I spotted this White Chocolate Lemon Meringue Bar at my local AJ’s Fine Foods and I had to try it.
I open it up carefully. I attempted to break off one brick….That didn’t work.
These bars have lots of filling and the white chocolate is very delicate and almost soft.
I taste the broken ends. The lemony part is really great and sure does taste like really good lemon meringue filling…Like the right tart and the right sweet……the right amount of lemon……….The white chocolate is pretty good for white chocolate but it does end with a sweet finish like it should like some meringue. (I hate when meringue taste like egg whites…ick)
I think that this flavor is pretty good but they’ve forgotten that lemon meringue is a pie and should have some crumbs for crust. A few slightly salted cookie crumbs on the bottom would have balanced it all really well………But it is still pretty good anyway.
Those were my FORKING Thoughts on Hammond’s Lemon Meringue White Chocolate Bar. Your FORKING Thoughts may indeed differ.
I had cucumbers and basil that I needed to use up so here’s what I made. A little while back I made this delicious Italian Style Chili Crisp. Maybe you don’t know about chili crisp but it’s very popular now. Chili crisp is this amazing condiment that adds flavors, textures, crunch, and heat to food. Anything plain can turn well seasoned and delicious….It’s like adding magic to food. The salad was pretty easy…..I used cucumbers, onions, tomato, pasta, basil and beans. I just stirred in my homemade Italian Chili Crisp to taste and a splash of vinegar and it was done and perfect. The Italian style chili crisp recipe is on The Forking Truth it’s made with Calabrian Chilies, pine nuts, capers, anchovies, thyme, oregano, sea salt, pepper, olive oil garlic and shallots. Serving size is always difficult to judge since everyone likes a different size portion and also all produce runs different in size. I don’t know if you want a small side dish or enough for a lunch. I going to guesstimate 6 servings.
Ingredients for around 6 portions
4 cucumbers (mine were on the large side) peeled, cut longways, seeds removed and sliced (however you like it sliced…I do on the thick side so it doesn’t get soggy)
4 oz pasta (I used whole grain point type pasta) boiled in salty water till done. Like one minute less than package suggest.
1 medium onion – sliced extra thin and rough chopped
2 tomatoes rough chopped or around 10oz canned tomatoes
1 cup fresh basil – either torn or chopped
15.5 oz can Low Sodium beans- rinsed three times (I used kidney beans)
Italian Chili Crisp to taste – (I didn’t measure but I think I used around a 1/2 cup) I suggest to add a few spoonfuls at a time till you think it taste right.
A good splash of white vinegar – I didn’t measure I think I used about 1/3 cup
Directions
In a large mixing bowl add the cucumbers, pasta, onion, tomatoes, basil, and beans. Mix well. Add the Italian Chili Crisp to taste. Add a few spoonfuls at a time till you think it taste right. Then give it a good splash of vinegar. Mix well.
Cucumber Pasta and Bean Salad made with Italian Chili Crisp
The Arrowhead Grill is a steakhouse, grill and bar located in Glendale Arizona. They offer some FORKING AMAZING restaurant bargains.
One of the BEST restaurant bargains in town is the Happy Hour menu from the Arrowhead Grill that is offered 3-6pm every day in the bar area. Well drinks and house wine is only $5.99 a glass (subject to change). But the best happy hour food bargain got to be the A.G.Burger (Sept 2022 price subject to change $15.99)
A.G.BurgerA.G. Burger
This burger is made of ground-in-house prime beef trimmings, topped with a 6oz prime rib, crispy fried onions, cheese, mayonnaise, horseradish cream and a fresh toasted eggy bun. And it taste amazing too! It’s so flavorful. It sure is one of the very best burgers that I have ever tried. For me this is far more food than I can eat in one meal but some people I know can eat the whole thing.
The other BEST restaurant bargain is the complimentary Birthday 10 oz Delmonico Prime steak with complimentary A.G. Butter Cake. You do have to sign up for the Arrowhead Grill E Club and you do have to buy one 10 oz Delmonico steak to get one free….Your Free 10 oz Delmonico steak ($44.99) and A.G. butter cake ($13.99) are a combined total of $58.98. I think $58.98 is a really FORKING GREAT GIFT from a restaurant.
Sfizio (svee-tsio) Modern Italian Kitchen is located in North Phoenix Arizona near the Dessert Ridge Mall. They serve Italian Style foods with flavors of South Italy. They offer small plates, three variety bruschetta plates, salads, wood fired Neapolitan Pizzas, calzones, hand crafted pastas, four entrees (pollo parmesan, eggplant tortino, pollo piccata, braised short ribs with risotto and vegetables). They also offer a kids menu, desserts, alcohol and more!
Inside they have one main dining room and a bar. They also have a patio that wraps around the restaurant.
inside
We started out with the eggplant rollotini and the stone fired bread.
eggplant rollotini and stone fired bread
The bread is a little toasty and buttery. The eggplant is very thin with a nice texture and seems free of oil. It’s stuffed with creamy ricotta cheese and is topped with marinara, a little bit of a mozzarella type of cheese and a little fresh basil.
For dinner we tried the pollo piccata and the braised short ribs.
pollo piccata
The pollo piccata is TWO pounded pieces of chicken breast that was prepared with white wine, lemon, and capers. It came with perfectly prepared spaghetti. For some this is a large portion and some people might get two meals out of this.
The braised short ribs are also a generous entree.
Braised short ribs
Here you get tender crisp fresh vegetables, saffron laced risotto and tender flavorful short ribs.
If you can manage to save room for dessert the cannoli are worth a try.
cannoli
The shells taste house made and are less sweet and less bubbly than most. The filling is rich and creamy and is also less sweet and than most. But what is really special are the pistachios. They are so darn flavorful. They sure didn’t come from Costco. They use the very best pistachios that you can ever taste.
SFIZO – translates to whim or desire
Sfizio Modern Italian Kitchen Phoenix AZ – Worth a Fork!
I came across chef Matthew Kammerer’s recipe in Food & Wine Magazine for Kombu Roast Chicken with Kaboucha Squash and Daikon… I knew I had some kombu that I needed to use up and I had about the right amount of daikon in my refrigerator (but decided to use radishes instead). I was sort of worried about his recipe because of the method….Anyways the flavors are wonderful….I only changed a few things. I doubled the amount of pepper because a 1/2 teaspoon is just not enough for a whole chicken. I also used coconut oil instead of butter because I thought coconut oil would be good with kombu. It turned out that I did have some difficulty with the method……Maybe you won’t have the same trouble?. ……He said roast until the middle of the breast as at 155 F (about an hour). I cooked mine an hour. At one hour the middle of the breast was 165 F by my thermometer so I took it out to rest…….
Here’s how it came out.
The breast is sous vide perfect and juicy……..but the legs and wing joints are raw. So I cut off all the breast that I could and put it back into the oven.
So it needed 40 more minutes at 400 F in my oven.
Like I said maybe you won’t have the same trouble??????? That is why I usually do white meat and dark separate. The few times when I do a whole bird I do most or all of the time breast down so the dark meat cooks and the white meat doesn’t dry up…That method always works but the down side is that it doesn’t look at pretty and the skin usually is too moist to eat.
You do what you want.
ingredients
1 acorn squash – cut in half, remove seeds and membranes – cut into 8 wedges
one bunch radishes – trimmed or use a daikon in one inch slices
2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 teaspoons sea salt (or to taste)
1 teaspoon black pepper ( or to taste – some on the squash and most for the chicken)
1/8 oz ground dry kombu (I added a small amount of crumbled nori to it about a Tablespoon)
1/4 cup coconut oil
1 Tablespoon garlic – ground to paste
2 teaspoons lemon zest
1 – 3-4 lb whole chicken
Directions
Set oven to 400 degrees F.
Lay out the squash and radishes in the roasting pan and sprinkle them with the olive oil and salt and pepper.
In a small mixing bowl mix together the coconut oil, kombu (and nori if you choose to add that), garlic, lemon zest, 1+ 3/4 teaspoon salt and black pepper.
This mixture goes mostly under the skin of the chicken. When I was done my hand were a mess but I thought those flavors would be good on the skin so I rubbed what was left on my hands all over the chicken. Then the chicken gets placed over the vegetables.
After an hour on my mine the breast was perfect (mine read 165 F degrees)
I removed the breast when mine cooled down.
Then I turned it over so the bottom could cook more. I check mine at 20 minutes and it still wasn’t done so I added another 20 minutes. Then it was done.
The squash, radishes, and chicken really are all delicious. It’s up to you how you want to cook the chicken. If I was doing this same one again I’d just turn it breast down till done at 350 degrees F.
Kombu Roast Chicken with Acorn Squash and Radishes
ENJOY!!!!
A Special THANKS!!! To Chef Matthew Kammerer and Food & Wine Magazine so I could do what you see here!
These are very simple basic deviled eggs. I read that a lot of people smoke the eggs before making them into deviled so I thought I’d give it a try. Oh and I want to say that I usually make my deviled eggs much fancier but I was in a hurry today. Normally my deviled eggs look more like this pictured below.
Deviled Eggs
Anyways I read that people smoke the hard boiled eggs for one hour with a mild wood like pecan so that is what I did.
The eggs come out after an hour.
They look kind of tan now.
I cut them longways and pop out the yolks. The egg whites get lightly sprinkled with sea salt and espelette pepper.
The egg yolks get riced so they turn out light and fluffy without any lumps.
I use my favorite mustard for deviled eggs. Amora Brand from France. I also use a small amount of mayonnaise. Usually I add more stuff but today I kept it very basic. I thought that the smoke, Amora and espelette pepper was enough.
Pipe the yolk mixture into the egg whites.
Sprinkle with more espelette.
smoked deviled eggs
My husband and I disagree on this one. He thinks that they are really great and I should make them this way again. I think they are slightly too smokey……even though all the smoke taste is in the egg white. I think I also don’t like the texture from smoking the egg white…I think it shrinks some and has a different texture.
If I do them again I’d try smoking them for 30 minutes instead of 60 minutes.
At the moment my favorite deviled egg that I made was the one below.
These are my regular spicier deviled eggs with Peruvian sweet drop peppers in the centers garnished with celery leaves.
That was my smoked deviled egg no recipe…recipe idea
Pistou sauce is the French version of Italy’s pesto. Pistou translates to pounded. You are suppose to pound hand torn Genovese basil leaves, garlic, olive oil and salt in a mortar.
You keep pounding until you get something like this.
Pistou Sauce (Original Style)
The original Provencal Pistou Sauce is only basil, garlic, olive oil and salt. Over the years people made it more into a pesto sometimes adding cheese, nuts, and other herbs. Even Julia Child’s version of pistou contains tomatoes and cheese.
Ingredients for around two servings
1 cup torn basil leaves
2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 teaspoons sweet roasted whipped garlic (roast a spilt garlic head with a generous amount of olive oil covered at 375 degrees F for one hour. Then squeeze out the cloves and whip)
French sea salt flakes to taste (around a big pinch)
Directions
Get out your mortar and pound.
Pistou Sauce (Original Style)
Pistou is very good in salads, soups, and toast. It’s also good on grilled meats and vegetables and even eggs.
Casa Corazon is a full service with bar Mexican Restaurant located in Phoenix Arizona. If you are a fan of shrimp then you are in luck. Casa Corazon offers a not entirely but a shrimp heavy menu. Most of the appetizers contain shrimp. Some of the appetizers are aguachile, shrimp fundido and shrimp cocktails. They offer things that you are familiar with like tacos, burritos, a salad, soups, enchiladas, and fajitas. They also offer things that are more South Mexican like chiles en nogada, cochinita pibil, and chicken mole negro. Some of the specialty dinners are the hot lava moloajete cauldron of guajillo sauce fried fish, shrimp, chicken, and asada, shrimp dinners, whole fried fish, ribeye, and a lobster quesadilla. They also offer a children’s menu and desserts.
You enter threw the kitchen and someone greats you there and walks you to a table. It looks like this place used to be a small church. There are small stained glass windows with crosses as small accents around the room, lots of exposed old bricks, old wood, and hand done fresco paintings.
Sometimes you get chips that look like this.
Bright red colored tortilla chips with a bacon-ee bean dip
Sometimes you get chips that look like this with a bacon-ee bean dip.
After you decide on what you want you walk back into the kitchen to the salsa bar.
kitchensalsa bar
Many different salsas here of all kind of different heat levels. Today I went with pineapple, hibiscus, and morita. The pineapple is very thin but does have a pleasant pineapple taste. The hibiscus was smoky but kind of floral. The morita was a deeper smoky and pairs especially well with beef.
Last time I enjoyed three different tacos.
Taco platter of chicken, arrachera (marinated skirt steak)), and marlin (marlin is not on current menu) with rice and beans
Earlier this year Casa Corazon participated in The Dish Fest where best dishes of the valley are featured from Phoenix Magazine.
Tacos from Casa Corazon
The tacos were delicious! They were among the best dishes that I tried at The Dish Fest.
Below is an enchilada plate of chicken, cheese, and beef enchiladas in their unique RED BEET enchilada sauce.
Enchilada plate of chicken, cheese, beef, covered in beet enchilada sauce with rice and beans
Tonight we tried the lava molcajete – mixto.
lava molcajete-mixto
It’s HOT and BUBBLING with red guajillo sauce (tasty and not too hot spicy), sea bass, grilled shrimp, asada sirloin, grilled chicken, rice, black beans, Mexican onions, mushrooms, squash, nopal (cactus), A Mexican yellow pepper, and tortillas.
We like everything but the steak, chicken, and shrimp because they were all over cooked and dry. My husband lied and told the server everything was fine because he was mad that she forgot to order the taco that he wanted to try.
This is The FORKING Truth….so I have to say….
A lot of salsas……..
A shrimp heavy menu………
Sometimes very good….
Sometimes things go the other way like at most restaurants
Dosa Place is located in North Phoenix on West Bell Road in an older strip mall in the spot where at least three previous Indian Restaurants once where (Pastries and Chaat, Dosa Grill, Just Biryani). This restaurant specializes in serving dosas. Not entirely but the majority of the menu are dosas. They offer around THIRTYFIVE savory or sweet dosas. Incase you don’t know the dosa is a South Indian Crepe made from a batter of fermented rice and lentils. Dosas are served with chutney and sambar (a vegetable soup laced with curry and a little heat). Besides dosas Dosa Place also offers vegetarian and non-vegetarian appetizers, vegetarian and non-vegetarian entrees, biryanis, fried rice dishes, noodle dishes, naan pizzas, and of course DOSAS and more! At the time of my visit Dosa Place is without a sign.
It looks exactly the same inside as it did as the last two restaurants.
insideinside
We ordered up a storm and tried a variety of dishes.
We started with the chicken 65 appetizer.
chicken 65
The chicken is tender and is coated with some spices and a little heat……..It taste like an Americanized version of this dish.. Not too spicy and not the most complex but better than from some places.
Then everything else comes out.
Lets start with the dosa masala.
I ordered the beetroot dosa masala but they were out of beets today so I got the regular masala dosa. It’s a large paper thin crepe stuffed with a small amount of seasoned potato in the center. The sambar a tomato-lentil vegetable soup laced with curry and a little heat was very good that was on the side. It also came with tomato chutney and a green chutney.
We also tried tomato-onion uthappam.
tomato-onion uthappam
This is also a dosa. It’s a light rice and lentil sort of batter embedded with vegetables and a few herbs and is very tasty. It has a unique light texture and almost seems like it might have been steamed.
For our main we shared the chicken chettinadu.
chicken chettinadu
It’s wildly fragrant with a little heat and very tender moist chicken. It might contain coriander, cardamon, chili, cloves, cinnamon, garlic, tomato, turmeric, ginger, onion and more.
Dosa Place – Newly Opened – Lots of dosas – Give them a try!
I recently did a variation of chef Claudette Zepeda’s recipe for Strawberry Aguachile and now just did a variation of her recipe for Citrus and Beet Aguachile. I made a lot of changes………… I thought the Beet Aguachile recipe might has way too much oil in it (3/4 cup). I think it must be a typo so I had to change that. Another thing that I had to change is that I thought this recipe contains far more cilantro than I can tolerate and I cut the amount in half and it’s still plenty. Instead of salt roasting the beets…I thought I had a more practical idea to roast the beets with water. I don’t think it is necessary to buy beet juice to add to the recipe. I just cooked up an extra beet while I cooked all the beets in water. I used the beet water and blended in my extra beet and used that as beet juice. I also added some extra blended beet water to adjust the soup to my taste. Those were the main changes. It’s no longer aguachile and more of a cold soup this way but does taste really great! This recipe makes around 4 servings.
Ingredients
1 lb beets (a mix of orange and red – scrubbed clean)
sea salt to taste (I used my home made smoked pecan sea salt)
3/4 cup water + more water to cook beets
2 medium limes – just the fresh squeezed juice
1 oz cilantro – leaves and tender stems – chopped + a little extra for finishing
1 shallot – chopped (around 2oz)
1/4 cup rice vinegar
1 orange – zest and juice
1 serrano chile – chopped
3 garlic cloves – chopped
4 dried chitepin or pequin chiles crushed
3 black garlic cloves – chopped
2-3 radishes – thin sliced
2 Persian cucumbers – sliced
1/2 medium red onion – thin sliced
8 toastada shells
Directions
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
It’s important to know that you shouldn’t cook orange beets with anything aluminum because the aluminum reacts with orange beets.
If you have regular sized beets then you probably want to cut them in halves. In one baking dish I put the reds and in another baking dish I put the orange beets. Lightly sprinkle them with sea salt. Add water to the pans You want to almost cover the beets with water. Cover the pans and leave them in the oven till fork tender. The timing will differ. My beets were very large so mine took around 75 minutes. Pull out of oven with done. Remove from water so they cool faster. When cool you rub them with your hands and the skin will come off. Put to the side.
Make some blended beet water. Use the water from your red beets. Add either one small beet or part of a beet and blend it into the water till as smooth as you can get. Keep this to the side.
Combine the 3/4 cups of water, lime juice, cilantro, shallot, vinegar, orange juice and zest, serrano chile, garlic, chilepin chile, and black garlic. Add at least a half a cup of you blended beet water that you just made. Give it a taste test and decide if you want to add more blended beet water. Also decide if you need to add more sea salt and adjust to your liking. At this time you can strain it and throw out the solids…….or if you like it this way keep it this way.
Serve it up.
Dish out the soup and add the beets, cucumbers, onions, radishes, cilantro, and serve with toastada shells.
Citrus and Beet Aguachile Cold Soup
A Special THANKS!!! to chef Claudette Zepeda and Food & Wine Magazine for this recipe so I could make what I got here.
