Thanksgiving with a touch of the Southwest

Turkey and dressing again this year for Thanksgiving, I ask?  Yes, and sweet potatoes, green beans, rolls, cranberry sauce and both pumpkin and pecan pies, my family replies.  Not much room for innovation here.

But I'm going to sneak in a Southwest appetizer - Pico de Gallo.  The literal translation is "Rooster's Beak." Maybe the name comes from the 'pecking' you get from the jalapeño peppers in this fresh salsa.

Pico de Gallo is one of the few dishes I can prepare without slavishly following a recipe. So, it's hard to share the recipe, but I'm going to give it a try.

Here are the ingredients.

fresh jalapeño peppers

roasted and peeled green chile peppers

fresh tomatoes

red onion

garlic

fresh cilantro

salt and pepper

fresh lime juice

You may notice that there are several fresh items on the list.   The first step is a trip to the grocery store. Fresh cilantro only lasts a couple of days in the refrigerator.  (I've even tried cutting the stems a bit and putting the bunch of cilantro in a glass of water in the fridge.)  But if you have to make the trip for cilantro, you might as well buy other items as fresh as possible also.

Then there is the decision about amounts. It's all about personal choice.  Do you like your salsa fiery?  We do at my house. I put on plastic gloves, deseed and devein the jalapeños, and chop them and the green chiles very fine.  If chopping the chiles is making my eyes water, I add fewer.  Another idea is to add some of the chiles to the mixture, taste the sauce, and add more if you want to. It works better that way than to try to fish out those green specks as your guests are breaking out in perspiration from the chile heat.

Finely chopped tomatoes, finely chopped red onion, finely chopped garlic, finely chopped cilantro go in next. Once again, personal taste for amounts reigns here.  The finishing touches are salt, pepper and fresh lime juice.

The dish is ready to eat immediately or chill in the fridge until guests arrive.  Pico de Gallo is very tasty, very healthy, and very easy to make.  My dilemma comes with the dipper.  Traditional tostadas are probably the best dipper, but they don't make anyone's list of healthy foods.  What I do sometimes, if I am feeling particularly righteous about my eating habits, is steam small corn tortillas in the microwave or on a comal (griddle). The calories are still there, but at least I can control the salt and oil.

Another idea is to sauté the mixture above (minus the cilantro), add a little white cheese, and make chile con queso.  This dip won't give you the food guilts like the chile con queso make with (horrors)  processed cheese spread.

Now, if I could just locate a healthy dipper.  Somehow pico de gallo on a celery stick just doesn't get it.   Any ideas?

 

Holiday Recipes - Southwestern Style

San Marcos brand chiles are ready to go.

Do you have a cherished family holiday recipe?   Remembering my grandmother’s pound cake, my aunt’s thumbprint cookies, and my mother’s pumpkin chiffon pie gives me warm feelings. 

I decided to start my legacy early by recording favorite holiday dishes.  I’m only going to include dishes with a Southwestern flair, which of course means chiles must be featured.  This is a modified version of a recipe I found on bonappetit.com several years ago.  It’s really easy!  Here’s what you do.

 Chipotle Cranberry Sauce (makes about two cups)

Buy a 12-ounce package of fresh cranberries. They can be purchased early and frozen in the bag. 

Combine cranberries, three-fourths cup Splenda sugar blend (or one and a third cups sugar), two chipotle chiles in adobo finely chopped, and three tablespoons lime juice in a medium saucepan and stir over medium heat until sugar dissolves.  Continue cooking about five minutes, stirring occasionally.  Cranberries will begin to pop.

Add one small chopped garlic clove, one-fourth heaping teaspoon of ground cinnamon, one-fourth heaping teaspoon ground comino (cumin) and cook about five minutes longer on simmer.  Sauce will begin to thicken.  Keep chilled.  And a great feature is that the sauce can be made up to one week ahead of time.

This recipe has helped me wean my traditionalist husband off of canned jellied cranberry sauce. Not an easy task!

Stuffed Jalapeños

Buy an eight ounce can of jalapeños, wash and cut in half lengthwise, and place in ice water.  (Did you know that washing and soaking jalapeños reduces their ability to set your mouth on fire?)

Cream an eight-ounce package cream cheese, a small jar of processed cheese spread, one tablespoon grated onion, and one tablespoon half and half.  Add a dash each of Tabasco sauce and Worcestershire sauce.

Drain jalapeños and fill cavities with cheese mixture.  Can top with pimentos for holiday garnish.  Refrigerate.

My recipe for this dish is so ancient that it is written on a half sheet of a Big Chief writing table in my large handwriting from schoolgirl days and is dotted with brown splashes. Stuffed jalapeños will liven up a traditional holiday meal for sure!

If you try these recipes, let me know how they work for you.  And send me recipes for your favorite Southwestern holiday dishes.  I"ll be sure to include them on the next post.  Happy cooking!