New Toys for More Playing With My Food

I purchased a couple of lights and a backdrop sweep. It will be fun to begin playing with the background colors and how the food bounces off it. Here is one of my first attempts. I photographed a glass bowl of pea shoots against a brilliant yellow back ground.

Egg Foo Yong

Growing up in small town Mid-America in the 60's, Chinese food was the most exotic food we knew. My family really enjoyed it when we made the 45 mile trek to Peoria, where the closest Chinese restaurant was located. My mom would always bring home some Chinese tea bags, because she said "It's always the best"-and, as usual, she was right. Egg Foo Yong is one of those Americanised Chinese dishes i really like. I think it makes a really elegant Sunday breakfast.

Egg Foo Yong is really just an unrolled omlet with bits of vegetabes and meat stirred in, and topped with a brown sauce. I used some pea shoots, bean sprouts, scallion, and left over lamb chop. Garlic, ginger, sesame, sherry, and soy sauce are always part of my Chinese cooking. I topped my eggs with a brown sauce made of chicken broth with the afore mentioned flavors and seasonings. I used some oyster mushrooms in the sauce as well, Shiitake would have been more appropriate, but they are my least favorite mushroom-I eat them once in a while, but I prefer these oyster mushrooms.

Persian Lamb Chops with Sour Cherry Rice

While putting together Easter and Mother's Day menus, I came across this dish posted by "Hummingbird" on one of the eGullet forums. I'll be changing the lamb to pork tenderloins for my Mother's Day menu. Despite growing some terrific lamb here in the Mid-west, Mid-westerners don't consume much of it. Likewise, in Iran, where this dish would have originally developed, no one would ever make it with pork. I also will not be calling the dish Persian-after all we are practically at war with these people. The dish will be retitled "Cherry Wine glazed Pork Tenderloin" (because I'm adding cherry wine to the sauce) with cherry rice pilaf. Or maybe I should drop the pilaf part and just call it cherry rice-some people might think pilaf is "too French sounding" . Whatever it ends up being called, it is quite a savorous combination of vittles.

This recipe calls for sour or tart cherries-not the sweet ones-canned or jarred in juice or light syrup.

Marinade

1 cup yogurt

1/4 cup honey

1/4 teaspoon ground cumin

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

1 clove of garlic, minced

2 Tablespoons chopped fresh ginger

Freshly ground black pepper

Combine all of the ingredients and marinate the chops a couple of hours or overnight. Hummingbird used leg of lamb, not chops, and she roasted it rather than grill it. This is enough marinade to cover 8 thick cut chops or a leg of lamb.

I grilled the chops over a medium fire. You have to be careful of flare-ups and not getting the fire too hot as the honey in the marinade burns easily.

Cherry Rice

1/4 cup carrots, small dice

1/4 cup shallot, small dice

1/4 cup celery, small dice

1/2 cup sour cherries, drained

1/4 cup butter

1 1/2 cups Jasmin rice

3 cups of water

1 teaspoon sugar

Salt and pepper

1/4 cup chopped pistachios

Melt the butter in a Dutch oven with a tight fitting lid, abd saute the vegetables and cherries for about 5 minutes until they are soft, but not browned.

Add the rice and stir to thoroughly combine, continue to cook until the rice becomes opaque and milky-two to three minutes longer.

Add the water and seasoning and bring the pot to the boil, cover and place in a 350 degree pre-heated oven. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes until the liquid is absorbed and the rice is tender and fluffy.

Top with chopped pistachios and serve.

Cherry Wine Glaze

2 Tablespoons shallots, minced

1/2 cup sour cherries, drained

1/2 cup cherry juice

1 cup cherry wine

1/2 cup butter, cut into small cubes

In a saute pan, bring the shallots, cherries, juice, and wine to the boil, and reduce until the liquid is syrupy, mount the glaze with the butter and serve-this glaze does not hold, serve immediately.

Roast Chicken with Fennel Confit

I took my fennel confit recipe and added some santa grape tomatoes to it and topped with some chicken, placed it in a roasting pan with some par-boiled rice and made a sort of one dish casserole. First I made the confit and parboiled the rice for about 5 minutes. I layered the confit on half the bottom of a pyrex baking dish, on the other half I layered the rice. I sauteed the chicken in a very hot saute pan only until the skin was browned. I placed the chicken over the confit and rice in the baking dish and added some chicken stock. Cover the baking dish with foil and bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 20 to 25 minutes. Uncover and bake further until the chicken is crisped again and the rice is tender-add more stock if necessary.

Fennel Confit

1 pound fresh fennel, thinly sliced crosswise

5 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced

1/4 cup olive oil

1/4 cup golden raisins

2 teaspoons whole coriander seeds

Juice and zest of one orange

Pinch of saffron

1 pint of Santa grape tomatoes

Chopped fresh Cilantro

Salt and pepper

Saute the fennel and garlic in the oil for about 5 minutes, the vegetables should be slightly soft, but not browned.

Stir in the raisins, coriander, juice, zest, and saffron. Stir-cook for another 2 minutes. Taste for the seasoning and add the grape tomatoes. Serve at room temperature, or proceed with the rest of the recipe and bake with the rice and chicken in a casserole. This is really good with any roast chicken or also with fish. Garnish with fresh Cilantro

Scallops with Papaya, Avocado, and Arugula.

I was developing this dish for a fish class at The Kitchen Conservatory that never never quite got off the ground. I really enjoyed the vibrant colors and the clean sweet flavors of the scallops and fruit snapped with the acidity of the vinaigrette and the bitter greens. I will definitely file this away for another day.

1 pound of scallops (these were bay, but sea scallops would work as well)

2 Tablespoons olive oil

1 papaya, peeled, seeded, and cut into strips, tossed with fresh lime juice

1 avocado, peeled, cut into strips, tossed with fresh lime juice

1 small red onion, cut into thin rings and soaked in ice water to tame

Fresh lime juice

5 cups baby Arugula

In a very hot saute pan, briefly sear the scallops in the oil, remove from the pan and toss with some of the lime juice, hold until you are ready to assemble the salad.

Spicy Orange Vinaigrette

1 Tablespoon of Champage or white wine vinegar

Zest and juice of one orange

2 Tablespoons of fresh lime juice

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

2 Tablespoons chopped Cilantro

1 hot chili, seeded and minced

1/2 cup fruity olive oil

Salt and pepper to taste

Combine vinaigrette ingredients and mix well.

Lay the arugula on the bottom of a serving platter.

Arrange the scallops, papaya, avocado, and oinion slices over the arugula.

Drizzle with the vinaigrette and garnish with the Cilantro.

Spaghetti with Brown Butter and Mizithra

One of the Gallagher's children's birthday was last week, and her favorite restaurant is "The Old Spaghetti Factory" so I recreated her favorite dish from that restaurant for her and her boyfriend's birthday dinner at the restaurant. That must be the most horrible and tortured sentence I have ever written, but I guess it explains this post. I have been to "The Old Spaghetti Factory" once, but I don't remember it well, or why I was there. It is a huge place located on "Laclede's Landing" on the St Louis riverfront. Laclede's Landing is a touristy area of shops and restaurants with a large number of pick-up meat market type bars-Spaghetti Factory is one of the touristy family style places, relatively inexpensive, large portions, great for families because it is located close to all the hometown teams-Rams, Cardinals, and Blues.

Mizithra is a Greek sheep's milk hard cheese that is made out of the whey from Feta Cheese. The cheese is like a mild feta, not quite as salty and pungent, a nice alternative to Parmesan for a change.

It seems that there alot of copy-cat recipes for this dish all over the internet, and it is quite simple

Here is the ratio:

1 pound cooked pasta

1/2 pound clarified brown butter

1 cup grated Mizithra cheese

Minced fresh parsley

I thought this dish was pretty simple and delicious, please note that Mizithra does not melt, it remains chewy.

Butterscotch Ice Cream and Date, Macadamia Nut, Coconut Cookies

This ended up being a little too rich for me, but the ice cream and the cookies were both delicious.

Butterscotch Ice Cream

1 cup packed brown sugar

2 Tablespoons of butter

1 Tablespoon rum

1 1/2 cups heavy cream

2 cups half and half

6 egg yolks

Heat the cream, sugar, butter until smooth and bubbly, add the rum, let the mixture cool.

Heat the half and half to the simmering point.

In a mixing bowl, whip the eggs, add some hot half and half to the eggs, the return the egg mixture to the pan of hot half and half. Whisk until the mixture thickens-do not boil.

Thoroughly combine the two mixtures and let chill over night before freezing in your ice cream freezer.

Date, Macadamia Nut, Coconut Cookies

1/4 pound butter, softened

3/4 cup packed brown sugar

1 egg

2 Tablespoons Vanilla extract

1 cup all purpose flour

1 cup coarsely chopped dates

1 cup coarsely chopped toasted Macadamia nuts

1 cup flaked coconut

1 cup rolled oats

Cream the butter and sugar with a mixer until smooth and creamy, add the egg and vanilla.

Add the flour. Fold in the dates, nuts, and coconut.

Drop the batter by tablespoons onto a greased baking sheet and bake in a 350 degree pre-heated oven for 12 to 15 minutes, makes about 3 dozen cookies.

Lunch at Le Perroquet Circa 1977

Jovan Treboyevic, a particularly brilliant Chicago Restaurateur passed away on January 13th-he was 89. He also owned Jovan's and a private dining club Les Nomades. I never met him, but I did have lunch at Le Perroquet in 1977. It was one of those unforgettable meals that food obsessed people always carry with them. The restaurant was located on Walton Street in the heart of Chicago's Gold Coast. It was pretty intimidating for me, but I was with two other people who knew their way around French restaurants and how to order.

You had to ride a beautiful old elevator of polished brass and scarlet velvet upholstery to the third floor where the restaurant was located. It was a hushed sanctuary of crisp white linens, gleaming and heavy silverware, and dining banquets upholstered in the same brilliant scarlet velvet as the elevator. There were also some tastefull and understated parrot motifs to reinforce the name.

I will never forget the cauliflour mousse that was my first course that day. It was revelatory to me to use a humble vegetable like cauliflour to make such an elegant and unusual (for me) dish. I have been thinking about this dish since reading Jovan's obituary. This is not his recipe, it is my own concoction-and not as silky smooth as his, and definitely not his carrot sauce-I'm pretty sure he would have considered that quite inappropriate. His mousse was sauced in a pristine white veloute.

Cauliflour Mousse with Carrot-Ginger Emulsion

1 head of cauliflour

1 shallot, minced

1 cup plus 1/4 cup heavy cream

3 eggs

Salt, white pepper, and nutmeg to taste

Blanch the cauliflour in salted water until tender-about 20 minutes.

Drain the cauliflour and return to the pan with 1/4 cup cream and continue to cook the cauliflour in the cream until it is totally soft and the cream is absorbed.

Cool slightly and puree the cauliflour.

Make a custard with the remaning cream and eggs, season and fold the cauliflour and custard together.

Ladel the cauliflour mixture into greased ramekins of timbales and bake in a Bain Marie in a 325 degree oven for about 30 to 45 minutes, until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.

Let cool slightly, run a thin knife around the ramekin's edge and invert to unmold the mousse onto a serving plate. Makes 4 to 6 servings depending on the size of your molds.

Spoon some of the Carrot-Ginger Emulsion around the mousse.

Carrot-Ginger Emulsion

2 cups of carrot juice

2 Tablespoons of fresh ginger, minced

1 carrot, grated

1/4 cup cream

3/4 pound butter, softened slightly

Freshly ground pepper and salt to taste

Combine the carrot juice, the ginger, and grated carrot in a small sauce pan and simmer for ten minutes. Puree the mixture and return it to the sauce pan. Add the cream and reduce the mixture to about 1 cup. Slowly whisk in the butter 2 tablespoons at a time. Taste and adjust the seasoning.

Gumbo z'Herbes

I wanted to post one more New Orleans recipe I made recently, this was quite delicious. I didn't make a roux, so it's not a proper gumbo, but the flavors are superb and sometimes a lighter broth is more welcome than the thicker roux gumbos. This gumbo, also known as green gumbo has so many variations and greens that you can add-the more the better.

1 whole chicken

1 large ham hock

1 pound andouille sausage, cut into 1" pieces

1 large onion, diced

3 large carrots, peeled and sliced

1 green bell pepper, diced

2-3 cloves of garlic, sliced thinly

1 bunch collards, cleaned and cut into 1" pieces

1 bunch turnip greens, cleaned and cut into 1" pieces

1 bunch mustard greens, cleaned and cut into 1" pieces

1/2 cup fresh tarragon leaves

1 cup minced parsley

1 teaspoon dried oregano

1 teaspoon dried thyme

1 Tablespoon sugar (optional)

1 cup long grain rice

Salt and pepper to taste

In a large stock pot, bring 1 1/2 gallons of water to the boil, add the chicken and the ham hock, stew gently for 45 minutes to 1 hour. Remove the chicken and hock from the pot and let cool.

Add everything except the rice to the broth in the stock pot, when the chicken and hock are cool enough to handle, pick the meat and add it back to the stock pot.

Simmer the soup over low heat for 1 hour. Taste for seasoning, if the green are too bitter add the optional sugar.

Add the rice and continue to simmer unti the rice is tender.

Spinach, beet greens, carrot tops are other greens often used in this gumbo.

Happy Mardi Gras

I taught this menu twice this month at two different Dierberg locations, both classes were sold out, and several students said they were planning their own crawfish boils. I know I've posted about crawfish boils several times on Kitchen Inferno, but I don't know if I ever put up a recipe.

12 pounds of crawfish

3 pounds of shrimp-24-26 count

6 ears of corn, shucked and cut in half

3 pounds of red "B" potatoes

2 pounds of andouille sausage, cut into 1" pieces

3 lemons cut in half-squeeze juice into the broth

1 head of garlic cut in half crosswise

2 large onions, peeled and quartered

1 cup Louisiana hot sauce, such as Crystal

1/4 cup liquid crab boil seasoning-sold in most seafood departments and shops

1 cup dry crab boil seasoning, sold in most seafood departments and shops

1 cup Kosher salt

1 Tablespoon Cayenne

In a large stock pot, bring 30 quarts of water to the boil. Add the crab seasonings, lemons and juice, garlic, onions, hot sauce, cayenne, and salt-bring to the boil and simmer 1/2 hour-taste for saltiness and spiciness-the liquid should have a salty and spicy bite to it.

Add the potatoes and simmer for 15 minutes.

Add the corn and simmer for 10 more minutes.

Add the crawfish, shrimp, and sausage, bring to the boil, cover the pot and turn off the heat. Let the Crawfish boil steep in the broth for 1/2 hour before serving.

Serve with melted butter and spicy mayonaise dips.

Breakfast at Cafe Osage at Bowood Farm

I don't get to dine out that often, I'm usually working or cooking at home. This week I taught a class on Wednesday, prepared a wedding dinner on Friday, and a sold out prix fixe dinner on Saturday for Valentine'sDay. I was showing a little fatigue, so Sunday I slept in and we went out for breakfast. The Cafe Osage is a restaurant located in a greenhouse/nursery that is housed in an old automobile parts warehouse in the middle of an inner city neighborhood. The actual farm is located in Clarksville, MO. On their farm they grow most of the perennials, shrubs etc. that they sell-they also produce bison.

I enjoyed breakfast, but I was a little disappointed. The dining room is small and we were seated at an extremely small table for two next to the door. There were larger booths and tables that looked more comfortable for larger groups. The tablescape was plain-only a container of sugar and sugar substitute. In a restaurant located inside a warehouse filled with plants, I expected a small pot of herbs or ivy at least to center the table. Some tables were set with proper silverware and a nice cloth napkin, but our table only got napkins and forks. Cream was stirred into our coffee with the forks. Spoons and knives arrived after they were requested.

Cheese grits arrived luke warm with cold cheese shreds on top, which never melted. The grits had decent flavor with cheese already incorporated into them-they would have been better than the ones you get in most places if they had been a bit warmer.

I had corned beef hash with poached eggs. The hash was delicious and hot, but it arrived with one of my egg yolks already broken-at least the eggs weren't overcooked. Service was friendly, but they seemed a little stressed. The bill was presented rather cleverly in an old text book. It would probably be more festive to visit this place in the Spring when the outside areas and courtyard are filled with plants.

Dr Pepper BBQ Ribs for Superbowl

We're not really big sports fans here, but any excuse to make ribs and have people over is ok with me. These ribs turned out really good-they are sticky and sweet, but not as sweet as the popular commercial sauces like KC or Sweet Baby Ray's- which I find a little too cloying.

I soaked the ribs overnight in salted Dr Pepper, remove them from the brine a couple of hours before you grill them so that they can dry well before you grill them. I made a simple dry rub of cayenne, cumin, and ground pepper and applied it before I put them on a very low charcoal grill. You must keep all the coals off to one side of the grill and place the ribs on the side without the coals so that it becomes an indirect heat and smoke source. Add more coals to the fire as the old ones begin to extinguish. It took over three hours and I estimate the grill temperature to have stayed between 275 and 300 degrees. During the last 1/2 hour of grilling, I began applying the glaze. The ribs were sweet and sticky, but they were not swimming in sauce. They were also juicy, tender and succulent. I should point out that I bought the ribs at Soulard Farmer's Market, from a local grower-you can never over state the case for good, fresh meat to start with.

Dr Pepper Glaze

2 cups Dr Pepper soda

1 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup red wine vinegar

1 cup ketchup

1/2 cup worcestershire sauce

1/4 cup molasses

Mix all of the ingredients and bring to the boil, reduce slightly until the mixture is thick and syrupy.

Chiliquiles

I'm not sure if this is Mexican or Tex-Mex, but I do know that Chiliquiles are probably now served in cities across the country. Maybe my cousin Kevin will read this and enlighten us, as he is an expert in all things Texan (he's an alum of Texas Tech, and a resident of Plano,Tx), since his wife is Mexican he's pretty knowledgeable about things Mexican. So Kevin, is it Mexican or Tex-Mex and what is the difference between Chiquiles and Migas?

Since I'm not an expert on Tex-Mex or Mexican, I just prepare things the way I want without regard to tradition or protocol. Here is my hands down favorite combination-no salsa, no tomato, and no sour cream-just onions, garlic, corn tortillas, chorizo, nopales, eggs, cheddar cheese.

First I crisp corn tortillas in a skillet with butter, I remove them and reserve them on paper toweling. In the same skillet brown the chorizo, add some chopped garlic and onion, add some beaten eggs and the crisped tortillas, add the nopales and stir cook until the eggs set, stir in some cheese. To serve, top with some more cheese and wrap the mixture in steamed flour tortillas-this is really simple and delicious.

Last week we buried my beloved 96 year old grandmother. Of course we all talked of the many joys she brought to our lives-and food, not surprisingly, was one of the biggest. She was best known for her cream pies and her noodles. On the day ofter her service, my aunt Shirley, my cousin Kevin, and I made chicken and noodles for the family. Aunt Shirley was responsible for mixing up the noodle dough, Kevin rolled and cut the noodles, and I stewed the chickens and made the gravy. Like most women of her time, she had no recipes, she would just eye-ball the ingredients-a pinch of this and a fistfull of that and everything would just come together.

Since aunt Shirley was making the dough, she used aunt Betty's recipe (that would be aunt Betty Crocker).

3 eggs, whipped

2 cups flour (approximate)

Salt

Mix the ingredients thoroughly and let the dough rest, roll out the dough using plenty of flour and turning the dough often until the sheet of dough is very thin. Cut the dough into thin strips, and let the noodles dry-aunt Shirley lets her noodles dry overnight, but we didn't have that much time.

I stewed 4 chickens, picked the meat and let the broth simmer and concentrate. Drop the noodles into the boiling broth, the excess flour clinging to the noodles thickens the broth as the noodles cook and swell slightly, add the picked chicken to the pot and season with salt and pepper. We always serve chicken and noodles over mashed potatoes-this seems a bit starchy, but it's the way we love them.

I'm including a picture of my uncles, her son and son-in-law while they snoopervised our work to make sure they turned out like grandma's.

Mussels with Black Garlic

Black garlic seems to be the "IT" ingredient of the moment. It was originally a food supplement used in Japan and Korea where it goes through a fermentation process which vastly increases its antioxident values. It has an extremely mild flavor-even more tamed than roasted garlic-really more of an after taste of sweet garlic. It is slightly sweet and has an under flavor of licorice, which I intensified by adding the fennel bulb and tarragon. For the past couple of years it has been showing up in the trendy restaurants of San Francisco and spreading from there. Of course, once a trend hits the Mid-West it is usually Passe on the coasts already.

2 pounds mussels, cleaned and scrubbed

1/4 cup minced shallot

1 head of black garlic cloves, sliced

1 fresh fennel bulb, thinly sliced

2 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 cup white wine

1/2 cup heavy cream

Salt and pepper

Fresh tarragon, chopped

Fresh parsley, chopped

Choose a pan that is large enough to hold the mussels whitout crowding them. It should be wide and shallow, but deep enough so the mussels can open without obstruction when you place a lid on the pan.

Heat the butter and oil and saute the shallot and garlic until they are soft. Add the wine and cream, salt and pepper. Add the mussels and scatter the herbs over them. Place the lid on the pan and bring the liquid to the boil. Cook only until the mussels open-no longer, or the mussels will shrink and become tough.

Serve with lots of crusty bread to sop up the juices.

Pork Loin Stuffed with Ham, Swiss Cheese, Saurkraut, and Apples

1 boneless pork loin, about 4 pounds, butterflied and pounded

1/4 pound ham, thinly sliced

1/4 pound Swiss cheese, thinly sliced

1 1/2 cup saurkraut

1 apple, peeled and diced

1 pound carrots

1 pound potatoes

1 pound turnips

1/2 pound pearl onions

1 cup white wine

1 1/2 cup chicken stock

Sprigs of fresh Rosemary and Thyme

Lay out the butterflied and pounded loin with the cut side up. Cover the surface with a layer of the thinly sliced ham, follow with a layer of the thinly sliced cheese. Spread the saurkraut evenly over the cheese layer and scatter the diced apple over the kraut.

Roll up the roast jelly roll style and tie with butcher's twine.

Peel and blanch the vegetables, separately, place the vegetables in the bottom of a roasting pan and toss with some melted butter and season with salt and pepper, Rosemary, and Thyme.

Brown the roast in a hot skillet with a bit of oil over medium high heat on all sides. Place the roast on top of the vegetables in the roasting pan. Deglaze the skillet the pork was browned in with 1 cup white wine-something fruity like Reisling is good, add 1 1/2 cup chicken stock and bring the mixture to the boil. Pour this over the roast and place in a preheated 350 degree oven and roast for about 45 minutes to 1 hour until the internal temperature registers 160 degrees.

Let the roast rest at least 10 minutes before carving.

Make a sauce with the pan juices and serve with the roasted vegetables

Heavenly Hots

These are without a doubt the lightest, most tender, ehtereal pancakes south of St Peter's Gate. Amanda Hesser's Recipe Redux column in this Sunday's NY Times features this dish. Her descriptive adjectives for these cakes are "feathery, creamy, and tangy". The cakes are the creation of chef Bob Burnham-I could find no information on him other than what I read in the Times article. He once worked for John Hudspeth who opened Bridge Creek Cafe in Berkley in the 1980's. Hudspeth's friend, Marion Cunningham included the recipe in her "The Breakfast Book", also published in the 1980's.

Here is the recipe as printed in today's Times (and also in 1987), and here is my picture of what they looked like when I made them this morning. I paired them with some fresh blackberries and a very light blackberry syrup. Because of the ratio of flour to eggs and sour cream, they have a texture of custard or pudding. Be warned they are difficult to flip because the batter is so loose.

4 large eggs

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

4 Tablespoons cake flour

2 cups sour cream

3 Tablespoons sugar

Solid vegetable shortening for greasing your griddle.

Whisk all the ingredients together except the shortening. Chill the batter overnight (I chilled it only for one hour).

Grease your griddle with the shortening. Whisk the batter again and drop the batter 1 tablespoon at a time onto the griddle. The cakes should spread out into circles no larger than 3 inches.

When bubbles begin to surface on the cake, flip the cake and cook briefly on the second side, the interior of the cake should be somewhat creamy. Serve with light syrup.

Coq au Vin

This is a hopelessly frumpy and old-fashioned dish that never fails to charm and seduce everyone, when care is taken in the preparation. It can be a glorious chicken stew, but often it becomes a throw everything in a pot and cook for an hour, or something out of the crock pot to which chicken and wine were added. The literal translation is, of course, cock with wine, and is supposed to be made with roosters and red wine. Mushrooms and pearl onions are the traditional vegetabe garnishes, I added peas and carrots-probably a heresy of some sort, but delicious none -the-less.

Since Julia was my first French teacher-(food, wine, culture, language, etc.) I must reference her "The French Chef Cookbook" as my touchstone. I'm pretty sure she would not like adding peas and carrots to the dish, in fact she recommends peas as an additional side dish to the stew, but definitely not part of it.

To me the most important technique in Julia's recipe is to cook each component of the stew separately and then simmering them together briefly just before serving.

4 rashers of bacon

2 Tablespoons vegetable oil

2 chickens, cut up into 8 pieces each

1/2 cup brandy

4 cups red wine

4 cups beef stock

2 Tblespoons of tomato paste

Bouquet Garnie -I used parsley, bay, and thyme

1 1/2 pounds pearl onions

1 1/2 pounds carrots, peeled and sliced

1 1/2 pound mushrooms, sliced

1 pound peas-I used frozen

1/4 cup butter

1/3 cup flour

Salt and pepper as needed

Render the bacon in a Dutch Oven, reserve the bacon and add oil to the pan.

Slowly brown the chicken, do not crowd the pan, do this in several batches.

When all the chicken is browned, put them back in the Dutch Oven, add the brandy and flame and reduce til almost totally evaporated.

Add the wine, stock, tomato paste, and bouquet garnie to the pot and bring it to the boil. Reduce the heat and simmer over very slow heat until the chicken is cooked. Or place it in a preheated oven for 1/2 hour or 45 minutes until the chicken is cooked.

While the chicken cooks, prepare the vegetables. Each vegetable must be prepared separately. I start with a little butter in a saute pan, add the vegetables, season with salt and pepper and saute over very low heat until the vegetables begin to soften and sizzle, just slightly browning them. Add a little stock as needed to prevent too much browning. Reserve the vegetables until the chicken is finished cooking and the sauce is thickened.

When the chicken is done, remove it from the pot and hold, covered with foil to keep it warm.

Make a Buerre Manie with the flour and butter and thicken the wine-stock mixture. Taste and adjust seasoning, and reduce slightly until the flavor and thickness are correct.

Add the chicken, bacon, and vegetables back to the pot and simmer very briefly before serving-about 10 minutes-remove the bouquet garnie before serving. Really good with potatoes, rice or noodles.

New Year's Dinner

New Years at Gallagher's was a great success. We had two seatings and both were almost totally sold out-the early seating on New Years is sometimes hard to sell-everyone wants to eat late on that evening.

We started with a platter of hors d'ouevres

Dates stuffed with Chorizo and wrapped with bacon

Muffuletta Bruschetta with olive salad

Deviled eggs with salmon caviar

Corn and crab fritters with slaw and barbecue sauce

Japanese beef skewers with wasabi and pickled ginger

Next was the lobster tail with brown butter served with red and gold beet salad.

The entree was Beef Wellington with Sweedish Lingonberry sauce.

Dessert was Bananas Foster, which the waiters made tableside on little rolling carts with portable burners.

Petite Fillets with Green Peppercorns, Port Wine, and Stilton

Last week Whole Foods had a sale on Stilton, so I couldn't resist buying some. That paired with a call from my meat supplier about an abundance of 4 ounce steaks-accidentally cut too small-could I use them for a much reduced cost. Indeed I could use all of it. This is a great sauce for Winter, so rich and complex, we used to make it at the Richard Perry Restaurant to sauce pork tenderloin (Hi Rich if you're reading this-thanks for all the great food). The sauce can also be tweaked to complement chicken or lamb as well.

2 Tablespoons minced shallot

2 cups rich beef or veal stock

1 cup port wine

2 cups cream

1/2 cup green peppercorns-preferably brined-rinsed

Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

1/4 cup stilton cheese

Reduce the stock and wine with the shallots by half.

Add the cream and continue to reduce until sauce consistency.

Add the green peppercons and season with salt and pepper-remember the green peppercorns are already a bit spicy.

At the last minute, crumble in the cheese and whisk until the cheese begins to melt.