Spork or Foon?

Ham, Fig and Manchego Tartines

A few weeks back, I catered an event for a New York City fashion designer.  I felt super important. 

Even Countess Luann from Real Housewives of New York was there! I had totally made it.

I was faced with the challenge of making delicious canapes for the event, however, I needed them all to be cold appetizers, as I do not have the equipment to serve hot food on location.

When I saw the recipe for these tartines, I knew they would be stellar.  Salty cured prosciutto, sharp manchego cheese, and sweet and creamy FIG BUTTER.

Say it again. Fig Butter.

This stuff is stellar.  Mix some fig preserves with some butter, put it in the fridge to serve, and eat it ALL. OF. THE. TIME.  This stuff is dangerous. You could eat it by the spoonful.  And then you'll remember that you are eating spoonfuls of butter, get slightly naseous, and then take another bite because it is so good.

But, lo!  There are many potential health benefits to butter:

From Body Ecology:

Butter is rich in the most easily absorbably form of Vitamin A necessary for thyroid and adrenal health.

Contains lauric acid, important in treating fungal infections and candida.

Contains lecethin, essential for cholesterol metabolism.

Has anti-oxidants that protect against weakening arteries.

Is a great source of Vitamins E and K.

Saturated fats in butter have strong anti-tumor and anti-cancer properties.

Protects against tooth decay.

Is your only source of an anti-stiffness factor, which protects against calcification of the joints. 

And many more benefits! So go eat away! I'm going to munch on a stick right now. 

This will forever be a go-to sandwich.  They looked prettier when I served them at the event, but for photo purposes, I was running short on time (read: needed to haul ass and get to the event, so why was I sitting in my apartment and taking photos?  Don't worry, I made it an there an hour early. I'm responsible! Hire me!)

Click here for this stellar recipe and remember: Butter is better. With fig.

Top Chef with Teanna: Season 6, Episode 3 - Soy Braised Pork Belly with Soy-Mustard Sauce and Peanuts

OK, so I've decided to change up my approach to this weekly Top Chef portion of my blog. I normally would write a recap of the episode and then comment briefly on the dish. But my boyfriend, Jack, pointed something out to me:

"You can read a recap anywhere," he stated. "I'd want to know what your experience was like.  Was it hard to find the ingredients? Was the recipe easy to follow? Things like that."

I've got a smart one on my hands, people.

And I must say that I agree. In his week one blog, Tom Colicchio asked:

Recently an article written about the lack of time that people are spending cooking hinted at Top Chef as being part of the reason. With the feedback I’ve received from viewers, including countless nine- and ten-year old boys and girls who watch devotedly and are now in the kitchen cooking away, I have to believe it’s quite the opposite. Your thoughts?

Well, Tom, I'm glad you asked me personally. I think that Top Chef has been a huge contributor to the explosion of interest in food, restaurants, chefs, ingredients, etc.  I often use the Top Chef recipe database as my go-to source for new recipes. I know that many of the recipes seem daunting, with countless ingredients and foreign (to home-cooks) techniques. But I hope that this little part of my humble blog will show readers that it is, in fact, not scary to cook Top Chef recipes. 

Unless they are Marcel's. I'm still nervous for when I hit one of his recipes up. I think I'll be all geleed and foamed out by that point. 

So, I will no longer be writing recaps, but will let all of you, my friends, know what it is like to cook this dish. Maybe I'll even assign a "Scary?" factor. 

This week's winning dish was by Michael Voltaggio - one of the brothers who seem to be two of the strongest competitors in the competition. Michael won last week's challenge with his strange-but-delicious play on chips and guacamole: a guacamole filled lime meringue served with a corn puree. This week, he won with another innovative dish.

The dish consisted of some fairly common ingredients: your usual celery, carrots, and onions for a mirepoix for the slab bacon.  Then you've got your soy sauce, powdered ginger, and mustard (both yellow and whole grain).  Throw some mango chutney into the mix for a sweet and spicy combination that smelled like heaven when reducing on the stove. 

I thought I would have some problems finding some slab bacon. I don't normally shop for slab bacon, so I thought it would be like asking for something crazy like goat leg. Surprisingly (or stupid of me to have thought it), it was actually very easy to find slab bacon.  I headed to the neighborhood supermarket and waited patiently while the butcher scolded a worker when he found blood in the sea salt. I politely asked if they had slab bacon, he directed me towards a different section of the store, and I quietly made a note to myself never to shop there again. Luckily, my slab bacon was tightly wrapped, and I was able to get all of the remaining ingredients in one trip. 

I returned to my kitchen, prepared my mise en place, and scored my bacon.  I was excited because it was my first time scoring bacon and I felt super-professional. 

It's the little things, people.  

I browned the bacon, skin side down, in a bit of sesame oil, flipped it over, filled the pan with some water and my aromatics, covered it with a bit of aluminum foil and popped it in a 275 F oven for 2 hours.  Easy enough. 

I then prepared the glaze. It went a little something like this:

Put all of the ingredients in a pan. Reduce. 

HOLLA! I'm, like, SO good at this.

The recipe called for a significant amount of cornstarch, but I am not sure why, because my sauce was beautifully thick within 15 minutes.  No need for cornstarch when there is... well... no need for cornstarch.

Two hours later, I grabbed my bacon, slathered on some sauce, sliced it up, placed it in some romaine hearts, added some chopped peanuts, snapped some photos and took a bite. 

The dish was delicious.  Moist, juicy, and tender, with a great smoky flavor, and topped with a sweet and spicy chutney.  The added texture of the crisp romaine hearts and crunchy peanuts were a great addition. I removed the bottom layer of skin when I ate it because, frankly, there is enough fat in bacon that I don't have to eat the ACTUAL fat of the bacon, lest I would like to put on 20 pounds and feel my arteries clog with each and every chew. 

You can watch beloved contestant Fabio Viviani's video on BravoTV.com, which is a great tutorial piece each week.  However, he does make the dish a little differently than directed in the recipe.  I know Italian men like to do things their way (I'm Italian, there is nothing wrong with that) or the way of their grand-a-ma-ma, so I won't be one to argue. 

I give this dish a Scary factor of 2 (on a scale of 1-10), mainly because of the blood in the sea salt at the grocery, which has nothing to do with this dish, but really, come on, that's a little scary. 

Click here for the recipe.

TWD: Chocolate Chai Souffle

HOLLA!!!!!

My first souffle, people!

This post will be short and sweet, because I have a lot of cooking in my future (meaning things I am very far behind on). Mainly, to give myself a bit of street cred (HOLLA!), I'm cooking through CIA Baking and Pastry Book and I have lots of breads in my near future right now.

Badass. I know. Watch out for me on the street, I'll be wielding a French Baguette like no other. 

So I just whipped up (HA) Dorie's Chocolate Souffle and added a bit of a hint of fall flavors by adding some chai spices (which are my favorite).  

I melted some Valhorna 70%, whipped a couple of egg whites, mixed the two together, popped that bad boy in the oven, made my photo shoot "set" (seriously, I need better photo backgrounds/items/lighting), set up my camera, heard the buzzer, ran to the kitchen (really, which is only about 20 feet away), grabbed my souffles, ran back, set them up on the plate, got my camera and...

They had sunken. Bastards! Ruining my photo shoot. They were so tall and pretty. Now they were so short and flat. These were not the models I had cast! Imposters!

Tasty imposters, but imposters nonetheless. 

Check out Susan of She's Becoming Doughmesstic for the recipe (and you'll love her site. Talk about a badass baker!) and check out the rest of TWD for some more steaming hot chocolatey models! Or else I'll beat you down with a Pullman loaf. 

Mushroom Quesadillas on Whole Wheat Tortillas

In the final installment of my virtual experience at Jennifer Aniston's dinner party, I present to you these Mushroom Quesadillas on whole wheat tortillas. Except one thing went wrong. These are regular, white tortillas.

I had whole wheat tortillas. I paid for whole wheat tortillas.  I grabbed my bags from the lady at the supermarket, who for some reason looked confused or preoccupied while she was ringing me up. It was the red flag that shone in her distant eyes that prompted me to even feel over the counter at the bags that were remaining to make sure I was taking everything with me that I paid for.

My family was over, enjoying the beautiful views of downtown Manhattan from the rooftop pool in my building, as I was in my kitchen cooking away. I had prepped everything and now it was time to assemble. I reached for the bag where I thought my tortillas were and, surprise surprise, there were no tortillas.  I checked every bag, checked my fridge, called Jack for help, but alas, the tortillas had gone missing. Jack blamed me, I told him that practically climbed over the counter to make sure that I took everything, but fighting didn't change the fact that I had to go back to supermarket for the third time that day to get some more tortillas. 

When I entered the store, I looked for the lady that stole my tortillas. I wanted to jump on the conveyer belt and ride my way over to her and shake her and yell "Give me back my tortillas!" in my best Pablo Francisco/Arnold Schwarzenneger Voice. 

"In the city, you must fight to survive.  He sold tortillas on the corner... and the mob wanted in.  He had one chance, and his chance was to fight back.  Arnold Schwarzenneger... (announcer) double the action, triple the excitement (get down!)... more excitement (get down again!). They're trying to take MY TORTILLAS!"

But instead I just huffed over to the aisle that held the tortillas, only to find that there were no more whole wheat tortillas.  Sadly, I purchased the plain old white tortillas and left the store.

Regardless, this dish was amazing.  The tortillas were crisped using a technique of lining the pan with kosher salt, which eliminated the use of fattening oil (you just needed to scrape off the salt before serving) and was filled with creamy cheese, juicy mushrooms, and healthy spinach. 

I still am mad about those tortillas.  It was probably my fault, though. I probably did leave them at the store. But I won't admit it! 

Click here for the recipe.

We've Got Tostadaaaaaas, Peopleeeeeeeeeee!!!

That's what I imagine Oprah saying when serving this dish. You see, I found many delicious recipes from a link off of O Magazine about a dinner party at Jennifer Aniston's house.  A dinner party which I was not invited to, but I'll have to talk to Jen about that another time. 

I keed, I keed.

This is my new favorite thing to eat.  And it leaves leftovers for days, so I have been eating it every day. So simple to throw together (don't be scared by all of the ingredients), so healthy, and so fun to eat.  A fantastic salad of red cabbage, corn and black beans is tossed with a wonderful vinaigrette with made lime juice, coconut oil, and cumin and tossed with shrimp or chicken or whatever you'd like, sits atop a cruncy, puffed up tortilla.  Best part about this dish? It's totally ok to eat this with your hands and drop food all over yourself, because that's probably what is going to happen. But don't worry, all the cool kids are doing it. Jennifer Aniston, after eating this dish, was covered in corn and black beans and loved every second of it.

OK, this is how rumors start. Next thing you know, a "friend" will have confirmed to Life and Style that Jennifer Aniston has joined a religion that worships corn and black bean salads.

Corn and Black Bean Tostadas with Spicy Chicken and Shrimp - adapted from O Magazine

12 small corn tortillas

Olive oil , for brushing

Salad: 

1 can (15 ounces) black beans , drained and rinsed

1/4 tsp. ground cumin

1/4 tsp. ancho chili powder

Salt and freshly ground pepper

3 ears corn (roasted, sautéed, or raw), kernels only

1/2 head (small) red cabbage , shredded

5 plum tomatoes , seeded and diced

2 avocados , peeled and diced

1 bunch cilantro , coarsely chopped

1/2 cup cotija cheese , crumbled

Vinaigrette:

3 Tbsp. fresh lime juice (about 1 lime)

3 Tbsp. coconut oil or rice vinegar

1 medium shallot , finely chopped (about 2 Tbsp.)

1/4 tsp. minced garlic

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. sugar

2 Tbsp. chopped cilantro

1 tsp. ground cumin

1/2 cup canola oil

Chicken:

(2) 4 oz chicken breasts, chopped

Zest of 1 lime

1/4 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. ancho chili powder

2 Tbsp. olive oil

1/2 serrano chili , minced (optional)

To make shells: Preheat oven to 350°. Brush tortillas on both sides with olive oil, and arrange on a baking sheet. Cook 15 to 20 minutes, or until golden and crispy. Let cool in pan; set aside.

To make salad: Put black beans in a large bowl; mix in cumin and ancho chili powder. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Add remaining salad ingredients; toss lightly to combine. Put salad in refrigerator until ready to serve.

To make vinaigrette: In a medium bowl, whisk together lime juice, vinegar, shallot, garlic, salt, and sugar. Let sit for 10 minutes to dissolve salt and sugar. Add cilantro and cumin, then slowly whisk in oil. Set aside.

To make chicken: Season chicken all over with zest, salt, ancho chili powder, olive oil, and serrano chili (if using). Grill or sauté in a large skillet in batches over high heat, 2 to 3 minutes per side; remove from heat.

To assemble tostadas: Toss salad, chicken, and vinaigrette together. Place baked tortilla shells on a large platter, and add a handful of mixture to each; serve.

Top Chef with Teanna - Season 6, Episode 2 - Guacamole-Filled Meringue

I don't know what I want to talk about more this week - the episode or Fabio Viviani's online tutorial about how to make the winning dish.

I guess I'll start with the episode.  The cheftestants start off with this week's Quickfire - the craps challenge.   We are in Vegas, so we're talking about a game that no one that I know understands, so when I find myself around a craps table, I just cheer when people look happy and groan and scream and throw my drink when people look sad.  But this challenge was a bit easier to comprehend. Roll the die, cook a dish with that many ingredients. There were many decent numbers rolled(come on! Couldn't someone have rolled a 2?!), and only one person was cursed with a low number 3.  The chefs cooked their hearts out while guest judge Todd English watched on.

As a side note, I have never noticed how much Todd English looks like a soap-star with his dark hair and smoldering gaze. He belongs on Days of Our Lives. 

Todd and Padma walked around and tasted each dish. As Todd was doing so, I liked to imagine soap opera music in the background and walked around the room.

Long story short, some people cook some really bad stuff, including some people already too familiar with the bottom, like that chick with the piercings all over her face that make me slightly nauseous who always seems to know that she did something wrong but never does it right when she is actually cooking the dish, and that blonde lady who made a bad underseasoned dish last week and followed it up with... a bad, underseasoned dish. But the winner of the dish was one of the two twins, who I have yet to be able to tell apart, but this is the one from the West Coast. 

The cheftestants are then given their challenge: the ladies must cook for a bachelor party and the men must cook for a bachelorette party.  Well, one gay cheftestant wasn't too happy with this, because she felt that it was unfair to cook in this challenge when she herself is not given the same equal rights that she very much deserves, and made her case known. And known. And known again.  As annoying as she may have been, she has a very valid point, and in all seriousness, I can't wait for the day that this is no longer an issue and that same sex-couples are allowed all of the rights which are supposed to be granted to every United States citizen.  And I know we will get there, just as women and minorities did in their quest for equal rights. 

The chefs were to pair their dishes to three shots - none of which I remember the names of except for tequila. The bride and groom told their respective chefs what they were looking for in the menu. 

Fast forward to the party, and then men and women walk around the pool to their respective sides. The men start taking shots, the women strip off their clothes. How apt. 

The men really seemed to like their dishes, as did the women. The judges liked some of the girl's dishes well enough, but really loved the men's dishes, which included the twin's dishes of a sorbet that was made with the same ingredients as one of the shots and a play on chips and guacamole, making a macaroon and stuffing it with guacamole.  After the party died down, the men stripped down and showed us their lovely rolls a'plenty as they jumped into the pool And so did my beloved Mattin!  I cried, fearing for his neckerchief! What if its beautiful red color should fade?  Luckily, we see Mattin hanging his neckerchief to dry and all is well in the land. 

The judges awarded the winning dish to the twin who didn't win the Quickfire for his creative dish of "chips and guacamole" and sent home the blonde girl who was in the bottom for every single challenge for, you guessed it, her dish that had no flavor. 

Now on to the fun part: Fabio.  As you may know, Fabio is famous for his soundbytes with such gems as "This is Top Chef, not Top Scallop!" or "I am front of house. They could give me monkey ass to serve in clam shelf and we -a gonna win".  

I watched his instruction video for the dish, as Top Chef didn't post the recipe, and I was not disappointed.  Fabio told us of the intricacies of the stages of whipping meringue.  "How you call it? What's it-a called? Hard-a peak, soft-a peak. Eh, there are several different stiffness. We like it hard-a stiff. That's a joosta wrong by any means." and how to judge how much salt and pepper to use. "You have a pressure probe-lem? Little salt.  You no like-a pepper? Don't put it in."

But man, was this dish fun. And so easy and fast to put together.  If you don't have a problem making meringues, I would say to make this dish for every party. The crunchy-sweet meringue pairs so well with the citrus flavor of the guacamole, and it rests atop a delicious sweet corn puree.  Don't make this without the puree!!! It totally completes this dish. I didn't like it without it. But with the puree... well...  I'd take a noogie or two for this dish.

Guacamole Filled Meringue from Top Chef

Meringue

4 egg whites

1/2 tbsp cream of tartar

1/2 cup granulated sugar

zest of 1 lime

Guacamole

2 avocados

2 limes

1/2 red onion, chopped

2 tbsp cilantro

1 jalapeno, seeded and diced

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Corn Puree

2 tbsp butter

1 ear corn

1 cup cream

kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

For the Meringue

Preheat oven to 200 F.  Line a baking tray with parchment paper.

Add egg whites, cream of tartar, sugar, and lime zest to a stand-mixer filled with a whisk attachment.  Whisk on medium low until sugar is dissolved.  Raise mixer speed to medium high and whisk until meringue holds stiff peaks, about five minutes.  Fill a piping bag with meringue and pipe small, 2 inch mounds onto tray.  Bake for 1 1/2 - 2 hours, until meringues are firm.  Let cool.

For the Guacamole

Mix all ingredients and puree in a blender for one minute until smooth. Set aside.

For Corn Puree

Heat butter over medium heat and add corn.  Cook for two minutes.  Add cream and let boil for 30 seconds.  Let cool slightly.  Puree in a blender at set aside.

To assemble

Place 2 tbsp corn mixture on a plate. Pipe guacamole mixture into the bottom of each meringue, place atop corn mixture. Repeat with remaining ingredients. Serve immediately.

TWD: Trio of Cheesecake Brownies

I almost missed the boat on these littl'uns.  Not because I didn't want to make them, mind you. No no, that is not the case at all.  It is because I have no one to give them away to. 

You see, my friends, I am no longer gainfully employed. Since my return to New York, I have catered an event for a NYC fashion designer, which got my heart pumping. I loved it. I mentioned on Facebook that I was in business for catering, and three people immediately contacted me to cater events for them.  So I somehow, in some amazing way, am actually... in business.

However, this business is still a yet unfertilized egg.

Too graphic? I apologize.

Basically, the catering thing is still in a very nascent stages.  I also have some other exciting things which I don't talk about just yet (lest I jinx myself) that I am working on. 

Plus, my fantasy football draft is just five days away.

It is a busy time, my friends.  But it also a time where I can hone my culinary skills for all of these exciting possibilities in my life.  Again, however, I have no one to give this food to.

I can't possibly eat these things myself. I spend enough time in the gym working off the few bites and the inevitable quarter cup of batter/dough that I eat whenever I am baking.  I am contemplating standing on the street and handing out goodies to passerbys (can you make passerby plural? Because I just did).  Or giving all of the baked goods to the leasing office and or/concierge in my building to give to potential residents of the building.  

For now, there will be a lot of minis/half recipes in the near future until I can figure a way to get these off of my hands. I feel horrible. There are starving children in Africa and here I am trying to give away cheesecake brownies!

But these brownies are a gift to anyone who receives them, because hot damn these are good. So good, that I actually just said "hot damn".  I decided to make three different flavors - Irish Coffee (Baileys/Espresso), Orange, and Mint.  If you all know me, you'll know that my favorite were the Irish Coffee, but all three were fantastic.  The fudgey brownie layer was the perfect bed for the creamy cheesecake that was wonderfully swirled with even more brownie. These were so good, and so versatile, that these will be on the menu for my new catering venture. 

For now, they are on the menu for my new street peddling, minus the actual exchange of money part, venture. If you see a girl of ambiguous ethnic decent (I'm half Italian, half Trinidadian, but no one can ever tell), about 5'4", long brown hair standing on the corner of the streets of Manhattan with a tray of baked goods begging you to take one, don't be alarmed.

It's just me.

Check out Melissa from Life in a Peanut Shell for the recipe and check out the rest of TWD for some more brownie goodness!