food
Salsa with a Kick
Submitted by mediumgeek on Sun, 27/12/2009 - 14:26I used to live in the United States for a few years while going to University. There are many things that I miss from living there but there was one thing in particular that I kept missing a lot. My favorite Salsa.
On The Border was my favorite restaurant that served pretty good Mexican food and absolutely heavenly salsa. I used to go there and just buy a bag of chips and a big jar of fresh salsa and hog it down for dinner until my mouth was too injured from the chips to continue. After I moved to Norway (which was probably a blessing for my waistline) I found myself repeatedly craving for their salsa. After many disastrous attempts I had given up all hope of ever being able to make it on my own.
Until I came across a copycat recipe (which I unfortunately cannot find again) that put me on the right track. One of the tricks was to give up on using fresh tomatoes and go for canned. Maybe had something to do with the vampire tomatoes here in Norway. They are just to tasteless and boring to work.
I have applied a couple of other tricks of my own to the recipe so it isn't completely like the original and I have tried the real thing afterwards (in South-Korea of all places) and there is something still missing. But it is enough to get me through the days. As I have gotten couple of requests for it I thought I should hereby kick start my food blogging with my On The Border Copycat Salsa and maybe save some other tortured taste buds that have had to move away from their drug... uhummm I mean their favorite salsa.
On The Border Copycat Salsa
Be very careful not to run the blender for too long as the salsa should look red and fresh. If you run it for too long it will be brown and frothy. This can be tricky as we are talking about few seconds each time.
1/2 white onion, chopped
Juice of 1-2 limes
1 box canned tomatoes (minus some of the liquid)
12-15 branches fresh coriander
12 slices of canned jalapeño
1/2 tsp cumin powder
1/2 tsp dried red chili flakes
1 small clove garlic, crushed
Salt
Marinate the chopped white onion in the lime juice for approximately half an hour. If you don't have enough juice to cover all the onion, stir couple of times.
Put half of the tomatoes into a blender together with the onion. Try to get rid of most of the lime juice when you scoop the onions into the blender. Throw away the rest (or use in guacamole). Run the blender for few seconds until the tomatoes and onions are crushed. Chop the jalapeño and coriander coarsely and add them into the mix together with the cumin, red chili flakes, and garlic. Now add the rest of the tomatoes but try not to use all the liquid or it will get a bit too watery. Run the blender again for few seconds or just long enough to get it all chopped and mixed. Move to a bowl. At the end add the salt, stir and taste until you get the right amount of salt. It should be a little bit salty. It is best to let the salsa sit for half an hour before serving.
If you want a salsa that kicks your butt more than this one use 15 slices of jalapeño and 1 tsp red pepper flakes. If you want a milder variant reduce the red chili flakes and jalapeño down to maybe 1/4 tsp and 8 slices. Anything less than that doesn't count as salsa!
Paleness of Norwegian Food Blogging
Submitted by mediumgeek on Sun, 22/11/2009 - 20:10As someone mildly obsessed with food, I cannot deny that I have had secret fantasies about starting my own food blog. I however find it a real handicap to live in Norway. I get the feeling that to be able to write a nice food blog, you need to live in a strategic spot in California and have plenty of time on your hand. Being a busy mediumgeek, traveling mostly on bike, and with a pathetic selection of grocery stores such as Rema just doesn't make for interesting food blog material.
I subscribe to the news feed from 101 Cookbooks. A beautifully written blog with nice photography. I tend to like the recipes mostly for their aesthetic appeal as the ones I have tried have been a bit too bland for my liking. The real treat is really the mental images I get. Just imagine the tranquility and charm of this trip to the farmers' market.
There is a new weekly farmers' market just a few blocks from my house. I love it. I walk out my front door, cross the park, and make my way along tree-lined Noe Street until I see the little pop-up stalls. It's just the right size - not too big, not too small. Inspiring without being overwhelming. I came home the other night with a basket overloaded with all things spring and made this asparagus salad.
My version would be more like this...
There is this little grocery store not far from my apartment. I hate it. I usually visit it on my way home from work. After sweating my way up the hill from work I park my bike outside the store and wobble in on tired feat. I then walk along the isles between cardboard boxes and shelfs that belong more to a storage area than a grocery store dragging the little worn plastic shopping chart after me and trying not to notice how dirty it is. I pick out the things I want while trying not to hit down things with my overstuffed backpack full of computer equipment and exercise clothes and my bike helmet. Then there is the short ride home trying to balance the plastic bags on my bike and getting my bike, the shopping bags, and myself through two heavy door.
Doesn't sound quite as appealing as it does to stroll out your door with a basket under your arm...
Then there is an issues with the selection and freshness of things. 101 Cookbooks repeatedly writes things like:
The markets here are full of color right now. Gold, red,
and orange beets. Pink-fleshed pomelos. Tiny purple-streaked
artichokes. Deep, dark leafy greens. This week I filled my basket
with my favorite eggs, a loaf of whole wheat seed bread, fresh
tofu, lots of leeks and spring onions, chard with electric-pink stems,
and one bunch of pencil-thin asparagus.
There are no vibrant colors in my neighborhood supermarket. If there is anything pink in there it is for sure an artificially colored plastic container. Even the tomatoes are some type of pale vampire tomatoes competing with the zombie paleness of the carrots, and the emo look of the oranges. What should be fresh sprigs of herbs are usually some half dead plants that instantly commit a suicide when they hit your window sill. There isn't much variation in what is available either. To get anything special you need to visit few different immigrant stores that have much to learn about display and tidiness.
Norway has the excuse that almost everything needs to be imported. But one would think that during harvest season you might see some fresh and colorful shades of vibrant orange, yellow and green. But no, instead of displaying the various types of vegetables that are actually grown locally the stores usually just end up with giant cardboard boxes full of bleak-green cabbage heads. All to make Norway's traditional fall dish. The extremely exotic and complex Fårikål which literally means mutton in cabbage. And it really is just that: Mutton and cabbage with some black pepper...
So I really think serious food blogging is out for me. And I will blame it all on the fact that I live in Norway instead of any lack of skills in the cooking, writing, and photography department :) .
