Here’s the recipes I promised. They’re so worth trying.
Picadillo Stuffing may not be the most photogenic…but it’s definitely the most tasty! While I’m surely not the first person to make this, I didn’t follow anyone’s recipe — so here’s what I did (to the best of my recollection).
Ingredients: 4 lbs. ground meat (I used beef and pork), 2 links of chorizo minced small, 1 lb. corn bread stuffing. (Yes, this is definitely a meat lover’s stuffing with that ratio), onions, garlic, green pepper (all finely diced), yellow raisins and prunes soaked in 1 cup of red wine, 2 small cans of Goya tomato sauce, stuffed olives, capers, cumin, oregano, Sazon (or adobo seasoning), S&P, splash of sherry vinegar, splash hot sauce.
Method: Made 1 day in advance. Saute onion, garlic, pepper. Add chorizo and tomato sauce to create a sofrito (base to build on). Add ground meat breaking it up as it cooks down. Add raisins, prunes & wine, dry seasonings and cook over medium heat. Taste. This is supposed to have lots of flavor. Continue to adjust seasonings until the taste is BOLD. Splash sherry vinegar and hot sauce to taste.
The next day I brought the meat to room temperature and then blended it with a bag of cornbread stuffing and a little chicken broth to moisten it. Baked covered for about 30 minutes and uncovered for an additional 15 to toast top.
Chimichurri Sauce: 1 bunch of Italian parsley, 1 bunch of cilantro, garlic, olive oil, red pepper flakes, S&P, juice of 1 lemon, and a splash of red wine vinegar blended to desired consistency.
Note: (1) Leftover chimichurri is great as a marinade or topping with any poultry or meat or as a base condiment for a casserole. (2) It also makes a delicious vinaigrette. I took some sauce thinned it out a little, added a little sugar (well, a packet of Splenda…one has to watch one’s calories. What a joke during the holidays!) It was a great dressing for the avocado salad.
Pumpkin Flan with Praline Brittle: The recipe for the pumpkin flan was not ‘original’, but it was perfectly executed by Jim. Click here for recipe.
COMING IN 2009
• I got a ‘light tent’ and some new plates for food photos for Christmas. I’m being forced into upping my game and I’m exploring some new food art opportunities.
• Announcement of new event coming January ’09. Hint: You’ll need a passport.
About Tradition. When my sister and I began to raise our families and gradually take over holiday dinners from the generation before us, we also began to inject a more foodie approach to the menus. Being half-Spanish and half-Italian and 100% American, those 3 cuisines generally dominate for the special occasions. Yes, it’s still fish on Christmas Eve and a roast on Christmas Day, but you never know what specifically or how it will be presented. There’s no set menu year-after-year. While we like to think we pay homage to ‘tradition’, we define it loosely and are always recreating the formula. Our kids follow suit and are building on the experience. Some might classify us as hard-core celebrators because not only do we gather to celebrate the calendar holidays, we create additional reasons to get-together, even if it’s for leftovers the next day! I guess, truth be told, we’re more about the ‘merry’. (Stay with me until the end of this post for proof of that!)
December 20 • The Children’s Annual Show & Boat Parade
Tradition: Decades ago, my sister started this tradition with all the children in the family. It involved rehearsals, coupled with cookie bakes, and then the big night of the show for the entire family and friends. She did it all — the scripting, costuming, dealing with ‘opening night jitters’ and playing the donkey more than once! The show went on year-after-year, much to everyone’s delight, until the children started hitting their pre-teens…and were ‘over’ it. Now, grown up, some with children of their own, it is one of their fondest childhood memories. Several years ago, my niece with the assistance of my sister, started the tradition again. It’s my hope that it will continue for a few years more with this cast of ‘characters’ and that they, too, will remember it fondly and continue it with their children in the years to come. Here’s a taste: Play video clip from Frosty the Snowman.
A Florida tradition is the holiday boat parade down the Intercoastal Canal – fireworks and boats dressed up like Christmas trees. This year it was scheduled the same night as the children’s show and my sister’s clubhouse (the current theater of the children’s show) is on the canal so after the show and our traditional pizza party, we walked outside to see the fireworks and boat parade…a festive way to start the holiday festivities.
December 23 • The Nutcracker at the Kravis Center
This year my son treated me, his daughter, and girlfriend to a pre-Christmas Eve special night out (perhaps starting a new tradition?). We went to a new/artsy/eclectic restaurant (I’ll review it another time) and to the Florida Ballet’s performance of The Nutcracker at the Kravis Center in Palm Beach.
We had a great dinner, the show was magical, and it set the stage for what awaited us the following day at my niece’s house.
December 24 • Christmas Eve
Tradition: In the early years, my sister did an all fish dinner in the Italian tradition on Christmas Eve and I did Christmas Day. More recently it’s become a shared responsibility…she with her daughter, Teri, on the Eve and I with my son, Jim, on the day.
Teri is not only a good cook, she is a hostess with the mostest! The Christmas decorations were as magical as The Nutcracker’s set design and the menu was fish-a-licous! A moment about gift-decoration. A while back at some other family dinner, my niece went around taking a ‘funny’ picture of everyone. “Make an ugly face”, said she. Well, those ugly faces appeared in large size on the gifts. There was no question who each gift belonged to!
Menu: Assorted fish hors’ d’oeuvres, cheeses & crackers. First dish: shrimp & artichoke salad. Main course: Crabmeat Cannelloni and Spaghetti with shrimp, feta, black olives, followed by a ‘traditional’ fried fish and salad course. Dessert: A chocolate fountain.
December 25 • Christmas Day
This year I wanted to do a Latin-inspired Turkey dinner. When I mentioned ‘turkey’, my son immediately said that he’d been dying to try a fried turkey. He also wanted to make a pumpkin flan– so the division of responsibilities for the dinner became apparent. He’d buy the fryer and do the turkey and flan and I’d do everything in between. Side Story: A key trait for a good chef is being able to ‘think standing on one foot’; that is to say,things don’t always happen as planned. A fried 20-lb. turkey takes less than an hour but, obviously, it has to be done outside. Christmas morning was raining and it wasn’t letting up. At 10:30 we had to make the decision to abort the fryer plan, but we were now pushing it for a 2:00 dinner. Enter ingenuity. The turkey went into surgery for back bone removal and flattening, it was done on time, and was probably one of the juiciest turkeys I’ve ever had. (Jim had injected a mojo-citrus marinade into the flesh the day before.)
Menu: Turkey, Picadillo Stuffing, Baked Stuffed Plantains with Chimichurri Sauce, 16-ingredient salad. Desserts: pumpkin flan with praline brittle, homemade biscotti, guava & cheese, Christmas layer cake (store-bought), and turron.
Spanish-inspired pickies for the bar.
Baked Stuffed Plantain with Chimichurri Sauce
16-Ingredient Veggie/Salad Tray
Picadillo Stuffing
Pumpkin Flan with Praline Brittle
After dinner, the kids got the remaining gifts (half were given on the Eve) and then the adults played “Slaughter Santa”.For anyone who doesn’t know, Slaughter Santa is a hilarious game of stealing gifts. Each of us buys and wraps one gift. By a draw of numbers, we select our order of participation. My nephew made up some playing cards that accompanied each gift (like ‘trade with the second person to your left’ or ‘make 2 people exchange gifts’). So #1 picks a gift and opens it. Then #2 can either select a gift or steal #1′s…and so on. There was a lot of stealing, teaming up, and laughter — and, in the end, each adult went home with a nice gift.
December 27
Yes, they’re baaack. This time it’s for combined Christmas Eve and Christmas Day leftovers — and an evening of community theater. A presentation for the young…and the young of heart.
December 28
Peace and quiet. Rest. Clean house. Begin diet. …until January 4 when we gather again to celebrate my birthday.
Special Ending Notes
Note: Thanks to Laylita for the baked plantain recipe. It was the lynchpin for the dinner. The minute I saw it on her blog, I knew I had to build a meal around it. Recipes for picadillo stuffing, chimichurri sauce and pumpkin flan will be posted tomorrow. They’re just too delicious not to share.
And I leave you now with one of 3 videos – one made for each generation – that my son surprised us with. This was for the ‘senior’ set. Too funny! Tradition #??. Enjoy.
I wish you all a happy, healthy, warm, prosperous and yummy 2009!
Me? I can’t bear to throw them out so when faced with the predicament of all those recorded meals that I cooked, ate and photographed and never posted, I decided a year-end round-up was in order. BTW, it’s a month short of a 1/2-year since I started blogging. My first official post was July 31 and, after 5 months, it’s interesting to re-read. I think I stayed fairly true to my mission statement. Click here if interested.
Anyway, rather than throw the leftovers in the ‘trash’ like table scraps, here’s the lonely little entries that languished in my draft folder waiting to be chosen. Their leafy green or spicy piquant voices crying ’pick me, pick me’. So sad. Too bad. I know I could post them in 2009 but I’ve always been all about ‘out with the old, in with the new’. (And those that know me well are shaking their heads up and down and laughing now.)
Stuffed Chicken Breast with broccoli rabe and white bean puree.
Tuna Melt: Like Frank, I did it “my way”. Tuna mixed with capers, olives & cheese.
Fresh Italian Plum & Toasted Walnuts Tart.
My one foray into pastry wound up getting nicknamed “A tart Tart”.
Lobster Monster Roll at Lemongrass Bistro (one of my 2 favorite decadent foods; the other is Salade Royale of fois gras, prawns and other over-the-top delicacies
at a waterfront restaurant in Cannes).
Chicken Burger on a Ciabatta Roll: Meant to be a product recommendation (I bought in Costco but I haven’t seen it lately). Boo-hoo.
Spinach & Apple Salad: Spanish-inspired with sherry-saffron-mustard vinaigrette & toasted almonds.
Spinach & Apple Salad with feta, walnuts and rice wine vinegar vinaigrette.
Fresh Roasted Tomatoes, Leftover Broccoli and Pesto Oil Pasta…with a scoop of ricotta.
Crunchy Asian Chicken Salad: chicken, various veggies, toasted ramen noodles & almonds, rice wine & sesame oil vinaigrette
Cabbage & Lima Bean Parmigiana: savoy cabbage, sauteed onions, lima beans, breadcrumbs & cheese
Tapas: chistorra, morcilla & garbanzos with pan de tomate.
Asian Seafood Pouch: seafood, veggies, udon noodles, nuts, various oriental spices.
Somewhere along the way I had a brilliant(?) idea to create a collection of B&W with 1-color added (a nifty feature, I thought, that my camera offered). Interesting? Crazy? Perhaps, this should have been relegated to the trash. Looks like science lab gone wrong, very wrong.
Stuffed Roasted Vegetables: Eggplant Rolotini; couscous/lentils/cheese & herb stuffed red pepper; olive & bread stuffed mushroom
Spinach Spaghetti with Scallops and fresh tomatoes.
Asian Pork Lettuce Wraps: ground pork, Asian spices, chow mein noodles.
Spicy, but in a good way.
A YUMMY, HAPPY & HEALTHY NEW YEAR TO ALL!
Joan aka ‘culinista @ foodalogue.com’
P.S. If anyone wants a full recipe for any of these featured items, email me at info@foodalogue.com and I’ll be happy to send it to you.
I tried the leftover meat (and sauce) over spaghetti squash…and I’m in love. Tasty and presumably healthier than white rice. I’m converted. Did I mention this is definitely eat-with your-hands and suck-the-bones meat? Not for graduates of Emily Post’s “Table Manners.”
I always thought of it as peasant food, like neck bones for stock. However, at $4.99 per pound…I don’t think so, particularly since it’s mostly bone.
My frame of reference for this meat is Latin-inspired and I have only made it this way at home.
Ingredients (measurements to your taste): finely chopped garlic, onions, carrots; oxtails, flour, S&P, red wine, capers, green stuffed olives, capers, orange-essence prunes, splash hot sauce, Goya Sazon, small can of tomato sauce (I prefer Goya brand for this).
Method:
Salt & pepper meat, sprinkle with flour, set aside.
Saute garlic, onion, carrot till vegetables soften a bit. Push to sides.
Add meat and brown.
Add olives, capers, tomato sauce and Sazon.
Cook covered 1/2 hour over medium heat.
Uncover, add wine (1/2-1 cup) and prunes to sweeten and thicken sauce.
Cook for additional 2 hours until meat easily pulls off bone…and sauce is thick and rich.
Serve with white rice that is cooked separately.
Since this is the only method I know, I would love to hear if any of you have an oxtail recipe you’d like to share?
…Please don’t hate me because I live in Sunny Florida. If you’re starting to suffer from the winter blues, join me for a moment as I show you my weekend stops: Mizner Park, the green markets (3), Vizcaya Museum & Garden, and Little Havana. It will remind you that better days are ahead. And, of course, I’m going to show you where I stopped to eat. No jaunt is taken that isn’t built around food!
Green Markets (3): Community Market, “The Girls”, “The Boys” (all Delray Beach)
I bought fabulous Meyer Lemon Olive Oil, yellow zucchini (did you ever see one?), pumelo (a very sweet cross between grapefruit and orange…about the size of honeydew melon!) and some artisan bread at the first stop. From there, we went to The Boys (an Italian market and produce center), and their sister store, The Girls, where you walk into a very cute country store and out the backdoor into a working farm/fantasyland with exotic birds, baby mules, ducks, etc. and the ability to pick your own strawberries, romaine, escarole, etc.
Vizcaya Museum & Gardens, Miami: The former 180-acre home of industrialist James Deering built in the early 1900s to replicate the art and aristocracy of Europeans who lived centuries before him, particularly Italians, by either importing or recreating on-site. (Now owned by the City of Miami and operated as a historical meeting venue or destination for tourists.)
The back of the mansion which sits on Biscayne Bay.
And since this is a food and travel blog, here’s a glimpse of the gold china and the kitchen.
Little Havana, Miami: What’s a trip to Miami without a cha-cha-cha through Little Havana?
Mojitos and chistorra (baby chorizo) at Casa Juancho (the grande dame of Calle Ocho).
The Versailles, home to the Cuban community who meet regularly to discuss politics at the outside coffee window. It’s also a must-stop for tourists and visiting dignitaries and a gold mine to the owners. It is kitsch to the nth degree…huge, open 24-hours, sort of cafeteria-like in decor but with crystal chandeliers and etched mirrors.
Here’s an order of mariquitas for the table (fried plantains with mojo (garlic oil & lime juice) and my ‘pargo entero’ (fried snapper).
And you cannot go to a Cuban restaurant without a ‘cafe cubano’ to end the meal…dark and oh-so sweet.
Hope you enjoyed this travelogue/photologue/foodalogue!
Riddle: What do marinated artichoke hearts, figs, capers, cheddar cheese, Greek olives, porcini mushrooms, walnuts and vinegar have in common?
Answer: They were all invited to my home along with 7 friends.
The Plan. It all startedwith this e-mail invitation I sent out when 2 friends visiting from NY requested a ‘food fight’, a la what we do at Family Food Fight. To create the menu, each person had to select a random ingredient and then everyone coming had to make a dish that included at least 3 of the ingredients. (See invite for more rules.) Unfortunately, one person had to drop out (but we kept her ingredient, hee-hee). The final ingredients, picked randomly by each of the 8 participants: walnuts, vinegar, porcini mushrooms, capers, cheddar cheese, figs, marinated artichokes, and Greek olives.
The night of the challenge. We started off with a festive champagne cocktail with floating edible flowers. (Yes, I still had them 10 days later…those Debbie Meyer green bags really work.)
After our brief ‘happy hour’, we went straight into our tasting dinner. Courses were presented one-at-a-time in tasting size portions. Each and every dish was a winner. Nothing fell short. And, lucky us, we had a gradual and natural progression of selections from appetizer to dessert. Compliments to the chef x7!
Presented pictorially in the order it was servedwith links to recipes.
Gazpacho, Mini Empanada & Plantain Salsa
I made the first course…gazpacho served with a mini chorizo-fig empanada; plantain salsa was served as garnish. I used 5 of the ingredients: sherry vinegar, calamata olives, figs, capers, walnuts.
Mini Quiche
Roseanne brought cheddar & marinated artichoke quiche cups. She found the recipe on the All Recipes website and used 3 ingredients: cheddar cheese, marinated artichoke hearts and olives.
Stuffed Escarole
Scarolelle Imbottite. Carolyn found a recipe from one of her favorite chefs, Lydia Bastianich, which she adapted to include figs, capers and olives as her chosen ingredients. This photo is in preparation stage. See recipe for how to finish the dish.
Mediterranean Tilapia
Maryann brought a tilapia which she covered with a very rich putanesca-pesto like sauce and used 3 of the challenge ingredients: marinated artichoke hearts, olives, capers.
Porcini Pasta Treat
Mary created a pasta with porcini mushrooms, figs, walnuts and gorgonzola. This was our only porcini mushroom dish…and it was a real treat. She used 3 ingredients.
Stuffed Chicken Breast
Liz created a stuffed chicken breast which was served with a rich fig reduction sauce, a tiny potato, and roasted garlic and figs. 5 challenge ingredients were used.
Warm Figs & Marscapone
Katie found a recipe for this fabulous dessert and added her own touch to it by serving it on a crepe. She used fig balsamic vinegar, walnuts and mission figs to meet her challenge requirements.
The Chefs
Happy and over-satiated after seven very delicious courses and a variety of wines later, it was difficult to muster the energy to pose for a photo. We all agreed the dinner was a huge success, a fun activity, and something we’d like to do again. You should try it!
(Warning: The more people you invite, the more food you have to eat!)
Nestled in a storefront strip mall that is set back on a busy commercial street in South Beach, Jimmy Z’ is easy to miss…especially because most people are rushing off in either direction toward the very popular and trendy Lincoln Road and Espanola Way. But, that would be a loss, especially on Friday and Saturday when they offer up Mofongo. The locals know and they’ve been flocking there for 2 years. That’s what brought me there one recent Saturday…and will have me going back again!
Mofongo, as anyone familiar with Latin cuisine knows, is mashed plantains that are seasoned with lots of garlic and chicharrones (pork cracklings). This was by far the best Mofongo I’ve ever had. It was so complex in its flavors and held just the right ratio of moist to dry. It arrived surrounded by nice-sized shrimps and perfectly cooked scallops (translucent inside while caramelized outside) on a bed of criollo sauce with fleshy tomatoes and onions.
The recipe, as noted in a framed review that hung on the wall:
It is important that the plantains be mid-ripe. If they are green, it will be sticky; if they are fully ripe, it will sweet.
• 4 plantains
• oil for frying
• 8 ounces pork cracklings
• 4 large cloves of garlic, peeled and smashed
Peel plantains and cut into 1-inch slices. Heat enough oil to cover the bottom of a large, heavy skillet. Fry the slices until golden brown on both sides. Drain on paper towels. Using a large mortar and pestle (or food processor), mash the plaintain slices, pounding in the garlic and chicharrones until the mixture is creamy. Season to taste with salt. [Jimmy'Z offers up this recipe as an adaptation from The Complete Book of Caribbean Cooking by Elizabeth Lambert Ortiz.]
Jimmy’Z is tiny and best for take-out though they do provide a few tables inside and out. It sort of looks like any other cuchifrito*joint you might see in Miami, BUT the kitchen operation is nothing like that at all. It’s surprisingly upscale with interesting panini combinations, fresh salads, and very little Latin fare. In fact, out of the 30 standard menu items, there are only 2 Latin dishes (beef or chicken stew) and, at that, they serve them with basmati rice. I’m hearing people are going there as much for the salads and sandwiches as they are for the mofongo.
*slang expression for Puerto Rican soul food (all fried)
There are no desserts on the menu so we were surprised when the waiter asked if we’d like to try their Flan de Coco. OMG…it was delicious! Not shaky caramel custard but, rather, almost cake-like, very moist, and densely packed with coconut. We couldn’t control ourselves and were half way through before I snapped this photo. You can actually see forks flying in the air.
While low on ambience, I give Jimmy’Z a big thumbs UP for food.
A perfect meal has multiple levels of flavor and textures, bright colors and tastes, and healthy(ish) choices. It's all about enjoyment. Enjoy the process, the presentation and the just rewards...eating!
I've always been a culinary improvisor which means I get my kicks out of recipe development. In the FOODalogue kitchen each meal is an adventure and the journey is as exciting as the destination. My favorite kitchen tools are imagination and intuition. I rarely look at a recipe, not even my own!
On these pages, I suggest food pairings and techniques to be experimented with...in your own kitchen...to your own spice levels...and to your preferred portion sizes.
Picadillo Stuffing may not be the most photogenic…but it’s definitely the most tasty! While I’m surely not the first person to make this, I didn’t follow anyone’s recipe — so here’s what I did (to the best of my recollection).
Chimichurri Sauce: 1 bunch of Italian parsley, 1 bunch of cilantro, garlic, olive oil, red pepper flakes, S&P, juice of 1 lemon, and a splash of red wine vinegar blended to desired consistency.
Pumpkin Flan with Praline Brittle
Stuffed Chicken Breast with broccoli rabe and white bean puree.
Tuna Melt: Like Frank, I did it “my way”. Tuna mixed with capers, olives & cheese.
Fresh Italian Plum & Toasted Walnuts Tart.
My one foray into pastry wound up getting nicknamed “A tart Tart”.
Lobster Monster Roll at Lemongrass Bistro (one of my 2 favorite decadent foods; the other is Salade Royale of fois gras, prawns and other over-the-top delicacies
at a waterfront restaurant in Cannes).
Chicken Burger on a Ciabatta Roll: Meant to be a product recommendation (I bought in Costco but I haven’t seen it lately). Boo-hoo.
Spinach & Apple Salad with feta, walnuts and rice wine vinegar vinaigrette.
Fresh Roasted Tomatoes, Leftover Broccoli and Pesto Oil Pasta…with a scoop of ricotta.
Crunchy Asian Chicken Salad: chicken, various veggies, toasted ramen noodles & almonds, rice wine & sesame oil vinaigrette
Cabbage & Lima Bean Parmigiana: savoy cabbage, sauteed onions, lima beans, breadcrumbs & cheese
Asian Seafood Pouch: seafood, veggies, udon noodles, nuts, various oriental spices.
Somewhere along the way I had a brilliant(?) idea to create a collection of B&W with 1-color added (a nifty feature, I thought, that my camera offered). Interesting? Crazy? Perhaps, this should have been relegated to the trash. Looks like science lab gone wrong, very wrong.
Stuffed Roasted Vegetables: Eggplant Rolotini; couscous/lentils/cheese & herb stuffed red pepper; olive & bread stuffed mushroom
Spinach Spaghetti with Scallops and fresh tomatoes.
Asian Pork Lettuce Wraps: ground pork, Asian spices, chow mein noodles.
Spicy, but in a good way.
Scarolelle Imbottite. Carolyn found a recipe from one of her favorite chefs, Lydia Bastianich, which she adapted to include figs, capers and olives as her chosen ingredients. This photo is in preparation stage. See recipe for how to finish the dish.
Mary created a pasta with porcini mushrooms, figs, walnuts and gorgonzola. This was our only porcini mushroom dish…and it was a real treat. She used 3 ingredients.
Happy and over-satiated after seven very delicious courses and a variety of wines later, it was difficult to muster the energy to pose for a photo. We all agreed the dinner was a huge success, a fun activity, and something we’d like to do again. You should try it!
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