The Great Salsa Adventure

When Brandon and I started dating he took me to a magical hole in the wall Mexican restaurant called Red Chile in Cerritos. It was pretty close to both of our houses, so we went there quite often. The food is very good, but the biggest standout is the salsa. We believe it's made on the premises, and they store it in big milk jugs. Many a time he pondered what it would take to steal or buy one of those jugs, but he never followed through. It's a blended salsa roja rather than a chunky fresh salsa. Since the restaurant is pretty far from where we live now, we very rarely get a chance to indulge in this delicious salsa, so Brandon has been on a quest to find something similar ever since. This past weekend he finally tried his hand at making it himself. He succeeded.

This was his first attempt at salsa and the result makes me suspect he's got a bit of Mexican DNA hidden in him somewhere. At first he bought some fresh tomatoes but changed his mind and switched to canned, stewed, in order to pull out a deeper flavor. He ended up making two batches. When I tasted the first batch he asked what was missing, because the flavor was THERE, immediately, but there was something else missing. It was the heat. Salsa should be spicy going down, but the heat should also linger on the tongue for a while rather than just disappear. He considered putting in a third jalapeño, but I suggested a good old Chipotle minicube. That did the trick. It was absolutely perfect.

Ingredients

• 1 28 oz can whole stewed tomatoes
• 1 6 oz can tomato paste
• 2 whole jalapeños
• ½ white onion
• 2 tbsp garlic salt
• 1/2 tbsp sugar
• 1 tbsp oregano
• 1 Knorr Chipotle minicube
• juice from 1 key lime
• 4 dashes Crystal hot sauce

Throw it all in the food processor, tomatoes and paste first, then the dry ingredients. Pulse until desired consistency is acheived.

Serving suggestion:

Closeup shot (Travis's favorite part of the blog):

I am rating it as healthy because the salsa itself doesn't really contain anything bad. I used it on a chicken and spinach salad last night, which was healthy and zesty. However, if you eat it with chips... you're sliding head first into the dirty zone, my friend. It's well worth it, though!

Hummus? You don't even know us!

We love hummus in the Littrell household. I had been wary of it for a long time because my one and only experience with it long ago had been an overly garlicky mess, but Brandon was flummoxed because he knows how much I love garbanzos. Once he finally convinced me to try it again, it was a much higher quality one and I was hooked. Since then I have tried all kinds (even an edamame hummus - YUM) but we rarely buy it because it costs so much for a tiny tub. Brandon decided to take the hummus by the beans and make his own. Since we were headed to a Super Bowl party yesterday, what better manly treat could he bring?

Brandon's idea was to try making two different kinds: garbanzo and white bean. We had pretty much all of the ingredients on hand except the tahini, so we picked up a container at Trader Joe's. His first step was to roast the garlic, hoping to combat my usual annoyance with raw garlic. However, when he started chopping the bulbs, he noticed the had gone bad. I pointed out he'd had that garlic since Thanksgiving, which for some reason he hadn't realized. I have no idea how long garlic lasts but I figured it wouldn't last that long! Nutter. Anyway, he made up for it by using some garlic flavored olive oil instead of plain. The batches turned out pretty big (about 4.5 cups each), for super cheap. The tahini was the big expenditure at about $3 for a small container and each can of beans cost $1. However, for the price of just the tahini we would usually only get a container of the same size of hummus. What a savings!

Ingredients for garbanzo hummus

• 2 cans garbanzo beans
• 6 tablespoons tahini
• 3-4 tablespoons garlic olive oil
• juice of ½ lemon
• salt to taste
• B's special spice mix (equal parts garlic salt, chili powder, red pepper
  flake, onion powder, dried oregano)

We garnished this one with feta, fresh thyme, and the spice mix.

Ingredients for white bean hummus

• 2 cans white beans
• 6 tablespoons tahini
• 3-4 tablespoons garlic olive oil
• 5 marinated sun dried tomato halves
• juice of ½ lemon
• salt to taste
• B's special spice mix

This one is obviously garnished with sun dried tomatoes.

They were both very tasty, but the consensus was that the white bean was better because it was a little more flavorful. We served them with the awesome flat bread from Trader Joe's. I believe it is Trader Joe's brand and then the name is Far East or something. I will double check tonight and edit.

I am rating this one as healthy and dirty, because overall it's pretty good for you, but it's so delicious you're apt to eat WAY too much!