Taste With The Eyes

Spicy Salmon with Shrimp Chips

Spicy Salmon with Shrimp Chips
Avocado Mash with Lemon, Sliced Jalapeños

This tasty snack was inspired by Nobu Restaurants’ “Crispy Rice with Spicy Tuna” where fried sushi rice cubes are served with a little bowl of spicy tuna and light soy sauce on the side. A version of the Nobu recipe went viral a while back on TikTok with the addition of avocado and jalapeño.

The original authentic dish can be enjoyed at many of the over 50 Nobu Restaurants around the world including all three in Las Vegas – Caesars Palace, Paris Las Vegas, Las Vegas Virgin Hotel.

With the remainder of a nice piece of sockeye salmon leftover from making an Aguachile de Salmón for my guests, I decided to make a quick snack paired with store-bought shrimp chips. These puffy-crisp chips are made from a dough of tapioca flour and ground shrimp. The dough is steamed, thinly sliced, dried, then fried. The result are crunchy little crackers full of umami flavor.

Topped with a tiny scoop of spicy salmon and/or avocado plus an optional jalapeño ring, these make a zippy one-bite snack bomb that is packed full of flavors, textures, and spice! And unlike the original dish which has many steps to prepare the fried sushi rice, this appetizer is quick and easy…

Spicy Salmon with Shrimp Chips Recipe

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Crunchy Salty Oatmeal Cookies

Crunchy Salty Oatmeal Cookies
With Whole Cashews and Raisins

I keep these cookies under glass on the kitchen counter next to the coffee maker. Guests seem to find them irresistible!

They are less sweet than some traditional oatmeal cookies but the raisins bring plenty fruitiness. These oatmeal cookies are quite crunchy, and pleasantly salty and savory – with a bit extra salt in the batter and Maldon sea salt flakes on top. The whole cashews add extra buttery nutty textures and flavors.

And when my guests leave after a fun time in Vegas, they head back with some Crunchy Salty Oatmeal Cookies for the trip home.

🧡 Cookies Baked in Vegas, Don’t Stay in Vegas 🧡

Oatmeal Cookies Recipe

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Brisket Quesabirria Tacos

I don’t know anyone who cooks a brisket for 6 hours plus, and doesn’t make enough for leftovers. It is great simply re-heated in the sauce. It also freezes well and can be repurposed in tons of other great dishes like tamales and sandwiches. This year, our Rosh Hashanah brisket morphed into quesabirria tacos.

We first tried quesabirria tacos when grazing on The Vegas Strip. My nephew, Stone, was telling us that Birria Tacos with Consomé had been trending all over social media, and we had to give them a try. Gracias, Stone!

Quesabirria tacos (aka red tacos) are super popular and bursting with unctuous deliciousness. They are composed of just three ingredients – meat, cheese, and corn tortillas. They are served with a dipping sauce on the side called consomé. After several hours of cooking, the sauce in which the meat is cooked becomes rich and complexly flavored. The layer of fat from meat flavors and crisps the tortillas, and the liquid becomes the dipping sauce.

Mexican consomé is made with chiles and common Mexican spices such as cumin, oregano, and cinnamon. My holiday brisket consomé is equally flavorful in a different way, it is umami-rich but not spicy at all.

Quesabirria con Consomé Recipe
For Leftover Brisket

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Chicken and Olive Stew, Moroccan Spices

This chicken stew is a little bit spicy, a little bit sweet, a little bit sour, and a little bit salty with plenty of exotic spices. I took the liberty of adding non-traditional ingredients such as tamari and butter too. It is chock full of savory umami flavors. A big bunch of herbs brings fresh bright notes at the end. The humble chicken stew is humble no more.

Chicken and Olive Stew Recipe

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Basque Burnt Cheesecake

Basque Burnt Cheesecake
Served with Oloroso Sherry

#5ingredient #glutenfree #crustless #stunning #simple

With no fruit topping, no crust and five simple ingredients – cream cheese, sugar, salt, eggs, and cream – it is astonishing how absolutely fabulous this cheesecake actually is… Perhaps it is the extremely high baking temperature that coaxes those 5 ordinary ingredients into a synergistic masterpiece with a striking blackened top and a creme brûlée-esque caramelized flavor. And as if the cake itself wasn’t enough, the scorched parchment ruffles that surround this cake make for a beautiful unique presentation.

The recipe was originally developed by Santiago Rivera, Chef of La Viña in San Sebastian, Spain. The Chef says, “If I had to mention a key influence, which has determined the personality and the evolution of my cuisine, I would undoubtedly point at the movement of the New Basque Cuisine, starting in 1977.”

Oloroso Sherry from Jerez, Spain has wonderful aromas of nuts, vanilla and caramel plus rich nutty semi-sweet creamy flavors. Oloroso sherries offer a terrific balance between sweet and dry. This cheesecake and this sherry are a heavenly Spanish pair.