Excerpt

An excerpt from "The Making Of A Chef" by Michael Ruhlman. At this point, Mr Ruhlman is interviewing the president of the Culinary Institute of America, Mr Ferdinand Metz.

'Mr Metz had told me one puts one's values on the plate; in fact, he suggested that this was the final and distinguishing element one brought to the basics of cookery. "The thing you add is your own sense of standards and quality," he said.

'I asked him to clarify what he meant when he said one puts values on a plate.

'"You know an artist is represented by his or her paintings or drawings or sculpture, the quality of it," he said. "I think we project our values by the food we have on the plate, not necessarily in the same artistic sense, but in the sense of flavors we offer. I always feel that when I put food on the plate for my family - anybody - I'm saying, 'I feel good about this. This is what I believe is good food. If it's not good food, I wouldn't put it there. This is what I like, this is my standard, this is what I believe is good food and I hope you enjoy it.' I think you make a value statement every time."'

I honestly believe that I have never seen anything as succinctly put as this. It is the epitome of how I feel about food. Never give someone what you feel is second rate. It is a reflection of yourself and of your ideals, and you show others how you feel about both yourself and your ideals with it.

~M

Family Style Lasagna

yields 1 lasagna pan (14" x 9" x 4" deep) filled to the top

Sauce:
1 lb mild Italian sausage
1 lb hot Italian sausage
3 cans chunk tomatoes, Italian flavor
2 small cans tomato paste
2 cans mushrooms -or- 1 lb fresh mushrooms, sauteed in butter
1 bunch fresh basil, minced
8 cloves garlic, minced
salt
pepper

Cheese filling:
1 lb ricotta cheese, drained
1 lb fine curd cottage cheese, drained
1 lb grated mozzarella cheese
4 eggs
1 lb chopped spinach (drained) -or- 3 medium zucchini, shredded
1/4 tsp nutmeg (fresh-grated is best)
salt
pepper

2 boxes uncooked lasagna noodles
1 1/2 Cups water

1/2 lb mozzarella cheese, shredded, for topping

Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees.

For the sauce:
Mix the sausages together and brown.
Add the tomatoes, garlic and tomato paste.
Mix together until smooth
Add mushrooms and mix until combined.
Let simmer about 15-20 minutes.
Add basil and salt and pepper to taste.

For the cheese filling:
Combine all ingredients together in a large bowl until completely mixed.

In a large, 4" deep lasagna pan (13x9), do the following to layer:

sauce (with no meat, just to cover the bottom of the pan
Noodles, just meeting one another, covering the bottom of the pan
Cheese filling
Noodles
Sauce
Noodles
Cheese
Noodles

Repeat until you have used up all of the cheese, and then top with noodles and sauce.

Top with the cheese, and then add the noodles.

Cover with tin foil and bake for 1 1/2 hours.
Remove tin foil and test noodles for done-ness. They should now be soft.
Bake another 15-20 minutes or until cheese on top is nice and bubbly.

Let rest about 15-30 minutes.

Serve.

On Egg Cookery

Egg cookery is not glamorous. It is relegated in the culinary world most times to either the pantry or A.M. chef, or to the weekend brunch chef, and otherwise forgotten. Today's world looks on the idea of the egg and the myriad of dishes that can be made with it either as a main dish (an omelet, for instance) or an ingredient (take the plethora of cakes, pies and pasta that is made with it) as a mere convenience - some even look at it as a necessary evil because of it's higher cholesterol content than some other protein-rich substances. Be that as it may, to me there is very little that makes it other than a perfect single serving item. It even comes pre-packaged.

Eggs aren't necessarily pretty on the plate (unless you work at it), and when cooked incorrectly will both taste and smell foul. Why is this? There are a few things that you need to understand about an egg. First of all, the protein structure. I could go on and on like a chemist or a scientist about what happens when heat is applied, etc. Simple is always good for most people, though. What happens is this: When an egg cooks, the proteins within it turn solid, trapping the water portion of the egg within it. That water is necessary for the egg to maintain its look and mouth-feel.

If you *over-cook* the egg, the proteins tend to over-stretch itself, and eventually break. This lets out the water, and turns your eggs rubbery and unappetizing. If you've ever stepped away from your eggs and when you've come back, you've wondered who dumped a quarter-cup of water into the pan, I'll tell you: YOU did. You let the eggs overcook. Not only that, you'll find that the eggs smell sort of... well... rotten. That's the sulfur that's inherent in egg structure. Release that, and it's all over.

So, how to cook a proper egg? Well, it depends on how you like your eggs, first of all. Hard boiled, soft boiled, poached, fried, over easy, sunny side up, or scrambled... There's a lot of choices for an egg, which is one of the wonderful things about them.

So, I'll visit each of them in turn and give a little information on how best to cook them, depending on how you want them...

Until then, ponder this: Out of all the meat-based proteins in the world, the egg has all of the omega acids necessary for our body to stay healthy.

~M

Bacon for Dessert...

So, my last entry in Iron Chef did not win - I lost by 3 points. I was disappointed in myself, if only because I didn't feel I gave it my all, and didn't bring my 'A' game.

But, that's OK - there's a new Iron Chef challenge for me...

Now, there's 8 of us (normally) that participate, so, we normally have two people in each category. It breaks down to Appetizer, Entree, Dessert, and Drinks. The drinks portion is normally a separate flavoring from the main secret ingredient, as it's sometimes difficult to figure out how to put peas into an appetizing form that one would want to imbibe... The last time we pulled, dessert and drinks were given to the same person...

This time has been no different, and I have been given Dessert and drinks. I already know the secret ingredient - Bacon.

To that end, I'm going to put together a medley of tasty bacon-based desserts to see which would stand out the most on a plate, and which will fail and burn in a fiery death of shame and woe...

I have such ideas as these:

Orange-cream puff pastry, dipped in chocolate, with bacon brittle
Apple filo dough with maple-glazed bacon
Pear and bacon tartlet with sugared bacon crumbles
Bacon carrot cake with a macadamia nut bacon brittle
Bacon chocolate chip cookie sandwiches with maple ice cream

I think these are all fairly good ideas and they should translate fairly well throughout the tasting...

If YOU have any ideas that you think would do well, let me know and I will consider mixing them in...

Street Vendor Tacos...

About five years ago, I did an externship at a local Caribbean/Florida/cum Northwestern restaurant and catering company.

Prior to that, while I had gone through "International Cooking", I hadn't had too much in the way of understanding much of anything that was regional in the way of Hispanic foods. I knew they were spicy, and I knew that I liked a lot of it. I also knew that most of what I got in the so-called "Mexican" restaurants (read chain restaurants like Azteca and the like) were *not* Mexican at all, but a Tex-Mex blend of ideas and components that, while tasty, really had nothing to do with South or Central America or its eating habits.

Imagine my surprise when the five women and four men I worked with at my externship showed me what different regions did, even within a 100 mile radius of Mexico city. I learned there how to make street tacos, and they quickly became my favorite treat in the world. I normally didn't have a way to make them for just myself, as it has a lot of condiments involved, and I don't necessarily want to eat 20 of them at a time...

So, since last night I was guaranteed to have at least 3 people besides myself to feed, I figured it was a perfect time for me to make tacos.

Makes about 20 small street tacos

20 small soft corn tortillas
2 lbs chicken breast, chopped into bite-sized pieces
2 chipotle chiles in adobo sauce, minced
1 Tbsp garlic salt
1 Tbsp olive oil

optional toppings:
cotija cheese crumbles
queso fresco (mild white cheese)
pico de gallo
salsa
guacamole
sour cream
lettuce

Cook the chicken with the chiles and garlic salt in the olive oil on medium high heat until they are just brown.
Remove from the heat and steam the corn tortillas until they are pliable.
Add chicken, and your optional toppings.

Enjoy!

Drinks!!!

In honor of my "fabulous" daytime job, I have opted to post mixed drink recipes. Whoot!


Nutty Irishman

1/2 Irish Cream
1/2 Hazelnut Liqueur

Mix in whatever proportions deemed necessary, and serve.


Black-Hearted Wench

2 shots Captain Morgan's spiced rum
1 cup Sunny D or Tampico orange drink

Mix and serve.


Raspberry Vodka Sour

2 shots raspberry vodka
1 cup sour mix
2 shots grenadine

To make it a sparkling sour, remove the grenadine, and add a cup of Sprite.


Basic Sour Mix
(yields 2 cups)

1 cup of sugar
1 cup of water
1/2 c lemon juice (more or less)
1/2 c lime juice (more or less)

Heat water and sugar on the stove until the sugar is dissolved
Add about 1/2 cup of lemon juice and 1/2 cup of lime juice - or thereabouts - until the desired flavor of the sour mix is achieved.
Stick it in the fridge to chill.