Oui, Chef

Thanksgiving Goodness!

Gingered Cranberry-Fig Chutney

Whew....I just put the finishing touches on our menu plan for Thanksgiving Day, and I'm pretty excited about the spread we have planned for our gang of twenty this year.  For the most part, we have guests bring all our hors d'oeuvres and desserts so that we can concentrate on everything in between.  I'm lucky my family is loaded with great cooks who are eager to pitch-in so I can cross a good chunk of the planning and prep off of my list to concentrate on the bird and side dishes.

I like switching things up year to year and trying new recipes, so long as they fit within the general parameters of what my family expexts from a traditional Thanksgiving feast.  By that I mean that we always have a turkey with gravy, some sort of potato dish, a green veggie side, creamed or glazed onions, dressing (I don't stuff our bird), some sort of a squash dish, and cranberry sauce.  As long as I offer up something in each of those gategories, I feel free to experiment and have fun.

So , what are we having this year?  

Corned Beef and Root Vegetable Hash with Poached Eggs

This post marks my first foray into the world of homemade charcuterie, and if the success of this dish is any indication, we are in for a fun and delicious few months of experimenting with this rather ancient culinary tradition.  You see, I've joined a group of adventurous food bloggers in what has been named "Charcutepalooza - A Year of Charcuterie".  The purpose of the group, which was founded and is being managed by the amazing bloggers Mrs. Wheelbarrow, and the The Yummy Mummy, is to encourage all of us participating to delve into the mystical world of charcuterie with a little help from cookbook author and food writer extrordinaire, Michael Ruhlman.

Cod and Cabbage Purses with Lemon-Caper Brown Butter Sauce

 
By the time I finished my training at Le Cordon Bleu, I had sworn that I would never again cook a dish that required my wrapping anything in a cabbage leaf.  Why?  Because over the course of my time there, it seemed that we spent an inordinate amount of time cooking things in cabbage, and to be honest, I wasn’t a big fan.

Training at the school is broken into three trimesters, the first concentrating on the very basics of knife skills and cuts, and learning the ins and outs of culinary building blocks such as stock, roux etc.  The second term is designed as a tour around regional France, with each week or so dedicated to exploring the classic dishes of the country’s varied regional cuisines. In the final term we stepped things up and created modern, internationally influenced “restaurant” quality dishes.

Future Chefs

 

A couple of weeks ago I had the good fortune to join chef Jody Adams at a benefit for an organization she has been involved with for a few years now, Future Chefs.  The event was fashioned as a “Tour Around the World” where Future Chefs students cooked delicious treats from eight different countries, and served them to eager partygoers at stations placed throughout the beautiful Brookline home of the event’s hosts.  If I could choose one word to describe both the event, and the Future Chefs students I had the pleasure of meeting that night, it would be.....Impressive.

Foodies of the World

I'm quite proud and happy to share that "Oui, Chef" was chosen to be among the 59 Food Bloggers that contributed to the just published "Foodies of the World" cookbook.  Our print copy just arrived in the mail today, and I must say that is was kinda cool to see our food and words in full-color print.

The book is beautifully designed and is chock-full of fabulous recipes from some of my favorite food bloggers.  Folks like Lynda Balslev of "TasteFood", Jaden Hair of "Steamy Kitchen", Denise Woodward and Laudalino Ferreira of "Chez Us", and Beatrice Peltre of "La Tartine Gourmande", have all contributed delicious recipes to the project.

The publishers chose two posts with recipes from each blogger to incorporate into the book.  There is also a brief profile of each "foodie" that details their background, as well as what inspired them to start blogging, and what motivates them to keep writing, cooking and sharing.  I'm really enjoying reading up on all the other bloggers in the book and getting a sense for what informs their writing and cooking styles.

In addition to the two recipes that I contributed, "Beef Bourguignon" and "Profiteroles", there are some terrific recipes for "Farro Risotto", "Lemon and Garlic Rack of Lamb with Fresh Mint Sauce", "Chocolate and Vanilla Petits Pots de Creme", "Curry Laksa", "Gratin Dauphinois au Chorizo", and "Chocolate Rum Raisin Bread Pudding" just to name a few.  There are so many I want to try, I just have to figure out where to start.....I'm thinking it just might be the bread pudding!

If you'd like to get turned on to some really great food blogs (or just have a hankerin' for a fab new cookbook), I urge you to click on the link below and buy your own copy of "Foodies of the World", I am quite certain you won't be disappointed.  Happy reading and eating!

Cheers - Steve

to order a copy of Foodies of the World, click HERE

PFB #1 - Wagamama's Ebi Yakatori

 

This post marks my first entry in Foodbuzz’s  Project Food Blog contest. The contest is a 10 part challenge to determine the “Next Food Blog Star”, with some bloggers eliminated after each qualifying round.  This post is meant to satisfy the first challenge of the competition which is for me to define for my readers “who I am” as a food blogger. Now I'm not much of a grandstander, and don't have it in me to try to SELL you on why I should be voted a "star", but I absolutely believe in the mission of my blog, and hope that the brief introduction and post below give you a good sense for what we're all about here at "Oui, Chef".  You can learn more about me and Project Food Blog by clicking on the contest widget to the right of this post.  Voting for the 1st round entries starts on Monday, September 20^th, and I’ll be writing a follow-up post in a few days describing how you can follow the competition, and vote me through to subsequent rounds if wish. Thanks!

 

Those of you who have been with us for a while here at “Oui, Chef” have gotten to know what we’re all about, but for those of you new to our little site, the story behind this post provides me an excellent opportunity to share with you our raison d’être. 

 

The idea behind “Oui, Chef” came to me after I had read an article by Jamie Oliver on his efforts to improve the school lunch programs in his native England.   As I contemplated his efforts, I started spending some time thinking about what it was that I wanted to teach MY kids about food, cooking, and how to feed themselves well in an environmentally responsible way, and the seeds for “Oui, Chef” were sewn. 

I started to wonder why, among all the things we work so hard to teach our kids, cooking isn’t even on most people’s radar screen.  We teach them to dress themselves, clean their rooms, wash behind their ears, and say no to drugs, but how many of us really take the time to teach our kids how to cook, and how to make responsible choices about what it is they put in their bodies?   Now I’m not talking about “cooking” microwave popcorn or pre-packaged mac and cheese here, I know a boat load of kids that have microwave skills light years beyond mine.  I’m talking about cooking real food, understanding where this food comes from, its effect on their health, and how the way it is grown and brought to market impacts our planet.

"Oui, Chef" now 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 maybe starting some new ones.  My desire in the end is not just to enhance my young sous chefs’ culinary skills, but to advance their level of environmental awareness, and broaden their palates as well.

 

Each post you’ll find here on “Oui, Chef” touches on at least one of these points, either by introducing the kids to unfamiliar cuisines, teaching them a new cooking technique, or illuminating the nutritional and environmental consequences of our food choices; but I have to admit that it is a rare one that can tag all the bases. 

Every now and again however, the stars align, and fate tosses us the seeds of a post that does more than just offer the kids a chance to hone their cooking skills on a new recipe, but one that gets them to think about their connection to place, and what impact their food choices make on the planet at large......the girls enjoyed an adventure earlier this summer that did just that.

Paris

(photo credit: my significantly better-half)

 

We're back.....have you missed us?

No?

What do you mean you didn't even know we were gone......  

You make me sad.

For those of you who HAVE been wondering why we've had so few posts over the past weeks, the answer is that we've been doing a little traveling, and while we were able to pre-schedule a few posts to publish in our absence, they haven't been hitting the site with our normal frequency.  In fact, I was in such a hurry to get the last few done, that I actually popped them in the queue while sitting at JFK, waiting for a flight with the boys as we jetted off for our annual "he-man" getaway at the end of the school year.

A day after returning home with them, my wife, the girls and I were on a plane to Paris (am I a lucky bugger, or what?).  

Oui, Chef's One Year Anniversary!

Only on this day are the kids "all-thumbs"!

It's hard for me to believe that a year has already past since writing my first post back in June of 2009. Wow.....where does the time go?  

No recipe to share today (boo), but rather a few words of thanks, and a moment for both reflecting on the year that was, and for looking forward to what lies ahead for those of us in the "Oui, Chef" kitchen.

First, a from the bottom of my heart THANK YOU for everyone who has visited our site and been a part, whether large of small, of our first year on-line.  We feel blessed to have grown such a wonderful and enthusiastic readership, and are thrilled with the growing group of regulars that somehow always find the time to check out our latest posts, and make a point to cheer us along at every step.  Your encouragement, warmth, and passion for what we do means a great deal to all of us here, and provides us great incentive to keep "Oui, Chef" moving forward, striving to  discover more tasty food, and fun lessons to share with you all.

Jody Adams' Halibut Braised in Ginger-Lemongrass Broth

  

In celebration of Jody Adams' decisive first and second round victories in Bravo Network's latest "Top Chef Masters" competition, I thought we'd cook a dish today from her terrific cookbook (co-authored by her husband, Ken Rivard), In the Hands of A Chef: Cooking with Jody Adams of Rialto Restaurant.   This dish is a bit of a departure from Jody's typically mediterranean offerings, but as a nod to asian-fusion style cooking in the style of a "bourride" (a Provencal fish stew), it is a real winner.  I've taken a few liberties with the dish only to use up a few ingredients I had in my fridge that I thought would work well here, but the soul of this light and delicious dish is all Jody.

Jamie Oliver's Chicken Korma

I've said it before, and I'll say it again....I'm a big fan of Jaime Oliver.  I like his food philosophy, I like his recipes, I like his no-nonsense approach to getting things done in the kitchen, I like the message he's bringing to the world, and the campaign he's built to not only get families eating healthier food, but to get better food into the schools for our kids. 

People ask me all the time, "if you could be any chef on the planet who would it be?".  As you might guess, the normal superstar suspects all come to mind..... let's see there's Robuchon, Keller, Ducasse, Vongerichten, Boulud, Ripert, Blumenthal, and Adria, just to name a few.  But to be honest, if I could click my heals together today and change myself into any chef currently working, I'd want to be Oliver.   I mean, it would be very cool to be any of the aforementioned chefs, working at the very peak of gastronomy, but I don't think there is any chef working so hard to bring better food and cooking skills to average families and kids than Oliver, and how cool and important is that!