Danish Sandwiches

Here's a sample of my latest fixation...Danish Sandwiches.

I reckon they're a great choice for any coctail party or luncheon too.

Vegetarian appies at Green Cabo...and eco/green festival in Cabo San Lucas

That was a quite interesting setting for an  organic and green living festival:  an unfinished parking garage in a convention center inside a quite polluted (and polluting...) marina, next to a dolphin "concentration camp". 
But, hey! who am I to judge? Better stop before I bruise some overinflated ego.
Happily decided to be present with a little stand ...the only caveat was : only vegetarian food. Quite a surprise and a challenge for yours truly who "likes his vegetables with the peel on and his animals whole" LOL.

This is what we agreed on : 

* Roasted garlic, toasted almonds,honey,cranberries, chickpeas pate'/marinated cherry tomato/ multi grain sourdough

*Seared farmers' queso fresco/mango chutney/baked plantain

*Smokey eggplant caviar/dill + garlic yogurt/capsicum + fennel coulis/sprouted seeds + coconut+corn blini 

 presented as a trio of amuse gueules an a cute leaf shape white plate.

Here's a few pics that my new friend Alejandra, a very talented Argentinian artist from La Paz   (http://www.alejandramorante.com ), took for me, since there were no pics whatsoever taken by the event staff and/or organizers.

Overall, despite the poor organization, planning and advertising of the event , it did not go bad...not stellar, but not bad either.

I met some interesting people, 
some definitively peculiar persons and made a few new friends.

Since the whole vegetarian theme was quite of an unsuspected challenge I did not follow any recipe and went instead by pure inspiration, instinct and taste and I haven't organized my cooking and tasting notes yet.

I will post recipes of the dishes as soon as possible.

For now, 

Ciao from Los Cabos,

Emilio  : )

Porchetta! [porˈketta]

What represents a summer county party better than a shiny, juicy and fragrant porchetta being sliced hot from the oven or spit in a small Italian village square?

How can you resist that smile....

Here's Wikipedia's description :

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porchetta

and here's mine:

First, you need the perfect pig.... I personally like 30 to 40 pounds animal, because it's a lot of work to completely de bone it, as you can see in the
videos that follow.




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https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10151027331316123


Then you need to get ALL the scrap meat, the legs meat, the liver, handfuls of garlic, fennel seeds, salt and pepper and BUSHES, forests of rosemary and stuff the baby, tie it up and rub it with more herbs and olive oil...with care and tender love.
All this hard work will pay you back four hours later, when straight out of the oven you'll have earned the rights to the little caramelized nuggets of meat sticking out of the roast... heaven!




No need to get fancy here, that would be against the peasant nature of this venerable preparation...some good crusty bread or piadina ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piadina ) and some rustic red wine..easy, that's all you need for a great time with your friends and family and the rest of town on a summer Sunday....


A little side note:  this is a great opportunity to take a look at how organs, like lungs, work....

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10151027373471123

Have fun!
Emilio

So, what happened? Where did Emilio go? Is he still alive and well in the Baja desert?
The answer is YES, still here, still longing my green woods and the Pacific rain forest.  : )
Of all the summers and the low seasons, this past one has been the slowest.
Basically business has been flat lining for the past few months and gave me a great opportunity to work on new projects, ideas, recipes for the oncoming season and...lots of fishing and archery training.
I also discovered and picked up a new obsession, the atlatl.
I will start posting regularly again next week and I'll try and get some half decent pics of my archery and atlatl passion.
For the moment it's everything kids!
Ciao,
Emilio

Fugu filet

Here's a second clip courtesy of my buddy Joe (  http://socalsalty.wordpress.com ). We where fishing...nice way to say walking,casting and getting skunked again... la Bocana in San Jose' del Cabo when we saw these local guys fishing a few puffer fish.
Once approached we started talking about recipes and the peculiar way locals have  to harvest the filet.
This makes it totally safe. here it is, caught on video for you.
A note: puffer fish is very good eating..forget sushi and urban legends; think monkfish instead!
Ah! Another thing...here too, like elsewhere in the world, if some food is remotely "weird" it's good for your...ehm...#privates  ; )
Enjoy the clip:

Surf fishing Cabo with @SoCalSalty & @CaboSurfCaster

Here's the proof that social medias are more than just a way to exchange gossip and bits of news and frivolous information.
Over the past few months I've been active on Twitter I' ve got to know a lot of interesting people involved in cooking and fishing.
In a few cases these "virtual friendships" blossomed into actual ones .
@SoCalSalty and i started planning this surf fishing outing a couple months ago and even though we thought of a lots of things, we did not take into consideration this ginormous new moon that, sure as hell, messed fishing up in a major way.
The following link is to the first installment of a series of short videos that Joe ( @SoCalSalty ) shot during these last few days, on the quest for nasty, angry and toothy CUBERA snappers, jack crevalle and the ghost of the surf itself...the mighty roosterfish!
Guiding us was Cabo born Wesley Brough ( @CaboSurfCaster ) who was featured in Dave Maynard's award winning "Fishing the Baja" network show
Here's the first clip:

http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Ft.co%2FVBmSIbs0&h=uAQELOW9_AQHnbWeLUfi2ceTqDjxUDrJVKOTjthX93406lg

Enjoy the adventures and disadventures of these jollly anglers and stick around for more.

Giulio's First 6 Strands Challah! HAHAHA!

Giulio takes one for the team.... Thanks pal         ; )

I'm back!

Hi guys...nice to be back!
Not that I ever left but I've been hiperbusy catering to a big family of 12 in a rental villa and, at the same time, doing private dinners for a few friends.
Not much to say but "Thank you" for the abundance...the dulldrums of summer are just ahead on the horizon so now it's time to go "balls to the wall" and take anything that comes our way.

Giulio and I came up with some interesting menus...even put a few neat twists on classics that our clien wanted during the stay.

Remember spending a whole afternoon coming up with countless ideas for a Caesar Salad..duh!

Here are some  pics of the ones I think are the most interesting dishes we served to Matt and his family at Fundadores in P.to Los Cabos:

 MONDAY:

Baked Portobello, truffled goat's cheese, roasted tomatoes and squash blossom stack

In the works...on the way out

Parrotfish....fresh enough?



Pan roasted parrotfish ( smells like lobster! ) with roasted garlic and garlic chips, herbed tomato coulis, "erotic" potatoes

Pappardelle with Piemontese ragu' >>> lots of porcini mushrooms, red wine ,sausage, chicken liver and  BEEF!

On Tuesday we cooked for our friend Adrienne's family at the El Zalate condos in SanJose'. You´ll find that dinner "report" and more on www.iCookCabo.blogspot.com

Back to Matt's on Wed for Pasta Night... we made a lasagna with the leftover ragu

                                                                      
 a "fancy" porky Mac'n'cheese with lots of smoked pork chops, bacon and really SHARP Cheddar and Parmigiano in it...we spread it out thin in order to make nice and crunchy and, while it was intended for the kids, the adults couldn't wait for it to cool down and be served...picture a locust invasion! HAHA!

Also freshly made spaghettini with #vongole

and the star of the evening: duck ravioli, with Port reduction, blackberries and Parmigiano

Now..the day came with a little issue...for me at leas...
as you know I am a strong supporter of catch and release, specially for sportfish and specially for billfish. The clients went fishing that day and caught a pretty decent marlin and brought it home in order have it packed and shipped back to N.Y.
Also they'd liked some for dinnner.
In order to apologize for the killing of such a noble animal, this dish had to be perfect...good wouldn't have been enough so here's what we did :

First we encrusted it in pistacchios and lightly seared it

Then we sliced it and served with a spiced up leftover Caesar dressing from the night before.
It made for very interesting contrast of textures and acidic, fatty,sweet and nutty notes

Thursday was back at El Zalate condos in SanJose for another iCook dinner.

Friday baaaaack to Fundadores for a paella evening..not ANY paella though...Lobster and Soft Shell Crabs Paella ! lights of FusionConfusion tapas like duck taquitosour tamarind sauce, shrimp&pork pot stickers with a ginger&balsa; meatball sliders with melted Provolone.
Here's a few pictures os the Paella De Luxe:

Ready for the oven

Saturday was the last night and Matt wanted something "important" to crown the week...so we went off to get some real good local lamb chops that we've encrusted in mustard, Mexiterranean herbs, sunflower seeds and pepitas and we roasted root vegetables ( the cutest baby beets in any color God makes them, radishes, multicolored carrots and potatoes

And, finally, the last push...Dessert. A combination of "Clean the fridge" crumble, Cointreau semifreddo, raspberry, red wine and rosemary compote and Warm Moltent Chocolate Cake

As they say..that's it folks  ; )  as always feel free to send me a line if you'reinterested in any of the recipes and I'll send it over to you and/or I'll post it here.

Ciao, for now,

Emilio