Simple salsa secrets

Hey!!!! I made some salsa for my kids for the finals of the World Cup. From chop to blend to table took me maybe seven minutes. And it was so yummy and I just don't know why I don't do this all the time instead of buying that processed, expensive stuff at the store. Actually, I do know why: It's because I don't always have all those fancy gourmand peppers around. The thing is, you don't need all those fancy gourmand peppers. Fresh gourmand peppers, a la habanero, serrano, jalapeno, like some of my gourmand friends like to grow, are yummy additions. Only problem is not all of us have fresh gourmand peppers lying around all the time. And, shhh, they're really not necessary. All you need for a good, fresh salsa is what's in the picture above, which is:

2 small tomatoes, chopped
1/2 green pepper, chopped
1/2 onion, chopped
1 teaspoon dried red chili pepper, which you can find in your spice section
1 large clove garlic
2 tablespoon cilantro
pinch of salt
squeeze of lemon



Throw everything in your food processor. Go pulse pulse pulse, maybe three times, like Dorothy. No more or it'll turn into gazpacho, but just enough to blend it all together in a salsa-like form.

And there you have it, the best, least expensive (cost maybe $1.75), healthiest salsa this side of the Atlantic, made so not by fancy gourmand peppers, but by cilantro. That, my friends, is the secret ingredient -- an herb native to Southern Europe, a la Spain, which went on to win the 2010 World Cup. Viva L'Espagne and cilantro!

Google food

An easy way to be creative in the kitchen: Type your favorite food items into Google search and see what you come up with.

Example No. 1: One day, having just returned from Sister Susan's house and New Orleans, I wanted to cook something yummy, like I always do when I come home from the land of good food. Sister Sue had made a ginger pumpkin cream soup that was extra delectable with the addition of fresh fennel. What is this? Can you believe I'd never had fresh fennel? I was interested in cooking something with this aromatic plant, indigenous to the Mediterranean. I also wanted to make something with beets, which, because this was early May, were just emerging from their wintry ground.  Sooooo, I typed "fennel beets" into Google search and voila! I found this amazing ginger-y, lemon-y recipe from the blog, Mediterranean Cooking In Alaska, which I hastily made and just as hastily ate, which made my bodily fluids turn red, which always freaks me out until I remember I ate beets.  Here is the link to the recipe: http://medcookingalaska.blogspot.com/2008/02/recipe-beet-fennel-and-leek-salad-with.html

Example No. 2: I love okra, which I remember sliced and fried in cornmeal when I was a child in the hills of South Carolina. Later, when my nomad Mama moved us to New Orleans, okra was a substantial, if not slimy, part of gumbo. Being part Mediterranean, I also love  eggplant. And sooo, can you guess? I Googled "okra eggplant." Take a look at this robust, aromatic result from India. Don't be put off by the funny-sounding spices. You can find them in the bulk spice section of your local grocery store.
http://www.ivu.org/recipes/indian-veg/eggplant-potato.html

Example No. 3. (See photo at the top of this post.) Being a plain yogurt lover and also a basil addict -- can you ever have too much of either? -- I wanted to make a sauce with basil and yogurt to ladle over fresh-steamed vegetables. So I Googled "basil and yogurt" and came up with this sauce to drizzle over eggplant, new potatoes, garlic, onion, carrots roasted with basil, rosemary and oregano plucked fresh from the window boxes on my deck. Almost as much as I love eating herbs, I love picking herbs, BTW, rubbing the leaves between my fingers to release the oil. I placed the potatoes on a bed of organic, just-picked arugula that I bought at the Kent Farmer's Market. I laid it all upside a couple slices of red yummy tomato, also just bought at the Farmer's Market, and next to my favorite green beans, steamed, then sauteed in Sister Kim's recipe of tamari, garlic, fresh ginger and toasted sesame oil. Here's the basil-yogur sauce link and a picture of the final product, laid on a plate I bought at the Asian Market in Seattle, when I was three years ago interviewing women for a white paper on modernday motherhood. Life can be rich, yes? 
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Creamy-Basil-Dressing-236645