Diablo Verde A New Take On Cilantro

Cilantro is one of the key elements and flavors in Mexican and southwest cuisine. Now there's a new sauce that highlights its' flavor ratcheted up with some heat Diablo Verde, This amazing sauce has an amazing story.

It all started with Luke Johannson , the middle son of 3 Son Foods has spent five years of his young life fundraising for the International Rhino Foundation. He used his birthday money, always asking friends and family to donate to this  very worthy cause. He wanted to raise more funds so he sold his mom's creamy cilantro sauce to teachers, friends and neighbors. It was a huge hit. It gained in popularity as the family sold it to local stores and at farmer's markets. It won several awards. Luke and his older brother Ayden, and their younger brother George handle everything , from marketing to packaging. Here's the mind blowing part. Ayden s just seventeen while Luke is fifteen. George is twelve! These young men have the where with all and passion to  make 2 Sons Foods the powerhouse in the salsa industry. The salsa comes in three strengths - mild, medium and hot. It's their mother's recipe of cilantro, lime juice and buttermilk,

I love the creaminess of the sauce - along with the reason it was started. Being an animal rights advocate , the Johannson brothers' passion to save rhinos struck a chord with me. Diablo Verde was a fun dip with tortilla dip, but I also used it in a burrito filling.

It started with tomatoes, and peppers chopped.

I used three tomatoes and five small sweet peppers.

I wanted to get Morningstar Farm chicken strips but couldn't find them at my local 

Shop Rite. I found these instead.It's Don Lee plant based burgers and I cubed it. It looked like pancetta or guanciale.

Everything was sauteed in Bertoli olive oil and had a liberal sprinkle of onion powder. I then added two heaping tablespoons of Diablo Verde and cooked on a medium flame.

I then dampened tortillas and microwaved for forty seconds . The filling was put in them,

Definitely add Diablo Verde to any burrito or taco filling. It works well with chicken but I can see slathering this on burgers for a zesty bite. It would also be good added to chicken or turkey chili. It can be found in HEB grocery stores throughout the Austen Texas area or at their website.

Diablo Verde  should be on your summer radar.It's an excellent for tortilla chips but great in cooking and on grilled meats and veggies. Try it today not only for yourself but to save rhinos too.

Home Cures

Home curing is starting to become popular again. Many home chefs are discovering what their ancestors loved - deliciously cured meats and fish with unique flavor.The best part of curing is that it's so simple .Even novice home chefs can try their hand at and get good results.

Ian Fisher wrote about it as he also tried his hand at this ancient method in today's New York Times Food section. Curing is one of the oldest food preparations, beginning with the ancients and the first uses of salting and smoking. Every culture had some type of cured meat from the indigenous Plains tribes to the ancients,Greeks, Romans, Spaniards and Persians.Curing can range from simple to labor intensive and highly elaborate. There are all sorts of gadgets to create charcuterie or salumeria level meats. For those considering it, remember you'll have to humidifiers, grinders slicers, casing and pH readers. Some home curers even go as far as building their own drying rooms.It's a hobby that can quickly take over a person's life much like canning. Like canning there are caveats. There have to be precautions since it's basically rot that causes curing,Without any proper ones, salmonella can set in. A former chef at Chez Panisse and an early advocate of home curing Paul Bertolli offers this advice. Leave the more complicated processes to the pros.Beginners should buy his book Cooking By Hand to learn simple curing (although his cured salamis can be had at Whole Foods). He learned how to cure by observing his Italian born grandparents curing cold cuts in their Berkeley California home.

Mr Fisher went the simple route with curing, using the simplest method - salt.Using it draws the rot sucking the moisture out as well as concentrating flavor.This process also allows added flavors to infuse into the meat. This way home curers can add favorite spices to make every piece of cured meat unique,.Many home curers use a variety of different herbs such as fennel and clove as well as nutmeg, juniper thyme and bay leaf.. Garlic can also be used along with onion flakes.Mr Fisher's favorite,the Roman guanciale or pig's cheek, one of the main ingredients in pasta carbonara is one of those cured meats delicately spiced for flavor.Garlic , rosemary and coriander is mixed with salt, pepper and sugar and then rubbed over the cheek.It's then popped into a Ziploc bag for just three days. it canbe roasted right away or cured  in a drying space. such as a fireplace Mr Fisher also has dried meats in his. Three weeks later he had the perfect cured meat, tough and dry on the outside, with meat encased in an almost buttery fat.His next project was bacon, made from the pig's belly and cured with salt sugar and maple syrup. He moved on to lox , salmon cured with horseradish and surprisingly beets.The result was a flavorful treat ,perfect with bagels and cream cheese of course.

Home cured meats and fish are true delights that any home chef can make. The recipe is simple enough to make delicious maple bacon or variations of salami It's worth the effort because the end result is flavor packed slices of cold cuts..