This is a pic of our Hawaiian scallops recipe. We made this one night & it was exceptional. We like to marinate the scallops or shrimp for 2 – 3 hours using the salsa & some flavored rums. If we use the pineapple-mango we use pineapple rum & mango rum or sometimes we use coconut rum & pineapple or mango rum. We like the flavor of dry sauteed pine nuts & toasted sesame seeds in this recipe. After marinating we cook the scallops or shrimp. Our mother’s would soak fish in milk prior to cooking & told us it helped reduce the “fishy” taste sometimes experienced. Give this a try & I think you’ll enjoy it.
Won’t be found in your Hello Fresh or Blue Apron box
The internet has helped create some interesting businesses. I find it amazing that people are willing to have their meals delivered in a box which seems to be very limiting to me. I’m sure the meals are good but to me it seems too limited & leaves out the ability to explore your culinary creativity. Since we learned how wonderful our fruit salsas are in pretty much everything it’s been fun exploring the possibilities.
Recently we made some flavored crostinis topping them with prosciutto & brie cheese. We started with a few slices of a toasted onion loaf from Fred Meyer & coated them with our strawberry-rhubarb fruit salsa vinaigrette. Baked them @ 350 degrees for 20 – 25 minutes until lightly toasted. We then placed the prosciutto on them & topped with a little brie cheese & baked for a few minutes to melt the cheese. We then topped them with a little of each of our fruit salsas to try them.
They were excellent! These would make a great appetizer for a Super Bowl party, a nice dinner meal or just anytime.
America’s Largest Christmas Bazaar & Our Next Show
We’d like to thank all those that came out to purchase our fruit salsas at America’s Largest Christmas Bazaar. We’d especially like to thank Melissa & her family for driving from the Tacoma, WA area specifically to pick up some more fruit salsas after purchasing at the Tacoma Holiday Food & Gift Festival at the Tacoma Dome in October. We hope you enjoy them however you choose to use them. Many people will eat them from the jar but don’t forget you can create some wonderful culinary delights with them & use them in mixed drinks.
We will be at the Salem Holiday Market in Salem, OR at the Jackson Long building on the Oregon Fairgrounds. The market begins Friday evening with an opportunity to try some things made using our fruit salsas. It continues through Sunday. Drop by to restock.
PDX Holiday Food & Gift Festival This Weekend
Drop by our booth at the PDX Holiday Food & Gift Festival at the convention center Fri – Sun. We plan to sample a vinaigrette made with one of our fruit salsas. Usually folks want to buy the vinaigrette but we don’t sell it. We make the fruit salsa which is the primary ingredient & give you the recipe. To make it all you need is a blender. We hope to see a lot of folks come by & sample these fabulous tomato free salsas & purchase them to try them in your own culinary creations.
Hu-La-La Jamaican Jerk Pork Burgers
Hu-La-La Jamaican Jerk Pork Burgers
1 lb ground pork
8 slices of bacon
Jamaican jerk seasoning
Chehalem Ridge Brands Hu-La-La Tropical Fruit Salsa (Pineapple Mango)
4 King’s Hawaiian hamburger buns
4 slices mild cheddar cheese
Heat your grill for medium to high heat. While the grill is heating, prep the patties. Make sure the pork is cold. Hand mix it in a bowl with the jerk seasoning (2 tablespoons or to taste). Form the pork into four equal sized patties. Put them on a plate and refrigerate them for at least a half an hour. Optionally, you can mix the salsa into the meat instead and use the jerk seasoning as a rub during cooking. Grill the bacon for 2 minutes per side, then set it on a paper towel to drain off excess grease. Grill the patties, lid down, for 4-6 minutes per side. After flipping them, top the burgers with the cheese, salsa, and bacon.
Toast the buns on the grill for 30-90 seconds.
Assemble the burgers and serve them up.
Three-Cheese Semolina Bread With Fruit Salsa Swirl
Three-Cheese Semolina Bread With Fruit Salsa Swirl
You can split the dough into half & use one for the fruit salsa swirl & one as a regular loaf. Of course you can make one larger loaf with the fruit salsa swirl.
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 cup semolina
2 tsp bread yeast or instant yeast
1 1/4 tsp salt
2 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
1 to 1 1/8 cups lukewarm water
1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1 cup diced or grated Provolone cheese
1 cup diced or coarsely crumbled Asiago cheese, mild or sharp
1/2 to 3/4 cup Blues Berry Fruit Salsa
Combine everything but the three cheeses, & beat on medium speed of an electric mixer to make a soft, smooth dough. It may or may not clear the sides of the bowl; either works. Switch to the dough hook & knead for about 5 minutes. Add the three cheeses & mix until well combined.
Put the soft dough in a lightly greased bowl or 8-cup measure, cover, & let rise for about 2 hours, till very puffy.
Lightly grease a 14” to 15” covered stonewarebaker or bread pan or lightly grease a baking sheet, or line with parchment paper. Sprinkle semolina into the pan, or onto the baking sheet. Gently deflate the dough. Roll out the dough out then spread the fruit salsa on the dough. For one long loaf, roll & shape it into a 13” log & place in the stoneware baker or bread pan. For two loaves, divide the dough in half & place both halves on the prepared baking sheet.
Tent lightly with greased plastic wrap (or cover the stoneware baker with its lid), & let rise for about an hour or until noticeable puffy. Towards the end of the rising time, preheat over to 425°F.
Take the plastic lid off the bread. Spray it with water & use a sharp knife to make three diagonal slashes in each loaf.
If using a stoneware pan leave the cover on. Bake the bread for 30 minutes; remove the cover & bake for an additional 10 minutes, till the bread is golden brown & an instant-read thermometer inserted into the center registers 190°F to 200°F. If baking smaller loaves check to see if they’re done after 30 minutes.
Remove the bread from the oven, & take it out of the pan. If you’ve baked in the stoneware pan, loosen the edges & carefully turn the bread out of the pan onto a rack to cool.
Yield 1 large of 2 smaller loaves.
Singin’ The Blues Crab Cakes
Singin’ The Blues Crab Cakes
This recipe does not include our fruit salsa in the crab cakes. Rather it is a recipe for crab cakes we like to make & then uses our fruit salsa as the ‘dipping sauce’.
The Pacific Northwest is blessed with Dungeness Crab. This sweet succulent crab makes wonderful crab cakes. Most restaurants serve crab cakes with a spicy sauce made of wasabi or hot peppers. We decided to try these crab cakes with our Blues Berry Fruit Salsa one night and it was wonderful. We now eat them with Blues Berry Fruit Salsa instead of wasabi based sauces or spicy aiolis.
1/2 lb Dungeness Crab (or your favorite crab meat)
2 green onions diced
2 mini bell peppers diced
1/2 cup mayonnaise (We use Kraft Olive Oil mayo with black pepper)
1 egg
breadcrumbs
olive oil, grapeseed oil or avocado oil
butter
Chehalem Ridge Brands Blues Berry Fruit Salsa
Place the crab meat in a bowl. Add the egg and mayonnaise and mix well. Add the green onions and mini peppers and mix well but try to retain the lumpy texture of the crab meat. Add about 1/4 cup bread crumbs and mix well. Add breadcrumbs until the mixture just begins to stick together when formed into a patty. You don’t want a lot of bread crumbs as the crab cakes tend to be “doughy”. You want the texture of the crab meat and flavor of the crab meat to come through. Place about 2 tbsp of butter and about2 tbsp of olive oil or other quality oil in the pan. Heat the butter and oil until the butter begins to bubble. Shape the crab cake mixture into the size crab cake you desire and put in the pan. Cook until lightly browned on each side. Remove from pan and place on serving dish. Serve with Chehalem Ridge Brands Blues Berry Fruit Salsa instead of a wasabi based sauce. We sometimes add wasabi to the fruit salsa for more heat. You can also add the fruit salsa to mayonnaise & finely minced garlic for a spicy ‘aioli’.
Love Brie 3
Love Brie 3
5 tbsp. butter
2 shallots, thinly sliced
1/2 cup onions, chopped
about 1/2 cup Chehalem Ridge Brands fruit salsa
16 large white mushrooms, washed & sliced
1 tsp your favorite herb(s)
1/3 cup Trappist ale (Belgian Trappist ale or Scottish Ale)
1/3 cup toasted walnuts, pecans or pine nuts, coarsely chopped
1 package frozen puff pastry dough, thawed
2 small Brie rounds with white skin, chilled thoroughly
baking parchment
1 egg, beaten lightly
Heat 3 tbsp. butter in a heavy skillet, add shallots & onions & cook, stirring frequently, until translucent. Remove from pan.
Turn heat to medium-high & add remaining butter. Saute mushrooms & herbs, stirring constantly until softened.
Add Trappist or Scottish ale & sautéed onions, cooking briskly until the ale has evaporated. Remove from heat & cool. Stir in toasted nuts.
Roll one piece of puff pastry into a 12×12 inch square on an unfloured surface by picking the pastry up & turning it after each roll.
Split one Brie round horizontally with a sharp knife, place one-half on puff pastry.
Spoon 1/4 of the mushroom mixture over the Brie, add fruit salsa & cover with the top half.
Spoon another 1/4 of the mushroom mixture & fruit salsa over the top half. Gently gather the puff pastry up over the top, sealing by pressing & slightly twisting the dough & forming ends into a flower. Repeat with second Brie round.
Place on a parchment-lined baking sheet & refrigerate at least one hour, or wrap & freeze up to one month.
Before baking, brush the surface with beaten egg. Bake at 350°F until puffed & golden brown. You can make a 2nd pre-baked & freeze for later.
Dance The Tango Sauce
Dance The Tango Sauce
This sauce is similar to the Hu-La-La Rum Sauce but uses our Peachy Mango-Tango fruit salsa.
1 medium onion—sliced & cut to saute
1/2 tsp minced garlic
1/4 cup green onion chopped (for garnish)
3—4 slices bacon or peppered bacon
2 tbsp. olive oil
about 1/2 cup sliced mushrooms—optional
2 tbsp. butter
1 cup peach rum or peach liqueur
1/2 cup mango rum
1 tsp. cornstarch
fresh cracked pepper
1/2 cup Chehalem Ridge Brands Peachy Mango Tango Fruit Salsa
We recommend you marinate the meats or vegetables in the flavored rums & fruit salsa for about 3—4 hours prior to cooking.
Cook the bacon in a microwave & break into small pieces. Heat olive oil & butter in pan. Add onion & saute until it begins to become translucent. Add mushrooms if desired & continue to saute for about 1 minute. Add garlic for last minute or two of saute. Remove from heat & place ingredients into a bowl. Add rums to the pan & heat to reduce quantity to about 2/3. Remove small portion to a cup & mix cornstarch—whisk until very smooth. Add ingredients to pan with rum, add bacon & fruit salsa & cracked pepper to taste & cook stirring until it thickens. Serve over salmon, or other fish, chicken, pork or sautéed or grilled vegetables. Garnish with green onion.
Fruit Salsa Chickpea Dip
Fruit Salsa Chickpea Dip
19 oz chickpeas, rinsed & drained
2/3 cup Chehalem Ridge Brands Fruit Salsa
1 garlic clove minced
1/8 tsp sea salt
1/4 tsp coarse black pepper
Process all ingredients in a food processor until smooth. Serve with crackers, chips or veggies.
Alternatively you can use humus as a base then add the other ingredients to the humus & mix well. You can even add our fruit salsas to a flavored humus. We’ve done this with several flavored humus varieties.
Chehalem Ridge Brands 