Pan-seared Spring Asparagus with Lemon, Balsamic and Parmesan – “Foiled” Again!

It’s spring, when a young man's thoughts turn to two things; the other one is cooking delicious fresh asparagus! This is an easy method for cooking this delicious spring veggie, and NO we are NOT going to blanch them first. Why the all caps? Well, Day 1 of vegetable cookery in most old school Culinary Academies begins with a lecture on how and why to blanch vegetables. It’s boiling salted water, cook until tender-crisp, “shock” in ice water…or die. Those old-time Chefs really do love to boil vegetables before using them in various recipes. Now, I’m not saying to never do this. For many things like green beans it’s a great idea. But, I’m saying don’t always do it for every fresh vegetable – especially beautiful spring asparagus.

What you’re about to see in this video recipe is closer to what you’d get if you grilled raw asparagus and then drizzled over a nice lemon, balsamic dressing. But, we’re not grilling. We are simply going to pan-sear the raw spears in a VERY hot pan until they just start to get tender. Then, we’ll wrap them up tight in foil with our dressing, and wait for 5 minutes as the residual heat finishes the cooking process, and the asparagus is completely “favorized” (I’m trying to invent new words so I can get one in the dictionary like that Stephen Colbert – “truthiness?” Are you kidding me?).

There is a magical moment of doneness for asparagus; if undercooked they are bitter, if overcooked they are soft and fibrous, but if cooked until just tender…they are sweet and absolutely sensuous. Did I just say asparagus was sensuous? It must be spring. Enjoy!

*Note: I say near the end of the clip, when the asparagus is wrapped in the foil, to “toss” them half way through. What I meant was just to turn over the foil package after a few minutes, so the dressing get re-distributed. Don’t open the foil and mix them or you’ll lose the heat. This note will make was more sense if you’ve seen the clip!

Ingredients:
1 bunch trimmed and washed asparagus
1 lemon, juiced
2 tbl olive oil
2 tbl balsamic vinegar
salt and pepper to taste
shaved Parmesan cheese to top

Got the Monday Blues? Cheer Up…I’m Making Brussel Sprouts!

Why am I showing this classic fall/winter vegetable (that everyone hates, btw) in spring? Good question…It’s yet another clip that I just converted from the old blog and want archived here for your viewing pleasure. Besides, since it is Monday I thought I could slip this one in early before the “real” clip appears later. I’ll be posting a brand new spring Asparagus recipe that’s so simple and delicious it will make you forget all about Brussel Sprouts, and what you did, or did not do, this weekend.

All kidding aside, these are really delicious Brussel Sprouts…believe it or not. As you'll see, the secret is the super fast cooking time and the slicing method. Seriously, this could be your new favorite veggie. Like most people I hated Brussel Sprouts, until I had them prepared in the style you are about to watch in the video. This preparation is so different than any other recipe I’ve seen for these tiny green cabbages, that I really hope you’ll give it a try – when and if you get some Brussel Sprouts. Anyway, enjoy, and stay tuned for another “fresh” clip later.

Ingredients:
12 Brussel Sprouts, sliced very thin
1 tsp olive oil
1 tsp butter
1/2 lemon,juiced
salt and pepper to taste

All Killer, No Filler…A Few Fun Foodie Clips to Hold You until Monday

It’s the weekend, and as you know by now I don’t post any original material on my “days off.” And by “day off” I mean 14 hours of answering emails, and comments, and questions like, “do you have a tasty Vegan recipe for Philly Cheese Steak??” But I do like to post some type of fun, food-related stuff I’ve found during the week. Here are two clips I think you’ll enjoy.

The first is a rather creative food themed “beat box” mix that I thought was well done. Now, even if you don’t like Hip Hop, who doesn’t enjoy seeing an Englishman in a really bad wig? What exactly is it with all the cross-dressing over there? The second clip is another interest of mine, magic tricks, especially ones using food. This is quite the trick and if you know how it was done PLEASE tell me!! By the way, the first clip is dedicated to my cousin Tony Q, and my sister-in-law Jennifer M, and the second clip is dedicated my nephew Alex M. They'll know why. Enjoy!

The Beat Box Chef


Magic Produce

Croque Monsieur… King of the open-face sandwich!

Easier to make than pronounce (croak-mon-sir), this is world’s most famous open-face sandwich. According to my French sandwich sources (Wikipedia) the name is based on the verb croquer, "to bite hungrily," and the word monsieur which means "mister." So, I guess this basically translates to “bite hungrily Mister!” And if you make this delicious open-faced delight you’ll know why. By the way, I’m sure it’s the same if you’re a Madame or Mademoiselle.

There are many versions, but mine is slices of the round, crusty French bread (pain au levain) topped with our cheesy,home-made thyme béchamel (left-over from our cheese soufflé recipe video), covered with ham, tomato and cheese, and then baked golden brown. How do you say “to die for” in French? I stole this version from a French bakery here in San Francisco called Tartine, which has lines of people out the door waiting for these beauties to come out of the oven. Bon Appetite!!

Ingredients:
4 thick slices of bread
1/2 cup of cheesy Bechamel
8 slices tomato
salt and pepper to taste
thinnly sliced smoked ham
grated cheese of your choice
olive oil

The Slanted Door’s Caramel Chicken

A loyal viewer of this blog informed me that this recipe still had not been converted from my old blog. This was one of the first clips I ever filmed and posted on YouTube, and probably the recipe I’ve received the most email regarding. People LOVE this dish, and while you may have to go out and hunt down some Asian Fish Sauce, it will be well worth the trouble. By the way, there is also a Basmati Rice demo posted in case you need a little help in that department.

The Slanted Door is a very popular Vietnamese restaurant in San Francisco. It’s always packed with locals, tourists and visiting celebrities. One of the most popular dishes there is called “Caramel Chicken.” This stunning dish is an amazing combination of sweet, spicy, and salty flavors all sticking to succulent pieces of chicken. My version adds peanuts for a little crunch, and I’ve simplified the technique so you can easily make this at home, right on the stove top. Their version is cooked in a clay pot, which most of us don’t have lying around.

By the way, it’s been reported that this is Mick Jagger’s favorite dish when visiting San Francisco. Mick once asked, “Brown sugar, how come you taste soooo good?” So it’s fitting that’s what we’ll use to caramelize the chicken as you’ll see in the video. Enjoy!

Ingredients:
2.5 pounds chicken thighs (boneless, skinless, about 8-10 thighs)
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup water
1/3 cup fish sauce
1/3 cup rice vinegar
1 tsp soy sauce
1 tbl grated fresh ginger
4 cloves garlic
2 jalapeno peppers
1 bunch green onions
1/2 cup roasted peanuts
fresh cilantro to garnish

How to Make Perfect White Rice

Well, since you are going to be making that Caramel Chicken I recently posted, I thought I better post this rice clip also. Truly, one of life’s simple pleasures, it’s amazing how many requests I’ve received for a rice lesson. People are terrified of cooking rice for some reason, and claim that it never comes out right. They say it’s either a big gluey mess, or crunchy and under-cooked! Well, this method should fix all those problems.

Please try and find “Basmati” rice, which shouldn’t be too hard. Most large chain grocery stores do carry it now, and it’s a really flavorful product. By the way, this method should work with any long grain white rice. And save your, “you should buy a rice cooker” emails! Most people aren’t going to buy one, and it’s really not hard to make great rice using this method.

Ingredients:

2 cups basmati rice (or any long grain white rice)

3 cups cold water

1 tsp butter

1/2 tsp salt

Cheese Soufflé – Rising to the Occasion

I’m going to let you in on a little secret. Soufflés are easy. Yes, I said it…easy. Especially the cheese soufflé I demo in this video recipe clip. The soufflé is one of those recipes that Chefs like to think only they can do properly. The cliché of the housewife crying over the fallen soufflé has become part of our collective culinary consciousness. Granted, you do have to follow a couple steps properly (which you are about to see in the video), but anyone can do this soufflé; even the novice cook.

The base to this cheese soufflé is our classic Béchamel sauce that has been posted previously. PLEASE note: in this demo I start with a 2 cup batch of Béchamel to which I add my 4oz. of grated cheese. BUT, I only use 1 cup of the cheese-infused Béchamel for this recipe. I saved the rest for a batch of Croque Monsieur that I promise to show you soon (just in case you’ve never heard of a Croque Monsieur, it’s only the greatest open-faced sandwich ever!). Another recipe tip; make sure your eggs are cold. The cold yolks will help cool down the warm cheesy Béchamel, and cold egg whites will whip up much easier. Also, the cooking time given is just a guide. I was using 5 oz ramekins, which gave me 6 soufflés. If you use a different size, you’ll just have to keep an eye on them…and YES, it’s OK to peek in the oven, the soufflé is NOT going to fall from a quick peak. Visually, when they look fully puffed up, they are done. In fact, true soufflé connoisseurs don’t mind it if the center of the soufflé is still a bit runny.

As far as cheese choices, I went with a classic Cave-aged Gruyere (Swiss) cheese and some parmesan. Almost any cheese will work as long as it’s similar in texture to what I used. If you decide to use a softer cheese like Goat cheese, or Brie, then this recipe would have to be adjusted. Try These!! Enjoy.


For the Cheesy Bechamel Sauce Base:
2 cups hot prepared Bechamel sauce (see clip!)
4 oz grated Gruyere Cheese
1/4 tsp dry mustard
1/4 cup grated Parmesan

NOTE: WE ARE ONLY USING A CUP OF THIS MIXTURE FOR OUR DEMO BELOW! Save the rest. You’ll be glad you did when you see our Croque Monsieur recipe.

To make the Soufflés:
1 cup of the Cheesy Bechamel Sauce Base described above
4 cold egg yolks
4 cold egg whites
butter to grease ramekins
Parmesan to dust ramekins and top of soufflés
Yeilds: Six Soufflés (5-oz ramekins)

Last note: Since my original Béchamel sauce was perfectly seasoned, I didn’t include any salt or pepper to this soufflé recipe. Of course, adjust to you own tastes.

Old Dutch International 4.5-qt. De La Cuisine Beating Bowl, Copper

12 Second Coleslaw… in 42 seconds!

OK, I’ll admit it, this doesn’t look like a very exciting recipe, but that’s the point. Sure, the photo is boring. I didn’t even bother to Photoshop in some colorful veggies! When most people think of coleslaw they think of that bowl of soggy shredded cabbage sitting at the end of the picnic table. This is a completely different approach. This is fresh shredded cabbage prepared as a fast (12 seconds to add the ingredients, and 30 seconds to mix), crisp, low-cal, low-carb, slightly spicy, and delicious side dish that you should be eating as part of your regular veggie side-dish rotation. Do yourself a favor and find a grocery store in your town that carries the “angel hair” finely shredded cabbage, ready-to-mix in the bag. My 12 second coleslaw in 42 seconds claim only counts if you use the pre-shredded bag. By the way, I have no problem taking an extra 5 minutes and shredding my own cabbage, but I rarely can use a whole head and so I don’t like to buy those giant heads unless I’m making this for a large group.

There are 2 keys to this super-slaw; the very small amount of highly-seasoned dressing (it really doesn’t look like enough but you’ll see that it is), and the fact that I don’t toss the cabbage and the dressing together until I’m ready to eat. As soon as any dressing hits shredded cabbage, water starts to be pulled out of the leaves, which causes most traditionally made coleslaws to go limp and soggy. By mixing just before you eat, you will experience the true essence of fresh coleslaw; sweet, crunchy and refreshing. I served this under a spicy Jerked Chicken (aka Jerky Chicken), and it was perfect!

Ingredients:
10 oz. bag of Angel Hair Shredded Cabbage
2 tbl Seasoned Rice Vinegar
2 tbl Thousand Island Dressing
1 tsp hot sauce of your choice
pinch of salt
*I didn’t because I only had 12 seconds, but you can certainly add ANY finely shredded raw vegetables to this coleslaw and yours won’t look as boring as mine.

Jerky Chicken – Because I just can’t call it “Jerked Chicken” and keep a straight face!

The “Jerk” style of cooking comes to us from Jamaica. The term “Jerk” actually comes from the term “Jerky,” which comes from the Spanish “charqui” (Char-key), which is basically meat dried over a slow wood fire. Today “Jerk” doesn’t refer to the cooking method, but the fiery spice mix that is rubbed on the meat before it’s grilled. The key ingredients in this spice mix are Allspice and dried Scotch Bonnet peppers (one of the hottest peppers on earth!). Other common ingredients include Cloves, Cinnamon, Nutmeg, and Thyme. There are countless combinations, so I suggest you buy a high-quality pre-mixed Jerk spice mix (that's what I did – after carefully checking the ingredient list to make sure I was getting the real stuff). If you want to make your own Jerk mixture, you can certainly do a Google search and you’ll have a couple thousand formulas at your disposal.

The beauty of this recipe is its simplicity. It has just 3 basic ingredients and since the spice mix is so flavorful and intense, we don’t need to add much. Also, please note the trick I show before applying the “wet rub” when I “score” the chicken breast with the knife. This is a great trick for several reasons that I explain in the clip. By the way, I serve this tasty breast over my famous “12 second” coleslaw, which I will demo soon. I also mention garlic-infused oil which I used to sauté the chicken, and I will demo that soon as well. In the meantime, if you don’t have any garlic-infused oil, just add a couple crushed garlic cloves to the marinade.

Ingredients:
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
2 tbl Jerk spice mix (usually allspice and dried Scotch Bonnet peppers, cinnamon, nutmeg, and thyme)
1/2 orange, juiced
salt to taste
garlic oil to sauté
*if you don’t have the garlic oil, just add some fresh garlic to the wet rub and sauté in plain vegetable oil

TGIGF: Thank God it’s Good Friday!

Well, it’s been a hectic week around my kitchen this week, with beginning some private Chef work, and planning/experimenting for my one big catering event I do every year. I will share more on that in another post. But since I didn’t have time to do much filming this week, it gave me a chance to catch up on a few missing clips that had not been transferred from my old blog. Thanks to all my attentive fans who noticed the Beans and Greens clip that I mentioned in the Prosciutto Wrapped Prawns post wasn’t on the site. Same goes for the Bechamel clip. If you ever watch a clip on this site and I mention another clip that goes along with it, but you don’t see it anywhere, PLEASE let me know. Thanks.

I hope you all enjoy your Easter weekend. Whether you’re a Catholic or not, at least there’s going to be lots of chocolate around, so you’ve got that going for you. I remember growing up, trying to figure out the connection between Jesus rising from the dead, and my father hiding hard-boiled eggs in the bushes behind the house.

Stay turned for a whole week of new clips coming up including my attempt at individual Cheese Soufflés (an idiot proof version…btw, that was an inside joke for one of my viewers), Jerky Chicken (not Chicken Jerky), 12 Second Coleslaw (for real), and the “Perfect” Tuna Melt. One last Easter egg hunt tip for you kids; check the mail box, there’s always an egg hidden in the mailbox. Enjoy. Photo above from Rakka.

I'll leave you with this White House Easter Egg hunt clip. Peggy, this one's for you...

Bean and Greens – Fast, healthy, delicious, and it rhymes!

This “missing” clip went along with the Prosciutto Wrapped Prawns recipe video posted last month. I learned this soulful recipe from my Uncle Bill many years ago, and since that time it’s been one of my “go-to” side dishes. By “go-to” dish, I mean one of those recipes that always works with no matter what I’m serving. It’s also very fast to make and extremely versatile. Like most of my recipes, you can switch around the beans, greens and spices used to create your own versions (then you can show them to your nephew or niece).

One great trend I’ve seen lately in the larger grocery stores is having these dark leafy greens already trimmed, washed, bagged, and ready to use. See, now you have no excuse! There is really nothing packed with as much nutritional goodness as these dark greens, and now you just have to open the bag and cook them. Even a can of soup, brought to a simmer, can be transformed in something wonderful with a handful of these greens.

Ingredients:
1 bunch kale or any dark leafy greens
12 oz of white beans
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
1/4 cup chicken stock
3 cloves garlic
3 tbl olive oil
salt to taste

Béchamel Sauce - Let’s Turn This “Mother” Out!

This is the sauce I mentioned in the Broccoli post yesterday, and no, I hadn’t posted it. So here you go. This is one of the five “Mother Sauces.” In traditional culinary training, students first master these mother sauces and then use them to create literally hundreds of variations. Béchamel is the basic “white sauce” and is used in many popular dishes. I’ll admit, this is not the most thrilling lesson ever, but it is an important one as far as building a solid foundation of classic culinary skills.

As far as product recommendations go, make sure you have a decent sauce pan to make this in. Don’t use cheap pans, since they have very thin bottoms and the sauce will scorch. In the clip, I used this 4-qt. Stainless Sauce Pan, and it should work for you too. Also, a Wire Whisk is a must, but you probably have one of those already. Lastly, you’re going to see me grate fresh nutmeg into the sauce. If you’ve never done this, you’ve never really tasted nutmeg! The ground stuff in the grocery stores goes stale very quickly and really loses its flavor.

Ingredients:
1 quart milk
1/2 cup butter (1 stick)
1/2 cup flour
salt and cayenne pepper to taste
1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
4 springs fresh thyme

Broccoli Gratin – Why am I staring at you in the check-out line?

Some things just go great together; chips and beer, warm bread and butter, Britney and K-Fed, and of course, Broccoli and Cheddar cheese sauce. As you’ll hear in the video this clip was inspired by watching people in grocery store lines buying tiny, expensive, and poor quality, frozen packages of broccoli and cheese sauce.

I had some left-over Béchamel sauce, so in this clip I’ll show how easy it is to take that humble base sauce and create a wonderful vegetable gratin. In case I wasn’t clear in the clip, turn the heat off the Béchamel as soon as you add the cheese. By the way, if I haven’t already, I’ll add a béchamel demo to the blog in case you’re not familiar with that “mother” sauce.

As far as recommendations go, I’m a HUGE cheese head, not the Green Bay Packer variety, but the delicious English Farmhouse Cheddar kind.

I hope you have a nice cheese shop near you, but if not you can get just about anything you want online these days. Check out cooking.com, they’re a great resource. I suggest any nice sharp cheddar for this dish, but so many other cheeses would be delicious. And for the top, Parmigiano-Reggiano is great, or even a nice Pecorino Romano.

2 cups Béchamel sauce
24 oz. Broccoli florettes (about 4 heads trimmed)
8 oz Cheddar Cheese
1/3 cup plain bread crumbs
1/2 cup grated Parmesan

Seared Wild Halibut on White Bean and Garlic Puree

I feel like I have to apologize any time I post a clip from my old blog, since many of my older viewers have already seen it. But, as stated ad nauseum, I want all the clips I’ve previously filmed to be archived here. Besides, if you watch it again to may see something you didn’t notice the first time you watched it (like how I give the wrong name for the beans I used!). Another reason for the "easy" post today is I have lots of personal business to take care of, as well as beginning my part-time "Chef to the Stars" gig that I mentioned in the Spring Training/Las Vegas post.

Fast and very healthy, this halibut is served on top of a puree of white Italian beans and garlic. This is a great, lower-carb alternative to the more common base of garlic mashed potatoes. Feel free to use ANY fish in this dish, as everything tastes great on top of these white beans!

I’ll also show you how easy it is to make fish steaks into boneless, skinless, fish fillets.

2 Wild Halibut Steaks Or Fillets
1 Jar White Italian Beans (10 Oz)
4 Cloves Garlic
1/2 Bunch Fresh Italian Parsley
4 Tbl Butter
Red Pepper Flakes
Black Pepper
Salt
2 Tbl Olive Oil
1 Lemon

Roast Chicken Pan Gravy - Getting to the “Bottom” of Flavor

Yes, more gravy! This clip goes along with the already posted “Ultimate” Roast Chicken recipe clip, but was never posted, so here you go. Don’t think of this as a recipe. Think of this as a basic culinary technique that you can do anytime you’ve roasted meat in a heavy pan.

The ‘bottom” I’m referring to in the headline, is the bottom of the heavy Stainless Steel Lined Copper Frying Pan we used to roast our chicken. As a meat roasts, proteins caramelize on the pan’s bottom, and that sticky brown goodness is the base for any pan gravy. In culinary terms this is called a “fond.”

The procedure is basic. Remove the bird. Pour off the excess fat (mostly the butter we used under the skin) into a small bowl. Add some flour to the pan and mix with the fond. Add just enough of the reserve fat to form a somewhat dry crumbly roux, and toast on low heat for 5 minutes. Add cold stock, or any other liquid, and cook for about ten minutes to finish. That’s it!

I don’t normally strain the gravy, but if you want a “finer” gravy product you need to use a Fine Mesh Strainer.

Ingredients:
Pan full of beautiful pan drippings or “fond”
2 tbl flour
Reserved fat/butter from pan
about 2 cups of cold stock or other flavorful liquid
salt and pepper to taste