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Culinary

Winter Gardening

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Winter gardening is more challenging but the results are worth it!

Winter gardening is more challenging but the results are worth it!

This is the first year that Jo Ann has had her green house and the raised beds for her gardening.  The results have been wonderful, especially considering that the over night lows have been in the 2 to 4° C temperatures. The cold weather crops are doing great, some under the cover cloth and some as shown below not covered.

Winter gardening is more challenging but the results are worth it!

Winter gardening is more challenging but the results are worth it!

In the green house we have probably 100 tomato starts of various types, none of which we can get locally. I am already dreaming of our mozzarella and tomato salad that we should be able to start enjoying by May!

Winter gardening is more challenging but the results are worth it!

Winter gardening is more challenging but the results are worth it!

Winter gardening is more challenging but the results are worth it!

Winter gardening is more challenging but the results are worth it!

Fresh Produce

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Garlic and Rosemary from our garden

Garlic and Rosemary from our garden

Picked from our garden yesterday and used in our dinner last night.

If you are looking for a great soul warming chicken recipe, check out Italian Mt. Etna Chicken. It was amazing as I hope the following image shows.

Italian Mt. Etna Chicken

Italian Mt. Etna Chicken

Mercado Cobb Salad

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Mercado Cobb Salad

Mercado Cobb Salad

One of the joys of living in Pátzcuaro is the availability of fresh and local produce.  We went shopping on Monday and made this salad that evening made up of entirely local and fresh products.  The bacon is from the Carnicería del Norte, the eggs from a lady who sells eggs and local honey and the other vegetables from a variety of the local farmers. The only product that was not local was the Gorgonzola cheese, which we did get at the Superama market up in Morelia. Such flavor and at a fraction of the cost that something like this would be up north of the border.

Come down and enjoy Pátzcuaro, you will enjoy it.

Salad or Pizza?

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Last night we could not decide whether we should have a salad of freshly picked Arugula or some type of pizza.  We then decided why not have both.

The end result was an arugula salad on top of a white cheese pizza. Awesome and very tasteful.

The Arugula and rest of the salad

The Arugula and rest of the salad

The Prosciutto Ready for the Cheese Pizza

The Prosciutto Ready for the Cheese Pizza

Cheese Pizza with the Prosciutto

Cheese Pizza with the Prosciutto

Arugula Salad on a White Cheese Pizza

Arugula Salad on a White Cheese Pizza

When in México, Improvise

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To ring in the new year last night Jo Ann and I wanted to recreate one of our old favorites that we have not had for ages, Veal Chops with Roasted Shallots, Arugula, and Polenta. This excellent meal is from Bon Appétit and it has been years since we have made it.

Part of the problem is that we can not find veal here in Morelia or Pátzcuaro so this was going to require us to improvise for the meal.

First we decided that the best meat alternative we could choose over a veal chop was a very marbled rib eye steak.  We grilled this on the BBQ and achieved a mouth watering tasty main course.

For the shallots and arugula Jo Ann was able to go out to her garden and hand pick fresh shallots and arugula.  Then we made the potenta from scratch and roasted the walnuts which added a great flavor to the meal.

Bottom line, you can’t always get the culinary items that you can in the US or in Europe, but if you are creative and willing to do a lot from scratch, you can enjoy just about any meal that you want.

¡Feliz Año Nuevo!

The final plated meal

The final plated meal

Rib Eye Steak, Roasted Shallots, Arugula, and Polenta

Rib Eye Steak, Roasted Shallots, Arugula, and Polenta

One of our favorite wines from the Valle de Guadalupe

One of our favorite wines from the Valle de Guadalupe

Roasted Shallots and other vegetables.

Roasted Shallots and other vegetables.

Breaking Conventions

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Jo Ann and I have always tried to break the mold when we plan our weekly meals. Whose to say that an evenings meal must be completely French or Northern Italian? I am guessing this is how the whole fusion concept evolved.  To just give you a few examples, two nights ao we had a fairly light dinner of BBQ salmon, a wonderful Mediterranean rice pilaf paired with a full bodied yet inexpensive Malbec. Now I would classify our BBQ salmon as a standard American recipe as it is only seasoned with olive oil and pepper. However the rice pilaf is really a standard Mediterranean fare. Then pairing this meal with a full bodied Malbec, I don’t think this would fit anyone’s definition of a “traditional” meal.

Last night we continued to break convention as we had an excellent Sopa Tarasca with some excellent asparagus wrapped in Prosciutto which was then grilled on the BBQ. These two recipes were then paired with an inexpensive Grenache from Spain, which is typically paired with gamier birds or country stews.

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Sopa Tarasca together with BBQ asparagus wrapped in Prosciutto

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Sopa Taraca on the stove

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Ready for the BBQ

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Chilies grilled and ready for the soup

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Toasted tortillas

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Toasting the tortillas

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Grilling the chilies

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Some colorful vegetables that I just thought looked cool together.

Basmati Pilaf with Dried Fruits and Almonds together with BBQ Salmon

Basmati Pilaf with Dried Fruits and Almonds together with BBQ Salmon

Basmati Pilaf with Dried Fruits and Almonds cooking on the stove

Basmati Pilaf with Dried Fruits and Almonds cooking on the stove

Le Chocolat Chaud con espresso

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When we lived in Sonoma County many days we would end our bike rides with a special hot beverage at Flying Goat which was a combination hot chocolate and espresso.

Here in Mexico there is nothing similar that we could find to have as a post ride treat after a long ride on a cool/crisp morning. The closest we found was in Guanajuato at a cafe called Cafe Tal.

I have been reading some of David Lebovitz’s cookbooks and found this excellent Parisian Hot Chocolate. It got me thinking about trying to duplicate the special Flying Goat beverage I so longed for.

Well yesterday I think I found the correct mixture. I used half of David’s Parisian Hot Chocolate, split between two cups and added a double espresso to both.

To start you need excellent chocolate cut into small pieces.

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Plus a cup of organic whole milk:

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You warm the milk and then stir in the chcocolate (pardon the burr in this photo I was trying to whisk the chocolate while holding my iPhone).

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Pour into two cups and add the espresso, it will warm you up and bring you great taste on a cool/crisp morning.

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Making Fresh Mozzarella

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Sunday morning and Jo Ann and I are still too ill from this virus we are fighting from our trip back from Minnesota. So too ill to ride our bikes we decided to make some fresh mozzarella.

We purchased five liters of fresh cows milk (fresh from the cow this morning) and started by heating up the milk.

After getting the milk properly heated and after adding the rennet, the milk started to separate into the curds and the whey. Once everything has properly heated we were able to separate the curds from the whey and drain them in a clean cheese cloth.

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From here we squeezed the curds to get all of the whey out of the curds and let them settle in one large slab.

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We have have a great slab of mozzarella cheese that just needs to be stretched into the smaller balls.

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The final result looks pretty good for our first time.

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Tonight we have fresh linguine with fresh mozzarella and our freshly picked tomatoes. Can’t get much fresher than this and of course it is clearly all locally grown and produced.

Bird’s Nest Pie

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Dinner last night was a new pizza called “Bird’s Nest Pie”. Here is the process along the way, starting with Jo Ann preparing the pie:

Jo Ann preparing the pizza by ensuring the asparagus is properly positioned.

Jo Ann preparing the pizza by ensuring the asparagus is properly positioned.

To what it looks like before being put on the grill:

The pie just prior to heading on to the grill. We cook all our pizzas on the BBQ.

The pie just prior to heading on to the grill. We cook all our pizzas on the BBQ.

and the finished product.

The finished Bird's Nest Pie, ready to eat

The finished Bird’s Nest Pie, ready to eat

Awesome pizza and very healthy.

Pappardelle with Spring Vegetables

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It is spring time and the mercado is fully of fresh new spring vegetables.  We found this great recipe in Fine Cooking authored by Ronne Day. It is a great light dinner especially with Jo Ann’s home made pappardelle.

If you would like a copy of the recipe, you can get it here.