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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Turrón Tembleque

9 Dec

Puerto Rican culture is a mixture of 3 different cultures from about 500 years ago – Taino Indians, African and Spaniard.  So over time, many of our typical customs actually come from one of these 3 original root cultures.

Turrón or Nougat candy is very typical Spanish candy and we typically eat it during Xmastime.  It’s an almond-based candy that’s super sweet and delicious.  You can’t find them in the stores any other time of the year.  You know it’s Xmas when the supermarkets play typical Puerto Rican “parranda” music and you see the stacks of turrón, panetone and nuts in every end of aisle.

I’ve stopped eating turrón for quite a few years because the recipes of the main brands include eggs or eggs whites as one of the ingredients.  I used to love the Alicante (the hard kind) or the Jijona (soft ground almonds) types eaten with pieces of edam cheese.  There are a bunch of other varieties, even chocolate turrón my dad loves, but most of them have eggs.

But this year, my friend Daniel gave me this recipe… and he mentioned he found a turrón without eggs.  WHAT!!!!! Turrón without eggs… I need to look into this definitely.  This is the power of the internet and collaboration, KarmaFree readers submitting ME recipes.  Awesome, no?

I found the mysterious turrón at a local supermarket… and truth be told, Nata Nueces is awesome without any eggs in the ingredients list.  It’s an almond paste, similar to marzipan, with walnut pieces all throughout.  It tastes really good by itself, but Daniel included it in my mom’s Tembleque recipe.

     

This was Daniel’s creation, but I think you will like it too…  GRACIAS DANIEL!!!

 

TURRÓN TEMBLEQUE

1 can cream of coconut – Coco Lopez or any other brand, this is what you use to make Piña Coladas
1 can coconut milk
Water
2 cinnamon sticks
A pinch of salt
1/3 cup cornstarch
1 package of Turrón – Nata de Nuec es is good and does not includes eggs
Ground Cinnamon to taste
 
  1. Take the 2 cans of cream of coconut and coconut milk and add enough water to make 5 cups of liquid all together.  Reserve 1 cup of liquid and pour the rest in a large pot to cook over medium-high heat.  Add the salt and cinnamon sticks to the pot.
  2. Cut the turrón bar into small pieces and smash it a bit between your fingers before adding it to the saucepan with the hot coconut milks.  Mix it well – it will melt into the liquid mixture.
  3. Mix the cornstarch to the liquid you  just before serving.

My friend Ana and I loved this recipe… the consistency of the tembleque is changed by adding the turrón, but the coconut flavors go very well with the walnuts and almonds in the turrón.  And as time passes in your fridge, the walnuts get a kind of licquor flavors… so it tastes very festive.

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Passion-Fruit Yogurt

6 Dec

I like yogurt… but I no longer buy fruit-flavored yogurts because most of them are made with gelatin.  Only a few brands out there make fruit-flavored yogurts without gelatin.  We can talk about those brands later on…

So for years now, I mostly buy plain or vanilla-flavored yogurt.  I have grown to love eating the yogurt plain like that.  I love it in creamy dips, smoothies or just with a drizzle of honey or agave nectar.  But every once in a while, I like a fruit-flavored yogurt… that’s how I started making these…

Usually fruit-flavored yogurts come already mixed or with the fruit at the bottom. My version has the fruit on top…

 

PASSION-FRUIT YOGURT

½ cup of plain or vanilla yogurt
The pulp of 1 passion fruit
1 tbs agave nectar or honey
  1. Just mix the ingredients in a small demitasse… mix together well and enjoy.

The seeds of the passion fruit will give a nice crunch to the treat.  I enjoy this as a breakfast, as a treat, as a dessert.

Don’t the seeds look awesome on top of the yogurt???

Passion-Fruit Yogurt on Foodista

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Be wary of pretty Passion Fruits…

5 Dec

When you go to the market, you usually seek out the prettiest produce you can find… however that principle does not apply to passion fruits.

The thing is that when a passion fruit’s outside skin is pretty and smooth – the passion fruit is still unripe.  But when the fruit gets all wrinkled and “old-looking” that’s when it is on point.  Something very similar also happens with sweet ripe plantains.

Photo by omheart on Flickr

The passion fruits we have here in Puerto Rico are yellow, quite different from the ones I usually see in the media or internet.  Just like any fruit, they’re usually sweet but they have a tart undertone.  But if you get a tarty one, you can sweeten it very quickly adding some brown sugar or honey.  The pulp inside is laced with lots of small black seeds that you can eat together with the pulp.  No need to strain them at all…

Just take your crinkly and ugly-looking passion fruit, cut it in half and scoop out the pulp.  You can eat the pulp right from the shell, or use the pulp alone in juices and desserts.  I personally like a lot to make my own Passion fruit Yogurt.

 

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