Avocado and Tomatillo Soup

One of the best parts of sticking around DC after graduation has been having most of my friends from college still here.  A few weeks ago, a bunch of us went out to the new Mike Isabella mexican restaurant Bandolero to catch up, have margaritas on tap, and enjoy Top Chef alum fare.  And it was GOOD!  Duck confit in the queso fundido, crazy delicious tacos, and the dish that completely caught my eye tomatillo and avocado gazpacho.  It was a cold and creamy soup with tiny pieces of tequilla-soaked watermelon and orange sprinkled throughout like jewels.  After the soup got passed around the table for everyone to try, I finished it slowly because I knew I wanted to recreate the dish myself.

I was reminded of the dish a couple of weeks ago when Bandolero was doing demos at the Dupont farmer's market so I picked up some fresh tomatillos and got to work!  After taking off the outer husk, I removed the core and then used my food processor to buzz them all up.  I strained the pulverized tomatillos through a sieve and then used a stick blender to add avocado, sour cream, lime juice, and garlic.  Topped with teeny pieces of watermelon and orange supremes, it was a beautiful and healthy dinner without the trek to M street!

Girls night is headed to dim sum soon, expect barbecue pork buns to follow that one!

Hangover Hash: Foodie Friends Friday Linky Party #6

I think your body gets moving amnesia.  That is I never seem to remember how stressful moving is until it smacks me in the face (ugh, and back) again.  Maybe it was the rapid fire move in and move out every semester in the first two years of college that have given me the ability to black it out and think of it positively until I'm in the throws.  The place is coming together little by little, but since my room is slightly smaller this time around and I am missing one last bookshelf to put the little things away I feel like I'm living in a large treehouse surrounded by trinkets.  Tea light holders, camera equipment, beach reads, belts and sunglasses in cloth shopping bags, they all still need homes.  And even though the kitchen is together, the concept of making yet another mess in the place is daunting.

But this recipe, oh it was worth it.  It solves the ever present problem - what to do with leftover french fries?  This has been floating around in my head ever since a ladies beach weekend when we were all making breakfast after wine and barbecue the night before.  Some of the ladies had brought home their leftovers, including fries and delectably smoked meat, and wanted to put it in their breakfast.  The fries didn't turn out as hoped and the idea of fry-based hash popped into my head to solve the problem (and has been floating around ever since...).

The worst part about leftover fries is how soggy they are, so I thought I would use rendered bacon fat to bring them back to life.  After cutting them into home fry sized pieces, I added them to a pan of onions and bell peppers also cooked in the bacon fat.  After the fries had been revived I added super spicy salsa, avocados, the crisped bacon, and a little cheddar cheese.  Topped with a sunny-side egg with a delicious runny yolk, this breakfast will cure anything that ails you!

Ps Ladies, this recipe serves two so it would be perfect to seal the deal with that new guy the first morning he stays over (get it, girl).  This is my answer to engagement chicken, the "be my boyfriend" breakfast.

This week's hosts for the linky party are:

Tracy at Busy Vegetarian Mom

Robyn at Robyn's View

Angie at A lil Country Sugar   

Sarah at Everything in the Kitchen Sink

Michelle at From Calculus to Cupcakes

Marlys at This and That

Lois at Walking on Sunshine

Lindsey at Family Food Finds  

Cindy at Cindys Recipes and Writings

Keira at Luscious Delights

Tami at Food Forays

R Dawn at Spatulas on Parade

Amber at Mama's Blissful Bites

Ericka at Chef Picky Kid

Mango Lime Salad with Adobo Tilapia

Recently, I made a trip to a salad and sandwich place and had the most addictive mango and lime vinaigrette on a Caribbean chicken salad.  Tangy and sweet with a little herb-y kick, a perfect summer flavor.  Unfortunately, the contents of my salad were mostly limp and flavorless.  The supposedly spicy chicken was tame and it was seriously lacking in avocado, or really anything other than lettuce for that matter.  But that vinaigrette was worth a revisit so I decided to "dress" up the salad!

Using my food processor, I buzzed up a chunked champagne mango with lime zest and juice and a couple cloves of garlic.  Rice wine vinegar was added followed by streaming in olive oil until I got the perfect texture.  Out of the processor, I added some chopped cilantro, cumin, and seasoned with salt and pepper.

For the fish, I just used the spicy adobo sauce from the chipotles in adobo can.  (If you like super spicy, go ahead and mince some of the chipotles and add to the adobo sauce!)  After seasoning with salt and pepper and a shake of ground cumin, I rubbed about a teaspoon of adobo sauce on each filet.  After a quick sear, I flaked the tilapia over spring greens, red bell pepper, cucumbers, and chunked avocados tossed in the mango vinaigrette.  The end result was a great summery salad that I can make for much less at home!

Savory Strata Cupcakes

Cooking for one is annoying.  I love cooking but I don't always love to eat my leftovers and always end up with a fridge full of things I don't know what to do with.  This means things get shoved to the back or I eat weird little meals of everything together.  I definitely needed a solution when I had a loaf of ciabatta, one too many egg cartons, leftover roasted veggies, 1/2 a red onion, and chorizo.  So I made it fun!

Instead of a giant strata (like this one) I made them in muffin molds!  Spread with a mashed avocado and yogurt topper and a few snipped chives, they look like cupcakes with sprinkles!  Best of all, they are in individual portions perfect for lunch boxes.

Next time you've got leftovers, I challenge you to get creative!  Pull out everything you need to use so you can see what you're working with and start brainstorming.  You might surprise yourself!

Pork Roast Pibil: 50 Women Game Changers in Food - #45 Diana Kennedy

Okay, so I've been a bit MIA but all with good reasons.  On May 7, I will officially be done with classes in grad school.  I'm in the throws of finals while finishing up grading for my class I teach and keeping up with my research.  On top of this all?  Signing my first mortgage today!  Oh hayyy grown up . . . sort of.  Cute condo with a gas stove (yesss) in a lovely kitchen, two steps from a metro stop, and a great outdoor space that my kickball team is already reserving for barbecues.  So forgive me in the months leading up to the move for not being too active in the kitchen, I'm going to be on a rampage to cook everything I own before leaving and it probably won't be too blog worthy.

This pork, however, was delicious and definitely blog worthy.  I didn't know too much about Diana Kennedy before this post, or for that matter anything authentically mexican cuisine wise.  I love eating non-tex-mex mexican food in California (ohhh ceviche in Berkeley!), but that was the extent of my knowledge.  Diana Kennedy is referred to the Julia Child of mexican cuisine, amassing a huge wealth of mexican cooking techniques and history over 45 years.  I do not have access to a lot of her typical ingredients, so I decided to take her banana leaf wrapped pork pibil and lightened it up and make it a little more Sarah-friendly.

First, I used a pork roast I found for dirt cheap, both for cost and because I wouldn't know what to do with a 3 pound+ picnic.  I grabbed a can of chipotle in adobo because even after searching in many a spots across DC I couldn't find annatto or dried chiles (any help would be appreciated).  I didn't have banana leaves so I mashed up a little bit of banana for the marinade and wrapped the pork in foil.  I made a quick avocado, cucumber, and mango salsa to cool down the spicy roasted pork for tacos.  Everything can be found in your local grocery store (with a baller ethnic aisle), so get to it!

And here are all of the lovely ladies who also interpreted a Diana Kennedy recipe for the week:
Val - More Than Burnt Toast, Taryn - Have Kitchen Will Feed, Susan - The Spice Garden
Heather - girlichef, Miranda - Mangoes and Chutney, Amrita - Beetles Kitchen Escapades
Mary - One Perfect Bite, Sue - The View from Great Island, Barbara - Movable Feasts
Linda A - There and Back Again, Nancy - Picadillo, Mireya - My Healthy Eating Habits
Veronica - My Catholic Kitchen, Annie - Most Lovely Things, Jeanette - Healthy Living
Claudia - Journey of an Italian Cook, Alyce - More Time at the Table
Kathy - Bakeaway with Me, Martha - Simple Nourished Living, Jill - Saucy Cooks 
Sarah - Everything in the Kitchen Sink

Cilantro Cashew Pesto Crusted Tuna Steaks with Mango Avocado Salsa

If you haven't figured this out yet, I love cilantro.  I feel so sorry for anyone who cannot enjoy cilantro because of that pesky gene!  Its brightness perks up almost any dish, including desert.  Today, I decided to use the power of cilantro in a pesto, used to crust a tuna steak.

To top the tuna, I made a quick salsa with champagne mangos and avocado.  I like to use champagne mangos because I can always tell when they are ripe due to their smaller size and yellow flesh.  I have wasted many a mangos cutting in before they are fully ripe, but never a champagne mango!

This meal was easy to prepare and made me think spring!

Pantry Raid! Corn Soup

Yes, pantry raid!  I'm a huge believer in a well stocked kitchen with versatile options.  I'd like to say it's because I adore cooking, but really it's because I get lazy in the kitchen when I get busy everywhere else.  Cooking always relaxes me, so stocking staples mean I get to eat a home cooked meal without the hassle of grocery shopping without a car.

I have a lot of the typical staples like dried pasta, chicken stock, garlic, red onions, bacon, unsalted butter, an impressive collection of spices and dried herbs, and a smattering of frozen fruits and vegetables.  Some of my other favorites include chipotle in adobo, agave nectar (texture of honey without the domineering flavor), wasabi paste, lemon grass paste, granny smith apples, couscous, arborio rice for risotto, 90 second rice packets, different vinegars like apple cider and balsamic, and half and half or cream.  All of my pantry staples are comforting without being boring, which is imperative for pantry cooking.

My final lab rotation report was due last week, making me a 2nd year PhD student and my fridge very bare.  I've been on a corn and chipotle kick recently, so I decided use my supercool lime green immersion blender to make myself a quick dinner of corn soup.

Roasted Duck Tacos

I came up with this recipe for Cinco de Mayo with Jose Andres and Rick Bayless in mind. Really flavorful and interesting components mixing together to make something even better.  It combines the roasted duck, the summer creamed corn, the onion and apple quick pickle, and a few fun extras