Puréed sweet roots

Some might say, meh, baby food.  Well, that is a well fed baby!

Things you will need:

• 1-2 mixing bowls
• 1 large mixing bowl and a strainer than can fit inside of it
• Stock pot with lid

Ingredients:

• 1 13oz (roughly 1 1/2 cup) can of coconut cream (milk is fine if you can't find cream)
• 2 cups of sweet-ish white wine (chardonnay, sauvignon blanc, etc)
• Juice of 4-6 oranges
• The washed and rinsed roots; volume wise this should be about 8-10 cups when cubed:
• 3-4 medium parsnips
• 4-6 medium carrots
• 1-2 medium sweet potatoes
• Stock (chicken or veggie) 4-6 cups, enough to cover the cubed roots
• 1 large onion
• 1 tbs salt
• 1 tbs pepper
• 1 tsp fennel seed
• 1 tsp turmeric
• 1-2 tbs oil

Prep and process:

• Starting with onions again:
• Give the onion something between a rough chop and dice
• Heat pot on med high heat, add oil once hot
• Once oil is hot, add onion and stir
• After a couple of minutes add the salt, pepper, turmeric and fennel seed and stir
• After another minutes or so, add the 1st cup of white wine and 2/3 of the oranges (juice)
• Cube the roots:
• Peel the sweet taters and cut into roughly 1" cubes
• I tend not to peel the carrots, cut into roughly the same sized chunks
• I tend not to peel the parsnips, cut into cubes
• Simmer away:
• Add the cubed stuff to the pot
• Add cup 2 of wine
• Add enough stock so that the roots are nearly covered
• Cover and once boiling reduce to just above simmering
• Once a fork can easily smash each type of root, they are done, this can be 20-30 minutes
• Strain the roots: be sure you can remove the strainer from the large bowl as we want that juice!

• Note: I prefer an immersion blender as you can adjust fluid levels easily in the pot, and not make another mess in the stand blender, thus that is how am I writing it.  If using a stand blender, you may need to do this in batches based on volume of your blender.

• Add the coconut cream to the pot
• Add the strained roots to the pot and stir for a minute until blended
• Add 1 cup of the reserve stock/juice to the mixture and stir: You don't want the roots covered, unless you want something more like soup. 
• Begin to slowly blend the ingredients, if to you can tell that it is way too dry, add 1/2 stock and blend again.
• To finish, simply find the consistency you want with the fluid level and stir in the remaining fresh orange juice at the end.

Cheers! 

Salsa rojo

This is a generic version as with each variety of tomato and pepper used, the flavor will vary.  Enjoy!

Things you will need:

• Stock pot and lid
• 3-4 mixing bowls
• Gas or charcoal grill (for burning pepper skins)
• Stand blender or immersion blender
• large sheet pan

Ingredients:

• Roma tomatoes: 10-12
• 1 large or 2 medium onions
• 6-10 garlic cloves
• 3-4 large poblano peppers
• 2-4 hatch or other green pepper
• 1-2 jalapenos
• 1 tbbs salt
• 1 tbbs pepper (black or if you prefer a chili pepper or powder, substitute and crank up the heat)
• 2-3 tbs ground cumin
• 3/4 - 1 cup stock (chicken or veggie)
• 2-3 limes
• 2-3 tbsp oil (avocado or olive)

Prep and process:

• Preheat oven to 375
• Add 2 tbsp oil to sheet pan and make a continuous layer over sheet pan
• Cut the tomatoes into quarters lengthwise and place skin side down
• Toss salt and pepper to coat the tomatoes
• Place in oven, middle shelf you will check them in 25-30 minutes
• Onion and garlic:
• Cut the onions in half, then 1/4" slices, toss in a mixing bowl
• Peel the garlic cloves, toss into the same mixing bowl
• Add 1 tbs oil, a bit of salt and pepper to the bowl
• Add 2 tbs cumin to the bowl and toss all ingredients
• Peppers:
• Wash and rinse peppers
• Have grill preheated if using charcoal or wood: place peppers on grill surface with temps between 400-500 degrees F
• Turn every few minutes until most of all the skins are blackened, looking quite burned
• Place in mixing bowl and cover lightly with foil or towel once all skins done, but don't forget them and let the peppers explode :)
• Check the oven:
• The tomatoes should be looking dry, and the ones on the edge of the pan starting to blacken at the base ... perfect, now add the onions and garlic mixture all over the sheet pan, make sure to get some stuff near the corners
• Place back in the oven for another 15 or so minutes
• Pepper time, again:
• Once cool enough for you to touch (or if in a hurry get some decent rubber kitchen gloves and get to work) begin to peel and de-seed each pepper
• This takes time and patience
• So be patient, as you have a section of pepper that has nearly no skin and no seeds, toss into the stock pot.
• Continue until all peppers are done: if 15 minutes has gone by and you are not done with peppers, please pull the tomatoes, onions and garlic out and toss into stock pot; then finsih the peppers
• The finish:
• Once all peppers, and tomato stuff are in the pot, add just enough stock so that you can still clearly see most of ingredients
• Bring to simmer, mostly cover and reduce for 15-30 minutes
• Once you have reduced so there is less fluid than when you started, blend with either an immersion blender or stand blender until smooth
• Stir in the lime juice and enjoy

Cheers!