The FANTABULOUS Dish means…..top of the line, marvelously good, peachy keen and Dynamite.
The Mole Negro – Rubbed Smoked Wagyu Brisket from Renata’s Hearth in Phoenix Arizona (at the Biltmore) Is CRAZY FORKING astonishingly delectable. It’s juicy, fatty (but not too fatty), smoky, crunchy and OOOOohhhhhhhhhhh sooooooooo FANTABULOUS! It just might be the best tasting brisket that I have ever tried……
It also comes with hand made in house flour and corn tortillas, three salsas (verde, roja and mango pineapple) Peruvian rice and black beans.
Just drop what you are doing and try it now because it is FANTABULOUS!
I started out by reading about Kashmiri Masala spice blend and I thought it might taste good on butternut squash…..Then I started reading more about Kashmiri cuisine and got a bunch of ideas that are NOT authentic to Kashmiri cuisine but I thought that this combination taste good anyway and it does. Servings will differ ….I got seven stuffed peppers out of this that made seven servings for me. Some were small and some were bigger depending on the pepper.
Ingredients for around 6 servings
1 small butternut squash – peeled – seeds, stem, end button, and membranes removed and sliced very thin on a mandolin
2-3 Tablespoons Kashmiri Masala Seasoning – Add to taste – I used Archana’s Kitchen’s recipe for Kashmiri Masala. I thought the whole recipe 2-3 Tablespoons was perfect for one butternut squash.
1 lb Anaheim chili peppers (or any peppers that you like but timing might differ)
1 cup white vinegar
4 oz walnuts – lightly crushed
4 oz Pomegranate seeds (reserve 1-2 Tablespoons to finish)
1 teaspoon cumin seed
4 Tablespoons canola oil (1/2 goes in squash mixture the rest gets drizzled on pan and squash)
sea salt to taste
1 cup shredded unsweetened coconut flakes
1/2 cup cilantro leaves and tender stems (packed tight)
1 Tablespoon dried mint (fresh mint is better but I didn’t have any..about two Tablespoons)
2 jalapeno peppers – fine chopped
4 garlic cloves – fine chopped
1/2 teaspoon ginger powder
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1 lemon – just the fresh squeezed juice
1/2-3/4 cup water – to make chutney to desired consistency
1 Tablespoon (heaping) yogurt
1 Tablespoon (heaping) white miso
1 Tablespoon (heaping) mayonnaise
Directions
Cut peppers by making a slit across the stem area and down the middle and remove seeds and core. Once all the peppers are done put them in a ziplock bag with the vinegar and let them marinate at least 30 minutes.
Set oven to 400 degrees F.
In a large bowl combine the butternut squash, walnuts, pomegranate (reserve a heaping tablespoon for finishing) cumin seeds and two tablespoons of canola oil. Mix well.
Get a baking sheet ready and drizzle it lightly with canola oil.
Shake off the peppers and stuff them full as much as you can. Put them on the baking sheet and drizzle lightly with oil.
Place in the middle rack of the oven till cooked threw and a little browned. Timing will differ but mine took around 25 minutes.
Make the Green coconut chutney.
Blend together the coconut, cilantro, mint, jalapeño, garlic, ginger, cumin, lemon juice and water to desired consistency. Add sea salt to taste. Put to the side.
Make the yogurt-miso-mayo. Just combine equal amounts of yogurt, miso and mayo. You don’t need much…just a little drizzle.
Kashmiri Masala Spiced Butternut Squash,Walnuts, Pomegranate, stuffed Peppers with Green Coconut Chutney and Yogurt-Miso-Mayo
Finish with remaining pomegranate, Serve with chutney and drizzle with yogurt-miso-mayo.
ENJOY!
A SPECIAL THANKS to Archana’s Kitchen for your amazing Kashmiri Masala Recipe so I could come up with mine.
I picked up this bag of Lay’s Spanish Tomato Tango Potato chips from the Asiana Market in the Deer Valley part of Phoenix. These chips are from India…..I thought they’d be from Spain since it reads Spanish on the bag. Well Spanish sounds good so lets give this bag a try.
It’s a very small bag of chips and it only weighs around 2 ounces.
Here’s the back of the bag.
Here’s the ingredients.
I’m so glad that they used edible vegetable oil instead of inedible vegetable oil. I see that some flavors are natural and other flavors are identical flavoring substances…LOL!
I open the bag and take a whiff.
Gosh these chips smell really strange…
I smell sweet. I smell fried. I slightly smell cinnamon and a lot I can’t identify….Lets spilll some out.
The chips have ridges and are covered in an orange powder.
I taste one…..
It’s very strange.
It’s sour and sweet with other flavors that are laced with clove.
The sour is very strange….It’s not a normal sour like lemon or vinegar ……it’s more like tomato sauce that isn’t made right. Like when you don’t cook tomatoes enough or when you cook them too much and they start to ferment. Then you taste sugar like they attempted to fix the tomato sauce. I also taste the black pepper…..There are other flavors but they are overpowered by the clove that is really gross here.
Lay’s Spanish Tomato Tango Potato Chips is one of my all time least favorite flavors that I have ever tried.
I got the idea to make quick kimchi slaw because it is tasty and has less funk than real kimchi….(not that funk is a bad thing here…..It is good but my husband doesn’t like real kimchi) Then I thought of two things that are delicious with kimchi….One is brisket and the other is tuna. I can’t whip of a brisket in less than an hour so I went with tuna and made a really tasty Asian style tuna patty. This recipe makes 4 servings of quick kimchi but only two patties. You can adjust the recipe for your needs. I also note that the quick kimchi is best to make the day before so the flavors mingle.
Ingredients for two servings
1 medium/small cabbage – shredded
1 red bell pepper – seeds and stem removed – shredded
5 radish – shredded
2 scallion – sliced thin
1 Asian pear – core and stem removed – sliced thin
2 Tablespoons gochugaru pepper
3 Tablespoons sriracha (preferably Shark Brand)
2 garlic cloves – ground to paste
2 Tablespoons soy sauce
1 Tablespoon sugar
1/4 cup rice wine vinegar
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
2 Tablespoons fish sauce (preferably Red Boat Brand)
1 – 5oz can tuna – (I used ahi wild yellowfin tuna from Costco) – drained mashed
1 Tablespoon chili crisp
1/4 cup sautéed chopped onions
2 eggs – lightly beaten
4 lychee fruit – chopped (you can substitute seedless grapes)
1/2 cup whole wheat panko
1 Tablespoon Thai Basil – torn
1-2 hot peppers grated (I used two Thai Chili)
1 orange – just the zest
1 lemon – just the zest
1 lime – just the zest
sea salt or better yet yuzu salt to taste
Directions
Make the quick kimchi slaw. In a large bowl combine the cabbage, bell pepper, radish, scallion, Asian pear, gochugaru, sriracha, garlic, soy sauce, sugar, rice wine vinegar, sesame oil, ginger and fish sauce. Mix well. Leave on counter for around an hour for the flavors to cook the cabbage. Then refrigerate over night for the best flavors.
Make the tuna patties. Set oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a sheet pan with non stick spray and set to the side. In a medium bowl mix together the tuna, chili crisp, onions, eggs, lychee, panko, and Thai basil. Let this sit out about 15 minutes. Make two burger sized patties and place on sprayed sheet pan. Put into the oven till cooked threw. Ovens do differ so timing will differ. (around 25 minutes) Remove when done.
While the patties are cooking make the faux Yuzu Kosho (real is made from yuzu). Combine the hot pepper all the zest and some salt.
When the Asian style tuna patties are done serve right away with quick kimchi and top the patties with the Yuzu Kosho. (In the picture I drizzled the tuna patty with sriracha mixed with mayo…It’s good on the patty but I don’t think you really need it with the slaw)
Asian Style Tuna Patties with Yuzu Kosho and Quick Kimchi style Slaw
Confluence is a small restaurant that serves an ever changing menu of farm fresh modern elevated American cuisine located in Carefree Arizona. They offer patio dining with a view of the mountains. They also offer a cozy dining room and bar seating.
They always start you off with a house made bread.
Today it was a generous slice of crusty sourdough served with oil and white balsamic vinegar.
We started out with a hot appetizer of gnocchi.
The gnocchi were pan fried and were elevated with morel mushrooms, cured goose egg yolk, ramps and thyme.
For dinner I usually go with a fish dish because Confluence serves some of the best fish dishes in the valley and it’s hard to get super great fish dishes in the valley…….(but really everything they serve is always excellent)………. Today I went with the filet mignon. This is the first time I ever ordered a steak from here for dinner.
The fillet is very flavorful and is tender like butter. For me it’s a very large portion too. The flavors of the vegetables next to the steak go magically well together. They are fiddlehead ferns, white asparagus, black eyed peas, basil creme fraiche and a fried green tomato. This plate cost much less than filet my husband had from a well known steak house and is so much better and a million times more flavorful. This has to be maybe the nicest best filet mignon plate that you can get anywhere. Prices for filet mignon start at what this steak cost and sometimes are $25. MORE and DON’T come with sides……and if you buy the sides they sure won’t be this nice……….. That is part of the reason on why it’s a great fine dining value to eat here. The tasting menu options are the other reason. They just knock it out of the park with them.
My husband got the Iberiaco pork loin.
It’s as pretty as a picture.
It was also prepared to perfection and came with corn grits, caulilini, brussel’s sprouts, and pomegranate.
For dessert we went with the lemon curd with shortbread, elderflower macerated strawberries and fresh mint.
Everything was equally stupendous!
That was just a Taste of Confluence in Carefree – Great Value Fine Dining
I haven’t been everywhere but I have tasted some amazing dishes this year. There are many GOOD ONES that I can list here but narrowed it down to the ones that stood out the most……….All the dishes taste TOP of the line, They are all marvelously good, peachy keen and Dynamite.
The Bufalina Pizza from Fabio On Fire in Peoria – Is made with high end ingredients such as San Marzano Tomato sauce, imported buffalo cheese, oregano, garlic, arugula, reduced balsamic vinegar, farm fresh sweet tomatoes, and extra virgin olive oil. This has all kinds of flavors going on. Also the heat of the pizza warms the cheese JUST SO and you taste the most exquisite mozzarella the way it was meant to be enjoyed instead of just heating it to death on the pizzas like most places do.
The ground filet burger from The Bourbon Cellar in North Scottsdale. This is a ground in house burger that taste more like a fine steak. I have no idea how this burger has so much flavor. I think that it is best to enjoy this burger open face with a knife and fork because it taste like a juicy steak.
Speaking of a juicy flavorful steak…..
The filet mignon from Confluence in Carefree is excellent and not your grandfather’s plate of steak. This plate came with fried green tomato, fiddlehead ferns, white asparagus, black eyed peas, basil creme fraiche and the most buttery tender flavorful steak ever. (NOTE*******the menu at Confluence is ever changing with what is fresh from the local farms and does change often)
The Confit Wagyu Beef Cheek from Confluence in Carefree is a FORKING JAW-DROOPINGLY astonishing. …. The only bad news is that the menu from Confluence is ever changing so you might not be able to get this dish when you want it. But the good news is that this restaurant pretty much always is serving something amazing.
The Strawberry Gelato from Fabio On Fire in Peoria might be the best in the whole country. I take that back….because…It probably is the best in the country!
The Goat Cheese Creme Brûlée from Bottega Pizzeria Ristorante in North Glendale isn’t something that you would expect from an Italian Restaurant and Pizzeria but is SUBLIMELY Spreadable and OH so edible….. It’s spiced goat cheese with fig compote and crostini. You crack into a shattering crisp sugar surface and then the party in your mouth happens….It’s so great that you can enjoy it for either an appetizer or even dessert. It’s a shame that the cacciatore isn’t still on the menu because that dish sure belongs here. It was the best that I have ever tasted anywhere. I had the cacciatore from Pizzeria Bianco and it was good but the cacciatore from Bottega tasted like TEN TIMES BETTER…..like so great you’d drive across town for…..Well I’m mentioning it because maybe it will return to their menu sometime.
The Salmon Salad is very special from Pomo Pizzeria in Scottsdale. The salmon is from Chula Seafood. This one was melt in your mouth succulent with tasty grill marks. It POPS from the sweet grilled lemon and PINK PEPPERCORNS…that are a magical combination that I didn’t expect. The rest of the salad is fresh spring mix, gold beets, fennel and grape tomatoes…It’s only a salad so you can splurge for the Luna Gelato that is extra special too!
The Chicken from Valentine in the Melrose area of Phoenix was superb. It was smoky (but not too smoky), masterfully tender, moist, and flavorful. With that deep developed sauce, cabbage, durum wheat berries and kerned dill yogurt it was an explosion in every bite.
The Kokomo Chop Bowl from Little Cay Latin Caribbean Kitchen is one BAM-Diggitty-YUM-Dinger (When you add the seasoned Puerto Rican Pique sauce on the table) This Chop Bowl is full of yummy marinated chicken, yellow rice, black beans, curry mayo, rum soaked cranberries, add that pique sauce and it is FORKING BOMB!
I think a doughnut can be on this list if it is the FORKING BEST that I have tasted.
There is a donut shop on Bell Road in North Phoenix called Daily Donuts and Wings. I have only tried a few donuts so far and each one that I tried was the best of it’s kind that I have tried anywhere. I think my favorite might be the glazed lemon filled. These donuts are so fresh, have the perfect sweetness, seem light as air, and are DELICIOUS and overly easy to inhale.
The buttermilk fried chicken that is usually on the lunch menu from Confluence in Carefree is a OMG YUM kind of plate. It’s incredibly crunchy and crisp on the outside. The interior is JUICY, flavorful, EXPERTLY prepared tender chicken…..but I didn’t mention that INSANELY delicious sauce on it. The sauce is called chili tepid honey mustard sauce. It is a little spicy but not too spicy and is really FORKING plate scraping delicious. I also note that for me this is a very large portion and I make two meals from the chicken. My husband eats more than me and just eats the whole thing.
Taco Fusion in Glendale makes VERY GOOD Tacos (especially the habanero mild chicken taco with pineapple salsa) on hand made tortillas that are delicious. But this corn cake from Taco Fusion is amazing. It has a great corn flavor and taste like it’s a mix of custard and cake together. It’s just an AMAZING dessert! It’s better than the majority of desserts we get out at most places.
But I must mention this one…..
I have to give it to Fabio On Fire in Peoria again. This Strawberry Rum Cake is so good I’d tell a diabetic to eat it. It was really so delicious! I had to mention it.
My husband ate something very special that I didn’t eat so I want to mention it.
He REALLY LOVED the slow braised osso buco from the Italian Daughter in North Scottsdale.
It was falling off the bone tender. He loved digging into the bone and enjoyed the marrow. The sauce was nice and rich with the perfect deepness. He really enjoyed this and wants to have it again.
These were some of the Marvelously Great Foods that stood out in 2021 so far. I do note that many others are out there.
I took a trip up to Singh Meadows in Tempe AZ and picked up some amazing produce. Fiddlehead Ferns and Black Trumpet mushrooms are hard to come by and are highly prized by food lovers. You cook fiddle head ferns sort of like asparagus but longer. You MUST clean the fiddle head ferns very well and you have to cook them completely because they contain some sort of toxin that you have to cook all the way out. I read that if you boil them for 5 minutes that is enough so that is how I cooked mine. I think the sauces I picked go really well with this dish. This makes around 4 servings.
Ingredients for around 4 servings
1 lb fiddlehead ferns – cleaned really well
6 oz black trumpet mushrooms – cleaned
1 oz unsalted butter
1/4 cup tahini (tahini verde)
2 Tablespoons fresh tarragon (tahini verde)
1 Tablespoon fresh cilantro (tahini verde)
1 Tablespoon fresh Thai Basil (tahini verde)
ice water (I didn’t measure but I think it was around 1/4 cup) (tahini verde)
1/2 teaspoon sea salt (tahini verde)
pinch ground white pepper (tahini verde)
2 Tablespoons white miso (miso aioli)
1 Tablespoon sour cream or greek yogurt (miso aioli)
1 Tablespoon mayonaise (miso aioli)
1 teaspoon garlic confit (miso aioli)
small splash rice wine vinegar (around a teaspoon or 2) (miso aioli)
sea salt to taste
ground black pepper to taste
optional – white and black sesame seeds to finish
Directions
Make the sauces.
For the tahini verde blend together the tahini, tarragon, cilantro, Thai basil, sea salt and white pepper. You will need to add ice water to get it to the right consistency. I think I used around 1/4 cup off ice water. Put this to the side or refrigerate for latter.
Make the miso aioli. In a small bowl combine the miso, sour cream, mayo, garlic confit and rice wine vinegar. Mix well. Set to the side or refrigerate for latter.
Get a pot of water to boil the fiddlehead ferns. Medium boil them for 5 minutes. Shock them with ice water to stop the cooking process. Drain the fiddlehead ferns and put them on a serving platter. I used the same pot to cook up my mushrooms. I dumped the water out and melted the butter and then added the mushrooms. I cooked them till they looked cooked. Then I dumped the mushrooms and all the mushroomy butter all over the fiddlehead ferns. I served the sauces on the side and sprinkled lightly with salt and pepper. I also added a few white and black sesame seeds.
Fiddlehead Ferns & Black Trumpet Mushrooms with Tahini Verde & Miso Aioli
When I do other people’s recipes I try to pick amazing recipes. I look for the most amazing recipes that I can find. I found this amazing sounding recipe on the web called textures of corn by a famous chef. This recipe was was a VERY complicated recipe that was something like 5 recipes in one. (corn parfaits, corn crumbs, purple corn crisps, peanut pesto, and corn salad) I think the recipe was full of typos. I don’t know if any part of the recipe was written correctly. Fortunately I was able to remedy everything that didn’t work out and came out with something even FORKING better than FORKING AMAZING.
The recipe starts with making a sweetcorn parfait that you chill and later char or fry. This was the recipe that worked more than most other parts. The corn parfait mixture was way too dry ……but was easy to fix by adding more liquid. I am not sure how much extra cream I added but it seemed like two or three times as much.
The next part was purple corn crumbs. I didn’t have purple corn and attempted this with yellow corn. You cook corn with salted water for around 40 minutes to a syrup consistency. I got my syrup consistency but I ran out of water at least 5 or more times. This recipe needs the water to be increased. I didn’t end up making the corn crumbles because I used this syrup in the next part of the recipe that didn’t work out.
I had the most trouble with the purple corn crisps. It is possible that the corn flour was ground different so a different amount of liquid might be needed. Anyways mine came out so dry that it was impossible to roll this into a dough. I added either 2 or 3 times the amount of butter and it was still too dry. Then I added the extra egg white that was leftover from the corn parfait…..STILL TOO DRY……Then I added the the syrupy liquid with the corn that I didn’t strain yet that I was suppose to turn into purple corn crumbs (with added biscuits)….This mixture gets chilled and latter rolled between two pieces of parchment. The mixture is suppose to turn into crisps at 248 degrees F for only 6 minutes. I did that and mine were raw. I upped the temperature to 300 degrees F and I think mine took close to an hour…. (but they do taste crazy FORKING Amazing) Now this baby is mine and it is FORKING INCREDIBLE….I will make again and publish.
Then I had trouble with the peanut pesto…mine turned into peanut butter. I fixed by starting over and crushed my peanuts in a grinder and added some dry parsley and some of the peanut butter.
The chalaquita recipe (Peruvian corn salad) was mostly very good. It is something that I will make again. I thought one lime was enough lime flavor for it. But the recipe says to use 5 limes.
This recipe was the most challenging recipe that I have ever done but in the end it really does taste like something that might be from the finest restaurant anywhere. I will have to make this again so I can write out a recipe that works. I am thankful to that chef who came up with the recipe because I wouldn’t have came out with this without it……..but won’t publish his name due to all the fails in the recipe.
Textures Of Corn – Corn Chalaquita, charred corn parfait, corn crisps with peanut pestoThe Forking Truth
Pomodoro Italian Grill and Seafood is a higher end Italian Restaurant located just above Phoenix in Cave Creek Arizona. They offer appetizers, salads, fresh made pastas, fish and shellfish dinners, various meat dinners and a luxury tomahawk ribeye.
From the exterior to the interior it’s a very western looking restaurant like most things in the small Western Town of Cave Creek.
The tables are set with crisp linen, glassware, heavy silverware, a candle, and hand made plates.
They start you off with complimentary crusty bread and oil.
In interior of the bread is fluffy, moist and sort of sweet………It’s good but unique. I’ve never tasted bread like this in an Italian restaurant.
We started out by sharing the tasting trio of pastas (cacio e pepe, Pomodoro, and carbonara). To me this pasta is different. It is a different style with less tooth to it. The pastas are good but also are all unique and a little different from other similar pastas out there. My favorite of the trio is the Pomodoro (middle). The Pomodoro was made with very sweet farm fresh tomatoes and it’s laced with creamy rich cheese. It’s a more flavorful Pomodoro pasta than most out there because the pasta is also infused with tomato.
For dinner I had the Chilean Sea Bass.
The plump meaty mild fish was pan seared and was served over a stack of fresh grilled vegetables and was topped with a lemon butter caper sauce and came with a nicely grilled half lemon. The fish was fresh, moist and flaky. It was prepared to perfection.
My husband went with the veal osso buco.
It was slow braised and came with a mound of creamy polenta. It was good……but could have been braised in a richer deeper braising liquid.
Our server was efficient and knowledgeable.
Parking was easy because they have their own lot.
That was my trip to Pomodoro Italian Grill and Seafood in Cave Creek AZ.
Seoul BBQ & Sushi is located in Phoenix Arizona. They serve a variety of Korean and Asian Foods. Seoul BBQ & Sushi is well known for serving Korean BBQ. They also offer Korean and Japanese appetizers, noodle dishes, hot pots, house specials, stews, sushi, all-you-can-eat specials and more.
Inside is very spacious with a very large dining area and bar in the front of the restaurant. Behind the bar other large dining areas are available.
They do have a patio but it is not in use.
Today we sat inside. They started us out with an assortment of side dishes called banchan (they do refill the banchan if desired).
Today we got a garlicky fresh green, something shrimpy, kimchi, caramel sweet potato, kimchi type cucumbers and radish, vegetable pancakes, Asian bean sprouts, and-
sweet spicy and delicious peanuts garnished with a few vegetables that resemble green beans. On prior visits we also got things like fish cakes, bell flowers, and potato salad.
Then we got our #9 – crispy rice sushi.
It’s deep fried sushi rice topped with spicy tuna, avocado and tasty sauces. This is a really tasty start.
For my main I got the #78 called samgye tang. (This dish takes around 45 minutes to prepare) This is the traditional Korean chicken soup for good health. I read that traditionally it is to be made with jujube instead of dates.
It’s a special Korean Chicken soup. It’s a small young chicken that is stuffed with sweet rice, dates, garlic, and ginseng. There are also some noodles made of egg and more dates. It is also served with a side of rice. I suggest to ask for a fork to tackle this one. It’s a mild not too exciting dish but it is very good and seems healthy. The sweet rice stuffing is the interesting part of the dish with the most flavors.
Today my husband got the #61 dol-pan bibimbap. (they have around three of them on the menu) It’s Korean meat or meats with vegetables, an egg, rice, and Korean hot ketchup called gouchujang, that they mix for you table side.
Here are some of the prior foods we tried from Seoul BBQ and Sushi.
side dishesbellflowe – It was very tastymiso soupa bibimbap after getting mixed upyellow croakercomplimentary vegetable pancake special with to-go orders only (this its really delicious!)to-go- side dishes called banchanto go – bulgogi (the rice is from the other dish)to go -spicy dak (chicken) bulgogito go – broiled atka mackerelto go – jalapeño bombersscallion pancakebulgogi
beef rib and tofu vegetable soup
That was a TASTE of Seoul BBQ and Sushi in Phoenix AZ.
