José Andrés. He was born in Asturias, a coastal region northern Spain, and trained under culinary genius Ferran Adria at El Bulli. José is now is the chef and partner of several Washington Dc restaurants, a bestselling cookbook author, and the charming host of the PBS show Made in Spain, as well as the Spanish cooking show Vamos a Cocinar. His recipes are cherished by both home cooks and professional chefs for their high quality ingredients combined with simple preparation methods.
Tapas are small Spanish savory appetizers, commonly served after work and before dinner, and often served with wine. In this video Jose makes two for us, the first with marinated olives, herbs and citrus. The second tapa is a grilled bread rubbed and infused with grated vine ripe tomatoes, called “pa amb tomàquet”, or “bread in tomato” in Catalan, topped with anchovies and garocha (an aged goat cheese).
“When I would tell people I work in a tapas place (referring to his first DC tapas restaurant) I don’t know if it was my accent — they would think topless. . . . Everyone would look at me very weird,” said Jose in a David Letterman interview. In the PBS show, Jose says, “I am from Spain, but my family and I have made America our home. For the last 17 years, I have been cooking Spanish food in Washington, DC. Now, I want to show you how to bring the taste of Spain into your kitchen. Everyone’s talking about Spain’s food and wine. You and I together will discover why.”
What we love about this? These tapas are super easy, fun, authentic latin fare, and perfect for any party or pre-party.
The Grand Finale! Part three of the delicious recipes from Salud Napa chef Gerry Castro is a seared sirloin steak with a delicious red wine sauce.
Gerry seasons his sirloin on both sides with salt and pepper, and adds to a very hot pan with 2 tbsp of olive oil. When both sides are nicely browned, he takes his oven proof pan and puts it in the oven at 350F, where it finishes cooking for 5-6 minutes. On to the sauce! Gerry adds red wine to the pan and then adds veal stock, reduces the liquid, and adds a dash of salt and pepper. He then plates it beautifully with this lemon risotto. Bravo to our friends from Salud Napa!
A short time ago we introduced you to our friends from Ceja Vineyards and the Salud Napa blog, and featured a beet salad recipe video from chef Gerry Castro. That was only the beginning of a three course meal! The second part of the meal is this delicious, tangy lemon risotto with peas topped with parmesan cheese.
You will need: 4 cups of chicken broth, 2 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil, chopped garlic (one or two cloves) , one chopped onion, 1 cup of arborio rice, chardonnay white wine, sweet peas (frozen is fine), Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, one lemon (juice it and zest it), butter, salt, and pepper.
First, warm the chicken broth, juice and zest your lemon. Add the olive oil into a hot pan, add the chopped onion, add the chopped garlic, and stir while cooking just until tender. Add the arborio rice and cook while stirring for 2-3 minutes. Next, add the white wine, and stir together for a minute to let it absorb. Add approximately 3 generous ladles or about 3 cups of chicken broth, and turn the heat down to a simmer. Add salt and ground pepper, and cooks while stirring for about 7 minutes, or until the rice is al dente. Add the lemon zest, peas, a generous amount of butter and a few splashes of lemon juice. You may add more chicken broth if needed. At the end, top with grated parmesan cheese.
One of the world’s top grilling masters is a female! Elizabeth Karmel is executive chef of Hill Country Barbecue in NYC, acclaimed as one of the Wall Street Journal’s “Top 10 Barbecue” restaurants in the US, and their brisket is “a thing of balance and beauty” per the New York Times. As if that were not enough, she is also the author of the bestselling cookbook Taming The Flame, a virtual bible of grilling. In our videos today, she shares her tips for smoking food on the grill. The first video discusses how to smoke food on a charcoal grill, and the second using a gas grill.
Our video today features Chef Brian P. McCarthy, author of the Vegan Family Cookbook, making a very simple basil pesto with roasted garlic. He serves it over gnocchi, plated with crusty bread and a salad. This video is brought to us from EveryDayDish Tv, which offers a wonderful bounty of plant based vegetarian and vegan recipes and videos. The written recipe may be found here. What we like best about this dish is that it can literally be prepared in less than 30 minutes, and roasted garlic gives a sweeter, less bitter flavor than raw garlic. Non vegetarians feel free to add Parmesan cheese!
And, of course, a morsel of gnocchi trivia! Gnocchi, an Italian dumpling, translates to the word “knot” in Italian, and the word is derived from the stem word nocchio, meaning “a knot in wood”. It’s composition differs drastically by ingredient, and while typically made from potatoes, it is also made with various flours (often semolina), and in some areas of Italy it is made with bread crumbs.
A Le Cordon Bleu Paris graduate, Hector Playuk is currently the Executive Chef for Jack’s Bar and Restaurant in Washington DC. This restaurant gets big kudos from us as it is 100% wind powered! One of their signature lunch dishes is a Caesar Salad served in a crispy parmesan bowl, and in this video Hector shows us how to make the bowl.
Note: It is absolutely essential to use a nonstick pan for this, anything else will not work (we tried!).
Recipe instructions: Make the Parmesan bowl using 7-8 ounces of cheese for each bowl. For the croutons, simply slice a baguette into cubes, coat in olive oil, garlic powder or fresh minced garlic, salt and pepper, bake at 400 degrees F for 15 minutes. In a regular bowl, toss romaine lettuce, croutons, shredded parmesan cheese and caesar dressing, then add to the parmesan bowl. Regarding the dressing, we like this recipe from Scott’s Seafood, but you can absolutely use your own variation or use a store bought creamy Caesar dressing. Enjoy!
Making sushi at home can be a super fun activity and much more affordable than dining out. Our videos today showcase Chef Shirley Cheng from the Culinary Institute of America, demonstrating an easy recipe for making tuna maki, aka a tuna roll. The first video is very short and discusses the preparation of the short grain rice, which can be made via a rice cooker or on the stove. The second video is a presentation of the assembly and rolling of the maki itself, and she serves the roll sliced and plated beautifully with wasabi, ginger, and julienned daikon radish. Depending on where you live, the ingredients and the bamboo sushi mat may be found in a typical grocery store, Whole Foods, or any Asian market. Interesting food for thought that Shirley mentions: sushi chef training in Japan requires 3 years of study.
The beauty of this basic maki technique is that you can be creative and craft your roll however you wish! Substitute salmon for tuna, cucumber for avocado, or add shredded carrots. Itadakimasu (let’s eat)!
For a chef, a James Beard Foundation award is considered the most distinguished and prestigious honor of culinary recognition. Referred to as the “Oscars of the food world” by Time Magazine, the event is presented once a year in the Spring in New York City. Not limited to chefs and restaurants, the awards extend to broadcast media, books, journalism, and restaurant design among others. Entries begin in the Fall prior to the event. Any chef may enter to be considered for an award, and the process is as follows: First, a committee selects up to 20 semi finalists in each category. Second, the semifinalists are narrowed down by over 400 judges, who then choose 5 nominees in each category, who are announced in March. Thirdly are the final awards presented in May. Enough already, who won you say? The 2009 winners in the Chefs and Restaurants categories may be viewed here!
Darling Amanda Tice from Chic Tv attended and produced a great series of short video interviews that we love. In addition to the foundations president Susan Ungaro and restaurateur Drew Nieporent, she interviewed a delicious array of chefs. Here is a taste of her chef lineup: Daniel Boulud, Todd English, Ming Tsai, Eric Ripert, Jacques Pepin, and Thomas Keller.
The delicious iconic creation of Philadelphia brothers Harry and Pat Olivieri, Philly cheesesteak sandwiches first made their debut at a South Philly hot dog stand in 1930. The brothers were so successful they opened a restaurant, Pat’s King of Steaks, which still runs a thriving business today. There was, in the 80’s, some cheesesteak family drama, that happened when Pat’s son Herbert opened “Olivieri’s Prince of Steaks” alleging unfair competition and using the original logo. The suit was settled happily in 2007. We’ve posted both of the family feuders recipes below.
In today’s video, Chef Niall Harbison from Look and Taste creates easy sirlion Philly cheesesteak sandwiches, complete with caramelized onions,green peppers, and garlic mayonnaise served on toasty baguettes.
Chef Niall uses sirloin in his recipe, but a nice thinly sliced rib eye steak can be used as well, which some purists say is more authentic. If the steaks are frozen they are simple to slice thinly with a sharp knife. The cheese? Whatever your heart desires, but we prefer a sharp provolone. Enjoy!
Ingredients
4 Baguettes
600g Steak (about 20 oz or 1.25 lbs)
3 – 4 Yellow Onion
2 Green Bell Pepper
200g Cheese (7 oz) (American, Provolone, Swiss, Emmenthal or Mozzarella)
2 Garlic Cloves (Optional)
7 tbsp Mayonnaise (Optional)
Salt and Pepper
4 tbsp Butter or Olive Oil
Philly Cheese Steak Sandwich
Chef Niall Harbison
1. If cooking fresh bread, place them in the oven to bake as per instructions;
2. Trim the fat from the sirloin steak and cut it into thin strips. If you do not feel comfortable ask your butcher to do it for you;
3. Heat your frying pan to a medium heat before adding the olive oil and butter. When it starts frothing add the onions and cook until golden brown, tossing occasionally;
4. When the onions have caramelized and taken on a deep brown color season with salt and pepper before adding the green peppers;
5. Slice the bread and open it as wide as possible without cutting all the way through;
6. Remove the onion and pepper mix and set aside on a plate and keep warm by covering with tin foil;
7. Without cleaning your pan, add some more oil and bring back to a very high temperature before adding the seasoned beef. Continue to cook on a very high temperature for 2 minutes until it has taken an even brown color all over;
8. To make the sauce, add the finely chopped garlic to the mayonnaise and mix together. Spread this sauce evenly between the baguettes on both sides of the bread;
9. Split the beef, onion and pepper mix between the baguettes before layering the cheese on top of the sandwiches;
10. Place the tray with the sandwiches under the grill for 30 seconds until the cheese has melted and serve immediately.
And thanks to the good people at Pat’s, here is their authentic restaurant recipe:
Pat’s King of Steaks famous cheese steak sandwich
6 tablespoons soybean oil
1 large onion, sliced
24 ounces sliced rib eye or eye roll steak
Cheese (store processed recommended, aka Cheez Whiz, otherwise American or Provolone)
4 crusty Italian Rolls
Sweet green and red peppers, sauteed in oil (optional)
Mushrooms sauteed in oil (optional)
Ketchup
Heat an iron skillet or a non-stick pan over medium heat and add 3 tablespoons of oil to the pan and saute the onions to desired doneness. Remove the onions and add the remaining oil and saute the slices of meat quickly on both sides. Melt the cheese whiz in a double boiler or in the microwave. Place 8 ounces of the meat into the rolls, add onions, and pour the store processed cheese over top. Garnish with sweet peppers, mushrooms, ketchup.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________
The Olivieri Prince of Steaks (now Rick’s Steaks) cheese steak original restaurant recipe, via a vintage Women’s Day magazine interview with chef/owner Rick Olivieri:
5 oz Steak (read below)
Water to moisten
2 1/2 oz Desired cheese (read below)
9 1/2-inch hoagie roll
Fried onions
Additional Toppings:
Mushrooms, raw onions,
Sweet red & green peppers,
Pizza sauce, lettuce,
Tomato
To make one cheese-steak sandwich, take the steak (Olivieri’s recommended cut: the eye of the chuck) and slice it very thin.
Panfry in large skillet with no grease or oil, just enough water to moisten.
Right before it’s done, top with desired cheese (American, provolone, mozzarella or Cheez Whiz) until melted.
Put meat and cheese on the hoagie roll, then top with fried onions.
Add additional toppings if desired.
Put on the theme song to the first Rocky movie and enjoy!
We’ve just discovered another tasty video blogger! Her name is Monica DiNatale and she is an actor, tv host, and author of the Fun Food With Monica blog, which has loads of delicious videos and travel adventures.
For Cinco de Mayo, we’ve been hunting down an authentic mexican recipe for you, and Monica came through! This video features Chef Patrico Sandoval of Mercadito Grove restaurant in the West Village of NYC. He prepares a Tampiquena plate. What is it? In Mexico City in the 1930’s and 40’s, a legendary restaurant called the Tampico Club founded by Jose Luis Loredo from Tampico served a signature dish that became famous. Tampiqueña (pronounced tam-pee-cane-ya) has many permutations and culinary interpretations today, but the original plate consisted of carne asada, enchiladas, rajas (spiced roasted chiles), salsa, and charra beans. Patrico’s version of the recipe here includes a skirt steak carne asada, corn salsa, and marinated rajas. Click the “read more” for the video! Feliz Cinco de Mayo!
Italians seem to possess an amazingly strong passion for food, much more so than the rest of the world.
There is a really great site, Italian Food Net, which serves up delicious authentic Italian recipe videos. Their chefs speak Italian in the clips, but they have done such a wonderful job with the subtitles and ingredient conversions that the recipes are simple to follow.
Some recipes are incredibly simple to make but somehow give the impression that you’ve spent hours slaving over them. This would be one of those! In the video, chef Alessandro prepares an Italian salmon carpaccio with oranges served over arugula. Head over to their site to view the written recipe, browse around a bit and pretend you’re a student in an Italian culinary school!
Tiny bites of ingredient education:
Carpaccio is defined as an appetizer using thinly sliced raw fish or meat.
The peppercorns used in the recipe are brined, Whole Foods should have them, you may need to look in the area where jarred pickles are.
The recipe calls for the greens “rocket”, and rocket = arugula!
The family behind Ceja Vineyards has a new video blog emerging! Entitled Salud! Napa, they are just beginning their online journey, but soon will be a “bicultural cooking show” embracing world cuisine, a wine portal, and a social networking site. Already they are featuring several delicious cooking videos, and all dishes are paired with recommended wines from their vineyard. Truly enlightening, learn about their delicious success story here.
We’ve developed a recent love affair with beets, and immediately fell in love with their video featuring Chef Gerry Castro preparing an easy beet salad with a fresh herb vinaigrette. Using boiled, peeled, and sliced beets, he dresses them with oil, balsamic vinegar, chopped shallots, salt and pepper, served over parsley, chives, tarragon, and chervil. He pairs it with an elegant 2007 Ceja Napa Carneros Chardonnay.
A tiny morsel of food trivia on the herb CHERVIL, for those not familiar. It truly is an under appreciated herb in the states, however is quite the player in French cuisine. A component of “Green Goddess” dressing, this member of the parsley family has a delicate flavor with a touch of anise. It also behaves as a catalyst in bringing out the flavor of other herbs. The dried version is not of much use as it is fairly flavorless. Chervil has a very short life, and will only be useful for about 2 days in the refrigerator. Can’t find it? The closest substitute is parsley combined with tarragon, which are already in this recipe, so don’t worry!
When we spoke to our friend Average Betty this week, she mentioned that she is reporting for the Grilled Cheese Invitational event in downtown Los Angeles this weekend, a culinary competition in search of the perfect grilled cheese! Ever since, we’ve had visions of grilled cheese sandwiches dancing in our heads.
Memories of grilled cheese sandwiches go way back into our school years, tomato soup, white bread, and Kraft cheese, served by Mom with a touch of love. Perfect comfort food. We started to think about chefs, do any of our favorites make a special version of the childhood classic? We set off on a mission to find out!
We found an amazing version of the classic sandwich, courtesy of Chef Christopher Lee from the Gilt restaurant in the NYC Palace Hotel. The Price= $50 on the menu. Featured on Gossip Girl, this is perhaps the most expensive grilled cheese sandwich ever. Not that we watch Gossip Girl, we just heard about this episode! And we have no idea who Chuck Bass is, and have never had a crush on him, really!
We know, times are tough, and most of us are carefully watching our food spending. Fear not, we can show you how to make our version for much less. First, watch the video, and then we will disclose our cost cutting suggestion for the sandwich recipe.
If you’ve not yet checked out Obsessed Tv, you need to! Gary Vaynerchuk teams up with the adorably enthusiastic Samantha Ettus in a web channel featuring delicious interviews with people they are obsessed with. Putting the personalities behind the names, they interview everyone from athletes and dog trainers to celebrities and…chefs!
When Samantha and Gary twittered this afternoon that their Chef Eric Ripert interview was up, we immediately gave the video a watch. Eric is magnetically charming as usual, and discusses his career evolution, favorite wines, junk food confessions, and thoughts on Ferran Adria’s molecular gastronomy. Highly recommended, give it a view!
White asparagus has a very short growing season, and is typically seasonably available in May or June. You may possibly be able to purchase a Peruvian variety of it at other times of year. What makes it white? It is grown with the dirt mounted around the stalk, depriving it of light. Because of this lack of sunlight, it is unable to produce chlorophyll to make it green. Lacking bitterness and milder in flavor than its sun exposed green sister, white asparagus does need to be peeled, as the outside is quite tough. What lies beneath is tender and heavenly.
Austrian Chef Kurt Gutenbrunner is chef/co-owner of the NYC treo of restaurants Wallsé, Café Sabarsky, and Blaue Gans. In this video he shares his recipe for a simple white asparagus with vinaigrette.
3 pounds, about 16 pieces white asparagus
1 ½ tablespoons salt
1 tablespoon sugar
2 ounces butter
1 small piece of baguette or white bread
Drape a dish towel over a large, inverted mixing bowl. (1) To peel asparagus, grip the spear with three fingers, protecting the tip, and lean it against the bowl to prevent it from breaking. With a swivel vegetable peeler, remove the thick outer layer starting just below the tip, turning the spear as you peel. Peel them well, as the skin can be tough and bitter. (2) Trim approximately one inch off the woody end of each spear. Add the salt, sugar, and butter to 4 quarts of water in a large pot and bring to a boil. (3) Add the bread, which helps eliminate bitterness, and the asparagus, and cook for about 8 minutes, until cooked through but still firm. Remove asparagus and dry on a towel. Serve at room temperature with an herb vinaigrette (made with good extra-virgin olive oil and lemon juice) or hollandaise sauce.
“A gastronomic double take!” So proclaims the triple Michelin starred Chef Heston Blumenthal from The Fat Duck restaurant in the UK, sharing his secret for a bacon and egg ice cream. Watch the video for his technique!
The recipes for the ice cream, the caramelized brioche, and the tomato and red pepper jam can be found here, and the salted butter caramel recipe can be found here.
We were a bit skeptical that the entire technique could actually be achievable, so we wandered onto a food blogger quest and found confirmation. Clement from A la Cuisine shares her experience with Heston’s recipe here, and Six Course Dinner has their version posted here. David Lebovitz has a delicious looking bacon ice cream as well, with an inspiration from Michael Ruhlman, using candied brown sugar bacon.
If you attempt it please do let us know how it worked out for you! Meanwhile we are browsing estate sales desperately looking for one of these!
Nicoise salad or Salade niçoise in French, finds it’s origins in the city of Nice in southern France, and typically contains tuna, green beans, new potatoes, hard boiled eggs, and black olives. Additional ingredients may include anchovies, capers, cucumbers, and artichoke hearts as well. This salad is colorful, healthy, and a great use for leftover Easter eggs!
In this video, Chef Kirk Leins from No To Cook Dinner shares his economical recipe for a classic tuna nicoise, using canned tuna rather than seared fresh tuna. Currently a personal chef in LA, Kirk is an executive chef for YOU magazine, and host of the Community Cooking tv show in Southern California. You may also find him on Twitter!
His recipe serves 2, and you will need one can of tuna, 6 nicoise olives, two small boiled potatoes, 8-12 blanched french green beans, one julienned roma tomato, a hard boiled egg, and baby greens. For the vinaigrette, you may view the video here, and the ingredients are also simple: a small diced shallot, 1 tsp of dijon mustard, 1-2 tbsp of sherry vinegar, 3-4 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil, Kosher salt, and freshly ground pepper.
From the Chef’s Kitchen chef Walter Staib bakes a Dietz & Watson ham, and makes 5 meals from it. This video shares his economical recipes for a pineapple glazed ham, a ham and pepper potato hash, a cabbage ham and potato soup, as well as two creative ham sandwich recipes. You may view and print the detailed written recipes here.
An Easter dinner for less than $40 for 4 people? It’s possible! Chef/Owner of Lachlan McKinnon Patterson of Frasca restaurant has upped the ante for the world of dining in Boulder, Colorado. Nominated as a “Rising Star Chef” by the James Beard Foundation and named a “Best New Chef” by Food and Wine Magazine, Lachlan and his Frasca team create Northern Italian fare receiving numerous glowing reviews. We love the fact that they strongly support local farmers with their seasonal menus and are active Slow Food members. Boasting the title of the “Best Wine List” in Denver’s Westword, they also have two master sommeliers in the house to ensure a perfect tasting experience.
And Top Chef Lovers unite! Bravo will premier a new show, Top Chef Masters in June! And guess who our favorite Colorado competing chef will be? None other than Lachlan himself!
In this video, Chef Lachlan prepares a boneless leg of lamb with glazed radishes, and an arugula salad with a pesto and pickled shallot vinaigrette. He completes the meal with his recipe for Gubana, a traditional Italian strudel-like Easter bread with raisins, walnuts, almonds, and pine nuts.
What better way to conquer steep drink prices than to make your own? Wine and beer, meh, too complicated and who can afford expensive equipment when one hardly can afford to drink. We’re deeply sinking into a major recession! When life gives you lemons, make….. Limoncello!
Properly pronounced “Lee mon CHELL oh” this sweet and sinfully potent lemon liqueur was born in the beautiful Amalfi coast of Italy, and is traditionally made with delicious Sorrento lemons and served after dinner. It’s minimal ingredients are this: strong alcohol, lemon zest, sugar, and water.
This video features Miami Chef John DiRocco in his home sharing his simple family recipe for limoncello. He is truly quite the amusing character!
Recipe courtesy of Chef John DiRocco and the Miami Dish.
12-16 lemons, preferably organic and unwaxed
1 bottle Everclear
1 bottle of water (use the Everclear bottle)
1-1 ½ cups sugar
It takes about 30 to 45 minutes to do the initial preparation (mainly peeling the lemons and shaving out the bitter white pith.) You can also do the prep work gradually, doing two lemons at a time and tossing them in the alcohol, until all of the lemons are done. The peels should ferment a minimum of three weeks.
The more of the white lemon pith that you leave, the more bitter the limoncello will taste.
The type of sugar affects the color of the limoncello. For John’s “limoncello naturale,” use a darker raw cane sugar.
If you can’t get a hold of Everclear, you can use ½ Grey Goose vodka and ½ Absolut. For a poor man’s version, strain cheaper vodka though your Brita pitcher 3 or 4 times.
Store your limoncello in the freezer. It should be completely liquid. If it’s slushy, you used too much water.
We also found this adorable Italian video from Villa Massa honoring the Sorrento lemon and limoncello!
José Andrés. He was born in Asturias, a coastal region northern Spain, and trained under culinary genius Ferran Adria at El Bulli. José is now is the chef and partner of several Washington Dc restaurants, a bestselling cookbook author, and the charming host of the PBS show Made in Spain, as well as the Spanish cooking show Vamos a Cocinar. His recipes are cherished by both home cooks and professional chefs for their high quality ingredients combined with simple preparation methods.
