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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Cheesy Sausage Dip

This is one of my favorite dips.  I found the recipe in a Schwan’s Catalog.  Although, I don’t use Schwan’s products in this, it turns out great!  This dip is particularly good with slices of a fresh crusty baguette.

Cheesy Sausage Dip-adapted from Schwan’s

Serves 10 appetizer portions

Ingredients:

• 1 pckg. Sweet Italian Sausage
• 4 oz can green chilies, chopped, drained
• 1 cup chopped red peppers (or the roasted ones from a jar are also terrific in this)
• 8 oz softened cream cheese
• 8 oz. sour cream
• 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
• 2 tsp. Creole Seasoning (Konriko Brand is great- see under Products Category)
• 1/4 cup chopped green onions or chives
• To DIP:  1-2 loaves of french baguette or tortilla chips

Directions: Preheat oven to 400F.  Saute and crumble the Italian Sausage until cooked and no longer pink.  Add chilies and bell peppers, cooking 2-3 minutes.  Remove from heat and stir in remaining ingredients, except green onions (and bread of course).  Bake 15-20 minutes. Sprinkle with green onions or chives and serve with sliced bread or tortilla chips.

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