I love Mexican food, and I love spicy food. Eating out or purchasing large quantities of food just isn't a very viable option, so I figured out how to make salsa verde at home... and it is gooooooood. Nice touch of heat, but it won't make you cry. At least, it doesn't make me cry. Please use the ingredients as more of a guideline. I've made this three times now, with different amounts of ingredients each time. My latest batch made about three pint-size jars of salsa verde.
1-2.5 lbs tomatillos
1/2 to 2 large onion
3-8 peppers (I used 3 or 4 jalapeños and 1 serrano, just use what you have or like for the heat you want)
4-10 cloves of garlic, depending on how big they are and how much garlic you like
olive oil
bunch of cilantro
Splash of vinegar (I use white wine vinegar for a milder flavor)
salt
water
To roast in a pot:
Prep your items: remove the husks of the tomatillos, wash, and cut in half or quarters. Roughly dice the onion. Open, peel, and crush the garlic. Cut the tops off the peppers; remove the seeds of some of them to reduce the heat while maintaining the pepper flavors. Be careful not to touch the seeds too much and wash your hands promptly. Get all ingredients in a bowl.
In a large soup pot (if you are making a smaller amount then you can use a small pot or a large skillet), heat up a couple of tablespoons of olive oil. Add tomatillos, onions, peppers, and garlic and roast until everything is softened and just beginning to fall apart. Stir often so that nothing sticks, but you do want some heat scoring. This will provide tons of flavor. This picture below is partially cooked. It went a bit longer after this.
To roast in the oven:
Peel, wash and dry the tomatillos. Halve or quarter the onions. In a large bowl, put the tomatillos, peppers, garlic and onion pieces (I halve mine). Sprinkle some olive oil over the ingredients and toss to ensure even coverage. Line everything out on a foil-covered baking sheet. Lightly sprinkle with ingredients with kosher salt. Roast in a 400 degree oven until tomatillos and peppers begin to brown and break down. Tomatillos will look soupy, and peppers should be blistered and mostly blackened. Peel the skin off the peppers. This is easier to do if you put the peppers in a plastic bag as soon as you pull them from the oven for about 10 minutes. That steams them and allows the skin to loosen.
Once everything is softened, remove from heat. Allow to cool just a bit so that you don't burn yourself. Add most of the ingredients to blender, leaving enough space for rising during blending. I like to hold back on the peppers and garlic, and add more to taste. Tear off several handfuls of cilantro, to taste, and place in blender along with a heavy sprinkle of salt, also to taste, and a splash of vinegar (I probably don't use more than a 1/2 tsp or so for about 1.5 lbs of tomatillos). Remember, you can always add more, but you can't take salt or vinegar out. Pulse until desired consistency is achieved - I prefer mine smooth. Add water to thin salsa. I use about 1 cup for 1.5 lbs of tomatillos. Salsa will thicken in the fridge. Add additional salt, cilantro, peppers or garlic to taste and blend until you reach the consistency and flavor you prefer.
Pour in a jar(s) or plastic container. Allow to cool, and then store in the refrigerator. Use as a salsa or as a sauce over your favorite dishes.
If you were able to bring heaven down to Earth and turn it into a food, then I swear it would be Oreo Truffles. These are divine, delicious little balls of yumminess. I like to use a smaller scoop so that there's more chocolate to truffle mixture ratio, but you can decide how you want it. When preparing to make these the first time I looked at several versions of the recipe. I'm not sure who first made these, but the recipe is so simply that's it's hard to jack it up too much.
1 regular size pack of regular stuffing Oreos
8 oz cream cheese
chocolate (white, semi, dark, or in my case, I use vanilla almond bark from Walmart, one batch of these uses about 8-9 cubes)
additional chocolate or other type of decoration
These are so much easier to make if you allow the cream cheese an appropriate amount of time to soften. Don't rush, and this will go so much more smoothly. While the cream cheese softens, get your Oreo mixture ready. If you have a food processor, then put all of the cookies into it and process until you have a fine crumb mixture. If you don't have a food processor, then you can use a rolling pin or a flat mallet and a freezer-thickness plastic bag to process the cookies. Beat, roll, and move around until your crumbs are fine and small. Clearly, a food processor makes these sooooo much easier. lol Once processed, add to the bowl with your cream cheese.
Carefully and meticulously mix until the cream cheese in completely incorporated with the crumbs. The better mixed the more consistent and the better your truffles will be.
Use a cookie scoop if you have one - it will make this process so much easier - to form the truffles into balls and place on a cookie tray (that will fit in your freezer) lined with parchment paper.
If you don't own a cookie scoop then you can use a spoon and roll the truffles into a ball - this is a very messy process, but will get the job done as well. Process all of the mixture, and then place the tray into the freezer for 30-45 minutes so that the truffles will harden. This will keep them from falling apart so much when you're dipping them into chocolate.
To melt the chocolate, please please please follow the directions on your package. To melt the vanilla almond bark, I broke up the cubes and put them in a microwave safe container with a small scoop (about a teaspoon or so) of coconut oil. You can also use crisco if you don't have coconut oil.
Melt in 20 second increments, stirring after each round until chocolate is silky smooth.
Drop a ball into the chocolate.
Use a fork to scoop it out.
Use a spoon to scoop the chocolate over the ball.
Tap the fork to loosen any excess chocolate. Then use a knife to slide the ball off the fork back onto the parchment. If you use sprinkles like mine, then you must do it within three or four balls or the chocolate will get too hard. You can also use another type of melted chocolate to drizzle over top. I think the sprinkles make them look like pretty little snowballs, so I've stuck with it. It also adds a nice little sugar crunch to the balls.
Once the balls have hardened, package into a sealed container and store in the fridge. I know these will remain fresh for a week, but honestly, they've never lasted much longer than a few days. Enjoy your little bites of heaven!
There are a few items that just scream of the South. Sweet tea, fried chicken, watermelon, and of course, biscuits are a few. I'm sure there are plenty more food you can think of, but today's topic is all about banana pudding. This is one of my mother's favorites, so I decided to make some for dessert for her on this past Mother's Day. I found this recipe to make for her several years ago, before Pinterest even, so all I have is a printout. It must be good though, because she said it's one of the best banana puddings she's ever had.
1 cup sugar
3 eggs, beaten
dash of salt
2 Tbsp cornstarch
2 cups milk
1 tsp vanilla
4 ripe bananas
1 Tbsp lemon juice (may use a bit more or less)
1 box vanilla wafers
3 egg whites
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
1/3-1/2 cup sugar
Mix sugar and eggs together.
Add salt, cornstarch. Combine.
Add milk, and whisk until blended.
Slice bananas thinly, but not too thin. I usually shoot for about a 1/2 inch thickness.
Toss bananas in lemon juice. This will help keep the bananas fresh and stop them from browning. Don't skip this step!
Bring custard mixture to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring constantly; cook until thickened. Remove from heat; add vanilla and mix well.
Arrange your layering station by having the bananas, custard and wafers close to your serving bowl. I used a 1.5 quart bowl as mine, and it was perfect.
Begin layering by placing a spoonful of custard in the bottom of your serving dish. Place a layer of wafers on the custard.
Place a layer of bananas on the wafers.
Keep layering until all the bananas/wafers are used up. I got three good layers out of all the ingredients.
Top the final layer of bananas with all of the remaining custard.
Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Make the meringue by whisking the eggs whites with the cream of tartar until foamy.
Gradually add sugar until stiff peaks form and meringue is shiny. Spread carefully over top of banana pudding.
Bake banana pudding for 5-7 minutes until meringue begins to turn golden brown. Remove from heat and allow to cool before covering and placing in the fridge.
