So since I work as a caterer I find myself with a lot of down time. Like today. Now it's the day before my favorite holliday, and I've found myself lost in a wonderful world of pickling, jamming, and rocking out to loud music. I ended up with more produce than I though immaginalbe for our little fridge for 5 people. Today I give you the best of my creations, the blood orange, strawberry whiskey marmalade!
THE FOOD
6 blood oranges, zested, peeled and sectioned
6 oz strawberries, sliced
1 c water
2 c sugar
1/2 c Bourbon Whiskey
equipment-
tongs
dry clean towel
canning jar
large deep pot
The jam itself was easy, merely addin all the ingredients to a pot and cooking on a medium low heat until thick and saucy, roughly 2 hours. Also incorperating a thc tincture would be easy, merely adding the desired ammount at the end. To make sure it lasts I am going to jar it. You do this by bringing water to a boil and submerging the canning jar, lid and rim in the water for at least 5 minutes. Then carefully remove the jar, being sure not to touch the inside or rim of the jar. Fill within a 1/2 inch of the top of the jar, screw on the lid as tightly as possible, then store in the fridge upside down. Wait until it is chilled then store at room temp.
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
It feels like spring!
On such a lovely spring day like today I can only think of my favorite spring cuisine, Greek food! The light freshness of it, the salty bite, roasted meats! Everything about it screams spring! Here's a few recipies for the coming spring.
THE FOOD
Herb Spanakopita
1 package frozen Filo dough (40 sheets I think)
8 oz feta cheese
6 green onions, chopped
1 white onion, small dice
4 eggs
either 8 oz frozen spinach or 2 lbs fresh spinach, rough chopped, sauted
3 cloves garlic rough chop
1 bunch fresh parsley, fine chopped
1 lb butter
Using a strainer press out any liquid in the spinach. Mix the eggs, feta, and spinach in a large mixing bowl. Gently sauté the white onion and garlic until the onions are soft. Allow to cool and mix in with the feta along with the parsley and green onions. Melt the butter in a pan and set aside a pastry brush for it. Lay out the Filo sheets and get ready to start rolling fast! Filo doesn't hold well outside it's packaging and will start to crack if you don't work fast. You can make yours any shape you want, but I normally roll aboust a 8 oz portion into two pieces of dough. Put the mixture in the top center of the dough, paint butter everywhere that the cheese mixture isn't, fold the two sides in on themselves. Paint more butter on the dough, then roll it up into a vaguely burrito like shape.
Once all of them are rolled, coat them in more butter and bake at 350 until golden brown, roughly 15-20 min
THE FOOD
Herb Spanakopita
1 package frozen Filo dough (40 sheets I think)
8 oz feta cheese
6 green onions, chopped
1 white onion, small dice
4 eggs
either 8 oz frozen spinach or 2 lbs fresh spinach, rough chopped, sauted
3 cloves garlic rough chop
1 bunch fresh parsley, fine chopped
1 lb butter
Using a strainer press out any liquid in the spinach. Mix the eggs, feta, and spinach in a large mixing bowl. Gently sauté the white onion and garlic until the onions are soft. Allow to cool and mix in with the feta along with the parsley and green onions. Melt the butter in a pan and set aside a pastry brush for it. Lay out the Filo sheets and get ready to start rolling fast! Filo doesn't hold well outside it's packaging and will start to crack if you don't work fast. You can make yours any shape you want, but I normally roll aboust a 8 oz portion into two pieces of dough. Put the mixture in the top center of the dough, paint butter everywhere that the cheese mixture isn't, fold the two sides in on themselves. Paint more butter on the dough, then roll it up into a vaguely burrito like shape.
Once all of them are rolled, coat them in more butter and bake at 350 until golden brown, roughly 15-20 min
Monday, April 4, 2011
Breakfast for dinner!
God I love Mondays! Not many people say that but I genuinely do. See working in kitchens tends to mean is that I have Mondays and tuesdays off. While there arecertain drawbacks(no one is ever free to hang out during the day, and hardly ever wants to hang out at night), but in the house I live at me and my roommates have a family dinner on Mondays. This means I can wake up at the crack of noon, smoke a little, and walk to the store at the best time of day, before they get clogged with families and old people! After that I get to spend the whole day making great food at my pace, making everything as perfect as I can. Now do you see why I might love Mondays?
Recently I've ended up with a lot of really great things from work that all seem to work perfectly for breakfast! Breakfast is by far the coolest meal out there, and for stoners like me I'm generally waaaay to lazy to make it myself. So instead I'm doing a rare family tradition of mine by doing breakfast of dinner, with my personal take on it. The other great thing about breakfast is how easy it is to infuse THC into it, seeing as if you have premade pot butter or oil you could substitute it for ANYTHING. And take it from the French on this one, everything is better with butter!
THE FOOD
So I'm making a lot of food, so here is the one recipe I have that I'll be doing a take on. I'll also be making butternut squash an potato hash, a duck confit gravy, poached eggs and a mushroom gravy for the vegi's out there! Oh and a salmon rillette and spinach eggs benedict.
Mary's Hollandaise
So eggs Benedict can be made with any toppings you want, with the real key to it being the hollandaise sauce. This sauce is the one I use when I'm cooking with pot butter, mainly because of it's strong flavors to cut out any possible burnt flavor from the butter.
8 egg yolks
1/4 c white wine
1/4 c lemon juice
Tabasco
Salt
1/4 c chopped fresh taragon
2 lbs butter, melted
Start by mixing the white wine and eggs into a stainless steel bowl that fits well in a medium sized pot (basicly making a double boiler). Fill the pot with a 1/2 inch of water an bring to a light boil. Place the bowl over the pot and whisk riggorously until they become thick and able to stand up on their own (a soft peak). Then slowly start whisking in the melted butter until all of it is incorperated. Add a few splashes of Tabasco, the taragon, and the lemon juice and salt to taste. At this point the sauce is ready, so keep tasting it and season it apropriately.
Recently I've ended up with a lot of really great things from work that all seem to work perfectly for breakfast! Breakfast is by far the coolest meal out there, and for stoners like me I'm generally waaaay to lazy to make it myself. So instead I'm doing a rare family tradition of mine by doing breakfast of dinner, with my personal take on it. The other great thing about breakfast is how easy it is to infuse THC into it, seeing as if you have premade pot butter or oil you could substitute it for ANYTHING. And take it from the French on this one, everything is better with butter!
THE FOOD
So I'm making a lot of food, so here is the one recipe I have that I'll be doing a take on. I'll also be making butternut squash an potato hash, a duck confit gravy, poached eggs and a mushroom gravy for the vegi's out there! Oh and a salmon rillette and spinach eggs benedict.
Mary's Hollandaise
So eggs Benedict can be made with any toppings you want, with the real key to it being the hollandaise sauce. This sauce is the one I use when I'm cooking with pot butter, mainly because of it's strong flavors to cut out any possible burnt flavor from the butter.
8 egg yolks
1/4 c white wine
1/4 c lemon juice
Tabasco
Salt
1/4 c chopped fresh taragon
2 lbs butter, melted
Start by mixing the white wine and eggs into a stainless steel bowl that fits well in a medium sized pot (basicly making a double boiler). Fill the pot with a 1/2 inch of water an bring to a light boil. Place the bowl over the pot and whisk riggorously until they become thick and able to stand up on their own (a soft peak). Then slowly start whisking in the melted butter until all of it is incorperated. Add a few splashes of Tabasco, the taragon, and the lemon juice and salt to taste. At this point the sauce is ready, so keep tasting it and season it apropriately.
Sunday, April 3, 2011
A shout back to the Cyp
I had a rather bad case of home sickness recently, no real reason why but it happened. I think I mighta smoked a bit too much herb and had a wierd freak out. All of my troubles were fixed with this most recent recipe, a dish inspired by the first kitchen crew I worked with. Sometimes it's the little things that really help you feel better. Oh and beer helps.
THE FOOD
Lamb burger
1 lb ground lamb meat
4 cloves garlic, finely minced
2 t cayenne
1 T red chili flakes
1/4 c mint, fine chopped
Roasted garlic aoli
3 egg yolks
4 cloves garlic, whole with the ends chopped off
2 c canola oil
1 c ice water
1 lemon, juiced
The burger is simple, it's really just mixing those spices into the meat, then letting is sit for an hour or more, then grilled it. I served it on a potato roll with roasted red peppers, some lettuce and red onion. The aoli, that's more difficult. The trick to any mayo is it's one cup oil (canola oil only! Don't try and be classy making it with olive or something else ;P, though you can cut it at the end with a half cup or so to add flavor) to one egg yolk, plus one extra.
For this aoli, I used 3 yolks and two cups canola oil. I placed the oil in a small pot with the garlic and brought it to a very slight simmer. You want the garlic to be forming small bubbles but nothing else. I left it like this for 30 minutes or until the garlic was soft. This should be done in advance, cooking as much garlic, pot, or whatever finds it's way into the oil. It will not only give you tasty infused garlic oil but tasty garlic to munch on!
Once oil is room temperture place the egg yolks into a large bowl or into a food proccesser with the garlic and lemon juice. Mix these together until the yolks turn light in color, then slowly start whisking in the oil a little bit at a time. As the oil is added it will start to thicken but watch out for it becoming too oily too quickly. If it starts to seperate (the aoli will start to clump and oil will pool around it, it should be smooth and thick) merely add a little splash of ice water to shock it back to life and continue adding oil. Salt and pepper it to taste, and you have yourself homemade aoli!
THE FOOD
Lamb burger
1 lb ground lamb meat
4 cloves garlic, finely minced
2 t cayenne
1 T red chili flakes
1/4 c mint, fine chopped
Roasted garlic aoli
3 egg yolks
4 cloves garlic, whole with the ends chopped off
2 c canola oil
1 c ice water
1 lemon, juiced
The burger is simple, it's really just mixing those spices into the meat, then letting is sit for an hour or more, then grilled it. I served it on a potato roll with roasted red peppers, some lettuce and red onion. The aoli, that's more difficult. The trick to any mayo is it's one cup oil (canola oil only! Don't try and be classy making it with olive or something else ;P, though you can cut it at the end with a half cup or so to add flavor) to one egg yolk, plus one extra.
For this aoli, I used 3 yolks and two cups canola oil. I placed the oil in a small pot with the garlic and brought it to a very slight simmer. You want the garlic to be forming small bubbles but nothing else. I left it like this for 30 minutes or until the garlic was soft. This should be done in advance, cooking as much garlic, pot, or whatever finds it's way into the oil. It will not only give you tasty infused garlic oil but tasty garlic to munch on!
Once oil is room temperture place the egg yolks into a large bowl or into a food proccesser with the garlic and lemon juice. Mix these together until the yolks turn light in color, then slowly start whisking in the oil a little bit at a time. As the oil is added it will start to thicken but watch out for it becoming too oily too quickly. If it starts to seperate (the aoli will start to clump and oil will pool around it, it should be smooth and thick) merely add a little splash of ice water to shock it back to life and continue adding oil. Salt and pepper it to taste, and you have yourself homemade aoli!
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