I always wanted to butcher an animal from scratch and my girlfriend’s first dream job was becoming a butcher, so we couldn’t pass on the chance to butcher a pig with Ryan Farr of 4505 Meats. His classes are so popular (maybe because of some recent publicity in the NY Times) that we had to wait a month for another class to open before finally getting this opportunity.
Homemade chorizo & mushroom pizza
After eating, the part about cooking I enjoy the most is the people. And, that’s not a cannibalistic reference. I enjoy the interaction you can have with those you cook for, and there nothing more enjoyable than cooking with others.
Unfortunately, most of my friends either don’t have the same amount of free time or, more likely, the same level of interest in spending an entire afternoon cooking. But pizza is perfect for this. Easy to cook, takes no time and you can cook and eat all at the same time.
So for the past two weekends, we have been hosting groups of friends to cook home-made pizza, where each guests makes their own.
Deconstructed Mango strawberry daikiri
The following set of recipes comes from a cooking competition I did last year with JC, RA and GM.
The competition was modeled after Iron Chef, with one secret ingredient that needs to fit into a cocktail, starter, main and dessert. 2 hours to cook once you receive the ingredient.
Our secret ingredient was mango, so super versatile and easy to pair with many things.
We focused on giving a californian tint to all the recipes and we made:
Decontructed mango and strawberry daiquiri
Mango and scallop tiradito
Rack of lamb with cactus, mango and truffle risotto
Lemon tart with mango coulis and mango baklava
