All posts filed under: Appetizers and Drinks

Caffè Tonic

Published by Mike Vrobel

Intrigued / grossed out by this. RT @TastingTableNYC Meet coffee’s new mate. Tonic [email protected]_Lam via Twitter My first thought: Espresso and tonic water? No way. There’s no way that tastes good.My second thought: That’s so weird, I have to try it. It actually works! The bitter, roasted flavor of the coffee mixes with the sweet, spicy flavor of the tonic water. I tried it with the bottle of tonic water I had at home, and it was good; I went out and found the Fever Tree Tonic that Tasting Table recommends, and it was fantastic.It was so good that I’m restraining myself. Writing this makes me want to go make another one right now, but I’ve hit my self-imposed espresso limit for the day. Four shots is enough, right? If your coffee addiction started with something sweet (like cafe mocha at Arabica Coffee on Coventry back in the day), but your tastes have matured, try a caffè tonic. Recipe: Caffè Tonic Adapted from: Coffee Tonics are the New Iced Tonic Prep Time: 5 minutes Cook …

Grilled Avocados with Lemon Vinaigrette

Published by Mike Vrobel

I think of this recipe as avocado lemon butter. It makes a great appetizer – brown the avocado on the grill, then toast thin slices of bread. Put them on a platter with a spoon, set the platter in front of your guests, and stand back.Or serve with crackers if you want an easier version that skips slicing and toasting bread. Or, serve with tortilla chips for a “scoop your own guacamole”. One warning – the avocados have to be perfectly ripe for this recipe to work as a spread. The heat of the grill softens the avocados even more, turning them creamy and spreadable. But…there’s only so much the grill can do. If the avocados are still a little hard, they’re not going to soften enough to spread. Don’t give up, though – if you need to use the avocados today, grill them, squeeze the halves out of the skin, and slice them thin. That way, your diners can top their bread with slices of avocado. Recipe: Grilled Avocados with Lemon Vinaigrette Inspired By: …

Grilled Lemon Whiskey Sour

Published by Mike Vrobel

Grilled citrus is having a moment. I’ve seen it in a bunch of places recently, and I had to try it out. Is it all for show? My next thought was – grilled lemon? Sounds perfect in a drink, something to keep me quenched while I do hard work over an open fire. Grilled whiskey sour, here we come! So, is it worth grilling a lemon? Yes, yes it is. The heat of the grill caramelizes the lemon, adding sweetness to the sour citrus. Also, I was amazed by the ease of juicing a heated lemon. I was barely pressing on my lemon squeezer, and juice was squirting everywhere.Now, don’t get me wrong. It *is* quite a show when you pull browned lemons off the grill and start mixing drinks with them. Your guests will think you’re a grilling wizard. Thanks to my association with Knob Creek, I have a bottle of Knob Creek Rye Whiskey ready whenever I want to make this drink again.Like, say, tonight, while I grill dinner? Sounds like the perfect …

Green Monster Smoothie

Published by Mike Vrobel

I have a couple of good friends who, whenever I post a kale recipe, immediately reply with “and try it in a smoothie!” Ugh…a kale smoothie? Really? That seems so…crunchy granola eater. And, while I like my granola, and tend to hug trees, kale smoothies were too out there for me. Until my youngest son started asking for them. This must come from my wife’s side of the family – or be a recessive gene or something that skipped me entirely. Green? Smoothie? In the same sentence? He loved the idea. So, I made one. I thought I was taking one for the team, but, much to my surprise, I enjoyed it. Even better? My son drained the glass in one gulp. His smile looked like The Joker, a green kale grin up to his cheekbones. Recipe: Green Monster Smoothie Prep Time: 10 minutes Cook Time: 2 minutes Equipment Powerful blender (I love my Vitamix) Ingredients 2 cups ice cubes 2 packed cups kale leaves (6 ounces, thick stems removed, rinsed if sandy) 3 kiwi, peeled …

Guacamole Sauce (Salsa de Guacamole)

Published by Mike Vrobel

It’s Mexico week on DadCooksDinner. I spent five fantastic days at Seasons of My Heart cooking school in Oaxaca. I’ll be sharing what I learned for months, but here’s the first batch of posts. What was my first food discovery in Mexico? Guacamole. Yes, really. In Oaxaca, Guacamole is not the thick, chunky dip I am used to. My first day in Oaxaca, I went to lunch in the 20 de Noviembre market for the hall of Carne Asadas – an entire hall of grilled meat. (I was in heaven.) After choosing my meat and taking a seat, I ordered guacamole to go with my grilled beef and chorizo. What arrived with a bowl of thin sauce, the bright green color of ripe avocados, with a spoon floating on top. Was this the guacamole? Yes. Oaxacan guacamole is thin, ready to drizzle off of the spoon and onto my tacos. Much to my surprise, I preferred it to my usual, chunky guacamole. Saucy guacamole works better if it is meant to be a topping. It …

Spicy Jicama Sticks

Published by Mike Vrobel

Jicama reminds me of apples – it has the same crisp crunch, with a hint of a sweet taste. Think of a granny smith apple, but crunchier, milder, and less tart. I have eaten it a number of times, but I never had an opinion about it one way or the other. That is, until I had it as part of an appetizer at Frontera Grill in Chicago. Rick Bayless took a page from Mexican street vendors and sprinkled the jicama with a blend of chile powder and salt. The crunch and hint of sweet were enhanced by the spicy salt. Spicy jicama sticks are now my go-to party appetizer when I want to bring something interesting but healthy. The chile salt is best with guajillo chile powder (look at your local Mexican market), but ancho chile powder makes a decent substitute. Recipe: Spicy Jicama Sticks Adapted From: Rick Bayless Fiesta At Rick’s Cooking time: 10 minutes Ingredients 1 medium Jicama, about 1 pound 2 tablespoons guajillo powder (or ancho chile powder) 1 tablespoon fine …

Baba Ghanoush

Published by Mike Vrobel

It’s summertime, and my CSA box is starting to fill with eggplant. What do I do with it? I make baba ghanoush, the Middle Eastern eggplant dip. *And then I make tian Provencal, once I get tomatoes, zucchini, and eggplant at the same time. And…that’s the extent of my eggplant recipes. Any eggplant suggestions? Anyone? Bueller? Leave them in the comments, because even with the current drought, I’ll get pounds of mixed eggplant with my CSA box for the next month or two. This recipe is remarkably close to hummus. All I do is replace chickpeas with fire-roasted eggplant. This isn’t a quick recipe – it takes at least a half an hour for the eggplant to completely cook – but it is low maintenance. Cook the eggplant until it the skin is completely burnt, and the eggplant collapses on itself. Turn it every now and again, when you feel like it – burning the skin only adds flavor. The eggplant should look like a deflated blimp right before you take it off the grill. …

Smoke Roasted Aioli

Published by Mike Vrobel

I learned how to make aioli in Paris, in a class with Susan Hermann Loomis. She taught us to pound garlic in a mortar and pestle, stir in the eggs, and then slowly, ever so slowly, drip in the oil. The aioli was   awesome with fresh vegetables, and I vowed to make it as soon as I got home. Of course, once I got home, I took the easy way out. I used a food processor instead of endlessly pounding with a mortar and pestle. The results were not good – a slap in the face of sharp, raw garlic, followed by a hint of bitter. I set the recipe aside, to try again someday. Someday turned into years. This year, there was a surge of interest in food processor mayonnaise. Bittman did it, then Kenji Alt made a small batch with a stick blender. I thought it was time to resurrect the recipe, but I kept remembering the bitter garlic. Then I saw Jamie Purviance make smoke aioli by smoke-roasting garlic on the …

Canning Jar Margaritas

Published by Mike Vrobel

Forget making pickles – this is now my favorite use for canning jars. They are a great idea, especially for entertaining. Why mess around crushing ice in a blender when you can mix everything up, toss it in the freezer, and pull out a flat of slushy margaritas whenver you need it? The alcohol keeps them from freezing solid; dip the rim in salt before it melts, poke it a few times with a fork, and they are ready to serve. *The only problem with this recipe: it changed my definition of “whenever I need a margarita” to “it’s five o’clock somewhere, right?” I got the idea from pictures of the Big Summer Potluck. A few years back, Colleen of SouffleBombay.com brought them to the potluck, and the moment I saw the pictures, I knew I had to make them. I use frozen concentrated limeaid in my frozen margaritas instead of fresh squeezed limes and simple syrup. (I picked up the trick from Robb Walsh’s The Tex-Mex Cookbook.) Why go through the effort of squeezing all those limes when I’m just …

Fiery Mexican Martini

Published by Mike Vrobel

My day job took me to Austin a few times earlier this year. I spent as much time as I could sampling* the local cuisine – barbecue and Tex-Mex. *Read: stuffing myself until I could barely move. There are a lot of wonderful things to eat in Austin, but my favorite was the Mexican Martini. Or the Texas Martini – I saw both names used for what is essentially the same drink. Tequila, orange liqueur, simple syrup, and lime juice in a cocktail shaker full of ice, served in a martini glass with a salted rim. Drop in some olives stuffed with jalapenos, and the drink is ready to enjoy. My favorite version was the spicy Texas martini served at Chuy’s, where the tequila is infused with jalapenos, to give the drink a little extra kick. I came home determined to make it for myself. A Mexican martini is a simple drink, with no place to hide low quality ingredients. Get 100% agave silver tequila. You don’t want to infuse reposado or anejo tequila, and cover up all …

Iced Sweet Tea

Published by Mike Vrobel

I discovered sweet in Charlotte, NC. I’m a Northerner, and I didn’t know that sweet tea (pronounced “Sweetea”) is the default. You have to ask for “unsweet”. And, boy, they were right about “sweet” – I wasn’t expecting that much sugar. (I wasn’t expecting ANY sugar.) Which brings me to another installment in my “favorite sentences in recipes” series.  This one is from Jaime Purviance, in his recipe for iced tea in Weber’s Big Book of Grilling: If you want a sweet batch, add about 3 tbsp of sugar to the boiling water.  If you’re from the south, pour it on until it feels right. Sweet tea is the perfect drink to have with barbecue. (Non-alcoholic category). But, as good as it is, I only made sweet tea at home about once a summer. Making a big batch is a fair amount of work: boiling a gallon of water, steeping a lot of tea bags, waiting for it to cool down…it’s a lot of work for something that seems so simple. Then I saw this …

Roasted Red Pepper Dip

Published by Mike Vrobel

When I am asked to bring an appetizer, this is usually the first thing I think of.* Other than roasting the peppers, it’s “dump and process”. I like that when I’m rushing around, getting ready to go to someone’s house! *OK, the second thing. The first thing is a cheese plate with some good blue cheese, hard cheese, and goat cheese, and a sliced baguette on the side. Mmm. Cheese. Recipe: Grill Roasted Red Pepper Dip Equipment: Grill (I used a Weber Summit 650. Here it is.) Food Processor (I used my KitchenAid Food Processor) Ingredients: 3 red peppers 2 cloves garlic 1 can (15oz) chickpeas 1/3 c extra virgin olive oil juice of 1 lemon 1/2 tsp fresh ground black pepper Salt to taste (depends on how salty the chickpeas are – I usually add 1/2tsp kosher) Directions: 1. Roasting the peppers: Preheat your grill to medium – direct heat. Cook the peppers until blackened on all sides (usually about 5 minutes a side). You want to get them good and burned – it’s …