Roasted Tomatillo Salsa

29 Sep

I have used and re-purposed this salsa recipe into so many dishes that I think it deserves its own Recipe Post.

I think I first learned this recipe from Tyler Florence… but he used jalapeños also in his mix.  Being the wimp that I am in the spiciness department I do not use them.  But feel free to add as much or as little as you want according to your heat tolerance.   I saw Marcela Valladolid make a version of this same recipe but with Serrano peppers… even more spicy.  It’s up to you which version you prefer…

 

ROASTED TOMATILLO SALSA

1 pound tomatillos, husked
1 yellow onion, peeled and quartered
4 garlic cloves
salt and pepper
olive oil
juice of 1 lemon

 

  1. Pre-heat oven to 400degrees F.
  2.  On a baking tray, place tomatillos, onion and garlic.  Drizzle with a bit of olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Roast in oven for 15-20 minutes.
  4. Transfer the roasted vegetables and any juices from the bottom of the tray to a food processor.  Add the lemon juice and pulse the mixture until well combined, but still chunky.
  6. If for your purposes the sauce is too chunky… just add a bit of water and pulse to loosen it.

 

I’ve used this recipe originally with my Cheesy Rice Burritos, in my Mexican Lasagna and more recently in my Broccoli Rice Burritos.  I will certainly also try it in a Chilaquiles recipe like the one Marcela Valladolid used hers in…  Yum.

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Potato Broccoli Crepes

27 Sep

A year ago I was walking the streets of Paris for the second time… enjoying as much as my senses could gather.  I loved the ambiance, the rhythm of the city… everything!!!  I felt that if I wanted I may be able to even live there.

Place de la Madeleine      notre dame    crepes nutella

Well, that’s what my friend Jesiel actually did.  She has moved herself to Paris to start at 33 a new career as a Pastry Chef.  She recently started a blog – Sweet Journey of Inspiration – to capture her travels and her love for good authentic food, especially pastries.

So to reminisce about my days in Paris and to celebrate Jesiel’s decision to leave all that is familiar to her and start anew in a city where she still is learning the language, I decided to make these savory crepes…

Savory crepes… crêpes salées or gallettes are extremely popular in menus across Paris.  As you can see from my previous post on Parisian crepes, they’re mostly made from buckwheat flour and come in an infinite variety of savory combinations.  I had mine then with potatoes, spinach and cheese. 

Crepe epinard 1

Well, with the abundance of broccoli we’ve had recently, these are made with delicious broccoli.  They’re simple to make and a nice savory alternative to using up those crepes from our crepes recipe post right here…

 

POTATO BROCCOLI CREPES

1 small red potato, quartered
3-4 broccoli florets
Handful of shredded cheese – it could be gruyere or a cheese blend like I used
Handful of walnuts
Drizzle of honey – optional
Salt and Pepper to taste
2 crepes – recipe here
 
  1. In a small saucepan filled with about ½’ of water, place the potato quarters.  Salt the potato.  Cover and bring to a boil over medium heat.
  2.  When the potato is about to be done, place the florets on top of the potato for them to steam.  After covering the saucepan again, wait about 15 seconds and turn off the stove.  The florets will cook with the steam and remaining heat in the saucepan for about 10 minutes more.
  3. If you have already made your crepes, you should reheat them so they’re flexible and pliable again.  So while you wait on the broccoli to finish cooking, heat up a skillet (I use the same skillet I used to make the crepes in the first place) and over medium heat, place the crepes for about 1 minute on each side.  This will just reheat them and bring them back to life…
  4. Drain the water from the potato and broccoli.  Mash the potato and broccoli together.  Season mash with salt and pepper.  Add the shredded cheese and nuts to the mash. Mix well to combine.
  5. Place about ¼ cup of mashed mixture onto each crepe, fold and place in a plate.  Drizzle with a bit of honey over crepes and sprinkle added nuts on top for garnish.

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Potato and Yautía Pastelón

24 Sep

Recently my grandma was in the hospital… and when this happens, my mom stays with her all the time and I become the official vegetarian food delivery service.

This is one of the recipes I made for my mom while she was staying with my grandma at the hospital.  It was easy to make, nutritious and delicious.

 

POTATO AND YAUTÍA PASTELÓN

2 medium red potatoes, chopped into 2” pieces
1 medium white yautía, chopped into 2” pieces
1 broccoli stalk, both florets and stem, chopped into small pieces
1 cup frozen corn, thawed
½ onion, chopped
1 tbs sofrito
2 tbs horseradish
3 tbs butter, divided
1 tbs parmesan cheese
1 handful of shredded mozzarella cheese
Sal t and Pepper to taste
About 1 tbs of olive oil
Canola Oil Spray

 

  1. In a medium saucepan, I place the chopped potato and yautía pieces along with the broccoli stems but not the florets.  I add water until it comes up halfway.  Add salt to taste, cover and bring to a quick boil over medium heat.  I usually lower the heat when I see some steam coming out of the cover to avoid the water to completely evaporate.  Pieces are usually cooked after 15 minutes. 
  2. Right before you turn off the heat from the potato/yautía… place the broccoli florets inside the same pot so it steams with the steam from the pot.  Cover immediately, wait about 15 seconds and turn off the heat on that burner.  Broccoli florets will be cooked thoroughly in about 5 minutes.
  3. While the potatoes and yautías cook, we prepare the filling… in a medium skillet over medium heat we add olive oil and sofrito.  Sauté for a few minutes.  Add the chopped onion and sauté some more until the onion softens.   Add the thawed corn and cooked broccoli florets. Season with salt and pepper and mix well so all the flavors mix in.  Set aside.
  4. Drain all the remaining water from the cooked potatoes, yautías and broccoli stems and return to the same pot.  Add butter, olive oil, horseradish and parmesan cheese.  You could add a handful of shredded mozzarella cheese too if you’d like.  Mash it all together until smooth.
  5. In a medium-sized glass baking dish sprayed with Canola Oil, add about half of the mashed potato/yautía mix.  Spread it out evenly across the bottom.  Add the corn/broccoli filling on top of this layer.  Now cover with the remaining potato/yautía mash.  Sprinkle with shredded mozzarella cheese.
  6. Bake in oven at 450F for about 10-12 minutes, until the cheese on top melts and becomes golden brown.  The pastelón per se is all cooked so you’re just looking for a nice crusty top.

 

Serve alongside a crispy green salad…  This is a great potluck dish or to take to someone when they’re “under the weather”.

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Thanks 2 all who voted 4 me!!!

20 Sep

I participated in Project Food Blog…   It’s a competition sponsored by FoodBuzz and they’re selecting with the help of some food industry influentials and YOU who should be the Next Food Blog Star.

This was my entry – VOTE FOR MY POST – I wanna Blog!!!  but unfortunately I wasn’t among the top 400 contestants that moved onto the next round.  I was very pleased to know that most of the people I did vote for continued on… So I will be one more cheerleader in their camps.

Anyways, thanks for your vote and to continue making KarmaFree Cooking part of your day and kitchen.

Always cooking,  

Madelyn.

Project Food Blog – I wanna BLOG!!!!!

17 Sep

The 3rd anniversary of KarmaFree Cooking is approaching and I just can’t believe so much time has gone by already…

It seems just like the other day when I was taking a cooking class in Jupiter FL, the Conscious Gourmet Seminar from Dianne Carlson, when I learned what a blog was and how people used them to share their recipes and thoughts in.  The idea of creating a blog immediately resonated with me for various reasons:

  1. I am a passionate vegetarian – I did not grow up vegetarian… heck, I would have laughed at anyone who would have told me in my 20’s that in a few years I would become vegetarian.   But since I have become vegetarian, I have seen the positive changes in my health, my “estados de animo” and even my spiritual inclinations.
  2.  I am passionate about cooking vegetarian food – it’s so weird, almost every vegetarian I know loves to eat, talk about food and talk about cooking vegetarian food.  Why? Possibly because we live in Puerto Rico where the culture is not very vegetarian-friendly and we are kind of “forced” to create our own if we want to enjoy delicious and creative vegetarian fare.
  3. I am a passionate chat leader – This reminds me of my days working in Marketing at Procter & Gamble…  A chat leader was someone who was an “early adopter” of a technology or a product and loved to talk about it to others.  That’s me!!!  Maybe I am no pioneer in the areas of what a vegetarian is, but I certainly love to answer any questions people might have about my diet, my lifestyle and the benefits it has in my life. I am certainly not selfish about what I know… 

Living my vegetarian lifestyle in Puerto Rico has generated A LOT of questions from people asking me – WHAT DO YOU EAT?  Because people here have this notion that when you delete meat products from your diet, there’s nothing else in the supermarket to fill your dinner plate with.  And yet there are SO MANY ALTERNATIVES.

That was what moved me to create KarmaFree Cooking and its counterpart in Spanish, KarmaFree Cooking en Español.  But having a blog is a lot of work… it’s like having an extra job.  I need to be thinking of new recipes to make, I need to photograph them, write them up, publish them, promote them to generate traffic and new readers… 

But you know what??  I LOVE IT… and I do it with great honor and responsibility.  KarmaFree Cooking has given me a platform to share not only with Puerto Ricans around me, but with people around the world, what really is to live a vegetarian lifestyle.  To show people that vegetarians are not people from another planet; that we do not eat strange food; that we also enjoy living life and enjoying delicious food and that it’s not as limiting as people originally might think.

And what gives me immense pleasure is reading the comments of people I do not know personally telling me how wonderful they think the recipes are, how useful the information I share is and how I have encouraged them to follow a vegetarian lifestyle.  The satisfaction I feel when I learn I have touched one more life is indescribable.  Now KarmaFreeCooking can also be found in Facebook and on Twitter, allowing our fans to be in touch with us and the information we share in their preferred format.

 

And now we have fans all over the world… our readers are mainly from the US, but  a large chunk of our fan base comes from the UK, Canada, Australia, Russia, Brazil, India, Mexico, Philippines, Norway, Thailand, Greece, Turkey, Netherlands, Singapore, South Africa, Italy, Hong Kong among many others.  This is a true meeting of the Nations in KarmaFree Cooking.  It’s mind boggling to me thinking you might be sitting in Japan, Australia or Argentina and reading my articles and commentaries. 

I am now participating in this competition, Project Food Blog, where over 1,700 food bloggers will be competing to become the next food blog star.  I hope you VOTE for me when the voting period starts.  I am prepared to take on all the challenges Project Food Blog throws at me and hopefully you’ll have a good time reading about them. 

I can definitely be the winner because I am committed to be an advocate of the vegetarian lifestyle even of some of you are not committed to become a vegetarian just yet…  I am patient… I have perseverance… and hey, maybe you’ll also surprise yourself becoming a vegetarian, just as I was surprised when I did.

Thanks for all that you, our readers, give me every day.  Thanks for making KarmaFree Cooking part of your day… Thanks for sharing our articles with your friends and family and THANKS for being open to a vegetarian lifestyle.  I hope to be able to continue providing you with information you find useful and interesting…       Madelyn.

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