Mardi Gras and Retirement!

I have hung up my knives and retired as a professional cook.  After decades out of the kitchen, I have really enjoyed my last couple of years back in the kitchen. I have worked in some great kitchens with some great people.  Running the kitchen at the Bay Area Rescue Mission was the highlight!  

My Retirement shift was a Mardi Gras meal at the Up and Under Pub in Richmond.  I made the best gumbo in my life. 

I am not putting myself out to pasture.  I have joined a remarkable group of brewers at High Water Brewery!

This blog will continue. 

Pommes de Terre Au Gratin

Pommes de Terre au Gratin

Here is a basic French country dish.  

2 lbs of waxy potatoes peeled and sliced to 1/8 "

Some stock

1/2 cup of grated Grayère

1/2 cup of whipping cream

2 eggs

Nutmeg to taste

Salt to taste 

Preheat your oven 

In a medium pan, boil the stock

When boiling.  Put the sliced potatoes in a pan and pour enough stick to cover the potatoes  cook until tender. About 25 min

Mix half the cheese with the eggs and cream. Mix well to make a custard at salt and the nutmeg 

Drain the potatoes. Add the custard and top with the remaining grated cheese. Bake for about 20 minutes. Until the top is golden brown. 

Serve right away. 

NOLACuisine.

Here is a link to a great New Orleans cooking blog.   The author is truly an historian of Creole and Cajun cuisine. 

http://www.nolacuisine.com/

He carefully researches his recipes, experiments and presents well laid out recipes. 

The accompanying photos are both helpful and entertaining. 

Bonne Année

SMay 2016 be a joyful, healthy New Year for you and your family! 

Andouille with Braised Cabbage

I have not posted in a month!  I started a jobs as a Culinary Instructor in Decrmber, so I am behind in my Blog work. 

Here is something a made the other day. Very simple. 

A Creole Cook in a Soup Kitchen. : Breakfast for Dinner, New Orleans Style!

A Creole Cook in a Soup Kitchen. : Breakfast for Dinner, New Orleans Style!: Today we enjoyed  Grillades for dinner, a traditional Creole breakfast.  Breaded pork steaks served with a creole sauce!

A Creole Cook in a Soup Kitchen. : Passing it on.

A Creole Cook in a Soup Kitchen. : Passing it on.: I had the pleasure and the honor to learn how to fry Chicken from Chef Austin Leslie at Chez Helen in New Orleans.  Today the guys served fr...

A Creole Cook in a Soup Kitchen. : An Algerian Feast!

A Creole Cook in a Soup Kitchen. : An Algerian Feast!: I do not get to cook as often as I like so when I do, I want it to be special for our dinners and educational for our students.  I cook a lo...

Chou braisé

Braised Cabbage a la Canadian 

Here is a simple Winter dish 

A head of cabbage.  Cored and coursley cut 

A mirepoix of 2 cups of white onions.  1 cup of carrots.  1 cup of celery

6 slices of bacon  

2 potatoes cut into medium cubes 

2 Table Spoons of Herbs Salées (see previous post)

Two cups of chicken stock 

Flour

In your DUTCH OVEN. Fry your bacon. Removes  cocked bacon

Add an equal amount of flour to the hot bacon grease .  Stir constantly to make a dark roux.

Add the mirepoix and cook untiltransperant

Add the potatoes and cook for 10 minutes 

Add the cabbage, stock and herbs Salées 

Cook for an hour and a half. 

Enjoy!

Sexy Bacon

Everyone thinks bacon is tasty, but sexy?

Preheat your oven to 350

Put parchment on top of  baking sheet

Place bacon, evenly spaced 

Put a second baking sheet, right side up on the bacon 

Cook until done

I sprinkle a blend of maple sugar and cayenne pepper flakes on top! 

Sexy flat bacon!

Frog Legs

Frog Legs deep fried in duck fat. 

This is an easy recipe. 

A few dozen frog legs

Duck Fat

Cajun or Creole spice mix

1/2 cup of milk

3 beaten eggs

1 cup flour

1/2 cup corn meal

1. Heat duck fat to 350

2.Mix the eggs and milk in a bowl

3. Mix the flour and corn meal. Season with the Creole/Cajun blend

4.Rinse and dry the frogs legs

5. Dust with Creole/Cajun blend

6. Dip in the milk/ egg mix

7.dip in the flour

8. Deep fry until golden brown

Serve with a spicy romaulade. 

1. 

Roasting Coffee

I am spending the morning with my friend John, the owner and roaster at Big House Beans in Antioch. 

John is a passionate roaster who's goal is to bring out the unique qualities of each bean that he roast!  

Check out his site! Read his story! Buy his coffee!

www.BigHouseBeans.com

844-244-2326 

Peppers!

It is not hard to guess which house I live in!  

More fermented Hot Sauce!

I harvested these beautiful peppers this afternoon along with a garlic bulb.  I will process them this evening.  I am using a Wild Fermentation.  The method takes a bit longer but I like the results.  

Rillettes de Saumon

Salmon Rillettes

I had a couple of cooked leftover salmon filets, so I thought that I would make a Rillettes.   A real rillette is a type of charcuterie, a method of preserving meats. This recipe uses mayonnaise so the Rillettes should be eaten within a couple of days.  

2 cooked salmon steaks (flaked)

2 Tbl of minced salmon jerky

              Or

A couple of ounces of smoked salmon

2 Tbl of Salted Herbs (see blog)

Juice of 1/2 lemon

Mayonnaise HOME MADE!

Salt

Mix the salmon, lemon juice and Salted Herbs. Add enough mayonnaise until moist. Salt as needed. 

Golden Tomato Paste

I have a couple of golden tomato plants and I harvested a few pounds of tomatoes so I decided to make Golden Tomato Paste.  

Ingredients 

Golden tomatoes

2 yellow bell peppers

2 garlic cloves. 

Salt 

Olive oil 

Roughly chop every thing and put  in a bowl. Toss with olive oil, salt. 

Place in a stainless steel pot over medium heat.  Mash it a bit to bring out liquid.  

Stew for thirty minutes or so. 

Remove contents and push through a food mill or sive.   Throw out the skins and seeds. 

Return the mixture to the stainless steel pot, heat until reduced to a thick sauce.  

The final step is to spread the thickened mixture onto a non aluminum cookie sheet and place in a 200 degree oven. Bake for an hour or until the mixture thickens to a paste. 

Fèves au Lard avec Cidre

• BAKED BEANS with Cider  

  
  
  FÈVES AU LARD AVEC CIDRE
• This is my go-to comfort dish!  It is a take on Quebec's famous baked beans.  Traditionally cooked with Maple Suryp, I have substituted Cider Syrup to give the dish a tangy flavor . 
• 1 lb. dried white beans
• 10 slices of thick-cut bacon, cut into lourdons 
• 1 medium white onion, fine diced
• 1 cup of Celery, fine diced
• 1 Red Bell Pepper, fine diced
• 4 cloves Garlic, chopped
• 2 Tbs.  Dijon Mustard 
• 1 Green apple, peeled, cored, and small diced (7-1/2 oz.)
• 1/4 cup Tomato Paste 
• 2 Tbs  Herbes Salées (see recipe)
• 1 cup hard dry cider
• 1/4 cup cider syrup (see recipe)
• 6 cups of Good Chicken Stock
• 2 tsp. cider vinegar 
• Salt and Pepper to taste 

Soak the beans overnight, Drain

Grab a Dutch Oven or a heavy pot.  I love clay bean pots

Preheat oven to 300

In a frying pan, Sauté the onions, celery garlic and red pepper SEPARATELY Remove to the Bean Pot

Brown the bacon, remove to BEAN POT

Place the bean pot on the stove top, add the rest of the ingredients EXCEPT the salt, pepper and cider vinegar.  Heat until every thing is about to boil. Stir often.

Put a lid on the pot and stick in the preheated oven.  Bake for about three hours or UNTIl the beans are soft.   Season to taste and add the Cider Vinegar.  

Gastrique!

Gastrique is a vey basic sauce.   Basicly a sweet and sour sauce.  So easy to make and well worth the effort. Today I made a Honey Gastrique and an Apple Gastrique.  The Honey Gastrique will be drizelled over grilled lamb.  The Honey Gastrique over grilled pork.  

Preparation for both sauces are the same 

For the Honey Gastrique:

1 part Honey

2 parts Honey Vinegar (substitute with cider vinegar)

Salt to taste

For the Apple Gastrique: 

1 part Apple Cider Syrup

2 parts Apple Vingar

Salt to taste  

Heat the Honey or Apple CiderSyrup in a heavy pan until it darkens (starts to carmalize)

Add the vinegar to the pan. Heat until the sauce reduced to the thickness of syrup.  

Add sauce to taste!

Pepper Season is near!

I started my first 2015 batch of fermented sauce,

The first tasting in six weeks.  

Leather Knife Roll

I made this knife roll a couple of months ago.  I did not like the rolls on the market so I designed this one.   I used to make English Tack and historical reproductions, so I dusted off my tools and got to it.

I used a heavy English Leather and hand sewed everything.  No rivits or other short cuts.  

Let me know if you want one.  At $350 they are not cheap, but neither were your knives?