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National Margarita Day

What’s your Favorite Margarita Recipe?

February 22 is National Margarita Day. Why a cool refreshing drink has it’s “Day” in the middle of February is anybody’s guess. Perhaps because while it’s 33º here in North Georgia (19º in St. Paul),  It’s 77º in Cozumel. And it’s a way for people sitting on Palancar Beach sipping the chilled tart libation to taunt those of us North of the Border drinking hot chocolate and bourbon. Actually hot chocolate and bourbon is really good.

Here is a video I made two years ago. I plan later today to make a once secret recipe for the margaritas made at Crarumba, a Mexican Restaurant on 9th AV in NYC.

The story:
Last year my old friend Keith Elrod and his wife Marion stopped by on their way to visit family in Florida and Marion made us some killer margaritas. We were asked to guess the secret ingredient that gave the margarita a unique and fabulous flavor. We could not nor would we have ever guest.

For a number of years Marion was the personal assistant to Chita Rivera. The two of them use to frequent a Mexican restaurant called Carumba in 9th Avenue. They made a unique margarita. The restaurant manager gave up their secret recipe to Ms. Rivera, who gave it up to Marion who told me. Now that the restaurant is closed I figure I can give up the recipe to you without giving away a trade secret.

In your blender add equal parts:
Tequila
Frozen Limeade
Beer (that’s right beer!)
Use that can of Bud that’s been sitting in your refrigerator from when you brother-inlaw came over.
Add ice and blend. You are just blending the ingredients and chilling the drink. I prefer not to make it a frozen margarita. Optional: Pour 1/2 oz of Grand Marnier or other orange flavored liqueur over top of the drink and enjoy, with or without salt.

I will make a video of this soon and post it.

The Real Celebrity Chefs

United States Postal Service Honors Celebrity Chefs with New Forever Stamps
Although I don’t send a lot of snail mail I bought a bunch of these stamps because I can use them… well FOREVER. Regardless of rate changes for postage these stamps will be good, locked in at 49¢. But hurry they are a limited edition.

Everyone knows the names of James Beard and Julia Chid even people who can’t boil water. Edna Lewis, Felipe Rojas-Lombardi and Joyce Chen are not house hold names so a little information is about their culinary contributions are below.

Edna Lewis considered the The Grande Dame of Southern Cooking inspired a generation of young chefs and ensured that the traditional folkways of the South would not be forgotten. She was cooking up Southern cuisine in the heart of Manhattan in 1949. Her cookbook, The Taste of Country Cooking is considered a classic study of Southern cooking. In 1979, Craig Claiborne of The New York Times said the book “may well be the most entertaining regional cookbook in America”.

Felipe Rojas-Lombardi, the Peruvian-born chef helped bring a Spanish and Caribbean influence into America’s haute cuisine repertory. He moved to New York City in 1967 and worked as the assistant to James Beard in his Greenwich Village cooking school. He was the founding chef of Dean & Deluca gourmet food store and was named America’s Bicentennial chef in 1976, the same year he became an American citizen. He was credited with introducing Tapas to America. He was only 46 when he passed away of heart failure.

Joyce Chen was credited with popularizing northern-style Chinese cuisine in the United States, coining the name “Peking Raviolis” for potstickers, inventing and holding the patent to the flat bottom wok with handle (also known as a stir fry pan), and developing the first line of bottled Chinese stir fry sauces for the US market. Joyce Chen Foods.

Julia Child is perhaps the most well known American Chef. She introduced French cooking for everyday Americans, with her groundbreaking cookbook Mastering the Art of French Cooking and was the quintessential TV cook. Starting in 1962, “The French Chef” ran 10 seasons on PBS.  Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Julia made regular appearances on the ABC morning show Good Morning, America. She won a Peabody award in 1964 and an Emmy Award in 1966. When I was cooking in a French restaurant in Manhattan and there was any question about how something was prepared, it was WWJD.  What would Julia do? You can watch 10 seasons of the French Chef on Amazon Instant Video and if you’re a Prime Member the firs 5 seasons are FREE.

James  Beard  was a champion of American cuisine who taught and mentored generations of professional chefs and food enthusiasts. His legacy lives on in twenty books, other writings and his foundation’s annual James Beard awards in a number of culinary genres. Check out the James Bead Foundation website, it’s amazing and next time you’re in New York, skip the Broadway show and attend one of the Dinners held at the James Beard House in the West Village. To give you a taste of what one of these dinners is like read my post, “Food is the Star of This New York City Show.”

 I just might have to start sending people letters, or mail in checks in stead of paying online. Here’s a good reason to send a letter.

National Bratwurst Day

National Bratwurst Day is August 16

And what better place to partake in the succulent sausage than a tiny town that has within a 3 block stretch 10 places that serve bratwurst. Here’s the video of my pilgrimage to Helen, North Georgia’s very own Alpine Village. 

Chefs & Their Tattoos

I recently returned from the American Culinary Federation Convention in Kansas City. I was so totally humbled by the talent that was represented from all over the country. It also made me realize how much has changed in the food business.

My first restaurant gig was 1970 at the Top of the Hub, 52 floor of the Prudential Building, Boston. I was a fry cook. They hired me because — I showed up for the interview. I mean fry cook, right? Someone gives you something, you put it in the grease and then take it out before it burns. It’s not rocket science.

There isn’t much I haven’t done in a restaurant. Front of the house, back of the house, back of the walk-in. Everything from Slinging hash to tossing pizza, from salad prep to charcuterie chef. But it’s been 28 years since I’ve been on a kitchen line and a lot has changed.

The Biggest change I’ve noticed, tattoos. This is especially noticeable among the younger chefs. At the ACF Convention I did an informal survey with un scientific results. I wanted to see if there was any pattern that could be devised.

Okra and Garlic

One man I met had a tattoo of the Swedish Chef from the Muppets. One man had two I CHING – hexagrams, ancient Chinese text on his forearm. One was the symbol for “OVEN” the other was for “MOUTH.” He talked about feeding the world and then he got all esoteric on me and my eyes started to glaze over.

One chef had two concentric circles on the palm of his hand. What, I asked, is the symbolism? The smaller inner circle, he said. was a teaspoon and the larger outer circle was a tablespoon. Practical.

I spoke woman just out of culinary school who had a beautiful tattoo of a chef’s knife with the words written in script, “Mise en Place.” A french phrase for putting in place. In the cooking world it is the the area that has all the stuff you need on a regular basis during your shift. She said it was a constant reminder to keep her shit together

Chef Jeff Morris’ Goonies Tattoo

Jeff Morris, chef/owner of The Copper Pot in Clarkesville, GA has an incredible tattoo. It is is not food oriented but is a tattoo of substantial meaning to him. His entire right arm is a storyboard for the 1985 Richard Donner film, “Goonies.” He was 8 years old when he first saw the movie and it obviously had a huge effect on him. There is only so much real estate on your body for ink so one needs to put some thought into what tattoos you’re getting. The photo here is just the upper arm. Down the rest of his arm and and forearm are other iconic images from the movie: The treasure map, the waterfall, the wishing well, the doubloon that was used to align clues, an image of Sloth with a pirate hat and of course the slogan, “Goonies Never Say Die.” True dedication.

And by the way, if you’re ever in North Georgia, make your way over to the Copper Pot for a great Lunch, Dinner or Sunday Brunch. They also have a full bar which is not always easy to find in the mountains of North Georgia.

Are you a chef? Do you have a tattoo? Tell me about it. Many more things have changed in the restaurant business and in the coming weeks I’ll be posting more of my observations.

Ciao For Now

Summer Salads

Just Add Lettuce

There are several varieties of lettuce that are looking and tasting great and we’ve been having salads for lunch and dinner. If we got up early enough to eat breakfast we’d probably have a morning salad as well. We can’t give it away fast enough so we’re making complete meals of salads.

Here are two of our favorites.

The Cobb Salad

The Ingredients.

Sharp cheddar, pickled beets, tomatoes, avocado, chicken and very thick bacon. The hard boiled eggs were placed in the jar of pickled beets for an hour to give them the red color. Leave them in for a day and the red goes deeper into the egg whites. We used a Sweet Vidalia Onion dressing.

Just Add Lettuce

Smoked Salmon Salad

The Ingredients. 

Smoked Gouda, hard boiled egg, capers, yellow pepper, pimento from a jar, chopped onion and smoked salmon. We used Annie’s Shiitake Sesame Vinaigrette. All the ingredients can be adjusted to your tastes.

Just Add Lettuce.

National Mint Julep Day

Funny speaker and celebrity chef gives his recipe for the perfect Mint Julep.

The secret to making a great mint julep is in the simple syrup that is infused with fresh mint. There’s only so much flavor you can get out of muddling mint.  When you use crushed ice in a drink it can quickly water down the alcohol. By using 120 Proof Single Barrel Knob Creek this dilution is minimized. The bourbon flavor is still there with sufficient kick.

Although May 30 is officially National Mint Julep Day I usually have my first Julep of the Season on Derby Day. If I’m going out of town on derby day I’ll bring fresh mint with me.

The video below was posted originally on YouTube on July 10, 2012.  I found a jar of mint simple syrup in back of the refrigerator from the day this was shot. There was a funky deposit on the bottom but I was able to skim some clean syrup off the top and make a quick julep to celebrate the day.

DRINK RESPONSIBLY… or stay home and drink.

Want some fun facts about the Mint Julep? Check out this site, MintJulepDay.com

National Coq au Vin Day

Funny Speaker and Celebrity Chef Celebrates National Coq au Vin Day

Today, May 29, is National Coq au Vin Day.  This is not to be confused with Coq au Vin Day which is March 22nd.  This classic French dish is so good they gave it 2 days on the food calendar. There are a lot of different elements to this recipe but the good thing is you can do most of it separately and in advance. The dish, like a fine wine gets better with age, for a couple of days at least.

Coq au Vin literally means “Rooster with Wine,” but has become chicken with wine as it’s hard to find rooster in your local market and your neighbors will get pissed if they catch you poaching some of their roosters. The chicken and wine are braised in the oven or simmered slowly on the range.

When I was living in the NYC it was easy to get fresh chicken from a poultry store including rooster as well as beautiful pieces of pork fat. Although you can find pork fat here in the mountains it’s usually Salt Pork, and when they say salt in the South they’re not kidding. You’d have to scrub the salt off and then soak it. It’s just a lot easier to use the thickest bacon you can find. Besides I have learned to appreciate, no love, the Smokey goodness of bacon.

I like to use chicken thighs as they won’t dry out and are uniform in size making for good portion control. Serve the Coq au Vin over egg noodles One way to go gluten free is to use corn polenta.

For years I’ve used Julia Child’s recipe from Mastering the Art of French Cooking. The recipe printed here is a hybrid. Part Julia but with traditional mirepoix and some of my own ideas thrown in. Click HERE to see the full recipe with notes from an earlier post.

National Coquilles St. Jacques Day

A Classic French Recipe

Today is May 16 and I’m making a classic French dish, Coquilles St. Jacques, pronounced:  Co-KEE saahn ZHAHK. This is a gratin of scallops and mushrooms in a velouté dusted with breadcrumbs and topped with Gruyère cheese.  For a great effect serve up the scallops in actual scallop shells which you can get at specialty foods stores or at Amazon.  Broil the Coquilles St. Jacques until the sauce is bubbly and the cheese is a golden brown.

I decided to make this classic in to commemorate this auspicious day.  I’m gonna tell you up front that I did not like the way these turned out. First of all Ingles didn’t have scallops in their “fresh” fish case. And by fresh it just means the fish has already been thawed out. When you live in the mountains, fish is not going to be fresh.  I had to get scallops from the Frozen Shelf. These scallops literally had no taste what so ever. Not going to say the name as they may someday they’ll want spokesperson.

So I tried to over compensate with the sauce. There was nothing subtle about this sauce. Too much vermouth, too much lemon, too much salt. Use the amounts that come up on the screen they’ve been adjusted. I should have put extra seasoned breadcrumbs and loaded the shells up with extra cheese.

The Classic recipe calls for egg yolks yet I found a lot of recipes that didn’t use them. Whenever there’s any indecision about what to do in the kitchen, you have to ask yourself, “WWJD, What would Julia do?” Well Julia uses egg yolks and also butter, milk, heavy cream  and of course the whole thing is topped with Cheese.  Is she trying to kill us?

Although  the bay scallop is an easy size to work with when you’re going to put the dish in an actually scallop shell, sea Scallop has more flavor. Whatever size you get, you’ll want to trim them to small enough pieces to make room for some mushroom in the sauce on your fork.

INGREDIENTS: 
• 1 3/4 cups water
•  3/4 cup dry white wine or vermouth
•  1 medium shallot minced
•  1 clove garlic minced
•  2- springs parsley
•  2 springs fresh thyme or 1/2 teaspoon dried
•  2 bay leaves
•  1/2 teaspoon dried tarragon
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice
• 1 pound very fresh scallops – See my note below about frozen scallops.
• 8 ounces mushrooms, washed and chopped
• 6 tablespoons butter
• 4 tablespoons flour
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
• Bread crumbs
•  Grated Swiss or Gruyère cheese

I like to use a Bouquet garni. I wrap the  parsley, bay leaves,  thyme and tarragon in some cheesecloth, tied into a neat bundle. This way I don’t have small bits of herbs floating in the sauce that will make caught between my teeth.

1. Bring water, wine, shallot, garlic, bouquet garni, and lemon juice to a boil in a saucepan.  Cook the liquid for a couple of minutes to flavor the poaching liquid. Add the scallops and simmer on low heat until cooked through, about 5 minutes. Check one scallop to make sure it’s cooked.  Remove the scallops with a slotted spoon and set aside.

2. Add the mushrooms to the scallop poaching liquid and simmer uncovered for 10 minutes. Strain, discarding the bouquet garni and reserving the liquid and mushrooms separately. Some recipes say to poach the scallops and the mushrooms together. I don’t do this as I don’t want to over cook the scallops.

3. Cut the scallops into 1/2-inch-thick slices. If you’re using jumbo scallops you may want to cut the slices horizontally. But if you have beautiful fresh jumbo scallops, why drown them in sauce and cover them with cheese.

4. Melt the butter in a medium saucepan and whisk in the flour. Cook over low heat for about 2 minutes. Do not let the flour brown.  Add 2 or 3 tablespoons of the scallop liquid into the flour mixture until blended. Now add the blended flour mixture back into the poaching liquid.  Add the cream and simmer and stir until blended and thickened. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Return the scallops and mushrooms to the velouté and mix all together.

5. Fill 6 scallop shells or shallow 6-inch ramekins almost to the top with the scallop mixture. Dust the top lightly with breadcrumbs and sprinkle with the grated cheese. (If you’re not ready to serve the scallops, cover them with plastic wrap and refrigerate.)

6. Broil the scallops until the mixture bubbles and the cheese melts and turns golden brown.

Coquilles St. Jacques are great for a first course or fish course served with a chilled white Burgundy or my preference, a Prosecco.

NOTE ON FISH:
If you like to cook fish you should get to know the person behind the fish case and get them to tell you how long the fish has been siting there. Some markets in land-locked areas say, “We fly our fish in daily.” I don’t care if you fly it in daily, you still have to fly it in.

Fresh fish is fish off the boat that is still alive. Fresh fish is fish YOU caught cleaned and cooked that night. After that? “Fresh” is relative.

I’ve gotten large scallops at Costco that have been as good as you can get inland. It arrives to the store frozen and is thawed out in small amounts and sold. Costco is up front with you and doesn’t try to sell you the scallops as fresh. But these scallops have not been processed in a big plant and do have a lot of flavor.

 

Food Made Even Better by Impeccable Service

American Academy of Chefs Gala Dinner

Last weekend I attended the Southeast Conference of the American Culinary Federation in Charleston, SC. Founded in 1929 the ACF is now the largest professional chefs organization in North America. These people are serious about food. Sure I made my living doing restaurant work for 15 years, but it was just because I couldn’t make a living as an actor.

Being around, professional chefs, culinary instructors and students for four days I realized how little I knew. We didn’t speak the same language. What we did have in common was our passion for food.

Pork Rib Lollypop, Smoked Homey Grits, Sweet Potato Bourbon, Collard Kimchi

One of the best parts about going to a conferences for professional chefs is that the food takes center stage. There was always something being made and therefore there is always something to taste, from the Rice Breaker on Saturday night to the awards gala on Tuesday night. On Monday night some local restaurants had a reception in the in the hotel lobby with samplings of some of their specialties like the one at the right from Southerly Restaurant and  Patio.

Also on Monday night was the American Academy of Chefs Gala Dinner. Did I say dinner? I would amend dinner to say, “feast.” It must be very stressful to prepare a 6 course meal with wine parings for a dining room full of professional chefs. The Culinary team at the Daniel Island Club was up to the task.

But even more impressive than the food was the service. I don’t remember ever being as impressed with a staff at any venue anywhere. If you had a used napkin in your hand it was taken from you before you could think, “Where can I put this?” If you especially liked a passes appetizer, like the Smoked duck breast on Edisto Island grits with a Port Cherry sauce, the server seemed to seek you out to make sure you were offered another tantalizing taste on their next pass through the room.  And they were smiling, all of them! Not a Stepford Wife kind of service smile but a genuine smile that was warm and inviting. The same severs who passed the hors d’oeuvres also served dinner and poured our wine. With dinner conversations in full swing around the table, the courses seemed to glide into placed and float away. It was a classic ballet flawlessly executed.

Exceptional Staff at the Daniel Island Club, Charleston, SC.

Service Exceeding Expectations ^sm

 

 

 

 

Therefore the SEE Award for April goes to the servers at the Daniel Island Club in Charleston, SC. Click here to see what was served at the Gala