koko's corner

I love pork belly, here’s my latest foray into pork belly-dom.

Tau Yu Bak. Pork belly braised in a cinnamon and star anise flavored soy sauce.

Let’s get braising

 Tangy, sweet and spicy jalapenos, what more could you ask for

I’m hoping I can wait the recommended two weeks before eating them.

In the meantime, I’m enjoying the extra syrup now. Think a nice glaze on salmon, or poured over cream cheese as an appetizer, the possibilities are endless

 Get out your rubber gloves and let’s start slicing up some peppers.

Cool crispy cucumbers in a slightly sweet, spicy sauce tossed with cilantro and peanuts.
Can be a side dish or appetizer.

This is the second batch I’ve made in one day it’s that good.

Let’s get started

Using the huge, chipotle flavored flour tortillas I showed you last week, I made some really great ham and cheese wraps.

The dipping sauce is just a mixture of mayonnaise and Dijon mustard.

Let’s wrap this up

I always seem to find something new (to me) and interesting when I shop at Specialty Produce.
A couple of things I bought yesterday is grasshopper salt, yep, real ground up grasshoppers, and Basil Crystals. I've already tried the worm salt and they taste pretty much the same, a little bit smoky, but the grasshopper salt isn't as spicy. I think the grasshopper salt will be great on vegetables. 

The Basil crystal ingredients are basil and sugar. They have a good strong basil taste and aren't too sweet. I think it's mainly for rimming a drink glass, but I'm all for sprinkling them on a baked potato or some squash too.

I also bought some 12 inch chipotle flavored flour tortillas.  

 I'll be making wraps with these for the Women's Fellowship on Wednesday.
That recipe and step by step will be posted later this week.

These are pretty spicy, so I think I'll keep the filling light, and gently seasoned.

And that's that

Happy New Year everyone. Yes, I've been away for a while, I sure miss posting to my little blog and thank you for letting me know I was missed. I'll be catching up with everything as we go along, but for now, I want to wish you all a great new year and start you off with a great soup to help keep you warm this winter.

This recipe was shared with me when I lived in Yuma, AZ, probably 25 to 30 years ago by a Yuma Fireman. It was a firehouse staple, and I felt privileged that it was shared with me, and now I'm sharing it with you. It's basically a potato soup recipe that bears the name of the deceased firefighter that created it, Joe Frila. I was never given any amounts, just ingredients and the rest I figured out myself.

Now I'm going to make a short story long, as I'm apt to do from time to time. I have been making the soup for many years and it has become a family favorite, especially when we would go camping in the mountains. One such trip, as I was getting ready to make the soup for 30 + people, I discovered I forgot to pack the potato masher and no one among our group had one either. So I went like a little beggar girl to the neighboring campsites hoping someone would have one (I can make a pretty pitiful looking face when needed ;-)
thankfully the campsite across the road from us had one that they would happily loan me. They asked me what I was going to make, I told them Frila and it's a soup I learned from Yuma fireman and it's named after the fireman Joe Frila etc...come to find out, I was talking to his family members, insert <what a small world> here. They asked if they could try some when I was done...like yes...of course you can. They were very complimentary and told me I was spot and and did him proud. YES!!!!!

I think you and your family will like it as much as we do.

 I topped it with a bit of diced green chili and a little more cheese.

Let's make some soup