Over the Hedge

So what do you do when you want some bangers and mash, but aren't sure the kiddies will eat it?  Food Art!  This is a pretty simple and quick dish which doesn't require a lot of work.

Ingredients are straight forward with sausge from the supermarket, olives, potatoes and peas.

For mash potatoes, the only thing you need to know is more butter = better tasting potatoes.  And while not the best thing, kids LOVE butter.  Come to think of it, adults do too!  When molding the hedgehogs, you want to make plump hedgehogs.  Don't be afraid to use your fingers to do the molding.  Add the peas (frozen is fine, they'll thaw in the mash) and olives, and you're set!

Pour a bit of olive oil and start cooking the olives.  Later, add some peppers and onions and you have a perfect dish.  While I didn't make hedgehogs for the wife, the kids certainly loved it.  Total cooking time along with preparation < 30 minutes.

Eddie's Day off Vanilla Panna Cotta with Raw Honey Plum syrup

It's been a wonderful week of from work and I've had the great opportunity to revsit a recipe I've learned from a fantastic restaurant in downtown Greenwich Manhattan call Camaje. I was given a birthday gift from my lovely wife to have private lessons with it's Chef Owner Abigail Hitchcock. It was an exciting experience to spend time with her and understand the hurdles she had to overcome to get into the industry and ultimately her own establishment.

She shared with me many wonderful recipes to which we served my wife, my brothers and sister and my nephew. All of which as some point I will share with you all  but let's start with the sweetest entree. The Vanilla Panna Cotta which was served with a mixed berry compote but I made it with a Plum Honey syrup. The Honey was found at Black Horse Farms, Athens, NY upstate by my brothers weekend house. It's a wonderful raw honey that is processed very lightly bringing you the flavors of the flowers used by the bees to make the honey. It tastes of flowers mainly lavender.

Software:
1/4 cup cold water

2 1/2 teaspoons unflavored gelatin (from 2 packages)
3 cups whipping cream
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract or 2 fresh vanilla beans

Hardware:
Ramekins 4-8 oz
Oven
Mixing Bowl
Pot
Knife
Baster (easier to transfer)

Syrup:
4 Tablespoons of your very best honey
2 plums skinned and diced
1 Teaspoon of lemon juice

Start by mixing the water and the gelatin and set aside to dissolve and thicken.

Next heat up the cream in a pot until a slight simmer be careful not to scorch the cream. Mix in the sugar and vanilla extract or seeded vanilla bean and pod. Simmer for about 5 - 10 minutes then remove the pod. (a wonderful tip from Abbey is that you can reuse the pod by washing it with clean water and letting it sit in sugar for vanilla sugar or in any clear alcohol like rum or vodka for vanilla extract)

Remove from heat then mix in the gelatin mixture. Mix and pour into the ramekins and set aside to room temperature. Plastic wrap and let them set in the fridge from 3 hours to 3 days. It's a great make ahead dessert.

For the syrup mix the honey, plums and lemons into a pot and slowly simmer for 5 minute then let cool and chill.

When plating set your ramekin in a hot bowl of water to loosen the sides. Towel the ramekin off and set a plate on it upside down and flip quickly. The panna cotta should transfer onto the plate. Drizzle with the syrup or your own compote or even fresh berries and you have yourself a gorgeous classy looking dessert with little effort.

Eddie's Famous Chinese Flied Lice.

The quintessential Chinese fast food is fried rice. It's a great dish that makes use of ole rice and whatever left over ingredients you have in the fridge. Today is one of my favorites and that's Chinese sausage fried rice. Here's what you'll need.

Software:
8 Cups of Cooked Day old Rice
4 Eggs
4 Chinese Sausages Sliced thinly on the bias
4 tablespoons Canola or peanut oil
1 Clove of Garlic minced
SnP

Hardware:
Wok or large cooking vessel with high rims
Stiff Spatula or wooden spoon

I like to actually start with the eggs first if you are using one pot so I you don't have to clean another pan. Some people start with the rice and cook the eggs in parallel and toss them in. Add 1 table spoon of canola oil into your wok or pan and set your flame on full blast. As you wait for wisps of smoke to start  you can crack your eggs into a bowl and mix them until homogenized. Once you start to see wisps of smoke coming from your oil pour your eggs in and SnP. As the eggs begin to cook start to pull the side of the eggs towards the center.

This will allow more of the cooked egg to pile up in the center and the raw egg to spool on the side and cook. Don't overcook the eggs. I like to have them finish a little runny because they will continue to cook as you cook the rice. Set aside once done.

Pour the rest of the oil into your wok or pan and let it heat until you see wisps again. Throw in your sliced Chinese sausage and cook for about 5 minutes until they begin to crisp golden brown then add your minced garlic. If you don't have great knife skills just peel your garlic and grate on a microplane.

Continue to cook until the mixture starts to smell aromatic.

Toss your rice in next and chop it up with your spatula to break up any large chunks.

After about 10 minutes of tossing and turning you can turn the flame off and add your eggs on top. Incorporate well and SnP to taste.

This dish is simple yet so comforting this is Fast Food the Chinese way.

Creme Brulee - Part 2

Take the ramekin out of the refridgerator and dump the rest of the sugar in each of them.  You want to have a layer of sugar completely covering the custard.  It's good to use a spoon and add a little bit of sugar in each, swirl the sugar around, then add more as needed.

Now, the boring way to caremlize the sugar on top is to throw it in the oven underneath a broiler for 30 seconds, but what fun is that? 

It's definitely a lot more fun to use your mini-blowtorch designed for this purpose.  While at Boulevard, the chef actually used a plumbing torch (you know, the kind for sodering pipes together).  Considering I watched him make over 40 of them while sitting there, I guess that makes sense.

Ideally when torching the sugar, you should leave the flame a bit in one spot until the sugar begins to carmelize, then move the flame.   Slowly move the flame around until the whole thing has a nice brown crust.  While this is also happening, the heat from the torch warms up the custard as well.

Repeat with the remaining ones.  If hosting a party, it's neat to bring out the custards and let the guests carmelize their own brulee.  You can garnish also with some fresh raspberries and a mint leaf for a more professional look.

Now to find more cool cooking gadgets.

Creme Brulee - Part I

Creme Brulee

A long time ago when I was away on a business trip, we had to do some late night work.  For dinner I suggested going to the nearest restaurant to the office building.  This was a place called Boulevard.  Unbeknownst to me, this was one of the hottest and hippest restaurants in San Francisco (for those looking it up, yes, it was a long time ago).

We were dressed in jeans and t-shirts while everyone else was dressed in suits.  The hostess indicated that they were fully booked however, we could have a seat at the bar.  Specifically, they placed us in front of the pasty chef station.  I really have no recollection what I had, but was just fascinated watching all the desserts being made in front of me.  One thing that stuck in my mind was the industrial blow torch the chef wielded when making his Creme Brulee.  I needed to do that.  Wielding open flame while cooking?  How awesome is that.  I ended up buying a small torch along with ramekins.

Software:

• 1 quart heavy cream
• 1 vanilla bean, split and scraped
• 1 cup sugar
• 6 egg yolks

 

Heat the heavy cream in a sauce pan and add the vanilla bean.   Don't let it over boil.  While this is heating up, whisk together the egg yolks and sugar in a medium bowl.  Hopefully by this time, the bean has been incorporated into the cream.  Remove from heat and discard the bean.  Let it cool for about 15 minutes,

then slowly pour a little bit at a time into the bowl with the egg yolks and sugar.  Continue stirring wihle pouring the cream into the egg mixture.

(funny, have no clue why this picture keeps uploading sideways)

 
 Prepare the bath of water with the ramekins by placing the ramekins in a baking dish and filling it up with hotwater.  The idea is to have the mixture cook evenly by having the water heat up the sides. 

 

Once that's complete, place it into the overn at 325 degrees for about 40 minutes or until the custard is set. 

 

 Remove from the oven and chill in refridgerator.  Next up, the fun part!