Tri-Color Tortellini with Roasted Peppers and Ricotta

I've talked about Lazzaroli's Pasta before but do your self a favor and find out if there is a local fresh pasta shop in your city.

B-Day Dinner

A big thank you for all the happy birthday wishes yesterday. The above was my birthday dinner and to answer the big question......yes, I cooked the meal.

Lemon Love

The lemon is truly a powerful food. Sitting on the lip of a glass of ice tea or it's zest used in a cake it's uses are many.

But what about the more complex uses for this culinary dynamo? Next week I'll be featuring some video recipes on the lemon including preserved lemons and fried lemons.

And in an unrelated note, a wintry mix does not make for good weather. Winter mix almost sounds like a cocktail, a better name might be horrible ice and sleet pellets mixed with penetrating freezing rain.

Sauce-y

Have you ever bought a book that no matter how many times you thumb through it you seem to find something new?

For me this book is Sauces by James Peterson. When ever I'm looking to come up with a new idea or tweak a recipe I find a gem of inspiration in it's pages.

Winter is a tough time for me from a culinary perspective because I draw so much of my creative inspiration from growing plants in the vegetable garden and during the lean winter months having another source of inspiration is very welcomed.

Chorizo Tomato Sauce

For those unfamiliar with chorizo it is a fantastic sausage that originates from Spain and has migrated throughout Latin America. It can be found fresh or cured, and paprika is one of the main spices used when mixing the ground pork to be made in to chorizo. Paprika has not been elevated to the same level of culinary greatness in this country as it has in Spain, but I can promise you the difference in quality between a good sweet or smoked paprika from Spain and the one that is found in the spice section of the mega-mart is huge.

I was in the mood for a pasta dish and with some fresh chorizo in the fridge the idea of adding it to my standard long cook tomato sauce seemed like a good idea. I can now report to you after 143 spoon tastings, it was in fact a very good idea.

In this Pot

Today in the kitchen I'm giving the video gear a break and working with my sidekick on home-made cheese. Yes, that's right you can make all kinds of cheese at home.

Deep in the above pot is a pool of curds just waiting to be turned into delicious fresh cheese. In the coming weeks I've decided to do a few video recipes about making cheese at home.

Red Curry Paste meet Black Beans

The newest video recipe featuring Thai red curry paste is a bit of a cliffhanger.

I don't reveal all the great ways you can use the curry paste. The above is a tease of what culinary magic can happen when curry paste meets black beans.

When the Beans Go Dry

I love beans, but recently I've been considering which are better dry or canned beans?

In the past I've always felt dry beans were better because you can flavor them more directly. The advantage to canned beans is of course convenience. I'm beginning to turn more to canned beans and here's why.

How long have those dry beans been on the shelf? The whole point to dry beans is they're picked fresh and cured till dry and stored for latter use. The problem being when were they dried? There are some examples out there that these dry beans were dried decades ago and that's a bit of a disturbing fact. I'm sure the world dry bean association will tell me that it's fine for beans to sit for that length but I'm not buying.

Until I can investigate this issue further I will be using canned beans. More importantly though, I'll be growing my own fresh beans this year in the garden.

A New Condiment Sweeps the Nation

This is not going to be a revolutionary condiment idea but move over mayo here comes avocado cream.

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The avocado is a remarkable food and gets under used or is mistakenly called guacamole. I would love to see this simple combination above become a staple food when you need a condiment for a sandwich or just want a vibrant bite on what you're eating.

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To make avocado cream put the above ingredients, and a not picture 1/2 tbs of cumin powder and salt to taste, in a food processor and pure until smooth. That's it, not reinventing the culinary wheel but it would make a wheel taste better.

Braising with Black Vinegar

Can you ever run out of good braising liquid recipes? The answer is a resounding no. This combination is fantastic and I highly recommend you give it a try.

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1 can diced tomatoes (18oz.)

1 medium onion diced

1 cup light brown sugar

1/2 cup sweetened black vinegar

2 ancho chilis

1tsp Chinese Five spice powder

2 tbsp ground cumin

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Both sweetened black vinegar and 5 spice powder should be available at most international markets. The black vinegar is a tough flavor to describe, it reminds me of a cola flavor. I'll be adding this recipe as part of a video clip series on braising.

The Pork that Keeps on Giving

This is what's great about large cuts of braised meats.

I blogged last week about my love for hunks of meat and then that became a great dish served with toasted bread. Now, in it's final curtain call the braised pork shoulder was tossed with some penne rigate.

For less then $15 this pork shoulder made at least 4 meals. In a time when many people talk about trying to save money, I can't think of a better cooking technique then braising.

Hunk of Meat Meet Plate

Earlier this week I wrote about my love for big hunks of braised meat. A few people emailed and asked what that meat was going to become. So here's the answer.

The above photo is of a braised pork shoulder served over some toasted garlic bread. My easy braising liquid for this dish is roast garlic, fresh oregano, whole canned tomatoes, and balsamic vinegar.

If you've ever made or had a great braised meat dish you always feel like you need a large crusty piece of bread to soak up all the great braising liquid. This dish solves that problem. On a side not the entire meal, with a ton of leftovers, cost under $12.

A Hunk of Meat

There is nothing better then a braised piece of pork. I have never really gotten how the pork chop became the default Americana piece of pork at the dinner table.

Pork shoulders and legs have just the right amount of fat and lean meat for braising and create one of the most perfect one pot meals on the planet.

That One Meal

Every one can cook. I know you're saying "oh no I can't". We all can or should be able to cook one meal.

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I'm not suggesting you become a culinary encyclopedia but have one meal you can make from scratch and serve proudly to friends or family. In the coming weeks I'll be designing video recipes that do just that, focusing on making one meal from beginning to end. All of the meals will also be ultra affordable all under $20 to serve 2-4 people.

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So get your cooking gears going and start thinking about what kind of meal you would serve to family or friends and if you don't cook now, start hyping yourself up with the confidence to cook one meal.

Chicken Again?

I know many home cooks struggle with what to do with chicken. You may cook it often and feel like you've hit the idea wall. Chicken is a canvas for flavor and if you approach it that way your job might become easier.

Roasting chicken has and I feel will always be my favorite way to prepare chicken. The above chicken was seasoned with salt and pepper, some fresh tyhme and sage stuffed in the cavity, and drizzled with canola oil and roasted in the oven at 450 degrees for 20 minutes then the temp was lowered to 350 degrees for the final 20-30 minutes.

Once you have a perfectly cooked roast chicken it is a perfect canvas for any other flavors you might want to add. We could make a quick chimichurri sauce and now we've got a delicious Latin American dish. You could saute some wild mushroom in a pan and add some white wine to that and you have a fantastic simple elegant dish. In the future there will be plenty of "what do to with chicken?" video clips.

The roast chicken I see in grocery stores look awful to me so I would never suggest to buy those. The one time I've tried that chicken it reminded me of what it would be like to eat a wet sponge that had been left out in the sun to dry out. It's so easy to roast a chicken at home take the extra time and it will be worth it.

$15 Steak Dinner

In a previous post I mentioned the over priced steakhouse restaurant.

Yesterday I decided, "steak it's what's for dinner". I like to typically get a grass fed steak but I typically can only order those from a local farm, which couldn't happen due to the spontaneity of this dinner. The next best selection to me would be an organic prime steak but there are only few retailers who offer that and I don't think I have the credit score to qualify for that purchase.

I was left with few option but a choice graded chuck-eye steak at $6.99 per pound caught my eye. This cut is technically from the upper shoulder but it resembles a typical rib-eye steak and has heavy marbling. Here are a few quick steak cooking tips.

-Let the steak come to room temperature before cooking
-Pat the steak dry
-Season with salt and pepper right before it hits the pan.
-Use a medium high heat to insure a nice crust
-Allow your pan to to heat right before it starts to smoke
-I like to add just a teaspoon of a high heat canola oil to my pan until the oil shimmers

I served the steak with roasted carrots tossed with scallions and wasabi infused coconut milk sauce and jasmine rice. The total price for the meal was under $15 for two people. I'll be adding a full video clip series on cooking all different cuts of beef very soon.

Red Onion or Not

I was chatting with someone last night about an often under appreciated issue. When to use a red onion?

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At first glance this might appear to be a "who cares?" culinary issue but there are times when you should or should not reach for a red onion.

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The bright color of a red onion is perfectly suit for not being cooked or quickly cooked. When used in long cooking situations the red fades and takes on more of an ugly grey color. I don't even use red onion in making stocks or broths because I feel it discolors them. Here's a quick helpful list of should and should nots

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Should:

Use raw

Quickly sauteed

Quickly Grilled

Quick Pickle

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Should Not:

Used Braised

Used in soups

Used in stocks

There are of course hundreds of different applications where a red onion may or may not work well. I plan on covering onions from root to table on an upcoming video series dedicate to one of the kings of the culinary world the onion.

Pizza Party

My love of the $4 pizza continues. I've blogged on this subject before the above pizza cost under four bucks to make. Now, that a bargain.

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The ingredient list is simple

one pre-made pizza dough, mine is from Trader Joe's, cost $1.19

1/4 lb of cheese that cost $4.99 per pound

1/4 cup tomato sauce $1.00(I always have tomato sauce on hand but if you don't you can use a canned sauce)

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Here's the only other elements that add cost and make a huge difference to making great pizza at home. Once you buy these items they'll last you at least 10 years. The first is a pizza stone. The stones are widely available and the only trick to them is to allow your oven to preheat with the stone in it for at least 30 minutes. I prefer the square stones versus the circle shapes which are also available. The other is a pizza paddle to get the pizza in and out of the oven. These are available in either wood or stainless steel. The steel is easier to clean and keep but cost far more and are not as easy to find.

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In the coming weeks I'll be adding a video recipe of the $4 pizza but until then start thinking about throwing away the pizza delivery number and how cool your family and friends will think you are when you make pizza at home.

Maillard's Reaction to Browning

Could there be a worse culinary term for such an important technique. "Browning" it just doesn't sound appetizing in any way. I prefer the French culinary term Maillard reaction.

As I mentioned in this video clip, it's ultra important to develop layers of flavor to allow meats to cook in a pan at a high enough heat so they develop color and eventually release from the pan after enough time. Be patient, allow the meat to develop color and in turn you'll create flavor and better food. Plus, you can amaze onlookers by calling it a Maillard reaction.

New King of Vegetables

I was looking through some seed catalogs for the upcoming year and it hit me. Fennel is the king of vegetables.

It may not be the most well known but there aren't many foods that offer four stages of great food. The plant base of course can be used slice raw or cooked and is delicious. The seeds are maybe the most used and best known of all the fennel stages. From Italian sausage to curries fennel seeds are prevalent through many regions of cuisine. The leaf end frawns can also be used as a fresh herb.

Even fennel pollen had it's moment on the flavor of the month culinary trends list. It still is a great product but was so over used for a period in high-end restaurants that it reached overused status in those circles.

From seed to flower each stage of the fennel plant is used to make great food.