Please post any requests for and responses to cooking/baking recipes here:

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I'll start by asking for a nice, mild fresh salsa recipe pls?

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Hi Megan. My brother likes to dip corn chips in salsa but he's a total wimp about spices.  This is a very mild basic salsa recipe.

8 tomatoes.
1 small onion.
1 clove of garlic.
1/3 cup of white vinegar.
Juice of one small lime.
1-2 tsp of salt.

Put 5 tomatoes, half of the onion, garlic, lime juice and vinegar in a blender or food processor and process until you get the consistency you want. If you want a smooth salsa process all the ingredients.  My brother likes it chunky so I dice 3 of the tomatoes and half the onion and stir it into the salsa.  I find Cilantro disgusting but if you like it you can add it to the salsa.

This is a very mild salsa. I also use celery. I dice a stalk of celery and then sautee it. I don't cook it until its soft, just until it's softer. I cook it until it doesn't have that raw crunch but it still has a little crunch. I use it to make the salsa more chunky. You totally don't have to use it if you don't want to. You could also use more onions but that might make the salsa hotter than you want.

Perfect,  thank you Julia.

When does your cookery book get published? And I'm only half joking!

X.

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Quote from: Megan. on December 22, 2017, 07:01:06 AM
Perfect,  thank you Julia.

When does your cookery book get published? And I'm only half joking!

X.

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hehe I've kinda been wondering the same thing!

Thank you ladies but I don't think I cook well enough to write a cookbook. Lol

I make a pico de Gallo  of sorts. I use Roma or plumb tomatoes, usually about 8, de seed and de pulp, cutting the meat of it in quarter inch strips then cut the strips into cubes. Finely chop a small onion, yellow or white, but if you want something a little more spicy, try a couple ounces of red onion or use a shallot. I use jalapeño or Serrano depending on the heat I desire. De seed and chop finely. After that it's salt, pepper, some lemon and lime juice and then add chopped cilantro or coriander for those overseas and refrigerate for 1-4 hours before serving. If I use particularly hot pepper, I'll dice half of a half sour dill pickle to give it some contrast. YMMV.

Oh yeah, a clove of minced garlic

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Quote from: Gertrude on December 22, 2017, 07:40:31 AM
I make a pico de Gallo  of sorts. I use Roma or plumb tomatoes, usually about 8, de seed and de pulp, cutting the meat of it in quarter inch strips then cut the strips into cubes. Finely chop a small onion, yellow or white, but if you want something a little more spicy, try a couple ounces of red onion or use a shallot. I use jalapeño or Serrano depending on the heat I desire. De seed and chop finely. After that it's salt, pepper, some lemon and lime juice and then add chopped cilantro or coriander for those overseas and refrigerate for 1-4 hours before serving. If I use particularly hot pepper, I'll dice half of a half sour dill pickle to give it some contrast. YMMV.

Oh yeah, a clove of minced garlic

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This sounds like my kind of salsa. I totally love spicy food. But I live with a couple of spice wimps so I don't get to make spicy stuff.

Quote from: Julia1996 on December 22, 2017, 07:47:02 AM
This sounds like my kind of salsa. I totally love spicy food. But I live with a couple of spice wimps so I don't get to make spicy stuff.

my mom's like that, she can't even handle a little spice. anytime I make something spicy she accuses me of doing it so I won't have to share 

Quote from: Gertrude on December 22, 2017, 07:40:31 AM
I make a pico de Gallo  of sorts. I use Roma or plumb tomatoes, usually about 8, de seed and de pulp, cutting the meat of it in quarter inch strips then cut the strips into cubes. Finely chop a small onion, yellow or white, but if you want something a little more spicy, try a couple ounces of red onion or use a shallot. I use jalapeño or Serrano depending on the heat I desire. De seed and chop finely. After that it's salt, pepper, some lemon and lime juice and then add chopped cilantro or coriander for those overseas and refrigerate for 1-4 hours before serving. If I use particularly hot pepper, I'll dice half of a half sour dill pickle to give it some contrast. YMMV.

Oh yeah, a clove of minced garlic

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What is this "a clove" you speak of? I always use more than one. 

Quote from: Devlyn Marie on December 22, 2017, 08:31:35 PM
What is this "a clove" you speak of? I always use more than one. 

Uncooked, garlic is lethal. I put one clove in a stick of butter for garlic toast and I should have used two sticks of butter. Cooked I agree with you and I sometimes use half a bulb of garlic.

Quote from: Dena on December 22, 2017, 08:53:47 PM

Quote from: Devlyn Marie on December 22, 2017, 08:31:35 PM
What is this "a clove" you speak of? I always use more than one. 

Uncooked, garlic is lethal. I put one clove in a stick of butter for garlic toast and I should have used two sticks of butter. Cooked I agree with you and I sometimes use half a bulb of garlic.

That's true, but still.....if you only use one you have no insurance garlic. 

Quote from: Devlyn Marie on December 22, 2017, 08:31:35 PM
What is this "a clove" you speak of? I always use more than one. 

I find if I use much more, it's too much. I used 3 decent sized one once and it was a lot, too much for my wife. The other thing is that how you prepare the garlic makes a difference. I use a garlic press and put it all in, juice and all. All I can say is cook to your audience.


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I'll toss my recipe in:

1 32oz (or the roughly 1 kilo medium cans if they have them out that way, otherwise two "regular size") can(s) of whole tomatoes
However many jalapenos you desire, for mild I would start with 1/2 and adjust.
1 bunch of fresh cilantro, frozen cilantro can be used if fresh isn't available.  Dried is kind of a last resort but better than nothing.  If fresh, chop roughly.
4-6 cloves of garlic depending on personal taste
1 lime, juiced
1 medium onion, color is not important, chopped coarsely
1/4 tsp oregano powder
salt to taste

Cut open the pepper(s), remove the seeds, chop coarsely.

Combine everything but salt in a food processor and pulse until you reach the desired consistency.  At that point, test for heat and salt and adjust as needed.  It is nigh on impossible to over chop this stuff so don't worry about running the processor too long, just worry about the flavor.

That's the recipe I learned from a little Mexican grandmother neighbor who taught me all sorts of great recipes.  I typically do 2-3 Jalapenos and 2 lime's worth of juice since I like it extra hot.

Try this. Instead of crushing garlic into the butter. Go ahead and butter the toast and then take a clove of garlic and rub it across the toast. Works especially well for  baguettes, sour dough, French bread. Saw it on Rachael Ray and it works really well.

I didn't crush it. I have a small food processor that takes about a cup of material and I dumped the butter and garlic clove in that. Talk about getting every last bit of flavor out of the clove.

On the other hand, the best use I found for the food processor is for a bread spice mixture I put on dinner rolls. It breaks everything up and uniformly mixes everything. I could have used a blender but the food processor parts go in the dishwasher where as the blender is hand washed.

I live alone so I usually just cook for one, my salsa is pretty simple:

Diced Roma tomato, diced slice of red onion, a few olive slices then mix in some La Victoria chunky Jalapeno hot sauce