Salpicon ... Mimi Style!

Today's recipe is not mine.... My friend Mimi! She is a wonderful Mexican cook! And I love her wittiness and style! I am so happy I found her blog! If you know how to speak Spanish I am sure you will love it too: Me gusta cocinar pero odio lavar los platos (I love cooking but I hate washing the dishes) and she actually repeatedly refers to herself as "The lazy cook" ... So anyway.... Don't get discouraged if you don't speak Spanish! I am here to translate! And that's exactly what I am doing today... I am bringing one of her recipes to all of you! in English!

Today it will be "Salpicon" and it's delicious! as I've already explained (probably with all my recipes) each Mexican dish has its original foundation and flavors... BUT EVERY SINGLE FAMILY has their own version of it! Recipes in Mexico are usually not very "precise" they are transmitted from the older generations to the younger ones based on experience and it's all about your senses... When your "abuelita" or "mamá" (granny or mom) tell you how to prepare a dish they usually use phrases like "When it looks like this, when it tastes like this, when it smells like this and even when it sounds like this or that" so... Mexican cooking is all about feeling and experiencing through your very own palate, hands, eyes and ears! not so much about 1/2 tsp. of this or that....

Of course, we, modern cooks and bloggers are trying to put it all in a way where most people would be able to reproduce it... So ... here goes Mimi's version of Salpicon! I hope you enjoy it:

Ingredients:

• 1/2 pound skirt steak (cooked until tender in water with some salt and a big piece of onion and then thinly shred it with the help of a fork)
• 1 carrot thinly sliced (julienne)
• 1 potato cut into julienne
• 1 serrano pepper (roasted directly over the fire on your top stove, on the grill or on a flat pan if you don't have "Fire on your stove" and it's electric) make sure the pepper gets slightly charred - then thinly slice it -
• 1/2 white onion (sliced in circles)
• a little bit of vinegar (here we go, you see? It all depends on your taste, it's just for dressing)
• olive oil (once again, it's for dressing, so just eye ball it!)
• dried oregano (remember it has a strong flavor so it won't be more than 1 tsp)
• Salt and pepper (to taste)
• The ingredients above MAKE the salpicon but to eat it you will also need:
• Thinly sliced lettuce
• tostadas
• 1 avocado

Directions:
Mix the shredded meat, carrots, potatoes, serrano (green) pepper and the onion, mix the olive oil and vinegar separately (it would be about 1/3 cup) and add it to the meat and the other ingredients, season with a little bit of oregano, salt and black pepper to taste.

Then place it all over the tostadas and top it with lettuce and avocado (season again with a little bit of salt)

Enjoy!!!

Thank you for sharing this recipe with all of us Mimi!!!

Paloma.

How to keep "avocado" good for a longer time

I've heard many people say they don't usually buy avocados because they go bad real quick... and it's true! Avocados are AWESOME but their "good life time" is really short... besides, you can't eat them green (they are horrible, fibrous and bland), you can't eat them too ripe because they are even worse! (mushy, smelly, dark... awful!) so, when you have a good avocado in your hands, do you have to eat it all right away? no... These are some tips to have good avocados for a longer time.

- If you are buying avocados for "the week or two weeks" buy them a little green, hard in the outside, black in color with some "greenish" on the peel and keep those that you are planning on using sooner (like in the next two days) outside the refrigerator so they can ripe faster.

- Those that you are going to be using during those next 7, 10 days or so just put in the fridge, just the way they are and as you are going to use them just either take them out of the fridge if they are not ready yet and leave them outside for the day or use the ones that are ready. (To know when an avocado is ready click here

- If you cut an avocado and only used half of it or even 1/4 of it DON'T WORRY you can still use the rest later, there is a way to keep it from getting dark and mushy what you need to do is to wrap the "leftover" avocado (don't remove the peel) with a dry paper towel (as tight as possible) and then wrap it with saran wrap and/or put it in a ziploc bag (after wrapping it with the paper towel) and try to get the air out of the bag as much as possible. Put the bag in the refrigerator and you can use it the next day or the next one.

Leaving the "seed" in the avocado is really optional, there is nothing "magical" about the seed, avocados get dark in color when their "flesh" gets in contact with oxygen, so yes, the seed helps to keep it "nice" but just for a little bit and just in the areas in direct contact with it. You could even use "a rock" instead of the seed and it would "work the same way" (Note! I am not suggesting using rocks! It's just to explain how it works -or doesn't-).

If there was any "dark" color in the "leftover avocado" that you wrapped and put in the refrigerator for later, you can just gently (and easily) scrape it off with a knife, it truly is just "oxidized avocado" on the very top (from having contact with air) but the rest is all GOOD!

Don't be afraid of "buying avocados" they are an AWESOME fruit! and they go well with mostly everything! You can even just slice them and add some salt and enjoy their goodness! Good fats, tons of potassium and calcium! They are just great!

Paloma.