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French Onion Dip

16 Dec

I had not shared this recipe with you before because I did not have pretty pictures for it…  However, this dip is such a hit with my friends that I just need to share it with you for the holidays.

I make this as the typical dip for parties… my friends continue to ask for it.  And it’s seasonless – you can certainly do this for any Birthday party, summer get-together, Holiday Party, Baby Shower, etc.  And not only that… I have used it also as a base for other recipes, like my HashBrown Spinach Casserole.  Why use condensed soups to cook, if you can easily do it from scratch.  This is not that much difficult than opening any can of soup…

 

FRENCH ONION DIP

1 ½ yellow onions, sliced thin
1 tbs butter
1 tbs olive oil
1 tbs white wine vinegar
8oz of cream cheese, softened at room temperature
1/3 cup of plain yogurt
4oz of sour cream
Salt and Pepper to taste
  1. In a medium sauce pan over medium heat, cook the onions with the butter and olive oil.  Toss the onions a bit to make sure they’re all coated with the butter/olive oil mixture.  After about 5 minutes, when the onions have softened a bit, add the salt and pepper.  Cook somewhat covered for about 30 – 45 minutes, stirring occasionally, avoiding the onions from scorching.
  2. When the onions have a light brown color, add the vinegar.  Scrape the bottom of the pan until it is mostly “clean” from the brown bits that will form.  Set aside the onions to cool down before continuing assembling the dip.
  3. In a medium bowl, add the softened cream cheese, sour cream, yogurt and the cooked and cooled onions.  Season dip with salt and pepper and blend using an electric hand mixer.
  4. Put in the fridge for a few hours before serving to make sure the flavors mix well together.  Before serving, take the dip about 30 minutes beforehand to allow losing some of the cold form the fridge and making the dip creamier and easier to spread.

I love to eat this with a good, rippled potato that will not break when scooping out your dip… oh la la!!

You can also try it as an ingredient in this Spinach Hashbrown Cassserole dish.

 

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Cielito Lindo

14 Dec

After my trip to Guadalajara recently, I was in a very Mexican vibe…  I wanted to eat over and over again the flavors of Mexico I had just experienced.

Now during the Holidays, if you want to enjoy a “dip” or appetizer with a Mexican influence, you can prepare a Cielito Lindo.  I’ve heard people called this a 7-layer dip.  But in Puerto Rico we call it a Cielito Lindo… maybe because we’re not tied to a specific amount of layers of ingredients.  And what’s cool about this, you can construct the layers as you prefer, including everything you love or deleting anything you don’t.  I personally do not like refried beans, so I never include them, but if they’re your “thing”, go ahead and add a layer of them.

I made this version in a large ramekin, but you can adjust the quantities to fit the larger plate or tray you want to use.

CIELITO LINDO

4 oz of cream cheese, room temperature
2 tbs of your favorite Mexican salsa
½ cup of shredded cheddar – mixture of white and orange works great
¼ cup of shredded lettuce
¼ cup of tomatoes, chopped finely
1 tbs sour cream
Whole grain corn tortilla chips to accompany

 

This is more an assembly dish than a recipe…

  1. First, spread a layer of the softened cream cheese. 
  3. Then spread the salsa on top of the cream cheese. 
  5. Sprinkle half of the shredded cheese on top of salsa.
  7. Place a layer of the lettuce and the tomatoes on top of that.
  9. Sprinkle the rest of the shredded cheese and top with a dollop of sour cream.

Enjoy with your favorite whole-grain corn chips…

 

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Tofurky Kielbasa Sweet Bites

3 Dec

About 10 years ago I was out with a bunch of friends “parrandeando” – which in Puerto Rico is when you go from house to house in Christmas time singing “parrandas”, which is our very typical version of Xmas carols. 

The idea of “parrandas” is to create a group of friends who will surprise an unsuspecting friend while they’re sleeping and wake them up playing music outside…  the person who was woken up opens up their house to their surprise visitors and offers them things to eat and drink while the group continues to sing songs.  Afterwards, you take the friend you just woken up with the rest of group to wake up another friend… and so forth about 3-4 times in a night. 

I remember when I was little to go in “parrandas” with my parents, in a huge long line of cars that would visit people and play music all night long.  Now with neighborhoods having access controlled gates is not as easy to sneak up on someone and surprise them in the night, but we have our ways to get around that…

So, back to the recipe… the thing is that about 10 years ago in one of these parrandas we went to wake up a friend of my then-boyfriend.  His wife made these kielbasa pieces covered in strawberry preserves… they we’re heavenly!!!  They were sweet and spicy all at the same time.  They became a staple every time we had a get-together to watch a basketball game or a boxing match.

But since I became a vegetarian, I had not had these polish sausage wonders.  One of the last times I went to Whole Foods in Miami I saw these Tofurky Kielbasa sausages.   I had never seen them in PR, although I now know Freshmart has them.  When I saw them I wondered if they tasted just like I remembered, but the second thought was… I need to try if they’ll work to make the polish sausage sweet bites I remembered and loved…

 kielbasa-sweet-bites

TOFURKY KIELBASA SWEET BITES

2 Tofurky Kielbasa sausages, sliced on a bias
1/3 cup strawberry preserves
About 1 tbs canola oil

 

When I used to make this using the real sausage, the sausage rendered a lot of fat that later I had to drain… but because the Tofurky has almost no fat to it, we will sauté them in a bit of oil…

kielbasa-pieces

  1. In a large skillet, heat the canola oil over medium -high heat.  Once the oil comes to temperature, add the Tofurky kielbasa pieces and sauté them lightly until they reach a nice golden color.
  2. When they have all a nice golden color, turn off the heat of the stove and add the strawberry preserves.  It will heat up and soften with the residual heat of the skillet.  Toss the kielbasa pieces with the preserves until they’re all well coated.
  3. Transfer them to a dish and allow them a few minutes before eating them.  The preserves will be too hot if you attempt to eat it right off the skillet.

 

I also like to eat these Tofurky Kielbasa sausages with some ketchup and mustard, like a hotdog.  I usually slice them in half length-wise and grill them in my George Foreman grill…  nice!!!

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Incredible India… Lassi

19 Nov

I have mentioned lassis to you before… I shared with you my version of a mango lassi earlier.  But after having lassis in India during my past trip there, I realized my version of lassi is not that authentic.

Lassi is a yogurt-based drink very typical to India.  It is made out of plain yogurt churned with some fruit, typically mango, but I learned that it can be done with other fruits too.  But the fruit is minimal, because all the lassis I had during this trip are white and do not take on the color of the fruit being mixed in.

Lassis are typically drunk as an appetizer before a meal…   I drank them also during the meal to help cool of my taste buds of all the spicy Indian food.  I even had it as an afternoon snack… when everyone at the hotel bar was ordering drinks after taking in the sights of the Taj Mahal, I ordered myself a lassi.  The server laughed but found it endearing and as a sign of us embracing of Indian culture.  He also thought I was Indian…

I learned there are 2 versions of lassi – salted or sweet.  I only knew the sweet versions, which was preferred by everyone I asked.  I got to try the salted version during our 1st breakfast in Agra.  Nothing special, just imagine a liquid yogurt sprinkled with salt.  It only helped me to cool down the spiciness of the dosas and chutneys I had that morning… other than that, I will continue ordering sweet lassi.

 

Also, lassis are made with a churner, like the one you see below, instead of a blender, like I do…  I guess that was why the lassis would take a little while every time I ordered them.

So, for a more authentic version of lassi… you can still follow my recipe, just add a tiny bit of fruit, to maintain the white color of the yogurt.  and you can add some pistachios on top… to resemble the one I had at the ITC Agra Hotel… super chic indeed.

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A Vegetarian in Paris… Eating with the Locals

4 Nov

I am very fortunate to have friends living all over the world… my friend Clari is in Turkey, Sonia just moved back from Barcelona, Rocío thought a move to Australia was a good thing but came halfway around and is now living in Madrid, Mara was in Lima until last month but now is in Chicago, Jesiel is in NYC and wants to move to Paris…  But our friend Nicole is already living there… in Paris now for a year.

Nicole moved when her husband was transferred from PR back to Paris.  We were friends from the Alliance Française and she is part of the original Les Francophones group.  She was super excited when we told her we would be visiting Paris this September. 

As soon as we arrived, she and her husband Martin wanted to invite us for breakfast and to visit them at their home.  We agreed to meet for breakfast early so we could catch-up on or comings and goings and then continue with our sight-seeing.   I love hanging out with them because Martin speaks French beautifully and always lets us know when we are saying something we shouldn’t. 

Petit Dejeuner avec Nicole

This particular morning we learned how the French eat their breakfast – le petit dejeuner.    And the key word here is PETIT.  The French merely eat tartines, which are toasted baguette, or a croissant with butter or confiture.  They drink their café crème or café au lait and on their way they are.  The omelets or other egg concoctions you see on the menus is for the tourists… not the locals.  They eat them, but at other times of the day, not for breakfast.  Being the tourist that I was, that morning Martin ordered for us croissants and jus d’orange.  But I was left empty… I had to order a tartine to at least feel I had had breakfast, especially when on vacation that my appetite opens up exponentially.

Tartines Petit Dejeuner

confiture  

After having had the tartine breakfast for a few days in a row, we needed a change… and we had seen a Le Pain Quotidien near our apartment.  I have mentioned Le Pain Quotidien to you on my last trip to NYC.  Their oatmeal is AMAZING and Annie Mariel and I were craving something warm and different.  To our surprise, Le Pain Quotidien in Paris, or at least this one we came to, does not serve oatmeal.  People would just never order it, and as a result, they took it off the menu.  So what did we order???  Bread and Croissants, AGAIN!!!   At least this time, the bread was whole-grain. We just could not eat the whole basket, so we took the leftovers to our picnic at the Tour Eiffel.  And the juices were freshly squeezed – orange and guess what the red one is made of…  vegetables!!!   Tasted just like a V8, but looked more like beet juice.

pain quotidien - pain    pain quotidien - jus

 Later on in the week, Nicole and Martin invited us to dinner at their Parisian apartment in the 20th arrondissement. 

Chez Nicole 1   Chez Nicole et Martin 2

Knowing we are vegetarians, they treated us to a nice variety of goodies:  puffed pastry filled with cheese, guacamole with tortilla and potato chips, as well as apple and cheese skewers for appetizers.  Dinner was a cucumber and yogurt salad, cheese and veggie quiche-like tart and a tomato and goat cheese tart.  For dessert, we had fruits, cheese, bread  and fruit tarts.  Delicious… it was a much appreciated effort knowing they are not vegetarians and they bended-themselves backwards to accommodate us. 

 Entremeses Franceses

The evening was really lovely… plus hanging out with Nicole, Martin and their daughter we got to speak in all three languages simultaneously – English, Spanish and French…  Merci beaucoup!!!

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