Cucumber Avocado Lime Salad

Wow, this took like 2 seconds to make.

(Note: try some sugar on the cucumber to bring out the flavor! A tip from Julie & Jacques)

Ingredients:
- Avocado
- Cucumber
- Lime
- Cilantro
- Salt, pepper, crushed red pepper
- Rice vinegar
- Olive oil

Procedure:
- Peel cucumber, cut in half lengthwise, and scrape the seeds out with a spoon.
- Dice avocado
- Toss these together with a little lime juice, rice vinegar, and olive oil
- Sprinkle with salt black pepper and a little crushed red pepper, and top with Cilantro.

Done!

Coxinha de Galinha

A very popular Brazilian recipe, Coxinha de Galinha can be found anywhere from food stands on the beaches to fancy restaurants in the city.
It is a bit of work to make this, but the result is pretty tasty and unique.
This is one of Anna's favorites!

Ingredients:
- Chicken breasts
- Green onion
- Yellow onion
- Garlic, a couple cloves
- Flour
- Tomato paste
- Bread crumbs
- Knorr broth cubes
- Cilantro
- Condiments, salt, pepper, whatever you like
- Oil for frying

Procedure:
- Boil the chicken breast to cook for about 20 minutes in a pot of water with a a few Knorr cubes, some salt and pepper. SAVE THE LIQUID!!
- When the chicken is cool, pull it apart - you can do this in a food processor.

- Dice the onion and some garlic
- Brown some minced garlic in a little oil, then toss in a diced onion and ground chicken, tomato paste, and season to taste. While the chicken is cooking in the onion, add a little of the chicken stock you hopefully remembered to save. The point is to not let it get too dry. It is not soup either, just a mushy-sticky consistency is fine.
- When the chicken and onion and tomato paste is cooked briefly and combined nicely, take it off the heat, add chopped cilantro (a lot), and chopped green onion. Note: Use the green part of the green onion, not the white part.

Now for the dough. This is the tricky part. Crack open a beer, take a deep breath. The dough we are making is like a pie dough. Pie doughs are flour, liquid (usually water), and fat. About 6:3:1. In this case the liquid is the chicken broth, and the fat is the fat from boiling the chicken. So if you didn't save the broth, you have to use lard or butter.
- Put 3 cups of the chicken broth that you saved in a large pan and bring to boil. If you don't have 3 cups of broth, no problem, use some water to make up the difference. If it looks thin, you can use Knorr cubes and butter. It should be like savory, fatty chicken broth. Let it cool until it is hot, but you can touch it. You have to move quickly at this temperature, it is important.
- Have 6 cups of flour ready.
- This is much easier with a mixer, but it doable by and. Take the broth and QUICKLY pour the flour in and start stirring like mad. It gets gooey really quick, keep stirring. It might need a little more flour, and you want to stir it just until it comes clean from the pan. You need to stir (knead) for a few minutes at least.
- When you have a giant gooey blob of dough formed, leave it to cool for a while. You can then knead it a little more until it is smooth. Put it on a big cutting board dusted with flour.

You now have the chicken (inside) and dough (outside) of the Coxinha. Time to put it together. Everything is pretty much cooked already, so the next part is fying the coxinha to fuse together and brown, not to cook the insides, so don't overdo it or they will be dry.
- Take a ball of dough and flatten
- put a tablespoon of chicken in the middle, and wrap into a kind of egg shape
- dip in egg
- roll in bread crumbs
- fry in hot oil until brown

Apple Crisp

I have been working on this recipe forever, and it is really fantastic and still easy enough to get done quickly!


Ingredients for the apples:
- about 7-8 Granny Smith apples
- 1/2c white sugar - this is already about half of most recipes, adjust to taste
- 1 tablespoon flour
- 1/2 shot cachaca
- about 1/2 lime for juice
- 1 tablespoon dark brown sugar
- little bit of water

Ingredients for the topping:
- 1c dark brown sugar - the darker the better
- 1/2c butter - cold! Don't let it melt or soften
- 1c oats
- 1c flour
- 1/4 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp baking powder

Procedure:
- peel the apples and cut into pretty thick pieces, then in half
- toss apples with white sugar, then put in baking dish
- mix juice from 1/2 lime, 1/2 shot Cachaca, brown sugar, a little water and 1tblsp flour; drizzle this over the apples
- Put the rest of the ingredients in the food processor; oats, 1/2c cold butter (cut the butter into little slices or cubes to blend easier), 1c flour, 1c dark brown sugar, baking soda & powder
- layer the topping over the apples
- put the whole thing in a 350 degree oven for 40ish minutes

Vatapa

A traditional stew from Brazil. Brazil is a large country, and this recipe arrived in Brazil from Africa. It is common in the Brazilian state of Bahia, all the way in the North. The main African ingredient is Dende, or palm oil, which give this dish a very special and wonderful flavor. If you don't have Dende, which can be hard to find, use olive oil. But you will be missing the main point of the dish.

Ingredients:
- dende oil (palm oil)
- garlic
- an onion
- some green onion
- a few plum tomatoes
- cilantro, lots and lots of cilantro
- lime juice from a few limes
- a couple Chiles, I like Anaheim
- ginger
- chicken thighs, remove the skin
- shrimps, shelled
- toasted cashews
- about 3/4c coconut milk

Procedure:
- chop garlic, and make a paste w/salt
- in a food processor, add chopped onion, green onion, tomatoes, cilantro (leave a few leaves for garnish later), lime juice, chiles, ginger, pepper; process until pretty smooth
- grind half of the cashews, save for later; leave half whole
- heat dende oil in large pan like a dutch oven, dry chicken, season w/salt, and brown in dende oil.
- Pour ground veggies in dutch oven, add coconut milk and ground cashews, and cook for about 3 to 5 minutes until onion soften
- Return chicken to dutch oven, cover, and simmer about 25 minutes
- add shrimp and cook a few minutes until done
- Remove from heat, add whole cashews and cilantro, can drizzle w/dende oil if desired

Crab Cakes

This was an impromptu crab cake recipe that started when I spied a giant can of crab legs at Trader Joe's. It is very easy, and it turned out awesome.

Ingredients:
- canned crab legs
- bread crumbs
- 2 or 3 eggs
- cilantro
- green onion
- cooking oil, like canola
- olive oil
- flour
- a few limes

Cooking:
- Rinse the crab, drizzle with lime or lemon to reduce the fishyness and smell
- Mix the crab legs with egg, bread crumbs, chopped cilantro, chopped green onion, a little olive oil, and season with salt and pepper. We used a few tablespoons of coarsely chopped cilantro and green onion. The trick is to get the right consistency and seasoning. For a large can of crab meat, we used 2 eggs and about 1/4 cup bread crumbs and about a tablespoon of olive oil. The mixture should hold it's shape when formed and be a little sticky.
- Form the crab cakes into shapes and set aside until you prepare the coating. I made cigar-like shapes. Any shape will probably work, but don't make them more than 3/4" thick or the crab won't cook all the way through.
- Mix more bread crumbs with some seasoned flour and spread it out on a flat plate. Only a little tiny bit of flour, like about 1 tablespoon for 1/2 cup of bread crumbs. You will only need enough bread crumbs and flour to coat the crab cakes.
- Beat another egg, dip the crab cakes lightly in the egg and coat with the flour and bread crumbs.
- Fry in shallow, about 1/2", cooking oil turning on each side until brown and a bit crispy. The crab is already cooked, so no need to overdo it. In the time that it takes to brown, the insides get nice and firm and very hot.

Pulled Pork Sandwich

This is a recipe I modified from a Crock Pot cookbook I received for my birthday. My crock pot by the way, was a hand-me-down from my Mom when I went off to college 30 (not kidding!) years ago.

Ingredients:
- Pork shoulder about 3lbs
- Barbeque sauce (I used Sweet Baby Ray's regular sauce)
- Lemon juice, 1 tablespoon
- Onion
- Garlic
- Spices (chili powder, red pepper, etc)
- Hamburger buns
- Avocado
- Cheese

Cooking:
- Put the pork in the crock pot on low, you can season the meat with salt and pepper, and toss some minced garlic on top.
- Cook on low for about 5-6 hours.
- Remove pork and pull apart with a fork. Separate and remove as much fat as you can.
- Put back in crock pot, add about 1/2 bottle barbeque sauce, one diced onion, lemon juice, and some spices of your choice (chili powder, red pepper, etc, just a to taste).
- Cook on high about 1 hour.
- Serve on toasted bun w/avocado and melted cheese.

Notes:
- Try to find the leanest pork shoulder! A fatty piece of meat will be a mess when you pull it apart. You will have to throw away all the fat.
- The whole wheat buns from Whole Foods are excellent for this.
- Goes great with salad, tossed with gorgonzola cheese.

Palourde Mariniere

This is a twist on Moule Mariniere, which is basically just mussels steamed in wine, butter, and herbs. I really like small clams, such as manila clams, so I've taken this recipe and pretty much swapped mussels for clams and softened the flavors a little.

Ingredients:
- Small clams. Manila clams from the local asian stores will do nicely.
- Butter
- Olive Oil
- White cooking wine
- Garlic
- Fresh or dried herbs - oregano, herb de provence, etc
- Fresh Lemon or Lime is optional

Cooking:
- Heat about 2 tablespoons each of butter and olive oil until the butter melts.
- Simmer garlic on low temperature so butter doesn't burn, until garlic is browned slightly
- Turn heat very high, add about 1 cup wine and any herbs. Bring the wine to a boil.
- When wine boils, toss in clams
- We are going to wait until all the clams open. This will take some judgement. Boil for a couple minutes with no lid and this will reduce the wine a bit. Some of the clams may not open, so cover with a lid and boil until they do. Do not boil all the wine down, we want between 1/4 and 1/2 cup wine left for the sauce.
- Clams that refuse to open are evil, and should be discarded.
- That's it! Serve in a nice bowl with bread on the side.

Notes:
- The clams should be small. Asian stores have Manila clams which tend to be very small. I like ones that are a little larger, and there are nice east coast varieties in stores like Whole Foods. The quality of the clams is critical for this dish obviously, don't buy cheap ones.

Home Made Pasta Sauce

The trick in this simple recipe is to use real San Marzano tomotoes. Other than that, it is extremely easy!

Ingredients:
- 2 cans D.O.P. San Marzano tomatoes
- Garlic
- Olive oil

Cooking:
- Dice garlic, and saute garlic in olive oil until brownish. A dutch oven is a great pot to use for this.
- Puree tomatoes in food processor, and add to sauteed garlic. Careful it will splash when it hits the hot oil
- Simmer very low for about 1 hour, stirring very often.
- You will notice the tomatoes are done when there are orange-ish pools on top of the sauce. You can see these in the picture pretty well.
- Will not hurt to cook much longer if you want a thicker sauce.

Notes:

- San Marzano tomatoes come from San Marzano Italy. There are many San Marzano "style" that are quite good, but not exactly the right tomatoes. It's like a cabernet from Napa vs Central Valley. In general the Napa cabernets are better because of the growing conditions and soil. Real San Marzano tomatoes say "D.O.P." on the can, simple as that.

Guacamole and Crab

Ingredients:
- Avocado
- Tomato
- Garlic
- Olive oil
- Lime
- Cilantro
- Tortilla
- Crab meat (dungeness fresh, or canned - try to get w/leg meat)

Cooking Instructions:
- dice avocado
- dice tomato, removing seeds
- mince garlic, mash garlic with some salt
- season all with pepper and olive oil, and coarsely mix guacamole (avocado, tomato, garlic), sprinkle with cilantro, sprinkle with lime
- crab meat should be shredded and tossed on top or side of dish, and sprinkled w/lime

Notes:
- Guacamole can be pulsed in a food processor, but will get smooth and yellow-brown - make sure you want this consistency; coarse mixing with a fork is ok
- Lime will remove the fishy-ness of the crab meat

Maionese

Ingredients:
- White potatoes
- Hard boiled egg
- Yellow onion
- Green onion
- Green olives stuffed with pimento
- Pitted black kalamata olives
- Cherry tomatoes
- Apple
- Mayonnaise
- Lemon

Directions:
- Cut potatoes in half and boil in water with a little salt until tender
- Let potatoes cool, then peel and dice into a large mixing bowl in bite size pieces
- add chopped hard-boiled egg
- Season with salt and pepper
- Dice about 1/4 yellow onion and add to potatoes
- Dice about 1/2 apple
- Dice tops of about half dozen green onions (not bottoms)
- add green and black olives
- Add juice of one lemon
- Add about 1 to 1 1/2 cups Mayonnaise
- Mix all together
- Decorate with cherry tomatoes and olives

Olive Oil & Basalmic Salad Secrets

Ingredients:
- olive oil
- black pepper
- salt
- mixed greens
- basalmic vinegar
- toppings: tomato, cheese, anchovy, proscuitto ham

Procedure:
- first put olive oil in a bowl
- salt & pepper on plate
- added mixed greens and mix
- sprinkle with vinegar to taste and mix again
- add toppings

Cooking Notes:
- the trick is to mix the oil, salt & pepper on the greens first before sprinkling with vinegar

Pasta Putanesca

Ingredients:
- Fresh tomato sauce (see san marzano tomato sauce recipe)
- Kalamata Olives
- Sardines
- Garlic
- Capers
- Olive Oil
- Red pepper
- Herbs - fresh oregano or basil or herb de provence

Procedure:
- heat olive oil, saute garlic a while and add sardines, breaking up sardines into little bits
- when garlic & sardines are toasty, put tomato sauce in
- toss in olives, capers, herbs, and red pepper flakes and simmer about 10 minutes until everything is very fragrant

Tomatilla Salsa

Ingredients:
- Cherry tomatoes
- Vine tomatoes
- Tomatilla (about twice as many tomatoes as tomatilla) (peel husk off of course)
- Garlic (a few cloves)
- 2 to 4 red jalapenos (depends on how hot you want it)
- White vinegar (to taste - start w/about 1 tablespoon)
- Canola oil (to taste - start w/about 1 tablespoon)
- Cilantro (to taste)
- Yellow onion

Directions:
- Sprinkle tomatoes, tomatilla, garlic, and jalapenos (not onion) with salt and oil on baking dish
- Roast veggies (garlic, jalapenos, tomatoes, tomatilla) under broiler, make sure large tomatoes and tomatillas lose some water or the salsa will be too thin
- Veggies can be roasted until they start to blacken and look like a nice color for salsa - not too raw, not too dark
- Cut tops off jalapenos, remove seeds & clean
- Toss veggies in food processor and grind to whatever consistency that looks good
- Add oil, vinegar, salt to taste - ok to pulse this in food processor, don't overdo it though, the oil will emulsify, it's better to stir
- Add coarsely chopped cilantro
- Add diced onion

Cooking Notes:
- Canola tastes better than olive for this salsa
- May have to drain tomatoes after roasting, if there is too much liquid, the salsa will be thin