Smoked Cashew Salsa

Who would think you could smoke something and make a salsa out of it? Genialidad!

2 qts. cashew nuts
2 cups mesquite wood chips
2 tblsp. sugar
1 1/2 tblsp. salt
1 cup red wine vinegar (or any quality vinegar)
3 3/4 cup water
1 can chipotle in adobo (deseeded)

1. Prepare and smoke. I used home-made kitchen smoker which are a pan and another pan w/ holes that will sit on top of the other pan w/ out touching the chips underneath. Lather the cashews on the pan w/ holes and cover tight w/ aluminum foil. Place the smoker on the stove top or griddle and smoke on a medium-high heat for about 15mins. Remove and cool. The cashews will be tan in color.

2. Puree and taste. Puree all the ingredients in a food processor. Adjust the taste and consistency w/ water and salt if necessary. You want the salsa to be creamy and runny than peanut butter (or nutella) consistency.

3. Disfrutar! With tortilla chips, for now..

left: citrus habanero salsa, right: smoked cashew salsa

Citrus-Habanero Salsa

Salsa is not a dip. Let's say you have some tortilla chips, you take one and then dunk it in the salsa. I would say that's dip, hence the act of "dipping" the chip in the salsa. They are more than just your ordinary dip. It is tangy, some spicy and creamy. Sometimes the combination of the three, or a couple: spicy and tangy, tangy and creamy. In Mexican cuisine, they have an array of salsas to go with their favorite tacos or whatever dish that it may go well with. The most basic and probably well known Mexican salsa is the "pico de gallo." I have no clue why they call it like that because the literal meaning of it is "rooster's beak." Even some Mexican cooks I have met calls it that. Maybe they got used to calling it that name. Others call it salsa Mexicana which in my opinion is the appropriate name. Let's leave that for my next project. For the mean time, I want to spice my dish with these two different kinds of salsas. One is the Citrus-Habanero Salsa and the other is Smoked Cashew Salsa. I say they are fusion of Mexican flavors to suit non-Mexican palate. These salsas are reminiscent of working at respected chef Alek Stupak's Taqueria saboroso.

Citrus-Habanero Salsa

(makes about 2 qts.)

1 cup orange juice + zest

1 cup lime juice + zest

2 3/4 cups sugar

1 cup water

1 cup red wine vinegar (or any good quality vinegar)

15-20 pcs. habanero (I used yellow-orange)

4 large onions

*plus small amount of oil(about 2 tblsp.) and salt (about 2 tsp.) for roasting

*I suggest you use gloves in handling the peppers just in case

*when cleaning utensils that came in contact w/ hot peppers, always use cold water. Otherwise, there will be a spicy fume all over the room

1. Clean and roast peppers and onions. Drizzle oil and salt and roast at 400*F (205*C) for about 10-15mins or until they are blistered. Onions will take longer.

2. Juice and zest the oranges and limes. Make sure you take very little of the white cavity of the citrus as they can add bitterness to your sauce.

3. Puree, adjust to taste and cook the salsa. Puree everything in the blender until desired consistency. If everything doesn't fit then just do them in batches. Make sure that you cover the blender tight so that it won't splatter especially to your eyes. Also, open the lid slowly and close your eyes just to be sure. I do this and it's not funny if the hot peppers get into your eyes. If it's too spicy, add more water and sugar. But this is really spicy and I guess it's only for spicy lovers. Simmer for 10 mins or so until the color intensifies to a bright orange hue.

4. Cool and serve. Instantly cool in an ice bath and serve. You can freeze some if you'd like. Disfrutar!

Ancho Chili Chocolate Ice Cream

If you are having a party, like example, a birthday party, what will you prepare/cook first? Mostly, you would start the recipe that takes time and in my opinion, dessert comes first. I thought I would do the same on this blog. Tonight, I made Ancho-Chocolate Ice Cream! It's my first time making this recipe and probably my second time making home-made ice cream with a little help from Rick Bayless', Mexican Chili Chocolate Ice Cream recipe. An ancho chili is a dried poblano chili which has a mild chocolate flavor, slightly bitter and sweet and smells prune like cocoa. It's like Marquez's one-two punch combo or (ehem), our very own Manny Pacman's knock-out punch! The ancho itself blends its subtle flavor with the cocoa. Also, the recipe calls for a small amount of coffee to again, enhance the ice cream's flavor. I think it doesn't need any of the cinnamon and vanilla flavor because I feel that it will just ruin its ancho-cocoa flavor profile. But hey, there are no boundaries so feel free to add them to your content.

Ancho-Chocolate Ice Cream (serves 1qt.)

Ancho Helado de Chocolate

1 ancho chili, stemmed and seeded

2 cups heavy cream (edit: 1 1/3 cups only)

2/3 cups milk (edit: 1 1/3 cups only)

2 oz. cocoa powder (originally, Mexican chocolate tablea) (edit: 1 oz only)

3 oz. bitter-sweet chocolate preferably 70% (I used Callebaut couverture. Just make sure you use very good chocolate)

4 egg yolks (Pls. don't discard the whites, you can make omelette or something with that.)

1/2 cup sugar

1 Tblsp. powdered quality coffee

Directions:

1. Make the chili infusion. In a small sauce pan where you will also cook your custard, toast the chili until blistered. About 15-30 seconds. It depends how hot your pan is, preferably medium-high heat. Toasting the chili will release its oil, aroma and flavor. Also, it will give a "roasted" flavor and will make the skin soft. After, let the pan cool a bit and add milk, heavy cream, cocoa powder, bitter-sweet chocolate and cook the mixture on a low heat until chocolate is melted. Make sure the mixture doesn't burn under or the sides of the pan. Set aside and let it steep for about 10 mins. to re-hydrate the chili.

2. Pureeing the chocolate mixture and mixing with the eggs-sugar mixture. After the chili has re-hydrated, puree the mix in a blender until chili's pulverized. (Always make sure you have your blender lid on for safety.)

The egg-sugar mix:

Chocolate mix tempered onto egg-sugar mix: Pour about half of the warm chocolate mix to the egg-sugar mix.

3. Cooking the chocolate-egg mix we call custard. In this stage, I also added the powdered coffee  and you can taste the custard if you think you need to add more sugar. Transfer the custard in the sauce pan and cook in a very low heat, mixing and scraping the sides and underneath the pan until you reach about 180*F or by dipping your spatula/spoon in the custard and running your finger through it; if the line holds clear that means it's ready. Otherwise, if you cook longer and hotter you will get scrambled chocolate eggs. It will take you 5-10 mins. Cool quickly on an ice bath.

The stirred-custard cooking:

Custard is ready:

Cooling:

4. Ice cream maker. When it has cooled down, pour the mix in the ice cream maker and follow manufacturer's guide. I used kitchen aid ice cream maker attachment. That means, your attachment should have been froze overnight or more. Going on, I mix them on slow-speed which is 1/stir for about 12-15 mins. until it looks like soft-served ice cream.

5. Ripening the ice cream. Transfer the ice cream in a freezer container and freeze preferably overnight or until the ice cream is ripe or harden.

6. Be patient until the ice cream has ripened. I don't have a lot of it but when it comes to this I will surely wait. While the freezer is doing its thing with the ice cream.....

I'm having a Allagash black stout (still chocolaty).. Cheers!

The long wait is here! (I made adjustments w/ the recipe. This one is too rich, it might sold out in seconds! Kidding..)

Taqueria en las islas de las Filipinas. It's a food blog in my perspective of better understanding of Mexico's cuisine, especially but not limited to its antojitos, like tacos-soft, hard-shelled, corn and flour tortillas with a filling mostly meat but could be vegetables as well, original salsas, aguas preparandos (freshly made, from scratch juices/shakes) and postres (desserts). This blog is coming from a Filipino perspective which may or may not be of a Mexican descent. Who knows? The Spaniards were in rule in the archipelago for more than 200 years.. Bienvenida! (I am using Google translator.. Very helpful!)