Tag Archives: onion

Green Banana Escabeche

21 Dec

When I was growing up, I loved to eat these “guineítos” at my mom’s office parties.  I loved the tanginess of the vinegar…  You can eat these with toothpicks as an appetizer or as a side dish with your Arroz con Gandules and Pasteles.

 

GREEN BANANA ESCABECHE

24 green bananas, boiled and cut into slices
½ cup of green bell pepper, chopped
Salt to taste
Drizzle of vegetable or canola oil
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2 cups of extra virgin olive oil
½ cup vinegar
About 12 black peppercorns
4 bay leaves
3 cups of yellow onions, sliced thin
12 cloves of garlic, sliced
The juice of 1 criollo lemon or lime
Salt to taste

 

  1. In a large pot filled with salted water and a drizzle of vegetable oil, place green bananas to boil.  They’ll be ready in about 20 minutes.  I show you here a step-by step process to boil the green bananas.
  2. When they’re boiled, peel off the banana skin, allow them to cool off and slice them into 1/2” rounds slices.  Set them aside.
  3. In a medium saucepan, add the olive oil, vinegar, onions, peppercorns, bay leaves and garlic.  Cook over medium heat for about 10-15 minutes, until the onions have softened, but not browned.  The onions should remain as white as possible.  Let the mixture cool a bit.
  4. In a glass pyrex dish, while the banana slices are still somewhat warm, mix together the green banana slices and the olive oil/onion mixture and green peppers.  Season with salt as needed.  Let the green bananas marinate in the escabeche mixture for at least 2-3 hours.  After the banana pieces have cooled off (at about the 1 hours mark), you can continue the marinating process in the refrigerator.

Serve directly from the fridge or at room temperature.  You can drizzle the juice of one criollo lemon or lime before serving for added zip.

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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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Spanish Tortilla

8 Jul

A Spanish Tortilla is one of the most quintessential dishes in Spanish cuisine.   But if you ever visit Spain, please do not ask for a Spanish omelet or Spanish Tortilla… because a “madrileño” might reply you that ALL tortillas in Spain are indeed Spanish tortillas.

That’s what happened to us when visiting the island of Mallorca.  Mallorca is the largest of the Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean Sea.  In Puerto Rico, we eat a sweet bread original to Spain and specifically to Mallorca, that we just simply call “mallorcas”.  When my mom asked where we could buy some “pan de mallorca”, the gentelman replied: “All breads in Mallorca are “pan de mallorca”. 

Which made me think how many other food items we traditional know with the name of the region they originated from, but if you go to that country/city, no one will know them by that same name…  here are a few I could think of:

 

If you  visit: Do not ask for: Instead, call it:
Mallorca, Spain Pan de Mallorca or a Mallorca Ensaimada
Spain Spanish Tortilla Tortilla de Patatas
France French Fries Frites
France French Toast Pain Perdu
France French green beans Haricots verts
France French Bread Baguette
Switzerland Swiss Cheese Emmentaler
Belgium Belgian Waffle gaufre de Liege or suikerwafel
Greece Greek Salad horiatiki
Turkey Turkish Delight Loukoum
Poland Polish Sausage kielbasa

 Although, if you’re vegetarian… you shouldn’t be ordering that last one at all.

Notice that the title of this post is Spanish Tortilla and not Spanish omelet… why, because traditionally a Spanish omelet or Tortilla is made with potatoes, onions and eggs.  And even though some vegetarians consume eggs, the line I practice does not.

So my version of a Spanish Tortilla is egg-less.  And I ate a LOT of potatoes testing recipes to achieve a similar consistency of a tortilla without using tofu or soy products… I wanted to use ingredients right out of my pantry and that no one has to go out and buy specifically for this. And to make things even easier and with less oil, we’re baking it in the oven, instead of making it stovetop.

 

 Tortilla Espanola 1

SPANISH TORTILLA

3 medium potatoes, russet or Idaho work best here…
1 small onion, sliced thinly
1 garlic clove, minced
About ¼ cup of grated parmesan cheese
About 2 tbs breadcrumbs
Spanish Olive oil – about 3tbs or so… remember I do not measure much
Canola oil Spray
Salt and pepper to taste

 

  1. In a medium skillet over medium heat, add a drizzle of olive oil and sauté the onions.  Add the garlic clove, season with salt and pepper and cook until the onions are soft and translucent.
  2. Spray a medium sized pyrex dish with Canola Oil Spray and sprinkle with about 1 tbs of breadcrumbs.  Shake the pyrex so the breadcrumbs coat the dish as much as possible… just as if you were flouring a pan to bake a cake…  Set aside.
  3. Using a mandoline, slice as thinly as possible the potatoes.  Place in a bowl and add about 2 tbs of olive oil, the grated parmesan cheese, the onions, some additional salt and pepper.   Toss well to combine the potatoes, onions and seasonings.
  4. Place the potatoes and onions into the breaded pyrex dish.  Place them with your hands trying to create layers after layers of potato and onion.  It does not need to be perfect, but try to lay them all flat.
  5. Sprinkle some added breadcrumbs over the top and add a bit more parmesan cheese to create a nice crust on top.
  6. Because I do this in a toaster oven, I never pre-heat… but place it in a 400F oven for about 1 hour.  If you feel the top is browning too fast, just cover with a piece of aluminum foil with parchment paper underneath so the aluminum does not touches the food.

 

The potatoes collapse onto each other and create this creamy consistency…  it’s not a traditional Tortilla de Patatas, but it sure tastes like that…  Buen Provecho.

 I love Tortilla de patatas

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Cashew and Tofu Stir-Fry

4 May

I’ve always loved Chinese food.  Ever since I was little my parents have been taken us to Chinese restaurants regularly…  past favorites were always Sweet and Sour (fill in the blank), Pepper (fill in the blank), BBQ (fill in the blank)…

When I first moved to NYC, I went to lunch with my dad and he suggested I should try the Chicken with Cashew Nuts…  Cashew Nuts!!!  What are those??  Well a few minutes later, I was a convert for life.  And after that day that became my usual order at Chinese restaurants.

When I decided to become vegetarian, I would order at restaurants Chicken with Cashew Nuts WITHOUT the Chicken.  It was the simplest way for me to describe to Chinese waiters that I wanted sautéed vegetables with cashew nuts.  I even ordered it so often at a restaurant close to my former place of employment that I stopped describing it – just ordered the usual – Sautéed Broccoli with Onions, Peppers, Carrots and Cashew Nuts.

I just looooooove the combination of soy-based sauce with the crunch of the nuts…  This is the version I make at home.  This version has tofu, but most of the time I leave it out.  The protein in the nuts is enough for me.

 

 cashew-stri-fry

 

CASHEW AND TOFU STIR FRY

1 medium onion, chopped into medium sized pieces
1 medium green bell pepper, chopped into medium sized pieces
1 small carrot, peeled and sliced thin using a vegetable peeler
1 tbs canola oil
Canola Oil Spray
Marinated Tofu slices
¼ cup tamari sauce
1 tsp cornstarch
The juice of 1 lime
1 handful of roasted cashews
1 cup of whole grain basmati rice – to serve

 

For the Marinated Tofu:

  1. Take half a block of Extra Firm Tofu and slice it into ¼” slices.    I take a baking sheet, line it with 2-3 layers of paper towel, place the tofu slices on top of the paper towel, cover them with 2-3 more layers of paper towels, top with another baking sheet and apply some weight on top.  Press it for about 30 minutes to 1 hour.
  2. In a medium skillet, sprayed with canola   medium-high heat we need to get the tofu pieces golden.  Just place them on the skillet until they get some color.
  3. While that is happening, mix together in a shallow pyrex dish the tamari sauce, the lime juice and a bit of water.  Dip the tofu pieces in the tamari/lime mixture and let them soak the seasoning.  Soak them for about 15-20 minutes and set them aside.

 

Now on to the stir-fry…

  1. Prep the vegetables while the tofu pieces are marinating.
  2. In a medium-sized skillet, over medium-high heat again, heat up the canola oil.  Add the onions, peppers and carrots and sauté them until they begin to cook, but are still crunchy.  Add the tofu pieces so they can dry up a bit and get hot.  Stir everything together.
  3. Mix the leftover tamari/lime mixture with the cornstarch.  If you have little sauce left (less than ¼ cup) just add a bit more tamari or lime juice, whatever you prefer.
  4. After a few minutes, add the cashews to the skillet.  Mix well the tamari/cornstarch mixture and add to the skillet.  The sauce will thicken as it heats up.  When the sauce gets somewhat thick, turn the stove off.  Don’t let the sauce get too thick on you.

Serve over whole-grain basmati rice.

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Vegetable Tian

9 Mar

I think we have established already I love anything French…  so every time we have a get-together with my French-speaking friends, we try to create French recipes to keep the theme intact.

I first made this recipe for the Yoga Center – back when I was more consistent cooking at least once a month.  It was a way to introduce cooked vegetables in a different way than how they make them week in week out. 

Most recently, I shared the recipe with my friend Annie Mariel and she was the one who actually made the version photographed here.  It is cheesy yet tastes very light.   She created it as an example of Parisian cooking…  bon appétit.

 vegetable-tian-2

VEGETABLE TIAN

2 large onions, sliced in half
2 garlic cloves, minced
5-6 potatoes – I used russet potatoes, but Ina Garten says that Yukon Golds are a particularly good choice
2 medium zucchini
4 medium sized tomatoes – I used plum tomatoes
1 tsp kosher salt
½ tsp black pepper
1 tbs thyme leaves or 1 tsp Italian Seasonings blend
2 ounces gruyere cheese, grated
Olive oil

 

  1. Pre-heat oven to 375 F
  2. Brush a rectangular baking dish with olive oil.
  3. In a medium sauté pan, heat a drizzle of olive oil over medium heat.  Add the onions and cook for about 8 minutes until they’ve beginning to soften.  Add the garlic and cook for a few additional minutes.  Spread this onion mixture on the bottom of the baking dish you oiled.
  4. Wash well and dry the potatoes.  Slice them in thin slices, about ¼” thick.  Slice the zucchini, tomatoes too the same thickness.  Layer them alternatively on top of the onions.  I placed them slightly at an angle one on top the other like shingles. Place a potato, zucchini, tomato, potato, zucchini, tomato, and so on…
  5. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, thyme leaves or Italian Seasonings and drizzle a bit more of olive oil.
  6. Cover the dish with a parchment paper and then aluminum foil.  Place in oven and bake for 30-40 minutes until the potatoes are tender and cooked. 
  7. Remove the covering, add the grated cheese and bake for another 30 minutes until the vegetables are browned nicely on top.

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