Prepping for Some Guacamole!

So I didn't actually make anything new for this post, but I wanted to talk about some stuff so I made up a post for it. First of all, look at my peppers.

The green ones are jalapenos, and the orange & red are... wait for it... PURPLE Trinidad coffee peppers. Say what? I read on some forums that they mature and turn red, but they have been turning orange also. This is insane. Note - they are still hot as all hellfire.

I said I didn't make anything new, but I did make something... more pineapple salsa. I had some on top of salmon last week and I was licking the freakin plate afterward (that is a slight exaggeration). However, I only used purple peppers in it, and I added more than last time. I was seriously coughing while I was cutting these peppers because they were so hot they invaded my face. I had to step back from the counter... that is actually NOT an exaggeration. I'm a little scared to eat this salsa, but I will be brave and keep some milk and bread nearby.

Don't look directly into the orange flecks!

For some reason, stores only sell cilantro in boat-loads so I have a ton of it left over. Dennis & I are going to make guacamole on Friday, so we'll use some more for that, but I still feel like I need to find more recipes that use it so it doesn't go to waste. I looked up how to preserve cilantro online and I found this: put it in a glass of water and stick it in the fridge. Easy peezy.

My cilantro bouquet

The last time I made mango avocado salsa, I saved the avocado seed and cared for it and loved it and stuff, and now it's a big avocado tree! Ok not really, but I did stick 3 toothpicks in it and suspend it in some water.

That was over a month ago, maybe 2 months ago, and since then the bottom has cracked open and roots are coming out! OMG! I even had to move it to a bigger glass so the roots could expand. I just have to wait for a stalk to come out of the top and then maybe I can put it in a pot with soil or something. Yay.

Wouldja look at that? Awesome. It's a bummer though, because I have read and heard from people that they rarely bear fruit. Sad. Well maybe MINE will be the one exception. :) That's all for now, ta-ta!

Pineapple Salsa

Another fruity summer salsa - supposed to be a bit spicier due to the serrano pepper. 

Ingredients

2 cups diced fresh pineapple

1/2 cup chopped cilantro

1/4 cup finely chopped red onion

1 serrano pepper, stemmed, seeded and finely chopped

juice and zest of 1 lime

1/8 teaspoon sea salt

Now I love me some spicy peppers. If you do too, you might be interested in this website featuring a pepper scale. It tells you how hot different types of peppers are on a scale of 0-550,000. Jalapenos are at about 4,000 while the serrano peppers can be anywhere from 7,000 to 25,000. I wasn't sure how to pick a pepper (haha!) because some were orange and some were green, so I just got one of each and put them both in the salsa. I hoped it wouldn't be unbearably hot and I was right. It was just fine.

I didn't put any lime zest in because I don't have a zester and I really didn't feel like it would add anything more than the lime juice would. Also, I happen to have sea salt on my spice rack, but I wouldn't stress about not having any. Plain old salt would do just fine.

I altered the pineapple & onion amounts slightly because the package of pineapple I bought had more than 2 cups. It said 25 oz. I didn't feel like doing the math so I just used all of it and doubled the onion. It tasted great. I feel it is easy to manipulate the ingredients in salsa without ruining the end product. I'm sure you could add some mango or peach in there and it would still taste great.

Here's the recipe from WholeFoodsMarket.com.

Mango and Peach Salsa

After trying the Mango Avocado Salsa recipe 4 or 5 times, Dennis decided he wanted me to find another salsa recipe. I found this Mango & Peach Salsa recipe and it looked pretty easy so I gave it a whirl. It was even easier than the first one.

Ingredients

2 mangos, peeled and chopped

2 fresh peaches, peeled and chopped

1 sweet onion, diced

1 medium tomato, diced (optional)

2 cloves garlic

2 tbsp chopped fresh cilantro

juice of one lime

dash salt and pepper

Toss them all together in a bowl. Easy peezy lemon squeezy.

Here is the original recipe from About.com.

Mango Avocado Tomato Salsa

Finally, the real reason behind the whole blog. The salsa. It came to us in a combination of ways.. there is a lovely restaurant in Salisbury, MD called Cactus Taverna that serves mango slices on top of their entrees and it really adds a great flavor to fish.

We decided that we wanted to try mango on our own fish. Dennis talked to my mom about mango/peach salsa and said he wanted to try to make some at home. So we planned on making the salsa to put on top of some tuna steaks that we got from Target. I know right? Target has a really great grocery section now, in case you didn't know.

Anywho, Dennis asked me to find a recipe for mango salsa, and this is the first one I found. The prep work is time consuming, but once you have finished you just toss all of the ingredients together and let them mellow.

Ingredients

1 mango - peeled, seeded and diced

1 avocado - peeled, pitted, and diced

4 medium tomatoes, diced

1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and minced

1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons fresh lime juice

1/4 cup chopped red onion

3 tablespoons olive oil

Combine the mango, avocado, tomatoes, jalapeno, cilantro, and garlic in a medium bowl. I have a slap-chop type device that I use to dice all of the ingredients. It seems to work well and it is a lot easier than cutting everything with a knife.

We bought 2 of everything so that we could try the recipe twice. The second batch was better because everything was a lot riper so I would recommend buying your ingredients a few days in advance.

We used jarred jalapenos & jarred minced garlic for the recipe but you could try to get them fresh. We just kind of eyeballed it as far as the amounts go, but it ended up being about 8-10 jalapeno slices and 2.5 teaspoons of minced garlic.

Stir in the salt, lime juice, red onion, and olive oil. Just FYI - one large lime will give you 2 tablespoons of juice, but if the limes are on the small side I would get 2. To blend the flavors, refrigerate for about 30 minutes before serving.

We grilled the tuna steaks and did some boil-in-a-bag white rice, then put a scoop of salsa on the plate. The meal was perfect.

This tastes amazing the day after you make it. We had it stored in a mixing bowl with a lid, but the lid isn't 100% airtight and when I opened the fridge the next morning, the amazing aroma hit me in the face like a 2x4. I was getting creamer for my coffee and I started wondering if salsa would be good for breakfast! I ate it later in the day with tortilla chips and it was excellent.

The second time we made the recipe, we doubled the mango and it was still amazing. I had salmon and Dennis had chicken, and they both went very well with the salsa.

Here is the original link from AllRecipes.com.