Nopalitos Salad

From Nepalitos Salad

Ok, guys, it's been a couple weeks, but I'm back with a new quick and easy recipe to try. It's another chop 'n' mix type of side dish. I made fajitas again tonight, but wanted something exciting to put on top.

Nopales is the name of a cactus and when you chop them up into tiny pieces, you call them by their cuter name, nopalitos. It has a slimy texture that some might find off-putting, but a quick rinse in a strainer takes care of that. Check the Mexican food aisle at your grocer and I bet you'll find nopalitos in a jar or can.

Here are the ingredients:

From Nepalitos Salad

1 jar of RINSED nopalitos (2.99), 2-3 avocados (1.50), 3 tomatoes , 1 small red onion (0.25), 2 cloves of garlic(0.04), 1 jalapeño (0.05), a cup of cilantro (0.50), and the juice of 1-2 limes (0.16). That's $5.49 for enough salad to put on a few pounds of steak fajitas. Play with the proportions to your taste.

There isn't really much to tell you other than to rinse the nopalitos before you chop all of the ingredients and mix them together. It's like a chunky guacamole with pickled cactus.

From Nepalitos Salad

Asparagus and Poblano Cream Sauce over Salmon

With Cinco de Mayo coming up, Mexican food has been on my mind more than normal. Something I've never cooked with is poblano peppers, so I decided to change that. To get you excited, here is what I made:

From Asparagus and Poblano Cream Sauce over Salmon

Here is what you need to get started:

From Asparagus and Poblano Cream Sauce over Salmon

4 poblano peppers (0.88), 3 cloves of garlic (0.06), 2/3 of a cup of cream (0.60), 1 bunch of asparagus (3.59), and 3 salmon fillets (6.10 - farm raised, I know, yuck). This made 3 servings with the fish, with enough sauce/soup leftover for use in several more applications. That's a total of 11.23, or 3.74 per meal, with extra sauce to spare!

This recipe calls for a small amount of dairy, but it is far from the amounts I was using last week. I feel much better about the amount that is consumed with each serving of this recipe. Ok, with that off of my chest, let's get to it.

There aren't many ingredients, but there are a few steps. Before getting started, set aside a plastic container big enough to fit the poblanos in, a hand blender or food processor, aluminum foil, and some paper towels.

The first step is to cut the poblano peppers in half. Take out the seeds and the stem. Flatten all of the peppers out on to your broiler pan. Use the aluminum foil to make cleanup easier. Broil those for 10 minutes.

From Asparagus and Poblano Cream Sauce over Salmon

While the peppers are broiling, cut up the asparagus into fourths. Throw away the root of the asparagus. It's too tough to use. Throw all of the asparagus into a pot of boiling water.

From Asparagus and Poblano Cream Sauce over Salmon

From Asparagus and Poblano Cream Sauce over Salmon

From Asparagus and Poblano Cream Sauce over Salmon

By now, the peppers should be finishing up in the broiler. Pull them out and place them into your plastic container while they are hot. Set that container in the fridge and the peppers will steam themselves while you work on the asparagus.

From Asparagus and Poblano Cream Sauce over Salmon

From Asparagus and Poblano Cream Sauce over Salmon

After the asparagus has boiled for about 10 minutes, it should be fairly tender. Separate the tips (they're the best part!) and put the stalks into a container for blending. Make a puree and set that aside.

From Asparagus and Poblano Cream Sauce over Salmon

When the peppers have had a while to steam, pull them out of the refrigerator and you should be able to pull the skin off. It will feel like someone wrapped the pepper in cellophane. Blend the peppers up into a puree.

From Asparagus and Poblano Cream Sauce over Salmon

From Asparagus and Poblano Cream Sauce over Salmon

Combine the asparagus puree, poblano puree, 2-3 cloves of garlic, and 2/3 of a cup of cream into a pot. I allowed that to heat up to help the flavors blend.

From Asparagus and Poblano Cream Sauce over Salmon

The last part is easy. I cooked a salmon fillet in butter until it had a nice crust on each side and topped it off with some of the asparagus sauce and a few of the tips as a garnish. As always add salt and pepper to your taste.

My sauce was almost like a soup, so I may have some like that. I may also combine some with some frozen spinach I boiled to make a creamy spinach side dish. It seems like a versatile sauce that has a lot of veggies inside, so feel good about putting it on everything!

The batch I made produced A LOT of sauce, so if you're making this for yourself, you can cut this recipe in half or even by a fourth.

From Asparagus and Poblano Cream Sauce over Salmon

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Lime Steak Fajita Wraps, Pico de Gallo, and Guacamole

Here is tonight's dinner:

From Lime skirt steak, pico, and guac

Hungry? Thought so. Here's what you need:

From Lime skirt steak, pico, and guac

Starting at 9 o'clock: 1/2 a red onion (0.30), 8 sprigs of cilantro (0.08), 3 tomatoes (1.81), 1 jalapeño (0.09), 2 limes (0.50), 2 cloves of garlic (0.05), an avocado (0.79), a head of Boston lettuce (0.79), and 2 lbs of skirt steak (7.70) - Total costs and per serving costs are at the end

There is some logic to the order of doing things here, so follow me on this. We'll start with the pico de gallo since it gains flavor as it sits. Pico is a really basic chop and mix recipe. First, slice the tomatoes and squeeze out the seeds and juicy center. Once the juice is gone, chop them up.

From Lime skirt steak, pico, and guac

Now chop the jalapeño (seed it - check the chili post for how to do this), onions, and cilantro. Use all of the cilantro. The stems have a ton of flavor that most people miss out on. You just need to chop it up well.

From Lime skirt steak, pico, and guac

Don't mix them yet, just let them sit in a container layered. Next, grate the garlic on top and add a pinch of salt. Here's what you should have:

From Lime skirt steak, pico, and guac

Throw your steak on the grill at this point. We had our butcher tenderize the meat twice. It can be tough if you don't. Marinating is also an option - try Mexican beer, squeezed lime juice, squeezed orange juice, chili powder, and cumin. We did that a long time ago and got good results. This time we were in too much of a rush. Make sure your grill is nice and hot so that you can get a nice sear on the meat.

From Lime skirt steak, pico, and guac

Sprinkle on salt, pepper, and some garlic powder if you like those flavors. While the meat cooks, take your head of Boston lettuce and peel back each layer. Each head of lettuce should yield about a dozen usable wraps. I use Boston lettuce instead of iceberg because it works so much better for wraps. Iceberg tends to tear and retain too much water. Rinse those off and set them aside.

From Lime skirt steak, pico, and guac

From Lime skirt steak, pico, and guac

At this point the steak should be ready to flip and then pull off the grill. Set the steak aside and let it rest for a few minutes. It's important to not cut the meat right away. Cutting too soon lets out all the moisture and the meat will be dry and tough.

From Lime skirt steak, pico, and guac

Grab your limes and start grating/zesting them.

From Lime skirt steak, pico, and guac

Only remove the green layer of skin. The white part is too bitter. The two limes should give you a nice line of shavings that would make Tony Montana proud.

From Lime skirt steak, pico, and guac

Slice the meat and sprinkle the zest on top.

From Lime skirt steak, pico, and guac

Roll the limes around on the counter applying firm pressure until they're soft then cut them in half. Rolling them around bursts all of the juice pockets in the lime and helps get more juice out of each piece of fruit. Squeeze the juice into your pico de gallo mix and stir.

From Lime skirt steak, pico, and guac

The beauty of making pico de gallo is that you're only an avocado away from having guacamole. Take a little less than half of the pico and mash it in with an avocado.

From Lime skirt steak, pico, and guac

From Lime skirt steak, pico, and guac

I looks ugly but tastes so good. All that's left to do is plate it all up. Start with a leaf of boston lettuce, add some meat, and top it off with the pico.

From Lime skirt steak, pico, and guac

The total cost of this meal was 12.11. My fiancé and I ate half of it for dinner, meaning we could get 4 meals out of it. My MENSA level math skills tell me that averages out to 3.03 per meal.

Carnitas Wraps

I'm hoping to get a decent number of recipes put up on the site. I'm sort of a cooking novice, but I've learned how to make a few dishes pretty well. One of my favorites and easiest to make is Carnitas. Carnitas is Mexican stewed pork and is perfect for a cheap, convenient paleo meal. I kind of make up the recipe as I go, but here are the basics:

Start with 2-3 lbs of Pork butt or shoulder (they're the same thing) and set it in a crock pot. Next, in a bowl, mix the juice of a couple oranges, a couple tablespoons of cumin, and about a tablespoon of annatto. I didn't know what annatto was two weeks ago. It's a berry that adds a nice sweetness to these types of stewed dishes. A little goes a long way. It can be tough to find, but if your grocer has a decent Mexican spices section, you should be able to find it. Blend those together with a hand blender or whisk. Combine all of that in a crock pot with the meat, a few cloves of garlic and a chopped onion and put it on high for five or six hours. I like to take the lid off after a few hours to let the water evaporate and allow the juices to thicken. It will fall apart after about five hours and that's how you know it's ready.

I'll eat this wrapped up in Boston lettuce. I've found Boston lettuce to be the perfect vessel for almost anything I would normally eat with a tortilla or any other type of bread. I like to make individual bite sized wraps with some tomato, cilanro, lime juice, and my new favorite condiment: Labna. Labna isn't strictly Paleo, but I've found it to be a good alternative to sour cream as it adds the same flavor, but has some healthful probiotic cultures as well. I generally try to keep my dairy extremely limited, but if you like to indulge occasionally, this is one good option.