Rosita's Potato Salad

Happy 4th of July! In this country, it's a day marked with gluttonous barbecues and fireworks.

I love the fireworks. Troy Patterson hates them, but that's his loss.

I do not, however, love the requisite side dish that accompanies the grilling. Namely, potato salad. There's a simple reason for this, and it's called celery.

I hate celery.

We grew up in a house that did not consume celery. My mother, author of the recipe below, secretly likes it. But my father hates it, so it's okay that I, too, as an adult, hate it. It's the cardboard of the vegetable world. And stop fooling yourself, there are no such things as negative calories.

My mom, having to deal with my dad's vehement dislike for the wooden veggie, created a potato salad without it. And this is what I grew up eating at BBQs. I didn't even know that celery was a traditional ingredient. And I was quite all right with that.

If anyone can explain the appeal of celery to me, I will gladly indulge you. Please, try to convince me that it's not the worst thing next to dirt. And pestilence. That's pretty bad, too.

Another thing I don't really care for is mayonnaise. I don't know why. I think it's because I imagine it clogging my arteries. Beautiful image, isn't it? You're not craving mayonnaise now, are you?

For this, I used a combination of Greek yogurt and Mexican sour cream (crema is more liquidy) in its stead. In fact, I added more than the recipe called for because I wanted it to be more creamy. I also mashed the potatoes a bit. Not completely into mashed potatoes, but just until they were smaller chunks.

It's delicious with a freshly grilled hot dog. The perfect BBQ side dish.

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Rosita's Potato Salad

by Rosalba Fontanez July-4-2011

A family favorite, sans the hateful celery.

Ingredients

• 2 large Russet potatoes
• 2 hard boiled eggs
• 1/3 cup onion, diced
• 1/3 cup pickles, diced
• 1/4 cup pickled red peppers, diced
• 4 tablespoons white vinegar
• 4 tablespoons mayonnaise (or Greek yogurt and crema)
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/2 teaspoon regular mustard
• 1 pinch each dried oregano, basil, rosemary
• 1 pinch cumin powder

Instructions

1. Peel and cube the potatoes. Put in a saucepan and cover with water about 1 inch of water. Bring to a boil until tender (poke with a skewer or knife to check). They're done when they offer no resistance. Allow to cool.2. Dice the eggs and add to cool potatoes.3. In a big bowl, mix together pickles, onions, vinegar, garlic powder, dried herbs and cumin.4. Add mustard and mayonnaise (or Greek yogurt and crema). 5. Fold in potatoes, eggs, and red peppers. Mix until evenly combined. 6. For additional creaminess, add more mayonnaise.7. Refrigerate about 30 minutes for flavors to meld. Serve cold.
Yield: 4 servings

Louie's Salsa Verde

In Puerto Rico, salsa refers to the music that makes the hips shake. In Mexico, it's a condiment. In our house, it's both. But made by a Puerto Rican. And it's good.

It's a bit of a family joke that my Mexican mother cooks the greatest Puerto Rican food, but it's my Puerto Rican father who created his own salsa verde, or green salsa.

A Puerto Rican making Mexican food, and vice versa? Yeah, it's a bit like a liger.

This is my absolute favorite. I put it on everything from pasteles (not cakes) to quesadillas. It's great on hot dogs, hamburgers, scrambled eggs, to add a bit of a kick to just about anything. I like it on rice too, turns it a bit green and a bit spicy.

Of course, it's a great dip for chips.

I've taken it to two food swaps now and it always disappears quickly. I'm trying to convince my dad to market it. Till that happens, you can enjoy making it yourself.

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Louie's Salsa Verde

by Louis G. Fontanez June-26-2011

Our family's special recipe.

Ingredients

• 1 pound tomatillos
• 11 serrano peppers
• 1/2 medium onion, chopped
• 3 cloves of garlic
• 1 yellow pepper (guero)
• 1 long green pepper (Hungarian)
• 3 scallions, chopped (plus 3 additional for garnish)
• 1/4 cup cilantro, chopped (save half for garnish)
• 1 sprig each thyme, oregano, rosemary, mint
• Salt & pepper, to taste

Instructions

1. Remove the papery outer skin of the tomatillos and rinse well (they will be pretty sticky). Dry and chop in half.2. Place the tomatillos, peppers (remove seeds from the serranos if you're sensitive to heat), onions, and garlic in a saucepan and cover with water.3. Bring to a boil, lower flame and simmer for 5 minutes.4. Allow to cool off for a few minutes, until no longer piping hot.5. Drain but reserve the liquid, and place in blender/food processor. Add the fresh herbs, salt to taste and process for 30 seconds.6. If mixture is too thick, add reserved liquid and blend until incorporated.7. Garnish with remaining chopped scallions and cilantro.

Yield: approximately 10 servings

Chopped-Inspired Dinner Party

Chopped is a Food Network show that pits 4 cheftestants against each other and a basket of mystery ingredients. I watch the show to take notes on the different ways the chefs prepare their various ingredients. Some of the baskets confound even the judges (one of whom is Aaron Sanchez, who we partied with on Quatro de Mayo). That's when you know it's good.

So fascinated have I been by the idea of "mystery ingredients" that I decided to host my own dinner party styled after the show. I've finally gotten comfortable enough in the kitchen that I think I can whip up something on the fly. Thankfully my guests didn't make it too hard on me.

Erik, Katie & Adrienne

The instructions to them were simple: each would bring either a protein, fruit/vegetable, and wild card item, and my only restriction would be that the wild card be gluten-free. The Chopped chefs only get 30 minutes to make an entree, but I told them I was giving myself an hour just to be safe. Adrienne arrived first with a bag of cooked baby shrimp. I had expected seafood, so I was relieved. Up next was Katie with herbed goat cheese and a polenta loaf. Finally my brother Erik arrived with oranges.

The goat cheese was camera shy.

My very first reaction to the oranges is not appropriate for young eyes. Suffice to say I panicked for a half-second.

While I loaded them up on wine, cheese, and strawberry jellies, I set to work in the kitchen. Inspiration came from the buns I had anticipated using if ground meat had come through the door (hey, even burgers can be sexy!). I grabbed my favorite kitchen tool (the mini chopper attachment on my stick blender) and set to blending the shrimp, goat cheese and orange zest together. I didn't know what it would taste like, but it sounded like a good idea. My brother wandered in at that point to shoot some video and ask if we were having shrimp shakes. He was slightly disappointed when I said no.

Appetizers

At first I thought I'd make shrimp pâté burgers with the polenta rounds as the bread. Then I thought about doing Napoleons. But something was missing. We had yellow bases topped with orangey-pink goop. It needed greenery. And bacon, because everything is good with bacon. So out of the fridge came the bacon and a bag of spinach. Bacon fried up and then the spinach sautéed nicely in its drippings.

Finally it was time to plate. A diced Roma tomato added the final touch.

I waited cautiously for everyone's reactions. My brother was the first to speak up, saying he thought the orange zest added a really good, interesting flavor. The girls agreed and we all dug in with gusto. Erik went on to eat four Napoleons. So at the very least I know he really liked them.

It was a lot of fun and I can't wait to do it again. Maybe will become the new Saturday Night Test Kitchen! (As I was writing this, I realized that Napoleons are supposed to be stacks of repeated layers, and these weren't exactly that. But that's why artistic license exists, right?)

Polenta & Shrimp Pâté Napoleons
yields approximately 5 servings

1 pound of cooked baby shrimp (250-350 per pound)
3 ounces of fine herb goat cheese
1 tablespoon of orange zest
1 pre-made polenta tube
1 tablespoon of sunflower oil
8 pieces of bacon
1 six-ounce bag of baby spinach
1 roma tomato, diced

1. In a food processor, blend together the shrimp, goat cheese and orange zest. Pose for pictures.

2. Cut polenta into 1/4-inch rounds and sauté in the sunflower oil until a slight crust develops on both sides.

2a. Answer questions for the camera man when he wanders in asking about shrimp shakes. Give him more wine.

3. While the polenta is sautéing, cut the bacon in half cross-wise and fry in a separate pan. Remove to a dish lined with paper towels and reserve the pan drippings. Wilt the spinach in the drippings. Sauté just until the leaves wilt and turn slightly dark.

4. To serve, place the polenta in the center of the dish. Top it with the paté, spinach, a slice of bacon (or cut in half again to make the decorating process easier). Add a couple pieces of chopped tomato and serve.

5. Drink more wine.

My brother's funny little video of the night is available on our new Facebook page. Click here to Like Girl+Fire and watch a two and half minute recount of our Chopped-inspired night (Kevin Bacon may or may not make a cameo in the video...).

Balsamic Pesto Pizza at Rosti Tuscan Kitchen

A few weeks ago a few bloggers picked my pizza as the upcoming Rosti Tuscan Kitchen Pizza of the Week. And that week was this past week!

The Pizza of the Week is displayed on their Specials board, which means that everyone walking in the doors saw it up on their wall—as well as a shout-out to this here blog. So if you've found yourself here by way of Rosti's chalkboard, ¡hola!

Rosti has two locations, so I had to try it at both (well, at least the toppings, since I hadn't asked for a gluten-free version). The pizza that was served was, of course, different than what I created. But that's the great thing about food: ingredient lists are guidelines. My original pizza was very cheesy. The pie at the Encino location came with extra caramelized onions while the one at the Santa Monica restaurant had far fewer.

Original + Encino Pizza + Santa Monica Pizza

Everyone who tried it seemed to really enjoy it (or, at least, that's what they told me). It paired really well with the Coppola Diamond Zinfandel (that we ordered by the bottle—twice). We happened into the Encino location on Wednesday, when wine is half-price by the bottle. Lucky us!

The recipe is as follows, sans quantities so you can tweak to your taste buds (and also because I didn't measure them when making it). It's good, I promise! And 11 food bloggers can't be wrong.

Balsamic Pesto Pizza

Pizza dough, rolled to a 10-inch disc
Pesto*
Caramelized onions
Honey balsamic dressing*
Sun-dried tomatoes
Pancetta, crumbled
Balsamic vinegar
Mozzarella, shredded
Italian breadcrumbs

1. Pre-heat the oven to 400 degrees. Roll the dough out over a floured surface.

2. Soak the caramelized onions in the honey balsamic dressing.

3. Top the dough with a generous helping of pesto. Add the onions and the dressing marinade, along with the tomatoes, pancetta, and balsamic vinegar. Add a generous amount of shredded mozzarella, then top with a handful of bread crumbs.

4. Bake in a 400 degree oven for 10-15 minutes. Serve piping hot, being careful not to burn your mouth.

* Rosti's proprietary ingredients

I suppose you could use a pre-made crust, though recipes for making dough abound all over the internets. The pesto and honey balsamic dressing recipes are also up for interpretation since they are Rosti's proprietary creations, but those recipes are also available everywhere, even here.

Rosti's contest is ongoing. You too can win bragging rights AND free pizza for a year. Go to their Facebook page for details.

Jalapeños en Escabeche

Simply put this is a pickled jalapeño dish. Depending on what part of the world you are in, escabeche can mean a variety of things, and spelled the same way it is pronounced a variety of ways. For our purposes, it's a vinegar and oil concoction of jalapeños.

My education on the subject started when I procured a small bag of the hot peppers. My mom suggested I make "un escabeche." Since I'm half-Mexican I should have known what that was. Instead (because I'm also half-not Mexican, or Mexican't) I Googled. And found a mess of recipes that called for sugar and vinegar and oil in varying quantities and a variety of added vegetables. My mom laughed at me and gave me her very simple breakdown:

Note: even though I put these in a plastic jar for a quick bit, they should be stored in glass or ceramic containers. The acid will leech the icky stuff out of the plastic and cause a third eye or something equally bad.

Rosita's Jalapeño Escabeche 
Yields about 1-4 pints, depending on additional vegetables

1/2 pound jalapeños
1/3 cup oil
1/2 cup vinegar (apple cider is a good choice)
1 cup water
4 cloves garlic, peeled and smashed (but kept whole)
1 shallot, thinly sliced
5-10 leaves of fresh oregano
5-10 black peppercorns (This was my father's contribution to the recipe. He is also not-Mexican.)
Optional ingredients: 1-2 carrots, handful of cauliflower florets, a small onion, etc (I only wanted to concentrate on the jalapeños, so I left all these out.)

1. Prepare the jalapeños any which way you want to preserve them. If you opt to keep them whole, cut a small X in the bottom of the pepper to allow the liquid to penetrate the insides. (As you can see from the picture, I kept some intact, sliced others).

2. Do a self-assessment. If you're heat-intolerant, you may want to discard the seeds. I did not follow my own advice here. The half-Mexican part of me took over the half-not Mexican and left ALL the seeds in.

3. Put all the ingredients in a sauce pan and bring to a boil. Open all the windows, and keep the hood fan running because boiled vinegar is pungent.

4. Once the boiling point is reached, simmer uncovered for an hour.

5. Enjoy the pungent smell of vinegar. Or go sit outside. This step is open to interpretation, but you do have an hour to kill. I chose to talk to my mom on the phone about how my Mexican side was showing itself. She was very proud.

6. Cool your concoction then store it in a glass or ceramic container. You can put in pickling jars and do a hot water bath. They'll supposedly last longer (about a month) in the fridge. Mine have been in the fridge for a week in a simple glass container and they're already half gone. So your mileage may vary.

The liquid from this recipe can also be used separately. I've used it on pizza dough to give it a golden brown crust with a spicy kick. Or as a simple spicy vinaigrette. The options are endless.

Pesto-licious

Who said pesto has to be made a with basil, pine nuts, parmesan and olive oil? All right, so a "true" pesto follows somewhat along those guidelines. This is not one of those.

I've found that every time I buy a bag of greens from the supermarket, I hang on to it a little longer than is worth serving. Instead of throwing it out, I process it together with a few pantry staples and voila: something kind of like pesto! Pat it around a boneless chicken breast and voila: lunch!

Mmm, chicken.

Easy Peasy Pseudo Pesto
1 bag baby romaine lettuce (a bag of spinach, arugula, or any dark leafy greens should work, including the usual basil)
1 small onion
1 clove garlic (or use two, I'm just sensitive to the taste, so I try not to over-garlic anything)
1 teaspoon of lemon juice
1 small handful of almonds (about 1/3 a cup or so)
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 to 1/2 cup of cheese (I've gotten good results from lots of different cheeses, from Parmesan to semi-soft goat cheese--I've also left it out completely)
Salt & pepper to taste

1. Throw everything in the food processor and blend on high. Stop after a bit, scrape down the sides, then start up again on low, drizzling the olive oil in as you go.

2. Stop when you get to the consistency of not-quite-yet-mushy-baby food. It should be slightly chunky (like the picture above).

3. Add it to your favorite dish: in pasta, crusted on chicken or fish, as a dip for crackers. Possibilities are endless.

Yields about 1.5 to 2 cups.