Oui, Chef

Meatless Monday - Baked Eggs with Spinach, Artichokes and Leeks

 

I'm a huge Paul McCartney fan, in fact I'm a Beatles freak.  While I'm a touch too young to have seen the Beatles perform live, I've been fortunate enough to see Paul a few times over the years and I am so grateful to have had the chance.  As I sat the other day thinking of performers I REALLY want my kids to see before they retire (don't ask me why I was thinking this, but I was), Paul McCartney topped the list.  I mean, can you think of anyone (still alive) that has influenced the music we all listen to today in such a profound way?  Yeah....me neither.  I could go on for days about what it is about his songwriting and singing that moves me, but much of it you've probably heard before, or even feel yourself.  

Parchment Baked Fish with Fennel

Baking fish in parchment is a fabulous technique that I'd read about for years but didn't try myself until just the other day, inspired by having seen my chef-friend Jody Adams cook some this way in a recent cooking class I attended.  Jody, who along with her husband Ken write and shoot the fabulous home-cooking blog, The Garum Factory, prepared a similar dish in her class, and from the first bite I was hooked.

Lemon-Poppy Pound Cake

This is the first recipe that Muppet and I have baked from the cookbook I bought her for her birthday this year.  The book is the first from one of our favorite local pastry chefs, the delightful Joanne Chang.  Joanne's book is named after her bakery, "Flour", and is a beautifully produced collection of many of the confections that have made her famous, and her bakeries Boston institutions.

I've had the good fortune to have met Joanne at a couple of Share Our Strength events (she is a huge supporter of the organization) and found her to be very warm and charming.  She was kind enough to inscribe the book for Muppet, so cooking from it was an extra special treat for our young baker.

Ming and Muppets Chicken Noodle Soup

Doesn't that rich chicken stock look delicious?

 

We call this Ming and Muppet's Soup because at it's base is a poached chicken and broth that comes from a recipe I adapted from Ming Tsai, and that appears in his great cookbook Simply Ming - One Pot Meals .  Ming serves his dish Chinese style, with each diner getting as piece of chicken and a cup of the broth to dip it in.  The other night when Muppet was begging for some homemade chicken noodle soup, we turned to Ming's chicken dish and just took it a few steps further by adding a couple more ingredients, and serving it over pasta for an unvbelievably tasty soup.

Pork Tenderloin with Coconut Cranberry Sauce

 

 We are huge fans of Ming Tsai in this household, so when I found his latest cookbook at a deep discount at our local (and sadly, closing) Borders Books, I grabbed it.  The book, Simply Ming One-Pot Meals  is chock full of Ming's trademark East-West recipes that are simple enough to cook on any given weeknight...huzzah.

Fennel Soup with Chorizo

I’ve never had the opportunity to eat in a Gordon Ramsay restaurant (Santa, are you listening?), but I do own a few of his cookbooks, and while I’m not a rabid fan of his TV shows, I’ve enjoyed a few episodes over the years.  I know lots of people hate the guy, or at least the personality he puts forth on TV, as he berates contestants on Hell’s Kitchen or The F Word, but I have to say that I appreciate his approach to cooking.

He may be an challenge to work with, but his application of classical technique to the very best ingredients he can find, and his ability to conjure bold, yet approachable flavors for his guests, has earned him a spot among the very best chefs in the world.  I’m a fan.

Crispy Chicken Thighs with Olives, Lemon and Fennel

Here is yet another Thomas Keller recipe that we at Oui, Chef can wholeheartedly endorse.  As you all must know by now, we are big fans of braised chicken, as we’ve cooked this dish, this one, and this one over the past couple of years.  We love these dishes not just for their bold, deep flavors, but for their economy as well.  It really is hard to beat chicken for feeding a crowd on the cheap.

 This braise marries some of our favorite flavors, sweet fennel, briny olives, and bright, fruity citrus.  All of these elements combine with the rich, moist thigh meat and meld into a truly satisfying meal.  As with most of his recipes, Keller offers up a trick for this dish that will change the way I finish all chicken braises in the future.

Ad Hoc Buttermilk Fried Chicken

Many of you may recall that when I posted David Chang's "Momofuku's Fried Chicken" a while back I said I'd be back soon with an honest to goodness buttermilk fried chicken recipe.  Well here it is, thought it comes to us not from America's deep south, but rather by way of one of my favorite chefs, Thomas Keller, and the gang at his Ad Hoc Restaurant in the Napa Valley.

While I have been a fan of traditional, batter coated fried chicken for years, I never endeavored to make it myself until now.  

Why?  

Porcini Risotto with Chicken and Rosemary

For me, risotto ranks right up there with frittatas as a perfect dish with which to use up a fridge full of leftovers.  As long as you have some carnaroli or arborio rice in your pantry, a wedge of parmesan in the fridge, and a good quality chicken or vegetable stock on hand, a hearty and delicious risotto is just a few minutes away.

A few days ago, Muppet and I found a lonely leek, some leftover roasted chicken and some peas that needed to be used up in our fridge.  To these goodies we decided to add some lovely dried (and rehydrated) porcini mushrooms that my wife and I bought in the village of Asolo, Italy when we travelled there last year on a fabulous culinary bike tour with Chef Jody Adams, and our friends at ItaliaOutdoors.  I'm kicking myself that I didn't buy more while we were there, because these shrooms are big, meaty and loaded with flavor, a world apart from the crumbled scraps of mushrooms that often pass for dried wild ones here.

Green Tomato Chutney

This is a recipe I found last fall when I had an abundance of green tomatoes from my garden, and found a lot more at my local farmer's market that were practically being given away.  At about the same time I made my batch of chutney, my friend Winnie at Healthy Green Kitchen posted a version of this very same chutney (what is it they say about great minds?), so I decided to hold mine back for a later date.  When I saw a farmer selling a bunch of green tomatoes at Thursday's farmer's market (many farmers don't just sell green tomatoes at the end of the season), I was reminded of this tasty treat and wanted to get the recipe out to you.

Winnie adapted her awesome chutney by altering the spices and sugar some, mine is just as Tom Colicchio wrote the recipe in his great cookbook, Think Like a Chef .  Try either recipe, or play doctor and come up with your own spin.  Either way you go, you'll end up with a dead-simple recipe that will yield a delicious condiment that will enhance anything you serve it alongside.  Really, this is good with beef, pork, lamb, poultry, seafood...you name it.

Enjoy - Steve