Bolognese Sauce

This is a recipe from Chef Anne Burrell.

I made a big mess with this, but it was worth the big flavor!  This was my first try at a Chef Anne recipe.  The recipe was well written and spot on, unlike a lot of other recipes from Food Network chefs.  She really seems to care about the recipe and how it plays out as opposed to a lot of chefs that just jot it down on a whim from memory.  Nothing I hate more than following a recipe perfectly and having it turn out like crap. 

It made so much though.  I will have some tomorrow for lunch and I froze the rest.  Maybe next time I will cut the recipe in half.

Here's a little slide show I made of the process.

Poppy Seed Crusted Tuna With Red Wine Teriyaki Sauce

I'm trying to go off on my own and make my own dishes.  Nothing complex, but at least I can call them my own.

First the sauce.  I sweated some shallots and garlic in canola oil with some pepper and minced ginger.  I left out the salt, because after the shallots and garlic turned clear I added some teriyaki sauce.  After about a minute of that, I added in red wine.  I brought it to a boil and simmered a bit. Then I strained it through cheese cloth.  I reduced the sauce about half way but it wouldn't thicken like I hoped. 

I immediately went to Twitter to ask Chef Jacob what I could do to save it.  He suggested simple syrup or reduce to almost dry and mount with butter.  I decided to try the simple syrup route.  It thickened some, but not as much as I wanted.  I didn't want to make it super sweet, so I decided to try corn starch.  It worked!  It thickened to the consistancy I wanted, wasn't too sweet, and held on the plate.  Not to mention it tasted great!

The next step was to make some Jasmati rice.  I never used marjoram herbs before so I gave it a try and added to the rice.  It was very perfume like, and tasted as such.  It wasn't bad.   It made it taste exotic, but I think it will take me some time to get used to it.

Lastly, I decided to sear some ahi tuna with salt, pepper, and poppy seeds.  The last time I seared tuna was a disaster, but I did it right this time!

Here is what it looked like all plated...

Skillet-Roasted Spiced Okra

The first thing I did was to make a coulis. This was done with roasted red peppers from a jar I had in my pantry. I pureed it then slowly added in EVOO, salt, and white pepper. My original plan was to do something red... like fire red... but I didn't come up with the idea until after I purchased my stuff at the store. The roasted peppers with EVOO ended up orange, but the color is still nice and fits into my overall vision.


Maybe next time I will try something else... fresh red peppers with no EVOO maybe? Beet reduction? I wonder what would give a good red color and still fit into the flavor of the dish.

The rest is pretty much inspired by a recipe from Food And Wine magazine.

I pan fried some okra with a mixture of turmeric, cumin, cayenne, smoked paprika, cinnamon, fennel, and coriander. Then I did an arugula and yogurt puree, leaving out the cucumbers because... well... I forgot to buy them. I then blended in the puree into some cooked lentils.

After placing the lentil salad in a bowl and placing that on the plate, I laid down the roasted pepper sauce. I then placed the okra on top of that. Lastly, I placed some edible orange flowers I found, in the bowl and on the plate to tie it all together.

Overall I think it looks beautiful. The okra with the red pepper sauce was great! The lentil salad was crappy. Maybe I added too much yogurt or maybe it needs cucumbers to work. I never cooked lentils before so maybe they weren't cooked long enough. Not sure.

Overall I am excited about my plating. I want to make sure I practice more than just the cooking part.

Trinity Chicken Stock

I made my first stock today. It made me feel like a real chef because it's as homemade as you can get. I guess I could have grown my own vegetables and butchered my own chicken, but short of that this is as scratch as it gets.

It definately tastes better than store bought stock. The flavor is richer and more complex. Not to mention it isn't loaded up with salt.

I got the technique from Chef Jacob at http://www.freeculinaryschool.com/.

The only thing I did different is I replaced the celery with green pepper which makes the mirapoix the cajun trinity of onion, carrots, and green pepper. The trinity is actually onion, celery, and green pepper of course, but messing up is all part of learning. I'll do it right next time!

The reason I used the green pepper instead, is because my girlfriend envisioned a jambalaya rissoto and I thought it would be interesting to try. I figured making the stock this way would add to the flavor. That shall be another post though.

Supreme Sauce Over Farfalle Pasta

This isn't so much a recipe as it is a technique. I decided to try my first mother sauce. This process comes from Chef Jacob at http://freeculinaryschool.com/. He shows how to clarify the butter, make the roux, turn it into the mother sauce, veloute, and finally the supreme sauce.

I started with a store bought stock, but other than that, everything was from scratch.

It tasted pretty good and I was happy with the result. I made a little video of the adventure. If there is anything wrong with how it looks or the technique, it's entirely my fault and not that of the instructor's. :)

Chef Alex Guarnaschelli's Macaroni and Cheese

I really like the idea of big flavor out of simple things. I'm always amazed how cooks and chefs can make such beautiful, complex dishes, but I am equally amazed when they can make flavorful, simple dishes.

This recipe was from Chef Alex Guarnaschelli and can be found here.

It was hard for me to mess this up, because it was so easy. I guess I wish the sauce was a little thicker. I think maybe I didn't put enough cheese in, or I didn't simmer long enough. The suace thickened over time anyway, so it wasn't a big deal.

The flavor was amazing. How anyone can eat mac and cheese out of a box after eating something like this is beyond me.

My only regret is I didn't have a big enough stomach to eat it all. This is one time where I won't mind leftovers.

Scallops Over Linguine with Butter Herb Sauce

And umm... some arugula.

Recipe from Fine Cooking.

I have never eaten scallops or arugula. Both seem to be popular these days on the ole cooking shows, so I decided to give it a try.

I was really scared to cook these because of how much I see Gordan Ramsay throwing them around the place.

I probably over cooked a couple a bit, but over all not bad. I got good color on them which was exciting. I'm starting to realize how hard it is to cook things this delicate on electric burners, but there isn't much I can do.

I really like the arugula. I can see why it's so popular. I am not sure if it really goes with a dish like this, but hey... I'm a hack... I can do whatever I want.

Beef Wellington

I made Gordon Ramsay's Beef Wellington recipe tonight. For some reason it was intimidating me, even though its actually pretty easy to make. Well seemingly easy. It turned out OK, but somethings didn't work out well.

It's actually nice that there were several stages to making it, because my oven took it's obligatory 1+ hours to get to 400 degrees. I finally let my apartment manager know about it. Hopefully I get a new one soon.

So I got it out of the oven and I was excited because it looked great.



But when I cut it, it fell apart. I am not sure why. Maybe I didn't let it rest long enough... maybe I didn't get enough moisture out of the mushrooms... I'm open to suggestions as to what might have done it. The puff pastry was amzing on top and sloppy, soggy, on the bottom.

There was nothing really photpgraphing at that point, so I didn't. I kind of regret not taking a picture of the mess though, because this blog is about failure as much as it is about success. I try to keep it light hearted and not so serious, and it looked pretty funny.

I decided to take a picture of the end piece that wasn't bad. Doesn't look as nice a Chef Ramsay's but I guess I am not Chef Ramsay.



Despite how it looked, it tasted great overall. As I learn to cook I am also trying to expand my palette. This is crazy... but it's the first time I've ever eaten mushrooms. They tasted OK, but I didn't like them a whole lot.

Food Network 4 in 1 Grill

One of my favorite chefs is Chef Bobby Flay and I wanted to cook some of his recipes. Surprise... most of his recipes require a grill. I live in an apartment so a gigantic, awesome grill is out of the question. I thought about going with one of those small Weber grills, but they cost a small fortune. (They are pretty cool though).

Instead I decided to go with an electric indoor grill. I went looking around for the Sanyo one I read about but I couldn't find it anywhere. My last stop was Kohls and I saw Food Network has a line of cooking things there. I decided to get their 4 in 1 grill and at $60 off how could I go wrong? Next, what recipe? I had been sitting on this recipe for a while... Red Chile Turkey Breast with Succotash Salsa.

I was so wore out looking for my electric grill that I didn't get to the grocery store for the igredients. But I really wanted to use the new grill. Then it hit me... if I am going to call myself a hack chef... I might as well live up to the name. And so I hacked up the recipe.

First the salsa was out of the question. I had none of the produce for that. Instead my side would be couscous. Boring I know.

Tablespoons became teaspoons
1/4 cups became 2 tablespoons
Turkey became chicken
Light brown sugar became sugar and maple syrup
Peanut oil became vegetable oil
Seasame oil became tamari
Ground fennel became whole fennel mashed with a screwdriver handle
pureed canned chipotles became chipolte powder
ancho chile powder became spoked paprika

and...

voila!


And in case you want to hear that sizzle...


It was pretty good. Actually really good. I can't wait to make it the right way!

Yellow Tomato Sauce Over Cavatappi

I've decided to get away from the cold, methodical post format and take a more informal approach.

This dish I decided to do after asking Chef Alex Guarnaschelli on Twitter.com what I should make. Graciously she responded! She suggested the Yellow Tomato Sauce or the Oven "Fried" Pizza. The pasta dish really intrigued me so I went with that.

Of course as the budding wanna-be chef that I am, I have never made my own tomato sauce. After making this, it's hard to use pasta sauces from a jar. Not only do I feel it tastes better, but it's more rewarding.

Things went well and this was a very fun dish to make. I learned how to prepare yellow beefsteak tomatoes. I had no idea what I was doing so I left some of the core in. It really didn't turn out so bad though, it just made it harder to get the seeds out. I was also excited about getting to blanch something for the first time. I have no idea why blanching fascinates me.

The other mistake I made was due to leaving the bottom part of the instructions on my printer. Because of that I did a couple things wrong. First, I put the vinegar in while simmering the sauce. I was supposed to put it in at the puree stage. Second, I put the bay leaves into the simmering stage. When I realized my mistake, I removed them from the sauce. I think they only were in there 5 minutes or so. I was worried this ruined the leaves, so I just threw them in the garbage.

Other than that everything was perfect! I was worried about putting the hot sauce in the blender to puree. I've heard so many times to not blend hot liquids, but I've seen chefs on TV put a towel over the top and so I did the same. It worked fine and nothing exploded.

The finshed product looked and tasted amazing. The vinegar gave it a little tang, the tomatoes gave it a unique sweetness, and the red pepper gave it some spice. All those things together made for an amazing dish.

Click to zoom

Again great recipe Chef Alex!

Pan Seared Strip Steak with Green Peppercorn Sauce and Salt-Baked Potatoes

Recipe:
Alex Guarnaschelli

What should it look like:
I'm not sure. But I assume amazing.

What did it look like:


What went well:
I cooked the steak perfectly this time thanks to a cooking thermometer I picked up.
The sauce was zomgamazing!

What went wrong:
I underdid the potatoes again. This is my oven's fault. I am calling the landlord tomorrow.
I burnt the butter in the sauce because the pan was too hot. Also, the pot I put into oven, was not meant to go in an oven. Yum... melted plastic handle.

What did I learn:

• Cooking thermometers are great until I get good at pressing the meat with my finger and figuring it out.
• Bay leaves are very aromatic and can add flavor to things through that aroma.
• Careful on putting butter into a pan that is too hot.
• Some things are not oven safe.

General Thoughts:
This was a very good recipe, and I improved on my multitasking. I was able to do the steak, sauce, and potatoes all in the 45 minutes the recipe suggested I needed.

I think the sauce was kind of a weird color probably because I burnt the butter. It still tasted great, but without a picture I am not sure if the sauce looks right.

I replaced the green peppercorns with white peppercorns because I couldn't find green ones, yet I still wanted it to be exotic. I'll try this again some day with the green ones to see if it tastes any better.

The taste of the suace was out of this world. Props to Chef Alex on this one!

Romano Risotto with Radishes

Recipe:
Epicurious.com

What should it look like:

(photo by: John Kernick)

What did it look like:


What went well:
The Risotto was amazing.

What went wrong:
The radishes were supposed to be julienned and the chives finely chopped. Both were butchered.

What did I learn:
Taking advice from Alton Brown and Jacob Burton , I cooked the shallots and garlic at a lower temperature than I normally would. This added about 5 to 10 minutes onto how long I usually make risotto, but this really brought out the flavor.

General Thoughts:
Despite my weak knife skills, this was the best tasting dish I have made so far. I would actually serve this to others with confidence, presentation aside.

Maple-Glazed Tuna with Pear-Potato Salad

Recipe:
Epicurious.com

What should it look like:

(photo by: Paul Brissman)

What did it look like:


What went well:
The Dijon/Maple Syrup/Olive Oil glaze was really good.

What went wrong:
I cut the potatoes and pears too big so they didn't cook through. I didn't sear the tuna long enough so it was cold in the middle. Also, I almost splashed hot oil all over myself because I cooked the tuna as a 12 oz fillet instead of cutting it in half.

What did I learn:
I learned I should cut things smaller so they cook more thoroughly. I need to sear the tuna longer and cut it into a 6 oz portion so I can handle it better.

General thoughts:
This was a disaster. I could only eat half of it before I swallowed my pride and threw it in the garbage. It looks nice I guess, but was gross. I will do this again some time and do it right.

Grilled Lime-Curry-Rubbed Hanger Steak with Fresh Melon-Cucumber Chutney

Recipe:
Epicurious.com

What should it look like:

(photo by: Romulo Yanes)

What did it look like:


What went well:
The chutney turned out really well.

What went wrong:
The steak was too rare for me. It was barely over room temperature in the middle.

What did I learn:
I learned how to make an uncooked chutney.

General Thoughts:
This is my first dish in my journey to become a hack chef. My knife skills are really bad, but at least I didn't cut a finger off. I hope to cook the steak better next time.