This salad was on the cover of Taste of Home this month, and was contributed by an Austin reader. For the tortilla strips, I just baked some leftover Southwest tortillas that I had from HEB's tortilleria, but you can make your own by slicing some corn or flour tortillas into 1/4" strips, sprinkling them with about some more ancho chili powder, and baking at 350 until they are crisp. (I use a pizza pan with holes for this.)
For the salad, mix all these ingredients together:
2 cups peeled and cubed papaya
1 can of black beans, drained and fully rinsed
1-2 avocados, diced
1 cup corn
1/2 cup golden raisins
2 serrano peppers, seeded and chopped
1/4 cup minced fresh cilantro
1/4 cup orange juice
2 Tbsp. lime juice
1 Tbsp. cider vinegar
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 tsp. ground ancho chili pepper (you may use some of this on the tortillas, or just mix it all in the salad otherwise)
1/4 tsp. sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
A few notes on the ingredients: first off, serrano peppers. Use gloves, or a plastic bag over the hand that holds the peppers, or something. These will burn the hell out of you when you touch your eyes later. With that said, they're not that hot in the salad.
Second, I have had trouble finding ancho chili pepper around here. I bought one dried poblano from the bulk peppers section (in the produce area), pulled it apart and seeded it, and then put it in the food processor. It was not even close to qualifying as "ground" pepper, but it did the job. I'll have to find or order some ground ancho chili powder soon, because I want to make a pork loin with it too.
Another thing to try is dicing the avocado. Don't peel it and try to dice it on a cutting board. It will take forever and won't look nice. Instead, cut it in half and remove the pit by tapping your knife into it longways, then twisting to loosen the pit. Then, just dice it right there in the skin, and use a spoon to scoop it out into the salad bowl. I'd never thought of this until I saw it on a cooking show. Here's a video clip:
No comments:
Post a Comment