Oui, Chef

Fare for the family table

Steve Dunn

We're Back in Business!

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Hi gang –

I'm happy to share that the support crews at Typepad and Discus have finally isolated the issue that was causing my comment forms to FAIL.  My guardian angel Colleen, at Typepad, has written a piece of code that provides a work around to a VERY quirky "requirement" of Discus' that kept their comment forum from working properly on some of my posts.

I've just reposted Momofukus' Fried Chicken, and Peyton's "Jean-Georges" Meal, and would encourage all of you to give them another look, and comment to your heart's desire!

Thanks for all your patience as we worked through this issue, we'll be back shortly with a great new post to share.

Cheers – Steve

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Discus – Typepad Comment Trouble

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Hi all – Just a quick note to let you all know that we're experiencing some technical difficulties with Oui, Chef as of late.  For the past week or so, the "Comment" forms at the end of each post have been malfunctioning, not allowing comments to be left after each entry.  I'm working with both Typepad (my hosting company) and Discus (the company that provides the comment forum), but so far no fix, just a lot of finger pointing.  Once the problem is fixed, I'll re-post the last few entries for comments.

Thanks to all of you who reached out to me through email or Twitter to inform me of the problems you were having leaving comments, your feedback really gave me a jump on identifying the problem.

All for now, hope to be back in full working order soon…….stay tuned.

Thanks for your patience – Steve

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Momofuku’s Fried Chicken

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What came first the chicken or the egg?  Well, in this instance I can definitively say the egg came first.  

Yes, it was Chef David Chang's slow poached egg that first made its way into the Oui, Chef kitchen to much acclaim from the whole gang here (and many of you out there that tried it).  We had so much fun with his egg that I've been curious to try one of his other recipes, and what could make more sense after trying his egg, then to give his chicken a whirl.  This recipe comes from his tremendous cookbook Momofuku , which is not just a fab collection of recipes, but a real glimpse behind the scenes to give the reader a sense of what makes Chang tick.

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Peyton’s "Jean-Georges" Meal

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Today I lay down my pen (as it were) and camera, and hand over the reigns to Peyton who offered to write this guest post about an awesome meal she cooked just before heading off to summer camp.  All the words and photos are hers, and she hopes very much that you enjoy them. Cheers – Steve

One of my earliest memories about Asian food was trying to use chopsticks. I struggled, and ended up using my fingers instead. Another I have is about going to a wonderful Japanese restaurant and eating at a hibachi table. The chef cooked with huge flames, made onion volcanoes, and tossed eggs into his hat.  But what I remember most was his smile. He was enjoying the show as much as we were. Up until cooking with Steve, I hadn’t even dreamt of cooking Asian food. The techniques seemed so complicated and took years to master. 

Not long ago I was looking through his many, many cookbooks for a recipe for lamb. I went into Jean-Georges Vongerichten's cookbook, Jean-Georges: Cooking At Home with a Four-Star Chef, and it jumped out at me. No, not the lamb dish that I was looking for, but rather a picture like what you see above. It was of a whole plate of his signature appetizers, and it looked delicious.  Of course, it also looked like an intimidating challenge.  If you knew me personally, then you'd know why I couldn't just turn another page. I had to make it!

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Cherry Hand Pies

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It seems that over the past year whenever we had guests that offered to make a pre-dinner nibble to have with cocktails, they decided to craft something using frozen puff pastry dough.  Given that each of these folks brought a fresh box of pastry sheets with them, and used only half a box to make their appetizer, we recently discovered that we had 83 half used boxes of puff pastry in our freezer (no wonder we're running out of room there).

As I was starting to panic, wondering what the #@*& we were going to do with that many pastry sheets, my wife found this simple but delicious recipe in our latest issue of Bon Appetit.  This recipe is for little cherry pies, using a combination of fresh and dried fruit, but any type of fruit would work.  Beware though, if you're using a really juicy fruit you may need to up the amount of cornstarch used in order to guarantee a nice thick filling for your pies.  I'm thinking fresh apples and dried cranberries would be lovely, or how about peanut butter with a fresh strawberry compote, or dare I say, Nutella with some orange marmalade?  Oohhhh…..

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Lamb Köfte with Yogurt Sauce and Muhammara

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Are your taste buds tired of the same old same old?

Looking to spice up your dinner menu a bit this week?

Good, because this dish is gonna transport you to a brave new culinary world, and will totally rock those bored buds of yours.

I stumbled across this recipe in Bon Appetit some time ago and it immediately caught my eye.  It also made me think of my friend Joumana and her awesome blog, Taste of Beirut, because I couldn't help but think that this was the kind of food she grew up on…..lucky girl.  Sadly, I never got around to making the dish and sort of forgot about it until Joumana recently posted her own recipe for muhammara, a Syrian red pepper sauce.  Hers looked so good that I knew I had to go back and find this recipe and finally give it a try…I am SO GLAD I did.

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Lobster Rolls – A Tale of Summers Past

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This post was originally written as a guest post for my friend Greg over at SippitySup.  He had asked a number of blogger friends to write some pieces on childhood summer memories that he could post in his absence while he vacationed.  I know some of you read Greg's great blog, but for those who don't I thought I'd re-post this one here for you to enjoy. Cheers – Steve

My early childhood summers were fabulously routine, but never boring.  I grew up in a typical New England “beach” town, so for me, summer travel required no more than a 4 mile trek.  

Each summer vacation started the same, with Mom packing coolers of food and crates full of our summer duds (really nothing more than a few bathing suits and t-shirts), and loading them all into the Jeep.  A quick stop in town for a tide chart, and a brief stint in the barber’s chair for a short, summer crew-cut, and we were on our way to Saquish.

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Edamame and Cilantro Purée

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This past Sunday I attended what must have been the 5th or 6th H.S. graduation party for my oldest son Grid, and his classmates.  Despite the rather frigid temps at the beach where the party was held, and the fact that some of the kids HAD to have been suffering from party fatigue (it seems that current fashion dictates that EVERY family of a graduate must host a party in order that their kids remain in good standing with their class), a great time was had by all.  Calypso Hurricane rocked the house, and even pulled our young star Boris to the stage to lay down a sweet bass track for the band. Entwistle would have been proud.

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Blood Orange Frozen Yogurt

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How many of you have ever made your own ice cream?  It's really easy isn't it?  I mean, whether you've got a motorized "old-style" bucket ice maker, one of the cool Cuisinarts where you pre-freeze the canister insert, or a full fledged commercial monster with it's own built-in compressor (like me, he says shamefully), making home-made ice cream is one of the most rewarding things you can do in your kitchen.  

And your kids….are you kidding me?  Want to be their hero…….like, forever?  

Make ice cream with them and bask in all the glory that is rightfully yours.

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