There a lot of options on using leftovers from big holiday meals, I already cooked crispy bacon and chicken hash for breakfast this morning, now its lunch time and I had another idea, hot chicken sandwiches, First I toasted dinner rolls that were split in half, then I reheated some sliced chicken in the gravy, the hot chicken goes on the rolls then gravy gets poured all over.
When chicken gets boring, give duck a try. I marinated duck breasts in fresh lime juice, garlic and chili powder for a few hours, then I scored the skin to help in rendering the fat when cooking, the breasts go skin side down into a saute pan with a low flame, after about twenty minutes of slow cooking I drain off the fat (save for another use, its very flavorful) I turn up the heat to crisp the skin, then flip over the breasts to finish cooking. I served the duck breast sliced and fanned out on a bed of slow braised black beans and with a dollop of fresh made guacamole. All I need are warm tortillas to make some duck tacos and you don't want to forget the hot sauce.
There is a popular Puerto Rican restaurant called "Sol Food"located in San Rafael, California, it started as a very small restaurant and a few years later a second bigger location opened up down the street. Its a Cool and funky place with lots of tropical plants and a neon lime green building that's hard to miss. The food is classic Puerto Rican with lots of slow simmered beans, rice, grilled meats and the famous fried plantains, which are served either sweet or with garlic and salt. Be sure to try the house made hot sauce, its so good they sell it.
I took a trip to the Marin County Sunday farmers market today and being a few days till the big thanksgiving holiday it was packed with people shopping for food. I found some nice Brussel sprouts from a farm in the half moon bay area (I will post a idea and recipe for those) At the market there was a huge tent of local seafood on ice, they had a big gas grill to BBQ oysters. Three large oysters for five dollars sounded like a great deal to me.They were simply cooked till they popped open and then basted with chopped fresh garlic and butter, chopped green onions were sprinkled on top to finish. they were really good with a splash of hot sauce.
I was thinking about what to do for dinner the other night, I knew I had a loaf of good quality bread at home to use up. I came up with doing a roasted double chicken breast filled with a basic bread and sausage stuffing. I served this with a side of roasted then mashed sweet potatoes. The first thing to do was to cube the bread and toast it in the oven, while this was going on, I diced garlic, celery and onion and lightly cooked it with a crumbled mild Italian sausage. The vegetable mixture was then mixed with the toasted bread cubes and fresh chopped rosemary. The chicken was place skin side down and the stuffing was spread down the center. Then the breast was rolled up and tied with heavy kitchen string, olive oil, salt and pepper all over and then into a preheated 350F oven, Cooked till the chicken reached a internal temperature of 175F. The chicken will take about 30-40 minutes to cook. For the sweet potato mash I took whole roasted sweet potatoes mixed with boiled russet potatoes which were mashed together and kept them warm. When the chicken is done, I placed it on a plate covered with foil to rest before cutting, at this time I make a simple sauce with the pan drippings, a dash of flour and a splash of white wine, I spooned this over the sliced chicken breast and the sweet potatoes.
When its a warm 80 degrees and the race track has one dollar admission, beers and hot dogs then its the place to be.Its not even close to four star dining, but the price is right and maybe a lucky horse pick will put those few dollars back in your pocket.
At my house pizza and pasta dominate whats for dinner. My Kitchen-aid stand mixer makes fresh dough and the baking stone in the oven give us the best fresh pizza, now with new pasta dough attachments for the same mixer, its very easy to make fresh pasta now. To test out the dough attachments I made a basic fettuccine pasta and a simple fresh tomato sauce to go with it. It was simple and really good. Next I will have to get a cow to make my own cheese.
This Mexican soup is common around Christmas time, but I like it all the time. I make it with chicken stock, sliced onions, dried chili peppers and garlic added to browned chunks of pork, after this simmers a few hours and becomes tender I add hominy. This ladled into big bowls and simply garnished to taste with diced avocado, chopped cilantro and a squeeze of lemon or lime. It has the rich flavor of slow simmered pork and corn tortillas, which are made from the same treated corn that is hominy. Other additional options can include fried tortilla strips, crisp lettuce, diced red onions and diced jalapenos.
My kids have been begging for these for a while now, so with a burst of Saturday morning energy I made a small batch. Just three basic steps of making vanilla pastry cream for the filling, pate a choux as the crispy hollow pastry and the chocolate ganache sauce to dip them. When the shape of these pastries are round they are called profiteroles but if they are made into longer shapes then they are called eclairs. These are really good when dipped into caramel sauce also.
Winter is coming fast and with it are all the cold weather comfort meals, one of my favorites is slow braised duck legs, these are slowly cooked in wine, aromatic vegetables and fresh herbs. The legs take on all the rich flavors of the simmering liquid and become falling apart tender. The next step is to take the duck legs and put skin side down in a non stick pan to crisp up the skin, while this is going on the vegetables are removed from the broth and reserved, the stock is strained and simmered till reduced to a sauce consistency. Arrange the duck with the vegetables on a platter and spoon the sauce over the crispy skinned duck legs.
Culinary Institue of America, Hyde Park, New York
Pork Tenderloin Roulade Canape
Tea Smoked Prawn & Orange Salad
Country Style Terrine with Fennel, Watercress & Apple Salad, Red Onion Confiture in Apple
After many months of studying for my Professional chef certification test, I made the trip to upstate New York to attend the famous Culinary Institute of America. I have always heard about its reputation as a leading culinary school, but I never have seen it. Its campus is beautiful and right on the Hudson river with all the trees turning the fall colors of red and gold. The test was a series of written and practical tests over the course of four long days, it was hard enough cooking in a new kitchen and learning where all the equipment was, but having master chefs standing behind you watching every move and taking notes, sometimes a little stressful. They were very fair in there evaluations and could find any flaw, any egos the testing chefs had were quickly deflated.We all did well and are glad at the same time that for now testing is over, the word is we will be back in a year for the pro chef III certification.
