prickly pears
Here in the Southwest desert, it is prickly pear season. The prickly pear fruit (also known as tunas) are ripe for the picking; the very careful picking, that is. Be sure to wear thick leather gloves and use tongs. The most versatile way to use the fruit is to make a sauce, which can be kept for up to one week in the refrigerator or may be frozen. From there you can use the sauce to make a vinaigrette, use it in marinades, margaritas, or mojitos, to make sorbet, or add it to a BBQ sauce, and the list goes on. The fruit has a bright strawberry/kiwi/watermelon flavor and the most gorgeous crimson color. There are two things to be careful of though – the tiny and very painful hair-like stickers (hence the need for gloves and tongs) and the pretty color itself, it stains like crazy.
Prickly pear branches (the pads) are called nopales. They are also edible, cooked, and eaten as a vegetable. I think they taste similar to green beans but with a slimy texture. Can you tell I am not a fan of the nopales?
August 23, 2011 1 Comment
olé mole
Mole – when most gringos think of mole, they immediately think “Oh, that Mexican sauce that has chocolate in it.” Not necessarily true, there are a wide number of sauces that are moles and only one of them contains chocolate. The word mole comes from the Nahuatl word “milli” which means “sauce” or “concoction”. The most common or widely known mole in America is guacamole, meaning “avocado concoction”.
Moles can be black (negro), red (rojo), yellow (amarillo), and green (verde), to name but a few. Mole negro is the most labor-intensive to prepare. It traditionally has six varieties of chile peppers, seeds, nuts, spices, herbs, and chocolate.
March 23, 2010 2 Comments
canning
About 10 years ago I was completely intimidated by, even the thought of, canning. It had never occurred in my house while growing up and the process of sterilizing the jars seemed like rocket science to me! Then something happened so that I could no longer avoid it. We had a peach tree in our yard and branches were breaking off the tree on a daily basis from the weight of so many ripe and juicy peaches. And guess what? I discovered that not only was canning no big deal or some painstaking process, it was actually fun!
This sauce is wonderful when eaten either savory or sweet. I use it as a glaze and accompaniment for baked ham during the holidays. When heating the sauce to glaze the ham, just stir in one finely minced jalapeno pepper to spice it up a bit.
It is unbelievably delicious and decadent when warmed and spooned over grilled bananas, along with a little warm caramel sauce!
Or use it at room temperature or cold spooned over ice cream or stirred into plain or vanilla Greek yogurt.
The darling little canning jars make a cute name “place card” or party gifts to hand out to your guests as they are leaving your home after a special dinner or holiday meal. Happy canning!
February 10, 2010 No Comments
zipping along with flat iron steak
I’m still on a bit of a high after the Arizona Cardinals won the NFC West title yesterday. While researching area foods for the post for yesterday’s game in Detroit, I not only found the Chop Salad, but also this tasty and famous steak sauce – a Detroit favorite. It brings out the best in beef and adds a spicy punch of flavor.
The Flat Iron Steak, also known as the top blade steak, has been a popular restaurant menu item for the past few years and is increasingly becoming available in grocery stores. It was developed at the University of Florida. The researchers wanted to find a way to use a waste cut of beef from the shoulder of the cow. Though a flavorful and relatively tender cut of meat, the top blade roast has a serious flaw in its center; an impossibly tough piece of connective tissue running through the middle.
The researchers developed a method for cutting and presenting the steak, and wound up with an amazing cut of beef, a nearly perfect steak for the grill. The Flat Iron, named because it looks like an old-fashioned metal flat iron, is uniform in thickness and rectangular in shape. The only variation to the original roast is the cut into the middle of the steak where the connective tissues have been removed.
The Flat Iron is similar in flavor and texture to Skirt and Flank steaks and is best grilled over medium-high heat. For this particular recipe, we are using a grill pan so that we can gather drippings from the meat. Enjoy!
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December 21, 2009 No Comments