Moving can be hazardous to your health
Sorry about the vanishing act, oh loyal readers! I have spent the last three weeks getting a house ready to sell and moving. Oh...how I had forgotten about the pain of moving. I thought that if I did it little by little instead of all at once it would be easier. All that did was to drag it out interminably and cause a daily level of exhaustion that was just not sustainable. I admit that taking care of myself took a back seat. I would wait to eat until hunger was screaming at me (and of course there was no food around), dash out to the closest viable food option (and by “viable” I mean no fast food but that’s not really setting the bar very high, is it?!). But I find I now need vegetables in some form no matter what’s happening in my life. So during these crazy weeks I managed to discover a really easy way to have vegetables on hand in a form that lasts for many meals and is easy to grab and use in or on whatever you’re eating...sauces. Yup. Maybe you already know about this trick, but I sure didn’t. So, as usual, I’m going to share a couple of recipes for the favorite sauces I used during the weeks when the blog went dark. Here they are:
Roasted Vegetable Salsa Verde
Ingredients:
Tomatillos
Jalapeno pepper or two
Other peppers (You can use any kind and plenty of them. Your choices should depend on how much heat you are looking for in the final product. I used one jalapeno and then a combination of anaheim, serrano, poblano and sweet bells.)
Several unpeeled garlic cloves
Onion (I used red onion but really any kind would do)
Tomatoes (optional - I used red and orange cherry tomatoes)
Cilantro
Limes for juice and zest (adding a tsp or two of lime zest is delicious but optional)
Instructions:
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Remove the papery husks from the tomatillos and give them a wash. Wash all of the other produce (except garlic). Put the tomatillos, whole peppers and peeled and very roughly chopped onion on a sheet pan (or pans...best to have them in one layer instead of heaping piles) that has been either greased or lined with parchment paper.
The roasting will take around 20-30 minutes, depending on how loaded your trays are. While the roasting is going on, chop the cilantro, squeeze out the lime juice and get a few tbs. of lime zest ready.
Once the vegetables are roasted (I judge by the smell and by them staring to get slightly burned edges), remove the skins and most or all of the seeds from the peppers. You can leave the seeds in if you want the salsa super spicy. Since it’s been roasted, the softened garlic flesh easily squeezes out of the peel. Then throw the tomatillos, peppers, and garlic into a food processor. Add the cilantro, lime juice and zest pulse a few times (until desired consistency) and you are done.
This salsa freezes really well. You can make a large batch and then you have it for future uses.
Chimichurri Use-OnAnythingSauce
Chop all of the following and place in a food processor:
1 bunch flat-leaf (Italian) parsley
1 bunch cilantro
6-10 fresh chives
2 or 3 large garlic cloves
Add ¼-⅓ cup extra virgin olive oil
One pinch of red pepper flakes and/or aleppo pepper
Sea salt and freshly ground pepper
Pulse until mixed and chopped finer but avoid pulsing until its liquid. I like this sauce when it has some texture left. This one also freezes really well and is great on everything.
One thing about sauces, and why these recipes aren’t precisely defined, is that they are very forgiving and if you like one ingredient a lot, add more.