Kitchen Ranch

Gallo Pinto

Gallo Pinto . . . It is a traditional Costa Rican dish sometimes called pinto.  These days, we eat a lot of gallo pinto.  

We eat gallo pinto for breakfast with a fried egg.  We eat gallo pinto in an empanada.  We eat gallo pinto as a side dish to almost anything (I love it with a big glass of gazpacho).  We eat gallo pinto in burritos and tacos. My favorite way to eat gallo pinto is topped with jalapenos and avocado slices.

I find myself making a huge pot of gallo pinto twice a week and suddenly I don't know how I survived all these years without a big pot of gallo pinto either on the stove or in the fridge.

Gallo Pinto

Make your rice as you do and prep your black beans.  Set aside.

In a large pan, sautee onions and garlic.  I add cumin to my gallo pinto but do as you like.  Chop red and / or green bell peppers.  Add to onion and garlic mix.

Combine all rice, black beans and veg mix.  There you have it.  Feel free to embellish your gallo pinto with whatever spices and toppings you adore.

Pura Vida!

Chocolate Chip Cookies (not a recipe)

I want to note what I cannot find here in Nosara.  Parchment paper, a cookie sheet and chocolate chips.  

Chocolate chips can be found at Pricesmart, which is like a Cost Co,  in San Jose.  San Jose is a four hour drive (not worth it for chocolate chips).  Having made chocolate chip cookies with chopped chocolate, I don't know if I'll ever miss chcolate chips again.  The chunks are well worth the wrist work out.  

I never found a cookie sheet but I did find a silicone mat which disregards a need for parchment paper.  The mat works fine as you can see below.

This guy.

The chunks are more tempting, no?

Lunch

Quesadillas with sides and snacks; a real go-to these days for lunch. Homemade tortilla recipe.  RIP my oven...I am awaiting a replacement. 

Have a great weekend. 

Pasta Fagioli

My version of Pasta Fagioli did not turn out as soupy as this one -but it was super yummy.

Strawberry Cream Biscuits

Deb really, you kick *ss. As soon as I return to the states I plan to purchase a copy of The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook for myself and all my girlfriends. 

Strawberry Cream Biscuits.....an easy recipe that will fast become a favorite I promise.

No Bake Chocolate Granola Bar

These lasted only a minute in our house..... not the healthy kind of granola bar but definitely the not healthy I want another granola bar....now.

• 2 C Chocolate Chips
• 1 1/2 C Rice Krispy Cereal
• 1 1/2 Rolled Oats
• 1/2 C Coconut
• 1/3 C Sunflower Seeds
• 1/2 C Honey
• 1/3 C Creamy Peanut Butter 
• 1/4 C Butter

1. Spay 9 x 13 Pan with cooking spray.
2. In a large bowl combine: Chocolate Chips, Oats, Cereal, Coconut, Sunflower seeds.
3. In a saucepan, heat honey and butter. Once bubbly, remove from heat and add peanut butter. Stir.
4. Pour hot mix over dry goods and sir. Press into 9 x 13 pan (use some wax paper over your fingers to avoid sticky mess). 
5. Refrigerate and cool for 1 hour. Stores covered for up to a week (they won't last that long).

 

Carrot and Zucchini Tart

A recent cookbook release sent me straight to my Amazon account... La Tartine Gourmande. As with her blog, the cookbook is filled with stunning pictures and vignettes as well as delicious recipes. Most of the recipes are gluten free and incorporate a mess of interesting flours: Quinoa flour, spelt flour, millet flour etc. I usually keep brown rice flour and garbonzo bean flour on hand but the other flours require me to take a trip to Wholefoods (or as we call it: Whole-paycheck). 

Whether I was just acting impatient or enthusiastic I am not sure-but I decided to simply modify one of the recipes and make the tart crust with only brown rice flour. I assured myself that I would soon make the crust as instructed once I had purchased all flours for the recipe.

I used my favorite crust/tart recipe which calls for mixing 1 stick of butter and 1 Cup of (now) brown rice flour. Once the butter and flour resembles a course meal, add 3 tablespoons of buttermilk or half and half....knead into a dough, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour minimum.

In addition to revising the crust recipe, I adjusted the filling to accommodate what I had in my kitchen.

Egg Batter

• 3 Eggs
• 2 tablespoons Chopped Cilantro
• 5 Tablespoons Creme Fraiche
• Salt and Pepper

Mix egg batter and set aside

• 2 Thyme Twigs
• Salt and Pepper
• 2 Cups Grated Carrots
• 1 Grated Zucchini
• Goat Cheese (as much as you like)

In a pan, heat olive oil and add thyme. Add carrots, zucchini, salt and pepper. Cook for 5 minutes.

Roll out the crust into a 10 in pie pan/tart pan. Note: The brown rice flour makes for crumbly roll out, I actually pressed and flattened the dough into the pan and it turned out fine. 

Mix with egg batter then pour into crust. Top with goat cheese (be as sparse or generous as you like).

Bake at 400 F for 30 minutes. My pie dish was glass so I could peek and see if the crust was nicely browned (which it was).

The brown rice flour crust was delicious and the filling divine-anything with that much butter and creme fraiche has no choice but to be good.

Grandpa Salad

This (pictured) is what we call 'Grandpa salad' around here. Grandpa salad is packed with onions, peppers, tomatoes and basil. It is a fresh summer salad that is served up often here and has a history. The story about grandpa salad is told to the kids by the grown ups again and again around the dinner table -year after year. 

Note: (Micheal is my kid's non-biological grandpa) It goes a little something like this:

Micheal's grandpa was from Italy and sported a very very thick Italian accent. He loved to garden and grew the ingredients to 'Grandpa Salad' every year in his garden. 

One day, Micheal (when he was about 17) took his friends round to grandpa's house for salad. Micheal and his friends sat around the table and began to eat the salad all the while breaking off chunks of the crusty bread and dipping it in olive oil.

Grandpa motioned for Micheal to meet him in the kitchen. In the kitchen, Grandpa had a perplexed look on his face and said, "Why your friend, the egg man, no eat his tomatoes?" (Micheal's grandpa could never remember anyone's name but always their job title-in this case, the egg delivery boy)

Micheal replied, "I don't know grandpa, maybe he does not like tomatoes."

Grandpa put his head in his hand, shook his head and his expression grew even more distressed. "Oh no, no..... no. Micheal, donta ever trusta nobahdi no like the tomato."

Good advice. Can you imagine us laughing round the table and raising our wine glasses to Grandpa?

I love how the kids say often, "Grandpa, Grandpa! Tell the story about about your Grandpa and the tomatoes."

Leek Pie

This recipe is from HomeMade... see to the left. It is my newest Cook book and it is great...

• Arrange your thawed puff pastry in a stack and cut out the middle... Preheat oven to 350 degrees Farenh
• Sautee leeks (cut green stems off) in white wine, thyme, butter pat and salt and pepper for 20 minutes
• Pat leeks dry and place in center of puff pastry and top with goat cheese
• Egg wash puff with a beaten egg white

 

Fried Zucchini

Zucchini strips, egg batter, Panko bread crumbs with parmesan and a salt pinch, fry, eat.

That easy and that good.

Dip in marinara.... ranch dressing.... or eat stand alone.