Recipes

Cooking Demonstration with Maestro Enrique Olvera at Manta Restaurant

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I am so excited to write about my amazing adventure yesterday.  The Cape Hotel and Manta Restaurant are celebrating their one-year anniversary with a culinary weekend that was kicked off with a cooking demonstration at Manta, Chef Enrique Olvera’s restaurant.

Chef Enrique Olvera in front of his restaurant, Manta


Chef Enrique Olvera in front of his restaurant, Manta

I have been following Chef Olvera for many years. At the age of 24, Enrique opened the intimate restaurant, Pujol, in Mexico City which has been described as “the best Mexican food on the planet.  He also owns Eno, a causal eatery in Mexico City, Maiz de Mar in Playa de Carmen and Cosme in New York.  He is the founder of Mesamerica, the annual international food symposium; he publishes Boomerang, a Spanish language culinary magazine and has published the cookbook, Mexico From the Inside Out.  He is also one of the chefs showcased in the second season of the very popular Netflix series:  Chef’s Table.  Now at the age of 40, he has expanded his empire to Los Cabos.

It was co-hosted by Chefs Carlos Salgado and Alex Branch.  Chef Salgado was named a Food and Wine Best New Chef in 2015 and has been named a James Beard Award semifinalist for Best Chef West.  He is the chef/owner Taco Maria in Costa Mesa, California. Chef Branch has cooked and studied in Mexico, Germany and Austria before coming to Manta.

Chef Carlos Salgado

Chef Carlos Salgado

Before the cooking began, the adorable mixologist, Osvaldo Vazquez, started us off with a refreshing drink called Buffalo Green.  Osvaldo begins with making a “shrub” from Champagne vinegar, lime and sugar and then adds fresh cucumber juice, freshly made ginger beer and lime juice to which gin or vodka can be added.  Later he created a drink called Cantina Band with Mezcal, grilled pineapple and ginger beer.

Buffalo Green from Mixologist Osvaldo Vazquez

Buffalo Green from Mixologist Osvaldo Vazquez

For the starter, Chef Salgado prepared delicious Ricotta Squash Fritters with a Green Tomato Jam and Wild Flower Honey with Ground Chile Arbol. This dish had so many unexpected flavors and textures exploding in my mouth – I loved it and it will be part of my cooking repertoire for many years to come.

For the main course, Chef Olvera prepared flounder filets pan cooked in butter, ginger, garlic and herbs served on sweet potato puree surrounded by sweet corn and hominy kernels and presented with lime and a chiffonade of epazote leaves.  It was just divine!

For dessert, Chef Salgado prepared Arroz con Leche (Rice Pudding) with Tea Soaked Prunes – the perfect ending to a perfect lunch.

The best part of the day for me was to get up enough courage to speak to Chef Olvera.  He was lovely, kind and thoughtful.  I also had the opportunity to speak to Chefs Salgado, Branch and the Mixologist, Osvaldo. They were passionate, warm and definitely the new young movers and shakers in the culinary world.

Chef Branch, Mixologist Vazquez, Chef Olvera and Chef Salgado

Chef Branch, Mixologist Vazquez, Chef Olvera and Chef Salgado

I am celebrating my birthday and this was my dream start to what is looking to be a wonderful weekend.

Alex Branch, Sabrina Lopez, Enrique Olvera and Carlos Salgado

Alex Branch, Sabrina Lopez, Enrique Olvera, Akiba and Carlos Salgado

 

Recipe:  Green Tomato Jam

1000 g green tomatoes or tomatillos

20 g olive oil

50 g sugar

20 g Champagne or white wine vinegar

1 cardamom pod whole

1 g coriander seed whole

1 g cumin seed whole

3 g salt

Wash and stem the green tomatoes.  Grate on the large holes of box grater; combine with oil in a wide pot and bring to a gentle simmer stirring regularly. Remove the cardamom seeds from the pods discarding the pods.  Combine the seeds with the cumin and coriander in a spice grinder or mortar and pestle.  Grind to a fine powder, then add to the tomatoes.  Continue cooking slowly until the liquid is reduced and the jam is thickened.  Add the sugar and vinegar and cook for a few minutes to thicken again, stirring constantly so the pulp does not burn or color.  Add the salt before removing from the heat to cool.

There is still time to participate in the finale tonight: 

Saturday, July 2

6-11 p.m. – Five-Course Prix Fixe Menu at Manta

The dynamic chef duo of Salgado and Olvera team up again at Manta for a one-night-only prix fixe menu. As they alternate in preparing courses, each provides insight into their distinctive, yet complementary takes on Mexican cuisine. Vazquez’s beverage pairings include sake, wine and cocktails. Tickets are $100 per person or $120 with beverage pairing.

10 p.m.-2 a.m. – Anniversary Party at The Rooftop

As a grand finale, the anniversary festivities flow to Cabo San Lucas’ only rooftop lounge for bites and specialty cocktails inspired by both The Cape and Taco Maria. Resident DJ Capri and guest DJ Cyril spin tunes to sync with an anniversary fireworks display. This retreat elevates the party mood with its views spanning from downtown to the Sea of Cortez, communal seating area with a fire pit, intimate cabanas and a craft beer garden pouring Baja-sourced brews. Admission to The Rooftop is complimentary, with menu served at a la carte pricing.

Again, individual events are open to hotel guests and the general public. Reservations are available by  emailing :

mantareservations@thompsonhotels.com

or calling 011-52-624-163-0000 (when dialing from the U.S.).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chicken in Milk with Lemon, Cinnamon, Sage and Garlic

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downloadI am a big fan of Jamie Oliver. I started following him when I was living in England in the early 2000’s.  His approach to cooking was so different than any cooking shows out there at the time.  Just the name, The Naked Chef, put a smile on my face and I was curious about who this guy was.  He cooked with abandon, minimum fuss and he made it all look like great fun.  Some of my favorite episodes were when he cooked for his girlfriend’s “hen” party and when he cooked for his mates in the early morning when they came in from the pubs.  He also did a series “Jamie at Home” where he is outside with a wood burning oven and takes advantage of his incredible English garden.

But Jamie also has a very serious side. He was a leader in improving the school lunches in England to healthy and wholesome food – a goal which ultimately led to a broader campaign to improve school lunches called Feed Me Better. He was voted the ‘Most Inspiring Political Figure’ for the ‘Feed Me Better’ campaign that worked toward cutting out junk food in the diets of British schoolchildren. The British Government pledged to spend 280 million on school lunches.

Jamie’s Kitchen’, a documentary series, followed Jamie as he attempts to train a group of fifteen disadvantaged youth. (I use the word “attempts because he was not successful with all the kids, many who were from very troubled backgrounds.)  The students who did complete the course were offered jobs at Oliver’s restaurant ‘Fifteen’.

A few years ago, I came across Jamie’s Chicken in Milk recipe and I was enticed by it because it was so completely unusual.  It called for roasting a chicken in a big pot with a pint of milk, a lot of lemon zest, a cinnamon stick, fresh sage leaves and unpeeled garlic cloves. Milk, cinnamon, and chicken were three things I wouldn’t ever think to combine.  The lemon zest splits the milk and creates a curdled creamy pan sauce that I have heard described as liquid lemon gold.  I’ve made this many times and besides being delicious, it is also fast and easy to prepare.  128_1_1438960145

Recipe:

Ingredients

  • sea salt
  • freshly ground black pepper
  • olive oil
  • ½ stick cinnamon
  • 1 good handful fresh sage , leaves picked
  • 2 lemons , zest of
  • 10 cloves garlic, skin left on
  • 565 ml / 1 pint milk
  • 1/5 kg / 3 lb chicken

Method

Preheat the oven to 190°C/375°F/gas 5, and find a snug-fitting pot for the chicken. Season it generously all over, and fry it in a little olive oil, turning the chicken to get an even colour all over, until golden. Remove from the heat, put the chicken on a plate, and throw away the oil left in the pot. This will leave you with tasty sticky goodness at the bottom of the pan which will give you a lovely caramel flavour later on.

Put your chicken back in the pot with the rest of the ingredients, and cook in the preheated oven for 1½ hours. Baste with the cooking juice when you remember. The lemon zest will sort of split the milk, making a sauce which is absolutely fantastic.

To serve, pull the meat off the bones and divide it onto your plates. Spoon over plenty of juice and the little curds. Serve with wilted spinach or greens and some mashed potato.

Note:

I use skinless chicken and it works well too.

Jamie leaves the lid off the pot when he cooks it.  I like to leave the lid on for part of the cooking and remove for the last half.

If you are confused about the metric system, this should help.

Conversion Tables:
1/5 teaspoon = 1 milliliter
1 teaspoon = 5 ml
1 tablespoon = 15 ml
1 fluid oz. = 30 ml
3.4 fluid oz. = 100 ml
1 cup = 240 ml
34 fluid oz. = 1 liter
4.2 cups = 1 liter
2.1 pints = 1 liter
1.06 quarts = 1 liter
.26 gallon = 1 liter

Weight
.035 ounce = 1 gram
3.5 ounces = 100 grams
1.10 pounds = 500 grams
2.205 pounds = 1 kilogram
35 oz. = 1 kilogram

Christmas Lamb for my Husband

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Slow Roasted Shoulder of Lamb

Slow Roasted Shoulder of Lamb

My husband lived and worked in England for many years where lamb rules for the holidays. He had a craving for a slow roasted shoulder of lamb this Christmas and he knew he had to have mint sauce to go with it.  We have a dear friend who is from England who sourced the lamb for me here in Cabo while I scoured my favorite British recipes.  I felt I couldn’t go wrong using Nigel Slater and Jamie Oliver’s suggestions and the end result had my husband’s glowing approval.

Our plan was to slow roast it in the oven at 320 degrees but when we got up on Christmas morning, we did not have any power.  I had just massaged the herb and garlic rub into the meat and my hands were full of garlic, anchovies and olive oil when I realized that we had no water either.  My husband came to the rescue with a big bowl of water from the pantry that we save in case of hurricanes.  We switched gears from indoor oven to outdoor grill and cranked it up to 500 degrees.  When we put the meat on the grill, we turned down the temperature immediately to 300 and slow roasted it for about 4 hours.  The temperature was slow coming down but the results could not have been better. The aroma that came off the roasting lamb was so tantalizing that I thought my neighbors would be knocking on my door.

Note:  If cooking in the oven, place the lamb in a 500 degree pre-heated oven, turn the heat down immediately to 320.

Ingredients:

2 kg lamb shoulder with bone in – With the tip of a sharp knife, make shallow scores through the outer layer of skin and fat of the lamb shoulder, but not into the meat, cross-hatching the entire surface.

1 whole bulb of garlic – cloves peeled

Fresh rosemary sprigs – I used a large sprig – leaves only

Thyme sprigs – 8-10 – leaves only

8 anchovy filets – you will not be able to taste the anchovies – they melt and give the meat a glorious flavor.  No need for any extra salt.

Olive oil

Pepper

Instructions:

Using a mortar and pestle, crush the peeled garlic cloves with course sea salt until it makes a paste. Chop the rosemary, thyme and the anchovies together and add to the crushed garlic.  (You could use a food processor but there is something wonderful about slowly making the paste with the lovely smells of the garlic and herbs).  Add a few tablespoons of olive oil so that you can easily massage it into the meat.  Get in there with your hands and really massage this paste into the lamb shoulder.

Place the lamb in a roasting pan with high sides, pour water in the bottom of the pan so the pan is covered by 1 to 2 inches using 2 or 3 cups of water.  This makes a wonderful gravy for the Mint Sauce (see below).

Cover tightly with aluminum foil and place in the oven or on the grill and roast for several hours.  It was interesting that neither Nigel or Jamie would give exact roasting times but 4 to 5 hours should be perfect.  Remove from the oven and allow to rest while you make the mint sauce.  Forget about carving this easy slow-cooked roast – pull the fragrant, tender lamb from the bone, rustic style.

Mint Sauce

Ingredients:

1 Tablespoon flour

1 large bunch of fresh mint, leaves picked

2 Tablespoon red wine vinegar

Sauce in the bottom of the roasting pan – pour away most of the fat

Instructions:

Remove the lamb from the roasting pan and let sit while you make the mint sauce.

Remove as much fat as you can from the juices at the bottom of the roasting pan. Place on medium heat on the stove top and add flour. Stir until it sauce begins to thicken, then add the mint and the red wine vinegar – keep stirring until it reaches your desired thickness.  You don’t need tons of this gravy because it so flavorful.  Spoon over the meat, mashed potatoes and steamed greens for the perfect holiday meal.