Umi Japanese Restaurant in Winter Park is featuring a special cocktail for the season: Fall Apple Cider Sake Sangria. General manager Blake Cain shows you how to make it in the video. The full recipe is below:

(more…)

Below is the recipe for Chicken & Waffles from TR Fire Grill, Compliments of the Chef, Bob Gallagher.

Watch the video to see how it’s done.

(more…)

Circo, the Italian restaurant from legendary New York restaurateur Sirio Maccioni, who also owns Le Cirque, is coming to Orlando later this year. I was in New York recently and dined at Circo’s original location on West 55th Street.

The food is solidly good, and it will be nice to have another upscale Italian restaurant in the area, especially one with a pedigree such as this one.

One of the restaurant’s signature items is its Thirty Vegetable Soup, one that it popular with regulars for good reason. True to its name, the soup indeed includes 30 distinct vegetables (we’ll not argue the classification of tomatoes here).

I managed to snag a photo of the recipe. (Don’t tell anyone where you got it.) If you’re feeling ambitious, give it a try.

(more…)

Here’s a drink recipe that’s timely by two.

Wendy Lopez, executive chef at Tapa Toro, has come up with a special drink recipe that is fitting for this week’s double holidays. You’re already aware of one; the other is Christmas.

The big one, of course, is National Sangria Day, celebrated and observed on Dec. 20. Lopez’s recipe for Apple Pie Sangria will cover them both.

The key to this recipe’s success is the simple syrup. Simple simple syrup is made with equal parts water and sugar. For her Apple Pie Sangria, Lopez makes a more complex simple syrup using apple juice and other seasonings of the season.

Here’s the recipe:

(more…)

Do you remember Capt. Appleby’s? It was a popular Mount Dora restaurant until it wasn’t anymore — wasn’t popular then wasn’t there. If you don’t remember that, then you probably won’t remember that it was also the restaurant that occupied the space at Dubsdread Golf Course before the Tap Room moved in and started serving good food. (My first review of Capt. Appleby’s in Orlando coined the term dubsdreadful.)

Even if you don’t remember anything else about the restaurants, you’ll remember the little cinnamon rolls that were served there. These sweet treats were served as a garnish on each plate at Capt. Appleby’s.

I was digging through some old files and came across this recipe and I thought you’d enjoy it. I’ll be featuring chef recipes regularly. Let me know if there are any you’d like to see here.

(more…)

Have you ever wondered how to make macarons, those tasty little French pastries? There are many steps involved, but master pastry chef David Ramirez of David Ramirez Chocolates walks us through it in this episode of The Daily Chew. Click on the video link above, and then find the macarons recipe at icFlorida.com.

Here’s a great little dish you can throw together if you’ve got some people coming over, whether it’s for a cocktail party or a game-day gathering. Bram Fowler or Journeys Catering shows how to make Artichoke Gratin on this episode of The Daily Chew. Click on the video above, then get the recipe at icFlorida.com.

Our friends over at Barnie’s CoffeeKitchen have begun a series of videos featuring executive chef Camilo Velasco. In the initial episode, Velasco explains three of the dishes he’s featuring at the Park Avenue Barnie’s on the evenings that dinner is serves, Thursday through Saturday. In case you missed it, I told you about some of the good stuff they’re serving in this article.

Click the video image above to see Camilo in the Kitchen.

Doesn’t prime rib sound good? Bram Fowler of Journeys Catering shows how he does it on this episode of The Daily Chew. 

New Year’s Eve has passed but there’s never a wrong time to enjoy these two great pairings: Great Champagne and fancy chocolate dipped strawberries. Lauren Brown of Brown’s New York Deli and Tim Varan of Tim’s Wine Market helped out for this edition of The Daily Chew.