Here’s a food idea that you can try at home with a few easy ingredients and some leftovers. This is a dish that my sister Summer would love: a mexican salad bowl! I love these because you can make use of whatever you have, it’s relatively healthy, and every bite you take is a little bit different.
In the pic, I’ve got old cheddar, sour cream, what’s left of some iceberg and romaine, a half squeezed lime, some cilantro, leftover brisket, and my tomato and pineapple salsa I made yesterday. For my bowl concept, I made some white rice in my Instant Pot.
Two extra elements I wanted to add to my leftovers bowl is a quick guacamole, and some lime crema. For the crema, all you need is some sour cream, some chopped cilantro, and some of your lime juice. I don’t usually measure my kitchen ingredients, but rather choose to taste along the way and adjust if necessary. (I’ll have to make a separate post about guacamole another day.)
When my rice was cooked, and my brisket re-heated, all that was left to do was assemble the bowl.
On one half of the bowl, pile your rice, and top with your steak, cheese, and any spicy spices you like. On the other half of the bowl, fill with your lettuce mixture. Top with salsa and guacamole. I used my crema to divide the bowl, and garnished with some cilantro sprigs.
I started off this Easter weekend with two goals: make Easter cookies, and develop a way to put pineapple onto a pizza that I didn’t find revolting. I like pineapple just fine, but on a pizza? Not my style. I am a bit more of a traditionalist with my pizza style (with the noted exception of the peirogi pizza).
The Easter cookies were a no-brainer shortbread recipe. Turned out exactly as I envisioned. Additionally, (as if we aren’t going to have enough sweets in the house this weekend) I also threw a batch of peanut butter rice krispie squares into the mix.
To the conundrum that is pineapple on pizza. My good foodie friend Tyler and I have been vicously arguing about this for literal years…. Anyways, I decided to try and figure out a way to make this work. I’m reiterating that I do like pineapple. It has to be possible.
Let me walk you through my thought process, in which I have taken a somewhat scientific approach. I’m making the following two assumptions: ham and pineapple go together; and, pizza sauce and pineapple do not. So let’s exploit the first assumption and discount the second. Therefore, I need a sauce substitute. I decided to make pineapple and cilantro butter.
Pic on the left is the raw, semi-mashed pineapple, fresh chopped cilantro, a few peppery spices, and gobs and gobs of butter. Eventually it cooked down so the pineapple became soft (see pic on the right). Once it was cooked through, I let it cool down, then blended it in my food processor, and then stuck it in the fridge to re-solidify.
Let’s move on to my toppings.
For the quintessential ham flavour, of course I’m using my favourite pandemic pancetta. Only this time, I’ve got two types: a cubed version, and a very thinly sliced variety.
I’m keeping the tropical feel of my meal with a blend of mozzarella and mexican Cotija cheese, which is very salty (almost like a brick of Quebec-style cheese curds).
I’ve also made a tomato and pineapple salsa for sprinkling on top of the pizza. Ingredients include: grape tomatoes, pineapple, jalapenos, white onion, cilantro, green pepper, lime juice, a bit of olive oil, salt, pepper, paprika, and some chili flakes for extra spice.
Did you notice the bourbon and gin in the pic above? My original intent was to mix drinks to go with the pizza, but then I got lazy. Meh it happens….So i’m deferring those to tonight. I will be making mint juleps with a pineapple twist.
You may have also noticed the two bags of doritos. I made two different dorito-flavoured dusts that I used on the crust of the pie. It was tasty but it was very messy so I don’t think I will do the dorito crust in that way again.
All in all, the pizza wasn’t completely terrible. It took a bit longer to assemble because I was being incredibly careful because I didn’t want to overdo the pineapple flavour.
Our Daily Pizza 