The Yum Yum Factor

I really love the scorching hot, Peruvian, yellow hot pepper called aji amarillo. It really has a unique flavour and the bright yellow colour makes everything it touches look really pretty which, in turn, makes everything it touches taste great. If you look good, you feel good. I was introduced to this spicy little devil by our good friend, the MVP (Most Valuable Peruvian) when he made us papa a la huancaina. I watched him make this very traditional dish for us and, at the time, I was dying a little inside because all I was seeing was a bunch of bland, white food. Boiled, sliced potatoes, sliced hard boiled eggs, a bowl of queso fresco and some milk - omg, how was I going to eat this without making my bad face? The worst part was how exited he was for us to taste  this special dish that he was clearly infusing with unadulterated Peruvian love. He put the cheese, milk and some of these frozen aji amarillo peppers in the blender as he told us that it is virtually impossi...

I like any excuse to make a mexican meal so every fifth of May, we have mexican food. Just like every St Patrick's Day, we have colcannan and Irish beer, although we are all at least half Irish. None of us are Mexican but we really, really like the food. I only celebrate holidays that involve tasty things to eat to be honest. This year, I tried a new method for making pork carnitas but that recipe is going on no reEATS on Monday so I won't share that here but I will show you the other stuff we ate. To go with our carnitas, I made a simple chipotle crema but I used greek yogurt and mayo, a smooth, blended salsa, guacamole and pickled red onions  (which I have shared on this blog before), and some baked corn tortilla chips.

It's time for another tasty grilled cheese sandwich and I was planning to make a brie/green apple/toast sliced almond on brioche but today I want something more savoury. I am just kind of getting into this sandwich thing late in life, never being a sandwich fan in the past. In fact, you could almost say that I didn't believe in sandwiches, unless you were talking a mushy egg salad on white without crusts served at a baby shower. That is barely even a sandwich and it's food that your aunts still make but they seem to be a dying breed. If I attend a shower thrown by young people, it's all dips and flat breads and veggie trays and fancy designer cupcakes. I think I might do a post about those lovely little treats that you only eat at showers thrown by older women and funerals if the funeral has a reception in a church basement afterwards.  One of the few sandwiches I do crave from time to time is a BLT. I didn't think that the crisp iceberg lettuce that wor...

I feel crazy posting a recipe for guacamole because it isn't really a recipe but I am asked for one so many times that I guess it's a useful thing to do. I am also going to share my method for making those pickled red onions that are served all over the Yucatan with many dishes. When Little Shack was about 9, we were in Mexico and he said he hated onions but he ate these pretty pink onions every day because I told them they were cebelloas. I did not lie to my son, it's not my fault that he didn't know that cebello is the spanish word for onion.