Sal de Gusano Deliciousness

My recent travels to Oaxaca have introduced me to some very interesting ingredients, sal de gusano being one of my all-time favorites.  Sal de gusano, or "worm salt", is quite literally ground up sea salt, worms and chiles.  These aren't just any worms, they are maguey worms which are actually caterpillars that feed on maguey and agave plants.  I know it sounds a wee bit scary but I promise it's really very good.  I've been adding it to just about everything.  Its smoky and spicy flavor paired perfectly well with my burrata and strawberry dish.  Serve it as a salad or dessert - either way  your guests will love it!

Ingredients: 

Burrata

Sliced strawberries

Sal de gusano

Extra virgin olive oil

Balsamic glaze

Preparation: 

1. Cut burrata pieces into halves (or quarters depending on the size) 
2. Top the burrata with strawberries slices
3. Drizzle extra virgin olive oil and balsamic glaze on the cheese and strawberries
4. Sprinkle on the sal de gusano and serve!

Are you feeling daring?!  Pick up your own batch of yummy goodness here. 

Desserts for a Mexican Valentine's Day

Valentine’s Day and sweets go together like X’s and O’s. There are no excuses needed to indulge on any and every sweet that comes your way, with absolutely no shame. Whether you’re baking up goodies for loved ones, friends, co-workers, or your child’s class, there’s only one thing to remember—if it’s pink, red, or in the shape of a heart, it’s perfect!

There's still time to run to the grocery store (or your local Mexican market) to grab some ingredients and create some of these delicious Mexican inspired desserts in time for Valentine's Day:

1. Valentine's Day "Mexican Wedding Cookies" from Haniela's:

2. Tres Leches Cupcakes from Little Inspiration:

3. Heart-shaped churros from A Girl In Transit:

4. Candy hearts and Mexican dark hot chocolate from A Slo Life:

Mexican Hot Chocolate Desserts

We could write a post about Mexican hot chocolate recipes–but that would be too predictable. So we have recipes for Mexican hot chocolate desserts instead that are perfect for any Christmas or holiday celebration:

1. Mexican Hot Cocoa Popcorn recipe by Baker By Nature:

2. Mexican Hot Chocolate Cupcake recipe by Dixie Crystals:

3. Mexican Hot Chocolate cookie recipe by Butterlust:

4. Mexican Chocolate Rice Krispie Treat recipe by Mallow and Co:

5. Mexican Hot Chocolate Donut recipe from Monday Morning Donut:

Getting ready for Thanksgiving

Hello there!  We are just a few days away from Thanksgiving and I can't wait!  This year is a little different for me.  My husband and I will be spending the holidays in Brooklyn, with his family.  Typically, when I'm in San Diego, I do most of the cooking along with my mother and sister.  "Ova here" it's a different story.  Mama G, my mother in-law, does most of the cooking and I know better than to cross an Italian woman in her kitchen.  My duties will consist of decorating the table and making a few desserts.  Baking is NOT my strong suit.  Cooking, no problem.  Baking, not so much.  But I can do this.  I'm thinking of a pumpkin cheesecake and these adorable pumpkin cupcakes.  Do you have any fail-safe dessert recipes?  I'd love to hear!

Cajeta Filled Cupcakes & Roasted Poblano and Corn Risotto

Hola Amigos!  How's your week been so far?  The weekend is almost here!!  Any exciting plans?  Truth be told, I don't really get a weekend because we are open everyday except Monday.  Luckily, Marko helps me here on Saturdays so we still get to hang out together and make our day as fun as possible.  Thanks, Marko! :)  So, as a reward for our hard work, Marko and I make sure that Sunday night we make ourselves a really nice dinner.  I was searching online for some recipes for this weekend's dinner and came across these two that I just had to share, Roasted Poblano Corn Risotto and Cajeta Filled Cupcakes.  OH MY DELICIOUS GOODNESS!!!!  Don't they sound amazing?  I absolutely love Cajeta.  Cajeta, similar to Dulce de Leche, is a thickened syrup made of sweetened caramelized milk.  I remember being young and sneaking into the kitchen to eat several spoonfuls of cajeta straight from the jar when my mom wasn't looking.  If only she knew!  Anyhow, have any of you heard of Chef Marcela Valladolid?  She is a local San Diegan that has a show on the Food Network, Mexican Made Easy.  Well, we have her to thank for these two recipes.  To learn more about Chef Marcela and her recipes, check out her site at www.chefmarcela.com. 

ROASTED POBLANO AND CORN RISOTTO
By Chef Marcela

Ingredients:

5 ½ cups (or more if needed) Chicken Stock
4 tbsp unsalted butter
1 cup finely chopped onion
3 Roasted poblano peppers, charred, peeled, seeded, and cut into ¼ inch cubes
1 ear of corn, kernels removed
1 ½ cups Arborio rice
½ cup dry white wine
½ cup Parmesan cheese (have more for serving)

Bring stock to simmer. Remove from heat. Keep warm.

Melt 4 tbsp butter over medium heat.  Add onion; sauté until soft and golden, add poblanos and corn and sauté. Sprinkle with salt and freshly ground black pepper.  Add rice and stir 2 minutes. Add wine and let cook until absorbed, about 1 minute.  Add 1 ½ cup warm stock; cook until absorbed, stirring often.  Add approx.  ½ cupful at a time, allowing each addition to be absorbed before adding more (and stirring often, this will result in a creamy risotto, because the starches from the rice develop while stirring.)  Rice has to be tender and creamy.  Remove from heat and add cheese. Serve immediately.

CAJETA FILLED CUPCAKES 

By Chef Marcela

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus extra for dusting pan

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

3/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature, plus extra for greasing pan

3/4 cup granulated sugar

2 large eggs, at room temperature

1 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1/2 cup whole milk

1/4 cup cajeta*

Mexican Vanilla Buttercream Frosting (recipe follows)

*Cajeta is a Mexican caramel sauce made from goats milk that can be found in Latin markets. If unavailable, use a rich dark caramel sauce

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Butter and flour a 12-cup muffin pan, or use paper liners. In a large bowl, combine the flour baking powder, and 3/4 teaspoon salt.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the sugar and butter until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, 1 at a time then beat in the vanilla extract. With mixer on low, beat in the flour mixture in 2 parts, alternating with milk.

Divide the batter among the prepared muffin cups. Bake until a toothpick inserted in center of a cupcake comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Let cool in the pan for 5 minutes. Remove the cupcakes from the pan and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Using a paring knife, cut a 1-inch-deep piece from the top of each cupcake. Save the cut pieces. Fill each hole with 1 teaspoon of cajeta and replace the cut out pieces. Frost the cupcakes with Mexican Vanilla buttercream Frosting.

Mexican Vanilla Buttercream Frosting:

3 cups powdered sugar

1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature

Pinch salt

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 tablespoons Mexican crema or sour cream, plus extra as needed

Using an electric mixer on low speed, beat the butter and sugar until smooth. Add the salt, vanilla extract and crema. Increase the speed to high and beat until fluffy, about 3 minutes, adding extra Mexican crema, as needed, to make the frosting spreadable.

I'll let you  know how these two recipes turn out!  Happy Thursday!

Images Courtesy of: Risotto, Chile Poblano, Cajeta, Cupcakes

It is soooo hot in San Diego right now, and my black leather office chair is not helping. Nor the fact that we are remodeling and our air conditioner is out of commission. If only I was the kind of girl that made ice cream from scratch, then maybe I would attempt this recipe below from Gourmet.com. Not that I don't have an ice cream maker, because I do. Just like very other bride out there, I gave into the peer pressure to register for every kind of maker possible- bread maker, yogurt maker...you get the idea.

Mexican Chocolate Ice Cream

Makesabout 1 1/2 qt

• Active time:40 min
• Start to finish:2 1/2 hr (includes freezing)

February 2003

• 1/2 vanilla bean
• 11 oz Mexican chocolate (3 1/2 disks; preferably Ibarra), coarsely chopped
• 3 3/4 cups half-and-half
• 3 large eggs
• Scant 1/4 teaspoon salt

• Special equipment:

  an instant-read thermometer; an ice cream maker

• Halve vanilla bean lengthwise and scrape seeds into a 3-quart heavy saucepan. Add chocolate and half-and-half and bring to a boil over moderate heat, whisking. Remove from heat.
• Lightly beat eggs with salt in a bowl, then add hot chocolate mixture in a slow stream, whisking. Transfer custard to cleaned saucepan and cook over moderately low heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, until custard registers 175ºF on thermometer, 1 to 5 minutes. Immediately pour through a fine-mesh sieve into a metal bowl. Put bowl in a larger bowl of ice and cold water and cool, stirring occasionally.
• Freeze custard in ice cream maker. Transfer ice cream to an airtight container and freeze until hardened, about 1 hour.

Cooks' note: Ice cream keeps 4 days.

Chile-Lime Peanuts & Chocolate and Chorizo Snacks

I am craving a little something to much on while I'm here working away on my computer. One thing about me, I love to snack. And, I will always choose savory over sweet. Here is a perfect savory snack of Chile-Lime Peanuts. If I were to choose a sweet snack, I might choose this Chorizo and Chocolate Crositini snack recipe below. Do you think that the Chorizo and Chocolate recipe is too wacky of a combination? Check these tasty recipes out and let me know what you think!

Chile-Lime Peanuts

TIME/SERVINGS

Total: 35 min, Active: 10 mins, Makes: 10 to 15 servings as a snack (2 pounds)

A traditional Oaxacan bar snack, these lime- and chile-flavored peanuts are typically deep-fried in pork fat. Here, we’ve lightened them up by roasting them in the oven, for a quick and easy snack without sacrificing any flavor. Try them out at your next cocktail party, and don’t be put off by the amount of garlic—roasting sweetens and mellows it.
What to buy: Spanish peanuts are short, round nuts with red skins; they can be found at most Mexican or Indian markets.
Game plan: Once roasted, these peanuts can be stored in a covered container for up to a week.

INGREDIENTS

• 2 pounds raw shelled Spanish peanuts
• 20 whole unpeeled garlic cloves (about 2 whole heads)
• 6 tablespoons peanut oil
• 4 arbol chiles, crushed
• 3 tablespoons finely grated lime zest, packed (from about 4 medium limes)
• 4 teaspoons kosher salt
• 4 teaspoons granulated sugar

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Heat the oven to 400°F and arrange a rack in the middle. Toss together peanuts, garlic, peanut oil, and chiles until evenly coated.
2. Spread ingredients out on a baking sheet in a single layer and roast, shaking and stirring halfway through the cooking time, until nuts are toasted and beginning to crack open, about 25 minutes.
3. Remove from the oven and transfer to a large, heatproof bowl. Toss with lime zest, salt and sugar, and serve.

1. 

Spanish Chorizo and Chocolate Crostini

From: The Tavern at Lark Creek , by Randy Lewis

This tasty hors d’oeuvre was created by Randy Lewis,chef at the Taven Lark Creek. The flavors of the chorizo and chocolate are a surprisingly winning combination!

INGREDIENTS

For the ganache:

• 1/3 cup heavy cream
• 1/3 cup milk
• 1/3 teaspoon kosher salt
• 2 ounces Ibarra Mexican chocolate, coarsely chopped
• 3 ounces 63 percent extra-bitter chocolate, coarsely chopped
• 2 teaspoons cocoa powder
• 
  

To serve:

• Sweet baguette
• Dry-cured Spanish chorizo, peeled and sliced 1/8 inch thick

INSTRUCTIONS

For the ganache:

1. In a small saucepan bring cream, milk, and salt to a boil. Place remaining ingredients in a stainless steel bowl. Pour cream mixture over choclate and let stand without stirring for 1 minute, then whisk just until combined. Refrigerate, stirring occasionally, until spreadable, about 1 to 2 hours.

To serve:

1. Heat the oven to 250°F. Cut a sweet baguette into thin slices and place on a baking sheet. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from the oven and let cool.
2. Spread the chocolate on the crostini and top with sliced chorizo.

Enjoy!