Sunday, August 10, 2014

10 August 2014













It was nice to get back to Canton after a great trip to San Juan, Puerto Rico last week. We had some amazing meals at Marmalade, 1919, Metropol, and Santaella. However, we did not make it to one of the other restaurants I had on my list, Jose Enrique, but when we returned, I opened my new issue of Food and Wine to find a feature story on the chef! The story included several of his best recipes, so I cooked some of them for tonight's Sunday Supper: Arroz con Pollo, Green Pea and Avocado Salad and Jose Enrique's homemade hot sauce.

For the chicken and rice, I finally got to use one of the wonderful local free range chickens from Joyful Noise Acres Farm in Ball Ground that I bought at Cherokee Market. I am so excited about being able to buy their chickens and sausage at Cherokee Market, and I look forward to taking a tour of the farm in the near future. The chicken was delicious, and I highly recommend them. In addition to the local poultry, the recipe also called for a pilsner in the rice, so we stopped by the new Stout's Growler store in downtown Canton to pick up some beer. In addition to the pilsner, we also purchased a great hard apple cider, Reformation's Cadence and a wonderful root beer for floats! The shop was busy, and we are so happy for our friends Jim and Irene Stout and Larry and Maria Pujol! If you haven't stopped in Stout's, you need to do so in the very near future. They have a wonderful selection of craft beers and sodas, and they will change often. The craft beer helped to cool us down after the awesome hot sauce I made from scratch! It included serranos, habaneros, poblanos, onions, garlic, red pepper and olive oil. It was fun to make and packed quite a punch!

So, I had great fun in the kitchen cooking Puerto Rican food with local ingredients! In addition to the Jose Enrique recipes, I also used some of the tomatoes from our garden to bake some homemade tomato and carmelized onion bread, and I made some charred corn, lime and parmesan butter to go with it. Vacation and supper were great, but it's back to reality tomorrow. Sign up to follow my blog at www.billssundaysuppers.com

The Menu:

- Arroz con Pollo de Joyful Noise

- Avocado Green Pea Salsa

- Jose Enrique Hot Sauce

- Tomato and Onion Ciabatta with Charred Corn and Lime Butter

- Stout's Root Beer Float


The Recipe – Avocado Green Pea Salsa


Ingredients:

1 cup fresh or thawed frozen peas
1 small red onion, minced
1/4 cup fresh lime juice
Kosher salt
3 avocados, peeled, pitted and finely diced
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

Directions:

In a medium saucepan of salted boiling water, blanch the peas until crisp-tender, about 1 minute.

Drain and cool under running water, then drain on paper towels.

In a bowl, mix the onion with the lime juice and 3/4 teaspoon of salt; let stand for 10 minutes.

Fold in the avocados, peas and oil, season with salt and serve.