Another Fried Chicken Class
I'm back at the marvelous Kitchen Conservatory again this week with more fried chicken.

These classes continualy amaze me-frying chicken is an art, not a recipe.  It takes lots of practice to fry really great chicken.  Some of my students have never fried a bird before and some have been frying them for years.  There are always some really good rersults and of course some not so much.  But I do know that everyone leaves with a certian confidence and that they will master that elusive perfectly fried chicken.

Other little parts of my chicken class include hand creaming the corn for corn pudding, and ricing the potatoes make the fluffiest mashed potatoes.  I didn't get a shot of the cream gravy, and the strawberry bread turned out beautifully-which often it does not.

Joy and Jackie

Joy owns the Monogram and gift shop at General Grant's Center in Crestwood.  She has been monograming our dress shirts for years and we've struck up a friendship over that time.  She's such a meticulous artist with her monograming and needle craft.  She came across my blog recently and began to read it and found the post from a couple of yeaers ago that I made from the cookbook "In the Kennedy Style", a book on some of the Kennedy white house dinners of the early 60's.  Joy is a true Jackie fan and has quite a collection of cookbooks relating to her life.  She has lent them to me to read.

The first thing that caught my eye was a spinach and ricotta tart form the Hammersmith Farm cookbook.  Hammersmith Farm is the Auchincloss family estate in Newport.  Hugh D Auchincloss Jr. was Jackie's stepfather.  Hammersmith Farm was the site for the Kennedy wedding reception in September of 1953.  I had alot of spinach from farmer's market from one of my favorite farmers.  It was his first weekend back since last fall.  His spinach was so sweet and tasty.

1 pie crust
1 pound ricotta
3 beaten eggs
small onion
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup grated shaarp cheese
dash pepper
1/2 tsp basil
3 tbs flour
dash nutmeg
package frozen spinach (thawed and drained) I used fresh

Saute in butter spinach, onion, pepper, salt, and basil.  Mix well.  Add eggs to ricotta and sharp cheese, nutmeg and flour.  Mix all ingredients into one bowl until smooth, and then spread into pie shell.  Top with 1 cup sour cream.  Be sure to spread it to edge of pie crust.  Bake 40-45 minutes.  This combination is great as a filling for lasagna.

The pie sort of got eaten before I could get a good picture, this is the day old picture, when I reheated it for lunch-tender, fresh Spring spinach, cheese, and sour cream-what could be more delicious?

BEHIND THE SCENES AT GALLAGHER'S ON ST. PATTY'S DAY


In a place named Gallagher's-you just know St Patrick's day is going to be a blast-and it was.

Menu
Corned Beef, Cabbage and Parsley Potatoes
Corned Beef Sandwich with Swiss cheese, pickle and horseradish
Guinnes Beef Stew with Mashed potatoes
Irish Soda Bread
Pistacio cake

And  lots of Irish beers, whiskey, and the always popular "Carish I Bombs"

PORK TINGA

February's issue of Food and Wine magazine contained a recipe from Rick Bayless for this marvelous dish.  I never heard of it before.  It is sort of like our Southern pulled pork, but with a tomato-chipotle sauce that also includes Chorizo.  Rick Uses pork shoulder in his recipe, but we St Louisans love our "pork steak"-a shoulder steak cut that includes the bone and is not seen in alot of other places. 

I served the steaks with grilled tortillas and chopped avocado, sliced onion, tomato, and cilantro.


My recipe calls for 4 eight ounce pork steaks, Rick's calls for 1 1/2 pounds cubed pork shoulder, and I changed some of his instructions and ingredients, but for the most part I followed his lovely recipe-it can be found online or in the magazine, or you can just use my recipe-it tunred out so wonderful that I'm going to approach my bosses about putting it on our special events menus.  It would be a beautiful party buffet entree with all the colorful garnishes.

4 eight ounce pork steaks-alternatively 1 1/2# cubed pork shoulder
1/4 teaspoon dried marjoram
1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
1/4 teaspoon dried oregano (My addition, not in Ricks original recipe)
3 bay leaves
3/4 # fingerling potatoes-Rick used quartered red potatoes
2 tablespoons oil
1 large fresh chorizo
1 medium onion, diced
1 clove of garlic, minced
one 28-ounce can peeled Italian tomatoes-I accidentally picked up puree
2 chipotles chiles in adobo, minced plus 4 tablespoons adobo
Salt, pepper, and sugar to taste

Brown the steaks in a large skillet with a tight fitting lid.  Add the chorizo and brown.

Add onions and cook 1 minute, add the garlic, add the herbs and potatoes, add the tomatoes, adobo, and chipotle.  Bring the mixture to the boil and reduce the flame to barely a simmer, cover and simmer the stew for two hours until the meat is falling off the bones.

The sauce was gettting a bit too thick, so I added some chicken stock while the steaks were cooking in order to get the correct sauce consistency.

serve with tortillas and the garnishes.

Gallagher's

Lent

Fish Tacos

Party Gras at Kitchen Conservatory

It has been a great carnival season this year, culminating for me by teaching a class at The Kitchen Conservatory.  We made a traditional crawfish boil, a muffaletta, a rich boy tenderloin sandwich masquerading as a po-boy, and praline bread pudding. 

Ginger and her son Steven shared some quality time at the Party Gras

Mardi Gras is probably best enjoyed when young and in love

This blog is supposed to be about the food

Some of our friends may not love crawfish as much as we do

Cold Smoked Pork Tenderloin

February's Feast Magazine featured an article by Cassie Vires on cold smoking at home.  Cassie Vires is the chef at Home Wine Kitchen in Maplewood where chef Vires' cooking is creating a buzz around town.  I had already written my Valentine's Day menu and it included a smoked pork tenderloin served on sweet potato pancakes with homemade applesauce and creme fraiche, so I did a trial run on her technique-it didn't quite work out for me althought it did produce some very tasty smoked pork.  I recommend clicking on the Feast link to see a video of Vires demonstrating her very cool technique.

I ended up soaking some apple wood chips in apple juice and placing them in a deep hotel pan.     I brined the pork loins for two hours, using Vires brine.  I placed the brined pork in a perforated hotel pan and placed it over the wood chips.  I wrapped it tightly with aluminum wrap and placed it on the stove top.  I turned on the heat until the smoke was noticeable-turned off the heat and let it sit for 15 minutes, repeating every 15 to 20 minutes for 2 hours.  I let the pork sit wrapped up still on top of the chips overnight in the refrigerator.  The meat is still raw and must be refrigerated and used within a couple of days.  I ended up with a lovely sweet-apple smoked flavor loin, without overcooking the center of the loin.   To finish cooking them on Valentines Day, I glazed them with maple syrup and Grand Marnier and roasted them to 160 degrees.

To serve I spooned some apple sauce on the sweet potato cakes, and then a spoon of creme fraiche, and then a couple slices of the smoked pork.   Very tasty.

I've been reading the January 2012 issue of Food and Wine, and I've found a couple of really fascinating dishes.  Thomas McNaughton, a 28 year old chef from San Francisco's Flour + Water presented a recipe for Parsnip Triangole with Aged Balsamic Vinegar.  I didn't change his recipe other than I made raviolis instead of triangoli.  The sweetness of the parsnip and caramelised onions with the buttery Balsamic sauce just perfectly balanced.  This dish really does require a genuine aged Balsamic vinegar-most cheap supermarket Balsamics are not very good.

Dough
2 cups "00" flour-I used all purpose
3 large eggs
2 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil
1 tespoon Kosher salt

Chef McNaughton makes his dough in the processor, I just made it the old fashioned way of placing the flour on a pastry board making a well in the center and cracking in the eggs.  Gradually stir the flour into the eggs until a soft dough forms, knead briefly wrap with plastic wrap and let rest at room temperature for 1/2 hour.

Filling
1 Tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1 small onion, thinly sliced
1 cup finely diced parsnips
1/4 cup Parmigiano-Reggiano
1 teaspoon Champagne vinegar

Heat the olive oil in a saucepan.  Add the onion and cook until soft.  Add the parsnips and 1/2 cup water, cover and simmer until tender-about 15 minutes.  Uncover and raise heat to evaporate any excess liquid.  In a processor, puree the vegetables, fold in the cheese and season with the vinegar and some salt to taste.  Let cool.

I used my hand crank pasta machine and rolled the dough to number 6 out of 7-one being the thickest and 7 being the thinnest.  Chef McNaughton cuts his pasta dough into squares using a fluted pastry wheel, fills the center with the parsnip puree with a pastry bag, moisten the edges and fold the squares in half to form a triangle.  I just placed the dough over my ravioli form, pressed it into shape and just spooned the filling in the center of the square, moisten the edges of the dough, top with a second sheet of pasta, and press the dough.  Unmold your ravioli.

For serving
1 cup unsalted butter
snipped chives and parsley
Aged Balsamic

Cook the ravioli in boiling salted water-cook to al dente about 5 minutes.  Meanwhile melt the butter in a saute pan, when the ravioli are cooked, lift them into the saute pan and coat with the melted butter.  Add some of the pasta water 2 Tablespoons at a time until a nice creamy sauce forms.  Garnish with the herbs and drizzle the aged Balsamic vinegar over the top.

Making Goat's Cheese

1 quart goats milk
1/4 cup lemon juice or vinegar
Salt to taste

Heat the milk to 180 degree-I used my candy thermometer.

Add the vinegar or lemon juice, stir and et sit a few minutes to let the curds form-the curds ar small, not large like cottage cheese.

Stir in the salt and pour the mixture into a colander lined with cheesecloth.

After the whey has mostly drained of gather the ends of the cheescloth and tie it around the handle of a wooden spoon, let the cheese drain overnight in the refrigerator-be sure to keep a bowl under it to catch any more drips of whey.

I added some grated garlic, fresh chives, and hot chili flakes-very tasty.

Perfect Summer Dinner

Crab Louis on grilled asparagus, rotisserie game hens basted with garlic butter and fresh herbs, and a beautiful rose from Tavel.

Crab Louis Dressing

1 cup mayonaise

1/4 cup chili sauce

1/4 cup diced sweet red pepper

2 scallions, minced

Grilled corn, scraped from one ear (not traditional)

Mix thoroughly and chill until ready to use.

1 pound of crab

Romaine, tomatoes, grilled asparagus, and juice of one lemon.

To assemble the salad just lay the romaine out on a salad plate and top with the asparagus, squeeze fresh lemon juice over the top.

Toss the crab with the dressing and mound on top of the asparagus, add chopped tomato and garnish with chives. The addition of corn to the dressing is not traditional, but I think corn and crab have such complimentary flavors that I often combine them-especially now as the corn is fresh and local. I also garnished the salad with Nasturtium leaves and flowers-they are edible and quite welcome in a salad. The flavor reminds me of arugula and peppery watercress, and I just happened to grown them on one of my flower boxes-they also make a really striking display in a flower box.

The hens were easy, I brined them a couple of hours and threaded them on a spit and roasted them while I brushed them with a garlic-herb butter-I used Tarragon, Rosemary, and Thyme. Serve the chicken over a fresh herb salad.

I've never been a big fan of rose wines, mostly because the ones I've had have been the sweet cheap ones from California. This rose from Tavel is another story. It is fruity with strawberry and watermelon flavors, but not sweet like those sickening "White Zinfandels"-Apologies to all the white zinfandel fans. but I usually hate your wine.