Chicken Caprese

  1. Put a chicken breast between two sheets of plastic wrap that have been spritzed with water.
  2. Pound with a hammer (pallard) until fairly flat, but not thin
  3. Flour, egg wash and Panko
  4. Heat canola in a skillet
  5. Put into hot oil to brown, then place on paper to drain
  6. Add white wine and reduce in the skillet with chicken drippings
  7. Add 1/2 C chicken stock after wine has reduced
  8. Add 1/2 C prepared marinara and 1-2 C chopped heirloom tomato pieces
  9. Top with Buffalo Mozzarella
  10. Bake at 375º for 5-8 minutes
  11. Plate and garnish with fresh basil

Breakfast Turnover

  • Cook three strips of bacon and set aside
  • Scramble 4 eggs and set aside
  • Shred 1/2 C mozzarella
  • Shred 1/4 C sharp cheddar
  • Measure 2 TBL chives
  1. Thaw puff pastry in the fridge overnight
  2. Eggs should be scrambled, but should still be slightly wet and glistening, because we will be cooking them once wrapped.
  3. Roll pastry on a floured surface
  4. Cut into 6 squares
  5. Schmear each square with softened cream cheese
  6. Crumble and broadcast bacon pieces – 1/6 on each (leaving border)
  7. Top evenly with scrambled egg mixture – 1/6 on each (leaving border)
  8. Egg wash the borders
  9. Fold over and pinch shut
  10. Brush tops with egg mixture
  11. Sprinkle with sesame seeds
  12. Bake at 375º for 30 minutes
  13. If you wish, you can freeze these before cooking.  Thaw overnight in the fridge the day before cooking them.

Shrimp Caprese Salad

Keelan Gilliam
Plaza Bistro Opener Cook

  • Shrimp – Wild has a better flavor than Farm Raised
  • Romaine lettuce – bite sized pieces
  • Tomato wedges (5×6)
  • Red onion – jullienne
  • Mozzarella
  • Mrs. Dash
  • Croutons
  • Balsamic Reduction with sugar
  1. Saute shrimp in 2 TBL canola oil for 3-5 minutes
  2. Add Mrs Dash
  3. Add Romaine into bowl
  4. Add julienne strips of onion on top of Romaine
  5. Garnish with tomato quarters
  6. Add chunks of mozarella
  7. Top with 31-40 pieces of shrimp (31-40 pieces per pound)
  8. Top with croutons
  9. Top with Balsamic reduction
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Sour Orange Glaze

This is great of on top of pork chops, pulled pork, or even chicken

  • Put 2 C of sour orange juice (no seeds or pulp) onto medium heat
  • Bring to a boil, then simmer until it starts to reduce and thicken
  • Add 1/2 C honey and continue to reduce until it is the consistency of thick pancake syrup
  • Serve over your meat while still hot

Mediterranean Pasta

Andy Rodriguez

Andy Rodriguez
Lead Cook, Buckwald’s Restaurant

  1. Prepare your pasta – usually about 9 minutes – then set aside
  2. Put 1-2 TBL EVOO into a pan and turn onto medium high heat
  3. Minced 3 cloves of garlic
  4. Chop 4-6 cherry tomatoes or 1 roma tomato.  Heat until the juice starts to release
  5. Add artichokes and olives
  6. Add black pepper, Mrs dash, and pepper flakes
  7. Cook for 2 minutes, then put pasta into pan
  8. Toss to mix – If it gets too dry, put a TBL of pasta water into the pan
  9. Plate up pasta
  10. Heat 2 more minutes, then add lemon
  11. Plate and top with grated parmesan
  12. Use fresh parsley for garnish
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Alton’s Biscuit Competition

Ma Mae taught Alton how to make biscuits.  She died in November 2001, and as Alton has done, this recipe summary is dedicated to her.

 

Ma Mae’s Biscuits Alton Brown’s Biscuits
    • Self Rising Flour – 2 C± sifted
    • 2 oz shortening or lard
    • buttermilk

Use soft winter wheat
Work in the fat thoroughly
Mix it quick, and don’t knead.

    • AP Flour – 340 gm (12 oz)
    • 1/4 tsp Baking Soda
    • 20 gm (4 tsp) Baking Powder
    • 3/4 tsp salt
    • 60 gm leaf lard (for flakiness)
    • 30 gm (1 oz) butter (browning)
    • 1 C lowfat buttermilk
Grandpa’s extras:  1/2 tsp Granulated garlic, 1/4 tsp ground chipotle chile, 1/4 C sugar, 1/4 C Masect – increase liquid by 1/4 C

    1. Measure ingredients and set aside so they are ready
    2. Cut the fats into the flour mix
    3. Add liquid to create a wet sticky dough – Mix, don’t knead
    4. Mix initially with a spoon, then switch to a wide rubber spatula and fold together
    5. On a floured surface, form gently into a flattened square ball, then fold over and over about 8 times
    6. Pat flat, don’t roll flat, then cut with biscuit cutter.  Push down and all the way through without twisting.  After through, twist to remove
    7. After cutting, biscuits can be frozen and baked without thawing
    8. Rub steel baking sheet with Crisco
    9. Put onto sheet with sides just barely touching
    10. Put a small indent in the center of each one.  This will help them rise evenly
    11. Alton cooks at 450º – Ma Mae cooks at 475º
    12. Bake 10 minutes; rotate; then cook another 10 minutes
    13. Leftover biscuits, split open and put in toaster oven

Cold Noodle Salad

This is my version of a dish prepared by Lori Hashimoto, owner of Hana Japanese Eatery.

It appears on her menu as Hiyashi Chuka, and I’ve made slight modifications due to allergies my wife has.

Hiyash Chuka is a chilled ramen noodle salad served in the summer, topped with colorful cold ingredients and a sweet soy vinegar dressing.

Noodles can be cold ramen noodles, cold rice noodles or yan noodles.  This would also be good with VERY THIN egg noodles, although that’s more western than Japanese.

  1. Use a traditional cucumber with the seeds removed, or an English cucumber.
  2. Use a zester-grater or simply a peeler to remove some of the cucumber skin, leaving enough green for color.
  3. Cut the cucumber into thin six inch pieces
  4. Cut thin sliced deli ham and roll it into a “cigar”
  5. Cut the ham so that you end up with multiple thin strips.
  6. For my wife, I will be using thinly sliced turkey
  7. Prepare your ramen noodles for cooking.  Fresh is better.  Loosen them so that when they hit the boiling water they will separate from one another.  Then cook for 7-8 minutes.
  8. Beat two eggs together in a mixing bowl.
  9. Using a preheated teflon saute pan with a bit of EVOO, pour 1/3 of the egg mixture into the pan, and tilt pan to spread the egg across the bottom creating a thin crepe.
  10. Once liquid is gone, slide it out of the pan to cool.  Prepare two more crepes.
  11. Drain your cooked noodles and shock them in an ice bath, then set them aside.
  12. Prepare your dressing.  Combine in a mixing bowl:
    • 1/2 C vinegar
    • 1/4 C soy sauce
    • 1/2 C sugar
    • 2 TBL lemon juice
    • 1 TBL sesame seed oil
  13. Whisk all together and heat in a sauce pan just until it all comes to a boil.
  14. Pour into a glass bowl and refrigerate for using later
  15. Prepare your egg crepes
    • Roll them into one large tight cigar
    • Using your knife, cut thin strips off the cigar and then separate the strands.
  16. All of the above steps can be done an hour or two ahead of time.  When you are ready to serve, plate the ingredients
  17. Put a pile of your cold noodles in the center of your plate
  18. Decorate with cucumber spears spaced north, south, east and west.
  19. Add 1/4 each of ham just to the left of each pile of cucumber spears
  20. Add 1/4 each of your egg strips to the right of each pile
  21. You can also add color by using extremely thin slices of red bell pepper
  22. Top with red salted ginger in the center
  23. Pour on dressing
  24. Add thin strips of roasted cut dried seaweed and toasted sesame seeds

Bialetti Moka Coffee Maker

I purchased the 12 cup Bialetti because I make coffee for the week.  I created time instructions that have been helpful to me.  Adjust the following timings for your maker and your stovetop.

  1. Put 1/4 C of medium grind coffee in your filtered funnel.  I  set the funnel in a tumbler and it holds it properly.
    • DO NOT pack it down. 
    • Add a pinch of salt, then if you are using moringa, or any other flavoring, please a pinch between two FULL and level 1/4 cup scoops.
  2. Add another 1/4 C on top of the additives
  3. Put 3 C of filtered water into the microwave for 4 minutes on high.    (Next:  Burner)
  4. Preheat your small electric burner on 4-5.
    • If it exceeds 400º turn it down to 2 until it is closer time to use it.
    • If you are using gas, use a low to medium flame.  Any higher and you will melt the handle.
  5. Pour the hot water into the bottom reservoir then place the filled funnel into the mouth of the bottom reservoir.  It will be hot, so use a cloth – screw the top onto the bottom; snugging, but not overtightening.
  6. Place the pot on your stovetop burner and set to 4-5.  Set timer for 8 minutes.  (Next:  Ice bath)
  7. Meanwhile, fill a flat bottomed mixing bowl with 2 inches of water and put in 8 ice cubes to lower the temperature even further.  This is to place the pot in since it will be hot from the burner as soon as the water has gone.  If you are too late on Step EIGHT do not use the ice bath!
  8. You will start smelling the coffee at about 7 minutes, then you will start to see a lot of steam come out of the spout.    (Next:  Listen) AT THIS POINT DO NOT LEAVE.
  9. Listen carefully.  AS SOON AS the burbling changes to a higher pitch  (3-4 more minutes) start to watch it VERY closely.  As soon as the pot sounds start to diminish or the steam starts to subside, remove the entire thing from the stovetop and put it into your cold water for 3 minutes.
    • IMPORTANT NOTE:  If it goes completely dry, it may be too late.  It will start to get very hot if you put it into the ice water, it will most likely crack the container.  Let it cool naturally before unscrewing it.
  10. Assuming Step 8 went well; as soon as it is cool enough to unscrew, your coffee is ready to be consumed.  Unscrew the top containing the coffee, and place on a paper towel. 
  11. Let the bottom filtered section cool before emptying and cleaning.
  12. What I plan to do is let it cool, decant into plastic bottles, then store it in the fridge to use as Instant Coffee concentrate.  With that in mind:   Pour in a glass container to cool.  This will make four full mug servings for me, so I like to add cream and sugar so that all I have to do is add water.
  13. OPTIONAL:  Next, I make my coffee that I will drink that morning.  Return to Step TWO (using existing wet grounds) and go all the way through to Step 9.  Pour into your mug, flavor and enjoy.  Store your two water bottles containing coffee concentrate in the refrigerator for up to a week.

When ready to make your “instant coffee”  fill 1 coffee mug with 1/3 coffee and 2/3  water.  Heat in the microwave for 2 minutes.  Add sugar and cream as desired.

Greek Chicken Salad

Manny Inzunza

Emmanuel (Manny) Inzunza
Plaza Bistro Supervisor

Mis en Place

  • Chicken breast or thigh
  • 1/2 Red onion – thinly sliced
  • Tomatoes – pieced to your liking
  • Cucumber – seeded – quartered – 1/4 inch pieces
  • Feta cheese – 1/4 to 1/2 C – crumbled
  • A few sprigs of mintWhisk together vinaigrette
    • 2 TBL Red wine vinegar
    • 1 TBL Dijon mustard
    • 1 tsp garlic minced
    • oregano and other herbs
    • Mrs Dash instead of salt
  • Whisk in about 1/2 C EVOO slowly to emulsify

Step by Step

  1. Hot skillet – add some EVOO
  2. Put chicken on heat till about 265º
  3. Cut chicken on bias – if still red, put back on heat
  4. Put spring mix into a bowl
  5. Garnish with tomatoes, cucumber, red onion and feta
  6. Top with chicken slices
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Drop Tots

This is a good recipe for using left-over corn chips, potato chips, french fries, baked potatoes, etc.

  1. In a food processor
    • Mix 1 egg
    • 1/2 C whole milk
    • 1 tsp salt
    • 1/2 tsp black pepper
    • 10 oz corn chips
    • Pulverize into a kind of lumpy dough
  2. Mix in a large bowl
    • 1/4 C diced red onion
    • 2 jalapenos – deveined and minced
    • 1/4 C cream cheese
  3. Mix everything together
  4. Heat 3 C peanut or safflower oil in a dutch oven to about 285º
  5. Prepare balls about the size of a ping pong ball – about an inch
    Use a 2 tsp ice cream scoop
  6. Prepare only enough balls so that you do not overcrowd your pan
  7. Cook until they are browned and remove to a cooling rack
  8. Sprinkle with Maldon salt while still hot

Using other leftovers such as French fries, you can create a similar product

Mexican Nachos

  • 1 large bowl store-bought or homemade corn tortilla chips
  • 3 jalapenos
  • 1/2 red onion – diced
  • 1/2 C each grated cheddar and Oaxaca cheeses
  • 1/2 C Asadero cheese (or mozzarella)
  • Preheat oven to 350º
  • In a large sheet pan put down parchment paper
  • Put down a rack and cover with chips
  • Put a sliced jalapeno on each chip
  • Add sprinkles of red onion, and then cheese mixture
  • Use a spacer and prepare another rack and repeat the process
  • Put into the oven for about 8 minutes
  • Serve with guacamole, sour cream or creme fraiche, chopped tomato or salsa

 

Hot Beef Sundae

Use ice cream sundae cups, and . . .

  1. Slow cook your brisket @ 240º for 5-6 hours
  2. Pull the shredded beef apart and toss with BBQ sauce
  3. Put a little beef in the bottom
  4. a layer of mashed potatoes
  5. a layer of corn (optional baby peas)
  6. another layer of beef
  7. shredded sharp cheddar
  8. pour hot gravy over it all
  9. then add a cherry tomato on top

Indian Street Omelet

  1. In heated nonstick skillet, add
    • 2 TBL butter – completely melted
    • 3 eggs – beaten
    • 1 tsp milk
  2. Put two pieces of bread on top of the (still uncooked) egg
  3. When eggs have cooked, flip the entire thing in the skillet
  4. Add a square of cheddar to the top of where one of the pieces of bread is, then fold the sides of the egg onto the bread
  5. Optionally, sprinkle with two strips of crumbled bacon
  6. Flip one bread onto the other, so that you kind of have a sandwich
  7. Cook both sides of the bread like a grilled cheese sandwich
  8. Cut in quarters (diagonally) and serve two pieces to each of us

 

Basic Scones

  1. Combine dry ingredients
    • 2 C AP flour
    • 1/2 C oatmeal (pulsed in a blender)
    • 1/3 C  sugar
    • 2 TBL baking powder
    • 1/4 tsp salt
    • Optional: 1/4 C dried cranberries (chopped)
  2. Stir to combine
    • 2 sticks of cold butter cut into pieces
  3. Chop up 1 C pecans into fairly small pieces
    • Reserve about 2-3 TBL for topping
    • Add remainder to flour mixture
  4. Mix wet ingredients
    • 3/4 C cream
    • 2 eggs
    • Juice and zest from one lemon
    • 1 tsp maple extract
  5. Add wet to dry
  6. Stir to mix, but don’t overmix
  7. Should not be like a dough, but should be fairly coarse and crumbly
  8. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper
  9. Turn onto the baking sheet
  10. Press into a thick circular disk
  11. Cut into half, then quarters, then eighths
  12. Separate each by about 1/2 inch or more
  13. 350º for 20-25 minutes
  14. Let cool completely
  15. Prepare topping
    • 1 1/2 C Powdered sugar
    • 2 TBL melted butter
    • 1 TBL Nescafe instant coffee
    • 1 tsp almond extract
    • 1 tsp vanilla
  16. Drizzle frosting on scones
  17. Top with some of the crushed pecans

Basic Pound Cake

This was named thusly because early recipes called for a pound each of flour, butter, sugar and eggs.  This recipe is only modified slightly.

  • 4 oz cake flour – 1 level cup (AP flour will work – a bit more than 1 cup)
  • 4 oz butter – about 1 stick
  • 4 oz sugar – about 1/2 C
  • 4 oz eggs – about  2 large eggs
  • scant salt and 1/2 tsp vanilla
  1. When getting the flour, unless you are measuring it in ounces, use a spoon to put the flour into your dry measuring cup.  Fill it just over the top.
  2. Cream together sugar and butter
  3. Add eggs 1 at a time, and beat until incorporated
  4. Add the salt and vanilla
  5. Add 1/2 of the flour and mix, but do not overmix
  6. Add the rest of the flour and mix to incorporate
  7. Bake for 60 minutes @ 350º
  8. Knife test the batter.  If it comes out clean, you’re done,
    otherwise, cook for another 10 minutes
  9. Cool at least 20 minutes before turning out
  10. Cool completely on a rack before serving

 

 

 

 

Beef Jerky from Scratch

Grandpa’s Beef Jerky

  • 2 LBS of lean, long grain meat, flank steak
  • Marinate as described in Step 4
  1. Put the meat into the freezer for 30 minutes – this will help you slice it thinly
  2. Meanwhile combine 1/3 C salted soy and 2/3 C Worcestershire, and 2 TBL brown sugar, 1 tsp each black pepper and citric acid, garlic powder, celery salt, onion powder, liquid smoke, and GTP.
  3. Remove and slice immediately following (not against) the grain of the meat about the thickness of thick cut bacon
  4. Let marinate overnight
  5. Lay pieces flat on parchment paper and pat dry
  6. Lay strips out flat on a large oven rack.
  7. Place on oven rack to allow time and space to dry.
    • Gas oven: have on pilot and oven light only.
    • Electric: set at 100 to 125 degrees.
    • Toaster oven:  Press TOAST about once every hour until it is the texture you like it. (8-12 times)
  8. Dry for 10 to 18 hours. Prop oven door open with knife.

Alternately put strips on clean cellulose air filters and put on top of a box fan.  Turn on and run for about 8-12 hours.  Should be dry, but still slightly pliable

 

The History of Corned Beef

Taken from “The Kitchen Project

Why do they call it “Corned” Beef?

The term “Corned” comes from putting meat in a large crock and covering it with large rock-salt kernels of salt that were referred to as “corns of salt”
This preserved the meat. The term Corned has been in the Oxford English Dictionary as early as 888 AD.

Irish Were the First Exporters of Corned Beef
Irish were the biggest exporters of Corned Beef till 1825.
The English were serving corned beef but also the Irish. In this day and age corned beef and cabbage is not very Irish, but corned beef is. The area of Cork, Ireland was a great producer of Corned Beef in the 1600s until 1825. It was their chief export and sent all over the world, mostly in cans. The British army sustained on cans of Cork’s corned beef during the Napoleonic wars.

Before Corned Beef there was Salted Beef
The practice of salting meat goes back probably to ancient times in cold areas when they found that meat didn’t spoil if it made contact with enough salt.

What a convenience for nomads or soldiers, who were constantly traveling on horse or foot.

Origin of the Word “Corned”
The term Corned is modified from an Old Germanic (P.Gmc) Word Kurnam which meant small seed of anything. Since a kernel of rock salt look like a wheat or oat kernel size it became known as a corn of salt.
Even the word Kernel comes from this word Kurnam. or Kurnilo which meant the root of the seed.

The First Mention of “Corned Beef”
goes back to an English Book by Richard Burton in 1621, Anatomy of Melancholy…Beef ..corned young of an ox.

Corned Beef and Cabbage is basically an American tradition or Irish?

Some Irish people feel that corned beef and cabbage is about as Irish as spaghetti and meatballs while others say it has been a festive dish tradition for centuries.

The First Argument…

Brid Mahon’s Land of Milk and Honey: The Story of Traditional Irish Food and Drink contains these notes about corned beef: “[in the 19th century] Corned beef was a festive dish.” (p. 8)

“While Irish beef has always been noted for its flavor, corned beef was equally relished. Boiled and served with green cabbage and floury potatoes, it was considered an epicurean dish, to be eaten at Hallowe’en, at Christmas, on St. Patrick’s Day, at weddings and at wakes, a tradition that was carried to the New World by the emigrants of the 18th and 19th centuries. To this day, corned beef and cabbage are served on St. Patrick’s Day and at Thanksgiving in parts of North America. Bacon, corned beef, sausages, and pudding are all mentioned in The Vision of Mac Conlinne, the 12th-century tale that also describes the condiments served with meats.” (p. 57)
There is some controversy about whether “Corned Beef & Cabbage, ” often eaten in America on St. Patrick’s Day is a traditional Irish meal. According to Malachi McCormick’s Irish County Cooking and “The Troubles That Irish Food Has Seen,” New York Times, March 14, 1990 (page C8) corned beef & cabbage is a purely American tradition. Colcannon (boiled new potatoes mixed with boiled white cabbage, boiled leeks or boiled onions to which is added butter, milk and wild garlic) is more likely to be considered Ireland’s national dish.

Malachi McCormick’s Irish Country Cooking  

Stephen McFarland, author of “Just Desserts” who works with Celeb chef in Ireland Neven McGuire says that Corned Beef and Cabbage is a popular dish in modern times in Ireland and often served with Champ

Pork over Beef In Ireland

Since cows were used for milk rather than meat in poor times in Ireland, beef was a delicacy that was fed to kings. It was more common to celebrate a holiday meal with what they call a ham (Gammon) or bacon joint. ( a cured but unsmoked piece of pork) with their cabbage and potatoes. When many Irish Immigrants came over in the mid-1800’s they couldn’t find a bacon joint like they had in Ireland, so they found that Jewish corned beef was very similar in texture, and they used that for their holiday celebrations.

For an Irish Celebration use a Bacon Joint

An Irish Bacon Joint, available here    Irish Grub

Corned Beef, A Rite of Spring
Some say that Corned beef was a great Spring celebration meal because often this cured beef sat in crocks all winter and was brought out in the Spring to celebrate.

 

Guess who really loves Canned Corned Beef?

Some Islanders like Guam.  They love their corned beef hash. My guess is because soldiers stationed their use to get it as rations. The natives took a liking to it and to this day they use it in recipes like this with fried corned beef over rice with fina’denne’  to stuffing a whole pig with canned
corned beef for a pig roast.

 

 

 

 

 

Mincemeat

Ingredients

  • 2 Granny Smith apples
  • 8 oz golden raisins
  • 6 oz dried figs
  • 3 oz dried cherries
  • 2 oz crystallized ginger
  • 1/4 tsp ground allspice
  • 1/4 tsp ground clove
  • 1/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
  • 6 oz dark brown sugar
  • zest and juice from one orange
  • zest and juice from one lemon
  • 2 oz beef suet or lard
  • 1/2 C brandy
  1. Put suet, fresh fruit and dried fruit through a grinder
  2. Combine with everything else and store in jars
  3. Canning optional
  4. Will keep up to 3 months in fridge just as you made it, or up to 12 months if properly canned

Carrot: INFO

  • Store in veggie drawer wrapped in a paper towel in a plastic bag or wrapped in bubble wrap, which will allow air to flow.

Carrot Salad

  1. Cut long strips (or noodles) from carrot
    • 1/4 C Miracle whip
    • 5 TBL sugar
    • 1/4 C crushed pineapple – drained
    • 1/4 C raisins
    • 1/2 tsp cumin
    • scant salt
    • pinch of celery seed or caraway seed
    • 1 cloves minced garlic
  2. Toss above mixture with carrots

See also Carrot Cake

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