Sesame Chicken

Finished a bottle of wine and working on some whiskey now so just the picture :)

Molasses Spice Cookies with Orange Essence

7 ounces white sugar

3 Tsp grated orange zest

11.25 ounces unbleached AP flour

1 Tsp baking soda

1.5 Tsp ground cinnamon

1.5 Tsp ground ginger

.5 Tsp ground cloves

.25 Tsp ground allspice

.25 Tsp ground black pepper

.25 Tsp salt

6 Ounces softened unsalted butter

2.5 ounces dark brown sugar

1 large egg yolk

1.5 Tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup (about 6 ounces) molasses

1.       Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 375 degrees. Line 2 baking sheets with silpats.

2.       In a food processor process 2/3 cup sugar and 2 teaspoons orange zest until pale orange, about 10 seconds and transfer to a shallow pan or something to toss the cookies in, set aside.

3.       Whisk flour, baking soda, spices, and salt in medium bowl until thoroughly combined, set aside.

4.       In standing mixer fitted with paddle attachment, beat butter and 1 teaspoon grated orange zest with brown sugar and remaining white sugar at medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Reduce speed to medium-low and add yolk and vanilla; increase speed to medium and beat until incorporated, about 20 seconds. Reduce speed to medium-low and add molasses; beat until fully incorporated, about 20 seconds, scraping bottom and sides of bowl once with rubber spatula. Reduce speed to lowest setting; add flour mixture and beat until just incorporated, about 30 seconds, scraping bowl down once. Give dough final stir with rubber spatula to ensure that no pockets of flour remain at bottom. Dough will be soft.

5.       Using tablespoon measure, scoop heaping tablespoon of dough and roll between palms into 1 1/2-inch ball; drop ball into cake pan with sugar and repeat to form about 4 balls. Toss balls in orange sugar to coat and set on prepared baking sheet, spacing them about 2 inches apart. Repeat with remaining dough. Bake 1 sheet at a time until cookies are browned, still puffy, and edges have begun to set but centers are still soft (cookies will look raw between cracks and seem underdone), about 11 minutes, rotating baking sheet halfway through baking. Do not overbake.

6.       Cool cookies on baking sheet 5 minutes, then use wide metal spatula to transfer cookies to wire rack; cool cookies to room temperature and serve. (Can be stored at room temperature in airtight container or zipper-lock plastic bag up to 5 days.)

Pork and Lemongrass Meatballs

Pork meatballs

1 pound pork – I used loin and ground myself

1 stalk fresh lemongrass the bottom 5 inches only smashed then minced

1/4 cup chopped shallots

1/8 cup tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro

2 Tbs fish sauce

1/8 cup chili paste

3 garlic cloves, chopped

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

1 teaspoon sugar

1/2 teaspoon white pepper powder

Put pork in freezer to chill while prepping the rest and getting mis en place in order. Take port out of the freezer and cut into bite sized pieces, double grind everything  then form meatballs, put on a baking sheet and chill..

Dipping sauce

2 Tbs crushed and finely minced lemongrass

1/4 cup fresh lime juice

1/4 cup fish sauce

2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro

2 tablespoons coarsely grated carrot

4 teaspoons (packed) golden brown sugar

2 minced green Thai chile

Whisk everything together and set aside…

To make the meatballs

Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a sauté pan and brown meatballs until cooked, about 15 minutes, transfer to a plate to cool. Place the meatballs inside the lettuce leave and garnish with cucumber… top with the dipping sauce and enjoy

Braised chicken with lemongrass etc...

No picture today because it was not pretty but I made this amazing chicken braise. The A&P near me is closing and things are on sale, I wanted to get chicken to cook with the lemongrass I still have. They only had roasting chicken so that’s what I got and decided since I did not want to roast it a braise would be a good cooking method for this type of chicken.  In my sauté pan I seared tomatoes then added olive oil and sautéed crushed garlic, ginger, a stalk of lemongrass. Then I added some carrots and while it was all cooking down I took out both leg\thigh pieces from the chicken and trimmed most of the skin off. I made some clean space in the pan and cooked the chicken pieces skin side down to get brown. While that was cooking I made a liquid of some leftover mole (it was the rick bayless recipe) chili paste, and some chicken stock, water, and arbol chili powder.  I braised it for a while covered then turned the chicken around and braised more until down. At the end I took a paper towel and pulled that nasty piece of tough tendon from the leg out before devouring this amazing dinner.

Lemongrass curry chicken

So this weekend is challenge lemongrass! We start with a lemongrass curry chicken and lemongrass tea..

1/4 cup canola oil

1/8 cup mirin

1/8 cup hoisin sauce

2 tablespoons sugar, divided

1 large shallot finely minced

1 tsp. Turmeric

1 Tsp. Curry powder

1/2 Tsp. Red pepper flakes

2 tablespoons oyster sauce

1/8 cup of the Zeeman’s super-hot chili paste

2 fresh lemongrass stalks smashed up and the first 5 inches of the thick end finely chopped

2 cloves finely minced garlic

1 tbsp. ginger minced into paste

1 tsp. black pepper

Chicken pieces

1/2 cup water

Juice of one lime

So you start by mixing the oil, mirin hoisin and sugar together.. then mix in all the rest of the ingredients up to the chicken. Then bread down the chicken and add the pieces to the marinade and let site at room temperature for an hour.

Preheat oven to 350… After an hour take the chicken out of the marinade and add some oil to a 10-12” sauté pan, cook the chicken pieces skill side down for about 4-5 minutes. Then flip the chicken over, add the marinade and throw the pan in the oven until the chickens done.. 175 in the thickest part please.

 Once done take chicken out and add the water, lime juice, to the pan and deglaze scraping up all the fond. Strain and transfer to a fat separator… Serve the chicken with the pan juices.

Lemongrass Tea

Clean, smash, then slice up some lemongrass and a few slices of ginger. Let steep in boiling water for 4 minutes.. then strain and add honey or sugar and you have some yummy lemongrass tea

Chili paste

5 types of chilies here the top left is Cayenne, then orange habaneros, bottom are green Thai and to the right is dried arbol and south Indian chilies. We have garlic and ginger and tomato paste as well as some cumin and salt. The base is apple cider vinegar.
Start by boiling the dried chilies in the vinegar then roughly chop the garlic, ginger, fresh chilies, and add everything to the food processor and your left with an amazing chilie paste base that you can use for anything!

Matzo Ball Soup

Been thru a lot the past few weeks but anyway here is at least a pic of some yummy matzo ball soup i recently made. Spent the first day making the stock which I simmered and skimmed overnight. The next day I strained and cleaned up the stock some more threw in the matzo balls, fresh veg and shredded chicken. (you can boil the chicken in the stock first too)

Garlic Mojo

I love making this special, but dangerous mixture. I saw Chef Bayless make it and have been doing my own version ever since. This garlic oil is so versatile you can use it with veggies or on popcorn or pasta, anything really. Basically it is garlic infused oil with some salt and an acid and whatever else I feel like adding at the time. Start by preheating your oven to 325, then cut the root end, peel, and crush the garlic add it to a pan with table salt and maybe red pepper flakes, or a rosemary sprig, anything like that. You bake for about 35 minutes then add some garlic vinegar or lemon or lime juice and cook for another 35 minutes or until it looks like it’s almost done. If it looks golden brown and delicious it’s going to be almost burnt by the time the oil cools. When done make sure to leave in the fridge and use often and soon. Garlic under oil can breed botulism. When its cooked and an acid is introduced and its kept cool it should be safe for a couple monthsihs

 

Jamaican chilies galangal chicken and much more!

Okay so I made this up on the spot. I found these Jamaican chilies and I defiantly wanted to use them today and I had to finish off the raw split chicken breast I had left over from a few nights ago.

Of course I brine the breast in liquid smoke salt sugar for a couple hours while I figure dinner out. Meanwhile I found this Thai spice I bought called Galangal which is a close relative of giner and my fenugreek .  Okay so Indian food inspires me again so you dont have to read the whole thing, here is dinner.

Of course I started by sautéing some very finely sliced red onions with a lil salt in olive oil. Meanwhile I took the chicken out and started to dry it and minced 2 of those badass chilies. I added the chilies and let it continue to cook down while toasting some cumin seeds, and making a paste of garlic and ginger. Eventually I added the garlic ginger paste and cooked down a bit more as I prepped the chicken to go in skin side down on the pan. Poured the onion mixture into a little bowl and then strained out the oil to cook the chicken.  The chicken browned nicely on the first side, then I browned the second side. While the chicken was cooking I added the toasted cumin seeds, fenugreek, this galangal stuff, and bunch of turmeric to the onion mixture. When the chicken was 90% done I took it out, let cool, and took the skin off, deboned, and shredded it. Again strained out all the remaining oil to cook down a third chili with some garlic chunks and tomato paste. Eventually I deglazed with just water then combined everything in the pan to finish cooking. Added fresh cilantro and some garam masala and BAM! Dinner!.. I wish I added some rawish onions at the end too.

Note to self: Need to learn how to write a recipe…



Chicken Vindallo & Chili paste

So my first attempt at a chili paste and Vindallo here... I used some cider vinegar garlic ginger, a few curry leaves tomato paste and cumin, a bunch of dried arbol chilies, red chili flakes and pasilla chilies & fresh Thai, Serrano and jalapenos chilies. Let it soak and threw in my food processor. Now i have chilie paste for a few days. It is still not hot enough I need to find hotter chilies.

Separate from this I cooked some chicken pieces seasoned in a bunch of Indian spices in my pan so it was browned on all sides. Then I took the chicken out and deglazed the pan with a red onion and a jalapeno small diced and cooked it low and slow for like 10 minutes with some olive oil and  red chili flakes, a little extra cumin and salt. Then I added a bunch of the chili paste and cooked for a while longer. I added about 4\5ths a can of diced tomatoes because it’s what I had on hand and simmered for a while. Added the chicken, finished heating it up and I’m done. Boy do I wish I had some cilantro today :(

Dinner was sooo good, really did miss the fresh herbs and basmati rice but yeah I got that burning feeling mmmmmmm

Wild rice with sweet potato chips and broccoli

So we cook the cup of wild rice with 2 cups of chicken stock and a little olive oil for almost an hour. While it was cooking I sautéed 1\2 a cup of chopped celery 1 cup of sliced mushrooms i used white and some baby bella, a red onion, and a few cloves of garlic together with my garlic infused olive oil for 6ish minutes then I added a little more than 1\8 a cup of teriyaki sauce and simmered for a few minutes. When all was said and done I mixed it all together. I made my sweet potato chips and some broccoli. Still trying to figure out this nice plating thing so dinner for two, two different ways.

Dinner

You name it..!

So I started slow cooking the onions in my garlic mojo, which is running low so a future post talking about the wonders, and dangers of garlic infused oil. Then I added some garam masala, curry leaves, cloves, black mustard seeds and probably a little cloves and cooked a little more before adding peeled tomatoes, water and chicken bouillon. This is the base of my sauce. I sliced up another onion and soaked it in vinegar and sugar and finished prepping the veggies and meat. When everything was done cooking I added in the raw sugar vinegar soaked onions . After tasting it was STILL not hot enough so I added some raw Thai chilies and some hot sauce, then wishing I had cilantro I just used the wonderful Indian black sea salt and when plated with some fresh avocado to cut the so called heat, dinner time!

Porterhouse steak with carmelized onions and Oma's Potato salad

I had a great day working at the butcher today, before I left he had me use the bone saw to cut this huge aged porterhouse steak for a "special customer". After trimming the fat and prepping the steak I find out that it was for me! So dinner tonight was a 2LB USDA Prime Porterhouse steak. Served with caramelized onions and my grandmother’s potato salad. The onions I decided and sweated and started to caramelize, then set aside. I cooked the steak it in a 12" cast iron and finished in the oven while taking the onions and finishing them in the hot beef fat in the cast iron.

For the steak I set it out on the counter and salted both sides and let sit for 30 mins to get to room temperature while preheating the cast iron on the range. Then I oiled the steak and seasoned with my magic steak seasoning and cooked. I am starting to like the flip often method better then flip once I think.

The potato salad is just boiled potatoes skinned, then while hot you add olive oil (I used EVOO) and salt. Then the ground pepper and small dice of onion. Finally in a little cup we mix water, cider vinegar, mustard, and sugar. Mix it all and that’s it. I added some fresh dill this time.

I was pretty drunk at the time of cooking and forgot to take pictures of the finished fish.. anyway

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

... Oh yeah I also baked a whole wheat sourdough bread.

Artichoke Pizza

No fancy food today, but I am on a hunt for the best pizza, at least in my mind. One place I recently visited was Artichoke Basilles in the east village. I got a pie of the spinach & artichoke as well as a classic Margareta. This place was SUPER SMALL, it was defiantly a “hole in the wall” they had no tables it was take out or stand and eat. The pizza looked and smelled amazing, I wish I took a picture of the pizza makers and their grey goose bottle of olive oil. So the famous artichoke pizza was amazing and tasted of Artichoke, Spinach and Mozzarella, but it was rich and had some other herbs and seasonings that I made it spectacular. Then the classic margarita as well. The flavor was right on point, but neither slice was able to best the hold ability test like a good flat crust. Of course there are not flat crust pizzas..

Wild Rice Sweet Potatoes and Broccoli

I have not cooked anything post worthy the past few days  but today Laniya and I had wild rice served with crispy sweet potatoes and somasde yummy broccoli. Two different plating styles which ones better?

Beef stew, Strawberrys with Balsamic reduction... popcorn!

I feel so lucky to have gotten the change to work at a great butcher shop both. Today I brought 3 beef shanks home and made a soup . Mis En Place included bowl of Mirepoix and another bowl with the trimmings and some dill and thyme. Potato Parsnip and parsley. The shank bones seasoned and floured , a backbone from a chicken tomato paste and probably other things such as crushed garlic cloves. Anyway we roast the backbone of chicken and mirepoix while browning the shank bones in my pressure cooker which I am still trying to figure out. I took out the beef and sweated the trimmings with the herbs, added tomato paste and delaged with vermouth  added chicken stock the poorly tied beef shanks roasted chicken bone and miropoix everything goes in pressure cooker! Then I stupidly tried to open it and things went all over the place L After recovering I let it finish, strained out all the junk and removed as much fat as possible as well as removed the fat and gristle from the beef. Added new mirepoix + parsley and things are done. Dessert was strawberry’s with a balsamic reduction and then while watching iron chef I made popcorn with EVOO from Italy and grinded up grey sea salt mmm.

Potato Salad & Merginue

Well Thursday I went out for Indian food at the amazing restaurant Spice of India in Nyack and Friday had leftover rabbit and leftover Indian. Today was exciting as it was my first day training at Crisfield’s meat market, the best butcher shop in Westchester. Then went to my grandmothers to go over her oldschool Austrian\German potato salad which I will server when I get to LA for Masterchef. Also made some raspberry and chocolate espresso meringue cookies.

For the potato salad we boiled and peeled the potatoes, then while they were warm added the salt and oil. Next we mixed in a small dice of regular onion and pepper and finally a mix of mustard cider vinegar sugar and water. Sooo good and classic

The merginues were obviously egg white sugar, a lil corn starch. The choclate ones had cocoa powder, instant vanilla coffe, vanilla extract, and a couple ounces of choped choc chips. The raspberry ones were special :)

 

 

So I got rabbit that was slaughtered the day before I bought it from John Fazio farms, the same guy who supplies a lot of NYC restaurants with fresh ducks and rabbit at the farmers market on Tuesday. Made a marinade of onions, garlic, franks red hot, olive oil, black pepper, garlic powder, red pepper flakes, and this awesome lemon pepper spice blend from Singapore.

The rabbit marinated in this mix overnight ( I turned it once) then when I got home I braised it for an hour, added a 1\2 can of crushed tomatoes to the pan, 30 more minutes and its done… My plating job sucks again L I don’t even know what I could have done to make it look better but the taste was OUTSTANDING. Moist flavorful spicy everything one would want.

Seared tofu with vegetbales and fruit supremes with pomegranate sauce

I was a little prepping for Thursday rabbit dinner, but that is a blog for another day. For tonight’s dinner we have some seasoned tofu seared, spinach red peppered in a spicy garlic olive oil sauce. For dessert tonight are supremes of grapefruit and bits of mandarin orange with a pomegranate sauce.

Tofu & Chicken stock

Well no pictures today, I ate my dinner out of a big stainless steel bowl so zero points for presentation today. I bloomed some spices, cardamom nutmeg cloves turmeric cumin chili powder tomato paste mustard seeds mace in oil and then marinated some mushrooms and tofu.  I then slowly cooked it in a covered pan. Came out very yummy but I dumped it all into a bowl. I also took 2 chicken carcasses my frozen baggy of vegetable and herbs and other misc goodies along with a bunch of other soup stuff (bay leave black pepper etc) and tried to make a quicker stock. After roasting the bones I threw it all in the pressure cooker brought to a boil, reduced to simmer and skimmed. Then pressure cooked for 2 hours. When I opened the pressure cooker it looked like the stock was simmering overnight such a beautiful dark color. After straining the solids out and skimming a few more times I got myself a really nice brown stock which will be used for matzo ball soup soon.

Glazed Salmon

Seared the salmon on all sides, made a glaze with Soy sauce and mirin with mustard and sherry vinegar some brown sugar corn starch and red pepper flakes. After the salmon was seared I poured the glaze on which I had cooked and let thicken and baked until done and yummy.. I still am struggling trying to make these plates look good but the food is so good!

Roasted sweet potato's Red pepper with curry tomato onion sauce

After a lot of cooking of sweet potatoes I have found the best way of cooking them to to get a crispy outside and nice moist soft interior is to roast covered with foil in the oven for about 30 mins. Start the oven COLD and put to 425, then take the foil off and cook another 20ish mins and flip to get the other side crispy. I sweated some onions in the leftover seasoned oil plus seasonings then added tomato paste, red pepper flakes and some leftover tomatoes and juice I had from a few days ago. Simmered down it made a nice sauce.

Masterchef Video

This is the video that they asked me to send in after the audition.

1/1/11 First Post - Kobe Steak

So this year I will try and  post more pictures and be more descriptive of what I cook.And work more on plating. Well for new years I had the privledge of cooking 2 Kobe strip steaks. They were seared perfectly in my cast iron skilled to medium rare using the flip often method. The steaks were so juicy and tender and buttery. The mouth feel was incredable.

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