Recipe: Power Bars

I've got a slight problem. Now that I'm cooking full time in the cafè I'm losing weight. Not much, mind you, but enough that I'm aware of it and wanting to stop it. I'm already on the thin side of the movie alien look, and don't want to get any worse. Seems odd with all of the over weight chefs out there, but I'm constantly running and tasting, and those tastings kill my appetite. So, over at eGullet I presented the problem and came up with the fact that I need an energy bar that's not full of crap, but is good enough that I can scarf a whole pan in one sitting if I want to. eG member, Marmish sent me to the Food & Wine website for their Cranberry-Walnut Power Bars recipe, which I quickly modified.


1 1/4 C Walnut halves
1/2 C Wild rice
1 1/4 C Oats
1 C Yellow raisins
3 T Crystallized ginger, chopped
1/2 C. Liquor chestnuts, chopped
1 C Great maple syrup
1/4 C Palm sugar
1/2 t Salt
1 t Vanilla

Microwave your walnuts (or any other nut) in 60 second bursts until they start to brown and smell toasted.

Next, heat an inch of canola or peanut oil in a sauce pan and get frying hot. Pour your rice into the oil and it should puff immediately. Good ingredients are key here! Get good wild rice. I use Singing Pines hand harvested wild rice. As soon as the popping slows, remove puffed rice with slotted spoon to paper towel to drain.

In large bowl, combine nuts, rice, oats, raisins, ginger, chestnuts and anything else that might be yummy like chocolate chips. In a small saucepan, combine the syrup, sugar (I use palm sugar because I like it but if you must feel free to use white, brown, muscovado or whatever) and salt and bring to a boil. Boil until blurping bubbles form - soft ball stage. Immediately pour in the vanilla and then pour the whole mixture over the dry ingredients. Toss to coat very well and spread in a 8x11 pan lined with parchment. Press enough to make it hold together but not so much that you smoosh the texture away. Let cool, then cut and scarf!

Brie Cones...My Go-To

My catering schedule has been picking up lately and I often need a fast, easy, but really tasty finger food. This is one I've been doing quite a bit. Using a cone pastry form, cut circles out of whole wheat fillo dough using a rubber mallet and a 3" pastry ring. Stuff the dough circles into the cone. Squirt your favorite marmalade into the cone bottom - on this one I used orange marmalade. Then squirt some melted brie on top of the marmalade. Spoon a bit of butter on top and into the oven for about 10 minutes or until browned. Bring to room temp, pop them out of the form and serve! Very fast, very easy and always a huge favorite.

Pot Pie

With some leftover chicken recently we made a huge pot of chicken soup. With some leftover chicken soup recently we made a bunch of pot pies to share with friends :)

Molecular Gastronomy Presentation

Last week I did my first presentation on Molecular Gastronomy (I called it hypermodernist). While you'll miss the joy of my commentary, click HERE to see my slides. Lot's of quotes and references from eG including Tri2Cook.

Good morning honey :)

On far too many mornings, these lil' cuties are my breakfast. They're kind of good for me, aren't they?

A gift from California: Casa Pau Hana olive oil

I'm in the fortunate position that I regularly receive foods and gadgets to play with. A couple of months ago I received two bottles of oil from Casa Pau Hana in Paso de Robles, California.

First some tidbits from googling.
They have two varietals:
Lucca, of which they have 400 trees of 8 years of age
Arbequina clone I-18, of which they have 800 trees of 6 years of age
(who knew such information was out there, and do we care?)
They also won a Silver Medal at the 07 LA Olive Oil Competition.

We've tried these oils for cooking, salads, and sauces. The Arbequina is much more familiar to us, and quite enjoyable. The Lucca was a new one for me - and I've slurped a lot of oil in my days. The oil is very smooth with a buttery start and a pepper finish. I found it a bit mild for my tastes, but could easily work well in a middle eastern meal or as a marinade for cheeses. I would really like to try this for a trick I picked up from a friend who marinates her shredded mozz for a day before she uses it on pizza - her pizza is the best homemade pizza I have ever had. The Lucca has a long finish that is surely enjoyable.

One nice thing about Casa Pau Hana is that they're small enough that they still handwrite their harvest date on the bottles, and aren't all corporated out with websites and fancy marketing. Of course we wish them the best so that they make the big bucks, but we also hope they stay a hidden treasure.

Mardi Gras Memories

I think of my 4+ years in New Orleans, I stayed in town for only three of the Mardi Gras. I mean really, at some point being surrounded by drunken, belligerent, loud people get on your nerves. And so my friends asked me to go somewhere else.

But during my time, I enjoyed a lot of beer, crawfish, and of course, gumbo. This past week I made gumbo for the cafè special, which meant about 30 gallons of the stuff for our friends and customers. Here's the recipe that I used:

3 lb of chicken thighs
2 lb Andouille, cut into small slices

Dusting for chicken: Flour, salt, paprika, cayenne and freshly cracked black pepper

Roux
1/3 C. AP Flour
1/3 C. Peanut Oil

Trinity
2-3 Bell peppers (I mixed green and red)
4-6 Celery stalks, diced
2 Onion, diced
6 Garlic cloves, minced
1 T. Basil
1 T. Oregano
2 t. Cayenne
2 t. Freshly ground black pepper
1 T. Salt, to taste
8 C. Stock or broth

Skin thighs, but don't take all the fat off. Dust with flour and spices to cover. Brown in hot peanut oil in bottom of large stock pot. When both sides are brown, remove chicken and hold.

Brown the sausage until starting to crisp. Remove and add to chicken.

Make the roux. Turn heat up - ideally using a heavy metal pan like a cast iron. Drain oil from browning process, leaving the drippings. Add flour and oil and scrape the bottom of the pan well to make sure nothing burns. Constantly stir as roux transitions from light brown to dark brown, but not quite black. If you feel like things are progressing too quickly then turn heat down a bit. As you get to the really dark brown roux, add the peppers, celery and onions immediately and stir. Then add the spices and combine well. Turn heat down to medium, cover and cook 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Add the stock or broth and bring to a boil. Boil for 5 minutes, then turn down and simmer, covered, for 2-3 hours. Adjust taste throughout the process. In the pictures you can see that I added a bunch of crawfish during the last 30 minutes of cooking. On one day I added shrimp, so feel free to add whatever you enjoy.

(Sorry about the bad pic)
I also cranked out a bunch of king cakes complete with artisenal baby Jesus' courtesy of artist Suzi Calhoun or Art & Conversation.