Food & Drink

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RecipesRecipe Friday: Barrio Queen Tamales

Marilyn HawkesDecember 22, 2016

If you’re thinking about serving tamales at your holiday gathering, there are plenty of places around town you can rustle up a dozen or two, including Barrio Queen. But if you’d like to try making them yourself, Barrio Queen’s executive chef Julio Mata says they aren’t that hard to make. “It’s just a little time consuming,” he says.

Mata shares Barrio Queen’s recipe with a couple of suggestions: 1. Make the sauce first so you can mix it with the chicken after it’s cooked. 2. Make sure the masa is smooth, using an electric mixer or mix by hand. 3. It’s better to have a couple of people to help assemble the tamales because it goes faster. 4. You can use Crisco if you’re lard averse and will get the same results.

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Q&AFlagstaff Food Boom: Paul Moir of Proper Meats + Provisions

Marilyn HawkesDecember 22, 2016

Once known for its lumberjack college kids, good skiing and decent drinkin' scene, Flagstaff is quickly making a name for itself as a foodie town (and we're not just talking about the phenomenal pizza). To explore the burgeoning culinary scene up north, we're running a series of Q&As with the personalities behind the chef hats behind the town's restaurant renaissance we're calling the "Flag Food Boom."

Today we're chatting with:

Paul Moir
Proper Meats + Provisions
110 S. San Francisco St., Flagstaff
928-774-9001, propermeats.com

In 2014, the folks behind Brix and Criollo Latin Kitchen opened Proper Meats + Provisions, a neighborhood butcher shop and deli housed in a downtown Flagstaff historic building. The shop features all local, farm-raised meats, poultry and cured products as well as a deli menu loaded with sandwiches to swoon over, including a house-made pastrami sandwich on grilled rye bread and a fried chicken po’boy. Co-owner Paul Moir recently talked turkey with PHOENIX magazine.

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RecipesRecipe Friday: Chompie’s Chocolate Peppermint Rugelach

Marilyn HawkesDecember 15, 2016

Any time you stop by Chompie’s, you’ll find the bakery case loaded with freshly made cookies, cakes, breads and other jaw dropping pastries. But in December, the local deli chain offers up festive baked goods, including gingerbread and Hanukkah houses and a variety of holiday cookies. You can also special order chocolate peppermint rugelach (a traditional Jewish pastry), made with cream cheese dough scented with peppermint extract and topped with crushed candy canes, according to Chompie’s co-owner Neal Borenstein.

He stocks a variety of rugelach year round, including the popular chocolate and cinnamon walnut varieties. “We make some of the best rugelach in the country,” he says. But if you're itching to try your hand at making some at home, Borenstein has shared Chompie’s recipe below.*

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Dinners & PromotionsPhoenix Restaurants Gift Card Guide: 56 Eateries Offering Bonus Gift Cards for the Holidays

Niki D'AndreaDecember 9, 2016

Here’s a truly palatable promotion: Scores of restaurants across the Valley are offering complimentary bonus gift cards in varying amounts when you purchase gift cards this holiday season. Here’s a host of them, listed alphabetically.

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RecipesRecipe Friday: Sprinkles Brown Sugar Praline Cupcakes

Marilyn HawkesDecember 9, 2016

Cupcake lovers have reason to rejoice: National Cupcake Day is coming up on December 15. If you’re a fan of Sprinkles (and really, who isn’t?), you have even more cause for celebration since the inventors of the cupcake ATM release special festive flavors over the holidays. Think: gingerbread, drinking chocolate and brown sugar praline.

Sprinkles founder Candace Nelson was in Scottsdale recently to promote her new cookbook, “The Sprinkles Baking Book,” and shared the brown sugar praline recipe with PHOENIX Magazine.

Nelson is a fan of this particular cupcake because it has warm notes of brown sugar and molasses and “a wonderful textural element of the crunchy pecans on top.” To achieve a soft cupcake, Nelson offers this tip: Make sure the milk, eggs and butter are at room temperature to ensure even blending. “You don’t want to over mix it because that will make a tough cupcake,” she says.

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RecipesRecipe Friday: Pumpkin Spiced-Up Latte from Teaspressa

Marilyn HawkesDecember 1, 2016

If you’re looking for a booze-infused pumpkin spice latte to spice up your holiday season, pick up some Arizona Distilling Co. Copper City Bourbon and Teaspressa tea to make the recipe below. Teaspressa founder Allison Devane answers a couple of questions about the benefits of tea and guides us through the tea making process.*