Cinnamon Jerk Chicken Recipe from Guam

Summary: Deep rich and delicious flavors to make your chicken a family favorite.

INGREDIENTS

2 1/2 to 3 Pounds of Skinned Chicken pieces (I normally use skinless breast pieces, but legs and thighs are just as delicious).

1 tsp. ground cinnamon

2 tsp. kosher salt

1 tsp. freshly ground pepper

5 cloves of garlic (minced)

1 large onion (coarsely chopped)

2 Cups water

1 Can (6 ounces) tomato paste (Italian seasoning paste, if you can find it. If not, plain tomato paste is good).

1 Tbsp Italian Herb Seasoning

1/2 cup grated Parmesan Cheese

2 Tbsp Olive OilDIRECTIONS

1. Take a paper towel and pat dry all of the chicken pieces. Place chicken aside.
2. In a small bowl, mix cinnamon, salt and pepper well.
3. Rub the cinnamon mixture, with your fingers, into all of the chicken pieces.
4. Heat Olive Oil in a large nonreactive skillet.
5. When oil is hot, place the chicken pieces in the skillet to sear (about 4 minutes on each side). If you do not have a skillet large enough, you may need to sear the chicken in two batches. A skillet with 2 or 3″ sides works best.
6. When chicken has been seared on both sides, remove from skillet and place aside.
7. Lower the heat to medium-high and add 3 of the minced garlic cloves and the chopped onion.
8. Saute the onions and garlic, until the onions become soft and golden brown.
9. Add 1/2 cup of water to the onions and garlic in the pan. Use a spatula or spoon to deglaze the pan, scraping the bottom of the skillet and loosening any particles stuck on the bottom.
10. When the water has mostly evaporated, add the remaining 1 1/2 cups of water, tomato paste, Italian herb seasoning and remaining minced garlic cloves. Mix well.
11. Add the chicken back to the skillet. The tomato liquid should cover about 3/4 of the chicken. Cover the pot and simmer over medium-high heat for 30 – 40 minutes until chicken is tender and fully cooked.
12. Place chicken mixture on a serving plate and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.

An American Tradition: The Jello Flag Cake

I know it sounds cheesy and maybe it doesn’t sound appetizing but by golly some people are really good at preparing this treat.  Have fun with it choose from strawberries to raspberry for your patriotic red fruit choice.  For you blue area, use blueberries or blackberries.  With Memorial Day, Juneteenth and Fourth of July coming up.  Patriotism stakes center cake… I mean center stage.  -Crystal Johnson, MCCN Editor

About the Jello Cake- From Jello

Jello is great for making patriotic recipes. Jello cake like jello flag cake is easy to make and you can simply leave it in the refrigerator until you are ready to serve it. Decorate a jello cake with frosting, blueberries and strawberries or raspberries to resemble the stars and stripes and everyone will love it. This makes a really good centerpiece and it is so easy to put together. See Recipe: READ MORE

Other Patriotic Ideas? Try Carla Crudup’s Blue Razz Sundae Recipe

Filipino Escbeche(Sweet & Sour Fish)

Photo from thephilippineisland.com

When you are covering the world, you need a little help.  If you love Filipino food, can’t get enough of  Filipino culture then check out thephilippineisland.com.  Here is a favorite cultural dish.- Crystal Johnson, MCCN

The ingredients would be as follows:

• • 2-3 lbs red snapper, whole fish
  • 4 tablespoons vegetable oil
  • 1 tablespoon salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground pepper
  • 2 tablespoons soy sauce
  • 1/2 cup apple cidar vinegar or white vinegar
  • ¼ water
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar
  • 1 large chopped onion
  • 6 tablespoons minced garlic
  • 1/2 cup ginger, julienned
  • 1/2 cup carrot, julienned
  • 1/2 cup red bell pepper
  • 1/2 cup scallion, julienned (spring onions)
  • 1 tablespoon sifted flour

Directions

1. Clean the fish and slit it open. Let it stand for few minutes and drain well.
2. Sprinkle fish with 1 tbsp salt.
3. In a medium skillet, heat the oil and fry the fish until brown. Remove the fish from the pan and set aside.
4. In the same skillet, sauté the garlic until light brown, then sauté onion.
5. Add salt and white pepper. Stir in ginger, scallions, carrot and red bell pepper.
6. Add soy sauce, vinegar, water and sugar. Salt and pepper to taste.
7. When the mixture boils, add flour to thicken. Then, add the fish.
8. Cover the skillet and simmer for 5 minutes

Mo’Nique’s Cookbook: Skinny Cooks Can’t Be Trusted

It would take the Academy Award Winner and Comedian Mo’Nique to have a cookbook which includes in the title, “Skinny”,  affectionately about the people who are butt of her jokes.- MCCN Editor

-Amazon Editorial

From the cover of Essence to the stage at the Apollo, from reruns of her hit show The Parkers to her reality program Mo’Nique’s F.A.T. Chance, Mo’Nique exults in the joys of being a large woman. Here, she explores the great love of her life—food. But this isn’t food South Beach diet style. This is food with flavor, from chocolate and cream to sugar and butter and everything in between

In Skinny Cooks Can’t Be Trusted, Mo’Nique’s fondest food memories (like her mama’s stuffed fish that blew up in the oven but made it to the table anyway) are accompanied by cooking tips (when in doubt, taste it to make sure), food strategies (gather everything in one place so you don’t tire yourself out runnin’ around the kitchen), and “what to wear if you’re gonna go there” (because if done right, good food can lead to good lovin’!).

G. Garvin

Famous Chef G. Garvin consulted on this project

Click Here: Smothered Fried Chicken Recipe

Bacalaitos Recipe

I love elboricua.com.  This is a great go to site for Puerto Rican Food such as plantain recipes, sauces, main dishes and desserts.  Favorite this website for recipes. - Crystal Johnson, MCCN Editor

Message from the El Boricua website:

This website is the internet home of  ”EL BORICUA” an electronic monthly cultural magazine available on-line only. Both this website and our monthly magazine are dedicated to our descendants, the children of Puerto Ricans -where ever they might be – so that they can remember our culture, learn about their roots and history, and be proud to call themselves Boricuas and Puertorriqueños.

Bacalaitos.
(10 bacalaitos)

1/4 lb. bacalao filet
3/4 cup flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/3 tsp. salt
3/4 cup bacalao broth
1tsp. black pepper
2 tsp. crushed garlic
oil for frying

Today we can buy processed bacalao that is not “dry” and does not need to soak overnight or boil for hours and hours. Make sure you get the soft bacalao that has been deboned. Sometimes it comes in a wooden box or in platics bags. They have it at some Walmart stores and Fiesta Grocery stores and many others.

Rinse the bacalao and tear into smaller pieces. Boil in plenty of water for about 20 minutes or so. Discard water and add fresh water and boil again for another 20 minutes. Let it cool in the water and save the water. Remove the bacalao and drain in a metal drainer and wait for it to cool down (save the broth). Once cool to the touch, tear the pieces into smaller little tiny pieces and set it aside. If you hold it between your fingers it separates itself.

In a medium bowl combine the flour, baking powder, salt, pepper, and garlic. Add the broth and whisk. The mixture should look like pancake batter. Then add the drained bacalao and whisk again. DO NOT use an electric appliance to stir this stuff because the bacalao will become like fiber and you will end up with a matty mess that will have to be thrown away. I’m speaking from experience here. The batter should look like thin pancake batter. If too thick just add a bit more broth and whisk. If you put too much broth add a bit of flour – just a bit.

Spoon the batter by ½ cup fulls into hot oil. The bacalaitos should be fried over high heat turning only once. They should be golden on both sides. Drain on paper towels before serving. If they are getting too brown too fast lowe heat a bit.

Any extra fish or batter may be refrigerated for a few days or frozen for later use. Remember that this recipe is only for about 10 bacalaitos – so multiply if you must.

Cuban Picadillo recipe – Beef Hash of Cuba

courtesy of Cocina Cubana Club (please join) / Pascual Perez and chef Sonia Martinez

The following can be added to white rice or used as filling in the “pastelitos” recipe in the dessert section to make small meat pies. For picadillo you can use ground lean beef or turkey.

Ingredients

• 1 lb ground meat
•  1 large onion, chopped
•  2-3 garlic cloves, chopped
•  1 small can tomato sauce
•  1/4 cup dry white wine
•  Pimiento stuffed olives
• Raisins
•  Salt and pepper to taste

Directions

In a large skillet, brown the ground meat, onions and garlic. If meat is not too lean, pour out whatever fat you render. turn heat down to medium low. Add the tomato sauce and wine. While it simmers, chop up the pimiento stuffed olives and add to meat mixture, it is ok to add a little bit of the brine, if you wish. Add the raisins and adjust the seasonings. I like my picadillo almost dry, not too soupy. Serve over fluffy, white rice. If you like it soupier, just add more tomato sauce and/or wine, if you wish. For the pastelitos, let the sauce simmer almost to dry, so you will not have a runny mess on your hands. There is also a Cuban grocery website that sells Cuban-style picadillo in their fish & meat section if you want to try the version with potatoes (different from the meat-only one)

Photo Credit: TasteofHome.com

Visit their site

Cake Batter Ice Cream Recipe

Inspired by the revelation that this is teen heart throb Taylor Lautner’s favorite indulgence, MCCN thought we would investigate a recipe for Cake Batter ice cream. We found this one on the sweet tea and texas blog but we made some revisions as she also found this recipe and made changes.  That’s the fun of recipes,  change it here and there and it becomes your own.  Enjoy!

Ingredients

• 1 cup whole milk
•  1/2 cup sugar
• 2 cups heavy whipping cream

• 1 cup boxed cake mix

Instructions

 Mix the milk and sugar until the sugar is dissolved. Pour in the heavy whipping cream and cake mix. Whisk together until completely mixed in. Turn on ice cream maker and pour in mix. Let churn for 25 minutes. Pour in some sort of filler from to chip to marsmallows if desired during the last five minutes of churning.  Transfer to a bowl and freeze.

“Montezuma’s Revenge: A Guacamole” Recipe

 

Photo by MCCN

Ingredients:

• 2 jalapeno chilies,
• dash of pepper,
• tortilla chips,
• 2 ripe large avocados,
•  1 clove of garlic finely chopped,
• ½ cup of chopped medium onion,
• 1 tbsp of lime juice,
• 1 tbsp of lemon juice,
• 1 and ½ cups of 2 medium tomatoes,
•  2 tbsp finely chopped cilantro, and ½ tsp of salt.

1) Remove stems, seeds, and membranes from the chilies and then chop them. Cut the avocados lengthwise in half and remove the pit and peel. Mash the avocados in a bowl with a fork.

2) Stir in the chilies and remaining ingredients except for the chips. Mix well.

3) Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour to blend the flavors and serve with the tortilla chips.

4) Enjoy all that flavorful history rushing in.

* Base of recipe from Betty Crocker, then customized.

Check out Latin Food History and Recipes in the MCCN North Ameria and MCCN South America Sections.

Y & R’s Kate Linder Shares Mexican Fiesta Dip Recipe

The Multi Cultural Cooking Network’s caught up with Daytime TV’s favorite maid.  When she is not serving Ms. Chancellor on Young and the Restless, real life requires Kate Linder to serve one thing…her Mexican Fiesta Dip to friends and family.  Watch as Linder shares her secret recipe by accident with Erika L. Holmes.

Watch Video where like Molly Sims, Tracy Toms and more share about fave foods.

Italian Recipes: Sophia Loren’s Cookbook

Sophia Loren’s Italian cookbook, Recipes and Memories, offers over 100 recipes for cooking traditional Italian food with flavors from all over Italy. Recipes are arranged by course–anti-pasta through desserts blended with personal memorabilia and her Italian family influences that helped develop her cooking skills.

Stand-out dishes include a lovely herb-perfumed lamb stew from Naples and a sweet-savory rice dish made with turkey, chestnuts, and dried fruit. Loren offers the home cook a way to create authentic traditional Italian dishes, with some recipes using contemporary Italian pan-style cooking techniques. Readers will enjoy Loren’s personal favorite pasta sauce that comes from the north coastal regions of Liguria. This un-cooked sauce recalls the famous pesto genovese, but it relies on parsley in lieu of basil and has the added protein of pureed anchovies. This enrichment of fish in a pasta sauce obviates the need for cheese, so this sauce may well become a staple for cooks eager to avoid cheese’s saturated fats.

The recipes in her cookbook are models of clarity, and Sophia’s introductory notes, color photographs and other asides leave no doubt that the author is a serious, passionate cook with the love and appreciation of the tradition and flavors of Italian food from all across Italy. Sophia Loren’s Recipes will compliment any cookbook collection.

(Commentary from the cookbook website)