Category Archives: Recipes

Chocolate Souffle

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I wanted to try something special for Easter so I used the techniques I learned last week at the cooking class and made chocolate souffles. These souffles are very rich and go well with red wine, Irish Cream, or a nice stout.

You can make the souffle mixture in advance and keep it refrigerated for up to 2 days. The most important part making these souffles is to do all the prep work before you start cooking. Separate egg whites and egg yolks, chop chocolate, and measure out other ingredients. Lightly butter ramekins and coat sides with sugar. By doing all the prep work before hand the process of making the souffles will run smoothly.

To make the chocolate mixture use a double boiler to avoid burning the chocolate. The mixture should look smooth and creamy.

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The hardest part of making souffles, both technically and physically is whipping the egg whites. You will stop once firm peaks form. Firm peak is when the egg whites can stand on their own.

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The most important part of making the souffle mixture is to fold in the egg whites into the chocolate. Do not stir them together, this will prevent the souffle from rising properly. Although this recipe seems intimidating it is not as hard as it sounds. Everyone will be impressed by both the final presentation and taste of this dessert. Enjoy!

Chocolate Souffle

French Toast

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french toast

All this week I have wanted to make French Toast for breakfast. I have not made it in a while so I needed a quick refresher on the recipe. After looking up a few basic recipes I put together parts that I liked and started cooking. Cooking the toast in the pan then finishing it in the oven made sure the French Toast was warmed all the way through. Enjoy this simple recipe for breakfast sometime!

French Toast

Smoky Poblano Mussels

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I have wanted to make a dish with mussels for the longest time. One of my future culinary goals is to perfect my own recipe for muscles marinara but I’m still working on developing a sauce that has the right mix of flavor and heat. In the meantime I wanted to make something just to get some practice with cooking mussels. I found a very simple recipe for muscles in a pablano pepper broth in Cooking light magazine and adapted to suit my tastes.

On important step in this recipe is to combine the ingredients for the broth and simmer then for 8-10 minutes before adding the muscles.

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This allows for the flavor of the sauce to develop and become more complex. After cooking the muscles you remove them from the pot and again reduce the broth until there is about 1 cup left then you pour it over the muscles. This recipe is very simple and is a great dish to try if you want to experiment with mussels.

Smokey Pablano Mussels

Stout Macaroni and Cheese

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For Some reason I have been experimenting with cooking with beer a lot recently. I wanted to make mac and cheese and saw a recipe that used hot turkey sausage and Guinness in mac and cheese and adapted some of what they did for this dish. A warning in advance, while this recipe is delicious it does not taste like your traditional mac and cheese. Depending on how hot the sausage is that you use it could have some heat to it. Also the stout gives this dish a very distinctive finish. I will walk you through the recipe in this post, you can find the full recipe by clicking on the link at the bottom of the page.

Heat a large saucepan over high heat, add oil and swirl to coat pan then reduce heat to medium. Remove casings sausages and add sausage and onion to pan. Cook for 6 min, stirring to crumble up sausage.

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Add flour, salt, and pepper. Stir and cook for an additional minute.

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Add beer and bring to a boil. Cook mixture for 3 min until thick and bubbly, stirring continuously.

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Remove from heat and add cheddar, Velveeta, and milk; stir until smooth. Then add pasta and mix in.

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Divide mixture evenly among 4 ceramic gratin dishes sprinkle with panko bread crumbs and bake at 450 for 10 min. You could also put mac and cheese in a casserole dish and serve family style, timing will remain the same. Enjoy and find the full recipe below.

Stout Macaroni and Cheese

Asian Beef Rolls

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I found a recipe similar to this in Cooking Light Magazine, I tweaked it a little but it still stays true to the original. This recipe is a bit tedious to prep but very simple to cook.

To put rolls together place 1 steak slice on a cutting board and place 3 pieces of green onion and 3 pieces of red pepper on steak then roll. Place completed beef rolls on baking sheet.

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Then coat grill pan with cooking spray then heat pan over medium-high heat. Place beef rolls in pan, seem side down and cook for 3 min. Then turn and cook for an additional 3 minutes. While beef rolls are cooking bring reserved marinade and remaining rice wine vinegar to a boil and reduce by about half. pour sauce over rolls then serve.

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This recipe is great to make for game day. They are bite size and offer an alternative to wings and a six foot hoagie. For full recipe see the link below, Enjoy!

Asian Beef Rolls

 

Poached Shrimp in Old Bay Butter

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This shrimp recipe is very simple and very quick to prepare and makes for a great appetizer. You can also use the Old Bay Butter to toss steamed crabs in before you serve them.

To Poach the shrimp you combine water, wine, pickling spice, garlic, and parsley in a pot then bring mixture to a boil. The measurements for each ingredient is going to depend on the size of the pot you are using. I just eyeballed everything until it looked right. Let the mixture boil for 4-5 mins to allow the flavors to develop. (see picture below)

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After mixture has boiled remove pot from heat and add shrimp. Poach the shrimp for ~ 5 min until the shrimp are pink and firm. Then remove the shrimp from the poaching liquid and set aside (See pictures below)

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Next melt butter in a small sauce pan. After butter melts add sherry and Old Bay. Simmer for 30 seconds to cook off alcohol in sherry. Add shrimp and coat with butter sauce then serve and enjoy. The shrimp should be lightly coated with the Old Bay Butter, not soaked in it. This dish is very quick and simple and a fun alternative to traditional steamed shrimp. To see a full list of ingredients and approximate measurement follow the link to the recipe page. Enjoy!

Poached Shrimp in Old Bay Butter

Chicken with Spicy Ginger Soy Reduction

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Asian chicken

I recently experimented with creating an Asian inspired sauce for chicken. I was surprised at how this sauce turned out, reducing the soy sauce brings develops a very savory flavor in this sauce and the addition of the garlic chili sauce lends a nice heat. The only downside to this sauce is that it is a bit thin, to fix this you need to add some flour to bring it to your desired consistency. You can serve this dish with Spicy Ginger Noodles and snow or snap peas.

Chicken with Spicy Ginger Soy Reduction

Spicy Ginger Noodles

Cooking Class Week 5: Shell Fish

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oysters

Tonight’s class focused on shellfish. I finally learned how to properly shuck an oyster. It took a few attempts but by the end I was able to pick up the technique. To shuck an oyster you hold it in a towel in your hand, cup of the oyster facing down. You then take the oyster knife and push it through the heel of the oyster. Once the knife gets through the heel you twist the knife to pop the shell. You then move the knife across the top shell to separate it from the oyster. Then after taking the top shell off you cut the oyster free from the bottom shell. I chose to cook Oysters Florentine tonight in order to practice the shucking technique.

The chef also taught us a few simple recipes for shrimp, clams, and crab that I will highlight in future posts

Guinness Reduction Part 2

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steak and shrimp

Inspired by St. Patrick’s Day I worked on perfecting the Guinness pan sauce that I made a few weeks ago. Before cooking the steaks I took 4 cups of beef stock, carrots, celery, garlic, and onions and placed them in a saucepan; I then reduced the broth by half to build more flavor in the stock. After fortifying the stock I cooked the steaks in the pan. I sauteed half a shallot then deglazed the pan with 1/2 cup of Guinness. I reduced the Guinness by 2/3 then added the fortified beef broth. I simmered the sauce for ~2 min then added 1tsp dijon mustard, 1 tbs soy sauce, salt, and chopped fresh parsley. I let the sauce simmer for another 2 min then added 1 tbs unsalted butter and 1/2 tsp truffle butter. I then did a final taste to get the salt level right. I then served the sauce over the steak.

To cook the shrimp I took a cast iron skillet and cooked 4 pieces of bacon. I then added the shrimp, which I seasoned with Old Bay and cooked them in the bacon grease.

Guinness

Cooking Classes Week 4: Fish

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Snapper1

Week 4 has been my favorite class so far. First we were taught how to scale and skin a fish. Then, instead of following a recipe from the book the chef taught us a few techniques how to cook fish; grilling, sauteing, and butter roasting. After going over these techniques we were able to experiment with seasonings and sauces to pair with the fish.

I chose to butter roast snapper fillets. I seasoned the snapper with white pepper, salt, cayenne pepper, dill, and Spanish paprika. I then preheated the pan. As the pan was heating I lightly coated the fish with canola oil, then when the pan was hot I placed a tablespoon of oil in the pan. I then placed the fish in the pan, turning the heat down after 30 seconds. When the fish turned white halfway through I flipped the fish and added 4-5 tablespoons of butter to the pan and turned down the heat. As the butter melted I basted the fish with the butter for 1-2 min until the fish was done, squeezing lemon juice over the fish at the very end.

After removing the fish from the pan I drained out most of the butter and added a chopped shallot and garlic. I then deglazed the pan with white wine and reduced it by 3/4. After reducing the wine I added spinach and sauteed the spinach. I served the fish over the spinach.