Category Archives: recipe

My #1 recipe.

This recipe is not my best, nor my favorite, it’s not even a recipe that I have ever used at any restaurant that I’ve owned or worked in.

It’s my #1 because it’s the one that I have made and still make the most, almost every week, sometimes twice a week. There is never a long period of time in which I go without making this recipe and I eat at least 80% of it myself. My daughter tells me that I am addicted, I am not denying her.

This recipe is based on a recipe that I got from my good friend and brother-in-law Dan. I have adapted it into my own, trying different variations, liking most of them. However, I have settled on the variation I like best.

Dan found this recipe online about 25 years ago, it is called “Restaurant Style Salsa”. It is very simple to make, as is my version, really just chop a bunch of ingredients in a food processer for less than a minute and your done.

A photo of the “Restaurant Style Salsa” recipe that Dan passed along to me.

I’ve tried substituting canned fire roasted tomatoes for the canned whole peeled tomatoes, which totally changed the salsa, giving it a strong roasted somewhat smoky flavor, which is nice for a change. I’ve even done half fire roasted and half not, also good.

Another time or two I have substituted chipotle pepper (canned in adobo sauce) for the jalapeno; the chipotles added some nice leathery smoke. If used in a batch that also contained the fire roasted tomatoes the chipotles brought the salsa to another level; very good, but still not my favorite variation.

In addition to those substitutions, I have, at times tried adding grilled/roasted peppers, roasted garlic and/or grilled/caramelized onions to this recipe and it’s top-notch. However, the recipe goes from whirling some stuff in a food processor to having to grill, roast and caramelize. Which can be time consuming endeavors. However, if I were to have one or more of these ingredients ready to go in my fridge, I’d add some, though I probably wouldn’t prep them specifically for this salsa recipe.

The brand of tomatoes also makes a difference, be sure not to use tomatoes packed with basil or San Marzano tomatoes; some brands are packed with heavy puree, don’t use these either, the results are too tomatoey and too thick. One of my favorite brands, especially because it’s local, is Pastene, I don’t use it for my salsa though, it falls under the too tomatoey and too thick category. I do, however, use Pastene for Italian style tomato sauces. I’ve found that the cheap store brands of whole peeled tomatoes, organic or not, are usually best for this recipe.

For me I want to be able to make, and clean up after making this recipe in less than 10 minutes. This is more than doable, I’ve done it in less than 7, and yes I have timed myself.

My “go to” version of this recipe is the recipe that Dan gave me all pumped up. I double the amount of onion and garlic called for in the original recipe. I’ve also at least quadrupled the amounts of all of the spices. And I’ve also added a few ingredients to my version including a very generous amount of freshly ground black pepper, some finely grated carrot, which I love in this recipe, it adds color, texture, sweetness and earthy carrot-ness. On top of that I’ve also added smoked paprika, this adds some deep background smokiness without overpowering the other ingredients.

My pumped-up salsa recipe.

Whether you follow Dan’s “Restaurant Style” or my pumped-up version, the end result will be far superior to any store bought national brand salsa. I find most of them to be too sweet, too cooked, too starchy, too mushy, too cloying and lacking in texture as well as depth of flavor. Overall I think they kind of suck.

Don’t limit your taste enjoyment of this salsa to just a dip for corn chips. It also is great baked with flakey white fish such as cod, haddock, hake or pollack. All you have to do is generously slather the fish with the salsa and bake in a 375 degree oven until the fish is cooked through; depending on the thickness of the fish it could be as quick as 5 minutes or as long as 15 minutes.

It’s also great as a sauce for grilled chicken or pork; I have been known to spoon on top of cooked white rice. It’s a delicious, easy to make addition to anyone’s culinary repertoire.

Doing the Atlantic, Chapter 8, Settling In

Day 3,

Monday, January 31, 2022

26’15.006N 16’44.206W 4:00PM
237nm made good

Last night and today have been much less eventful than the previous 24 hours.

~

Jens is still hanging in the galley, sandwiches for lunch, roasted potatoes, carrots and soy marinated seared pork medallions for dinner last night, yeah, food wise, we are not suffering.

~

During my first watch last night with light wind and flat seas we motor throughout it. The biggest excitement was seeing two fishing boats on the AIS system (Automatic Information System). We could see the lights from one of them, when they came within 1.6 miles of us. I read on my Kindle, looking around, at all of the instruments and the horizon between each chapter. I think John was able to get about 2 hours of sleep, which was great, he has been going strong since long before our departure.

I crashed from 12:45 until 3:45 when I got up to relieve Dennis and Jens for my second watch. When John and I came on deck there was another fishing boat passing 1.2 miles in front of us. Before sunrise, just after 7AM, it was much the same. I read, looked around, John slept, I read some more and looked around. 

Even with full foul weather gear I was surprisingly chilled to the bone. I’m sure the temps were in the low fifties, however, being stagnant, just sitting in one place for several hours, the chill creeps in.

At sun up we shook out the reefs in the main, going from double reefed to full main. Avocet is equipped with the ability to put three reefs in the main, making it smaller or larger to adjust for different wind conditions. With a little bit more wind in the air, we also pulled out the jib. There was enough wind to fill the sails, but not enough to power Avocet more than 3 knots, so we kept the motor running, pushing us along at close to 6 knots.

John enjoying his morning coffee.

Dennis arrived on deck at around 8:30AM with coffee for us. After coffee, we deployed the Whisker Pole, a 5” diameter aluminum pole used to keep the clew of the jib, the lower aft point of a sail, where you want it to be. It is attached to the mast on an up-down adjustable car. At the jib clew there are lines used to adjust the clew of the jib, up, down, forward and aft. The idea is to set it in a position, whereas, even with the pitch and yaw of the boat the jib will remain in a position to best capture the wind.

Sunrise with the whisker pole rigged and ready.

~

While John, Dennis and I were busy on deck Jens prepared breakfast, scrambled eggs with sauteed green peppers and onions, toast, seared leftover meatballs and some jarred Spanish Verde sauce, along with a hit of guava juice.

~

After brushing, flossing and medicating, I hit the V-berth for a needed nap. I woke to the quiet of no engine, the wind had picked up enough for us to be doing better than 5 knots. I also woke to a dressed lunch salad of lettuce, tomatoes, croutons, smoked sockeye salmon, thanks Jens.

National Margarita Day, celebrate with EVOO’s Jalapeno Margarita

evoo circle logo

Thursday, February 22 is National Margarita Day

One of the added benefits from all of the preserving we do at EVOO is we have these great locally sourced in-house-made flavor bombs that we can add to our cocktails.  Our specialty drinks are often flavored with things like apple butter, peach butter, berry jams, preserved cherries and pickles, which we use to flavor a multitude of our specialty drinks. The most popular of these drinks is our Jalapeno Margarita, made simply with just the finest ingredients: Jalapeno Tequila, fresh squeezed lime juice, agave nectar and EVOO’s sweet pickled jalapenos all shaken together with some ice and then strained into a salted rimmed cocktail glass.

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EVOO’s Jalapeno Margarita:

2.5 ounces   Tanteo Jalapeno Tequila

1.5 ounces   fresh squeezed Lime Juice

.5 ounces   Light Agave Nectar

4 each   slices of EVOO’s sweet Pickled Jalapenos, plus 1/2 ts of the Jalapeno Pickle Brine

Shake well with ice, strain into a salted rim cocktail glass, garnish with a few additional slices of jalapenos.

note: most likely you won’t have a jar of EVOO’s jalapenos in your cupboard.  You can substitute your favorite brand; most brands are not sweet, just add an extra squirt of agave nectar if desired.

 

 

Pie in the Sky

Community servings logo

We are proudly baking pies for the twentieth consecutive year in support of Community Servings’ annual fund raiser Pie in the Sky.  Every year since EVOO opened in 1998, we bake 25 to 30 pies, for pick-up a couple of days before Thanksgiving. Many of the areas best restaurants, bakeries and caterers bake a total of 2500 pies to support Community Servings.

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Fredy getting ready to par-bake some of the pie shells

Each pie costs $30, which provides a week’s worth of nutritious home-delivered meals to a Community Servings’ client and a tasty Thanksgiving treat to the buyer.

Pie in the Sky pie box
EVOO’s Sweet Potato Pie

 

Follow this link to find to buy a pie.  https://pieinthesky.org/buyflow/cart.cfm

 

EVOO’s Sweet Potato Pie Recipe

Ingredients:

1 each      pre-baked Pie Shell

¼ cup      Dark Brown Sugar

2 cups      Sweet Potato Purée

(from 3-4 baked sweet potatoes)

2 TB        Unsalted Butter

3 TB        Bourbon

1 TB        Molasses

3 each      Eggs

2 each      Egg Yolks

1 cup       granulated Sugar

½ ts         ground Nutmeg

¼ ts         Salt

1 ts          Vanilla Extract

2/3 cup    Milk

 

Method:

Find your favorite pie shell recipe make and pre-bake it.  Evenly spread the brown sugar inside the pie shell.

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.

Bake the sweet potatoes until cooked, while they are still hot, scoop out the pulp, measure out 2 packed cups. Place the sweet potato pulp in the bowl of a food processor and add the butter, pulse until butter is melted and sweet potatoes are a smooth puree. Add the remaining ingredients, pulse until smooth. Pour the sweet potato mixture into the prepared pie shell. Bake until set 45 minutes – 1 hour, until set.

Cool at room temperature for 2 hours and serve with top quality apple butter and lots of whipped cream.

 

 

Seasonal Fruit Crisp

Blackberry - nectarine crisp with corn crisp

Blackberry – Nectarine Crisp with Sweet Corn Ice Cream

At EVOO we almost always have a fruit crisp on our menu.  Starting in the spring with raspberries usually paired with rhubarb, moving into strawberries, blackberries, cultivated blueberries and then my favorite wild blueberries.  Peaches and nectarines are often in the summer mix of crisps sometimes mixed with berries and at times mixed with basil from our rooftop garden.  Going into autumn we like to make pear filled crisps, some years it’s just pears flavored with a little brandy, as is on our current menu; recipe is below.  Other years we pair the pears with dry fruit such as raisins, currants and / or dry cranberries.  Later into the fall and through the winter we are able to get apples cellared at local farms for use in our apple crisp.

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The recipes for all of the crisps are quite similar; fruit mixed with some sugar and flavors topped with an oatmeal – nut topping, baked and served with our in-house made ice cream.  The ice cream flavors depend on which fruit is filling the crisp.  The berry and stone fruit crisps often get creamy, yet mild flavored ice creams such as vanilla, sour cream, buttermilk or even sweet corn.  The pear crisp that is on our current menu is topped with ginger – brown sugar ice cream and our apple crisp is almost always paired with salted caramel ice cream.

 

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Pear Crisp with Ginger – Brown Sugar Ice Cream

EVOO’s Pear Crisp

Ingredients:

Topping:

¾ cup         Granulated Sugar

¾ cup         Light Brown Sugar

¾ lb           ½” cubed Butter

1½ ts           Vanilla Extract

1½ ts           ground Cinnamon

½ ts            Kosher Salt

3 cups        All Purpose flour

¾ cups       Rolled Oats

1½ cups     toasted slivered Almonds

Filling:

5 cups        peeled, cored, large diced Pears

1 TB           Brandy

2 TB           Lemon Juice

1 ts             Vanilla Extract

1 ts             Ground Cinnamon

1 ts             fresh ground Nutmeg

1/3 cup      Granulated Sugar

1/2 ts                   Kosher Salt

3 TB           Corn Starch

1/8th lb       1/4″ diced Butter

 

Method:

Topping:

In the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment combine the sugar, brown sugar, butter, vanilla extract, cinnamon and salt until smooth and creamy. Add the remaining ingredients and mix until just combined.

Filling:

In a large bowl combine all of the ingredients.

Baking:

Pre-heat oven to 310 degrees. Fill individual portion sized ceramic ramekins with the filling. Place filled ramekins on a sheet pan. Top each ramekin with 1/3 cup of topping. Bake for 25 minutes. Top each crisp with an additional 3TB of topping and bake for an additional 25 minutes. The filling should be bubbling over the sides and the topping nicely browned. Let cool a bit and serve with ice cream.