Chicken with Mango Salsa 2 - Now with Pineapple!

The other day I shared a delicious mango salsa over chicken.  Today I have a slightly different version with pineapple.  

The moral of this story is that you can throw together tropical fruit, hot peppers and onions in just about any combination and have a delicious topping for grilled chicken.  

For this version I used a cored pineapple, mangoes, jalapeno peppers, red onion, mint, parsley and lime.

I chopped half the pineapple.

Chopped the mangoes, onions and peppers.

And combined.  Don't mind the focus. 

Then I chopped the parsley and mint together.  This happens to be pineapple mint that grows like a weed in my garden, but any mint is fine.  Cilantro would also be good if you swing that way but I don't.

Combine the fruit, vegetables and herbs and squeeze some fresh lime juice over.  Let this sit while you grill the chicken.


Any seasoning would work nicely on the chicken but I was particularly happy with what I came up with for this.  

I mixed some juice from the pineapple with spicy English mustard.  I sprinkled the chicken with salt and pepper before grilling, then brushed them with the hot mustard mixture while on the grill.

The pineapple juice caramelized and made a delicious glaze.  It was a great match for the mango salsa and I'll definitely try this again!

These are boneless chicken thighs but this would be just as good with chicken breasts or even pork chops or tenderloin.

Top the chicken with the pineapple mango salsa and serve with rice or potatoes or salad or whatever you like.  Simple and delicious!

Chicken with Mango Salsa 1

In the summer, and even in the winter a lot of the time, our default meal is grilled meat with starch and veggies.  It is so simple, minimizes dishes to wash, and is relatively healthy and satisfying.  My husband has perfected grilling chicken (and most other meats I present him with), so I never have to worry about dried out chicken on the grill. Ours is always juicy and delicious. 

Normally, just grilled chicken with barbecue sauce or a spice rub is good enough, but for something a little more special, a nice mango salsa will spice up your chicken and make it a meal suitable for guests that's still easy as pie.

I have two different versions of mango salsa, so I'll start with one and share the other later in the week.  

This mango salsa starts with mangoes, hot peppers, red onion and lime.

I love  Ataulfo mangoes.  They always seem ripe and juicy, and I like the texture more than standard mangoes.  But I had one of each this time so that's what I used. The mangoes were a little over ripe but still worked great in this salsa.  

Dice the red onion.

Then dice the hot peppers. 

I used a Thai chili and a Hungarian yellow pepper. You can also use jalapeno or any hot pepper you like.
Slice the mangoes on either side of the pit.

The Ataulfo mango is buttery orange and smooth while the standard mango is yellow and a bit stringy. Then score the flesh into cubes. Don't cut all the way through the skin.  

Work the knife between the flesh and skin to slice these little cubes from the mango skin.  

If you're meticulous, chop the mango cubes to a uniform size, or just leave them in assorted sizes if you're lazy like me. 

Mix the ingredients together and squeeze fresh lime juice over all.

Serve over grilled chicken with some steamed broccoli and rice.  The fresh, spicy salsa adds a lot of flavour to a simple meal. 

Beef Short Ribs on the Grill

I love to braise short ribs but quick grilling them never occurred to me until I read this article on Serious Eats claiming short ribs are the best cheap steak for the grill.  Short ribs usually aren't that cheap where I shop.  People have caught on that these "cheap" cuts can be very tasty and as a result, they're not so cheap any more.  Luckily I found some reasonably priced boneless short ribs, which I've never seen before.  If you see these, snap them up!  

The big secret to these short rib steaks is not the in the cooking, but merely in the cutting.  As long as you cut them against the grain once they're cooked, they'll be tender and delicious.  The meat is very rich so a small portion per person is enough.  This amount should have served four but it served two gluttons with leftovers.

Season the beef with salt and pepper on both sides.

Then simply grill them over high heat until medium rare. Due to all the fat, this cut is more forgiving than other steaks, but don't let it get to well done.

Still nice & pink.  

I served these short rib steaks with leftover chimichurri sauce.  The fresh, acidic sauce was a great counterpoint to the rich, fatty beef.  But you can serve them plain or with whatever sauce you like with beef.   Also, fresh local asparagus and a baked potato will give you an enormous feast your husband will flip for!  Mine did!

Short & Sweet Sunday - Baby Pattypan Squash

Whenever I see an interesting vegetable at the market I like to give it a try. This has resulted in some delicious side dishes.  These baby pattypan squash are a delicate, tasty treat!

Just trim any tough ends off the squash stems and rinse them.  I decided to mix the little squash with some sugar snap peas and asparagus.  

Heat some olive oil in a pan and add some minced garlic.  Careful not to burn the garlic!

Throw the squash and asparagus into the pan and toss it around.

After about 5 minutes, add the sugar snap peas.

Toss around to cook through for just 2-3 minutes.  Veggies should still be crispy.

Once they're done, serve them alongside chicken or any grilled or roasted meat, or with pasta.

This is a delicious, fresh side dish.  You can also skewer and grill the little squash, roast them or steam them.  They taste very much like summer squash or zucchini.  

Chocolate Mint Chip Iced Cupcakes

I've showed you the cupcakes, then the pink vanilla icing, now I'll show you the chocolate mint chip icing that was a big hit!

I reserved half of the buttercream and added a few drops of mint extract and a few drops of green food colouring.  

I mixed it together by hand so I didn't have to clean the mixer twice, but you can use the mixer if you like.

Make sure the colour is solid, then add some mini chocolate chips.

Mix these in and then fill the piping bag. One challenge with this is finding a big enough tip.  I had to keep increasing the size as chocolate chips built up in the tip and clogged it. I finally had success with a really huge tip.  

These cupcakes turned out great and it was nice to have different colours  and flavours of icing.  They were a big hit. You can halve the recipes if you don't need over 80 cupcakes.

Vanilla Iced Chocolate Cupcakes

Yesterday I made chocolate cupcakes.  They're cool.  Now it's time to ice them!

I went back and forth on what kind of icing to use. I'm not a big fan of icing and I prefer something less sweet, but I needed something stable for a hot day and wanted to colour and flavour the icing in a couple of different ways, so I decided on a simple buttercream.  Here's what you need:

Icing sugar, butter, salt and vanilla.

I like weighing baking ingredients when I can.

You need 340g or 3 sticks of butter.

Using a mixer, beat the butter alone for 5 minutes on medium speed (4 on my Kitchenaid). 

Mix until light and fluffy. Here's how it'll look.

Meanwhile, sift 625g or 5 cups icing sugar.

With the mixer on low add the icing sugar and a pinch of salt to the butter.

Mix on low for 1 minute then mix on high for 5 minutes.

Once the mixture is fluffy and creamy, remove about half.

Now you'll need the vanilla extract, mint extract, red and green food colouring.

Now we're going to make 2 different flavours/colours.
To the icing in the mixer add a teaspoon of vanilla extract and a few drops of red food colouring.

Mix until combined and the colour is solid.  You may need to scrape down the sides of the bowl to get it combined.

Now you can just spread this over the cupcakes or you can be fancy and use a piping bag.

I used a plain tip to start .

But didn't like the look of it.  

The beauty is you can scrape off the icing and try again if you make a mistake. I used a star tip and liked the result much better.

I piped the pink vanilla icing onto half the cupcakes.

Then I made mint chocolate chip icing for the rest, but I'll show you that tomorrow.