins) doing "Nervous Breakdown". -jen
2.5 pounds (10-12) fresh Roma tomatoes, diced (1/2")
2 teaspoons salt
olive oil
2.5 cups cubed artisan bread (1/2")
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup rough-chopped green or kalamata olives
1/2 cup finely diced onion
1 tablespoon fresh minced garlic (5-6 cloves)
1/2 cup basil, roughly chopped or julienned, packed
1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Prepare a shallow 2-quart baking dish (8"x8") with non-stick cooking spray.
Place diced tomatoes in a strainer over a bowl. Toss with salt and set aside.
Heat 3 tablespoons of olive oil in a large skillet over a medium heat. Add the bread cubes and toss in the olive oil to coat. Let cubes toast into croutons, stirring often, until dark golden-brown and crispy, 5-8 minutes. Add drained tomatoes, sugar, black pepper, olives, onion and garlic. Cook an additional 3-5 minutes, stirring frequently. Remove from heat and stir in basil.
Transfer mixture into prepared baking dish. Sprinkle Parmesan over the top, and drizzle 2 tablespoons of olive oil over the Parmesan. Bake, uncovered, for 35 minutes. Serve hot.
I know it's the middle of winter, but sometimes, you need some summer food. Something light, refreshing and easy. So I came up with this the other day and it's been great. We've eaten it straight up, we've eaten it on top of a lettuce salad, we've eaten it with an olive, salami and cheese platter. And you can't beat something that tastes great and is still healthy. Good New Year resolution food, if you're into that kinda thing. I hadn't initially planned on adding beans... then I saw them sitting on the shelf and thought, "Yeah!" I liked how it turned out a lot!
I was listening to some Boston punk, so I decided to post a little Darkbuster, playing "Whiskey Will". I should have saved this song for a recipe with whiskey in it but... I don't think I'll be at a loss for punk songs about whiskey. ;) -jen
GREEK SUMMER SALAD Time: 20 minutes, no cooking Difficulty: Can you use a knife? If yes, then easy. Yields: 4-5 cups
2 cucumbers, seeded and chopped
2 roma tomatoes, seeded and chopped
1 shallot, chopped
1/2 cup green olives, chopped
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 can (15oz) white beans, rinsed
3/4 cup feta cheese
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon lemon juice
salt and pepper to taste
Mix all ingredients and toss! Can't get much easier than that!
I love when a recipe is actually inspired by a song, rather than coming up with a recipe and then searching for a song to go with it! I'd been in a Tim Armstrong mood the other day (when aren't I?), but wasn't feeling like Rancid, so I pulled out both albums by the Transplants. As soon as I heard the song "Tall Cans In The Air", I knew I had to do a beer recipe with tall cans! I brainstormed a lot of ideas (and will still do more), but in the end, I decided going with a Mexican theme. The black beans are Part 1 of my Tecate dinner, and they came out great! I'm not even a big fan of beans, but seasoned with all these great flavours, I couldn't help but love 'em.
Justin and I actually were discussing whether or not we could taste the beer in the beans... 3 cups in a recipe is a hell of a lot of beer. However, it didn't really seem to stand out. There wasn't a super distinct beer flavour, but I'm sure after simmering for hours with a load of other flavours, it's just going to blend in with the rest. I wouldn't change the recipe at all... though I might be inclined to try a darker beer next time, perhaps a Negro Modelo?
And so I present to you the Transplants (whom I've been listening to all week), doing "Tall Cans In The Air"... lemme see 'em! -jen
TALL CAN MEXICAN BLACK BEANS Difficulty: Medium Prep Time: Overnight soaking Cook Time: 3-4 hours Serves: 6-8
1 pound dried black beans
8 cups water
5 cups chicken broth
1 tall can (24oz) Tecate beer (separated)
1 can (28oz) diced tomatoes
1 medium onion, chopped
1 red bell pepper, chopped
2 jalapeños, chopped (de-seed for less heat)
3 heaping tablespoons minced garlic
1 can (4oz) diced green chiles
1/2 cup cilantro, chopped
juice of 1 lime
3 bay leaves
2 teaspoons cumin
2 teaspoons coriander
2 teaspoons dried Mexican oregano
1 teaspoon salt
few dashes of Green Tabasco
Sort through dried beans to check for small pebbles. Soak in 8 cups of water overnight.
Using a colander, drain soaking water from beans. Place beans in a large stock pot with 5 cups of chicken broth and 2 cups of the Teacate beer. Bring to a boil. Cover and turn heat down to simmer for 1.5 hours.
Add tomatoes, onion, bell pepper, jalapeños, garlic, green chiles, cilantro, lime juice, bay leaves, cumin, coriander, oregano, salt, Tabasco, and remaining 1 cup of Tecate. Continue simmering with the lid off for another 1.5-2 hours. Part way through the second simmer, using a masher, mash up some of the beans to help thicken the sauce. Cook down until desired consistency. Sauce should be slightly thickened, but they shouldn't be soupy.
The lentil soup was really new for me. I'm sure I'd had lentils in soup before, but I have no immediate memory of it. I know we didn't grow up eating lentils. Believe it or not, we DO try to eat healthy at home most the time. And in an effort to better our carb intake (which means cut out the bad carbs and add in the good ones that are low on the glycemic index - ooh, science!), we picked up some green lentils. They sat in our pantry for a couple of months before I pulled them out and just decided to throw together a random soup... which was deliciously successful. I'm not even sure it's fair to call this a "soup". I wanted something a little thicker and hardier, so I suppose it's almost stew-like. Whatever it is, it's good. And that's what counts.
We rocked out with our friend Betsy's excellent Boston choice - The Unseen, singing "False Hope". -jen
ITALIAN SAUSAGE & LENTIL SOUP
1 pound Italian sausage (I used 1/2 mild, 1/2 hot)
2 tablespoons butter
1 medium onion, chopped
4 ribs celery, chopped
3 large carrots, chopped
1 bell pepper, chopped
2 Anaheim peppers, chopped
1 jalapeño, chopped
5 cloves of garlic, chopped fine
1/4 cup fresh basil, chopped
1.5 teaspoons dried thyme
1 teaspoon dried rosemary
1/4 cup flour
1 can (14.5oz) peeled tomatoes
8 cups chicken broth
2 cups lentils
1/4 cup sherry
dash of hot sauce
dash of Worcestershire
salt and pepper to taste
In a stock pot over medium-high heat, brown sausage. When nearly cooked through, add 2 tablespoons of butter. Then add onion, celery, carrots, bell pepper, Anaheim peppers, and jalapeño. Cook until onions are just becoming translucent. Add garlic basil, thyme and rosemary, cooking for another 2 minutes. Sprinkle flour over vegetable and sausage mixture, stirring to mix in and cook 5 more minutes. Then add tomatoes, chicken broth, lentils, sherry, hot sauce and Worcestershire. Bring to a boil, then turn down heat and simmer for 30 minutes until lentils are tender. Add salt and pepper to taste.
First thing first - I feel it's important to note with this recipe that 3.5 pounds of heirloom tomatoes cost us $12 at our Farmers' Market. If you're on a budget, you can always use plum tomatoes in this recipe instead. But the heirloom are so very, very awesome. It makes a ton of soup, so I'd say it's well worth the cost! And most likely, you're going to have some delicious leftovers.
We make a pretty solid Roasted Tomato & Basil soup, and that was my game plan when I started. But like most things I cook, I decided to try a few different ingredients. It really just depends on what we have on hand and what kind of mood I'm in! As I added the carrots and celery, which don't go in my normal recipe, I started thinking about Bloody Marys and thought, "Why not?!" We really liked how this soup came out! I was so bummed we didn't have any vodka on hand! And we were broke, so we couldn't even run to the corner store for a little bit. The sherry was quite delicious with it, just the same.
As you may or may not have noticed... we've pretty much always posted
punk rock music with our recipes. But let's be real - our music
preferences are way more diverse than just punk. I suppose I could just
choose a random punk song that I like to go with the recipe, but
really, I was listening to Glasvegas the entire time I was making this
soup, trying to sing along in my best Scottish accent (at least the words I understood, which is only about half of them), so it seems like the thing to post. Here's "Geraldine", off their
first album. -jen
BLOODY MARY SOUP Prep Time: 20 minutes Cook Time: 2 hours Difficulty: Medium Serves: 10-12
1 large bunch basil, chopped (2-3 cups packed leaves)
3 green onions, chopped
1 tablespoon fresh minced garlic
2 teaspoons dried thyme
juice of 1 lemon
3 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon green Tabasco (or your favourite hot sauce)
1/2 teaspoon horseradish
1 teaspoon Accent/MSG (optional)
salt & pepper to taste
1/4 cup sherry (optional)*
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
Chop the top off of the garlic head to expose the cloves. Drizzle with 1 tablespoon olive oil, salt and pepper. Wrap in aluminum foil. On a baking sheet, toss the quartered tomatoes with the remaining olive oil. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Place the garlic foil packet in the oven for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, add the baking sheet of tomatoes to the oven and roast for 45 minutes. (The garlic will roast for 1 hour total.) When cool enough to handle, squeeze the roasted garlic out of its paper right onto the roasted tomatoes and set aside until ready to use.
In a large stock pot, heat 3 tablespoons of olive oil plus butter over a medium-high heat. Add red onion, carrot, celery and red pepper flake. Saute for about 10 minutes, until onion is translucent. Stir in flour and cook an additional 5 minutes.
Stir in the chicken stock and milk, using a whisk to break up any flour lumps. Add the roasted tomatoes and roasted garlic, the canned tomatoes, basil, green onions, minced garlic, dried thyme, lemon juice, Worcestershire sauce, soy sauce, Tabasco, horseradish and Accent. Bring to a boil, then turn down and simmer for about 40 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste, and stir in sherry right before serving.
*Note: I think this would probably be delicious and more true to a Bloody Mary is you used vodka instead of sherry... but we were out of vodka!
I'm not really sure why I wanted to do some stuffed cabbage lately but it's been on my mind. Makes sense. It's a completely NorCal summer dish, right? My heritage has nothing to do with Eastern Europe, where the dish is believed to have originated, and we have no Jewish ancestry, also associated with the origins of this dish. However, I do recall my mother preparing this a couple of times in my youth, and I remember disliking cabbage in general, so I wanted to give it a go with my big boy taste buds and see what came of it.
I believe it was a success! It's a bit intense to put it together but well worth it in my opinion. Clear a couple hours from your afternoon, if you can, and give it the attention it deserves and you shall be rewarded for your efforts. If you find you want a quick recipe, this is not for you. If you want comfort food tastiness however, that's another story all together.
To accompany this cooking adventure I had some Stiff Little Fingers on the laptop. Referred to in their inception as the Irish Clash, they faded from the scene in the early 80's and yet, I still find myself singing little snatches of songs here and there when I'm working. So it seemed apropos to have some playing while I slaved away in a hot kitchen on a hot summer evening cause if that isn't work, i don't know what is. -justin
Bring water and salt to a boil and add the rice. Return to boil and reduce to simmer until grains are tender, about 45 minutes. Remove from heat, drain in small mesh colander and set aside to cool.
Sauce
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 1/2 cups chopped yellow or white onion
2 28oz cans crushed tomatoes and their juice
1/2 cup red wine vinegar
1/4 cup extra dry vermouth
1/2 cup light brown sugar, lightly packed
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 tsp Kosher salt
2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
Heat olive oil in large saucepan or dutch oven, add onions and sweat over medium low heat till translucent, roughly 8-10 minutes. Add the tomatoes, vinegar, vermouth, brown sugar, raisins, salt and pepper and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to simmer and cook uncovered for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat and set aside to cool.
Filling
1 1/2 lbs ground beef
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
3/4 cup chopped yellow or white onion
1/2 cup dry breadcrumbs
2 green onions, chopped
1/2 cup grated carrot
1 1/2 cups cooked wild rice (see previous instructions on prep)
1 tsp dried thyme
1 1/2 tsp Kosher salt
1 tsp fresh ground black pepper
Combine everything in a large bowl.
Cabbage
1 head green or Savoy cabbage, cored
enough water to cover cabbage in a large saucepot or dutch oven
Boil your water and while you are waiting for that to happen you can core your cabbage (and make sauce and filling if you're awesome at multitasking). Simply, use a sharp paring knife to cut the stem core out of the bottom of the head of cabbage. Place the head of cabbage in the water after it boils and simmer for 3 minutes or so, until the outer leaves begin to become pliable. Remove them with tongs (the water is boiling, remember?) and set aside to cool. When all useable leaves are removed (the center or heart of the head isn't much good for rolling) cut the rib out of each leaf to make it easy to roll.
Assembly
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Line the bottom of an 11x15, glass baking dish with a couple of ladles of sauce so the rolls don't stick or burn. Place roughly 1/2 cup of filling, molded into a cylinder, at the top of a cabbage leaf. Roll the "log" toward the stem part of the leaf, folding in the sides as you go. Place the rolls in the dish, they can be touching, and cover with the remaining sauce (uncovered cabbage will dry out as it cooks in the oven, not yummy!). Cook, uncovered for 1 hr. Let it rest for 5-7 minutes before serving with a healthy ladle of sauce. One or two of these are very filling!
In keeping with Justin's summer theme on the last post, I made this fantastic summery vegetable salad with a homemade Italian dressing. I'd been feeling like raw veggies lately, and one thing with veggie salad is that it's usually cut into large pieces that you can fit two, maybe three veggies on the fork. I wanted this salad chopped a little smaller so that I got all the flavours with every bite. It reminds me of a large-chopped relish. But it was really good... especially after it sat refrigerated overnight. And it's versatile! The first night, we just ate it in a bowl. The next night, we sprinkled it onto lettuce greens. I was thinking it might be tasty warmed and served on crustini, too!
When we make olive oil and vinegar based dressings, we usually just whisk all the ingredients together and you get big bits of dried herbs. It's always good, but I was thinking about the dressing packets you can buy at the store, so I took all my dry dressing ingredients and blended them into a fine powder with our herb grinder and then used the stick blender to blend it into the oil. It came out good, so you could do it that way... but for the ease of those without herb grinders or stick blenders, I posted regular blender instructions
As soon as I started thinking about posting this salad as a summer salad, I got The Atari's "Boys of Summer" song stuck in my head. Well really, it's Don Henley's song, I guess, but it's their version that got stuck on repeat. It's a little poppy... but so was the original, and I still like that one too. :P -jen
ITALIAN CHOPPED SALAD WITH DRESSING Time: 15-20 minutes prep Difficulty: Can you handle a knife? Serves: About 6, as a side dish
3 medium zucchinis (about 2 cups), large dice
2 carrots, large dice
1 cup grape tomatoes, halved
1 orange bell pepper, large dice
1 cup crimini mushrooms (about 7), large dice
1 medium shallot, diced
3 green onions, diced
1/4 cup parsley, chopped
1/4 cup fresh basil, chopped
1 and 1/2 cups mozzarella (12oz), diced
1/2 cup rough chopped green or kalamata olives
1 can (15oz) garbanzo beans, drained
1 can (15oz) red kidney beans
3 teaspoons capers, drained
2 teaspoons minced garlic
1 and 1/2 cups Italian Dressing (see recipe below)
1/4 cup pepperoni, diced (optional)
Place all ingredients into a large bowl. Toss with dressing. Serve at room temp. Note: I'd have put some fresh herbs in this if I'd had any on hand, but since I didn't, I didn't want to put it in the recipe. Maybe 1/4 cup chopped basil or flat leaf parsley.
ITALIAN DRESSING Time: 7 minutes Difficulty: E-Z Makes: 1.5 cups
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon Accent or MSG (optional)
1/2 teaspoon granulated sugar
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon dried rosemary
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon coriander
1/3 cup balsamic vinegar
1/3 cup white wine vinegar
1 cup olive oil
In a blender, combine all dry ingredients and vinegars. While blending, remove the middle spout of your lid (most blender lids have these) and very slowly drizzle in the olive oil so that ingredients emulsify.
So Jen and I like doing meatballs for dinner every so often and last time we had done a nice marinara we happened to be discussing ways to vary them and thought that a Mexican style meatball would be awesome and easy to pull off. Here is my attempt at this meal and I believe it worked excellently, if I do say so myself.
This can be varied with any type of salsa that you want or if you were feeling extra adventurous you could cover it in a delicious mole. I went with a fairly straightforward salsa that would work warm or cold and be good with anything. Feel free to try a salsa verde or maybe a chipotle salsa if you dig the heat!
To accompany this dish I'm going with some Pulley, specifically "Crawl" because that tune has been stuck in my head and maybe this act will appease whatever gods are responsible for that sort of situation. - justin
1 tsp Caldo de Pollo (Mexican chicken bouillon with some herbs and spices)
Preheat oven to 425. Arrange your halved tomatoes (cut side up) on a, oiled baking sheet along with the halved and cleaned peppers (cut side down). Lightly brush peppers and tomatoes with 2 of the tbsp of olive oil. Place in the preheated oven and roast for 40-50 minutes. Cover with foil when they are done and let them sit for 10 minutes to cool. This will steam the skins and make them easier to remove. When the veggies have rested the skins should simply pull off of the peppers and tomatoes. Roughly chop them and set aside.
In a saucepan, add the remaining 2 tbsp of olive oil and set burner to medium heat. When hot, add the diced yellow onion and salt and let the onions sweat until translucent, roughly 7 minutes or so. Add the chopped, roasted peppers and tomatoes, the lime zest and juice, the cilantro, the epazote, the Mexican oregano and the cumin. Stir together thoroughly, and allow to simmer for 5 minutes. Disolve the caldo de pollo in the cup of water and add to the saucepan. Stir to incorporate. The salsa should be very chunky and a little watery at this point. Simmer the water off to thicken it to your desired consistency. If you would like a very silky, smooth salsa, use a blender to puree the mixture. I prefer mine to be a little chunkier so I just gave it a couple quick pulses and called it good after simmering it for an hour or so while I made the rest of the meal.
Meatballs:
2 lbs ground beef (80/20 lean to fat ratio is best for these)
1 tbsp minced garlic (about 1 large clove)
1/4 cup bread crumbs
1/4 cup milk
1/2 cup fresh cilantro, chopped
2 whole green onions, chopped
2 tsp ancho chili powder
1 tsp dried epazote
1 tsp Mexican oregano
2 tsp seasoned salt
1 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 egg
Preheat oven to 425. I find that while the veggies for the salsa are roasting, it's a perfect time to make the meatball mixture and then the oven is already hot and ready to bake meatballs when the veggies come out and you are finishing the salsa.
Mix the breadcrumbs and the milk and let sit for five minutes to absorb. Add all ingredients to a large mixing bowl and use your hands to mix together. Roll into golfball sized balls and place equidistantly from each other on a lightly oiled sheet pan. It should make roughly 30-35 balls. Place in the preheated oven and bake for 20-30 minutes. Meatball diameter will determine your total time but check one of the bigger ones after 20 minutes and use that as a judge for how much longer you'll need. You want medium, not well done.
Tostones:
Frying set up, either a deep fryer or a skillet and a enough frying oil to be a couple inches deep
2 large plantains, peeled and sliced into 2 inch rounds
Heat oil to 350 degrees. Fry enough of your plantains so as to not crowd your oil. Do a couple of batches if you need to or your oil will cool and they will turn out greasier than you want. Fry them for 2 minutes per side (or 2 minutes total if you have them completely immersed in oil). Remove from oil and allow to cool for a couple minutes. Set them upright and smash them with your hand or a spoon so that they squish into a sort of disk. Fry again for 2 more minutes per side and remove to drain excess oil. Salt immediately and set aside.
Completion:
At this point I placed the salsa on the bottom of a plate, set the
tostones in the salsa like little boats and served the meatballs resting
on top of the tostones, like so:
However, you could do the salsa over the meatballs or tostones on the side or whatever you like.
