Arepas

Arepas are like a south american corn cake that you fill with whatever crazy stuff you want. In Orlando this place Q'Kenan made amazing Arepas and that's where i was turned on to their badassness. For the Arepa i followed this recipe i found online

http://www.whats4eats.com/breads/arepas-recipe

For the filling i slow cooked some pork overnight in various spices. Also i put some black beans in there with some shredded cheese. On top i put some homemade Crema which is like a south american sour cream. I was trying to emulate Q'Kenan awesome sauce but i dont know how they did it so i just did my own thing. Crema is basically this:

2 cups heavy cream and 1/4 cultured buttermilk. put that in a bowl and cover it and let it sit out on the counter over night. This turns it thick and tangy. Then add some salt and pepper, diced shallots, garlic, cilantro, and fresh papaya. Its very smooth and refreshing like sour cream, and easy to make so i recommend trying it if you're into sour cream.

Blood Orange

Dear Blood Orange,

(Le Sigh).

I really wanted to like you. I was so excited when I saw you at Whole Foods! "I'm not supposed to be able to find you here in the Midwest!" I said to myself. Or, at least, that's what Padma said when she was on The View a few months ago critiquing Stephen the Sommelier from Season One's salad featuring you as its star.

But today I finally cut you open and I saw this:



Holy goats, Blood Orange! I'm sorry, but I just never expected to find your coloring occurring anywhere in nature. It's a bit disconcerting to me, to be quite honest. I'm not sure what to make of it.

But I persevered and tried a few slices. Now, Blood Orange, you look cool--although blood is not necessarily appetizing--but the least you could do is be delicious. Alas, you taste like a bland grapefruit. (Now, someone with the experience of eating a few blood oranges needs to tell me if this is normal, or if it's just a side effect of sitting in Drew's fridge for about a month. Before you judge me for eating an old orange though, you need to see this fridge for yourself. I swear, it has magical abilities when it comes to retaining fruit ripeness).

However, I can't bypass your merits:



You peel with the grace of a clementine.

Good show.

Sincerely,

Katrina

Salmon Potato Chowder

This is a recipe we got out of the daily soup cookbook. it was good. Katrina also did her famous rosemary biscuits. She can post the recipe for that some other time cause i'm not sure where it is.

- Sweat 1 onion, 2 celery stalks, 1 fennel bulb in a large stockpot with butter
- Add 2 tsp thyme, 1tsp fennel seeds, 2 bay leaves, 2 tsp salt and stir
- Add 6 red bliss potatoes 1-inch cubed, 4 cups veg stock, 1 cup tomato juice and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer 20 min.
- Add 2 large salmon fillets 1-inch cubed. Simmer 2 minutes
- Remove from heat and add 1.5 cups heavy cream and 2 tb chopped tarragon

We halved this recipe and it worked out good although we didn't have heavy cream so we used a dash of milk and i think it was a bad idea. It was still good though. I wonder if it's frowned upon to put recipes online from a book you have to actually buy. Luckily no one reads this.

Southwestern Eggrolls

So the filling for these consisted of the following:
-cooked chopped spinach
-frozen baby corn
-chopped red bell peppers
-black beans
-diced jalapeno
-chopped grilled chicken
-cumin
-chili powder
-cayenne pepper
-chopped green onion
-shredded Monterrey jack cheese
-salt/pepper

i don't remember the amounts, that's why the picture is there. memorize the way it looks.

so after simmering all this in the saucepan til its all cooked together, put a heaping spoonful onto an eggroll wrapper. i can't really explain the way you need to angle the wrapper and fold it in words, but it's really important so don't fuck it up. use a little eggwash to seal it up and give it a nice coat on top to crisp it up. we baked these at 450 for 10 min, but deep frying would be taste superior.

i hope you enjoy this final picture because i doubt you'll ever make them yourself.

also we dipped these in a ranch/hot sauce concoction. i suggest you come up with a delicious sauce yourself, dear reader, because experimentation is half the fun. and eating is 80% of the fun. and cooking is 43%. math.