Un-Recipe Files - Mango with Lime and Chile Salt

Perfect Pairing: Vegetable Peeler

So there have been a few changes recently in the Lam fam!  At the end of July we moved into our new home in Bettendorf, Iowa.   We were in transition for a few months until we closed on our new home.  We absolutely loved living with my parents at the lake (AKA: my favorite place on earth).  It was great to have time to relax after moving from Chicago and before moving into a new home.  Friends, moving is stressful!  Fortunately we had an army of helpers that actually made moving fun!

Chris and I are loving our new home and neighborhood.  I miss Chicago restaurants and our friends there, but that is about it!  Moving into a new state/home may not be the biggest news for us…. We are expecting a little one in January!

We are both over the moon excited to grow our family and become parents.  Fortunately I have felt great and have really enjoyed pregnancy.  Now that we are moved in and the final box has been emptied we can focus on all things baby!  I am truly pinching myself over all our blessings.  God is good!

One of the most common questions I get is if I am having any odd food cravings or aversions.  While I haven’t been dipping pickles in Nutella there are some foods that speak to me.  In fact, they call out to me.  I am loving cereal, fruit, anything pickled and carbs in general.  The only aversion so far has been certain vegetables.  I will love them one day and detest them the next day.  The pregnant body/mind is a fascinating thing. 

In addition to green grapes and blueberries I have been eating a lot of mangos.  Fortunately they have been on sale at our local grocery store so I can feel good about adding them to the cart every trip.  My mango obsession actually started before I was pregnant.  During our vacation to Cabo this year I discovered the Mango Man.  I kept seeing people eating mangos on a stick or in a bowl with something red sprinkled on top.  My curiosity got the best of me one day when he was on the beach in front of our hotel and I ponied up the cash to try one.  

Holy smokes.  Game changer.  Mango Man would peel the mango with lightning speed, chop it with a machete, squeeze fresh lime juice on top and sprinkle with chile lime salt.  The whole thing happened in about 15 seconds.  I quite literally chased him down the beach the rest of the trip. 

I started doing my own version of this once I was back home.  Sometimes I use a chile lime salt (like this) and sometimes I use my wedding Sriracha Salt.  You can also just use a sprinkle of good kosher.  The combination of the sweet ripe mango, tangy lime and spicy salt is perfection.  The perfect pairing, my friends!  I had always scored and peeled the skin off mango in sections but after seeing Mango Man’s methods I started using my trusty veggie peeler and was amazed with the results.

Eat and enjoy!!

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Special, Special K Bars

Perfect Pairing:  Pantry clean-out

Way back when I was in college and living in the sorority we had a very exciting week once a semester called study treat week.  I am not sure study treat week helped us study for finals, but I am pretty sure it helped keep on that college “insulation” that tends to happen.  These were not healthy treats.  They usually included pizza rolls and other frozen novelties as well as our house mom’s famous scotcharoos.  It didn’t help the whole insulation issue when they were put out late at night.  Recipe for trouble, all around.

If you talk to any of my sisters about the food at the house I think ALL of them would mention the scotcharoos.  They would also probably also mention the super weird jalapeño chicken that inexplicably had insane amounts of cream sauce and Fritos.  College was healthy.  Anyway, the scotcharoos.  They were ridiculous.  These Special, Special K Bars remind me of those college treats.  You noticed the extra special in the name right?   These bars are extra special because I added coconut and toasted pecans.  Side note, when I was a little girl I named my cat Special.  Poor cat. 

I was on a mission to clean out the pantry when I made these, so when I ran out of Special K I added some rice cereal.  Feel free to do that as well!  Just another texture in the mix.  If you don't have pecans, use whatever nuts you have in your pantry.  Everything is topped with chocolate and peanut butter.  Theyyyyyy didn’t suck. 

This is a great recipe to use the “sticky ingredient trick” I mentioned on this Payday Bar recipe post.

One year ago on Perfecting the Pairing:  Burger Sauce

Two years ago on Perfecting the Pairing: Chilaquiles

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Salted Caramel Cookie Bars

Perfect Pairing: Quality sea salt

I am going to keep this short and sweet. 

These cookie bars are as good and gooey as they look.  How can you go wrong? 

 Cookies + Caramel + Sea Salt = Winner

 Who was the genius that started adding sea salt to dessert? 

The Perfect Pairing for these delights is quality sea salt.  It seems weird, but good sea salt is not very salty, not like table salt.  Sea salt actually comes from evaporated seawater and is minimally processed, so the flavor is natural and subtle.  Table salt, or iodized salt, is more intense and can taste like chemicals.  You don’t want Chemical Caramel Cookie Bars, do you?

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Sweet Potato Strudel with Brown Butter

Perfect Pairing:  Dino:  The Essential Dean Martin Album

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas.  I definitely did!  My family had so much fun together opening gifts, enjoying good food and just being together.  I am sad the festivities are almost over.  We still have a couple of days together and I plan on making the most of it!

Are you browning your butter?  If not, you should start.  It was only recently that I realized how awesome brown butter tastes.  I had heard chefs refer to it on cooking shows, but had never really done anything with it myself.  Side note…. I have a weird addiction to any competitive cooking show.  They should start some sort of fantasy competitive cooking league.  I would be a killer.  Anyway, brown butter seemed very fancy to me, but honestly, there is nothing fancy about it.  It does not require any special equipment or ingredients.  By browning the butter the flavor completely changes and it goes from being plain old butter to this complex, nutty, savory delight. 

This strudel takes full advantage of the toasty butter but is also slightly sweet because of the dried cranberries, raisins, carrots, and sweet potatoes.  Everything is rolled up in layers of phyllo dough.  I know some people are a little intimidated by phyllo dough because it is fragile and comes with care instructions.  While it is important to keep it covered with a damp towel it is surprisingly easy to work with.  Don’t get flustered if it bunches up in one area or breaks, no one will know.  That is the beauty of layers, everything just melds together! 

I wish I had a better picture of the finished product.  This was served at the weenie roast and it was full-on darkness by the time I was ready to photograph it.  You’ll just have to trust me on how attractive and delicious it is.  The flaky crust melts in your mouth and the creamy filling has just the right amount of sweet and savory.  It was also surprisingly good leftover. 

The Perfect Pairing for this strudel is Dino: The Essential Dean Martin album.  When I think of strudel, phyllo dough, and brown butter I think of something very fancy.  This recipe is actually just good food.  That is kind of like Dino.  He has this air of sophistication around him but his music is relatable and fun.  I love this album.  It has so many great songs and is the perfect thing to play during a dinner party.  That voice is something else.

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Flatbreads with Thyme, Honey and Sea Salt

Perfect Pairing:  Maldon Sea Salt

I have been on a thyme kick lately.  There is something about this herb that has been calling out to me for the last couple of months.  I have been adding it to soups, salads, and whatever else I happen to be making.  I think the recipe I posted for oven roasted mushroom tapas is what got me hooked on fresh thyme.  When I saw a recipe that added fresh thyme to homemade flatbreads along with honey, salt, and cheese…. Well, it was something I needed to try immediately.

These flatbreads could almost be called a cracker because they are so thin and crispy.  The combination of honey, cheese and salt is crazy good.   These would be the perfect thing to serve at a cocktail party or alongside your favorite soup recipe.  If you left off the thyme I bet these flatbreads would also be pretty amazing with a little spread of Nutella.  Let's be honest.... what is not improved by Nutella?

When you are rolling out the flatbreads they will seem a little oily but after they bake they are crispy and light.  I used BellaVitano Gold Reserve Cheese, which was lovely, but you could use Parmesan, Romano or Asiago cheese.

The Perfect Pairing for these flatbreads is Maldon Sea Salt.  I have the Maldon Sea Salt Flakes and I am a huge fan.  I always use it as a finishing salt rather than cooking with it.  The flakes are much larger than usual kosher salt but they are not overwhelming because they have a delicate flavor. 

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Sweet and Salty Munch

Perfect Pairing: Games and gatherings

 

This Sweet and Salty Munch has evolved from a recipe my mom received from a friend two decades ago.  It is the perfect combination of salty, sweet, savory and crunchy.  It makes a huge batch, travels easily and is a crowd favorite.  You can adapt it to include a variety of ingredients.

The basic idea is to combine about 30 to 40 cups of dry ingredients from the cereal and snack aisles.  We like a combination of Wheat Chex, pretzels, Fritos, dry roasted peanuts, almonds, Honey Nut Cheerios, Honey Nut Chex, and popcorn.  The key is to use the honey nut versions of Cheerios and Chex.  That was not part of the original recipe but the sweetness is a great combination with the salty items.  We have also learned that self-popped popcorn does not hold up well, you want to use the pre-popped variety.  It is in a bag in the chip aisle.

It is a simple process to make the munch.  You combine all the dry ingredients into two roasting pans.  You can use the cheap foil pans from the grocery store if you don’t have an official roasting pan.  Combine the melted butter and seasonings and divide evenly over the pans.  The recipe calls for salt but we found that you do not need to add any salt if using pretzels, they make it salty enough.  Then you just bake it in a low oven, stir it a couple of times and you are all done!

 

The Perfect Pairings for this recipe are games and gatherings.  My family is a big game-playing group.  We love card games, some of us more than others.  I think our number one favorite game is Catch Phrase, the electronic version.  This game is the best because everyone can relax on the couch, there are no extra pieces and we ALWAYS laugh…. A lot.  We usually play guys against girls which results in a lot of trash talk.  We bring it on vacation since it does not take up much space.  Word of advice if you do this, remove the batteries.  The beeping can cause some awkward questions at airport security.

I think this recipe would be a hit at your next gathering.  I would love to hear how you make it your own!

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