Forgive the lapse in blogging these days. As we all know sometimes we need to step back, reassess,and wait for inspiration to awaken. I never stopped cooking, but just needed to step away from telling the neverending story.
We have been travelling a bit ,and our journeys have taken us to Lisbon,Estoril,Stockholm and Rio De Janerio. I changed my tagline to ” Cooking with a Global Perspective” as that’s what I’ve always done and what best defines Coco Cooks.

Earlier in the year I was taken aback when a colleague/  chef belittled some of my cooking projects as to grandiose,time consuming,unrelatable, etc and asked “Why?”. Obviously he had no idea what I’m made of.Because that’s what’s set me apart and why my clients love me.Never let someone try to derail you or pigeon hole you as perfect your craft.Never let naysayers cast doubt on your essence and approach to life.So looking forward to creative days here at Coco Cooks,I give you a delicious Hazelnut Stracciatella in time for the holiday weekend.
Cooking is about adapting and improvising.Don’t get rigid and afraid to take a leap and experiment.
I used my go to recipe for stracciatella here from David Lebovitz .

My adaptation was the addition of hazelnuts. In Rio I had a lovely gelato in Inpanema after a sun soaked day, that was bursting full of hazelnut flavor and chocolate. As Certain Someone loves Stracciatella,I decided to merge both
flavors.

My variation:
First you toast about 1 cup hazelnuts in a dry skillet. Toss constantly and be careful not to burn.
Then in clean kitchen towel roll the nuts to remove the skin.
In a food processor grind the nuts and sugar called for in the recipe. I added a splash of rum for kicks.
Add the ground nuts to the heated milk and cream ,and let sit covered for 1 hour to extract the flavor. Drain the nuts carefully using a fine mesh sieve lined with cheesecloth,reserving the cream.  Squeeze out any excess liquid . Proceed with recipe  from there.

Perspectives and Influences: Italy and Brazil