If you like Pina Coladas and getting caught in the rain

Hello it's Chef Michael LaDuke. Welcome to the Red Lobster Chefs Blog. For first time visitors, thank you very much for stopping by. For all of the return readers, it's great to have you back.

Just last week we started our Endless Shrimp promotion with our new Buffalo Shrimp, and so far the response has been great. We also have received a lot of requests for shrimp recipes, sauce recipes, and other great questions about seafood.

This week our most popular request has been for the recipe for the Pina Colada dipping sauce on our Parrot Bay Coconut Shrimp. The Pina Colada dipping sauce is one of our most popular sauces and has been a guest favorite for a while.

It is also a great sauce to have at home not only for your own dinner, but to also maybe spice up a party or dinner with friends. It's a very versatile sauce for seafood and can be used for chilled shrimp to add island flair to your shrimp cocktail. It can also be used as a dipping sauce for crab cakes to balance the often spicy flavor of the crab cakes themselves. A personal favorite of mine is as an accompaniment to a great piece of blackened fish like Fresh Tilapia or Mahi-Mahi. I think the sweetness of the sauce is a perfect match for the spicy crust of a blackened piece of fresh fish. The recipe is below.

I would note that often time's different brands of sour cream are very different in consistency, so you may have to adjust the amount of sour cream to get to the proper consistency, but that is the fun of cooking!!! It is always fun to put your own personal touch on recipes to make them your own! Have Fun!


Pinna Colada Dipping Sauce
1 Cup Sour Cream
1 Cup Coco Lopez Pina Colada Mix
1/4 Cup Crushed Pineapple
1 each Fresh Lemon (Juice Only)

Method
1. Combine Sour Cream and Coco Lopez in a mixing bowl, and mix together gently. Do not use an electric mixer or over mix by hand as it will cause the sour cream to break down and make sauce too thin
2. Drain crushed Pineapple
3. Fold Crushed Pineapple into cream mixture
4. Finish with juice from one lemon
5. Cover and store refrigerated

Enjoy and don't forget to stop by and see what's fresh at Red Lobster today!

More from Napa Valley

Hey there, Darryl Mickler checking in from Napa Valley.

Yesterday was a full day of seminars at the Culinary Institute of America/Greystone. This facility was set up in 1995 in the old Christian Brother's Winery to provide continuing education opportunities from professional chefs and food service professionals. I heard some great ideas inspired by the cuisines of Asia, Latin America and the Mediterranean.

Today started with a tour of experimental farms and orchards run by the State of California, the University of California at Davis and USDA. While at the Wolfskill Experimental Orchard, I had the pleasure of sampling 10 different varieties of fresh figs and more than 12 types of table grapes; trying these products fresh off the tree was an amazing flavor experience.

This area of California offers perfect growing conditions for many products and these experimental farm and orchards do an incredible job of both preserving the past and creating new items for the future.

At the Davis Repository, there are over 5,000 samples representing about 15 genera and over 175 species of fruit and nut crops. It was incredible to see the vast diversity of fruit species from grapes, plums, cherries, peaches and apricots. These plants are preserved here, researched and are made available to public and private researchers and growers worldwide.

I am looking forward to taking back all of this great information to the kitchen to see how we can implement these great flavors into the great recipes we come up with for your local Red Lobster's.

Thanks for stopping by the chef's blog and we look forward to seeing you back here soon. And don't forget to stop by your local Red Lobster and see what's fresh today.

Conferencing in California

Hey there, Darryl Mickler here on this beautiful Monday morning in Napa Valley.

Creating great new items for you to enjoy at Red Lobster certainly involves spending plenty of time in our kitchens experimenting with various flavors and combinations. Occasionally, however, it is good to step back and try to gain a new perspective on food and the menu.

This week I am attending a conference on Flavor, Quality and the American Menu at the Culinary Institute of America's California campus. Conferences such as this one bring together chefs, winemakers, manufacturers, farmers and other food and beverage industry professionals to discuss new ideas and emerging trends in American foodservice, industry innovations and new ideas.

Basically we all gather together to talk food and to share ideas and then go into the kitchen to test them out.

Many of the ideas and trends discussed here will soon be seen on menus around the country; make sure you check out our blog over the next few days as I will tell you about some of the great ideas from the conference.

Thanks for stopping by the chef's blog and we look forward to seeing you back here soon. And don't forget to stop by your local Red Lobster and see what's fresh today.

Recipe for success

Hello all, Chef Michael LaDuke here.

First, I wanted to thank all of you for the great questions and comments that we have been getting. We are doing our best to answer them as quickly as possible. Keep coming back to the blog to see your answers and keep asking us questions.

Next, we just got done shooting three more great videos for the blog. We will show you how to make some great recipes that you can try at home.

The first video will show you how to make Darryl's and my favorite fish recipes. So make sure to keep an eye out for them and also make sure to stop by or tell your friends about our first video from Cape Cod.

Football season is here and before you know it the holidays will be upon us. What kind of seafood recipes do you like to make for the holidays? We will be sharing some of our favorites and showing you how to make some great holiday platters for your next party. Check out fun facts about Red Lobster’s Cheddar Bay Biscuits.

Thanks again for stopping by the blog and come see what's fresh at Red Lobster!