Home made tortilla strips with roasted salsa and smoky bean dip

One of the kitchen tools I simply can't do without is my Cuisinart food processor.  It's solidly built and reliable.  I have the 14-cup model.  Somehow I've lost several of the cutting blades, but I still have the critical chopping/mixing blade.

I probably use the Cuisinart at least five times a week.  It's simply irreplaceable when it comes to pureeing and mixing smooth sauces.

My Cuisinart - I couldn't imagine life without her

Today I saw it sitting in the corner of the kitchen, silently pleading for attention.  I had a fridge full of fresh produce from Jon's so I decided to make some simple baked tortilla strips, roasted salsa and a smoky & spicy black bean dip.

Mmm... fresh, healthy and bursting with flavor

As always, I started with the freshest ingredients possible:

Fresh onions, tomatoes and garlic, black beans and adobo paste

My list includes:

2 pounds roma tomatoes
2 bunches green onions
4 yellow or white onions
1-2 red onions
1-2 bulbs garlic

The first step is the most tedious - quarter the tomatoes and remove the seeds and white core.  Arrange them in cooking pans (coated with Pam cooking spray to make clean-up easier):

Tomatoes ready for roasting

Pop them in an oven.  Temperature is not critical, but the hotter you make it the more closely you have to watch them.  I chose 350 degrees.

While the tomatoes are roasting, start work on the onions.  Slice them thickly (1/4") and lay them in a medium-hot skillet to dry-fry.  Add a touch of oil if you want, but my sweetie likes it when I eliminate oils and salt from any recipe.  You want to see them get blackened on each side, and become a little soft throughout.  Use tongs to flip them - don't worry if they begin to fall apart or cook unevenly.  We're not trying to win a beauty contest.

Dry frying the onions

You can add some serrano peppers to the pan as well.  After they blister a bit, let them cool and remove the stems and seeds.  I don't put peppers in my salsa any more because my sweetie won't touch it if I do.

When the tomatoes start to brown on the edges it's time to remove them.

The smell of fresh roasted tomatoes is fantastic!

All this roasting will bring out the flavor in the onions and tomatoes.  Now we add some fresh stuff as we run it all through the food processor to finely puree.  A whole lot of cilantro and green onions (chopped first) for starters, then (optionally) a little lemon or lime juice, salt, fresh black pepper and olive oil to taste.

Set the salsa aside (if possible, let it rest in the fridge overnight before serving) and get to work on your smoky & spicy black bean dip!

Peel two full bulbs of garlic, remove the brown woody stem part and crush the heck out of them!  No need to chop them as they'll be visiting our friend the Cuisinart later.  Put them in a wok / skillet over low heat with about a tablespoon of oil (I used sunflower).

The smell of simmering garlic is close to heaven

Chop some onions and add them to the pan once the garlic begins to soften.  Keep it cooking low & slow, stirring often - we want them to soften and release their flavors - we don't want to brown them.

Add the fragrance of onions and I'm in a state of bliss

Once the onions are translucent, add spices to your taste.  Dried spices are best added at this point as the hot oil will draw the flavors out and infuse the dish with them.  But -- don't do this over high heat or for longer than five minutes or the dry spices will release bitter flavors.

I added cayenne pepper (dried in this case), cumin and a touch of sage.  You can always raise the heat level later.

Time to spice it up!

Then I added some adobo paste, which benefits from a brief bath in the hot oil.

Finally, I emptied a full can of black beans, with the liquid, into the pan.  Note that this adds some salt, so take that into account if you're adding salt later.

Simmer over very low heat for about 30 minutes.  Then remove to the food processor, add green onions, cliantro and raw red onion.  Run the food processor until it's a smooth paste.  During the processing, add salt and additional pepper to taste.

You're done.  Now we need something to dip in our wonderful fresh salsa and bean dip.  We prefer my home-made tortilla strips to store-bought any day.  For one, they're warm and fresh.  Two, we can cut down on the salt.  And three, I often use flour tortillas for a unique flavor.  They're very easy to make.

I often use home-made tortillas for these.  That will be the topic of a future post.

It's simple - take tortillas and cut them into strips.  For this I used my KitchenAid kitchen shears, another tool I couldn't live without.  Lay them on a cookie sheet that you've sprayed with Pam cooking spray.

Ready to make our chili-lime tortilla strips!

Spray lightly, then sprinkle with seasonings.  I wanted a chili-lime flavor, so I used cayenne pepper, sour salt and kosher salt.

(Sour salt is not salt at all.  It's citric acid -- the stuff that makes lemons and limes sour -- in a powdered form.)

Homemade is always better!

Bake for roughly 10 minutes at 300 degrees -- you will have to watch as cooking time varies depending on the type of tortillas you use.

Everything's best warm, so heat up the salsa and bean dip and serve the chips fresh from the oven!

Japan Diaries, Part 10: The trains

Back by popular demand - this is a re-post of the travel diary of our recent trip to Osaka, Tokyo, Kyoto, Hiroshima and Nagano.

This was such a full trip that it's hard to show everything we did.  I've posted maybe ... just maybe ... 1% of our adventures.

Let's look at the train system.  It's amazing.  Japan is roughly the size of California, but more than four times as many people live there.  Most of them don't own cars.  They count on the trains ... subways, street cars, rail and the bullet trains (Shinkansen) to get them around.

The transit system is the best I've ever seen.  Trains go directly into the airports.  The subway system intersects with the Shinkansen line.  The subway stations exit directly into the bottom floor of the department stores (which is usually the grocery section).  It's efficient.  It's effective.  It's what I call efficacious.

The subway (in Tokyo it's called the Metro) can get you from one side of an LA sized city to the other in under 20 minutes.  Wow.  The only thing is that there are LOTS of stairs and few escalators to be found.  When you're going down 100 feet below street level carrying a bag or three, that's a big deal.  The accessibility hasn't improved since my last visit nearly 10 years ago.

Tokyo station during a quiet spell

Crowded?  Yes.  But nothing like the image you have in your mind of conductors pushing people into cars like sardines.  I've yet to see that scene play out.

The street cars.  Cool.  We never had need to take one.  Ours was a short visit so this little adventure went by the wayside.  Unlike San Francisco, these are serious transportation... not just a tourist attraction.  The one below is a new experimental model that runs on lithium batteries that recharge in one minute, hopefully one day removing the necessity of overhead power lines except at periodic intervals.

Toden Arakawa Line streetcar

Which brings us to regional trains.  Outside the major metro areas, these are the meat and potatoes of the rail system.  What's wild is that there are multiple companies (The big gorilla being JR) running these lines.  Osaka is served by at least seven different rail and subway companies.  All of them profitable without the government subsidizing them.  Hello, Amtrak?  Pay attention, you might learn something.

Boarding the local train in Osaka

Yet another rail line in Osaka

What does stink is that there is no one map or internet site that shows all of the systems together and gives you the best option to get from point A to point B.  You have to figure out transfers on your own.

And finally, the super-star of the rail system.  The Shinkansen.  That translates as "New Trunk Line," but has come to refer to the backbone of super-fast lines that run at nearly 200 mph.  We got from Osaka to Tokyo in 2 1/2 hours for $8 per person.  That's roughly the distance from LA to San Francisco.  And the train does not dump you in the middle of nowhere - rather, it's the center of town.

The Shinkansen passes Mt. Fuji between Osaka and Tokyo

There are six models of Shinkansen trains in active use.  I've counted four that I've ridden on.  The one below, the 500, is not on that list... it doesn't go much faster than the others, but gosh if it isn't pretty.

Shinkansen Type 500 at Shin-Osaka Station

Japan Diaries, Part 9: Osaka

Back by popular demand - this is a re-post of the travel diary of our recent trip to Osaka, Tokyo, Kyoto, Hiroshima and Nagano.

We took the Shinkansen bullet train to Osaka, a huge city located South of Tokyo in the central part of Honshu.

Our Shinkansen train arrives at Tokyo Station

The restaurants in Osaka have unique ways of attracting customers.

Osaka is split by at least three major rivers.  It makes for breathtaking views, but you have to wonder how much extra work has gone into bridge-building over the centuries.

Near Oebashi

Japan Diaries, Part 8: More subway exploration

Back by popular demand - this is a re-post of the travel diary of our recent trip to Osaka, Tokyo, Kyoto, Hiroshima and Nagano.

First, a glimpse of my prize.  I got this at a sort of swap meet for 400 Yen, or roughly $4.50 US.  It's an Olympus Pen-EE, the original model.  I see them going on eBay and other sites for $250 up to $600.

I practically stole this

After our day exploring as many neighborhoods as possible, we headed towards the district of Shinjuku, which is quite lively at night.

Inside Ikebukuro Station

Shibuya at night

Remember to look right before crossing!

Our dinner in Shinjuku was by far the most expensive meal of the trip, but also the most memorable.  Our hostess Iie sat with us throughout most of the meal, carefully cooking each dish (potatoes, roots, chicken, beef, fish, oysters and lord knows what else) over a charcoal grill set into the table.

Every meal was an experience to remember

Japan Diaries, Part 7: Ginza, the Fish Market & Ueno park

We're home now but I still have several days of Japan to catch up on.  Our next outing involved a zig-zag journey around Tokyo stopping at randomly chosen subway stations.

On the Marunouchi Line

The Ginza line during a busy period

First up:  A truly humungous buddhist temple near the Imperial Palace:

Buddhist temple in Yurakucho

Next stop:  The "Fish Market" near Ginza.  Several square miles of zig-zag alleys and back-room shops filled with still-flopping fish, fresh vegetables, cooking tools and assorted oddities.

The fish market

Another adventure on the subway took us to Ueno park.  We enjoyed seeing the outside of all the closed museums, zoos and other attractions.  Like in the states, Mondays are not the best day of the week for tourism.

Near Ueno Station

Here's the famous pose:

Snack shop (really!) in Ueno Park

A hidden shrine in Ueno Park

Japan Diaries, #6: The Tokyo subway system

Back by popular demand - this is a re-post of the travel diary of our recent trip to Osaka, Tokyo, Kyoto, Hiroshima and Nagano.

We have it mastered.  Even the directionally-challenged Crazy Girl eventually could easily handle the zig-zag trip from our tiny hotel to the massive Ikubekuro station (stopping at her favorite local coffee house on the way), and on our final Tokyo subway trip she got us from the hotel to the Tokyo central station without any outside assistance.

Only a part of the overall transit system in Tokyo

The JR local lines are still a mystery to me.  I simply can't read the Japanese characters.

Japan Diaries #5: 善光寺

Back by popular demand - this is a re-post of the travel diary of our recent trip to Osaka, Tokyo, Kyoto, Hiroshima and Nagano.

善光寺 is Kanji for Zenkō-ji , the 1,400 year old temple that is one of Nagano's claims to fame.

The temple grounds are vast:  they span - at my best guess - about 20 to 30 acres and feature hundreds of ancient wooden buildings.  Obviously, not everything dates back to the original structures that were laid down in the 7th century.  The buildings are massive fortress-like behemoths.  It's difficult to imagine how they were built.  There are shrines, statues, prayer boards and reflection areas galore.  It's simply impossible to describe so just enjoy the pictures and try to picture that this is one hundredth of the treasure.

Zenko-ji main hall

Prayer boards

Zenko-ji main hall

One of the six Rukujizo

Living quarters at Zenko-ji

Ancient cemetary

Prayer hall

The six Rokujizo