Sunday, August 26, 2007

SALSA

I actually posted this to another blog awhile ago, so I thought I would move it here. Sorry, the picture on this is not of my salsa but some generic picture. I needed to add something to liven up the page.

I just made some kick-ass salsa. So good, that I felt I had to share it with someone. You readers are my someone:

Start by putting the following in a food processor:
- Roasted Tomatoes: broil them and peel off the burnt skin
- Roast a Jalepeno and 3-5 Garlic Cloves: Put them in a frying pan toast them. Peel of the burnt skin of that
- Cilantro
- Squeeze a lime

After processing it add the following:
- Grilled corn (courtesy of my condo's maintenance guy's garden)
- Chopped Red Onion

I also made some baked tortilla chips.

Cut up some corn tortillas
Generously salt them
Spray them with Canola Oil
Cook at 375 degrees for about 10-15 minutes until golden brown

Damn good stuff.
It has been awhile since I posted to a blog, especially this one. I started this over a year ago and put a couple posts on it based on some stuff I cooked that I thought was good. Well, I cooked a good turkey burger today and thought I had to share it. So here I am again. Hopefully, this time for good. My goal is to post at least once a week about some sort of food experience I have had.

Why did I name this "Free Food"? It is not based on food that costs me nothing, but I really just didn't want to restrict what I write about or recipe's that I post. I have no official training on food and like to try a lot of new things that probably are not recommended by any chefs you see on TV or own nice restaurants. The results are that some things I cook end up tasting crappy, but most are pretty good. Free Food is like Free Jazz, Food without boundaries. I think the Pollock picture describes it pretty well.

Okay, now for the turkey burger. As you will see, most of things I cook come from me trying to Macgyver something out my fridge. So, I went to the fridge and just started pulling things out:

ground turkey
cheddar cheese
parmasean cheese
Smart Balance light butter spread
onions
pre-minced garlic
red pepper
wheat bread
balsamic vinegar
some store bought Rub
olive oil
whole wheat hot dog bun
maui onion mustard

The first thing to do is to make the patty. So, I get a bowl and start throwing things in. First thing was about half pound of turkey. After defrosting the turkey, I realized that there was a little too much liquid in the meat. Thus, I soaked half a hot dog bun in water, squeezed the water out of it, and added it the bowl. I then minced some onion and added that, leaving some over to the side for later. Then added the pre-minced garlic (not as good as the real thing, but it works), about a 3 teaspoons of some store bought rub, and then a bunch of shredded parmesean cheese. In fact, I just use kraft parmasean that doesn't come pre-shredded but is in a container that will shred itself. Pretty innovative. Then I mold the patty into the size of the burger that I want, making sure that everything gets mixed in evenly. Don't want to make it too thick, so that it won't take too long to cook and will cook more evenly. Oh yeah, I had started the grill before hand and had it at low heat.

After I put it on the grill, I heated up the rest of the minced onions in some olive oil and put the wheat toast in the toaster. I fry up the onions at a low heat as well, and what until the become brown at the edges. I then cut up the roasted red pepper into thin slices.

After flipping the burger (it took about 5 minutes), I wait about 3 minutes and top the burger with both cheddar cheese and more parm. Wait about a minute for the cheese to melt, and your burger is ready. I spread butter on one piece of toast and spread the mustard on the other side. The maui onion mustard is awesome, spicy and sweet. Put the burger between the toast and top with the fried up onions and sliced red pepper.

And there you go, an awesome and not that unhealthy burger.