Recipes: The week of December 26th, 2022 – January 1st, 2023
Shrimp and Crab Meat Empanadas, with Dipping Sauce [ Mexican-influence ]
Ingredients: shrimp, crab meat, oil, onions, cilantro, tomatoes, lemon, and egg.
Directions: I prepared a flour-beer dough following the instructions from the Hispanic Kitchen:
Hispanic Kitchen – Beer Infused Empanada Dough
Gently cook the seafood with a bit of oil, add diced onion, cilantro, and diced tomatoes, and finish with a squeeze of lemon, salt, and pepper. empanadas, brush with an eggwash and bake till golden brown.
Baked Lamb Kebab Patties [ Turkish-influence ]
Ingredients: lamb, onion, cilantro, parsley, allspice, cinnamon, coriander, cumin, Aleppo pepper, tomato, olive oil, sumac, and cheese.
Directions: Had the inspiration from watching a particular dish prepared in turkey. I replicated it as follows: Made Lamb kofta (ground lamb, with finely chopped onion, cilantro (non-traditional) and parsley (traditional), with spices: all-spice, the touch of cinnamon, coriander and cumin, Aleppo pepper. Shape the meat into patties. Roasted slices of tomato with olive oil, salt, and pepper, and a sprinkle of sumac (for a hint of tanginess). Chef Widad par-cooked the kofta patties in the oven. Then use a stainless steel, oval-shaped bowl and the patties with the roasted tomatoes, and cheese (closest to the Turkish Beyaz cheese would be feta). Covered the top of the bowl with Lavash dough, and brushed it with a bit of oil. Bake it in the oven until the meat is cooked through and the bread is nice and golden. The guest cuts through the crust and enjoys it with the filling.
Pork Tenderloin Wellington [ English & Italian-influence ]
Ingredients: pork tenderloin, butter, canola oil, milk, garlic, white mine, mushrooms, spinach, pie crust, Ham prosciutto, and egg.
Directions: The concept is close to beef tenderloin Wellington with some add-ons and adjustments. Cut the pork tenderloin into logs, pan seared it with a mixture of butter (for flavor) and canola oil (to prevent the milk solids in the butter from burning due to high heat during searing). Slice mushrooms, cook them gently with butter and finely chopped garlic, finish it with white wine, and allow it to evaporate completely. Then add spinach, and cook it till it wilts and hardly any juice is left in the pan. Use a pie crust instead of the puff pastry dough that is traditional to Beef Wellington. Roll a rectangle of pie crust dough to fit the following:
Place a slice of prosciutto, spread the mushroom-spinach filling, place the seared piece of tenderloin, flip over the second half of the prosciutto, close the dough, and form a pocket. You can get decorative and do some dough cut out with designs the way you would a fruit pie. Brush with an egg wash and bake to perfection
Hummingbird Cake [ Jamaican-influence ]
The origin of this cake is Jamaican. The two main fruits are bananas and pineapple. Look for the recipe and give it a try. It is nice and moist.
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