Flatbush Farm is one of our favorite places to go for a drink. It doesn’t hurt that it’s across the street or that they have one of the best backyards ever. Each month (possibly summer only) they hold a BBQ on the first Sunday. This month’s happened to be a Cinco de Mayo celebration, complete with a band. The weather was fantastic, the music made me smile and the food was delicious. What a great way to spend a Sunday afternoon.
Happy Cinco de Mayo! I never need an excuse to sip a margarita, but there’s no better day than today to treat yourself to one. We enjoyed lots of Mexican last weekend, with one of the best things being this frittata that I made yesterday for brunch. I have a thing with eggs… I don’t mind eating them out at restaurants, but whenever I try to make them at home, they always seem lackluster. But with peppers and chorizo in hand, I decided I was going to give it another try.
I chopped up a small onion, a jalepeño, some garlic and chorizo. I decided instead of putting a bunch of butter in the pan (which I’m pretty sure is what makes the restaurant eggs taste awesome), I just cooked the chorizo first and let the grease from that work some magic. Once the chorizo was a little crispy, I poured the egg mixture over it and let it cook for about 5 minutes. I gave it a little flip and added some crumbled goat cheese and cilantro once it was almost done. After I sliced it, I topped it off with a little dollop of guacamole that I made while the eggs were cooking. The result was deeelicious. I think the frittata is the way to go.. it get nice and crispy but it still has a bit of fluff. Good stuff!
Mexican Frittata
1 small onion chopped
1/2 jalepeño pepper chopped
1 clove garlic
1 link of chorizo sausage
4 eggs
a dash of milk
1 Tablespoon cilantro
a small handful of crumbled goat cheese
1
Chop the chorizo and cook over medium heat.
2
Meanwhile, chop the onion, pepper, garlic and placed in bowl.
3
Whisk 4 eggs and add to the vegetables. Once the chorizo is browned, add egg mixture to sausage.
4
Let eggs cook until slightly brown on the bottom, about five minutes. If you want to get a little fancy, slide the frittata onto a plate, then place the pan upside down over plate and flip the eggs. Sprinkle a little cilantro and cheese over top and let cook for a minute.
5
Cut the frittata in quarters and serve with a dollop of guacamole or salsa on top. Yum!
Last weekend we met some friends at Five Points for brunch. We arrived at prime brunch time, so we had to wait a little bit. Once we were seated we perused the menu and everything, I mean everything was mouthwatering. I was a little torn between the lemon ricotta pancakes and the buttermilk chicken, but since it was mid-afternoon I opted for the chicken. Aaron chose sweet sausage and eggs on a homemade biscuit. We also ordered churros with mexican hot chocolate to start, but unfortunately the came a little late and ended up being dessert… not so bad after all I guess. They may have been the best thing ever. They were all soft but crispy and cinnamony all over. Yummmm.
My chicken was really delicious. It was super crispy on the outside and juicy on the inside. It came with a biscuit and orange marmalade that was fantastic. Aaron’s meal was equally as delicious… the eggs, sausage and biscuit topped off with sauce charon (I’m not exactly sure what that is, but it was good) all come together to make a mouthwatering combo. And like I said before, the churros shouldn’t be missed.
Shrimp cakes! So yummy! It’s hard to speak in complete sentences after eating such goodness. I bought a pound of shrimp the other day at the market and didn’t quite comprehend how many shrimp that would be until the meat man handed my what seemed like bucket. I used some of them for a pasta dinner the other night, but I still had half the container left. I did a quick search on epicurious and found this recipe for shrimp cakes with a chili lime cream sauce that I just couldn’t resist.
I’ll start by saying that it’s not the simplest recipe, but boy oh boy is it deeeelicious. I read through some of the comments and decided to chop everything by hand rather than use the food processor. Basically you just chop all the ingredients, form them into a ball and roll them in panko flakes (japanese bread crumbs) then chill them for a few minutes. While the cakes were chilling I whipped up the cream sauce, which to my happy surprise included ginger, one of my favorite ingredients. By the time I was done with the sauce, the cakes had chilled long enough to start frying them.
The result was a batch of crispy golden shrimp cakes full of flavor and a really nice texture. The sauce was equally as good, with a nice hint of spice and a lovely ginger undertone. All throughout dinner Aaron kept saying, “This is so good…” as he gobbled up the crunchy bits. If you want to mix things up a bit and you have a little extra time on your hands, you won’t be disappointed with these tasty treats.
Click here to get the recipe shrimp cakes with a chili lime cream sauc. Yum!
rhubarb almond bars
I guess I have a thing for rhubarb… there’s something about it’s slightly sweet and tart flavor that makes me happy. It may also be that it’s one of the only fruits that you can buy at the farmer’s market right now. I saw this recipe on chow and thought it sounded pretty dang good. I ended up adding about a Tablespoon of ginger to the rhubarb (surprise, surprise) and a little cinnamon to the crust.
I will admit that the crust made me very angry… it’s a bit crumbly and doesn’t stick together very well. The problems came when I tried to make it into a flat disk and wrap it in plastic wrap. After a few fights with the plastic wrap (seriously, can’t we figure out a better way to cut that stuff?), crumbs all over the place and a few cuss words, I decided that I would survive if the crust was a little more crumbly than it’s suppose to be. And guess what, it turned out great. It was nice and buttery while the rhubarb was perfectly tart and the almonds added a nice texture to the whole ensemble. Delicious!
Get the recipe here.