Homemade Ice Cream Treats

I know its becoming cold across the country but my own 'Sweetie' has been traveling a lot lately, and he loves ice cream...me it has to be something unique with lots of chewy, chunky, chocolaty and crunchy with a spoonful of ice cream involved...so to solve the problem and celebrate his return I made home made Pear Pecan Ice Cream (frozen pears I had leftover), and mini chocolate chip cookies in a muffin pan. I also collect small and antique liqueur glasses for entertaining and my catering business...portion control baby!

After letting them cool, removed them and put a tablespoon or more between two cookies, and refroze them for about 20 minutes; while we ate a lovely dinner during our belated movie night...

Tapas- Mini Inspirations

A 'tapa' is a 'lid' or 'cover'. In the early days of tapas, a slice of cheese or ham was given with your drink and placed over your drink. There is some debate over why exactly this was done:
* To keep out the flies
* To hide the smell of the bad wine
* To keep the wind from blowing your drink everywhere

You can find Tapas served all around the Mediterranean. In France, they're called hors d'oeuvres, in Italy, antipasti; in Greece, Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, and Egypt, they use the word meze; and in Morocco, mukabalatt. Even Venice has its own custom of cicheti, the local equivalent of tapas and meze.

Our country has taken these delights to even a higher level with our 'Fusion' versions popping up in restaurants and in our own home entertaining. The belief is those that once you start with Tapas you should end with them, and they they are not starters. These are a great menu idea when you are having a gathering of guests after lunch, but too early for supper...

Catering has allowed me to play with an array of ingredients, and I needed something sweet for two reasons today ~ Braised Pear Pecan Ice Cream Parfait ~ Mini Chocolate Chip Ice Cream Sandwiches

Definition of Tapas is courtesy of this website, and has more amusing information on this subject, so check it out!
http://gospain.about.com/od/fooddrink/qt/tapasdefinition.htm

*Ceviche Vodka Shooters

Tomato-Shrimp Masa Boats ~ Curried Tofu Stuffed Mushrooms ~ Chorizo Cheese Balls ~ and other goodies over the past two days ~ Bon Appetite!

Top Chef- BTW

I decided to watch this seasons 'Top Chef', so did anyone else watch it this week? Normally competitions bother me, since I myself feel bad for the anyone under pressure, and something being filmed...I was in one myself once, and they never really show what happens...

I do agree that many of them were not creating 'New' American cuisine, and just sticking to their comfort zones...like (Jill or was it Leah)...the Ostrich egg could have been a winner if she had thought...or did she think...with her 'duh, I guess I thought I was being creative making quiche', do not cook with something that you at least might have some idea of what the ingredient's possibilities are... I felt she also wasted a perfectly good piece of 'future' art work cracking into that egg like she was an anthropologist cracking into a rock looking for fossils. She deserved to go...next time BS and say "using the ostrich egg gave my dish a certain...flair"...

The guy (Hosea) who used can crab meat in my opinion should have walked out with her...did he not taste his dish before he served it, nor did he really look at the 'fresh' seafood counter to see what he could have replaced it with. I see so many chefs and cooks make food in restaurants and they do not taste what they are sending out to the tables!

Is this on next weeks menu, and do we really want to try it???

E'asy Pie

I have always heard that phrase 'easy as pie', sweet ones come to my mind, but they are not easy...and it finally came to light, they call pizza- 'Pie' here in Jersey!

Pie for my dinner tonight...St Louis BBQ style...and thin crust...not much cheese! I know...how American can I be to not like lots of cheese???

I grew out of being a true pizza lover, after they closed Shakey's Pizza Parlour down so many years ago in the south...I can still remember it...every June 16th, the New Orleans style band was playing 'When the saints go marching in'...while the family drank beer (well my dad anyway), me, root beer, and that birthday card I got in the mail for the free small and greasy pepperoni disk that I ate all to myself! I lived for those moments as a child...

Take your favorite pizza crust recipe and spread it out thinly (or thick); add a thin layer of your favorite sauce, white or red onto the crust. After marinating your chicken/tofu and mushrooms in your favorite (mine spicy) BBQ sauce, with a squeeze of lime or lemon. Chop some red onions. Brown chicken in pan...no need for tofu... Spread on thin pizza crust. Add some cheese, and maybe some extra BBQ sauce, and then bake!

Put on some Louie Armstrong playing New Orleans style trumpet music and remember when...da da da da...da da da da...da da da da da da da...

(BBQ Tofu/Mushroom on the left ~ BBQ Chicken on the right with no onions...they look the same, and taste just as good too)

HISTORY/FOOD GEEK NOTE: Do you remember Shakey's, well I found a website that talks about its history!
http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Shakey%27s-Pizza

Chorizo Dumplings/Pot Stickers

I have a birthday party to cater on Sunday, and she uses me often, so I know I have creative control on the food and theme. This is a two in the afternoon event, so mostly appetizers are wanted. Putting on my thinking cap, in this case my La Toque, and I remember in the commercial fridge I have many packages of wonton and egg roll wrappers left from another party.

I looked through some of my Thai and appetizer books to get some ideas, and remember that I have vegan and buffalo chorizo my class made last week. Stopping off at the market yesterday I picked up some more Chinese cabbage (Napa) and carrots. I grate some carrots and cabbage; then soak them in rice wine vinegar over night. Roll the chorizo into 1/2 inch little balls, cover them and put into fridge over night.

I take some of the cabbage mixture and put into my food processor with an egg, and some of the vegetarian chorizo to bind it more; then roll that into 1/2 inch little balls, and place into fridge overnight.

Vegan: Use some flour of choice and a few drops of water to bind this mixture; you will have to wait and pick up a pinch when you are ready to place in wrapper.

Place wax paper on the counter and sprinkle flour over the top; then place as many wonton wrappers across; filling each one with the 1/2 inch balls of chorizo mixture; dip fingers into water or egg wash and run across three edges and pinch them together. Once you get going it goes quickly. Place them on sheet pan with flour, so if they touch they will not stick together in air tight container and place in freezer. Keeps up to one month. -Thaw slightly and steam dumplings or pan fry to make pot-stickers when ready to eat

Drain rice wine vinegar from cabbage and carrot mixture and adding vegetarian chorizo if desired; roll in wrappers and shallow fry. I usually make small ones like Lumpias, and place flour all around well as to not stick. Cook immediately straight from freezer.

All those tea bag saucers come in handy when I need to do my food styling!

Tagine Cooking- White Yam Stew

Remember this dusty old show piece? Well I feel the same way sometimes...it does not cook enough, so I make more in another pan...does it really make a difference in the flavor? Yes it does, because it keeps the liquids going up and back down into the dish to keep all that wonderful flavor intermingled and juicy! Although I have used 'White Yams' in this dish, I have cut back on my carbs, so no couscous or rice tonight!

If you read my 'White Yam' blog yesterday about how I saw a French man cooking on cable and he was making a Basque-Provence regional dish called 'Potato Stew' in a pot called a 'Marmita'. After having these yams laying around screaming "what are you going to do to us...bake us...cut us into pieces...mash us...you fiendish chef you"! I decided to fuse together the French masters dish with my Tagine...Viola!


...for the meat (grass feed) combo in this dish I have chosen...lamb shoulder chops, because they are a cheap cousin cut to their expensive traditional chop and they work fine when making oven roasted dishes like this (leave the bone in, it will fall off!)...beef, or stir fry cuts that come from the 'Top Side' cuts of the animal, usually the shoulder; it has some marbling and slow roasts well in a mixture like this...Marinate it with my Chai Lamb Chili mixture, minus the chai (now you have to look through my blogs, nah nah)...and I always toast my own seasonings and keep them in small containers, but I cheated and used a garam masala spice I keep on hand for the added mediterra flavor...all is organic!


...my white yams need some company in this dish...and remember to cut all things similar in thickness to evenly cook through...


Vegetarians/Vegans- I always remember you, since I also eat this way most of the time, and my Indian clients will get some of this too. Portobellas will replace the meat in this dish...and follow the rest of the recipe...


..one potato...two potato...three potato...you get the idea...layer, layer, layer!


Pull out one of those canned tomatoes you worked so hard on...mine well I will blog about the recipe later...separate some of the pieces out of the juice and sprinkle them on top...


French 'Marmita' Stew cooking calls for three times the amount of ingredients, because the pot is so huge, but I can only manage one bottle of white wine between the vegetarian and combined meat pans to pour 2/3 of a bottle...well, I did save a glass to drink when its done!

Bake 1 1/2 hour and Bon Appetite!
(this is the vegetarian version)
I have to say that this drove me absolutely crazy smelling it while I was working up in the office today, since being sick with a cold has altered my taste buds!
The colors, the sweetness of the yams and garam masala, the bite of my tomatoes, Perfect!
(this is a bite of the lamb from my carnivore's tagine)


WINE:French, White Table Wine, 2006
I chose this wine because it would be dry and not take away from the sweetness of the white yams and the other combined vegetables, plus like they say if you cook with wine you should make sure it is worthy of your efforts!
(save the box wine for the friends who do not appreciate the good stuff)

Cookbook Geek- TexMex Foodways

Talking with a fellow foodbuzz'er today about my newest history lesson in my 'White Yam' blog reminded me of how cooking is not just a passion, but learning about each ingredient and dishes origin. I am fascinated to watch, read, hear about new dishes; then run home and try their way, and then do it my way!

RECOMMENDATION:

The TEX-MEX Cookbook, A History In Recipes and Photos, Robb Walsh

Thanks to my hubby's brother who is a world traveler and doctor for the W.H.O. for one of my favorite books to date. He said he bought it in of all places, Egypt! The book was published in the United States. Makes some sense...one of my favorite history lessons in this book is where did the exotic tastes of Tex-Mex originate? In the early 1800's it was simply called Mexican food, but it all was debatable...as long as it taste good to me.

Traces of the Berber people where recruited from the coast of Africa, due to lack of land, and they came from the Canary Islands settling in the Bexar, San Antonio area. Bringing with them their exotic spices, slow meat cooking methods, and thus descendants began to inter mingle with the local Indian population and it exploded from there. One of those dishes...Chili came about...

I am from Texas and have always loved 'Chili', and becoming the fusion cook I am today is how I came up with my Chai Marinated Lamb recipe that turned into Chili. I taught a class on the history, cooked it in a Tagine, and out came this fantastic dish I still make for myself and clients. Simply it is slow cooking meat, or poultry with tomatoes, onion and your own crazy various seasonings, that all can be traced back to the middle eastern areas, and more. I do make a vegetarian version as well!

I tell anyone who even thinks of giving me a gift for my birthday or other holidays to look for unique cookbooks that hold as much history on the foods, traditions, regions, as they do recipes. If that doesn't work just buy me a gift certificate for any internet site that I can buy some unique cooking pots like the one I want now that is called a 'Marmita' dish...I saw the french guy cooking in that got me started on my next creation; that lead to this...yada yada yada

Someday I will have my own chili stand, and this will be the 'Portrait Of A Chili Queen'....