The haze of White Sangria

Summer time and living is easy. Here at the Niketer household we are firm believers in Sangria. All summer long we have a pitcher in the fridge. It’s so refreshing and versatile. You can adjust the recipe to fit your taste. We usually make Sangria with red wine, but this year for Cinco de Mayo Nick made white sangria. This is made with passion fruit, oranges, and apples. It’s light, fruity and really refreshing.

2 bottles dry white wine like pinot grigio or orvieto.
¾ C brandy
½ C triple Sec
½ C Simple syrup
3/4C passion fruit puree
2C orange juice
3 oranges, sliced
3 green apples
2 lemons
berries


In a pitcher dump all of the wine and booze. Mix in the juices and simple syrup. Slice all the fruit and add it to the wine. Drink it all and enjoy…have a good night.

Jicama Mango salad

This jicama salad is great to serve along with just about any grilled meat. The jicama is sweet and crunchy. Depending on what we’re making we adjust the ingredients. You can get creative.

1 large jicama
2 mangoes
1 red bell pepper
1 shallot
2 roma tomatoes
1 bunch cilantro
juice of 2 limes
1/3 c. white vinegar
1/2 c. olive oil
salt and pepper

Peel and slice jicama into batons. Peel and cut mango from pit and cut into 1" dice. Cut bell peppers into 1/2" dice. Slice shallots finely, and seed and dice tomatoes. Combine Cilantro, lime juice, vinegar and a pinch of salt and pepper in a blender and puree, adding olive oil in a stream until combined. Marinate shallots in dressing for at least 15 minutes, and combine with other items just prior to serving. Add half a seeded jalapeno to dressing when pureeing for a spicy kick. Variation: when it's summer, substitute fresh corn kernels cut from the cob for the mangoes and use basil, lemon and cider vinegar instead of cilantro, lime and white vinegar.

Green Rice

You've had dirty rice, but how about green rice? The combination of roasted peppers and cilantro gives this rice an herbaceous and spicy kick. Long grain rice works best texturally. This recipe serves 4 as a side, but can be multiplied easily.


2 poblano peppers
1 jalapeno
2 c. chicken broth
2 T vegetable oil
1 medium onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/4 cup long grain rice
salt
1 bunch cilantro

Place peppers under a broiler and heat until the skin is blackened, turning to get all sides. Place peppers in a plastic bag or cover to steam for about 10 minutes. Peel skins, stem, and remove seeds from the inside. Dice peppers and set aside.

Heat a saute pan to medium high heat. Add oil and onions and saute until translucent and beginning to brown. Add garlic and continue to saute 1 minute. Combine with chicken broth and peppers.

Place mixture, a pince of salt and rice in a rice cooker and cook per instructions. When done, stir in minces cilantro and garnish with diced tomato or sliced green onion.

Achiote Shredded Pork

This slow roasted pork is rubbed with an achiote spice rub. The spice rub gives the pork a gorgeous deep red color and a great earthy flavor. Achiote is made from annotto seeds, oregano and other spices. It comes from the Yucatan and it harkens back to the Mayan culture. The pork is roasted wrapped in banana leaves. It comes out moist and luscious. It shreds beautifully and makes fantastic tacos.

10lbs pork shoulder
2 3.5oz packages achiote seasoning
4C water
banana leaves
Preheat the oven to 325° Line a roasting pan with banana leaves. Rub the achiote seasoning over the pork and arrange it in the roasting pan. Pour water into the pan and cover with more banana leaves. Roast the pork for 2-4 hours till the pork is fork tender. Shred the pork and mix with the pan juices.

Pico de Gallo

Fresh homemade pico de gallo is bright, vibrant and will take any dish to another level. The key to making really excellent pico de gallo is obsessively chopping everything into a perfectly even fine dice. I start cursing halfway through, but the end result is beautiful and delicious.

8 roma tomatoes, seeded and brunoise (finely diced)
½ jalapeno, minced
3T red onion, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
2 limes, zested and juiced
1T extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper
ciltantro
Dice and combine all of the ingredients in bowl. Add the salt right before serving. If you add it hours before the salt will bring out all of the liquid in the tomatoes and you will end up with watery pico de gallo.

Fantastic Guacamole

This Guacamole always disappears fast. This year I made a batch with 25 avocadoes. There is nothing more exciting than a giant bowl of guacamole. When there is that much everyone feels free to just dig in. By the end of the night the bowl was empty and it looked as if someone had held it up to there face to lick it clean.
Here’s the basic recipe.

4 avocadoes
½ jalapeno, minced
½ roma tomato, seeded and diced
2T red onion, minced
1 clove garlic minced
1t cumin
2 limes, zested and juiced
salt and pepper
½ bunch cilantro



Try to get the avocadoes a few days in advance so they are nice and ripe. I like to score the avocado flesh with a pairing knife so when you spoon it out it comes out in small pieces. Combine all of the ingredients in to a large bowl. Use a large fork to combine the ingredients to the texture you like. I prefer to leave it a little chunky so you can really enjoy the texture of the avocado.