This saffron and cardamom syrup is so easy and versatile. All you need is 3 ingredients.
Plus water.
It’s perfect for sweetening teas.
Or in place of simple syrup in cocktails.
It’s also great for desserts. Drizzle it on freshly baked cupcakes or into frosting, or both.
You can also chug it.
This is what you need:
Their eyes tell a story.
Primo (the chihuahua) is like, “You are making me sit. You have betrayed me. I will never trust you again.”
Raiden (the husky) is like, “Oh, you want me to sit still and look at you? OK.”
Allow me to formally introduce you to my fur-babies.
Primo, my 8 year-old chihuahua who’s really sick of my shit:
Raiden, my 5 1/2 month old Siberian Husky who chooses to sleep like this: Continue reading
Raiden’s pose expresses how I feel as I write this post.
Hey guys. Sorry for not posting a recipe yesterday, or today.
Gulp.
I’m sure it threw a wrench in your whole day. I know my blog is such a crucial part of your routine.
Ahem. Let’s pretend.
Anyway, my bestie is coming to visit me from LA and I have been a little busy preparing for her arrival. I have lots of goodies planned for us and I hope to share a few of the things I’m making with you tomorrow.
Enjoy the weekend!!
These guys know how to do the weekend up right!
“Ok now, bye bye then!”
(Name that movie)
(It’s my favorite movie)
Ok, I need to go to the airport now!
These babies are addictive. Like, heroin-level addictive. But not nearly as harmful.
Some suggestions on modifications are using soy chorizo instead of pork chorizo, which I used. Or maybe beef chorizo.
Also, I used queso fresco because it’s a Mexican cheese and this is my last Cinco de Mayo recipe before the big day and it melts really well too. You can use cream cheese, cheddar, even mascarpone.
If you wanted to go dairy-free then don’t even bother. I mean, yes, you could use veggies instead but I’m a firm believer that jalapeño poppers need cheese. There is only one word for a popper without cheese: sacrilege.
This is what you need:
The Mexican crema is like a crème fraîche but Mexican. This recipe is not dairy-free at all. Get over it. It’s a holiday.
You also need jalapeños to make jalapeño poppers. Who knew?
Begin by preheating the oven to 350F and getting the chorizo in the pan and cooking.
The kind I got wasn’t in a casing. If your chorizo is encased just cut through the casing and squeeze the meat out into the pan.
While the chorizo is cooking, cut the jalapeños in half, deseed them and remove the white membranes. I find that using a spoon helps. Also, I left the stems on and cut through them because it looks better to me. If that’s too much of a hassle for you then just cut the stems off, it’s not like you’re going to eat them anyway.
Once the chorizo is cooked through, drain it on a few paper towels.
After the chorizo has cooled down a little bit, add it to a bowl with the the cheese. Break the chorizo & cheese down into crumbles and combine them well.
Stuff the jalapeños with the chorizo & cheese mixture thusly:
Place them on a lined baking sheet and bake for 30 minutes or until the chorizo has browned and the cheese is all gooey. Here is a before and after:
Yum.
Now it’s time to make-a the sauce-a. “Mama mia, papa pia, baby got a diare-hey!” (Name that movie).
For the answer in a 3 second clip, click here.
Back to the sauce.
It’s a Mexican crema Sriracha sauce.
So good. Soooo goooood.
I used a 2:1 ratio of crema to Sriracha, but adjust for your desired heat level. If you’re unsure just add a little bit of Sriracha at a time and taste until you get the perfect ratio.
Drizzle the sauce on the poppers and put them in your mouth.
They are little bites of spicy heaven.
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I think you should definitely subscribe to my blog (by typing your e-mail in the box below and clicking subscribe), because it’s all about pro flavor around here.
No amateur flavor from me.
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[yumprint-recipe id=’76’]
It’s officially salad season. You know, the season before bikini season.
I’ve been playing around with new salad dressings to make this season tastier. I wanted to make an anti-inflammatory dressing since I have PCOS (Polycystic ovarian syndrome) and just had a very unwelcome cystic acne flare-up.
Every ingredient in this dressing fights inflammation and is so healthy, plus the flavors are great together. Especially if you let it chill in the fridge overnight before you use it.
This is what you need:
Oh and don’t forget these items:
Look! An anti-inflammatory smiley face! That totally happened on accident. Totally.
So, I like to use mason jars to make dressings, because I can just screw the top on and shake it to emulsify it. I also mix eggs that way when I’m making scrambled eggs.
If you don’t have a mason jar, what the fuck, dude? And you can just use a bowl and a whisk.
So, add the chopped ginger and garlic to whatever receptacle you’re using.
Then add a teaspoon of turmeric.
Then the honey and lemon juice. A little S&P too.
This is how it looks in the jar at this point:
You wanna add twice as much olive oil:
Screw the top on and shake. Or whisk.
“It feels like I’m walking on sunshine!”
This dressing is great with wild-caught salmon and leafy greens, both of which are foods that fight inflammation.
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[yumprint-recipe id=’71’]
She’s a showstopper.
I used purple cauliflower which makes it look fantastical. It’s a word. The best definition I’ve found for fantastical is “conceived or appearing as if conceived by an unrestrained imagination.”
That’s what this cauliflower looks like, my unrestrained imagination. But white or yellow cauliflower would look amazing, although conceived from a pretty restrained imagination.
Ok, so on to the recipe. The cauliflower will be coated in a yogurt sauce that will become a yummy crust after baking.
This is what you need:
Fantastical.
You need yogurt too.
Use whatever plain yogurt you like. Regular, greek or sheep’s milk yogurt. Now, I grew up on this stuff and it tastes great, just like regular yogurt. Plus you can eat it even if you’re lactose intolerant.
You know what, I’ll let the yogurt speak for itself.
Finally, you need the following spices:
Preheat your oven to 400F.
Cut the bottom of the stem off, making sure to keep the whole cauliflower head intact and remove the leaves caressing the cauliflower.
If you cut too much of the stem off you will end up with little florets and that defeats the whole purpose.
Set the cauliflower aside and pour a cup of yogurt into a bowl.
Add a teaspoon of all the spices and S&P, to taste.
Stir until everything is incorporated.
Yummy.
If your bowl is big enough to fit the whole head of cauliflower, dip it in the sauce upside-down.
Otherwise, you can just use your hands to smear the yogurt sauce all over the cauliflower.
Don’t be stingy!
Save the excess sauce and store in the fridge. Use it to make this recipe again or to spread it on meats and other veggies before baking. So good.
Oh and pop that cauliflower in the oven for 30 minutes.
Until it looks like this:
Oh mama.
After a few minutes of letting it rest, cut into it:
Oh baby.
Cauliflower never looked and tasted so good.
I love the crispy crust the most.
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The trees and I thank you in advance.
[yumprint-recipe id=’69’]
This is the perfect pairing.
Like wine & cheese, peanut butter & jelly, Timon & Pumbaa, food & my mouth.
You know what I mean.
The freshness of the mango salsa is just the right thing to go with the richness of the jerk seasoning. Jerk seasoning is so deep and complex and I just love it. This recipe makes a small batch that you can store in the fridge pretty much forever. Oh, and I used fish instead of chicken but any protein will do.
So this is what you need:
Those are allspice berries, not peppercorns. Just incase you were wondering. You can use ground allspice but I chose to grind them fresh. Since allspice is one of the main components of jerk seasoning, I wanted its flavor to shine.
This is so easy to make. You basically just throw everything into a food processor/blender and blitz the hell out of it until it’s as smooth as you want it. I like mine pretty smooth but I still wanna see little chunks of the spices.
Add the garlic, green onions and whatever chile you decided to use.
Then add a 1/4 cup of brown sugar, that is the traditional ingredient. If it’s against your religion, or diet or “lifestyle change,” then go ahead and use honey, maple syrup or molasses.
Then you want a 1/4 cup of the allspice as well.
Add a tablespoon of thyme. This is actually oregano but if you squint and tilt your head to the side it’s basically thyme. Ahem.
A teaspoon of cinnamon:
And finally, a 1/4 teaspoon of nutmeg (freshly grated, if possible):
Blend this mixture while streaming in a tablespoon or two of oil until it emulsifies.
This is the consistency I ended up with:
It’s a wet marinade basically.
Preheat your oven to 400F.
Ok, so set the jerk seasoning aside and let’s make the mango salsa. You need mango, of course. Mango has a big seed in the middle so don’t cut it right down the middle.
Here, move over, let me show you.
Then cut a grid into each mango half and spoon the chunks out into a bowl.
Now dice and add the red (WTF they’re purple) onions. I’m going to start a petition to change their name from red to purple onion. Right after I take that yoga class I’ve been meaning to try.
Add some cilantro, the juice of a lime and some S&P.
Look at you! Making mango salsa and shit.
Ok, so let the mango salsa chill in the fridge and by now the oven should be at 400F.
Spray a lined baking sheet with some nonstick spray. I used the coconut oil kind, it made me feel very Caribbean.
Next, coat the fish fillet with a *heaping spoonful* of the jerk seasoning.
Bake for about 20-30 minutes or until cooked through.
This is how it looks cooked.
Mmmmm. So much flavor.
Top it with the salsa and enjoy! Yea mon! Omg whyyy?
Finish it off with a squeeze of lime and it is perfection. It just brightens the whole thing up.
Hubba hubba. Remember when that was a thing? What’s that? It never was? Hehehe, I know that! That’s what I just said, silly.
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It fuels my hate fire.
(Name that movie)
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[yumprint-recipe id=’67’]
So, there’s a story behind this one.
It all started with a sushi lunch with my one of my favorite people, Nava. So, we’re sipping on miso soup and I mention that I need to make a stop and get some fresh thyme for this recipe I had in mind. Nava, ever the helpful one, goes, “Oh, I just got some fresh thyme the other day and I don’t need it anymore. You should come over after lunch and I’ll give it to you so it doesn’t go to waste.” So sweet of her right? I was like “Ok, perfect!”
Fast forward to us at Nava’s place.
She opens the fridge and pulls this out:
“Here you go,” she says, “Fresh thyme!”
I deadpan. “Dude, this is sage.”
“What? No, it was sold to me as thyme!” she swears.
This makes me doubt myself. “Hold on,” I say, pulling out my phone, “Let me google thyme.”
Sure enough, it’s not fucking thyme just like I knew it wasn’t. After laughing about it we somehow end up in her enormous backyard where she has the most beautiful lemon tree. “Oh, let me get you a bag so you can pick some fresh lemons,” she goes. I told you she was a helpful one.
So, we picked some lemons, sipped some tea and I went on my merry way with a bag full of lemons and, ahem, SAGE (are you reading this Nava lol).
The lemons were organic and quite charismatic.
Even Primo was intrigued.
Look at this one:
It reminds me of that fruit, Buddha’s hand.
It looks cray cray.
This angle makes it look like the lemon is giving birth to another lemon:
Riiiiight?? Like, can you see the lemon legs spread out giving birth to a little lemon baby?
Anyway, after I got over this lemon. I decided to make a cocktail using the lemons and sage as inspiration.
I gathered the following ingredients:
(Side note: I did not use all the lemons in the cocktail, that would have been insanely sour).
I cut open all the citrus. I was so excited to cut through the weird lemons. For the sake of science, of course. Not like in a weird Frankenstien science-experiment kind of way, though. Ok, maybe it was exactly like that.
So pretty and whimsical!
I feel like these were the kind of lemons that Alice would have seen when she was in Wonderland. I love that movie. And I love, love, love Aladdin. And The Lion King. Ok, fine. I’m obsessed with Disney, ok? Are you happy now?
As I mentioned before, I juiced all the oranges and limes, and only one of the lemons. (I squeezed the juice out of the rest of the lemons and kept it in a separate container in the fridge for whenever I need fresh lemon juice).
I ended up with 3/4 cup of orange, lemon and lime juice.
If you have one, now is the time to whip out your cocktail shaker.
It’s the weekend bay-bay!!!
Add some ice:
An oz (or more 😉 ) of vodka:
The mixed citrus juice:
And finally, a sprig of sage. Thyme would work well here too, incase your grocer sells thyme marked as sage (I’m looking at you, Nava).
You don’t really taste the sage in the final product, it’s more of a herbal fragrance, which is divine.
Shake it like a polaroid picture.
Or like my chihuahua when he’s trying to make me feel sorry for him.
Grab a glass and fill it with ice:
Pour the vodka and juice mixture into the glass. This recipe yields two cocktails, if you’re using a small glass like I did. Only fill the cup halfway full with the citrus juice mixture.
Spill it all over the place and try to laugh about it but really you’re crying sad, sad tears of shame.
Wipe it up and shake your head as if this is the most serious thing that has ever happened.
And now I want to introduce one of my favorite cocktail tricks. To layer a drink in different colors, place a spoon upside down over the glass like so:
Then slowly and gently pour the pomegranate juice (or other reddish/pink juice you like) over the back of the spoon. It should sink to the bottom of the glass, underneath the citrus mixture.
Not the best picture, sorry. You try doing it while taking a picture at the same time, ok?! Whoa, I’m sorry. I got a little defensive there.
Isn’t she a beauty? Just like a sunset.
But wait! I’m not finished yet. How will people know this drink is made with sage (not thyme!)?
I know! Put another sprig in the drink. Then you can smell the fresh herbs while you sip.
Yay! It’s cocktail time!
Enjoy the weekend y’all! (P.S. I’m not Southern, don’t know why I said y’all).
As this post comes to a conclusion I would like to remind all of you that I’m Sarah McLachlan and these innocent recipes don’t ask for money.
*Cue sad music and battered looking puppies and kittens making awkward eye contact with you through the TV while you scramble for the remote to change the channel and forget what you just saw*
Everyday my innocent blog goes with new subscribers breaks my heart. All I ask is that you subscribe to my blog by typing your email in the box below. You can save my blog by doing so, and it doesn’t cost a dime. Thank you.
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[yumprint-recipe id=’66’]
This salad is so easy and simple to make and it has the perfect contrast of flavors. The fresh cucumber offers relief from the saltiness of the feta which cuts through the quinoa. Then a little green onion for that mild onion flavor and some ripped basil to freshen it all up. And lastly, some Chia seeds to give a little crunch and make me feel better about myself.
This salad is a great base for other ingredients. I thought about adding some of the shredded chicken I had left over from my Moroccan Roast Chicken, then I said let me make it vegan and then I added chicken when the cameras weren’t watching. Shhhhhh.
Also, you could make this full on Greek by using red onion instead of green onion and adding some diced tomato and olives. Or I could’ve added loads of spices to the quinoa. Many ways to modify this and make it your own. Quinoa goes with any flavor you mix it up with. She’s a skank like that. Yes, quinoa is a she.
I was inspired to make this salad when I made a ton of East Meets West Chicken Stock from my Moroccan roast.
So, this is what I used for my version:
I liked the simplicity of all green ingredients with a pop of white when I was making the dish. But, truth be told, I LOVE colorful things. Next time I make a quinoa salad it’s going to be so colorful and full of different ingredients. I’ll call it ….. my Rainbow Quinoa Salad!
I just had an “Aha!” moment. I feel like sometimes Oprah goes a little too overboard with the “Aha!” moment shit. Don’t get me wrong, I love me some Oprah, I watched her OWN network from day one and Iyanla: Fix My Life is one of my favorites shows. Especially when Iyanla calls people out. Like when she called out that one chick who was in the middle of her sob story. Iyanla was like, “Hold, on. Let me cut through this. YOU WAS HOEIN’!”
Fucking classic. Check it out here. I lined it up at the exact spot, so that you don’t have to watch but a few seconds of pure television gold.
Oh ya, quinoa salad.
Start out by rinsing a cup of quinoa for a minute or two. This removes any bitterness on the outside of the quinoa called saponin. Google told me.
After rinsing, take the extra step of lightly sautéing the quinoa in some oil with little pepper first, to enhance it’s yummy nutty flavor and give it some depth.
After sautéing for a few minutes, add 2 cups of the chicken stock.
Cook according to your package’s instructions. I brought it to a boil, stirred it, covered it, then reduced it to simmer and cooked it for 15 mins that way. Then I turned off the heat, left the cover on and let it sit like that for 5 more mins. Then I fluffed it with a fork and tried not to dive in head first. The smell from the fragrant stock I made was intoxicating.
Once the quinoa was cooled, I added all the other ingredients.
I love all the green.
I used about half a block of feta, but you use how much you like based on how intense your feta is.
Finally, add some chia seeds and a drizzle of champagne (or white wine, or red wine) vinegar and some oil. I used grapseed but olive oil is fine too.
Toss the salad 😉
Enjoy!
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[yumprint-recipe id=’64’]
Why haven’t I thought of this before? Nowadays they have every flavor of hummus imaginable. Roasted red pepper, roasted garlic, artichoke, you name it. I have never seen green chile hummus. Maybe they have some in New Mexico, but I didn’t see any when I was there.
This stuff is soooo easy to make and it can be used so many different ways.
I like it straight up with some pita bread. I need to find a way to make a paleo pita bread, that actually tastes good.
Anyway, this is what you need:
I used hot chiles, but I found that the hummus wasn’t spicy at all. Keep that in mind when you choose the heat level of your chiles.
Also, I used grape seed oil because it doesn’t have much flavor and I didn’t want the olive oil to overshadow the green chiles. If you have any another vegetable oil use that, otherwise olive oil is just fine if it’s all you have.
Begin by rinsing off the chickpeas/garbanzo beans.
Add them to a blender or food processor.
Add a 1/4 cup of tahini.
Then add a small can of diced green chiles, juice and all.
Add the juice of a lime.
I’m so glad I was able to include this vital photograph of a lime cut in half.
Add S&P, to taste.
While the hummus is blending, pour the oil in until it reaches the desired consistency.
Once smooth, taste and adjust seasonings.
I added a bit more salt and touch more oil. It was perfecto!
Oh and that dark red stuff is sumac (google it). It’s a Middle Eastern spice that has a tart flavor. It’s a traditional garnish for hummus and it goes well with the green chiles, but it’s also totally optional.
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[yumprint-recipe id=’62’]