New Orleans Inspired Dinner

Back in August, the spouse and I got a chance to take a mini-vacation in New Orleans. We ate some amazing food at some fantastic restaurants. A frequent customer asked me to make a meal inspired by our trip.

The menu I ended up doing was an appetizer of a savory asparagus cheesecake with jalapeño aioli, a shrimp bisque with a whole wheat cheddar Parmesan cracker, an entree of chicken en papillote with crab mushroom béchamel, braised chard, and green onion hush puppies, and vanilla bean ice cream with bananas Foster.

The appetizer was inspired by one we had at Dick and Jenny's. Mine was a cheesecake with ricotta, feta, and Parmesan cheese, and blanched asparagus. The recipe I started from is this one from Food.com. 

The crust is a cracker crust using whole grain club crackers. I blind baked the crust before hand, so that it would not be soggy.

It is garnished with a  jalapeño aioli, made from mayonnaise, roasted jalapeño, key lime juice, and sea salt.

I served the cheesecake warm. This resulted in a silky texture that was quite pleasant.The contrast with the crispy crust was spot on.

The soup is a shrimp bisque. The stock was made from about three pounds of crayfish shells, mostly heads, that I simmered for three hours, then ground up with an immersion blender and ran through my chinois.

This provided a solid base for the soup. I added green and red bell peppers, onion, and celery. It was seasoned with Old Bay seasoning, cumin, cayenne, and fresh ground black ground black pepper.

I pouched one whole shrimp per bowl in the stock for garnish,. The rest are cut up in small pieces, and added right before service, so that they were not overcooked.

To go with the soup, I made whole wheat cheddar Parmesan crackers. They had a robust texture that held up well to the soup.

For the entree, I made chicken en papillote with a crab mushroom bechemel. It's a fun way of cooking. En papillote is French for in paper. The food is wrapped in parchment paper, and  baked in a hot oven. It steams in the envelope.

To go with, I braised white chard with apple cider vinegar. That gave it a mild sweetness to counterbalance its natural mild bitterness.  It was cooked with bacon and onion. 

I also made green onion hush puppies, because, really, what is more quintessentially New Orleans than hush puppies. Crispy outside, light and fluffy in the middle, with a hint of heat from a little cayenne.







For dessert, I made bananas Foster over vanilla bean  ice cream. No pictures, my phone died before I could get any. Great flavors of rum, banana, brown sugar, and spices over a good quality ice cream. Didn't have time to make my own, unfortunately.

Recipes

Savory Asparagus Cheesecake

Crust:

5 1/2 oz. whole grain club crackers
2 1/2 oz. butter, melted and cooled
2 eggs
spray canola oil

Pre-heat oven to 350 F.

Use spay oil to generously grease six 4 1/2" ramekins.

In a food processor, grind crackers very fine. Add butter and eggs. Process until smooth. Press dough into ramekins. Bake for ten minutes. Remove from oven, let cool.

Custard:

1 bunch asparagus
1/2 medium white onion, fine diced
8 oz. ricotta
8 oz. feta
1 oz. grated Parmesan
3 1/2 oz.heavy cream
2 Tbsp. butter
2 eggs
salt and pepper to taste

Pre-heat oven to 350 F.

Cut tips of asparagus 1" long. cut an additional 1" of stalks. Blanch asparagus pieces in lightly simmering salted water until al dente. Shock in ice water to stop cooking. Select twelve tips to leave whole. Set those aside, fine dice the rest of the asparagus pieces.

In a skillet over medium heat, melt butter. Saute onions until tender. Add diced asparagus, saute lightly. Add cream. and turn down to low.

In a large bowl, whisk together eggs, ricotta, and feta. Temper cream mixture, and whisk into cheese mixture. Season to taste.

Ladle custard into ramekins. Add two
asparagus tips to each ramekin. Sprinkle tops of custard with Parmesan.

Place full ramekins in a shallow baking dish. Add hot water to half way up the ramekins. Bake until custard is set, about 20 minutes.

Remove from oven. Let rest about 10 minutes. Gently run a knife between crust  Slide cheesecake from ramekin, plate and garnish with jalapeño aioli.

 Jalapeño Aioli

1/2 cup mayonnaise

1 medium  jalapeño

1 tsp. key lime juice

salt to taste

Roast  jalapeño in 350 F oven until blackened. Shock in ice bath. Peel, de-stem, and de-seed. 

Blend together  jalapeño, juice, mayo, and salt until smooth.

Shrimp Bisque

Stock:

3 lbs. crayfish shells

5 quarts water

Simmer shells in water for three hours. Using an immersion blender, grind up shells. Filter through a chinois to remove shell bits.

Soup:

1 qt. crayfish stock

1 lb. shrimp tails without shells

1 red bell pepper, diced

1 green bell pepper, diced

1/2 medium white onion, diced

3 stalks celery, diced

3 strips bacon, diced 

2 tsp. Old Bay Seasoning

1/2 tsp. cumin powder

1/4 tsp. cayenne powder

salt and pepper to taste

In a pan over medium heat, render fat out of bacon. Add vegetables, saute until tender. Add stock and spices, bring to a simmer.

Take six whole shrimp. Poach in soup until cooked, about 3 minutes. Remove and set aside.

Dice remainder of shrimp. Add to soup. Simmer until done, 

Ladle soup into bowls. Garnish with whole shrimp and cheddar Parmesan cracker.

Whole Wheat Cheddar Parmesan Cracker

4 oz. grated sharp cheddar

2 oz. grated Parmesan

3/4 cup whole wheat flour

1/4 tsp. dry mustard powder

1/4 tsp. sea salt

1/8 tsp. cayenne powder

2 oz. butter, softened

2 Tbsp. cold water, plus more if needed

Combine Cheese, flour, and seasonings in a food processor. Pulse a number of times to combine ingredients.

Add butter. Plus until dough resembles course crumbs. Add water, one tablespoon at a time, processing until dough just sticks together. If too dry, add additional water, 1/2 tsp. at a time.

Form dough into a ball and wrap in plastic. Refrigerate for two hours.

Pre-heat oven to 375 F.

On a floured surface, roll out dough very thin. With a fork, poke holes in dough at regular intervals. Using a pizza cutter, cut into diamonds. Transfer to a silicon baking pad lined sheet pan. 

Bake ten minutes, or until crisp and lightly browned.

Transfer to parchment paper to cool.

Crab Mushroom Bechemel

3 oz. butter

1 oz. flour

8 oz. mushrooms, sliced thin

3 oz. canned crab meat with juice

3 cups cream

salt and pepper to taste

In a saute pan over medium high heat, melt 2 oz. butter. Saute mushrooms until tender. Set Aside.

In a sauce pan over medium heat, melt remaining ounce of butter. Add flour, cook until light brown.

Add cream, whisking in until well incorporated. Bring to a simmer, stirring constantly. when thickened, Add mushrooms and crab. Set aside.

Chicken en Papillote

3 large boneless skinless chicken breasts

crab mushroom bechemel

Pre-heat oven to 450 F.

Cut breasts in half lengthwise. Pound each half breast to 3/4" thick.

Cut six 10" hearts out of parchment paper.

Place each half breast on a parchment heart. Cover with bechemel. Crimp paper closed around breast. 

Put packages on baking sheets. Bake for 15 - 20 minutes.

Green Onion Hush Puppies

1 cup cornmeal

1/2 cup flour

1 egg

1 cup buttermilk

3 green onions, sliced thin

1 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp. cayenne powder

canola oil for frying

Whisk together all ingredients.

Heat oil to 365 F. 

Drop batter by spoonfuls into hot oil. Fry until golden brown.

Happy Eating!

Healthy Lifestyles Class: Healthy Appetizers

Last week in my Healthy lifestyles class, we were to make a number of healthy appetizers/ hor d'oeuvres. We were given a number of recipes to work from. One of the interesting things about the way Chef Kim organizes his labs is that he doesn't micromanage us. He gives us recipes, but gives us leave to deviate from them in our own creative fashion. Also, he basically gives us a goal, gives us product to work with, then lets us work out how it gets done.

As a group, we were to make four appetizers, two hor d'oeuvres, and a salad. We had four recipes given us, and we were to adapt two of them to work as hor d'oeuvres. For the salad, we were on our own to create something. Presentation was to be a big part of things.

I made both an appetizer and an hor d'oeuvre from the recipe for Vietnamese style spring rolls. They were very similar to the ones I did for my Pan Asian dinner. The rolls have cooked shrimp, lettuce, rice noodles, julienned carrot and daikon radish, cilantro, and slivers of yellow bell pepper.

The dipping sauce is a mix of rice wine vinegar, fish sauce, lemon juice, sugar, garlic, and sriracha.

I garnished the plate with a little minced peanuts.

For the smaller version, I cut the rice paper wrappers in half, and  left out the shredded lettuce.

This is a great, refreshing appetizer. Very healthy, with no added fat.

For the salad, I collaborated with one of my teammates on a seafood salad, using some of my leftover shrimp, and some of the scallops from another appetizer made by a different teammate.

We included mixed greens, sauteed baby shitake mushrooms, tomato, and some sweet yellow and orange peppers. My teammate made a nice vinaigrette to go with it.

All and all, I'm happy with both the flavors and presentations we did. Chef had some minor critiques, some ideas for improvement, but there were no terrible missteps.

Intermediate Culinary Class: Fish appetizers

Continuing the investigation into flavors, this week we worked with fish. This was a long and busy night, with a number of recipes.

We started off making ceviche. Ceviche is raw fish that is marinaded in acid and flavorings. The acid denatures the proteins making it appear lightly cooked.

This ceviche has fresh red snapper cut in thin angled cuts across the grain. This slice is called a tranche. The slices of fish are arranged on the plate, and then soaked in lime juice. They were lightly seasoned with salt and pepper. On top are layered red onion, green onion, capers, cilantro, jalapeno, and a dash of Tabasco. We made that right away, then let it sit while we cooked the components of the more complex appetizer. We ate the slices of fish on  slices of baguette that had been lightly toasted.

I enjoyed this quite a lot. It was a nice mix of citrus, sharpness, and heat.

The more complex dish had a number of components. For the first time, we were required to make an attempt at presentation. The dish is pan seared red snapper with mushroom risotto, beet beurre blanc, olive and tomato tapenade, and white wine infused beets.

The first step is the beets. It is a bruniose (very fine dice) of beet sautéed in butter, then simmered in white wine until tender. When complete, the beets are strained, and the juice is reserved for the beurre blanc.

The tapenade is thin sliced pimento stuffed olives, diced tomato, garlic, red onion, and lemon zest, very lightly sautéed in olive oil.

The risotto is Arborio rice that is slowly cooked in liquid while being continuously stirred. The starchy short grained rice will release produces a creamy texture. For this risotto, we sautéed a little mirepoix (finely diced onion, carrot, and celery), garlic, mushroom, and jalapeno in butter. The rice is added, and cooked a few minutes in the hot fat, stirring to coat each grain. Water was added, a little at a time, cooking and stirring. It took about twenty minutes for the rice to reach an al dente texture, and have a creamy texture. Right at the end, some heavy cream and Parmesan cheese was added.

This is the first time I've tried making risotto. It turns out to be easier than I expected. It takes a little patience, and you need to be focused, but it isn't that tricky.

Beurre blanc means 'white butter' in French. It is an emulsion of butter in a white wine reduction. For this one, we used the beet infused wine, some more white wine, and a little white wine vinegar. We added some red onion and garlic, and reduced the volume by about half. We then added some fish stock. Once it was back up to temperature, we whisked in butter to form the emulsion. Finally, whisked in some heavy cream. It was a nice, slightly acidic sauce that went well with the fish and the risotto.

Finally, we pan seared some pieces of red snapper. With so much else going on, we just kept the fish simple.

All recipes courtesy chef Joe Orate.

Recipes

Chef Joe's Peruvian Style Ceviche

4 oz. fresh red snapper fillets
juice of 2 limes
1/4 red onion, minced
1 bunch green onions, minced
1 jalapeno, minced
1 bunch cilantro, minced
1/4 cup capers
salt and pepper to taste
Tabasco to taste

Slice fish very thin. Place in the bottom of a plate or shallow bowl. Season with salt and pepper. Cover with 1/3 of the lime juice. Layer on rest of ingredients, seasoning with salt and pepper, and sprinkling with juice. When all ingredients are layered on, sprinkle as desired with Tabasco. Let marinade for 2 hours.

Chef Joe's Wine Infused Beets

1 beet, peeled and finely diced
3 oz. by wt. butter
1 cup white wine
salt to taste

In a small saucepan, sauté beet in butter. Add wine, simmer until tender. Drain, reserving juice for beurre blanc.

Chef Joe's Green Olive Tapenade

4 oz. by wt. pimento stuffed green olives
1 small tomato, peeled and diced
zest of 1 lemon
1 oz. fine diced red onion
1 garlic clove, minced
1 Tbsp. olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Briefly sauté all ingredients in olive oil.

Chef Joe's Mushroom Risotto

1 cup Arborio rice
3 oz. butter
1/4 cup finely diced mirepoix (carrots, celery, and onion)
1 tsp. minced garlic
1 cup diced mushrooms
1/2 jalapeno, minced
1 - 2 cups water
1 tsp. shredded Parmesan
2 oz. heavy cream
salt and pepper to taste

In a saucepan over medium high heat, sauté mirepoix, garlic, mushrooms, and jalapeno in butter. Add rice. Cook, stirring constantly, until rice grains are coated with butter and lightly toasted. Add water a little at a time. Cook, stirring constantly, adding water as needed to keep rice a thick slurry. Cook until rice is creamy, and grains are al dente. Season with salt and pepper, stir in cream and cheese.

Chef Joe's Beet Beurre Blanc

Beat infused wine from previous recipe
1/2 cup white wine
1 Tbsp. white wine vinegar
1 Tbsp. minced red onion
1 tsp. minced garlic
1 cup fish stock
4 oz. butter, softened
1/2 cup heavy cream
salt and pepper to taste

Place beet infused wine, wine, vinegar, onion, and garlic is a saucepan over medium high to high heat. Reduce volume by one half. Add stock, bring back to a simmer.  Whisk in butter, about one tsp. at a time. Whisk vigorously to form an emulsion. Whisk in heavy cream. Season with salt and pepper.

Happy Eating!

Intermediate Culinary Class: Cheese

This class is focused on taste and presentation, and this week we were exploring cheese. We a couple of cheese dishes, and while they were baking, tasted a number of cheeses.

The first thing we put together was a baked brie. Instead of the usual jam, we had made it with toasted walnuts and cinnamon sugar. The whole thing is wrapped in puff pastry, and baked until golden brown.

I liked this version. We used a better quality brie that had no rind. The brown sugar melted and coated the walnuts. It was sweet, but not overwhelmingly so. The bottom crust of the puff pastry, infused with cheese, sugar, and walnuts was particularly tasty.


The other thing we made was a bacon, onion, and cheddar soufflé. We sautéed bacon in butter, then added onion and garlic. We added flour to make a roux, then cream to make a béchamel sauce. Egg yolks and cheddar cheese are folded into the béchamel. That sauce is then folded into stiffly beaten egg whites. That is poured into ramekins that have been coated on the inside with butter and Parmesan cheese. The soufflés are baked for 35 minutes without peeking.

They came out appropriately fluffy. They tasted strongly of bacon, onion, and cheese. They were a bit heavy. Personally, I'd probably not use the butter, and cut the amount of bacon in half.

While the brie and soufflés were baking, we tasted a number of cheeses. Being a long time cheese fan, I was familiar with all but one of the cheeses we tried. That was Boursin, a fresh cheese, mild and smooth textured.

We also were to bring in plates for appetizers. We didn't actually use them, but Chef looked them over. He really likes the more modern plain white plates in funky shapes. He is not a fan of color. Other than our every day Ikea plates,  I pretty much own no white service, at all. I have a lot of hand made pottery, and a lot of bold colors, especially blue and green.

Recipes

All recipes courtesy of Chef Joe Orate.

Cheddar and Bacon Souffle

1/2 cup diced bacon
2 oz. by wt. + enough to line ramekins butter
1 tsp. minced garlic
1/4 cup diced onion
1 1/2 Tbsp. flour
1 cup heavy cream
3 egg yolks
4 oz. by wt. shredded cheddar cheese
3 egg whites
1/2 tsp. cream of tartar
1/2 cup grated Parmesan
salt and pepper to taste

Pre-heat oven to 375 F.

Grease inside of eight ramekins with butter. Liberally coat butter with Parmesan cheese. Tap to remove excess.

In a saucepan over medium to medium high heat, melt 2 oz. butter. Add bacon, cook until fat is rendered. Add onion and garlic, cook until onion is soft. Add flour. Cook, stirring constantly for about two minutes. Add cream. Cook until thickened. Remove from heat.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, add egg whites and cream of tartar. Whip to stiff peaks.

Fold egg yolks into cream sauce, then mix in cheese.

Gently fold in egg whites 1/3 at a time into cream mixture. Ladle into ramekins.

Place ramekins on a baking sheet, and bake in oven for 35 minutes. Do not open oven door during that time.

Remove from oven, and serve immediately.

Brie en Croute with Walnuts

1 8 oz. wheel of brie
1/2 sheet frozen puff pastry
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1 Tbsp. butter
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/8 tsp. cinnamon
1 egg, beaten

Pre-heat oven to 375 F.

Mix cinnamon into brown sugar, set aside.

In a skillet over medium heat, melt butter. Add walnuts, toss until lightly toasted.

Lay out puff pastry on a lightly floured surface. Place a circle of 1/2 the brown sugar mix in the center of the puff pastry. layer 1/2 the walnuts on top of the sugar. Place the cheese on top of the nuts. Place the rest of the sugar and nuts on top of the cheese.

Fold pastry around cheese, using egg wash to seal all overlaps. Place seam side down on a baking sheet. Brush entire surface with remaining egg wash.

Bake 20 minutes, or until golden brown.

Serve warm, with crackers or thin slices of baguette..

Happy Eating!

Culinary Class: Hot Wings

For our last lab, we covered poaching. To do this we poached chicken wings until they were tender, then deep fried them until brown and crispy. We made a Buffalo-style sauce to coat them.

Poaching is the process of cooking food in liquid that is just below the boiling point, typically between 165 and 185 F. For the wings, they were poached in water flavored with white wine vinegar, bay, thyme, onion, and garlic. They poached about thirty minutes, then were drained and allowed to cool.

We then dredged them in flour mixed with cornstarch and seasoned with granulated garlic, salt, and pepper. They were then deep fried in hot oil until golden brown and crispy.

Just before serving, they were tossed with a Buffalo-style sauce made with butter, Frank's Louisiana Hot Sauce, vinegar, onions, and garlic.

These were really good wings. The sauce was hot enough to get your attention,. without being so hot you couldn't taste anything.

As always, all recipes courtesy of Chef Joe Orate.

Recipes

Chef Joe's Poaching Liquid for Chicken Wings

1 Qt. water
1 cup white wine vinegar
1 Tbsp. whole thyme
1/2 onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1 bay leaf
salt and pepper to taste

Chef Joe's Flour for Chicken Wings

1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup corn starch
2 Tbsp. granulated garlic
salt and pepper to taste

Chef Joe's Spicy Wing Sauce

1/8 onion, minced
1 Tbsp. minced garlic
1 oz. + 3 oz. by wt. butter
1/4 cup white vinegar
1 cup Frank's Louisiana Hot Sauce

In a sauce pan over medium heat, melt 1 oz. of butter. Sweat onion and garlic until tender in butter. Add vinegar and hot sauce to pan, bring just to a simmer. Remove from heat, while continuously whisking, add remaining 3 oz. of butter a little at a time. Continue until butter is completely incorporated.

Happy Eating!

 

Pan Asian Dinner

I have a couple of dear friends that have been very enthusiastically supporting my decision to go pro as a cook. Back in September I had the opportunity to cook for them, and they wanted to have me cook for them again this spring.

Since I did Middle Eastern last time, I wanted to go in a different direction. I decided to go Asian. There is so much variety to Asian cuisines. I ended up going Pan-Asian, with a Vietnamese style appetizer, Chinese inspired main dish, and a combination Thai/Chinese dessert.

For the appetizer, I made Vietnamese style spring rolls. These are great, as they are not fried, and are all about fresh greens. There were two dipping sauces to go with the rolls. One was hoisin with peanuts, and the other was a complex combination of fish sauce, lime, garlic, and sweet chili sauce. I think these were a great appetizer. The wrappers were rice paper, and in them I put shrimp, rice vermicelli, butter lettuce, mint, and basil. I worked from this recipe at allrecipes.com.

For the main dish, I made a beef stir fry with carrots, crimini mushrooms, and red, yellow, and orange peppers. My stir fry sauce is not traditional, as far as I know. I make a sauce of date vinegar and sweet soy sauce, with a little ginger and black pepper. I use a little corn starch to help the sauce thicken.

Somehow rice got left off my packing list, and my friends didn't have rice, either. I ended up using some Israeli couscous. It worked just fine. Not surprising, as it was created as a rice substitute.

For dessert, I really wanted to make something special. I wanted to have lots of contrasts; taste, texture, and temperature. I made a cold Thai jelly, with layers of coconut and coffee flavors. The jelly is based on this recipe. The jellies use agar agar as the jelling agent. Agar agar is a derivative of red seaweed.

To contrast, I made a Chinese eight treasures rice pudding, served warm. It consists of glutinous rice, coated with a mix of chestnuts, almonds walnuts, dried pineapple, dried papaya, and dried mango There is a thin layer of sweet red bean paste in the middle. I adapted this recipe for my pudding. The original called for lard. I substituted vegetable shortening, which worked just fine.

To tie everything together, I made a mango - lime sauce.As it turned out, the dessert is vegan.

I don't think the photo does it justice. I think it came out really pretty. I was really proud of the whole thing.

Recipes

Vietnamese Spring Rolls

Rolls
6 6.25 inch rice wrappers
6 large cooked shrimp, halved lengthwise
2 oz. rice vermicelli
2 Tbsp. chiffonade of basil
2 Tbsp. chiffonade of mint
1/2 cup chopped butter lettuce

Dipping Sauces
1/4 cup hoisin sauce
2 Tbsp. finely chopped peanuts

1 Tbsp. fish sauce
2 Tbsp. fresh lime juice
1 Tbsp. sweet chili sauce
2 tsp. sugar
2 Tbsp. water
1 tsp. minced garlic

Whisk together hoisin sauce and peanuts. Set aside. Whisk together fish sauce, lime juice, chili sauce, sugar, water, and garlic. Set aside.

Bring 4 cups of water to a boil, add rice noodles, turn down to a simmer. Cook until al dente, then drain and rinse.

To construct a roll, dip a wrapper in a bowl of warm water for about 1 second. Place a small bundle of vermicelli in the center of the wrapper. Place two halves of shrimp on top of noodles. Sprinkle liberally with mint and basil. Add shredded lettuce. Fold ends of wrapper in. Fold one side of wrapper over top of shrimp, then roll tightly over other side.

Serve with dipping sauces.

Beef, Mushroom, and Peppers Stir Fry

1 lb. London broil, sliced thin
1 1/2 cups diagonally sliced carrots
1 1/2 cups mixed pepper strips
1 1/2 cups thinly sliced crimini mushrooms
1/4 cup date vinegar
1/4 cup sweet soy sauce
1 tsp. ground ginger
1/2 tsp. ground black pepper
1 Tbsp. cornstarch
2Tbsp. sesame oil

In a bowl, whisk together vinegar, soy, ginger, pepper, and cornstarch. Set aside.

Heat a wok over high heat. Add oil, swirl to coat. Add beef strips, stirring constantly. Cook until about 3/4 the way to medium rare. Remove beef. Add carrots. Cook, stirring rapidly, for about two minutes. Add peppers. Cook, stirring constantly, for another two minutes. Add mushrooms and return beef to pan. Cook until mushrooms are done. Add sauce, stirring to coat all other ingredients. Once sauce starts to thicken, remove from heat. Serve over rice or noodles.

Layered Coconut and Coffee Jellies

Coffee Jelly
1 Tbsp. instant espresso
2 Tbsp. warm water
2 Tbsp. agar agar powder
3 cups water
7 oz by wt.  sugar

Coconut Jelly
1 Tbsp. agar agar powder
1 cup water
1 1/2 cups coconut cream
2 oz by wt. sugar
1 tsp. salt

To make coffee jelly
In a small bowl, dissolve espresso powder in warm water. Set aside.

Place water and agar agar powder in a small saucepan over medium low heat. Heat until agar agar completely dissolves. Add sugar, cook until dissolved. Remove from heat, stir in coffee. Transfer to a metal bowl in a hot water bath to keep liquid while working.

To make coconut jelly
In a small saucepan over medium low heat, dissolve agar agar powder in water. Add coconut cream, sugar, and salt, cook until sugar is dissolved. Transfer to a metal bowl in a hot water bath to keep liquid while working.



To make jellies
Into silicon cupcake molds, place 2 tablespoons of coconut liquid in eight molds, and 2 tablespoons of coffee liquid into eight molds. Let cool and harden, about 5 minutes.

Alternate coffee and coconut layers, allowing to firm up after each new layer. Molds should hold about 6 tablespoons (3 layers).

Refrigerate until needed, unmold to serve.

Eight Treasures Pudding

8 oz by wt. glutinous rice
1 oz by wt. vegetable shortening
1 oz by wt. sugar
2 Tbsp. finely diced chestnuts
2 Tbsp. finely diced blanched almonds
2 Tbsp. finely diced walnuts
2 Tbsp. finely diced dried papaya
2 Tbsp. finely diced dried mango
2 Tbsp. finely diced dried pineapple
1/3 cup sweet red bean paste

In a small bowl, mix together fruits and nuts. Set aside.

Under running water, rinse rice. Place in a small saucepan, and add twice the volume of water. Bring to a boil, turn down to a simmer, and cook for twelve minutes. Rice will absorb the water, and become thick and sticky. Remove from heat, stir in 1/2 oz. shortening and sugar.

Take six ramekins. Using remaining shortening, apply a thick layer of shortening to the insides of the ramekins. Press fruit and nut mixture into the shortening, making sure inner surface is covered. Shake out any excess fruit and nut mixture.

Fill each ramekin half full with rice. Spread a thin layer of bean paste on top. If bean paste is too thick to spread easily, heat in microwave ten to twenty seconds.

Finish filling each ramekin. Cover ramekins with aluminum foil. Refrigerate until ready to steam.

To steam, place a couple of inches of water in the bottom of a steamer. Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer. place rack containing ramekins into steamer, cover. Let steam for thirty minutes.

Remove from steamer. Remove foil. Loosen puddings by running a butter knife or small spatula around inside of ramekin. Turn upside down onto plate to unmold.

Mango - Lime Sauce

1 ripe mango, peeled, seeded, and diced
juice of 1/2 lime
1 tsp. ground ginger
1/2 tsp. chili powder
2 Tbsp. water
1 Tbsp. sugar
pinch kosher salt

In a small saucepan over medium heat, simmer diced mango and water until mango is tender. Using an immersion blender, puree mango. Stir in spices, sugar, and salt.  Cook until sugar is dissolved.

Happy Eating!

Carrot, Butternut Squash, and Roasted Red Pepper Soup

In practicing knife cuts for my culinary class, I destroyed most of a bag of carrots. A lot of it went into carrot sticks for snacking, but there were a lot of roundels and diagonal cut pieces that needed used up as well. I thought an appetizer soup would be a good use. I also had part of a squash that needed used, as well. I wanted to bring a little more flavor to the table, so added some canned roasted red pepper.

The soup is flavored with some ginger and cumin, and garnished with sour cream and finely diced carrot and fresh onion sprouts. I found that just a touch of honey really brought out the flavor of the carrots.

Carrot, Butternut Squash, and Roasted Red Bell Pepper Soup

4 cups chicken stock
2 cups sliced carrots
1 cup diced butternut squash
2/3 cup diced roasted red peppers
1 tsp. ginger
1 tsp. cumin
1/2 tsp. kosher salt
1 1/2 Tbsp. honey

finely diced carrots, onion sprouts, and sour cream to garnish

In a saucepan over medium heat, simmer carrots, squash, and peppers in stock until tender. With an immersion blender, puree soup. Add spices, salt, and honey, and simmer for a few minutes.

Ladle into bowls. Place a tablespoon of sour cream in the middle, and sprinkle diced carrots and a pinch of onion sprouts on top.

Happy Eating!

Sorrel - Celery Leaf Soup

One thing I love about having a CSA is that it often challenges me to expand my knowledge and skills. This time around, it provided me with a small bunch of sorrel. Now, this was a green I'd never heard of, but Google is my friend. Sorrel has a sour taste, from an excess of oxalic acid, the same chemical that gives rhubarb its distinctive flavor.

Sorrel is most commonly used in salads, and pureed soups. I thought I'd  try my hand at sorrel soup. I didn't have a lot of sorrel, so I wanted to stretch it a bit. I did have some very leafy celery, also from my CSA, so used the celery leaf to get enough greens to make soup. I flavored it with a little green onion, and thickened it with sour cream and egg. It is garnished with sour cream and onion sprouts.

To prevent curdling, the egg and sour cream will need to be tempered. What this means is that a small amount of the hot soup is added to the eggs and sour cream, and whisked. This raises the temperature of the egg, as well as spreads out the proteins. If you just dump egg in the soup, you'll get a lump of scrambled egg.

It had a wonderful lemony flavor, and the bitterness of the celery leaf matched well. It seemed to have a fair bit of umami, which seems to come from the celery leaf, which is high in glutamate.

Sorrel - Celery Leaf Soup

3 cups (packed) chopped sorrel leaves
1 cup (packed) chopped celery leaf
1 large green onion, minced
2 Tbsp. butter
1 tsp. vegetable stock base
3 cups water
2 Tbsp. sour cream
1 egg, beaten
sour cream to garnish
onion sprouts to garnish

In a sauce pan over medium heat, melt butter. Sweat onion until tender. Add sorrel and celery. Cook until leaves are mostly wilted. Add water and soup base. Bring to a simmer. In a blender, or with an immersion blender, puree soup.

Whisk together egg and sour cream. Ladle some soup into the egg mixture and whisk. Add egg mixture to the soup, whisking to incorporate. Bring soup back up to a simmer. Ladle into bowls. Garnish with a dollop of sour cream and a few onion sprouts.

Makes 2 servings.

Happy Eating!

Black Hat Tea Recipes: Part I, Savory Course

Sorry for the delay. I've been swamped co-ordinating a Medieval Islamic banquet. I hope to get caught up soon. This is the first post for the Black Hat Tea, putting up the recipes for dishes served in the Savory Course. There will be following posts for the Scone and Sweet Courses.

Recipes

Cold Apple Soup with Apple Schnapps Cream

10 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored, and sliced
1 quart apple juice
1 cup moscato
1 cup sugar
1 cinnamon stick
2 tsp. ground ginger
2 whole cloves
1 cup whipping cream
4 tbsp. sour apple schnapps

Place all ingredients except cream ans schnappes in a soup pot over medium heat. Simmer until apples are very soft. Remove from heat. Remove cinnamon stick and cloves. Using a immersion blender, process soup until smooth. Let cool, then refrigerate over night.

Place cream in the bowl of a stand mixer with the schnapps. Beat at medium speed, until cream is a little fluffy, but stop before peaks form.

To serve, place soup in bowl. Add a dollop of cream to the center of the bowl.

Pumpkin Bread with Walnut Butter and Pear

For the Pumpkin Bread:

2 cups flour
1 cup brown sugar, packed
1 cup canned pumpkin
1/2 cup shortening
1/4 cup milk
2 eggs
2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. coarse sea salt
1/2 tsp. ginger
1/2 tsp. allspice
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1/4 tsp. cloves

In a bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and spices. Set aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat together brown sugar and shortening. Add eggs, beat until well combined. Add pumpkin and milk. Mix well. Slowly add flour mixture, mixing until all is combined, and batter is smooth.

Turn batter into a well greased loaf pan. Bake at 350 degrees until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 50 to 60 minutes.

For the Walnut Butter:

1 lb. shelled walnuts
1/2 tsp. coarse sea salt
1/4 cup olive oil (approximately)

Place walnuts in the bowl of a food processor with the salt. Process, slowly dribbling in oil, until they become the texture of peanut butter.

To assemble sandwiches:

Refrigerate bread over night. Using a serrated knife, trim loaf until it is rectangular. Slice thinly. Spread slices with a thin layer of walnut butter, then add a thin slice of ripe pear.

Open Faced Canadian Bacon and Swiss Sandwiches

4 English muffins, split
8 slices Canadian bacon
8 slices Swiss cheese
1/4 cup chipotle jelly
1/4 cup spicy brown mustard

On each half of an English muffin, spread a thin layer of the jelly. Add a piece of Canadian bacon, and place a slice of swiss cheese on top. Spread a thin layer of brown mustard on the cheese. Place under a hot broiler until cheese is melted, bubbly, and just starting to brown, about 3 to 5 minutes.

For the tea, we quartered the sandwiches, since we wanted just small bites.

Stuffing Rounds with Roast Turkey and Cranberry Mustard

For the Stuffing Rounds:

2 cups small peices of dried bread
1 small white onion, diced
1 stalk celery, diced
2 tbsp. olive oil
2 cups milk
4 eggs
2 packages Knorr homestyle chicken stock
1/2 tsp. coarse sea salt
2 tsp. dried oregano
2 tsp. dried basil
15 large fresh sage leaves, chiffonaded
Sweat onions and celery in olive oil until tender. Set aside.

Beat together eggs, milk, stock base, salt, oregano, and basil.

Grease a muffin tin. Place a small layer of bread peices in the bottom. Scatter a little onion, celery, and sage in each cup. Ladle in just enough custard mix to cover. Bake in a 350 degree oven until custard sets, about 15 minutes. Remove disks, let cool on racks. Makes about 36 rounds. 

For the sandwiches:

Place a thin slice of turkey breast on a round. Spread a thin layer of cranberry mustard on the turkey slice.


Happy Eating!

A Medieval Islamic Dinner

A couple of friends have been enthusiastically asking me to cook for them for awhile. We finally found a mutually acceptable date, so the spouse and I went over to their place, and I had the pleasure of cooking for them. I'd been wanting to try some dishes that I'm thinking about for a feast I am co-ordinating in November. I wanted to give them maximum bang for their buck, so to speak, so did the full meal thing: appetizer, main dish, dessert.

For the appetizer, I made a chickpea paste with pita bread. This is an ancestor of humus, but without tahini. It's flavored with preserved lemons, white wine vinegar, cinnamon, ginger, black pepper, and served with fresh mint and parsley, and olive oil. I really liked it. The pickled lemons gave it a unique tang. I did have to run the food processor longer than I usually do to make humus, the lemon was resistant. The fresh herbs added a nice contrast.

For the main dish, I made spice rubbed sauteed beef cubes with almond stuffed dates, on a bed of walnut butter couscous, with fried eggplant with a sweet and sour sauce. The beef is a London broil, cut into cubes. I tossed it with a spice rub of coriander, cinnamon, black pepper, ginger,and kosher salt. It was sauteed with dates stuffed with whole blanched almonds. The sweet dates added a nice contrast to the spicy beef.  I cooked the beef just to a nice medium rare. It came out juicy and tender. The walnut butter couscous was rich and fragrant, I'm particularly happy with it. The eggplant was fried in shallow oil, until brown. It was dressed with a sauce of lemon juice, white wine vinegar, sugar, cilantro, parsley, mint, garlic, black pepper, ginger, and cinnamon. The acid of the sauce helped cut the richness of the beef and couscous.

For dessert, I kept it simple. I made fried bananas with pistachio syrup. The bananas were fried in a little butter on the griddle, until golden brown. The syrup was a simple syrup of sugar and water, with a little salt, and rough chopped pistachios. For all it's simplicity, it was very good. It was missing a cold component and a little acid, though. I think next time I will serve it with a little cardamon-honey creme fraiche.




All-in-all, I'm very pleased with this meal. I feel I'm starting to get a handle on plating. I felt really good about timing and multi-tasking to get all the components of the main dish to finish at the same time. I think the balance of flavors, and textures was spot on.

Recipes

Chickpea Paste with Preserved Lemon

1 8 oz. can chickpeas
1/2 a preserved lemon
1/4 cup white wine vinegar
1 tsp. ground ginger
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. ground black pepper
2 tsp. kosher salt
1 tbsp. chopped mint
1 tbsp. chopped parsley
2 tbsp. olive oil

Drain chickpeas, reserving 1/4 cup of liquid. Place chickpeas, chickpea liquid, lemon, vinegar, spices, and salt into a food processor. Process until smooth. Place on a platter, sprinkle with fresh herbs, drizzle with olive oil. Serve with wedges of flat bread, like lavosh or pita.

Sauteed Beef with Dates

1 1/2 lbs London boil
8 oz. pitted dates
1/3 cup blanched whole almonds
2 tbsp. kosher salt
2 tsp. ground black pepper
2 tsp. whole coriander seeds
1 tsp. ginger
1 tsp. cinnamon
2 tbsp. olive oil

Carefully insert an almond into the cavity of each date, set aside. Cut beef into 3/4 inch cubes. Grind up coriander in a spice grinder or mortar and pestle. In a small bowl, mix salt and spices. Toss beef cubes with spice mix until well coated. In a frying pan over medium-high heat, add olive oil. Add dates, saute for a couple of minutes, then add beef. Cook until meat is browned, but still pink in the middle.

Walnut butter couscous

2/3 cup walnuts
2 tbsp. olive oil
1 tbsp. kosher salt
2 cups dried couscous
4 cups boiling water

Place walnuts in a food processor. Process, drizzling in olive oil until walnuts are a thick, peanut butter-like paste. Set aside. Place couscous in a bowl, pour on boiling water. Let sit 10 minutes, until water is absorbed. Use a spoon to fluff up couscous. Add walnut butter and salt, stir until butter is incorporated.

Fried Eggplant with Sweet and Sour Sauce

1 eggplant
juice of 1 1/2 lemon
1/2 cup white wine vinegar
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tbsp. chopped mint
2 tbsp. chopped parsley
2 tbsp. chopped cilantro
1/2 tsp. ground black pepper
1/2 tsp. ground ginger
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp. kosher salt
canola oil for frying

In a small saucepan, simmer juice, vinegar, spices, herbs, salt and sugar over medium-low heat. Cook until sugar dissolves, and garlic is tender.

Slice eggplant into 1/2 thick slices. Put a thin layer of canola oil into a frying pan over medium-high heat. When oil is hot, fry eggplant on both sides until brown, place on paper towels to drain. Plate eggplant, drizzle with sauce.

Fried Bananas with Pistachio Syrup

3 bananas, sliced diagonally into 1/2 inch thick slices
1/2 cup pistachios, roughly chopped
1 tbsp. butter
1 cup water
1 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp. kosher salt

Place water, sugar, and salt in a small saucepan over medium-high heat. Simmer until sugar and salt are dissolved, let cook until slightly thickened. Stir in nuts, set aside.

Heat a griddle or frying pan over medium heat. When hot, lightly coat with butter. Fry bananas on both sides until bananas are caramelized, and softened. Plate sauce, arrange bananas on top.

Happy Eating!

Chicken Party

The spouse is mildly addicted to the House Party website. It's kind of a weird site, where commercial companies offer stuff if you host a party to promote their products. There are a limited number of each party, so you apply, and you might get chosen, or you might not. The spouse has won a few, including one from Werther's, where they sent us bags and bags of candy, and now one from Foster Farms.

Luckily, they didn't mail us chicken. Instead, they gave us two $25 coupons, fourteen reusable shopping bags, a cookbook, and a chef's jacket. Amazingly, the jacket fit me almost perfectly. So, I added a picture of me in it to the blog. To pay for all the swag, however, you have to hold, and document, an actual get together.

So, the plan by the spouse was to have people over, and do lots of little dishes. We ended up settling on eight courses. Now, we both have been enamored of the concept of a tasting party for some time. The little dishes are really cute, and the spouse found some on sale cheap. Seemed like a good thing to try. We did a few old favorites, a few from the recipe book they sent, and few made up on the fly by me.

My goddaughter did yeoman duty as sou chef all day. She was a joy to work with, and I couldn't have pulled it off without her help. The spouse chipped in, as well as doing the bulk of scullery work keeping the pans clean throughout the day.



 For the first course, we went with a favorite cold dish; chicken, dried cranberry, and hazelnut salad. It has a great blend of tastes and textures, with chicken, dried cranberries, celery, nuts, yogurt, mayonnaise, honey, and herbs. I've done variations on this many times, and it works well with walnuts or almonds. You can also add a little diced granny smith apple, instead of the celery, for a little more tang.

I garnished it with a little micro basil from our CSA.

For the second course, we made a cold Asian chicken noodle salad. The chicken is marinated in the dressing, which has fresh ground peanut butter, fish sauce, soy sauce, chilies, garlic, and lime juice.  The chicken is then stir fried, and chilled. It's added to cold rice noodles along with fresh pea pods, and carrots. The noodles are dressed with the same sauce as the chicken was marinated in. It was garnished it with scallions, basil, and chopped peanuts.

For the third course, we made eggplant parmigiana with chicken Alfredo sauce. I had some beautiful white eggplant from my CSA. It was very firm, and quite mild. I breaded it with a mix of fine bread crumbs, shredded Parmesan, and Italian herbs. It was fried in very hot oil until brown and crisped, then placed in a 200 degree oven to keep warm. The goddaughter made the Alfredo sauce. It was a mix of butter, heavy cream, cream cheese, Parmesan cheese, and garlic with shredded grilled chicken. It was garnished with micro basil.

For the fourth course, we made pulled chicken in hoisin barbeque sauce with pickled cucumbers.and red onion. The chicken was cooked in a crockpot, then shredded. The BBQ sauce has hoisin sauce, garlic, apple cider vinegar, and soy sauce, The cucumber and onion are pickled in lemon juice and cider vinegar, flavored with clove, allspice, black pepper, and chili powder. It's served on a toasted Hawaiian sweet roll.

For the fifth course, we served hazelnut-sage chicken with ravioli.We used a mini ravioli. The chicken was sauteed with sage and lemon zest, and then tossed with the ravioli. It was garnished with chopped hazelnuts. The consensus among the cooks was that we should have used more zest, as the lemon just didn't come through.

For the sixth course, we made bacon wrapped chicken skewers with maple-pomegranate glaze with a pepper-zucchini slaw. Hard to go wrong with bacon, and the pomegranate molasses and maple syrup, with a hint of ginger, had a great sweet/sour thing going. The slaw, is a red wine vinaigrette, was garnished with pomegranate flavored dried cranberries. The acid in the slaw helped cut the fat of the bacon and the sweet of the glaze. I'm most proud of this one. I feel it was my most original of the day.

The seventh course was a miniature version of the lime marinated grilled chicken soft tacos I made earlier. We used mini corn tortillas here, and diced things smaller in proportion.

The final course was an old favorite, green chili chicken stew. A friend developed this recipe, and it is classic. Chicken, celery, carrots, and green chilies, with cumin just works beautifully. usually served over corn chips, I instead garnished it with fried tortilla strips. It was additionally garnished with shredded cheddar cheese.




Since this post is getting soooooo looong, I will end here, and post the recipes in a separate post.

Happy Eating!