You are here: Home / Archives for Kitchen Techniques and Hints

Spinach and Garlic Alfredo Pizza (With or Without Onions and Anchovies)

May 9, 2012 by 7 Comments

Monday, I declared this week to be Pizza Week. Today is the first pizza in the series. All of these pizzas will use the No-Knead Whole-Wheat Semolina Pizza Dough recipe I posted Monday.

As much as I love a good, plain old pepperoni and cheese pizza, there is something about pizza that makes me wildly experimental.  The pizza shell is my canvas and I go all Jackson Pollack on it. Today, I will go all Jackson Pollack on this post. Disjointed. Scattershot. Yeah. Um, stick with me. The pizza is totally worth it.

I’ve played around with white pizzas over the years but until recently was never blown away by the results. The solution was two-fold.

  1. I found the perfect crust. (See yesterday’s post!)
  2. I started using garlic Alfredo sauce instead of olive oil and garlic.

I have to tell you that Alfredo sauce is my six-year old’s specialty in the kitchen. Granted, I measure the ingredients into a bowl for him, but he does all the grunt work. He whisks the ingredients together while I work on pizza crusts. We’re a well-oiled team. Actually, we’re a well-buttered team. The Alfredo sauce is pretty buttery. And creamy. And cheesy. This is mainly due to the fact that Alfredo sauce is made almost entirely of butter, cheese, and eggs with heavy cream thrown in for good measure.  Because really, butter, eggs, and cheese aren’t rich enough on their own. Oy.

To that rich, velvety, hubba hubba base, we add a touch of garlic, parsley and black pepper. Voila! You have a sauce that makes pizzas sing and pasta weep with joy. It also makes a pretty darned irresistible perfume if you’re married to someone like the guy I married!

Speaking of things that my husband can’t resist, I must broach the subject of anchovies. Full disclosure: I am an unapologetic anchovy cheerleader. I love them. I adore them. I pink puffy hearts love everything about them. I do know, however, that not everybody is in my camp. If the thought of the hairy, spooky little fish fillets on your pizza skeeves you out, might I suggest that you chop at least one and add it to your Alfredo sauce? You will be shocked -SHOCKED, I say- at the subtle boost the presence of the little fishy adds. If you just can’t leap that hurdle, mentally, it’s alright. I’m still here for you. I am still going to dangle anchovies proverbially in front of you from time to time until you feel brave enough to try them. That’s right. I am big sister to the world.

In short, if you don’t like anchovies and onions, don’t put them on the pizza.

…And since we’re on the subject of dangling things in front of people until they try them, let’s talk spinach. My kids -thanks to a friend who fed them spinach in my absence- are pretty keen on spinach. Even two of the founding members of my anti-veg contingent like spinach. Proving the aforementioned friend’s theory right again, combining spinach and Alfredo sauce on this pizza is -at least in my imagination- probably what it was like when someone first stuck a chocolate bar in a jar of peanut butter.  Heavenly angels singing comes to mind…

We can’t forget to talk about the crust! I made many promises about this crust in the post with the dough recipe. I cut the pizza and The Evil Genius swooped in (sans cape) to snatch the first piece after I photographed it.

He declared, “You must show them a picture of the bottom of the crust. That’s the key! That’s how they’ll know this is one crust to rule them all.” And to further drive his point home, this man -the one who I am convinced wears a hat in order to have something to pull over his face when I aim the camera at him- offered to hold the pizza up (after taking a bite, of course) and let his hand be in the picture.  It’s a banner day people. I present to you “Perfect Crust in a Manly Hand”.

Now let’s make a pizza -an AWESOME pizza- together, shall we?

Print
Spinach and Garlic Alfredo Pizza (With or Without Onions and Anchovies)

Spinach and Garlic Alfredo Pizza (With or Without Onions and Anchovies)

The perfect pizza dough is topped with a creamy, rich Garlic Alfredo, spinach, and mozzarella (and anchovies and onions in our house!) and baked to crackly crisp perfection with little charred bits on the crust and golden brown cheese. This is one white pizza to rule them all!

Ingredients

    For the Garlic Alfredo Sauce:
  • 1 cup (8 ounces by weight) butter
  • 2 to 2-1/2 cups grated Parmesan or Romano cheese (or a blend)
  • 3/4 cup heavy cream
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 garlic clove, minced or pressed
  • 1 teaspoon dried parsley flakes (or 1 tablespoon fresh, minced parsley)
  • freshly ground black pepper, to taste
    • For the Pizza:
  • 1 piece, about 5 ounces or the size of a large plum, of No-Knead Whole-Wheat Semolina Pizza Dough
  • 1/2 cup to 2/3 cup of Garlic Alfredo Sauce
  • 1 1/2 cups shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese
  • 2 cups of frozen spinach, thawed and squeezed to remove most of the moisture
  • cornmeal or semolina for the peel
  • Optional but ever so tasty:
  • 2 (1/8 to 1/4-inch thick) slices of a peeled onion, cut into half moons.
  • 6 whole anchovy fillets (the packed in olive oil variety), blotted gently

Instructions

To Make the Garlic Alfredo Sauce:

Melt the butter in a microwave safe bowl. Whisk in all additional ingredients and refrigerate -tightly covered- until ready to use. Leftovers should be used within 3 days.

To Make the Pizza:

With a pizza stone situated in the bottom third, preheat the oven as high as you can get it. We use a 500°F setting on our oven.

Lightly flour your work surface. Form your pizza dough into a ball by gently stretching the top of the dough underneath itself. Place the dough on the floured work surface and pat it out gently with your hands into a disc shape until you cannot make it any wider. Flour a rolling pin and gently roll the pizza dough out. This works best if you look at the pizza dough as a clock. Start rolling from the center of the circle toward 12 o'clock, rotate your pin and roll from the center to 3 o'clock, then from the center to 6 o'clock, and so forth, ending back at 12 o'clock. Do this until you have a circle that is about 10-inches in diameter.

Sprinkle a pizza peel generously with semolina flour or cornmeal. Carefully transfer the dough to the peel. Shake gently to be sure no part of the dough sticks. This is crucial. You will be shaking the peel gently after each addition of toppings to make sure the dough can still move freely. If at any point the dough sticks, gently lift the offending area and throw a bunch of semolina or cornmeal under it.

Spread the Garlic Alfredo sauce over the dough to within a 1/2-inch of the edges. Shake the dough to make sure it's not stuck.

Sprinkle most of the grated cheese, reserving about 1/4 cup, over the Garlic Alfredo sauce. Pull off peanut-in-the-shell sized hunks of spinach and dot them over the cheese. If using the onions and anchovies, pull the onions into individual pieces and distribute them and the anchovies evenly over the top. Toss the reserved 1/4 cup of mozzarella cheese over the top. Gently shake the pizza to make sure it's not stuck.

Open your oven, position your peel over the back edge of the pizza stone. Flick your wrist to get the dough moving, pulling the peel back as you transfer the dough to the stone. Shut the oven and let the pizza bake on the stone for 8-10 minutes, or until the crust is the desired colour and the cheese is melted and bubbly with golden brown or charred areas. Slip the peel back under the pizza and give a little jerk to move it safely onto the peel. Transfer the cooked pizza onto a cutting board and let it rest 3-5 minutes before slicing.

http://www.foodiewithfamily.com/2012/05/09/spinach-alfredo-pizza-with-or-without-onions-and-anchovies/

 

Filed Under: Comfort Food, Instructional, kid food, Main Dish, Party Food, Pizza, Rebecca, Recipes, Vegetarian Tagged With: , , , ,

Whole Wheat Popovers with Greek Yogurt Creme and Strawberries

April 27, 2012 by 9 Comments

Two days ago, I walked into a doctor’s office and paid them to shoot lasers into my eyes. I felt very Jetsons… very Star Trek… very Galaxy Quest. I half expected Dr. Crusher to walk into the room to scan me. My sole disappointment was the utter lack of sound effects accompanying the laser eye procedure. I would’ve paid another few bucks for a good solid “PEWPEWPEW”. One hour later, I walked out of the office in a very chic (ahem) pair of goggles and 20/20 vision for the first time in my entire life.

Woah.

Let me just say that again.

Woah.

Science is cool. Unlike me in my Weird Al t-shirt and goggles. I did my very best Bono impersonation. I think that judging by the sniggers-not-swoons reception that my attempts received, I should leave the rock-starring to Paul David Hewson and Weird Al (who DOES rock, thankyouverymuch) and confine my rocking to the kitchen. And I do rock the kitchen, goggles or no goggles.

Let me tell you, this recipe doesn’t just rock, it rocks. the. Casbah. Popovers are simplicity itself: a simple batter thrown together in the blender, poured into a greased pan, then baked at a high temperature until puffy. You already win when you make popovers, but these are special. These are (wait for it…) HEALTHY! Holy moly. It’s true. These are whole wheat popovers. True, they puff ever so slightly less than their all-purpose counterparts, but the difference is negligible really and what you lose in loft (I promise, it’s not much!) you more than make up for in flavour and health. What in the world does a popover have to do with dessert you ask? Oh boy. You are in for a treat. Whisk together some velvety thick Greek yogurt with a little mild honey, then some lemon zest and lemon juice. That’s easy, right? Pop *open* the pop *overs* and dollop the slightly sweet Greek yogurt creme. Then you gild the lily by spooning some sweet, fragrant strawberries folded into just a little strawberry jam.

I need a moment just luxuriate in that thought. (And to grab a spoon.)

Oh forget the spoon. They’re so last century, and I am clearly space age now. Just take a bite off of one of these…

…And pile in the goodies.

I’m all for progress, even if it means strawberry juice running down my arm. Maybe even especially if it means that. Pardon me, I’m off to go look at things…

 

Print
Whole Wheat Popovers with Greek Yogurt Creme and Strawberries

Whole Wheat Popovers with Greek Yogurt Creme and Strawberries

Perfect whole-wheat popovers are not a myth! The finished simple, textbook pouffy popovers are honest-to-goodness whole wheat and are filled with a slightly sweet Greek yogurt creme made with honey and lemon. To gild the lily, we spoon sweet strawberries folded into a little strawberry jam over the whole thing. This beautiful and delicious dessert has the added bonus of being healthy! (Pssst. There's no reason to confine this gorgeous dish to desserts. Serve these as an eye and stomach pleasing brunch offering!)

Ingredients

    For the Popovers:
  • 3 large eggs
  • 1 1/2 cups milk (preferably whole)
  • 1 1/4 cups (5 ounces, by weight) white whole wheat flour
  • 1/2 cup (2 1/8 ounces, by weight) all-purpose flour
  • 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 2 tablespoons butter, melted
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
  • 1/8 teaspoon grated nutmeg
  • solid vegetable shortening or non-stick cooking spray for the muffin pan
    • For the Greek Yogurt Creme:
  • 2 cups Greek yogurt
  • 2-3 tablespoons mild honey (clover, orange blossom, etc...)
  • the zest of one lemon (just the yellow part, not the white pith)
  • the juice of half of one lemon
    • For the Berries:
  • 2 cups fresh strawberries, hulled (or frozen whole strawberries, thawed)
  • 1/2 cup strawberry jam ( preferably this Strawberry Freezer Jam)

Instructions

To Make the Popovers:

Add all of the popover ingredients to the work carafe of a blender in the order listed. Blitz on high for 15 seconds. Stop the blender, remove the lid to scrape down the sides with a rubber spatula or scraper, replace the lid, then blitz on high for another 15 seconds, or until perfectly smooth. Put the blender carafe in the refrigerator to rest while preheating the oven to 450°F. It should take at least 15 minutes to preheat your oven, but if it doesn't, let the popover batter continue resting for a minimum of 15 minutes.

While the batter is resting and the oven is preheating, turn your attention to a 12-cup muffin pan. Use a paper towel to generously grease the wells and the top of the muffin pan. Be sure to grease the entire upper surface of the pan. Popovers have a tendency to spread while they puff upward and it's a sad, sad thing to lose a popover because you can't get it out of the pan.

When the oven has reached 450°F, divide the popover batter between the muffin cups evenly. This should fill them approximately 2/3 full. Carefully slide the pan into the oven and bake for 20 minutes. Lower the heat of the oven to 350°F and continue baking for 10 minutes more. Do not open that oven door at any point before the full baking time is complete. You will cry a thousand salty tears of regret.

After the full baking time is done, remove the pan from the oven, let the popovers rest in the pan for 5 minutes, then gently turn them out onto a cooling rack. These taste best when served still warm, but are still delicious at room temperature.

To Prepare the Greek Yogurt Creme:

Whisk together all of the ingredients for the creme until smooth. Refrigerate until you are ready to use.

To Prepare the Berry Topping:

Gently break up the strawberry jam with a fork in a medium sized mixing bowl. Fold in the strawberries.

To Assemble the Dessert:

Slice or gently pull a popover in half. Dollop a generous amount of the Greek Yogurt Creme on the bottom half, position the top half over it and spoon the strawberry topping over the whole thing. Serve immediately!

http://www.foodiewithfamily.com/2012/04/27/whole-wheat-popovers-with-greek-yogurt-creme-and-strawberries/

Filed Under: Breakfast Foods, Comfort Food, Comfort Food, Desserts, Happy Healthy and Wise, Healthy Foods, Holiday Food, kid food, Kitchen Techniques and Hints, Party Food, Rebecca, Recipes, Stretching your dollars, Vegetarian Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Pasties and Beef Gravy | Make Ahead Monday

March 26, 2012 by 18 Comments

Way back in 2008, one of the first recipes I ran on Foodie With Family was for my beloved pasties. (Pronounced PAH-steez, not PAY-steez, thankyouverymuch!) Today’s Make Ahead Monday recipe is a feature of those absolutely wonderful meat pies along with a (tada!) printable recipe and another for *gasp* beef gravy. Read on for why I’m all a-twitter over the gravy.

I was talking with my stepmom, Val, on the phone the other day when she said, “Oh no! Beccy! I have to go!” I said, “Are you alright, Val?” She responded, “I forgot I have to pick up our pasty order from the church. They’re going to close in a couple of minutes.”

All my sympathy and concern that I had queued up for her flew right out the window.

She got to scoot half a mile down the road to pick up a half dozen of the finest Finnish grandmother produced, hand-made, Yooper pasties. I got to drool.

I indulged in a certain amount of self-pity and then roused myself to action. I wheeled on my heel when my husband entered the room and announced, “There WILL be pasties. And it WILL be soon!” imperiously.

While on the whole I find it against my nature to march around making pronouncements, pasties warrant a massive exception. I queened it up big time.

“You must find me a rutabaga! A big one!”

My husband looked at me askance.

“…And we’ll need ketchup!” I added in my most royal tones. Then I said, “You know, Val eats her pasties with gravy. I love her anyway.”

That is where he revolted. “Hey. I know you Yoopers eat ‘em with ketchup and everything, but why? I’d give anything for some gravy with a pasty.”

My every fiber screamed, “NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!”*

 *And here, perhaps, it is time for a brief cultural lesson. People who live in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan are referred to –both by themselves and those below the bridge- as Yoopers. Yoopers love pasties. But even more than Yoopers love pasties, they love ketchup on pasties. Why? I haven’t the foggiest idea, but we do. And the quickest way to find out whether someone is a Yooper by passing them a gravy boat and a ketchup jar. Watch them carefully. A moment’s hesitation, a feint for the gravy boat, and you know without a doubt that you are not in the presence of a honest-to-goodness Yooper.

It was my turn to look askance. And askew. And aghast. “What do you MEAN you want gravy?”

He responded, quite reasonably, “I’m not saying YOU can’t have ketchup, but really, we’re talking about a meat pie with potatoes and stuff. What could be better on that than gravy?”

I had to admit that I didn’t have anything other  a traditional leg to stand upon in the argument.  There was no way I could deny him gravy. I’m not ashamed to admit, though, that my head spun a bit as I whipped up the beef gravy. Through my head whirled jokes family members had made about gravy-on-pasty eaters. I remembered a story my dad told about being at a county fair and overhearing some folks talk about being from the U.P. He then approached the couple and said, “Excuse me. I just have one thing to ask. Ketchup or Gravy?” They clapped him on the shoulder and said, “KETCHUP!” They became fast friends.

I put pasties on plates. I put ketchup and –horrors- a gravy boat on the table and watched quietly as all my offspring and my husband poured gravy on their pasties. I reached for the ketchup and scooped a generous portion onto my plate. (Another argument, but one for another day, is whether you put your ketchup on the side or on top of the pasties. What can I say? It’s cold and very rural. We do what we can to keep things interesting.) And then. Then they looked at me and used on me the argument I always use on them, “Aren’t you even going to try it?”

I sensed my authority hanging in the balance and said, “Oh ALRIGHT. Gimme the gravy boat. I’ll try it.” (I was less than gracious about it, but there’s only so much going back on tradition a woman can take with equanimity.) I poured a bit on the corner of my pasty and took a hearty fork full. And then I about died.

It really was not bad. In fact, it was pretty alright. Oh dang. It was good.

Rats.

I won’t have you believe I chucked my Yooper card and ate it wholesale with gravy. Oh no. I still had my ketchup, too, but I grudgingly admit the gravy will be on the table every time I make pasties.

Darnit.

Yoopers, look away.

In this fresh printable version of the old Yooper Pasty post, I’ve included a lovely beef gravy recipe. Just in case, ya know, you wanna freak out a Yooper you love. Or eat a pasty with it. Sigh.

 

 

Print
Pasties and Beef Gravy | Make Ahead Monday

Yield: 16 large pasties

Pasties and Beef Gravy | Make Ahead Monday

This is comfort food at its finest; hand held meat and potatoes pies with rutabaga, carrots and onions. Traditionally, these pasties are served with loads of ketchup, but folks have been known to love (read:inhale) them when covered with good beef gravy, too.

Ingredients

    For the Filling:
  • 1 large rutabaga and 1 small rutabaga
  • 2 large carrots
  • 2 medium onions
  • 8 medium potatoes, preferably a waxy variety like Yukon golds or reds
  • 4 pounds lean ground beef
  • salt and pepper to taste
    • For the Crust:
  • enough sturdy pie dough for eight double crust pies (or eight boxes prepared refrigerated pie crusts) I use a double or triple batch of this pie crust.
    • For the Beef Gravy:
  • 4 tablespoons butter or beef fat drippings
  • 4 tablespoons flour
  • 2 teaspoons browning sauce
  • 2 cups beef stock
  • a pinch of thyme and granulated onion
  • salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

Preheat oven to 375°F.

Slice a sliver off one end of the rutabaga so that it stands sturdily on your cutting board. Then use your biggest, sharpest knife to lob it in half. If it’s freaking you out too much to try to hold a slippery, wax covered, round and really hard vegetable while trying to cut it, feel free to whack it in half with a hatchet or an axe. Just don’t do it on your kitchen counter!

Once you have the brute opened, lay it on the flat side and dismantle it further so your original sphere is in quarters. Take another little bit off the bottom so you can stand the quarters up on their ends and use another sharp knife to remove the peel from the sides.

Cut the rutabaga into 1/4? slices and stack them like a deck of cards. Slice them into 1/4? strips that will then be cut into 1/4? cubes.

Peel and dice the carrots, onions, and potatoes in the same way. Combine all diced vegetables in a gigantic mixing bowl. Break the lean beef over the top, add salt and pepper, and use your hands to mix thoroughly.

Roll out a piece of pie crust to a diameter between 8? and 10?. Lay on a pie plate with the crust hanging over the lip of the plate by about 1/4?. Use your hands or a large spoon to transfer as much filling onto the crust as you can, mounding and pressing down lightly with your hands, to fill the half of the crust that is hanging over the plate.

Now fold the empty part of the pie crust over the filling, pinch the seams together, transfer to your countertop and crimp the edges with a fork.

Transfer to a parchment lined pan and slice a couple of small vents into the top of each pasty.

Slide those pans into the oven and bake for 45 minutes to an hour. Since pasties don’t traditionally get an egg glaze, they won’t be a shiny brown when done, but a deep crispy looking golden brown.

Serve immediately with beef gravy (see below) or cool completely, wrap with foil and freeze for later use.

To Reheat from Frozen:

Place foil wrapped pasty in a preheated 350°F oven on a rimmed baking sheet for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, open the foil so the top crust of the pasty is exposed and heat for an additional 10 minutes, or until hot all the way through.

To Make the Gravy:

Melt the butter or pan drippings in a heavy skillet or saucepan over medium high heat. Whisk in the flour and cook, whisking often until bubbly and fragrant smelling, at least 2 minutes. Whisk in the cold beef stock, thyme and granulated onion and bring to a boil, stirring frequently. Taste the gravy, adjust the seasonings and serve hot.

http://www.foodiewithfamily.com/2012/03/26/pasties-and-beef-gravy-make-ahead-monday/

Filed Under: Accessible Ethnic, Comfort Food, Freezer Pleaser, Instructional, kid food, Make Ahead Mondays, Meat, Rebecca, Recipes Tagged With: ,

Nutmeg Banana Chips

March 23, 2012 by 10 Comments

Back in October of last year, we made the sixteen hour drive through Pennsylvania, Ohio, and way up north into the tippy top of the lower peninsula of Michigan over The Big Mac and into the Upper Peninsula to see my dad and stepmom. We stocked up for the road trip with the usual suspects: pretzels, sandwiches, water, apples, bananas and whatnot. We ate most of what we had packed on the trip north, but were three days into the visit before we realized we had forgotten a bunch of bananas under the seat in the van. They looked, at that point, like they were fit only for banana bread, so I brought them into the house and asked Val whether she’d like to use them. Val said, “Oh no! Those are perfect for banana chips!” She sat down, sliced them, put them on dehydrator trays and within minutes the machine’s fan was whirring and the house smelled divine.

While the bananas were doing what they had to do, Val offered me a handful of the banana chips she had already made. They were crisp and intense and sweet and totally different than the banana chips I’d had before. All the other ones were greasy* and had a weird after taste. These were caramel brown and clean tasting.

*This is because the vast majority of banana chips (dried or otherwise) that are commercially available are fried, and often in palm oil. Hooooooboy. That previously healthy sounding snack doesn’t sound so healthy now!

Val told me, “Get the reduced price bananas that are intended for banana bread and use those. That way the bananas are already very sweet. When you dry those they’re just that much more flavourful.” So, in the name of quality control, we ate our way through their stash of banana chips for the rest of the visit. Dad and I ate banana chips with apple chips, banana chips with pear chips, triple decker banana/apple/pear chip ‘sandwiches’, and smeared banana and apple chips with peanut butter. We ate a lot.

On the drive home, Dad called me and said, “I just had an idea. What if you sprinkled a little nutmeg over the banana slices as they were dehydrating? Then they would be like eggnog chips.” Ohmygoodness, that was a good idea.

The day after we got home, I was eager to put the idea to the test. I sliced about seven pounds of bananas as thinly as I could without making them fall apart, laid them out on trays and grated a little fresh nutmeg -just a smidge- over the top of all of them. A little over twenty four hours later, we sampled our first banana chips- dead crisp and sweet with full banana flavour -almost like vanilla- and a hint of nutmeg. It didn’t scream eggnog, but it was so good. Now, I know we have a lot of people eating here (okay, we have a Viking horde) but nothing prepared me for the speed with which my guys ate an entire dehydrator’s worth of banana chips. It took them two days. TWO DAYS. Two days to eat seven pounds-worth of bananas dried into chips.

In the months that have passed between October and now, I have made close to fifteen batches of nutmeg banana chips and watched them disappear by the handful into my husband, children and their friends.  They’re so good that a couple of my kids’ friends’ families have purchased dehydrators to keep their kids in nutmeg banana chips. If the fact that they’ll go to a jar of banana chips to sate their hunger before hitting a bag of Fritos isn’t enough to keep me making batch after batch, then this is; even the two vehement anti-fruit two-some loves nutmeg banana chips. I’m going to keep making these until no one wants them anymore, which doesn’t appear to be anytime soon judging by the current rate of consumption.

I have it down to a science and can fill a dehydrator with banana slices in about thirty minutes. And while we like ours thin and crispy, there is a little play you can do with it. Do you want a finished banana chip that’s slightly chewier? Just start with thicker slices! Mess around with it and figure out which way you like them best.

And then have a little more fun. Try them by the handful, on peanut butter sandwiches, in trail mix, or one chip at a time smeared with a little Nutella. Let me know what your favourite way is to eat them. I can’t wait to hear!

Print
Nutmeg Banana Chips

Nutmeg Banana Chips

When overripe bananas are dried with a little nutmeg grated over the top, they become a sweet, healthy, crispy treat. My kids and their friends go crazy over these. I'm sure yours will, too!

Ingredients

  • a bunch of slightly overripe bananas- just about at the banana bread stage. It takes between 7 and 9 pounds to fill my 9-tray Excalibur dehydrator.
  • fresh nutmeg

Instructions

Peel the bananas and slice them into 1/16- to 1/4-inch thick slices. The thinner you slice them, the crispier the final result will be. Grate a little fresh nutmeg over the tops- a little goes a long way. Dehydrate at 135°F for 24 hours or until they are a caramel brown colour and are completely dry. Transfer the dried chips to a large bowl and let them sit exposed until completely cool. Store the chips in glass jars with tight fitting lids or zipper top resealable bags. These will store in a cool, dry place for up to a year. Good luck stretching them out that long!

http://www.foodiewithfamily.com/2012/03/23/nutmeg-banana-chips/

Filed Under: Breakfast Foods, Camping Food, Comfort Food, Happy Healthy and Wise, Healthy Foods, Instructional, kid food, Kitchen Techniques and Hints, Rebecca, Recipes, Stretching your dollars, Vegetarian Tagged With: , , , , ,

Simple Garlicky Green Bean Stir Fry

March 16, 2012 by 11 Comments

Let’s review the rules of Tasty Penance.

  1. I give you a highly caloric or nutritionally suspect recipe that is irresistible (par example: this.)
  2. I feel guilty.
  3. I offer a recipe that is nutritionally sound and legitimately good for you that also tastes irresistible.
  4. I’m off the hook and feel free to give you more naughty recipes.

Take a good look at number three on the list because the last bit of the sentence is most important; the Tasty Penance recipe still has to taste outlandishly good. I’m not well-suited to culinary hair shirts and gustatory self-flagellation. My taste buds still have to be happy because I am needy.

Today’s recipe knocks requirement number three out of the park.* These crisp-tender, garlicky, gingery, spicy green beans are not just packed with all my favourite flavours, they’re also great for you. If you blanched (vegetable pun) at the sight of the word ‘spicy’, don’t fret, the spice is easily omitted from this recipe. Whenever I make these, only about half of the finished product makes it to the table because The Evil Genius and I circle around the kitchen on any little excuse we can think of, snitching at first just one green bean, but then becoming bolder and dangling three or four into our mouths at once. Such is the power of this green bean dish. Did you ever think they could be so good?

*Cue baseball analogies because Spring Training is going strong. Go Red Sox!

Making this dish even more appealing is the fact that it is so easy to make.

I just have one warning, but it’s a biggie.

More than one person has sworn off stir-fries because they didn’t follow the law. They’ve gotten two or three or however many steps in and realized they forgot to peel/chop/measure/BUY some crucial ingredient and it derailed the whole process. I feel that pain. There is nothing quite like unrequited stir fry cravings. I can help, though.

I can. Trust me. The one simple hide-bound rule to successful stir-fries is this:

You need to remember to have absolutely everything -ingredients AND equipment- ready and within reach before starting to cook.

Have your green beans washed and trimmed if necessary, your garlic/onion/ginger minced or sliced according to directions, your water and oyster sauce, your wooden spoons, and your serving bowl standing on the counter raring to go. Once you put the oil in the pan, you are on duty and you will not walk away until it is done and in the bowl to be served. It’s the law.

Now go forth and conquer stir-fries starting with this perfect spring green bean dish. Tasty Penance is a good thing.

Print
Simple Garlicky Green Bean Stir Fry

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 10 minutes

Total Time: 20 minutes

Yield: 4 servings for a side dish, 2 for a main dish

Simple Garlicky Green Bean Stir Fry

Crisp-tender, garlicky, gingery, and coated in a slightly sweet sauce, these spicy green beans are good enough to be a stand-alone vegetarian main dish, but are intended to be served alongside any number of stir-fries or grilled or fried meats. Healthy tastes great!

Adapted, with thanks, from Kalyn Denny of Kalyn's Kitchen

Ingredients

  • 1 pound fresh green beans (Preferably haricot vert, but any fresh green bean will do.), ends trimmed if necessary, and strings removed if they are particularly stringy.
  • 2 tablespoons canola, vegetable or peanut oil
  • 3 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
  • 1 tablespoon of ginger, peeled and minced
  • 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (Omit if you're sensitive to heat.)
  • 1 large yellow onion
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 1/2 tablespoons water
  • 2 tablespoons oyster sauce (found near the Asian foods in most grocery stores.)
  • Optional:
  • sesame seeds for garnish

Instructions

Cut and discard a thin disc from both the blossom and stem ends of the onion. Peel the onion and cut in half from top to bottom. Lay each half and cut the onion into slivers (again from top to bottom) that are about the same thickness as the green beans.

Put a large wok or heavy pan with a tight fitting lid over high heat for 1 or 2 minutes or until you can no longer hold your hand a couple inches above the pan because it is too hot. Carefully add the oil to the pan and swirl to heat it through. When the oil is shimmery -about 30 seconds- add the garlic, ginger, onions and crushed red pepper flakes. Use two wooden spoons to keep the contents moving until they are fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add all of the green beans and the salt and use the two spoons to toss the green beans, garlic, ginger and onions. Cook for 2 minutes, stirring every 30 seconds or so. Add the water and put the lid on the pan. Let the beans steam for 5 minutes, checking about halfway through to see if it is too dry. If the pan is dry, add a teaspoon of water, replace the lid and continue steaming.

After 5 minutes, remove the lid and add the oyster sauce, using both spoons to toss the beans and sauce together. Continue cooking over high heat for 2 minutes, or until the oyster sauce is distributed evenly and the beans are all coated and crisp-tender.

Serve hot garnished with sesame seeds, if desired.

Leftovers (if you have some) store well tightly covered in the refrigerator and reheat very well either in the microwave or in a covered saucepan with a splash of water.

http://www.foodiewithfamily.com/2012/03/16/simple-garlicky-green-bean-stir-fry/

Filed Under: Accessible Ethnic, Happy Healthy and Wise, Instructional, Kitchen Techniques and Hints, Rebecca, Recipes, Side Dishes, Vegetarian Tagged With: , , ,

Slow-Cooker Cola Pulled Pork and Carnitas Rice Bowls | Make Ahead Mondays

March 12, 2012 by 13 Comments

Let me tell you about last week. It was busy. Oh, it was biz-ay. B to the HOLY-COW-HOW-WILL-I-GET-ALL-THIS-DONE to the U-S-Y, man. Or wo-man. Woah, man.

I was hauling my rear (and a bunch of children to boot) all over this stretch of God’s country in my big ugly purple van. I drove people here. I drove people there. I dropped people off. I picked people up. In fact, I went one place with my five boys and came home with seven, only three of whom I had birthed. I balanced brooms in the kitchen to show off the awesome wackiness of the solar flares. I spent the entire week wondering how we could possibly make it to all of our commitments.

On the subject of solar flares, I’d just like to say one word. WEIRD.

Okay, I have a couple more words. Did you balance your broom? I’m not even kidding. Did you know that during solar flares you can take a broom –even a raggedy old angled one like mine- and balance it with no support? Go on. Test it. All the cool kids are doing it. You know you want to. (As a homeschooling mom, I have to practice my peer pressure skills so my kids don’t have to miss out on all the good stuff.)

I’m still not entirely sure how we did it, but we did manage to get to everything we had on the schedule and threw in a big family get together on Saturday for good measure. The biggest yeehah of them all, though,  the icing on the cake, was when the entire family (including those who had come to visit earlier in the day) went to watch a battle of the bands in which my fourteen year old bass-playing eldest son and my eight year old “Animal” drummer participated. It started at eight o’clock at night.

Did you catch that?

As in the same night as the time change. In other words, my  husband and I and our fourteen, twelve, ten, eight and six year olds were in a large auditorium full of big, loud, boomy amplifiers and microphones and screaming rock guitars (and some screaming vocalists) along with my sister, her husband and their eight, six and two year olds, and my mother. Nana was banging her head. At least I’m fairly certain she meant to and wasn’t being thrown back against the wall by the sub-woofer.

This brings me to another point. Can I talk about how much I despise this time change? They are taking an hour from me! Who decided that was a good idea? Do they not know how much I’m trying to cram into a day?

When we were in the process of moving to where we live now, I joked with friends that in order to buy the home, we had to convert to the Amish faith. Since moving here, I’ve gotten to know many Amish and one of the most fascinating things I learned was that they don’t  “do” the time change. Well, hallelujah. I think I’ll convert after all.

Solar flares, time changes, extra kids, battles of the bands, and go, go, GO! I hit my freezer food bank pretty hard this week. And on the subject of a stash of food…

You all know I love me some pulled pork. In fact, one of the all-time most popular posts ever here on Foodie With Family is my Cuban Pulled Pork recipe. It tastes wonderful and it makes enough to stash away three or four meals worth of food (even for a family our size!) It is so good. So good, in fact, that for a very long time (longer than I care to admit), I didn’t make pork shoulder in any other way. Why?

Because IT WAS SO GOOD!

You know what? It’s still that good, but I realized something really crucial. Expanding the pork shoulder repertoire does not mean I love the Cuban Pork any less. It just means I have more opportunities for eating pork!

Pork shoulder is the busy person’s best friend. You wouldn’t think it to look at that massive cut of meat, would you? You look at the marbled hunk of meat with that bone down the center and think, “All that work! Who has time?” You do! I promise. It is one of the most economical cuts of meat and requires so little hands-on time that it’s almost criminal not to take advantage of it.

For this Slow-Cooker Cola Pulled Pork, we begin with the same method used in the Cuban Pork recipe; cook overnight in the slow-cooker, chill during the day, shred the pork, reduce the pan juices, and pour it over the pork. Instead of our well loved Cuban spices and juices, we add cola, onions and chipotles in adobo. Rawr. Then we diverge a bit more… Instead of baking the pork, we press a goodly amount of the shredded pork into a super hot pan until it’s crispy brown around the edges. Flip it over, make it crispier and then? And then. Oh, then.

This, my friends, is the stuff of dreams. Crispy pork carnitas.
We can serve that crispity yet juicy, delectable, slightly spicy and sweet, flavour-packed pork on tostadas, pizza, in tacos, or like we’re doing today on Carnitas Rice Bowls. You cannot possibly imagine a meal that is this easy to throw together can taste this incredible.

This is good enough to bump itself into the rotation with my beloved Cuban Pork.

And much like Cuban Pork, it makes enough to feed a massive crowd ~or~ sock away several meals worth of already cooked meat. With that in the freezer, like all of our other Make Ahead Mondays recipes, dinner is just minutes away.

Print
Slow-Cooker Cola Pulled Pork and Carnitas Rice Bowls | Make Ahead Mondays

Rating: 51

Slow-Cooker Cola Pulled Pork and Carnitas Rice Bowls | Make Ahead Mondays

Slightly spicy, smoky and a little sweet, this slow-cooker cola pulled pork is so easy to make you'll be shocked and is so good that you'll be thankful it yields enough for several meals-worth to be stored in the freezer. One of our favourite ways to use it is on Carnitas Rice Bowls; hot cooked rice piled with the crispy "little meats" and a variety of flavourful toppings. Go wild and really pile it high. This meal pleases all ages and is easy on the wallet.

Ingredients

    For the Slow-Cooker Cola Pulled Pork:
  • 3 large onions
  • 6-9 pound bone-in pork shoulder or pork butt
  • 2 small cans of chipotles in adobo
  • 2 (12 ounce) bottles or cans of your preferred cola (I like Mexican Coca-Cola.)
    • For Each Serving of Carnitas Rice Bowls:
  • ½-3/4 cup slow-cooker cola pulled pork
  • 1 teaspoon canola, peanut or vegetable oil
  • 1 to 1 ½ cups hot, cooked rice
    • Optional, but oh-so-tasty:
  • salsa
  • shredded pepper jack or Cheddar cheese
  • Smoked Paprika and Chipotle Sauce
  • sour cream
  • sliced or diced avocado
  • finely diced red onion
  • chopped cilantro or parsley
  • lime wedges

Instructions

To Make the Slow-Cooker Cola Pulled Pork:

Cut the stem and root-ends from the onions, cut the onions in half and remove the peels. Arrange the halved onions over the base of the slow-cooker. Position the pork roast –fat layer facing up- on top of the onion halves. Pour the cans of chipotles in adobo (with all the sauce) over the pork shoulder then pour the colas over the chipotles. Cover the slow-cooker and cook on ‘LOW’ for 8-9 hours.

Cool the pork roast (still in its juices in the slow-cooker insert) completely until the pork fat congeals around the roast on top of the cooking juices. Scrape away and discard the fat. Transfer the pork roast to a cutting board and pour the remaining contents of the slow-cooker into a sieve positioned over a saucepan. Push the contents of the sieve with a spoon to extract as much liquid as possible. Set the saucepan over medium high heat and bring it to a boil. Let it boil and reduce until it is about ¼ of the original volume.

Pull the cooled pork roast apart and scrape excess fat from the meat. Use your hands or two forks to shred the pork. To get smaller pieces of pork, you can chop through the pile of shredded pork with a large knife a couple of times. Put the pulled pork into a large mixing bowl, pour the reduced pan juices over the top and toss until the juices are evenly distributed.

To Freeze to Serve Later:

Divide the pulled pork between zipper top bags in meal-sized portions. Try to squeeze as much excess air from the bag as possible before sealing. Try to flatten the bag so that it takes up less room in the freezer. Freeze for up to 8 months.

To Serve from Fresh:

Put a heavy-bottomed skillet over high heat and add the oil to the pan. Swirl to coat, then pile the pulled-pork in the center of the pan. Use a spatula to press the pork into the pan. Fry until the pork is brown around the edges. Use a spatula to flip the pork until crisp on the other side.

To Serve From Frozen:

Thaw the pulled pork in the refrigerator or in the microwave. Put a heavy-bottomed skillet over high heat and add the oil to the pan. Swirl to coat, then pile the pulled-pork in the center of the pan. Use a spatula to press the pork into the pan. Fry until the pork is brown around the edges. Use a spatula to flip the pork until crisp on the other side.

To Assemble the Carnitas:

Put the hot, cooked rice in a bowl, use a spatula to place the crispy pork on top. Pile any or all of the toppings on the crispy pork.

http://www.foodiewithfamily.com/2012/03/12/slow-cooker-cola-pulled-pork-and-carnitas-rice-bowls-make-ahead-mondays/

Filed Under: Accessible Ethnic, Comfort Food, Component Foods, Freezer Pleaser, kid food, Kitchen Techniques and Hints, Main Dish, Make Ahead Mondays, Meat, Party Food, Rebecca, Recipes, slow-cooker, Stretching your dollars Tagged With: , , , , , ,

DIY Body Wash and Liquid Hand Soap

February 15, 2012 by 13 Comments

As you can imagine, a home with five sons, an evil genius handyman husband, two dogs, an elderly cat and fifteen chickens can get a little -how to say- malodorous. Don’t misunderstand, I love every one of the aforementioned scent producers, but people… it can be a little hard on the nose around here.

Par example: I sent one of my children (name redacted for the sake of their future pride. We’ll refer to him here as Stanky Hank.) to the shower. Stanky Hank was in the shower for ten minutes. He emerged soaking wet and still covered with dirt. The conversation went a little something like this:

Me: You were in there for ten minutes. Why are your hands, feet, arms, and knees still covered with dirt stains?

Stanky Hank: Oh, I was supposed to get rid of those?

If I told you this was the rule rather than the exception, would you faint? Because I’m feeling a little faint thinking about it. And before anyone offers me smelling salts, remember, I live with a bunch of walking smelling salts.*

*Free social history lesson. Do you know what smelling salts actually were? They were bottles of ammonia solids mixed with aromatic essences. In short? They smelled like cat pee mixed with perfume. Remember, they were designed to wake you up. Now I’m not accusing my kids of smelling of cat pee, I’m just saying they have the potential to wake you up. But I digress.

Foodie With Family Trivia Moment: I’m obsessed with triple-milled French castile soaps. For those not equally obsessed with soap, castile soap is made with olive oil (translation: great for your skin). And the triple-milled soaps? Lush. Lush is the best word. My obsession extends most specifically to my favourite soap brand: Pre de Provence.

 

These massive bars of soap are unparalleled in the world of pretty smelling things. In scents like Coconut, Rose, Linden, Sage, Mint Leaf, Honey Almond Lavender, and my favourite- Green Tea- this soap makes me want to strap a bar to my nose just to get through life a little more happily. Although, upon reflection, walking around with a bar of soap strapped to my head might provide it’s own set of challenges…

…But I’m belabouring the point. I have used these soaps for a long time. The guys, however, didn’t want to use my pretty smelling soaps because they favour body wash over bar soap. They favour liquid hand soap over soap dishes. Sigh. My adorable cretins.

I’ve already told you about my happy, happy, super cheap and mega-effective homemade laundry detergent and my allergy-sufferer friendly unbelievably easy homemade air fresheners. You know I love to make pretty smelling things. Between that and the description I just gave you about my menfolk you can imagine that when I ran into this over on Pinterest, I was ready to make it immediately. STAT. Right away. Now. Time was a-wastin’.

Thanks to a proclivity for collecting lovely smelling soaps and a stash of vegetable glycerine from my previous Grand Marnier making forays, all I needed was to boil a gallon of distilled water.*

*Since even we cannot go through a gallon of soap in a week, I opted to use the boiled distilled water to slow any potential microbial growth in the soap. Distilled water has minerals removed (I used this because our water is hard) but still needs to be brought to a boiling temperature to kill any bacteria in it. I think we can all agree that a petri dish full of soap does not sound appealing, right? “Hi. My name is Rebecca and I’m a germaphobe.”

That’s right. It’s just three ingredients. THREE.

And because it is just three I have three pieces of advice about the choice of soap:

  1. Use one whose smell you love in the bar form because it will intensify a bit in the liquid form. It doesn’t have to be my beloved Pre de Provence. Just choose one that you adore.
  2. Choose a non-lotion soap. The lotion will prevent the soap from setting up well.
  3. Don’t choose a soap based on colour. Whichever colour soap you choose, your liquid soap will pretty much end up the same pearlescent shade of white.
  4. Did you know WordPress doesn’t recognize pearlescent as being spelled correctly? But by the same token WordPress doesn’t recognize itself as being spelled correctly. Yes. I know this is a fourth bullet point, but it’s not advice. So there.

I followed instructions and let the soap set up overnight. This leads me to two very important pieces of advice.

  1. Do not  put a lid that can absorb odours on top of your pan. Mainly because it will.
  2. Don’t panic if you have what looks (and feels, at first) like a solid mass of soap because it will loosen up.

Regarding that second piece of advice, I do not own a hand-mixer. WHAT? Yes. It’s true. I got rid of it because my husband insisted that he make mashed potatoes with them. After I made mashed potatoes with a ricer and a wooden spoon, he agreed, but I decided to remove temptation and thus avoid gluey potatoes from here on in… but again? I digress.

When I removed my now permanently scented lid from my pan, I touched the top of the soap and thought, “Well, that’s nice. I have a giant disc of soap jello.” After I jabbed at it a few times with my whisk, it started breaking down a bit. It was still a little too, er, chunky for our liking.

I found my egg beaters and set my very energetic six year old to mixing up the goo.

Do you have a six year old lying around? They’re dead handy.

Would this be easier using a hand mixer? You betcha… but an eggbeater and a six year old is an equally effective if slightly slower solution. If it had been any thicker, I might’ve heated it back up, added a bit more water and stirred it in then let it cool again to test the viscosity before bottling. As it was, I was happy. The now lovely smelling six year old and I ladled the liquid soap (which has a bit of a stringy consistency that doesn’t effect the overall product but takes a bit of adjustment if you’re using to the usual liquid soaps) into the gallon jug that had held the distilled water and found we needed more containers. We went on to fill an empty liquid hand soap container and an empty mid-sized body wash container. The breakdown on cost is:

  • For a gallon of distilled water ($0.69)
  • A bar of Pre de Provence Green Tea Soap ($6.69)
  • Two tablespoons of vegetable glycerine ($0.75ish)
  • Yield of about a gallon and a quarter, give or take a bit ($8.13).

My guys smell good. Really, really good. As in, “DAD! Mom keeps sniffing me!” good. $8.13 for a giant jug of body wash and hand soap is reason enough to make it, but the way they smell is priceless.

And lest you worry about nostril bombing with perfume, let me reassure you. My husband, as part of his Evil Genius job qualifications, is a super sniffer. His nose is very sensitive indeed. If this was overwhelmingly perfumey you wouldn’t be able to get him near it even with a ten foot pole. Whether it’s the fact that this particular soap -Pre de Provence Green Tea- is just a straight up wonderful and mild manly scent, I can’t say. But I can promise that Mr. Twitchy Nose and the five little urchins love it. And me?

Well, I get to swoon for an entirely different reason now.

Print
DIY Body Wash and Liquid Hand Soap

DIY Body Wash and Liquid Hand Soap

Make your own custom body wash and liquid hand soap with just three easily find-able ingredients for a fraction of the cost of pricey store versions. Be prepared to smell fantastic!

Recipe from and method adapted slightly from The Farmer's Nest

Ingredients

  • 1 (8 ounce) bar of castile soap (Pre de Provence, Dr. Bronner's, etc...)
  • 1 gallon distilled water
  • 2 tablespoons vegetable glycerine

Instructions

Bring the water to a boil in a large non-reactive pot (stainless steel or glass). Grate the bar of soap on a metal box grater. Add the soap shavings and vegetable glycerine to the boiling water, stirring frequently, until the soap shavings are completely dissolved into the water. Remove the pan from the heat, cover tightly, and let rest undisturbed overnight or for at least 8 hours.

After it has rested, break up with an egg beater or with a hand mixer until smooth. If it is too solid, warm over the heat again, add a little distilled water and let cool again to test the consistency. Repeat until you reach the desired viscosity for your soap.

Put a funnel into the now empty distilled water jug and ladle the soap into the jug. Ladle any extra soap into empty hand soap bottles or jars with tight fitting lids.

Use like you normally use body wash or liquid hand soap.

Store unused soap in a cool, dark place. If you're a nervous Nelly type, you can store it in the refrigerator.

http://www.foodiewithfamily.com/2012/02/15/diy-body-wash-and-liquid-hand-soap/

 

Do you want to try out my favourite soap? You can click on the “Books, Gear, and Supplies” tab right below the header, then click on the “Make it Smell Good!” category.

 

 

 

Filed Under: Kitchen Techniques and Hints, Non-food recipes, Rebecca, Recipes, Stretching your dollars Tagged With: , , , ,

Ninfa’s Green Sauce (Bonus Recipe Hack)

February 10, 2012 by 17 Comments

Full disclosure: I’ve spent some time in Houston but I’ve never been to Ninfa’s. I’m not even sure I’m pronouncing the name properly. Is it NIN-fahz? NEEN-fahz? neen-FAHZ? However you say it, though, I now want to eat there desperately because if this sauce is a sign of what they have to offer… Well, let’s just say that it’s all bound to be spectacular.

The truth is, I had neither heard of the aforementioned place, however it’s pronounced, nor the recipe I’m about to give you until I saw this post by Lisa Fain of Homesick Texan, whose blog I have loved for a very long time. This is one of those recipes where -while reading it- you know exactly how it will taste and you know you want it. Badly. Now.

And so, after seeing this recipe a little over two years ago, I made it a mere year and a half later for the first time. Sigh. It’s really hard to source certain ingredients around here. Avocados, cilantro, sour cream, jalapenos? Oh sure. Easy peasy. It’s those green tomatoes that gave me fits. First of all, when I had green tomatoes on the vine this summer I was so busy I didn’t know whether I was coming or going and forgot ALL ABOUT THE DADBURNED RECIPE. Pardon me while I go bang my head on the wall for a minute or two. Secondly, when I remembered the recipe there were no green tomatoes (or yellow as the recipes suggests substituting) anywhere within a two hour drive.

Well, shoot.

I’m resourceful? Why was I letting this lack of green tomatoes stop me? (Because I wasn’t thinking, that’s why.) I had an entire shelf full of green tomato salsa verde I had made over the summer staring me in the face. Big, fat duh! I hacked the recipe. While the original called for 3 green tomatoes, I simply substituted 2 cups of homemade green tomato salsa verde* and a splash of water, then proceeded as directed with the rest of the recipe. Well, except for that whole Greek yogurt vs. sour cream thing… but I’ll get there momentarily.

*You can’t find green or yellow tomatoes and don’t have homemade green tomato salsa verde on the shelf? No problemo. Use an equivalent amount of store bought salsa verde in its place. Yes, most commercially available salsa verde is made with tomatillos, but that’s certainly not going to hurt the overall affect here! Live boldly! Substitute!

Speaking of substitutes, I decided to sub in a cup and a half of the zero fat Greek yogurt I had snapped up on clearance at Aldi last week. I’m not a no-fat/low-fat proponent by any means, but cheap is cheap and this stuff is good anyway with no weird preservatives or flavour improvers. Heck yes. Go Team Frugal! It worked like a charm! I mean, why wouldn’t it? What took me so long to think of the recipe hack? Yeesh.

This sauce. Let me tell you. It is smooth. It’s so smooth it’s smoove. It’s velvety, it’s rich (thank you, avocados), it’s spicy, it’s creamy, it’s garlicky. I ate it on tacos, Fritos, on a spoon, on my finger… So darned good. Mama. I considered rubbing it on the pulse points as perfume. Hubba hubba. I know my husband would approve.

Here’s another bonus. You know avocado’s distressing tendency to brown after being cut/smashed/whatevered? It doesn’t in this sauce or at least it does it at a far slower rate. My amateur food scientist theory is that the happy bacteria in the Greek yogurt (and I’d imagine the same could be said for sour cream) and the acid in the tomatillos/green tomatoes keep it from oxidizing. But that’s just a theory. And who cares? The sauce is good. And pretty. And pretty good. Geez. It’s better than good. It’s great. It’s habit forming.

Now what are you waiting for? You need this sauce. You need it tonight. You need it for the weekend! Go forth and create green sauce!

Print
Ninfa’s Green Sauce

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 10 minutes

Yield: about 5 cups

Ninfa’s Green Sauce

This creamy, dreamy, spicy, garlicky, smooth-as-silk avocado salsa is simply magical. Use as a sauce or dunk to your heart's content.

Recipe originally from the Houston Chronicle via Homesick Texan and recipe hack by yours truly!

Ingredients

  • 3 medium green or yellow tomatoes, coarsely chopped (Or 2 cups green tomato salsa verde or commercially available salsa verde with about 1/2 cup of water.)
  • 4 tomatillos, peeled of the paper husk, rinsed and coarsely chopped
  • 1 to 2 jalapenos, stemmed and chopped (if using the salsa verde, also remove the jalapeno seeds.)
  • 3 cloves of garlic, peeled and coarsely chopped
  • 3 ripe avocados, halved, pitted, and scooped from the shells with a spoon
  • 4 stems worth of cilantro
  • 1 tsp. of salt
  • 1 1/2 cups of sour cream (or Greek yogurt, which is my preference.)

Instructions

Add the green or yellow tomatoes (or the salsa verde and water) to a heavy-bottomed saucepan along with the tomatillos, jalapenos, and garlic. Bring to a boil, then lower heat and simmer for 10 to 15 minutes, or until the tomatillos are tender. Remove the pan from the burner and let the mixture cool for about 15 minutes.

Transfer the contents of the pan into a food processor or blender with a metal blade. Add the avocados, cilantro and salt and blend until completely smooth. Use a rubber or silicone spatula to scrape the sauce from the food processor or blender into a mixing bowl and whisk in the sour cream or Greek yogurt until evenly coloured. Serve immediately or store in a jar or other container with a tightly fitting lid for up to a 4 days.

http://www.foodiewithfamily.com/2012/02/10/ninfas-green-sauce-bonus-recipe-hack/

Filed Under: Accessible Ethnic, Comfort Food, Comfort Food, Component Foods, Condiments, kid food, Kitchen Techniques and Hints, Party Food, Recipes, Side Dishes, Vegetarian Tagged With: , , , ,
«Older Posts