A Cooking Lesson: Guilotas (Quail) en Salsa de Molcajete

Guilotas (Quail) en Molcajete
Guilotas en Salsa de Molcajete
Quail with Roasted Tomato Chile Salsa (made in a molcajete)

Many of you have met Marlene, we have worked together over the years at various catering events and dinner parties. It would be difficult to pull off those events without her. Her extraordinary organization skills, strength, speed, and attention to detail, her eye for perfection all make her, in a word, indispensable. And boy oh boy, can she cook! No matter what the event – after a few minutes she knows her way around the kitchen – any kitchen, any where.

A while back, she had told me about one of her favorite dishes called guilotas en salsa de molcajete. I told her that I would love to try it someday… Well just the other day, to my delight, she had a surprise for me. I returned home from work and she had brought over 4 quail, seasonings, tomatoes, chiles, garlic, and cilantro, and proceeded to give me a cooking lesson. I couldn’t have been more thrilled. And as a bonus – there was dinner less than 40 minutes later.

Guilotas en Salsa de Molcajete Recipe

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Foodbuzz 24X24: Autumn Affair, New Nordic Style

An autumn affair! Oh, I am in love. He is fresh, sensuous, healthy, and playful.
He is simultaneously familiar and exotic; simple and complex.
His diverse tastes always reflect the season. And he is absolutely gorgeous.
He is New Nordic Cuisine.

wild carrot flowers

We are experimenting with New Nordic for the first time. My fellow passionate cooks, Lauren and Gail, join me in the kitchen to create this titillating dinner. Ingredients for the six-course meal include Norwegian goat cheese, wild herbs and flowers, berries and seeds, smoked fish, quail, grainy breads, root vegetables, and fresh fruits from the farmers’ market. Each dish is inspired by nature. We’ve attempted to present and garnish the plates in the sensual & earthy New Nordic style.

The setting is natural-organic-minimalist. White china, set on a large mahogany table sans cloth. The centerpiece and decoration is created from foraging…sticks, twigs, fruit from the vine in our gardens, and rocks and driftwood from the beach.

Our goal was to transport our dinner group of five, as well as Taste With The Eyes’ readers, to experience the essence of Fall in Scandinavia, Finland, and Iceland via my home in Los Angeles. We were inspired by the beauty of New Nordic Cuisine, by the distant land’s cutting-edge chefs’ pure artistry and commitment to local, seasonal, and sustainable.

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