Thursday, March 5, 2009

Cravings

Double click on this picture to see it in all it's fabulous glory... YUMMMMMM.
I craved salsa the whole time Rafe was home on leave. I used to make up 2 qts of it at a time when he lived with us. As a Texan, he had to have his "chips and hot sauce" when he hit the door after work. Since he volunteered to cook when he came home, I showed him how to make hot sauce in the blender.

YUM. He actually made his a little hotter than I normally make mine, but I craved it. So much so that we went through THREE batches (at 2 quarts each batch) during the time he was home. There was just enough left for me to eat the two weeks after he left in the middle of the night. I was so hungry, I would wake up and eat chips and hot sauce and then go back to bed.

One day, I wanted it for breakfast. So I made myself some tamales a friend had brought over, some cheesy scrambled eggs with scallions in them, diced up avocados and salted them, and then poured hot sauce over most of it and served it with a side of plain yogurt.

OH. MY. GOODNESS. I think I swooned during breakfast, it was so good.

Rafe's Hot Sauce
2 cans of Red Gold Diced Tomatoes
1 can of Red Gold HOT Diced Tomatoes with Chiles (by the way, this is just as good as Rotel and cheaper)
fresh lime or lemon juice (can sub red wine vinegar in a pinch)
fresh cilantro
kosher salt
garlic pepper (I use McCormick's brand, California style)
ground cumin
ground coriander
ground oregano
(2 parts cumin to 1 part each coriander and oregano)

Rafe added sambal oelek (chili paste) in one batch, green chiles in another batch, and habanero sauce in a batch. You can add whatever hot seasoning that suits your fancy.

Puree in blender till it's the consistency you like. I used to like mine chunky, but Rafe likes it smooth like Tex Mex restaurants, so that's what we make now. Pure deliciousness. I don't have ratios, I just add spices till it tastes good. You will need to add more spices than you think you do. When Rafe lived with us, we went through a jar of cumin every 2 -3 months. You can leave out the cilantro if you don't like it, and you can even leave out the coriander and oregano if you don't have it. It won't taste as nice, but it definitely won't taste right if you leave out the cumin. That's essential. Also, use kosher salt. Please.


Sometimes we make it with fresh onions and garlic, and leave out the garlic pepper. But when we were eating so much of it that the garlic and onions were seeping out our pores, we thought maybe we'd better hold off. So we haven't made it that way for about 2 years.
P.S. Yes, I ate the whole plate for breakfast. Plus some juice. :)

4 comments:

Karen said...

I hate to say it but it looks good! But I am a sour cream kinda girl ( u cant tell by the tushie) I don't think i could hang so well with the yogurt. We planted our first garden in 07 and I made salsa with what we grew and it was soooo good. We canned it of course and I think I might have a jar left. I am glad to hear that you are having CRAVINGS! I keep you in my prayers.

Mandy said...

This is cruel to post to a mom with a 6 week old nursling who doesn't care for spicy foods. Not nice at all. ;)

Karen said...

by the way....your eggs looks so moist and yummy....mine seem to look and taste too dry, what am I doing wrong?

Laurie said...

Most people overcook their eggs a tremendous amount. Eggs will continue to cook once they are taken off the heat, especially scrambled eggs.

I use a small non-stick skillet with rounded sides that is basically a professional omelette pan, but any little non-stick skillet will do.

I turn the heat on, let the pan heat up to about medium. Then I spray it lightly in the center with pam or oil spray that you make on your own and dump in 3-4 eggs that I have already cracked. This is important so you are not cracking while the eggs in the skillet are cooking.

Immediately begin stirring the eggs with a heat proof rubber spatula, continually scraping up the bottom of the pan and folding it back into the top of the eggs.

When the eggs look like they are just done - in about the 30 seconds it takes for them to go from having a tiny bit of runny egg to having no runny egg but still look moist, pull your pan off the heat. Add in your scallions and torn up pieces of cheese (I mostly use American because it's what I have for Amelia but you can use any cheese you want) and stir.

Be ready to eat at that point. Your bacon should already be cooked and your tomatoes sliced or whatever else you are going to eat with breakfast. Cold eggs congeal quickly and taste blah. You can season to taste at this point, although I never add salt because of the cheese and bacon and also because salt when you are stirring them actually makes them rubbery.

American cheese is also processed with milk, so it makes the eggs look creamy. If you want them to have that look without the cheese, just add a tiny bit of heavy cream to the pan at the end, or half and half.