Salsa!

This week's class featured easy Mexican so we made some fresh salsa. Salsa is very popular. Salsa in the jar surpassed ketchup sales back 20 years (but by poundage, ketchup still wins, hands down). Salsa in a jar is tasty, and convenient, so I'm not knocking it. Fresh salsa is even tastier. It's a great way to turn so-so tomatoes into something delicious. This time of year, tomatoes need all the help they can get. Plum tomatoes are on sale 88¢ per pound in my local market, which makes homemade salsa fresca a darn good buy.

The amount of heat is up to you. Jalapeños are not that hot, but if you don't like your food spicy, start with a little bit, like a teaspoon. If you do like spicy, use a hotter serrano chile, rather than a jalapeño.

Salsa Fresca
(makes 6 servings, costs under $1)

4 plum tomatoes, diced
1-2 Tablespoons chopped cilantro (4 to 8 sprigs)
2 Tablespoons small-diced onion
1 jalapeño, seeded and minced (more or less to taste)
juice of ½ a lime
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon pepper

Combine everything in a medium bowl and toss to combine. Let sit 15 minutes. Taste and add more chile, lime, and salt if desired.

Will keep about 2 days in the refrigerator but definitely best fresh. If you have extra, stay tuned for a lime rice & beans recipe that gets its kick from salsa.

Corn and Peach Salsa

It's corn season. It's peach season. Why not combine the two? This salsa recipe is from King Soopers (part of Kroger's). I modified it slightly. They have it paired with a teriyaki-grilled salmon, which you can see in the photo of my dinner. It's very tasty with the salmon but it would be good with grilled chicken too.

To grill corn, shuck it and lay the ears of corn directly on a hot grill. Turn when the kernels are mostly dark brown.

Corn & Peach Salsa
(makes 4-6 servings)

2 ears of corn, grilled, cooled, and kernels cut from the cob
1 peach, diced
2 tomatoes, diced
2 scallions, thinly sliced
¼ cup minced parsley, about 6 sprigs (see Note)
1 Tablespoon red wine vinegar
1 Tablespoon fresh lime juice
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon black pepper

Mix together all the ingredients in medium bowl. You can serve immediately but it gets better if it has a chance to chill for at least an hour before serving.

Note: The original recipe called for cilantro, which would give this a more southwestern twist. Fresh basil is also wonderful with corn, peaches, and tomatoes.

Cinco de Mayo Chicken Casserole

Here's a comforting casserole for a cold winter's night. We made this for our class on easy chicken dishes. Though the recipe calls for cheddar cheese, there are lots of cheeses that work here: monterey jack, colby, Mexican cheese blends, or some combination of those. Great way to clean out the bits of cheese in the fridge.

Cinco de Mayo Chicken Casserole
(serves 6-8, cost is $13.25)

1 ½ pounds boneless skinless chicken breasts
16 ounces green chile salsa
1 cup sour cream
⅓ cup milk
12 6" corn tortillas
¾ pound shredded cheddar cheese

Cook chicken (either by roasting or in microwave). Cut chicken into cubes. Preheat oven to 350°F Place half the chicken in an oiled 9x13 inch pan. Spoon about half the salsa over chicken. Place sour cream in a bowl and thin it with some milk. Spoon half the sour cream mixture over the salsa and chicken. Cut the tortillas into ¼ inch strips. Top the sour cream mixture with half the tortilla strips and half the Cheddar cheese. Repeat layers, using the remaining chicken, salsa, sour cream mixture, tortilla strips, and Cheddar cheese.

Cover pan with foil and bake for 40 minutes. Remove foil and bake for about 5 minutes until cheese is golden and bubbly. Let stand for 10 minutes before serving.

What's in season now?

Garden tomatoes (photo courtesy of Diane Fritz)

Jamie Oliver just posted an article about what's in season now. He lists peppers, peaches, cucumber, tomatillos, raspberries, and celery. I have a few more suggestions below, but no matter where you are, this is certainly a great time to pick up fresh produce. My local farmer's market is just busting out with beautiful produce. So is my garden. Even your local supermarket will benefit from the abundance of fresh produce. There is such a surplus that prices drop on all manner of delicious fresh fruits and veggies.

For instance, in Colorado where we live, there is a bumper crop of both peaches and cantaloupes this time of year. This is a very, very good year for peaches. Right now, peaches from the west side of Colorado where nearly all our local fruit comes from, are on sale for 99¢ per pound. It's definitely time to buy some peaches. Large cantaloupes are $1.25 a piece. Cantaloupes and peaches are both great in salsas. See our post on making fruit salsas if you need a basic recipe.

Warm season vegetables - eggplants, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, corn - are all inexpensive and beautiful right now. You can try out Jamie's Evolution Salad with the tomatoes or our recent recipe for a Cucumber-Yogurt Salad for the cucumber . Or for something kind of different with cucumber, try this stir-fry.

The grapes must be ready in California because the prices here have dropped like a rock. Seedless red and green grapes are on sale for as low as 99¢ a pound this week. Grapes are great to eat out of hand, providing a sweet snack that is much healthier than any candy. For a twist, freeze them and eat them right out of the freezer - a delicious treat on a hot day. Berries are also wonderful this way and if you want to fancy those frozen berries up, check out our recipe below.

We need to gobble up the great produce this time of year because it doesn't last*. Come winter, prices rise and quality drops. Get the good stuff while you can. Enjoy all that summer-time goodness and realize that, like warm summer evenings and baseball, it has its season.

*If you have the space and energy, much of the great produce can be preserved for the middle of winter but that's a whole other post!

Frozen Berries with White Hot Chocolate Sauce
Serves 2

2 oz. white chocolate
2 Tablespoons heavy cream
¼ teaspoon vanilla
1 cup frozen berries

Combine the chocolate, heavy cream, and vanilla in a heat-proof bowl and either microwave it on medium, 1 minute at a time, or set it over a pan of simmering water until the chocolate melts. About 5 minutes before serving, remove the berries from the freezer and place them on individual serving plates. Ladle the warm chocolate sauce over the berries and serve.

Note: You can either buy frozen berries, or freeze your own by placing berries on a flat tray or plate in one layer. When the berries are fully frozen, keep them in a plastic bag in the freezer. Larger berries, such as strawberries, do not freeze well.

How to Make a Fruit Salsa

I fell in love with fruit salsa while working at a Southwestern restaurant. Salsas were a big part of the garnish for grilled foods, like fish or chicken. It's a great way to boost flavor in a simple dish. It's also a fun way to get fruit into your diet. We didn't have a recipe most of the time, but the method was always similar.

Here's the basic recipe:

• diced fruit, 
• some crunch (like red onions or diced sweet peppers or both), 
• something tart like lime juice,
• a bit of heat from chiles,
• some chopped fresh or frozen herbs,
• and salt to bring it all together.

The "recipe" is very flexible and it's a good way to use up fruit. Just about any fruit will do. The salsa in the picture is mango, but melons, pineapple, berries, grapes, peaches are wonderful too. For the tart part, lemon and lime juice are good, as are fruity vinegars like raspberry vinegar or balsamic (particularly good with strawberries). The chiles add some punch and you can pick the level of heat you like. Leave them out if you don't like spicy. Use jalapenos for a little, serranos or chipotles for a bit more, and habarnero for hot, hot, hot! Habarneros are wicked hot - be very careful handling them - but they go especially well with fruit because of their own fruity notes. I used chipotle in adobo because that was all I had. No fresh chiles in the house! For herbs, mint, basil, parsley, cilantro and chives are all possibilities. Mint and basil work in almost any fruit salsa. For something really exotic, use lemon thyme or Thai basil.

To get you started, here's the recipe for the mango salsa. Great on grilled chicken breasts or fish fillets.

Mango Salsa
(makes about 1 1/2 cups, total cost is $1.50)

1 mango, peeled and diced (see Notes)
1 scallion, sliced thinly
2 teaspoons fresh lime juice
1 teaspoon chopped chipotle chile in adobo (see Notes)
4 leaves of mint, chopped fine
1 large pinch of salt
1 small pinch of black pepper

Combine everything in a bowl. Serve immediately though it usually tastes better if it sits in the fridge for about 30 minutes.

Notes:
Mangoes can be tricky to cut up. Check out this video from the Mango Board on how to do it right.
Chipotle chiles in adobo are smoked dried red jalapenos that are packed in a vinegary tomato sauce. They come in small cans. They are hotter than most green jalapenos.