Eleanor Hoh

Aventura Wine and Food Festival 2014

January 12, 2014 By Eleanor Hoh 3 Comments

So it seems every single city has its own wine and food festival and today Aventura presented its first festival on a beautiful sunny day. The concept is a great idea because it’s a fabulous way to hang out with friends, taste a lot of different cuisines from local restaurants and try a variety of wines all in one place! Just be aware of long lines to enter and at the food and wine tents and wear appropriate clothing and shoes!

I only managed to get tastings from 3 restaurants: Mister Collins (Bal Harbour); Toro Toro (Pan Asian fusion inside downtown Intercontinental Hotel) and Fish Fish (North Miami). All served ceviche cause it’s the easiest dish to serve! So disappointed Chef Ryan Harrison didn’t have cooking facilities for his spiced popcorn at the Mas Vino tent, maybe next year!

Curry Quinoa

December 28, 2013 By Eleanor Hoh Leave a Comment

Curry Quinoa was a dish I made up out of desperation because I’d forgotten I was bringing a dish to a friend’s party! It was a good challenge and exercise in ‘what’s the thought process?’ when creating a dish. Since I don’t follow or teach using recipes in the sense most folks use them, I want to show how easy it is to make up a dish with what you have! The more you make up dishes, the easier it becomes. It’s like anything in life, practice makes perfect.

The 4 things to focus on when creating your dish are taste, texture, color and presentation in that order.

Ingredients:
3 cups quinoa (4 cups water)
big bunch of multi-colored mini sweet peppers, chopped
3 medium size yellow squash, sliced in quarters
1/2 onion chopped
3 scallions chopped
big bunch of cilantro chopped
3 garlic gloves, diced
Seasonings:
dash of tamari
dash of sherry
curry powder to cover quinoa and veggies completely
tablespoon of organic ghee
oil for stir frying (canola, coconut oil, grapeseed oil, avocado oil)
I use a lightweight, thin walled cast iron wok and portable butane gas stove setup because I have an electric stove! Please don’t use a nonstick wok because you cannot use it above medium heat!
You can substitute with any veggies you like instead of squash and peppers but make sure you have some bright colors to make your dish POP!
Method:
1. While quinoa is cooking, chop all the veggies on a big chopping board and leave there.
2. Fry veggies in batches so you don’t overload your wok and they become soggy.
3. My stir fry process guarantees success everytime…
– heat wok till you see first wisp of smoke
– add 3 swirls of oil around wok
– add garlic and added squash, plate it
– do same process for mini sweet peppers and onions
4. Quinoa should be cooked by this time, fluff it up, add ghee and keep fluffing!
– add quinoa and all veggies back into wok and combine well
– sprinkle enough curry powder to completely cover quinoa and veggies and combine well
– last, sprinkle scallions and cilantro and combine, give it a taste and see if you need to adjust flavors like a bit more tamari or curry powder
5. Transfer to serving bowl, admire, take photos and enjoy!
No. 1 – taste
Lately, I’ve been experimenting with ghee, a clarified butter Indians like to use when making curries etc. I added a tablespoon to the dish which gave it a very creamy texture and so tasty. So now number 1 & 2 are in place.
No. 2 – texture
Initially, I thought I’d just bring a big platter of stir fried veggies but on their own, they looked very wimpy. I found quinoa which bulked up the dish and made it more substantial plus gave it texture, there’s no.2.
No.3 – color
I found yellow squash and a big bag of multi-colored mini sweet peppers in the fridge and started panicking thinking, well, that’s not very interesting. Yes, colors are bright and lovely but it’s not enough. However, after stir frying them in my wok with just a dash of tamari and sherry and added in quinoa, the dish started coming together. I must say, a wok is a great pan to mix up large quantities of food (but please don’t stir fry large quantities in one batch because it lowers the heat of the wok and results in soggy veggies!)
It’s a good idea to have scallions and cilantro around because they add a whole new dimension to a dish. They give a nice finish and pop of freshness, color and flavor! I didn’t stir fry them, just added right at the end, so the heat from the dish gently cooks them and stayed bright green. No. 1 and 3 at work.
It still needed something else because I didn’t have many red sweet peppers so the dish looked a little beige. I spied curry powder, now we’re talking! Curry has tumeric in it and what a difference it made. I just sprinkled enough to give the quinoa and veggies color and Curry Quinoa was born. I didn’t make it spicy though because I didn’t want folks who couldn’t eat spicy not be able to try my dish. Whenever I make a quinoa dish for pot luck, all the guys tell me they‘ve never had quinoa and wouldn’t have liked it if it was ‘healthy’, ha, ha, well, not only did they like it, they finished it.

MySpiceSage350 — MySpiceSage curry powder gives any dish a pop of color and flavor! So many ways to use it too, just sprinkle at the end of a stir fry, yum!

No. 4 – presentation
My foodie chef friend, Kyra gifted me this beautiful intricate patterned steel Thai rice bowl with serving spoon years ago. Anything you put in this serving bowl makes a wonderful presentation. It’s so unique and stands out, doesn’t take up much space and so elegant. If you’re going to make a contribution to a pot luck, make it memorable!

The dish was a big hit and when I wanted to take the bowl home, Michelle wanted me to leave her the last bit! I was so tickled she liked it.
To all the Wok Stars out there, just keep practicing and you’ll be rewarded with loads of compliments. I’d love to hear your ‘thought process’ when you put a dish together!

Miami Book Fair: Ingrid Hoffmann, Manuel Villacorta

November 22, 2013 By Eleanor Hoh 59 Comments

Here’s the second of the 2 book giveaways sponsored by Miami Book Fair! So, you’ll have till Sunday to win one of these super cookbooks by Ingrid Hoffmann and Manuel Villacorte…

Ready for Book Giveaway? Keeping it simple, here you go:
1. Subscribe to my free newsletter in right sidebar so you’ll never miss special offers from premium sponsors only available to subscribers, meal ideas, videos, resources, tips and techniques, restaurant reviews and beyond.
2. Leave a comment below why you deserve to win Ingrid Hoffman or Manual Villacorta’s cookbook? Then email me wokstar at eleanorhoh dot com so I have your email if you win. Choose only ONE book.
3. Eligibility: Only for United States residents. Closing date: Sunday, November 24, 2013 at 12 midnight, ET. Check back here for winner.
4. A random winner will be picked and contacted via email. Respond ASAP, otherwise I will pick the next winner.
5. Your book will be sent directly through the publisher, good luck!
Ingrid Hoffmann, Latin D’Lite: Delicious Latin Recipes with a Healthy Twist
Hoffmann re-imagines your favorite Latin American dishes to offer healthy alternatives that are still full of bold flavors. Featuring more than 150 classic Latin recipes, Hoffmann adds her signature touch, introducing readers to healthy ingredient substitutions that are light and fresh in a few simple steps. The key to making the lifestyle change to healthy eating is using the right seasonings and ingredients that will give your food the flavors you want. An example of this is substituting mayonnaise in a coleslaw to lime juice or baking codfish balls instead of frying them.
Whether you’re craving tacos or tostones, Hoffmann delivers dishes that’s sure to please. She still includes an indulgent recipe to allow for occasional splurges while maintaining these healthy changes.
Ingrid Hoffmann is an international food and television personality, restauranteur, and host of Cooking Channel’s Simply Delicioso and Univision’s Delicioso. Latin d’lite is a fully illustrated, easy-to-follow cookbook that offers a healthy spin on modern Latin cuisine. If you don’t win and interested in buying her book, click here!
She’s a serious food lover who lives in Miami and I’ve had the honor of meeting her on several occasions through a foodies group and earlier this year, she spoke at the Women’s Success Summit to coincide with the launch of her latest cookbook, Latin d’lite! I loved hearing how she started from scratch against all odds, so inspiring.
I can’t wait to experiment with her healthy Latin dishes in my wok and put my personal spin on them. I see Pork and Chicken Paella, p.163 which woks perfectly, I’ve made many paellas in my day! Or Basque Style Chicken p.132 woking really well, umm. Visit her site for all the other great stuff she does, always reinventing.
You can catch Ingrid on Saturday and Sunday at the Miami Book Fair, here’s schedule!

Manuel Villacorta, Peruvian Power Foods: 18 Superfoods, 101 Recipes and Anti-Aging Secrets from the Amazon to the Andes
Villacorta traveled to his native Peru and spoke with locals from across the country to learn about the incredible health and lifestyle benefits of “superfoods” native to the Amazonian jungles and the Andinian valleys and highlands. He returns with over 100 recipes, each with less than 6 steps, introducing all 18 incredible edible superfoods in healthy and hearty dishes one can easily prepare at home. Villacorta makes eating healthy an adventure, enlightening foodies and home cooks to experiment with fruits like the pichuberry, rich in vitamins and antioxidants, and the camu camu, which packs more than 60 times the vitamin C in your average orange. Watch his promo video below!
I picked this book to giveaway because I know so many of us struggle with trying to be healthy and not knowing how to go about doing it that still satisfies our cravings and bad habits. I share Villacorta’s wonderful philosophy on his site, Eating Free, go check it out! If you don’t win his book, you can buy here!
Villacorta, MS, RD, is a dietician, author, and the founder of Eating Free, an international weight management and wellness program. Born and raised in Peru, Villacorta lives in San Francisco and contributes to the Huffington Post health blog, Univision, and Fox News Latino.

Eleanor Hoh

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