chicken red curry dish

chicken red curry dish
Originally uploaded by chuborupert

very similar ingredients to the green curry, but cooked in the rice cooker instead. Browned the chicken and onions, added the coconut puree till it thickened then added it all to the rice cooker with rice and water and some fish sauce.



The red curry paste



The rice cooker



and the finished product

chicken curry with Palak Paneer

chicken curry with Palak Paneer
Originally uploaded by chuborupert

I had a lot of leftove coconut after making coconut milk so I decided to use if for dinner. I browned some chicken thighs in butter then added the shredded coconut with a some of the milk mixed with thai green curry paste.



I let it simmer for 10-15 min while I made rice and served it with palak paneer from an instant bag (spinach with cheese). It was outstanding.

Coquito

cocos
Originally uploaded by chuborupert

Coquito is the puertorican equivalent of eggnog. It is generally drunk around the holidays. Tradicionally it is made with eggs (like eggnog) but I grew up making it this way. At my parents house I would have harvested and peeled the coconut myself. These I bought at the supermarket. Cracked and cleaned them.



I used to clean the meat with a knife and a lot of patience but I discovered that a microplane works great. It is reccomended that you bake the coconut at 350 or 400 deg F for 5-10 minutes to make it easier to remove the meat. I tried but maybe I left it in too short of time, as I was afraid the meat would brown. Anyways cleaning the coconut meat off the shell is the most time consuming part of the deal.



I then grated the coconut in the food processor



I had reserved the coconut water and made a simple syrup with it adding nutmeg, cinamon and clove



I added the coconut to this



I then added water to cover and brought it to a boil.



From here I strained it, and put the coconut in a rag to press it. the remaining coconut milk I mixed half and half with rum and set to chill. Will drink later.

Pork Ribs

Pork Ribs
Originally uploaded by chuborupert

Picked up some ribs from Buz and Neds ( http://www.buzandneds.com/ ) on the way home. It is excellent. Smokey tender and fatty. I'll leave you with some more pictures, (Boy barbecue and blogging don't go together, I need to wipe down my keyboard.)

Homo Sapiens

There is a reason we are who we are. Chefs and foodies recently seem to be on the offal trip. "Head to tail eating" a new or resurrected phenomenon. In my opinion it is an ancient phenomenon. There is a really important reason we like... crave some of the most basic foods, bone marrow as the best example. Humans although currently omnivores where at some point... specialists. Imagine back to prehistory. Not dinosaur time as some story tellers would imagine, but the time that mammals ruled the earth. But before we did. Humans where lower on the food chain, probably somewhere on the scale of hyena and other opportunist. The problem is that by the time homo sapiens came upon a meal it was gone. Except for the bone marrow. Homo sapiens had the tool know how to break open the bones of previously killed carcasses to harvest the fatty and nutritious remnants. Very few, if any, animals are able to access this food source, it requires tools and strength. Now of course after the evolution of our brains and tools it seems simple. But in reality it may have been this very simple food source that propelled homo sapien into the position it is in currently. The apparent simplicity of splitting large bones with a rock ended up out commpeting a whole host of other creatures. which in the end, makes fat... bone marrow one of the greatest treats of mankind.

Un Aguacoton como un melon

Video call snapshot 20
Originally uploaded by chuborupert

Mi padre me mostro el aguacate que serviria de su cena esta noche. Vaya especimen.

con perdon al Gran Combo

pescado a la criolla

pescado a la criolla
Originally uploaded by chuborupert

Onions, garlic, celery oregano with sauteed tilapia filet
Easy and tasty.

Shrimp toast

toast
Originally uploaded by chuborupert

I've made a couple variations of this in the past.



This one uses french bread, ground shrimp in a paste and a whole shrimp as well.
The paste is made with approximate amounts of:
2 cups of shrimp (these can be small less expensive as you are going to puree them)
2 coins or slices of ginger
2 large cloves of garlic
one egg
handfull of fresh basil (tablespoon or more dried)
Handfull of cilantro
1/4 cup of fish sauce
teaspoon of sugar
(Panko bread crumbs as thickener if needed)
(optional tablespoon of Siracha or favorite hot sauce)

Other ingredients
Around 15-20 large peeled (and deveined if you like) shrimp
French bread (Baguette)
Sesame seeds (I used regular and black)

Throw all the paste ingredients in the blender and blend to a thick paste, use panko bread crumbs to thicken paste if needed.
Scoop a generous tablespoon onto a slice of bread and top with a shrimp, cover part of the shrimp in the paste so it doesn't go anywhere. turn over (here is where you can tell if your paste is thick enough) and dip in the sesame seeds (if it's not thick enough it the shrimp paste will disengage from the bread.)

Set Deep fryer to 375 deg
Set oven to 200 deg

Fry in batches in oil till golden brown, place on a rack in the oven to keep warm while you cook the others. Serve warm. Makes around 15-20 toasts.