Last week, I wrote about Laylita’s Baked Plaintain with Cheese recipe, which I served with Aji Criollo, an Ecuadorian hot sauce/salsa.  The hot sauce adds a bite to the dish served. 

For those of you who like their foods hot, this is a hot sauce for you. For those who don’t like or can’t eat spicy, just look at the photo.  It’s good and hot and not for the faint of heart, or should I say it’s not for the faint of tongue.   You use hot peppers like serranos, jalapenos or habaneros.  I chose serranos, which turned out perfect for me.  You can also make make the hot sauce a little milder by removing the membranes and the seeds.  Of course, I left them in.  Of course.

What I loved about this hot sauce is that I could taste the freshness of all the ingredients — the hot peppers, the cilantro (cilantro!), the garlic, lime and onions.  It certainly beat the store-bought, preservative-filled bottle of hot sauce any day.  I also loved that this hot sauce was easy to make.  I simply put the ingredients together in the blender and I was practically done.

According to Laylita, it’s better to finish the hot sauce the same day but it can last up to 3 days.  It lasted less than a day and a half in my house.  Everyone loved this hot sauce with the baked plantain and used it to eat with other foods the next day.  I won’t say who specifically because I do not want to get in trouble, but I spied someone lifting their plate and licking the remnants of the hot sauce clean from it.  LOL! 

Yeah, it was that good (and hot!).

Oh by the way, did you know that if you eat something that’s too hot for you, you’re not supposed to drink water.  That does nothing to lessen the burning of your tongue.  Instead, you’re supposed eat a piece of bread.  I’ve actually tried it before and found that it does indeed work.

Thanks for the recipe, Laylita!

Paz

Ed. Note:  In the post, I mentioned one way to cool down your mouth/tongue after eating something hot (eating a slice of bread).  In the comments section, Sra of When My Soup Came Alive added some suggestions — According to her aunt, milk is "supposed to help".  On the other hand, Sra has found that drinking hot water "helps" her.

Pia of Serendipity, Synchronicity and Saffron writes that a tomato slice "works wonders".

If you have any tips on how to lessen the heat of a spicy food after taking a bite, please share with us.

Aji Criollo (Ecuadorian Hot Sauce) served with Baked Plantain with Cheese

Aji Criollo (Ecuadorian Hot Sauce)

Laylita’s Recipes

Ingredients:

4 ajies or hot peppers (jalapenos, serranos and habaneros are good replacements)

1/2 bunch of cilantro (stems and leaves)

1/2 cup of water

3 garlic cloves

Juice from 1/2 lime or lemon

3 Tbs finely chopped white onion (scallions can also be used)

Salt

Preparation:

Combine the hot peppers, cilantro, water, garlic cloves and lime juice in the blender and blend well.

Add the chopped white onions and salt to taste.

I love fish, especially salmon.  Funny thing:  I pronounce salmon, SAL-MON.  I notice Americans pronounce it SA-MON.   They leave the "L" out.  So, when I say SAL-MON, they look at me funny.  LOL!  I’m not sure where or how I learned to prounonce it that way but that’s the way I do.   Anyway, whichever way it’s pronounced, I love this fish and when I saw the recipe for Grilled Salmon with Avocado Salsa (and a photo of the meal — please, please check out Laylita’s enticing photo.), I couldn’t resist making it.  Actually, the Avocado Salsa is what got me.  I’d never before heard of anything like that to eat with salmon. 

The next day after work, I bought the ingredients and set out to prepare it for dinner.  Regular readers know by now that I love simple and easy-to-make meals.  This is definitely one.  Oh, and another enticing factor about this recipe is that it has cilantro.  Hello!?  Cilantro!  Again, regular readers know that cilantro is my all-time favorite fresh herb.  Yes! 

Laylita’s recipe calls for the cilantro to be finely chopped.  Umm…  I didn’t really do that and I clearly added more than the 2 Tbs of cilantro.  Next time, I’ll try to follow the recipe better. 

The salsa was very easy to put together.  No problem.

I got out my grill pan and prepared the salmon.  My dogs LOVE fish and started getting excited about the aroma wafting from the kitchen. 

Layla suggests the side dish of Ecuadorian rice and or Patacones (thick fried green plantains) to go with the Grilled Salmon with Avocado Salsa.  A third thing regular readers know about me, by now, is that I HEART plantain.   I didn’t have any plantain at home, so I ate my salmon and avocado salsa with rice.  That was good enough.  It was mouthwatering delicious.  I loved my meal.  I loved the Avocado salsa, which was new and different to me.  It sort of had a tangy taste, which enhanced the grilled salmon that had been marinated in salt, coriander, cumin, paprika, onions and black pepper.  Let me tell you, it tasted so good.  I normally only use salt and black pepper when preparing my salmon, so these spices were an added treat to use on the salmon.

The next day, I had some leftover salmon and salsa, so I had it again for dinner.  This time I’d bought some yellow (ripe) plantain (kelewele — see photo here), which I fried and ate with the fish.  Oh, how I enjoyed my dinner even more.  I can’t wait to make this dish again.  Thank you, Laylita!

In the meantime, I’m scheduled to have surgery this week –Tuesday.  The recovery time is a bit long, so I won’t be able to post any food posts for a while.  Some awesome food bloggers have agreed to guest blog for me while I’m recuperating.  I’m really excited to see what they have planned for us.  I thank my guest bloggers in advance for their kindness.  You won’t see me on your blogs for a while but I plan on stopping by as soon as I can.

So see you soon on the blogs and don’t forget to come back here next Tuesday to find out about our first guest blogger.

Best,

Paz

GRILLED SALMON WITH AVOCADO SALSA

Laylita’s Recipes

Ingredients (for 4 people):

2lbs salmon, cut into 4 pieces

1 tbs olive oil

1 tsp salt

1 tsp ground coriander

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp paprika powder

1 tsp onion powder

1 tsp black pepper

Avocado Salsa

1 avocado, peeled, seeded and sliced

1 small red onion, sliced

3 mild hot peppers, seeded and deveined, diced or sliced

Juice from 2 limes

3 tbs olive oil

2 tbs finely chopped cilantro

Salt to taste

Suggested sides — Rice (rice Ecuadorian style)and patacones (thick fried green plantains)

Preparation:

1.  Mix the salt, coriander, cumin, paprika, onion and black pepper together, rub the salmon fillets with olive oil and this seasoning mix, and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

2.  Pre-heat the grill.

3.  Combine the avocado, onion, hot peppers, cilantro, lime juice, olive oil and salt in a bowl and mix well, chill until ready to use.

4.  Grill the salmon to desired donesness.

5.  Serve the salmon topped with the avocado salsa, and with rice and patacones or thick green plantain chips on the side.