Roasted Tomato and Pineapple Salsa

This is a very complicated salsa recipe, I’m not going to lie, but it’s so tasty! There are a lot of ingredients cooked a few different ways, and the results are fantastic. You can really taste everything and it comes together as a sweet, sour, spicy salsa that’s just super flavorful. The recipe is from Truly Mexican, my fave. Would be perfect for Super Bowl this weekend!

Ingredients:

1 lb tomatoes (4 small/medium)

1 1/2 cups pineapple chunks

1 medium red onion, peeled whole and cut into 1/2” rounds

5 garlic cloves, peeled

3 dried arbol chiles, wiped clean and stemmed

1 small poblano or hot Italian pepper

pinch allspice

2 tbsp chopped jalapeño chiles, including seeds

1/2 cup chopped cilantro

1/2 cup fresh squeezed orange juice

3 tbsp freshly squeezed lime juice

2 tbsp distilled white vinegar

2 tbsp water

1 1/2 tsp sugar

1 1/2 tsp fine salt or 1 tbsp kosher salt

Jalisca-Guajillo Salsa

This is a pretty easy salsa to make, and is excellent drizzled on tacos. Its more of a sauce than a dipping salsa, but is great in addition to some pico de gallo for tacos, or for serving with meat. It's from my favorite Mexican recipe source, thanks Jamie! It's great as an interesting additional beyond the more common salsas.

Ingredients:
1 1/2 ounces guajillo chiles (about 6), cleaned, stemmed, seeded, and deveined
1/2 oz dried arbol chiles (15-20), cleaned and stemmed
2 garlic cloves, peeled
1 1.5" piece fresh ginger, peeled and sliced
3/4 cup water for blending
1 tsp apple cider vinegar, or more to taste
1/2 tsp fine salt/1 tsp kosher salt
1/4 tsp ground cumin

Directions:
Place the chiles in a medium pot with enough water to cover and bring to a simmer. Cook them until soft, about 15 minutes. Add the garlic and ginger to the pot for one minute.

Braised Short Ribs in Adobo for two

Yum! These short ribs are easy and great, and perfect for some extra special tacos. The recipe is from Truly Mexican (the wonderful Mexican cookbook that Jamie got me for Christmas last year). You don't have to brown the short ribs, so it's basically tossing all of the ingredients in a pot and sticking it in the oven for 2.5 hours. The resulting sauce is rich and has a deep heat, but isn't too spicy, and the meat is tender and falling apart. I shredded it up with the adobo and put it on a soft taco with minced red onion and jalapeno with a little crema on top. We had no leftovers.

And I got to use my adorable heart pot! Thanks, Kara!! It's so perfect for making dinner for two, and makes whatever you're making seem a little special and romantic.

Serves 2 (I reduced it)
Ingredients:
1 dried guajillo chile, wiped clean, stemmed, slit open, seeded, and deveined
1-2 lb bone-in beef short ribs

Adobo-Braised Lamb

This lamb will make your apartment/house smell amazing. Definitely go through the effort to find the chiles. Toasting them gives them an amazing aroma and brings out all of the flavors. The adobo sauce has a  mix of ingredients that make a rich, beautiful red sauce. I loved the flavors of the peppers. When it has been in the oven a few hours, it falls off the bone incredibly easily and shreds into a beautiful taco or enchilada filler. We did tacos and had chopped white onion, cilantro, avocado, radish, jalapenos, and salsas so everyone could make his own. A very luxurious taco.

Spicy Pineapple Salsa

Of course, I'd made this one as our friends were arriving and I was rushing to finish up so I could get out of the kitchen and be social, so I forgot to take pictures! This is a very quick salsa to throw together and is a real crowd pleaser. Everyone loved it. It's bright and spicy and sweet. It was delicious on chips, and would be great with fish or pork or chicken, anything really.

Ingredients:
1 cup diced fresh pineapple
1/3 cup finely chopped fresh jalapeno chiles, including seeds, or more to taste
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
3 tbsp freshly squeezed lime juice, or more to taste
2 tbsp freshly squeezed orange juice
1 1/2 tsp sugar, if you need it (I didn't use any)
1 tsp kosher salt
1/2 small red onion, minced


Directions:
Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl. Season to taste with additional chile, lime juice, sugar, and salt.

Roasted Cherry Tomato Salsa

This is a beautiful salsa and has a mellow sweetness from the roasted tomatoes and a mellow heat from roasting the jalapenos. The garlic and lime provide a fresh bite. This is a perfect salsa to make for winter because cherry tomatoes are easy to find and are usually still pretty good in the winter. Even if they're not the best, once they're roasted it doesn't really matter. These little roasted tomatoes are fab. Also, we learned that when you skin them it's a treat to just pop the skins into your mouth as you go - yum.

Ingredients:
1 pint red cherry tomatoes
1 pint yellow cherry tomatoes
2 fresh jalapenos or serranos, stemmed
2 garlic cloves, peeled
1 tsp kosher salt
1 tbsp freshly squeezed lime juice, or more to taste

Chilaquiles

For the hors d'oeuvres for my Mexican Feast, I made chilaquiles. These are the predecessor the the modern nacho. It's super tasty, and apparently is great with eggs for breakfast. The sauce has a touch of cinnamon in it which is an unexpected but great flavor. And the fresh toppings are a great contrast to the saucy chips.

Ingredients:
2 cups Ranchera Sauce (recipe to follow) or cooked green salsa
1 cup water
about 64 tortilla chips
1/3 cup finely chopped which onion
1/2 cup chopped cilantro
1/3 cup crumbled queso fresco or ricotta salata
2 tbsp Mexican crema, or sour cream thinned out with water