salsa

Mango Salsa

August 26, 2015 by Asharae Leave a Comment

You guys. Where did summer go? Somehow we’re here, at the end of August, and my Facebook feed is filled with photos of kids going off to their first day of school. I was shocked a few weeks ago when we were walking around Target and found that the whole back corner of the store was filled with school supplies. Between our traveling and shooting weddings every weekend this summer, the months have slipped past me and I barely noticed. If I woke up tomorrow and someone told me it was still April, I would honestly believe them.

We’re traveling in and around Chicago the next couple weeks and the chill in the air here is much more noticeable than it was back in North Carolina. There’s a distinct fall-ish feel which I really do love. That doesn’t mean that I’m ready to relinquish summer foods though. This recipe for mango salsa is one of our favorites to make in the summertime! It’s actually a recipe that my husband Tim created when we lived in Seattle several years ago. It was the perfect colorful dish to combat the dreary summer we had while we lived there.

This salsa goes great with chips, fish tacos, on top of a quesadilla, or even over grilled chicken. Try adding more jalapeño to give it more of a kick, and feel free to adjust the lime, sweet chili sauce, and cilantro to taste.

Mango Salsa

Tim Kroll

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Ingredients

1 large ripe mango pitted, peel removed, diced
2 roma tomatoes diced
1/4 c red onion diced
1 small jalapeño seeds removed (optional), diced
1 Tbs sweet chili sauce
1/2 tsp salt
Juice of 1/2 lime
1 Tbs fresh cilantro chopped

Instructions

Combine all ingredients in a large bowl, let rest in the fridge for at least 30 minutes before serving.
Enjoy with chips, on fish tacos, or over a quesadilla!

Roasted Tomato Salsa

September 4, 2014 by Asharae Leave a Comment

Our garden is currently exploding with tomatoes – anyone want some? A couple weeks ago we had an abundance of cucumbers, but this week it’s tomatoes. Obviously that means I should share another salsa recipe with you. I mean, pico de gallo is great for any occasion, but if you want to put a little extra something special into your salsa, roasting your tomatoes is a great option!

Tomatillos are also coming into season, so if you’re really wanting to think outside the box, grab a few of those and add them to this recipe. And a side note – tomatillos are super easy to grow – at least in our hot southern climate. Last year we grew two tomatillo plants (you have to grow at least two so they can cross-pollinate – oh the things you learn when growing your own food!) They’re fun plants to have in your garden because the fruits grow in pretty little paper husks – once they fill the husk and start to break out of it, you know they’re ready! We still have a freezer full of tomatillos from last year, so we decided not to grow any this time around.

Speaking of an abundance of veggies – one of the things I’ve always loved about living in the country is how many people have backyard gardens, and how willing they are to share their produce. “Eating local” and “growing organic” isn’t a newfound fad around here, it’s a way of life. I remember when I was a kid we always had people from the church my dad pastors dropping off bags of tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, and peaches on our front doorstep. Sometimes we’d look in the bag and wonder “what exactly is that vegetable?” Inevitably the mystery veggie would make its way into some soup or casserole. Another story for another day.

Recently a sweet lady in our church offered up an open invitation to my mom to stop by her house and pick pears whenever she wanted. My mom stopped by Dixie’s house to take a few pears off her hands and called me as she was leaving, “I ended up with more fruits and veggies than I know what to do with! I’m bringing some by your house!” When she arrived she brought in a bag of pears and a bag of tomatoes and exclaimed “I’m not done yet – come help me get stuff out of the car!” Two bell peppers, three banana peppers, seven jalapeños, two honeydew, one huge watermelon, five eggplant, twenty or thirty something pears, and two ginormous bags full of tomatoes later, we’d split her bounty down the middle. All that being said – many thanks to Dixie for the gorgeous yellow tomatoes below! We used them for everything from bruschetta to pasta sauce to this delicious salsa.

Roasted Tomato Salsa

Asharae Kroll

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Prep Time 10 mins

Cook Time 30 mins

Total Time 40 mins

Ingredients

2-3 c of cherry tomatoes halved
Optional 3-4 large tomatillos, halved (6-7 if using small tomatillos like I did)
2 or more jalapeños halved lengthwise and the seeds removed if you want a milder salsa
Juice from 1-2 large limes
1/2 - 1 c loosely packed cilantro leaves
Salt and pepper to taste
1 clove garlic minced
1/4 tsp cumin
3/4 medium tomatoes
1/4 c white onion finely diced

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees
Grease a baking sheet lined with aluminum foil and place tomatoes, tomatillos (if using), and jalapeños, cut side down on the pan. (I didn't do that for the photos, but your veggies will stick to the pan later if you do it the other way!)
Roast in a 400 degree oven for 15 minutes. Remove pan from oven, carefully flip all the veggies so they're now cut side up, and roast for about 15 more minutes, or until roasted and delicious looking. Keep an eye on them during the last half of roasting to be sure they don't burn - char is good, burn is bad. Let cool slightly before adding to the rest of the ingredients.
While the veggies are roasting, you can begin to assemble the rest of your ingredients.
Place roasted veggies, lime, cilantro, salt and pepper, garlic, cumin, and fresh tomatoes in a food processor or blender and blend to desired consistency. If your salsa is too thick, you can always add another tomato or two to add more juice back in. Adjust to taste.
For a little more texture in my salsa, I stir the onion in at the very end. If you want a smoother salsa, you're welcome to blend that in as well.

Notes

For roasting, I used a combination of Sweet 100 cherry tomatoes and yellow tomatoes from a sweet lady in our church (not sure of the variety). To add some juice back into the salsa when blending, I used a combination of Black Krim, Better Boy, and Roma tomatoes. Obviously you're welcome to use whatever variety you have on hand - the flavor and color of your salsa will vary depending on what you use.

Pico de Gallo and some Mid-Week Inspiration

August 6, 2014 by Asharae 5 Comments

Every once in a while I like to share a little mid-week inspiration here on the blog. I find it so helpful to take a step back and look at the things that have been inspiring my days lately. These are a few of the things I’ve been enjoying – I highly recommend checking them all out!

The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook. This is the first cookbook I’ve ever read cover-to-cover. My dear friend Paige gifted it to me for my birthday back in May, and I spend the last few weeks moseying through each page, devouring each of Deb’s stories and recipes. Most nights I’d sit in bed and read through a few recipes until I got so hungry I either had to get up and grab a snack or make myself go to sleep.

Two of the weddings we’ve photographed this summer even used The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook as their guestbooks – an idea that I’m obsessed with now. “Sprinkle a little love throughout our guest book and we’ll add it to our next meal!” Adorable right?

Although I feel that this cookbook is filled with more wintery comfort-food recipes than summer ones, we’ve enjoyed making several of Deb’s recipes. So far my favorites have included her corn risotto-stuffed poblano peppers, baked ranchero eggs, and big cluster maple granola. So good.

Courtney and Ryan Thomas’s Story. These dear friends of ours have been on quite the whirlwind journey of letting go of their own plans in exchange for the Lord’s. Their story of adoption is truly beautiful – you can read it in their own words over at their blog. They adopted their daughter Nara just over a year ago and recently have felt called to return to her home country of Ethiopia and serve as full-time missionaries there. They’re currently on a three week “trial-run” trip to work with the ministries they’d be serving in and see how Nara does being back in Ethiopia.

I love these sweet words they wrote on their blog several months ago, “We know that God is already working on sweet Nara’s heart and preparing her for what is to come. We have prayed big things over her from the start and Courtney has said from the beginning that she wants Nara to be a little Esther. We even considered Esther as a middle name for Nara. Esther, like Nara, was adopted. I’m sure her life was hard and considering her circumstances she probably felt as if there was no purpose or calling on her life. However, it turns out, as a result of the events that God sovereignly orchestrated in Esther’s life, she had the chance to save her people. We want the same for Nara. Before we even brought Nara home we both decided that we did not want to “Americanize” Nara, but to prepare her to one day go back and help the people of Ethiopia. We just didn’t realize it would be this soon!”

We’ve been filming bits of Courtney, Ryan, and Nara’s story throughout the past couple years, not knowing what the final film would look like. We now have the opportunity to tell their story in an even more professional way through a film contest that The Music Bed is putting on. We would LOVE your votes to help us tell their story more fully through free music licenses, gear rentals, and sound equipment! If Courtney and Ryan discern that full-time ministry is what they’re being called to, we’d love to share their story in a way that would help them raise support in the future.

Female Entrepreneur Association. I’ve been recommending this site to all my friends who are starting up their own businesses. Their mission is to inspire and empower entrepreneurial women around the world. First of all, Carrie has the most fabulous accent, so she’s fun to listen to. She posts inspiration each week – anything from how to set goals and create a successful business manifesto, to overcoming your fears, to creating social media strategies. If you sign up for her newsletter, she’ll send the blog posts right to your inbox – I’ve found that super helpful for my scatterbrained self.

Pinterest. On what days does Pinterest not inspire me? If you don’t enjoy using Pinterest, I’ll either accuse you of not being a “visual” person or try to convince you that you’re not following the right people. They’ve smartened up their site in the last several months so that finding people who pin things you’d find interesting or inspiring is much much simpler!

When you click on a pin, try scrolling down below it. Have you discovered the “Also on these boards” and “Related pins” sections? If not, then you’re missing out! I also like to click on one of the “Pins from..” profiles at the top of my own home page. From there I explore who those people “Pin from” – that’s a great way to find new favorites! Take some time to explore and find new boards or people that inspire you. This board is my personal favorite this week. I just love all the colors and textures – reminds me of summer!

Speaking of summer. How about a perfect summertime recipe? The tomatoes in our garden are producing like crazy right now, so it’s the perfect excuse to make loads of pico de gallo, bruschetta, or caprese salad.

This recipe is really just a guideline (you know how I roll). You can add more or less of any ingredient to suit your preferences, and you’re welcome to leave out the jalapeño entirely if you don’t like spicy salsa.

Pico de Gallo

Asharae Kroll

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Ingredients

3 medium tomatoes
1/4 or a red onion
1 jalapeño diced (seeds removed for mild or with some seeds to add heat)
Handful of cilantro leaves finely chopped
Juice of 1 lime
1/8 tsp kosher salt
Dash of pepper
Dash of garlic powder

Instructions

Toss all ingredients in a bowl.
Let rest in the fridge or at room temperature for at least 15 minutes (more if you can stand to wait) to let the flavors get happy.
Enjoy with chips, on tacos or quesadillas, over eggs, or straight out of the bowl.

Roasted Corn Salsa, Two Ways

July 25, 2014 by Asharae 2 Comments

This summer I was determined to find the perfect roasted corn salsa recipe. And, my friends, I thought I’d done it. I photographed this fabulous salsa recipe, was all excited to share it with you, and then a few weeks later – I tried another corn salsa recipe. And it was better. Way better in my opinion. So much better, in fact, that I figured I’d skip photographing it altogether and just share both recipes with you now! You can decide for yourself which one you like better – I determined that I prefer roasted bell peppers in my corn salsa instead of tomatoes. But if you’re a huge fan of tomatoes, you should probably test out both recipes. Just sayin’.

There are two different methods I’ll share for roasting corn, and they’re interchangeable depending on how much time you have, how much effort you’re willing to spend, and whether or not you have a grill. I prefer the slightly smoky flavor the grill gives the corn, but if you’re short on energy and/or a grill, feel free to roast those bad boys in the oven.

Roasted Corn Salsa, With Tomatoes

Adapted from Minimalist Baker

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Prep Time 20 mins

Cook Time 20 mins

Total Time 40 mins

Servings 3 -4

Ingredients

4 ears of corn shucked and silks removed
Olive oil
1/4 of a red onion finely diced
2 medium tomatoes seeded and diced
1 jalapeño seeded and diced (I leave a few seeds to give the salsa a little heat)
Handful of cilantro finely chopped
Juice of 1-2 limes
Salt and Pepper to taste

Instructions

Place corn on a rimmed baking sheet that is lined with tin foil (for easier cleanup). Drizzle with olive oil and salt and pepper. Broil in the oven 15-20 minutes, or until corn kernels begin to char. Check every few minutes and use a set of tongs to turn the ears of corn as needed. Remove from the oven and let cool. Use a knife to carefully cut the kernels away from the cob. I like to stand each ear up on its end in a large bowl, I hold onto the top of the ear of corn, and use a knife to slice the kernels away - that way my fingers are safe and the kernels fall into the bowl, rather than fly all over the counter.
Combine the rest of the ingredients and let rest for 30 minutes or so in the fridge for the flavors to combine.

Roasted Corn Salsa, With Roasted Bell Peppers

Adapted from Simply Scratch

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Ingredients

4 Ears of corn shucked and silks removed
Olive oil
1/2 orange bell pepper seeds removed
1/2 red bell pepper seeds removed
1/4 cup red onion finely diced
1/4 cup fresh cilantro chopped
1 Tbs pickled or fresh jalapeño diced (optional)
Juice of 1 lime
1/2 tsp Kosher salt plus more to taste

Instructions

Brush each ear of corn and bell pepper half with olive oil and heat on the grill, turning occasionally until the kernels are charred to your liking and the bell pepper skins are charred as well. Remove from the grill and let cool. Carefully cut the kernels away from each ear of corn (see note on previous recipe for a helpful way to do that).
Use your fingers to peel the charred skin off each bell pepper (it doesn't have to be perfect - I leave some blackened bits for color). Dice the roasted bell peppers and combine with the rest of the ingredients.
Let the salsa rest in the fridge for 30 min or so for the flavors to get happy.