Tag: Chiles

Hatch Chile Salsa


I am a pepper freak!! I love peppers, I will eat them in anything and everything. But I have to admit, up until a few months ago. I had never heard/used Hatch Chiles before. The first time we got them in our basket was the same week we also had them as an add-on, my friend who is also the site coordinator at our Pride site was going crazy when she saw them!! Regular participants were also so excited to finally have these wonderful peppers up here.
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Mango Chicken over Coconut Rice

Tell me what you eat,

and I shall tell you what you are.

-Jean-Anthelme Brilliat-Saravin

After tonight’s dinner, with the above quote in mind, Jean would peg me as a lover of all things tropical and he would be right. I have long fantasized of changing my heritage to more suit my palate and climate preferences. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not that I don’t get excited at the prospect of scaring the life out of people when I tell them I love them (I’m mostly German BTW), but island cuisine and way of life melds so much better with my current state of mind than my own German roots ever have. (With the exception of Christmas of course. I would be lost without my German Christmas traditions and pfeffernusse.)

Every time I eat a perfectly ripe pineapple or sprinkle some toasted coconut on my latest creation I am reminded of how grateful I am that other cultures and countries share their food with us. My diet would be pretty unexciting if I were only able to eat the foods that naturally grew near my geographical location. It would, however, give me even more incentive to move to a tropical locale.

Nonetheless, this quick and easy recipe helped to muffle my desire to escape to a tropical paradise.

With the kids now back in school and back to a myriad of activities, it has been increasingly difficult to get a good meal on the table. This is the perfect season for slow cookers. With a little prep work earlier in the day, your family can be sitting down to a warm delicious meal moments after mom’s taxi service closes for the day.

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Mango Chicken over Coconut Rice

Mango Chicken over Coconut Rice

Ingredients

  • 4-5 chicken breasts
  • 1 large ripe mango peeled and diced
  • 3 ripe peaches peeled and diced
  • 1/2-1 full hatch chili pepper (or pepper of your choice) seeds and ribs removed and diced
  • 1 Tbsp lemon juice
  • 2 Tbsp lime juice
  • 1-2 Tbsp toasted coconut for garnish

Instructions

  1. Prepare slow cooker by spraying sides and bottom with non-stick cooking spray.
  2. Place all ingredients in slow cooker and cook on high for 3 hours or medium for 4-5 hours.
  3. Shred chicken and serve over coconut rice with toasted coconut on top.

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Coconut Rice

Ingredients

  • 2 cups rice
  • 1 (16.5 oz) can of coconut milk
  • 1/2 cup toasted coconut
  • water

Instructions

  1. Cook rice as per package directions but sub coconut milk for as much water as you can.
  2. For example I cooked cal rose rice in a microwave rice cooker that called for 3 cups of water to 2 cups of rice. The 16.5 oz can was almost 2 c so I finished filling the measuring cup with water to equal 3 cups.
  3. When the rice is done, immediately toss with toasted coconut.

Chile Relleno Tacos

A healthier Chile Relleno

The Chile Relleno invokes images of deep fried, battered chiles, heavy beans, and a lot of gooey sauce. YUMM!! I needed a way to make this dish a bit quicker… And, yes, I will make the chile casserole version, soon. So, to be healthier and to make this a quick dish, here’s my take on the Chile Relleno. No stuffing of chiles involved.
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Karmen – Pizza and a Movie

As I planned for this pizza blog post, I started to think about making a breakfast pizza.  Breakfast for dinner is totally acceptable in my household, in fact, we eat breakfast for dinner weekly.  I knew that I could load a breakfast pizza up with veggies so I went to my fridge for inspiration.  Instead of a pizza dough, the crust of the pizza is made with my biscuit recipe.
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Whitney D – Pizza and a Movie

When Joann suggested the idea of a collaborative Pizza & a Movie post, I got really excited. We eat pizza on a pretty regular basis, and getting the family together to watch a movie is one of the best ways to get the busy teenager in my house to actually interact with the rest of us. I chose Forrest Gump because it seems like the adults in the house quote it all the time, and the teen in the house has never seen it.

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Yuck-Free Nacho Cheese Sauce

Gluten-Free Nacho Cheese with Hatch Peppers

I am always on the lookout for ways to make my favorite store-bought snacks at home. I have learned that it is almost always less expensive and, considering the MSG, fillers, and preservatives added to most commercial products it is ALWAYS a healthier option (please note I said healthiER not necessarily healthy).
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Slow Cooker Pork Chile Verde, Mexican Street Corn & Sopapilla Cheesecake

Variety is the very spice of life
that gives it all it’s flavor.
-William Cowper

Growing up we ate out ALOT. I thought it was perfectly normal until I got married. My husband informed me that eating out 2-3 times per week was excessive and would take a whole lot of extra money that we just didn’t have being newlyweds. When my family ate out we frequented a Mexican restaurant called Rafael’s, owned by our next door neighbor’s family. They had the most AMAZING Chile Verde! I have tried replicating it on several occasions and for the most part I’ve failed. I have tried cooking the pork first, roasting tomatillos, slaving over a hot stove for hours only to come away with sauce that just wasn’t right and pork that was tough. Well tonight I came as close to the perfect replication as I ever have. It also happens to be the easiest attempt I’ve ever made. This will definitely be back on our regular rotation.
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Make Your Own Chili Powder

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Make your own chili powder

15 minutes

Make your own chili powder

We sometimes receive dried chiles in our add-ons so I whipped up my own chili powder to make good use of them. You could double or triple this recipe based on the number of chiles that you had. This has completely amazing flavor.

Ingredients

  • 1 Ancho Chile
  • 1 Cascabel Chile
  • 1 small Chipotle Pepper
  • 2 t cumin (you could use cumin seeds if you had them, I didn't)
  • 2 t garlic powder
  • 1 t oregano (Mexican oregano if you can get it)
  • 1/2 t paprika
  • 1/2 t onion powder

Instructions

  1. Toast the chiles for 4-5 minutes in a cast iron pan (or nonstick) moving them constantly.
  2. Allow them to cool fully.
  3. Cut them up (I use kitchen shears) and put them into a food processor.
  4. Add all of the other ingredients and process until powdered.
  5. Savor the amazing smell coming out of your food processor. Store in an airtight container.