Well Done, Medium Well, Medium, or Rare....

If you have a hard time knowing when your meat is done to your liking, try this little trick!

Thanks to JB, for reminding me about this...

With your hand laid out flat, and the thumb brought in to the side of your hand, try feeling these spots that I've marked on my hand.

Well done will be hard or tight.
Medium well will have a little more give in it.
Medium will be way more squishy.
Rare will be really soft and squishy.

Before you start cooking any meat or fish, it's important to bring it to room temperature for about an hour.  Otherwise you will end up with cooked meat that's still really cold in the middle.  Not ideal!

Remember that when you've finished cooking meat and chicken, it needs to rest.  By doing this, the meat will release it's juices and then soak them back up again.  This way you won't end up with a plate full of blood, or dried out meat!  Bon Appetit!

Grilled Salmon with Seasonal Pomegranate Sauce...

Don't let this scare you, the sauce is simple to make, and once again it's easy!  Even me mate JB could do it! :-0)"

I served this dish with seasonal greens and roasted potatoes...

You decide on what you're going to serve with this.  I'm just going to tell you how to cook the fish and make the sauce.

Sauce for two:
1 cup white wine
1/4 cup fish or vegetable stock
Juice of one ripe pomegranate
1 tablespoon butter

Get sauce ingredients ready now!

If you're going to grill or BBQ the salmon, you can leave the skin on, otherwise take it off.  Cut salmon into portion size pieces and as usual season well with sea salt and black pepper.

Get your grill or saute pan hot, add oil if using a pan.  Now the trick here is to only turn the fish once, and to cook the presentation side first, and the skin side second!  Oil your grill and place the fish on hottest part of the grill, or place your fish in a hot pan with oil.  The only difference in cooking fish on a grill vs. a saute pan is you want to keep the fish moving a little bit, by shaking the pan once in a while.  Once you're comfortable that the first side is done and has some color, turn it and cook for about a minute or two, then finish in oven set at 325*.  This will give you time to make the sauce, but act quickly.

In a hot saute pan over high heat, add the wine and reduce by 2/3rds its volume, then add the stock and do the same.  Now add the juice and reduce until you have about four tablespoons of sauce.  Now turn off the heat and add the butter, and shake the pan in a back and forth motion, until the butter melts and you start to have a nice shine to the sauce.  You will know the shine when you see it, go with your gut!  Remove from the stove at this point, and sauce your fish.

Bon Appetit!

Flat Iron Steak with a Green Peppercorn Cream Sauce...

In no time at all you can whip up this classic sauce!  It's easy and the prep is simple.  Try it, you'll love it.

This dish should keep Larry quiet for a bit!

We served our meat with roasted acorn squash, which is coated with olive oil and seasoned with salt and pepper.  Then put in the oven at 325* for an hour.   We also had caramelized onions and garlic, with kale.  To caramelize the onions just chop or slice finely and saute in olive oil over medium high heat.  When they start cooking and get soft, add the garlic and turn the heat down to low.  Now leave them alone for 15 minutes, then add the chopped kale, stems removed, and season.

For the meat.  The meat should at room temperature for about an hour before cooking.  This step helps the meat cook evenly.  Get a saute pan nice and hot.  Rub or brush the meat with olive oil and season with salt and pepper, then place in the hot pan.  Cook until nice and brown, then turn and do the same.  The meat should be very rare still, so move to another pan and place in the oven to finish.

Sauce for two:
1 cup red wine
1 teaspoon green peppercorns
1/2 cup beef or vegetable stock
1/2 cup cream

Clean out the pan that you cooked the meat in by wiping with a paper towel and scrape out any burned bits.  Now place the pan back on the stove over high heat, when it's hot, add the wine and reduce until about two tablespoons.  Then add the stock and do the same.  Now add the peppercorns and cream, lower the heat to medium and reduce the cream a little.  This only takes seconds!

Sauce your warm plates, and place the meat on the sauce, now add your vegetables.  You can put the rest of the sauce on top of the meat because you won't want to waste any!

Bon Appetit!

Blow Your Socks Off, Poor Man's Crab Cakes, With Mango Sauce...

Fresh crab is expensive, so I made these little beauties with mashed potato as the binder.  I also cooked a live crab, and then picked the meat.  It's a bit of work, but worth it in the end.  If you have a friend in the restaurant business, have them order you a pound of fresh crab meat...

Recipe makes about six large crab cakes:
1 cup celery chopped finely
1 cup onion chopped finely
1 cup red bell pepper chopped finely
1 & 1/2 cups mashed potatoes
1 egg
2 three-finger pinches sea salt
1 three-finger pinch black pepper
1 three-finger pinch cayenne
1 live crab about 1&1/2 - 2 pounds

6 - egg rings or cookie cutter type rings

First fill a large pot with salted water and bring to a boil.  When water boils add the poor little crab, shell side down.  When water comes back up to a boil, then set your timer for 20 minutes.  When done remove crab from the water and place into a sink or bucketful of ice cold water.  Let it rest until cold, about 5 minutes.  This process releases the meat from the shell.

Clean the crab under running water, now crack and pick the meat and place in the refrigerator.  Now cook your potatoes and then mash with butter and olive oil, don't use milk or cream, as you want a thick paste to bind.  Place in the refrigerator to cool.  TIP:  If you don't know how to clean and crack a crab, contact me.

Add finely chopped vegetables to a hot saute pan with a little olive or coconut oil, salt and pepper and cayenne, cook until soft but not brown, a little color is alright.  When done place in refrigerator to cool.

When everything is cold, place all ingredients and the egg into a large bowl and mix with your hands or a spoon.  Lay out your egg rings on a piece or grease-proof paper and fill with the crab mixture, making sure to compact it, so it stays together.

Now heat a saute pan up over medium heat with two tablespoons olive oil (not extra virgin).  When the oil is hot, slide a steel spatula under a crab cake ring and move to the pan, one at a time, leaving the ring in the pan to hold everything together.  Repeat with the remaining cakes.  Turn after a few minutes, you want them to brown a little but not too much.

We served our crab cakes with rice, sauteed onions and chard, and with white wine, mango and honey sauce.  To save time you can use mango chutney that's been heated up in a small saucepan.

To make the sauce from scratch, peel and chop a couple of fresh mangos and puree in a food processor.  Reduce two cups of white wine down to about a half a cup, then add mangos and reduce a little more.  Turn the heat off and add two tablespoons of honey and stir.

Bon Appetit!

Chard and Spinach = Oxallic Acid

All greens are loaded with minerals and vitamins.  They're also loaded with oxalic acid.  Especially chard and spinach.  These greens should be avoided being eaten raw.  Two of my friends were helping me pick greens this summer, later that day they cooked some chard and spinach, al' dente, and about 45 minutes later they both had throat irritations!

So I did some research, and found that chard and spinach are loaded with oxallic acid.  It turns out the only way to neutralize the acid is to cook it or dress it with an acid!  That's why we put vinegar on salad greens.

I also found out that spinach is full of iron, but the body can only absorb the minerals if it's cooked with tomatoes.  And guess what, tomatoes are an acid!

This is how I cook chard when I don't have tomatoes.  After washing a bunch of organic chard, take the stems off and chop them up into fine dice.  I like to use a little onion or leek in this dish, so chop a little of either.  Now chop up the leaves and set aside.  Heat a saute pan up over medium heat, and melt butter or coconut oil.  When it's good and hot add the onion or leek and the chard stems and a little salt and pepper, and cook until caramelized.  When done add the greens and cook until just melted. Then add a teaspoon of balsamic vinegar to neutralize the oxallic acid.

Bon Appetit!

A Healthy Snack For Kids...

For the most part our schools are doing a great job feeding our kids a healthy lunch, at least here on San Juan Island.  It's my opinion that kids are becoming unhealthy when they get off school, around 3:00pm.  This is when they're alone at home, or with their friends, and they tend to get stuck into the bad stuff, like candy, chips and cereal, which is highly processed.

Here's a healthy little snack you can prep in the morning so it's ready for when they get home!

Thinly sliced apple or pear, and Parmesan cheese, with a balsamic drizzle.  Deb's kids love this snack food, it just takes the edge off, while dinner is underway...

If you prep this in the morning, squeeze lemon juice on the apple or pear to stop it turning color.  Remember fruit is fructose (sugar), so avoid eating to much.

Bon Appetit!

Indian Chicken Curry

A traditional Indian curry.  You can ad meat, chicken, fish or tofu.  I made this dish for the kids the other night, served with rice and puppodums, a big hit it was!

Recipe for four:
1 13oz can organic tomatoes
1 13oz can organic stock (homemade is better)
1 large red onion chopped
4 carrots chopped
3 stalks celery chopped
4 cloves garlic skin removed
2" ginger skin removed
2 Tablespoons mild curry powder
2 Tablespoons coconut or olive oil (not extra virgin)
1 pack organic chicken tenders (optional)
8 Sharwoods plain puppodums available at gourmet galley
1 bunch cilantro
1 cup plain yogurt
2 three finger pinches of salt and pepper
Mango chutney

First turn your oven on to 325*  In a blender puree tomatoes.  place in a roasting pan along with the stock and cover with foil, place in the oven for two hours, checking once and a while making sure it doesn't dry out, adding more stock if needed.  Don't hurry this step, this is what gives the curry an intense flavor.  Tip: don't let the foil touch the tomatoes, tomatoes are acid and it will eat the foil!

Rough chop, onion, carrot, celery garlic and ginger.  Now place in the food processor or blender and puree,  if you use a blender you may need a little olive oil to make it work!  This will become the sauce.

Place a heavy saute pan over medium high heat with the oil or butter, when the pans good and hot, add the mixture and fry it, stirring so not to brown about 2-3 minutes.  Now add the curry powder and cook for another minute, season with salt and pepper.

When the tomatoes are done, add the vegetable mixture and stir, adding more stock if needed.  Place back in the oven for another hour.  Make sure there's enough liquid, don't let it dry out, add more stock if needed.  When it's almost done, start your rice.  While rice is cooking season the chicken tenders and saute in olive oil, browning both sides.  When cooked, add to the sauce.  If you're making this dish with beef or lamb,  flour and brown all sides, and cook with the sauce for about an hour.

Now cook the puppodums by frying in olive oil.  As soon as you put one of the discs in the oil, turn it and keep turning them.  They will cook very quickly!

When the rice is done, pull the curry out of the oven,  add the yogurt and cilantro and stir...  Serve over rice, with a little mango chutney on the side!  This sounds like a lot of work, but it's not, it takes time.

Bon Appetit!

Good Fats - Bad Fats...

Whether you want to believe it or not, FAT is essential to our existence!

In the photograph are some good fats.  Coconut oil, olive oil, extra virgin olive oil and butter!  According to my research, (which by the way you can see who's saying what in the side bar of my blog, entitled Research), these are the only fats that are good for us, and they help keep the heart and joints happy!

We are so lied to in this country, by people that just want to sell you something to get rich!

According to Dr. Mercola, at www.mercola.com,  Wesson Oils has a class action suit against them.  Apparently 95% of their oils, including vegetable oil, canola oil, corn oil and best blend, contain GMO!

Incidentally, you should never consume canola oil, which is made of rapp seed oil, which is a member of the mustard family!  Like what mustard gas was made of!  You gotta love corporate greed...

Bon Appetit!

Portabella Mushroom, With Laura Chenel's Goat Cheese and Sun Dried Tomatoes

This is a wonderful, holiday-time dish, that can be used as a appetizer, a main meal, or as a burger.

Recipe for one:
1 Portabella mushroom
1 Tablespoon tapenade
1 Tablespoon Laura Chenel goat cheese
1 teaspoon sun dried tomatoes sliced thin
1 pinch salt and pepper
A drizzle of balsamic reduction
A few arugula leaves

First wipe your mushroom clean and remove the black lungs with a spoon, being careful with the edges.  Brush with olive oil and bake in the oven for about 10-15 minutes at 325*.

While that's cooking, make your tapenade, by throwing a handful of kalamata olives in the blender (pits removed), with a good glug of olive oil, one clove of garlic, pinch of salt and pepper, and a little squeeze of lemon or orange juice.  Now puree.

Arrange arugula leaves on a plate.  When the mushroom is done, take out of the oven and pat dry.  Place it on the bed of arugula and add the tapenade.  Shave a little lemon or orange zest on at this time.  Now add the goat cheese and sun dried tomatoes.  Drizzle with balsamic reduction...

Bon Appetit!

Mushroom Monday!

How to clean, prepare and store mushrooms.  Did you know that a brown crimini is just a young portabella mushroom!

Delicious Screaming Hot Shrimp, Louisiana Style

The heat in this dish can be adjusted to fit your tolerance to spicy food.  Don't be put off by the heat, this dish is the most fantastic shrimp recipe you will ever have.   Recipe by Master Chef Paul Prudhomme.  Recipe adjusted by Chef Alan "Hobbes" Buchanan

Recipe for two:
1 yellow onion chopped finely
1 teaspoon cayenne
1 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon chili flakes
2 Tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1/2 cup white wine
1/2 cup shrimp, fish or vegetable stock
2 dozen large shrimp, if you can get spot shrimp leave them whole, otherwise peel and de-vein
3 cloves garlic finely chopped
1 teaspoon fresh rosemary, leaves finely chopped
1 teaspoon fresh thyme, leaves finely chopped
2/3 stick butter
2 Tablespoons olive oil (not extra virgin)

OK I'll come clean, in the video I forgot the onion...:-0)"

Start your rice, and set aside when cooked.  Put two plates into a warm oven.

Put a nice large heavy saute pan over high heat with the oil and 1/3 of the butter.  When the butter has melted and is really hot, add the onion and soften but don't brown.  When cooked add the garlic, rosemary, thyme, chili flakes, cayenne, Worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper.  Stir to mix and then add the shrimp.  With the heat still on high shake and toss the shrimp.  When the shrimp looks almost done add wine and reduce by two thirds, then add the stock and reduce the same way.

When done turn the heat off and add the rest of the butter shaking the pan (not stirring) until you achieve a nice shine on the sauce.  Serve over rice on warm plates, and prepare to be totally satisfied!

Bon Appetit!

Gourmet Turkey Sandwich...

Turkey sandwich with mayo, arugula and cranberry orange sauce...  Yum!   The one on the left is toasted...

Awesome Turkey Soup

Shear comfort food!

Make this soup with leftover turkey bones to make the stock, and this dish will be killer...   This is a quick dish to make, it's the stock that takes the time, but is well worth it, both in flavor and your house will smell wonderful.  If you want to make stock from scratch, see my basic chicken stock recipe in an older post.  It's the same recipe to make turkey stock!

Recipe:
4 cups turkey shredded
6 cups stock
4 carrots chopped
1 large onion chopped
4 stalks celery chopped
1 leek chopped
3 cloves garlic finely chopped
1 Tbsp tomato paste
2 three-finger pinches sea salt
1 three-finger pinch pepper
1 tsp paprika
1/2 cup pearl barley
1/2 cup +/- olive oil (not extra virgin)

Place the onion, celery, leek and carrot on a cutting board and roughly chop it together to infuse flavors.  This is now called Mirepoix.  Put a heavy saucepan on a burner over medium high heat, add olive oil.  When oil is hot add the Mirepiox, and cook until soft, but don't brown.  Then add the garlic and cook for about 30 seconds.  Now add all the other ingredients except the stock, and stir until the mixture is all mixed.  Now add the stock and cook.  You may need to adjust or add more stock when the barley is cooked.  The same goes for salt.

Bon Appetit!

Shredded Brussel Sprout Saute, With Pear And Orange

Just a heads up, tomorrow's post will be a killer turkey soup recipe.  If you want to make turkey stock, just follow the same recipe that I used for chicken stock in an older post...

Recipe for two:
Juice and zest of one orange
1/2 cup white wine
1 small red onion chopped
1/2 cup sweet potato
1 small pear chopped
1 clove garlic finely chopped
12 or more brussel sprouts shredded thinly
1 Tbsp coconut oil

In a heavy saute pan, over medium high heat, melt the coconut oil.  When oil is hot add onions and sweet potato, stir to coat with oil, then add pears.  Cook until almost soft but don't brown.  Add the garlic and stir, then add the wine.  When almost all the liquid has evaporated add the juice.  When liquid has reduced add sprouts and lower the heat to low.  When cooked to your liking, serve and garnish with zest.

Bon Appetit!