Arusuvai - Guess The Secret Ingredients!

About a month ago, Pel of Elaichi Et Cetera was about to cook from his secret ingredient he received in Arusuvai Friendship Chain started by Lathamma of The Yum Blog. He asked us to guess which dish he had in mind. I guessed the "ma" part of it. This innocent "ma" won me a pack of wonderful goodies couple of weeks later. Since it was sent overseas, Pel had to reveal what the ingredients were. But, I thought- just because I know it doesn't mean that everyone else should know. So here is what I got, now GUESS:

1. A spice mix for coffee. Any ideas? And it is not chai masala, that´s for tea :-)

2. A wonderfully fragrant spice mix... Salt and pepper of Indian cooking...

3. Tiny little "deadly" smoked chilies. Any guesses on which type these are?

The fourth "secret" ingredient - smoked dried chipotles has been cooked from as the first.

When I received this beautiful parcel full of these spicy goodies, I went to Tompa:

- Baby, look. One of my blogging friends sent me these smoked chilies. Here smell em, they really stink! (I said pressing the bag of chilies right against his nose)
- (Jumping away). Geez! Toss them right away. They re not good. Moldy or something... (wiping his nose off)
- They re dried, I am sure they re fine (defending my treasure)
- You re not afraid about some strange people sending you something poisonous, are you? - Honeeeeey! I am sure they re fine. It s a part of this friendship chain.... - Yeah, some g-guy sending you presents (shaking his head, walking away, jealously)

(Sorry, Pel :-)...

Two hours later, I yell out of the kitchen, Tompaaaaaa, lunch is readyeeeee... He obediently walks in with a big smile on his face: "Wow, what s smelling so good, mama?"

(Thanks, Pel :-)...

Verdict: We ate it, we loved it and (most importantly) we survived ;-) Long Live Arusuvai!

SMOKED CHIPOTLE ADOBO SAUCE:

• 10 whole smoked Chipotle chilies
• 5 tbsp white vinegar
• 3 cloves garlic, chopped
  
• 1/2 cup onion, chopped
  
• 1 tbsp tomato paste
• 1/2 tsp cumin seeds
• 1/2 tsp oregano
  
• 1/2 tsp salt

Mix all the ingredients together with 3 cups water in a pan, bring to boil, cover with a lid, lower the heat on minimum and let simmer for 2 hours or until reduced to 1 cup.
Set off the fire, transfer to a blender and process to a paste.

Serve with any cous-cous or rice dish or toss a generous spoonful of the sauce with stir-fried vegetables as in our lunch today:

I stir-fried some onions, garlic, added a handful of frozen peas, corn and broccoli, mixed together with black beans and some soy mince and finally added a huge tablespoon of adobo sauce. Mixed all well, garnished with chopped basil and ate on a bed of fresh green salad.

HAVE FUN GUESSING THE SECRET INGREDIENTS 1, 2 AND 3! I will come back with correct answers soon.

Salsa With Nachos, My Name Day and DMBLGIT Award

Yesterday was my name day. Let me explain. In Slovakian calendars, we have names assigned to particular dates. This means, once a year, you get to be celebrated again ... (yes, we have birthdays, as well). So, yesterday (August 11th), the calendar called for my real name, Zuzana.
Having that in mind, I had a pretty good day. And then, it got even better...

I updated my blog event list and checked back on those I participated.... And there it was....
Sarah of Food And Paper published the Winners of July´s DMBLGIT... And there was I... and my tadka... proudly occupying the 3rd place :) Out of 88 pictures !!!

So congratulations, Zlamushka, this one goes to you :

So that much for my first name day present.
The rest of the day day went by in a very easy mode. We were partying on Friday, so the whole morning was 'recovery' time.... (slept through the most of it)... After some home-made sandwiches, Tompa and I we went to a coffee house nearby and read books. I am nuts about science fiction, so if you guys can recommend a good one, that would be a wonderful name day present for me :)

Currently I am half way through Koji Suzuki´s LOOP. Gosh, what a captivating book. Metastatic cancer viruses, artificial lives, algebra, mysterious places and a motorcycle ;-) (For real, Mr. Suzuki integrated a few motorcycle rides to his story)... I luv it, luv it, luv it...

Anyway, towards the evening, it was time to get back to reality, I thought, but NO! Tompa decided to treat me like a princess (again). On the way home we picked up some chili nacho chips, chili nuts, wasabi-coated peas (do you guys have a recipe for any of these?), bears and veggies... Soon, there it was. A feast a la Mexicana :

MEXICAN AVOCADO SALSA WITH CORIANDER:

spice ladder: ***

prep time: 10 minutes
serves: 1 hungry couple

• 2 tomatoes
• 1 avocado
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1 small red onion
• 1 tbsp pickled jalapeno
• 1 green chili
• 1 bunch fresh cilantro/coriander leaves
• 1/2 tsp coriander powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 1 tbsp tomato puree

Chop coarsely all the ingredients and put into a blender. How easy...


















Salsa was so great that we ate it all in no time. The original plan was to cuttle up in bed with a giant bowl of salad, nachos, beers and a movie. By the time we made it to bed (to eat !!!), half of salsa was gone. By the we started the movie, everything was gone...

...But before it was gone, I managed to sneak in a quick picture.


If it wasn't so hot ad we weren't so lazy, I´d probably make some baked koftas with this dip. But that never happened and we never regretted.