I've had the thought of these little buggers marinating in the back of my brain for a while now. In fact, about 6 months ago I titled a post "S'more Tarts" as a placeholder and reminder that the concept seemed worthy of a little investigation and culinary creativity. Well, last week after having seen that empty post yet again, I decided it was time to get off my ass couch and get busy making a Oui, Chef version of these treats.
This recipe is one inspired by a dish showcased in Fine Cooking a few months back, and should hop right to the top of the list for your next "Meatless Monday" meal. My version teams roasted leeks and brussels sprouts with salty blue cheese, sweet craisins, and earthy brown-butter pecans for a hearty and well balanced vegetarian treat.
Continue reading "Orecchiette with Blue Cheese, Leeks and Brussels Sprouts" »
For Peyton's "Sweet Sixteen" birthday dinner she stayed true to form and just like last year chose an Asian themed meal and CHEESECAKE for dessert. She was a little concerned that they weren't the most natural of pairings, but I assured her that on your birthday there are no rules. If the little nutbag she wanted sushi and cheesecake for her birthday feast, then an East meets West mash-up it would be.
Fine Cooking Magazine recently ran a "Create Your Own Recipe" feature for how to make quiche. As they've done with braises and stir-fries, they focus on the basic elements of a dish, then suggest all sorts of ways to inject your own creativity to come up with an original taste. We took their basic crust and custard recipes and added veggies and cheese to our liking. The result....quite delicious.
Jasper White is a culinary icon here in the Northeast. He was one of a handful of chefs back in the 1980s who helped to elevate Boston's restaurant scene from 2 star to 5 star status. His fine dining restaurant, Jasper's, quickly became the pinnacle of seafood dining in the city. When he tired of the Michelin Star demands of his success, he closed Jasper's and became the Executive Chef of the famed Legal Seafoods group, helping them expand their offerings from stodgy fish and chip fare to a more modern, healthy take on all things from the sea.
These days Jasper is at the helm of his Summer Shack restaurant chain, family friendly joints that once again highlight his mastery of seafood, but this time stripped of all the pretense of his fine dining days. Suffice to say, Jasper White has become a trusted source for us in all matters fishy, and his recipes never...ever fail.
Happy New Year to you all, I hope you had a delicious holiday season full of family and fun!
This is an awesome recipe that I'd hoped to share before the holidays just in case some of you wanted to serve these meatballs up as hors d'oeuvres at a holiday cocktail party but as is often the case, especially around the holidays, time slipped away and I never got it posted in time.
Ever have a craving for a good old fashioned chocolate puddin'? You know, like the kind your grandmother made you when you were a kid?
How about an adult version of that childhood memory, all gussied up with high-quality bittersweet chocolate and a fancy Italian name?
Yeah, me too....read on.
Now that you've polished off the last of the pies, cakes and crumbles left over from your Thanksgiving feast, it's time to replenish your dessert larder with a new treat. God forbid you go more than a day or two without a holiday worthy sweet in your house this time of year....what would the neighbors say?
You might think from the name of this recipe (Riz Au Lait is French for rice with milk) that it's all about the rice....it's not. This dish is all about vanilla and cream, the rice acts only as a mechanism to deliver these two stars to your taste buds and to provide a little texture. This is not the rice pudding of your youth, the cold, gummy cup of misery that the lunch ladies served up on occasion. That dish was cold rice soaked in low-fat milk and sugar, this one by contrast delivers plump grains of short rice luxuriating in a bath of warm, sweetened cream and vanilla. You follow?
It's snowy whiteness is so enticing that I wouldn't be surprised to learn that this is the dish that Mrs. Claus uses to fatten Santa for his long, cold journey on Christmas Eve. Yeah, this dessert is sinfully rich and should therefor be served is appropriately small portions (unless of course you're looking to Santa-size yourself). In fact, it's so rich that it's one of those dishes that warrants a mention on the Q & A form presented at your annual physical.
No, this isn't a belated Halloween post just uncovered from beneath the pile of crap on my desk. This is a soup I crafted out of two left over sugar pumpkins that received a last minute stay of execution from Jack Skellington himself. You see, this year we bought three smallish pumpkins for seeds and to be converted to Jack-O-Lanterns to display for the exactly ZERO kids that visit us for "Tricks or Treats" on Halloween night (I don't even know why we bother). I topped and cleaned out all three of the pumpkins, then carved one into a fearsome looking squat demon of a thing, the other two I set aside for the girls to carve. Sadly, they never got around to carving theirs (too busy costuming for their candy confiscation tour, I guess), so ferocious ghouls they were not to be.
With just under a week to go before Thanksgiving, it's time to start training for the big day. I'm not talking about kitchen time trials where you block out cooking times for your various dishes to make sure you have the oven and burner space to pull everything together in a timely fashion.
No, I'm talking about deliberately increasing your food intake over the next week to prepare your body for the onslaught that is the Thanksgiving feast. Just as you would never dream of running a marathon or swimming a mile without some serious conditioning, don't kid yourself into thinking that you can survive Thanksgiving without some pre-feast indulgence.
Continue reading "Apple Cranberry Crisp with Hazelnut Topping and Creme Anglaise" »
"Oui, Chef" exists as an extension of my efforts to teach my kids a few things about cooking, and how their food choices over time effect not only their own health, but that of our local food communities and our planet at large. By sharing some of our cooking experiences, I hope to inspire other families to start spending more time together in the kitchen, passing on established familial food traditions, and starting some new ones. Read more...
Follow Me on Pinterest