Coquito Recipe from Inaru Rustaurant in San Juan Puerto Rico

While on Cayamo music cruise in January one of our ports was San Juan Puerto Rico.  We spent the day wandering the streets of Old San Juan, where Tim got a haircut from a barber.  Before heading back to the ship we stopped in at Inaru Restaurant for a cocktail.  I  had a mojito, of course!  As we arrived the staff was removing the Christmas tree from the restaurant in preparation for San Sebastian Festival coming up just after our visit.  The staff was very friendly and before we left they gave us a sample of their version of "eggnog", Coquito, which is a punch served during the holiday season.  The bartender was kind enough to share his recipe with me.  It's dangerously good, and dairy free!

Coquito:
3 cans cream of coconut
1 can coconut  milk
2-3 spoonfuls of condensed milk
1/2 bottle light rum
2-3 shots gold rum
2-3 shots Frangelico
grated nutmeg
1 cinnamon stick per bottle

Keeps refrigerated for up to 2 months

Homemade Sriracha

It's hot pepper time!  While I was at the Dane County Farmer's Market today on a rare Wednesday off work I saw a bucket of hot red chilis and decided to make some homemade Sriracha, which we love at our house!


I have a new computer and still can't find all my files so I went searching for a recipe on the Internet.  I'm using this one, which I like because it has an option for a fermented version.
http://leitesculinaria.com/67202/recipes-homemade-sriracha-sauce.html

While this isn't real labor intensive, it is time consuming to snip all the ends off the stems and chop the chilis before pureeing in the food processor, and watch out when you lift the lid off the processor...WHOOOEEE!  That's some serious hot pepper aroma!

Now the peppers are fermenting and in a week I'll finish the process by cooking them in the vinegar and then we can try it out!

Beast's Kitchen: Carrot Green Chimichurri

Beast's Kitchen: Carrot Green Chimichurri

Carrot Green Chimichurri

Carrot Tops and Radish Greens

Today at the Dane County Farmer's Market while picking out my CSA veggies from JenEhr Farm, I selected some beautiful radishes and crazy twisted carrots.  Both came with beautiful greens that begged to be made into something.  Radish greens--easy add to salads.  Carrot tops not as easy.  I have to get creative with them because I don't care for the taste of them raw so I don't normally add them to salads.  They make great broth but it's way too hot for broth today.  I'm thinking pesto could be good, but don't know what I might use pesto on in the next couple days so I decide to go with Chimichurri.  I also made some carrot top tea by steeping some of the greens in hot water and then I put the tea in the fridge for some healthy iced tea later.  I did add some citron green tea from Rishi Tea to perk up the flavor a bit.  Here's the recipe for the Chimichurri:

Carrot Green Chimichurri

½ cup firmly packed carrot greens, trimmed of thick stems (reserve stems for use in broth)

½ cup firmly packed flat leaf parsley, trimmed of thick stems (reserve stems for use in broth)

4 cloves garlic

2 Tbsp fresh oregano (or 2 tsp dried oregano)

½ cup olive oil

2 Tbsp white wine vinegar (can substitute red)

1 tsp kosher salt

½ tsp freshly ground black pepper

½ tsp red pepper flakes

Finely chop garlic by hand or in a food processor.  Add greens and oregano and chop finely in processor, or chop finely by hand and add to garlic in a bowl.

Stir in remaining ingredients adjust seasoning to taste.

Serve immediately as a sauce with grilled meats or veggies or with bread.  Can be refrigerated for up to 3 days.  If chilled, bring to room temperature before serving. 

Sassy Cow Dinner at Nau-Ti-Gal

The Sassy Cow dinner at Nau-Ti-Gal last night was, well, delicious!  Chef Kris prepared a delightful combination of courses using ingredients from Sassy Cow Creamery.  The farmers were there to talk about the farm and the food as well. 

The first course was deep fried Sassy Cow cheese curds with two sauces and greens with a vinaigrette.

The second course was a tomato bisque with Sassy Cow heavy cream.  It was so delicious I forgot to take a photo of that course!

The third course was Shrimp and Cheddar Cheese Grits-delish!

The main course was Mushroom Duxelles stuffed Tenderloin of Beef with whiskey peppercorn sauce

And the dessert course was also so delicious I didn't get a chance to take a picture!  Chocolate Ganache Torte with Sassy Cow's Salted Caramel Ice Cream. 

Everyone received a parting gift from Sassy cow which included chocolate milk and string cheese!

Kudos to Chef Kris and the Nau-Ti-Gal staff for a delicious meal, and many thanks to Sassy Cow Creamery for bringing these delicious products to our market!



Beast's Kitchen: Chicken Feet

Beast's Kitchen: Chicken Feet

Chicken Feet

Chicken Feet...not something you see every day in the grocery, at least here in the Midwest...I recently purchsed some from Farmer Paul at JenEhr's stand at the Dane County Farmer's Market.  Tim had said he would be interested in trying them.  I took one look at the creepy things and thought YIKES!  He's really going to eat that!  OK, now how to prepare them?  So I went to the trusty Internet and started searching for recipes.  Tim thought just deep fried would be good, but I wanted to see how they are traditionally prepared before making that decision.  The recipes I was finding were mostly with long slow cooking methods so I thought perhaps deep frying them would make them dry.  So I tried a traditional recipe I found at this site: http://www.myseveralworlds.com/2007/01/24/dim-sum-style-chicken-feet/ 

The process involves deep frying, simmering, marinating and then steaming the feet, and is a 2-day process.  The end result is somthing that smells quite delicious and looks, well, disgusting.  Tim was a trooper though and ate the ET like feet and even said he'd eat them again, but did admit he'd rather have them deep fried after all.  For me it was an interesting cooking challenge, and I have absolutely no desire to eat them!