Friday Frittata

When I was a little girl, Mum used to joke that if you are what you eat, I must have been made of potatoes. Apparently, if there was a choice between any kind of food or even delicious treats and (mashed, steamed, fried, boiled) potato, I'd be all over the potatoes like a rash as if it were candy. Weird. I wonder if I had some rare elemental nutrient deficiency? Is it selenium that somes from spuds? Let me know!

Anyhoo, I'm a bit more balanced in my diet now, but I must admit that potato is still my go-to carbs over other choices, probably because I've devoted such a lifetime to discovering fun and interesting ways to cook it. This includes the time that my parents got the "evil" (according to my Year 2 teacher) microwave device, and I would cook a potato in the microwave plain, then pour Maggi seasoning sauce (essentially soya sauce with MSG added) on and feel like an evil genius gourmand. The babysitter who taught me how to make home-made crisps by thinly slicing potatoes and frying them as an after school snack is still my favourite, and we are still in contact 25 years on! No surprise then that my aforementioned recipe clipping folder contains an entire section devoted to potatoes:



...and my favourite recipe is potato frittata, which has taken many many forms in my topsy-turvy-many-housey lifetime. I can't believe I haven't blogged it yet for you!

Potato frittata (or "potato based quiche") is a versatile dish. It is a great dish to cut up into little finger food/tapas sized pieces for people to nibble as an appetiser at parties and goes down well as it is substantial but snacky enough to bring to "bring a plate" functions or to work. It's also a lovely comfort food that you can serve up, country café-style on a plate with a simple salad. You can bake it, then keep it in the fridge as leftovers to eat cold or reheated for breakfast, lunch, dinner or supper; which is perfect for the times when I've been living the solitary shiftworker lifestyle and can only work up enough energy to cook once for a big round of days or nights on. I'm actually post-nights, and eating a big leftover slab of it right now as we speak.



(No seriously, when can I quit my day/night job and run a little country café?)

I've also found that in lieu of having the entire thing as a dense layer of potatoey goodness, you can also substitute many combinations of ingredients for the middle and top layer without too much fuss. Shredded turkey, chopped BBQ chicken, grated zucchini, broccolini pieces, mushrooms, sweet potato and leftover Christmas ham are amongst some of my tried and tested concepts. You can completely replace the potato, if you have a weird childhood trauma aversion to them (Irish ex-boyfriend, are you listening?), but I would suggest you use them for the very base layer just to add some structural integrity. You can also make two different combos in the same dish:



So here is the basic recipe, but if you can imagine it is three layers, one potato, one onion +/- bacon/ham; one potato, feel free to substitute in any cooked meat or vegies for the top two layers.

POTATO FRITTATA

For a lasagne dish 18x27cm
--> Line the dish with baking paper and oil it (I use olive oil spray but butter or oil smear works just as well)
--> Preheat the oven to 180degrees.

Base and top layers
1kg (approx. 10 medium sized) potatoes, thinly sliced (Kipfler or waxy potatoes are best, not mashing potatoes)
--> Boil, steam or microwave these until al dente. These will be for both the base and top layers. As I do them in the microwave, I put half first into the microwave. While that is cooking I then sort out the middle layer (see below). Then while the second 500g (of potatoes or other vegies) is cooking I can start layering the first layer of cooked potatoes into the dish.

If I have limited time on one day or know I plan to make frittata a day later, the other option is to cook all the potatoes, then allow them to cool and keep them in the fridge until you are ready for assembly.

Middle layer
1 large or two small (red or white) onions, finely chopped
2 rashers of bacon or slices of ham, finely chopped (optional)
1 small red chili, seeded and finely chopped OR a tablespoon of sweet chili sauce
--> Fry these together in a pan with a spray or splash of olive oil until the onion is translucent and soft.

--> Layer the bottom layer neatly with your first 500g of cooked potato slices. Season with a sprinkle of:

Seasoning mix
Parsley (dried or chopped fresh), chives or spring onions finely snipped
Ground black pepper
Parmesan cheese (instant stuff in a jar or grated fresh are both fine)

--> Then layer on the middle layer mix; and again sprinkle on the seasonings.

--> Then place the top layer ingredients (your 2nd 500g of potato slices, or whatever cooked meat/vegie mix you want to incorporate. If you have heaps of leftover vegies to use up or a cooked chook in the back of the fridge, you can skip the middle layer to allow more room for this stuff and to save time. Again sprinkly over a fine layer of the seasonings.

Egg mix
8 eggs, beaten
1 cup buttermilk or milk, mixed in with the eggs
--> Pour this mixture over your layered goodies. Allow to settle/gently encourage the ingredients down below the egg line with a fork.

--> Bake for 45 minutes, or until the egg mix is set (which you can check by inserting a skewer in the middle which should come out cleanly if it is cooked through). I find most ovens are not 100% even, so I often pull it out at about 20 or 30 minutes to give it a gentle jiggle to check the firmness, then I rotate it around in the oven for more even baking.

--> Allow to cool out of the oven once done to let the excess steam escape and the egg mix to firm up. I then use the baking paper and a couple of spatulas to lift the whole thing out of the pan onto a chopping board to allow for easier slicing. If you want to make small tapas sized pieces, use a very sharp knife and allow it to cool further before slicing to really firm up the mix (often I refrigerate it overnight then slice it the next day for this effect).




MODIFICATIONS

For a standard sized round quiche dish, 3-4 potatoes are enough for each layer (see purple recipe above) and then alter the middle and top layers accordingly; use 6 eggs to 1/2 a cup of milk for your egg mix.

For a larger roasting pan, use 11 or 12 eggs to one cup of milk, and larger potatoes or more meat/vegie mix.

It's an art, not a science! Enjoy!!!

Caramel Surprise!

...although the name kind of gives it away.

Every Easter, I stock up on mini caramel chocolate eggs especially for a beaut little recipe for Caramel Easter Egg Muffins. I have made these for many different people who have all equally adored them over the years. One of my bosses called a particularly over the top batch (with pink icing and hundreds&thousands on top) "solid ADHD" in a very approving way!

The reason I had been adding cupcake icing to the mix was because I had actually found that the afore-linked recipe sometimes turned out a little dry. This year I decided to sniff around for a new batter and lo and behold, past-me had snipped and clipped a few good cupcake and muffin mixes for my "I'm moving out of home I'd better collect lots of recipes in a folder" folder. Lucky we can all benefit from my OCD tendencies:



I didn't have any specifically-branded butter, but I had easy-spread butter in the fridge (which is butter with a vegie oil blend) which worked just as well I must say. I also had received a lovely gift from my sister - these adorable new little ladies to try out:



They do so love to get covered in flour! Sadly I did not have a sieve as half my stuff is still on the East Coast, and in fact baking more often has made me bite the bullet and get all my "personal belongings" removalisted to the West Coast to prevent me getting any more Kitchen Rage. A minor detail.

So basically, using the mix in the recipe above, or really any nice cupcake/sweet muffin mix, pour the batter into the muffin pans (patty case lined or oiled) until you have reached the half way level, then plonk your caramel chocolate on/in, then fill up the rest of the way with the batter, making sure the chocolate is covered.

I also went to the supermarket WAAAAY too late (hey, I was on nights, I can't be expected to keep track of all you normal people and your "public holiday" thingies every year!) - so instead of caramel eggs I used a snap block of Cadbury Caramello chocolate instead. Dangerous, as I may be able to make these ADHD-sugar-rush-bad-boys all year round! Watch out!



I was running late for work by this stage so no cool down for icing time was allowed. I went to visit my sister and drop off my doggles for dogglesitting; she had a block of dark chocolate that she kindly let me use, so I just grated some dark chocolate sprinkles on top. The latent warmth helped it half-melt and stick on, and it looked very pretty. On both the muffins and all over her kitchen bench! Oops.

The night staff crew and my sis & bro-in-lo approved! Another Happy Easter to all (please excuse my belated posting)!

WTF Wednesday

Wallaby Bread Improver!



Well, I'm warming up for a bit of bignomlittlenom love. I've decided to pace myself and start with something simple.

I spotted this product on the shelf at IGA the other day, I don't know if anyone has ever used it, I'd love to hear from you if you have. Do you think it's made of real wallaby?

Christmas Dinner Soup! - fantabulous guest post by Jen

I recently saw on my F*(&book feed that my very clever friend Jen had made an amazing invention with her enticing Christmas Dinner Soup to warm up her Northern hemisphere home - As I've been a weensy bit slack on here, I asked her if she would mind doing a guest post on here for all us luckyducks (or is that luckyturkeys?) and she said yes! Here we go.....

Christmas Dinner Soup:
(Serves 4 as a main, probably 6-8 as an entree)

This is a hearty, meaty, wintery soup inspired by all the flavours I love at Christmas. The roast potatoes, the oniony, sagey stuffing and the turkey and ham. It was a complete experiment that totally works.



The fixings:
- 1.5 - 2L vegetable or chicken stock
- turkey breast ( approx 400g), diced
- 1 gammon steak or 4-6 rashers of thick cut bacon, diced
- 1 brown onion, diced
- 1 leek, chopped
- 2 carrots, chopped
- 2-3 sticks celery, chopped
- 1 small sweet potato or 1/2 a medium sweet potato, chopped
- 1 small potato, chopped
- good handful of fresh sage, roughly chopped
- good handful of parsley, roughly chopped
- quarter of an apple, finely chopped (a dollop of apple sauce will probably work too)
- pepper to taste (salt as well if needed, but I find between the stock and the bacon, it's not needed)
- a good dollop of butter (I used lurpak spreadable, a butter/olive oil combo, around a heaped tablespoon

The makings:
In a large pot over medium heat, fry turkey, bacon and onion until the onions are soft, the bacon.and turkey are sealed and the house smells fantastic.
Add the stock, seasonings and apple and bring to the boil.
Turn heat down to simmer and leave it be until approx 1/2 an hour before you want to eat. Then add the other veggies so they don't go too mushy.
Keep simmering until all the veggies are soft and your mouth is watering a lot.
Take off the heat, put some in a bowl. Nom. Burn mouth. Curse. Wait a little bit, then nom again with gusto.

Thanks gorgeous for being such a great friend even if we are internationally challenged. I really miss our many lovely dinner funs that we have had over the years! Thanks for being a food inspiration for me, and the blogosphere... I'll totally kickstart the bignomslittlenoms posting back to action soon!

Christmas Curry

I decided to take a run at the Jamie Oliver 30 minute meal "CURRY" - basically it is a vego (pumpkin, cauliflower & chickpea) number with a few nummy sides. I like that the book also calls for "BEER". The full title of the 30 minute meal is CURRY ROGAN JOSH FLUFFY RICE CARROT SALAD POPPADOMS FLATBREAD BEER. Page 80.

As we have discovered, Jamie has some very big eaters for friends, and so I halved the amounts. I left out a few ingredients and also missed his carrot salad, pickled lemons and poppadoms (which we spell puppodums over here, never really thought about that before!). I added a raita as well. Somehow, between two overseas trips, an interstate trip and a massive charity dinner at my house, I seem to have come out with NO RICECOOKER anywhere in the house - which led me to run around, dilated crazy catseyes & poofy frazzle tailed, until I read in Mr Jamie's book that you can apparently cook rice some way OTHER THAN A RICECOOKER? - crazy non-Chineseses! First time ever making rice by the absorption method, felt very proud and also dirty.

I told my seestah and my bro-in-lo to come round, coz it's more fun cooking for company and having a billion leftovers, than eating alone and having a bajillion leftovers. My freezer's only small, you know. We did "present-ing" (two Capricorns in one relationship, lord help us) and had alcoholic and desserty accoutrements. Bro-in-lo responded to a last minute bat-signal and provided (very nice) beer. All in all a big success.


PUMPKIN/VEGO CURRY de Jamie by Deanne:

Boil a kettle of water and have it standing by. Preheat oven to 180 degrees.

Peel and slice an onion, add it to a large pan on high heat with a splash of kettle water and a drizzle of olive oil.

Use a pre-halved (love ya work, IGA) butternut squash/pumpkin (lengthways). Remove the seeds with a soup spoon, halve the half again lengthways (ie into a quarter-pumpkin) and chop into 1cm wedgy chunks. Jamie omits the seed bit, but I didn't find it took that much more time. Add to the pan.

Remove the tough outer leaves of a cauliflower half (thanks again, grocery store) and then cut into bite sized chunks, higgledypiggledy and chuck them in the pan, with two big handfuls of cashews. Stand and stir and stare vacantly into the pretty colours and watch as the flame transforms the outside corners of the vegies into blackened sweet spots of flavour explosion. Mmm, stir. Stir. Ahem.

Add half a teaspoon of chilli flakes, then a couple of cloves of finely chopped or minced (if only I had a garlic press on both coasts of Oz!) garlic, a generous splash of kettle water, a jar of store-bought curry paste/sauce mix (I used a jar of Korma paste I found in the back of the pantry). Open a tin of chickpeas but don't drain - just pour in the chickadees and their juices straight into the pan. Salt, pepper, stir and fire up the heat. Cover if you have a lid or don't if you only have a wok and no big pans in your house. Ahem. Stir when you remember to, add kettle water when you remember to.

RICE by Jamie's Absorption Method, or non-Chinese witchcraft, as I like to call it:

Pour a mugful of rice into a medium saucepan with a "lug" of olive oil and a few cloves, salt and pepper. If you don't have cloves, use a chicken stock cube. Ahem. Cover with two mugfuls of boiling water from the kettle (same mug as the rice ie 1:2), put the lid on and boil on medium heat for 7 minutes. Yes I did watch the clock. Then after that, take off the heat with lid still on and sit for 7 minutes to steam through.


FLATBREAD Jamie says Chapattis, I say Naan Breads, let's call the whole thing off!

Scrunch up a large sheet of baking paper under running water, flatten it out on a baking tray, layer the store bought flatbreads on top, with a spray of olive oil and a sprinkle of chopped garlic between each bready doona (or turmeric if you are Jamie). Wrap them in the paper and put them on the middle shelf of the oven at 180 degrees.


RAITA or as I was once told by a waiter in a posh resort restaurant in Alice Springs once "no, we don't have any raita sorry but this is mint and yoghurt sauce to go with your meal."

Shred/use vegie peeler/slice etc a small lebanese cucumber into unembiggened slivers.
Chop up a handful of mint.
Pour a tub of natural yoghurt on top. I used "Greek" style but in future I think I will seek out the "European" style next time, I find it more tart (no comments, thanks).


BEER

Thank your bro-in-lo profusely for complimenting your "very classy bottle opener" that was actually a freebie/stolen from a crab smashing event. No really.

Compliment your bro-in-lo on his excellent taste in beer.



Serve up, with presents on the side (a touch early this year as I'm going back interstate to my "other home" for the silly season).

Happy Curry everyone!

Pasta cheat!

Sometimes, I walk past my local Italian restaurant and all I can think is alio olio alio olio alio olio...vongole...
Then I get home and realise that all my recent travel has meant that a) I have no alio b) I've killed my basil plants and c) I have not been shopping in ages and I have no fresh seafood. Like last night.

Fortunately I had a full tub of Chunky Basil, Cashew and Parmesan dip (do you remember, back in the early noughties when these first started appearing on supermarket chiller shelves? What a godsend!), a few squashy old mini-Roma tomatoes, half an onion from who-knows-when, some instant spaghetti (cooks in 8 minutes!) and my usual pantry staples.

So I boiled up the pasta and at the same time drizzled olive oil & balsamic vinegar into a frying pan and blackened the tomatoes with a sprinkle of salt, pepper and powdered garlic. I then added the chopped onion and cooked through until translucent to get the flavour out of its sorry bones. I then smooshed the tomatoes hard with the back of the spoon. The basil dip tub was unceremoniously dumped into the pan and then the pasta was done so I mixed it all up in the frying pan to coat the strands and hey presto! Alio olio tomato pesto.

Just cos

So here's a post just for my friend who has posted this very funny pic on Fbook:

Yes I must admit that yesterday I did crack a lovely bottle of extremely wooded chardonnay. However today, when opened the door of the fridge, I spied a little baggie of something that is a healthier kind of weakness.



My local Independent Grocers (yes people, IGA stands for something more than just "convenience store") has the most amazingly fresh, plump, crisp, young cos lettuce leaves and I never can resist a bagful whenever I am in there. Sadly the Hass avocadoes were a little overripe so my usual go-to of "Cos, avo, lemon juice, olive oil" soupy salad was a no-go.

As my hand reached into the fridge for milk for a post-dinner cuppa, it emerged clutching the bag of lettuce like an addict. So here's the craving recipe of the day, healthy-style:

Rinse young cos lettuce leaves.
Decide they are too pretty to slice up.
In a coffee mug, pour some olive oil, then a splash (roughly 1:3 or 1:4) of balsamic vinegar, ground salt, ground pepper and some dried thyme from your homegrown windowsill stash. Swill it around and then pour it in lines over the leaves.
Pick up the leaves by hand and eat them, letting the dressing run all over your hands and cover your phone with oil when you decide to take a photo halfway through:

crunch crunch crunch smile
prunehands!

I did also have a cuppa. Now, I spy some leftover chardonnay in the fridge, excuse me...

...because we all love a good Kanga Banga...

I just got home from Peru, and had been chatting away with a bunch of North and South Americans about the Australian love of Skippy. To eat, that is. (I ate lots of delicious alpaca dishes, and I even tried guinea pig!)

So, I had a metric sshttonne of things to do after almost forty hours in transit - unpacking, work catchups, clean the house, get the bung oven door fixed... but no, it all had to wait because I NEEDED to cook. Every now and then I just crave fresh food and the joy of wielding a knife into it. I popped down to the local IGA and bought some you beaut fresh fennels (did I mention I forgot my oven was limply hanging open and not safe for use?) in amongst a basketful of luscious green stuff. I knew I had a freezer full of meat and on my arrival home I was pleased to see these bad boys in the top drawer:

A quick defrost in the micro-onde and a cue for Sale of the Century thinking music. Yes, I often build my meals around the protein.





I introduced my Dadsy to fennel with my oven roasted warm salad, and as is his way, he's made it his own by making it the star of many a stirfry, often with beef. I ran with that idea at a recent impromptu extended rellies Shiraz Shindig, serving pan seared kangaroo steaks sliced on the oblique and juicy atop my ovenated fennel.

So, what was it for lunch? Bush tomato Skippy & Fennel Stirfry of course!

It went something like this:
(Jetlag permitting)

Slice the fennel into 1cm-ish width short strips, chuck into hot wok with a generous drizzle of olive oil; pull out some frozen lemon slices from your stash (fresh or bottled juice would be fine too) and chuck them in too. Pour over some water, loads of cracked pepper and a drizzle of balsamic vinegar to help with the caramelisation.






Meanwhile, grab your defrosted kangaroo snags (mine already had herbs and bush tomato flavouring) and snip the skins off with some scissors or a knife.

Chuck the meat into a big bowl and smoosh into chunks with a spoon.





Add equal splashes of light soy sauce and dry sherry, heaps of pepper and a punch of sugar or tiny bit of balsamic. By now the fennel is pretty much cooked through (go for soft, not al dente) and the liquid in the pan has reduced. Add the lovely roo meat lumps, stirfry the bejeezus out of the mix...

...and hey presto, lunch is served!


(Albeit, not particularly photogenic!)

I'm a very lucky girl, my past self really looks after me, so I was able to have a box of rice reheated out of the freezer in a jiffy. However, I reckon this recipe could be served with pasta, potatoes or cous cous as the carb base. Also, I reckon the addition of some olives and a dollop of tomato (tins, paste or sauce) could easily convert this to more Mediterranean feel.

Mmm, next time I'll use roo steak (more on that later). But only because good alpaca can be hard to find here.

Yay, leftovers for dinner too. Good to be home in the kitchen.

Holy guacamole! So many handy hints!

Cooking dinner tonight, I had another one of those lovely moments where you realise you are making something that until quite recently you had no idea how to do!

Back before the Mexican renaissance of late, we used to frequent a Tex Mex bar in Perth known as Santa Fe, I used to impress people with my ability to scarf down the entire serve of ribs, and guacamole was a mysterious delicacy of avocadoey goodness wrapped in a riddle, served as an enigma.

I have since taught myself to make guacamole, with a lot of trial and error, and a little help from Ready Steady Cook, a fervent conversation with my friend Luke and some heated debate with my ex-boyfriend Chris - which has led to a very flexible recipe. I'd love to know other people's variations!

I was making guacamole today as a filling for my steak sandwich/wrap; plus a few family gatherings of late have featured bro-in-lo's bro Tim's taco salad, which will have to have its own dedicated blog post soon (when I attempt to make it myself!) so I was feeling the avocado vibe.

Avocado and tomatoes are a staple on my grocery list, and guacamole is definitely a go-to now that I've mastered it.

In my mind, you MUST have:

AVOCADO
- lots and lots (tonight's recipe featured one and a half Hass avocados, my breed of choice)

Handy hints with avocado:
#1 - when buying an avocado, very gently squeeze the narrow top part between thumb and forefinger. If it's unripe it will be too firm to have any "give". Too ripe and you'll lose your fingertips into it from squashyness. Just right and you'll feel a bit of give but no permanent dentage.

#2 - chop citrus (eg lime or lemon) with your knife first or drip some citrus juice on it to prevent oxidation of the cut edges.

#3 - to chop an avocado, halve it lengthways and give the halves a twist and pull apart. To remove the stone, slam your knife into it firmly at 90∘ to wedge the blade in there (fortune favours the brave, be firm). Turn the knife handle clockwise (and attached stone) like a lever and it should just plop the stone right on out of the flesh without too much hassle and slipperydippery. Now half your halves again ie cut the avocado into lengthways quarters. At this size, it is very easy to simply grip the skin firmly at one tip and peel the skin off the flesh, as if you were peeling a banana. No more wasted flesh smooshed into the skins!

- I then dice the avocado very finely and transfer it to a bowl to mash with a fork; or if it is very very ripe you can just mash it without dicing.

TOMATO
- a bit, finely diced (I prefer to buy a punnet of Grape tomatoes when I do my regular grocery shop, but this time I used the slightly larger Mini-Roma tomatoes; for tonight's guacamole I used 8 of them to go with my one and a half avocados). Here's a pic, with a teaspoon for scale, and my pretty new red knife (it comes with its own red blade sheath too!):

LIME JUICE
- a generous amount (I used the juice of one lime to the above ratio of ingredients)

Handy hints when juicing a lime (or any citrus fruit):

I'll assume you are using your hands - as Rick Stein's Spain programme has taught us, "citrus juicers are for wusses"!

#1 - Microwave the lime for 10-20 seconds to release the juice more (or run it under hot water briefly)

#2 - Cut it in half transversely:

Once you have squeezed "all" the juice out of the half segment that you can (squeeze with one hand and use the other to catch the pips if you are pip-phobic, or two hands and then just pick the pips out, up to you) - cut the spent half-segment in half again (transversely, as shown):

You will see exactly how much more than "all" the juice you got out is left! Now you can squeeze the end stump and totally bleed that cheeky cheek dry. Mmm, juicy.

#3 - Whilst you cannot compost what's left, unless you have a major problem with alkaline soil; you can save those skins and use them to make natural cleaning solution which I now make (with lemon, mandarin, any citrus peel) and pretty much use for everything around the home.

SEASONINGS
Ground black PEPPER (20 grinder turns)
A pinch of SALT (2 grinder turns)
The extra zing can come from ONION (very finely diced red onion or spring onion or chives); SHALLOTS and/or GARLIC; but I find this is not always to my liking, depends on your mood.
CHILI is fun, but not really my preference. Cayenne or paprika or even finely diced capsicum are sometimes called for in recipes but I don't really swing that way (capsicum gives me the toots, and a sore belly sometimes so it's best to avoid it in my case).
I do enjoy adding some finely chopped fresh PARSLEY. As I am currently growing a small 'living spice rack' on my kitchen bench and the parsley was plentiful I did go for it tonight.

Handy hint with parsley and fresh herbs:
#1 - Invest in a good pair of sharp small scissors for the kitchen garden. Harvest herbs with scissors instead of pulling or plucking as the plant will be much healthier and happier.
#2 - Plonk the harvested herb into a tumbler or mug, stick the scissors in and chop chop chop; I find this so much easier and less messy than trying to wrangle them all on a board with a knife as I am not a chef with mad knife skills!

THE CREAM OF THE CROP?
Some recipes (and fanatical people) really like adding sour cream to the mix presumably to extend the avocado and bulk up the volume. In fact I will admit to trying this and even using Philly cream cheese when I'm running low on avocado. However, I actually think I prefer my avocado nude, as I feel that filly ingredients tend to also dilute the flavour, but I can see how people do prefer the creamy texture that comes from a mix.

Guacamole handy hints:
#1 - If you do have some left over, you can keep it for a day or two. To prevent oxidisation and that horrible brown appearance, place glad wrap directly on the surface of the guacamole, and squeeze out as many air bubbles as you can with the back of your hand:

#2 - Enjoy and experiment to find the way that you like to make it most, and try to use it in many different ways - as a dip with corn chips or crackers, as a topping or condiment for nachos and other delicious Mexican dishes, as a spread on toast, or as a flavour packed filling in sandwiches and wraps. Its fresh taste is so yummy, it's easy to make and the bonus is it is also very healthy!