Back to School

For our wedding, my sister, Christine gave us a really awesome and unique gift: a gift certificate to the Institute of Culinary Education in NYC. The school's recreation department literally has TONS of different classes to to choose from and after many inquiries from my sister on which one we were going to pick, we finally decided on "Pancakes, Crepes, Belgian Waffles and Syrups." Matt is the breakfast chef is our house and we both have this big dream of hosting a huge family brunch when we finally buy a house. This class seemed like a great way to expand our repertoire.

It was a small class of twelve and we were split into three groups of four, each responsible for three recipes. Our group made Blueberry Yogurt Pancakes, Ricotta Crepes With Strawberry Wine Jam, and Pecan Waffles With Cherry Butter. When everything was finished, we all sat a huge table with a white table cloth, champagne and orange juice and enjoyed our efforts.

After the day, I gained a renewed perspective and huge respect for the amount of work that professional chefs put into a working kitchen. Things got a little hairy there at the end as we sped towards the end of the class time, trying to get all of the dishes done together. Timing, it seems, is just as much an art to learn as cooking itself. Though I love to cook, I'm not so sure I could stand the heat in a busy restaurant kitchen.

We had a great time, learned a lot and left with a bunch of new recipes to experiment with. Here are some snips from the day.

Chef Matt

A worried look as I prepare the wet ingredients for the Pecan Waffle batter.

Our wet and dry ingredients for the Pecan Waffles.
Just waiting for the eggs.

Dutch Apple Pancake:
We didn't make this one, but it's definitely in the hopper to try. It begins by cooking in the skillet and then finishes in the oven to make giant pancakes that you can serve in slices. Great job to the group who worked on this one. It was very tasty!

Pecan Waffles and Blueberry Yogurt Pancakes
The pancakes inspired me to try a twist.
An experiment for the test kitchen coming soon. Stay tuned!

Ricotta Crepes With Strawberry Wine Jam
This was my favorite of the three we made, mostly because it's a little different from the average breakfast entree. In Matt's family, we make the Hungarian version of crepes, Palacsinta. They are traditionally filled with cottage cheese and other ingredients, but this ricotta filling would be a great addition to the old favorite. I also just stocked up on strawberries and have a ton of red wine left over from the holidays. Looks like those vacuum sealed jam jars are finally going to come in handy.

What We Learned:
• Salt and sugar look the same. Taste before using.
• You can make the liquid part of any batter ahead of the time as long as you don't crack the eggs until the very end.
• When attending a 5 hour cooking class, you should still eat something before you leave the house. Working on your feet for 4 hours and then loading up on carbs at two in the afternoon will ensure a long nap on the train ride home.
• Even professional kitchens should have microwaves.
• There are many types of flour. They are all different. Make sure they're labeled.
• Always add wet ingredients into dry ingredients. Fold in. Don't whisk.
• Lumps are good.
• The mixer is your friend. Especially is your haven't worked out your arm muscles lately.

Many thanks to Chef Gerri Sarnataro and the ICE kitchen staff. And a HUGE thanks again to Christine for sending us this culinary adventure. We are hooked and will be back!

D is for Delicious

One of my favorite things about shooting food is that sometimes something pretty happens in the most unexpected places and totally by accident. Ravenous one afternoon after coming back from the gym, I raided our fridge to find the offerings meager. Sliced turkey on wheat crackers with a squirt of mustard became my lunch.

But before I popped this cracker into my belly, I realized, without even trying, how cool the mustard squirt came out of the bottle; sort of in the shape of the a D. I grabbed up the camera and started shooting to preserve my dumb luck.

Now I know that a lucky mustard squirt does not a food stylist make, but hopefully, taking notice when good things happen, certainly helps.

Test Kitchen #10: Veggie, Cheese & Bacon Quiche

First off, let's hear it for #10! Ten recipes cooked, tweaked and tested! (Ok, so it's not the 200th episode of the Simpson's or the series finale of ER, but it's still pretty exciting to us.) Here's to ten more afternoons of experiments and many more to come beyond that!

This week's article is a little behind since I was instructed by my better half to wait on submitting my test kitchen because he had an article he wanted to contribute first. We spent Easter weekend in Gettysburg and Matt wants to write up something which I'm sure, in part, will be an ode to his favor beer, Yuengling. However, I've realized that if I wait for him, we might be celebrating 20 recipes done before I post number 10. Stay tuned for tales of pub food, road trips and battlefields.

This week I was exploring a food web site that Mom had sent me a while ago, Eat Better America.com. Among plenty of health-conscious recipes to choose from, they also feature "healthified" versions of old favorites. A "healthified" recipe includes a comparison to the traditional way of making a dish, so you can see how many calories and how much fat your cutting. For this test, I chose something simple: The "Healthified" Cheddar and Bacon Quiche.

Using plenty of existing items in the house, I was able to avoid a separate trip to the grocery store, which always makes me happy. As usual, we had to tweak the recipe to make it our own. We added some tomatoes and green peppers and swapped the real bacon for turkey bacon. The best swap was the use of Aunt Jemina Original Pancake Mix for the crust instead of the Bisquick that the recipe calls for. The quiche came out alright for our first try at it, but the crust was really good. Crispy, like a cracker with a hint of sweetness.

Veggie, Cheese & Bacon Quiche

Ingredients:
1 ½ cups Aunt Jemima Original Pancake Mix
2 tablespoons canola oil
5 tablespoons boiling water
4 slices turkey bacon, cooked and crumbled
½ cup shredded reduced-fat sharp Cheddar cheese
4 medium green onions, thinly sliced (¼ cup)
½ cup diced tomatoes
½ cup green peppers
2 whole eggs
2 egg whites
1 ¼ cups milk
½ teaspoon ground mustard
¼ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon red pepper sauce


1. Heat oven to 400°F. Spray 9-inch glass pie plate with cooking spray. In a food processor, blend Pancake mix and oil until combined. Add boiling water in through top of processor; blend until soft dough forms. (More water can be added if necessary).

2. Flour a work surface and roll the dough out into a round shape with a rolling pin. Lay into pie plate, bringing the dough evenly up the sides. Trim off any access dough with a knife.

3. Sprinkle half the turkey bacon, cheese and onions over the bottom of the crust.

4. In medium bowl, beat eggs, egg whites, milk, mustard, salt and pepper sauce with wire whisk until blended. Add the remaining bacon, cheese, onions to egg mixture along with tomatoes and green peppers. Stir a few times. Pour into crust.

5. Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until center is set. Let stand 10 minutes before cutting.

The Verdict:
The important thing is to learn something with every experiment. This time I learned that while eggs loaded with veggies might be a healthy idea, it also adds too much water to the mixture and makes the final product a little mushy.

Tomatoes always have a ton of liquid in them and I probably shouldn’t have added so many. Next time, I would add less and maybe even give them a turn into the salad spinner to pull out the excess water. Dad also suggested making the swap for red peppers, so you could keep the nice color combination, but have less water. Sun dried tomatoes could also be another interesting otpion.

The quiche did taste good, but the eggs could have been firmer. It was better that evening when we warmed it up in the toaster oven for Matt’s dinner. The second heating dried it out a little and it wasn’t so mushy. I think I also would have gone with the real bacon after all, for more added flavor. And maybe dial up the hot sauce, too.

Here’s to the next ten!

Test Kitchen #9: Stuffed Pork Chops With Caramelized Sauce

At the end of last week’s session in the kitchen, I tried to check off all the categories of food in my mind that we have covered so far. We’ve done chicken, beef, pork, and a couple of Mexican dishes. We tried small muffins with prosciutto and cheese inside and big cupcakes with tons of frosting outside. The following Tuesday would be my turn to come up with an idea and I was feeling stumped. I wanted to try something new with pork, only because I think it’s a real challenge to prepare pork so it doesn’t come out like shoe leather. I love trying new things, but I also hate wasting food and money, so if meat is ruined during an experiment it’s a heartbreak.

I put the idea aside for a while and finished out the week with some graphic freelance work when a fellow designer gave me an idea that ultimately started up a big brainstorm. When Cathy W told me about her recipe for caramelized chicken, it sounded so delicious. Just three tablespoons of olive oil and a little brown sugar melted in a pan, poured over chicken cutlets and broiled for 5 minutes added up to a sweet and easy dish. I began to wonder if this sauce could also work with pork cutlets.

That weekend, I called Dad to tell him about Cathy’s Caramelized Chicken. A stream of ideas began to flow.
“What about stuffing the pork chops? With breading and apples?”
“I’ve got some leftover chicken sausage.”
“That sounds good. Throw it in the stuffing. And celery, too”
“But how to we keep them from drying out?”
“Baking them is probably best. Low temperature.”
“But we need some liquid in the baking dish. Apple juice?
"Or Pineapple goes good with pork.”
“I’ve got cran-apple in the house now.”
“Fine.”
“Great! See you Tuesday!”

Pork Chops Stuffed with Apple & Sausage Breading
and Finished with a Caramelized Sauce
(a lengthy recipe deserves a fancy name)

Ingredients:
3 Center Cut Pork Chops, 1” thick
6 cups of bread cube stuffing mix
2 links of chicken sausage
½ small onion, chopped
2 celery stalks, diced
2 cloves of garlic, chopped
¾ cup of low sodium chicken broth
1 tablespoon dried parsley
2 large apples
Salt, pepper, and paprika to taste

Sauce:
3 tablespoons olive oil
3 teaspoons of brown sugar
Splash of cran-apple juice
Splash of Grand Marnier (optional)

1. Peel and dice one apple. Core second apple and create round slices, leaving the skin on.
2. Squeeze sausages out of casing into a medium skillet.
3. Sauté sausage, onion and celery with a small amount of butter or margarine. Add salt, pepper and paprika to your liking.
4. When sausage is browned, add garlic and chicken stock.
5. Place dry bread cubes in a medium bowl, add wet mixture and the diced apples. Add parsley and mix well. (Set skillet aside. You can use this pan again later to make the sauce and it will pick up the leftover flavors from the sauté.)

6. Preheat oven to 350°
7. Cut a large pocket into the side of each pork chop.
8. Pack large handfuls of stuffing into each pocket.
9. In a large skillet or grill pan, heat oil on medium high, and lightly brown pork chops on all sides. (Approximately 2-3 minutes each side.)
10. Remove from pan and place all in an 8”x 8” glass baking dish.
11. Pour a splash of cran-apple juice in the bottom of the dish; just enough to barely cover the bottom.
12. Bake for 30 minutes or until internal temp reaches 160°. Turn once halfway through the time.
13. When there is about 5 minutes left on the baking time, begin preparing the caramelized sauce.
14. Heat oil and brown sugar in the skillet on medium heat. When mixture begins to bubble, add a splash of cran-apple juice. (If opting for the Grand Marnier as well, add a small splash, stir and then flambé off the access alcohol.)
15. Continue to stir until mixture reduces and thickens like a syrup.
16. Remove pork chops from oven, top each chop with apple slices and pour sauce over all.
17. Re-position the oven rack to the top and set oven temperature to broil.
18. Replace baking dish in oven, leaving oven door open a crack so you can see inside.
19. Heat for another 5 minutes or until sauce bubbles.
20. Remove from oven and serve. Pour excess sauce from dish over each chop.

Note: Recipe ingredients makes more stuffing than needed for 3 pork chops. Consider baking remaining stuffing in a small dish along side the pork in the oven. Your dinner guests will want seconds.


Verdict:
This was the first test kitchen where we actually cooked the recipe two different ways in the same day, thereby truly living up to our weekly experiment’s name. Since we always cook in the afternoon, we decided not to cook all three pork chops at once, because reheating them later for dinner might dry them out. We stuffed all three, but wrapped two in plastic wrap and only cooked one.

We loosely followed a recipe I found online, making revisions as we usually do. The first time we cooked the pork chop, the recipe suggested a metal 8” x 8”, covered with foil. While it looked beautiful and the stuffing was excellent, the pork itself was a little drier than I was hoping for. I took one of the wrapped chops home and cooked it for dinner. This time I used a glass dish and left it uncovered. It was much juicer this time and the meat took on the flavors of the liquid better.

It was Dad’s idea to add the Grand Marnier and it was awesome, especially if you’re a cook who doesn’t mind a little flame in the kitchen. Go easy on the liquor and the fire. I added a little too much during the dinner rendition and the flames were a little higher than our landlords probably would be happy with. Luckily, at Matt’s height, his eyebrows remained safely un-scorched.

We also made too much stuffing. Anything that didn’t fit in the pockets, Dad baked in a circular baking pan, topped with apple slices and dusted with cinnamon and nutmeg. But, honestly, is there really ever such a thing as too much stuffing?

P.S. After finishing this article, I just realized that we did a “stuffed” recipe last week. We need some new ideas. I have to work next week so the next test kitchen is April 21st. Post your ideas and maybe your recipe will be our next test!

Test Kitchen #8: Stuffed Cabbage

Most of us might have some childhood memory of stuffed cabbage for dinner or some special family occasion. A big pot or baking pan filled with wet greenish leaves, mushy tomato sauce and unidentified meat; stuffed cabbage may have been your favorite recipe or your worst enemy. Either way it was never the prettiest looking dish. But often times the old family favorites have not lasted throughout the years because of their plate appeal. They are there to remind us of simpler times and family stories. True comfort food is not meant to be stylish.

One thing is for certain for stuffed cabbage, whether you loved it or were emotionally scarred by it, once you grow up, no one ever remembers how to make it. Most likely because there’s really no one complete recipe. Every family has there own way of doing things, thus becoming their legacy.

Nineteen years ago today, my mother’s mother, Grandma Meade passed away. The mother of nine children and grandmother of too many to remember, she often cooked in large quantity to feed the masses. I have a vague recollection of her stuffed cabbage, but not enough to recreate it on my own. I can see the wet pale cabbage leaves in my mind covered in a thin red sauce, but that is all. The memory of flavor is gone.

Dad has never made stuffed cabbage and so we set on to figure it out. With a quick web search and good amount of “winging it” we managed to create something that hopefully would have passed muster in my grandmother’s kitchen.

Stuffed Cabbage

Ingredients:
1 large head of cabbage
1 large can or jar of sauerkraut
2 lbs. of ground beef
1 cup cooked long grain rice
1 egg
½ large onion, finely chopped
½ green pepper, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
½ large tomato, diced
1 ½ cup tomato sauce
¼ cup breadcrumbs
1 tablespoon of ground black pepper
Hungarian paprika, salt and pepper to taste

1. Place entire head of cabbage in a large pot, cover with water and bring to a boil until the outer leaves start to loosen.

2. Peel off the outer leaves from the cabbage with a pair of tongs and continue to boil until the next layer of leaves softens. Repeat until all leaves are removed and set aside.

3. Place ground beef, rice, salt, paprika, pepper, bread crumbs, ½ cup of the tomato sauce and egg in a large mixing bowl and combine well. Set aside.

4. Place onion, garlic, and green pepper in a small pan and sauté with a little olive oil until onion is soft.

5. Add onion mixture to the beef mixture and mix well.

6. Preheat the oven 325°. Spread the sauerkraut into the bottom of a 9” x 13” metal baking pan.

7. Starting with the largest cabbage leaves, begin by cutting the stalk out of the center, creating a V-shape. Place about a handful of meat mixture on one end a cabbage leaf and roll around the center, tucking the sides as you go. Place the cabbage roll, seam down on top of the bed of sauerkraut.

8. Repeat until all leaves and meat have been used.

9. Sprinkle chopped tomatoes on top of the rolls and spread a thin layer of tomato sauce over all.

10. Cover tightly with foil and bake for two hours or until a meat thermometer reads at least 180° internal temperature.

Tip: Consider placing a cookie sheet under the pan in the oven in case juice bubble over.



The Verdict:
For our first go of it, Dad and I agreed that it came out pretty well. We had to fiddle with the baking times a bit since one of the recipes we were reading cooked all the cabbage rolls on the stove top for three hours and we preferred to cook it in the oven. It’s hard to say what the difference would have been the other way around.

Grandma’s cabbage rolls were always soft enough to cut with a fork. Our’s were a little firmer and you needed a knife to slice them in half. I wouldn’t want them too mushy, so maybe we just need to boil the cabbage leaves a little longer. Next time I think we’d also use a little less rice but a little more onion, garlic, salt and pepper. The meat could have used some more kick.

I'd also like to try varying up the meat mixture. One recipe we referenced called for a split between ground beef and ground pork, but beef was all we happened to have on hand. Some recipes also use a third meat, like veal or ground lamb.

With tons of leftovers, I brought it home to the husband who enjoyed his first stuffed cabbage actually made with cabbage. The sauerkraut definitely helps everything stay moist and enhances the flavor. (Perhaps this is why his father, always chose to ditch the cabbage all together and make his "stuffed" cabbage with a big pot of sauerkraut.)

Any way you make it, you’re sure to be serving up platefuls of family memories.

Grandma Meade and (just a few of) her grandchildren