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Make your own mustard!!!

17 Apr

Have you made your own mustard? Ever? I hadn’t until now…

It’s super easy. All you really need is time and a blender. Oh, and mustard seeds. I bought mine at The Spice and Tea Exchange store in Boca Raton. I have not seen mustard seeds sold here in Puerto Rico, so out of curiosity I bought an ounce of mixed yellow and brown mustard seeds. Together they measured about ¼ cup.

Here’s how I made it…

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WHOLE GRAIN DIJON MUSTARD

1/8 cup yellow mustard seeds
1/8 cup brown mustard seeds
¼ cup apple cider vinegar
¼ tsp salt
1 tsp brown sugar
  1. Place the mustard seeds and vinegar in a small bowl with a tight lid. Let them soak at room temperature for 2 days.

Grain Mustard Soaking 2

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2.  After 2 days, I transferred the seeds and liquid to my Magic Bullet. Add salt and sugar. Puree until a mustard paste is forms but you can still see whole seeds. Transfer to an airtight container and let it rest for 2 days before using.

I rested this for over 2 days in the fridge and the taste is SHARP!!! But I do enjoy very sharp flavors… in my cheese and my mustard. But I was told by a friend that if you leave it out at room temperature for a few days and then refrigerate it, that the taste will be much mellower. The cold from the fridge stops the mellowing process. So that something to think about.

This is the perfect mustard to dress your favorite sandwich or even to roast some potatoes in. It’s sharp, spicy and very easy to make.

Have you made your own mustard?? Tell me all about it…

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Chopped Avocado Salad Dressing

20 Aug

My grandpa instilled in us a love for avocados… to him, a salad with dinner would mean slicing a few “rajas” of avocado on the side. His favorite was rice and corn with ketchup and avocado. I know it sounds “kookie”, but you need to try it.

But the love for avocados comes from both sides of the family because once, while visiting my aunt and uncle in Miami, I had to buy a new suitcase to be able to travel with the 5 huge avocados my uncle bought for me to bring back home.

And as much as we love avocados, we don’t have a lot of family recipes using avocados. We just love them so; we do not see them as an ingredient in a recipe. They’re the exclamation point to any dish they’re added to!!! A few slices or wedges of avocado on the side of anything make the meal better. A soup??? Drop a few pieces of avocado inside to make it sing… A sandwich?? Slice a few avocados to make it creamier…

Lately I am training for a ½ marathon and I am trying to eat better and leaner. I am eating more salads, which I like, but I am particularly lazy to make them at home often. I’ve found the best way to fall in love with a salad is to make a killer dressing. Fall in love with a dressing and you’ll fall in love with the salad underneath.

And because I want you to love avocados as much as I do… I want to present to you a very easy avocado based dressing that’s much a dressing as a salsa to brighten other dishes too.

CHOPPED AVOCADO SALAD DRESSING

½ large avocado, cut into little pieces
1 small tomato, diced finely
½ small white onion, diced finely
½ cup Extra Virgin Olive oil
2 tbs Rice Vinegar
The juice of 1 small lime
½ tbs kosher salt
1 tsp freshly cracked black pepper
  1. Combine all ingredients in a medium bowl and allow the mixture to meld and combine a few minutes before serving over your favorite salad.

Because the dressing includes avocados, tomatoes and onions, it’s great for a simple lettuce-only salad. You don’t need anything else IMHO. But this dressing also works as a topping for tacos, for burritos, for enchiladas… or as a sauce in sandwiches.

If you want more recipes using Avocados from Mexico, visit this link here. And if you live in the US, check out the coupons for Avocados clicking  right here.

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Dulce de Leche

25 Jun

Argentineans, Paraguayans, even Brazilians love their dulce de leche… I know because I just came from a trip in which I almost ate dulce de leche on a daily basis. And the dulce de leche I am talking about is the dulce de leche known in México as cajeta, made from cooked and reduced sweetened milk. Sometimes it’s made from cow’s milk, sometimes from goat’s milk, but every time it’s exquisitely delicious.

There are aisles full of different brands of dulce de leche at every store we visited in Argentina, Paraguay or Brazil. The most popular brands in Paraguay, which is where we stayed the longest, are Trebol and Lactolanda. With their factory very close to Coronel Oviedo, Lactolanda was certainly the most popular brand we ate throughout our trip.

We ate dulce de leche with everything…. On its own, over crackers, with passion fruit mousse… even with queso paraguay. When I am on a trip, I forget about watching my weight and I ate dulce de leche to my heart’s content.

But when I am at home, it’s a different story… My mom once bought a tub of Lactolanda from one of her earlier trips that sat on my kitchen counter for almost 2 years. I am a dulce de leche lover, but I can see the dulce de leche on my kitchen counter and not be hypnotized by it until I finish it all.

But once I a while I do like my sweet fix… Once in a while I crave dulce de leche with a passion. And what do you do when you get a craving and you don’t have a tub of Lactolanda’s dulce de leche waiting in your counter??? You make it yourself…

DULCE DE LECHE

1 can of sweetened condensed milk

Yep… one ingredient.

  1. All you need to do is fill a pot with water and place the can of condensed milk inside. Make sure the water covers the can completely. Cover the pot and bring the water to a rolling boil.

2.  Once the water boils aggressively, you can lower the heat to medium-low with cover still on to keep it boiling but to avoid the water from evaporating all away. Let it boil for 1 hour.

3.  After one hour of boiling, carefully flip the can upside down to allow the other side to milk inside to cook evenly. If the water has evaporated that the top of the can is not submerged, add some additional water to the pot. Leave it covered so it starts boiling again fast. Let it boil for another hour.

4.  After the second hour has passed. Turn the heat off the stove and leave the can in the water with the pot uncovered.

5.  Allow the water to cool off a bit for about 1 extra hour. Carefully, take the can out of the hot water and allow it to cool off some more for about an extra hour or so.

I advise you not to open the can immediately because the condensed milk inside that now is converted to dulce de leche is EXTREMELY HOT and you can certainly burn yourself when the pressure and steam created inside the can shoots out the moment you open the can. It oozes super hot like lava and you don’t want a sugar burn…

After you feel the can is cool enough to handle… open it with a can opener and serve as you please. Some ideas are:

As a dipping sauce for crispas…

Inside a crepe…

Over toast or cookies…

Over ice cream…

Or just take a spoon and eat away… and to be honest, who needs a spoon when you have hands, right???

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Tomato Basil Dressing

2 May

When I am at home cooking for myself, I am lazy. So I just dress my salads with either an organic brand of prepared salad dressing or just drizzle a bit of olive oil and lemon juice over the greens and call it a day.

But when I am with the Yoga Center people, I need to prepare salad dressings most days I cook for them. Most of the times, we create what we lovingly call Left-Over Dressings. But once in a while I will create such a delicious combination that I will write the ingredients and make it over and over again… such is the case with this Tomato and Basil Dressing.

I created this dressing for the first time during my recent trip to Asunción, Paraguay. Several of us were in charge to cook for the whole group, right before our spiritual retreat. We needed to prepare a salad dressing that will stand up to the delicious greens, sprouts and other veggies we were eating… hey, we were fasting and people get reaaaaaaallly hungry.

The results were so delicious I wrote down the recipe and have been making it a few times since. Each and every time we get great compliments on the flavor and simplicity. Hope you like it as much as my yoga crowd…

TOMATO BASIL DRESSING

4 tomatoes, roughly chopped
1 small cucumber , roughly chopped
1 small red onion, roughly chopped
1 small green bell pepper, cut into medium-sized pieces
½ carrot, peeled and cut into medium chunks
2 garlic cloves, smashed
½ bunch of fresh basil, washed and cut somewhat including the stems
1 tbs salt
1 heaping tbs Garlic & Herbs Seasoning blend
Freshly Cracked Black Pepper
The juice of 2-3 large green limes
1 cup olive oil
A small drizzle of honey or agave nectar
  1. In a blender, add all the solid ingredients. I like to add the tomatoes first because they’re the most liquid and will create the right environment or the rest of the ingredients to puree well. I also add the salt, pepper, lime or lemon juice and other seasonings.
  2. Puree well using the blender… let the blender go for a while to ensure the mixture is well pureed.
  3. While the blender is going, add the olive oil thru the hole on the blenders cover. Drizzle the oil in a small steady stream. This will allow the dressing to emulsify and fir the oil to stay integrated in the dressing and not separate when it’s standing. Add also the drizzle of honey after the oil is integrated.

This recipe will yield you two large jars of dressing (I recycle glass jars for this purpose)… good enough for a hungry crowd like ours. You can certainly scale it down if you prefer or just keep it in the fridge for a whole week of deliciously dressed salads.

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Mojito Criollo

19 Apr

When I’m on a hurry to eat but without any time to actually cook anything… I boil potatoes. I boil them by themselves or with any other root vegetable I have in my fridge – yautías, malangas, batatas (sweet potatoes), etc.

But potatoes by themselves are kinda boring, no?? But with a Mojito Criollo… not so much.

I like to eat my yuccas with a Cuban-style mojito. But in Puerto Rico, people prefer their mojitos with some tomato in it. And we’re not talking the alcoholic drink mojito… we’re talking something you use to “mojar” or dip your potatoes in. It’s a super versatile sauce. This is how I make it…

 

MOJITO CRIOLLO

2 large tomatoes, chopped
1 green bell pepper, sliced into strips
1 red bell pepper, sliced into strips
1 yellow onion, sliced into strips
1 red onion, sliced into strips
2-3 garlic cloves, smashed
Olive oil – about 2 tbs
Salt to taste
Garlic & Herbs Seasoning
The juice of 2 limes
  1. In a medium saucepan over medium-hi heat, pour the oil and add the onions, peppers and garlic cloves. Sautee for a few minutes until everything starts wilting a bit. Season with some salt to help that wilting process.
  2. Add the chopped tomatoes. Season with additional salt and the garlic & herb seasoning. Mix well to combine. The moisture in the tomatoes will start to create the sauce. Cover the sauce pan and lower the heat to medium-low. Allow the mixture to cook and the flavors to meld together for about 10 minutes.
  3. When you feel the onions, pepper and tomatoes look cooked and “saucy”. Turn the heat off. Add the juice of the lime juice and mix well together. Let it rest for a few minutes before you serve over your favorite “vianda”.

This is the best way to eat potatoes or other boiled root vegetables when preparing for a fast or when coming out of one.

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