Restaurant Style Salsa

Everyone in our house loves Mexican food. One of our favorite Mexican restaurants is called Efrain’s. It is about 7 - 8 minute drive from our house, is always packed, and has the best Blue Corn Enchiladas I have ever tasted. They have a pretty good selection of vegetarian friendly entrees and an excellent house margarita!

Like most Mexican restaurants in the U.S., they serve chips and salsa as soon as they seat you. My kids love this salsa. I have tried many store-bought versions, but nothing comes close to the salsa served in Mexican restaurants.

Then, one day, a few years ago, I stumbled upon this recipe from The Pioneer Woman Cooks. It looked easy and seemed to be exactly what I was looking for. I tried it and was sold!

I have made this several times since then and it has never failed. I made very slight modifications to the original recipe, so that it is a bit more spicy.

Serve this at your next party and let me know what you think.

Restaurant Style Salsa Prep. time: 10 minutes Serves: About 3 - 4 Recipe courtesy: The Pioneer Woman Cooks Here’s what you need: 1 10 oz. can Ro-Tel (original) 1 14 oz. can organic diced tomatoes, with juice 1 - 2 jalapenos, diced ¼ onion, diced 1 clove garlic, minced salt to taste pinch of sugar ¼ tsp. ground cumin ½ cup chopped cilantro juice of 1 lime Here's how I made it: Add all the ingredients to the bowl of a food processor.  Cover and pulse a few times till you get the desired consistency. I like mine without any chunks. Note: You can store this in the refrigerator for a few days, but in my house, it gets done quickly. If you have fresh tomatoes from your garden, use those instead of canned tomatoes. It adds more flavor to the salsa! Serve with tortilla chips, or as part of a Taco Bar.

Tomato Rice with left over rice and sprouted masoor dal

We’ve been really busy, with beginning of school year, soccer tryouts, new schedules, and finishing up minor projects that we started over summer.

I had my back-to-school night on Janmashtami.  I rushed home from school and painted little Krishna feet in my house, but had to rush back to meet the parents of my students this year.  I did not get home till around 8:30 p.m.  So my family decided to do a take-out from the local Indian restaurant.

Tajmahal, the closest Indian restaurant to our house, is also one of our favorites.  While the fare is similar to so many other north Indian restaurants everywhere, Ali knows us well and customizes our order to suit our palate.  This makes the food seem more homemade.  He also gives my husband a bottle of Indian beer on the house, every time.  I am told that he does this with all his regulars.

Anyway, each entrée comes with basmati rice.  He always gives us too much rice and this sits in our fridge for about a week or so, before we realize it is there.  This time, I remembered that we had about 3 cups of cooked rice and used it to make tomato rice.

 

Here is what you need:

• 2 – 3 cups cooked rice (leftovers work really well)
• 2 Tbsp. oil
• 1 tsp. cumin seeds
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• ½ medium red onion, slivered
• few curry leaves
• 1 green chili, diced
• 2 roma tomatoes, chopped
• ½ cup masoor dal, sprouted
• ¼ tsp. turmeric
• 1 tsp. cumin powder
• 1 tsp. coriander powder
• ½ tsp. chili powder
• salt to taste

 Note:  You may use 2 tsp. rasam powder instead of the cumin and coriander powder 

 

Here is how I made it:

1. Heat oil in a pan.  Add cumin seeds. 
2. When the cumin seeds change color, add garlic and fry for about 30 seconds, till the garlic gets golden brown.  Add curry leaves, onions, and green chilies.
3. Fry onions on medium heat for a couple of minutes.  Add tomatoes.
4. Cover and cook on medium heat till the tomatoes get pulpy.  Add sprouted masoor dal.
5. Cover and cook on low heat till the dal is cooked (about 8 minutes).  Add all the spice powders and salt.  Mix well.
6. Add the rice, making sure that the grains are separate.  Mix well.
7. Heat on low flame till for a few minutes till the rice is mixed well and heated through.

Serve with raita and salad