Flank Steak with Blistered Tomatillo Salsa

For the longest time I did not think I liked tomatillos, and not because I didn't like the taste.  They're annoying because you have to take the shell off of them, and they're sticky.  Great reasons, right?

Well, luckily, I've been forcing myself to get over this and do some cooking with them recently which has lead to some pretty awesome results.  For this dinner I wanted something with a bit of heat and flavor to go with strip steak so I fired up the oven to make a Blistered Tomatillo Salsa.

Blistered Tomatillo Salsa
10 tomatillos (husks removed)
8 cloves garlic (add less if you don't have a garlic obsession like me, add more if you are afraid of vampires)
1/2 small yellow onion (peeled and halved)
2 serrano peppers
1 lime
1 avocado
Salt and Pepper

Preheat oven to 400F.  Put the tomatillos, garlic, onion and peppers on a tray and into the oven they go.  They will need to roast for about 20 - 30 minutes, but check every five minutes or so (flip after ten) and remove the individual items as they finish roasting (garlic should be golden and soft, everything else should have a bit of a char on it and also be soft).

You'll want to bring the veggies to room temp, and while this is happening you can decide how much heat you want the salsa to have.  Remove the stems from the peppers no matter what, but then choose to remove some or all of the seeds to bring down the heat (this can be easily done by cutting the peppers lengthwise and using a spoon to scrape them out).

Transfer the room temp veggies (plus any liquid that accumulated in your roasting pan) to your vitamix (or blender) and then add the avocado and the juice of the lime.  Add salt and pepper to taste and then blend until smooth.  Serve and enjoy!

Blistered (my mouth) salsa with steak and sweet potato puree

For this dinner I decided that I wanted to throw a curveball to a somewhat basic combination of sweet potato puree and steak.  I made a fairly basic sweet potato puree and served sliced grilled steak over the top of that.  But the part of this dinner that really lit it up was the salsa.

Blister (my mouth) salsa
10 Cherry Tomatoes
1/2 red onion (quartered)
2 large jalapenos
6 garlic cloves

Pre-heat an oven to 425F (I use my counter-top for this) and wash all the veggies.  Put the onion and the jalapenos on the pan and into the oven once pre-heated. Cook for about 10 minutes and then flip the jalapenos and onion and then put the tomatoes on the pan.  After 10 minutes add the garlic.  Continue checking the veg until it is all shriveled and the garlic is soft (if the garlic begins to blacken pull it out).

Allow the veggies to cool for about 10 minutes before the next step.  If you want to take a little of the heat out of the salsa, cut a slit into the slides of the jalapenos and remove the seeds (discarding them).  Remove the back most part of the jalapenos and then roughly chop all of the veggies before mixing them well in a bowl and then spooning on top of the food of your choice, enjoy!

Lately it's been corporate by day & night ...

The last few days have been pretty hectic getting ready for a workout next week, so while that has not prevented me from cooking, it has put a damper on my posting ability.  This is going to be a bit of a quick post, but I thought I'd catch up on the last couple of nights' dinners while I have a few minutes between meetings.

Tuesday night I decided to try something a little new, a buffalo flat iron steak.  I marinated it in Stubs Steakhouse Marinade overnight and then grilled it.

I served the steak sliced over black beans and rice and topped it with grilled red onion and sliced avocado.  I served a salad on the side.

Wednesday night we went back to an old favorite ... stuffed peppers.  Usually I don't break this dish out until the farmer's market opens and I can go get nice big local sweet & spicy peppers, but I decided to use some bell peppers to make this work instead.

For the stuffing I mixed in some of the leftover rice and beans from the night before with de-cased cilantro chicken sausages and some shredded cheese.  I topped & deseeded the peppers, stuffed with the mixture and then baked them on 425F for about 40 minutes, turning a few times to make sure that all sides blistered a bit.  With about 5 minutes to go I put some shredded cheese on top of each and let it melt.  I topped the peppers with avocado salsa & served with quesadillas and salad.

Quick avocado salsa

1 avocado (medium)

15 cherry tomatoes

1/2 lime

1/2 red onion (small)

1 hot pepper

I rough chopped all ingredients but the lime and added to a tupperware container, squeezing the lime juice over.  A good shake of the container mixed the ingredients and then I let sit in the fridge while I cooked dinner.  One more shake to ensure everything was mixed well and it was ready to go.