Eggplant Caviar

6:07:10 PM EST



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10:15:07 AM EST



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2:33:35 PM EST
I have been using my new Le Creuset French Oven every chance I get.  And I love it!  Here are two of the dishes I recently made, both pretty classic braised dishes.  The braised short ribs were so tender!  And Coq Au Vin is about as classic as you can get.  On another note...I am going to try and start that damn South Beach diet again.  The food you can eat is really good and thats not the hard part.  Its the 2 weeks without drinking that gets me!  But we just booked a vacation for June with a bunch of friends of ours and Ill be damned if I am trolling around Key West in a one piece bathing suit!  Yes, Key West!  We rented a beautiful house for the week of the Key West Gay Pride...woohoo!  So these rich, delicious braised beauties were probably the last you will see for a while.  Wasted away again in Margaritaville...

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6:36:16 AM EST

Wow...I just checked and I can not believe I have not updated this since November.  Yea I can.  But I had no idea it had been that long.  As you can imagine the last few months have been insane.  The restaurant has been packed almost every night and we did 20% more caterings this season than last year.  We had a record night for covers on new years eve.  And since I am now the sous chef and have taken on a ton more responsibility as well as bullshit, I have not really had the energy to cook a nice meal on what is lately my one day off each week.  And I hate that.  I love to cook at home and I miss it.  And I have bought/recieved a shitload of new kitchen toys in the last month and have barely used them.  Between Christmas/birthday gifts, gift certificates and this great new resource I have found for pots & pans (TJ Max...they have awesome discounts on great stuff!) I have some really great pots & pans now.  The ones I had before were sufficient, but these are awesome!  In the last month, I have acquired -

A 6 3/4 quart Le Creuset French oven in signature flame color - Amazon.com gift certificate from my aunt & uncle.  I have been staring at these things longingly for years.  They are so damn expensive I have never been able to justify shelling out the money for one.  But gift certificate for $125, free shipping & a promotion on Amazon for $25 off all kitchenware until the end of the month = something I will have & use for the rest of my life.  Check it out its beatiful!

A huge, heavy as hell, 4 inch thick, barely fits on my counter cutting board - Birthday gift from Tomi

A set of silicone bakeware - Christmas gift from Tomi's sister.  This stuff is so cool, nothing sticks to it, everything pops right out and you can squish it up and stick it in a drawer!

A 1 quart all clad sauce pot - Gift from my boss

A 2 quart Emerilware all clad sauce pot - OK, Im not jumping on the bam wagon.  Emeril is OK and all but this is ALL CLAD and I got it for $25 at TJ Max....I was impressed its a really nice pot.

A 3 quart chefmate sauce pot - $20 at Target with a Christmas gift card...really good pot for the price.

A 6 quart copper Calphalon soup pot - $39 at TJ Max.  Yes, I said copper.  Im telling you nobody realizes this place has got kitchenware at like half price.

A 12 inch Tivoli saute pan - $20 at TJ Max

A 10 inch straight sided Tivoli saute pan - $20 at TJ Max

Yes, I have pretty much gotten a whole new set of cookware in the last month.  You can bet the next picture that goes on here is going to be awesome.  Things probably wont stable out at work until mid February though.  The super bowl is here this year and we already have catering gigs for that week for I dont know...thousands.  Im afraid to even look at the catering book.  But mid February will also bring Tomi's 40th birthday.  Boy, shes not looking forward to it.  But I am going to take her to Key West for a few days and we are both going to chill in the sun, I cant wait.  It will be a much deserved vacation for us both.

Oh yea, the pictures I added today.  These are just a few things I have made in the last two months.  The few things I have not just slapped together and devoured with a beer before crashing into bed each night.  The Bali butter chicken is a classic Indian dish.  The shrimp with coriander & pineapple salsa I made one night when we had friends over on a Sunday.  The chicken with peanut sauce was made because I wanted to make dinner one night when I was home but was already in my PJ's and didnt feel like going to the store...this is a product of what was in my pantry & fridge.  It was delicious but the presentation is pretty bla.  My next post will be much more inspired.  See you soon!

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7:32:49 AM EST

As some of you may know, I am still trying to find my inner southern self.  Why, just this month I have attended the fair, tried Frito pie for the first time and said "y'all" more times than I can count.  For those of you who don't know, Frito pie is a casserole of Fritos topped with chili and cheddar cheese and baked.  It was made with a good homemade chili so it was surprisingly tasty.  And I was recently introduced to the infamous shrimp & grits.  It's really a low country (Charleston, South Carolina) dish, but from what I understand is also very popular and made well in Savannah, Georgia which is only two hours north.  So to me, that all just equals southern.  So I looked up a few recipes, made my own adjustments and gave it a go.  And I don't know how my final product would fare in shrimp & grit central, but oh my god!  Now I understand what all the fuss was about.  It was soooo good.  And it was so simple.  The grits are very basic.  Chicken stock, grits, add smoked cheddar at the end.  The shrimp I tossed in Tony Chacheres , which is a blend of spices, something I don't normally use, but this is actually a great one.  But if you use it, be careful, it's got quite a kick.  So then I sauted a little onion & mushroom in some rendered bacon, added some garlic, white wine, reduced it a bit, added cream, reduced that, threw in the shrimp until they were done, adjusted the seasonings & poured it over a mound of grits.  Not exactly traditional, but Tomi had already eaten dinner that night and said she wasn't going to have any.  So my first reaction to that was to add onions & mushrooms to the dish, which she despises and I love.  Well, the smells from the kitchen and the creamy, spicy sauce were too much.  She ate it anyway.  Now I KNOW it was good.

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10:00:59 AM EST

It was cool yesterday and it felt like soup weather.  I was going to make a sausage & lentil soup (which I will probably make tonight) but there was salmon on sale at the Publix.  Mmmmmmmmm, chowda.  It came out great.  Here's the recipe if interested.

1/4 Lb bacon

1 T olive oil                   

1/4 of an onion, diced

2 carrots, peeled & diced

2 ribs celery, diced

3 T unsalted butter

4 T flour

1/4 cup sherry or white wine

8 oz bottle of clam juice

3 cups whole milk

1.5 LB fresh salmon, skinned & diced into 1 inch cubes

5 ears fresh scraped corn or 1 8 oz bag frozen corn

1/4 cup fresh chopped dill

1 T dijon mustard

1 cup heavy cream

Salt & pepper to taste

Heat a heavy stockpot & add olive oil & bacon.  Sweat bacon for about 5 minutes over medium heat until theres a nice amount of fat in the pot.  Add onion, carrot & celery, season with salt & pepper & sweat until veggies are slightly soft & bacon is starting to get crispy.  Add  butter and once its melted add the flour.  Cook over low heat until it starts to smell a little nutty, this is how you know the starchyness has cooked out of the flour.  Add sherry & reduce slightly, mixture will become thick so keep stirring.  Add clam juice and bring to a boil.  Add milk and bring back to a boil.  Reduce to simmer & add salmon.  Salmon will poach pretty quickly, so after about 3-4 minutes add corn & dill.  Stir in heavy cream & mustard & season to taste.  This soup needs a good amount of salt at the end.  Enjoy!

 

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4:47:02 PM EST


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2:22:06 PM EST

So we had a great time on the cruise.  The only thing I was disappointed about was the amount of time we actually had to spend on the boat.  I would have liked to spend more time in our ports, especially Key West.  Theres a great place I have heard about from friends that we went to check out called Pearls Rainbow.  Its a lesbian resort that we will definitely be staying at next time we visit Key West.  The pictures on the website really dont do it justice, its a beautiful place.  But it was nice and relaxing to be on the boat at first and not have to think about work or anything.  And let me tell you, you dont have to think about anything.  They clean your room, cook your meals & wait on you hand & foot.  So for someone used to being so busy, it was wonderful in the begining.  But then after a while theres not much to do on the boat except eat, drink & gamble.  Not that I dont enjoy those things, but I did not want to drink much because I wanted to enjoy my vacation, not spend it hung over.  So we spent a lot of time feeding ourselves & the slot machines.  It was still great.  And the food was really good for the most part.  They serve 10,000 meals a day on that ship.  So for having to put out that many meals, they did allright.  We got up early every morning to watch the sunrise & they were the most beautiful I have ever seen.  By the time I got home I was desperate to cook something.  My brother had been bugging me to make some tuna for a while, so theres a picture of that dish here.  I also added some pictures of the food from the boat.  The midnight buffet was really cool.  There were a lot of classic French preparations like terrines & galantines, elaborate pastries and things we made in school but hardly see anymore.  So it was exciting for me, though Im not sure a lot of the people recognized the significance of it.

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2:19:51 PM EDT

We did a catering yesterday where the guest of honor was General Tommy Franks.  I dont know much about the guy, except that he lead the fight to "liberate" Iraq.  It was held in a huge home on the water with a pool, hot tub, dock, boat, elevator and two mercedes perched on the front lawn with spotlights on them.  Collectors items I suppose.  The housekeeper had a home on the front part of the estate that was bigger than the one I grew up in.  Why do so many have so much and so many have so little?  Anyway, I went in to work yesterday at 6:00 AM and got home about midnight.  I was getting the food ready at the restaurant until about 4 in the afternoon and then we headed over to the house.  I dragged Tomi along with me to do dishes and help me plate hors d'oeuvres.  Its an extra $100 for her and we need the money for our cruise next week!  It was fun, but exhausting.  The menu included a great artisan cheese display with all the best stinky cheeses, coriander crusted seared tuna crostini with white bean salad & caesar vinaigrette, mini red potatoes stuffed with tarragon potato salad & caviar, herb crusted beef tenderloin with 3 different sauces, mini savory wild mushroom & stilton bread puddings, smoked salmon spread & beet & horseradish cured salmon with breads & crackers, waldorf salad filled endive spears topped with smoked trout & a ton of mini desserts.  Creme puffs, eclairs, chocolate dipped strawberries, lemon mousse tarts, chocolate & espresso peanut butter cups & truffles.  And it was for 300 people.  And I have to leave in 20 minutes to go back to work and a busy Friday night.  I cant wait until vacation next week.

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9:01:45 PM EDT

Yes, its Fall.  Even though its still hot as hell and the majority of the leaves on the ground are due to hurricanes...its in the air.  Im starting to dream about stews, hearty soups, squashes, chili & football games.  I thought this was a great dish to start getting into the season.  And I picked up a few butternut squashes today.  I think I am going to make a butternut squash, chipotle & wild rice soup tonight.  Im sure pictures will follow.

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