I prepared a batch of this gorgeous and vibrant salsa for the holidays, and it beautifully complimented the other hors d’oeuvres on the table.  

It’s bold and tangy, with playful hints of sweetness and spice.  The bright crimson color is stunning and the color and flavors deepen and meld as it matures overnight (or longer) in the refrigerator.  

The cranberry, ginger and lime partner perfectly, and the cilantro and onion provide a nice, supportive background.  The jalapeno adds some warmth without being overpowering.

This salsa is lovely served with regular or lime-flavored tortilla chips, or as a relish.  

Cranberry Salsa

1 bag fresh cranberries, chopped

2/3 cup sugar

1/2 cup onion, minced

1/2 cup cilantro, chopped

1 whole jalapeno, seeded and chopped

4 tsp grated ginger root

Juice and zest of two limes

Mix all ingredients together and let it meld in the refrigerator overnight.   

You can eat them raw, toasted, salted, smoked and steamed, throw them on top of salads, into stir fries and of course, bake with them.  They make a great “anytime” snack and are perfect for tucking into gift baskets and setting on display as part of an appetizer or wine and cheese tray.

Sweet and spicy is a nearly perfect taste combination.  Lace this with a wisp of smoke, and now you’re talking a piquant flavor explosion.

Because they are both soooo good, and I wasn’t able to choose just one to post, I am sharing two quick, easy and fun-tasting spiced nut recipes with you.

The pecans in the “Smokey Paprika Toasted Pecans” are the perfect platform to absorb the simple, yet delicious combination of butter, brown sugar, cinnamon, smoked paprika and sea salt.  The hot smoked paprika takes center stage, offering a deep, earthy flavor that is tempered by the sweeter components and complimented by a sprinkling of lovely, sparkling, coarse sea salt. 

The pungent spiciness of chipotle chile powder is softened by the subtle sweetness of the honey in the “Honey-Glazed Almonds.”  These nuts are glistening and gorgeous and the crunch is superb.

I promise, whether you choose to make one or both of these recipes, prepare to make another few batches, because you won’t be able to stop popping them into your mouth.

Smokey Paprika Toasted Almonds

Adapted from The Spanish Table  newsletter.

4 T butter

2 C pecan halves

2 1/2 T brown sugar

1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon

2 tsp. smoked paprika (I used Spanish hot smoked paprika for this recipe.)

1/2 tsp. sea salt

Melt the butter in a non-stick skillet over medium heat. Combine the brown sugar, cinnamon, smoked paprika and sea salt in a small bowl.  Add pecans to cook for about 3-5 minutes. Next, add the spices, turning constantly, so they are evenly distributed. Continue to cook for about 3-4 more minutes.  Remove the nuts from the heat, and spread them out in an even layer to cool. A cookie sheet covered with parchment paper works well. After they’ve cooled, break any nut clusters apart. 

Chipotle Honey-Glazed Almonds

Adapted from Cooking Light.

1 1/2 C raw, unblanched almonds

1 T sugar

2 T honey

1/2 tsp. ground chipotle chile powder

1/4 tsp. ground cumin

1/4 tsp. salt

Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. Place the almonds in a medium non-stick skillet. Cook over medium heat for 6 minutes or until lightly toasted, shaking the pan frequently. Combine the remaining ingredients in a 2-cup glass measure. Microwave on HIGH for 30 seconds. Add honey mixture to pan, and cook 2 minutes, stirring constantly. Arrange almond mixture on a prepared baking sheet in a single layer. Let stand 10 minutes. Break apart any clusters.

Resources:

While chipotle chile powder can be found in the baking/spice aisle in most grocery stores, Spanish hot smoked paprika can be a bit more tricky to come by.  There are two places that I get my Spanish hot smoked paprika from, The Spanish Table and the Savory Spice Shop.  Both of these stores also sell delicious Spanish sweet smoked paprika, too.   

I recently received a very enthusiastic text message from a friend saying that she had just tasted the best chili and that it won a chili cook-off she and her husband attended.  Having known her for years, and trusting her taste in chili, I asked her to email the recipe to me.  I wasn’t sorry. 

I can’t quite get enough of fall.  The weather is perfect, not too hot and not too cold, the colors are bold and the fresh tastes of the harvest tempt the palate. 

When I woke up this morning, it was 48 degrees Fahrenheit outside, cool enough to justify my spending a few more minutes wrapped up in the toasty warmth of the down comforter. 

Crisp, clear autumn days like this are perfect for settling in and simmering a pot of soup on the stove.

I am a huge fan of orange soups, soups made from pumpkins, carrots, butternut squash; well, you get the idea. For my first “orange soup” of the season, I wanted something that was both savory and sweet, that had a nice, creamy body, with a bit of a zing.  After some brainstorming and pantry diving, I decided upon coconut ginger sweet potato soup.

The carrots and parsnip nicely complement the natural sweetness of the sweet potato, while the onion and vegetable broth provide a nice, solid base.  The ginger adds the “zing” and the coconut smoothes everything out. 

Coconut Ginger Sweet Potato Soup

1 small yellow onion, chopped

3 carrots, peeled and sliced

1 medium parsnip, peeled and sliced

2 large sweet potatoes (about 3 lbs.), peeled and sliced

3 tablespoons grated fresh ginger

4 cups vegetable stock or broth

Salt, to taste (I used about a teaspoon and a quarter)

1 13.66 oz. can of light coconut milk

1 tablespoon packed light brown sugar

Canola oil

Directions:

Chop and peel the vegetables and peel and grate the ginger.  Drizzle the bottom of the pot you’re using for the soup with some canola oil, and allow to heat.  When the oil is hot, drop in the onion, carrots and parsnip and sauté until the onion starts to turn translucent and the carrots and parsnip soften a bit, about three to four minutes.  Next, add the ginger and brown sugar, sautéing for about one minute. 

Add the sweet potatoes, salt and vegetable stock/broth, and bring everything to a low boil.  Turn the heat down, allowing the soup to simmer, covered, until the vegetables are fork tender, about 35-40 minutes. 

Remove the soup from the heat, and using an immersion blender (or a regular blender, in batches), puree the soup until it’s nice and smooth. 

Return the soup to a low heat and add the coconut milk and salt, stirring to blend.  Allow the soup to heat through and serve immediately, topping with raw pepitas, roasted pumpkin seeds, or whatever else may tickle your fancy.

I wish you all a very happy fall, filled with glowing pumpkins, long hayrack rides at dusk and lots of delicious, soup sipping days. 

Enjoy autumn’s bounty!

It’s hard to believe, but fall is definitely here.  Can you smell it in the air?  Crisp, cool nights with just a hint of wood smoke drifting through the air coupled with golden yellow, deep red and fiery orange leaves bringing brilliant bursts of color to the landscape. 

If you had to choose just one word to represent fall, what would it be?  There are so many wonderful choices:  apples, gourds, ghosts, cider, leaves and many more.  For me, the word that singlehandedly describes fall is:  pumpkin!!

There are so many sweet and savory dishes that can made from this soothingly orange squash.  Pie, bread and soup immediately come to mind, but the possibilities are endless.  Before breaking out the loaf pans and the pie plates, I decided that that I wanted to use the first fresh pumpkin of the season in a more non-traditional recipe.

As I paged through a recently acquired cookbook, the gorgeous “Purple Citrus and Sweet Perfume” by Silvena Rowe, a recipe for Pumpkin and Za’atar Hummus caught my attention.  The following is my adaptation of the recipe.  I serve it with pita chips and roasted pumpkin seeds.

Pumpkin and Za’atar Hummus

1 pound roasted sugar or pie pumpkin (about 2 small pumpkins)

¼ cup olive oil

Sea salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste

3 cloves garlic, minced

3 tablespoons lemon juice

1 tablespoon za’atar*

1 tablespoon ground cumin

2 tablespoons tahini**

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.  Cut the pumpkins in half and scoop out the seeds, reserving them for roasting.  Roast the pumpkins for 45 minutes, or until tender.  Allow the cooked pumpkin to cool and then scoop the flesh from the skin using a spoon. 

Combine the roasted pumpkin, olive oil, sea salt, pepper, lemon juice, za’atar , cumin and tahini in a food processor and process until smooth. 

Transfer the mixture to bowl, cover and allow it to chill for a couple of hours or overnight.  Serve with pita chips, raw veggies and/or roasted pumpkin seeds.

*Za’atar is a Middle Eastern spice mixture that can be found in Middle Eastern grocery stores, or specialty spice stores such as Penzey’s or the Savory Spice Shop.  You can make your own by combining ¼ cup sumac, 2 tablespoons thyme, 1 tablespoon roasted sesame seeds, 2 tablespoons marjoram, 2 tablespoons oregano and 1 tablespoon sea salt (adapted from a recipe by Saad Fayed).

**Tahini is a paste made from sesame seeds and olive oil and is a core ingredient in hummus.  You can find tahini in most grocery stores and natural food stores.

I don’t know about you, but I still get as excited as a little kid when a package arrives in the mail.  Whether large or small, square, round or rectangular, I feel that sweet, sharp rush of anticipation every time I find a box waiting for me on the patio. 

Since I’ve subscribed to the Foodzie Tasting Box, it’s like celebrating my birthday and Christmas each month.  Delivered directly to my doorstep every month, is a box packed filled with tasty, hand-curated treats, which introduces my palate to a mélange of different tastes and flavors and fun new foodie products.   

Foodzie is an “online marketplace where you can discover and buy food directly from small, passionate food producers and growers.” 

The Tasting Box is the perfect way to sample a variety of products offered by Foodzie’s partners in a fun, theme-based and relatively inexpensive way.   Each box includes six individual-sized (0r larger), hand-picked products.  A monthly, recurring Tasting Box subscription is $19.99 per month, which can be canceled anytime.  You can also gift lucky friends, family and business associates with the Tasting Box in three, six and twelve-month subscriptions. 

I’ll let you in on a little, money-saving secret:  It is cheaper to sign up for the Tasting Box via the gift subscription, even if the person you are gifting is yourself.  Here’s the breakdown:  a recurring regular subscription is, again, $19.99 per month.  The three-month gift subscription is $55 ($18.33/month), the six-month gift subscription is $100.00 ($16.66/month) and the twelve-month subscription is $200.00 ($16.66/month).  Both types of subscription, regular and gift, come with free shipping.  My advice, choose the gift subscription.

Anyway, enough of the inner mechanics.  Let’s unbox the September Tasting Box and dig in!!

Each month’s Tasting Box is centered around a theme, and September’s is ”Tea Time Treats.”

While the treats offered in this month’s box may not resemble the usual fare served on a lacy linen tablecloth during a traditional high tea, they are each well-selected accompaniments for tea time, anytime.   I may not have found any Devonshire cream or cute little cucumber sandwiches, but I did find a collection of sweet, savory and spicy treasures.  Come; let me share my bounty with you.

Combining the rich, buttery, salty crunch of macadamia nuts with toasted coconut, dried red chiles and a bit of sweet honey, Oren’s Kitchen hits all of the right tasting notes with their Coconut Chili Macadamias.  What’s better than all of that sweet, salty, spicy goodness rolling around on your tongue? 

The macadamia nuts are large and perfect, definitely first class.  According to Oren’s Kitchen’s website, the nuts come from a small farm in Hawaii.  

The coconut is in perfect balance, and I know this because my husband, who absolutely abhors the extreme chewiness of most cooked or processed coconut, actually liked this.  He said that he found the consistency of the coconut used in this product a nice change.  He was overjoyed that he wasn’t still chewing long after finishing his snack. 

The dried red chiles, from Full Belly Farm, added a nice overall warmth and balance to the mix.  Overall, I would have enjoyed a higher level of spice, but in the interest of full disclosure, I like things really, really spicy (I order my Thai food at a ten.). 

Lark Fine Foods, located in Essex, Massachusetts, creates artisan “Cookies for Grown-Ups.”  I have a suspicion that kids will also enjoy the sweet and savory taste of Lark’s Salted Rosemary Shortbread. 

The shortbread’s consistency is spot-on.  It is light and slightly crumbly and oh so buttery.  It practically melts in your mouth.  Neither the salt nor the rosemary is overdone.  Rather, the rosemary compliments the overall flavor of the shortbread and the salt provides a tasty, yet not overpowering, counterpoint.  The combination of sweet, salty and savory is welcome on my tea table, anytime.

 Liz Lovely puts two gigantic cookies into each package of Snicker Dudes.  According to the package, “Liz likes to call this soul-mating.  So, share the love and make a friend.”  

Don’t make too many friends, because you’ll definitely want to save most of these sweet, soft, cinnamon- sugary cookies for yourself.  There is nothing more to say here, other than these cookies are absolutely incredible, especially with a hot cup of tea. 

The Snicker Dudes are vegan, dairy, egg, and trans-fat free and are low in sodium.  Liz offers both vegan and vegan/gluten-free cookies. 

Named for the region in Northern Bangladesh where their tea is grown, Teatulia’s teas are grown in their certified organic tea garden tucked between the Himalayas and Brahmaputra and Ganges rivers.  Teatulia also gives back to the community via the Teatulia Cooperative.      

The Bengal Breakfast Tea, which was included in the September Tasting Box, comes packaged in a simple, slender eco-canister.  The large, dark, robust-looking loose tea leaves are nestled inside an elegant, transparent pyramid bag made of recyclable and compostable corn silk.  Definitely no cheap tea dust, here. 

The tea itself has a lovely, dark amber color after being steeped for about five minutes and has a fresh, robust taste.   The fragrance is pleasant, and each tea bag easily brews two full cups without losing strength or flavor. 

I have to admit that the Honey Pax raw Tupelo honey was the most fun product in the Tasting Box.  Honey Pax honey is “Totally Traceable Honey.”  The company includes a “Hive Code” on each of its honey packets so you can learn about and see exactly where your honey is cultivated.  You simply go to the Hive Code page on their website and scroll down until you see your code. 

The Hive Code on my packets was “TWL20.”  This is the description of Hive Location TWL20 from Honey Pax’s website: 

“This bee yard is located in the southwest region of the Apalachicola National Forest near the old Fort Gadsden site.  Named a National Historical Landmark in 1972, the site is currently managed by the U.S. Forest Service.  Situated in a prime setting, hives are near a high concentration of Tupelo trees, which yielded a light golden honey with a flavorful Tupelo taste.  Testing by premier honey pollen expert, Dr. Vaughn Bryant at Texas A&M, showed this honey to be one of the ‘purest examples of superior Tupelo honey’ he has examined.” 

This is a picture of Hive Location TWL20:

 The honey is gorgeous and golden, with a  mellow, flowery taste.  It dispenses from the packet very easily and sweetens the Tetulia Bengal Breakfast Tea, nicely.  

Well, that ends our tasting tour.  Thanks for taking the time to dig into the treasure trove of the Tasting Box with me.  I hope this whets your appetite and gives you a few ideas for some new products to try.  Now, where did I hide that extra Snicker Dude?

The first crop of Hatch green chiles, one of the tastiest harbingers of fall, is appearing in your local grocery store, farmers market, and gigantic barrel roasters across the southwest.  If you’ve never had the pleasure of experiencing the rich, smokey, verdant smell of freshly harvested chiles set against a backdrop of crisp, autumn air, I suggest adding this to your bucket list immediately.

Hatch, a small, 3.1  square-mile village in southern New Mexico, proudly claims to be the chile capital of the world, and for good reason.  High-altitude, coupled with slightly sandy soil and a long, hot growing season, produces chiles with a deep, rich, earthy flavor that mellows and sweetens when they are roasted in the oven or kissed by an open flame. 

The majority of green chile is roasted and turned into a sauce or stew, which is served by the bowlful with warm, fresh tortillas, or poured over everything from enchiladas to tamales.  While nothing beats a savory green chile stew, I wanted to try something a bit different with this year’s crop of Hatch chiles.  I endeavored to create a recipe that melded some of my favorite flavors together, while allowing the chiles to be the star of the show. 

The combination of roasted green chiles, cilantro, pine nuts, Italian cheeses, roasted garlic and olive oil created a unique and supremly tasty green chile pesto.  Green chiles can range from mild to hot, and I encourage you to choose according to your personal tolerance for spice.  Most Hatch green chiles hover around 2,000 on the Scoville scale, whereas a habañero pepper can top 200,000. 

If you don’t have access to fresh Hatch green chiles in your area, first of all, I’m sorry, but there are alternatives.  You can absolutely substitute Anaheim or poblano peppers.  Online chile vendors abound, obviously, to sate the need of chile addicts like me and to indoctrinate new chile aficionados. 

So, grab your roasting pan and let’s craft a batch of sweet and savory green chile pesto.

Green Chile Pesto

2 C chopped, roasted Hatch green chile peppers*

1 C chopped cilantro

2/3 C lightly toasted pinon nuts

8-10 cloves roasted garlic

1 C grated Italian cheese of your choice (parmesan, romano, asiago and provolone make a nice combination)

1 C extra virgin olive oil

2 pounds cooked pasta of your choice

Place the chile, cilantro, nuts, garlic and cheese in a food processor and whirl together, slowly adding the olive oil as the mixture processes.  When all is said and done, it should look something like this:

Toss your freshly made pesto with hot, cooked pasta and enjoy the combination of flavors doing a happy dance on your tongue.

*Chile Roasting Guide