February 2025

Written By Karina

Meetup Date: Sunday, February 23, 5-6:30pm.

Location: Honey House Vintage, 115 N Summerlin Ave, Orlando, FL 32801

For our very first Cookbook Club meetup, we will be cooking from Ixta Belfrage’s Mezcla: Recipes to Excite.

Ixta Belfrage is, in her own words, “a global citizen with no notion of ‘home’” (Mezcla: Recipes to Excite, pg 13). Out of context, this might sound worthy of an existential crisis but is, in reality, quite a beautiful summation of Ixta’s multicultural upbringing.

The daughter of a US-born English father and Brazilian mother, Ixta spent her formative years living, visiting, and, most importantly for our purposes, learning how to cook and eat in the lush mountains of Tuscany, vibrant beaches of Natal and Rio de Janeiro, and breathtaking volcanic landscapes of Cuernavaca.

Mezcla is, in no uncertain terms, an explosion of color and flavor. Its contrasting bright pink and stark white cover, adorned with an enticing pile of greens and reds, begs you the ignore the wise old adage of not judging a book by its cover. In this instance, you will be handsomely rewarded. Every dish is beautifully photographed and the ingredient lists will taunt you into bookmarking every single recipe, thus making it hard to figure out where to even begin.

And that’s where we come in! For our February meetup, we have selected the following dishes:

STARTERS

  • Cheesy roasted eggplant with salsa roja (pg 24)

  • Tomato salad with tahini-ginger sauce, chile oil, and garlic croutons (pg 29)

  • Triple citrus tomato salad (pg 34)

  • Spicy ginger, tomato, and sesame dip (pg 42)

  • Plantain and corn fritters with Sriracha mayo (pg 73)

MAINS

  • Shrimp dumplings and creamed corn (pg 183)

  • Shrimp lasagne with habanero oil (pg 209)

  • Black pepper pork steaks with pineapple and peppers (pg 217)

  • Roast chicken curry with crispy curry leaves (pg 222)

  • Mole short ribs com agrião (pg 227)

SIDES

  • Plantains with Scotch bonnet, garam masala, and lime (pg 40)

  • Roasted cabbage with miso and harissa salsa (pg 60)

  • Miso butter butternut gnocchi (pg 74)

DESSERTS

  • Banana, sesame, and maple cake (pg 246)

  • Strawberry, cinnamon, and chipotle chocolate layered cake (pg 253)

  • After dinner chocolate tart (pg 265)

  • Coconut, chocolate, and coffee roll (pg 276)

We want to make sure everyone has a few choices to pick from even if they’re the last one to select their dish, so we’ve provided more options than the number of attendees for each meetup. This means that not every item on the menu will be made, but we will be sure to provide a final menu to all attendees once everyone has made their selection.

If you’d like to join us for our February meetup, please register below. Once all the slots have been filled, we will send out a recipe signup sheet where you can select your dish.

We really cannot wait to gather around the table and share a meal with you!

Karina https://www.karinasconfectioneries.com