First CSA Challenge recipe: Tex-Mex Salad

I loved LOVED this salad! My favorite salads are the ones with all the goodies like chicken, high quality cheese, something crunchy. I especially love salads with a Tex-Mex theme.
So I created this recipe, using three different salad greens from our wonderful CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) share. (To read more about my CSA self-challenge, click here.)
I wanted a BIG SALAD, just like Elaine on Seinfeld. So this recipe is for two main entree salads.

Ingredients:
5 small corn tortillas, cut into strips
Corn oil for frying
Dressing:
1 chipotle pepper
2 tsp adobe sauce
1/2 cup whole milk plain yogurt
1/3 cup mayonnaise
juice of 1 lime
pinch of salt, ground pepper
1 shallot
1/2 up lightly packed cilantro

1 boneless, skinless chicken breast
A variety of salad greens, about 4-5 cups
Shredded sharp, aged cheddar cheese
1/2 cup canned corn or Mexicorn

Directions:
First, make the fried tortilla strips. Ever since I fried my own tortilla chips, I am addicted. I don't make them a lot, but they taste so much better than bagged chips!
First, heat up your corn oil in a small skillet to about 350 degrees. Drop your tortilla strips in in small batches, stirring then removing with a slotted spoon after they start to calm down and darken. It doesn't take long at all, just a minute or two so don't walk away from the stove! Place them on a paper towel lined plate and sprinkle with salt before putting in the next batch.

These are the strips before they have "calmed down." They are excited and bubbly when you first put them in.

Continue until you fry all the strips.

Then, try not to eat all of them before the rest of the salad is done!

Preheat the oven or toaster oven to 400 on broil. (I used the toaster oven, less heat in the kitchen to cook one little bitty chicken breast.)
Then, make the dressing. Combine all dressing ingredients except cilantro in a food processor or blender, mix just a little bit to incorporate the chipotle pepper and shallot. Put 1/3 cup of the dressing in a small bowl, set on the counter. You're gonna use this in a minute. Chop the cilantro, then add to the larger amount of dressing and put in the fridge until everything else is ready.

Now, take the chicken breast and season it on both sides with salt and pepper. Then, dip it in the reserved 1/3 cup dressing (or use a brush to coat both sides of the chicken.) Put the chicken on a wire rack, with a tray beneath it. Broil until internal temperature is 175F, flipping once. I think it took mine about 20 minutes total to cook.

The yogurt prevents the chicken from drying out. It had a great flavor!!

Rinse your salad greens and put on two big plates. To highlight the greens I used from Goldfinch Farms.....

First, my favorite from Goldfinch-arugula!! I have never tasted a more peppery arugula anywhere else. The flavor knocks my socks off. I can eat it plain, and I am not normally someone who nibbles on any variety of plain, raw greens. But this...this is something I look forward to every year now.

We also received a bag of mixed baby greens. They are tender, and include a wider variety than pictured here. Very, very good.

This, I think, is a type of red romaine. I could be wrong here. I liked the more sturdy nature of this lettuce for my salad, because of all the heavy toppings.

Add your desired amount of shredded cheese, and the corn. Slice the chicken and put half on each salad. Add the tortilla strips and drizzle with half the dressing.

Mmm I could eat this salad every day. Well, at least every week for awhile!

I served mojitos with this! Margaritas also acceptable.

CSA Self-Challenge

This past Friday was an important day in our calendar year: The first produce pick-up of the season from Goldfinch Farms, our organic CSA (Community Supported Agriculture)!
In a CSA, if you don't know, you pay a farm up front, typically before the growing season starts, for one share in their crops. Then, every week you go and pick up a variety of produce that is in season that they grow on their farm. It isn't like the organic section of the supermarket. There is only local, seasonal produce, and you can only take as much as they allow for one share. I think it is great though, for several obvious reasons such as:

1. No shipping produce long distances, wanting fuel.
2. Supporting local farms.
3. Seasonal produce tastes best.
4. Everything is organic, and although I haven't done a cost comparison, I am almost sure it is cheaper than if you bought everythings organic at the supermarket. Also, it is great for small farmers, allowing them to have a steady income.

This is our second season buying from Goldfinch Farms. This year, a friend of mine also signed up for a share. She made me promise to help her think of recipes to use her share of produce every week. It is a bit of a challenge to use EVERYTHING in your share EVERY week. I know last year I have had to throw a few things away, which makes me sad!! As I was preparing a salad using their generous lettuce from Friday, I had an idea.

1. What if this year, I really challenged myself not to waste ANYTHING given to me, (even if it meant giving a friend a vegetable I don't like, or trying new things, or being extra creative)
2. Also, what if I blogged EVERYTHING I made with each part of my CSA share this season?


So that is my self challenge. I will try to post everything I make with my CSA share. Sometimes it will be a full recipe with measured ingredients and photos. Sometimes it may be a non-recipe with inexact measurements. Othertimes, it may be a brief description. But that is my adventure I have given myself! Check back to see what I made this week!

If you want to find a CSA near you, go to Local Harvest and you can do a search. (You can also find farmer's markets and restaurants that use local ingredients) (Unfortunately Goldfinch Farms is all sold out of shares for 2009. Gotta sign up early!)

Guacemole and Cinco de Mayo Menu

Cinco de Mayo, not even celebrated by all Mexicans (so I read) is kinda like St. Patricks Day. It is a good excuse to eat/drink Mexican food. Not that I am claiming any kind of authenticity to my recipes. But in all humbleness, I make a pretty dern good margarita and guacamole. So I am going to share my recipe for the guacamole!

Guacamole with Roasted Garlic
Ingredients:
1 head of garlic
3 Hass avocado
1/2 red onion, chopped
3/4 cup cilantro
juice of one lime
1 jalepeno, finely chopped
kosher salt
ground pepper

Before you start the rest of the guacamole, start roasting the garlic. Begin by chopping off the very tips of the garlic cloves. Then drizzle the head in some olive oil, wrap loosely in some aluminum foil, and bake in a 400 degree oven for 30-45 minutes, depending on the oven.

Cut each avocado in half lengthwise. Remove the pit by hitting your knife blade hard on the middle of the pit, and twisting. (Don't hold the avocado half in your hand while you whack the avocado, just leave it on the cutting board. I actually read directions for removing an avocado pit in a cookbook that told you to hold it!! Sounds like a bad idea for me.)

Scoop out the flesh with a regular spoon or a melon baller.
Dump it all in a bowl. It looks a bit like ice cream right now!
Add the chopped onion...

and the cilantro. Then pour in the lime juice, and chopped jalepeno, the salt and pepper to taste. For the jalepeno, you can remove the seeds if you want less heat, or leave them in for more.
After the garlic is roasted, squeeze out the garlic from each clove. Then roughly chop, and add to the bowl.
I have struggled for a long time to find the best way to mash guacamole. I don't use a food processor, because I don't want a perfectly smooth guacamole. I don't like that texture. Mixing with a spoon doesn't break it up enough. The best way I guess would be to go the authentic route and buy a volcanic mortar and one day I might buy one. But for now, my new favorite is to use a potato masher.

Just make sure you don't mash too long, so you still have some chunks.

Menu:
Guacamole with roasted garlic and chips
Grilled chicken burritos with mango salsa (I used turkey)
Margaritas
Aqua de Jamaica (hibiscus petal tea)
Sorbet

Hamburgers: Part 2

There are a lot of variations on burgers. This time I decided to make my own up, and it is pretty basic, but has a little heat and Mexican flair.
Ingredients:
1lb ground beef (grass fed beef is best)
1/2 minced onion
1/2 tsp chipotle powder
a few dashes of hot sauce (I used Frank's)
a handful of chopped cilantro
1/2 tsp salt
ground pepper
4 slices of cheddar cheese (I used habanero cheddar cheese)
Red onion slices
Lettuce
Ketchup or mayo

Throw all of these ingredients together in a medium bowl, and mix it together; I use my hands.

Form into 4 patties. Rachael Ray suggests that you make the center of patty a little thinner than the outside, to counter act how the burgers swell when you cook them.

My wonderful husband prepared a charcoal grill, nice and hot.
He grilled them for about 3 minutes each side.

Top with the cheese, serve on the onion studded hamburger rolls.

Top with onion and lettuce, ketchup and mayo.

I served these with some oven fries. Delicious! It had a bit of smoky spiciness, and the home made rolls really made it special.