http://www.knifeplanet.net/3-step-routine-keep-knives-sharp/
Cutting a Mango
A great article on how to slice up a mango using a Y peeler.
Serious Eats article on Cutting a Mango
Wheat Flour Characteristics
Important information for making all pastas.
Wheat Flour Characteristics
Source: Mastering Pasta by Marc Vetri
Cooking Fats 101: What’s a Smoke Point and Why Does it Matter?
Great article from Serious Eats (ok so it is two years old).
| Type of Fat | Smoke Point | Neutral?* |
|---|---|---|
| Safflower Oil | 510°F/265°C | Yes |
| Rice Bran Oil | 490°F/260°C | Yes |
| Light/Refined Olive Oil | 465°F/240°C | Yes |
| Soybean Oil | 450°F/230°C | Yes |
| Peanut Oil | 450°F/230°C | Yes |
| Clarified Butter | 450°F/230°C | No |
| Corn Oil | 450°F/230°C | Yes |
| Sunflower Oil | 440°F/225°C | Yes |
| Vegetable Oil | 400-450°F/205-230°C | Yes |
| Beef Tallow | 400°F/250°C | No |
| Canola Oil | 400°F/205°C | Yes |
| Grapeseed Oil | 390°F/195°C | Yes |
| Lard | 370°F/185°C | No |
| Avocado Oil (Virgin) | 375-400°F/190-205°C | No |
| Chicken Fat (Schmaltz) | 375°F/190°C | No |
| Duck Fat | 375°F/190°C | No |
| Vegetable Shortening | 360°F/180°C | Yes |
| Sesame Oil | 350-410°F/175-210°C | No |
| Butter | 350°F/175°C | No |
| Coconut Oil | 350°F/175°C | No |
| Extra-Virgin Olive Oil | 325-375°F/165-190°C | No |
*All neutral oils listed on this chart are refined; though unrefined versions of them do exist, these are the varieties most common to a home cook’s repertoire. Meanwhile, the majority of flavorful oils are expeller-pressed and, though available refined, are often quite costly and uncommon.
Cavas Sol y Barro
The drive up to Cavas Sol y Barro.
Cavas Sol y Barro Winery
Cavas Sol y Barro Winery
Cavas Sol y Barro Winery
The tasting room of Cavas Sol y Barro is very nice.
The Tasting Room at Cavas Sol y Barro
The Tasting Room at Cavas Sol y Barro
The first wine we tasted was the Solybarro Grenache Cabernet Sauvignon 2013. Sorry for the blurry photo, it was not because of all the previous tastings.
Solybarro Grenache Cabernet Sauvignon 2013
Retail price: MX$330
Grapes:Grenache and Cabernet Sauvignon
Comments: Ruby Red, good legs
Rating: 2.5 out of 5.
The next wine was the Solybarro Barbera Nebbiolo 2013.
Solybarro Barbera Nebbiolo 2013
Retail price: MX$420
Grapes:Barbera and Nebbiolo
Comments: Light legs, dark ruby red, musty, yeasty, dry but young to the taste.
Rating: 3.0 out of 5.
The final wine was the Malvoiste (Pinot Gris) 2015.
Solybarro Malvoisie (Pinot Gris) 2015
Retail price: MX$270
Grapes: Pinot Gris
Comments: Very young, aroma very floral, somewhat sweet, with a little blush.
Rating: 4.0 out of 5.
website: www.cavasolybarro.com.mx but this does not work
facebook: None
Telephone: +52 (646) 118 5313
Wine maker: Aimé Desponds
Address: Carretera Ensenada – Tecate Km. 87
Vinícola 3 Mujeres
3 Mujeres is a very interesting winery which Ivette Vaillart started 17 years ago and 10 years ago they started selling them to the public.
The current portfolio of wines from 3 Mujeres and a nice art piece made by Ivette
The first wine we sampled was the La Mezcla Mestiza 2012.
La Mezcla Mestiza 2013
Retail price: MX$ 250
Grapes: Genache, Zinfandel and Carignan from France
Comments: Light, fruity but a bit young.
Rating: 3.5 out of 5.
The second wine was the La Mezcla del Rancho 2013
La Mezcla del Rancho 2013
Retail price: MX$250
Grapes: Cabernet Sauvignon and Garache
Comments: Dry, slight fruit, alcohol, lighter color.
Rating: 3.0 out of 5.
We also sampled the ISME 2013, but I did not get a photo of the individual bottle.
Retail price: MX$250
Grapes: Merlot
Comments: Light color, fruity , smooth, Elegent, similar to a Sonoma County Merlot.
Rating: 3.5 out of 5.
The current portfolio of wines from 3 Mujeres
website: None
facebook: https://www.facebook.com/3MujeresVinicola/
Telephone: +52 (646) 171 5674
Wine maker: Ivette Vaillart and Eva Cotero
Address: Km. 87 Carretera Tecate-Ensenada
Malva Restaurante
Malva Restaurante is a small location that seats only 24 people or so. The chef Roberto Alcocer has done a great job in developing this restaurant which is focused on food native to the Baja California area. The only difficult thing we encountered with the restaurant is that when you are coming to the entrance off of the main highway you need to take a left turn across a very busy and what looked like dangerous curve. Luckily for us there was no other cars coming down the hill so we were able to enter quickly and easily.
The restaurant is a very open layout with basically only one wall, which is adorned by some beautiful street art or murals, however you would classify it.
Beautiful Street Art on the only wall in the restaurant
More on the street art
The restaurant embraces the natural setting of the restaurant and there is only limited lighting. Since the restaurant was fairly busy I kept my flash turned off on my camera so the images are not of the highest quality that I would typically strive for, but I think they present the quality of the food and the artistic styling well.
We started with the Sopas de Carnitas.
Sopas de Carnitas
All of the soaps we’re awesome and the salsa of parsley was very good.
We then moved on to the Platon de Queso del Rancho (local cheese platter). The presentation was very artistic and the cheeses were excellent.
Platon de Queso del Rancho
The cheeses were very fresh, quite moist and flavorful. The smokey cheese had a dry mouth feel, but were equally good.
Platon de Queso del Rancho
I was looking forward to the Ash and Onion cheese, but this was the only one that did not exude much flavor, so it was a bit of a let down for me.
We then moved on to our main plates, where Jo Ann had the Pesca del Dia which was a MahiMahi on a bed of mushrooms. She really enjoyed the mail and felt that the salsa was outstanding. Sadly it was too dark for me to get a good photograph of this meal.
For my main course, I had the Castilla Carjada (Beef Short Rib). This meal was absolutely perfect and I do not rate mainly plates at restaurants as a 5 out of 5. Well done.
Costilla Carjada
We finished our meal up with a plate of ice creams which included Popcorn, Smoky, Rosemary and Goat Cheese. The smokey was very good, but the others were a little icy almost like a sorbet.
Plato de helado
The wine list was complete and represented a number of the wineries in the area. We did share a bottle of Amando IV from Viñas de Garza. The wine sold for MX$800 and was very good. However it really should have been decanted but we had to pour it from the bottle. The wine is very complex and a full body taste.
Overall I found Malva to be the best restaurant in the Valle de Guadalupe.
The service was great and I enjoyed being able to watch the line working away in the open kitchen.
Direccion: Km 96 carretera Ens Tecate, 22755 San Antonio De Las Minas, Baja California, Mexico
Reservas: +52 (646) 155 30 85 / (646) 190 72 78 o por correo a ralcocer07@gmail.com
Facebook: MALVA Cocina de Baja California
Viñas de Garza
You arrive at Viñas de Garza in a beautifully maintained facility. We were very impressed by the commitment to eco-friendly techniques as well as the architecturally elegant design of the entire location.
The parking lot at Viñas de Garza
Through out the winery there are signs from the older generation of farming and agriculture.
Some old Farm Implements at Viñas de Garza
Some old Farm Implements at Viñas de Garza
Plus if anyone really knows Jo Ann they know that she loves her rototillers.
Jo Ann loves her rototillers
2 km/h 2013
The first wine we sampled was the 2013 2km/h.
Retail price: MX$280 (MX$200 at the winery)
Grapes: 70% Tempranillo and 30% Grenache
Comments: Ruby Red, a little cloudy around the edges, big nose, fruity, spicy but a little dry.
Rating: 4 out of 5.
Tinto del Rancho Mogorcito 2012
The next wine was the 2012 Tinto del Rancho Mogorcito.
Retail price: MX$400 (MX$300 at the winery)
Grapes: 60% Cabernet Sauvignon and 40% Merlot
Comments: Good legs, cordovan chocolate color, dark fruit, a little spice, little tannin, but dry.
Rating: 4.5 out of 5.
Colina Norte 2009
The third wine was the 2009 Colina Norte.
Retail price: MX$560 (MX$500 at the winery)
Grapes: 60% Tempranillo, 25% Cariñena and 15% Grenache
Comments: Lots of legs, deep ruby color, some floating sentiment. Dark fruit aroma, raspberry, a little smoky. Elegant, smooth, vanilla and dry taste.
Rating: 4 out of 5.
Amado IV 2009
The final wine was the 2009 Amado IV.
Retail price: MX$620 (MX$500 at the winery)
Grapes: Cabernet, Merlot, Tempranillo, Zinfandel
Comments: Dark Ruby, many but small forming legs, dark plum, very dry, lots of tannin, black pepper. My belief is that this wine will need to be decanted for 20 to 30 minutes prior to drinking.
Rating: 4 out of 5.
We truly loved all four of the wines and bought some of each to have shipped home. Also the staff at the winery were very pleasant as well as Amado Garza who we talked with for a while about his wines.
As you leave the property, you will see these two interesting buildings. We kept wondering what was housed there, the owners or….
Some very interesting buildings down the road from Viñas de Garza
the owners wine cellar?
Some very interesting buildings down the road from Viñas de Garza
website: www.vinosdegarza.com
facebook: https://www.facebook.com/vinosdegarza
Telephone: +52 (646) 116 7365
Wine maker: Amado Garza
Address: Carr. Ensenada – Tecate, km 87, Valle de Guadalupe, Ensenada, Baja California
Beauty Can Be Bland But Chocolate and Vanilla Ice Cream Always Saves The Day
Yesterday we set out to make this wonderful looking open faced lasagna with melted cheese and sliced asparagus, all topped with an asparagus salad. The finished plate is shown below.
The assembled meal, looks beautiful but tasted bland
First we made pasta for the lasagna sheets by hand, which is something I find so peaceful to make. The nice thing is that we only needed six sheets so we were able to make enough other pasta that it will last us a week or two.
Then we moved on to slicing the parmesan and the asparagus.
Shaved Asparagus and Parmesan
While I was doing the above, Jo Ann was making the asparagus salad that will top the lasagna as well as buttering the cookie sheet we will bake them on.
Asparagus Salad
We then preheated the BBQ for almost 20 minutes to get it up to 500° so we could cook the lasagna sheets and asparagus as well as melt the cheese.
Open Faced Lasagne with melted cheese and asparagus
The end result was a beautiful looking meal, but one that I will never make again. Very bland although we can see a number of alternative toppings to use on the grilled lasagna sheets.
The assembled meal, looks beautiful but tasted bland
Of course after so much work, we were feeling fairly down. However earlier in the day we had made both home made Vanilla Ice Cream (thank you David Lebovitz for the wonderful cook book “The Perfect Scoop”) and Rose Levy Beranbaum’s Chocolate Oblivion Truffle Torte from Food 52. Thankfully, chocolate and vanilla ice cream can save just about any down day!
Rose Levy Beranbaum’s Chocolate Oblivion Truffle Torte with Home Made Vanilla Ice Cream
Cavas del Mogor
After visiting the organic farmers market we walked over to the tasting room for Cavas del Mogor. The facility is beautiful and the commitment to quality is very good.
Down in the cava of el Mogor.
Inside the storage area of El Mogor
Inside the storage area of El Mogor
Barrels of el Mogor
Bottle Storage
Barrels of el Mogor
Barrels of el Mogor
We sampled the three wines of the winery. The first was the 2014 Perinea Blanco which is a light wine wine. We then followed this with the 2013 Perinea, which is a mix of French and Mexican grapes.
Pirineo 2013
We then finished our tasting with the wine of the house, the 2012 Mogor-Badan. The wine maker of this vintage was Natalia’s brother who has since passed on.
Here is a photo of him.
The former vitner of el Mogor
Mogor-Badan 2012
website: None
facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CavasDelMogor
Telephone: +52 (646) 146 0728
email: natalia_badan@hotmail.com
Wine maker: Hugo D’Acosta
Address: Carretera Tecate – Ensenada km 85.5, Valle de Guadalupe, Ensenada, Baja California
Perinea Blanco 2014
Retail price:MX$200
Grapes: 50% Macabeo and 50% Carignana Blanc
Comments: Light with some citrus taste
Rating: 3.0 out of 5.
Perinea 2013
Retail price: MX$300
Grapes: Mezcla franco mexican. Around 40 to 50% of the grapes come from France.
Comments: Light but can pair with most foods.
Rating: 3.5 out of 5.
Mogor-Badan 2012
Retail price: MX$450
Grapes: Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Merlot
Comments: This is the wine of the house as the wine maker was Natalia’s brother before he died. One year in French Oak and two years in the bottle.
Rating: 3.5 out of 5.
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