Condiment

Corn Esquites Salad with Avocado (Mexican Roasted Corn Salad)

September 13, 2012 by The Partial Ingredients

When I came across the recipe for corn esquites salad I took one look at it and knew I had to give it a try. This salad is basically Mexican elote which is roasted corn on the cob seasoned with cayenne, butter, mayonnaise, and cotija cheese. The corn in this recipe is cut off the cob and pan roasted until the kernels char and caramelize. Then the corn is mixed with the elote ingredients, garlic, lime, jalapeno, and cilantro. I decided to kick it up a notch and add sliced tomatoes and avocado to the salad. It was so tasty! The combination of ingredients was sweet and spicy from the corn and jalapenos yet creamy and tangy from the lime juice and cotija cheese. It ended up being the perfect topping for tacos!

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Hummus

September 6, 2012 by The Partial Ingredients

Hummus is one of those foods that is easy to pick up at a grocery store and not really give it a second thought. That’s what I did for a long time until I decided to explore Lebanese food a little more. Years ago, my family would get take-out from a local Lebanese deli and since then I have loved that food. Since I had been craving Lebanese food I decided to make my own version of the deli’s menu.

Hummus is so simple; I couldn’t believe I had never made it before! All you need is a blender or food processor, 2 cans of chickpeas, tahini, garlic and lemon juice. Tahini is just a paste of ground sesame seeds and can be found at asian stores or whole foods. Now that I have made hummus it would be tough to go back to store-bought!

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Sambal Oelek (Indonesian Red Chili Paste)

August 31, 2012 by The Partial Ingredients

Chili pastes are probably my favorite condiment so I knew once I read about Sambal Oelek I had to try it. I really enjoyed the Thai Red Curry Paste I made a while back as well as my usual go tos, Moroccan Harissa and Korean Gochujang. I was looking forward to trying out a new chili paste and thankfully this new one did not disappoint in the least! Sambal Oelek is a Southeast Asian chili paste that varies from country to country but generally consists of red chilies, shallots, ginger, garlic, lime and lemongrass. The mixture is then ground up and can be added to soups, noodle dishes, meat marinades, etc. The paste was very spicy but had wonderful flavor. I loved the combination of the sweet, spicy and citrusy flavors. I have a feeling this will go well with a lot of different dishes!

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Chipotle Cherry Salsa

June 23, 2012 by The Partial Ingredients

I recently came across a recipe for chipotle cherry salsa and I was automatically intrigued. The combination of sweet, spicy and smoky made me so excited to give it a try! The only time consuming part was removing the pits from four cups of cherries. It turned out to be well worth it as the salsa was everything I thought it would be: smoky/spicy from the chipotle and sweet and fruity from the cherries. There’s also a hint of balsamic vinegar that adds another dimension to the salsa. It was a combination that worked out great for the Steak Tacos.

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Nuoc Cham (Vietnamese Dipping Sauce)

June 2, 2012 by The Partial Ingredients

Before making this recipe, I questioned using fish sauce in a way that didn’t involve heating it up before eating. I had never eaten fish sauce “raw” but I thought I would give this recipe a shot. Nuoc Cham is a simple dipping sauce made with chilis, garlic, lime juice and of course fish sauce. When all of those ingredients combine it results in a surprisingly mild sauce (and no food poisoning!). It was perfect for the grilled lemongrass chicken and I bet it would be great with spring rolls too.

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Cashew Butter Dipping Sauce

June 1, 2012 by The Partial Ingredients

I came across a recipe for this Vietnamese-style cashew dipping sauce over at Steamy Kitchen. It looked awesome so I knew I had to give it a try. I ended up doing a few things differently from the original recipe but it turned out really well! You could easily change the sauce’s flavor by using peanut butter to use with other recipes. I used chili oil and sriracha to change things up a bit and I thought it tasted great! My favorite part was the combination of the garlic and hoisin sauce with the cashew butter. It was a match made in heaven!

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Olive and Caper Tapenade

May 25, 2012 by The Partial Ingredients

Tapenade is a ground mixture of olives, capers, and garlic. The ingredients are mixed together with olive oil until they form a paste. I thought tapenade was an Italian food but it turns out it comes from southern France. Sometimes anchovy paste and herbs are added to it as well depending on the region. Usually it’s served on bread or eaten as a condiment but I thought it would be great on a sandwich. I really liked the flavors of the tapenade and it was even better on the Grilled Eggplant Panini.

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Black Bean and Sweet Corn Salsa

May 21, 2012 by The Partial Ingredients

There’s this great Mexican restaurant nearby that serves black bean salsa with corn chips before the main course. I have been wanting to recreate this salsa because it’s hard to stop eating it. The salsa is easy to throw together and has great flavor. It works nicely as a condiment for chips or in tacos, burritos, tostadas, etc. The spiciness can be dialed down by adding fewer jalapenos and cayenne or increased by adding serrano peppers which are quite a bit spicier. The corn provides an element of sweetness and the white and green onions a good amount of texture and crunch. I think the recreation of the restaurant’s salsa was a success because once again it was hard to put the bowl down and save room for dinner!

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Irish Coleslaw

May 5, 2012 by The Partial Ingredients

This Irish styled coleslaw is a simple vinaigrette based mixture of cabbage, apples, chives, and carrots. The vinaigrette is composed of rapeseed oil, cider vinegar, grainy Irish mustard and sugar. It’s an easy process of grating the ingredients and tossing them in the vinaigrette. The result is fresh with flavors of sweetness and tartness from the apples and vinegar. I’ve always wanted to try coleslaw without mayo and I really enjoyed it. It’s a lot less heavy than mayonnaise based coleslaw. It worked really nicely as an accompaniment for my Corned Beef on Rye sandwich.

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Pickled Red Onion and Cucumber Relish

May 1, 2012 by The Partial Ingredients

This recipe was inspired by the Mexican pickled red onions that I had made for the Cochinita Pibil Tacos. This time I wanted to try a Korean/tex-mex fusion so I experimented with the ingredients and came up with a cucumber and red onion relish marinated in rice vinegar and apple cider vinegar. The relish was pretty bitter from the vinegars so I mellowed it with honey. Then I added the zest and juice of a lime which really added a nice touch to the relish. It turns out that it’s surprisingly easy to pickle veggies. I let the veggies sit in the vinegar for a couple hours and they came out just a little bit pickled with lots of flavor from the vinegar and lime. The result was a great condiment for the Korean Grilled Chicken Burritos.

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