Kids' in the Kitchen with Chef David Bearl

Recipe of the Month!

July 2008

Hot times!

Summer is in full swing here in Florida. It is hot and humid and thankfully we are getting rain almost every day. We had a few years of drought and fires but all seems well now.

The hot times we have here are not just with the weather. Last month I wrote that we are growing Datil peppers. Did you find where they came from? Originally they came from South America. These peppers were later taken to Spain and Portugal hundreds of years ago by the Spanish and Portuguese. Then the peppers came to Florida with the Minorcan settlers. Eventually these peppers were brought to St. Augustine and have been a favorite here ever since. They are very hot peppers and many people here make hot sauces and other products with them. We have over 1000 datil pepper plants here and are selling the peppers to different companies so they can make their hot sauces and other products.

Did you grill the Red Snapper filets last month? If you did I hope you enjoyed it!

This month let’s make something cold and refreshing. This recipe takes a full day to make but it will be worth it.

Honey Dew Melon Sorbet

Sugar 1 1/3 cups
water 1 cup
Chopped honey dew melon 1 each (cut into 1 inch cubes)

Combine the sugar and water together in a sauce pan and bring it to a boil. Boil the syrup for at least 2 minutes. Then let it cool, then refrigerate the syrup for 2 hours until it becomes cold.

Cut the rind from the honey dew melon, remove the seeds, and cut it into one inch cubes. Then, using a blender, puree the cut melon.

Combine the sugar syrup and puree of honey dew, put the mixture in a bowl and freeze it. Stir it occasionally while it is freezing. Leave it in your freezer overnight. Then, using mixer, beat the frozen mix until it is fluffy. Return it to the freeze to become firm. This may take another 3 hours. But after all of this, you’ll have a great sorbet to serve your friends and family.

Food Math Fun

We were doing a nutrition formula last month. Each of your friends was served 6.4 ounces of ice cream.

This wasn’t a fair question because I didn’t repeat the caloric values for the ingredients in ice cream! You would have had to do some research to find the answer to this. Ice cream has about 33.25 calories per ounce. So, 6.40 X 33.25 = 212.80 calories! This is for vanilla ice cream. Different brands may have different calorie counts too.

Food Language and Geography

Last month I wrote about Chapatis, an Indian flat bread. My question of the month was in Food Science, Geography, and History. I wanted you to find out what species of pepper the Datil pepper was. I also wanted you to find where it came from. I answered that at the beginning of this month’s lesson.

The species of peppers are:

Capsicum Frutescens (Tabasco chilies)
Capsicum chinense (habanero, Datil, and Scotch Bonnet.
Capsicum baccatum vas. Pendulum (ahi Amarillo)
Capsicum pubescens (rocoto)
Capiscum annuum car. Annuum (cayenne, bell, poblano, Serrano, jalapeno, Anaheim, etc)

For this month’s question: Where does the pepper you use on your table come from? What is the scientific name for the plant that we get this pepper from?

Have a great summer!

 

 

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