ABOUT THIS FEATURE
New cookbooks flood the market every week. This feature will help you make sense of what’s new and what’s worth trying out. Email your questions and ideas to connie.post@coxinc.com.
Food and music have always gone together. I often listen to one of my iTunes playlists while working in the kitchen, placing my iPhone in an oversize coffee mug to boost the volume.
My taste in music is quite broad — everything from classical to jazz and blues, from pop to country. I also have a weakness for rock ’n’ roll.
Sammy Hagar has been making rock ’n’ roll music for decades, and what may come as a surprise is he’s also an accomplished chef. His longtime buddy, celebrity chef Emeril Lagasse, wrote the forward to Hagar’s newest book, “Are We Having Any Fun Yet? The Cooking & Partying Handbook” (308 pages, $29.99; published by HarperCollins, 2015).
The book is a wonderful read if you like good food and delightful storytelling. Besides including more than 50 recipes, Hagar shares some outrageous family memories, including how his grandfather, an Italian immigrant and self-made chef, canned peaches and made wine out of stolen fruit.
Hagar also recalls his mother’s cooking: “I loved to watch her. In some of my earliest memories, I’m no more than four or five, sitting on a stool behind her as she stir up dinner with a wooden spoon, the same spoon she’d whack us with when we acted out.”
The Red Rocker’s culinary philosophy is simple: “The recipes are guides. They’re not meant to be restrictions. Improvise. Embellish. Taste and tweak as you go,” Hagar writes.
“Cooking and songwriting are alike in that way. You’re pulling something out of the ether, combining elements to create something new. That’s how I think about it, anyway, and it gives me a rush that’s up there with anything in rock and roll.”
If you’re tired of dining on wine, roasted turkey and dressing, and had way too much pumpkin pie in the last month, here are easy-to-make culinary options for celebrating the remainder of the holidays.
LOBSTER BURRITO (Page 58)
Makes 2 burritos
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
2 small tomatoes, peeled and diced
10 ounces lobster meat, cut in bit-size pieces
A splash of dry white wine
Scant ¼ cup heavy cream
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 large flour tortillas
½ cup chopped fresh cilantro
1. In a pan, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat. Saute the onion, garlic and tomatoes for about 2 minutes.
2. Add the lobster meat and cook, stirring frequently, until the meat is mostly cooked through, about 2 minutes.
3. Add the wine and let the alcohol cook off, about 1 minute.
4. Add the heavy cream, a few dashes of salt and several cranks of the pepper mill and let the mixture reduce by a little less than half.
5. Heat the tortillas, and pile a generous portion of the lobster filling in the center of each (you’ll want to use about a third of the lobster for each). Roll each tortilla into a burrito. Pour the rest of the lobster mixture on top of the burritos and garnish with cilantro.
SAMMY’S ROCKIN’ DAIQUIRI (P. 281)
1 ½ ounces Sammy’s Beach Bar Rum
1 ounce fresh sour (see note below)
½ ounce fresh lychee juice or syrup
1 lime wedge, for garnish
Pour all the ingredients except the lime into a shaker. Shake with ice, strain into a cocktail glass, garnish with the lime wedge and serve.
NOTE: You don’t have to buy sour mix. Instead, you can make your own:
FRESH SOUR
Recipe by Connie Post
½ cup water
½ cup sugar
3/4 cup fresh lemon juice
¼ cup fresh lime juice
Pour water and sugar into a small saucepan over medium heat. Stir until all the sugar granules have dissolved. Remove from heat and pour in citrus juice. Stir, strain out the pulp and any seeds, store in an airtight container and refrigerate. Will keep for several weeks.
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