It's Got to be Salsa

Caribbean Salsa

Serves   8

Preparation   :20    Cook   :00    Stand   1:00    Total   1:20

Serve with fish turkey, chicken, pork or as a way to spice up any dish.

 Ingredients
2      cups mangoes, peeled, cut in  1/4-inch cubes

1/2    cup cucumbers, peeled, seeded, cut in 1/4-inch cubes

1/4    cup fresh cilantro, chopped

2      tablespoons green onions, finely chopped

1/2    jalapeno pepper, seeded, finely chopped

3      tablespoons fresh lime juice

1 1/2  teaspoons brown sugar

1      teaspoon fresh ginger root, peeled minced

1      dash fresh ground black pepper

Method1.In medium-size bowl combine mango, cucumber, cilantro, green  onion, jalapeno, lime juice, brown sugar, ginger and pepper.

2. Cover and refrigerate at least one hour to allow flavors to blend.

Pineapple Salsa

Serves   6

Ingredients 
2      teaspoons fresh ginger root, minced

1/3    teaspoon Salt, divided

1      cup diced, seeded, chopped roma tomatoes

3/4    cup pineapple, diced

1/2    cup green onions, sliced

1      4 oz. can green chili, drained

1      tablespoon lemon juice

2      tablespoons butter

 Method
Make pineapple salsa by mixing together in small bowl cilantro, ginger, 1/8 teaspoon of the salt, tomato, pineapple, onion, chiles and lemon juice; set aside.

Nutrition (per serving):  189 calories              

Fresh Peach Salsa

Serves   2

Preparation   :15    Cook   :00    Stand   :00    Total   :15

Makes a delicious low-calorie topping for grilled chicken, pork lamb, or fish. Also great on quesadillas.

 Ingredients 
2      fresh California peaches, diced

2      plums, diced

1/3    cup raisins

1/4    cup red onions, diced

1 to 2  table spoons  lemon juice

1      table spoon fresh mint, chopped,

Method
In medium bowl, combine all ingredients except tortillas. Cover and refrigerate

Tip: Best if prepared a day ahead.

Nutrition (per serving):  45 calories

Tomato Bean Salsa

Serves   8

A lower fat but still tasty version of bean salsa.

 Ingredients 
3      tomatoes, seeded and chopped

12     ounces canned pinto beans, drained

1      tablespoon chili powder

2/3    cup 1% lowfat cottage cheese

1/4    cup onions, chopped

2 to 3  tablespoons canned jalapeno peppers, chopped

1      clove garlic, minced

1      teaspoon wine vinegar

3/4    cup lettuce, shredded iceberg

2      ounces sharp cheddar cheese, shredded

10     small ripe pitted olives, chopped

 Method 
Use tomatoes held at room temperature until fully ripe. In blender or food processor, puree pinto beans with chili powder; set aside.

Clean workbowl and process cottage cheese until smooth; set aside. To make salsa, in small bowl combine tomatoes,onion, jalapenos, garlic and vinegar; set aside. Add pinto the bean mixture evenly on dinner plate to within 1/2 inch of edge.

Starting 1/2 inch from edge of beans, spread even layer of cottage cheese, half the salsa, the lettuce and remaining salsa. Sprinkle with cheese and olives. Serve with salt-free tortilla chips (optional).

Tomato-Pineapple Salsa

Serves   8

Preparation   :15    Cook   :00    Stand   :00    Total   :15

Serve with grilled or broiled fish or chicken.

Ingredients 
3/4    pound diced and seeded California tomatoes

1/2    cup finely diced pineapple

1/3    cup sliced green onions

1/2    fresh jalapeno pepper, seeded, chopped fine

1 1/2  tablespoons fresh coriander, chopped,

1 1/2  tablespoons fresh lemon juice

1      garlic clove, small, chopped finely

1/8    teaspoon Salt

1      tablespoon vegetable oil

Method 
 In medium bowl, combine tomato, pineapple, green onion, chile and coriander; set aside.  In a small bowl combine lemon juice, garlic, and salt; whisk in oil.  Gently mix dressing with tomato mixture.  

Note: 1 teaspoon canned jalapeno chile may be substituted for fresh jalapeno chile.

Nutrition (per serving):  36 calories

Vichyssoise Facts not Fiction

Few people realize that Vichyssoise, the cold potato leek soup with the French name, was created, not in Paris or Lyons or even in Vichy, France, but in New York City at the beginning of the 20th Century. It was 1917 and the fashionable Ritz-Carlton Hotel on Madison Avenue at 46th Street was about to open a new roof garden restaurant.   The head chef was a Frenchman named Louis Diat (1885-1957).  He often made a potato and leek soup from a recipe given him by his mother, Annette Alajoinine Diat, and he was preparing to serve it at a party celebrating the opening of the roof garden.   Whether, according to legend, the soup, prepared in advance, wasn't re-heated in time to be served as a first course, or whether the day was warm and Chef-de-Cuisine Diat felt culinarily creative, he added cream to his mother's soup recipe and served it cold, sprinkled with chopped chives.   He called it Creme Vichyssoise Glacee, or Chilled Cream Vichyssoise, in honor of the town where he was born.
The original Ritz-Carlton has long since been demolished but Vichyssoise lives on.  During World War II some patriotic chefs tried to change the name to "Creme Gauloise Glacee" because in 1940 a government collaborating with the Nazis was set up in the French town of Vichy.  Nevertheless, the name Vichyssoise persisted, although nine out of ten, if not ninety-nine out of a hundred, Americans mispronounce it.  The proper French pronunciation is "vee shee swahzz" and NOT "vee shee swah" because an "e" after the final "s" signals a "zzz" sound.
The soup's popularity doubtless comes from the fact that even in the hottest weather one can enjoy a bowl of soup and find it refreshing.  For many years  Lord and Taylor's department store Soup Bar featured only a bowl of Vichyssoise and a piece of apple pie for lunch all summer long, and while New Yorkers often waited three deep for a place at the counter, few of them realized the recipe originated only 11 blocks away.
Although the original recipe calls for straining the cooked vegetables through a sieve, today's cooks most often use a blender.  It also calls for both "single table cream" and "double whipping cream," but today we would use "half-and-half" (or "light cream") and "heavy cream." The following modern recipe, originally from Gourmet magazine, was apparently sanctioned by Louis Diat when he was a regular contributor to the magazine:

CREME VICHYSSOISE GLACEE
4 leeks, the dark green tops discarded
               and the leeks split lengthwise,
               washed well, and chopped coarse
(about 2 1/2 cups)

1 onion, chopped
1 Tablespoon unsalted butter

2 russet (baking) potatoes, peeled,
                diced (about 3 cups) and
                reserved in 4 cups water

2 teaspoons salt
2 cups milk
2 cups half-and-half or light cream
1 cup heavy cream
white pepper to taste
thinly sliced fresh chives for garnish

In a kettle cook the leeks and the onion in the butter, covered, over low heat, stirring occasionally, until they are softened.  Add the potatotes with the water and the salt and simmer the mixture, covered, for 30 to 40 minutes, or until the potatoes are soft. Add the milk and the half-and-half and bring the mixture just to a boil, stirring.  In a blender, puree the mixture in batches and strain it through a very fine sieve into a bowl.  Stir the cream and the white pepper into the soup and chill the soup.
This recipe makes about 11 cups, serving 8 to 10.  

Invictus

Dear friends

For the past four months I watched this congressional debacle unveiled itself and in reality people who are supposed to serve we the people don't give a damn except line their own pockets at our expense.   There are many examples of both Congress men and women and Senators who've amassed large  fortunes in their careers in Congress. No wonder they don't want to shut down the Bush tax cuts because it would come out of their pockets and their grease monkeys and their crony’s pockets also.

During the Civil War we enacted laws to prevent profiteering and in reality we are at war right now. So I would like to see how many of these clowns could be brought before a military court to defend their profiteering and defend what they have done to this country.

We need jobs that enable us to have a good living for a good days work no more no less and if these clowns don't get together and do the people’s business in  the next year we need toss them all out and onto the congressional junk heap where they deserve to be in first place.

So this poem inspires me when I feel that I have lost my way

John Kinsella CMC PhD

Invictus

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll.
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

Small cuts means a big price.

As I learnt the craft of butchery it became quite apparent the tenderness cuts of meats were only a small part of any animal.  Even today the small cuts are the most costly part of our efforts in food cost control. Also within our efforts to contain costs, a quarter of an ounce mistake on a ten ounce steak would be a costly error either way.  What is needed to prevent these mistakes is a basic knowledge of meat cutting, let’s identify the small cuts starting with the whole tenderloin. Or the PSMO. When cleaned the small cuts are as follows.

The Tenderloin:

Filet mignon or the tail: Used in such dishes as Stroganoff, Bolognaise.

Tournedos: the classical small steaks used in many dishes such as, Vert Pre, Rossini,

Filet: Filet steaks the most expensive Steak.

Chateaubriand: Normally roasted and served to two people with a bouquetiere of vegetables

The Strip lion; some times referred to as the sirloin is cut into center cut steaks.  When roasted it is call the contra filet de beuf 

The T bone steak in England is defined as a steak cut through the bone with the thin end of the filet attached, and weighs a pound or less.

Porterhouse Steak: normally weighs 24 ounces traditionally used as a bonus to the porters in the meat markets for their hard work.  In England, this steak given out on Friday as a bonus.

Lamb and Veal loins and chops

Both the lamb and veal racks have the chime bone removed then the blade bone removed and frenched.  Clean the rib bones by removing the a joining tissue between the bones Each can be cut into chops Veal chops usually weighs between eight and ten ounces where as the average lamb chop weighs about 4 ounces but can be cut into a double chop eight ounces in weight which is known as a Barnsley chop.  Other lamb chops such as chump chops cut from the end of the rack are more popular in Europe then in the US.

From the both loins we can cut the Noisette  and the Rosette both can be tied and are the basis of many classical dishes such as Noisette or Rosette Dubarry, Princess, and Parisienne.

Cutlets are referred to chops cut through the bone of the loin.

 *The chump chop is normally cut at either end of the rack and  were called as the poor mans chop in England a chump was someone who was ignorant and did not understand the quality of the meat. In most case it was better braised the grilled.

Cooking IN Simple Steps CISS

 

Below is a link to videos on the ACF home page, where I demonstrate these two classical dishes. Not only is the cooking of the dish important but the actual preparation and skilled butchery techniques are required. In his lifetime Escoffier   found that most of his preparations and dishes were seasonal and as the season went by there would be a different flavor or Herb added to the dish to keep it topical. The two chicken dishes you see in the pictures are misrepresentations of the sauté chicken you see above. Unfortunately the cutting skills are not appropriate and it is difficult for how the basic recipe got diluted so much that it's unrecognizable in this form. There is a lot of disinformation on this dish. As I demonstrated in the video that a young chicken is used rather than a rooster.  Cutting the chicken into 13 pieces and utilizing the carcass for flavor during the sauté process which becomes the basis of the finished sauce. As we use a young chicken there is no need to remove the tendons from the legs on that the clause are attached this is reserved for mature birds such as roosters, pheasants, turkeys, and wild game birds such as ducks, and teals. In the chicken base the master chefs realized that the use of parsley and spring, chervil in summer and tarragon in the fall and winter were appropriate. Classically speaking the chicken was reconstructed on a platter carcass and all have presents to the guest tableside and it was portioned accordingly to the guests. The deglazing of the sauté pan reinforce the flavor of the Demi glaze in the finished sauce. As it was a hunter sauce the tomato concasse represented the torn flesh the animal. He found this style of cooking in provincial France as a young man and it was a great learning curve for him because he realized that the best food to serve was food in season. Today everybody is now going to farmers markets finding foods in season utilizing meat proteins and fish proteins in season has become vogue.  Sadly if we only read our books and the history of food this is how the modern French cuisine and about.

So enjoy the video most of all cut it fresh, cook it fresh, serve it fresh.

 Click on the link below and go to resorces. Click on resources and go to video libary and click on classical quartet.

http://www.acfchefs.org/         

Master Craftsmans Work

Menu compilation

            There are many hard and fast rules in the gastronomic laws must be observed if one is to obtain success, for a badly compiled menu will spoil the complete meal.  In composing the menu, the aim should be to express as far as possible the spirit of the occasion for which it is intended.  To be able to compose a luncheon or dinner menu is an art in itself, and the composing of an elaborate dinner menu needs great care in the selection of the various courses, so that each dish will harmonize with all of the others on the same menu.

            Some of the rules for menu writing are set out below, and should be followed if all round success is to be obtained:

1.            The requirements of the menu must depend on the occasion, the season, the number of people, the price being paid and the class of catering.

2.           

2.      Each dish should be different in composition and mode of cooking.

3.      The harmonizing effect is obtained by so arranging the dishes that each one is distinct from the other, bearing no relation in appearance to the preceding or the following dishes.

4.      No two similar vegetables garnished should ever be placed on the same menu, with the exception of mushrooms and truffles.

5.      The various meats and other important ingredients forming one complete course must not be repeated again on the same menu from one course to another.

6.      The various kinds of sauces and accompaniments employed must be entirely different in color, taste and appearance.

7.      The menu must be compiled with a view to successful service in the restaurant.  It is better to have fewer dishes or courses well cooked and correctly served than a pretentious, many coursed menu, which would put too much stress on the kitchen, its staff and equipment, and upon the service and the waiting staff.

8.      A careful selection of raw materials, having regard to the time and season of the year, must be made in all cases.

9.      Ensure the use of correct cookery terms and spelling – especially when using French.  Avoid repeating, “A la” on a menu; this term means “in the style of” and in many cases can be omitted.

10.    a.      Name the article – Sole, beef, duckling.

b.            Name the cut used – fillet, sirloin, wing.

c.             Name the place of origin – Dover, Angus, Aylesbury.

d.            Name the method of cooking – poached, roast, braised.

e.             Name the garnish and/or sauce – Duglere, horseradish, A l’orange.

         Examples:  Poached Filet of Dover Sole Duglere.

                            Roast Rib of Angus Beef, Horseradish Sauce.

                            Braised Wing of Aylesbury Duck, Orange Sauce.

11.    Never, write the word gravy on a menu.

12.    Sauces and/or garnishes are written directly after the dish to which they belong.  Add the vegetables after the main course and its sauce and/or garnish.  Follow the vegetables with the potato dish.

13.    Give a sufficient choice on the menu to satisfy the varying tastes and digestions of your clientele.

14.    Bear in mind quality, quantity, and from a customer’s point of view, “value for money”.

15.    Place on the menu dishes that at attractive and appetizing, and will combine together to form a well-balanced and pleasing meal.

                                               

Game both Furred and feathered

Game both Furred and feathered.

Le Gibier

When you talk about game we talk about why the animals that are harvested by hunting normally hung for at least five days prior to either plucking skinning or gutting them for use. The USDA requires that all proteins must be inspected prior use.  There have been many cases where chefs have butchered venison or rabbits in their kitchens and being fined because of them not following the inspection process.  In our kitchens today all game either comes and processed most of all inspected. A classical dish, Civet au Livet known as jugged hare, where the blood is used to thicken the sauce at the end of the cooking process.  Unfortunately that is not allowed any more. So where do we go from here yes game dishes are extremely popular especially in spring and autumn and in November especially in the Midwest in the fine dining restaurants they feature game as a premium dishes for that month.

Furred game: This includes venison, rabbit, hare, antelope bison moose and many other species.  Most of the larger animals have to be home for at least 10 to 14 days to accept the muscle tissue.  Rabbits when they come into our kitchens today are already skinned and ready to be boned for use.  A classical venison dish comes from the haunch or the loin as it's known in America. Venison chops are very popular and in the farm raised venison legs has enabled a chef to process them into smaller stakes in cuts for his menu.  Notably in the red meat animals must be cooked medium rare to infuse tenderness and flavor.  Of course a more pungent sauce is appropriate for these types of animals to remove the game he tastes that they sometimes leave after processing.

Feathered game: This includes pheasant quail, ostrich, Guinea hens, wild Turkey, wild ducks, and many other species.  All these animals come in processed and ready for use except from removing the tendons from the legs.

Preparation tips:

Bardering is defined as using a long needle and inserting thin strips of fat or smoked bacon under the skin to create moisture during the cooking process.

Marinades.

Marinades are divided into two categories either raw or cooked.  For long-term marinades cooked ones are recommended.  Marinades can have white or a red wine normally includes fresh herbs and vinegars. You will find a lot all the game meats marinated prior to cooking

Curing methods.

For long-term preservation here in methods are used especially with red meat game proteins.  You need to be extremely careful when you use cure is especially when you intend to do a long-term cure such as venison pastrami, game sausages, smoked pheasant, and many other animals that can be cured after processing.  The USDA, requires that all cured meats must meet their standards and conditions which can be found in my book professional charcuterie John Wiley & Sons 1996. 

Finally, the use of game on the menus is an exciting way to ensure creativity so I have been closed to simple recipes for you to enjoy and see where they take you in your creative minds.