I really can’t. I don’t exactly know when this happened, but I can’t pass up a contest these days. I never thought of myself as the ‘competitive type’. Although my friends have scary stories involving me, a Taboo deck, taunting and blocking the exits. I really have no idea what they could possibly be talking about. But here we are. Again. Entering another cooking contest. Gulp.
I just submitted an entry to the Today show, I have a list of other contests I’m working on, but then it happened. I got an email from The Foodie Blogroll, see their badge down on the right? Earlier in the year I participated in their Foodie Joust, which were so much fun. And now they are partnering with Marx Foods–do check out that website, it’s a foodie’s 
equivalent to George Clooney… HOT! They are toying with my emotions and my Shun knives and opening the doors to an Iron Chef style cooking contest or Chopped, complete with a basket filled with secret ingredients. Swoon.
Yep. I’m in. I need to tend to the business part and answer a few questions. You get to see those answers too.
Why do you want to compete in this challenge?
It seems I’m a natural born competitor, I just didn’t get the graceful loser gene. I’m an Iron Chef/Chopped/Top Chef junkie and wannabe. I play this game at home but call it What’s in the bag.
Limitations of time/space notwithstanding, whose kitchen would you like to spend the day in & why? Julia Child, Thomas Keller, Ferran Adria, James Beard, Marie-Antoine Careme, or The Swedish Chef?
May I split my day with all of them? Except for the Swedish Chef, the Muppets give me the creeps. If I really must pick only one, I’ll go with Julia. I know you’re probably thinking of the Julie/Julia Julia, but that’s not why. I grew up watching Julia Child cook, or rather, love and dote on food. I loved to see her ‘just whip up’ a dish effortlessly, all the while letting you know that the worst thing you could do was not try to recreate it yourself. To me Julia was a version of my mother on TV. Cooking up a storm of decadent, delicious and involved meals without breaking a sweat and convincing you that you could do it too.
What morsel are you most likely to swipe from family & friends’ plates when they aren’t looking?
Fatty bits of pork, ripe plantains and properly made rice. Oooh, seafood, especially le shrimp.
Sum your childhood up in one meal.
Seriously? I’m from Panama and my mom loved to cook, I can’t do one meal! My mom was an incredible cook, but I’ll go with the basics. Some stewed chicken, coconut rice with pigeon peas and tajadas (ripe fried plantains). That can be my last meal any day of the week.
The one mainstream food you can’t stand?
This response is rated R for violence and strong language. Mango and coconut flavoring. I should say artificial flavoring. I don’t know who came up with the recipe for either one, but I don’t really think they had a real mango or coconut; like EVER. Even the scent of the artificial stuff nauseates me. And the thing that saddens me the most about it is how many people have formed a negative opinion about these 2 delicious items without ever tasting the real thing. YUCK! Oh, let me add fake crab to that. Ok, I’m ok now.
This should be interesting. Stay tuned.
Competitive cookingly yours,
Anamaris
Well, all the ghouls and goblins have moved on. The weather is finally cooling down here in Houston, so it must mean Thanksgiving is around the corner. It’s Turkey Time! I plan to bring have a few recipes for you to get your turkey and side dishes on, but first a poll. Because we all know that’s how good turkey starts. Maybe not, but you know how you like to have a say.
What I’d like to do is recreate the traditional Thanksgiving side dishes, but add a Latin-Caribbean flair. Sounds good already, doesn’t it? I’ll leave this poll open until November 7th. The side dish chosen will be recreated and posted a few days later. Don’t be shy, though, let me know what sides you like to serve and how you prepare them. Go to the bottom of the post for the poll.
In other news, one of my blog buddies, Nancy over at SpicieFoodie, is hosting a monthly recipe roundup and I will be participating for October’s roundup. The event is called Your Best Recipe and depicts bloggers favorite recipe posted for that month. Do check out SpicieFoodie and all the other delicious recipes in the roundup. Click on the photo or the link to go directly to the YBR page.
And for my final announcement. This is my Blogiverssary month, so stay tuned for some exciting things to come in the next few days.
Now make your vote count!
[polldaddy poll=4006071]
Cookingly yours,
Anamaris
I can’t believe it’s November already. began thinking about starting a blog back in September 09, decided it was something I wanted to pursue and in October began to write posts. It wasn’t until November 15th that I went live. So now I don’t know when to celebrate my blogiverssary!
Originally, my plan was to celebrate from October to November, but that was thwarted by life and work. This year has been certainly been event-packed for me. Lots of good things, a number of bad ones, but definitely a year lived. How about a trip down memory lane?
Here are some of the things that took place in the last 12 months.
I nervously hit the publish button for the first time.
I fell in love with pit bulls. The second time for keeps.
I took The Hubbz to my beautiful Panamá.
I discovered the joy that comes from reading a comment from a complete stranger.
I received the most awards and honorable mentions since my school days. Thanks fellow bloggers!
I let my competitive side run wild and had fun doing so.
I reconnected with my sister, even if it wasn’t under the best circumstances.
I made and continue to make new friends all over the world.
Yes, a lot has happened in the last 12 months, and a lot more is coming. I hope you will continue to visit my little blog, it’s going to be exciting. In the coming weeks you will see interviews, polls, holiday tips and more. OH MY! I’ll reveal the surprises one post at a time. Stay tuned.
Thanks for making this year such a memorable one!
Cookingly yours,
Anamaris
I thought I would trick you into reading this one. It’s not so much tricking as it is deceiving. The truth is, yuca is the Latin Americans’ potato. Both are tubers. They have similar textures, although yuca is more fibrous. And they could probably be swapped out in most dishes.
Today I’m going to share with you two variations in the way we prepare yuca throughout Latin America. First, let me redirect you to a post from months ago. It walks you through the process of choosing, peeling and cooking yuca. Once you have that part done, then you can move on to one of these methods. Yuca con mojo is essentially a garlicky plate of yuca. Mojo is Latin-Caribbean sauce/dressing that is spooned over foods in Cuba and Puerto Rico, especially. The other variation would be Yuca Fries with Spicy Mayo-Ketchup dipping sauce. No real recipes here, just a bit of this and a pinch of that.
Yuca con Mojo
1 lb yuca, cooked and chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp garlic puree
Sea salt
Juice of 1 lime
2/3 cp olive oil
1/2 cp fresh Italian parsley, finely chopped
Keep the yuca warm or prepare the mojo while they cook. Heat up a small pan over medium temperature and add the minced garlic, make sure to stir it constantly to avoid burning it. Once that garlic softens, add the garlic puree and lime juice. Stir until well blended and cook for about 5 minutes over medium low temperature. Add half of the parsley and season with salt. Remove it from the heat.
Drizzle over the warm yuca and serve with another sprinkling of parsley. YUM!
Yuca Fries with Spicy Mayo-Ketchup
1 lb yuca, parboiled and cut into thick fries
Vegetable oil for frying
Sea salt
1 cp real mayonnaise
1/4 cp Ketchup
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1-2 tsps habanero hot sauce
1 tsp sugar
Fry the yuca in enough oil to cover them, make sure the yuca has had a chance to cool before frying. It will take about 5 minutes to fry them to a golden brown. In the meantime, combine the rest of the ingredients and whisk them together. Check the seasoning and add a bit of salt IF necessary. Don’t forget you’ll salt the yuca after it has fried.
Serve as dipping sauce for the fries. By the way, both of these sauces/dips go incredibly well with potatoes and plantains. You can see more hunger-inducing shots here.
Cookingly yours,
Anamaris
Here it is again. Pork. Pig. Porky. Oink. I know, I know. I cook a lot of pork. But it IS the other white meat, remember? Besides, I find that it is incredibly easy to cook and almost impossible to mess up. It is also inexpensive, but can still look impressive. So why not abuse it?!
Pork butt or shoulder roasts are very versatile. You can get them boneless or with the bone in. You decide whether you want to cook it whole or in pieces. It’s all up to you. For this recipe, I went with a whole boneless piece. I’ve posted other roasts, some stuffed, some traditionally roasted, and some belly love, this time it was rubbed and roasted with a different set of spices.
The truth is, you can use pretty much any spice and herb combination you love. That’s the beauty of pork, it is very forgiving and not at all prissy. I hope you love this one as much as we did, I think you will, particularly because it is so easy to put together. Make sure to give at least 2 hours to marinate in the spices, it will enhance the flavor a great deal.
Roast Shoulder with Orange and Spices
Pork butt/shoulder roast, approx 4-5 lbs
Juice and zest from 1 orange
2 tsps cumin powder
2 tsps thyme
2 tsps Spanish paprika
2 tsps sea salt
2 tsps black pepper
Combine all the spices and juice together and rub it all over the roast. Allow it to marinate for no more than 4 hours, but at least 2.
Preheat oven to 325°. Place roast on a roasting pan, make sure the fattier side is on top. I would usually put it on a roasting rack, but this time I wanted to make sure the juices didn’t evaporate, so I used the roasting pan that came with my oven. The kind that looks like 2 shallow pans and fit over each other: one is flat with slats and the bottom one is about 1-inch deep.
Roast it for approximately 2-1/2 hours or until the internal temperature reads between 160° and 170° depending on the level of doneness you prefer. Once done, cover it loosely with foil and allow it to rest for at least 15 minutes to give the juices a chance to redistribute.
In the meantime, drain the cooking juices into a small saucepan to make a quick sauce. Add the juice of 1 orange and bring it to a soft boil before adding 1/4 cup of Sherry. You can flame it or allow it to boil briskly to cook off the alcohol. Adjust the seasoning as needed, but more than likely, it will be perfectly salted already because of the drippings. Turn off the heat and stir in 2 tbsp of cold butter.
Slice the roast and serve it with the sauce over top or on the side. This went beautifully with some Arroz con Coco!
If you’d like to see the rest of the pictures, follow this link.
Cookingly yours,
Anamaris
I was on the phone with Dodo this morning, for a while. She’s my bestie and we try to play catch up on the weekends. This has been a bad week for both of us. She with work drama, me with the rotten seasonal allergies. There was a lot of catching up to do. Even when we plan on meeting up a few minutes later for breakfast, we manage to talk and talk. Then we sit before coffee and breakfast things and we do it all over again. For hours. What can I say? We like each other.
One of the topics was about my blogging routine. When does it happen? When was that meal prepared? How long before a dish shows up on the blog. On and on. I explained to her that very seldom do I post a dish immediately after making it. Probably not the smartest thing to do, I don’t know. But I cook and photograph as I go and those pictures may stay in the camera for weeks before I even download them to my home computer. Even longer before I upload them to Flickr and share them with you.
Take this side dish, for instance. I made this at the beginning of September, that’s about 7 weeks ago! There’s no real method to this madness. I think I just keep cooking and shooting, then I pick what to share based on what I really liked or what photographed best or what would be a quick and easy post. Sorry, sometimes I do slack off, not too often, though. One thing I can tell you, is that if it’s a cocktail, that post goes right up!
So, let’s talk about rice. Rice is one of my favorite things in the world. If I were stranded on a deserted island and could only have a few things, rice would be one of my choice items. I’ve even converted The Hubbz to my rice cult; he now understands and respects The Holy Grain.
Arroz con coco (coconut rice) is ever-present in Panamanian meals. We love the stuff! Now, this is not a dessert. It is a savory side dish with a subtle taste of fresh coconut. I’m not sure how many of you, my bloggies, have eaten or cooked with coconut milk. More often than not, it seems the first image that comes to mind when thinking of coconut is the dry flakes or Coco Lopez (which makes an AWESOME Piña Colada, btw). However, real coconut is nothing like either of those. It is creamy, with a hint of natural sweetness.
This method I’m sharing, will intensify the coconut flavor and does take a few extra minutes spent drawing the oil out of the cream. The other method would be to simply substitute the water you’d use for the rice with coconut milk. Remember to look for the unsweetened coconut milk. Here we go.
Arroz con Coco
2 cans unsweetened coconut milk (about 14 oz)
3 cps long grain rice
1/2 cp raisins
Sea salt
Sugar
Water
Vegetable oil
Let’s make some coconut oil: Pour one can of coconut milk into a medium-size pan and bring to a boil over medium heat. The water will evaporate after about 5 minutes and you’ll be left with the dense cream. Continue to cook it over medium heat until the oil begins to come through. Some of the cream solids will begin to brown and caramelize, that’s ok. It’ll make the rice pretty.
Once all the cream has turned to oil. Remove from the heat and allow it to cool for a few minutes. This will make about 1/4 cp of oil.
Add an extra 2 tbsps of vegetable oil to the pan and heat over medium high temperature. In the meantime, rinse and drain the rice. You want to rinse just as you begin to heat the oil, this prevents the rice from getting goopy after cooking. The easiest way to rinse the rice is to put it in a colander and run it under cool, tap water. Let it drain; you may need to give it a quick shake to get the excess water out.
Once the oil comes to temperature, add the rice and stir it around every couple of minutes. This will help loosen any of the bits stuck to the bottom after making the coconut oil. Also, there should be enough oil to coat all the grains.
Measure out the other can of coconut milk and add enough water to end up with a total of 5 cups. Pour it over the rice, make sure to loosen any grains stuck to the bottom. Stir in the salt, about 2-3 tsps and 1 tsp of sugar. Make sure to stir it all very well and quickly, you don’t want to be stirring once it begins to boil.
After the liquid has dried, add the raisins to the top, lower the temperature to low heat and cover with a tight-fitting lid. Allow it to steam for at least 30 minutes before removing the lid. Don’t, under any circumstances, remove the lid before that.
At the end of the 30 minutes, you can stir in the raisins. It is ready to serve. The coconut flavor will intensify after a day. That’s why this recipe is for 3 cups, to make sure you’ll have some leftovers!
Enjoy!
Cookingly yours,
Anamaris
Sort of, but not exactly. See, confit is a French cooking and preservation method. The idea is to salt and flavor meats that are then slowly cooked in their own fat (or added fat) and later preserved in said fat. Carnitas are not preserved in the fat, though I don’t see any reason why they couldn’t be, except for the fact that they wouldn’t last that long at the Price household.
I’ve had incredibly beautiful and delicious duck confit in Paris. They usually use the leg and thigh portions of the duck because these are fattier cuts. When they bring it out, the duck skin is slightly crisp and glistening, almost see-through. The meat is super tender and flavorful, enhancing the duck’s earthiness to the umpteenth degree. It is very aromatic, you can pick up the scents of garlic, thyme, sometimes ginger and clove.
Similarly, carnitas are made with a fatty cut of pork, most often a butt or shoulder roast. It is seasoned and slowly cooked in its own fat. The resulting meat is fall-apart tender and flavorful. Some places will serve it slightly crisped and topped with grilled onions and peppers.
There are many reasons I love making these at home. It’s super cheap: pork butt/shoulder roasts can usually be found for as low as $1/lb. It’s incredibly easy to make: once the pork is sliced, there’s very little fussing about. It feeds an army and works well as an entrée, a taco, or pretty much anything you can dream up. And finally, I love pork. Do you need more reasons?
Of course, there are hundreds, if not thousands of versions and recipes. But I find that the simpler, the better and over the years I’ve come to figure out how I like ‘em. I use just a few aromatics and pre-mixed fajita seasoning. If you can’t find the fajita seasoning, just use equal parts salt, black pepper and garlic powder. Here’s my super secret recipe…, yah. not really.
Carnitas (little pieces of meat)
1 Pork butt or shoulder roast, boneless (about 5lbs)
2 tsp fajita seasoning
1 tsp cumin powder
1 tsp oregano
2 yellow onions, sliced
1 poblano pepper, seeded & sliced
1 tbsp olive oil
Cut the roast into pieces that are about 1-inch thick and season with the next 3 ingredients (don’t discard too much of the fat). Place the seasoned in a dutch oven or heavy-bottom pan, trying to keep it on a single layer. Add about 1 cp of water, just enough to have it come up around the pork, but not necessarily cover it.
Cover the pan with a tight-fitting lid and bring to a simmer over medium-low heat. It will simmer for about 45 minutes before the liquid evaporates and it begins to render the fat. At this point, remove the lid, lower the temperature and begin to brown the pieces of pork. Turning them a few times for the next 15-20 minutes.
You can cook cook the onions and peppers in a separate saute pan, just until softened. Serve with tortillas, rice and/or beans.
Cookingly yours,
Anamaris
I think its funny how there are months for everything, but I’m not going to lie and say I don’t enjoy the ones devoted to food. Well, unless it happens to be a food I don’t enjoy, like bananas. A little birdie told me October is National Chili month; I have to guess it’s due to the first visages of Fall (for most of the US states), temperatures begin to drop and people begin to crave hearty stews. Again, my guess.
Living in Houston, I’ve come to understand people here and all over the state of Texas are big on the whole chili thing. There are festivals and cook-offs celebrated throughout the Fall, aimed at finding the best recipe. There are as may variations to chili recipes as there are people in Texas, but one thing I’ve come to learn is that real Texas chili does not include beans.
MY chili isn’t so much chili as it is Chile con Carne. Not Texan, probably not Mexican, but the variation I learned from my mom. Another difference here, is that more often than not, in Texas chili is served with cornbread. My version tastes best atop a heap of perfectly cooked white rice. I made it for The Hubbz not long ago and he loved it AND he’s a native Houstonian! So there must be something good there.
As with all stews, aging is a virtue. The taste will improve and intensify every day after you make it. So why not give it a whirl?
Mi Chile con Carne
2 lbs ground chuck (80/20)
2 cps white onion, diced
Fresh serrano peppers, finely diced
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 tsp cumin powder
1-1/2 tsp Italian seasoning
3 cps red or pinto beans, cooked
2-3 cps beef broth
Sea salt & black pepper
Notes:
- I don’t use a very lean ground beef for this, you won’t add any fat and you need some to cook the onions and develop some flavor.
- If I have the time and/or forethought, I will cook my own beans with 1 clove garlic and bay leaf, then use the cooking liquid instead of adding broth. I have used canned beans as often as I’ve used fresh, but I do rinse my canned beans and discard the canned liquid.
- You decide how hot you want it, add as many or as few serranos as you’d like.
Heat a large pan over high temperature and add the beef, breaking it apart as you drop it. You can leave it in marble-sized clumps as it cooks; add the garlic, cumin and Italian seasoning at this time. The liquid from the beef will sweat out, as it evaporates, the fat will be left behind and you’ll be able to brown the beef.
Lower the temperature to medium high and add the onions and serrano peppers. Continue cooking until the onions have softened and become translucent.
Add the beans and scrape off the goodness stuck to the bottom of the pan. Then add the broth or liquid from the beans, enough to cover the beef. Adjust seasoning with salt & pepper as necessary, but keep in mind that the saltiness will intensify as it simmers. Lower the temperature to low, cover and allow it to simmer for about 40 minutes, stirring it every so often.
Serve over white rice and top with sour cream and/or cheese.
¡Buen provecho!
Cookingly yours,
Anamaris
Ok, I know that title does nothing for you except maybe tell you there’s a post about ceviche coming up. But right now, as I type these words, at this very moment, I keep hearing Tequila! You know the little tune by The Champs everyone does the Conga line to at weddings? I do realize how this dates me, but hey, the song is stuck in my head and I hope it is now stuck in yours.
Anydoooo, I made ceviche. I made shrimp and scallops ceviche. I made ceviche for the very first time. EVER. It was so good and so easy and did I mention how good it was? Because it really, really was. See, ceviche is on every menu in Panama. Makes sense when you consider how readily available fresh seafood is. They make it out of pretty much anything that swims or floats. As common as it is in my motherland, I’ve always been intimidated by the process.
I served it with corn tortilla strips and platanitos (thinly sliced and fried green plantains). For some reason, the tortilla strips go really well with the shrimp bits, while the plantain compliments the scallops’ smooth texture and sweetness. I think you should give it a try, let me tell you what I did.
Ceviche de camarones y conchuelas (Shrimp & Scallops ceviche)
Adapted from Bertha de Pelaez
1 lb medium shrimp, peeled & deveined
1 lb small scallops
1 Garlic clove
1 Bay leaf
Sea salt
2/3 cp fresh lime juice
1/3 cp fresh orange juice
2 tsps Dijon mustard
1 tsp habanero paste
1 red onion thinly sliced
1 avocado, cubed
First, get the pickling juice ready. In a glass or plastic bowl, combine the fruit juices, mustard, habanero, salt to taste and add the onions. I sliced mine with a mandolin to make sure they were very thin, but if you like raw onions, you need not worry about thickness. Set aside
Step 2: blanch the seafood. Fill a large pan with water, add the garlic and bay leaf and a bit of salt. Bring the water to a slow boil for about 5 minutes, to allow the aromatics to flavor the water. Drop the seafood in, turn off the heat and allow the shrimp and scallops to remain in the water for 3 minutes or so. Long enough for the shrimp to begin to pink.
Have a bowl of iced water at the ready. Remove the seafood from the hot water, drain then plunge into the cold water. Leave the seafood in the cold water long enough to stop the cooking.
Now add the seafood to the pickling mix, making sure there’s enough liquid to cover most of the seafood, if not all. Since the seafood is partially cooked already, it will only take about 2 hours for all the flavors to meld, but if you can make it hours ahead, the flavor will only improve. Just give it a stir every now and then to make sure the seafood is pickling evenly.
Add the avocado cubes just before serving cold with chips. Enjoy!
Cookingly yours,
Anamaris
For some beer!
OK, I have to admit I don’t quite get the chicken jokes. Or the knock-knock ones, must have something to do with cultural differences, but I had to give it a try. I’m supposed to always use a catchy title, not that I think this one was, but I’m trying.
A few days ago, Tyler Florence was making the ultimate Coq au Vin and it looked amazing as most of his ultimate dishes do. So I started thinking how I could bring it to Latin territory and this is what I came up with. Coq au Biere: Chicken in beer. This was oh so delicioso! It got better day after day; day 1 was awesome, but day 3 was beyond words.
I really liked the way the beer just mellowed out and became earthy, smoky and slightly sweet as it cooked into the sauce. I originally served it with very ripe, fried plantains or tajadas. I wanted to compliment the flavors of the chicken and beer with the sweetness of the plantains. On days 2 & 3 I served it with white rice to really benefit from the flavors in the sauce. I hope you will give this one a try, it is pretty easy to put together.
Chicken in Beer
8-10 chicken thighs
All purpose flour (for dredging)
2 tsp sea salt
1-1/2 tsp black pepper
2 cloves garlic, pureed
2 tbsp vegetable oil
3-4 Spaish chorizo links, sliced (or bacon)
2 cps onions, chopped
2 cps mushrooms
2 cps carrots, chopped
1/4 cp sherry or white wine
1 bottle medium dark ale (like Negra Modelo, Shiner)
2 cps fresh cilantro, chopped
1 tsp herbs de Provence
Season the chicken with salt, pepper and garlic puree, set aside. Combine flour with a pinch of salt and pepper and use it to coat/dredge the chicken pieces. Reserve 1-2 tbsp of the flour. Meanwhile, heat the oil in a large, heavy skillet over medium high heat and brown the chicken pieces on both sides. Set aside.
Remove the excess oil and cook the chorizo in the same skillet. Then add the onions, cooking until softened. Add the mushrooms and carrots, and allow to cook until the vegetables have softened. Add the cilantro and Herbs d’Provence, once mixed in, add the reserved flour and allow it to cook for a couple of minutes.
Pour the sherry and allow it to cook down over high heat. Then stir in the beer and broth.
When the beer is well blended, add the chicken pieces and any juices that drained from the chicken. Cover and simmer for about 1 hour. Remove the lid and continue to simmer for 15 minutes to allow the sauce to reduce a bit.
That’s it! Serve with fried tajadas and or rice.
Cookingly yours,
Anamaris
