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Archive for 2012
Tuesday, February 21st, 2012
When we were at the Cayman Cookout we had a really yummy Green Curry Ceviche made by Laurent Gras. It was light and refreshing, a little spicy, tangy and just perfect.
Today I got Ono (aka Wahoo) from my Seafood CSA and immediately wanted to make something that would take me back to the Caymans. This dish was the first to my mind. I didn’t really remember what went into it though so, as usual, I improvised and it really worked!
- 1 cup coconut water
- 1 clove garlic
- 1 small shallot
- 1 stalk lemongrass, chopped
- juice of 2 limes
- 1 jalapeno or similar chile
- 2 t cumin
- 1 t coriander
- handful of cilantro
- salt
- 1 lb wahoo/ono
- 1 avocado
- 1 japanese cucumber
- Blend everything (except fish, avocado and cucumber) in a blender until smooth. Strain through a fine mesh strainer.
- Dice fish. Dice avocado. Dice cucumber.
- Put the diced everything in a bowl and pour the coconut green curry liquid over the fish mixture. Finish with a good salt. Since I was being nostalgic, I used the Cayman Island salt we brought home!
- Enjoy!
Preparation time: 10 minutes
I served this with some thinly sliced, toasted pugliese and sake. It wasn’t Laurent Gras’ but I will sure make this again!
Posted in amateur, avocado, cumin, dinner, flavor, food, recipe, recipes, sake, salt, self pleasuring | No Comments »
Sunday, February 5th, 2012
If she weighed the same as a duck… she’s made of wood. And therefore… A witch!
My first duck attempt was, well, it was edible. I overcooked it a bit. I tried whole roasted duck. I just went for it. It could have been witch…nearly wood…ok, not that bad. But not what I was going for. My son liked it, my husband and I ate it. I was ready to try that again.
For some reason, I followed an online recipe for my first attempt rather than going with my inspiration for this whole project, Eric Ripert. I know, I seem to be obsessed at this point, but he really cooks how I want to cook and the recipes work!
So, I didn’t make the sauce or any of the accompaniments. I just wanted the duck preparation from him. It was like making a steak: pan sear then finish in the oven. So simple. So perfectly cooked.
I cut the wings and legs off the duck and put them in the freezer for another time. I cut the breast off, leaving the bones attached. I seared the breasts skin-side down in a hot pan, on high heat, for about 6 minutes. I drained off the fat, turned the breasts over and put it in a 400° oven for 9 minutes. Took it out, let it rest for 8 minutes. Carved it off the bone, sliced it and served it over israeli couscous with pine nuts and parsley.
Now, full disclosure here…I have a cold. I can’t taste a damn thing. This is killing me. However, texture is everything right now. The texture of the duck was *PERFECT*. I will do this again when my sense of taste and smell returns (god, I hope that’s soon!). I do need to figure out how to render out the fat though, there was too much between the perfectly crispy skin and the meat. This duck challenge is fun.
Posted in eric ripert, recipe, recipes, self pleasuring | No Comments »
Thursday, February 2nd, 2012
Posted in chanterelles, cumin, dinner, flavor, food, hardcore, mushrooms, organic, photos, seasonal menu, table dance, wine | No Comments »
Tuesday, January 24th, 2012
The morning started with sleep! We didn’t have a 10am event, our son didn’t have a 9:30 camp. We got to wake when we woke, slowly get going then walk our son down to the Les Chefs Petits brunch. This was supposed to be the kids making their own brunch in the Seven kitchen. This was bad planning on someone’s part since the Seven kitchen has their regular Sunday brunch happening and they couldn’t pile 30 kids into the kitchen! So they set them up out at one of the event tents on the beach instead. I’m sure this was better for the kids anyway, they got to have great food and still be maniacs.
Meanwhile we headed in to the ballroom for an incredible Champagne brunch. I never have high expectations for brunches. Even the one at the Waldorf in New York City failed to impress me. This one however…WOW. The champagne never stopped flowing, I wouldn’t be surprised if I consumed an entire bottle over the course of the morning. The level in my glass never dropped even though I was sipping the whole time. I piled my plate high with every seafood bit I could find. I don’t think I’d recovered from the meat-heavy Friday night BBQ so sushi, oysters, caviar, they all sounded wonderful and rejuvenating and they were. I basically just kept hitting the oyster bar until the brunch was over!
  
As we are all joyfully noshing away, there is an intense competition happening on stage, Top Chef style. The two finalists from the Cayman Cookoff, Maureen Cubbon and Eric St. Cyr, are frantically putting together a dish and a drink (the twist added to the competition by Richard Blais) for an intense table of judges: Eric Ripert, Anthony Bourdain, Jose Andres, Dana Cowin and the Governor of Cayman. I think I’d pass out from the stress! They are better prepared than me however and they completed their dishes and drinks and thoroughly impressed the judges.  Eric St. Cyr came out on top and after the winner was announced, the crazy judge crew got on stage with bottles of Moet and a huge saber! Luckily, no blood was drawn, champagne just sprayed anyone in the vicinity. All we needed were some umbrella girls…the MotoGP of food celebrations.
We hung out on the beach with our son for some of the afternoon, perused the artisan market, picked up some cookbooks and got them signed by Eric and Tony, then had some time to relax before the Gala Dinner. Unfortunately, the evening didn’t go as planned. I gave my “Food Aversions” card to the restaurant manager. I knew this was going to be an intense, stressful evening for the kitchen and the waitstaff. I thought the card would make things easier for all involved, I mean, that’s why I have them. What it did was make them fuss over every course of mine and over me which I don’t deal with well at all. I did get to enjoy a little before I went into panic mode though.
The first course was Wahoo Sashimi, Ume, Garlic and Shiso by Laurent Gras. Wahoo is just the best fish around. I could have eaten nothing but this. The fish paired with Laurent’s grace was a perfect dish. This is actually where the stress began. They didn’t bring me this, they brought me some sort of veggie salad instead. I didn’t want to be a problem but I wanted the wahoo! I saw them take the dish back to the kitchen…the kitchen activity is being broadcast to the whole dining room…I saw Eric talk to my waiter, look at the card, eventually the wahoo came out. I was humiliated. It was exactly what I was trying to avoid. I was truly bummed that my chef-idol was being inconvenienced by me.
I ran into Eric’s wife Sandra in the restroom after this. She is so incredibly awesome, I love that woman (hell, she babysat my kid!!). Anyway, I told her what happened and she joked with me about it and I felt much better. Then the next course came out and I had a substitute where I should have. The dish was Foie Gras Mulligatawny and I don’t like Foie. I got a gazpacho-like dish just bursting with flavor. We were temporarily back on track.
Then the waiter kept coming up and checking on me, making sure everything was fine, over and over. The service was so incredible, I had an anxiety attack. I took my fabulous glass of wine and sat outside for the next two courses. I couldn’t deal. I was completely blowing an amazing dinner. Then I found out my son was having a meltdown upstairs with his babysitter. I guess it was in the air. This gave me an out. I switched from foodie-mode to mother-lion mode and went to my kid. I said goodbye to Sandra grabbed my wine and headed up to the room.
My husband stayed and said Eric’s Venison was the highlight of the evening and he doesn’t even like venison. I’m sorry I missed it but something wasn’t meant to be. It was too fancy and uptight and stressful for me. I loved that we could be sitting around the table with people we’d never normally associate with. They were from different generations, different occupations and very different political worlds than us but we found common ground in the food. Food can bring us all together. It is a leveling ground.
I wish I could have experienced the full Gala Dinner but I truly enjoyed the courses I had. If we make it back to the Cookout next year, I know the Gala isn’t for me. It was icing on an already sweet weekend, truly not needed to complete the adventure. It was a non-stop bacchanalian escapade. I really hope we can do this again!
Posted in ahi, celebrities, decadence, eric ripert, flavor, food, photos, sushi, table dance | No Comments »
Friday, January 20th, 2012
The first event of Saturday morning was one I was really looking forward to. Good vs. Evil – Ripert and Bourdain in conversation. I didn’t realize they had a schtick. They interrogate each other in quite the hilarious way. Tony started on Eric, trying to find his weaknesses…trying to embarrass him. Eric seems to blush quite easily but he’s prepared, it’s all in good fun. Then Eric went at Tony but was still the good cop of the two.
The interesting point in the conversation was when they ended their performance and took questions from the audience. There was a lot of talk about the Food Network chefs. About how Paula Deen is the evilest of them all, I’m sure you’ve heard in the press, because she promotes ridiculously unhealthy food, was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes three years ago but kept showcasing crap food and is going to be endorsing diabetes pharmeceuticals now. Evil and wrong. This got Tony going more than anything. Until someone brought up Gordon Ramsey. I’ve never seen Eric get upset. He’s usually completely diplomatic about everything. He hates the way Gordon abuses his chefs and not only that, how the show is preloaded with people set up to fail. It is wrong, immoral and damaging to the cooking world.
They also were asked how to get Americans to change their view on food. I completely agree with what Tony said. We have to take the low road. We have to brainwash the kids. Eric’s son thinks that Ronald McDonald kidnaps kids and sometimes they end up in the burgers. That is brilliant. Our son thinks McDonalds is just a bathroom on road trips. You need to make the kids think they’ll be weird or shunned if they eat fast food. If the majority of kids thinks that, it will spread like wildfire. I’ve seen it myself with my kid and his friends. I’ve heard him lecture a friend for going to Burger King. About how awful it is and how it’s not really food. I just hung back and listened, I had nothing to add. To change the world, we have to change the next generation’s thought process.
I briefly gushed at Eric afterward…I cannot talk to that man without praising him endlessly. It’s embarrassing. I have to stop! This time it was about McDonald’s. I love that idea.
  
We made our way to the other side of the resort to Periwinkle for lunch by Laurent Gras. I was really looking forward to this one. After the ceviche on Friday, I knew I’d like what he was doing. I have to admit, I had no idea who he was before he was booked for the Cookout. For being such an avid foodie, I don’t follow the restaurant scene and news all that much unless I’m going somewhere and need somewhere to eat. I missed all the Laurent drama. I was kind of glad for that actually, I came in with a clean slate. He is a genius with freshness and lightness. I left his lunch full but not exhausted and weighed down. We had Conch ceviche with caviar, parsley and lime; Caribbean Lobster with dark rum and lettuce; Wahoo with tomato, ginger and cilantro; and Melon consomme with lemon ginger sorbet.
Our tablemates were marvelous. A woman named Rosemary who makes it a point of getting cookbooks signed everywhere she goes. She has over 500 signed books now in just a few years. A couple from Calgary who are food critics for that area, they were lovely. And Richard Morais, a writer for Barrons and a published author. I just bought his book, The Hundred-Foot Journey and will start reading it soon. It looks fantastic.
For the whole weekend, my husband and I were in the same demos and events except for one. He wanted to drink wine with Aldo Sohm (Le Bernardin’s AMAZING sommelier), I wanted to go see Richard Blais. We both made the right choice and both wished we could be in two places at once. He had wines that were rare and to die for. He snuck me a white burgundy that I savored for as long as I could. Blais was hilarious! He was entertaining, knowledgeable, enthusiastic and so much fun. He made “Oysters and Pearls,” his homage to Thomas Keller but a completely different dish. He took oysters, topped them with a mignonette that had minced cilantro stem in it along with dill, shallots and, of course, vinegar. Then he  topped them with the pearls which were horseradish-creme fraiche frozen in liquid nitgrogen. This session made me want to head to the welding shop and buy myself a container of liquid nitrogen. He also made frozen margaritas by putting the tequila and lime in the mixer and whisking in liquid nitrogen until it became like a sorbet. Genius.
The last demo before dinner was from Eric Ripert himself. Cocktails and Ceviche on the beach. He demonstrated a ceviche and a tartare. Both delicious of course. All the while the sun is turning golden behind him. Our son was playing in the waves with Eric’s son (they had a blast together and Sandra is an utterly sweet and wonderful woman). And we were sipping Moet Chandon and eating Eric’s fish. Life was perfect right then.
Dinner was off-site at Michaels Genuine Food and Drink. We were bussed to the event, given champagne and hors d’euvres and then led to our tables. We had Wahoo crudo, slow roasted pork shoulder, rabbit crepes and lamb scottacdito. None of which I got pictures of because it was too dark but from what we heard the next day, Michael’s was the best dinner of the evening. It was really fantastic.
 After the meal we quickly rushed through the dessert tables, grabbed some absolutely wonderful treats and then had to rush back to get our son from camp again. The disadvantage of having our son with us was having to dart out of things early, the advantage was…well, everything else. He had such an amazing time and when we picked him up that just meant we weren’t hanging around events too late, getting too tired and too drunk. I think it worked out well for all of us.
Only one more day to go. Everything flew by so fast.
Read about Day 1 and Day 2!
Posted in celebrities, celebrity, decadence, dinner, eric ripert, flavor, food, Le Bernardin, table dance, tasting menu, tuna tartare, wine | No Comments »
Thursday, January 19th, 2012
Fresh off the heels of the Cayman Cookout, I went to the Farmer’s Market completely inspired. I picked up various ingredients: lemongrass, cilantro, shallots, salmon. I had no plan though until I got home and started flipping through Eric Ripert’s A Return to Cooking. I didn’t follow any of the recipes but saw one that was for shrimp with cilantro and another that was a chicken pot a feu with ginger-cilantro vermicelli. That got my brain movin’.
I simmered lemongrass, ginger, shallots, garlic, lime rind and chicken (I didn’t have any chicken stock made but I had a couple of drumsticks in the freezer so I tossed those in). I let that simmer for about an hour. It would have been better if I had much longer but I didn’t and it was quite flavorful even after such a short time.
Next I skinned the salmon and put it in a dish with garlic, cilantro, a little oil and a splash of white wine. I turned it a few times while I was working on everything else.
 
I didn’t have any vermicelli but I did have spaghetti so I broke a handful of that into thirds and boiled it up. When it was done I tossed it with cilantro, shallots, lime juice and a little olive oil.
I removed the salmon from the marinade and dried it off. I wanted the flavor but since I was going to be searing it on high heat, I need to get the garlic off as much as I could so it wouldn’t burn. I heated canola oil until it was almost smoking and added the fish. I let it cook on the first side for 3-4 minutes, until it had a nice brown crust starting to happen. Then I flipped it an only kept it about another minute on that side.
To serve I put a small pile of sugar snap peas, cut into 1/2 inch pieces. I placed the pasta on top of that. Scattered some sunflower sprouts from our wonderful microgreen and mushroom folks at the farmer’s market around the pasta. Topped that with the salmon.
I strained the simmering broth and ladeled that over the pasta. To add some crunch I added a few more sprouts to the top, not in the broth. Then a generous squeeze of lime juice over the whole thing.
Posted in amateur, dinner, eric ripert, pasta, recipe, recipes, Salmon, santa cruz, self pleasuring | No Comments »
Thursday, January 19th, 2012
The first real day of the Cookout began at 10am. As Jose Andres put it, “Who puts a cooking class at 10am?! You start a cooking class at 3pm so you have the day sleep and then do your things…then cook!” But he didn’t seem to be slowed by the early start. As Dana Cowin was introducing him for demonstration, she was wondering where he was. As she was saying, “He has got to be here somewhere…” he came bounding on the stage straight out of the ocean in his scuba gear with his ten year old daughter. He is a character to say the least. We were all seated in a tent with the people who payed extra with their American Express Platinum Cards having the preferred seats in the front rows. He undid all that (hilariously) by getting everyone up and out into the blazing sun on the beach, around ENORMOUS paella pans over fires built in the sand. He immediately started hollering for volunteers: 2 people for each pan to stir and add ingredients, 4 people to help make the cocktails, 3 people to grill oysters…go go go!!!
 
The fires were hot. The sun was hot. His sous chefs were in jeans. I thought they were going to pass out but they have to be strong to work for this guy. The dish he was making was called Fideo. It’s like paella but made with pasta instead of rice. Much easier to control the outcome of when cooking for 100 people over open flames on a beach! Pork ribs, tomatoes, pasta (short angel hair), lobster, broth. Everyone was sweating like mad in the heat of the day and the fires but the cocktails started flowing. Fruit, mint, champagne…a beautiful, refreshing way to begin drinking at 10am!!
 
I stood next to Dana Cowin and shamelessly plugged my web site. All the while Jose is running around like a madman and then puts a song on the PA, passes around lyrics and has us all sing along. He is amazing and the food was phenomenal. He’s completely insane and a blast to see cook.
Our next ticket was for a Behind the Scenes tour of Blue by Eric Ripert. They don’t ever just call it “Blue”, it is always “Blue by Eric Ripert”. That was making me laugh.
 
Anyway, we arrived and grabbed a front row seat. Luis Lujan is the Executive Chef at Blue (by Eric Ripert) and walked us through the preparation of the dishes we’d be having for lunch. The first was wahoo. If you ever have a chance to eat wahoo, DO IT! This is an incredible fish. It looks like hamachi but it melts in your mouth. He cut it perfectly, seared in perfectly and dressed it perfectly. I would expect no less. Eric popped in to say hello and then we all got a brief tour of the kitchen. It’s not a huge kitchen and in 2 days time would be filled with the world’s best chefs making 164 plates each for the Gala Dinner. Incredible.
  
We then sat on the patio for our lovely lunch. The wine flows continuously at these events. I’m amazed I could walk but something happens on these sorts of adventures and what would result in me being horizontal at home is just par for the course as the weekend goes on. Probably not healthy but this is not an every day occurence.
 
The afternoon treated us to a demo by April Bloomfield of which I only got to catch the end. Then a beautiful green curry ceviche by Laurent Gras. I was so ridiculously full by this point, I was scared of what Laurent was going to present but it was so light and refreshing that it was more like a cocktail with some fish in it than a meal. It was almost a palate cleanser. He took the ingredients of a green curry but instead of making it a heavy dish full of coconut milk, he used coconut water and created a light ceviche. Something I will definitely try at home.
The first of the epic evening events was the Barefoot BBQ at Tiki Beach. They had a shuttle running from the hotel to the event but it was a whopping 2km away, on the beach, we decided to walk. Really for two reasons: one, we were already so full, we needed to work up an appetite and two, we had to pick up our son from his amazing camp at the hotel before the shuttles were going to be running at the end of the event and we needed to time the walk. What a beautiful way to get to the BBQ. I’m so glad we did that. We didn’t have to wait in line with anxious rich folks who complain if things aren’t exactly as they think they should be, we were walking along the white sandy beach of Grand Cayman at dusk. You can’t beat that.
We arrived at Tiki Beach and it was crazy-busy. Our first stop was Tony Bourdain’s station and some sumptuous pork. He’s still got it man. He may be more known for traveling and writing now but 28 years in the kitchen doesn’t just vanish. He makes a mean pig. We worked our way to the complete opposite end of the venue and found Jose Andres being loud and hilarious as usual as his chefs carved thin slices of Jamon Iberico. I will never be able to eat prosciutto again now that I’ve experienced Iberico. Dryer, saltier, damn it was good. It was atop some sliced beef. So now I’ve had pork, I’ve had beef with pork on top and we waltz over to Eric Ripert’s station where he’s serving beef tenderloin. Why not?! Pork, beef and pork, beef….so full. I thought I made a damn fine tenderloin but, as usual, Eric takes it beyond.
We found a table in the back near Jose Andres and relaxed with our plates for a bit. We got to visit with some fabulous people. I wasn’t sure how the attendees would be at this. There is a lot of money here obviously. And there are some people that have more money than I could ever imagine having and are real snots about it. They have their Gucci and Valentino clothes shipped to them to try on because they live an hour from the Galleria and that’s just too damn inconvenient for shopping. Just one example. But the people we visited with at the BBQ were all wonderful. One woman was a coordinator for the event. One couple had been before but brough his mom this year from Michigan. There were a lot of Canadians representing. Maybe because of Paul Rogalski being there or maybe becuase it’s usually 25 below this time of year and it’s a great escape.
After a few nibbles of dessert we headed back to the beach and walked back to the hotel under the stars….many more stars than we get to see in our neck of the woods. Mars was so bright it was reflecting off the ocean. Amazing.
Read about Day 1 and Day 3!
Posted in celebrity, decadence, eric ripert, flavor, food, Le Bernardin, photos, seasonal menu, table dance | No Comments »
Tuesday, January 17th, 2012
We arrived a day early and spent my birthday in the amazing waters of Grand Cayman. We snorkled and swam and snorkeled some more. The water is warm and clear and full of some of the cast of Finding Nemo. It was incredible. I snorkeled in Hawaii many years ago but it was not like this. The water here was warmer and clearer.
We were going to be booked solid with demonstrations, lunches, dinners and events so I wanted my birthday completely schedule free. Because of that however, we didn’t make dinner reservations. Once we got in from snorkeling, I realized I really wanted to be able to eat at Blue by Eric Ripert for my birthday. We called. They had a 9:30 table. We have a 7 year old. That wasn’t going to work. My husband had booked it though before we got back to the room and decided that was a bad idea. So we walked down to Blue to tell them we wouldn’t be using the 9:30 table assuming we’d be heading to one of the other hotel restaurants for dinner. We were in shorts, not dressed for an Eric Ripert dining room. They said they could seat us then if we wanted. OK!! We sat and were presented with the many choices for dinner and, surprisingly, a kid’s menu! I never expected that. Le Bernardin sure doesn’t offer a kid’s menu. ;-)
They brought out the amuse bouche which was a tortellini with…honestly I have no idea but it was so wonderful, and a scallop ceviche bite. They gave my son what looked like two tater tots but they called “potato croquettes”. He was not interested. I told them he’d really rather have the scallop and they brought him the “grown up” dish instead. He loved it, they thought he was awesome.
He got tomato soup with croutons and local snapper with rice and vegetables from the kids menu. We ordered the 3 course a la carte menu since we knew that he wouldn’t have the stamina for a full many-course, multi-hour tasting menu. I started with hamachi 3 ways, then the lobster and for my main the tuna. My husband got the conch ceviche, the tuna with foie gras (a signature Ripert dish) and the snapper.
While we were eating, we got to ogle the table full of celebrity chefs and they’re beautiful wives having dinner on the patio outside our window: Eric Ripert, Anthony Bourdain, Jose Andres, Richard Blais, Francois Payard, April Bloomfield and others. It was hard not to stare. The weekend had just started so we hadn’t had our brush with culinary fame yet. This event is so small (compared to most food events) that you are constantly running into a culinary hero as you’re walking the beach, traversing the hallways of the Ritz or at the events.
Dinner was spectacular. The service at Blue is on par with Le Bernardin. The sommelier noticed our son was getting antsy and came over an made him a mouse out of a napkin! They were so incredibly accomodating even though they were also having to serve their boss and some of the best chefs in the world on the patio just outside.
This is one of those meals ….one of those weekends…that it seems silly to “review” the food. It was excellent of course. That’s what we flew many hours on a red eye with a bonkers kid playing 12 hours of video games for. The hamachi was clean and refreshing, acidic and salty, rich and cool and the same time. The conch had no chewiness like I expected, but it also had bell peppers so I only snuck a tiny bite from my husband to see what it was like. The lobster was, well, lobster at Blue! Imagine it and you’ll probably be correct!
I ordered the chocolate death for dessert and it arrived with “Happy Birthday” written in chocolate on the plate. I am not one to hide the fact it’s my birthday. I don’t worry about getting older. I tell everyone I meet it’s my birthday. I revel in my day. It’s all about me. I got a candle and a chocolate wish. And I was in the Caymans with my favorite chef in the world. My birthday was the most amazing one I could imagine. Well, except for the woman who told me her husband flew Eric Ripert to her house to cook dinner for her and 6 friends. That is unbelievable but nevermind that. I would never dream of anything better than the Cayman Cookout for my special day.
And it would only get better.
Read about Day 2 and Day 3!
Posted in ahi, ahi tartare, amuse bouche, chocolate, decadence, dinner, eric ripert, flavor, food, Le Bernardin, photos, restaurant, review, snapper, table dance, tuna tartare | No Comments »
Friday, January 6th, 2012
This dish was so easy and so rich and warming. I do think I was photo’d out from Christmas though because I didn’t take a single picture of this meal.
1/2 lb italian sausage
1 chicken cut into 8 pieces
1/2 a yellow onion, thinly sliced
1 fennel bulb, thinly sliced
2 celery stalks, chopped
3 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
2 1/2 cups white wine
8 oz orzo
I used my oval dutch oven for this…you need something big enough to nestle the chicken down in in one layer and it’s all done on the stovetop.
First, brown your sausage. Let it leave the fatty, cruchy bits in the pan. Remove the sausage w/ a slotted spoon. Then brown your chicken in the sausage fat. See, it’s good already! Once the chicken is browned, remove that too.
Add your onions, celery and fennel and leave it the heck alone for as long as you can stand it on medium heat. Don’t let them burn, per se, but get all that flavor toasting in the pan. Once the bottom of the pan is so browned you can’t stand it, add just enough wine to deglaze (abot 1/2 a cup). Let that simmer just a few minutes.
Nestle your chicken pieces down into the fennel-onion-celery goodness, add your sausage back in, add your garlic then pour the rest of the white wine into the pan. Depending on the size of the chicken and the pot, you may need more than 2 cups. You want it to come about 1/2 way up the chicken pieces. Cover and let it simmer on low or medium-low for about 30-40 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through.
Serve over orzo tossed with some butter and olive oil.
It’s warming, filling, delicious and perfect for a cold night.
Tags: fennel, sausage
Posted in amateur, chicken, dinner, food, recipe, self pleasuring, wine | No Comments »
Thursday, January 5th, 2012
Anyone who knows me or has visited this site…ever…knows my answer to that question. I don’t bake. I hated chemistry. I don’t measure. I don’t plan things in advance enough to let it rise or refrigerate it overnight. I love to cook. I do it by taste and smell and instinct. My husband brews beer and mead and roasts his own coffee. We have the whole meal covered except the sugar and bread. That’s where our 7 year old comes in. I am determined to make him our pastry chef and baker and he likes the idea as well (luckily!).
He isn’t yet at the point that he can sit through a baking class though so I decided to go to one myself and bring home what I learned to him. I didn’t just sign up for any class, I signed up for Pim Techamuanvivit’s “Edible Gifts” workshop. It was part of Love Apple Farm’s amazing classes. We’d twittered back and forth with each other before, both live in Santa Cruz, but we’d never met. I was excited.
 Pim guiding us through her recipes I arrived along with about 20 others, all of whom were taking notes and anxiously awaiting trying these recipes. I watched and thought, my kid should love this. I didn’t take notes on everything. I was happy with Pim’s recipes and was thrilled that she does everything by weight instead of volume! This turns out to have made the biggest difference in the baking experience in our house.
 Pim piping madeleines We watched Pim make a plethora of impressive yet simple treats: Salted honey caramels, alfajores, honey madeleines, pain d’epices, honeycomb and chocolate truffles with armagnac prunes. Each confection was made with precision and expertise in a way that anyone, including me could still make it. Everyone was itching to try all the sweet treats and it only took Pim asking once for people to rush up to cut, wrap, assemble and taste the goodies.
 It only took seconds for people to swarm to the finished treats I brought the recipes home (including the super-secret pain d’epices) and got my son to work on our Christmas goodie bags! He had a blast. All I had to do was get the ingredients and bowls out for him and he could measure and mix. I helped with the more dangerous tasks like stirring and pouring boiling sugar, but for the most part this was his project.
 Pim's next apprentice? We ended up with a beautiful assortment of gifts: Honeycomb that we dipped in dark chocolate, pain d’epices, salted honey caramels and chocolate-dipped madeleines. Plus we added extras from our kitchen: dried sage, chili flakes, pomegranate mead, applesauce and home-roasted coffee beans. I also used Pim’s idea of rubber-stamping labels. It looked so darn cute! I want to stamp everything now!
 The Christmas Goodie Bag For Christmas I got my son some books that Pim recommended: The Fearless Baker and Ready for Dessert (which he recently made a Chocolate Pavé from and it was divine!). Plus I picked up the Tartine Bread book. All of the Tartine recipes use a natural leaven. He will need to nurse a starter culture daily…it’s like a Tamagotchi but real…and yeasty.
Tags: baking, gifts, sugar, treats
Posted in christmas, decadence | No Comments »
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