Fresh Tomatillo Salsa

Tonight for a pre-bedtime snack I made Fresh Tomatillo Salsa from Rick Bayless's Mexican Everyday. I would love to say we planned it ahead of time but really it was a very short notice thing. We bought about 8 tomatillos because Rick Bayless is running a twitter contest every Monday where he tweets the ingredients, you make the dish, post a picture, and he chooses the winner.

One of the ingredients is Mexican crema, which they don't sell at the grocery store closest to us, we tried to make it ourselves. We didn't feel entirely comfortable leaving sour cream and heavy cream on the counter at room temperature to get the crema so we scrapped Bayless's recipe. We didn't want all the tomatillos to go to waste. Hence, we got Fresh Tomatillo Salsa.

From Food and Restaurants

It is pretty easy with tomatillos, cilantro, garlic, water, and salt being the only ingredients and they are just thrown into the food processor. A little white onion mixed in afterwards.

Very fast. Very easy. And Very Tasty. Make sure not to overdo it on the cilantro or it gets an almost grassy taste. I was a little surprised the recipe didn't call to seed either the tomatillos nor the serrano peppers. Leaving the seeds in the Serrano's definitely kept the salsa spicy with a lingering burn.

The one other thing I would say makes a huge difference with salsa is chips. Don't wait until you are ready to serve until you open the chips. The grocery store brand we bought was waaaaaay to salty. If I had known the were that salty either I wouldn't have bought them and if I had already bought them I would have halved or quartered the salt in the recipe.

There just isn't anything that compares to fresh herbs chopped and served. No frying, no baking, no processing. Just good fresh ingredients.

Brussels Sprouts

I am trying very hard to be more adventurous. What better way to be adventurous than to try brussel sprouts. I've never had brussel sprouts and there place as being an unwanted side for many a child is legendary.

I'm hoping that some vegetables or ingredients may become more appealing when I (myself) handle the cooking. In this case I thought about brussel sprouts. Everything I have read has said the reason so many people don't like brussel sprouts is because they at some point have been served brussel sprouts that were overcooked. Sprouts are like a number of other food that they taste good when properly cooked but absolutely horrendous if even slightly overcooked.

I looked around on the interwebs and finally opted to go with this recipe.

A little googling by the little lady and we find the recipe (or a similiar recipe).

1 pound trimmed and cleaned Brussels sprouts 4 slices of bacon, cut crosswise into 1/4-inch pieces (about 3/4 cup) 2 tablespoons good olive oil 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon black pepper Using the slicing blade on your food processor, cut the Brussels sprouts into slices about 1/4-inch thick, about 5 cups. Scatter the bacon pieces in a large skillet, add the oil, cover and cook over high heat for 2 to 3 minutes, until the pieces are crisp and brown and most of the fat is rendered. Add the sliced sprouts, salt and pepper; cover and cook for about 1 to 2 minutes to soften the sprouts. Uncover and cook over high heat, tossing occasionally, for about 2 minutes, until the sprouts are tender but still a bit firm. Serves 4. We opted to go with a recipe where the sprouts were shredded. Bacon seemed like the most common seasoning for sprouts but only about a fourth or fifth of the recipes we found included shredding the sprouts. We felt like this might be better because we felt like maybe it decreased the likelihood of either over/undercooking and the resulting "stank" it would release. The result was pretty good. From Food and Restaurants Of course never having eaten brussel sprouts I am assuming they tasted good since they were edible. I think they were good since 1- they didn't stink and 2 - I (a non-brussel sprout eating person) could eat them. The salt seasoning and the yummy crunchiness the bacon brought definitely added to it. The key to keep it from stinking and tasting too bitter is to cook it for as little time as possible. Even undercook it you need to. Better a little raw and undercooked than slimy and smelly. Brussel sprouts. Give them a shot.

Non-Introduction

This is  not an introduction to my first post. It is not an introductory post to my latest attempt at a blog because every time I write one it ends up being the one and only post on the blog.

I hope to take readers on a journey as I try to learn more about everything food. I am a food fanatic and love to try new things. And when I say I am a food fanatic I mean I have just recently tried actually learning about the processes, science, and tastes of cooking.

There is a lot I don't know. There is a lot I've never cooked, tasted, or don't know. But that's half the fun.

Come along and maybe we'll learn a few things together.

One of things that got me started on this journey was hearing someone say out loud that the process is more important than the recipe. That cooking is an art more than a science. I first heard that out loud while searching for videos on how to braise chicken. I stumbled across Chef Todd Mohr's YouTube series "Cooking Coarse".

Click here to see Cooking Coarse.

Since then I've been looking for cookbooks that discuss the ingredients and methods as much if not more than the actual measurements.

Well, happy eating and let's hope this isn't the only post.