What can I tell you about a strawberry topping for oatmeal?  Using regular oatmeal and adding this homemade topping definitely beats eating the instant variety, it’s not hard to make and you can keep a small batch to last you through the week.  You could also try to make this with peaches or apples, so you can have a few different toppings to add. Keep them in an airtight container in the fridge and spoon them over hot, creamy oatmeal.   Hey, it’s good for you.

Strawberry Topping for Oatmeal

Original Recipe from The Foodies’ Kitchen
Serves 2

Ingredients:

2 cups strawberries, sliced
2 teaspoons water
1 1/2 tablespoons honey or brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Procedure:

1. In a small saucepan, bring all ingredients together.
2. Cover and let them simmer for 5 minutes.
3. Spoon over oatmeal.

© 2012, The Foodies' Kitchen. All rights reserved.

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Don’t you love pork chops?  I usually like mine with pineapple, or with a honey-mustard marinade.  This time, I had to figure out what to do with leftover wine we had from our New Year’s celebration, so I thought about making a red wine sauce for them.  I used rosemary as the herb to infuse the sauce, since I had a fresh bunch from the market.   I used cream to complete the sauce, and ended up with a smooth, velvety, bacon-ey, sauce that complemented the pork chops wonderfully.  Now I only have to work on the presentation.

Edith and I used rosemary once (many, many…many! moons ago when we were in cooking school) on a blackberry sauce for I don’t remember what dish.. I think it was a chicken roulade, and it went terribly wrong.  The flavor of the rosemary completely overpowered the sauce, and it was ruined.  So my tip today is,  if you use dried rosemary, use it sparingly.  You can always add more.  You can be more liberal in the amount when you use fresh rosemary.

Pork Chops in Red Wine Sauce

A The Foodies’ Kitchen Original recipe
Serves 3

Ingredients:

3 pork chops
¼ cup chopped onion
1 cup red wine
1 tablespoon butter
½ cup cream
1 teaspoon finely chopped fresh rosemary
½ cup chicken stock
salt and pepper to taste

 Procedure:

1. Heat a large skillet over medium heat. Season both sides of the pork chops with salt and pepper and brown them on each side (about 4 minutes per side)
2. Remove them from the pan.
3. Return pan to the heat, and add the chopped onion, rosemary and wine, deglazing the pan. This means, scrape off any bits and pieces stuck to the bottom of the pan, that way you will incorporate all that flavor into your sauce.  Let it boil at medium heat for about 5 minutes or until it has reduced to half the amount.
4. Add the chicken stock and cream. Mix well.  Adjust the seasoning using salt and pepper.
5. Return the pork chops to the pan, cover and turn the heat to low.  Let them simmer for 10 minutes. (remember to cover your pan, or the whole sauce will evaporate!)
   Using tongs, transfer pork chop to an individual plate and spoon some of the sauce over it. We recommend you pair this with mashed potatoes.

© 2012, The Foodies' Kitchen. All rights reserved.

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This recipe is great for a quick and light lunch, or as a starter for a more elaborate meal.

As we all know, a taco is made up of a corn or wheat tortilla with a filling made up of a variety of ingredients such as chicken, pork, beef, vegetables served together with a variety of sauces or garnishes. In history, the first tacos to be documented date back as far as the 1500′s:

1520 -Bernal Diaz del Castillo (1496-1584), a Spanish soldier who came with Hernán Cortés to the New World, wrote an intriguing and detailed chronicles called A True History of the Conquest of New Spain. He also chronicled the lavish feasts that were held. From the article by Sophie Avernin called Tackling the taco: A guide to the art of taco eating:

The first “taco bash” in the history of New Spain was documented by none other than Bernal Diaz del Castillo. Hernan Cortes organized this memorable banquet in Coyoacan for his captains, with pigs brought all the way from Cuba. It would, however, be a mistake to think that Cortes invented the taco, since anthropologists have discovered evidence that inhabitants of the lake region of the Valley of Mexico ate tacos filled with small fish, such as acosiles and charales. The fish were replaced by small live insects and ants in the states of Morelos and Guerrero, while locusts and snails were favorite fillings in Puebla and Oaxaca.

1914 – The first-known English-language taco recipes appeared in California cookbooks beginning in 1914. Bertha Haffner-Ginger, in her cookbook California Mexican-Spanish Cook Book said tacos were:

“made by putting chopped cooked beef and chili sauce in a tortilla made of meal and flour; folded, edges sealed together with egg; fried in deep fat, chile sauce served over it.”

With these facts aside, we do recommend this Beef Tacos recipe for a light weekend lunch, it is very flavorful and a great dish to accompany beer, or to keep your guests entertained and fed when you plan your next grilling session.

Beef Tacos with Radish & Avocado Salsa

Ingredients:

1 avocado, halved, pitted, peeled, and cut into 3/4-inch cubes
6 large red radishes, ends trimmed, halved, thinly sliced
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
1 tablespoon chopped pickled jalapeno chile
2 teaspoons freshly squeezed lime juice plus 1 lime, cut into 8 wedges, for garnish (optional)
1 teaspoon olive oil
Coarse salt and ground pepper
1 pound skirt steak, cut crosswise into 3 pieces
1 tablespoon ground cumin
8 corn tortillas (6-inch)

Directions:

1. Heat broiler, with rack 4 inches from heat. Line a rimmed baking sheet with aluminum foil; set aside. In a medium bowl, gently stir together avocado, radishes, cilantro, jalapeno, lime juice, and oil; season with salt. Cover with plastic wrap, pressing it directly against surface of salsa (to prevent discoloring); set aside.
2. Arrange steak on prepared baking sheet. Rub both sides with cumin; season generously with salt and pepper. Broil without turning until well browned, 6 to 8 minutes for medium-rare. Transfer steak to a cutting board; tent with foil, and let rest 5 minutes.
3. While the steak is broiling, stack and wrap tortillas in a dampened kitchen towel; microwave until hot and pliable, 1 to 2 minutes. (Alternatively, wrap in foil, and warm in oven in lower third, 5 minutes.)
4. Cut steak crosswise into 2-inch-wide pieces; slice thinly on the diagonal. Dividing evenly, place beef on tortillas; top with salsa. Serve with lime wedges, if desired.

© 2012, The Foodies' Kitchen. All rights reserved.

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A few days ago, fish was being defrosted for our weekday lunch and I needed to come up with a sauce to serve it with.  I like citrus sauces for fish, but Mariano likes creamy sauces. I found this one, the perfect combination.

It reminds me of a Hollandaise sauce, but without all that butter. You can use this for fish, or chicken and also for vegetable dishes such as asparagus.  The great thing about this sauce, is that even though it’s cream based and it does have some butter in it, it’s still lighter than a Hollandaise or Béarnaise sauce and it can be made in a few minutes with much less work, which I love.

I didn’t try this, but I read you can add Parmesan Cheese to this sauce and use it over angel hair pasta and shrimp.

Lemon-Cream Sauce

Recipe from Dishin’ & Dishes
Serves 2

Ingredients
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons flour
1/2 cup of milk
1/2 cup of cream
1/4 cup white wine
Grated peel of 1 lemon
Juice of 1 lemon
Salt and Pepper to taste

Procedure:

1. Melt butter over medium heat in skillet, add flour and whisk for about a minute. (This is called a roux, equal parts of butter and flour are used to thicken sauces)
2. Add milk , cream and wine.
3. Remove pan from heat and add seasonings, lemon zest and lemon juice.
4. Return to heat and whisk until thick and creamy, about another minute or two. Pour over vegetables, chicken, fish or pasta.

© 2011, The Foodies' Kitchen. All rights reserved.

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Scones and Rhubarb! If you have Will & Kate fever, you are throwing a British Wedding party! Here is our favorite British inspired recipe: Scones. It goes amazingly well with Rhubarb Jam, also a popular veggie in the UK.

An now a little fact! Most of the Rhubarb in England comes from Yorkshire in the north of England. Yorkshire is fortunate to have access to some of the best rhubarb in what is known as the Rhubarb Triangle of Wakefield, Leeds and Bradford.

Scones & Rhubarb Jam

© 2011, The Foodies' Kitchen. All rights reserved.

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Here’s a recipe for you, while we still have tangerines around. After making my rhubarb and tomato jam, I was still in the mood to try other fruit flavors. Personally, I like citrus marmalades… But a lot of people find them too bitter. But, since I was making this myself I could control the bitterness by adding the right amount of tangerine peel. You can omit the peel altogether if you don’t want any biterness whatsoever, or just add very fine little slices.

Don’t skip the part where you put the pits in a cheese cloth (or coffee filter, like I did). You need pectin, which is present in fruits for your jam to “gel”. In citrus fruits, the pits are high in pectin, so do follow the steps as they are detailed.

This jam is great on scones and toast, with a little cream cheese. Also to spread on crepes, and… Maybe waffles with a chocolate spread? A little marmalade thinned with water to make a syrup on top?  too much?

As with most jam and marmalade recipes, you will have enough to give away.  I got 5 standard-sized jars.

Tangerine Marmalade

Yields: Two quarts
Adapted from David Lebovitz

Ingredients:

8  Large tangerines
10 cups (2.5 liters) water
pinch of salt
8 cups (1.6 kg) sugar

Procedure:

1. Wash tangerines and wipe them dry. Cut each one in half, crosswise around the equator. Set a non-reactive mesh strainer over a bowl and squeeze the orange halves to remove the seeds, assisting with your fingers to remove any stubborn ones tucked deep within.
2. Tie the seeds up in cheesecloth or muslin very securely. (or a coffee filter!)
3. Cut each rind into 3 pieces and use a sharp chef’s knife to cut the rinds into slices or cubes as thin as possible. Each piece shouldn’t be too large (no more than a centimeter, or 1/3-inch in length.)
4. In a large (10-12 quart/liter) stockpot, add the tangerine slices, seed pouch, water, and salt, as well as the juice from the tangerines from step #1. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer, and cook until the peels are translucent, about 20 to 30 minutes.
   (At this point, sometimes I’ll remove it from the heat after cooking them and let the mixture stand overnight, to help the seeds release any additional pectin.)
5. Stir the sugar into the mixture and bring the mixture to a full boil again, then reduce heat to a gentle boil. Stir occasionally while cooking to make sure it does not burn on the bottom. Midway during cooking, remove the seed pouch and discard.
6. Continue cooking until it has reached the jelling point, about 220F degrees, if using a candy thermometer. To test the marmalade, turn off the heat and put a small amount on a plate that has been chilled in the freezer and briefly return it to the freezer. Check it in a few minutes; it should be slightly jelled and will wrinkle just a bit when you slide your finger through it. If not, continue to cook until it is.
7. Remove from heat, and ladle the mixture into clean jars.
   I don’t process my jams, since I store them in the refrigerator.

© 2011, The Foodies' Kitchen. All rights reserved.

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This is one of Jake’s signature dishes. The sauce is the perfect match for the lasagna rolls. You’ll notice that there’s no salt for the sauce. This is because we used Italian flavored breadcrumbs and Parmesan cheese, which is salty by itself. You can also replace the Spinach with Carrots, Broccoli, Cauliflower… any veggie you are in the mood for! Lasagna rolls are a perfect comfort food in these chilly winter nights, and make a great meal for the next day too. They go well with a fresh green salad with a Balsamic Vinaigrette and paired it with a good white wine. We hope you enjoy it as much as we did!

Spinach & Chicken Lasagna Rolls
A Foodies’ Original by Jake Van Ness
Serving Size: 6

Ingredients:
2 handfuls of Spinach
5 ounces Ricotta cheese
6 oz chicken breasts
1 teaspoon Garlic Powder
Oregano, Salt and Pepper  to taste
6 Lasagna noodles, cooked, drained
Jake’s Parmesan Sauce (recipe bellow)

Directions:

1. Chop finely the cooked chicken breasts. We’ve found that its much easier using the food processor and give it a few spins there.
2. Mix in the Ricotta Cheese, Oregano and Garlic.
3. Cook the lasagna noodles al dente (this is important so when it bakes later it doesn’t ), drain them out, place on clean towel to dry excess water.
4. Place a spinach leaf at the end of a lasagna noodle and take one tablespoon of the chicken and ricotta mix, place it on the top and roll until conceal.
5. Repeat the same process once again and roll completely. Repeat with all lasagna noodles.
6. Place on a greased baking dish, and pour sauce over rolled noodles and cover.
7. Bake at 375º for 25 minutes
8. Uncover and bake for 3 minutes.
9. To serve, pour remaining sauce over spinach leaves and serve the rolls on top.

Jake’s Parmesan Sauce
A Foodies’ Original by Jake Van Ness
Serving Size: 6

Ingredients
1/2 cup butter
8 ounces sour cream
2 teaspoons garlic powder
2 cups milk
6 ounces Parmesan cheese, grated
3 ounces ricotta cheese
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 cup Italian flavored bread crumbs

Directions:

1. Melt butter in a medium, non-stick saucepan over medium heat.
2. Add sour cheese and garlic powder, stirring with wire whisk until smooth.
3. Add milk, a little at a time, whisking to smooth out lumps.
4. Stir in Parmesan, Ricotta and pepper.
5. Remove from heat when sauce reaches desired consistency. Sauce will thicken rapidly, thin with milk if cooked too long. Toss with hot pasta to serve.
6. Note: If you don’t find Italian breadcrumbs at your grocery store, you can make your own. For each cup of breadcrumbs, add one tablespoon of each: fresh rosemary, oregano, and parsley freshly chopped.

© 2010, The Foodies' Kitchen. All rights reserved.

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Upon finding our precious rhubarb (it is not easy to find in Guatemala), Kitty and I tried out a few recipes with it, including this jam. What can you say about jam that you don’t already know? This one in particular has a delicate flavor, not too sweet and not too tart. For me the best combination is to have it with cream cheese. I recently uploaded a scone recipe you can try with it.  Enjoy!

Rhubarb-Berry Jam
Yields: 5 one cup (250ml) jars
Recipe from David Lebovitz

Ingredients:
3 pounds (1.25kg) rhubarb, trimmed and sliced into 1/2-inch (2cm) pieces
2 cups (250g) strawberries
1 cup (250ml) water or apple juice
5 1/2 cups (1kg, plus 100g) sugar
juice of one lemon
pinch of salt
Optional: 1 tablespoon kirsch

Procedure:

1. In a large pot, mix the rhubarb, berries, and the water or apple juice. Cook, covered, stirring frequently over moderate heat, until the rhubarb is cooked through and thoroughly tender. It should take about 15 minutes.
2. Put a small plate in the freezer.
3. Add the sugar, lemon juice, and salt, and cook, uncovered, skimming off and discarding any foam that rises to the surface, until the jam is thick and passes the wrinkle test.
4. To do so, place a small spoonful of the jam on the frozen plate. Return it to the freezer and check it a few minutes later; if the jam wrinkles when nudged, it’s done. You can also use a candy thermometer; jam jells at approximately 220F (104C).
5. Stir in the kirsch, if using, then ladle the jam into clean jars, cover, and store in the refrigerator.

© 2010, The Foodies' Kitchen. All rights reserved.

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For some reason I was in the mood for poached pears. Even though we don’t have Fall in Guatemala, I crave certain fall harvest fruits on this time of year since I am always looking at food blogs and websites from the USA that feature pears, pumpkins, cranberries, different kinds of squash, berries, apples, etc.

Poached pears are delicious by themselves, you can also try them with chocolate sauce, or a berry sauce topped with whipped cream, maybe?

I had no trouble with the poached pears, the caramel sauce is another story.

The only thing you have to do is NOT stir. Otherwise the sugar will cristalize… I know this, but God help me, I couldn’t resist. It took two tries to get it right. Please go to the link I included at the bottom of this recipe and read it before you make the caramel sauce.  It’s a step by step tutorial on how to make caramel.  After I read it, I got it right.

For those of you who can make caramel without any trouble, go ahead and go straight to the instructions for the sauce. You already know you’re not supposed to stir it.

But how does this taste? A Tarte Tatin comes to mind, the soft but thick caramel sauce mixed with the poached pear is just… heaven. I hope I didn’t scare you with the caramel issue. It is actually easy to make, basically you just have to leave it alone until the sugar melts.

I used David Lebovitz’s instructions until I had achieved the amber colored caramel, which brings us to step 3 in the sauce recipe. Then continue with the recipe adding the butter and cream to get your sauce.

Poached Pears with Caramel Sauce

For the Poached Pears:
Recipe from: David Lebovitz

Ingredients
Yields: 4 servings
1 quart (1l) water
1 1/3 cup (265 g) sugar
4 Bosc pears; peeled, cored, and quartered
Additions:
One cinnamon stick
2 teaspoons whole cloves, black peppercorns or allspice berries
One lemon half
One split vanilla bean
2-3 star anise
6-8 fresh ginger slices

Procedure:

1. In a large saucepan, heat the water and sugar until warm and the sugar is dissolved. Add any of the additions that you wish.
2. Slide in the pears and cover with a round of parchment paper, with a small hole cut in the center.
3. Keep the liquid at a very low boil and simmer the pears until cooked through, 15 to 25 minutes, depending on the pears.
4. Remove from heat and let the pears cool in their liquid.

For the Caramel Sauce:
Recipe from: Simply Recipes
Yields about 1 cup

Ingredients
1 cup of sugar
6 tablespoons of butter
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream

Procedure:

1. First, before you begin, make sure you have everything ready to go – the cream and the butter next to the pan, ready to put in. Making caramel is a fast process that cannot wait for hunting around for ingredients. If you don’t work fast, the sugar will burn. Safety first – make sure there are no children under foot and you may want to wear oven mitts; the caramelized sugar will be much hotter than boiling water.
2. Heat sugar on moderately high heat in a heavy-bottomed 2-quart or 3-quart saucepan. As the sugar begins to melt, stir vigorously with a whisk or wooden spoon. As soon as the sugar comes to a boil, stop stirring. You can swirl the pan a bit if you want, from this point on. Note that this recipe works best if you are using a thick-bottomed pan. If you find that you end up burning some of the sugar before the rest of it is melted, the next time you attempt it, add a half cup of water to the sugar at the beginning of the process, this will help the sugar to cook more evenly, though it will take longer as the water will need to evaporate before the sugar will caramelize.
3. As soon as all of the sugar crystals have melted (the liquid sugar should be dark amber in color), immediately add the butter to the pan. Whisk until the butter has melted.
4. Once the butter has melted, take the pan off the heat. Count to three, then slowly add the cream to the pan and continue to whisk to incorporate. Note than when you add the butter and the cream, the mixture will foam up considerably. This is why you must use a pan that is at least 2-quarts (preferably 3-quarts) big. (Check here for an explanation of why adding the cream makes the mixture bubble up so much.)
5. Whisk until caramel sauce is smooth. Let cool in the pan for a couple minutes, then pour into a glass mason jar and let sit to cool to room temperature. (Remember to use pot holders when handling the jar filled with hot caramel sauce.) Store in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks. Warm before serving.

Makes a little over one cup of sauce.

We’ve included a link to David Lebovitz’s instructions on How to Make the Perfect Caramel.

This is what happens if you stir!

© 2010, The Foodies' Kitchen. All rights reserved.

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Figs give this sauce an unexpected sweetness that I find very appealing in this cold weather we’re having.  It is a rich, thick sauce with a slight tanginess from the balsamic vinegar. As you know, I live in Guatemala and on this time of year the weather goes down to about 15° C during the day, and about 10° C at night, We have temperatures around 27°C during most of the year, so for us this weather is cold, cold, cold!.

I feel like having hot chocolate and making candy! This weather makes me want to eat things with cheese, having soup with panini and baked goods…. If only my metabolism was what it used to be! (Not that it will stop me) You’ll probably be seeing recipes revolving around those things during the next few months, this time of year really does call for comfort food.

Chicken thighs with Fig Sauce

A The Foodies’ Kitchen Original
Serves 2

2 chicken thighs, with their skins
2 slices of butter
½ white onion, finely chopped
1 thyme spring, chopped
1 rosemary spring, chopped
Salt pepper to taste
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 green apple, grated
½ cup fig preserves
½ cup water
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

Directions:

1. Clean out any excess fat from the chicken thighs, season with salt and pepper. Lift the skin and put one slice of butter inside it together with the thyme and rosemary.
2. In a medium sized pan, heat olive oil. Add the chopped onion and place the two thighs skin side down. Let it brown over medium-high heat for about 6 minutes on each side.
3. Add the balsamic vinegar; shake it around to get the thighs covered in it, this will make them nice and brown.
4. Add the grated apple, fig preserves and water.
5. Turn heat down to low, and cover the pan. Let it cook for 20 minutes.Serve with rice.

© 2010, The Foodies' Kitchen. All rights reserved.

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