A super easy way to keep up with your old pal Katy is to subscribe to my newsletter!
The weather this week is supposed to be in the upper 70s and low 80s. In early February! Totally nuts. I’m trying not to be dismayed that my beloved winter weather is gone, and instead just trying to enjoy this for what it is. Perhaps another cold snap will make its way to us later this month.
Anyway, since it feels like an early spring, this week I’m in the mood for some patio-weather food: tortilla chips with pico de Gallo and a nice fizzy alcoholic beverage.
My recipe for pico de Gallo calls for marinating the onions in the lime juice, to cut down on their sharp raw-oniony flavor, which I do not like. However, if you enjoy the taste of raw onions, you can skip the marinating step and just throw everything together in the bowl at the same time. And you can adjust the amounts of any of the ingredients to your liking. I eat this with tortilla chips, or piled onto a taco salad.
Pico de Gallo
Recipe adapted from Cookie + Kate
Servings: 4 (theoretically)
Ingredients
- 1 cup finely chopped red or white onion, about 1 small onion
- 1/3 cup lime juice
- 1-1/2 teaspoons salt
- 2 medium jalapeño or serrano peppers, ribs and seeds removed, finely chopped (Serranos are usually hotter than jalapeños)
- 2 pounds tomatoes, diced, or grape tomatoes, cut in half
- 1 cup finely chopped fresh cilantro
Instructions
- In a medium serving bowl, combine the chopped onion, lime juice and salt. Let it marinate for about 10 minutes while you chop the jalapeños, tomatoes, and cilantro.
- When the onions have marinated to your liking, add the jalapeños, tomatoes and cilantro to the bowl and stir to combine. Taste, and add more salt if the flavors don’t quite sing.
- For the best flavor, let the mixture marinate for 15 minutes or several hours in the refrigerator. Serve as a dip, or with a slotted spoon to avoid transferring too much watery tomato juice with your pico. Pico de gallo keeps well in the refrigerator, covered, for up to 4 days.
Paloma
Recipe adapted from Bon Appetit
Servings: 1
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup (2 ounces) fresh grapefruit juice
- 1 tablespoon (1/2 ounce) fresh lime juice
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 1/4 cup (2 ounces) tequila
- Ice cubes
- 1/4 cup (2 ounces) club soda or Fresca, more if you like
- 1 grapefruit wedge, as a garnish, optional
Instructions
- Combine the grapefruit juice, lime juice, and sugar in a glass; stir until the sugar is dissolved. Stir in the tequila, add a few ice cubes, and top it off with club soda. I like Topo Chico for an intensely carbonated but light taste, or Fresca grapefruit soda when I’m wanting something milder and sweeter.
- Garnish the drink with a grapefruit wedge if you want to be fancy. If you want to be extra fancy and have a salted rim on your drink, before you begin you can rub the wedge around the rim of your glass and dip it in kosher salt.