Oh, Sprinkles red velvet cupcakes, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways: Regular, sugar-free and gluten-free. Yes, our celiac-brethren can now enjoy these moist sweet bombs, or even make them at home.
By the time August rolls around, Phoenicians have had it with brutal hot days. But August also brings a different kind of heat – Hatch chile season, that two- to three-month window when the flavorful, tear-inducing peppers from New Mexico are harvested and plentiful. Z’Tejas Southwestern Kitchen recently rolled out its annual Hatch chile menu that boasts everything from chile and watermelon gazpacho to pecan pie with green chile ice cream. Also on the menu – poached cod with Hatch chile sauce.
The Hatch chile menu will run through Oct. 31, according to Z’ Tejas Market Chef Dan Santos, but if you’d like to try making the cod at home, he has shared the recipe with PHOENIX magazine. When shopping for the fish, Santos advises buying pieces that are no thicker than two inches: “Any more than that, the bottom of the fish is going to burn and the top isn’t going to cook all the way through.”
RecipesRecipe Friday: CM2 Rustic Pizza
Marilyn HawkesJuly 28, 2017
Two years ago, Nantas Sodano quit his day job and joined the family restaurant business. He opened CM2 Pizzeria & Bake Shop right next door to Casa Mia, his family’s eatery in North Scottsdale.
To make a good pizza crust, Sodano says you must give the dough time for the gluten to develop, but don’t over handle. “Allow the dough to rise and rest,” he says.
If you’ve ever tried to make ice cream at home, you know it’s pretty easy – just combine the ingredients in an electric ice cream maker, churn and freeze. The same simple directions also apply to making frozen yogurt, says Kody Harris, chef/owner of Fresko Mediterranean Kitchen.
Keeping with Fresko’s Mediterranean theme, Harris whips up a batch of tahini frozen yogurt that her guests are wild about. “Even though tahini is a savory ingredient, once it’s added to the yogurt with a little bit of sugar, it’s got kind of a peanut butter flavor,” she says.
If you missed National Fried Chicken Day (July 6) and didn’t get a chance to feast on fabulous fowl, don’t fret: Lo-Lo’s Chicken & Waffles is celebrating all month by offering a free side dish for the table with the purchase of any “Hood Classics” meal.
But if you’d rather try making your own, Larry White, the Valley's king of fried chicken and founder of Lo-Lo’s Chicken & Waffles, has rustled up a variation of his secret fried chicken recipe.
If you’re looking for a quick summer dish to serve at your next barbecue, chef Michael Goldsmith of Joe’s Midnight Run shares a flavorful chicken recipe that he also makes at the funky restaurant housed in an old liquor drive-thru on 7th Street. The secret to the dish is the Ras el Hanout, a Moroccan spice mixture of cinnamon, clove, coriander and a few other ingredients, which Goldsmith says you can pick up at Mediterranean markets across the Valley. (Or, here's a recipe on Epicurious.) “I like to try to get out of the box a little bit and incorporate flavors from around the world and keep them as traditional as possible,” Goldsmith says. The recipe also includes a couscous salad and a tangy yogurt dip and can be served as an appetizer or entrée.
Whether you’re having friends over for the long holiday weekend or taking food to a gathering, you probably want to find a recipe that’s quick, easy and doesn’t heat up the kitchen. Chef Danny Valdez of Luci’s Healthy Marketplace has the perfect solution for you – lahvosh.
RecipesRecipe Friday: EVO Pork Milanese
Marilyn HawkesJune 23, 2017
When the temperature rises, most chefs in the Valley will sprinkle their menus with summer-friendly dishes to help us ease our way into blistering days and sweltering nights. At EVO, Executive Chef Steven Fowler has swapped out a hearty porchetta dish for a lighter pork Milanese.
This recipe calls for a bone-in pork porterhouse (available at AJ’s or a specialty butcher), but you can also use pork chops or pork loin, Fowler says. And if you don’t have a deep fryer, you can pound out the pork and fry on the stove top in 3-4 tablespoons of canola oil. “It’s quick and easy,” Fowler says. “You can have this completed in less than 15 minutes.”
For the past few years, The James Beard Foundation has sponsored a contest called The Blended Burger Project to entice chefs into making hamburgers by blending ground meat with chopped mushrooms. The result: burgers that are not only delicious, but also healthier and more sustainable for the planet.
When the mercury rises, many Valley restaurants bust out lighter menus to entice customers to brave the heat and dine out. At Grimaldi’s Pizzeria, they’ve introduced a strawberry spinach salad that goes well with pizza, says Grimaldi’s Corporate Chef Cory Lattuca. The vinaigrette is made with real strawberries rather than an extract or syrup, which “gives the dressing a nice color and some structure,” he says. “It’s a great summer salad.”
According to chef Aaron May of Over Easy, too many items on Arizona’s breakfast menus are inundated with Southwestern flavors. “Everything is jalapeños and ranchero,” he says. “You make it spicy. You make it cheesy and then you put it under the broiler and melt the cheese and everybody loves it... It’s a cheap thrill.”
For those of you who love polenta (and there are haters), Phoenix-based home cook and recipe developer Joanie Simon has devised a creative recipe for rustic polenta pizza.
When Executive Chef Chuck Wiley designed the breakfast menu for Hearth ’61 at the sparkly-new Mountain Shadows Resort in Paradise Valley, he looked for some healthy options. "Breakfast is usually so unhealthy and I wanted to put a different spin on it," he says. An unabashed grain lover, Wiley decided on a multigrain pancake. “I like food with texture.”
If your mom's Mother's Day wishlist falls somewhere in between handmade macaroni necklace and expensive handbag, consider baking her something sweet and pretty – handmade but still photoworthy = nailed it.
Country Velador, owner of Super Chunk Sweets & Treats in Old Town Scottsdale, has an easy yet elegant recipe for meringue teardrops that, when paired with a sentimental card, will bring a tear to Mom's eye, no prob.
RecipesRecipe Friday: Geordie’s Spam Cubano
Marilyn HawkesApril 28, 2017
When your last name is Hormel, the Spam jokes must get a little tiring. But when Jamie Hormel, owner of the Wrigley Mansion and widow of meatpacking heir Geordie Hormel, sat in on a recent menu planning session with Geordie's Steak executive chef Jason Diaz, she joked that he should make a dish using the tinned meat. “I took her seriously and went back to the kitchen and started messing around with Spam,” Diaz says.