I was definitely Team Rick Bayless last season, who proved to be one of the smartest and most thoughtful chefs that I’ve had the privilege to watch on TV. Perhaps the art history dork in me loves that he was an anthropology PhD student studying in Mexico City who realized that he was more interested in the street food, and then used his academic background to delve into the history and culture of regional Mexican cuisine. While I long to visit Chicago and eat at all of Rick Bayless’ restaurants, I’ll settle on snacking on some of this incredible Crunchy Tomatillo-Avocado Salsa with tortilla chips while watching tonight’s Top Chef Masters. This recipe makes 2 1/2 cups of salsa which can feed 4 people as a snack at 53 cents per serving.

Crunchy Tomatillo-Avocado Salsa, from Rick Bayless
8 ounces (about 4 medium) tomatillos, husked and rinsed
1/2 cup loosely packed coarsely chopped cilantro
1 small jalape?±o, stemmed and roughly chopped
1 ripe avocado, pitted, and flesh scooped from the skin
1 small onion, cut into 1/4-inch pieces
salt

Roughly chop half of the tomatillos, and put them into a food processor with the cilantro and jalape?±o. Measure in 1/4 cup water and whiz everything to a slushy, coarse puree. Roughly chop half the avocado, add it to the processor and pulse until it is incorporated into the salsa.

Place the salsa into a serving dish and add the finely chopped onions. Finally chop the remaining tomatillos and avocado and stir them into the salsa. Taste and season with salt as needed.

Homemade Tomato Ketchup, adapted from The River Cottage Meat Book
3 28-ounce cans whole tomatoes, roughly chopped
4 onions, sliced
1 large red bell pepper, seeds and white membrane removed, chopped
1/2 cup soft brown sugar
3/4 cup cider vinegar
1/4 teaspoon dry mustard
a piece of cinnamon stick
1 1/2 teaspoons whole allspice
1 1/2 teaspoons whole cloves
1 1/2 teaspoons whole mace
1 1/2 teaspoons celery seeds
1 1/2 teaspoons black peppercorns
1 bay leaf
1 garlic clove, peeled and bruised
paprika or cayenne pepper to taste, optional
salt

Put the tomatoes, onions, and red pepper in a large, heavy pan and simmer over a medium heat, stirring occasionally, until they are very soft. Push them through a coarse-meshed sieve and return to the pot with the sugar, vinegar, and mustard. Tie the cinnamon, allspice, cloves, mace, and celery seeds, black peppercorns, bay leaf, and garlic in a square of cheesecloth and drop them into the stew.

Bring the mixture to a boil, then reduce to a slow simmer. Cook, allowing the mixture to bubble gently, stirring often and carefully for 20 to 40 minutes until the ketchup is thick and pulpy. Taste a couple of times while it is still cooking and remove the spice bag if the flavour becomes too strong.

Season the ketchup with salt and paprika or cayenne, if using, then leave to cool. Pour the ketchup through a funnel into suitable bottles and seal. Stored in the fridge, this ketchup will keep for a month. If you bottle it in sterilized jars while still warm, the ketchup should keep for a year.

Keeping this in mind, we have come up with a few turkey recipes that use up all of those leftovers. And believe me, we cooked a 13 pound turkey for two people so we had TONS of leftover meat.

First up is a recipe for Turkey Stock, which is a great way to use the carcass of the bird instead of just throwing it into the rubbish bin. Plus homemade turkey stock is so much better than any canned or cube stock that you buy at the grocery store. We made a huge vat of stock and then divided it among smaller containers which we froze so we can use them later as a chicken stock substitute. This recipe makes enough for 10 cups of stock at 24 cents per cup.

Turkey Stock, adapted from Gourmet, November 2004
1 turkey carcass
1/4 cup vegetable oil
3 medium yellow onions, left unpeeled, then trimmed and halved
3 celery stalks, cut into 2-inch lengths
3 carrots, quartered
6 fresh parsley stems, without leaves
1 bay leaf
10 black peppercorns
5 quarts cold water
1 1/2 teaspoons salt

Take the turkey carcass and break it down into thighs, drumsticks, wings, and the back bone. Halve the turkey wings at the joints, and then crack the wing bones in several places with the knife. Don’t worry about picking the carcass clean of every last piece of meat since this is what helps make a flavourful stock.

Heat up 1/4 cup of oil in a heavy stock pot over a medium heat and then throw in the turkey bones and let them brown. Once they are browned, remove the bones from the pot and set them aside for a few minutes.

Add the onions to the stock pot, cut side down, and cook them until they are golden brown on both sides, about 5 minutes. Remove them from the pot and let them rest with the bones. Then cook the celery and carrots until golden, about 3 minutes.

Add the turkey bones, onions, and remaining ingredients to the pot and bring to a boil over a high heat. Reduce the heat and let the stock gently simmer, partially covered, for 3 hours. Be sure to skim the top of the stock to remove any foam that may build up during this cooking process.

Once the stock is cooked, remove the pot from the heat and let the stock cool uncovered until it is room temperature. Pour the cool stock through a large fine-mesh sieve and throw away the solids.

Now measure the stock. If there is more than 10 cups, boil the stock until it is reduced, or if there is less than 10 cups, add a bit more water to make up the difference.

Let the stock stand for a few minutes until the fat rises to the top and then skim that off and throw it away. You can either use the stock right away, or freeze it for up to 3 months in an airtight container.

Throw in some freshly roasted garlic and chiles with a bit of onion and cilantro to make a salsa that is so fresh tasting that it will make you wonder why you even bother to make salsa from raw tomatoes, or even bother to buy salsa in a jar. This salsa recipe is incredibly easy to make and costs around $1.59 for 1 1/2 cups of salsa.

Fire Roasted Tomato Salsa, adapted from Rick Bayless
1 to 2 fresh jalape?±o chiles
3 garlic cloves, unpeeled
1 15-ounce can diced fire roasted tomatoes in juice
1/4 cup (loosely packed) chopped fresh cilantro
1/2 onion, or more to taste
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice, or more to taste
salt

Roast the chiles and garlic in a small ungreased skilled over medium heat. Turn the spices every so often until they are soft and charred on the outside, about 10 minutes or so. Let them cool and then peel the garlic, remove the stem from the chiles, and coarsely chop them up.

Put the roasted garlic and chiles in a food processor and whiz them up. Add the fire roasted tomatoes with their juices, chopped onion, and cilantro to the food processor and pulse until you have a nice coarse puree. Squeeze in enough lime juice to taste and season with a bit of salt.

Whenever we go back to Texas, we always get queso wherever we go because you simply just can’t find it anywhere else in the country or world, or at least anything that tastes remotely similar. Even my sister Alison who left Texas for Europe seven years ago can’t resist the siren call of queso, even though she says that she has learned to live without Tex-Mex in Scotland.

Vegas is a queso wasteland. We’ve got some good queso fundidos here, but it just isn’t the same. Whole Foods used to carry a fresh queso made in Austin that was pretty satisfying, but unfortunately they stopped carrying it. Now that the college football season is in full swing, there is nothing more satisfying than sitting down to cheer on the Longhorns with a ton of queso, salsa, and chips accompanied by a frosty Shiner Bock.

Last weekend, I made this incredibly simple Hatch Green Chile Con Queso for the Texas game. Carlo and I devoured the entire batch in the first quarter, I think. I’m not promising Magnolia Mud ecstasy with this recipe, but for any displaced Texan out there looking for a little taste of home, make the queso. I don’t think you will regret. This recipe serves 2 queso fiends (more if you aren’t pigs like me and Carlo) and is priceless for anyone missing Texas.

Hatch Green Chile Con Queso, from Central Market
1 medium tomato, seeded and chopped
2 Hatch green chiles, roasted, peeled, deseeded, and chopped, or one small can of roasted Hatch green chiles
1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
1 1/2 cups grated sharp cheddar cheese
1/4 cup sour cream, plus more to thin out the queso as needed

In a saucepan, melt the cheese over a low heat. Add the sour cream and stir the queso continuously to prevent it from scorching. Stir in the tomato, chiles, and garlic powder. Keep on a low heat until everything becomes gooey and is well combined. If you need to thin out the queso, add some extra sour cream until you find the perfect consistency. I just kept on adding in some extra cheese and sour cream until the queso was how I like it.

This Jamie Oliver recipe for goulash isn’t really like any authentic Hungarian goulash that I have tasted, but the combination of all of the peppers and the smokiness of the paprika with melt-in-your-mouth tender pork make for a delicious dinner regardless. Plus your kitchen will smell incredible for the three hours that the goulash is transforming in your oven. This goulash recipe makes enough for 8 dinners at $3.06 per serving.

Spicy Pork and Chilli Pepper Goulash, adapted from Jaime Oliver
2-3 lbs pork roast or pork shoulder off the bone, in one piece, skin off, fat left on
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
olive oil
2 red onions, peeled and finely sliced
2 fresh red chillies, deseeded and finely chopped
2 generously heaped tablespoons mild smoked paprika
2 teaspoons ground caraway seeds
small bunch of fresh oregano, leaves picked
5 bell peppers, best if you use a mixture of red, green, and yellow
1 jar of roasted red peppers, drained, peeled and chopped
1 14-ounce can of plum tomatoes
4 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 pot of sour cream
zest and juice of 1 lemon
small bunch of fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped

Preheat your oven to 350¬?F. This recipe calls for a deep, ovenproof dutch oven that you first heat up on the stove over a medium heat to brown the pork. I found my pork loin roast on sale at Whole Foods for $5.99 a pound, and it was a really nice piece of meat.

Score the fat on the pork roast in a criss-cross pattern all the way through to the meat and then season the pork generously with salt and pepper. Pour some olive oil into the dutch oven and let it heat up. Add the pork, fat side down, and cook it over a medium heat for about 15 minutes until the fat renders out and the pork forms a nice browned crust. Turn the pork over halfway through the cooking process so the other side can brown, and when it is finished, remove the pork from the dutch oven and set it aside.

Add the onions, chilli, paprika, caraway seeds, oregano, and a good pinch of salt and pepper to the pork drippings in the dutch oven. Turn the heat down and gently cook the mixture for 10 minutes, then add the sliced peppers, roasted peppers, and canned tomatoes.

Place the pork back into the pot in the middle of the peppers and then pour in enough water to just cover the meat. Add the vinegar to the pot, and bring everything to a boil on the stove top. Put the lid on top of the dutch oven, then place it in the preheated oven for 3 hours.

The meat is cooked when it is very tender and you can break it up easily when pulled apart with two forks. When the pork is cooked, remove the meat from the stew and shred it with a couple of forks. Place the shredded pork back into the goulash and dinner is almost ready to serve. Taste the goulash and season with extra salt and pepper as needed.

To make a nice condiment for the goulash, stir together the sour cream, lemon zest, and most of the parsley in a little bowl. Squeeze in some fresh lemon juice until you get a nice lemon-y taste.

Serve the goulash over cooked rice, and top each dish with a sprinkle of chopped parsley and a big dollop of the lemon sour cream.

A very old friend Britney, who I met at my first ever job at a party store in Texas circa 1993, sent me this recipe for Moroccan Spiced Chickpea and Lentil Soup saying that I had to try it. I like lentil soups, although canned ones are usually rather bland, so I was excited to try this new soup.

It got two thumbs up from both Carlo and I. It was hearty and full of flavour from all of the dried spices, plus the Moroccan condiment charmoula added a nice shot of colour and brightness to the soup. This soup recipes makes enough for 8 big bowls of soup at 97 cents per serving.

If you have any incredible recipes that you want to share, please send them my way!

Moroccan Spiced Chickpea and Lentil Soup
Soup:
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 fennel bulb, chopped
1 medium red onion, chopped
1 medium white onion, chopped
2 14-ounce cans chopped tomatoes, with their liquid
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
Pinch of saffron threads (optional)
4 cups vegetable broth
1 cup dried lentils (green, brown, red or yellow), picked through and rinsed
4 sprigs cilantro
4 sprigs parsley
2 dried bay leaves
2 tablespoons sugar
Salt and pepper to taste
3 cups canned chickpeas, drained and rinsed, about 2 cans

Charmoula:
4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon cumin seeds, toasted and ground
1 clove garlic
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and deveined
juice and zest of 1 lemon
1 bunch cilantro
Salt and pepper to taste

Heat the olive oil up in a large pot over a medium heat. Add the fennel and let it gently cook for a few minutes until it releases its natural juices. Throw in the red and white onions and cook until they are translucent, around 10 to 12 minutes. Add the canned tomatoes with their liquid and turn the heat up to high until it begins to simmer. Then add all of the spices to the soup base and let everything simmer together for a few more minutes.

Add the broth, lentils, cilantro and parsley sprigs, and bay leaves to the soup base and bring everything to a boil, then reduce the heat to a low simmer. Mix in the sugar, salt, and pepper, then cover the pot and let everything simmer for another 25 minutes or until the lentils are tender. Add the chickpeas and cook the soup, uncovered, for another 5 or so minutes, until all the ingredients are properly heated through. Remove and throw away the bay leaves, cilantro, and parsley. Then season with salt and pepper to taste.

To make a chunkier soup, I took a couple cups of the soup and threw them in a blender until everything was pureed and then I returned the puree to the soup and mixed it in well.

The Moroccan condiment charmoula adds a nice freshness to the cooked soup and can easily be made by mixing the olive oil, cumin, garlic, jalapenos, and lemon juice in a food processor to make a puree. Throw in a bunch of cilantro leaves along with the lemon zest, and salt and pepper, and whiz until the mixture looks like a rustic pepper. If you need to thin it out, add a little bit of extra oil. You can keep the charmoula in a tightly closed container in the fridge for up to few days.

Serve the soup hot, with 1 tablespoon of the charmoula mixed in. The soup keeps for a few days in the fridge and makes great leftovers. We didn’t freeze any this time, but I think it should hold up well in the freezer too.

This recipe with guacamole makes a huge baking dish of enchiladas that easily feeds 8 people at $2.54 a serving, or you can make the full amount just for yourself and have some great leftovers for a few days.

Roasted Hatch Green Chile, Black Bean, and Chicken Enchiladas
Enchiladas:
12 tomatillos, husked and rinsed
2 jalapeno peppers, stemmed
1 onion, quartered
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 bunch fresh cilantro leaves, coarsely chopped
2 limes, juiced
salt
3 Hatch green chiles, or poblano peppers if you can’t find any
extra-virgin olive oil
1 onion, sliced
3 garlic cloves, chopped
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
4 cups canned chicken stock
1 deli roasted chicken, about 3 pounds, boned, meat shredded
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
Leaves from 1/2 bunch fresh cilantro, chopped
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
12 large corn tortillas
1/2 pound Monterey jack cheese, shredded
1 pint sour cream

Chunky Guacamole:
4 ripe avocados
3 limes, juiced
1/2 red onion, chopped
1 garlic clove, minced
2 serrano chiles, sliced thinly
1 big handful fresh cilantro, finely chopped
extra-virgin olive oil
kosher salt and freshly ground pepper

Although you can roast your husked tomatillos and chile peppers over an open gas flame or in an oven, it is really easy to also throw them on a hot bbq grill until you get some nice char marks on their skins. Once the chile peppers are roasted, put them in a closed brown paper bag or in a bowl covered with clingfilm and let them steam so it is easier to skin and deseed the chiles under running water. You can also grill the jalapenos and onions for the salsa to add a nice grilled flavour to the dish.

To make the salsa for the enchiladas, put the grilled tomatillos, jalapenos, and onion into a food processor with the cumin. Whiz everything together and then add the cilantro, lime juice, and salt and mix together.

To make the enchilada filling, heat up some olive oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion and saute it until it is softened and about to caramelize, around 5 to 7 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for a minute or so, then add the cumin and cook for another minute.

Add the flour and mix it well into the onion and spice mixture. Slowly pour the chicken stock into the saucepan and stir constantly so the flour doesn’t stick to the bottom of the pan or clump together. Bring the mixture to a simmer and let the liquid thicken. Then mix in the chicken, diced peppers, black beans, and cilantro, and season well with salt and pepper.

The end result is a nice soup-y filling. We had some filling leftovers after making enough enchiladas to fit into our baking dish, so I used it is as a sauce the next day in some incredible freestyle Huevos Rancheros.

To assemble the enchiladas, start off by preheating the oven to 350 degrees F and getting a large glass or metal baking dish.

Dip a corn tortilla into the tomatillo salsa and place it on a cutting board. Use a slotted spoon to dollop some of the chicken mixture on to the center of the tortilla. Sprinkle with a little cheese on top and then roll the tortilla like a cigar to enclose the filling. Use a spatula to place the enchilada seam side down in the baking dish, and continue to fill all of the tortillas in the same way and arrange them in the baking dish.

As the above photo demonstrates, it is a bit of a messy process but don’t get too discouraged about non-perfect enchiladas:

as they get hidden by a thick layer of cheese and no one will notice anything when the enchiladas are cooked and served.

Pour the remaining tomatillo salsa over the top of the enchiladas and sprinkle the remaining cheese on top to make a nice thick layer. Bake the enchiladas uncovered for about 30 minutes or until the cheese is bubbly and cracked on top.

To make the guac, halve and pit the avocados and scoop out their flesh into a mixing bowl. Mash them with a fork to leave them a little chunky, then add the remaining ingredients and gently mix everything together. To prevent the guacamole from going brown before you serve it, place a piece of plastic wrap right on top of the surface of the guac and put it in the fridge until dinner.

Serve the enchiladas hot with a side of the guacamole and some sour cream.

Peach Jam
2 1/2 pounds peaches—peeled, pitted and cut into 1/2-inch wedges
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

In a large stainless saucepan, toss the cut peaches with the sugar and let them stand for about an hour until most of the sugar is dissolved. Stir every now and again so all the sugar gets mixed up.

Squeeze the lemon juice over the peaches in the saucepan. Bring the mixture to a boil, stirring until the sugar is dissolved. Cook over a moderate heat, stirring, until the liquid runs off the side of a spoon in thick heavy drops, around 20 to 25 minutes. If any scum rises to the surface of the jam, just skim it off.

Once the jam is thick enough, spoon the jam into 3 1/2-pint jars, leaving about 1/4 inch of space at the top. Close the jars and let the jam cool to room temperature. Store the jam in the fridge for up to 3 months.

Most morning mornings, I put a dollop of peach jam in my Greek yogurt and Kashi for breakfast, and for an extra special treat, I like to use it as a topping for vanilla ice cream too.

Traditionally, or at least in my experience, it’s typically made with cabbage, but this recipe uses bok choy. I’m been informed by a reliable source (aka my Korean friend Heekwon) that bok choy is used a lot to make kimchi in the summer in Korea. He also told me that my kimchi was really good, and that his baby daughter especially liked it

You can make your own large jar of kimchi for around 14 cents per ounce.

Homemade Kimchi, from Nick Sandler and Johnny Acton’s Preserved
2 1/4 pounds bok choy or Chinese cabbage
kosher salt
3 garlic cloves, peeled and chopped
2 teaspoons chopped fresh ginger
3 hot red chiles, finely chopped
1 small bunch of green onions, chopped
2 teaspoons sugar
2 tablespoons fish sauce
1 tablespoon soy sauce

Separate the bok choy or Chinese cabbage leaves and wash them very well. Chop them up into small pieces and put them in a large bowl.

Dissolve 3 tablespoons of salt into 3 cups of water and pour it over the greens until they are covered. If you need to make more brine, just follow the ratio of 1 tablespoon of salt to 1 cup of water.

Make sure all of the greens are immersed in the brine by weighing them down with a plate and a large bottle of water on top.

Leave the greens in the brine for 8 hours. After they have sat for 8 hours, drain the greens and immerse them in fresh cold water for 10 minutes, then drain them again.

After this, the greens are ready to ferment. Place them in a tall, sterilized glass jar and make the liquor. Start with 2 3/4 cups of water and mix in 1 1/2 tablespoons of salt plus the ginger, garlic, chiles, green onions, sugar, and the fish and soy sauces.

Make sure the salt is completely dissolved in the mixture, then pour the liquor over the greens in the jar, taking care to cover them completely.

Leave the jar in a warm room (above 75 degrees F) for 24 hours. Then the kimchi is ready to eat and can be kept in the fridge for up to 1 month.