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.
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
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...
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
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
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
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
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.
