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TIP OF THE DAY: Hispanic Cheeses With Hot Pepper Mango Salsa

April 23, 2012 at 5:00 am · Filed under Cheese-Yogurt-Dairy, Cinco de Mayo-Dia De Los Muertos

Try slices of queso blanco with a hot mango
salsa as a first course or even for dessert.
Photo courtesy Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board.

   You don’t have to wait for Cinco de Mayo to try Mexican cheeses, but it is one easy way to plan to celebrate the upcoming holiday.

There are fresh and aged Hispanic cheeses. The ones you may be most familiar with are the fresh cheeses:

  • Queso blanco, a snacking and cooking cheese.
  • Queso fresco, a cheese frequently crumbled as a topping or filling in cooked dishes.
  • Panela, a Mexican variation of mozzarella.

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    Check out the different types of Hispanic cheeses. The terms “Hispanic” and “Mexican” are used interchangeably, but “Hispanic” more accurately conveys that the cheeses are used throughout Latin America.

    All cheeses can be made more glamorous with cheese condiments. Among all the different condiments that can be served with Mexican cheese, salsa, not surprisingly, pairs well. A fruit salsa—mango or peach, for example, with cheese—is a spicy alternative to the conventional European fruit-and-cheese plate.

     
    If you don’t want to serve fresh cheese with fruit salsa, put together an assorted plate of Hispanic cheeses and serve it with a variety of fruits, nuts, breads/crackers and cheese condiments.

    If you do want to go the salsa route, make this recipe from the Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board. Wisconsin cheese makers create much of the Hispanic-style cheeses sold in the U.S. A large number of Hispanic cheese makers have moved from Mexico and other Latin American countries to produce the cheeses in Wisconsin.

    RECIPE: QUESO BLANCO WITH MANGO JALAPEÑO SALSA

    Ingredients

    Cool, sweet mango, contrasted with hot jalapeño, adds an exciting kick to Hispanic-style cheeses. During peach season, you can substitute fresh peaches. You can also use strawberries, which are available year-round; fresh blueberries in season; nectarines and plums; even apples and grapes.

  • 2 cups mango, peeled, cored and diced
  • 1/2 cup red bell pepper, diced
  • 1 tablespoon jalapeño chile, seeded and diced
  • 1/4 cup red onion, finely diced
  • 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
  • 1 teaspoon fresh ginger, grated
  • 1/4 cup light brown sugar
  • 1 tablespoon cider vinegar
  • 2 tablespoons orange juice
  • Salt and pepper to taste
  • 1 pounds queso blanco or other Hispanic cheese (allow two one-ounce slices per peson—although some people will beg for more)
  • Optional garnish: cilantro or other green herb
     
    Preparation

    1. COMBINE. Mix all ingredients in mixing bowl and blend.

    2. CHILL. Refrigerate covered for at least 3 hours before serving with cheese. Keep refrigerated for up to four days.

    3. SERVE. For each serving, plate two slices of queso blanco. Serve with a ramekin of salsa and garnish. If you don’t have small ramekins, you can be creative—for example, serve the salsa in hollowed-out lime halves after you’ve squeezed out the juice. The reason it’s better to use a container of some sort is because the liquids in the salsa will run over the plate.

      

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    TIP OF THE DAY: Water In Biodegradable Milk Cartons

    April 22, 2012 at 8:02 am · Filed under Beverages, Tip Of The Day

    For hydration and calorie-saving, water is extremely good for you. But the billions of plastic bottles of water consumed by those who prefer bottled water generates a host of problems, just one of which is landfill.

    According to the Container Recycling Institute, 86% of plastic water bottles used in the U.S. become garbage or litter. Four of every 5 bottles end in landfills, where they will not degrade for 1,000 years.

    Today is the twenty-second Earth Day. The first Earth Day was held on April 22, 1970 (here’s the history). It led to the creation of the United States Environmental Protection Agency, the passage of the Clean Air, Clean Water Act and the Endangered Species Act.

    Twenty-two years later, the need to save the planet is even greater. We’d like to present some facts and propose a solution.

    		 
    How about packaging water in the same coated-paper cartons used for milk and juice? Photo courtesy Icebox.
     

  • Bottled water is growing at the expense of every other beverage category except sports drinks, according to The New York Times. It has overtaken coffee and milk in terms of volume consumed, and is closing in on beer.
  • Some 4 billion bottles end up in U.S. streams, costing $70 billion in cleanup and landfill costs.
  • A plastic water bottle takes 1,000 years to degrade; if burned in a furnace, it releases dioxins, harmful .
  • Landfill bottles, many of which are made with PET, leak toxic phthalates, into the groundwater.
  • Incinerating the bottles produces toxins: chlorine gas and heavy metal-laden ash.
  • If you buy bottled water, carrying a refillable water bottle is the easiest thing you can do to help save the environment. This Rubbermaid water bottle is inexpensive and contains a replaceable water filter to improve the taste of your tap water. You help the planet by cutting back on industrial emissions generated by making the bottle, and turning into toxin-generating garbage in landfills.

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    A BETTER WATER BOTTLE: A CARTON

    A refillable water bottle is an excellent solution. But too many people can’t be bothered. Wouldn’t it be great to eliminate the plastic problem altogether?

    We really like this idea from Icebox Water In A Box. The company, based in Norway, sells spring water in the type of packaging used for milk and juice cartons, a 97% sustainable pressed paper box. The carton, which includes a plastic drinking/pouring spout, is 100% recyclable.

    Even with shipping from Norway, Icebox Water provides a 76% smaller carbon footprint than plastic bottles. The packaging has no BPAs and, because it’s not a bottle, requires no bottle deposit. The water, which is filled from an underground source, tastes wonderfully pristine. It’s available in three sizes, including a 500 ml (16.9 ounce) individual size.

    ONE REASON TO GET A REFILLABLE BOTTLE: THE COST OF TAP WATER VS. BOTTLED WATER

    According to the New York Times, if you drink eight daily glasses of water daily, the cost is 49¢ per year (possibly the biggest bargain in pricey New York City).

    If you buy bottled water, you could spend 2,900 times as much: about $1,400 yearly.

    For more information about Icebox Water, visit IceBoxWater.com.

    MORE FOR EARTH DAY

  • Green tips for Earth Day.
  • Carbon footprint trivia quiz.
  • Eco Glossary: 12 terms you should know.

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    TIP OF THE DAY: Try Some Culantro & Recaito

    April 21, 2012 at 8:31 am · Filed under Vegetables-Salads-Herbs


    Making recaito: Simply blend culantro and other ingredients in a food processor. Photo courtesy BonniePlants.com.    		   When we first saw the word “culantro,” we thought somebody had misspelled “cilantro.”

    But we looked it up: Culantro is a cousin to cilantro. They’re members of the same botanical family, Apiaceae, commonly known as carrot or parsley family.*

    Cilantro (Coriandrum sativum), which looks like flat leaf Italian parsley, and culantro (Eryngium foetidum), which has elongated leaves, have a similar (but not identical) flavor and aroma. Culantro is much stronger in flavor, and is used in smaller amounts.

    Easy-to-grow culantro is native to Mexico/Central America and is cultivated worldwide. It first grew wild at the edge of forests, so grows well in partial shade.

    Culantro can be used as you would use cilantro, and is an essential ingredient recaito, a Caribbean green salsa used to flavor numerous dishes.
     
    *The Apiaceae family includes angelica, anise, arracacha, asafoetida, caraway, celery, chervil, cumin, dill, fennel, parsley…and some 3,700 other plants.

     

    RECAITO & SOFRITO

    In the Caribbean, culantro is commonly called recao, which gives its name to recaito, a popular green sauce/salsa used to flavor a variety of dishes. Recaito is an aromatic purée of culantro (recao), green cubanelle peppers (similar in flavor to to bell peppers but longer, with thinner flesh and lightly more wrinkled), onions, garlic and ajies dulces (small red bell peppers).

    Recaito is used in bean and rice dishes, soups and stews, often added toward the end of cooking as a finishing touch to the recipe. Add a tablespoon of it to your next rice or bean dish; you’ll love the bright flavor.

    Culantro is also the base of sofrito.

    		  
    If you see a culantro plant for sale, grab it. Or grow your own from seeds. Photo by Maxintaft | Wikimedia.
     
    The difference between recaito and sofrito: Recaito is an uncooked green salsa; sofrito uses recaito as a base, sautéed with tomatoes. As with any recipe, there are regional differences (not to mention household diffrences). For example, Puerto Rican cooks typically don’t use tomatoes in their sofritos.

    RECAITO RECIPE

    Ingredients

    If you can’t find all of the ingredients, substitute green and red bell peppers for the cubanelle and aji dulce peppers; and substitute cilantro for culantro.

  • 2 medium green bell, seeds removed
  • 2 medium onions, peeled
  • 1 bulb of garlic, peeled
  • 1 bunch culantro leaves, washed and patted dry
  • 6 small red bell peppers

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    Preparation

    Simply chop and blend the ingredients in a food processor or blender.
    Culantro By Any Other Name

    Culantro is known by many names. In addition to recao (Spanish), which gives its name to recaito, there are: false coriander, long coriander, bhandhanya (Hindi), langer koriander (German), ngo gai (Vietnamese), pak chi farang (Thai).

    We know people who don’t like cilantro. There’s even a website, IHateCilantro.com, the opening line of which is, “Cilantro. The most offensive food known to man.”

    Let’s hope those folks don’t discover culantro.
      

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