Chef2Chef Recipe Club Member Forum: http://forums.chef2chef.net -------------------------------------------------- Hello Recipe Club, Happy New Year everyone! New Year's Eve is when all the fun and parties are. We see out the old year (if we can stay awake) and bring in the new one. While it is often thought of as a time to drink and be merry, many people take it as an opportunity to eat and be merry. Drinking is not as much a part of the event as it was years ago, mostly because of tougher drunk driving laws. And that is a good thing. New Years' Day on the other hand, is a time to sit back and enjoy the start of a bright and promising new year. A new beginning. It is a time to be with family and friends. So, enjoy yourself on this special day, it only comes around once a year! A piece of Trivia: To many Americans, the dropping of the ball at Times Square in New York City signals the begining of the new year. The ball was first dropped in 1908. Dick Clark was there! LOL -------------------------------------------------- My friend Gary Jones, AKA the Reluctant Gourmet hosted a week using stocks in his recipes. He shows folks how to cook like a pro! http://www.reluctantgourmet.com Here is his recipe for a Caesar Salad. Caesar Salad Sept Crouton Ingredients: 2 large garlic cloves -- crushed Pinch of salt 3 tablespoons virgin olive oil 2 cups French baguette slices cut up into 1/2 inch cubes (white bread works too) How to make: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine garlic, oil, salt, and bread cubes in a bowl. Mix until cubes are coated evenly. Spread the coated cubes onto a baking sheet and bake until the croutons are golden. This should take about 10 minutes. Salad Ingredients: 1 large egg 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice 1 medium garlic clove, crushed 1 pinch salt 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper 1 1/2 teaspoons anchovy paste or 4 flat anchovies minced 1 teaspoon capers 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard 1/3 cup virgin olive oil 2 medium heads of romaine lettuce -- outer leaves removed 1/3 cup Parmesan cheese - grated How to make: Bring a pot of water to boil, add egg and cook for just 45 seconds, NO MORE. This is coddling the egg. Remove from heat and let it cool off. Meanwhile, mix the Worcestershire sauce, lemon juice, garlic, salt & pepper anchovy, mustard and capers in a bowl. Crack egg and add to these ingredients. Whisk until smooth. Now for the tricky part. Slowly add the oil in a steady stream while constantly whisking again until smooth. Reason: if you add the oil too quickly, the dressing will separate and not emulsify. To serve: Tear the romaine lettuce into 1-2 inch pieces and add them to a large bowl (wooden if you have one). Add half the dressing, toss, add remaining dressing, Parmesan cheese and croutons and toss again. Serve on chilled plates. -------------------------------------------------- Prairie Harvest.com The Holidays are here and you are looking for the very finest specialty foods? Listen to this! Foie Gras, Chinese Black Truffles, South Dakota Goose Breast, Truffle Oil and Butter, Dry Aged Buffalo Prime Rib, Elk Loin Roasts, Fresh Russian Wild Boar, Air Chilled Natural Chicken, Pheasant, Duck, Steaks, Huckleberries and more! All you have to do is click here! http://html.chef2chef.net/goto.php?id=147 -------------------------------------------------- Dana Carpender shared a week of Low Carb recipes with us in mid September. Here is a yummy salmon dish that is good for you. Feta-Spinach Salmon Roast I saw something like this being sold for outrageous amounts of money in the fish case at the local grocery store and I thought, "I can do that!" Ingredients: 3 ounces cream cheese, softened 3/4 cup crumbled feta 2 scallions, thinly sliced, including the crisp part of the green 1/2 cup fresh spinach, chopped 2 skinless salmon fillets of roughly equal size and shape, totaling 3/4 pound Olive oil Procedure: Preheat the oven to 350°F. Combine the cream cheese and feta, mashing and stirring with a fork until well blended. Add the scallions and spinach and combine well. Spread the mixture evenly over one salmon fillet. (The filling will be about 3/4 inch thick.) Top with the second salmon fillet. Brush both sides with olive oil, turning the whole thing over carefully with a spatula. Place the loaf on a shallow baking pan, and bake for 20 minutes. Slice carefully with a sharp, serrated knife. Yield: 2 servings, each with 5 grams of carbohydrates, a trace of fiber, and 45 grams of protein. -------------------------------------------------- Recipe Club, You can always win cool stuff at Chef2Chef.net Register to win a copy of the Chef of the Month, Silvia Bianco's cookbook, Simply Saute. A must have for your cookbook collection http://marketplace.chef2chef.net/sweep/ What's new at Chef Revival? They have just added two new styles of Executive Chef Clogs to their enormous inventory. 8 pairs valued at $97 each will be given away at the end of this month. Register http://ads.chef2Chef.net/goto.php?id=36 Sign up for a FREE Subscription to Food Arts Magazine. The Magazine for the Foodservice and Hospitality Industry. U.S. residents only. http://html.chef2chef.net/goto.php?id=242 -------------------------------------------------- On September 29, Chef Jon Gatewood, AKA The Wandering Chef showed us how to make a great venison dish. http://wanderingchef.net Pan Seared Venison Loin with Great Hill Blue Cheese and Cassis Port Demi Glace Serves 4 Ingredients: 4 each 6 ounce Venison Short Loin steaks 1 ounce Clarified Butter 1 tablespoon Minced Shallot 1 cup Ruby Port 1/4 cup Crème De Cassis 2 tablespoons Dried Black Currants 1 each Bay Leaf 1/4 cup Demi Glace 6 ounces Great Hill Blue Cheese ( a very creamy Roquefort like domestic) Salt and Pepper to taste Procedure: Season Venison with Salt and Pepper. Over high heat sear Venison in the clarified butter in an ovenproof sauté pan. Turn over and finish in a 450 degree oven for a few minutes until medium rare. (Pull them a little early, since the fat content is so low they will carry over more than beef does) Remove from pan and keep warm. (Use caution, as the pan's handle will be hot) Remove excess fat and return pan to medium heat and add Shallots. Sauté until translucent and deglaze with Port and Crème de Cassis. Add the Dried Currants and Bay Leaf. Reduce by 1/2. Add Demi Glace and reduce by 1/3. Strain and adjust seasoning. Spoon some sauce on a warm plate, slice Venison and fan over sauce. Serve with 1 1/2 ounces of Blue Cheese. -------------------------------------------------- Cedar Hills Seasonings At Cedar Hill Seasonings we have over 20 years expertise in blending gourmet seasonings that are both tasty and healthy. Apart from every-day use, our seasonings are also suitable for those who suffer from dietary problems such as borderline diabetes, heart problems, overweight and obesity, and high blood pressure. Our seasonings have no salt, no sugar, no msg and no preservatives. Every ingredient is good for you. But what you'll notice as soon as your start using Cedar Hill Seasonings is the fresh flavor they add to your food. It's like having a secret garden in your kitchen!! http://www.cedarhillseasonings.com/c2c_land.asp -------------------------------------------------- The first part of October, Mike Rodman, a free lance writer shared some interesting and amusing tales about his quests to reproduce wonderful meals from his past. We expected great writing from Mike and we got that. Bonus, we also got the recipes and they were great too! Here is Pam's favorite. Chili Verde Burritos Ingredients: 3 lbs. lean pork, cut into 1/2-inch cubes 1-2/3 cup chicken stock 1/3 cup liquid from coarse purée (see directions) Coarse purée: 1 lb. tomatillos 2 medium onions 3 jalapenos, stems removed 8 cloves garlic 2 4.5-oz. cans of chopped green chiles 1 small bunch of cilantro, chopped 1 tsp. ground cumin 10 large tortillas Procedure: After cutting the pork, you'll need to soften the tomatillos, so they'll purée easier. Peel off the outer leaf and discard; put in boiling water for 3 minutes; drain in colander, then put tomatillos in a bowl of cold water (to keep them from continuing to cook). Separately pulse in a mini-food processor: the softened tomatillos, onion, jalapenos and garlic. (I never used a blender for this and I'm afraid it would nearly liquefy the contents. So if you don't have a food processor, mince by hand.) Don't liquefy any of the items -- just pulse it enough to be finely chopped. As you finish with each ingredient, put it in a mixing bowl. After all four items have been chopped, add the canned chiles and cilantro. Mix well and drain through a colander, catching the juices in another bowl. Save 1/3 cup of the juices that drain out and discard the rest. Return coarse purée to its own mixing bowl and stir-in the cumin. Brown pork in Dutch oven or stockpot (I use a 5-qt. cast-iron Dutch oven that works great). Drain; return to pot and add chicken stock and 1/3 cup of the purée liquid. Simmer pork in liquid for 1 hour. (Can be made ahead, to this point.) Add coarse purée and simmer for another 20 minutes. Serve in large tortillas, using slotted spoon for filling and a regular spoon to spread liquid on top. As a side dish, I recommend either Mexican rice or refried beans. Mike Rodman is a free-lance writer who lives on Beaver Lake in Northwest Arkansas, where he also fishes, cooks and listens to his stereo. -------------------------------------------------- QUESTIONS, Comments, Technical Support: http://forums.chef2chef.net |
