Spanish Dinner and Naranja Agria

We had a Spanish dinner at our house last night - hopefully the first of many we'll have. It was good fun - everyone brought some food to share and we spoke Spanish all night. It had been awhile since I'd spoken Spanish so it was wonderful to practice.

We made chicken enchiladas with salsa verde, black bean dip, guacamole, and a naranja agria (sour orange) pie. Some friends brought over a Spanish tortilla, tostones con queso fresco, and Nica-style guacamole (with hard-boiled eggs). I made and canned the salsa verde this fall with some green tomatoes from my grandparents' garden. It was the first time I'd used any of what I canned and I was pretty happy with how it turned out. I'll have to make some more next year - it's a great way to use tomatoes that don't ripen up before it freezes. It had kind of a smoky flavor from being cooked in a cast iron skillet.

Salsa Verde
2 tbsp. olive oil
1 gallon of green tomatoes
4-6 jalapenos, diced, seeds taken out
1 white onion
2-3 limes, juiced
4-5 cloves garlic
salt and pepper to taste
cilantro to taste

Cook tomatoes, jalapenos, onion, and garlic in a few tablespoons olive oil cast iron skillet on medium-high heat, stirring occasionally until blackened on all sides. Peel off tomato skins and put everything in blender (in batches, if needed), add lime juice and spices and blend until roughly chopped. Will keep for a few weeks in refrigerator. Can or freeze to keep longer.

The enchiladas were pretty easy to make since the salsa was already done - I just boiled and shredded chicken and then added the salsa verde and mixed in rice and cheese. I stuffed that mixture into tortillas, topped with some more salsa and cheese, and baked at 350 for 15-20 minutes.

My parents brought up the sour orange juice from Miami when they last visited and I had been looking for an excuse to use some of it - the Spanish dinner seemed like the perfect occasion. Some of their friends found a sour orange tree on a hike in a hammock and picked a bunch of oranges and then gave my parents some juice. I love finding and gathering fruit and edible plants along hikes so I was really excited when I heard where the juice came from. The naranja agria pie was pretty simple to make. I followed a recipe for key lime pie and just substituted in the sour orange juice.

Naranja Agria (Sour Orange) Pie

Crust
1 1/4 cups graham cracker crumbs
5 tbsp. melted butter
1 tbsp. sugar
Mix ingredients together and press into 9-inch pie pan. Bake at 350 for 10 minutes. Remove from oven.

Filling
1/2 cup sour orange juice
1 can (15 oz.) sweetened condensed milk
Zest of orange to taste (I used zest of 1/2 of orange)
4 egg yolks
Juice of 1/2 lime (optional - I used this because the pie wasn't quite as tart as I wanted it to be)

Pour filling into partially-baked crust and bake for 15 minutes at 350. Remove from oven and chill before serving.

You can use the egg whites to make a meringue topping or just top with slightly-sweetened whipped cream. I was running short on time so I just opted to make whipped cream.

True to form, I neglected to take a single photo. If there is still any pie left when I get home, I'll snap a photo of that. It basically came out looking like key lime pie, though. Topped with a little slightly-sweetened whipped cream, it was delicious! After tasting the pie, I called my parents to try and get them to bring more juice or sour oranges up the next time they come. Naranja agria is also used as a marinade for meat, so I'm looking forward to using it that way next.