mac & cheese with corn and spinich

I think everyone goes through a faze where all they want to eat is mac & cheese, mine is happening right now (again). But when I walk down the aisle at the market and I see those boxes of mac & cheese, I cant help but think about how much crap they put into them. Besides I can make mac & cheese from scratch that is much better than that, or at least just as good.

To me, everything amazing about mac & cheese is in the sauce. To start off I make a classic Bachamel sauce (recipe), to that I add my cheese – you want a nice flavorful cheese that melts well, a lot of places use all these fancy cheeses like Gouda or provolone and aged cheddar. Yes these are all fine cheeses but once you mix it in the sauce who gives a crap? To me 1/4 cup of mozzarella and 1/4 of medium cheddar is perfect. Once the cheese is melted put it on a low heat and let it do its things. 

Now, this is called mac & cheese with corn and spinach, so here come the veggies. Start off by sautéing you corn, if you’re using frozen, that’s fine just stick them in the microwave to heat up first, and then drain off all the extra liquid. Sauté the corn in a little bit of oil then add some salt and pepper. Once you see some color come out of them add about two handfuls of fresh spinach, use tongs to move around the spinach.  Once the spinach is cooked all the way down, incorporate it into the sauce.

By this time your pasta should be just about done. Drain your pasta out, but leave about 3 Tbsp of your pasta water in the pot. Return the pasta to the pot and place is back on the fire – low heat. Add your sauce and mix thoroughly. Classic mac & cheese uses macaroni, I prefer linguine, but it's your pasta so use whatever kind you like.

Yum, I think I'm going to make some more.

loaded potato salad

At work the other day, I was prepping for the day’s special – seared ahi tuna with potatoes, haricot vert, and eggs – when the special was changed on me. The change wasn’t an issue for me, I just didn’t want to waste all these blanched fingerling potatoes and hard boiled eggs. So I decided to make a potato salad for family meal (the meal made for the staff, right before dinner service starts). 

Blanching is a very simple process where after you cook something in boiling water you put them in an ice bath to stop them from continuing to cook.

First I needed my dressing, being an Italian restaurant there is no mayo to speak of, and I didn’t have the time to make some, I used sour cream – 1-1/2 cup, goat cheese – 1/4  cup, sriracha – 1/2 Tbsp, scallions – 2 chopped , red wine vinegar – 1 Tbsp, and of course salt and pepper.

When I make potato salad I like to have nice sized chunks of both potato and eggs. Then I fiercely mix them into the dressing. 

Next is the easy part; chopping everything up and throwing it into the bowl. I used red onion, hearts of palm, cherry tomatoes, cucumber. As for measurements, everything was pretty much eye-balled but I’d say I used about 1-1/2 cups of everything, except the onions, once diced about 1/2 a cup.

Mix it all together and there you have it.

chicken salad sandwich my way

people over look the sandwiches they had as children and look for those fancy ones with gouda cheese and with brioche bread that costs something around $15. but have you ever stop to rethink those simple sandwiches that we once loved? i did, and i loved the sandwich i made.


if you have a food processor this will take u three seconds flat, i don't, so i chopped everything by hand. for a single sandwich i used half a chicken breast, one tbsp of carrot, celery, onion, and cucumber, half a Serrano pepper, one clove of garlic, one mushroom (sliced).

i first cook the chicken whole, then chop it up. after which i saute the mushroom, i added the rest of the veggies to the saute pan, added a little salt and some olive oil just for a minute. once that was done i mixed the veggies with the chicken, added a tbsp of mayo, BBQ sauce and Parmesan cheese and half a tbsp of Dijon mustard. mix it all up put it on your favorite bread.

meatballs

A great meatball is not only juicy and flavorful, but it should also be light. There's nothing worse than a dry over-cooked meatball.

There is a lot of talk about "the perfect mix" of meat, whether to use only beef, lamb, pork, or a mix, there is also a debate on the ratio of eat to fat. I like to keep it nice and simple; I use all beef that's 80% meat and 20% fat.

When I make meatballs, I tend to make them on the smaller side so that it takes less time to fully cook all the meat and they are less likely to dry out that way.

For the meatball itself, I take about two pounds of ground meat, two extremely finely chopped shallots, about a quarter cup of fresh parsley, a half a cup of panko breadcrumbs, i use panko because they are a bit more textured and lighter than regular bread crumbs, and one egg yolk and a tablespoon of Dijon mustard. I use both egg yolks and mustard as binders because using too many egg yolks is not that healthy (not that I'm always conscious of that but I try to avoid unnecessary fat when I can).

Just like when you make dough, you don’t want to over work it, the same applies here, you want to incorporate everything evenly, but you don’t want to over-work the meat.

To cook your meatballs, you can either line them on a sheet-pan, and cook them in a preheat oven at 375 degrees, or cook them in a sauté pan on the stove. I'm going to refrain from giving a cook time because your time will vary based on the size of the meatballs. I prefer to cook them in a sauté pan so I can then deglaze the pan to make a sauce to accompany my meatballs.

knock your socks off chili

Chili is one of those things that are always good. It can also be extremely cheap and easy.

A basic chili is basically a stew with meat, beans, and some kind of tomato based sauce. But to get that bowl of steaming hot goodness to really knock your socks off, we're going to have to take it up a few notches.

To start off roast 5 red bell peppers. The easiest way to do this is right on the stove. Basically what you want to do is burn the skin so it can be peeled right off. So once at a time place the peppers over the open fire, rotating them once the skin has a nice char on it. Once all the peppers are fully charred, place them in a large bowl and cover them with plastic wrap to sweat them off as they cool down.

Next is when you sear the meat. Cut about 3 pounds of chuck meat into bit sized pieces, remember meat shrinks when cooks, so don’t cut them too small. In a large bowl, mix the meat with all purpose flour, enough to coat each piece evenly. Then in a sauté pan (preferable not a non-stick pan) sear each piece of meat so that they get a nice golden color on them. Make sure there is enough fat from the meat or oil in the pan so that nothing burns off. If your pan starts to smoke up, add some oil to the pan.

Once all the meat is seared, sauté one yellow onion cut up into small pieces. Once the onions are translucent add about 10 button mushrooms cut to the same size as the meat pieces, along with 3 or 4 cloves of garlic diced extremely fine. When the mushrooms are tender add enough tomato sauce to deglaze the pan, depending on the size of your pan, you will probably need about 8 oz (half a 16 oz can).

Once the peppers have cooled down, start peeling the skin off with your fingers. If they are roasted long enough the skin will almost fall off. Next is coring and de-seeding, you can do this by cutting the pepper in half and pulling out the core and seeds. You don't want any seeds in your chili. Next slice up all the peppers to about 1/4" pieces.

Once all the peppers are cut up place them in a large pot along with the mushrooms, onions, and 2 or 3 stalks of celery sliced into 1/2" pieces. Then add the other 1 and a half cans of tomato sauce, 2 cans of tomato paste and 1 can of diced tomatoes. 

Now I like my chili to have a nice kick, so I add 1 Tbsp. cayenne pepper and 1 Tsp cinnamon.

Let that sit on a high heat until it starts to simmer, then lower the heat to a medium low heat. 

Once you have reduced the heat add a can of black beans, drained and rinsed along with the meat pieces. Give that a nice big stir so that everything is mixed evenly. 

Cook for another hour/ hour and a half, and enjoy.

mastering the deep fryer

The deep fryer has, for whatever reason, been deemed an unsafe form of cooking. But the truth is if you are careful and paying attention, deep frying food is fun and delicious.

Deep frying, in case you don't know is a form of cooking that involves submerging your food in oil that is heated to about 365 degrees, give or take. Peanut oil is preferred because of its high smoking point, but olive oil works great too.

Before you get started there are a few things you are going to want to have prepared. First the type of pot you are going to use; you want a pot that is about 5" to 6" deep and 8" to 10" in diameter. Preferable you are going to want a cast iron, but most of us don’t have a cast iron that size (even though we'd like to) so any kind of pot that size will do just fine.

Second, you are going to want to have both a pair of tongs as well as a slotted spatula on hand. You are also going to want a drying rack for when your food is done. The best thing to use is a cooling rack on top of a cookie sheet, but a cookie sheet with some paper towels on it will do just fine. And lastly, a bowl of salt to season your food after it comes out of the fryer.

Next is what to fry. Theoretically, you can fry just about anything, from potatoes to bananas. Most of the time when people fry things it is because of the crunch you get from the frying batter, so let us start there. The batter used to achieve this crunch can be one of the simplest things you will ever make.

For most things you are going to use a beer batter. It’s simple and easy, and works great. In a large bowl combine flour and beer, that's it! The carbonation in the beer lends to a beautiful texture to the fried batter. Start off with one cup of flour and 1 cup of beer, and then add beer little by little until you get a consistency that is a little bit looser than a pancake batter. A little tip is to not make your batter until you are completely ready to start frying, because the longer the batter sits the less carbonation it will have. For fried chicken you won't necessarily want a beer batter, try my fried chicken recipe instead.

Ok so you are ready to start frying, but what ARE you going to fry? French fries? Onion rings? Zucchini? Banana? Chicken? Those questions I’ll leave up to you.

A few things you need to think about when you are frying are; how long will it take to cook my food? And is my oil hot enough? For the most part by the time your food is ready to be taken out, it will be fully cook, but something like a potato you are going to want to blanch first before you fry them. This is because if you fry them raw, by the time the inside is fully cooked the outside will be so burnt you wouldn’t want to eat it anymore. You, also, have to remember that every time you put something into the fryer the temperature of the oil will drop and the lower the temp the slower it will take to cook and you will in turn lose that beautiful crisp you get when you fry things. To ensure the oil stays at the right temp invest in an instant read thermometer that hooks on to the side of your pot. Eventually, after frying for a while you will be able to gauge if your oil is hot enough by how long it takes to brown whatever it is you are frying.

Now, let's get frying!!!

1-2-3 BBQ Wings

BBQ wings have been a staple of American food since, well the dawn of time. The problem is people have associating wings with unhealthy or fatty, but if you cook them right and only have a few at a time, there is no reason why you can't make some delicious BBQ wings.

I like to make my wings in what I like to call the 1-2-3

Regardless of how I cook them - stove top or grill - I start off my sprinkling all the pieces with some salt and pepper. There are some people, OK most people, who would say to soak it in buttermilk first, but I feel that it is a little unnecessary. That's step one.

Step two, when using the stove top, heat up a sauté pan with a little bit of oil. Once the pan is hot, place the chicken wings in the pan, but make sure you don't crowd them. Crowding the pan will lead to steaming the chicken instead of searing them. When searing chicken, you want to get a real nice golden crisp to the skin on all sides. Rotate the chicken until it is fully cooked.

For the grill, heat up the grill to about 450 degrees, then grill the wings until you get that great grill char on the wings, then flip and repeat until the chicken is fully cooked.

Step three is when you go from grilled wings to BBQ wings. Remove the wings from the grill or pan and place in a large bowl with your favorite BBQ sauce. Mix the wings until they have a nice coat on them, and then return them to the pan or grill to get the crisp back that was lost when you coated the wings.

And that's my 1-2-3 BBQ wings.