Cooking and Baking with Rick Bayless

¡Hola mis compadres cocineros!

Although the blog has been silent, I have been doing a lot of cooking and baking. Mostly with Rick Bayless recipes and a few others. I tried Rick’s Chili Basted Pot Roast Pork but was disappointed in the end result. Another online cook said to add lots of salt for flavor but I hesitate to do that for health reasons. I did add salt but not tons. It was pretty bland. I also tried his Refried Beans since I hate to buy the canned refried beans (but do so out of laziness) so I thought I’d give this one a try. He said to use canned white beans and red kidney beans. I thought was odd since I was trying to get away from canned beans but, following the recipe, I tried it….UGH! Refried beans need pinto beans IMHO anyway. My Dad used to be the king of making Refried Beans at our house so I think I'll see if mom still has the ingredients because my dad never used recipes...he just had his specialties and cooked those few things to perfection.

In between, I baked a birthday cake using Julia Child's Gateau a La'orange with Orange Buttercream recipe. I doubled the icing recipe and used a warmed offset spatula to smooth out the lumps in that occur from adding the butter last. It definitely helped as you can see from the photo.

THEN, I decided try one of Rick's desserts. Fresh Coconut Tart. A lot of trouble but worth it. The crust of the tart is made with white bread, almond, sugar and butter. It was very de-lish! He said to buy a medium sized coconut but I wasn’t sure what “medium” was and they looked kind of small to me so I bought two. I guess they were “medium” because I had enough with just one. I think I made a mistake and used the wrong grating disc for my Cuisinart. When I make this tart again, I’ll use a finer grate and just make a little with the larger grate for the toasted topping. If you like coconuts, you’ll love this tart…no pudding filler but nothing but coconuts, cream, eggs, sugar and coconut juice. If we didn’t already have two desserts, I would have made this for our dinner in April!

So-o-o, what to do with that leftover coconut? I cracked, peeled and grated it to make Coconut Shortbread Refrigerator Cookies, NOT a Rick Bayless recipe but one I got off the internet. The cookies are just flour, sugar, butter and grated coconut, refrigerated and then sliced very thinly and baked. They are wonderfully buttery and rich so thin slices are perfect. I plan to bake them again for a dinner next weekend to serve with homemade Blood Orange Sherbert with Blood Orange Granita. Yummmm! Now I wonder if there is a source for freshly grated coconut….I’ll check at some of the local Indian markets. But it’s not that hard to get the meat out of the coconut. Rick puts the coconut (after you get the juice out) in the oven for about 10-15 min. and it seems to make it easier to get the meat separated from the shell.

And, speaking of Rick, last week I tried his Drunken Bean Soup that is made with tequila, pinto beans, onions, jalapeno and pork shoulder. It is served with a sprinkling of crispy bacon bits and Queso Fresco cheese. This may be what I bring to the dinner. It is very tasty; partly because I doubled the pork shoulder, added minced garlic and if I can find some nice tomatoes, may add some of them to the soup. I think I’m also going to try Tequila Añejo next time…it will add a nice flavor. It is a thick soup so small servings with tortillas are perfect!

I also plan to try the Squab dish before our dinner. We live in a neighborhood with 70% Asian population so there are several Chinese, Japanese and Indian Markets close by and a 10-minute drive for Korean. Buying squab or other exotic items (like frozen freshly grated fresh coconut) is not that difficult to find.

In between my cooking, I have been making baby quilts so I thought I’d add a photo of my latest quilt. I am a beginner and have been making quilts for about 2 years on and off. My sewing has improved to the point where I am willing to share a photograph of one of them! All of my friends’ and families’ children are having babies so I seem to be making one right after another lately.

¡Hasta la vista en 16 Abril!

Get your choices in because we already have SIX recipes called for already! It will be at Janis and Bill’s home this time. Directions to come to you via email.