Braised a beef roast in a Bloody Mary type marinade tonight, then pulled it and made tacos. Also grilled some corn and was a little hesitant about lime butter, as I thought the acidity would curdle the cream, but it turned out amazing.
I was feeling creative today so I made my wife a cool dessert pretty easy to do. Take one sheet of puff pastry cut into 3 equal pieces and bake as directed. Once they have cooled I cut them each in half so I have 6 pieces. The bottom layer is a mixer of french vanilla pudding and fresh whipped cream topped with strawberries, the second layer is the same pudding mix topped with blueberries and strawberries. The cap has some semi sweet milk chocolate drizzled over it along with a few dollops of fresh whipped creme and topped with a black berry. Chill for 30 minutes before you cut, cut with sharp knife. You can use whatever fruit you want but the fresher the better, and I like to mix it up. It should make 12 servings but I like to eat so I make 8 servings out of it.
Does anyone have a good recipe for a shrimp or chicken jerk pasta? Preferably with a creme base sauce.
There's nothing I love more than a lazy winters breakfast, here are some recent efforts: The first is a pancake stack (3 cakes) sitting on top is sliced banana, walnuts and crispy Lombo (prosciutto fillet), all of which has been liberally drizzled with 100% pure maple syrup. The second is much simpler, toasted and buttered whole grain bread from a local small batch bakery, Tasmanian cold smoked salmon and 2 free range poached eggs, topped with a little bit of coriander and black pepper. (I couldn’t be arsed making Hollandaise) (Both times served with a short black espresso made with freshly ground beans)
I made THE best mini-quiches last night. They were phenomenal, and I wasn't even stoned. I was working with the ingredients we had available on the pizza/sub line and what we sell in the convenience store I work at. They're disgustingly awesomely bad for you and you'll want to eat them in rapid succession. Necessity was the mother of invention. 8 eggs, beaten .8lb mozzarella cheese (we had diced) .2lb cheddar sheese (we had shredded) 1c. mayo 1c. light cream After mixing everything, i split the mixture into 2 even batches. To one batch, I added 2 (2.75oz) souffle cups of chopped bacon and 1 souffle cup of italian sausage bits. To the other batch I addded 1 souffle cup of chopped ham, 1 souffle cup of chopped onions and green bell pepper, and 1 souffle cup of chopped mushrooms. We don't sell pie crusts, so I had to improvise and use Pillsbury cinnamon rolls. cut/rip/whatever 1/3 of each cinammon roll off, roll 2 thirds together, so you have 12 chunks of cinnamon roll dough. I rolled each piece into a ball, and pressed into the bottom of a muffin tin. 1 piece of dough covered the bottom of the cup and maybe 1/2 inch up the sides. This recipe made 12 mini-quiches. split the mixture evenly between the muffin cups. I baked them at 325 in a convection oven. The bacon/sausage took ~20 minutes, the ham/onion/pepper/mushrooms took a couple minutes longer. I accept no liability for heart failure caused by this recipe. If my wolfram alpha estimates are correct, there's ~600-700 calories in each one of these bad boys
The plum tree in my yard has been producing pretty well this year. Does anyone have any good recipes for plums?
Couple things here. First, I felt good one night so I made a seared Ostrich filet onI a bed of wasabi mashed potatoes and an arugula/goat cheese salad drizzled in olive oil. I live in Lincoln, NE right now. I went to the farmer's market for the first time a few weeks ago and the coolest thing I found there was a fucking Ostrich vendor. I can't find a link online for it, but anyways, they had a booth selling Ostrich. It looked like steak. I tried it and it was delicious. The owner saw I liked it and started telling me, emphatically, that Ostrich must be cooked rare to medium rare. Any meat that requires it to be bloody for full enjoyment is good. He further went on to explain that Ostrich is healthier than chicken, but tastes like steak. Fucking. Awesome. Anyways, here is a picture of what Ostrich looks like before it's cooked: Just like steak. Tastes a bit different, not sure how to describe it, but it's very similar to red meat. And, as mentioned above, healthier than chicken (virtually no fat on it). To make it, I merely seared it in the pan, nice and bloody. The potatoes were simple mashed potatoes. After the potatoes are boiled, drain them, return them to the pot, and crush them with ample butter. Add heavy whipping cream until the potatoes are at the desired fluffiness, then add wasabi to taste. If you think wasabi doesn't sound good, try it. Trust me, in potatoes, it's delicious. To round off the dish, I surrounded it with arugula and feta. Pretty easy. Final product: The other dish that's been my favorite recently is the Caprese Salad. It's very easy to make, but if you've only had it in a restaurant, you should try making it yourself. No restaurant will slice the mozzarella or the tomatoes as thick as you can. Recipe: - Mozzarella cheese - Two roma tomatoes -Fresh Basil - Salt - Balsalmic vinegar - Olive oil. Slice the tomatoes into thick quarters. Slice mozzarella into 8 thick chunks roughly the size of the tomato slices. Arrange the mozzarella on a plate and put the tomato slices on top. Salt the tomatoes to taste. Top each tomato with a leaf of basil. Pour small amounts of vinegar, then oil, over each of the 8 slices. For plating, tilt the plate slightly so that the oil and vinegar mix on the bottom of the plate. That's it. Pics:
I took the day off work, so seeing as I had some spare time I decided to cook myself something nice instead of the usual slop I eat when I come home tired. I decided to make prociutto wrapped chicken, stuffed with garlic butter, bocconcini and tomato paste. I then used the rest of my garlic butter and made a big serving of garlic potato mash (one of my all time favourites!) I used the left over bocconcini balls as a delicious garnish. I am sure you have all made mash before, so I will just cover the process I used for the chicken. Keep in mind I did this all by feel, so these are just estimates, chop and change for your own tastes. Ingredients: 1 x skinless chicken breast 3 x thin sliced prociutto. (Thin prociutto = delicious crispiness) 3-7 x bocconcini balls (less if you do not intend to garnish) 1tbsp x garlic butter (home made or store bought, doesnt matter IMO) 1-2tbsp x tomato paste Preheat oven to 175º (345-350 F) Butterfly chicken breast, give a light coating of olive oil on both sides and then salt and pepper to season. I then seared both sides in a very hot pan for <15 seconds a side to seal. I first lined the inside of the butterflied pocket with the tomato paste, followed by the garlic butter (didnt bother spreading this, just left it as a big dollop) and lastly 3 balls of bocconcini(approx 30-40g). On an oven pan, I laid out some foil and then rubbed a coating of olive oil over it. I then laid out the 2 largest prociutto slices onto which I placed the chicken across horizontally. I pulled the edges up and overlapped them over the top of the chicken and then laid the third piece horizontally across, thus creating a very loose cocoon around the whole fillet. (some recipes say to use toothpicks to hold it together, but mine stayed together fine) I cooked for 22 minutes and the meat was verry juicy and cooked perfectly. Does anyone have a suggestion for an alternative to tomato paste, taste was fine and was a quick fix, but any ideas are welcome and appreciated.
Bored tonight, decided to try and cook a decent dinner for the wife and I. This is about as elaborate as I get being a "chef," but whatever, it tasted fucking delicious. Asparagus: extra virgin olive oil melted butter heavy on the minced garlic light worcestershire sauce heavy Texas Pete hot sauce (just use your favorite kind) slice of lime (like a sixth) full can, drained, of water chestnuts Sweet onions: chop the nasty bits off, toss the whole thing into a pan extra virgin olive oil heavy melted butter heavy minced garlic another slice of lime two jalepenos, sliced in half and seeded steak: seared on both sides, then offset cooked until it was medium-rare season to taste Next time I may add some tequila to the onions and see what happens; that, or grab some 151 and light that shit on fire before I plate it. Fire is good.
Just some off-the-shelf montreal steak seasoning. Pat it on nice and thick on the top, let it sit in the fridge for a few hours before grilling. Especially for the thicker steaks, I always do a 30-45-ish second sear (hot as you can get it) on each side to lock in the juices before offset cooking it until it feels done. I'm not sure if that's the correct method, but it's always worked for me. I had just gotten a new gas grill so that was my first attempt on it. Steaks would have tasted better if I put them over charcoal, but I wanted to break in the gas first. And in regard to the tequila, I love to cook with booze (gives me an excuse to "taste" it too). Some of my favorite marinades and bastes involve tequila, rum, or amaretto. If you have a wood chip smoker box or some variation thereof (like wood grilling on cedar planks), you also get surprisingly good results if you soak the wood in something involving of whiskey, bourbon, or tequila.
Food Porn: Molecular Gastronomy Edition Ferran Adria’s Demo of Reverse Spherification of an Olive This is pretty basic molecular gastronomy, but it's intriguing nonetheless. I've had this dish before and I have to say it's incredibly flavorful.
Searing doesn't actually lock in moisture, that's a myth. In fact a seared steak will lose more moisture than a non-seared one. The purpose of searing is to create a caramelized crust via the Maillard Reaction- because it's awesome to have a semi-charred flavorful crust on a steak and the center is red and juicy. So if you like the crust/blackened exterior than continue to sear. If you're a puss and you don't you can bring it up slowly to cooking temperature. If you really want to keep the juices in your steak, let it sit for at least 15 minutes after it comes off the grill. Cut into it before that and all the juices will run onto your plate like the cow's heart is still beating.
I was on an Asian kick this past Friday night because of all of the fresh tuna I had at my disposal, so I did a bunch of different, very easy things that I just kinda-sorta threw together from what I had at the house for some friends and my kinda-sorta date: Beef Tataki w/ Ponzu Sauce 1 2lb Flank steak Soy Sauce ~2 lemons worth of juice Rice Vinegar Salt Pepper For the sauce, all you do is combine the soy sauce, lemon juice, and rice vinegar (no idea of the measurements) until it tasted good. For the meat, I just hit it with olive oil, salt and pepper, and then sear on the grill to rare. Then after it rested, I sliced it paper thin and topped it with the ponzu sauce and garnished with chopped parley and sliced lemons, and decorated the plate with some Sriracha. Seared Tuna w/ Wasabi Mayo 5 blackfin tuna loins Sesame Oil Salt Pepper Sliced Green Onions Sriracha 1 Jar of Mayo 1 packet of Wasabi Powder Water For the mayo, I just combined the mayo and wasabi, and then diluted with water until I had the consistency I wanted. The tuna was just coated in sesame oil, salt, and pepper, and then grilled the loins whole for about 45 seconds a side for all 3 sides, leaving it still mostly raw. Then, I thin-sliced it, added a drop of Sriracha and some green onion on each slice, and then served on a platter with the mayo for dipping. Cucumber and Avocado Salad w/ Rice Wine Vinaigrette I wanted to do something light and refreshing, and I had the cucumbers and avocado already, so I just thinly sliced the cucumber into almost the size of a spaghetti, topped with the sliced avocados, and covered with this that I googled: 3/4 cup seasoned rice vinegar 1/4 cup water 1 tablespoon sugar 1 tablespoon minced garlic 1 tablespoon lite soy sauce 1 teaspoon sesame oil 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper 2 tablespoons sesame seeds, toasted I was out of regular sugar, so I used brown sugar instead. It turned out amazing. This was probably my favorite thing of the night, and it was also the cheapest and easiest. The last thing I did was just a stir-fry pasta, but that wasn't anything special. I just thought I needed some kind of starch. All I did was sautee' some frozen vegetables in sesame oil, and then added some al dente egg noodles with some of the vinaigrette from the salad, and let the sauce cook into the pasta for a bit to soak in the flavor. Everything was a big hit, and I impressed the kinda-sorta, so it was a good night I guess. I think my brother's girlfriend took pictures of my plating before I served, so I'll post those if I get them.
Is there anyone on the board that attended a Culinary arts program? If so, any advice or anything to look for? Where did you attend, why did you attend? I just sent applications in to half a dozen programs, some more prestigious than others of course. My experience is limited, but I do have restaurant kitchen experience in an Italian joint here in town.
Grilling is always great. Buffalo Bleu Cheese and Tomato Basil Parmesan bratwurst. A big ass sirloin. Asparagus and red pepper (tossed in olive oil and salt/pepper). Notice two grates under the veggies- this dramatically helps them staying on the grate and not in the coals. Not photographed was a tin pan stuffed with chopped potatoes (simple baking taters), chopped white onions, salt, pepper, garlic powder, and a stick of butter hacked up and spread throughout. Cheap and always delicious.
So, this one time on the RMMB... someone posted a recipe for how to cook a steak in a cast iron skillet. It involved butter, a very hot sear on the stove, and putting the entire thing in the oven to finish it. I made it like 3 years ago, to impress my then boyfriend, and it came out AWESOME! We now have no RMMB, the boyfriend is now my husband, he's coming back dog tired after a business trip, and I want to make him a kickass steak. If anyone has any tips on how much time for the various steps and what temperatures to use for this method, I would be very appreciative!
Clarify some butter by melting it, skimming the milk solids off the top. Then heat the cast iron over high heat with an oil with a high smoke point like vegetable for a good 15 minutes and sear the steak on both sides 3 minutes or so. Finish in a 450 degree oven 4 mins or so for mid-rare, depending on thickness of steak and add the clarified butter at the end. Caramelize some onions or make burgundy shrooms to add a little extra sex.
So what is a good way to really punch up scrambled eggs for breakfast? Got to be kind of quick since it's in the morning and Id really like to find something that isn't fatty.