Time for Fall salads

First Fall Salad

Well it is fall (not in Houston) but hey I have fresh figs and kumquats from the garden so……

Fig Salad

10 each           Figs, trimmed and quartered

2 each             Kumquats, thin sliced

¼ cup               Fennel, shaved

1 T                   Almonds, chopped

¼ cup               Queso Fresco, crumbled

1 T                   Balsamic Vinegar

1 T                   Olive oil

1 T                   Local Honey

To taste           Kosher Salt & Pepper

1.     Scatter the figs, kumquats and fennel on a platter, arrange casually

2.     Sprinkle almonds and cheese over the platter

3.     Drizzle balsamic, olive oil and local honey over the entire platter

4.     Season with Kosher salt and fresh ground pepper

5.     Serve and enjoy

"Winter" weather - means warming side dishes

Chicken Roasted Vegetables

Well the temperature has finally fallen here on the Gulf Coast to 50ish during the day, at least for a few days. Which means fall/ winter hearty cooking is happening in the Kitchen. It is time for soups, stews, braises and all those comforting dishes that signal a change of season. This has to be one of my favorite food times of year, as long as I don't have to shovel snow!

The other evening Linda cooked one of her classic roast chickens for us to enjoy with a lovely glass of Cahors Red from France.  My job was to make the sides - but I did not work to hard, so I let the chicken do the cooking. The recipe will follow - I diced up some onion, fingerling potatoes, celery root and crimini mushrooms, tossed them in olive oil with salt, pepper and thyme. Placed the entire mixture in the bottom of the roasting pan under the chicken that was on the rack above. Allowed everything to cook the full 1 hour the chicken roasted, removed the chicken. Placed the roasting pan on a medium high burner, added a 1/2 cup white wine and deglazed the pan, scrapping the good bits until the wine had almost evaporated. Transfer everything to the serving dish and "boom"one side was done, with out a lot of work. ;-)

RECIPE

1 C         Mushrooms, quartered
1/2          Medium Onion, large dice
12 ea       Fingerling potatoes, large dice
1/2 C       Celery root, large dice
1 T           Olive Oil
1/2 t         Thyme, fresh
To Taste   Kosher Salt & Blk Pepper
1/2 C        White wine

Place all the ingredients into a large mixing bowl, toss to coat and distribute evenly.
Place mixture in an even layer in the roasting pan under the roasting rack for the chicken.
Place prepared chicken on rack, roast for 1 hour
Remove chicken and let it rest
Place the roasting pan with vegetables over a medium high burner, stir add white wine, deglaze the pan until almost all the wine is evaporated
Transfer to a serving dish

It is Fall - what we are drinking right now?

Blackberry Mule

What we are drinking right now – for Fall

We have been really enjoying the somewhat cooler weather here in Houston. (Temps south of 90 always good with lower humidity. Blackberry Mules – a tasty way to enjoy a cooler evening on the patio. Here is our recipe

Blackberry Mule

2 oz.                Tito’s Vodka

1 oz.                Fresh Lime Juice

½ oz.                Simple Syrup

¼ oz.                Balsamic Vinegar

5 – 6 ea.          Fresh Blackberries (or substitute 1 oz. Tropics Mixology Wildberry Acai)

as needed       Crush Ice

2 oz.                Goslings Ginger Beer

1 ea.                Lime wedge

1.     Build in a copper mug, add the Tito’s, lime juice, simple syrup, balsamic and the blackberries, muddle until well combined

2.     Fill with crush ice

3.     Top with ginger beer, stir once

4.     Squeeze lime wedge and serve

*Note if using the Wildberry Acai omit muddle and simple stir to combine

For all your culinary and beverage needs - www.jwd-consultancy.com

My cooking style – it has evolved over 35 years

My cooking style – it has evolved over 35 years

Yep, a question I get asked a lot, what is your favorite thing to cook? And what is your cooking style, how would you describe it? Two of my favorite questions I get when people find out I am a chef.  As for my favorite thing to cook, anything in season right out of the garden or from the farmer’s market. I truly get inspired by the food I see, it made it really tough to wander the food halls in France last fall and not have a kitchen to cook in on the trip, next time! I think this desire to cook what is fresh and in season really stems from the power of the seasonal rhythm. I always ask chefs what their favorite food season is and why? Mine, it is a tie between Spring and Fall. Spring the new awakening in the garden, the early vegetables, and bright flavors that signal a new beginning. As for Fall, the comforting warmth and earthiness of the harvest bounty. I love the slow cooking of stews, soups and hard squashes, root vegetables and the aromas that are a clear sign of moving into the winter slumber. So you can see that by shifting to a seasonal mind set for me it has informed my larger cooking style of simplicity. Cooking with fewer ingredients has continued to drive my culinary approach at home and even at work. Over the last 10 years I have really found the sweet spot for me of trying to stay with in 6-8 ingredients or less when creating a dish. I have also challenged the chefs working for me to strive to self edit and reduce the number of ingredients as well as number of steps. It can be a real challenge to achieve this balance of simplicity that delivers an amazing finished dish.  What it does is allow the best ingredients possible to shine through in the final plate. I have found over the years that unnecessary ingredients can have a tendency to “muddy” the flavors in a dish. Stripping the recipe down to it basic fundamental flavors and then rebuilding it with fewer ingredients can and usually delivers a far superior result. It has become second nature for me to approach cooking this way each and every meal at home, even if I am working off a recipe from someone else, I usually tweak it to be less ingredients and more about the focus of the quality I am putting in the dish. I will leave you with a fall example of how I cook, Fig, roasted beets and Pear Salad. The fig tree is still booming with fruit, combined with a ripe pear, perfectly roasted beets, all sliced and arranged on a plate, drizzled with EVOO, Fig Balsamic Vinegar, cracked black pepper and kosher salt, that is it. The flavors come together on the plate to create a beautiful bite of fall, you can feel the crisp cooler air moving in and the leaves turning.  Cooking this way for me continues to be a journey, because each new / fresh ingredient inspires me to listen, learn and grow.  Being a chef is always about learning and loving the life we live.