Photo taken by @uriahandmaryann
Yesterday was a great day. I walked a block down to the beach, and had my breakfast at a boardwalk bench with the beautiful view of the Monterey Bay. While I sipped on my hot chai, I contemplated on what I was going to cook for my cooking demo class at Chefworks. I wanted to make sure I had a few recipes that would be an all pleaser for the vegetarian, vegan, and gluten free crowd.
So I made zoodles with a Mexican blended crema (cream) with poblanos and queso fresco (that really delicious fresh Mexican cheese), a Thai peanut coconut curry, and a sesame asian stir fry with carrot noodles and mushrooms. The recipes were a big hit, everyone was so friendly and happy to taste my recipes and I couldn’t have asked for a better crowd at Chefworks. I featured a neat little gadget called GEFU Spiral Slicer. This small kitchen gadget is a hand held spiralizer that I use at home to make zoodles (those awesome zucchini noodles) and you can eat them raw or cooked, depending on your liking. I printed recipe cards for the poblano crema zoodles, but ran out of them pretty quick so for all those that didn’t get to take a one, please click on the link to print or download the recipe card: Zoodles with Mexican Crema de Poblano
Serves 4
Crema de Poblano:
2 tbsp olive oil
4 roasted poblano, seeds
removed
2 roasted garlic cloves
1/2 onion, chopped
1 can evaporated milk (the carnation canned)
1/2 cup cilantro, chopped
1/2 cup crumbled Mexican
queso fresco, (fresh mexican cheese)
salt & pepper to taste
Optional: 1/4 tsp Zhug Spice (combination of Chile Tianjin, Garlic, Coriander, Cumin, Salt, Cardamon, Clove, Cilantro)
Zoodles:
4 medium to large zucchini
(usually 2 zucchinis are
enough for 1 serving)
Tools:
Gefu Spiral Slicer (Vegetable Spiralizer)cc c v c vcv Spiralize your zucchini with GEFU Spiral Slicer and set aside. In a non-stick pan, drizzle olive oil at high heat and add poblanos, garlic and onions. Stir occasionally for 1 minute, then add about 2 cups of water and cook until it has evaporated. Place chilies,garlic and onions in a blender, add can of evaporated milk, Zhug spice, and blend until its creamy. Cook zucchini on that same pan for about 3 minutes and pour the poblano cream over. Add salt and fresh pepper to taste. Cook for 2 minutes on medium and add cilantro, crumbled queso fresco and remove from heat.
Note: to roast a poblano pepper,
you can put it directly over the fire, until its all charred, then place in a plastic bag for 2 minutes and remove peel and seeds under
running cold water in the sink.
NOTE: For those that can’t take dairy you can add 1 cup of macadamia nut cream, coconut milk, almond milk, or cashew cream instead of evaporated milk.
I want to thank everyone that attended and supported, and the wonderful and helpful crew from Chefworks. I love you all! A big big shout out to Herbivore Athletics and Free Flow from Santa Cruz, Ca, for their constant support! Check them out and support our local Santa Cruzean Bloggers!
