I was originally going to make this post as a part of the chicken fajita recipe, but decided it really should be a post of it’s own. I love this marinade because it makes the chicken so tender and flavorful. It goes great on the grill too.
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Recipes
Pico de Gallo
Pico de Gallo, or salsa fresca, is a great condiment for burritos or for dipping. It’s drier than salsa and tastes a lot fresher. It goes great with the chicken fajitas I like to make. With pico it’s all about the quality of the tomatoes so I like to buy them from the farmer’s market or vine-ripened from the grocery.
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Breakfast Burritos
A burrito with a few ingredients will keep you full for a while. It’s quick to prepare and easy if you are in a rush, and also quite tasty!
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Guacamole
Guacamole is one of my favorite dips! This recipe uses the freshest ingredients and tastes so much better than any kind of store bought guac. I used to make guacamole with store-bought salsa (which is fine) but using fresh ingredients instead improves the flavor so much. I picked up a couple yellow limes from the farmer’s market on friday and they are the best limes to mix in with guacamole. You can use lemons or green limes but these are by far the most flavorful. Most people don’t realize it but green limes are picked when they are not ripe (makes sense right?) Yellow limes, however, are ripe and look a whole lot like lemons on the outside. They are also super great in a gin & tonic. If you see yellow limes at the grocery or farmer’s market, be sure to pick them up. I like guacamole a little chunkier so I chop the onions and tomatoes on the bigger side. For storage, I like to squeeze a little lime on the layer exposed to air, then cover it airtight in saran to prevent browning.
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Tomato Sauce
This is a very basic and versatile red tomato sauce. The smooth puree can be substituted for chunkier diced tomatoes. Whenever I’m out of fresh herbs I just use the dried stuff and there’s not a huge difference in taste. If you have the fresh parsley and fresh basil don’t hesitate to use them though. You would stir those in at the end after thickening the sauce.
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Beef and Barley Stew
Believe it or not, Californians experience winter too (relatively). It’s gotten colder and rainier now that it’s November, and i’ve been wanting to make a nice, hearty stew. I was excited to try this recipeB because I remember my mom’s beef barley stew from the crock pot. This recipe turned out a lot more savory and different than my mom’s, but it was still very good. I have a modern crock pot that is um, very efficient at cooking (which kind of defeats the purpose of a slow cooker, but whatever). Anyways, I have to be very careful to not over cook meats. A recipe might say to leave everything in for 6-7B hours on low and with my cooker the meat is done in 90 minutes and everything else is raw. This has caused some problems in the past. In order to compensate (since I do really like my crock pot), I have resorted to taking the meat ingredients out and cooking the rest for several more hours. I have a large, 6 quart cooker so if you have a smaller one make sure to use less of everything.
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Stir-Fried Shrimp with Ginger and Basil
I like this recipe a lot because the sauce is so versatile. It tastes good with tofu, shrimp, and chicken. This time I used tofu and shrimp for the stir-fry and it turned out very well. The fresh ginger and basil provide great flavor to the sauce. Since I used tofu this time I decided to use the foreman grill and grill the tofu with a few teaspoons of the sauce. Grilling the tofu improved the texture and gave it some extra flavor before I started stir-frying. I would like to try this recipe with beef at some point. I bet it would be delish!
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Pizza Sauce
Roasted Bell Peppers
Roasting peppers is a great way to concentrate the delicious flavor the pepper already has. You can store them in the fridge for a few days or make a big batch and freeze for a later date.
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