The advantage of living at the ocean is – among many others – that fresh fish can be found at anytime! For all the seafood lovers out there, especially you who like tuna, Capella Pedregal‘s Executive Chef Marco Bustamante has shared with us his recipe for one of our favorite tapas style starters: Tuna Carpaccio in Yellow Sauce (you will find it at the Don Manuel’s Dinner Menu under Tapas Style Starters, Cold: Ensenada Tuna Carpaccio, Red Onion, Citrus and Aji Amarillo.

AJI AMARILLO SAUCE
*6 servings
1,8 oz. Aji Amarillo Paste
50 ml Rice Vinegar
25 ml Grapeseed Oil
15 ml Soy Sauce
3 Limes (Juiced)
Place paste, vinegar, soy sauce and lime in juice in a bowl and
whisk vigorously while adding oil in slowly.

PLATING RECIPE
4 oz. Sliced Tuna
5 ea. Finely Sliced Red Onion
6 ea. Orange Segments
4 ea. Lime Segments
¼ tsp. Chives
1 oz. Aji Amarillo Sauce
Orange Salt

Slice Tuna and garnish with remainder of the ingredients and finish
with orange salt and aji amarillo sauce.

Buen provecho!

On the image: Capella Pedregal’s culinary team + Ensenada Tuna Carpaccio, Red Onion, Citrus and Aji Amarillo

Enjoy a taste of the Hilton Los Cabos dining experience in your very own kitchen. Hotel Hilton’s Executive Chef, Mauricio Lopez, has prepared custom recipes to help us home chefs to impress our friends and family with ease. Please enjoy this month’s recipe from one of Hotel Hilton Los Cabos restaurants.

Corn Jericalla
This rich custard dessert combines the best of a flan with a crème brulee and is flavored with fresh sweet corn. This authentic recipe hails from Jalisco, Mexico.

Ingredients for Corn Jericalla
14 oz. evaporated milk
11 oz. condensed milk
6 egg yolks
2 whole eggs
1 vanilla pod
½ tsp. cinnamon
1.5 lbs. sweet corn (fresh)
Brown sugar

Preparation for Corn Jericalla
In a blender, incorporate sweet corn, whole eggs, egg yolks and evaporated milk. Blend until liquid, and then pour into a bowl. Slowly add the condensed milk while whisking rapidly. Incorporate the cinnamon powder and the vanilla (just the beans) and keep whisking.

Pour the mixture into 3″ cooking molds and cook bain-marie* (water bath) for approximately 20 minutes until the texture resembles flan. Top the jericallas with brown sugar and bake on the top of the oven at high temperature until the sugar is caramelized. Serve with vanilla ice cream and enjoy!

Makes 15 custards using 3″ molds.

*Bain-Marie (Water Bath)
This cooking technique consists of placing a container (pan, bowl, soufflé, etc.) of food in a large, shallow pan of warm water, which serves to surround the food with gentle heat. The food may be cooked in this manner either in an oven or on top of a range. This technique is designed to cook delicate dishes such as custards, sauces and savory mousses without breaking or curdling them.

Buen provecho!

Elevate your Cinco de Mayo experience with the Partida Margarita, the world’s best Margarita. The signature margarita uses premium Tequila Partida Reposado or Blanco, Partida’s own 100% organic agave nectar, fresh lime juice and water. With no garnish, salt or secondary liqueur, the alcohol and sugar content are lower than traditional margaritas while delivering superior taste. Low in calories and deliciously refreshing, the Partida Margarita is the ideal cocktail to accompany America’s favorite south-of-the-border holiday. While purists may question the authenticity of Cinco de Mayo, the smooth and elegant taste of Partida is undeniably true.

The Partida Margarita

1.5 oz Partida Blanco Tequila
1 oz Fresh squeezed lime juice
3/4 oz Partida Organic Agave Nectar
3/4 oz Water

Shake all ingredients with ice in a shaker. Strain over fresh ice into a Margarita glass or Old-Fashioned glass. Taste for Balance.

For further details on fresh cocktails and how to make the Partida Margarita, check out Partida Brand Ambassador Jacques Bezuidenhout on Fox News in Houston. See the video here: http://www.tequilapartida.com/videos/cincodemayo_kriv_houston.html

Capella Pedregal team at this exclusive Cabo San Lucas Hotel & Resort will be glad to prepare you Partida Margarita, a classic Capella Margarita signature cocktail, or serve you with a shot of the finest tequila to celebrate Cinco de Mayo, or just any other day – as you know – every day is a fiesta day in Mexico!

Who doesn’t love pumpkin pie? It’s a shame that Thanksgiving is the one time of year that it gets any loving, because pumpkin pie is about as perfect as pie gets and is definitely one dessert that the kids and adults I know love equally.

I tested this recipe repeatedly over the course of a few days, trying each time to make the filling a bit lighter and less sugary than many of the other pumpkin pie recipes I’ve baked in the past. Finally, I got it just right. The last pie I made was airy and creamy and had a rich maple flavor that reminded me of all things fall. Just because Thanksgiving only happens once a year doesn’t mean you can’t keep the great taste of the holiday going the other 364 days of the year. You can make this sweet treat all year long. Now that’s something to be thankful for!

Maple Pumpkin Pie (Serves 8-10)

2 Eggs, whisked
1 15 Oz Can Pumpkin Puree
1/4 Cup Maple Syrup
1/2 Cup Brown Sugar, packed
1/2 Tsp Salt
2 Tsp Pumpkin Pie Spice
1 12 Oz Can Evaporated Milk

1. Preheat oven to 350 F.
2. Place all of the ingredients in a bowl and whisk to thoroughly combine.
3. Place the pie crust dough (recipe below) between two pieces of parchment paper and roll out to a 1/4 inch thickness. The diameter should be 2 inches wider than your pie dish.
4. Place the dough into a deep dish pie pan (dish) and mold into the shape of the dish (I like to fold the outer crust under itself to make a lip and then take a fork, gently pressing down around the pie crust, to make a pattern around the outer edge of the crust).
5. Take the tines of a fork and poke a few holes in the bottom of the pie crust several times, making sure not to go all the way through (this will keep bubbles from forming in the pie crust when you bake it).
6. Place a piece of parchment paper on top of the pie crust and fill it with dried beans or pie weights (you can reuse the dried beans afterwards).
7. Bake the dough for 15 minutes, remove the parchment paper and beans or weights.
8. Pour the pumpkin filling mixture into the par-baked deep dish pie crust.
9. Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes or until the center of the pie is set.
10. Cool and refrigerate until cold.
11. Serve.

Pie Crust (Makes 1 Deep Dish Pie Crust)

1 1/3 Cups Flour
1/2 Tsp Salt
1/2 Tsp Sugar
1/2 Cup Butter, cubed & cold
2-3 Tbsp Water

1. Place the first 3 ingredients in a food processor and pulse.
2. Add cold butter and using on/off turns, process until coarse meals forms.
3. Add the water 1 tbsp at a time and process until moist clumps form, adding more water 1 tsp at a time if mixture is dry.
4. Form dough into a disk, wrap in parchment paper or plastic wrap and refrigerate 1 hour or until cold.

This blog post and recipe is brought to you today via delicious website weelicious

The art of summer living in Baja California Sur just got classier with a new collection of deck chairs by English artist Damien Hirst.

For all who know Hirst’s previous works, you could say that Hirst’s new collection of butterfly-print chairs is very uncharacteristic of him. These folding deck chairs by Hirst, who is renowned for using death as a central theme in many of his works, have a merpauh timber frame and a smattering of butterflies across their cloth front, with a stainless-steel plaque inscribed with Hirst’s signature. Nevertheless, we love his new butterfly deck chairs and can already imagine having a siesta in one of those!

The chairs come in lime-green, yellow, sky-blue and several other colors. The deck chairs are priced at $425 each and are available at Gagosian Gallery / Other Criteria Editions stores in New York and London.

At the end of last year we published an article about an Exotic Culinary Discovery on an Odyssey Around the World , abouta book titled Sea Fare: A Chef’s Journey Across the Ocean by Victoria Allman .

The book was (and still is) a great success. Due to that success and Victoria’s great writing style, she was invited to submit a chapter about a trip on a yacht to Rita Golden Gelman‘s new anthology, Female Nomad and Friends. It is a book of women traveling and connecting through food; 30 great stories and 30 fantastic recipes. But, the best part is that all the proceeds go to help kids from the slums in New Delhi go to vocational college.

The book will be launched on June 18th with Global Dinner Party. Women around the world will be hosting parties and cooking recipes out of the book.

Read more about the book below. We are looking forward to it’s release – among recipes you will be able to find also a recipe for our favorite Mexican dish, Chile en Nogada.

FEMALE NOMAD AND  FRIENDS

Tales of Breaking Free and Breaking Bread Around the World by Rita Golden Gelman

“Tales from around the world, which . . . affirm a sense of human decency, generosity, and community beyond the borders of language or political affiliation. . . . All feature an appealing sincerity.” —Kirkus Reviews

When Tales of a Female Nomad by Rita Golden Gelman was published in 2001, it became an instant worldwide bestseller. The story of Gelman selling all of her possessions and becoming a nomad—traveling through many countries and homes around the world—captivated readers. Gelman insisted on putting her personal e-mail address in the last chapter of her book and was flooded with correspondence from readers worldwide who offered their guest rooms, couches, meals, and—most important—stories from their own nomadic adventures.

In her follow-up, FEMALE NOMAD AND FRIENDS: Tales of Breaking Free and Breaking Bread Around the World (A Three Rivers Press Original, June 1, 2010), Gelman includes many of her own further adventures, as well as essays by writers and readers celebrating the connections they’ve made around the world. The stories in this moving anthology include people taking risks, seeking adventure, stepping out of the box, and discovering that beneath the beautiful differences that make us unique there is a universal sameness that bonds us.

FEMALE NOMAD AND  FRIENDS also pays homage to the wonders of cooking and eating around the world, and includes more than thirty travel-inspired, taste-tested, and author-approved recipes. Among these fabulous international dishes are vegetarian dolmades (stuffed grape leaves), chiles en nogada (stuffed poblano chiles topped with a white cream sauce with walnuts and a sprinkle of pomegranate seeds), and ho mok (an extraordinary fish coconut custard from Thailand).

Happy reading—and bon appétit, selamat makan , buen provecho!

All of the royalties from FEMALE NOMAD AND FRIENDS will be used to fund educational scholarships for kids from the slums of New Delhi.

About the Author:

Rita Golden Gelman is the author of Tales of a Female Nomad and more than seventy children’s books, including More Spaghetti, I Say!, a staple in every first-grade classroom. As a nomad, Rita has no permanent address. She is currently involved in an initiative called Let’s Get Global, a project of U.S. Servas, Inc., a national movement designed to bring the gap year to the United States. Learn more at: http://letsgetglobal.org/.

Female Nomad and Friends

By Rita Golden Gelman

A Three Rivers Press Original | On Sale: June 1, 2010

ISBN: 978-0-307-58801-2| $15.00 | 352 pages www.crownpublishing.com www.threeriverspress.com www.ritagoldengelman.com

We are repeating ourselves when we say that we love Baja’s warm winters. But, we admit, we do miss winter, cold and snow as well (from time to time). For a week or so would be marvelous to put on several layers of clothes, hats, gloves and dig into the snow. Or maybe take on an exotic journey to Norway by boat. And not just any boat, but Spa Boat.

As seen in Wallpaper:

Combining two of our favourite pursuits in one luxury package, the Spa Boat – designed by Norway-based, Finnish architect Sami Rintala – brings an added dimension to the standard spa weekend.

Taking a stripped-down 1950s fishing boat as the skeleton of his project, Rintala adapted the bare woods and curving walls as integral design elements of his vision.

The depths of the hold, where tons of North Sea fish were once stored, now plays host to a wood-clad spa area – featuring a Turkish Hammam (complete with the obligatory steambath, bath tub and hot tiles), Zen lounge with wood burning fireplace and a sauna surrounded by panoramic windows.

The Scandi-inspired luxury continues on deck, with a hot tub designed for mid-winter Aurora Borealis gazing, whilst a seven meter-high diving board provides release for those with more frenetic agendas.

Boasting three, well-proportioned guest bedrooms, the Spa Boat can play host to as many as twelve guests at a time, whilst the on-board kitchen – which brings to mind many a pared-down Scandinavian eatery – comes complete with a host of professional chefs.

Moored in the Arctic city of Tromsø and unveiled at the end of last year, the Spa Boat offers an authentic – if wintry – take on the spa experience.

With perfect weather all year long, relaxing comes easy to those living in the Baja. Pack a picnic basket for your favorite beach, pass the afternoon at a local restaurant with friends, enjoy the ocean breeze from your patio at home, or indulge in one of our many top rated spas and wellness centers. That is what we in the Baja consider living!

Try the pampering Signature Moon Treatment at Auriga Spa in Capella Pedregal, Cabo San Lucas. Auriga’s four signature treatments represent varying energies of the Lunar phases to align you with the rhythms of nature for your enhanced well being. www.auriga-spa.com

We just love Baja winters! The weather is perfect (today in Cabo San Lucas we have 75 F / 24 C) and there is nothing better than spending your day at the beach.One of our all time favorites is Playa El Requeson (see the image on the right), in Bahia de Concepcion, Mulege. It takes a while to get there, but it’s worth it.

We like: El Requeson (Bahia de Concepcion, Mulege), Balandra (La Paz), Cerritos (before Todos Santos), Lovers Beach (Cabo San Lucas), Zacatitos (San Jose del Cabo), Punta Colorada (La Ribera) and North beach at arroyo San Bartolo (North Los Barriles).

***Don’t forget your sunscreen, even in the morning. The sun is very strong here, so avoid burning and use the highest SPF you can find in a local store. Also, please remember to clean up after you leave. Only that way we can keep our beaches immaculate and sea life abundant.

Image by LA76.

Every winter, Baja waters give life to many types of whales, among them the California Gray whale, Blue, Fin and Humpback Whales. They travel thousands of miles from Alaska to warmer waters of Baja to feed, mate, give birth, and play. Humpback whales enjoy showing off for crowds by spouting and breaching, leaping almost completely out of the water.

No wonder why whale watching is one of the most sought after winter activities in Baja. Go on a whale watching
trip and/or see them from the shore. You might get lucky and even get to pet a whale!

***We recommend whale watching trips at Magdalena Bay or Puerto San Carlos. You will have a great experience and also help areas highly affected in hurricane Jimena in September 2009.

Image by: Guadalupe Saucedo.