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

Best Wings Ever! From Chicago with love from Linda

These are the best wings ever and a go to for us whether at home or at the cabin in the UP. They are not my creation but a wonderful recipe from my Chicago born love, Linda Krantz. When we met several years ago she introduced me to her favorite wing sauce that was from her home town of Chicago. Uncle Dougie's wing sauce is like nothing I have had before, a little sweet up front, malty and good punch of pepper heat on the finish.  The best thing is she does not fry the wings but oven roast them after marinating for at least 24 hours.

They are so good I have had these as my birthday dinner before! Here is her easy to follow recipe below so get some Uncle Dougie's  (we say Doogies but don't tell Uncle Doug) - you can find it online and in the greater Chicago area at most grocery stories - or do what we do - bring back to Texas in our luggage when we visit family!

1 bottle           Uncle Dougie's Wing Sauce (see below)
3 lbs                Fresh Chicken Wings


1. Marinade the chicken wings in a large container with a lid for at least 24 hours, shake the container  every couple of hours
2. Empty contents of the container - wings and marinade on to a foil lined baking pan
3. Place in a pre-heated 450 degree oven - cook for 1 hour
4. Remove from oven and plate up - serve with your favorite ranch, blue cheese or some other salad that will cool you down
5. Enjoy with your favorite beer or wine - these are great!

Thanks baby for making me a Uncle Dougie's fan

                                                       www.jwd-consultancy.com

Rolling in the Greens!!! Final winter crop harvest.

Well here is the final harvest for the winter crops - collards and kale. Both slow cooked for 6 hours in the crock pot (sorry I am too busy to tend a dutch oven on the stove)  Recipe to follow - this is easy simple and oh so delicious greens to make

"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

Thai Basil Pesto

Thai Pesto

What do you do when you have this much Thai basil – make a tasty pesto that will be great with noodle dishes, ramen and curries.

4 cup               Thai Basil Leaves, loose packed

½ cup               Cilantro, including stems

1 cup               Almonds

½ cup               Garlic gloves

1 oz.                Fresh Ginger

1/8 cup            Rice Vinegar

1/8 cup            Fish Sauce

¼ cup               Toasted Sesame Oil

1 T                   Kosher Salt

1 Tsp               Black Pepper

1/2 cup            Olive Oil

1.     Place all ingredients in a food processor except the olive oil, and pulse until a paste starts to form

2.     Slowly add the olive oil while pulsing the processor, continue until all olive oil is incorporated and then pulse another minutes to full blend the ingredients

3.     Remove and place in a container with a lid, store refrigerated fir up to 30 days.

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.