Star Chef Cook-off

Some of the amazing products from the Chef's Garden that we got to cook with this weekend. And this year's trophy from the cook-off!

The Chef's Garden: Star Chef Cook-off

This weekend at The Chef's Garden in Ohio (www.chefsgarden.com), the foremost grower of specialty produce in the United States, is hosting their 2009 Food & Wine Festival. The weekend event is a fund raiser for Veggie U, which provides a classroom curriculum that teaches the Earth-to-Table™ concept to fourth graders. Aside from a host of celebrity chefs from around the country, the main event of the weekend will be the Star Chef Cook-off, featuring yours truly.

Check out the information below, and if you're in or can get to the CLeveland area this weekend, come on out to see me and have a blast with food and drink for a great cause.

http://www.veggieu.org/assets/misc/2009FWC.htm

Its what Spring is all about

Rhubarb...

...always looks so tempting stacked on the Farmer's stand when strolling through the market. But what to do with it? How 'bout Cornmeal Pound Cake and Rhubarb Ice Cream Sandwiches?

Sound good? Sorry but you'll have to wait for The Book for this one...

High Tech, Low Budget

Sous vide without the "vide"

Unless you've been living under a rock for the past 3 years or are genetically incapable of boiling water, you've heard of the cooking method called sous vide. You probably also know that the worlds top restaurants are using this method to turn out the most tender, flavorful dishes night after night. And if you already know all of this, then you know that this type of cooking requires highly specialized equipment that is also highly expensive. All of this can make the idea of low temperature, vacum sealed cookery all but a dream for the home cook.

The true magic of sous vide cooking comes not from the vacum packing of foods, but cooking them very gently at a low temperature. Think of the magic that happens when beef short ribs are simmered for hours for meltingly tender results. Until the sous vide revolution, this long, slow cooking was reserved for cuts of meat with large amounts of connective tissue and fat (like short ribs or shanks). With low temperature you can make already tender cuts (breasts, loins, tenderloins, leg cuts) even more succulent and tender.

Without the vacum sealing foods, the critical step in sous vide (sous vide literally translates "under vacum") you cannot achieve the same flavor infusion and manipulation that restaurants like Daniel, per se and Gramercy Tavern do; but you can create amazing textures in food with the equipment you already have in your home.

I recently discovered that one of the world's most ubiquitous wedding/house warming gifts- the crock pot- will hold water at a temperature between 140˚F and 155˚F.

Sous vide step 1- $1,000 circulator to maintain a water bath at 62˚-68˚C = crock pot collecting dust at the top of the pantry.

There's no substitute for the infusion of flavors via marinade that can be created by vacum sealing. But the vacum's second function, protecting the meat from the water bath can be achieved with simple plastic wrap. By rolling meat in 2-3 layers of plastic wrap, twisting up the ends like a tootsie roll, then wrapping again, you can effectively contain the meat (and it's juices!!) and keep them from being diluted by the water bath. Plus, unlike vacum sealing, this method will allow you to insert a digital thermometer probe while maintaining a seal.

All of that to say: You can cook "sous vide" at home without any specialized equipment.

Granted it won't be the same as the worlds greatest restaurants, but certainly the best approximation you could hope to achieve for under $3,500.

So here's my first attempt:

1 chicken breast, butterflied so the thin end of the breast can be tucked underneath, the meat an even thickness.

1 branch of fresh thyme

1 garlic clove, sliced

Place chicken at the bottom of a sheet of plastic wrap. Season with salt and pepper, and arrange the thyme and garlic on top of the chicken. Roll the chicken up in the plastic as tightly as possible. Twist the open ends of the plastic wrap in opposite directions until it squeezes the chicken tight and tuck the twisted ends underneath.

Wrap again, twist the ends again this time securing the wrap with three loops of butcher's twine.

Fill a crock pot with warm water and turn it to its lowest setting. Using a digital thermometer, adjust the settings until the water maintains a temperature of 155˚F or 68˚C.

Place the tightly wrapped chicken into the water bath and cook approximately 2.5 hours, until a thermometer inserted in the center reads 150˚F or 65˚C. Place immediately in a icebath to cool completely.

Before serving, melt 2 tablespoons of butter over high heat. Unwrap the chicken, pat dry and roll in sizzling butter until lightly browned and warmed through.

New Baby Banana Pudding

Parker Lee, our first daughter was born on April 28. Our lives are forever changed- we can drink more wine now, eat sushi and bring on the raw milk cheeses. I couldn't ask for anything more, my beautiful wife has now given me a gorgeous, amazing, perfect daughter. And I've got a lot of cooking to do...

Our very first voyage out the house (the day after we got home from the hospital) was a wandering trip with Nonnie through our new West Village neighborhood. Of course, no West Village excursion with out of town guests is complete without a trip by Magnolia Bakery. Yes, they have cupcakes, but we were this time we were there to sample their legendary banana pudding. Mommy insisted, and I had no arguments. I was good. Too good. It was gone almost before we got home and I wanted more. Since $25 a bowl just might break our diaper buying budget, I opted for the homemade version:

New Baby Banana Pudding Recipe

This is my own kicked version of banana pudding, not quite Magnolia Bakery's, pureeing over-ripe bananas into milk gives an incredible flavor and a texture that a bit softer than the standard. Enjoy!

2 over-ripe bananas

2 cups milk

2 tsp. vanilla extract

3/4 cup granulated sugar

1/3 cup cornstarch

1 tsp salt

4 egg yolks

2 Tbsp butter

Nilla Wafers, as needed

Chop the over-ripe bananas and combine with milk and vanilla extract in a medium saucepot. Bring to just under a boil and turn off the heat. Cover with a lid and set aside for 10 minutes.

In the bowl of an electric mixer combine the eggs, yolks, sugar cornstarch and salt. Whisk until combined and smooth. Slow add the hot milk and bananas with the mixer running. Return the mixture to the saucepot and whisk constantly over a high flame until it returns to a simmer and thickens. Move the thickened mixture back to the electric mixer, add the butter and whisk on high until cooled to room temperature, about 10 minutes.

Spoon 1/3 of the pudding into a bowl or trifle dish. Add a layer of Nilla wafers, then another 1/3 of the pudding. Continue layering in this manner. Refrigerate at least 3 hourse before serving.

Pickles' Higher Calling

Cuban Sandwiches!

Drawing the (Mason-Dixon) Line

I love being a Southerner and living in New York City. I feel like I look at my world through slightly different eyes. Not that I wander around the city staring up at the sky like, "Garsh Maw, them is some mighty fancy buildings." But maybe I am just dumb enough to amused by the things around me.

I recently went home to run in the Seaside Half-Marathon. Wandering around the grocery there I found this:

Over 20 different types of grits in one place. I am not embarrassed to say that I was excited enough to stop and take a picture of this marvel. Anyone who has ever gone looking grits in New York City understands the significance of this. Not only an ok-even-I-have-to-admit-that's-a-little-much selection of grits; but an end aisle display. A place of prestige and honor in the grocery store. I felt like lighting candles and kneeling to pay respects. The search for grits in NEw York could bring to my knees too. Except I'd be crawling along the ground scanning the bottom shelf for that single bag of Arrowhead Mills Stone-ground Grits at a Whole Foods in NYC (ps- only reliable place to buy grits here).

But that's only part of the story.

A few days later I was back doing a little shopping in my neighborhood. What earns an end-aisle display in New York? Well, we already know it's not grits...

A closer look? Sure...

The wrath of God never seemed so adorable. Don't you want to snuggle with the lice and locust?