Fourth of July Grilling II

I hope your 4th of July weekend is going great. I myself have 1 BBQ under my belt and a couple of more to come. My first turn at bat was taken with Spare Ribs. Here are some tips for great ribs:

1. Marinade the meat or rub in the seasonings at least 1 hr before cooking more is better but if it’s done too long, unless it’s a tough cut, you could overpower the meat. One to 3 hours is good enough.

2. Grill bone side down until the bones start to separate from the meat without turning.

3. Brush BBQ sauce or any sauce that has sugar only at the tail end of cooking.

4. Allow the ribs to sit for 10 minutes before eating or cutting this helps the meat stay juicy.

5. Use tongs to handle the meat forks will pierce the meat and allow the juices to escape. This reduces the flavor and moisture of the meat.

You can try this tips this weekend or the next time you grill ribs and you will see and taste the difference.

Fourth of July Grilling

The Fourth of July is a quintescential BBQ date across the US. Here are three quick tips to make sure your BBQ experience is safe and fun.

Make sure you:

1. Defrost meat before cooking so you get even cooking and do it in the fridge.

2. Marinate food in the refrigerator and don’t reuse the marinade unless you boil it first

3. Do not serve cooked meat in the same plate you had the raw meat (unless you clean it before re-using it)

Put some Ribeyes on the grill this weekend and enjoy the festivities.

Risotto Recipes

There are many risotto recipes. When prepared right this is a truly magnificent dish. A little patience and practice you to can cook a great risotto. Here is a great Risotto recipe with some options that can add great taste:

1 medium chopped onion

½ stick of butter, divided in 2

Large pinch of Saffron threads

1 ½ cup Arborio rice

1/2 cup dry white wine

4 to 6 cups of chicken broth

1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Salt and ground black pepper, to taste

¼ cup of prosciutto or (diced) bone marrow (optional)

Put the stock in a medium saucepan and heat at medium low temperature, add the saffron.
In a large skillet over medium heat Cook onion and prosciutto or bone marrow, if you have it, until soft in 2 tablespoons butter. Add rice and stir 2 to 3 minutes until completely covered in the butter.

Add wine; stir until absorbed. Keep the heat from medium to medium high; stir in ½ cup of broth. Cook, uncovered, stirring frequently, until broth is absorbed. The mixture should not be dry or runny.

Continue stirring and adding remaining broth ½ a cup or so at a time, allowing the broth to be almost completely absorbed before adding more, until rice is tender and mixture has a creamy consistency. It will take between 20 and 30 minutes.

Stir in cheese, salt, pepper, cream and remaining butter. Stir until mixture is creamy, about 2 minutes. Taste and adjust the seasoning and serve immediately.

I hope you enjoy this great risotto recipe. A dish that will certainly please the whole family.

My Recipe Manager

There’s a great tool for the kitchen that can improve your cooking, shopping, organization and overall enjoyment of cooking. It’s the recipe manager. I personally use Master Cook Deluxe version 7 but it’s up to version 9. You can easily keep all your recipes together and organized with a good recipe manager. The recipe manager provides a wealth of cooking tips and techniques, helps in menu planning and even prints a shopping list for individual recipes or even menus. This planning tool can really help make cooking easier and more fun. Look around and see which one you prefer and invest in one you like. I myself am ready to upgrade and will evaluate version 9 of Master Cook but I will also look at other recipe managers before making my decision. Stay tuned to hear my results.

My Three Favorite Cookbooks

I want to share with you my favorite three Cookbooks. They are a treasure of cooking information. They are:

Puerto Rican Cookery (Cocina Criolla) by Carmen Aboy Valldejuli
Jacques Pepin Fast Food My Way by Jacques Pepin
365: No Repeats, A Year of Deliciously Different Dinners by Rachel Ray

The first available in English and Spanish is the premiere cookbook of Puerto Rican cuisine. The second is one of many books from a great teacher of cooking and in my opinion the best at teaching cooking technique Jacques Pepin. You can’t go wrong with any of Jacques’ books. The last one by Rachel Ray is a great resource for great, quick recipes that build on each other giving you great flexibility in the kitchen.
These are some of my favorite books. They have great recipes, techniques and cooking tips that will help you enjoy cooking and dinner with your family for years to come.

Tembleque de Coco

I want to share with you a classic Puerto Rican desert recipe. This one is a treat, it is light coconut custard that shakes like Jell-O. That is why it’s called tembleque, which can be loosely translated as jiggling. Here is the recipe:

2 cups of coconut milk
½ cup of cornstarch
¾ cups of sugar
½ teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon vanilla flavoring
Ground cinnamon (optional)

In a saucepan, at medium hi, heat the coconut milk, the sugar and the salt. Dilute the cornstarch with some of the coconut milk and add to the saucepan. Stir continuously until it boils then simmer until it thickens. Pour mixture into a mold or single serving cups whatever you prefer. Let it cool to room temperature before refrigerating for at least 2 hours. Sprinkle cinnamon over it before serving.

Tembleque is a classic Puerto Rican desert recipe that’s both easy to make and great tasting. For all you desert lovers be on the lookout for another great recipe I will give you very soon. Until then, keep making your great cooking easy.

Asopao de Pollo

This soupy rice and chicken stew is a classic Puerto Rican recipe that is prepared in every Puerto Rican home. Make sure to make plenty as this soup keeps getting better with every serving. Although it takes 1½ hours to prepare, serves 4, and it will be even better the next day at lunch or dinner. Prepare plenty Sunday night and enjoy a bowl on Monday for a quick dinner.

3 garlic cloves, minced
2 teaspoons dried oregano
1 teaspoon salt, add more to taste
1 teaspoon black pepper, add more to taste
3 pounds chicken parts trimmed (1 4 pound chicken cut into pieces is the classic recipe)
3 tablespoons oil
¼ pound ham, diced (thick slice preferably with bone)
1 onion chopped
1 green bell pepper chopped
3 tomatoes chopped
2 tablespoons of capers
¼ cup green olives stuffed with peppers
1 cup long-grain rice
5 cups chicken stock
¼ cup roasted red peppers for garnish

1. Combine the garlic, oregano, salt and pepper and season the chicken with it.

2. In a casserole, with a lid, place oil at medium high heat until hot. Add the chicken and brown it (15 min). Remove chicken and add ham, onion, bell peppers and tomatoes, until the onion softens. Place chicken back in and cook for 30 minutes over medium low heat.

3. Stir in rice, olives and capers then add the chicken stock and cover. Simmer over low heat until the rice is soft or approximately 15 minutes.

4. Reseason with salt and pepper to taste and garnish with roasted red peppers.

You will enjoy this is a Puerto Rican recipe with your family for a long time. This recipe has variations with crab meat, shrimp, lobster or pigeon peas. They are all great hearty soups.

Puerto Rican Food Recipes

I want to talk to you about Puerto Rican Food Recipes. A subject near and dear to my heart. Growing up my mom and my grandmother provided us with the daily food my family ate. Sometimes when you are accustomed to something you take it for granted. However, the first time I spent an extended time away from Puerto Rico I realized my home cooking was special.

If you are in a Puerto Rican restaurant or visiting Puerto Rico be sure to try some of these dishes:

1. Asopao de Pollo – A hearty chicken soup with rice. There are other variations like the one with shrimp or pigeon peas but for my money, the chicken is the one.
2. Mofongo relleno de camarones – This is a Meshed plantain dish that is usually a side dish but if you find the one stuffed with shrimp or seafood count yourself a lucky person.
3. Arroz con Pollo – Rice and chicken a Puerto Rican food recipe classic.
4. Carne Frita – Fried pork chunks. If you find a place that also adds some wilted onion on top this is a great find.
5. Chicharrones de Pollo – Deep fried chicken chunks, a tasty treat that can be eaten on its own as an appetizer or with rice and beans as a meal.
6. Pescado entero al Mojo Isleño – Whole fish with a tomato onion sauce. If you are in a coastal town in Puerto Rico and they have this on the menu you will be very happy you know about this great dish.
7. Tembleque – This is a treat it is like a light coconut custard that shakes like Jell-O. Hence the name tembleque, which can be loosely translated as jiggling.
8. Arroz con Dulce – Candied rice, another treat very common around Christmas but sometimes available the rest f the year.

So the next time you are in a Puerto Rican restaurant or home and you have the chance to taste any of these great Puerto Rican food recipes count yourself lucky and enjoy the meal.

Having Fun Cooking

What’s the secret to having fun cooking? Is there a magic bullet that solves all the problems in the kitchen? Maybe, Maybe not. However, two undisputable elements of fun cooking are speed and quality. In other words, making fast cooking great, makes cooking fun! Having fun cooking is the key to being able to cook dinner every day for your family even after a long day at work. That fun feeling will get you the accolades for a great dinner, which will in turn make cooking even more fun.

So how do we make fast cooking great? You start by breaking down the elements of cooking. We can do this by looking at cooking as a three-part process:

1. Preparation
2. Execution
3. Serving/Cleaning

Typically, the focus is on the execution. Do you have a great recipe? How much time do I cook the meat for? However all great chef’s know that it’s the preparation that is the key to making fast cooking great. In addition, planning for the serving/cleaning helps the experience remain fun after everyone is fed. Before you begin to cook for your family, make sure you plan your menus before going to buy groceries. After you have a plan, think about what ingredients have the quality and convenience that will help you in the process of making fast cooking great. Thinking about this in the preparation process will help you whip out great food fast.

In future entries we will focus on some of the things you need to keep in mind to make sure you get the quality and convenience in your ingredients that will really make a difference for you in the kitchen. Until then have fun making fast cooking great.

Freezing and Thawing Meat

Why would we care about thawing and freezing meat? Have you ever wondered why your frozen cuts do not turn out as juicy as you would expect? You would expect cooking and baking tips. Would it surprise you to know the answer could be your freezing and thawing practices.


The right storage temperatures help extend shelf life and control the growth of pathogens in the meat. Also proper freezing and thawing helps protect moisture and protein loss, which can occur by evaporation or dripping. Now cooking and baking tips help but we also want to make sure we preserve the most proteins and juices for a tastier and juicier cut of meat.

Here are seven tips we can do it:

1. Thaw meats in the refrigerator a day or so before use – this helps ensure safety and preserve proteins.

2. Put foods to be frozen in the freezer as fast as you can and in the coldest part of the fridge – the faster meat freezes the better quality it will retain, faster is better.

3. Buy separate refrigerator and freezer thermometers. Keep the fridge between 34 °F and 40 °F and the freezer below 0 °F.

4. Keep the freezer as full as you can and label date frozen foods – this helps keep the temperature

5. Never refreeze meats specially seafood – Texture and taste will be affected and if completely thawed food safety might be a problem.

6. Use packaging materials made for freezing – Freezer bags/wraps help protect food and avoid freezer burn.

7. If you must freeze, buy commercially frozen products – These will generally retain their eating and nutritional qualities better than home frozen products. Your fridge will not freeze food as fast as commercial freezing processes do and they will typically freeze these when they are fresher. This translates to better taste and nutrition than you can attain at home.

These are some tips to help you retain the quality of your frozen meats that help you prepare that great dinner your family expects and deserves. A well preserved cut of meat will help those great cooking and baking tips go a long way. I hope these tips help you keep the accolades rolling in!

Chicken Caesar Salad Recipe

I was always frustrated at how I would have to go off route from my 2-hour commute to go buy fast food. My wife is a very difficult eater to please. During the week, my mother in law cooked dinner. My wife never seemed to be satisfied with what she cooked. Every week at least 2 or 3 times she would call me on the way from work so I would by her a grilled chicken Caesar Salad from, of all places, a fast food place. One day I just broke down and tried the sucker. To my surprise, it was good but it definitely would not blow anyone away.

The next time she called, I went to the local supermarket picked up some frozen chicken breasts, Romaine lettuce, a wedge of parmesan cheese, croutons and Briannas Home Style Asiago Caesar dressing. I came home threw the chicken breast in boiling water with some salt and once it was thawed I seared it in a grill pan. I rinsed the lettuce and cut it to the same width as the fast food place. I then tossed the lettuce with the dressing, that’s made with shredded Asiago cheese being careful not to use too much just covering the lettuce. After adding a handful of croutons and shredding some parmesan cheese on top, I had a Chicken Caesar Salad. This all took no more than 20 minutes. After that, I always kept some shredded romaine in water in the fridge and in 15 minutes, I would have the salad done.

This Chicken Caesar Salad recipe also gives you a great starter salad, minus the grilled chicken, you can have done in 5 minutes. My wife is still amazed you can do Chicken Caesar Salad at home so fast. I have a great way to say thanks at home in less than 15 minutes. This simple dish started my search for quick dishes I could prepare after a day’s work.