Pasta Lovers Paradise.....

.....at Costco! My lovely little toddler loves pasta in pretty much any way, shape or form. To satisfy his craving for the boring mac n' cheese, we buy a variety of frozen pasta at our local Costco. We pick up jumbo-sized bags of ravioli stuffed with mozzarella and spinach, 4-cheese ravioli, tortellini, and stuffed shells. It's a good thing I gave in to my husband's crazy idea of buying a chest freezer which we not-so-"proudly" display in our living room. (There is no room for it in our 4'x8' sized kitchen.)

On this one particular trip, my son decided to take along every one of his toys that we normally keep in the car. And just in case he doesn't like the samples of the day, he holds on to his goldfish and water bottle. (While he has his hands full, I have my hands full with him.) Got to love those Spiderman sunglasses!

Notice the rest of his Costco staples:
granola bars, animal crackers
and the blessed goldfish.

Who doesn't love those Costco samples?!

Here is how he eats his Costco pasta:

Ravioli (triangles stuffed with mozzarella and spinach)

• follow instructions on bag (go very light on the Parmesan mix or substitute with a light sprinkling of regular Parmesan cheese) or
• top with favorite pasta sauce and cooked salmon chunks, also available at Costco (Note: He only eats tiny little bits of the salmon mixed in with the sauce.)
  

4-cheese Ravioli

• Lightly toss cooked ravioli with olive oil and basil or
• Pour pasta sauce or Bolognase on top of cooked ravioli

Tortellini

• Lightly toss cooked tortellini with butter

Stuffed shells

• Bake in the oven with favorite pasta sauce

My sofrito secret is out

I am often asked to share my secret family seasoning. Well, take note. It's called "sofrito." The best way I know to describe sofrito would be to say that it is sort of the Italian equivalent of "pesto." I am not sure where sofrito originated save to say that it is used mostly in Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic, and it saves you time from all that peeling and finely chopping. Sofrito is more commonly used in stews, rice dishes, and are also used in soups, and as marinades. If you google "sofrito ingredients", you will get a myriad of variations, mostly containing ingredients not available at every green grocer. Here I will share my very basic sofrito recipe. Only five ingredients (the sofrito "Fab Five" if you will). The secret is actually in getting all the proportions just right.

• 1 bag of red onions (about 6 medium red onions)
  
• 2 heads of garlic
• 3 red bell peppers (medium to large)
  
• 3 green bell peppers (medium to large)
• 1 big bunch of cilantro (or 1 bunch and a half)

• About 1/2 to 1 cup of extra virgin olive oil to preserve the sofrito

Chop all veggies into big chunks (your blender or food processor will do the rest of the work). Discard the seeds of the bell peppers. Lightly "smash" the garlic cloves, so they don't dance around the blade. (I place all the veggies into separate bowls and grab handfuls to dump in the blender.) Put the fab five into the blender with some olive oil. Note: always place the peppers and then the onions into the blender first with some olive oil and then the remaining veggies. Blend all until a little bit chunky. Always leave some sofrito in the blender before adding more veggies. This will all have to be done in batches. Pour all of the sofrito into a large bowl or soup pot, stir, and then ladle it out into 1 or 1 & 1/2 cup-sized Glad or Ziploc containers, leaving some space at the top of each container, and then place in freezer. Keep a batch in a small/medium glass container with a lid in the coldest part of your refrigerator (top and back). This whole process will have to be done rather swiftly and place in the freezer immediately to ensure freshness.

Some people pour the sofrito into ice cube trays and then place the trays in freezer bags, and then freeze. Once the sofrito is frozen, all the cubes are removed from the trays and then transferred back into the freezer bags. You remove a cube or two as needed for cooking. I have never tried this, but it looks like it could work.

Also, some people add tomatoes to the sofrito mixture, but I do not. Tomatoes are too watery and will, more than likely, alter the flavor of the rest of the sofrito ingredients. The fresh tomatoes, canned tomato sauce or chunks can easily be added to the sofrito during cooking. The same applies for dried seasonings; add them as needed while cooking.

And now, here is a bonus!

How to use sofrito in a recipe:

• Warm up some olive oil (about a tablespoonful or so) in your pan or pot
• Add the sofrito (usually 1-2 tablespoonfuls is enough), stir 1-2 minutes over a medium to low flame
• Add the freshly chopped tomatoes, canned tomatoes or tomato sauce, salt and pepper to taste. Add the dried seasoning as needed in your recipe (i.e. cumin, cayenne, paprika, bay leaves, oregano, etc.), stir and simmer for 1-2 minutes
• Then add your main ingredient (such as beef chunks or chicken, ground beef or ground turkey, uncooked rice, cooked beans) and stir
• Add water or stock (as called for in the recipe), bring to a boil, and then simmer and/or continue with your recipe
• You can also saute vegetables and cooked potatoes with sofrito.
  

Here is an extra bonus!

Easy Chicken Soup

2 medium potatoes, peeled and cut into small chunks
1 large carrot, chopped
water or chicken stock
1 or 2 bay leaves
1-2 tablespoons of sofrito
salt (to taste)
black pepper (to taste)
soup noodles (optional)
leftover rotisserie chicken (removed from the bone)
frozen peas (about a half a box)
ground cumin (about a 1/4 teaspoon or a couple of dashes)

fresh chopped cilantro (small handful)
scallions, finely chopped (the white part and some of the green)
lemon juice, freshly squeezed
salt (small pinch)
hot sauce, dash (optional)

I almost always end up making chicken soup after I am done preparing and storing the sofrito. So, instead of washing that big pot (where you dumped all the sofrito as you were preparing it and then ladling it out into the containers for freezing), leave about a tablespoon and a half of sofrito in that big pot and then pour some water or chicken stock, add the potato chunks, chopped carrots and the bay leaves. Add salt and black pepper to taste. Bring to a boil and then reduce heat. Cook for about 10 minutes or so. Then add your favorite soup noodles (optional). Bring to a boil and then cook for another 5 minutes or so before adding your leftover rotisserie chicken (removed from the bone) and some frozen peas. Add a couple of dashes of ground cumin. Bring to a boil and then simmer for about 10 minutes more.

In a small bowl, combine the freshly chopped cilantro, chopped scallions, lemon juice and salt (and a dash of hot sauce, optional).

After serving the soup in bowls, add a small spoonful of the cilantro mixture on top.

Serve with a small side of fluffy white rice (or long grain brown rice) and avocado slices.

If you need more recipes or have any questions, please let me know. Otherwise, enjoy!

Chocolate Colombiano

Being born and raised in New York City has exposed me to lots of different cultures, but Colombia still remains my favorite and not because it is my heritage. As many of you know, my parents are from Colombia and there are many reasons why I love that country, but that is a topic for another post. The main reason is, of course, the Colombian food! One of my husband's favorite drinks is Colombian hot chocolate. We usually stock up on it, and other specialty food items, whenever we go visit my mother in Jackson Heights, Queens. We buy the Luker brand Colombian hot chocolate pictured above (I think they meant to say "bittersweet chocolate") at the Junction Food Bazaar supermarket around the corner (open 24/7) where they also sell a wide variety of ethnic Latino foods. If you are ever up in Jackson Heights, we highly recommend it. Among other things we pick up plantains, rice, beans, hominy (a special kind of a corn kernel), frozen fava beans, sparkling mineral water and some ethnic snack foods for the car ride home. They also have a great selection of exotic frozen fruits for smoothies that I can't wait to try. We also can't walk away without buying our favorite Colombian specialties: Masarepa (precooked cornmeal), cheese, jarred figs, bocadillos (jelled guava paste mini bars), Colombian champagne soda, Alpina brand dulce de leche, panela (dehydrated cane juice) and "chocolate Luker" (as Colombians call it).

In general, I imagine there are a hundred ways or more of preparing delicious hot chocolate and I am a very big fan of it. Here is how I make our Colombian hot chocolate:

• a quarter of a package of Luker brand chocolate (the one already flavored with cloves and cinnamon)
• 1 block of panela (one hockey puck sized block, see picture below)
• 6 cups of water (recipe calls for 8, but it may be too mild and bland, my husband likes it richer)
• a splash of warm milk or heavy cream (warm up in separate sauce pot), optional
  

In a medium pot, melt the chocolate and panela in the water under a low to medium heat and stir often until the chocolate and the panela are completely melted. (Note: If you use the Luker brand of chocolate that is not flavored with the cloves and the cinnamon, then add 2 or 3 cloves and a stick of cinnamon together with the chocolate and the panela and after fully melted, allow to simmer for another 5 minutes or so until the cloves and cinnamon have had a chance to flavor the chocolate.) Then, add the optional warm milk or heavy cream.

I pour the hot chocolate through a small sieve into my special pitcher (that my husband got me a few Christmases ago) . Then, I froth up the hot chocolate with a special frother called a "molinillo". The one pictured, which is the one I have, is not a very good one. The best one is made in Colombia (see picture below).

Bittersweet chocolate
flavored with cloves and cinnamon


Cane sugar molded into hockey puck-sized "blocks"
(dry and hard, must be melted in boiling water)

My "molinillo" (frother)


The frother that I really want (pictured in the center)
is made from a particular tree called "Talauma hernandezii", grown in Valle, Colombia.

The ceramic hot chocolate serving set that I got
as a Christmas gift from my husband

Pièce de résistance!

Now here's the fun part for me. Once I have poured the hot chocolate into my mug, instead of dropping in a few marshmallows, I drop in a few small cubes of Colombian cheese. Yes, cheese! Then, I stir them around until the cheese is warmed up and slightly melted. Yum! We usually have a plate of "cheesy" Colombian arepas (cornmeal cakes) on the table to snack on along with our hot chocolate. Colombian cheesy breads that are typically served with the hot chocolate are: pan de queso, pan de bono, almohabanas and pan de yucca (they all pretty much taste the same and only vary in texture and shape). Otherwise, we skip the cubes of cheese and just dunk other goodies such as bunuelos (Colombian version of a donut, only completely round) or a slice of roscon (guava-filled bread, shaped like a wreath).

The chocolate itself is pretty low in fat since it is dark chocolate, but combined with everything else I mentioned, it is a lethal combination that will go straight to your thighs and butt. So be forewarned. Otherwise, enjoy!