Any questions you have about food or cooking, please email me at kyle@rusticpalate.com
Any dishes or items that you struggle with or would like a step by step process on how to cook or prepare, please comment on this post or email me at kyle@rusticpalate.com and I could put on my list of items to post about…
I will admit that even though I have lived in South Louisiana majority of my life, I am not a huge fan of Seafood. I didn’t eat my first Shrimp Poboy until I was 19 years old. 12 years later, I am still picky on Seafood that I will eat. A couple years ago, Sam’s started selling Tony Chachare’s Brand Gulf of Mexico Wild Caught Shrimp in frozen 3 lb. bags. I told myself, this is a great way to incorporate Shrimp into some of the meals I cook at home and slowly accept and eat Shrimp all the million different ways it is prepared around this area. And at that time, a Lake Charles family was and still may be the supplier of Tony Chachare’s Shrimp so I was happy to support their business. The other night we were making baked potatoes and we always pair it with a protien….grilled chicken, pork chop, steak, or brisket. My meat supply is low so I opted for the kryovacked bag of Gulf Shrimp that i portioned a while back ago from the 3 lb. bag of Tony Chachare’s Shrimp. I knew this would be harder for me to eat compared to my wife because of my sensitive seafood palate and frying wasn’t an option that night. The goal was to make these shrimp as flavorful as I can to eliminate the notion that I would just eat a few and get tired of the seafood taste quickly and resort to only the potato. The result was, I ended up eating 2/3 of the shrimp and went back for more in the pan when i was done with round 1, but it was gone.
Keeping the rule of letting the main ingredient speak for itself, I knew I just needed some flavorful ingredients to bring it to the level that I would desire a taste for. This was new territory for even me as I always have a preference of hiding seafood that I eat behind a crispy breading and ketchup or some other flavor dominating sauce. I followed the concept of creating a sauteed shrimpt that I would eat at a restaurant that was topped on a great steak. This type of exercise is crucial in the cooking process….having a mental goal and vision of what you want the end product to look, smell, and taste like. That’s a good enough preface. Let’s make some Shrimp!
Ingredients: Gulf of Mexico Shrimp 31/50 Count: 3/4 of a pound of it, 4 Tbs. Butter, 1/3 cup Red Onion (Small Diced) 3 Tbs. Fresh Garlic (Minced), 1/4 cup Green Onions (Chopped), 1 Tbs. Blackening Seasoning (Paul Prudhomme’s Magic Blend), 1/4 cup Lea & Perrins Worchestire Sauce, Kosher Salt Cooking Equipment: 12 in. non stick skillet
In the skillet, melt butter on medium heat stirring until fully melted, turn heat up to medium high, add red onion and saute until transparent 4-5 min., add garlic and saute for a couple of minutes, season with a little Kosher Salt, add shrimp, stir really well to incorporate all ingredients, add blackening seasoning and stir again, cook for 2 minutes, add worchestire sauce and stir all together for a minute or so to develop a little sauce with all the liquids. Turn off heat and add fresh chopped green onions and stir once more….Serve immediately. Seeing how quick the cooking process on this is, you really can do this at the last second after what ever you are serving it with is prepared. The goal is not to brown the shrimp, but to just cook until done and keep the tender texture of perfectly cooked shrimp. Serve over baked potato, grilled fish, grilled chicken, your favorite Steak, or simply eat with Hot French Bread!
Spinach! Spinach! Spinach! Used to hate it….was a curse word as a child. Now I could consume this version of it weekly. In an effort to bring some new vegetable options for dinner at my house and after enjoying the Sauteed Spinach w/Panchetta and Porcini at 121 Bistro, I was inspired to add this to my vegetable aresanal quickly. Ridiculously easy, especially if you follow suit on items from previous posts. It’s amazing how easy to cook stuff like this when you have everything you need in house to bring it together. Let’s do this! Ingredients you need are Fresh Spinach, chopped bacon, roasted garlic, chicken broth or stock, S&P. On the Spinach, talking about the big container they sell (pic below)
Start out by adding bacon to the pan and cooking on medium heat until crispy.
Next add the Roasted Garlic and saute for a minute or so to let the flavors start releasing.
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After that add a little chicken stock to fill the bottom of the pan. Add some S&P and cook this a little bit until the liquid reduces by half. Smash up some of the garlic cloves during this process. This is key to the flavor of the finished product. Pic to the right is reduced.
Now you are ready to add the Fresh Spinach, FYI, it is best to saute the actual spinach right before you are going to eat it or serve to guest. You still want it to have a fresh vibrant green color to it. It only takes maybe 2 minutes to cook after you add the Spinach. So what I do is I usually get it up to the reduced stock step with the bacon and garlic and turn the heat off. Then when everything else I am cooking is done and ready to eat, I turn the heat back on, hea the pan up and then add the Spinach. Add the spinach a handful at a time and mash it down to the pan. After all of it is added, using tongs, start folding it around and replace the spinach that is at the bottom of the pan with the spinach that is on the top. Watching the areas that are cooked and uncooked and keep introducing the raw crisp pockets of spinach to the bottom of the pan where the heat is. Keep folding it around until it is all of the spinach is wilted. The spinach will release its natural liquid into the pan and that is fine. Below are pics from raw in the pan to fully cooked. As stated once, wilted, shut off the heat and serve immediately.
Most people perceive grocery shopping as simply something they have to do to stock food in their kitchen pantry and refrigerators. Make a casual list, walk into the store and just start piling in the cart. After being somewhat of a professional grocery shopper for about 8 years now, I developed a system that would get me in and out in the fastest way without forgetting anything and with organized steps along the way. I used to walk in Albertsons 6-7 days a week when I used to do alot of catering and personal chef stuff so I was able to develop this system with lots of practice. Below is an organized and efficient way to minimize the headaches of being in Wal-Mart for a long time.
First thing is to make a list. I would start making a rough draft list 2-3 days before you go. That away as additional needs pop up, you add it to the list until you feel like you covered everything you need for this trip. Looking at expiration dates on perishables can help put something on the list that may surprise you in a couple days….ie bread, milk, sour cream, salad dressings, etc…After you write out the random list, get another grocery list paper thing that you write on. This new paper will be your final grocery list organized in catergories based on items and where they are located in the store. Below is the order I write the list out from top to bottom and acquiring these items in same order.
Taking Wal-Mart for example where we do most of our staple items shopping, I list toiletries and non food items first on the list. They are usually all on the left side of the store. This includes anything that is not a food item…air filters, light bulbs, clothes, stationary, diapers, etc…Stack these in the back of the buggy under the child seat area. The next part of my list is heavy drinks or liquids. When acquiring these items, place towards the front of the buggy. You will be able to place them on the conveyer belt at the check out line first and they will be the first items in your buggy after rung up. This prevents a case of bottled water or laundry detergeant from crushing chips, bread, or other soft items that are already bagged up in the buggy. Next are pantry foods, room temperature items that do not require refrigeration. Keep these items together in the middle of the buggy. The next items to gather are all your cold items. You want to gather these last to minimize the time they are away from refrigerated or freezer conditions. It will also help in the long run if you have other stops prior to going home. These items too need to be kept next to each other in the cart. Last would be your fresh fruits and vegetables. They are not as crucial as keeping cold as the ones before, but you don’t want to damage them being stacked underneath other items.
Upon check out, just like you grouped the different items together, I recommend stacking them on the conveyer belt at the check out line in the same groups.. starting with the heavy liquids and larger items. The cold stuff will all go in the same bag and help keep each item cold. When stacking the fresh fruits and vegetables together, the cashier will be weighing all those items one after another and get in somewhat of a zone….versus having to weigh items every 5 or 6 items she rings up. Believe it or not, this helps the cashier do their job faster.
Lastly, when you get home, your groceries are organized in the white bags in their respective categories to make for easy unloading and storing in pantry, freezer, and fridge.
Through out the development of this blog, I will try to post items that are relevent to the time of year we are in. Being that we are in Winter right now, I will try to post hearty recipes that you can have fresh on your mind and will be appealing to cook in the near future. When I take trips to the grocery store in search for something that I have not cooked in a while or have never attempted, I find it best to pick out one ingredient and build my meal around it. A few months ago, I was feeling adventurous and stopped at Albertsons (Country Club Rd.) on the way home for work. I had been craving Asian food for a while and wanted to get my fix. I walked straight back to the Oriental/Mexican area searching for something to stick out. I noticed a new product line of sauces in the corner. They had one called Coconut & Chile Curry Sauce. Jackpot! This is what I was looking for. Something with bold fresh flavors in it that Liz and I enjoy. I grabbed the sauce and then ran through my mind what other ingredients to incorporate to make a killer meal. I knew a rice would be a key component to this dish and before I headed to the rice/pasta aisle, I noticed some boxed rice items on the Oriental Aisle. They had one that was a Coconut & Ginger Basmati Rice w/a seasoning pack. This was worth the shot. I was concerned about having too much coconut going on in the dish, but I believe it worked out in the end. Next was to get some crunchy vegetables to stir fry. I chose red onion, red bell pepper, zucchini, and fresh cilantro. I had 2 chicken breasts thawing out at home and I was set.
Ingredients to use for this dish: 2 Chicken Breasts, 1 Jar Housekeeping Brand Coconut & Chile Curry Sauce, 1 Red Onion, 1 Zucchini, 1 Red Bell Pepper, 1 Bunch Cilantro, 1 Box Coconut & Ginger Basmati Rice
Tools to use for this dish: Wok Pan (Bed Bath & Beyond), Japanese Mandolin ( a contraption/tool that helps cut vegetables and potatoes into different sizes in a consistent manner…available at Oriental Food Market on Ryan St)
Since this dish is really simple to prepare once you have the ingredients, I don’t really have a written out recipe for it. Basically, you slice the chicken in thin strips, slice the vegetables, use the mandolin to slice the zucchini in julienne strips, and chop the cilantro and your ready to start cooking. Heat the wok on high heat until literally smoking, add some olive or canola oil, then add your chicken. Brown/cook the chicken in the wok until pretty much cooked through. Season with some Kosher Salt, remove from pan, add vegetables (except cilantro) and cook for just a few minutes. You want to still have some crunch to them. Season with Kosher Salt. Then add the chicken back to the pot and add the jar of curry sauce and simmer for a few minutes allowing the flavors to develop. Follow the directions on the rice box and cook simultaneously while making the chicken curry. In a shallow bowl or plate, plate a serving of rice, then spoon some of the chicken curry w/veggies along side it, but not necessarily on top. Then garnish w/fresh chopped cilantro. Normally, I would suggest having some fresh lime wedges to squeeze over this dish, but the curry sauce already have enough lime/citrus flavor in it. Pics of a progression of cooking the dish are below.
Prepped Itemsveggies in wok
veggies in wok
curry in wok
plated dish
I caught wind yesterday that my mother in law was cooking a white chili for dinner. Never heard of this but was interested to know what the base components were in this dish; cheese, cream, cream cheese, etc to make it a “White” chili? I was already set to cook something with chicken last night so I googled White Chili and found a couple recipes www.foodnetwork.com Turns out that White Beans are the core component and thickening agent for a White Chili. Both recipes called for standard base soup components: onions, garlic, herbs, spices, and a stock or broth, but then they both went in their own directions from there. I picked the one with simplicity since this would be my first run at it. When I do recipe research, I never intend to follow it to the T, but more so get my bearings straight on where this dish is going, what the flavor components are, important parts of the recipe, and then I just use my skills, palate, and instincts to make my recipe version of the dish. Beyond the onion, garlic, and stock, it didn’t have that much more to the recipe; just cumin, chili powder, ground coriander, roasted chicken, white beans, cilantro, and fresh lime juice.
Being that this was a ridiculously easy recipe to execute and long cooking methods not required, there were only a few key steps to maximize flavor and overall quality of the dish. The first was the roasting of the chicken. I am fortunate to have 2 Convection Ovens that have convection roast or convection bake settings. I heavily seasoned 2 chicken breasts with Kosher Salt, McCormick Grill Mates Chicken Rub, and Roasted Garlic Olive Oil. Then roasted them in on convection roast at 400 degrees for 25 minutes. These were boneless skinless breasts. The roasting of these helps the outside of the breasts brown nicely, intensify the flavor of the rub and salt while cooking, and releases these flavors once shredded and put into the chili. The other was smashing of about half the white beans after adding to the pot to help thicken up the chili. Below is a pic of the finished product in the pot. Want the recipe? Email me at kyle@rusticpalate.com
