AVOCADO THREE WAYS

Posted in General, Side dishes, Veggies by

This post is a courtesy of my husband…

I think you will all agree that he is a natural-blogger! 😉


We have little time to cook, but we’re always seeking something wonderful. Avocados meet us in the middle. Especially the rich, creamy Hass and Calavo avocados, from California and Mexico. Here are three quick and easy ways to enjoy them!

AvocadoAppetizer

1.  Avocado Appetizer. Hungry for something delicious and healthy? My aunt Millie showed me this one.  If the avocado’s just right, then it’s hard to top.

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Acquire a perfectly ripe avocado.  How can you tell?  Squeeze the avocado…it should be very firm but not hard, soft enough so that it yields to moderate pressure. Knock out the stem-plug and look for a green (not brown!) core.

Slice the avocado in half,
douse it with lemon juice,
sprinkle it with salt and pepper,
enjoy the solar energy!

2. Green Caprese Salad.

This is my Americanized  rip-off of the continental classic.

Assemble the following (fresh) ingredients:
tomatoes,
mozarella
avocados
basil
1/4 cup olive oil
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Cut the the tomatoes, cheese and avocados into slices or chunks; shred or chiffonade the basil and let it sit in the oil for 5 or 10 minutes.

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Assemble the components on a salad plate and drizzle-spread the basil-oil mixture over them, using a fork to help distribute the basil.  Season with salt and pepper, VOILA!

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3.  Gabriel’s Guacamole. Once while returning, exhausted, from a day of skiing at Los Alamos, we stumbled into Gabriel’s restaurant north of Santa Fe, and encountered the best guacamole we’ve ever tasted.  And the beautiful thing was that our waiter prepared it right in front of us, at our table.  I couldn’t help but remember the EIGHT components, that he added according to our specifications:

Guacamole2_optgreen onions
garlic
lemon juice
cilantro
serrano peppers
salt
tomatoes
avocados

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It’s a little time consuming to prepare all the ingredients, but worth the effort.  Note that I’ve pressed a garlic clove into a couple of tablespoons of  olive oil: use just the oil for a milder garlic flavor, or throw it all in for garlic lovers.  We also discovered, on a day when the avocados ran short, that the other components together make an outstanding fresh salsa!

now for the fun part….

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Love me tender….

Posted in Pork by

In the summertime pork tenderloin is one of my favorite cuts of meat: it’s perfect on the grill, and its flavor profile (hello, Chef Michael! ;-)) can change quite a bit through the use of dry rubs or flavorful marinades.  This recipe became a regular on our menu after I made it the first time. Butterflying the meat allows it to cook quickly, which is certainly a bonus for a busy cook, and the sauce is wonderful!

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GRILLED ASIAN PORK TENDERLOIN WITH PEANUT SAUCE
(adapted from a recipe by Pam Anderson, Fine Cooking magazine, June 2007)

Receita em portugues ao final desse artigo…

1 cup light coconut milk (I used regular)
1/2 cup smooth peanut butter (see comments)
1/4 cup soy sauce
3 T fresh lime juice
3 T dark brown sugar
1 clove garlic, minced
2T coriander, ground
1 T minced fresh ginger
2 pork tenderloins
oil to slightly rub on the grill

In a large bowl, whisk the ingredients together to make a smooth sauce. Trim the pork tenderloins, removing the silver skin.  Butterfly the meat by splitting each tenderloin lengthwise  almost all the way through, so that the halves stay attached. A nice tutorial can be found here. Open the meat like a book, cover with plastic to protect it while you pound it to 1/2-inch thickness using a meat mallet.

Reserve 1/3 cup of the marinade and place the meat in the bowl with the remaining marinade for 20 minutes to several hours in the refrigerator.

Heat the grill on high, oil the grate slightly to prevent the meat from sticking. Remove the tenderloins from the marinade, letting excess marinade drip into the bowl.  Grill the tenderloins, covered, turning once, until just cooked (about 7 minutes total). Transfer to a cutting board and allow them to rest for 5 minutes before slicing at an angle.

Boil the reserved marinade for a couple of minutes and serve it alongside the meat.

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BBA#12: Golly Moses, She’s a Muffin!

Posted in BBA Challenge, Breads by

Unless you are a fan of “Two and a Half Men”, the title will not mean much to you. But, if you are like us, it will bring a smile to your face… 😉

I was “counting the breads” to this one, as making English muffins has been on my to-do list for years. In fact, with this bread, Reinhart starts on a very nice path down yeast lane: I look forward to many of the breads ahead.

IT’S A MUFFIN!

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This recipe (found here) was easy, absolutely no worries. Mix the flour, the yeast, the buttermilk, and wait for the dough to beautifully rise.  Form 6 balls of dough, let them rise again and plop them on the griddle.

The trickiest part is to cook undisturbed for several minutes, until the bottom is dark brown. I’m not a particularly patient person, and those minutes seemed like hours! But it was worth it, as the photos confirm.

Without further ado, muffin time!

Here they are, after the final rise, ready to cook…

muffindough

As you add them to the griddle, they spread a little. Just let them sit, don’t move them around.

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close-up…

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…and a “group shot”

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General comments: it’s another great recipe to make with kids: they’ll have a lot of fun to see the changes as the muffins cook, and then to eat them with some butter and jam!  They finish in a 350F oven to make sure that the inside cooks thoroughly. The crumb turned out a little tighter than I like it, but maybe I was not gentle enough handling them. Make sure to sprinkle some cornmeal on the parchment paper or Silpat before resting the dough balls on top,  so that you retain the airy quality of the dough and the bread acquires the characteristic muffin texture inside. Eggs Benedict may well be on your menu in the near future! 😉

Note to self: explore variations using whole wheat flour and/or sourdough starter as part of the dough.

Farmer’s Market

Posted in General by

market22

Life is good!

BRAZILIAN NOSTALGIA HITS THE HEART

Posted in Brazilian cooking by

brazilflagHeart of palm, that is…

Time for another traditional Brazilian recipe!   Heart of palm (“palmito” in Portuguese), is, as the name suggests, the core of a  palm tree sapling: it’s very delicious, but their harvest came at a huge price: to obtain the “palmito“, the whole tree was  killed. Brazil was the greatest producer until the 90’s, but the population of palm trees decreased to near extinction. Other varieties of trees that are perennials are now cultivated to  take the place of palmito; the most promising is called “pupunha“.  To listen to the correct pronunciation of those words, click the sound wave below. “Pupunha” might be a challenge for Americans, but practice makes perfect!  Go ahead and give it a try…

Heart of palm is often associated with salads (as the classic  “millionaire’s salad”), but I want to  expand your palmito-horizons to cooked dishes, like this wonderful pie. It is great warm or cold, by the way. Make sure to read my comments after the jump for some more thoughts on “palmito“.

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HEART OF PALM PIE (Torta de Palmito)
(slightly modified from this recipe, taken from one of my favorite websites, “Chucrute com Salsicha”)

Clique no link acima para a receita em portugues….

Dough
2.5 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup butter (1 stick), cold, cut in pieces
3/4 cup yogurt
1 t salt
1 egg yolk

Filling
2 T olive oil
1 onion, diced small
2 large tomatoes, diced
1 can hearts of palm, diced
1/2 cup olives, diced (I used a mixture of kalamata and green olives)
1/2 cup green peas (frozen is fine)
green onion and Italian parsley, to taste (minced)
4 – 5 oz cream cheese
1 T flour
salt and pepper to taste

Make the filling first, because it needs to be used cold. Saute’ the onion in olive oil until translucent, add the tomatoes, allow them to release some liquid, then add the diced heart of palm, olives, salt and pepper. Cook a couple of minutes, add the cream cheese, parsley, green onions, and flour, cook for a couple more minutes until the cheese melts and the texture turns creamy. Transfer it to a bowl and allow it to cool to room temperature. You can prepare the filling the day before and keep it refrigerated.

For the dough: add almost all the flour (2 + 1/4 cups) and the salt to a large bowl, work the butter into the flour with your fingers or a pastry fork, then add the yogurt (cold). You may or may not need to use the rest of the flour. Do not overwork the dough. Allow it to rest in the fridge for 20 minutes (you can also prepare the dough the day before).

Open half of the dough in a circle and cover the bottom and sides of your pie dish, making sure the dough is not rolled too thin.  Add all the filling, open the second half of the dough, and either cover the pie completely, or cut strips, forming a simple grid over or a more elaborate lattice pattern. Brush the dough with egg yolk mixed with a little water to thin it. Cook in a 375F oven for about 40 minutes (please see my comments for variations on this).

Allow the pie to sit for 15 minutes before slicing.
slice

Bom apetite!

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