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BAR-B-CUDA!! LA 6/14/08 3-7 PM

I will be doing the premier CYP Catering event this weekend, big shout to Linda from Love Made: Free Food+ Beer, Good Shopping, Hair+Make-Up. The menu is YTD updates coming soon. BEST BELIEVE, MEAT WILL BE MARINATED!

Summer Beet Salad with Bite

It was a hot summer day and I wanted something light and refreshing with a little creeping spice. The salad is composed of thin sliced roasted beets, julienned onion, cilantro, mint, corriander, lime, cayenne, S+P.  This salad was good as soon as it was mixed together, but it really needs 24 hours for the flavors to all meld together cohesively.

The Ribs that might just save your life.

A while back my father came into town to visit.  He brought with him an issue of Ode Magazine, and progressive publication focussed on sustainable development, the environment and other green/hippiesque issues.  He brought to my attention an article about different herbs and spices and their various health effects entitled "The spices of life".  The highlighted spices were saffron, turmeric, chili peppers, ginger all of which I regularly use in my food, but I rarely try to combine them all.  I decided to use some boneless spare ribs, just to make sure I could balance all these healthy spices with a dose of scrumptious pork.  

I used a Thai style marinade with Turmeric, Sweet Soy Sauce, Thai Chili, Garlic, Ginger, Fish Sauce, Coconut Milk. Unfortuantely, I was starving so I didn't get the 48 hours I normally like to marinate my meat, so I gave it a couple hours and it came out quite flavorful.So I basically combined everything except the Saffron in the marinade.  I used the saffron in one of its more straight forward applications, flavoring an coloring rice.  

I pan seared the ribs to get some nice color on the ribs and to seal in the moisture of the pork.  Then into the oven in a roasting pan to finish.

I made a quick pan gravy, laid it down on the plate and built a little tower of rice, sauteed spinach and pork.

I made a quick Thai BBQ sauce using Seasoned Rice Wine Vinegar, Honey, Chili,  Garlic and Cilantro.

Garnish with some rough chopped cilantro... DIG IN!

Not My Bubby's Chopped Liver

Although my grandmother Gladys wasn't much of a cook, if she ever attempted a Chopped Liver it wouldn't look like this.  In the Jewish culinary tradition the chopped liver is always served with a mixture of herbs, spices, and hard-boiled egg.  Needless to say, I am not a huge fan of hard-boiled eggs.  I opted to go with a slightly more French preparation, I picked up while working at a bistro in the Greenwich Village.      

I simply sauteed the liver with  garlic,shallots, parsley, rosemary, coriander, Hawaiian hot pepper sea salt, and pepper (of course).  

Toss the liver and herbs/spices till you get some good color on the liver and start to develop a nice crust on the pan, which you will then deglace with white wine (I used Chardonnay). Once you have cooked off  the wine and scrapped all the crusty goodness off the pan, toss the mixture into a blender/food pro and puree until you have a smooth consistent texture.

Plate this with some nice crackers and some diced parsley to add a little color to the plate and you are ready to eat!

Chicken Katsu: Kristi's Comfort Food

My girlfriend Kristi craves all things crispy, meaty, salty/spicy/sweet, but this dish is close to her heart.  She is from Hawaii and she is of Japanese descent.  Chicken Katsu is one of her favorite comfort foods, so I had to cook it up.

Sweet Spicy Asian Chicken & Rice: Quick Marinade VIDEO

Here we go people...the first video segment. One man show filmed on my Treo, the word of the day is BUDGET. I walk you through marinating the chicken with Salt, White Pepper, Lime, Chile,Fresh Garlic, Sweet Sot Sauce & Honey. Above is the final product with a quick Cucumber Pickled Ginger Salad

Drop me a comment and tell me how silly I look, or how much you are drooling on your desk right now. . . .CLEAN YO PLATE!

Let the Yolk Run

Nothing says Sunday morning like pancakes and eggs.  That first oragasmic bite yields and oozing yolk meeting sweet pure maple syrup dancing with the salty buttery goodness of the egg only to be highligted by the brightness of the citrus flavor.

 If you get up early and want to surprise your girl/guy with a nice breakfast, this one is super easy.  If you want to be a purist you can make your pancakes from scratch, they always taste a little better and you have more control over your flavor, but the quick and dirst way is with a good mix.

Staying in line with my goal to try to eat as much whole grain as possible I picked up this Kodiak Cakes, Whole Wheat, Oat & Honey mix and it's pretty damn good.  With this stuff all you need is BUTTER, S+P,WATER, AND 1-2 ORANGES  and you are good to go!  The mix just needs water (I usually add a little cinammon and pure vanilla extract to give it a tad more flavor).  If you can flip a flapjack and fry an egg over-easy you are in business. 

The only kind of challenging thing here with this presentation is sectioning the oranges.  The people at allrecipes.com do a good job of walking you through it.  As always the difference between just plain food and having a pleasing culinary experience really comes with the care you take in presenting your food.  If you take a little time to think about a tasteful/creative/ playful orientation of your food on the plate it can change the perception of the person you are serving.  Instead of the plate saying "Here is some food, eat that shit..." a well presented plate says "Bon Appetite!"  DON'T BE AFRAID TO MAKE YOUR FOOD LOOK AS GOOD AS IT TASTES.

Quick Gardenburger

Sometimes you just have to keep it simple.  That is pretty tough for me because I find plain food to be boring, especially when you are working with a frozen veggie burger.  I spiced it up a tad with some sauteed mushrooms & onions and a quick chiffonade of peperoncini peppers.  Accompanied by a quick simple green salad of field greens and shredded carrots.  

Hercules and Hemings: Presidents' Slave Chefs

Presumed portrait of Hercules, GeorgeWashington's enslaved cook, by Gilber Stuart. Courtesy Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, MAdrid

I caught this piece, by The Kitchen Sisters my local NPR affiliate, KPCC. It is a very interesting piece on a couple notable slave chefs that served US Presidents. Click HERE to listen and read more.

SUPERBOWL WINGS

Ok... So I  know I'm a little late with my Superbowl entry but, Buffalo Wings. My father and brother Jake aka DJ Jayceeoh  were in town, so I served up a wing/guac fest for the boys.  Pops showed us both who the real man was, beating us to the last wing and shaming us with his superior appetite.

If you go to the store and buy some frozen pre-seasoned shit, you are a chump! Making Buffalo Wings from scratch (pretty much) is easy, fun, and a million times better.

Get yourself a couple pounds of chicken wings, a sharp cleaver and go to town. First, chop off the end of the wing and discard or reserve for stock. Then, chop the wing at the joint, giving yourself a little "drumlet" and the other wing portion.

After you get done prepping the wings. You must SEASON YOUR WINGS!  It could be really easy to think that all you need is the hot sauce you are going to slather the wings with, or you might think you can combine your seasoning witht he flour you will use to fry your wings.  In both cases you would be wrong.  When you are frying, it is always better to season your meat first.Season the wings with:

S+P

Chile Powder 

Hunganrian Hot Paprika

1 Packet Chicken Bouillon Powder (Goya Caldo De Pollo) 

Cayenne Powder

I purposely did not include any amounts on the above seasonings because you should go nuts with the seasoning.  Give yourself a nice healthy base of S+P, then add roughly proportionate amount of Chile Powder, Paprika, and Cayenne.  The Bouillon will ad some depth to the flavor.

When you are done seasoning the wings, out on the oil the get to temperature.  I use a wok but any large pot will work. After you have put on the oil, dredge the wings in flour fully covering all wings with a healthy coating.  You want to heat the oil until you see small wisps of smoke.  I like to drop one wing in to test the temperature and flavor.  After you get your test wings done and confirm you seasoning is on point, GET TO FRYING!

Fry your wings util the are golden brown and crispy.  If you are wondering how to tell if they are done or not, dont sweat it, if your oil is the right temperature and you fry them until they are a golden brown you will be safe.  If you are extra paranoid just take one wing out, and cut it open to be sure.

 

When you are done frying you wings,  toss them in a bowl with Frank's Buffalo Wing Sauce

its a good sauce if you want a real traditional Buffalo Wing taste.  Its not ridiculously hot, but there is definitely some heat.  I will embark on a mission to make my own sauce in the near future.  If you are curious, as I was, what the main difference between regular hot sauce and Buffalo sauce is..... BUTTER! 

Guacamole Coming Soon....

Pumpkin Pancakes with Fubz at the Griddle

When Fubz, my friend and business partner is in town from New York gluttony is the usual outcome.  There are a couple spots that are always on the list of places to try to eat at while he is in town.  The Griddle is at the top when it comes to ridiculous breakfast/brunch.  

The servings at this place are intimidating, which is an absolutely rare occurrence when it comes to me and breakfast.  One regular order of the was enough to feed Fubz and I and then some.

If you are in a hurry this is no the place to be on the weekend from around 11-3.  The brunch crowd is ravenous and the place isn' t huge so be prepared to wait.  Don't let me discourage you, it's worth the wait, but if you want to sit quicker go early.

The bacon there is amazing!

Respect The Carne!

A couple weeks back my good friend Archer, ringleader of the Orakel Dynasty had his third daughter so I trekked out to Riverside from K-Town with my ace Fubz to hang out and commemorate his daughter's birth with BBQ. After sitting in typical Southern California traffic for a hour and half or so we arrived at the Lucero's.

We arrived just as the women folk were headed off to have there own baby celebration.  We did manage to snake a couple of Archer's mother's amazing empanadas.  Arch then introduced me to the huge bowl of meat that would be our companion for the next couple hours.  

Curious to know what we were working with I asked Archer what was the meat was seasoned with.  He replied,  " Shiiit... I don't know."  I assumed his mother had prepped it or something, so I inquired further WHO had seasoned this meat? Indignantly, he retorted, " I don't know man, we get that down at the store, the shit is just called CARNE!"  For the uninformed, carne simply means meat in Spanish.

In some circumstances I might be nervous about some mystery seasoned meat from the market, but I know Archer and his family and they don't mess around when it comes to the meat.  I'm sure the Mrs. Lucero's carneceria services the local community, who also probably takes their carne very seriously. Whatever that meat was marinated with... it was DELICIOUS!

Volunteering to prep the skewers, I got started cutting the peppers and onions.  I made quick work of constructing the skewers, while the boys fired up the grill and cracked a couple Blue Moon, Belgian White Ale (One of my favorite beers.. EVER).

We wasted no time cooking them up and eating them straight off the grill.  Apparently Fubz burnt his tounge.

Archer is koo koo for CARNE!

BAKED SPICY VEGAN EGGPLANT

In keeping with my attempts to eat healthier for a new year I decided I would come up with a dish that was simply relatively light, using no cheese or dairy. The result was a Vegan Spicy Italian Eggplant Casserole. Its kind of like an all veg lagasgna. Although I am neither vegan or vegetarian this dish came out great without the aid of my old friend CHEESE. I have to imagine somebody else has already done this dis or something like it, but I just made it up as I went.


2-3 Medium/Large Eggplants
6-8 cloves garlic
16 oz Fresh Basil
1 red onion
S+P
Crushed red pepper
2- 16oz “O” Organics Tomato Basil Marinara or Crushed Tomatoes
Plain/ Seasoned breadcrumbs

Start out with a couple nice eggplants sliced them thinly. Next, lay the slices out on a cookie sheet and liberally applied salt and pepper to both sides of every piece of eggplant, so as to ensure consistent flavor throughout the dish.

Mince the garlic.

Julienne the onion.

Remove the basil from its stem.

BASIC MARINARA SAUCE

I almost always make my sauce from scratch, but I was feeling lazy and HUNGRY so I opted for O Organics Tomato Basil Marinara that is carried by Vons/Safeway grocery stores. I must give it to Vons, their O Organics brand is reasonably priced, clearly organic, and well made. I also tried just using crushed tomatoes in place of sauce and it worked wonderfully. Considering that this dish contains many of the ingredient included in a typical marinara (Basil, Onion, Garlic) it really works kind of like a deconstructed and baked marinara with eggplant. There are probably about a billion different marinara recipes varying by one ingredient or another. Food Network’s site is a great resource for basic recipes. I will delve into my own technique at a later date.

Now you are ready to construct the dish. Get yourself a larger casserole pan. Apply a thin coat of XVO (Extra Virgin Olive Oil) to prevent sticking. Lay down a thin layer of sauce. 

Then a layer of eggplant. 

Lay down a layer of basil leaves.

Next, liberally sprinkle your minced garlic . 

Another layer of sauce follows. 

Now add a thin conservative layer of your julienned onions.

Repeat the steps starting with the eggplant, except this time, don’t add onions. Now your gonna add a layer of heat with your crushed red pepper. You can omit this ingredient if you don’t like spicy food or you can go crazy if you are a spice freak. Depending on the depth of your casserole dish, you will probably be able to make a couple more layers, ending with the eggplant. 

I topped it off with some plain bread crumbs a dash or two of XVO and S+P.

Place the casserole in the oven at 350 for 30-45 minutes.

Remove from oven. Rest for 5-10 minutes.

Cut Square portions. Serve with chiffonade of basil crushed red pepper (Paremsan cheese… I couldn’t help it!). Serve with garnish of horizontally cut Tomato with stem intact.

Starting Decadent: Eggs Benedict 1/1/2008

I have decided that I am going to go on another beginning of the year health binge in the hope of shedding some of the excess weight and actually reforming my often gargantuan eating habits. I am going to attempt to cut out almost all carbs except for some whole grains. I’m going to cut dairy except for my coffee. I am going to try to stop drinking so much coffee. Shit.It will last at least a month, but February is the true test.

Even as I sit here with a freshly toasted Thomas’ English Muffin thinking back to my crazy South African chef Christian at the Greenwich Village Bistro, who once said “You know you’ve applied the correct amount of butter when you can see your teeth marks in it after you’ve bitten!” This is a rule that haunts me to this day… I digress.

Being the rationalist I tend to be I decided that January 1 doesn’t exactly count as the first day of the year(for diets sake), considering that it’s a holiday and all, so I decided to indulge in a little decadence for the first meal of 2008 with the classic Eggs Benedict, with a side of Organic Baby Romaine tossed with the homemade Balsamic Vinaigrette I was raised on. My mother picked up this recipe at, Chez-Moi in Cleveland Heights, OH where she did a stint as a waitress while in college. Originally the recipe was not done with Balsamic, but my mother treats this as sort of a master recipe that can have whatever kind of vinegar you desire and the fresh herbs you have on hand.

Osher Family Vinagrette

1/3 c Balsamic Vinegar
2/3 c. XVO
1-3 cloves garlic (how deep is your love?)
Healthy brimming dollop of Grey Poupon or and other spicy Dijon Mustard
Generous S+P (to taste)
Fresh herbs (Dill, Tarragon, Rosemary, Oregano…whatever as long as its fresh)

Depending on how involved you want to get there are a couple different method for actually making the dressing. My mother prefers to just throw everything in a recycled mustard jar and shake it vigorously until its blended.

I tend to use the method I learned at the short-lived Vertigo Bar in Pittsburgh, PA (which was owned by the otherwise very successful Burrito Brothers group who own the Mad Mex chain among other establishments.) This method involves using a food processor or blender and employing a technique know as emulsion. Basically you add every thing except he oil into the processor/blender, run your machine on high and drizzle the oil in slowly. As I understand it the motion of the blade breaks up the oil into tiny particles as you drizzle it which is then suspended by the surrounding acid contained in the vinegar. Don’t take my word for it read what Ronald C. Deis, Ph.D. has to say. When done properly the dressing will become thick and creamy and will coat your salad like a charm.

Enough about salad dressing already! I know. Now let’s get down to business with Benedict. Linda Stradley of What’s Cooking America does a good job outlining the history of this dish, but I will tell you how I get down.

EGGS BENENDICT

The two most important things about making a good Eggs Benedict are making a good Hollandaise sauce and knowing how to poach an egg. Don’t scoff, poaching can be a pain if the conditions aren’t right, especially when you are on the line cooking Sunday brunch in New York. You better hope you have some understanding diners who don’t all need their yolks done “over medium”.

The basic instructions for this dish are:

1) PREPARE POACHING LIQUID

2) MAKE HOLLANDAISE ( RESERVE AND KEEP WARM)
3) POACH EGGS
4) LIGHTLY SAUTEE/ BROWN CANADIAN BACON
5) TOAST ENGLISH MUFFINS
6) TOSS SALAD

7) PLATE

POACHING

First off, make sure you have plenty of water in your pan, so there is enough for the eggs to be completely submerged and float freely without touching bottom. MAKE SURE TO ADD AT LEAST 1-2 t WHITE VINEGAR. This is the key to a beautifully poached egg. You also want to have a good sized slotted spoon and a heat resistant rubber/silicon spatula. 

When your water gets to poaching temperature (just under boiling) Use the spatula to make sure the eggs is released from the pan as it starts to coagulate. Poached eggs are some slippery delicate pillows so you want to have a nice big slotted spoon to scoop them out and contain them while draining the water.

The other little secret about poaching is to be extremely gentle when cracking the egg and inserting it into the water. You want to crack the and get it as close to the water as you can bear then slowly open the egg so as to keep the egg white from spreading out. The perfect poached egg will looks like white orb…it shouldn’t look like a boiled over easy egg.

The definition of poaching is "to cook an item by submerging it in a liquid that is just barley simmering." Poaching is not a rolling boil. Poaching, compared to boiling, is a much gentler technique. The temperature of the poaching liquid should be between 170 and 180 degrees. The surface of the liquid should be just "shivering," as the French say. This temperature is very important because boiling liquid toughens meat and fish, and can make fragile products like eggs and certain delicate fish disintegrate.
Besides proper poaching temperatures, special consideration should be given to the composition of the poaching liquid. This will flavor or at the very least season whatever is being poached in it. If water alone is used to poach, it should be well salted. If the water is not salted, the item being poached will taste insipid. (Poaching eggs is the one exception to this rule. The water should not be salted, but rather lightly vinegared, which helps the egg proteins to coagulate or "set" quickly.)excerpt from ChefTalk

HOLLANDAISE SAUCE

This sauce is truly what gives this dish its decadent reputation. Traditionally it is prepared over a double boiler, which proves to be a time consuming and very delicate process. I prefer the blender method which is quicker and less delicate. The quick and dirty ratio I like to use is 1 oz butter to 1 egg yolk so the recipe would be as follows:

6 eggs yolks
zest and juice of a half lemon
Kosher Salt + Fresh Ground Pepper to taste
6 oz. melted butter

Place all ingredients except butter in the blender. Melt butter and keep warm. Turn blender on high and drizzle the melted butter. The key to this method is blending the butter into the rest of the ingredients while hot so it slightly cooks the yolks. Be careful not to add the butter to quick, as it can cook the yolks to quick and give you a much thicker sauce than you intend. IF you do make this mistake (which I have a couple times) don’t worry, all you need to do is add a little water to the sauce and pulse the blender until the sauce is properly liquefied.

You want to keep your sauce warm once its made, you may keep it the sauce in a container in a vessel of hot water, or you can simply leave the sauce on your range, as it should be plenty warm as you should have your poaching liquid and your pan for your Canadian bacon going.

For a little history and more detailed description of the desired appearance of the sauce on this sauce Linda Stradley does a great job: 

Hollandaise Sauce (HOL-uhn-dayz) - Hollandaise mean Holland-style or from Holland. Uses butter and egg yolks as binding. It is served hot with vegetables, fish, and eggs (like egg benedict). It will be a pale lemon color, opaque, but with a luster not appearing oily. The basic sauce and its variations should have a buttery-smooth texture, almost frothy, and an aroma of good butter. Making this emulsified sauce requires a good deal of practice — it is not for the faint of heart. Béarnaise sauce, which is "related" to hollandaise sauce, is most often served with steak.

History - Most historians agree that it was originally called Sauce Isigny after a town in Normandy, Isigny-sur-Mer, known for its butter. Today, Normandy is called the cream capital of France. During World War I, butter production came to a halt in France and had to be imported from Holland. The name was changed to hollandaise to indicate the source of the butter and was never changed back. http://whatscookingamerica.net


CANADIAN BACON

You should be able to find Canadian Bacon aka Canadian Style Bacon at better grocery stores. Unless you have a seriously gourmet markets in your area you probably won’t have a huge selection (1 or 2 brands at most). I am not particularly picky about the brand I use. This product seems to be relatively consistent from one brand to another.

In a small sautee pan you can put on your Canadian bacon over a low heat to get it to temperature as you prepare the other elements of this dish. Be careful not to overcook the Canadian bacon, as it will get dried out. I like to start the Canadian bacon when I start to poach my eggs. When you are getting ready to plate, I like to turn up the heat to make sure I get a little color on the meat.

PLATING

One of the more difficult aspects of cooking professionally or personally is timing and coordinating all of the aspects of your dish to come together simultaneously so you can serve your food at the right temperature and quickly to your awaiting diners.

1) Place your salad and garnish (sliced vine ripe tomatoes in this case) to one side of the plate leaving room for the eggs.

2) Place the toasted English Muffins down, giving yourself a landing pad for the other elements.

3) Place your Canadian bacon on the English muffins.

4) Remove your poached eggs and place gently atop the Canadian bacon. (If your not careful your poached eggs can get away from you easily, which is no fun!)

5) Apply your Hollandaise sauce. ( This can be a saving grace if you eggs aren’t very pretty, the sauce will cover your tracks. Apply a decent amount, but don’t drown the eggs.)

6) I like to give this dish a final dash of seasoning with a little salt and pepper after everything is down.