Tag: recipe

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Rogelio’s tamale pie for cinco de mayo

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There are good tamales and they are great tamales, but a greatest way to prepare it is in pie! This gives you a wonderful way to make the filling generous… And in this I mean… Meaty!

What could be more meaty than a pound of steak, a pound of charizo and a pound of bacon? All of the meats are pre cooked and seasoned.

There are two parts to the process… Making the filling and making the topping! Since the filling contains a cup of the topping you will want to finish them at the same time.

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THE FILLING

2 cups corn meal
12 ounces half and half
12 ounces cream
Salt, black pepper and garlic powder to taste
Cook over a low heat until thickened then add chopped Cilantro … I use a “bunch”
2 cups of your favorite Mexican cheeses

MEATS

I like to precook the meats in a frying pan separately with seasoning.

Also dice and sauté on large sweet onion and 3 heaping tablespoons garlic… Then add to meats and set aside.

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The SAUCE

Approx 15 ounce can of creamed corn
Approx 30 ounces of tomato sauce
3 teaspoons of Pimenton (Spanish Paprika )
1 teaspoon Chipotle powder
Approximately 13 roasted peppers sliced
3.8 ounce can of sliced olives (1/2 cup)
1 cup of topping
2 cups Mozzarella
Salt, black pepper and garlic powder to taste

Cook over a low heat around twenty minutes, remove from heat and add meats and 3 cups hominy

Pour into a large baking dish and bake at 350 degrees F for about one hour.

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Bueno!!!

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brown sugar biscotti with pine nuts and almonds

Brown Sugar Biscotti with Pine Nuts and Almonds

I remember asking my grandmother once how she ‘improvises’ in the kitchen and she gave the usual ‘trial and error’ answer, but on closer inspection I realized that she worked in two very distinct ways. First, she would vary the proportions and types of ingredients which offered a few extra notes to the basic recipe. But more importantly, there were times when she would depart significantly and approach the ‘problem’ in an entire new way. For example, why use the same ingredients in making certain noodle with sauce recipes that were designed before the advent of real refrigeration? Logic must triumph over tradition at times.

This goes a long way to say that I tried a variation of our Biscotti recipe with the addition of brown sugar. Using brown sugar has some significant limitations… but under the heat of making the biscotti added something nice. Oh yes, I added a small amount of pine nuts to the project, not enough to make Laura object ( as they are around 11 calories each!), but enough to make an effect.

Yummy there were!

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Do you celebrate birthdays or hold a month long celebration?

An old family favorite : Cantonese Sweet & Sour Pork — CLICK on the picture for a link to the recipe

Well, when you try to celebrate two birthdays together you need to have a dish that everyone loves. In our family, one of our favorites is Sweet and Sour Pork… and an apple pie! It may sound a bit unusual for someone to prefer an apple pie over the tradition birthday cake, but if that’s what the birthday girls want… that’s what they get!  Karla also started a fun tradition of having little celebrations of someone’s birthday ( hers in particular) all month long… it can be a little fun…. but challenging.

our apple pie
Not just any apple pie will do… See Canyon Apples, a special nutty cobler topping and our own sauce makes it wonderful.

O
h yes, we can’t forget presents and those little touches that make anyone smile.

‘Happy Birthday Laura and Mom.’
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a taste of Brazil

a taste of brazil

Whenever members of my family travel , we like to immerse ourselves  into certain aspects of their culture. Since my daughters will be going to a convention in Rio de Janeiro, we thought it would be fun to look at some of the local fare. Charles Darwin ( I’ll cover that in another post) wrote in his ‘Journal’ about the two types of meals he found in parts of South America: roast meat or boiled meat and sometimes a little pumpkin. 😉  In the south of Brazil, they love barbecue or “Churrasco”. These were my kind of guys!

Brazilian Barbecue
'Churrasco' or Brazilian Barbecue

Today, however, we will be talking about Brazil’s National drink… the ‘Caipirinha’ made with ‘Cachaça’ or Brazilian sugar cane rum. There are three types of rum you can buy from Brazil: 1) rum made purely for export 2) what they refer to as ‘industrial’ or from large operations and 3) the ‘artisian’. Personally, I like the sound of a smaller batch rum made and distilled in copper kettles, so the ‘artisian’ is what I was searching. I settled on “Cabana”.

Interestingly enough the name ‘Caipirinha’ means ‘from the country’ and some say it closely resembles our concept of ‘hillbilly’.

Here is their basic recipe:

2 oz. — Cachaça

2 teaspoons — crystal sugar

ice

lime

Process: take a few slices of lime and cover with the sugar and mash together, add ice, then the rum and stir! It is a simple yet nice drink… make one and it might become your favorite as well!

Saude!, Viva!, Topa!

Roger Freberg

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tiramisu with man-fingers

a better tiramisu

It’s hard not to enjoy a good Tiramisu, but finding one that you really like always takes a bit of effort and experimentation. Believe it or not there are actually Tiramisu police that go around ranking every effort of this lady finger inspired dessert… but I am here to tell you now that lady fingers really don’t work too well.

Tiramisu police will tell that this dessert has certain qualities and it has the right to be boring.

I love the concept of soaking the fingers in various liquors: chocolate, honey and coffee. What I don’t love is a bunch of soggy mush, so I went out to design something that would hold together long enough to be placed in the container and be uniform in texture and consistency. Secondly, most recipes do not make a meringue properly and with insufficient egg whites to add some solidity to the dessert. I don’t want something hard, but runny is not acceptable.

the best meringue and the best liquors

Using the same number of egg whites as egg yolks not only simplifies the dessert, but it also aids in making a more solid dessert.  My meringue recipe ( check my Key Lime or Lemon Meringue for hints) woks perfectly in this dessert.

Oh yes, I lost 2 more pounds on Jenny Craig… sooooo

enjoy!

Roger Freberg