COOKING UP A STORM

When my son Fred is in town, the two of us usually cook up a storm. Since this was a quick visit, I got a jump start before he arrived.

When he showed up tired and hungry after taking the red-eye home, he opened the fridge and found lots of fresh fruit and veggies (like me, he’s only slightly carnivorous), plus:

*Homemade Apple Sauce (from apples picked on our property)

* Pumpkin Ginger Soup (Sue Barnes asked for my recipe for a calendar she was illustrating and I decided to re-test it).

* Pozole Rojo (Mexican pork and hominy stew) from the September issue of Gourmet magazine (a special issue featuring the foods of Central and South America.)

I figured that Fred and I would try several other recipes from the isssue while he was here, so I stocked up on ingredients, such as frozen banana leaves, dried guajillo peppers, frozen yucca and big bouquets of cilantro and mint (we’ve had so little rain this summer that my more delicate herbs are looking pretty sparse.)

On Monday night, we decided to make a dish from Gourmet that called for hunks of meat stewed in a banana leaves. However, we substituted mahi mahi and shrimp for the meat. Instead of marinating ribs for 12 hours, we let the seafood slosh around in the homemade red pepper marinade for only an hour. It came out great.

On Tuesday night, we made Huachinango Veracruzano, which means Red Snapper Veracruz style in English. The recipe we used was from one of my favorite South of the Border cookbooks, Culinary Mexico by Daniel Hoyer. Yes, it's by my publisher, Gibbs Smith, but that's not why I love it. The recipes call for the authentic ingredients -- and since I either stock them or know where to find them -- I prefer "the real thing."

Our side dish was Yucca with Mojo Sauce (from the Gourmet magazine). There was also supposed to be a Spinach Salad but I forgot to make it.

We also whipped up two appetizers.
* Tacos with carnitas (basically spiced up bits of meat “borrowed” from the leftover pozole wrapped in corn tortillas)
* Oyster mushrooms topped with two types of cheese on a grilled red pepper raft. It was my version of something I recently ordered in a Mexican restaurant that Dan took me to in NYC.

Next week, it’s all salads and yoghurt!

*** BLOG DU JOUR ***

Whether you are a vegetarian or just appreciate the great taste of fresh natural food, you’ll want to visit Day To Day From My Heart.

Jan and her husband John run a Victorian Bed & Breakfast British Columbia, Canada. Each summer, the inn is used for cooking classe. Jan's blog features delicious recipes. I definitely plan to try her vegan German Chocolate cake.