WISH YOU AND YOUR FAMILY A HAPPY NEW YEAR

Deep fried sweetbread with chipotle onion, this recipe is simple. Before you plan on attempting this recipe, it is best to soak the sweetbread in milk for a day. Make parsnip puree by boiling parsnip in milk and cream until it is soft. Put the parsnip in a robot coupe or a blender, once it is formed a fine puree add salt and pepper and 1tsp honey, wasabi paste (according to taste) to the puree and beat it again. Reserve few fresh parsnips for chips. (Here instead of parsnip chips i have used pancetta). Place peeled chipotle onion with top and bottom trimmed on a sauté pan. Pour ½ cup of red wine and two teaspoon honey, salt and pepper bring it up to a boil, reduce heat and let the onions cook in the remaining liquid, let the liquid coat and cook the onion evenly. Reserve until ready for service. Make a spicy vinaigrette dressing for the sauce, (1 Jalapeño pepper chopped, 1/4 cup white wine vinaigrette, basil infused oil, chopped scallion, salt & pepper).Take the sweetbread that has soaked in milk and roll over seasoned flour (flour,salt,pepper,grated nutmeg, chopped parsley and thyme). Once it is evenly coated, put it in the deep fryer at 350*F. Once you get a even brown color, remove from oil and place on a paper napkin (to absorb the excess oil). Take the parsnip chips and coat with the seasoned flour and fry until golden brown. For presentation place the parsnip puree in the centre of the plate place one of the chipotle onions, above the onion place one sweetbread and place the parsnip chips and the sweetbread again and garnish with petite blood beet leaves. Pour the vinaigrette dressing sauce around.

Every day is a new beginning, every day is worth living and every dish is worth tasting. Never leave your taste buds down, the coming year. You have just started the journey into the world of cuisines. Join me in guiding you through the New Year with foods and recipes exclusively to have you want for more. Once again Wish you and your family
A HAPPY NEW YEAR!

French toast with peach syrup

Throughout the world, breakfast starts off with a fresh mind and body. This morning was another one of those wonderful days at my brother’s house. My brother and sister-in-law, love to experiment on different cuisines and this is one that I would like to share with all of you, that I found truly innovative. She decided on preparing French toast for the family. French toast is obviously the favorite with every household, it is simple to make this great breakfast. Take a pound of whole wheat bread, take three eggs, beat it with a hand held blender or a fork to infuse air (the albumin and the yolk need to mix well). To this add three teaspoon sugar, 1teaspoon salt, 1 cup milk, and cinnamon powder. Mix all this thoroughly. Prepare the peach syrup by taking fresh peaches peel and core them, cut them into quarters. Set them aside. In a medium pan mix ¼ cup sugar and 1 cup water and bring to a boil, add the quartered peaches to the solution and leave let rest in the solution until soft. Immerse each slice of bread into the mixture and place it on a heated griddle or skillet heating slowly until bottom is brown. Turn and brown the other side. When you are ready to serve, for one portion (two slices) of French toast take four pieces of peach with the syrup and reduce the solution to a semi-thick consistency or until it coats the back of a spoon. Place two pieces of French toast on the plate and garnish it with the quarter peaches and pour the syrup on top the toast and sprinkle with powdered sugar. It is just mouth watering. Enjoy!

Grilled Swordfish italian style

Swordfish, if cooked right can be a great delight on your plate. As the Texans say grilling is the right for all meats and seafood. I give them the thumbs up when it comes to swordfish. Before you can start with the dish you need to preheat the oven at 350*F.
The swordfish streak is available in supermarkets, trimmed and individually packed.
Place the fish on a plate and season it with salt and crushed pepper on all sides. Keep the fleshy portion of the steak facing you and coat it with lime juice, leave it on the plate for a few minutes (the acid from the lime juice cooks the steak and also induces the marination into the flesh). Coat the clean, hot grill with corn oil,(as it has a smoking point of 320*F). Place the swordfish on the grill presentation side down, give two minute on each direction to give check mark, turn over and give another two minutes. Take it off the grill and place in preheated oven for about 4 minutes. In the meanwhile make a mixture of marinated artichokes, diced tomatoes, diced onion sliced olives and fennel. Drizzle with equal quantities of lime and lemon juice. In a sauté pan add ½ tsp butter once melted add the mixture and cook over high heat, add ¼ cup fish stock to the mixture, season with salt and pepper (salt should be limited as the artichokes and olives already has some). Before taking it off the heat add butter to the mixture.
For plating place the sword fish in the centre of the plate and surround it with the mixture. Garnish it with dill leaves and tomato quarters.

You can also garnish it with tear drop tomato and fennel julienne.

Spinach salad with berry vinaigrette

Spinach is available throughout the year. It has a delicate texture and is high in nutrients. Scientific research has shown that spinach contains anti-cancer agents and antioxidants. If this is not enough for anybody to get influenced by this simple green leaf, it should be given a try. This leafy green can be converted into a healthy salad.
There are rows of spinach products in the market today; among them it would be impossible to miss the plastic bags containing fresh spinach leaves. You can find them cleaned and trimmed on the selves. Just a handful of this green can be just right for a serving. Once out of the bag, it needs to be used at the earliest.
Place one handful of spinach in a bowl sprinkle with salt and pepper toss with about two table spoon of berry vinaigrette which consists of blueberry, raspberry, corn oil, Apple cider vinaigrette ( mix the apple cider and the corn oil, once it emulsifies add in the berries and season, and strain through a fine chinois). You can garnish the salad with feta cheese, toasted sliced almonds, onion rings and quarters of oven-baked tomatos.

Handpulled Mozzarella with Heirloom tomato salad

When there is a combination of harmony with respect to color, taste, presentation, this is the right salad that I prefer. I prefer hand pulled mozzarella to the one’s that you can get at the supermarket, as this is more soft and can be salted to your satisfaction. To have a soft mozzarella on your plate you need to boil a pot of hot water (roll boil), pour half the quantity of water into a flat pan and crumble the mozzarella curd into this hot water. The remaining hot water needs to be kept on the stove top with the gas burning so that you have some reserve if you need, leave the curd in the hot water for about 4 minutes and let it loosen. Before you can start doing anything with the curd, wear about 3 layers of vinyl gloves to protect your hand form the hot water. Once you are ready gently pull the mozzarella and roll them into equal round balls. Make sure to release the air trapped inside them when you are rolling, by gently spreading the surface with you thumb. Once that is done immerse them in cold water (not good to put in ice water as it will become hard), so that it retains the shape. The heirloom tomato has to be cut into quarters and marinated in olive oil, sea salt & pepper. The mozzarella cheese also has to be cut into equal quarters once it is set. The cheese has to get the same marination. On the plate spread basil pesto and around the pesto sprinkle aged balsamic vinaigrette. Both the cheese and the heirloom tomato that is marinated needs to be placed alternatively on a plate. It can be garnished with brioche croutons and also pieces of basil.

Tempura fried shrimp with honey and caramalized onion

This is a quite simple dish and also easy to make. The tiger prawns (black tiger shrimp) is dipped in tempura batter, which consists of chilled carbonated water, egg whole, all purpose flour (it is fine if there are few lumps). The batter has to be chilled until it is ready to be used. Once the shrimp is evenly coated, it is put into a deep fryer which is at 350-380*F, as this is the ideal temperature for the shrimp to be cooked and also the batter to reach a golden brown color. Mean while make a dressing of balsamic vinegarette, E.V.olive oil, honey, salt & pepper. Once the dressing is done, mix it with lettuce which could be of any variety.It can be topped with caramalized onion ( jullien onion cooked on high heat with enough oil to coat it).The best time to mix the lettuce with the dressing is right before you serve your guests, as this would wilt the lettuce and hence would turn soggy.

Thanking my family.

It was a wonderful day being christmas. It is a day for the family to sit down and have a nice feast. I wanted to cook a nice dish for my family. To the rescue came some beef and yucon gold potatoes which were readily available. My family had to go outside on work and had relied on me for the lunch. I cut the beef into bite size pieces and used the red wine and made a quick sauce with the onions that I caramelized. I cut the potato into equal size, sprinkled it with herbs. I had the fresh vegetable tossed in butter. Once my family was home i had a good surprise for them. I cooked up a wonderful treat for them. I was helped by my sister-in-law to take these photos.

My treat to the family

This was one of those wonderful days, when i decided on expeimenting on my family the culinary skills that i had learned at college. It had my family go wow! looking at the techniques that i had learned. I had preheated the oven to 400 degrees F and then bought it down to 350 degrees F. I had my mirepoix cut into equal sizes. The chicken was cleaned with a tissue paper to avoid any moisture and then i used salt and pepper to season the exterior and also the interior of the chicken. Salt is good for giving the chicken its golden brown color in the oven. I gave it about 40 minutes in the oven as it is a lot simpler to calculate the time in the oven by giving 20 minutes for every pound of chicken. The residue on the pan was deglazed with red wine and it was added to the sauce. It was a wonder experience. I am planning on doing beef stew which i will be blogging on soon.

Mussels Fantasy

This is a beautiful dish, which is basically mussels, cooked in pork broth. It is garnished with coarsly chopped fennel and is served in the shell. Topped with crostini.

The best technique to open up the shell is to cook them in white wine covered with bouquet garni (Herbs tied up in a Cheese Cloth).

Mussels are of the clam family, They are both slatwater and fresh water. In the present day of high demand in restaurants and hotels, there are mussel farms that cultivate these in large numbers.

Anti-pasti

Antipasti can refer to:
in Italian cuisine, a starter course similar to Hors d'œuvre (italian plural of antipasto)
a British band named Anti-Pasti

This is a typical antipasti platter, cosisting of cured meat. The marinated olives compliment the display.
It was a typical busy at our restaurant, a regular guest to our restaurant had bought in some of his collegues and wanted a cold cut platter, to compliment the wine. I was called in by my chef and had a quick rundown of the situation and he wanted it to be instant, as there was no time to waste. I had to rush to the walk-in fridge to check the cured meats. I assembled all the cured meats, sliced it had the olives marinated and had some grilled vegetables with crositni redy and this was the end result.

Amuse Bouche

Amuse bouche is a bite site moursel served before a meal. It is served to exite the pallet and for the guest to discover what food/cuisines can be expected from the chef.

My College

At The Culinary Institute of America, we go through a total change. This change is for us to present ourselves to the world, the image of a modern chef. There are students at the institute who have different aspirations in life. The important aspect of being at this place, is getting the contacts. The contacts are the alumni of this prestigeous college. The education is go well planned and executed that we go through the curriculum in a smooth manner. There are courses in Culinary Arts and Baking & Pastry. There is a A.O.S & B.P.S programme to choose from. The Instructors are C.M.C which stands for Certified Master Chef. There are alumni's who become Training assitants and spread their knowledge and also help the students with the imporant aspects that need to be taken into consideration during their course of studies. The best college in the world of Culinary Arts.