Blueberry Salsa

When the time rolls around when you can begin buying big boxes of blueberries for super cheap, I feel like it’s finally summer. I am a huge fan of blueberries. They are without question one of my all time favourite foods. This evening I figured I’d get a bit more creative with them though and I made three different blueberry dishes, all in an hour. So all of them are easy to make: blueberry banana loaf; blueberry, watermelon and mint salad; and this blueberry salsa. I don’t have time to post them all on here this evening, but I’ll try and get them up here soon because it is blueberry season and there are so many delicious ways those juicy little tidbits can be enjoyed.

This salsa literally takes five minutes to make and it has a super unique flavour. I’m testing it on some of my coworkers tomorrow to see what they think, and I’ve got my fingers crossed. I personally find it a really refreshing take on salsa. It’s not too sweet because of the red onion. I’d recommend just eating it with chips, like you would a regular salsa. Alternatively you could spread it on bread as a sort of fruity bruschetta or use it as a chutney type spread on chicken, fish or a similar veggie option.

Inspired by Honest Cooking

Recipe:

Ingredients

1 1/4 cups fresh blueberries
5-6 medium sized strawberries
2 limes, juiced
1/4 red onion, chopped
5-6 basil leaves
salt, a pinch

Directions

1. Combine all of the ingredients in a food processor and pulse a few times until ingredients have been broken down into very small chunks, or to whatever consistency is desired.

2. Serve! It’s that simple.

Roasted Tomatillo Salsa

Work has been so crazy I haven’t had as much time as I would like to spend in my kitchen, so when I do get opportunities to cook, I go nuts and cook up a storm. A couple times I’ve gotten home from work with enough time and energy to hit the pots and pans and before I know it three hours have passed and I’ve made dinner, a jar of some sort of sauce or salsa, and way too much dessert for me to eat alone. It’s becoming an issue, this bulk cooking and baking business; I need more friends to eat my food. And more money to pay for it… but we won’t get into all that now.

Back to the matters at hand… spicy spicy spicy food. So I overdid it a little bit with the chiles in this recipe. I now have a jar of salsa in my fridge that is probably going to go bad before I can eat it because it’s so spicy and I can only handle so much of it at a time. But it’s also so very very tasty. Oh, first world problems. Generally tomatillo salsa, more commonly called “salsa verde” or “green salsa” is intended to be pretty darn spicy, so I definitely hit the nail on the head… but feel free to tone down the chiles if you want something a little less hard on the taste buds.

Also, I’ve never cooked with tomatillos before, and I’m hooked. They are beautiful. 

Recipe

Ingredients

1 pound fresh tomatillos
2 fresh serrano chiles (or more or less, depending on your spicy-level preference)
3 garlic cloves, unpeeled
1/4 cup fresh cilantro
1/2 large onion, coarsely chopped
1 tspn sea salt

Directions

1. Preheat broiler
2. Remove husks of tomatillos and rinse under warm water to remove stickiness. Place whole chiles, garlic, and tomatillos in a pan and place in the oven to broil about 1 to 2 inches from the heat. Turn once after three or four minutes and continue to broil until tomatillos are softened and slightly charred, about 8 minutes in total.
3. Peel garlic and pull the tops off of the chiles.
4. Purée all ingredients in a food processor. Store in the fridge.

Makes one 12 oz. jar of salsa

 

 

Peanut Butter and Spicy Peanut Sauce

First off, my apologies that I haven’t posted in a while. I was away adventuring both for work and play in Montreal and at the Sasquatch music festival. In Montreal I was spoiled with amazing food, that while inspiring, I couldn’t claim as my own. And at Sasquatch cooking options were a wee bit limited… I figured it wasn’t really worth posting recipes and photos of PB&J wraps and not so awesome stir fry. But I’m back home and so happy to be spending time in the kitchen again.

Today’s post is all about peanuts. I’ve been working for a while on perfecting a spicy, thai style peanut sauce, and I think I’ve finally got it figured out. My friend can attest to the first attempt about a month back being pretty bad. But last night I took her a bit of my newest batch and she pronounced it as “the best thing I had cooked for her yet!”. I’m not sure whether to take that as a compliment or an insult, but I’m going to roll with it and consider this sauce ready for sharing.

Before I made the sauce I made my own peanut butter from scratch. It’s super easy and costs about the same as buying natural peanut butter in a jar so I think it’s definitely worth doing.

Recipes:

Peanut Butter

Ingredients

2 cups unsalted peanuts
1 tbsp honey
1 tbsp vegetable oil
pinch of sea salt

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spread peanuts out in a roasting pan. Once oven is heated, place peanuts in oven, removing to stir every three minutes. Roasting time will vary depending on how thick the layer of peanuts is. Remove from oven once peanuts have just started to brown.

2. Let peanuts cool and place in food processor. Process for 1 to 2 minutes. Add in honey, sea salt and oil and continue to pulse until a smooth consistency has been reached.

3. Store in a jar or other sealed container in the refrigerator.

Spicy Peanut Sauce

Ingredients

1 400 mL can coconut milk
Red thai curry paste to taste (I used about a 1/4 cup)
3/4 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 tbsp apple cider vinegar

 Directions

1. Place all ingredients together in a pot or sauce pan and bring to a gentle boil over medium heat, stirring continuously to ensure peanut butter is thoroughly distributed.

2. Let the mixture simmer for 3 to 5 minutes, continuing to stir until smooth.

3. Remove pot or pan from heat and let cool before serving over stir fried veggies, tofu, etc. You can also store in the fridge in a glass container for up to a couple of weeks. The sauce will thicken when refrigerated. Just reheat with a small amount of water to desired consistency when you’re ready to use it.