Just in time for your Cinco de Mayo celebration – a new post and a slightly unusual twist for John…

I’m an omnivore by nature – I tend to live by Andrew Zimmern’s philosophy on Bizarre Foods “if it looks good, eat it”, and many times I have skipped the whole “if it looks good” part and just moved on to step 2. I have meddled with vegetarian(ish) foods before on multiple occasions, but most of those experiments (with the obvious exception of the Soyrizo tamales posted elsewhere on this blog) have simply been recipes involving cooking nothing but vegetables, which I have discovered was kind of cheating.

I will be the first to admit that I have never done a tremendous amount of research into what truly is and isn’t a “vegetarian friendly” food, which may explain why Amity often edits my post categories to remove “Vegetarian & Vegan” before sending me a terse email explaining why I was wrong. I actually became gun shy about using that category, and was even a little twitchy about using it for this one, but I did my homework this time!

Over the course of the past month or so, I have had a couple of opportunities to casually discuss vegetarian foods with someone who actually lives the lifestyle, and it was those chats that pointed out some of the flaws in my thinking. Perfect example – I had no clue that the rennet used in cheesemaking often comes from animal sources and is considered a no-no for a vegetarian meal. I though all cheese was alike except for how it tasted, so that was a wee bit of a shock and I actually had to read labels for this post instead of just chucking cheese in the basket and moving on. Luckily for me, the habanero cheddar I recently fell in love with at Whole Foods happened to use vegetarian enzymes, so I kinda skated by on that one!

The main ingredient in these two recipes comes from the shelves of one of my favorite stores in the food world – Trader Joes. Now that there is one here in town and I no longer have to travel an hour or more each way just to get my almond butter fix, I can also experiment with the refrigerated and frozen products that I never bought on the long trips due to the risk of melting / spoilage. Two of those things that I recently bought on a whim are the “Beef-Less Strips” and “Beef-Less Ground Beef”. The original intent was to make some sort of Thai dish with the things, but with Cinco de Mayo right around the corner (and after some serious issues finding vegetarian-friendly alternatives to things like red curry paste and fish sauce) I decided it would be much easier just going with a simple pair of Mexican dishes instead.

My first thoughts upon opening the packages of meatless meat was just how much the stuff resembled real meat. The strips pulled apart into very realistic looking meat strips, and the ground beef looked almost exactly like cooked ground beef. The best part – they both held up perfectly to cooking, with the strips even browning in a hot pan just like a piece of beef would. And the taste was pretty impressive too – it wasn’t an exact beef replacement, but it was pretty darn close.

With the packages of “meat” all opened up and filling the counter (I went a little overboard), I grabbed an onion, some pre-made fajita seasoning mix, and two bell peppers for the fajitas, then started pulling random things out of the pantry and spice cabinet for a “from scratch” taco seasoning. Less than 30 minutes later, I was filling tortillas with 100% vegetarian friendly Mexican grub and chowing down.

Was it good enough to make me give up meat entirely? Probably not, but it was good enough to make me want to experiment more with the two beefless beef products and other styles of cooking, and I need to work on getting back in shape, so reducing my already low level of real beef intake can’t hurt. I really want to try the ground beef-less in a pot of rich, red chili and there is a fiery Thai red curry bath in store for some of the strips once I figure out how to replace a few ingredients to keep the dish truly vegetarian. But enough of that – on to the Mexican recipes!

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Beefless Fauxjitas

Ingredients:

• 1 8oz package Trader Joes Beef-less Strips
• 1 red bell pepper, cored and sliced into thin strips
• 1 green bell pepper, similarly sliced
• 1/2 of a large sweet onion, sliced into strips
• Fajita seasoning of choice
• 1 cup shredded cheese (see notes)
• 6-8 small corn or flour tortillas (see notes)
• Optional garnishes – lime slices, cilantro, pico de gallo, sliced jalapenos, etc.
• 2 Tablespoons olive oil, divided

Preparation:

Step 1 : Wash and core the bell peppers, then slice the flesh into long, thin strips. Cut the onion in half and peel it, then slice it length-wise into thin strips.

Step 2 : Remove the Beef-less strips from the packaging and separate them with your hands for easier cooking.

Step 3 : Add 1 Tablespoon of the olive oil to a medium skillet and place on medium-high heat. Add the onion slices and cook for 3-4 minutes until they begin to soften. Add the bell peppers and cook for another 4 minutes, until the peppers also begin to soften. Remove the onions and peppers from the pan and set aside.

Step 4 : Add the second Tablespoon of oil to the pan and return it to the heat. Place the strips in the pan and season liberally with your fajita seasoning. Cook for 3-4 minutes until browned and add the onions and peppers back into the pan. Toss the contents to spread the seasoning, adding more as needed, and cook for an additional 2 minutes.

Step 5 : Remove everything from the pan, place on tortillas with your choice of garnishes and consume. Lather, rinse, repeat.

Beefless Taco filling

Ingredients:

• 1 8oz package Trader Joes Beef-less Ground Beef
• 1/2 cup red salsa of choice
• 1 chipotle from a can of chipotles en adobo
• 1 Tablespoon of the adobo sauce from the can
• 1 teaspoon cracked black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 of a large onion, diced
• 1 clove of garlic, minced
• 1 Tablespoon olive oil
• 1 cup shredded cheese (see notes again)
• 6-8 small corn tortillas (see notes)
• 2 cups shredded lettuce
• salsa, lime slices, cilantro, sliced jalapenos, etc. for topping

Preparation:

Step 1 : Add the olive oil to a large skillet/pan on medium-high heat. Add the diced onion to the skillet and cook for 4-5 minutes until the onion begins to become translucent. Add the garlic and cook for an additional 2 minutes, stirring frequently to avoid burning.

Step 2 : Add the ground Beef-Less to the pan and separate using a spatula or wooden spoon. Cook for 3-4 minutes, stirring/tossing frequently until somewhat browned.

Step 3 : Add the salsa, chipotle, adobo sauce, and seasonings to the pan and stir to combine. Cook for 2-3 minutes until all ingredients are well mixed and heated through.

Step 4 : Remove from heat, and place in a large bowl. Serve on warm corn tortillas, topped with cheese, lettuce and your choice of other toppings.

Notes:

1. As explained in the pre-recipe dissertation, to keep this recipe truly vegetarian-friendly, you have to use cheese that is made with non-animal sourced rennet / enzymes. Check the label carefully for the words “vegetable enzymes”, and if there is any question, keep on looking or ask someone at the cheese display – odds are good that in a place like Whole Foods or other specialty markets, someone will know. You can also skip this step and just use soy cheeses, but that was a little much for me.
2. Much like the cheese, you need to be extremely careful with the tortillas you serve if you are going “full veggie” – many corn and flour tortillas available in the store are made with lard. Again – read the labels carefully before grabbing something and running out the door.

© 2012, CreativeNoms. All rights reserved.

What’s this? Another sandwich recipe from South of the Border? Why yes, yes it is…

I’m gonna admit it right now – I have an addiction to torta rolls. Somewhere between the denseness of a ciabatta roll and the light, airiness of a fluffy baguette, the torta roll is a rectangular hunk of sweet, chewy bread goodness. ANY sandwich is great on these wonderful rolls, but why not use them for their intended purpose and throw something Latin on them, right? Right!

Panes de Pavo are a traditional sandwich from El Salvador, typically consisting of marinated and roasted turkey simmered in a thick, rich red sauce filled with the flavors of pepitas, tomatoes, and a wide variety of other ingredients, and topped with a similarly wide variety of things. One thing I noticed while researching these sammiches – no two recipes were alike – so I took that as the perfect excuse to just go wild and throw things in a pot until it tasted good. Like I need a reason for that…

Problem #1 that I encountered while prepping for this experiment was actually locating turkey breast to use for the base meat. Apparently the only ways to get turkey breast these days are frozen on the bone, in packages of cutlets, or in a vaccum sealed pack with a nasty, chemical laden marinade already added to it. Buying and thawing a whole breast for an experiment did not appeal to me, cutlets were too thin for my tastes, and the marinated ones kinda defeated the purpose, so I settled for a different part of the bird that is readily available fresh – turkey legs.

In an attempt to keep these things relatively healthy, I removed the skin from the legs before adding my marinade of choice for an overnight soak. I also slashed some deep cuts into the meat of the legs to allow the delicious mixture of dijon mustard, crushed garlic, ancho chile powder, and vermouth to soak into the meat better. Left to ponder their fate in the garlicky, mustardy bath overnight, the turkey came out of the bag ready to face their demise drunk on vermouth and coated in goo. Sounds like a pretty decent way to meet your maker to me!

In the traditional versions of Panes con Pavo, the turkey is roasted until tender and then added to the sauce to simmer slowly. Since I am impatient, I made a bigger mess than originally intended and did a combination of baking and pressure cooking to speed things up. A 40 minute bake @ 350 helped the marinade crust on the meat a little, and 30 more minutes in the pressure cooker made sure the flesh was soft, shreddable, and ready for the sauce. The cleanup was a bear, but it was worth it.

Then there was the sauce.

This part of the recipe is where my tendency to throw everything but the kitchen sink into a recipe really came to the forefront. I had copies of four different recipes on hand for inspiration, and I stole bits and pieces of each one until I had what I decided was the perfect base for a wet sandwich topping. Fire roasted tomatoes, garlic, pepitas, ancho powder, anatto powder, toasted sesame seeds, bay leaf, onion, beer, capers, green olives, sugar, lime juice, maggi seasoning, and oregano all combined in the blender resulted in a delicious, medium-thick sauce with tons of flavors. Yeah, there are a billion ingredients in there, but man was it worth it.

The last decision to be made was what to top the sandwich with. I stuck with a couple of the traditional things here, sauteeing some green pepper and onion slices until soft. Not wanting to stop there, I added some broccoli slaw shreds and sliced poblano pepper, salt, black pepper, lime juice, and a dash or two of smoked ancho powder to the mix. Some fresh cilantro on top rounded out the sandwich.

Panes con Pavo

Ingredients for meat:

• 6 fresh turkey legs, skin removed
• 8 ounces dijon mustard
• 3 cloves of garlic, crushed
• 1/4 cup dry vermouth
• 1/2 Tablespoon smoked ancho powder

Ingredients for the sauce:

• 1/2 cup warm beer (Budweiser is ideal here)
• 1 15oz can fire roasted tomatoes
• 2 teaspoons of capers with juice
• 2 Tablespoons toasted pepitas
• 1/2 teaspoon anatto powder
• 1 bay leaf
• 2 teaspoons smoked ancho powder
• 1 Tablespoon toasted sesame seeds
• 1/2 teaspoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon lime juice
• 10 green olives
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 small yellow onion, diced

Sammich toppings:

• 1 green bell pepper, sliced thin
• 1 poblano pepper, sliced thin
• 1 medium onion, sliced into half rounds
• 1 teaspoon lime juice
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup pre-packaged broccoli slaw
• 1/2 teaspoon ancho powder
• olive oil for the pan

© 2012, CreativeNoms. All rights reserved.

Before anything else, let me say that no, neither John nor I has been avoiding the blog intentionally and we do apologize for the larger than normal break between posts.

A collection of circumstances completely beyond our control prevented the making of any posts in the last few weeks. Though many an idea has filtered through our collective brain-share and some were even photographed (and will hopefully be posted soon).

The good news though, is that it looks like things appear to be stabilizing a bit. I’m hoping that by March’ish, we’ll be back to 2 or so posts a week.

We also have some devious plans that involve a few changes to the blog including a layout change at some point in the future to make things a little bit brighter.

To get back into the swing of things, I’m following through with a promise to a few folks. I’ve mentioned this recipe in many a conversation and somehow never thought to post it to the blog, perhaps because it was so very simple to make.

When I started to eat healthier, I looked for many a way to avoid having to give up the salty crunch of corn tortillas completely, which logically (for me) led to baking them.

That was step 1, step 2 was trying to perfect the art of baking a tortilla, which is not as simple as it sounds. It’s very easy to burn a batch of tortillas if you don’t pay attention or miss the oven timer. I speak from experience.

Step 3 was deciding to bake on the refried beans and cheese so that everything melted together… and that’s when magic words of “you’re making this again, right?” were spoken.

While I’d love to claim this is made completely from scratch, the fact is certain tortilla brands from the store work better than anything else when it comes to crisping up in the oven. Not to mention, while I do make (un)refried beans sometimes, a can of low-sodium refried beans in the pantry is a huge time saver.

Needless to say, this is my go-to ‘oh crap there’s nothing thawed/prepped/ready to make for dinner’ meal. It shows up at least twice a month on the dinner table and everyone loves it.

Once you get used to baking the tortillas, it’s a ridiculously simple one-dish dinner that can be made in less than 15 minutes.

Protein, dairy and giant mound o’ vegetables all piled high on a delicious crispy edible platter that also happens to be low in fat, low in sodium and high in fiber and protein.

Nearly a perfect meal.

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Oven-Baked Black Bean Tostadas

Ingredients:

• 8-10 taco-sized corn tortillas (see notes for recommended brands)
• A good chile powder blend or Mexican spice blend
• Adobo seasoning
• 1 can (16 oz) or 2 cups homemade refried black beans
• 1 cup shredded pepper jack or sharp cheddar cheese
• 2-3 cups chopped greens (I dig a romaine & spinach mix)

Additional Toppings:

• Fresh Cilantro
• Guacamole
• Pico de Gallo or Fresh Tomatoes, chopped
• Low-Fat Sour Cream
• Hot Sauce
• Anything else you think would be tasty. Really.

Preparation:

Step 1 : Preheat your oven to 400° F.

Step 2 : Lightly spray one side of each tortilla with cooking spray, then sprinkle with the chile powder blend and adobo seasoning. I do a light sprinkle of each one, not too much. Then flip your tortillas over and repeat the process on the other side. Once both sides are prepped, lay the tortillas flat on a cookie sheet or grill pan (see notes for recommendations). Try not to overlap them!

Depending on the size of the cookie sheet/pan, you may have to bake in batches. I bake 6 at a time on a grill pan that has the holes in the bottom – better hot air circulation while baking.

Step 3 : Bake! 9-10 minutes, until the very outer edge is starting to brown and the middle is not soft.

If your tortillas are thicker, you may need an extra minute or so, but watch them carefully to prevent burning.

Step 4 : While the tortillas are baking, do things like prep veggies, shred your cheese (fresh shredded will always melt better than pre-shredded!) and warm up the refried beans.

The easiest way to warm the beans is to place them in a microwave container and cook for about 90 seconds, stirring every 30 seconds to distribute heat. Make sure you cover them with something (plastic wrap, a paper towel, etc.) because they will splatter as they heat up.

You need them warm to spread them, trust me.

Step 4 : Once the tortillas are done, remove them from the oven (but don’t turn it off!). Divide your refried beans evenly and spread to cover the entire tortilla, leaving maybe 1/4″ of space around the edge.  (I start with a heaping tablespoon on each and then divvy up any leftovers.) Once beans are applied, sprinkle on the cheese. I use about 1/2 oz per tortilla.

Step 5 : And now, they go right back into the oven! Bake again, but this time only for 2-3 minutes or until the cheese has done it’s melting thing.

Step 6 : Remove from oven, let cool for about a minute and then serve immediately with any/all additional toppings. Let everyone top their own to ‘customize’ them!

Then eat!

Yield: 8-10 Tostadas, serves 4 hungry adults. (2-3 Tostadas per person)

Notes:

1. I highly recommend Mission Extra Thin Corn Tortillas for oven baking if you can find them, as they seem to crisp up the best. Other good brands include both Trader Joe’s & Whole Foods corn tortillas and any authentic brand that you can find at a local Mex-grocer.
2. Arizona Dreaming spice mix from Penzey’s is pretty amazing as a tortilla seasoning and salt free! It’s also pretty hot, so don’t accidentally use too much.
3. The pan that I use for this is actually intended for an outdoor grill, but the thing works beautifully in the oven for tortillas, oven-baked fries and a ton of other items. This Cuisinart one is very similar to the one I own. It’s extremely versatile and a great investment.
4. Yes, you could use regular old refried beans, but the black bean kind simply has way more flavor.

© 2012, CreativeNoms. All rights reserved.

Mmmmmmm, thick cut, bone-in pork chops. Of all the different cuts of pork, these thick, juicy, versatile hunks of pork goodness are way up near the top of my rankings for “Top of the Pig”. Grilled, baked, or even pressure cooked, the thickness of the cut almost guarantees a tender finished product, but where these things REALLY shine is when they are stuffed.

I have seen dozens upon dozens of recipes for stuffed pork chops while browsing the net and reading cookbooks, and a solid 90% or more of them call for some funky bread-based stuffing with tons of herbs and other seasonings. I guess those would be ok, but I prefer a much more simple approach to stuffing – a single ingredient kind of approach using fresh fruit. Pork and fruit are a natural combo going back as far as the iconic “apple in the mouth” that everyone has seen once or twice in a cartoon or other show, so why muck up perfectly good pork with a mass of stuffing meant for a turkey?

At one point or another, I have used pears, apples, pineapple, and many other fruits for stuffing a chop, but I always end up going back to my favorite fruit on the planet when I really want to do it right – the mango. The flavor is awesome, the texture is perfect for a stuffing application, and I get to eat the leftovers, so what’s not to like?

When I mention the idea of stuffing a pork chop to people, the most frequent response I get is “that’s just too hard to do – I don’t have that level of cooking skill”, and I never fail to laugh when that happens. If you can summon the knife skills to slice fruit and own a small, sharp knife, you can stuff a pork chop. The technique is simple – you slip the knife into the side of the chop and slowly and carefully slice the inside with the tip of the knife without making the initial opening any bigger or breaching the sides, creating a pocket inside the meat. A hand placed on top of the chop keeps it stable as you create the pocket – that’s all it takes. A simple search on Youtube for “stuffing a pork chop” will turn up several videos showing the technique if you need more guidance than that!

The rest of the stuffing process involves slicing the fruit into small, thin strips and stuffing it into the hole you made on the initial cut. Keep the slices about 1/4 inch thick, and slip them into the pocket in a single layer and you are all set. Pretty hard, eh?

Since there is already quite a bit of flavor coming from the fruit inside the pork, this is one of the few dishes where I skimp on the seasonings a little. A good dusting of sea or kosher salt and some cracked black pepper are all these things need. Sear them in a hot pan, then finish up in the oven for a solid meal. Well, sort of.

Remember that twist from the title? That would be my seasonal fruit secret weapon for this dish – a blood orange and habanero sauce that adds a tart, spicy kick to the chops that works perfectly with the mellow sweetness of the mango.

Blood oranges are a type of orange with a purple flesh inside and a flavor that resembles a cross between a raspberry and a regular orange. They are in season between December and April(ish), and have become pretty common in the produce sections of most grocery stores lately. Cooked down with some honey, a habanero, and some soy sauce, the juice of these purple fleshed beauties is a perfect way to top off an already great pork chop.

So put aside your fears of the stuffed pork chop and give it a try. And grab some blood oranges while you’re at it – if nothing else, they are great for getting strange looks from people at the office or for freaking out the kids.

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Mango Stuffed Pork Chops

Ingredients:

• 2 thick cut, bone in pork chops – about 1 1/4 inch thick
• 1/2 of a mango (one cheek) sliced into strips
• salt
• cracked black pepper
• Blood orange-habanero sauce from the recipe below
• 1 Tablespoon coconut or other oil

Preparation:

Step 1 : Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Step 2 : Using a small, narrow bladed VERY SHARP knife, cut a pocket into each pork chop. Work the knife slowly from side to side, making the pocket as large as possible without exiting the sides of the shop.

Step 3 : Slice one cheek off of the mango and peel it. Slice the peeled mango into thin strips and slide them into the pockets of the chops in a single layer. Use more of the mango if needed, but do not stack the slices inside the chop.

Step 4 : Liberally season both sides of the chop with salt and pepper.

Step 5 : Heat the oil in a large, oven safe skillet/pan on high heat (the pan will be going into the oven, so do not use one with a plastic handle) and sear the chops on both sides for 3-4 minutes per side.

Step 6 : Remove the pan from the burner and place it in the oven. Bake for 10-12 minutes. Remove from oven and allow the chops to rest for 5-10 minutes before plating. Top with the blood orange sauce, and consume.

Blood Orange – Habanero Sauce

Ingredients:

• 1 cup of blood orange juice
• 2 Tablespoons honey
• 1 Tablespoon light brown sugar
• 1 Tablespoon premium aged soy sauce
• 1 habanero chile, seeded and minced

Preparation:

Step 1 : Place all the ingredients in a non-reactive sauce pan or pot and heat on medium-high heat until reduced to a thick sauce, about 10 minutes. Allow to cool slightly, and use to top pork chops. Strain if you like a smooth sauce.

© 2012, CreativeNoms. All rights reserved.

First off, a small apology for the slow start to 2012. Like all new years before it, this one is full of changes and surprises, so once things settle down a bit we should be back to a more normal and frequent posting schedule…

In my last post I sang the praises of my newly acquired pressure cooker from the Xmas season, and this week I am going to belt out another rousing chorus about this big chrome piece of kitchen awesomeness. I am still figuring out what the thing can do, but with this recipe turning out the way it did, I’m 2 for 2 so far…

I got the inspiration for this dish after reading several “Favorite Hangover Foods” threads on various food forums and seeing something called “juevos ahogados” mentioned more than a few times. Translated as “drowned eggs”, some of the recipes showed eggs poached in red or green salsas, others scrambled the eggs into the sauce, but regardless of how the eggs were done, the final result looked pretty freaking awesome to me.

Since I wasn’t hungover and I wasn’t making this recipe at breakfast time, I decided to expand on it a little and turn it into a lunch/dinner recipe instead by adding some chicken and pressure cooking it until it shredded like BBQ. Having done this style of recipe in a traditional pot and in a slow cooker, I was used to waiting several hours while the simmering salsa and broth slowly reduced the meat to shreds, so the 40 minute cook time in the pressure cooker was a pleasant surprise.

Served up with a side of wholesome refried beans from a can (anything that makes a sickly “splort” sound as it comes out of the can and into the pan is wholesome, right?) and some flour tortillas for wrapping and sopping up the juices, and it was almost complete. But there needed to be an egg to pay homage to the original inspiration, so I fried one up in a different pan and dropped it right on top.

Take a fork, break the yolk, then swirl everything together and start slopping it on tortillas! Spicy, tangy green salsa, tender chicken, beans as a binder, and egg as “goo”, and you have all the major food groups represented in a single plate! Now all I need is a hangover…

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Salsa Verde Chicken

Ingredients (based on a 6 quart pressure cooker):

• 6 boneless, skinless chicken thighs trimmed of excess fat
• 1 16 ounce jar of tomatillo salsa
• 1 medium (or 2 small, in my case) onion, diced
• 3 cloves garlic, diced
• 2 Tablespoons olive oil
• 1 1/2 cups low or no sodium chicken stock
• 1 teaspoon Goya Adobo dry seasoning
• 1 teaspoon cracked black pepper
• 1 egg
• refried beans
• flour tortillas

Preparation :

Step 1 : Place the open pressure cooker on a burner over medium-high heat. Add the olive oil, onion, and garlic and cook for 3-4 minutes, stirring frequently to avoid burning the garlic.

Step 2 : Once the onions and garlic have softened, add the Goya Adobo and black pepper to the cooker and stir to combine.

Step 3 : Add the chicken thighs and the salsa to the cooker and cook for 2-3 more minutes, flipping the chicken pieces frequently.

Step 4 : Add the chicken stock to the cooker and stir to combine the ingredients. Close and seal the cooker and bring it to pressure on high heat. Reduce the heat to medium-low and cook on the High pressure setting (15 psi) for 40 minutes.

Step 5 : While the chicken mixture is cooking, prepare the refried beans by warming them in a pan (tough one, huh?). For an added kick, add 1 Tablespoon of adobo sauce from a can of chipotles en adobo and stir it in completely.

Step 6 : When the chicken is done cooking, release the pressure from the cooker and remove the top. Keep the cooker on the heat and allow it to simmer while you fry up one egg per person. Runny yolks are the preferred option here, and the egg can be skipped if you don’t like runny eggs.

Step 7 : Plate up the chicken, add some beans, and toss an egg on top. Mix everything together with a fork and scoop it into your mouth on the flour tortillas. Repeat as needed.

Notes :

1. This dish can easily be made in a slow cooker (High for 4 hours, Low for or in a traditional pot (simmer for 90 minutes or until the chicken can be shredded with a fork)
2. Red salsa would work well here too!
3. If you can poach eggs with some level of success, feel free to do that. I poach eggs about as well as I bake, so I fried them.

© 2012, CreativeNoms. All rights reserved.

Aaaaand now I have that Queen & David Bowie song stuck in my head… Way to go, Me.

 After a nice little Holiday break to rest the mind and stuff the belly, the New Year has come and with it comes the inevitable resolution to eat more healthy foods. Sure, some people have other resolutions that they chose in order to avoid having to deal with the healthy one, but we all know that 99.9% of us have that healthy one on the list of “unmentioned resolutions that are really more important than the one we told everyone about”. The other 1%? No mouths.

This year my “get healthier” spree took a slightly different turn – I bought a pressure cooker. The idea first hit me while reading a recent issue of Mother Earth News in the, umm, reading room, and there was a nifty little article in there about the versatility and simplicity of pressure cookers. The article also mentioned reduced cooking time due to cooking at high pressure, and the idea of versatile, simple AND fast cooking made me want one right away. Nothing like being able to kick out a healthy meal in minutes so I can get back to being laz..err, exercising!

After doing my usual overkill amount of research and delaying the purchase by about a week, I had settled on buying a standard stove-top version instead of one of the newfangled electric ones. The idea of an electric pressure cooker that would require even less effort on my part sounded real great, but for every good review of the electric ones there were 5 bad ones, so I begrudgingly ruled those out. A few trips to the local stores later, I had me a shiny new all steel Fagor 6qt cooker in my trunk and no idea what to do with it.

When I finally did get around to unpacking the cooker about a week later, I noticed something that I was not expecting – it had a steamer insert in the box. At that point I had my idea for the “breaking in recipe” for this new piece of hardware – steamed fish and veggies. Healthy, quick, tasty, easy – it hit all the right buttons.

When I steam fish, the aquatic critter of choice is almost always salmon. Why salmon? Because skin-0n salmon tastes great when steamed, but most importantly it can also be removed from a steamer without falling into a billion pieces like most other fish fillets do. The skin on the cuts give the fish enough structural integrity to keep it in one (or two) pieces when moving from cooker to plate, and that is important to me, especially when I have to take pictures of it…

While shopping for a reasonably sized hunk o’ fish for this recipe, I stumbled upon a big bag of very reasonably priced white asparagus at my local Costco – into the cart it went. At the next stop, I nabbed the salmon and a fresh bunch of organic broccoli. I also cheated on the last of the side dishes, picking up a microwave package of jasmine rice – no sense in ruining a low maintenance meal by having to make rice, right? Right?

Two things were left to do at this point – pick a steaming liquid and figure out how to add flavor to the salmon. For a liquid, I decided to try steaming it with a strong brewed cup of pu-erh tea, and in keeping with the Asian theme, the flavor of the dish would come from Sriracha! Steamed in tea, and topped with a mix of Sriracha, honey, and aged soy sauce seemed like the perfect way to honor the demise of a delicious fish. And oh, was it.

Once everything was put together and ready to cook, I packed it all in the steamer basket, dropped it into the pressure cooker and brought it to pressure on a burner. 4 minutes later – yes, 4 whole minutes – the food was done and the healthy eating commenced! I think I love this cooker…

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Tea Steamed Salmon & Vegetables

Ingredients for 2 servings:

• 8 ounce skin-on salmon fillet, cut into 2 equal sized pieces
• 2 cups chopped fresh broccoli
• 8-10 stalks of fresh white asparagus
• 1 cup of strong black or green tea (for steaming)

For the glaze:

• 1 Tablespoon honey
• 1 teaspoon premium aged soy sauce
• 2 teaspoons Sriracha sauce

Preparation:

Step 1 : Rinse the salmon and vegetables in cold running water to remove any dirt, scales, etc. Pat the fish dry.

Step 2 : Brew 1 cup of very strong black or green tea. Use 3 or 4 tea bags and allow to steep for 4-5 minutes. Add to the pressure cooker pot.

Step 3 : Prepare the glaze by mixing the 3 ingredients together in a small bowl. Adjust ingredients as needed to fit your preferences for salty, spicy, or sweet.

Step 4 : Place the fish in the steamer tray of your pressure cooker (or steamer – see notes) and brush the top and sides of each piece with half of the prepared glaze, reserving the rest. Arrange the vegetables around and between the fish pieces.

Step 5 : Place the steamer insert into the pressure cooker per the instructions and seal the cooker. Bring the cooker to operating pressure (HIGH if your cooker has High/Low settings) and then lower the heat to medium-low. Cook for 4 minutes, then remove from burner and release the pressure using the quick release method recommended by the manufacturer of your cooker.

Step 6 : Plate the fish and vegetables and (optional but recommended) some prepared white or brown rice, finishing off the serving by drizzling the remaining glaze over the two pieces of fish. Consume.

Notes:

1. This recipe can be prepared in a regular steamer instead of a pressure cooker. Adjust the amount of tea (or eliminate it and use water) to fill your steamer to the appropriate level and use the recommended time settings for your brand of steamer. You may need to add the ingredients at different times in the cooking process to avoid overcooking.
2. PLEASE follow all the instructions provided by the manufacturer of your pressure cooker. These things can be extremely dangerous if operated improperly. Melting your face with steam is not a good way to kick off the New Year.

© 2012, CreativeNoms. All rights reserved.

Now that all the “fun” and chaos of the holiday season is either gone or winding down, it is time to turn our focus to the single most annoying part of the season – dealing with leftovers. In my neck of the woods, Christmas means a main course of ham, followed by a week of ham and eggs, ham sandwiches, ham on a stick (ok, I made that last one up), and one huge, less-than desirable leftover – the ham bone.

Now when I say “less-than desirable”, I simply mean that most people either have no idea what to do with the bone or simply don’t want to bother with it, so they throw it away. These people – we shall call them heathens – are the same ones who toss a perfectly good turkey carcass in the garbage right after Thanksgiving and toss chicken bones out after roasting a bird for dinner. Those people are weird.

Me, I ASK for the bone from the ham and the carcass from the bird. I relish the challenge of taking those leftover parts and turning them into something delicious and soupy, and this year’s ham bone was no exception. Laden with the harder to get to hunks of meat on the narrow end, this year’s bone simply screamed “use me – make me into bean soup”, and who am I to refuse the wishes of a screaming ham bone?

With the bean soup idea firmly stuck in my head, it was now time to decide what style of bean soup was to be made. I usually use the ham bone to make stock for a greens and beans stew-like dish or a white bean soup, but the blustery, snow flurry-y day outside called for something different. It called for spicy.

Lacking proper inspiration for a recipe, I decided to take a very dangerous step – I opted to walk into Whole Foods without a list and see what happened.

Knowing I needed to turn the bone into a stock before making soup, the first part of the shopping was easy. Into the basket went some celery, a couple of carrots, a white onion, and a head of garlic. I had some parsley at home from a previous recipe, so no need for greenery, and the rest of the stuff I had in mind was already in my spice cabinet, so it was “so far, so good”.

The very first thing I noticed as I was walking the produce aisle looking for the celery was the fresh herb section, and it was at that point that I decided the soup was going to be a Southwestern-style pot o’ beans and ham. Cilantro was the first item nabbed, followed by a red bell pepper, a poblano pepper, an anaheim pepper, a jalapeno pepper, a medium red onion, some green onions, and then I ran away from the produce section before I bought more peppers.

Next up was the bean aisle and (hopefully) the door. White beans sounded too sweet and, well, white, and kidney beans too red. Goldilocks would have been proud of me as I noticed the pinto beans and said “just right”. Into the basket went 2 cans of no-salt added pintos, and out the door I went. Probably the cheapest trip I have ever made to Whole Foods.

Once back at the casa, it was stock time, and after a 2 hour simmer, it was soup making time. It wouldn’t be me if there weren’t a couple of unusual ingredients in the soup, and this recipe will not disappoint. Vegemite, my “go to” ingredient for adding mouth-feel and umami to a dish was a no-brainer, and some aged soy sauce added the salty kick that was missing. Finished up with some green onions, cilantro, and diced jalapenos as a garnish, and I had me a fine, fine batch of spicy soup to kick Old Man Winter right in the daddy parts with.

The moral of the story – the ugly ham bone turns into the beautiful soup swan if you treat it right. Save them bones!

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Spicy Ham and Pinto Bean Soup

Ingredients for Stock:

• 1 32oz box low sodium vegetable stock
• 2 carrots, peeled and sliced
• 3 ribs celery, roughly chopped
• 1 medium yellow onion, roughly chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, smashed
• 1 teaspoon black peppercorns
• 1 teaspoon white peppercorns
• 6 cups water
• 2 bay leaves
• 4 sprigs fresh flat leaf parsley
• 1 ham bone

Preparation:

Step 1 : Throw everything into a 6 quart or larger stock pot. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat until the contents are simmering strongly. Cover and simmer for 2-3 hours, skimming any fat off the top as needed.

Step 2 : Strain the stock into another pot and reserve. Use a fork to shred the remaining meat from the bone and reserve as well.

Ingredients for Soup:

• 1 batch of stock from the above recipe
• 4 ribs of celery, sliced thin
• 3 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 red bell pepper, roasted and diced
• 1 poblano pepper, roasted and diced
• 1 anaheim pepper, diced
• 1 medium red onion, diced
• 2 green onions, finely diced
• 3 cups shredded ham (or cubed ham if you have a bare bone)
• 2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 2 teaspoons dried oregano
• 1 teaspoon ancho chile powder
• 1 Tablespoon vegemite
• 1 Tablespoon premium aged soy sauce
• 2 teaspoons cracked black pepper
• 1 teaspoon lime juice
• 4 sprigs cilantro, finely chopped
• 3 Tablespoons olive oil
• 2 15 ounce cans of pinto beans, rinsed and drained

Preparation:

Step 1 : Place the poblano and red bell pepper on an oiled cookie sheet or small roasting pan. Place the pan under a broiler on high until the flesh of the peppers is black and blistered. Turn the peppers until all sides are charred. Place the peppers in a plastic bag and allow them to steam for 10 minutes. Remove the peppers from the bag, peel, seed, and dice.

Step 2 : Heat the olive oil in a dutch oven or similar deep pot on medium high heat. Add the onion, and cook for 4-5 minutes until the onion is soft.

Step 3 : Add the cumin, oregano, ancho powder, garlic, green onion, the roasted red and poblano peppers, and the anaheim pepper to the pot along with 1/4 cup of the reserved stock. Cover the pot and cook for 4-5 minutes, stirring at least once, until the garlic is cooked and soft.

Step 4 : Add the remaining stock and everything else to the pot and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium-low, cover the pot, and simmer for 10-15 minutes. Taste and adjust seasonings as needed.

Step 5 : Serve the soup with a garnish of diced jalapeno, cilantro, and diced green onion. Crusty bread would be good too. Consume. Rinse. Repeat.

© 2011, CreativeNoms. All rights reserved.

So I had really thought that the potato chip cookies would be my favorite this year…

And then? I managed to knock them down from the number one spot on the list all the way to number three in less than an hour.

In fact, I had a really hard time deciding which of the two new cookie recipes would be posted first…

After much internal debate (and sampling!), this one won for a couple of reasons: First, it’s definitely my favorite of all the baking done for the holidays this year. Second, it’s made with dark chocolate, maraschino cherries and brandy… ok, fine, that’s really part of the first reason, but it deserved its own special mention!

The recipe idea itself I get to officially blame on my co-worker. She’s the one who mentioned in passing that she had seen blueberry cordial candies at the store this year as something new and shiny. Which led me to thinking about cherry cordials and then to the brandied kind, which have always been my favorite (and are not all that easy to find).

As it’s also cookie baking season, that entire train of thought pretty much went right from ‘I wonder where could I find real brandied cherry cordials’ into ‘ooo, must turn this into a baked good!’

Of course, first thing I did was look for recipes but as is sometimes the case, I couldn’t find a single one that appealed to me. Using pre-made ‘cherry cordial’ candies wasn’t the way that I wanted to go, and that’s the majority of what I found.

I also had already decided that it was a must that I incorporate brandy into the recipe and didn’t really find mention of that anywhere either. (The alcohol itself cooks off, but the flavor remains and that’s the important part.)

So I turned to the tried and true method of cookie baking, which is to say that I grabbed the Joy of Cooking off the shelf and proceeded to improvise.

My cookie-vision was one of a chewy chocolate cookie mixed with chunks of cherries and a nice undertone of brandy to bring it together.

When the cookies came out of the oven, the chewy part was there, as was the cherry, but the brandy was extremely subtle while they were still warm.

My first thought was to modify things and try again, however after I let the cookies fully cool and added a super simple glaze, the brandy flavor was much more noticeable; clearly there but not overpowering.

(Good thing, too, since I was out of both cherries and brandy at that point.)

The end result?

An absolutely delightful cookie that would go perfectly with after-dinner holiday coffee (or tea).

They’re not over-the-top decadent and have that a soft, chewy texture.

If you’re a fan of chocolate and cherries (and brandy!), you won’t be able to eat just one.

.

Brandied Cherry Cordial Cookies

Ingredients:

• 1 (~14oz) jar maraschino cherries
• 1/2 cup + 2 tbsp brandy
• 1 cup butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 2 eggs
• 2 1/2 cups (11.25 oz) unbleached all purpose flour
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/2 tsp kosher salt
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips

Super Simple Glaze:

• 1 1/4 cups powdered sugar
• 3 tbsp warm water

Preparation:

Step 1: Drain maraschino cherries but leave them in the jar. Pour the 1/2 cup of brandy into the jar. You want enough brandy to cover the cherries completely.

Place the lid back on the jar and soak for a minimum of one hour and up to overmight.

The longer you soak them, stronger the brandy taste. I soaked mine overnight.

Step 2: Drain the cherries, remove from the jar and roughly chop. I cut mine in half and then haphazardly quartered each half, which resulted in good sized pieces.

Step 3: Combine flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, kosher salt and cinnamon in a medium sized mixing bowl and whisk together until well mixed. (Don’t preheat the oven; the dough will need to chill.)

Step 4: Using a hand or stand mixer, cream together the butter and sugar at medium speed until fully blended. Then, add in the eggs, remaining 2 tbsp brandy and vanilla and continue to mix until well blended.

Reduce your speed to low and add in the flour mixture, continue to mix only until it is completely combined.

Step 5: Now, using a spatula, gently fold in the cherries and the mini chocolate chips that you’ve had sitting on the counter until this step.

Once everything has been folded in, cover the bowl (plastic wrap or a bowl cover works) and place it into the fridge to chill for at least half an hour.

Otherwise it’s pretty sticky and a pain to work with.

Step 6: Preheat your oven to 350° F.

Step 7: Using a small cookie scoop or a regular tablespoon, scoop out the dough and form ~1 inch balls. Place the cookie balls about 2 inches apart on ungreased baking sheets.

Step 8: Bake! 11-12 minutes. Allow to cool on the baking sheet for at least 3 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Step 9: Once the cookies are completely cool, mix the powdered sugar and warm water to form the glaze.

Step 10: Place the cookies on wax paper or on a wire rack with wax paper underneath. Use a spoon to drizzle the glaze on the cookies. Let it set for at least 30 minutes, then enjoy!

Yield: About 4 Dozen

Notes: 

1. If you like strong brandy flavor, add an additional tbsp of brandy and 2 tbsp flour to the dough.
2. No alcohol allowed? Easy enough, you can get brandy extract at many major grocery stores in the baking aisle – swap the alcohol for 2 tsp of that and don’t soak your cherries.

© 2011, CreativeNoms. All rights reserved.

Every year, it starts the same way… hours are spent pondering various ideas, the list gets made, checked not twice but somewhere around five times, and then the stores get raided.

I’m not talking about holiday gift shopping. In fact, I’ve been done with the whole present buying thing for weeks. I even finished the dreaded task of wrapping everything (and mailing off important care packages) a few days ago.

Oh no, see, I’m talking about holiday cookie baking season!

As I mentioned last year right around this time, cookie baking for the holidays is a serious endeavor for me. It’s my way of sharing the love, a few dozen or so baked goods at a time.

While I do always make the standards (sugar, chocolate chip, gingerbread, etc.), I attempt to try out a couple new recipes as well. It keeps things interesting that way, after all, if I tried to make 30 dozen gingerbread, I’d probably die of boredom.

Now if you’re still trying to figure out the concept of potato chips cookies, you are not alone. I wouldn’t have known these existed if not for a friend from high school mentioning that she baked them.

The oddness of it caught my eye and after I sat there for a moment wondering what in the world these were, I asked for the recipe. I also headed on over to Google to see what was out there while I waited…

And the results of my search were surprising. Recipes for everything from shortbread and sugar cookies to butterscotch nut-filled and even chocolate chip cookies, all different, but with one universal theme: crushed potato chips in the batter.

After a bit more digging, I found it mentioned (in various places) that this style of cookie was very popular in the 1960′s.

Ah ha, that explains why I’d never really heard of it… I wasn’t born yet.

Of course, after reading all about these, I had to make them. I wasn’t sure which recipe was best, so I decided to take what looked most interesting as a starting point and improvise.

I didn’t want a shortbread (I make enough kinds of that already) and I really didn’t want nuts or chips, so I settled on a very rich sugar cookie dough.

I especially loved the idea of dipping these in chocolate and then sprinkling them with a bit of sea salt so that went into the plan as well.

A bit of trial and error later, I had a cookie that was very rich, sweet, salty and all around tasty.

The potato chips definitely added to the richness and the added sea salt balanced out the chocolate perfectly.

Now it’s off to the kitchen again, I’ve got some cherries that have been soaking in brandy for the last couple of days and a whole lot more baking to do before the weekend!

.

Potato Chip Cookies

Ingredients:

• 1 cup pure cane sugar
• 1 cup light brown sugar, packed
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 1/2 cups (11.25 oz) unbleached all-purpose flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 6 oz (~ 2 cups) crushed potato chips
• 1 cup dark chocolate chips
• ~2 tbsp coarse sea salt

Preparation:

Step 1: Combine flour and baking powder in a medium sized mixing bowl and whisk together until well mixed. (Don’t preheat the oven, the dough will need to chill.)

Step 2: Using a hand or stand mixer, cream together the butter and both types of sugar at medium speed until fully blended. Then, add in both the eggs and vanilla and continue to mix until well blended.

Reduce your speed to low and add in the flour mixture, continue to mix only until it is completely combined.

Step 3: Now, using a spatula, gently fold the potato chips into the dough. Do not use a mixer for this!

Once the chips have been folded in, cover the bowl (plastic wrap or a bowl cover works) and place it into the fridge to chill for a minimum of one hour.

The dough must be cold or the cookies will spread too much when baking. You do not want potato chip pancakes!

Step 4: Once the dough has chilled for at least an hour, you’re ready to bake.

Preheat your oven to 350° F.

Step 5: Using a small cookie scoop or  a regular tablespoon, scoop out the dough to form ~1 inch balls. Place the cookie balls about 2 inches apart on ungreased baking sheets. You might want to line them with parchment paper, I didn’t bother.

Step 6: Bake! About 12 minutes or until the cookies are lightly browned on the bottom. Allow  to cool on the baking sheet for 3 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Step 7: Once the cookies are completely cool, melt the dark chocolate chips (I used the microwave: 1 minute on high, then stir, then 15 second intervals until the chocolate was fully melted).

Step 8: Dip the edge of each cookie (or half of each cookie) in chocolate and sprinkle with a little of the sea salt.

You can also drizzle chocolate on top in patterns and also sprinkle with salt.

Or skip the entire chocolate/salt thing and eat them plain.

They’re delicious no matter what.

Really!

Yield: 4-5 Dozen

© 2011, CreativeNoms. All rights reserved.

Anyone who even halfway knows me knew this day would come – the day that I took the blog into the realm of the weird. It took months of begging, but Amity finally allowed me to wander over to the odd side of food and make an attempt at proving that the “nasty bits” are good eating. What better place to start than with beef tongue?

For the sake of background – I LOVE weird foods even more than I do hot and spicy stuff. My dream job is to be the Robin to Andrew Zimmern’s Batman on Bizarre Foods – travel the world and eat the most unusual things there are to eat. If someone called right now and said “be at the airport in 15 minutes and the Bizarre Foods job is yours”, there would be a Roadrunner-esque trail of smoke from my house to the boarding area with me at the head of it. The TSA people would be scanning a blur…

I got my first weird food fix while working in Juarez, Mexico back in the early 2000′s when the local plant staff in the facility I was working in decided to test me and see how I would react to street food. They offered to take me to lunch one day and sample some “local fare”, and we ended up stopping at a taco stand that was school bus on blocks tucked neatly in an alley between two strip malls. The bus had been converted into a small restaurant by rotating every other bench to make small booths, and running a plank of wood between the two seats to make a small table, and out front was a cooking table with several large pots simmering on propane burners.

I will leave out the details of what was in those pots, but if anyone is truly curious, feel free to Google “barbacoa de cabeza”. They took me there to test me, and I responded by making sure we went back at least once a week for lunch. I was the only liason from north of the border that ever went there, let alone regularly – pretty sure I scared them a little. I have that effect on people.

Needless to say, that was the beginning of a long and still continuing love of what I call “noming the weird” aka “I will eat anything once”. (and most things more than once)

Beef tongue is hardly a true “bizarre” food, since it can be found in delis and taco stands all in most metropolitan areas, but if I had to guess, 80% or more of people polled would probably never think of eating it. Relatively cheap @ under $3 a pound, the beef tongue is a really versatile cut of meat – chunks of it make great taco filling, thin slices make a killer sandwich, and it can be sauteed with peppers and onions to make a pretty awesome Spanish dish as well – but for this post I will focus on the taco side of things.

The tongue isn’t a typical cut of cow in that it requires a totally different style of cooking than just about every other part of the moocow. The tongue is a thick, heavy hunk of meat and it also has a thick skin covering the tender edible portion of the organ. The traditional way of preparing a tongue is to boil it for 50 minutes per pound, but I discovered that a slow cooker is perfect for this application. 6-8 hours on low or 3-4 on high followed by 30 minutes of cooling time will make the skin slide right off, leaving nothing but tender tongue meat on a plate for the rest of the process. Some recipes suggest adding onions, garlic, etc. to the simmer for this part of the process, but IMO that adds nothing to the flavor – save those things for the final dish.

Tacos de lengua from a typical taco place are very simple – chunks of tongue meat, diced onion, and cilantro on a pair of corn tortillas – but my dislike of raw onion made that a no-go, so the onion slices were pan cooked in some olive oil to reduce the harshness. The cilantro stayed in, along with some diced jalapeno. The finishing touch was a pair of  ”faux creama” sauces made with fat free sour cream, chipotle or Tabasco jalapeno sauce, and some honey and a squeeze of lime. No cheese, no lettuce, no tomato – just a relatively traditional taco. An awesome, awesome taco.

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Beef Tongue Tacos

Ingredients:

• 1 beef tongue (typically 3-4 pounds) trimmed of fat
• 1 red onion, sliced into thin rounds
• 1 lime, sliced
• 1-2 jalapenos, diced
• 1 bunch cilantro
• 1 batch of jalapeno or chipotle “faux crema” (See notes)
• 12-14 corn tortillas or 6-7 taco-size flour tortillas
• 2 Tablespoons olive oil

Step 1 : Remove the tongue from the packaging and check for attached fat, removing it as needed. (if you had a butcher prepare the tongue, skip this step)

Step 2 : Place the tongue in a slow cooker or large pot and add enough water to completely cover the tongue. For a slow cooker, cook for 6-8 hours on Low or 3-4 hours on High. If you are using a traditional pot, bring the water to a boil, then reduce the heat to an active simmer and cook for 50 minutes per pound of tongue.

Step 3 : Remove the tongue from the cooker / pot and allow to cool for 30 minutes.

Step 4 : While the tongue cools, slice the red onion into thin rounds. Heat the olive oil in a skillet on medium-high heat and add the sliced onions. Cook until the slices are soft.

Step 5 : Once the tongue is cool enough to handle, remove the skin from the outside of the tongue – it should slide off fairly easily. Slice the tongue into thin slices against the grain and arrange the slices on a plate.

Step 6 : Heat the tortillas on a warm skillet or in a microwave until they are soft and pliable. Build the tacos by adding the sliced tongue, onion, cilantro, diced jalapeno, and top with a dollop of the crema. Squeeze a slice of lime over the top, and consume. Rinse. Repeat.

Notes:

1. To make the “faux crema” topping, add a Tablespoon of Tabasco Jalapeno sauce OR a Tablespoon of the adobo sauce from a can of chipotles en adobo to 4 Tablespoons of fat free sour cream and 1 teaspoon of honey. Whisk to combine. Adjust to suit your personal taste / heat preference.

© 2011, CreativeNoms. All rights reserved.