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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Sear + Sea Woodfire Grill is the wonderful new(ish) steak and seafood restaurant at the JW Marriott Bonnet Creek resort. Melissa Sallman is the hotel’s new executive chef and oversees the restaurant. There may be some small changes coming with the menu but you can probably count on this polenta side dish staying on.

Of course, another word for polenta is grits, so when I made the recipe following Sallman’s instructions in the Scott’s Kitchen video below, I grilled up some shrimp to go along with it for my own version of shrimp and grits. Cheesy grits/polenta, too, thanks to both parmesan and goat cheese.

Watch the video then give the recipe a try. And be sure to visit Sear + Sea to sample the polenta with one of their steaks – or maybe some shrimp.

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Rocco’s Italian Grille serves some of the finest food in Central Florida. And owner Rocco Potami has a certain skill with creating complex Italian dishes.

But in this edition of Compliments of the Chef, Potami demonstrates how to make Veal Scallopini. Give the video a look, then pick up some veal (or chicken) from your market and give the recipe a try. Or stop by Rocco’s and let Potami make you a perfect one.

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Since taking over the Big Fin Seafood Kitchen in 2020, executive chef Eric Enrique has been making changes to the menu. One of the additions has been his Grouper Piccata, a take on the classic Italian preparation usually done with veal or chicken. Enrique has tweaked it for fish and for added flair deep fries the capers that garnish it. When I recently reviewed the restaurant, this dish was easily my favorite.
In this episode of Scott’s Kitchen, Enrique walks me through the steps to make the dish. This is definitely one that will impress your dinner guests.
Watch the video below then find yourself some good grouper and give it a try.

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