Rosé - The Perfect Complement to a Hot Summer Day

Memorial Day, the unofficial start of summer comes with ideas of the beach, BBQing on the grill, alfresco dining, hanging by the pool and summer cocktails. Because I'm a wine drinker, I often gravitate towards cold crisp white wines in the summer; however this summer I'm going to start drinking more rosé wine. Rosé wine is created from red skinned grapes that when crushed, the skins are only allowed to be in contact with the juice for a short period (usually 2-3 days) creating a blush or rose colored wine. Rosé wines originated in France but now you can find good (and inexpensive) rosé wines from both the old and new world. Some of the best rosé wine comes from the Rhone region of France where the Syrah and Grenache grapes are blended, these wines tend to be dry and slightly full and crisp. Rosé wine can be dry as a bone to almost sweet (a blush wine)...They are served chilled and in a white wine glass. I love a dry rosé on a hot summer day as much as a Sancerre or good Chardonnay.

So in hot weather, when opting for a refreshing glass of wine, why not try a rosé.

Juniper - A berry? Or a restaurant with a cult following in Hastings?

Juniper - a berry known for its spice or better known for Gin, or now for a tiny restaurant holding no more than 30 people at a time in Hastings on the Hudson in Westchester County NY.

Tonight after reading much hype about it, I called Juniper in Hastings and was able to secure an 8pm reservation for dinner! Juniper is known for simple, creative food that is locally sourced and seasonal, clearly right up my alley, since we all know I'm a locavore I was very excited to try it. Yes, the food did live up to the hype and if you are lucky enough to score a reservation you won't be disappointed.

I won't go into detail about the courses but I have to highlight the appetizer that I had which was PERFECTLY executed. I ordered a pasta with a fried poached egg, spring peas with braised rabbit. Sounds simple right? But no, the flavors and textures were so complex I was swooning from first bite to last. First of all, the rabbit was perfectly braised; tender but still had substance, and oh so flavorful, and there was quite a bit of it, not just a hint of rabbit. The spring peas were fresh, and sweet and clearly a pick of the current local harvest (it is pea season after all)...and it was paired with sweet fennel and the licorice flavor wasn't overpowering because the fennel was sauteed perfectly...but most of all I must talk about this egg. I make eggs constantly at Catskill Maison because at a Bed and Breakfast people expect egg dishes. But rarely do I make poached eggs, because to me, a poached egg must be very soft and runny in the center as a runny egg makes the dish, it emphasizes the richness of the yolk, especially if the egg is a farm egg...however there are people that are turned off by a runny egg. So I shy away from preparing poached eggs. But not these innovative chefs. Not only do they perfectly poach the egg so it's firm on the outside but runny on the inside, but they delicately flour the egg and then flash fry it for about 30 seconds to have this crisp, crunchy texture on the outside but when you break into the egg it pours into the pasta like a carbonara...simply brilliant and really one of the best appetizers I've had in a really long time.

Put Juniper on your to do list, I promise it's all that and a bag of Doritos!

Key Lime Pie So Refreshing in Extreme Heat

It's incredibly hot out today, especially for late May. I feel very wilted, and when I feel this way I tend to crave things that are refreshing like frozen yogurt, iced coffee and key lime pie. There is something about the cold and creamy texture of the pie with the tart freshness of the lime that brings me to the tropics even on the coldest days. I understand why it's so popular in the Florida Keys where it's hot for most of the year. The great thing about key lime pie is that it requires very few ingredients and you don't really need "key limes" to have a great, authentic pie. Also you can substitute a store bought graham cracker crust for the homemade, thereby reducing the cooking time to 15 minutes and on a hot day you don't want the oven on all day long. Key lime pies have to cool in the fridge for at least 4 hours, so when it's really hot out I purchase individual mini graham cracker crusts, reduce the baking time to 10 minutes, and cooling time to 2 hours. The below recipe is so easy that my father was able to make a wonderful key lime pie using it!

Key Lime Pie

1 ½ cups graham cracker crumbs (crumbled in a food processor)

½ cup granulated sugar

½ stick of butter melted

2 14oz cans of condensed milk

1 cup of key lime or lime juice (if using lime juice squeeze 1 lemon in addition to the lime juice)

2 whole eggs

Heavy Cream

2 tablespoons powdered sugar

1 tablespoon lime zest

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F

In a bowl mix the graham cracker crumbs, sugar and butter with your hands. Press mixture firmly into a 9 inch pie pan and bake until brown (15-20 minutes). Remove from the oven and allow to cool to room temp before filling.

(You can eliminate the above step and just purchase a ready made graham cracker crust, but I must say that the homemade one does taste better)

Lower oven temperature to 325 degrees F

In a separate bowl, combine the condensed milk, lime juice, and eggs. Wisk until blended and place filling into the pie shell. Bake in the oven for 15 minutes and then cover with saran wrap and allow to chill in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours.

To serve, whip heavy cream with powdered sugar and then cover the pie with whipped cream and sprinkle lime zest as a garnish on top.

Local Farm Produce Finally Back!!!!!

In late November (right after Thanksgiving) I go into a huge funk, I come to the realization of the fact that my local farm produce days are numbered. I try to harvest apples, potatoes, winter squash and pumpkin, and root vegetables into at least January or February...but by March even those are gone and I'm left with whatever gets shipped in at Whole Foods. I dream of May when the first of the farm spinach arrives, shortly followed by asparagus.

This weekend I called Schoharie Valley Farms and they informed me that they have been picking asparagus for the past 2 weeks...The season has begun. I promptly drove from the Bed and Breakfast up to Schoharie, the asparagus had just been picked 2 hours before I got there so I purchased some. I cut and sauteed some in an egg custard for breakfast for guests and tonight my mother made the rest for dinner. Asparagus is a vegetable that falls into the "strike while the iron is hot" category. Unlike spinach and salad greens which are also available now and will be available through October, the growing season for asparagus is only about a month, and once it's over there will be no asparagus until next May. Farm asparagus is pencil thin, sweet and so tender, often asparagus that you get from the grocery store is woody and bitter; there is a very clear difference. So much that I generally only eat asparagus in season, so I'm so excited to eat it now because it's a treat that I only get for a very short period in the year. Asparagus is one of those vegetables that once you eat it from the farm "in season" you won't want to purchase it from the supermarket. Its so simple to make, and I never use too many ingredients with it because I want the flavor to really shine through. A simple and flavorful asparagus recipe is below.

Ingredients:
Pencil thin asparagus (if purchased in a supermarket then cut off the bottom 2 inches and save for soup or stock)
lemon juice and zest
salt
fresh cracked pepper
good extra virgin olive oil for coating

Preheat oven to 425 degrees
Coat asparagus slightly with olive oil
zest and juice lemon over asparagus
sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste
Roast in oven for 10-15 minutes until tender but still firm.
Serve.

Health Benefits of Red Wine - Dr. Oz Says So!!!!!

Today when I was at the gym and on the treadmill I got the chance to tune into the Dr. Oz show. I'm hooked on Dr. Oz which is an oxymoron because he's always talking about calorie reduction and I'm also seriously addicted to the Food Network! Anyway, today on Dr. Oz's talk show he confirmed something that I've known for years. Drinking red wine (and the darker the better for you and your skin) actually keeps you young! Its so rich in antioxidants and red wine reduces cholesterol levels and allows you to wash the plaque out of your arteries. And since red wine is good for your arteries, it also helps bring more oxygen to your skin. Drink one glass of red wine a day if you are a woman (and not pregnant) and drink two glasses of red wine a day if you are a man. If you cannot drink red wine, Dr Oz suggested eating blueberries, dark chocolate and pomegranate. He also said that contrary to popular belief (and the belief of my trainer) grape juice is not a suitable substitute for red wine, because red wine has the seeds and skin that is so necessary for health benefits and grape juice doesn't.

As if I needed it, another reason to drink wine on a very regular basis! WOO HOO!!!!

Was that really Red Onion???

Raw red onions are one of those flavors that you either love or hate. My mother LOVES raw red onion, she wants extra in her salad, meanwhile I pull them out of salads, salsas, and burgers on a regular basis. A little raw red onion is fine, but more than a little is so strong that for me it overpowers every other flavor in any dish that I eat. Nobody seems to have more of an aversion to red onion than Scott Conant of the renowned Scarpetta Restaurant in New York City. He is a regular judge on the show Chopped on the Food Network and God help the chef who unknowingly puts raw red onion in a dish and serves it to Conant who consistently throws a fit every time. I don't think that the taste of raw red onion deserves that type of a reaction however I do understand why raw red onion can be hard to "digest".

Tonight I went to Rock n Mexicana in Windham and asked Kyle the Chef of the restaurant (who is extremely talented and a welcome addition to the less than spectacular Mountaintop dining scene) to surprise me with something. He brought out a ceviche that consisted of shrimp, lobster, gooseberries, Italian blood orange, shaved yuca, cucumber and red onion...when I discussed the dish with Kyle (of which I was swooning) and tried to break down the ingredients I mistakenly thought the red onion was radish. The red onion didn't taste anything like the strong bitter taste that I'm used to having when I bite into raw red onion, it was subtle and complemented the rest of the ingredients perfectly. So Kyle swore it was red onion, and told me a chef secret (and yes I'm a sucker for chef secrets)...he soaks the red onion in ice water for 3 hours, it takes the bitterness out and gives it a crunchy but subtle flavor. WOW! that really changes the flavor and I love the end result. I make a mean avocado, tomato and red onion salad but sometimes I feel the onion is too strong. Stay tuned for my recipe on the avocado salad with this new found technique! Thank you Kyle as always for knowing my taste and for the tip.

Beef Shanks - Not just for feeding the dogs!

As some of you who are reading this know, we try to purchase all of our meat off of local farms in Greene, Delaware and Schoharie County. The meat we purchase is hormone, antibiotic free, free range and free roaming. And when we do eat beef it’s grassfed. I firmly believe that much of the disease and illness that Americans suffer from are directly attributed to the way our food tampered with before it hits that pretty plastic and Styrofoam packaging in our local grocery stores.

Our grassfed beef comes from the JJ Farber farm in Jewitt which is about 6 miles from Catskill Maison. It’s the same farm that supplies our free range eggs for our breakfasts at the Bed and Breakfast. Coincidentally the owner of the farm, Mike is also our vet in NYC and also lives in our building in Riverdale…(random right?) so we are really lucky in that we have 365 day access to really good beef. Well, knowing that I like to experiment with ingredients Mike gave me 4 beef shanks last fall stating that he had no idea what to do with them and his friend John (who runs the farm on a day to day basis) just feeds the shanks to his dogs. Hmmm, that sounds really appetizing!

Well I’ve never had beef shanks before, they were big awkward cuts of meat with a bone in the middle of the cross section, they kind of looked like oxtails or maybe short ribs but not really. But a challenge is a challenge and I’m always up for a good cooking challenge so I looked up beef shank recipes on line and came up with many stating that they are good for beef soup but not much else. Then I got a beef shank recipe from Emeril, that resembled my short rib recipe and one blog post on them stating that the marrow from them is heavenly but the shanks themselves are usually only braised in Europe and they take a long time to cook. Ok so at least people actually eat these things and it’s not just Alpo!

So I defrosted those beef shanks and threw them in my Le Creuset and braised those bad boys! 3 and a half hours later they were falling off the bone, and the marrow was like butter. (I would in the future invest in a good baguette and make a crostini). I thought they would taste like a short rib or oxtail, but no; they were leaner (so I felt less guilty) and gamier. Almost like a slightly fatty venison. After the first couple of bites I must say that my taste buds really began to like these shanks, and my father LOVED them. I served them with a mashed potato and rutabaga mix.

Beef Shanks braised in Red Wine

Ingredients:

4 cross cut beef shanks with bone in the middle 1 and a half inch thick

Seasoned flour for dredging

1 onion diced small

3 carrots diced small

3 stalks of celery diced small

3 garlic cloves diced

Olive oil

3 cups Red wine

Thyme and Bayleaf

Salt, Pepper, ground cloves, paprika

2 tablespoons of tomato paste

2 cups Chicken stock

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Heat large dutch oven and add 3 tablespoons of olive oil

Dredge meat on all sides with seasoned flour

Sear all sides of meat 3-4 minutes on each side

Remove meat from the dutch oven.

Put onion, celery, carrot in the dutch oven once meat is removed. Saute, and then add garlic, and sauté for 2 minutes. Then add 1 cup of red wine to deglaze the pan. Then add the shanks, thyme, bayleaf, seasonings, chicken stock and rest of red wine. Cover the pot and put into the oven for 2 hours. After 2 hours add the tomato paste and adjust seasonings and add a little more stock if necessary. Let braise for another hour and a half or until meat is very tender. Serve with mashed potatoes and enjoy!

So Many Grapes

A friend of mine called me last night with a request that I suggest a Cabernet or Merlot for him to purchase for his lady friend who is coming in from out of town. Since I'm really not a fan of Merlot and (only in my opinion) believe the Merlot grape is really only useful as a blending grape for a Bordeaux or Meritage; I suggested a few Cab's for him to choose from at various price points. After speaking to my friend I began thinking about the narrowness of my own understanding of grape varietals. A basic wine class will tell you that there is a Chardonnay, Pinot Gris (or Grigio), Riesling, Sauvignon Blanc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Noir, Merlot, Shiraz (Syrah), and maybe a Cabernet Franc...and in reality for most American wine lists that's all you really have to know to get by. However there are so many other grapes both new and old world to choose from, and many have similar characteristics to those that I've listed above. An example of this is the Nero D'Avola from Sicily. I often go to Zero Otto Nove in Little Italy the Bronx, and when I sit at the bar and order a glass of wine I generally ask for the Sicilian Syrah. On the label it states Nero D'Avola and also Syrah. Looking for familiarity and the ability to easily identify my mind simply went to the word Syrah.

Last week I went to the Cookery restaurant in Dobbs Ferry, it's a really cute (albeit extremely loud) restaurant with very well executed food. It also has a very nice, easy to navigate, and heavily Italian wine list with really good price points. In my wine exploration I always find it intriguing to find out more about wines that are indigenous to a particular country or region so when I saw that there was an 2007 Nero d’Avola, Santa Anastasi, Sicily on the menu I asked the server "is that a Syrah"? I thought (mistakenly) that like in France (where the type of grape is determined by region, for example if you want a white Burgundy you know you are getting a Chardonnay grape); the Nero d'Avola was a region in Sicily where the Syrah grape is produced so ordering a Nero d'Avola meant ordering a Syrah grape. I was wrong. The Nero d'Avola is a grape that is indigenous to Sicily, and it's characteristics are like that of a Syrah, so for the American's who don't know any better they label the wine as "Syrah" so we have an idea of the style of wine we are getting. I've noticed this about some French wines as well, a white Burgundy sometimes has the word "Chardonnay" below it, but the difference is that a white Burgundy is really a Chardonnay. A Nero d'Avola isn't a Syrah, it's a Nero d'Avola; it might have properties akin to a Syrah but it isn't a Syrah. While I appreciate the "ease" factor in the bottling companies putting familiar grape varietals on the label, it also takes away from us really learning the nuances of different grapes. I urge us all to be adventurous when looking at a wine list or going into a wine shop. Don't necessarily reach for that Cabernet Sauvignon...ask questions; don't be afraid to state that you want to try a grape from a region that you aren't familiar with but you like a "Cabernet Sauvignon" style of wine. You might open up your palate to an entirely new wine region and maybe if my friend does this he will really impress his lady friend!

Wine Bar Construction

Today is a day for an update. As some of the readers of this blog know, I own a bed and breakfast in Windham NY, Catskill Maison. However, few readers know that we are currently in the process of expanding our business to open a Wine Bar. Construction of a Winebar is a very interesting undertaking, its my dream unfolding before my eyes and I get more and more excited each day. Today I saw the paint that I chose put on the walls, I saw molding being placed on windows, and I'm giddy with happiness. I also purchased flooring and got an education on wood floors, engineered (as in man made planks) vs. true wood planks, and the pros and cons of both. I now understand the difference between pine and oak, 3/4 vs. 1/2 inch thick. It's a learning experience and I'm drinking in every minute of it. I chose oak floors, true wood, red oak with a beautiful finish 3/4 inch thick so it can withstand some wear and tear. I am trusting myself that I made the right decision. As I walk into the front room I can envision the bar, the fireplace, the lounge chairs...I hear the live guitar with the sweet singing of my Innkeeper and I'm filled with joy. Today I am at peace, I realize how very blessed I am to have this opportunity to reach into myself and fulfill my dreams, and I look forward to the adventure that awaits me.

One More Thing To Do With Chicken

My mother is getting her kitchen remodeled, and her new kitchen is going to be our catering kitchen as we are going to start catering professionally later this year and I'm so psyched! We are getting all new appliances for the kitchen and her current refrigerator is going upstate so we have the challenge of getting everything out of her freezer. She had chicken breast and legs in the freezer so we had to cook it. We defrosted the chicken during the day today, and looked in my fridge to figure out how we were going to prepare the dish. Since I'm leaving in a month to go upstate for 5 months and the Bed and Breakfast is opening this weekend, my cooking days in NYC are limited as well so it's in my best interest to try to clean out my fridge too. I opened the freezer and saw frozen artichokes, and then saw frozen peas, onto the counter they went. Then in the fridge we found Carola potatoes from RSK farm (the best potatoes in the world hands down), roasted garlic and lemons and realized that we had a dish. We got some vine ripened tomatoes from the store to accompany our creation and we were on our way to a great one pot supper. We made chicken with roasted garlic, artichoke hearts, lemon, potatoes and peas in one sauce pan with balsamic glazed roasted tomatoes on the side...it was AWESOME! There is always something that can be created when trying to clean out the fridge. I encourage you to try this recipe or a variation of it the next time you need to make room in your fridge.

Ingredients
Cut up chicken legs and breast
1 onion small dice
8 cloves of roasted garlic (or regular garlic if you can't find roasted)
1 package of artichoke hearts thawed
1 lemon zested and juiced
1 cup of peas thawed
5 small potatoes diced 1 inch thick
1 tablespoon of Herbs de Provence
1 tablespoon of Paprika
1 tablespoon of Adobo seasoning
salt and fresh cracked pepper to taste
1 cup of white wine
1 cup of chicken stock
Olive oil (twice around the pan) and 1 tablespoon of butter

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F
Heat a large ovenproof skillet or sauce pan and put in olive oil and butter. Season chicken with seasoning and then brown chicken on all sides and remove from pan. Add onions and saute until translucent. Add potatoes and pan fry for about 5-7 minutes until slightly tender. Add garlic, and after 2 minutes add lemon zest and juice, then add wine and deglaze the pan (get up all of the good bits of chicken and onion drippings). Then add the chicken back to the pan and add artichokes and chicken stock and put the pan in the oven. Roast chicken in the oven until meat thermometer reads 150 degrees and then add peas. Cover with a top or foil for 10 minutes and then remove cover and roast for another 10 minutes. Check for doneness (165 degrees F for free range/free roaming chicken) and then bring to the table and serve...

Goes well with roasted tomatoes or crusty bread.

Love for Chilies

I absolutely love anything spicy. Curries, and chilies are some of my favorite foods, and I tend to order it in restaurants as hot as possible. I even make my own hot sauce, and it's so hot that I had a coughing attack while making it (total habanero). Last night I was at dinner at Pranna, and ordered Malaysian goat curry and asked the chef to please make it spicy. When it came to the table it wasn't remotely hot enough for me, so I did something that I rarely do, I sent it back. When it came back it still wasn't hot enough but the chef put 2 types of chili paste next to it. I dumped the entire contents of the hotter one in my curry, stirred it up and began to eat. My lips were on fire, I was giddy and smiling and laughing and oh so happy. This is a common trend for me; I eat something that is so hot that tears are running down my face but I don't surrender, I keep eating and am so happy. Often I find myself saying "oooh it's so hot but oh so good", as I'm sweating like a pig. After the hot curry I ate a bite of ice cream that my friend ordered which had green hot chilies poking out of it...LOVED IT! Brilliant!...So I have come to the conclusion that it really is true; Capsaicin (the active chemical in red chili peppers) also has been shown to stimulate endorphin release. This explains why I'm so happy and giddy and constantly doing the food dance as tears are running down my face.

For all of you who crave that endorphin rush, or simply just love hot foods, try making your own hot sauce. You can experiment with different types of chilies; just make sure that you add vinegar and salt to anything you do and grind them in the blender or food processor. Oh yeah, and most importantly wear gloves!

No Sancerre - try Muscadet

I love red wine, and generally lean to ordering reds in restaurants more than whites...I also tend to drink more red wine at home than white wine, due to the health benefits plus the full bodied flavor of many red wines. However when the weather gets warm, sometimes there is nothing better than a crisp and refreshing white wine. I love a good California chardonnay but at times, especially when I'm outside and just want something refreshing, a chardonnay can be too heavy. When it's 90 degrees outside what I generally crave is a Sancerre. Sancerre is in the eastern portion of the Loire Valley and generally is known for the production of a Sauvignon Blanc grape that is very dry, pretty full bodied and minerally, almost grassy on the palate (there is a hint of citrus at times). A Sancerre doesn't have that melon, heavy fruit on the nose that a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc is known for. The high acidity and citrus undertones of a Sancerre make it very refreshing.

Today I went to a great restaurant in Hastings, Buffet de la Gare; and since it was a warm day and it was a French restaurant I asked for a Sancerre. To my disappointment they didn't have a Sancerre by the glass, however the waiter suggested that I try their Muscadet. I was hesitant at first; yes the Muscadet grape is produced in the Loire valley but unlike the Sancerre it's produced on the west side of the Loire (I won't bore anyone reading this on the nuances between how the grapes differ on the different sides of the valley). Lets just say that I was concerned that there would be a "musk" flavor that would be overpowering (like a muscat), but to my surprise the wine was light, dry and acidic, almost like a lighter bodied Sancerre with a less citrus finish. Nice, very nice...

Dining on the Hudson

Living in Riverdale (the culinary wasteland with only 2 decent sit down restaurants and a cool take out Greek spot) there are 2 options when you want to go somewhere to eat, Manhattan or Westchester...and because Riverdale is so far west, when the goal is to find something quickly or without much driving the Hudson River towns in Westchester become very appealing. From Yonkers to Tarrytown there are a plethora of really good and sometimes great restaurants to choose from, and often with great views of the Hudson River. In the warm weather, there is nothing better than sitting at Harvest on Hudson, Red Hat, Striped Bass or Half Moon and watching the boats go by. Tonight was one of those nights where I feel truly blessed to be able to dine outside on the Hudson river while being so close to home.

City Island Secrets

City Island is the most popular dining destination for Bronxites, so being a Bronx native I've dined in almost every restaurant on the strip. It's a little island off of the northeast Bronx, with one road in and one road out. On the weekends in the summer it's a zoo and has a reputation for being a not so nice, loud, low class "hang out spot", but during the week especially on a Tuesday or Wednesday evening when the weather is nice, it's worth taking the trip. The trick to City Island is knowing where to go if you aren't a huge fan of fatty cholesterol laden fried fish and shellfish with a side of precut frozen french fries or mediocre Southern Italian seafood which is commonplace. For first timers visiting the Island it can be quite overwhelming, huge signs with huge restaurants one right after the other...its hard to differentiate between which ones are for tourists (or people with a really unexposed palate), and which ones are actually worth going to. Let me first say that there isn't a restaurant in City Island that is 5 star quality, with the exception of La Refuge Inn...it simply doesn't exist, so ratchet down your expectations, realize that you are going for the "experience and ambiance" and have some fun. There is no reason to go to City Island to sit inside, read between the lines DON'T GO IN THE WINTER...half of the experience is to smell the salt water and sit outside in the good weather. The food just isn't good enough to make the trek all the way out there in the freezing cold (remember it's a tiny island surrounded by water). Now, if you go in the summer (during the week only), head to the following spots and you will not be disappointed.

Seafood - the Seashore Restaurant and sit on the outside dock by the water
American food - Black Whale - probably the best of the bunch (I went there tonight). I've only had one bad experience in all of the times I've been there. My vegetarian friend didn't have a good meal because they put pork in her penne vodka, and tried to say there was no pork in it (but there was). However, tonight my dish came laden with green peppers(which I never, ever eat under any circumstances) despite the fact that the list of ingredients didn't include them, and the waiter apologized a million times, and so did the chef and he recooked my meal and it was perfect. Really cute garden, a prix fixe, great desserts and they take restaurant.com coupons.
Italian Seafood - Lobster House Restaurant - all tables are by the water


Some like Arties or Portofinos - but in my honest opinion neither have the outdoor dining ambiance to make it worth the trip unless looking at the buses and cars passing by the main road are your thing.

I think that City Island is a must experience for all New Yorkers at least once, and with the above choices you will have a fun time and a decent meal.

Ceviche So Refreshing in the Summer

I recently hosted a Latin American cooking class and one of the dishes that I taught how to make was a shrimp and fish ceviche. Ceviche is seafood that starts out raw and is literally "cooked" by citrus. It's served room temperature or slightly chilled and often has onion, cilantro, hot peppers (jalapeno) and other vegetables added. Ceviche is so easy to make because it doesn't require any cooking at all, the only skill required is to chop and the only other requirement is to get the freshest seafood possible. It's the perfect refreshing dish for a hot humid day.

Pictured above is fish and shrimp ceviche...recipe is below:

Fish and Shrimp Ceviche

1lb shrimp peeled and deveined

¾ lb Red Snapper or similar substitute

1 cup tomato (small dice)

1 ¼ cup of lime juice

1 clove garlic (very finely chopped)

1 serrano or jalapeno chili (very finely chopped)

1 teaspoon cilantro (chopped)

1 red onion (finely chopped)

1 red pepper (small dice)

½ cup jicama (medium dice)

2 teaspoons sugar

1 oz of olive oil

Cut shrimp and fish into ¼ inch dice and combine with lime juice.

Add all ingredients to shrimp and fish, toss lightly and marinate for 40 minutes to an hour in the refrigerator.

Season with salt and pepper and serve.