I was reading about Amish Onion Patties and found out that they are a scrumptious fried food that I have never had. I heard that they taste like onion rings. I figured out a baked version of and seasoned them a bit more. GOSH they are a BIG HIT because they are forking tasty and not so heavy. They have a crisp exterior and are light almost like an fluffy onion pancake inside. They are tasty the way they are but also would be great with any dip, dressing, or ketchup that you can think of….I think that they would be great as mini sandwiches too. This recipe makes around 16 patties. You need to eat at least two so that might be 8 small portions. I am certain that some will eat more than two patties so serving size is difficult to judge. I’ll guesstimate 6 servings.
Ingredients for around 6 portions
2 1/2 cups onions – sliced thin on mandolin and chopped (I used 1+ almost1/2 large onions)
1/3 cup scallions – sliced thin
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 Tablespoon corn meal
3/4 cup flour
2 teaspoons sea salt
1 Tablespoon sugar
1 Tablespoon granulated onion
1/2 teaspoon ground white pepper
2 eggs – beaten
1/4 cup water
canola non stick spray
Directions
Set oven to 400 degrees F and spray two sheet trays with non stick spray.
In a large bowl add the onions, scallions, baking powder, cornmeal, flour, salt, sugar, granulated onion, pepper, Mix well.
In a small bowl mix together the eggs and water. Now add that to the big bowl and mix well.
I used a teaspoon and heaped it up with batter and placed them on the baking sheets like this.
My oven was preheated to 400 degrees F. One sheet pan went on the middle rack and the other sheet pan on the lower rack. In my oven I thought that the onions patties looked perfect to me at 30 minutes. Ovens can differ some so you might need slightly more or slightly less time.
China Chili Restaurant is located in Central Phoenix Arizona. They offer a lot of the usual American Chinese and Hong Kong Style Chinese Foods (that means Cantonese inspired). They offer a variety of appetizers like boiled won tons, fried prawns, and crab puffs. They offer several varieties of soups, duck, and the usual chicken, beef, some tofu, and vegetarian dishes. They happen to offer many choices of seafood such as shrimp, calamari, flounder, scallops, mussels, striped bass, live seafood, and a surprise dish that I’ve found on their Grub Hub Menu but I didn’t find on their in-house menu. A dish called French Style Beef with macadamia nuts…..
It looks like a nice Chinese Restaurant when you walk in….. The take out and cashier area is up in front by the door.
Inside is a nice big dining room.
The tables are set with paper linen and lots of paper Chinese placemats. Tables also include condiments.
As soon as we were seated……Even before we ordered….Someone ran out two cups of soup to us.
The soup taste like egg drop soup and has kernels of fresh corn in it.
I looked at the menu and noticed that it differs slightly from on-line menus. I didn’t notice the hot pots or French Style beef on the menu but maybe it was my bad and maybe I just missed them?
I go with the flounder in white sauce with snow peas….accented with some carrots and scallions.
It’s a large portion of fish and vegetables. It’s in a mild chicken based sauce lightly accented with ginger. It’s very easy to eat because it’s so light in the stomach…Nothing heavy here. Steamed rice is on the side.
My husband went with the Szechwan beef.
It’s very good but not what either of us were expecting. The beef is very tender and has this very light fried coating that is UNIQUE and also easy to eat. The sauce is actually spicy hot but not too sweet and is sort of beef gravy flavored Asian sauce. No vegetables here but a few crisp noodles are in there. I would enjoy this more if I could add vegetables to this dish or order it as an appetizer for a larger table. We both think that it is very good but we like some vegetables with our meat dishes.
Not recently but I did previously enjoy take out from China Chili. This restaurant isn’t close to where I live or I would have been here more often.
I did enjoy the flounder in black bean sauce but I do like the flounder in white sauce more with the snow peas.
1/2 of take out – flounder in black bean sauce
I do like the chicken tomato dish with egg flowers but it does run slightly sweeter than I like but the tomatoes did have a good tomato flavor and the chicken was tender.
Campo Italian Bistro is located in Scottsdale Arizona. They are a full service seasonal Italian Restaurant by Genuine Concepts Group. This group includes Metro Phoenix Bars and restaurants such as The Genuine, The Vig, The Little Woody, The Womack, and McMillon. James Beard Award Wining, Celebrity Chef Alex Stratta and Well Seasoned Chef Jeremy Pachero are partners of The Genuine Concepts Group.
Campo Italian Bistro offers a patio for outside dinning.
patio glass garage doors separate inside from patio
A lot of natural light come in during brunch and early dinner time.
dining and bar areadining room
Menus are seasonal but always include a lot of variety and usually seasonal specials.
Even the brunch menu includes snacks. It also includes some topped toasts, salads (proteins can be added), pizzas, brunch entrees, and panini.
The dinner menu is also seasonal and changes slightly now and then. The dinner menu also includes snacks, antipasto, salads, pastas, pizzas and entrees. Below are some brunch items and dinners that we’ve tried.
Here’s a snack of the day special – Goat cheese mousse with beets, apples, and a cheese crisp.
(not on current menu…darn so yummy) Sttacchino Cheese with Lavosh
crispy parmigiano cauliflower – breaded cauliflower (three colors that are slightly different in the mouth), parmesan, capers, Calabrian Chilies, citrus vinaigrette (dinner menu appetizers)
Salmon Rillettes- snack on current (August 2022) menus Brunch & Dinner
(not on current menu…BIG DARN…..so yummy) Artisan Cheese Plate with grilled Noble Bread
Smoked Salmon Everything Pizza – missing the everything seasoning and the capers differ from menu description (not fried)
Italian Ham & Cheese – Today this was served dried out. Last time it was much better.
Much better and not dried out.
I really loved this salad (below) but it’s not here this season. I am partial to the Salmon from Campo. It’s been fish house quality great every time so far.
Salmon salad from Campo Italian Bistro in Scottsdale was particularly good
This salad was the arugula, marinated fennel, with pistachios, local citrus, pecorino cheese, and a vinaigrette. (salmon was added). I must note that Campo Italian Bistro so far has always done phenomenal salmon. It always has a crispy skin, is seasoned nicely, and is never over cooked.
beet apple pistachio and whipped goat cheese salad with added salmon
special – short rib ganganelli
creste pasta (not on current menu) – locally made pasta, local Schriener’s sausage, broccolini, roasted peppers, feta cheese. Came out very dry without a sauce to hold it together.
chicken al matone with gnocchi and mushrooms – The chicken was very dry this evening and our server didn’t check on us. A busboy took the plate. I didn’t even bring the chicken home for my dogs. I didn’t want to complain after I was done but I didn’t come back for a very long time because of this dry chicken and service. On my recent visit I was going to order the chicken again to give it another try. So I asked my server about it. She said, “It’s a 50/50 shot if it will be dry.” I’m so glad that I had an honest server..So I didn’t take a chance on it again.
Crispy salmon with cannellini beans, kale, and tomato sauce
On my recent visit the salmon looked like this.
It’s a little smaller with less beans but still very good.
Grilled bone-in pork chop – crisp parmesan fingerling potatoes, Brussels sprouts, apple mostarda – This was tender, moist and good.
For dessert we’ve tried –
The semifreddo – (raspberries, pine nuts, yuzu) on a more recent visit it differed.
I didn’t get the yuzu as much…….
oive oil cake
On Opentable the Campo manager noticed my comments about dining there. I mentioned my dinner about the dry chicken and mentioned not being checked on. I said that I waited a long time to go back to Campo and again it wasn’t perfect again. Our two course brunch took 90 minutes. Our smoked salmon pizza was missing the everything seasoning and the capers differed from menu description (latter told they changed recipe). The other problem was my husband’s Italian ham & cheese seemed like it was sitting under a heat lamp for a long time and was served all dried out. The manager noticed my comments on Opentable and invited me back.
Again NOT PERFECT…..The manager was there (next to us comping something for that table because nobody was waiting on them) but ignored us and didn’t comp anything. My husband asked for the manager. After a few minutes the server said that he was no where to be found…………….My husband told the server about the situation and she did take my meal off the bill and THAT’S THE FORKING TRUTH!
Campo Italian Bistro in Scottsdale AZ – Not perfection but mostly very good.
About once a year I make my pastrami, rye bread or rolls, some sort of mustard and a slaw. This year I used sake instead of beer in my mustard so I did a little Asian Twist on slaw and it came out really great! Serving size is always difficult to judge because I don’t know if you want a tiny side cup or a true side order. This stuff really is tasty. You might eat more slaw than you normally do. I will guesstimate 6 large servings (large to me for slaw) but you might really get 8.
Ingredients for around 6 servings
1/2 small cabbage – shredded thin on mandolin
1 carrot – shredded
1/2 onion sliced thin on mandolin
2 small avocados – mashed
1/2 cup Greek yogurt
1/2 cup mayonnaise
4 Tablespoons bonito flakes – split onto 2T& 2T (sold at Asian Markets) (2T for salad and 2T for finishing)
1 teaspoon dry dill
1/2 teaspoon granulated onion
1/2 teaspoon granulated garlic
1/2 teaspoon dried chives
1/2 teaspoon dried parley
1 Tablespoon wasabi powder (or to taste..)
1 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
1 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 lemon – just the fresh squeezed juice
2 teaspoons sherry vinegar
1 teaspoon shiso fumi furikake (sold at Asian Markets) (for finishing)
1/4 cup scallions – either sliced thin or on a diagonal (for finishing)
Directions
In a large bowl mix up the dressing. Combine the avocado, yogurt, mayonnaise, dill, granulated onion, garlic, chives, parsley, wasabi, pepper, salt, lemon juice, and vinegar. Mix well. Mix in the cabbage, carrot, and onion. Mix well.
Serve
Finish with bonito flakes, furikake, and scallions
Avocado Wasabi Slaw with Furikake and Bonito Flakes
This recipe is by Gabriela Duhart who is a consultant with Humane Society International. I came across this recipe and thought wow it would be pretty cool to make carrot lox. I thought I’d give this recipe a try on my home made mini bagels (mini bagel recipe not published as of yet)
Ingredients for around 4 servings
4 carrots – boiled for 8 minutes and cooled
2 Tablespoons caper brine (liquid from a jar of capers)
2 Tablespoons soy sauce
1 Tablespoon miso paste
1 Tablespoon olive oil
2 teaspoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon finely chopped dill
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
2/3 cup warm water
Directions
Slice the carrots into thin strips or sheets using a fine knife or vegetable peeler.
in a bowl (or a ziplock bag) combine the remaining ingredients and the carrots.
Marinate the carrots in the refrigerator. One hour will add little flavor. I tried them after letting them sit overnight and I thought the dominate flavor was soy sauce. Then I let them go longer. I thought I got the most and best flavors around 5 days latter.
Remove carrots from marinade and serve.
Humane Society Vegan Carrot Lox on home made mini bagel
I think that if you are vegan that this is a good recipe………..but……. It doesn’t actually taste like real lox plain. But it almost taste like lox in the home made mini bagel all dressed up. Those were my FORKING Thoughts on The Humane Society Vegan Lox Recipe.
The Collins Bros. Chophouse is located in Scottsdale Arizona and is a sister…..or is it a “brother” restaurant of the chef Christopher Collins Common Ground Culinary Group of restaurants and catering. Across the street from this NEW Chophouse is “brother restaurant” Grassroots Kitchen & Tap, and also Sweet Provisions – Ice Cream, Candy, and Dessert Shop. Other “Brother” Restaurants are……. The Collins, The Macintosh, The Brotherly, Arcadia Catering, and soon to open St Urban.
The Collins Bros. Chophouse offers a very similar American Comfort food menu to the other Common Ground Restaurants but with a few Chophouse additions. They offer a rotating menu of seafood soups, fresh oysters, other starters, salads, burgers, sandwiches, rotisserie chicken,
The Rotisserie
house specialties and butcher shop. A few of those items are baby back ribs, Scottish salmon, Maryland style crab cakes, prime ribs, center cut filets, and a dry aged porterhouse. They also offer a children’s menu.
Outside they offer a patio with misters.
Inside was very busy and it was difficult to photo dodging servers, customers and management.
insidebar and kitchen area
My husband started with the HH two buck shuck.
HH – Two Buck Shuck
Three fresh oysters with cocktail sauce and drawn butter. He said that they were fresh tasting but not the brine-ee type.
We shared another Happy Hour food and went with the cauliflower wings.
They have a crunchy panko type coating and are made with sriracha aioli and are topped with cilantro and sesame seeds. Tasty but they are more like nuggets than wings……They are good for most people but might be slightly salty to sensitive people.
For my main I went with the rotisserie chicken chophouse style.
It a half rotisserie chicken (breast, small thigh, tiny leg, with really perfect onion rings and Pommery mustard sauce. The chicken seems infused with good chicken flavors. I tried the thigh and that is juicy and good. The breast has good flavors but is a bit dry tonight. It’s tasty with the mustard sauce.
We also shared a side order of mixed greens.
They are fresh and seasoned nicely. They are a mix of greens. Some are spinach, it looks like Swiss chard in there and some greens are artichoke hearts.
My husband tried the bone-in veal parmesan (served Thursday – Saturday) with house made pasta, San Marzano tomato sauce, mozzarella and red pepper flakes.
He said the veal was tender but could have been seasoned more. I tasted a small piece of pasta and the sauce did seem bland. He thinks that the red pepper flakes might have been missing.
Desserts are not to be missed at the Collins Restaurants. I was too full for dessert tonight so I did take out a coconut cream pie because it is always a winner.
It’s not as pretty as a dine-in version but still is just as delicious the next day. It is really FORKING Delicious! Even my husband who is a hater of coconut cream pies loves it.
They gave me a second dessert. The butter cake…..Maybe by accident? Or maybe because the coconut cream pie looked sort of damaged?
It’s a very different looking butter cake. I’ve never seen one that looks like this before. Usually they are all melted and very gooey looking. They also gave us ice cream (that made it home on a 30 minute ride, whipped cream that is very buttery, and strawberry sauce. Both me and my husband have never liked butter cakes. I guess they just are too buttery for us…..But this Butter cake is different. It’s more like a pound cake….We can eat that…It’s just a good cake! YUM!
Collins Bros. Chophouse is Newly Opened in Scottsdale AZ
www.CollinsBrosAZ.com
8220 N Hayden Rd Scottsdale AZ
480-699-0811
Everything is subject to change…an it usually does.
West Hut African Cuisine is located in the Midtown Area of Phoenix Arizona. It’s located across from Park Central.
It’s casual inside with wait service.
At the time of my visit only soft beverages are served but it appears that a liquor license is pending.
We started out by sharing the kelewele (spiced tasty plantains)
The entrees don’t have African Names.
I tried the dish called The West Hut with chicken with jollot rice (Ghana style). Most of the entrees are chicken, beef, or goat.
I received a skin on, bone-in chicken leg and part of breast covered in a tomato based sauce with a side of spicy pepper sauce. I also received plain plantains, a little salad garnish and the jollot rice. It’s all tasty. I think anyone would like it.
My husband got the I Love Spinach dish with chicken and Fufu.
He got either the same chicken or a very similar chicken but the spinach is tasty and flavored different. It’s also slightly spicy. Neither of us ever had fufu before. It’s really interesting. You pinch some off and make a tortilla to eat the food. The fufu almost taste like mashed potatoes but with little flavor.
Our server was helpful guiding us threw the menu and made suggestions.
West Hut African Cuisine Newly Opened in Phoenix AZ – Check it out!
I sure learned a lot from Chef Claudette Zepeda’s recipe for Strawberry (and Radish…..online the radish is omitted from the name of recipe ) aguachile recipe. I had no idea that you can lightly cook strawberries and come up with such an amazing strawberry sauce that is truly amazing. I just had to do parts of the recipe different. I also didn’t want to throw out vegetable and fruit solids that tasted so good and added healthy fiber and nutrition to the dish. I cut out some of the straining. I also cut out picking out seeds from tiny chitepin peppers (who does that?), and icing up and drying chopped scallions before serving (it really is a nice touch but………). Also picking off cilantro leaves one by one. The big one that I couldn’t agree with was not using one third of a roasted pepper because it was just too much roasted red pepper…….(how could that that be?….the roasted pepper is so darn delicious. By not doing all those things I guess what I made is no longer aguachile and really is a cold soup. >>>>>>>>Also I think I simplified the cooking of the strawberries. It is also very hard to keep a simmering bowl of water under a bowl with 2 pounds of strawberries for an HOUR…..I made that easier by cooking them in a low oven. This recipe was based from chef Claudette Zepeda’s Food & Wine Magazine Recipe. It came out delicious anyway. You need to know that this is a very time consuming recipe…I cut out some steps and it still is very time consuming. You are welcome to strain everything all you want if you care to. If you strain everything you will have a true aguachile but you also will end up with much less.
Ingredients for around 4 servings
1 red bell pepper – roasted – stem, skin, seeds, removed and chopped
2 1/2 pounds strawberries – stems removed, quartered divided into 2 pounds and 1/2 pound that is reserved for topping the aguachile
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon fine sea salt
3 medium scallions – root cut off – white and light green chopped – separate the dark green part and trim thin on a diagonal
1/4 cup fresh cilantro – leaves and fine stems – chopped and reserve 6 of the thicker stems, chop the stems but keep them separate
4 regular radishes sliced thin or use any radish you want. You just need a little to garnish each bowl.
radish micro greens for garnish
optional sea salt flakes for finishing
Directions
Set your oven to 180 degrees F.
In a large baking dish or pan add 2 pounds (remember you should have reserved 1/2 pound) strawberries. Sprinkle the strawberries with salt and sugar. Cover the pan and place on the middle rack of your preheated oven. This stays in the oven for an hour.
Take a break…or do the next step and put it off to the side and into the refrigerator.
Combine the cucumber, lime juice, lemon juice, chiltepin peppers, bell pepper, white and light green scallions, reserved cilantro stems. Blend till smooth.
By now your strawberries should be out of the oven. You need to place them in a colander over a bowl to catch the juices that leak out. This will take another HOUR.
All the strawberry juice gets added to the cucumber/strawberry juice mixture. Blend up the strawberries till smooth and add that also to the cucumber mixture till smooth.
This needs to chill in the refrigerator a few hours before serving.
Assemble – divide the aguachile into 4 servings. Top each bowl with the remaining strawberries, radish slices, cilantro, scallions, radish sprouts. Add flaked salt if you like.
Strawberry Aguachile Style Cold Soup
A Special THANKS!!! to chef Claudette Zepeda and Food & Wine Magazine for inspiring me to do my twist on their amazing recipe.
The FANTABULOUS Dish means – Top of the line, marvelously good, peachy keen, and dynamite! WOW what a great surprise . You just don’t always know when a FANTABULOUS dish will show up. This salad just blew both of us away. It’s only named Arugula salad. I picked it to share as an appetizer instead of chips because it sounded lighter and healthy. I wasn’t expecting jaw dropping fireworks of flavors……
The Arugula Salad from REVOLU Modern Taqueria & Bar in Peoria AZ
This salad is made of avocado, watermelon, red onion (pickled), pico, toasted pepitas, cotija cheese, and this MAGICAL chili-lime vinaigrette.
I need to mention as astonishingly delicious as this salad is ………I must mention that it is spicy HOT. Borderline too hot for me but it was so DAM delicious I had to keep eating it. You get sweet from the watermelon, creamy from the avocado, hot and delicious from the MAGICAL chili-lime vinaigrette, Umami from the cheese, yummy from the pepitas and the right amount of bitter from the arugula. It’s far more delicious than I can describe. You can also add on protein to this dish if desired.
The Arugula Salad from REVOLU Modern Taqueria & Bar is an official FANTABULOUS DISH and is WORTH A FORK!
REVOLU Modern Taqueria & Bar
15703 N 83rd Ave Peoria AZ (a second location is in Phoenix)
About once a year I make pastrami and about once a year I make rye bread or rye rolls and a mustard. I usually make a beer mustard but this year I didn’t have any beer at home so I thought what tastes like beer here?….I thought Sake! So I made one jar of Sake Mustard. It’s similar to the beer mustard but is a bit sweeter. You do need a spice grinder to make this mustard. I made it a mix of ground and whole seeds…This recipe makes the perfect amount to fill a small Ball 1/2 pint canning jar. I’ll guesstimate around 8 servings.
Ingredients for around 8 servings
4 1/2 Tablespoons black mustard seeds (reserve 1 Tablespoon to keep whole if desired)
3 Tablespoons yellow mustard seeds (reserve 1 Tablespoon to keep whole if desired)
2 allspice berries
7 juniper berries
2 Tablespoons honey
2 garlic cloves – ground to paste
1/2 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon turmeric
1 Tablespoon ground mustard powder
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
5 Tablespoons sake
2 Tablespoons rice wine vinegar
1 Tablespoon + 1 teaspoon mirin
Directions
Grind up the mustard seeds except for the reserved seeds if desired. Grind up the allspice and juniper seeds and mixup everything that is left together (honey, garlic, pepper, turmeric, ground mustard, salt, sake, vinegar, mirin.
Enjoy!
Sake Mustard
Here’s this years rye rolls.
rye rolls with sake mustard
Here’s this years pastrami.
smoked pastrami
Did it only slightly different. Basically the same recipe November 2020 but separated the point from the flat of the brisket and used the flat for pastrami. Actually my husband separated them for me. He volunteered so I let him do it because I thought I might hack it up. He also did the beautiful slicing.
