I know that people have been giving Paula Dean a lot of crap because her food is a heart attack waiting to happen. Lets be honest for a second, is Southern Comfort food really the kind of thing reasonable people eat every day? Or even once a week for that matter. She is not shoving her fatty food down anyone's throat.
In all seriousness though, after watching Paula Dean research her family history on a show called Who Do You Think You Are?, I came to adore this woman. I never had a mother. If I could have one, I would pick Paula. She seems like the kind of person who is easy to talk to. So yes, I am a Yankee who likes Paula Dean. I admit it. Deal with it.
Paula Dean´s Peach Cobbler
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Gordon Ramsey´s Beef Wellington
Former French president Jaque Chirac once said, "One cannot trust people whose cuisine is so bad." Within earshot of reporters he went on, "After Finland, it is the country with the worst food."
A UK spokesman said: "There are some things that it is better not to comment on."
What are they known for? Shepard's pie, fish, chips, potatoes, cabbage soup, toast and beans? Whelp, personally I am not the biggest fan of French food. While living in France there were some things that made me want to vomit.
Beef Wellington is a famous British dish. Some people have said it is difficult to make. I am always up for a challenge. Today I will be making Beef Wellington, and I will be following the recipe from famous British chef Gordon Ramsey.
The first problem I encountered making Beef Wellington was that I did not have any prosciutto. I used bacon instead. I cooked the bacon a little because I am not taking any chances. The second problem I had, was that I did not prepare enough bacon and mushroom paste to ensure that the filet could be properly rolled out. So I had to go back and fix some things. I made some more bacon, and spread everything out a second time. I also wrapped and refrigerated the Wellington twice. The good thing about this recipe is that it can be made the night before.
One of the things about being a self-taught chef is that we need to learn by trial and error. Unlike baking, we can usually go back and fix things that went wrong with steaks or assemblies. Below is Gordon Ramsey´s simple Beef Wellington Recipe. He did update his recipe with a lovely Christmas version.
◆◆◆◆◆ Soufflé
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| The book I am reading |
Wikipedia: A soufflé (French: [su.fle]) is a lightly baked cake made with egg yolks and beaten egg whites combined with various other ingredients and served as a savory main dish or sweetened as a dessert. The word soufflé is the past participle of the French verb souffler which means "to blow up" or more loosely "puff up"—an apt description of what happens to this combination of custard and egg whites.
Julia Child Interview from 1999
The Tripe video was nauseating . Cow stomach! Barf
Cooking at a high heat, 400 degrees and up
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| Seared Roast |
The simplest approach to roasting is placing seafood, veggies, and seasoned meat on a roasting pan, and sliding it into an oven temperature 400 or higher. The greatest benefit of high heat cooking is that foods develop a well seared exterior with a juicy savor, rare or medium rare interior. This is exactly how I like my steak. Be careful not to over cook them. Nothing is worse that rubbery meat. Roasting meat can require split second timing, you have to really baby-sit the meat. The major limitation is that high heat cooking does not work well with larger roasts. For example, large meats like Turkey or Leg of Lamb will be burnt and crusty on the outside by the time the inside is cooked. Frequent oven cleaning becomes a problem. Juices splatter and the flesh smokes the interior.
Homemade Chicken Pot Pie Dinner
1 cup chopped onion
2 cubes chicken consome
.5 cup frozen peas
1 cup flour
1 tbs cornstarch
1 tbs salt
2 chopped chicken breasts
.5 cup 2% milk
4 tbs butter
Baking Bread
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| Very Proud of My Braided Bread |
I decided to start baking my own bread. It is lucky for me that I love doing things myself. I love growing my own food from the seed, harvesting from the vine, and controlling each ingredient that goes into my recipes.
I learned how to bake bread from watching simple tutorial videos on All.Recipes.
Black Cherry Glazed Chicken
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| Black Cherry Glazed Chicken Breast |
Today
my husband came home to a treat. For dinner he had a black cherry glazed chicken
breast on a bed of veggies. Sounds delicious.
Here
is the recipe:
2
medium size chicken breasts
1 cup black cherries
.25 cup white vinegar
.25 cup Teriyaki sauce
.5 cup brown sugar
1 tbs salt
1 tbs lemon juice
1 tsp cornstarch
.25 cups water
1 cup black cherries
.25 cup white vinegar
.25 cup Teriyaki sauce
.5 cup brown sugar
1 tbs salt
1 tbs lemon juice
1 tsp cornstarch
.25 cups water
The
salad was mixed Romain, Red Lettuce, Iceberg Lettuce, Spinach leaves and cherry
tomatoes. I tossed in three tablespoons of the sauce and tossed the salad. Very
simple.
First
I seared the chicken in a pan, then it went into the oven. I baked it at 400 for about 10 – 15 minutes. I
usually just check until it is done.
Kent Cornucopia Days - Vendor Spotlight
I was happy to see a lot more originality in vendors, displays and products sold. When I visit vendors, I first pay attention to see originality. Then I look for quality and uniqueness of their booth. I want to see that they care about their product enough to make their booths special and unique. I like to see the artist expressed in details. I do not care to see people selling meaningless crap. If that were the case I would move back to Brooklyn New York.
Getting a booth is not cheap. Last time I checked it was more than $300 dollars. I is certainly higher than that if one reserves a space more than 10x10. The price is high enough to make sure people care about their product and presentation.
Homemade Pesto
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| Naomi Making Pesto in the Food Processor |
The ancient Romans used to make a
garlic slash
cheese slash
oil slash salt
slash vinegar paste called Moretum. They ate it as a spread on bread. Today, we have a
version of Moretum called Pesto. Pesto is one of my favorite sauces.
In this blog, you will see how I
make pesto from scratch. The first ingredient, Sweet Basil Leaves comes
directly from my garden. Then you will see each step of the process in photos.
I love pesto on shrimp, chicken,
and pasta. Pesto is not a cheap product, in the store just a few ounces of it
costs a few dollars but when feeding a large family this can really add up. The
most expensive part of pesto, in my area, is the pine nuts. Using other kinds
of nuts makes the pesto sauce turn out weird.
Peach Cake Brule avec Pêches Confites
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| Naomi's Peach Cake Brulee |
I brought me Peach Juice. I changed only one ingredient from their recipe. Other than that, I am following their exact instructions.
This recipe had more ingredients and was more complex. After I whipped it up and put it in the oven, I realized that it would need some candied peaches to go ontop. The candied peaches are entirely my recipe.
Bacon Egg Cheese Quiche
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| Cheese and Bacon Quiche |
- Three Eggs
- Three ounces Mexican Cheese
- Two ounces chopped onion
- Two strips of bacon
I used some of the left over crust I made for the spinach quiche a few days ago. This recipe was very simple.
Naomi's First Creme Brulee
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| Naomi's First Crème Brûlée - I had problems with the broiler method |
Before I began the filling I spun some sugar the night before. Or, as Dominique and Cindy Duby writes - "Caramel Recipes". These are sweet toppings to one can put on top of a
Crème brûlée, ice cream, or any other dessert. It gives the pastry a professional appearance. Their book has five pages recipes for different spun sugar toppings: basic caramel, caramel cages, caramel threads, caramel dust, pulled caramel, caramel paper, caramel glass, caramel nuts and bubble caramel. For their exact recipes and techniques you will need to buy the book.
Spinach Breakfast Quiche
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| My Spinach Quiche made this morning |
There were two things that I did for this recipe the night before. I made the crust the night before, rolled it into a ball, and wrapped it up in plastic wrap. I cooked the spinach and onions with a little olive oil and salt. When they were finished, they went into the refrigerator. It is not required to make the spinach, onion, and crust the day before making your breakfast Quiche. I do it for convenience. I am not exactly a morning person. The recipe for the crust comes from a tutorial video that I watched. (It is linked below). The filling is my own personal recipe.
Chapter One - Introduction to Crème Brûlée
Dear
Readers,
Yesterday
I read the first chapter of Dominique and Cindy Duby’s book, Crème brûlée –
More than 50 Decadent Recipes. Today I am going write a quick abstract over
the introduction to the art of making Crème brûlée. I also wanted to add one
important note that Dominique and Cindy Duby’s recipes are all copy write
material. Out of respect for their hard work I will not publish any of their
actual recipes in this blog. The only recipe that I will publish will be a
generic Crème brûlée recipe. For each of their recipes that I do make I will
publish a photo of my image, and link you to either their company or another
place where you can buy a copy of their book. So let’s get on with my abstract.
Crème
brûlée is a baked custard much like cheesecake is a baked custard. It consists
of basically milk and eggs. Depending on how much egg or
thickener used, the custard may vary in consistency. As I thought about how and
why eggs are thickeners I decided to do a brief review of the egg. The egg is a
protein thickener. It traps carbon dioxide when heated, which is what thickens
the substance. I think that it is important to understand the chemistry behind
these recipes.
My love-hate relationship with French Food
A
lot of you might find this a surprise, but I am not a fan of French food. I
lived one year in a small French village. The food was....meh. Even French
restaurants in New York City did not really impress me. The only French things
that I really like are wine, escargot, cheese, and desserts. A lot of the food
I tried was rather plain and boring. Their food is simple. I am not saying
there is anything wrong with something being simple. It’s just not my thing. Or
as they would say, “Ce n’est pas mon truc.”
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| Raclette and the human fat it turns into 30 minutes later |
There
are some French dishes that made me want to vomit. Raclette– potato,
cheese and ham. BARF! May as well get a pound of lard and inject it right into
my thighs because that is exactly where that meal is going. I did a quick google search to make sure that
I spelled Raclette correctly, then looked at some images. The images online are
much nicer than reality. When I had it, it was a big disgusting mess of potato,
cheese and ham. Then there was this pork apple thing I ordered in a restaurant.
The smell of it was nauseating. While in Alsace, I tried their meat stew
thingy. I think it was called Baeckeoffe. It looked to me like pieces of dead
animal in soup, which then reminded me of that infamous scene from Fatal
Attraction when crazy lady boiled that poor rabbit alive. In case you need a visual - I put this little image together in photoshop to give you an idea of EXACTLY what went thorough my mind when I tasted that disgusting crap.
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| Baeckeoof and a Murdered Bunny Rabbit |
I
survived in France cooking all my meals at home.
When
I told my husband that I was writing a blog about how I do not like French
food, he said, “So – French food has made you surrender? You have....given
up....on French food?” Yes, those were actual puns. Shameful but true.
Now,
let’s move onto the things about French Cuisine that I do like – desserts,
wine, cheese and bread. Some say that Crème Brulée
was first invented by the Spanish and stolen by the French. The French say they
invented it as do the British. I could care less about that controversy. It is
kind of like arguing who invented the Ravioli. Many cultures have a version of
a stuffed dough thingy like most cultures have a version of the pancake.
My
first Crème Brulée will be a basic recipe. Then I will move onto the Crème
Brulée à la Naomi, which will be more flavorful, complex with flavor mixing in
the dish not on the palate as the French so prefer.
So, get these gross images out of your head because I will have some pretty ones coming soon.
Crème brûlée
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| All my recipes will come from this library book |
It is too bad so few people are willing to take advantage of them.
Yesterday I went to the library with my nine month old son Liam. One of the books I checked out is called: Crème brûlée, More than 50 decadent recipes. (Featured Image) I have never made Crème brûlée and I am very excited to get started. When I get my mind to learning something new, I go head in and take it to the extreme. Just as I did with the Cheesecakes, this is going to be my new culinary delight. I plan on photographing, and publishing each recipe that I make. I doubt that I will be able to work my way through the entire book because I have to watch my calories, and my husband does too. So I am thinking, ten recipes from this book should do it.
I would like to link you to the authors of this book, Dominique and Cindy Duby. They will be my teachers on this journey and I am a firm believer in giving credit where credit is due. Every recipe that I make will be coming from their book.
So, keep checking in to this blog to see the delicious burnt cream concoctions I come up with in the kitchen.
À bientôt
Chicken Wellington
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| Made in Mexico City |
When I
was living in Mexico City I saw a photograph of a delicious steak Wellington.
Everyone told me it was very difficult to make. I have to admit that it did
look difficult. This is a variation on a French dish, filet de bœuf en croûte.
It is basically a steak cooked in pastry puff. Before wrapping the steak, you
layer it with mushrooms, cheese, or other flavorful goodies.
I made
mine with chicken. The problem is that chicken takes longer to cook than steak.
Nobody wants their chicken medium well or rare. But steak can have a little
blood.
I made
two Chicken Wellingtons for my husband and I. To go with it, I made a mandarin
spinach salad. When it comes to dinner, I have one simple rule regardless if
the main dish is simple or complex. Always serve with fresh vegetables: steamed,
raw or grilled.
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