Do you know someone in or around the beaches of Louisiana and Alabama? Do they have old-school family recipes? Send’em our way. In fact, the smaller the town the more interested we are in them!
We’ll be in and around the Gulf Coast from October 7th through 23rd (roughly — we’re easily swayed by juke joints, gumbo and cold, cold beer).
SipSnapSavor@Gmail.com
Every other Monday Night, My large Italian Clan comes together for dinner. It’s almost always held at my grandparents house in Aptos. This gnocchi dinner, this last Monday was held at my Aunt and Uncle’s house in Los Gatos. There were five dough makers, rollers and air dryers. One gravy maker. Two salad makers and several little italian elves who helped set the table.
Stay tuned for recipes and wisdom galore from my grandfather, Roy Vigliecca. My grandmother Beverly Vigliecca and my great-cousin Carolyn Tognetti along with my Aunt Linda West helped round out the luaghs, advice and family loving time.
A big huge kiss to each and every person who came together to help prepare a very special meal.
Posted in Families 2010 - Western Route, Food Background, Food Photography, Jamie Lloyd, Melissa Schilling, People, Team S.S.S.
Tagged family, gnocci, mimi, roy, sauce, tognetti, vigliecca
Jamie and I are gearing up to hit the road this Summer. We’ll be traveling from The Great Lakes to The Big Easy over the course of 4 weeks and hope to dine with as many strangers as possible.
As we begin all our preparations to be on our Culinary Road Trippin’ adventure, we’d like to take a moment and reflect back on all the good times. The swell times. The sit-in-the-car-so-long-you-get-stir-crazy times. The tired times. The exciting times. The times where you wish had a clean pair of socks and a teddy bear. The times where you walk into a bar packed with military men during happy hour.
Jamie and I went up to visit winery Murphy-Goode last week. It was raining and a bit dreary. Somehow we managed to have a bunch of fun anyway.
And Jamie is still wearing her viking horns, around Berkeley, that the MG people handed over to us (after singing a little bit of Vanilla Ice ‘Ice, Ice, Baby’).
I keep trying to swipe them, but she’s a fast little sucker with a. erm. viking grip.
*sigh*
For the first official Sip Snap Savor test kitchen, it seemed appropriate to jump right in with something a little flashy. Empanadas fit the bill perfectly – intensely flavorful, crispy pockets of pure fried goodness. Following the instructions provided by the Morales, I set out to recreate a bit of their magic.
First up was the filling. I opted for ground beef – 85% lean to keep it on the moist side – and flavored it heavily with cumin, coriander, garlic, and cilantro. The filling by itself was a bit intense, but per the Morales’ recommendation I trusted that it would work out will once stuffed in the masa pockets.
Having worked with masa before, I was well aware of the tendency of the dough to dry out quickly, so I went ahead and made the dough a little moist. My first few pockets were muy feo, but just as Claudia said they got progressively more beautiful as I went along. By the time I folded my sixth empanada, i was cranking out perfect half-moons.
I ran into two problems at this point. The first was my inability to keep the oil at the correct temperature – too hot and the masa burned on the outside before it cooked through, too cold and the dough simply soaked up the grease rather than frying correctly. It takes a bit of balance, and you should err on the high side at first since adding multiple empanadas will lower the heat of the oil. give it ample time to heat up and test it first with a lump of dough to make sure it isn’t too hot. On the whole, you will probably try and cook before the oil is hot enough, so let it get a little hotter than you think you ought. As always, be extremely careful working with hot oil.
The second problem was my utter inability to follow Claudia’s directions, and overfilling most of the empanadas to the point that they burst when i was trying to cook them. Later efforts with less filling were perfect, so trust #3 on her list and use less filling than you think you need.
Overall i’d rate this an 8/10 for awesomeness and a 6/10 for ease. I cranked out about 20 empanadas in an hour, which was more than enough for a small crew of us. Served up with the hot sauce and some cold ones, they made an incredible evening snack.
Empanada Masa Dough:
Take 2.5 C of warm water, 2 C Pan Masa (found in hispanic grocery sections or supermercados) and 8-10 cucharditos (teaspoons) of salt and mix in a large bowl. Knead until smooth and let rest for a few minutes.
Empanada Filling:Fry 4 potatoes diced, 2 whole, diced onions and 4 cloves of garlic on medium heat with a little oil to coat the pan. Add a pound of ground beef or ground turkey for a lighter filling. Also add a bunch of diced cilantro, several tablespoons of cumin, salt and pepper to taste. As the mixture cooks add the juice of 6-10 limes and a cup of fresh peas (canned or frozen are fine).
Empanada Hot Sauce:
Create this fresh, raw sauce for topping off your fried empanadas. Combine 1 onion, diced, 1 fresh chile diced & 1 bunch of cilantro, diced into the juice of 10-15 limes. Salt the sauce to taste.
1. Form a disk in your hand the size of your palm, about 1/4″ thick.
2. Add filling in small spoonfuls, fold the disk in half.
3. Use a small cup or bowl to secure in place.
4. Pinch in place and to seal closed.
5. Fry for 3-5 minutes per side, in corn or vegetable oil.
Top with hot sauce and serve alongside, hot salted plantains.
Posted in Food Background, Recipes, Team S.S.S., Test Kitchen
Sugar and Kids always seem to go hand in hand. Jamie and I kept passing the camera back and forth in order to stay on top of all the cuteness around us.
The kids definitely overshadowed the food, at times.
Happy Friday Ya’ll!
Finger foods are the staples at any Superbowl Party. It’s a jeans and paper napkin culture at any football eating event. And The Bilodeau’s serve it up hot and fresh. Pop’s will never reveal the secret to his Beef Jerky, but if you’d like to order some of his famous jerky you can get in touch with him by emailing us at Sip Snap Savor (sipsnapsavor@gmail.com)
Hot & Spicy Shrimp
“…they look gelatinous,” said Katy Bilodeau
“We’ll find out if they’re spicy. Man they’ll make one heckuva fajita!” – Pops
Marinate shrimp in pepper plant hot sauce, paprika, chili pepper and olive oil – to taste and to coat. Marinate for 90 minutes or overnight. Bake at 450 degrees for about 20 minutes.
Beer Soaked Wienies
“Everybody does beer soaked wienies. We used two bottles of of beer, Fat Tire to be exact. It adds flavor.” – Tracy De Jong
Curry Cheese Crostini
Use equal parts cheddar and mozzarella, shredded so you have about 3 cups of shredded cheese. Ad in a quarter cup to a half cup of green onion, diced and a few tablespoons of yellow curry powder. Blend the mixture together using your fingers or a spoon then top sliced baguette rounds with the cheese mixture. Broil for 4-6 minutes depending on the strength of your oven until the bread is toasted and the cheese is a melted golden color.
Walking into the Bilodeau house is like walking into your own home. There are children to hug, people to embrace, friends to high five, cocktails to distribute and food to be grazed over. You feel right at home to lay your head in someone’s lap or just plain out sprawl out on the floor.
In my case, I felt perfectly at home picking fresh navel oranges off the tree and mixing up a delicious Sunday Brunch mimosa for the pre-game show. And when I got tired of doing it myself, I found a replacement juice squeezer (thank you MORGAN!) and wandered over to the food table.
Around drink number two, I overheard the following conversation that still makes me giggle.
Man 1: “It was 1972!”
Man 2: “No it was 1971. Look there’s Robert Daltry in that picture. See!”
Man 1: “No. It was ’71 and we saw Crosby Stills Nash & Young”
Man 2 : “No way! Look how passed out you were in these pictures. How would you know?”
Man 1 : “Look that’s Rick Baldwin”
Man 2 : “He was an animal”
Man 1 : “He WAS an animal”
Man 2 : “He threw my couches out on the street, for fun. It was around 1971″
Man 1 : “It was 1972!”
Pops is the king of this house and everyone in it adores watching and listening to his jokes and tales. He makes the best beef jerky this side of the Mississippi and he’s a big softie papa bear. He’s a tough guy softened by years of being surrounded by his two daughters and all their friends. I absolutely adore him. Adore. And for the record he’s a solid Colts fan. But I don’t feel bad yelling WHO DAT. At all. WHO DAT!!
The Saints/Colts game was exciting. It’s fun to yell “WHO DAT” and root for an underdog. It’s also delicious to watch Peyton Manning and root for him, learn his family history and ties to New Orleans. Just playing in the game was a big moral boost for the good people of New Orleans. Admittedly I didn’t end up watching much of the game. I was too busy blowing bubbles with the kids and distributing king cake.
What was more exciting was catching up with people I’ve known for nearly 15 years. Listening to Jim Moran tell the same humiliating story about me from our 10th grade Psychology Class. Dancing with Katy Bilodeau, and her sister in the kitchen, just as we might have done in high school. These are people who are used to me peppering them with questions about mundane subjects. There is the same football dish that holds something different each year (this year it was cheesy crostini, last year it was chicken wings).
And after the game was all over – the party continues in this dance of life. I’ll be back next year, same place, same time, same people for the Super Bowl Game.
Game Stats
- The New Orleans Saints’ 31-17 victory over the Indianapolis Colts in Super Bowl XLIV was watched by an average of more than 106 million people, surpassing the 1983 finale of “M-A-S-H” to become the most-watched program in U.S. television history, the Nielsen Company said on Monday.
- First Superbowl Win for the New Orleans Saints
- 106.5 million people watched the Super Bowl and 166 million pounds of snacks were eaten and 49.2 million cases of beer were consumed
- Surprise victory of the New Orleans Saints over the Indianapolis Colts caused a nine minute Twitter outage, according to Pingdom.com, as countless viewers tweeted like crazy when the Saints sealed the deal with a stunning interception by cornerback Tracy Porter.
- The 8 most engaging commercials of the Superbowl:
1. Doritos “House Rules” 2. Snickers “You’re Not You When You’re Hungry” 3. Focus on the Family “The Tebows Celebrate Family, Celebrate Life”
2. Doritos “Underdog”
3. 2010 Intel Core Processors “Jeoffrey the Robot Gets Hurt”
4. E*Trade Financial “Baby Love Triangle”
5. Bud Light “Observatory”
6. CareerBuilder “Casual Fridays”
7. TruTV’s NFL Full Contact “Punxsutawney Polamalu”
8. Hyundai Sonata “Brett Favre MVP and Still Playing at 50″
Today, our very special new friend Julia from Conde Nast Traveler, decided to feature this project on their blog, Moveable Feast.
We are honored.
Overjoyed.
Proud.
Thank you to everyone who supports us and believes in us. You help us drive that extra mile, capture that story, snap that picture and write the whole thing up for everyone to enjoy.
Superbowl Sunday coming up, next.
Posted in Food Background, Food Photography, Jamie Lloyd, Melissa Schilling, People, Road Trip, Sip Snap Savor, Team S.S.S.
Tagged Conde Nast
“My grandmother used to make tortillas. So this empanada making is similar.” – Polo Morales
Fusion is a common theme amongst most families we encounter during our culinary road trips. But no where was it as prevalent as in our most recent dinner in Alameda, CA with Claudia (6months pregnant) and Polo Morales.
He is the son of Mexican parents, his Father is from the Zacatecas and mother & grandmother from Jalisco. His mother is very proud of her cooking and passed along recipes and techniques to her children. Stews in his family were common and were based on what part of the pig was being used for that nights meat portion of the meal. “The cut of meat makes the meal!” – Polo
She is the daughter of a Colombian-born mom and an English-Canadian dad. Since her mother handled most of the cooking in their family most of everything she knows is steeped thickly and heavily in the culture of her mother’s family back in the Quindio coffee region of Colombia.
“Je no soy gringa!” – Mama Ross
Claudia recounts the story of her mother and how she came to the United States.
“My mother saw her sisters and cousins getting married very young, around 13 years old, and starting families. She wanted more for herself. So she went away and became a nun. She earned her degree and eventually became a superintendant of a local school district. And at 25 years old when she decided she wanted a family she was essentially an old spinster.
The War of Colombia had diminshed the marriable male population. She saw how equal the gringos in the peace corps were. How the women were treated the same as the men. And she wanted to marry a gringo. So she came to the US, met my father, had my brother and I.” – Claudia Ross
Ballsy
“The filling needs to be really strong, because you only use a little bit of filling for each empanada and the masa is almost tasteless.” – Claudia
Tips for making Empanadas
1. Firm Binding Technique: use wax paper to fold over the empanada, it won’t stick and it will help you get the hang of creating the dumplings.
2. Keep practicing.
“They get better as you go, just watch, they’ll be beautiful.” – Claudia
3. Use less filling than you think you need
4. To make the ridges, “just pop your finger in and create them manually.” – Polo
5. Use a cup to form the domed shape of the empanada.
Smashed Plantains: Slice 4 plantain “bananas” into 1/2″ thick disks. Heat 3-4 inches of corn or vegetable oil in a skillet. When hot, add plantains. When the float, fish them out of the oil, smash them with a spatula, return to the oil for another 3-4 minutes, Drain and salt them.
Empanada Masa Dough:
Take 2.5 C of warm water, 2 C Pan Masa (found in hispanic grocery sections or supermercados) and 8-10 cucharditos (teaspoons) of salt and mix in a large bowl. Knead until smooth and let rest for a few minutes.
Empanada Filling:
Fry 4 potatoes diced, 2 whole, diced onions and 4 cloves of garlic on medium heat with a little oil to coat the pan. Add a pound of ground beef or ground turkey for a lighter filling. Also add a bunch of diced cilantro, several tablespoons of cumin, salt and pepper to taste. As the mixture cooks add the juice of 6-10 limes and a cup of fresh peas (canned or frozen are fine).
Empanada Hot Sauce:
Create this fresh, raw sauce for topping off your fried empanadas. Combine 1 onion, diced, 1 fresh chile diced & 1 bunch of cilantro, diced into the juice of 10-15 limes. Salt the sauce to taste.1. Form a disk in your hand the size of your palm, about 1/4″ thick.
2. Add filling in small spoonfuls, fold the disk in half.
3. Use a small cup or bowl to secure in place.
4. Pinch in place and to seal closed.
5. Fry for 3-5 minutes per side, in corn or vegetable oil.Top with hot sauce and serve alongside, hot salted plantains.
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