Down the Hatch Chili, Corn, and Black Bean Salsa

Still on my Hatch green chili craze! We combined fresh corn, shaved off the cob, Hatch chilies, red bell peppers, onion, and grape seed oil to make this spicy salad.  A few suggestions:  Serve as a side dish, use as a dip with chips, as a topping for Southwestern meat and fish entrees, or serve with tacos or tostadas.   All my favorite guinea pigs gave this a thumbs up!

Ingredients:

3 cups fresh corn cut from the cob

1 diced red bell pepper

3-4 diced and roasted (with skin and insides removed) Hatch chilies*

8 oz. organic black beans, drained

1/2 large onion, diced

2-3 tbsp. grape seed oil

Salt to taste
*Optional- diced avocado

Directions:

Saute' onions until translucent.  Add diced chilies, bell pepper, and corn.  Cook for 5 more minutes.  Add black beans, diced avocado (optional) and salt. 

*So much easier to buy Hatch chilies already roasted and then the skin is easy to peel off.  If you roast them yourself, place under  broiler and blacken both sides.  Remove from the oven and immediately place in Ziploc bag.  Let chilies cool, the remove the skin and insides.

Ancho Salmon with Hatch Chilies

Is it possible to get tired of Hatch green chilies?  Personally, I don't believe it is.

Ingredients and directions:

First brush salmon with grape seed oil.  Then season with ancho chili powder and 2 finely chopped garlic cloves.  Heat grill to medium hot and cook for approx. 3-4 minutes on each side. 

 After turning once, put a slice of Hatch green chili and a little coarse sea salt on top of the salmon. Grill for about 3-4 minutes on each side- turning once.

We decided to grill zucchini with a bit of chili flavoring as well.  Turned out great!

BTW...there is a reason Walmart sells it's "Wild Caught Alaskan Salmon" for SO much less than other grocers!  Guess which salmon came from Walmart?  

I cooked both and to our shock, the Walmart salmon wasn't as bad as we thought it would be but it wasn't as good as the Alaskan Salmon from Costco.  

Did you know??? Alaska has a law that forbids fish farms so any fish caught in Alaska is wild caught!

Vegan Tomato Basil Bisque

Tomato Basil Bisque?  Really?  It's 104 degrees out there!   It just sounded good...

Cashews replace the cream in this recipe.  It is still rich, but there is NO cholesterol in this recipe so it is very heart healthy!

Ingredients:
1 cup raw cashews
1 cup water
3 large tomatoes, coarsely chopped
1/2 coarsely chopped onion
1 large carrot, peeled and sliced
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 cup chopped basil
1 cup vegetable broth
2 tbsps. balsamic vinaigrette
Salt/Pepper to taste

Directions:
Boil cashews until water is almost gone. Sauté tomatoes, onion, garlic, carrots, balsamic dressing on stovetop for 15 minutes.  Add boiled cashews, then puree in food processor or super blender with 1 cup vegetable broth. Season with salt and pepper, garnish with basil.

Super blenders such as Blendtec or Vitamix are optimal for pureed soup recipes.

Hatch Green Chili Wrapped Mahi-Mahi

Just back from a quick trip to the White Mountains and stayed here!! How about this for a cozy cabin in the woods?  It rained a LOT and being as rain starved as I am, felt incredibly blessed by it. 

As we wandered through the little town of Pinetop, AZ,  we drifted toward an incredible aroma which turned out to be Hatch chilies roasting in a rotating drum (I'm sure it has a name and is specifically made to roast chilies) and we bought several pounds.  Now I'm on a mission to see how many yummy ways I can cook them.

So...last night I seasoned Mahi-Mahi filets,wrapped them in a big old Hatch chili, then baked them.  Yum! It isn't the prettiest dish I've ever done, but wow!  Such a great taste!  I served them with a salad and corn on the cob.

Ingredients:
2 Mahi-Mahi filets
1- 2 tbsp. taco or chili flavoring (I like Arizona Dreaming from Pensey's Spices-website below)
2 tsps grape seed oil
3-4  roasted Hatch green chilies
Salt to taste

Directions:
Purchase the chilies already roasted!  They are in season right now and it will save you a lot of work.  If you want to roast them yourself, set your oven to broil and blacken both sides of the chilies.  Remove from the oven and immediately place into a sealed plastic bag.  After the chilies cool, the skin is easy to peel off.

Cut the chilies lengthwise, then remove the stem and insides.

Cut fish lengthwise in half. Brush with oil, then season with flavoring.  Wrap the Hatch chilies around the fish, place in a baking dish and cook at 375 for 15 minutes or until the fish is flaky, but not dry. I recommend not salting the fish until after it is cooked- a lot depends on the kind of flavoring you use.


http://www.penzeys.com/