Safe Salsa (Hot!) - Recipe

I love spicy food. I used to love salsa, but it contains garlic and often onion as well. This year my jalapeño plant went all happy on me, and I ended up with a bag of about 15 of them at once. So I decided to try my own thing and see what happened. I liked the result a lot.

Safe Salsa, Just the Peppers Please

12-15 fresh jalapeños

2 teaspoons coconut oil (or butter)

1/2 Cup raw cashews soaked for 30 minutes in

1-1/2 Cups water

1 teaspoon salt

1/4-1/3 Cups distilled white vinegar

1 Tbsp water + 1/2 Tbsp Corn Starch, mixed well before adding

Measure 1-1/2 cups water in a 2 cup measuring cup then pour raw cashews in until the water reaches 2 cups (or above). Allow them to soak for about 30 minutes.

Slice the jalapeños peppers and warm coconut oil up in a large frying pan over medium heat. Make sure you keep the seed, and all parts of the peppers other than the stem and then sauté them in the heated oil until they just soften slightly (4-6 minutes) and remove from heat.

Then add the water and soaked nuts into a food processor. Pour the sautéed jalapeños peppers over the water and nuts and add the salt in. Save the sauté pan aside. Process for several minutes to break down the nuts, then slowly in a drizzle, add the white vinegar into the processing mixture until it it finished. Process for several more moments to reduce the nuts even more (for thickening), then taste for added salt or more vinegar.

Pour the mixture back into the same sauté pan and put it on medium high heat. Once it is boiling gently, add the well-stirred water/corn starch mix to the salsa and stir. It will thicken slightly. Turn the heat off and let the salsa sit for 5 more minutes to cook all the starch in, then pour the mixture into a quart sized sterile canning jar with a sterile lid. It will last 4-6 months in your refrigerator!

Use sparingly. It's hot, baby.

Cheers!

~Miriam

© 2012, Miriam Mason

Clay Pot Thai-ish Sunflower Seed Chicken

This one is an original I did on a night I was utterly desperate for restaurant-style hot Thai peanut butter chicken. It came out so much better than I'd hoped that we've been doing this one a few times a month at least.

Use a clay pot with a lid for this, if possible. Soak the clay pot in filtered water for 20-30 minutes first. You won't preheat the oven, the clay pot must go into a cold oven or it will crack. The water seeps into the pot and makes the chicken delicate and moist.

If you use a regular iron pot, make certain you adjust for preheating time. I would suggest preheating in this case to 350-365 F (depending on your oven). I imagine a regular pot will be equally tasty.

While your clay pot is soaking, whisk the sauce together in a bowl:

1-1/4 C sunflower seed butter
1 T sesame seed oil
1/4 C rice vinegar (or white)
1 T dry sherry (optional, NOT necessary)
1-2 teaspoons sea salt or to taste
1 t. ground ginger (or an inch of finely chopped fresh)
1/4-2 t. of dried red pepper flakes (depending on how much you like your Thai to bite back, I like it HOT)
1-1/2 Cups chicken stock

When your pot is done soaking take

2.5-3 lbs skinless/boneless chicken pieces (I like thighs)

place the chicken in the soaked pot, and poor the sauce over it. Turn the chicken over in the sauce to make sure everything is well coated. Cover the Clay pot and place it in a cold oven. Set the oven to 350. If you're using red chicken meat, time is usually an hour and 10 minutes. For white meat, time is 50-60 minutes. Check the meat by cutting into a middle piece to make sure it's done. Clay pots are very good at not drying out chicken if it needs to go longer.

For a regular pot, cover and place it in a preheated oven and allow to cook until meat is done, probably 45 minutes to an hour or so, depending on what type of chicken meat.

We serve ours over brown rice or red quinoa, and sauteed mushrooms on a bed of lettuce.

Japanese Cucumber Salad would make a super nice side.

Cheers!
~Miriam

© 2012, Miriam Mason