Cinco de Mayo Guest Post

Check out my guest post over at my friend Charissa's blog, Mudpie Magnolia. Happy Cinco de Mayo, everyone!

Salsa Verde

The other night I decided to Google "Top Food Blogs." Although I have been at this off and on for awhile and read a few food blogs, there are still so many out there. I was amazed at all the wonderful blogs there are. So many great recipes, beautiful photographs, and varying points of view. Saveur magazine had a great list of their top rated food blogs for 2012 in different categories. 

One of the many blogs I enjoyed discovering on their list was a finalist for "Best Regional Food Blog." It is called Muy Bueno Cookbook. The Spanish name intrigued me, and as I perused the lovely blog I saw that it was a mother and her two daughters, all born and raised in El Paso, Texas. Sold. That was all I needed to hear. And sure enough, as I looked over the recipes, the beautiful photos and authentic border cuisine piqued my interest all the more. I "pinned" many of the recipes to try later. Last night I attempted their salsa verde. It was very easy to make and delicious. Even Josh, who is not ordinarily a fan of tomatillos enjoyed it.

You can find the full recipe on their blog, but I thought I would share a few pictures and tips. I have pictured all of the ingredients except the cilantro, which I forgot about when snapping this shot. But you all know what cilantro looks like, right?

If you are new to Mexican cooking, you may look at this recipe and others and wonder what some of the ingredients are and where you might find them. For instance, serrano peppers look like a jalapeno pepper, just a little smaller. They are also much spicier than jalapenos, so if you prefer your salsa mild, remove all the seeds and/or replace jalapenos for the serranos. You can always adjust the number of peppers in your salsa to change up the level of spice. And remember, the seeds and membrane of peppers are the spiciest part. So leaving or removing them will also effect the level of spice. Tomatillos look like small green tomatoes with a light green husk around them. You can find them in the produce section of most grocery stores by the peppers. I have only ever bought them in Texas and New Mexico, so they may be harder to find in some places.

When cooking with tomatillos, you need to begin by removing the husk, which is very easy. Then give them a good rinse. They tend to be a little sticky.

In this recipe, you will boil the tomatillos. Some salsa verde recipes require roasting them which takes a little longer, so this is a great way to simplify it.

This recipe also says to roast the garlic cloves with their skin on in a dry pan. I had never heard of this method, but it worked well, so I may have to do it again. It was very easy. I heated the pan over medium-high heat. Remove the skin when you are finished.

Then place them along with the cooled tomatillos in a blender with cilantro, onion, jalapeno, serrano and salt and blend.

This was great salsa and a wonderful alternative from the usual tomato salsa (which I still love, but it's nice to mix things up every once in awhile).

I enjoyed mine with a nice frosty Wildflower Wheat Beer from local Marble Brewery. Not a bad way to kick back and relax.

Tortilla Soup

I made my grandmother's chicken tortilla soup again on Sunday. It's so warm and comforting on a cold day. I changed it up a little this time. I decided to make it after church on Sunday, so we ran to the store on our way home and I did not bring a list which led to me forgetting the fresh tomatoes. So instead of fresh tomato juice I used canned tomato sauce (one 8 oz. can), and rather than a fresh tomato, I used one can of diced tomatoes and green chiles (undrained). I also used about 1/3 of a carton of chicken broth (rather than an entire carton) because it was all I had left and the liquid from the can of tomatoes and green chiles made up for it.

This modified version was still delicious and a little spicier with the addition of the diced tomatoes and green chiles. I used Rotel original, which is medium spicy, but you can buy mild and only use one jalapeno in the soup if you are not a big fan of spicy food.