Avocado-Mango Salsa Stack

My husband and I celebrated our 19th Anniversary in March and we went to eat at Peohe’s in San Diego.  I bought their appetizer stack, which had three layers of goodness.  The bottom layer had diced avocado, then a layer of Mango Salsa and the top layer had seasoned crab meat (Pictured below).  They had a lovely sauce drizzled around it and served them with toasted cheese toasts.  It was a meal I ate with my eyes first.  Their presentation was amazing!

I didn’t want to go quite as elaborate on the quick snack I made before I had to head out to my son’s baseball game, but I did want to make mango salsa.  I pulled out my Weber’s Big Book of Grilling and found a mango salsa recipe that I used as a guide for creating it.  The ingredients were simple: diced fresh mango, minced red onion, minced jalapeno pepper, mint, lime juice and salt. Easy enough.  After I made it, I remembered that I had fresh avocados, so I thought I would make a mini stacks and serve them with tortilla chips.  I used a simple biscuit cutter to make the forms.  Using a whole avocado per form, and slightly pressing the chopped avocado down a little, but not squishing it into a paste, just enough to have them hold together, and added a squeeze of lime juice.  Then I slid the biscuit cutter up the stack of avocado and put in my layer of mango salsa, then sliding the biscuit cutter off carefully leaving a mini tower in tact.  Two of my children loved it – the oldest preferred to eat just avocado.  I showed the picture to a friend at the baseball game and she said (in a most loving way possible): “You suck!” Apparently the only thing she had eaten that day was a bean burrito!  Sorry Erin! 🙂

Mango Salsa:

3 mangoes, peeled and diced

1/2 cup finely chopped red onion

1/2 jalapeno pepper, seeds and white ribs removed and minced

1 Tbsp fresh mint, chopped (or cilantro would be fine here)

juice of one lime

pinch of kosher salt

Preparation:

Combine the ingredients in a medium bowl and stir. You could easily change this recipe up by adding something like red bell peppers for color.

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Pictured below:  Peohe’s Avocado, Mango, Crab stack

Peohe’s Avocado, Mango, Crab Appetizer

 

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Deviled Eggs

I never seem to be able to keep deviled eggs around the house very long.  They used to last a lot longer, but now my children have discovered them to be very good as well.  They are the ultimate picnic/ party food and are easy to make.

Of course, making deviled eggs starts with hard boiled eggs which leaves many people scratching their heads with the questions: “How long do I boil them? How do I prevent that green ring around the yolk?”  Let me answer that.  I learned these two simple tips from watching the Food Network.

Fill a pot with tap water.  Carefully place your eggs in the water. The water should cover the eggs. Bring the water to boil, when the eggs start gently knocking against each other, turn the burner off and cover the pot with a tight fitting lid.  Set the timer for 10 minutes.  When the time is up, fill a large bowl with some water and add ice to it.  Place the boiled eggs in the icy water (this prevents the browning process around the yolk).

Deviled Eggs

Yield: 24 deviled eggs

• 12 eggs, hard boiled
• 3/4 cup mayonnaise
• 1 tsp Dijon mustard
• Mc Cormick’s Salad Supreme (Paprika is nice too)

Directions:

Cut the hard boiled eggs in half length wise – tip to rounded end (to boil: place in a pot and cover with tap water, bring to boil, turn off heat, cover pot with a lid, let sit 10 minutes.  Cool eggs by shocking them in ice water to stop cooking).  Carefully remove the yolks into a small bowl.  Mash the yolks with a fork to crumble them.  Add the teaspoon of Dijon mustard and mayonnaise (1/4 cup at a time) and stir into the yolk to make them creamy.  When the egg yolks are nice and creamy.  Put them into a pastry bag and put a nice tip on the end for piping (if you don’t have a pastry bag, you can use any food storage bag, just cut a small corner off so you can pipe the yolk into the egg white shell.  Sprinkle with seasoning (I like to use Mc Cormick’s Salad Supreme- you can usually find it in the spice section of your supermarket). Arrange on a platter and enjoy.

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Southwest Egg Rolls YUMM!

Southwest Egg Rolls and Avocado Ranch Sauce

I love these wonderful egg rolls.  I don’t remember what website I first found it or I would give them credit.  I have made a few changes to the recipe.  I substituted roasted peppers from the jar for regular red peppers and increased the cheese from 8 oz.  This would be great at a party for a snack or to munch on while watching a game. (I was born without the “sports gene” so I do not grasp that activity!  But I love food so don’t hate me!)

Southwest Egg Rolls

Serves 6-8

For the Egg Rolls:

• 2 c. chicken, cooked and cubed
• 1 Tbsp.vegetable oil
• 1/2 c. chopped roasted red bell peppers (jar)
• 1/2 tsp. fresh garlic, chopped fine
• 2 green onions, minced
• 12 oz. can cooked kernel corn, drained
• 12 oz. can cooked black beans, drained
• 10 oz. bag frozen spinach, thawed and drained
• 2 Tbsp. jalapeño peppers, drained, chopped fine
• 1  taco seasoning envelope
• 12 oz. shredded Monterey Jack cheese
• 10-16  7”- flour tortillas

For the Sauce

• 1 each ripe avocado, mashed
• 1 each 8 oz. ranch dressing

For the Egg Rolls :
Heat the vegetable oil in a pan over medium high heat. Add the red pepper, onion and garlic and cook until tender. Add the cooked chicken, corn, black beans, spinach, Jalapeños and taco seasoning to the pan. Cook for another 4 minutes, stirring so that the spinach becomes mixed evenly into the rest of the ingredients. Remove the mixture from the heat and stir in the cheese until it is melted.

Wrap the tortillas in a moist cloth and microwave them on high for 1 minute or until they become hot and soft. Spoon about 1/2 cup of the mixture into the center of the tortilla. Dampen the edges of the tortilla slightly so that it will seal well, then fold in the ends and roll the tortilla up tightly. Secure the ends with a toothpick. Repeat the procedure with the remaining ingredients.

Heat 6 cups of vegetable oil in a deep soup pot to 375. This takes about 5 minutes over high heat if you do not have a thermometer. Lower the egg rolls a few at a time and deep-fry them until they are golden brown on the outside. Remove them with a slotted spoon and drain them on paper towels.

To serve, slice each egg roll diagonally in half and serve on a plate around a pool of the avocado sauce.

For the Sauce:
Prepare the avocado ranch sauce by mixing the two ingredients together in a small bowl or with an immersion blender.

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