Life....Take 2 or is it 3?

Pork Belly Ravioli

2011-11-30T14:00:00.001-08:00

Would you believe I got lost in the grocery store for the past 5 months? Okay 50+ hours a week at the restaurant did not leave a lot of time for writing. But hey I do have a good stockpile of recipes now that I have tested.

Everywhere you turn these days I feel as though you see Pork Belly this and Pork belly that... If you don’t want to see another Pork Belly recipe, look away now.

The current Pork Belly hype is all for very good reason. It is a relatively easy cut of meat to cook, and you get some amazing results. I fully admit that this is not the dish to prepare if you are on a low fat diet, but I have never been accused of being on a low fat diet, so there.

This recipe started when I was watching TV the other night, and an idea for a dish to prepare for a client came into my head (we will cover that one on another day). I was thinking about the protein for the dish, and thought "wow, this would be nice with pork belly." This thought meandered to “wow, I would love some pork belly ravioli.” No one I know makes it, so I researched it and decided to just make a batch and see how it came out. The results were pretty damn good. The only down side was I knew this particular client would never approve the dish for their menu, but I ate well that night!

Pork Belly is fatty - there is no disputing that. The acidity of the sauce cuts the richness of the filling, so if you want an alternative to the pan sauce below, a lemon caper sauce would work nicely as well.

This dish is time intensive (work intensive as well if you make your own pasta) and not one to make if you are in a hurry. You can make your own pasta for the ravioli, or you can get dumpling wrappers. Note: It is very important to cool the filling before you fill the ravioli, otherwise the pasta will fall apart.

And before I hear about it, I really need to work on my photography.

Pork Belly Ravioli

Servings: 4
Yield: ~25 Ravioli

3 lbs Pork Belly (skin on)

1 tbsp Rosemary, dried
1 tbsp Fennel Seeds
Zest of 1 Lemon
6 ea Garlic Cloves
4 tbsp Olive Oil
3 tbsp Kosher Salt
1½ cup dry White Wine
3 Onion, thinly sliced
2 tbsp All Purpose Flour
2 cups Chicken Stock
½ cup Marsala Wine
¼ cup Balsamic Vinegar
Ravioli Pasta or Dumpling Wrappers for 25 Ravioli
Egg Wash, as needed

1 Carefully score the Pork skin and fat. Make a diamond crisscross pattern making sure you do not cut into the meat.

2 Place Rosemary, Fennel Seeds, Lemon Zest, Garlic, Olive Oil and Salt into a spice grinder, blender or mortar and pestle, and process into a paste.

3 Massage the paste into the Pork, making sure to get it into the incisions. Wrap tightly and place in the refrigerator for 3-12 hours.

4 Preheat oven to 425°.

5 Place Pork in a roasting pan, skin side up. Carefully pour the White Wine over the top.

6 Roast at 425° for 30 minutes, then lower the heat to 350°.

7 Roast at 350° for one hour.

8 Add the sliced Onions to the pan around the Pork, avoid placing them on top.

9 Roast for one more hour, stirring the Onions and basting the Pork every 15 minutes.

10 Remove the Pork from the pan, and allow to rest for 15 minutes.

11 Remove the Onions from the pan, and place in a medium saucepan. Caramelize the Onions over medium heat.

12 Discard all but 2 tbsp fat from the roasting pan, retaining any juices. Place the roasting pan over medium heat, and stir in Flour (this is to get all fo the tasty bits up). Cook for 1 minute, then whisk in Chicken Stock, Marsala and Balsamic until smooth. Move this to a saucepan, and lightly simmer to reduce, stirring regularly (this will be the sauce for the raviloi).

13 Remove the crispy skin from the Pork and set aside. Dice the Pork into ¼ inch cubes, and place in a mixing bowl.

14 Stir the diced Pork vigorously, or knead with your hands. Add the caramelized Onions, and stir until well incorporated. Adjust flavor with salt and pepper to your taste.

15 Place mixture in refrigerator or set aside. The filling should be room temperature before making the Ravioli.

16 Bring a pot of salted water to boil.

17 Lay out your Pasta, and place one tbsp of filling on each - makes approx 25 Ravioli.

18 Brush Egg Wash around the edges, cover and seal the Ravioli, making sure to push the air out of the Ravioli as you seal it.

19 Place the Ravioli into the boiling water until the pasta is cooked through (about 1 minute).

20 Adjust flavor of sauce to taste (should be slightly acidic).

21 Place Ravioli in a bowl, and top with the sauce. Garnish with small slices of the crispy Pork skin.

Enjoy!

Orange Ginger Striped Bass with Roasted Zucchini

2011-04-25T20:03:00.000-07:00

I have to say it has been a busy month for me. It is not the lack of ideas that has kept me from posting but the lack of spare time. I work full time as a sous chef and part time as a server at another restaurant. Minimum 45 hours a week at one restaurant and picking up shifts at the other can take a chunk of time out of your life. I try to fit in all of my other obligations, but my recreational activities can take a hit...namely recipe testing and posting. But I can say I am still on track to make at least one recipe post a week.

Just because I am not posting as much as I would like does not mean I am not working on the recipes though. Not including this one, I actually have three in the pipeline ready to go as I type this. But on to things more important than my bitching about following my dream....WHAT'S FOR DINNER?!?!?!?!

Striped Bass.
This is a mild flavored, firm but flaky fish. This being spring, although Texas seems to have forgotten this and as usual jumped straight to summer, I wanted to go with a light citrus flavor. While tasting oranges at my grocery store (yes my grocery store does have fruit samplings), I found the oranges were really amazing. These had that perfect balance of sweet and sour that immediately made me think of adding ginger to them. The flavors here will be mild so they won't overpower the natural flavor of the fish, which makes this a light and delicate meal.

I paired this with some very easy oven roasted zucchini seasoned very lightly with salt, pepper and olive oil. So enough with the babble, and on to the food!

Orange Ginger Striped Bass

3 tbsp Olive Oil
2 ea Striped Bass Filet
Salt and Pepper, to taste
2 oz Fresh Ginger, sliced thin (about 2")
1 ea Large Orange, cut off ends and slice (6 - 8 slices); save the end peices
¼ cup White Wine
1 tbsp Butter

Oven Temp: 400

1 Spread 1 tbsp of the Olive Oil over the bottom of an oven safe pan.

2 Place Filets in pan skin side down.

3 Sprinkle Salt and Pepper over Filets.

4 Divide Ginger slices over the top of the Filets.

5 Squeeze the ends of the Orange you saved over each Filet to get a little drizzle of fresh orange juice on each.

6 Place Orange slices over the top of Fish and Ginger allowing to overlap.

7 Drizzle the remaining Olive Oil over the top of the Oranges.

8 Cook at 400° until cooked through (about 15 minutes depending on the thickness of of the Filet).

9 Remove Filets from pan and place on a plate. Leave Orange slices and Ginger in the pan.

10 Add the White Wine and Butter to the pan.

11 Cook the Wine, Butter, Ginger and Oranges in the oven for 5 minutes.

12 Pour a little of the sauce over the Fillets and serve.

Roasted Zucchini

1 lb Zucchini
2 tbsp Olive Oil
1 tbsp Salt
2 tsp Pepper
2 ea Garlic Clove, crushed

1 Heat oven to 350°F.

2 Slice Zucchini into 3 inch long rounds.

3 Cut each round into 8 wedges.

4 Toss together Zucchini spears, Salt, Pepper, Olive Oil and Garlic.

5 Spread evenly in an 8x8 pan.

6 Cook in 350°F oven for 30 minutes.

7 Place on plate and serve.

Enjoy!

Egg Waffles with Blackberry Honey Butter

2011-04-16T09:12:00.000-07:00

So there I was minding my own business surfing around the internet. Just doing some random reading of different things, and I stumbled on something. These little things called Hong Kong Egg Waffles. I did some research and found that they are actually called gai daan jai or eggettes. Well they intrigued me to say least.

After some careful thought out and very well executed prodding from my buddy (spoiled brat), I did a search as to where I could find one of these egg waffle/eggette pans. Well low and behold, it turned out you could get one right around the corner at Williams-Sonoma. I decided to take the plunge "in the name of research" and just for the fun of it and to see what I could come up with. You know, I am taking one for the team here, suffering for you and my art, feel my pain!!

The pan comes with a basic batter recipe that I followed for the most part but made a couple of adjustments to, mainly to see the what the difference would be.

For the topping, as blackberries are in season at the moment and the last batch I had tasted incredible, I used them as a base. I cooked them down and added a bit of honey so it would form a syrup. Mixed with butter it made a nice filling for this breakfast treat.

I did contemplate some other options along the way... I fell in love with Nutella Crepes while I was in school in Italy, and the Banana Nutella Crepes while in Ireland (speaking of which, a spoiled brat owes me some of those)...this just opened up all sorts of options for these waffles. Savory, dessert, breakfast, attention deficit disorder...I think I'll stick with blackberries for now...

Give these a shot and let me know what you think, then we will move on to the other versions...what do you say about that?

A quick note about the pan. The traditional egg waffle pans are made of cast iron, of which I am a big fan. The one I picked up is made of cast aluminum with stainless steel handles. It seems pretty durable, and it is made by Nordic Ware, so with the proper care, it seems like it will last.

Egg Waffles

This recipe is a slightly modified version of the one that comes with the Egg Waffle Pan. I chose to go with the metric measurements for this recipe as it is a more precise measurement system, great for baking.

Gai Daan Jai

4 ea Egg Yolk
180 ml Milk
1 tbsp Vanilla Extract
90 g Butter (no substitutes), melted
185 g Sugar
155 g Cake Flour
1 ½ tsp Baking Powder
1 tbsp Cinnamon
1 pinch Nutmeg, freshly grated
⅛ tsp Salt
6 ea Egg White, beaten to medium peaks
Vegetable Oil
Confectioner's (powdered) Sugar, for dusting

1 Add Egg Yolks, Milk, Vanilla, melted Butter and Sugar in a bowl and mix well.

2 In a separate bowl mix Flour, Baking Powder, Cinnamon, Nutmeg and Salt.

3 Add the Egg Yolk and Milk mixture to the Flour, and mix until there are no lumps.

4 Fold in the Egg Whites, adding one third at a time.

5 Heat both sides of the Egg Waffle Pan over Medium heat.

6 Lightly brush the heated pan with oil.

7 Add ¾ of a cup of the batter to one side of the pan. Attach the other side of the pan and invert.

8 Cook for about 2 minutes over Medium heat until golden brown.

9 Flip the pan over and cook for an additional 2 minutes until this side is golden brown as well.

10 Remove waffle and place on a wire rack and allow to set for about a minute.

11 Top with favorite topping and Confectioners Sugar if desired.

Blackberry Honey Butter

1 cup Blackberries, fresh
½ cup Honey
¼ cup Butter (no substitutes), softened

1 Place the Blackberries and Honey in a small saucepan over Medium heat.

2 Stir frequently to break down the Blackberries.

3 Cook for about 15 minutes until Blackberries are mostly broken down.

4 Place in refrigerator until cool (about 30 minutes).

5 Mix Honey Blackberry mixture into softened butter.

6 Refrigerate until needed.

After the waffles are complete, spread a bit of the Blackberry butter on them and roll them up or leave them flat. Sprinkle some confectioners (powdered) sugar on them as well. Options are wide open for these. Line a bowl with one and build an ice cream sundae on top of it. Anything you can do with a regular waffle you can do with these little crunchy, custardy, fluffy creations.

Enjoy!

Basil and Panko Crusted Chicken with Angry Garlic and Sun-Dried Tomato Pasta

2011-04-07T19:23:00.000-07:00

Boneless, skinless chicken thighs...why on earth would I choose to use what is considered to be such a lesser cut of meat to a chicken breast? Well it could be that the thigh, being dark meat from a flightless bird that spends its life wandering the ground looking for food, has more flavor. Maybe it is for the low cost that you can get a boneless chicken thigh compared to a boneless chicken breast. It very well could be that due to the size of a chicken thigh, it would be easier to control the portions and therefore our food intake.

While all three could be very good reasons to use the thigh, none of them are the reason I chose to use it here. The absolute honest truth is that, as stated before, I hate to waste food. When I buy chicken, I prefer to buy a whole chicken and break it down myself. It really only takes a few minutes, and there is a significant cost savings. For example, if I were to buy boneless, skinless chicken breasts at my local store, I would pay around $3.00 per pound. When I buy a whole chicken, I spend around $1.00 - $1.25 a pound. So I save a little money, and I have enough chicken for a few meals.

This also has to be good for the environment as well in some way. What!?!
I care about that kind of stuff. No, I really do. Stop looking at me like that.

You can actually use any cut of the chicken you like for this dish. Give the chicken thigh a chance though. By pounding it thin you are making it more tender, and you will be rewarded with a much deeper, richer flavor that the thigh delivers. It does not matter what part of the chicken you use. As long as it's pounded to ¼ inch thick, it will cook up the same.

I served the pasta and the chicken together, but the recipes are listed independently because they can be cooked and served on their own. The chicken goes great with vegetables, and the pasta is a nice, fast meal all on its own.

Basil and Panko Crusted Chicken Thighs

4 ea Boneless Skinless Chicken Thighs
2 ea Eggs
2 tbsp Water
1 cup Panko
½ cup All Purpose Flour
3 tbsp Kosher Salt
1 tbsp Freshly Ground Black Pepper
3 tbsp Dried Basil
2 tbsp Dried Parsley
Olive Oil or Cooking Oil

1 Using the flat side of a meat tenderizer, pound the boneless Chicken Thighs until they are ¼ inch thick.

2 Crack the Eggs into a bowl, and stir in the Water.

3 In a separate bowl, mix together Panko, Flour, Salt, Pepper, Basil and Parsley.

4 Dip each Chicken Thigh in the Egg mixture and then into the Panko breading mixture, ensuring the Chicken is completely coated.

5 Allow the coated Chicken to sit for 5 minutes so the breading can set.

6 Heat a pan over Medium to Medium High heat (be careful not to overheat the pan if you are using Olive Oil).

7 Add enough Olive Oil or Cooking Oil to coat the bottom of the pan ⅛ inch deep.

8 Once the Olive Oil is hot, carefully place breaded Chicken in the Oil. Do not crowd the pan. Cook in batches if needed.

9 Cook for 2 minutes or until golden brown, then turn over.

10 Cook for an additional 2 minutes until the other side is golden brown as well.

11 Remove the Chicken from the pan, and set aside until ready to serve. If cooking in batches, adjust the level of your oil and reheat it before cooking each batch.

Angry Sun-dried Tomato and Garlic Pasta

A nice addition to this would be toss in some fresh basil just before serving. It will give a bright flavor to the pasta as well as some additional color.

1 lb Angel Hair Pasta
¼ cup Olive Oil
4 ea Garlic Clove, sliced
½ tsp Crushed Red Pepper
6 oz Sun-dried Tomato, sliced thin
Salt and Freshly Ground Black Pepper, to taste
¼ cup Parmesan Cheese, freshly grated

1 Cook Angel Hair Pasta according to manufacturer's direction and set aside.

2 In an unheated large pan, add Olive Oil, Garlic, Sun-dried Tomato and Crushed Red Pepper.

3 Place the pan over Medium High heat, stirring occasionally.

4 When the Garlic begins to brown around the edges, add the Pasta and toss.

5 When the Pasta is well coated and heated through, remove from heat.

6 Place in serving bowls and top with fresh grated Parmesan.

Enjoy!

Mango Pico de Gallo with Mexican Chicken

2011-04-05T12:09:00.000-07:00

After the Blueberry Pancake recipe, I had a request from Shannon for more chicken recipes, which, from my perspective, is humorous as I am teased by several people about eating too much chicken. I admit I go through phases, but I always return to the pork. Anyway, in response to Shannon's request, I have worked on a couple of recipes. I thought I'd share the first one today.

While working on this, I tried to keep in mind that you might actually want to spend some time with your family rather than the stove and oven. I've noted a time saving option for this recipe that will not impact the overall flavor too much.

I was originally planning on making this a pineapple pico, but the mangos looked really great at the store. They are usually in season in May and before that are usually hard and not nearly as sweet. I will pass them, pick up one or two to test, then put them back and just move along. Today though, when I picked them up, they did not feel like a baseball, but more like....well a mango. If the mangos do not look good, or are too expensive, you could go with pineapple or another tropical fruit. I have even considered trying to do a pomegranate pico, just have not seen any pomegranates that jump out at me screaming "PICK ME, PICK ME".

A time saving option: most stores around here have pre-made fruit picos. Just look around. If you find one you like, you could totally skip this step.

If you want homemade pico, it can be made in advance, but should not sit more than a day. I like it to be crisp so prefer to make it as close to serve time as possible. If you're short on time, you can cut up the ingredients in advance and then mix them together while the chicken is cooking.

Speaking of the chicken, you can use a skinless chicken breast. The only real difference would be to shorten the stove top cook time. Leave it in the pan just long enough to give it some color before you transfer to the oven. I opt for skin-on because it adds crispiness to the dish, and it doesn't dry out as quickly so you don't have to watch it as closely in the oven.

I served this with a very easy rice. Follow the directions on the box or bag of your favorite rice, but substitute the water for an even mixture of Water, Tomato Juice, and Chicken Stock, make a little but extra of the dry spice mix used in the chicken marinade, then add that to the liquid for the rice.

Chicken with Mango Pico de Gallo

2 tbsp Oregano, dried
1 tbsp Kosher Salt
2 tsp Cumin Seeds, ground
2 tsp Freshly Ground Black Pepper
2 tsp Granulated Garlic
1 tsp Cayenne Pepper
4 ea Boneless, Skin on Chicken Breast
¼ cup Olive Oil
1 Mango Pico de Gallo (recipe follows)
1 ea Lime, cut into eight pieces

1 Mix together Oregano, Salt, Cumin, Pepper, Garlic and Cayenne in a bowl and stir well.

2 Place Chicken in plastic Bag.

3 Pour in Olive oil and spice mixture. Mix well and place in refrigerator for 30 minutes to marinate.

4 Preheat Oven to 350°.

5 Heat a pan over medium-high heat.

6 Remove the chicken from the bag, allowing excess marinade to drip off.

7 Place chicken in the hot pan skin side down. Cook for about 4 minutes until skin is crisp.

8 Transfer chicken to an oven safe pan, skin side up.

9 Place chicken in the 350° oven until cooked through, roughly 20-25 minutes.

10 Remove the chicken from the oven.

11 Place chicken on a plate and top with Mango Pico de Gallo.

12 Serve each plate with a lime wedge.

Mango Pico de Gallo

1 ea Mango, peeled and cut into ¼-inch cubes
½ ea Red Onion, minced
1 ea Jalapeno Chiles, stemmed, seeded and finely diced
2 tbsp Cilantro, chopped
2 ea Garlic Clove, minced
2 tbsp Lime Juice
Salt and Freshly Ground Black Pepper, to taste

Mix everything together and place in refrigerator in a non reactive bowl.

Enjoy !

Razza con Peperoni e Finocchi Arrosti

2011-03-28T09:54:00.000-07:00

I was talking to someone earlier today and told them I was going shopping for dinner. When they asked what I was cooking, I responded with "I honestly don't know. I will just look around till I get inspired." When the response I got was, "I guess that is the hard part about creating recipes for a blog, you know, trying to get inspired." I hung up and was left thinking...was that a challenge?

I headed to the store not really knowing what I was going to cook. All I did know was I was in the mood for some real food after the week I had been through. I can honestly say it did not take long after entering the store to decide what I wanted to cook though. I was taking a glance at the seafood counter, and while trying to decide between Chilean Sea Bass, Shrimp or Salmon, I saw it.

Skate Wing. In Italian they call it Razza. It is a fish that is related to the shark and the ray. If you have never had it before, it is a white, very flaky fish with a sweet taste that reminds me of Halibut. And seeing as how the Alaskan Halibut season just opened on the 12th, it is still almost $25 per pound. Skate, on the other hand, is less than $10 per pound (I paid $8.99 per pound).

As for what to serve it with, that was the easy part. I was in the mood for roasted bell pepper with some fennel and garlic thrown in. For the contrast, I wanted to serve the peppers cold on top of the fish. To round out the dish, the fish would be placed on top of Ptitim Risotto (basically Israeli Couscous prepared in risotto fashion).

Thirty minutes after entering the store, I was walking out with the makings of a good dinner thinking to myself something along the lines of "I guess someone's grocery store sucks compared to mine." Either that or I am just easily inspired.

I was in an Italian mood when this came to me. This is how the recipe formed in my head.

Razza con Peperoni e Finocchi Arrosti (Skate Wing with Roasted Peppers and Fennel)

Selecting your fish...Skate Wing filets have a top half and a bottom half. The top is thicker, and that is the part you want to buy. The thinner part can overcook very fast.

I served this with Ptitim Risotto, which was made with 2 cups of Chicken Stock, 1 cup or Israeli Couscous, 2 tbsp of Fennel Fronds and a pinch of Salt and Pepper.

The Fennel and Roasted Peppers can be served on top at any temperature. I chose to chill it to bring a little more contrast.

1 ea Fennel Bulb, sliced in 1/2" strips
¼ cup Olive Oil
Salt and freshly ground Black Pepper, to taste
1 ea Red Bell Pepper, sliced in 1/2" strips
1 ea Yellow Bell Pepper, sliced in 1/2" strips
1 ea Orange Bell Pepper, sliced in 1/2" strips
4 each Garlic Clove
3 tbsp Red Wine Vinegar
1 tbsp Olive Oil
12 oz Skate Wing (thick side), cut in half

1 Preheat oven to 400°.

2 Toss Fennel in ¼ cup Olive Oil and season with Salt and Pepper.

3 Roast Fennel for 20 minutes.

4 Add the Bell Peppers and Garlic to the Fennel. Toss and roast for an additional 40 minutes.

5 Remove from oven, place in a bowl and add Red Wine Vinegar. Cover and chill in refrigerator.

6 Turn oven down to 350°.

7 Heat an oven safe pan over Medium High Heat.

8 Add 1 tbsp Olive Oil to hot pan.

9 Season both sides of Skate Wing with Salt and Pepper.

10 Place in pan, skin side up, and cook for 2 minutes.

11 Flip the Skate Wing over and place in oven until cooked through (about 4 minutes, depending on the thickness of your filet).

12 Remove fish from the pan and place on a plate. Top with a bit of the chilled Fennel and Roasted Peppers.

Enjoy

Ancho Rubbed Rib-eye with Cilantro "Blue-naise"

2011-03-26T01:25:00.000-07:00

So, before we were so rudely interrupted by the Red Snapper, I was working on this recipe. I wanted to bring together some spice, blue cheese and the richness and lightness of a Bearnaise sauce. Figuring out the best way to bring these together was the tough part. I mean you can't just throw everything into the mix and see what happens. Most of the time you end up with something that is better suited for your dog, or at least your local group of ...umm...errr... "smokers" who don't really care what they are eating when the munchies are at that level where everything is the best thing they have ever eaten. I actually know one of those guys who enjoys telling me all about his latest creation of mixing together this box of hamburger helper with this box of tuna helper and telling me how I have to try it. I will stick to the Rib-eye. But I digress... By adding the ancho powder to the rub for the steak, I brought a little spice to this dish. Replacing the tarragon in the Bearnaise with cilantro and stirring in some young blue cheese melded the flavors nicely.

As for choosing a steak, if you are going to offer me my choice, I will take the Rib-eye. I personally don't feel the Fillet has the flavor or the texture that I want. A Rib-eye on the other hand, being marbled with fat, carries the flavors better and is a more moist cut of meat. That said, please feel free to use your favorite cut of meat for this recipe.

And if you're wondering about the name of the sauce...Bearnaise is a classic sauce using tarragon, chervil and reduced white wine. This one is not the classic, so I did not feel right calling it a Bearnaise. So I'm calling it a "Blue-naise."

I chose to serve this dish over fingerling potatoes. The potatoes were cooked in boiling water and then tossed in a dressing of Olive Oil, Balsamic Vinegar, Salt, Rosemary and Black pepper. They were then sauteed on the stove so they would be heated through and have a little crispiness .

Ancho Chile Rubbed Rib-eye with Cilantro Blue-naise

Choose your favorite cut of meat for this, but I do recommend the Rib-eye. For the spicing, I used my spice rub (based off of the Perini Spice rub) in the ratio of 2 Tbsp rub to1 tsp of Ancho Chile powder.

Ancho Chile Powder is ground ancho peppers, not a spice blend or Chili Powder.

When picking your Gorgonzola, you will want a younger cheese so it will be milder and mix into the sauce better. The one I picked was a 3 month old.

2 each Rib-eye (16 oz each)
1 cup Apple Cider Vinegar
8 oz Shallot, sliced thin
1 bunch Cilantro
Salt and Pepper, to taste
4 oz Butter (no substitutes), melted and warm
2 tbsp Spice Rub
1 tsp Ancho Chile Powder
2 ea Egg Yolks
2 oz Gorgonzola Cheese, crumbled
dash Lime Juice

1 Remove Rib-eyes from the refrigerator and allow to come to room temperature (30 minutes depending on size).

2 In a small saucepan, place Apple Cider Vinegar, 2 oz of the Shallots and stems from the Cilantro.

3 Reduce over medium heat until about three tablespoons of Vinegar remain. Strain and set aside to cool.

4 Place one Tbsp of the melted Butter in a pan over medium low heat, and add the remaining six ounces of Shallots.

5 Allow Shallots to cook down until they have a deep, rich, brown color, then set aside.

6 Mix Spice Rub and Ancho Chile Powder. Rub onto Rib-eyes shaking off excess.

7 Cook Rib-eyes in desired method to desired temperature. Cover with foil, and allow to rest.

8 While the Rib-eyes are cooking, begin the sauce.

9 In a bowl over simmering water, add the three tablespoons of reduced Vinegar and Egg Yolks and begin whisking.

10 Whisk Egg Yolks until they are light and fluffy and triple in volume.

11 Slowly add the remaining Butter to the Egg Yolks.

12 Remove from heat, and stir in 1 oz chopped Cilantro leaves and Gorgonzola. Add Lime Juice to taste.

13 Adjust seasoning of the sauce with Salt and Pepper.

14 Place Rib-eyes on plates, and spoon sauce over them. Place about half of the caramelized shallots on top of the sauce and serve.

Enjoy!

Bacon Wrapped Jerk Red Snapper

2011-03-22T08:59:00.000-07:00

I had a recipe I wanted to post that I had been working on for several days. I even shopped and had it prepped. I had everything I needed, except for the time to put it together. But like it tends to do, fate stepped in and threw me a curve ball. I inherited a few cuts of Red Snapper while at work last night, and not one to let a good fish go bad, I set my prepared recipe aside for the moment and let inspiration take over.

Honestly, I tend to feel really bad having to throw away good food. Well that, and I like fish a lot. It is a close follower to Pork, The Pig is King. This was basically the thought process that led to this dish.

Bacon Wrapped Jerk Red Snapper

A few Notes about this recipe. For most dishes I do prefer to cook in a Cast Iron Skillet, but any oven safe pan will work. Your choice of bacon is important as well, as it adds a lot of flavor. I chose to use peppered bacon, but once again, pick your favorite.

This fish was served over a mixture of Black Beans and Rice, similar to a Cuban dish called Congri.

2 ea Red Snapper Filet
6 each Bacon Slices
Salt and Pepper, TT
2 Tbsp Jerk Seasoning
¼ cup Cilantro Leaves, Whole
2 Tbsp Hazelnuts
3 Tbsp Red Wine Vinegar
3 Tbsp Olive Oil
2 tsp Salt
2 tsp Crushed Red Pepper Flakes
4 ea Garlic Clove

Oven Temperature: 350°F

1 Lay out three of the Bacon Strips on a cutting board.

2 Place Red Snapper Filet on diagonal across the bacon.

3 Lightly Salt and Pepper the Red Snapper Filet.

4 Roll the Snapper in the bacon, being careful not to let the bacon overlap.

5 Sprinkle One Tablespoon of Jerk Seasoning over each wrapped filet.

6 Heat an oven safe pan over Medium Heat.

7 Place the wrapped filets in the heated pan. Cook until bacon is nice and brown, about five minutes.

8 Carefully turn filets over, and transfer the pan to 350 degree oven.

9 Cook wrapped fish until cooked through, about 15 minutes, but this can vary depending on your oven and thickness of the filets.

10 While fish is cooking, place Cilantro, Hazelnuts, Vinegar, Olive Oil, Salt, Garlic and Red Pepper in food processor and pulse until a smooth paste, scraping down sides as needed.

11 Remove fish from pan and place on a plate. Add a good amount of the Cilantro Paste to the top of the Cooked Wrapped Snapper.

Enjoy

Shopping Choices.

2011-03-17T11:28:00.000-07:00

We always tell our friends when we have a bad shopping experince, but it is not often enough that we tell them about a good one. So here you go.

I live in Houston, so that means I have a lot of choices of where to spend my money. When I decided to re-launch this blog with the intention on being an outlet for my recipes I knew the plating and presentation would be important. I shopped around and found what I was looking for at Sur La Table. So now whenever I am around City Centre (this is a new store, I used to visit a different one), I will stop in just to look around.

When I was working on the Sriracha wings, I knew a remekin was in order for the dressing. After I put the chicken in the oven I ran over to Sur La Table to pick a couple up. One of the great things about getting all of my plates for the blog there, is that I can compare actual items together before I buy them. I bought them and returned home in time to get the wings out of the oven. As I was pulling them out of the bag I noticed that the price marked was not the same as what was charged. So I sent them a quick email just to let them know, as we were only talking about a couple of dollars, I was not worried about taking them back to get a price adjustment or anything. I instantly got an email back tell me to just give them a call and they would sort it out. I did and well it was taken care of in a matter of two minutes, no hassels or attitude.

I always liked Sur La Table to begin with, due mainly to selection and price. It is really nice to be able to go to a store and always get fast and curtous service, no sales clerks followng you around trying to sell you everything you dont want or need.

If you have not been there check it out, with the service I received this time, they have earned the spot of being my first stop when shopping for culinary items.

Tony

Sriracha Honey Wings with Cilantro Blue Cheese

2011-03-16T12:13:00.000-07:00

Some of the best advice I was given about creating menus and recipes was "Stay true to who you are, your food will taste false." Keeping this in mine, I was really in the mood for some wings this week. So well I made wings. I decided to combine my standard recipe that I use, which peope love, with Sriracha which brings it own flavor profile to the table. I am very happy with the results, and it goes great with the Cilantro-Blue Cheese Dressing (that recipe is just previous to this one).

Sriracha Honey Wings

If when you taste the sauce you find it a little to spicy for you, instead of adding more honey, try adding some dark brown sugar. It is a very nice addition that give the flavor a different twist. Instead of just salt and pepper, use your favorite spice rub, adds a lot of flavor.
Oven Temperature: 400°F

2 Lbs chicken wings
¼ Cup Olive Oil
salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
¼ Cup Sriracha
¼ Cup butter (no substitutes), melted
¼ Cup Honey
1 tbsp Lime Juice
1 tbsp Apple Cider Vinegar

1 Preheat Oven to 400°

2 Trim Chicken Wings if needed. Removing tips and separating wings and drumettes.

3 In Large Bowl toss wings with Olive Oil, Salt and Pepper.

4 Place on single layer in bottom of roasting pan.

5 Place in Oven for 1 hour turning about ¾ the way through.

6 In a separate bowl, Mix butter, Sriracha, Honey, Lime juice and vinegar.

7 Adjust sauce with salt and pepper.

8 Remove wings from oven and toss in sauce.

9 Serve with Cilantro blue cheese dressing.

Enjoy

Cilantro-Blue Cheese Dressing

2011-03-16T12:12:00.000-07:00

Cilantro-Blue Cheese Dressing

1 cup mayonnaise
1 Tbs minced garlic
½ cup Cilantro, chopped
½ cup sour cream
1 Tbs Lime Juice
1 Tbs Apple Cider Vinegar
¼ cup blue cheese, crumbled
salt and pepper to taste

Mix all items in mixing bowl. Adjust seasoning with salt and pepper. Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour for flavors to meld.

Yield: 1.5 cups

Stuffed Pistachio Crusted Pork Loin

2011-03-06T22:15:00.000-08:00

"At times our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person. Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us." - Albert Schweitzer

This is a quote in the front of one of my favorite books The Flavor Bible. It is really an amazing book to be able to cross refrence flavors when compling a dish. But I was stumped about exactly how I wanted to do this dish. I had a conversation with one of my favorite chef's who also happens to be my best friend. I trust her judgement and she brought the random thoughts into a cohesive dish.

Stuffed Pistachio Crusted Pork Loin

I wish I had gotten my sauce a little thicker.

When I decided to do a stuffed crusted pork loin, my original intention was to stuff it with dried apricots and cherries.Unfortunately, when shopping for the recipe, my store was all out of dried cherries. I chose instead to go with a Sun-Maid mix that had raisins, apples, apricot, peaches, plums and cherries.
Feel free to play with the fruit that you use for your stuffing, As well as the type of vinegar as well, trading the red wine forbalsamic.

2 Tbsp olive oil
1 ea shallot, sliced thin
2 ea clove garlic, sliced
1 ¾ cup Red Wine
1 ½ cup dried fruits (apricots, dates, raisins, etc.)
¼ cup Apple Cider Vinegar
¼ cup Red Wine Vinegar
½ cup sugar
1 cup Pistachios
½ tsp Red Pepper Flakes
1 each lime for zest and juice
3 lbs Pork Loin Roast
2 cups Chicken Stock
2 tbsp Butter
Salt and Pepper, To taste

Oven Temperature: 325°F

1 Heat Olive olive oil over med-high heat.

2 Add Shallots and cook till translucent.

3 Stir in garlic, red wine, dried fruit, apple cider vinegar, red wine vinegar and sugar.

4 Add salt and pepper to taste

5 Bring to a boil, then cover and remove from heat.

6 Allow fruit to sit covered for 30 minutes.

7 Place pistachios in food processor along with red pepper, zest of lime, 1 tbsp salt and 2 tsp pepper and process till mixture has a fine consistency.

8 Strain Fruit reserving liquid.

9 Cut pork loin roast in half , stopping ½ inch from cutting all the way through.

10 Lay open pork loin in front of you and place fruit mixture on top.

11 Fold loin back over and tie together with butchers twine.

12 With fat side up, generously coat tied loin with pistachio mixture.

13 Place in pan into 325° oven till thermometer registers 155° (45 min to 1 hour depending on thickness of loin)

14 Place reserved juice from fruit back into sauce pan along with 2 cups of Chicken stock.

15 Slowly reduce sauce to ¾ cup while loin is cooking.

16 When pork loin is at temperature, remove and allow to rest for 15 minutes.

17 While resting finish sauce, by adding lime juice and stirring in 2 tablespoons of butter. Adjust seasoning with salt and pepper to your taste.

18 Slice Pork Loin and serve with sauce.

I am truely a man of my word.

2011-03-04T11:06:00.000-08:00

So someone has been stongly hinting that they want me to make them some pancakes. Since I cannot physically make them for her right now I have decided to give her the next best thing. VIRTUAL PANCAKES! No ordinary pancakes will do for her though, so I offer this.

Evelyn, here are your virtual Blueberry Pancakes with Gingered Maple syrup.

Blueberry Pancakes w/Gingered Maple syrup

Use fresh blueberries in this pancake recipe of you can. When cooked they will pop in your mouth releasing their flavor.

For syrup:
1 Cup Maple syrup
1 oz Ginger-root; fresh; cleaned and julienned

Pancakes:
2 eggs, separated
1 ½ cups sifted all-purpose flour
2 ¼ tsp baking powder
3 Tbs sugar
¾ tsp salt
1 cup milk
3 Tbs butter, melted
1 ½ tsp vanilla extract
1 cup fresh blueberries, rinsed

1 Place Maple syrup and ginger in med saucepan.

2 Heat over Med-high until it comes to a boil.

3 Promptly remove from heat and set aside.

4 In a small bowl, beat egg whites until stiff; set aside.

5 In a separate bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, sugar and salt.

6 Beat egg yolks in a medium mixing bowl; add milk, vanilla and melted butter.

7 Stir egg mixture into dry ingredients; mix until batter is smooth and stir in blueberries.

8 Fold in beaten egg whites.

9 Heat pan over medium-high heat. Grease with butter.

10 Ladle ¼ cup (2oz) of batter into hot pan.

11 Place small hand full of blueberries on pancake.

12 When bubbles form in top flip pancake.

13 Finish cooking on other side.

14 Serve with Gingered Maple syrup.

Enjoy

Pork Chili Verde

2011-02-28T14:38:00.000-08:00

So when I gave my recipe for the tomatillo sauce, it generated a couple of questions. Could it be used as a base for a Chili Verde. As a big fan of this dish I thought about it and decided to see what I could do. I know this is not an authentic New Mexico Chili Verde recipe. I do not claim it to be. I do claim that it is authentic Anthony Messina Chili Verde. That is what I will stand by.

I started out with getting a definition of Chili Verde:
Pigonaspit.com says it is "Stew or sauce usually made from chunks of pork that have been slow cooked in chicken broth, garlic, tomatillos, and jalapeño peppers." while dictonary.com says it is "a stew of beef or pork, or both, flavored with hot green peppers." I had both of these covered.

I started with slow roasting my pork in my favorite dry rub with the peppers for added flavor and mde my stew based on this. I purposly cooked more pork then I was going to need so I would have plenty of drippings to add back in.

The six peppers looks like it is going to be very spicy but it has a very nice rounded flavor when complete.

Pork Chili Verde

The time it takes to roast everything adds to the flavors. You could probably just skip this and cube the pork and brown it. Remove it from the pan, roast the peppers then start the chili in that way, but that is not the way I like to do things. Respect the Pig. Allow it time to generate the flavors and you will be rewarded. My personal choice for rubs is a variation of the Perini rub from the book Texas Cowboy Cooking.

5 lbs Pork But bone in
¼ cup Favorite Dry Rub
1 tbsp cumin seeds
2 ea Jalapeno Peppers
2 ea Poblano Peppers
2 ea Anaheim Peppers
2 ea Medium Yellow Onion
8 ea Garlic Clove
salt and freshly ground black pepper
¼ cup Olive Oil
1.5 lbs Tomatillo, Fresh Rough Chopped
4 cups Chicken stock
3 tbsp Apple Cider Vinegar
3 tbsp lime juice, or to taste
1 bunch Cilantro tops

Oven Temperature: 200°F

To Cook the Pork:

1 Place Pork in a deep Roasting Pan.

2 Sprinkle with dry rub and cumin then massage into pork.

3 Place in center of pan, fat side up.

4 Peel an quarter one of the onions and place in bottom of the pan.

5 Place whole peppers, and garlic cloves around the pork in the pan.

6 Sprinkle liberally with salt and pepper and cover tightly with foil, making sure that the foil is not touching the meat.

7 Place in oven at 200 Degrees and allow to cook for 12 hours.

8 Remove pork from pan and set aside, strain juices from pan.

9 Set peppers, garlic and onion aside, and allow juices to separate.

10 Shred pork with fingers or 2 forks to desired size.

Assemble the Chili Verde:

1 Heat pot over medium heat, and add olive oil.

2 Chop remaining onion and add to pot, cook till starts to brown.

3 Turn heat down to medium and add Tomatillos cooking for about 5 minutes stirring occasionally.

4 Remove stems from cooked peppers, and add to pot along with onion and garlic that was cooked with pork.

5 Skim fat from reserved juices and add up to two cups to pot.

6 Allow to simmer for about 30 minutes.

7 Using a standing or immersion blender puree the mixture.

8 Stir in pork till you have the amount you would like to use, ( I used about 2/3rds)

9 Return to a simmer and add lime juice to taste.

10 Stir in chopped cilantro and adjust seasoning.

Serve over rice if you would like and enjoy! This makes quite a bit so have a few friends around to help you eat it.

Tomatillo Sauce

2011-02-25T00:07:00.000-08:00

Just a quick and small recipe. This is one I find that I use quite a bit. It is very versatile, and can be adapted to many things. I am putting it up now though as it is a small in integral part of a dish that I will be putting up shortly.

Tomatillo Sauce

This is really a straight forward recipe. I use it as a base for many things from here. If you would like feel free to add some cilantro or a bit of lime juice. I tend to tailor it to the dish. Many of the people I have made this for are fine dipping chips in it as a salsa. The key in the end in the salt and pepper to your taste.

1 tbsp Olive Oil
1 lb Tomatillo, Fresh Rough Chopped
1 ea Medium onion chopped
3 ea Garlic Clove, crushed
1 each jalapeno chiles, stemmed, seeded if desired and
minced
salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

1 Heat Medium saucepan over Medium heat.

2 Add Tomatillo, Garlic, Jalapeno and Onion.

3 Simmer until tomatillo breaks down and sauce thickens (about 45 minutes) Stirring occasionally.

4 Place mixture in blender and puree till smooth. (if adding lime juice or Cilantro this is the time)

5 Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Enjoy

Chicken in Vindaloo Sauce

2011-02-21T22:30:00.000-08:00

This is not a traditional Chicken Vindaloo in any sense of the word.But after working on it I really liked it. Let me say this though, I like all cuisines. I like Indian cuisine, but it can be a bit daunting. The cuisine is so huge you could take a lifetime to scratch the surface. I decided that I would try and make a different version of Chicken Vindaloo. I read a lot of different recipes and put them together to come up with this one. What I was going for was exactly what I got. I wanted to make a sauce out of the Vindaloo that I could pour over chicken and rice. Since the chicken usually cooks in sauce, I added some chicken granules to the sauce to impart that flavor. It turned out very nice. Keep in mind that most curry powders are different, and I make my own.

Recipe:

Chicken with Vindaloo Sauce

Servings: 2

I prefer to use skin on Chicken, for the crunch it adds, and to cook it in cast iron. Serve with homemade or store bought Naan. Use a homemade curry powder if you can, store bought works fine as well, just be ready to adjust the seasonings. The sauce makes enough for eight chicken breasts.

5 tbsp Olive oil
3 tbsp Garlic, Minced
5 tbsp Red Wine Vinegar
5 tsp paprika
2 ea Chicken breasts- Boneless, skin on
1 ea Medium onion chopped
2 tbsp Curry Powder
1.5 lbs roma Tomato dices
2 tbsp Ginger-root grated
2 tbsp chicken bouillon granules
½ cup water
¼ cup fresh cilantro chopped
1 each Lime slices, for garnish

Oven Temperature: 350°F

1 Mix together 3 Tbsp Olive Oil, 1 Tbsp Garlic, 3 Tbsp Red Wine Vinegar and 2 tsp of the Paprika in a non-reactive bowl. Add Chicken to this, cover and place into refrigerator for 30 min to 2 hours.

2 Heat a saucepan to med-high. Add oil.

3 When oil begins to shimmer add Onions and remaining garlic. Cook till translucent and just beginning to brown.

4 Stir in Curry Powder and remaining Paprika.

5 When mixture is evenly mixed add Roma Tomato. Reduce heat to medium and cover.

6 After tomato has begun to release their juice (about 5 minutes), Stir in Ginger and Chicken Bullion.

7 Add water and puree until smooth in blender or submersion blender, then return to pot on a low simmer and cover.

8 Stir in Cilantro, remaining Red Wine Vinegar and season to taste with salt and pepper.

9 Sauce can be held for up to three days in the refrigerator at this point and reheated when needed.

10 Cook Basmati Rice according to package directions.

11 Heat oven safe pan (I like cast iron) over medium high heat.

12 Add chicken skin side down and cook till skin is crisp (3-4 minutes)

13 Turn chicken and place in oven until cooked through.

14 To Serve place a bed of rice on a plate, place Chicken skin side up, and cover liberally with sauce. Serve with lime wedge.

Enjoy.

A Little Turnover

2011-02-17T22:46:00.000-08:00

In the February/March issue of Fine Cooking Magazine there was a recipe for French Apple Turnovers. It is very straight forward and simple, which made it easy to remember. And as Chef Alexander always said “If you know the method and technique you can make anything”

Tonight at work, we had a little spare time so I made a version of these for the staff. Sautéed Granny Smith Apples in butter. I then mixed in some fresh blueberries, cinnamon, brown sugar, granulated sugar and a touch of lemon juice. When everything was nicely cooked down, it was removed from the heat to cool. I grabbed a piece of thawed puff pastry and rolled it out slightly. The puff pastry was cut in half lengthwise, and the filling was placed inside of it. Brushed the edges in egg wash and folded it over to seal it. Egg washed the top, sprinkled a bit of sugar over the top and placed the filled puff in the oven at 350 for about 25 minutes till they were golden brown. After being removed from the oven and allowed to cool topped them with a vanilla bean glaze and sliced them up.

I got better compliments on these turnovers that everyone got a few bites of, than some of the dishes that we make them for dinner.

I will have to write down an actual recipe for this one.

So the dice are cast.

2011-02-15T22:26:00.000-08:00

Today I was asked and cast my dice. I like to think that I listen to people very well. I know sometime it may not seem like I hear them but I do. I have a few people in my life that have the funniest way of saying exactly what I need to hear at the exact moment that I need to hear it. Not when I am looking for advice or input, just general conversation, but they say something that clicks.

Last year I had a letter of recommendation written for me, at the interview, I was asked if I knew what the letter said. As the letter was sealed when I received and turned it in I said I did not (which was true). And I was told that the letter spoke very highly of my integrity. I figured this traced back to a competition that I won, where I could of taken credit for the win on my own, and the person that had worked with me would of been 100% fine with it. I shared credit for this with her, as she was an equal member of the team, and was just a part of the win as I was. Thank you Chef.

I bring this up because of who wrote this I have felt like since then I have to live up to it even more. Honestly works best. If you lie, you have to remember the lie. That in itself is harder than just accepting the consequences of your actions.

I don't take credit for work I did not do, and give credit where it is due.

Rewards are best when they are actually earned, and I won’t push my friends out of the way for my needs. It is not I don’t consider it "selfless" just honest.

Enough with the endless babble, onto the culinary side.

So chefs get a flavor profile stuck in their heads. When they do, they will sometime explore it till they never want to taste it again. I am in one of those modes right now. The victim is.......

Cherry Anise.
This may sound like a weird one, but one night it came to me and has been stuck with me. Jam, Sauce and even a cupcake. It is nice, the jam itself will can be used as a base of the sauce or as a cake filling when done right.

But for the dish with the sauce I see it going along these lines:

Placed on a bed of wild rice which carries a very nutty flavor would be placed medallions of roasted pork tenderloin. This would be topped with the Cherry Anise sauce, that has a touch of soy sauce added to it.

Be Safe.

Gambling

2011-02-14T23:44:00.001-08:00

I have been told many times that I am a gambler. Not with money, but with decisions. I take chances. When I make my decision I go with it.

I am a big fan of playing the cards that I am dealt. Anyone who has played poker can tell you that very few hands are winning hands. That is if you play the cards put in front of you. You have to also play the people at the table as well.

Dice are a little different. You make your bet then throw the dice. Where they land is your outcome. Win or lose you made your play.

What does this have to do with anything? Well it is life.

Sometimes you are dealt cards and you have to play them. When the hand is over you have to be able to look back and be able to say to yourself that you played the hand the best you could of. This may mean that you did not let everyone know the cards you hold. Standing fast hoping that the other person does not realize you are sitting on a weak hand, or on that you have all the cards and no matter how they play it, you are walking with the pot. Either way, you will learn something from the hand. Not only how that hand should be played, but also about your opponents.

As with dice, you have your choice, make your decision and throw the dice. Sometimes you come out ahead and other times you lose big. But without great risk you cannot reap great rewards. You stick with the decision till the game has ended. Then you can cash out and get ready for the next roll.

Where this is coming from is actually many fold. Many things are currently going on that make this analogy surface here. One is very recent that makes me very happy that I played my cards the way I did. The other makes me happy I threw my dice the direction I did.

I know this whole thing sounds cryptic and scattered but the meaning is there.

I remember most things of note that are said to me. I learn from them, directly and sometimes indirectly. Today I had someone say something to me that will most assuredly stay with me for a while, and made me realize that I did play a couple hands the correct way.

To paraphrase: Valentines may last for a day, but best friends are forever.

Quick Note.

2009-10-29T10:50:00.000-07:00

Been a Crazy week and I am very far behind on this. But it seems today that the crazy Americans made the newspaper. Last week we were invited to meet the Mayor or Orvieto. And well today we were in the Newspaper. La Nazione For October 29th. I picked up a couple of copies. I wish my Italian was better but I think the headline was something like Soon to be evicted Student Chefs meet Mayor. Okay just kidding. But I can't seem to find a link to the article on the web. So I will have to save a copy and do a color scan of it when I can.

Anyway I have a bit of updating to do when I get time I dont really have and was just told that i have another long day ahead of me tomorrow as well.

Be safe all

Tony

Busy week quick update Parma

2009-10-20T14:52:00.001-07:00

This weekend we took an amazing field trip. Chef Polegri had set up a trip for us to go to Parma and Tuscany. I was really looking forward to this trip. The plan was to go to a parmesan cheese factory a prosciutto factory and spend a night in Parma. This for me was a trip I was looking forward to.

We started the day with a long bus ride starting at four in the morning. We slept on the bus on the way there. When we woke up we were almost to the first stop of the day, the parmesan cheese factory. This itself was a real treat. I will admit it was not the place I was looking forward to the most but it became one of the top two places we visited for me. The amount of care ad time that our guide spent in explaining the cheese itself made the trip worthwhile.

The day before we left, there was a cheese seminar with John at Zeppelin. The information that he provided along with what was provided to us by our guide was a treasure trove. The nuisances of the flavors and how it was explained to us was helpful for the day ahead.

While there we were shown the entire process of making the cheese, for start to finish. We were allowed to taste some of the cheese fresh from the vat. After we were shown the other steps to the cheese making process, we were taken to the tasting room. In the tasting room we were given three samples of cheese to taste, these were a 12 month aged, a 24 month and a 30 month. You could really tell the difference between the flavors in each. One of the things I liked was that each was very distinctly flavored and even the difference between the 24 and the 30 month was discernible.

Our next stop was to a prosciutto factory. This was a stop I had high hopes for. I must say that our guide offered a lot of valuable information; the stop was overall a letdown. While our tour guide was still amazing for this leg of the trip, the location we went to was not so much. The staff seemed to have the attitude that us being there was more of a nuisance.

Then we stopped at a balsamic vinegar production facility. This stop was amazing. I had never known the flavor profiles of balsamic could be so intense. I am so used to the Americanized version. The amount of work and love that goes into it is right up there with wine. How the flavor profiles can be adjusted and played with.

The final stop of our day was Parma itself. I had the opportunity to walk to and around the city before dinner. It was really an amazing place. It was explained to me that Parma itself is a wealthy town because it has three of the major exports of the county, prosciutto, cheese and vinegar. The town was one of a kind. And a place I would love to visit again. This was just day one of the trip and it was amazing. Day two was amazing as well but for now the story ends.

Pisa the Adventure begins.....

2009-10-13T10:01:00.003-07:00

Pisa is a place I decided that had decided would be an excellent place for a first day trip. A three hour train ride coupled with the fact that al of the tourist attractions are all close to each other. Andrew, Rachel and Macey thought that this would be a fun trip as well so we agreed to head up there.

The night before I went to bed early enough, that a couple people thought I was upset at them. I knew it was going to be a long day. Little did I know exactly how long it would be….I mean what could go wrong we were just on a three hour tour, nothing ever goes wrong on those. I awoke at 0600 and was out the door along with Andrew at 0630. Well it appeared the girls were not ready. What a surprise……girls not being ready.

Andrew walked the streets and met a cat that will forever be referred to as “Ciao Cat”. This cat walked up the street saying “Ciao, Ciao”. I wish I was joking. We said Ciao and return and walked off looking for hidden cameras. The discussions from there were all over the place from architecture of the buildings and how you could see the deepness of the Italian culture from the respect they show for their history. We headed over to meet the girls, the down the hill to the funicular. The plans were loose at this point. Grab the next train to Florence, then to Pisa. See the sights and be done in time to catch the last train home to Orvieto. Good plan? Yea we thought so as well. But as the saying goes not plan survives the first shots of battle.

It had been many years since I had been on a train. The last time I was in Mexico. On the way to Mexico City. But that was at night and I slept a good part of the way. This was far different and much more memorable. The ride was almost hypnotic. The train was flowing very smoothly, almost floating. Looking out the window you see the scenery go by pastures, fields, old abandoned buildings and ruins here and there. As we pulled into Castiglion de Lago I looked out the window and saw a large lake with a hilltop “fortress” overlooking it.

This keeps bringing me back to my question of the people that love in these towns. This stuff is like their back yard. They see it every day. It must be rather unremarkable to them. To them is it just something in their back yard. I thought the same thing about Pisa as well.

We made it to Florence and realized we had a few minutes till our train to so we walked around and saw a local piazza till our train was ready. We then boarded our train to Pisa and were on our way. This is where the adventure really begins for this trip, and so in taking after a tv show….

TO BE CONTINUED……

Pisa....the intro

2009-10-12T01:45:00.000-07:00

Pisa turned out to be a wonderful place. Far more than expected. The trip was truly an adventure, that I will have to go into later today. Lesson learned today was that while we all know Italian stop signs are optional, so apparently are bus schedules. This leads us to our next lesson. NEVER plan to take the last train to your destination, when you are relying on other forms of transportation to get to it. So adventure is complete, we are all safe at hame. And Macey, Rachel and Andrew you guys are great travel partners. I will post the complete story when I have time later today.

Almost Two Weeks Already.....

2009-10-09T03:17:00.000-07:00

Hard to believe I have been here two weeks now. I have learned so much in the time. I also have much more to learn. As I had told people back home I have tried to immerse myself. I have a few others on the trip that feel the same way. And due to this we have met many great people.

Chef Polegri, teaches us everything we want to know about Italian cuisine, and has really an amazing energy in the kitchen. John, who teaches us the finer points of the culture, and behavior that he has learned, as well as making sure the kitchen and the food are shown proper respect. Eris is the one who lets us know the proper way to do things, when we are out in public. Vito Paulo is a great teacher of all things having to do with Italy, although some have expressed concern about the “content” of our lessons. Veronica, is a local barista, who is hilarious with a wonderful laugh, that teaches us more of the dialectical way of speaking. This is just a handful of the people that help us out every day. They watch to see who is taking their lessons to heart then help those out a little more, while the others are left more to their own devices.

So this Sunday is my first open day. I have put some thought into it and have decided that I will be heading to Pisa. While there are many sights to see there, I think that since I will most likely be going alone, or with one other person. I should be able to see some of the sights I want to see. These of course include the Leaning Tower, Paizza del Duomo and well this is the birthplace of Galileo.

The rest of the group are heading to Rome Sunday, but I think I will go off the beaten path for my first day trip. And have turned in my travel form to inform our instructor that I will be heading there this Sunday.

I am still up in the air as for my other trips. Sicily is on the list for my first long weekend, and I will be making those arrangements today with a couple other people that want to go. But after that I am open. Sardinia, Florence, Venice and Greece are thoughts. If I go to Venice I can stop through Verona on the way home and visit the statue of Juliet, and well…..look it up yourself if you want to know. For Florence I have to go visit a pig and give him a good nose rubbing (thank you Melissa for telling me about that one). For anywhere that I can train to, I will most likely go and see what I can see in a day. Or make multiple day trips to. Florence and Rome are on that list. I am about an hour and a half from each by train and the tickets are around 7 euro each way.

It is now noon here, and it is getting time to clean up for lunch, and I have class afterwards.

Ciao and Vito Bella,

Tony

First Impressions

2009-10-07T18:01:00.001-07:00

As I type this I am sitting on my bed in a room I share with two other roommates. Below us there is a music store. I have my window. The breeze is flowing in. The sound of people talking as they walk by mixes with cars and motorcycles. Amazing enough this is all being fed by its own soundtrack. There is a music store in the building below us and I can hear them playing right now. I do not think that this can be shared.

The culture here is amazing. It is so deep and rich it would take a lifetime to learn it. Experiencing it is the chance of a lifetime. As I had stated before I am taking every chance to experience it and not stand out too much. It is nice to see that there are others on the trip that feels the same way as I do. There are some that you can walk around the city and let everything flow. Try to take it in. Everyone here will be walking away with their own experiences. That is something that is obvious.

I will say this the wine here is amazing. Enough on that subject.

Our actual classes have started today. While I am here I will be getting credit in the US for World Cuisine, Classical European, Internship and Italian History and Culture, which will count as my history credit. I actually had an off day today, so spent the morning walking around with one person and when they headed to class after lunch I walked around with another. The sight sounds and flavors are still overwhelming at times.

So there are some I like to hang out with. We were sitting at a bar last night having fun. I was sitting with them talking and joking about things in general. And she said to me. I want to talk to yall but I wish my English was better. This lead to a four hour Italian lesson from her. And a really good time.

It is really late here right now and I started this yesterday. So want to get something up. I have about four or five that I have started but not finished.

So for tonight, That you for this translation Bonnie. “Vita Bela”