This month’s edition of “Local Flavor,” my collaboration with The Community Paper, features a recipe from Hungry Pants, the SoDo restaurant that is “100 percent plant based 80 percent of the time,” according to its owners, Joey Conicella and Alex Marin.

Marin and Conicella are sharing Hungry Pants’ recipe for muhammara, a versatile and spicy dip popular in Lebanon, Syria and Turkey (the country, not the bird). “I am a big believer in having ‘back pocket’ options to use for quick options at home,” Marin said. “Muhammara is something that both Joey and I are obsessed with. We use it as a dipping sauce for crudité, spread it on toast in the morning with a runny egg for breakfast, and add it to sandwiches for a little extra flavor.”

Find the recipe at YourCommunityPaper.com and give it a try. You can even put it on turkey.

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The latest issue of The Community Paper is out and my Local Flavor column this month features a recipe from Delaney’s Tavern.

Delaney’s Tavern in the SoDo District across from the Orlando Health complex is often compared to the bar on the television series “Cheers.” It has a neighborhood vibe and a friendly staff who may or may not know your name.

But the gang at Cheers had to leave the bar to eat; at Delaney’s there’s great food right there with a versatile menu from executive chef Anthony Albino.

Here Albino shares the recipe for a new Roasted Stuffed Mushrooms appetizer. As written, the recipe is vegetarian and gluten free. Albino says you can adapt it to include chopped crab, lobster or sausage.

At Delaney’s Tavern, Albino finishes the dish with two sauces, a Porcini Goat Cheese Mousse and a Piquillo Coulis, but he says: “I would recommend any kind of aioli, or a horseradish based sauce. Or if you want to kick it up, some kind of chipotle sauce.”

Click here to see the full recipe on the Community Paper’s website.

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This month’s Local Flavor, the column I do in partnership with The Community Paper, features a recipe from a downtown favorite, Soco Thornton Park.

Soco has become a fixture of downtown dining, thanks to the cuisine of chef/partner Greg Richie. Here he shares the recipe for his Sweet Potato Gnocchi, which is a perfect example of the restaurant’s style of southern contemporary, from which the name Soco is derived.

Follow this link to see the full recipe at The Community Paper’s website.

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Russell’s on Lake Ivanhoe has a pineapple theme because the strip of land it sits on used to be a pineapple farm. So it stands that one of the signature cocktails at the popular restaurant (voted Best New Restaurant in our Foodster Awards for Independent Restaurants) would be a Pineapple Old Fashioned. In the video below, bartender Hannah Downs demonstrates how to make it.

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Photo: The Pinery

Shortly after it opened last summer, The Pinery, the very good lakeview restaurant in the Ivanhoe Village district, had a chef change. Steven Mattix took over the role of executive chef following the departure of opening chef Naomi Freeman. (You can read my review here.)

Mattix moved to Central Florida from the D.C. area where he was a sous chef for Jose Andrés and also opened restaurants for [Jeff] Black’s Restaurant Group.

So far he has maintained most of the opening menu, though there may be some changes to come. I asked Mattix if he could share the recipe for the restaurant’s Shrimp & Grits with Cornbread for my monthly Local Flavor column with Community Paper, and he was more than happy to oblige.

You can find the recipe on the Community Paper’s website. Mattix suggests you make the cornbread, which is essential to the recipe, first so that it’s ready as soon as you’ve cooked the shrimp.

Give it a try.

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Russell’s on Lake Ivanhoe was recently voted 2021 Best New Restaurant in our Foodster Awards for Independent Restaurants. Much of the restaurant’s popularity is due to chef/partner Emmanuel Clement’s French-influenced menu. In the February issue of the Community Paper, he shares his recipe for Blackened Double Lamb Chops with Garlic and Potato Gratin for my monthly Local Flavor column.

You’ll notice in the photo that Clement frenches the bones of the chops. That is, he scrapes off the gristle on the “handle” of the chop. It makes for a prettier presentation but is totally unnecessary.

The recipe calls for eight double chops — ask your grocer’s butcher for them — but you could easily make it with four or even two. (Make all the potatoes, though, because you’re going to want extras.) Click here to see the recipe.

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I’m happy to announce a new collaboration with The Community Paper, the widely read publication covering College Park and Downtown Orlando. Each month in a column called Local Flavor, I’ll be offering a recipe from chefs and favorite restaurants for you to try at home.

For January, I have the popular Cranberry Walnut Chicken Salad from Greg and Terry Granda of Shakers American Cafe in College Park. This is an easy one because it requires little cooking – no cooking at all if you use cooked chicken you already have on hand, such as from a rotisserie chicken.

Take a look at the recipe on The Community Paper’s website and give it a try. And if there’s a chef’s recipe you’d like me to try to get for future editions, let me know.

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I stopped in a few weeks ago to try K Restaurant’s (now regularly scheduled) Sunday brunch. Previously, brunch was an every now and then thing, so it’s nice to have a reliable standby.

It was also the first time I’d visited since the College Park restaurant got its full liquor license, so it was also nice to have a proper adult beverage with my brunch.

I sampled the Pork Belly Benedict, a take on the classic dish with pork belly instead of Canadian bacon and Southern style biscuits instead of English muffins. It was delicious.

And afterwards, I went into the kitchen and chef de cuisine Ryan McLaughlin showed me how he makes the yummy dish. He also agreed to share the recipe, which you’ll find below.

Unfortunately, pastry chef Michelle Hulbert wouldn’t part with her biscuit recipe, so you’ll have to find one of your own (or see if you can buy a bag of them from the restaurant).

Take a look at the video, then give the recipe a try. For inspiration, stop by K and try the real deal.

K Restaurant is at 1710 Edgewater Drive, Orlando. Brunch is served Sundays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. The phone number is 407-872-2332.

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Feeling a little adventurous? In this episode of Compliments of the Chef, John Park of Umi Japanese restaurant in Winter Park demonstrates how to make the raw and spicy Tuna by Tuna roll featured there. Watch the video below and then get out your knives and bamboo roller.

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Corey Crawford, chef de cuisine at Fiorenzo’s, the Italian restaurant at Hyatt Regency Orlando, shows you how to make Chicken & Ravioli, one of the restaurant’s signature dishes, in this episode of Compliments of the Chef.

Watch the video, then gather all your ingredients and give it a try.

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