3 tbs Grape seed oil for cooking

1 head Butter lettuce, washed, chilled, and leaves torn
1 cucumber, deseeded & chopped
Whisk together Harissa, honey, orange juice, ginger, and garlic in a large bowl.  Stir in shrimp and set aside, marinate 5 to 10 minutes. Pour oil into a large wok or frying pan over high heat. Stir fry onions and peppers until tender, using a slotted spoon, remove and set aside.  Add shrimp to wok, cook 4 minutes, stirring occasionally. Fold in onion, peppers, and marinade liquid, continue stirring, for 2 minutes. Turn off heat. Toss in the fresh herbs. Plate on lettuce and cucumber salad.

Serves 4.

6 large cremini mushrooms, sliced
1 lb medium new potatoes, quartered
2 lbs fresh spinach, chopped
1 c yellow snack tomatoes
3 garlic cloves, sliced thin
2 1/2 tbs olive oil
1 ½ tbs Seymour Rockin’ Harissa
1 tsp salt

Soften potatoes by cooking in the microwave covered with a damp paper towel for 4 minutes.  This will speed up cooking time considerably. Pour 1/2 a tbs spoon of olive oil in a large skillet, over medium heat; add mushrooms and sauté for 3 minutes.  Remove mushrooms and reserve. In the same skillet, add remaining olive oil and turn up heat, toss in potatoes, and fry 5 minutes stirring occasionally. Stir in garlic and cook for another minute.  Add mushrooms, tomatoes, and Harissa evenly coating vegetables. Cook 1 to 2 minutes and season with salt to taste. Gradually add spinach to mixture, as it wilts down add more. Serve as a main course or a side dish.

For all you pork eaters check out her most recent.

2 cups white rice
1 Tbsp butter
1 lb. sliced pork (I used boneless chops)
1/2 green bell pepper, sliced lengthwise
1/2 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 tsp salt
1/4 cup cream
1/2 cup Hal’s Hot Love jalapeño and roasted garlic salsa
1 raw jalapeño, finely sliced
water

1. Combine rice, a dash of salt, and about 4 cups of water in a medium stock pot and bring to a boil. Stir; reduce heat to simmer and cover. Cook for about ten minutes, stirring occasionally, and adding more water if necessary.

2. Meanwhile, melt the butter in a skillet over medium heat. Add pork, bell peppers, cumin, and half the black pepper. Sauté until pork is just cooked through (you do not want to see any pink meat), about ten minutes, stirring frequently.

3. Drain rice and return to stock pot. Away from the heat source, drizzle in the cream, salsa, salt, and the rest of the black pepper and mix thoroughly with a large spoon.

4. Spoon portions of rice out into bowls, and top with pork and pepper mixture; garnish with jalapeño slices and serve immediately.

Makes four servings.

As a Jewish girl growing up on the Texas-Mexico border, Shanna Weisfeld likes to joke that her Spanish is better than her Yiddish. “Cultures blend in strange ways,” she writes on her website, ShanitasSalsitas.com. “Bar Mitzvahs become pachangas. Tortillas replace bagels. Jalapeños find their way into falafel.” Even after she moved to Austin, Weisfeld couldn’t shake the flavors of her cross-cultural roots, so she started Shanitas Salsitas, a line of “little salsas” that aren’t necessarily meant for chips and are inspired by the family members who taught her the love of food.

Take Bubbie’s Haba-Lava, a bright yellow, fiery hot habaneros salsita named after her great-grandmother that Weisfeld makes only when she can use the lemons that come from the trees in her mom’s yard in McAllen. On the other end of the heat scale is the garlicky Ki’s K.O., which works as a marinade or a dip for vegetables or meat. Hal’s Hot Love, named for her great-uncle, is a smooth, hot sauce made with jalapeños and garlic, while one named for grandpa Seymour incorporates the flavors of the North African chile paste, harissa. The refrigerated salsitas cost $7 a jar, but Weisfeld is offering a holiday special of three for $20 or four for $25. Weisfeld ships the salsitas with a minimum order of three jars and she makes deliveries on Tuesdays through Saturdays in much of the Austin area. You can place orders online at ShanitasSalsitas.com, and look for a salsa of the month club to start next year.

Food Matters: Candied citron, grilling lessons, Shanitas Salsitas

butter or olive oil

Mix ingredients in a bowl. Using your hands form patties about the size of your palm with the mixture. Cook in a frying pan over medium high heat with a little butter and olive oil. Cook each side about 2 minutes or until crisp,

Serve with a little Hal’s mixed into sour cream.

Preheat oven to 350′ F
Place potatoes in a saucepan and cover with water. Bring to a boil and add salt; cook approximately 30 minutes or until tender. Drain well. Mash in remaining ingredients with a large spoon. The potatoes should almost melt into the sour cream and cheese.  Season to taste. Transfer mixture to a round casserole dish, scatter a few pats of butter onto the top, and bake in oven for 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 425′ F
Toss all ingredients in a bowl. Transfer to pyrex or ceramic casserole dishes. Roast brussel sprouts in a single layer for about 45 minutes. Half way through cooking stir.

Serves 10

Homemade gravlax with herbed sauce on a rice cake

This may look a little fancy but it’s actually pretty simple if you have the time – a minimum of 48 hours.  After your first batch you’ll never purchase store lox again.

The following recipe is for 2lbs of salmon.

Gravlax

1 cup Sugar

1/2 cup Kosher Salt

lots of fresh cracked pepper

2 large bunches dill (stems included)

2 lbs Salmon (2 individual 1 lb fillets, skinless & boneless)

Pyrex or Glass casserole dish just big enough for the fish

Mix dry ingredients well in a large bowl. Evenly cover each salmon fillet with mixture on all sides. You may have mixture left over, store it in a plastic bag for next time. Place 1/2 of one bunch of dill on the bottom of the dish, and cover with one salmon fillet, flesh side up. Evenly distribute one bunch of dill in the middle and cover with the second salmon fillet, flesh side down. You’ve just made a salmon dill sandwich. Put the remaining dill on top.

Loosely cover the dish with plastic wrap and let marinate at room temperature on a kitchen counter, allowing the mixture to melt into salmon. No more than 6 hours.

Place a plate or pan on top of the plastic wrap, weight the plate with cans, rocks, or other kitchen items that equals about 2 pounds. Refrigerate the weighted gravlax for at least 48 hours or up to 4  days. Every 12 hours, take off weights and flip the salmon sandwich over, brining liquid from the fish and salt and sugar mixture will accumulate in dish, recover and weight, and place in refrigerator.

Refrigerate the weighted gravlax for at least 2 days (48 hours) and up to a week.

After curing is complete, finely slice with a fish knife to desired thinness or thickness.

*Be conscientious about the health of the fish you use – only use fresh reliable salmon!

The Herb Sauce

2 cup Greek yogurt

1/2 cup low fat sour cream

3 tbs good dijon mustard

3 tbs Hal’s Hot Love

2 green onion, finely chopped

3 tbs fresh dill, finely chopped

fresh black pepper and salt to taste

Combine all ingredients in a mixing bowl. Adjust to taste. If it’s too spicy add more yogurt, or vice versa.

*This sauce is also excellent for a crudites platter or simply as a chip dip

It was a miserably HOT day, 112′ a record high, but over 15,000 hot sauce fanatics didn’t seem to mind. As soon as the gates opened the crowds lined up and never let up. Seems folks were more interested in the heat on their pallets then the punishing sun!

That was good sign for us. Shanita’s Salsitas handed out over 2,000 samples. We lost count after we ran out of little plastic cups!

A special thank you to everyone that helped! Seth Weisfeld, Johnathan Weisfeld-Hinojosa, Sam Saldivar, Alie Twigger, Allyson Stromberg, Rachel McClure, Gerald Lack, Jill Altman, Laura S. Hoke, Brie Franco, and Ashley Chiles.

Laura's Taco Salad (photo courtesy of Susan Floyd)

1 bag mixed greens

cilantro leaves, to taste

2/3 c black beans

2/3 c corn

1 avocado

1 c crushed tortilla chips

1 tomato, medium sized

1 red pepper, diced

1 jalapeno

Ki’s K.O., dress to taste

Combine ingredients, toss with dressing and serve.

Visit Stella’s Kitchen and Another Austin Food Blog for more great recipes!