Tag Archives: #foodie

Spiced Custard Filled Acorn Squash with Maple Bourbon Walnuts Recipe

I was thinking about a custard filling for acorn squash that I had to use….The flavor spectrum is endless so I had many different ideas on different flavors. I thought a pumpkin pie kind of seasoning would work well and I had some walnuts that I thought I could work in with this nifty delicious Watkins Brand Maple Bourbon Rub that I have.

This one is pretty easy and it’s NOT low calorie but I think I made it lighter than a regular custard pie because there is no crust and I didn’t use any heavy cream and I used the sugar as sparingly as possible so it’s not too sweet either. I used two acorn squash so I think on the average you would eat one quarter of the squash so technically that should be around 8 servings unless you eat a whole half and then it would be 4 servings. Even though my squash differed in size I will guesstimate 8 servings. I also must add that this recipe isn’t fool proof and you might get mad at me because if you trim the squash off on the bottom it can leak while cooking. After making them…I’d recommend not to trim the bottom because if they leak you are done…..The squash will get soft when you do the roast so you can squish them into shape or use foil to get them to sit even.

Ingredients for around 8 servings

2 acorn squash – cut in half

2 Tablespoons unsalted butter – melted – squash

1/4 teaspoon ground ginger – squash

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon – squash

1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg – squash

2 Tablespoons sugar – squash

pinch sea salt – squash

1 cup walnut pieces – MB walnuts

2 Tablespoons unsalted butter – melted – MB walnuts

1 teaspoon Watkins maple bourbon rub – MB walnuts

1 Tablespoon sugar – MB walnuts

1- 13.5 oz can unsweetened coconut milk – custard

3 eggs – custard

2 teaspoons corn starch – custard

1 teaspoon ground ginger – custard

1 teaspoon cinnamon – custard

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg – custard

pinch sea salt – custard

non stick spray

Directions

Set oven to 400 degrees F

Squash halves go on baking sheets. Your squash might not sit even but keep in mind that if you do trim the squash might leak and your custard will run out.

In a small mixing bowl mix together the 2 Tablespoons butter,1/4 t. ginger, 1/4 t. cinnamon,1/8 t. nutmeg, 2 Tablespoons sugar and a pinch of sea salt. This mixture gets painted on the squash.

You put the squash in a preheated 400 degree F oven on the middle rack for around 40 minutes.

You can take a break for 40 minutes or if you have a second oven make the Maple Bourbon Walnuts. When you are ready to make the walnuts you need an oven preheated to 350 degrees F .

Mix together in a small bowl the walnuts, butter, Watkins maple bourbon rub and sugar. This mixture goes in a single layer on a sheet pan for only 10 minutes on the middle rack of your preheated oven. After around 10 minutes remove and let cool to the side.

By now your squash are out of the oven.

Leave them cool off some till they are warm. At this time you can do an extra step and grab a foil and spray with non stick spray…The idea is to balance the squash really well so you don’t have to cut the bottom off and get a leak. (see picture below the next one) The squash are also soft now and you can squish them a little to shape them to sit right.

Blend the coconut milk, eggs, corn starch, sugar, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt. Pour the mixture into each squash half. (You might have extra custard depending on the size of your squash…..You can either toss or cook off in a small dish.

The custard filled squash need to stay in the oven for around 45 minutes.

Remove and top with the maple bourbon walnuts.

Spiced Custard Filled Acorn Squash with Maple Bourbon Walnuts
Spiced Custard Filled Acorn Squash with Maple Bourbon Walnuts

I would serve hot or warm…or maybe at room temperature but I don’t think cold would be best for the squash. The above photo is cold….The custard is a little softer when heated.

ENJOY!!

The Forking Truth

Foreign Chocolate Covered Corn Puff Battle – Gusto VS Bamba

I like to try foreign snacks once in a while for a taste of something different. Usually it’s weird flavors of potato chips but these chocolate coated corn puffs caught my eye so I decided to give them a try.

In this corner is something called Gusto from Romania.

It was only around $1. at the Asiana Market in Glendale. I can’t read the package and I thought the picture on the package looked like chocolate covered peanut puffs. I should have worn reading glasses because I didn’t even notice the raspberries on the package. ………..These things are Corn Puffs coated in milk chocolate with raspberry flavor. I ate one…These are hard for me to stomach. They are sickeningly sweet and just awful ……..I think that cheap chocolate kind of taste mixed with artificial raspberry is stomach turning…The corn puff has very little or almost no flavor…Its the coating that is unappealing and just packed with YUK.. These are going to hit the trash can after I make my husband try one. Maybe their other flavors are better?????? I read that they make a BOOZY RUM corn snack…..Maybe they make that flavor better????? But this one sucks so bad I doubt I’ll ever feel like trying it.

In the other corner are Bamba Dark Chocolate Dipped Peanut Corn Puff Snacks are marked, “Sold By Trader Joe’s.” Bamba peanut without chocolate are a well known famous snack food from Israel that are sold at nearly every supermarket in little bags. The Bamba dark chocolate dipped peanut flavored corn puffs do cost more than the Gusto chocolate coated corn puffs. They are in a bigger bag but If I recall correctly they were around $2.99 a bag.

I have to admit that I do occasionally enjoy the regular peanut Bamba puffed corn snacks. I read on Amazon that they are made 50% from peanuts….so they are at least 50% healthy….

OMG these Chocolate dipped Bambas are really good……They seem so light and tasty…..they are almost impossible to stop eating. They are not too sweet and not heavy or greasy…..with that indulgent chocolate on that light as air peanut cloud.

DAM You Trader Joe’s! I’m going to have to buy a bag every time I shop in your store until you stop selling them…..Just like you always discontinue my favs……Then I’ll be mad at you again!

Anyways-

……The combination of peanut puff and dark chocolate is very tasty………savory…….They seem light as air…(But I know they are not)……They are very hard to stop eating.

Gusto lost this battle WAY too easily…….I was hoping for a close battle.

Those were my FORKING Thoughts on Foreign Chocolate Covered Corn Puff Battle.

Your opinion may or may not differ.

The Forking Truth

Baked Corn Patties Recipe

There is this one chef out there that is very inspiring and must be one of the most amazing chefs ever but his recipes never work out. Some chefs are really great but they don’t put much care into recipe writing. Or maybe they just write up their recipes with typos?????? I came up with corn patties to go with all the sauces that went with the chef’s recipe that doesn’t work out. He came up with a fancy baked corn dish that was suppose to come out solid so you could grill it……It did have a really great flavor but I renamed it and used it as Sofrito Corn Frosting. After it cooked it had a consistency of frosting. The corn patties are tasty, easy and pretty quick to prepare. They come out slightly crispy on the exterior and the inside is fluffy and moist sort of like a pancake. Sauces aren’t really necessary. But if you happen to feel like making pachamanca and huancaina sauce it wouldn’t hurt. This recipe made me 24 small patties. You will want to eat 2-4 patties a serving. So that means you will get around 6-12 servings depending on how big you want your portion size to be. I’ll round it up to 8 servings.

Ingredients for around 8 servings.

1 1/2 cups fresh corn kernels (around two medium ears)

1 cup onions – diced about corn kernel sized

1/3 cup scallions – sliced thin

3/4 cup flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 Tablespoon corn meal

2 teaspoons sea salt (I used my home made smoked pecan sea salt)

1 Tablespoon granulated onion

1/2 teaspoon ground white pepper

1 Tablespoon sugar

2 eggs

1/4 cup water

non stick spray

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Spray baking sheets with non stick spray and put to the side.

In a large mixing bowl combine the corn, onions, scallions, flour, baking powder, corn meal, salt, granulated onion, white pepper and sugar and mix well. In a small bowl beat the eggs and add the water. This gets mixed into the large bowl contents. Don’t worry it will look very dry.

I used my smallest scooper so the patties would be close to the same sizes.

I scooped them out like this and flattened them a little bit.

In my oven on the middle rack and lower rack mine took 20 minutes to be done. (timing can differ)

They came out slightly browned and nice light brown bottoms.

Then I added all these sauces I made and sherry soaked figs.

Baked Corn Patty with Sofrito Frosting, Pachamanca sauce, Huancaina sauce, Achiote oil and Sherry Soaked Figs

Enjoy!!!!

The Forking Truth

Some FANTABULOUS Dishes from Fabio On Fire Peoria AZ – Worth a Fork!

Fabio On Fire is an Italian Restaurant and MORE in Peoria Arizona. Fabio On Fire besides being an Italian Restaurant also happens to be a pizzeria, bakery, gelateria and a mobile catering service. The restaurant offers, Neapolitan pizzas, seasonal specials, hand made pastas, house made baked goods, house made gelato, bar drinks and wine too.

Fabio at work
inside

This is an award winning restaurant.

The porchetta dish is officially one of the best dishes of the valley according to Phoenix Magazine and was featured on the cover (Feb. 2022)

My picture of it isn’t as good but it certainly was a Fantabulous dish.

Porchetta – wood fired pork belly, chickpea hummus, rosemary focaccia

Whatever you choose you are going to start with the complimentary FANTABULOUS ciabatta puglese bread…possibly the tastiest most delicious bread in the valley…

ciabatta puglese

All the pizzas are very good but maybe the very best bufalina pizza in the valley is this one. It goes a few steps further than others that you can find.

bufalina pizza

The cheese is the best bufalina from Italy….But unlike most bufalina pizzas out there the high quality imported cheese gently melts on the pizza instead of being baked like at most places so you can taste it more and is enhanced with the best flavors that bounce all over……balsamic, bitter arugula, sweet tomatoes, and a rich certified San Marzano tomato sauce.

Certain times of the year spinach raviolis are a special on the menu. These raviolis are layered with flavors…..

The spinach raviolis are in a delicious slightly creamy walnut sauce. The pasta has an extra taste and maybe it was cooked in a little vegetable stock that adds another layer of taste. They might be the tastiest ravioli anywhere.

I’ve tasted vodka sauce at a few different Italian restaurants but none of them where as delicious as the vodka sauce dishes I’ve tried from Fabio On Fire. They do offer a lobster ravioli in vodka sauce on the regular menu but I was lucky to try a few specials with that delicious vodka sauce.

One special was smoked salmon pasta in vodka sauce.

Another was –

Arugula and sweet tomatoes with pasta and vodka sauce.

Off the regular menu you can get these incredible butternut squash stuffed purse shaped ravioli in an amaretto laced rich sage cream sauce……vegetarian or with crispy prosciutto di parma. These are really a treat to eat!

butternut squash ravioli

My husband loves the orecchiette with broccoli and sausage. He said that it is very good.

I don’t have a good picture of the halibut special that was offered several times but I can tell you that the halibut seemed as fresh as from a fish house and was prepared as well as from a fish house and came with extra fancy vegetables…..It was very good and maybe was the best fish dish offered on the west side of the valley.

Often wood roasted lamb is a special of the evening.

wood roasted lamb

The most delicious desserts and BEST gelato can be found here.

The baked goods do change up now and then.

strawberry rum cake

But this strawberry rum cake was amazing.

Fabio makes the best gelatos. Some of the flavors I’ve tried were blood orange, pistachio, brownie, passionfruit, peach, cherry, and STRAWBERRY.

All the gelato was amazing and delicious but the strawberry for sure gotta be the BEST strawberry gelato in the country. If you taste it then you WILL agree!

These were a few of the FANTABULOUS Dishes from

Fabio On Fire

Worth a Fork!

Worth a Fork!

Fabio On Fire

8275 W Lake Pleasant PKWY Peoria AZ

623-680-5385

www.FabioOnFire.com

Everything is subject to change.

The Forking Truth

A Little Taste of Zuzu Restaurant Scottsdale AZ

Zuzu Restaurant is located in the Hotel Valley Ho in Scottsdale near to Old Town Scottsdale in Arizona. This restaurant is named after the Hotel Valley Ho’s Matriarch of the family known as Zuzu who they say was an amazing cook with great hospitality.

Zuzu

Zuzu the restaurant offers brunch, happy hour, dinners, cocktails and more!

Zuzu has a sort of club-like or lounge type of atmosphere.

inside
inside

They also offer patio seating for when the weather is nice.

A few items offered for early bites are things like avocado toast, for sweet eaters they have breakfast cinnamon buns, Moroccan style hummus, and garlic stuffed pretzel bombs with mascarpone.

They also offer salads, and brunchier foods like eggs Benedict, huevos rancheros, breakfast fried rice, half chicken and waffles.

They offer a few southwest style plates like fish tacos.

grilled fish tacos – red snapper, pineapple slaw, spiced crema, avocado, cilantro, flour tortillas

If you are a burger or sandwich person they also offer that too on the brunch menu.

2.0 burger – 8oz. patty, griddled onions, roasted garlic, pickles, fry sauce, American & provolone cheese

Happy Hours are 4-6pm and all five offering only cost $6-$7 each. (subject to change)

Happy Hour offerings are……..Moroccan Hummus, Whole roasted cauliflower, garlic stuffed pretzel bomb, Brussels sprouts, and chicken chicharrones.

For dinner some of the offerings are grilled Portuguese octopus, salt roasted beets, scallops, sea bass, pork shank, beef filet, and a SURPRISE dinner called, “Zuzu Take The Wheel.”

That was a Little Taste of Zuzu

Zuzu – located in the Hotel Valley Ho Scottsdale AZ

6850 East Main Street Scottsdale Arizona

480-376-2600

www.HotelValleyHo.com

Everything is subject to change.

The Forking Truth

Potato Topped Peruvian Style Turkey Meatloafs with Onion Salsa Recipe

This recipe is my artsy variation of the Peruvian Dish Papa Rellenas………Just so you know Papa Rellenas are fried potato croquettes stuffed with seasoned beef filling with hard eggs. I did similar flavors but did something different. A word of warning…….This recipe called for several different Peruvian Peppers that you might not have… I used aji panca paste in the meatloaf for the main flavor. I used dried yellow Peruvian peppers in the Onion salsa (they are really great….a flavorful not too hot pepper) I recommend just a little bit of aji amarillo paste to flavor the potatoes (or a Peruvian sauce made with aji amarillo paste)……I also garnished with Peruvian Sweet Drop peppers. or me this recipe made 6 portions that aren’t the biggest.

Ingredients for around 6 portions

1 1/2 lbs potatoes – peeled, quartered, boiled till fork tender with a generous amount of salt (usually golden potatoes are used but I used russets because that’s what I had)

aji amarillo paste – to taste (or you can substitute spicy cilantro sauce RECIPE under Peruvian Roasted Chicken) (this goes into the potatoes or also delicious huancaina sauce….I made it not sure if published…love both these sauces……THEY ARE SO FORKING DELICIOUS….You should make them and keep small portions in your freezer like I do….You will thank me.)

1 egg – lightly beaten

3 eggs – boiled 7 minutes ( I washed mine off and added them 7 minutes in with the boiling potatoes because I knew that the potatoes would only take about 15 minutes)

1-lb lean ground turkey 93%

1/4 medium onion – fine chop

4 garlic cloves – ground to paste

1 Tablespoon aji panca chili paste

14 olives – chopped

2 eggs – lightly beaten

1 mini red bell pepper – chopped (or around maybe 1/4 of a regular red bell pepper)

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

1/2 teaspoon dried oregano

1 Tablespoon slightly heaping Better Than Bouillon Vegetable Soup Base (I use this instead of salt because it adds more flavors and uses less salt)

1/4 cup golden raisins – lightly chopped

1/4 cup fresh parley leaves

non stick spray

1 red onion – cut in half, sliced very thin on mandolin

1 garlic clove – ground to paste

yellow Peruvian dried chili flakes – to taste

1 lemon – just the fresh squeezed juice

2 Tablespoons cilantro – leaves and fine stems – chopped

sea salt – to taste

ground black pepper – to taste

Directions

The first things to do are to boil the potatoes, then the eggs (if you haven’t already). The potatoes get mashed with either a very small amount of aji amarillo paste or a small amount of yellow cilantro sauce (that is made with aji amarillo) If you used a good amount of salt to boil the potatoes then they probably are seasoned enough…If not add some salt as needed. The eggs should go in an ice bath when done. When they are cool enough to handle peel them and keep the potatoes and eggs to the side.

Set oven to 350 F degrees. Spray a sheet pan or pans with non stick spray.

In a large mixing bowl combine the minced red onion, garlic (4), aji panca paste, olives, eggs, red bell, cumin, 1/2 t. black pepper, oregano, vegetable base, raisins, and parsley.

If you have a round ring pat the meat mixture into a ring on your non stick sprayed baking sheet and pat 1/2 an egg into it.

Repeat till you are done. This made 6 meatloafs for me.

I had only a little bit of meat left so I patted them on top of the eggs.

Then I scored the potatoes in the bowl in half and each half in thirds so I’d know about how much potato to put on each one.

You can just scoop them out if you don’t do pastry bags.

These went in the middle rack at pre-heated 350 degrees for 25 minutes.

While they were cooking I made the onion salsa.

In a medium size bowl combine the onions, garlic, dried yellow chili flakes to taste, lemon juice, cilantro, and sea salt and salt and pepper to taste.

If the potatoes aren’t brown enough you can broil them for about two minutes.

Potato Topped Peruvian Style Turkey Meatloafs with Onion Salsa

ENJOY!!!!

The Forking Truth

NEW WEird difFERENt Limited and Special Edition Foods Out There September 2022

There is AWAYS something new, weird, limited, and special edition out there in the wonderful world of food. We never know WTFork we’ll come across when we shop for food.

Up above is –

LIMITED EDITION and DIFFERENT (see Limited Edition in the upper right corner) – Frieda’s Angelcots…..I know fruit and vegetables are seasonal but it is always weird to see them marked limited edition. These are a different variety of apricots. Might be heavenly…or maybe they are devilishly wrong?

WEIRD – Unicorn Confetti – cake batter cookies………..I prefer my cookies to taste like cookies…..I make cake batter when I make cakes……Cookie batter and cake batter are not interchangeable………So the cookies are WEIRD……Also why are sprinkles (Jimmies and also known as twinkle coat) called unicorn confetti now……?……Is that a nice way of calling those things unicorn poop?

DIFFERENT and also WEIRD – Cap’n Crunch’s OOPS! 3X All MEGA Bigger Berries…….Maybe?…. someone screwed up at the factory and created something that they have to sell as a snack.

DIFFERENT & kinda WEIRD – General Mills Cocoa Puffs instant artificially flavored and with other natural flavors (?????) Oatmeal with crunchy topping. Gosh this one is weird in too many ways. Artificial and other natural flavors (what on earth can they be?????) Oatmeal isn’t puffs……I bet the topping is just crumbs of Cocoa Puffs cereal that usually is thrown out……

WEIRD – Nickelodeon Slime Kellogg’s Green Apple Jacks with red scary looking apples on the box????? Made with natural…….and OTHER (OTHER NATURAL?????…what could that be????? Lizard snot??) natural flavors that make your milk turn GREEN! No wonder why there are so many whack jobs in the world. This stuff is the food (and chemicals) that turns people into crazy lunatics.

EVEN WEIRDER – Kellogg’s AppleJacks with Spooky Marshmallows. That box is horrifying. How can anyone buy that for children. Just looking at it gives me the creeps.

LIMITED EDITION – General Mills Lucky Charms with Magic Gems…….OH Lordy it’s just another cunning way to sell the same cereal with more marshmallows…….

Same Old Stuff MOSTLY- but WEIRD – Kellogg’s Special K Original with toasted grains and an old goat on the package…….BAHHHHHHHH Bahhhh

Same Old Stuff but also kind of WEIRD – Kellogg’s Special K with Red Berries that are really strawberries……and another old goat on the package. This just seems weird and creepy.

WEIRD – Kellogg’s Special K Flakes & Almonds that are chocolate dipped that are flavored naturally and other natural? flavors added…………This is weird because cereal is suppose to be a healthy food. The chocolate coating turns it into dessert….(might be good? in ice cream). This is also WEIRD because it not only has natural flavors but also has added OTHER natural flavors….My gosh what can those OTHER natural flavors be? Cockroaches? spider spit? canned armadillo farts?

WEIRD – General Mills – LOL Surprise Cereal….WTFork is this?….Surprise it’s cereal? Looks like it has those mandatory marshmallows like many of the child’s theme cereals have. No wonder why so many kids grow up to be assassins these days.

NEW – Pop Farts – Oh no my bad I guess I need bifocals…..POP-Tarts ARTIFICIALLY Flavored Peach Cobbler and on side of box it reads proudly baked in the USA. How could that be? They should lie and blame it on someone else. I guess this is a box of Pop-Farts.

DIFFERENT – DJ * BBQ Br Bohemian RUBSODY all-purpose seasoning. Cute name for a spice blend but weird scary looking label. The guy is screaming or looks like he is in pain…..????? Or maybe he just tasted the stuff and it must suck a lot?

NEW – Heinz Black Truffle infused honey and Hot Chili infused honey…….Sounds SWEET to me!

NEW – Heinz mandarin orange miso crunch, chili pepper crunch. and roasted garlic crunch……..Chile Crunch is this amazing condiment that adds flavors, textures and heat to foods. It makes anything plain interesting, (potentially) delicious and spicy. I make my own…..not to brag but any of the chili crisp that I made were all better than any jarred one that I have purchased so far…………. but I am intrigued by the mandarin orange miso flavor……That one is interesting…..The Chili pepper crunch should taste like you basic chili crunch…all chili crunch does already have garlic in it so I am guessing that maybe this variety has extra garlic and sounds like the least flavorful. Just my thoughts…I could be wrong.

DIFFERENT – Norita Sweet Sriracha Miso all purpose sauce….Never heard of a sauce like this before……?????

LIMITED TIME ONLY – Pringles Scorchin Hot Ones Los Calientes Verde. These my husband picked up. I can’t judge them because I can’t eat them….I’m sensitive to too much vinegar. For me they have so much vinegar in them that is painful to my mouth. My husband thinks that they are really good so he gets to eat the whole container himself.

Maybe NEW & a little DIFFERENT – Icelandic vanilla & strawberry lingonberry Skyr. I read that Skyr yogurt is creamier than regular yogurt and is less sour. I got a coupon from Safeway to get one free so I did. I tried the strawberry & lingonberry…..I liked the rich creamy texture. I also ;liked the less sour than regular yogurts…..But they might well just offered unflavored because there hardly was any fruit in mine….Mine had just enough fruit to pollute plain yogurt and left me disappointed. I don’t know if I got an off batch or just that flavor is lacking?

Maybe NEW and DIFFERENT – Icelandic Privisions in wild blueberry & bilberry…..I never heard of bilberry,,,,) And the other flavor is peach & cloudberry…..you sure don’t come across cloud berries very often……These sure are DIFFERENT.

Halloween is coming soon (unless the world blows up from all the marshmallows and artificial coloring in cereal these days)

LIMITED EDITION – Junior Mints with black and orange centers…….?? It’s always fun to discolor someone else’s teeth!

DIFFERENT and probably LIMITED EDITION – Chocolove Bites in Pumpkin Spice. Might be good? Don’t know.

DIFFERENT and probably LIMITED EDITION – Favorite Day Naturally and OTHER Natural flavored Candy Apple flavored pretzels…..Ummmm Natural flavors and OTHER natural flavors??????

And there usually is some sort of Oreo.

DIFFERENT – Here’s Nabisco Caramel Coconut ARTIFICIALLY Flavored Cookies with coconut pieces.

Oh LORDY found another Oreo

LIMITED EDITION – Nabisco Brookie-O – Brownie, original, and cookie dough ARTIFICIALLY FLAVORED TRIPLE Layers of creme……..man oh man what a treat?????????

Well that was the NEW, Weird, Different, Limited & Special Edition foods out there for September 2022. Who knows WTFork I’ll come across next time?

The Forking Truth

Spiced Roasted Cauliflower and Carrots with Dates

This week I had cauliflower and carrots so I came up with this. I’ve done a lot of Yotam Ottolenghi recipes and one of the the spice combinations that he uses is smoked paprika with Aleppo pepper together. It’s so simple but taste so good. I added saffron to the mix and a few other things. I used these vegetables as side dishes for dinner. Portion size is difficult to judge because I don’t know if you want a small side or a full plate for a meal. For me this made 7 side dishes.

Ingredients for around 7 servings

1 small cauliflower – break down to florets

2 lb carrots – peel if not organic, slice 1/2 – 3/4 inch thick

1 small red onion – peel, cut in half, slice

2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

2 Tablespoons water (the water helps to bloom the saffron)

pinch saffron – crumble

1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika

1/2 teaspoon Aleppo pepper

1/2+ 1/2 teaspoon sea salt (1/2 the salt is to season the vegetables and the other 1/2 is for cooking the carrots. (or to taste…you might want more or less ((I used my homemade lightly smoked pecan sea salt)

fresh ground black pepper to taste

1 lemon – just the zest

3 oz dates – remove pits and slice

2 Tablespoons parsley leaves – chopped

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Precook slightly the carrots. You can do this stove top or in the microwave oven. Timing is difficult to tell you exactly because all carrots are different sizes. Mine were very large carrots and I put them in a microwavable bowl with around a cup of water and 1/2 teaspoon sea salt for 7 minutes. I usually have normal supermarket size carrots that would be more like 3 minutes on the stove top or 4 minutes in the microwave.

In a large bowl add the cauliflower, carrots, and onions.

Either stove top in a pan or in a microwaveable bowl add the oil, water, saffron. paprika, Aleppo pepper and bring to boil. This mixture gets poured over the big bowl of vegetables. Mix it up. Spread out in a single layer on sheet pans. Sprinkle lightly to taste with fresh ground black pepper and sea salt.

Use the middle rack and put the overflow on the lower rack. This will need around 25 – 35 minutes. Check at 25 minutes. You want the cauliflower slightly charred. Switch the lower rack vegetables with the middle rack vegetables and check every 5 minutes till done.

When vegetables are finished add the lemon zest, chopped parsley, and dates.

Spice Roasted Cauliflower and Carrots with Dates

ENJOY!!!!

The Forking Truth

Hot Pot For Days Restaurant Peoria AZ – Worth A Try!

Hot Pot For Days is a casual Vietnamese Hot Pot Restaurant located in Peoria Arizona across from Desert Diamond Casino. Maybe you aren’t familiar with hot pots? It’s basically a big boiling pot of soup and you add all the vegetables, noodles, and meats to it that cook in your soup that you want.

Hot Pot For Days offers four kinds of broth – pork broth, spicy sate beef broth (not so spicy), Thai Style very spicy sweet and sour (not so spicy), vegetarian (owner recommended not to get because she said it was the least flavorful………..I mentioned that because..remember ……….I tell The FORKING Truth)

Next you can try all the meats that you want. The meats that you can get served to you are – prime beef brisket, chuckeye, beef tongue, chicken breast, pork belly, catfish, salmon and sometimes an extra seafood.

Not done yet…here comes the fun part.

You go to the buffet and you can pick buffet things like – octopus, mussels, whole shrimp, fish cakes, tofu, eggs, a few kinds of noodles.

Vegetables like carrots, onions, bok choy, broccoli, Asian greens, daikon, hard squash, zucchini, and scallions.

Here it is.

inside

Not sure why but Hanukkah garland decorates the front desk in September…

Hanukkah garland

ANYWHO-

Today we picked a ying/yang pot of spicy sate beef broth on the left and Thai Style very spicy sweet and sour on the right.

I got a big plate of vegetables and some noodles to cook up in the boiling broth. They also give you a condiment to add a little more flavor to the food.

We also got plates of different meats and fishes to cook up in the broths.

I only tried the beef broth and the Thai Style broth. I thought the Thai Style had more going on with it than the beef broth. Both are suppose to be spicy but are on the very mild side for spicy. I tried a few different meats, The brisket, chuckeye, chicken, salmon and the catfish. Usually catfish is my least favorite fish but for some odd reason it taste the best to me out of what I tried in the Thai style broth……It just complements that flavor better.

I’d say Hot Pot For Days is With a Try! (current price subject to change is $25.00 for all that you can eat)

I have not found a website or Facebook page

Hot Pot For Days

9284 W Northern Avenue Glendale Arizona

623-877-9492

Everything is subject to change.

The Forking Truth

A Little Taste of The Larder and The Delta Phoenix AZ – Unique Southern Cuisine Arizona Laced – Give It a Try!****UPDATE CLOSED EXPECTED TO RELOCATE

*****UPDATE CLOSED******EXPECTED TO RELOCATE******The Larder and The Delta is a small sort of Unique Southern Cuisine laced with Arizonian ingredients in a new way kind of Restaurant located in Downtown Phoenix Arizona.

They offer patio seating.

patio

They offer seating at the bar.

bar seating

They also offer regular indoor seating.

inside

On my most recent visit we found out that they use QR code menus so you do need a cell phone to dine here.

The menu does change every so often but some of the things you might find are-

The hoping John – This one is different and is vegetarian and was made with Sea Island field peas, Carolina gold rice, and herbs. It’s was full of so many flavors and textures.

The cauliflower – smoked blue cheese, celery, Cutino’s Hot Sauce. As far as I know this dish has been on the menu consistently. It’s also vegetarian and is sort of like vegetarian hot wings.

On a recent Restaurant Week Menu they offered very UNIQUE beignets with black garlic-peanut-romesco sauce.

I only got the eat the K.F.C. Sandwich once but it was truly the FORKING BEST Hot Chicken sandwich that I’ve tried anywhere. What does K.F.C. stand for?…..Kentucky FORKING Crack Sandwich? What I still remember most is that this sandwich had the very best delicious chicken flavor…… Also all the other flavors from the slaw, thick pickles and the right sized bun just went magically together…..It was different……… This sandwich was not the spiciest….but was the most delicious…..This one was on the menu years ago for lunch. I JUST FOUND OUT that this sandwich….(I’m guessing smaller in size………Hopefully the same recipe?)….Is on the Happy Hour Menu…….. (Wed-Fri 4pm-5:30).

Recently I enjoyed the Ethiopian Fried Chicken Restaurant Week Special.

Ethiopian Fried Chicken

This was delicious and crispy with a lot of flavors and heat….I was surprised that this was or seemed spicier than the hot chicken sandwich….Or maybe it just seemed hotter without a bun, slaw, and pickles to blend with? It was delicious and came with a vegetable-ish relish called chakalaka. The chakalaka had some of the similar beans from the hopping Johns but was spicy.

Sometimes a chicken dinner at The Larder and The Delta might look like this with chicken toe nails in the air.

Shrimp and grits are next.

Below was a recent restaurant week special.

Slow roast Niman Ranch Pork Loin

Possibly due to supply issues the Restaurant Week Pork Special was changed up some. It was advertised as a smoked and braised pork collar. Here it was a slow roast Niman Ranch pork loin with hominy and corn giardiniera. My husband thought that the pork had a similar taste to ham.

Something seafood is usually on the menu.

If I remember correctly this was an Ethiopian spiced snapper. The flavors on this one really were BANGING.

Excuse the bad photo above because you can’t see the BBQ meatloaf.

Desserts are casual here.

Cola Cake

M&M Cookie with Capt’n Crunch Ice Cream

apple cobbler

Apple cobbler

That was a Little Taste of The Larder and The Delta. Give it a try!
*******UPDATE CLOSED EXPECTED TO RELOCATE******

The Larder and The Delta 200 W Portland St PHX AZ

480-409-8520

www.TheLarderandtheDelta.com

Everything is subject to change.

The Forking Truth