Airport Food

I am currently in an airport, and the question of what to eat arises.  Today I opted for a smoothie, where in times past the choice was always between various fast food options.  Those days are recently behind me, and the options for healthy dining are few and far between, hence the smoothie for lunch.  It seems kind of funny.  The options of food to choose from before being caroused into a confined metal box in the sky are the ones which cause the human body and its digestive system the most discomfort.  Not to mention, the possibility of personal discomfort might become the discomfort of others who have to share the same plane and the same air.

Airports are making strides to become more healthy, along with the rest of our country, but why has it taken so long.  And why shouldn't they.  An airport is the first introduction and last impression a city has to make on its visitors.  We are reaching the pinnacle of human sports performance, and or food system is slowly trudging behind those elite athletes. (I just read an article about the Olympics, and it seems pretty logical that at some point humans can no longer get faster, jump higher, or endure longer distances.) And depending on a city's particular sophistication and innovation, the food in the airport will follow in stride.

I will never cook in an airport, as far as I can see, but who knows what this crazy thing called life will bring next.  But with the changes in our American food system, I can only hope that soon we will be able to have the OPTION to eat healthier before we fly the fare skys of our great nation.

Happy Fourth of July.

Cheers!

Since we last spoke...

Waking from the nap and now beginning the stretch with purpose into the avenue which guides this ship of gastronomy, I was able to cook for a few good people over the past couple threeve days.

Every Tuesday @Pal's Lounge in Mid-City Taco's are served up for only a buck, not the male dear, but a tendered United States Dollar. The basic buck taco includes chicken, cheese, tortilla and beans with additional accouterments at the ready on a table with the napkins.  I was fortunate enough to cook there for a short-lived four nights, but left with a wealth of taco knowledge.

The key to cooking a good taco it seems is really the tortilla.  A good tortilla can go along way in the flavor of the taco, and is vital as a vessel of eatability to the other ingredients that should be so fresh, so clean.  Pure rustic flavors for a buck.  

Pal's Lounge

949 N. Rendon Street

New Orleans, Louisiana

#YeahYouRight

Good morning internet, that was quite a little nap.  Hope all has been well, it seems that you have progressed and made the lives of everyone easier and more transparent.  During my eight month cat nap I had a dream.  It was a roller coaster of a dream with ups and downs, sideways turns, and upward along with downward sudden shifts.  Making that dream tangible is where the journey begins.......

Steering the wheel of this dreamship called PPX New Orleans towards education and sustainability will be much like the dream I just had, a roller coaster.  Now that I have taken that ride, it can only become longer and better.

Eat this...

Un Voyage des Herbes et a Pastèque

If the divine creator has taken pains to give us delicious and exquisite things to eat, the least we can do is prepare them well and serve them with ceremony. 

- Fernand Point  

                          

Cocktail: 

Front-Yard Mint Melon Mojitos

Watermelon, Caramelized Mint Syrup, Essence of Orange

  

Amuse Bouche:  

Apartment Pickled Watermelon Rind, Smoked Scottish Salmon, Rosemary Tine

  

1st. Superb Summer Vermicelli Salad. 

Charred Anaheim Peppers, Shredded Carrot, Grape Tomato, Cilantro, Garlic-Chili-Lime Aioli, Shaved Red Onion

2nd. Penguin-Inspired "Chicken-Fried" Wheat Tempura Watermelon. 

Honey-Spiced Pecans, Avocado, Pinot Griggio Gastrique, Sprinkle of Rosemary Sel

3rd. "Scalloped" Potato 

Butter-Seared Brussels Sprouts, Smoked Scottish Salmon Salmon, Raining Basil Chiffonade

4th. Dessert N/A


FIN
____________________________________________________________

Wild Magnolia's Opinion...

Taking inspiration from mother nature is the easiest way to cook a good meal.  She has provided certain products during specific seasons for a reason, to make cooking easier.  Next time you can not think of what to cook, look in the garden, or take a walk around the neighborhood, and you might be surprised by what you'll find.  And if it grows together, it eats together. And this is where PPX New Orleans Began.

Eat Well, Cheers!

Matthew's Eggs Marigny

Food is an extremely contextual subject.  Making food based on the people who are eating it, and given the set of ingredients provided, it is up to the chef to make the context of people and ingredients into a meal of experience.  A Sunday by the pool was needing something else, a little brunch fare, and below is what happened.

Eggs Marigny

Soft Boiled Eggs, Herbed Oven Tomato, Muffin, Hollandaise

-Eggs

-Tomato

-Herbs

-Butter

-Vinegar

-Shallot

-Tarragon

-Muffin

-Desire

Cut the tomatoes into fairly thick slices, place on a rack above a sheet tray.  Sprinkle the tomatoes with both fresh and dried herbs.  Place in the oven at 350F for forty minutes, or until the top becomes wrinkly.  To make the hollandaise, begin by making a tarragon vinegar reduction.  Place tarragon stems, shallots, and vinegar in a small sauce pan on the stove and reduce until very little liquid remains.  Bring water to a simmer in a pot on the stove, add a little vinegar, and keep the liquid at a simmer.  When that vinegar reduction is ready, add it to two egg yolks in a boil, and whisk the bowl above the simmering water on the stove.  Whisk until the eggs are pale yellow, and have formed a nape (coats the back of a spoon).  Slowly add butter while whisking on and off the heat.  The temperature of the heat is important, as to not scramble the eggs.  Once all the butter is incorporated, add some chopped tarragon leaves, and set the bowl on a towel on the oven to remain warm.  Split the muffins and put them in the oven to toast.  Drop the desired amount of eggs into the water, and cook until desired temperature, on this day it was a soft boil which took around three to five minutes.  Remove the muffins and tomatoes from the oven.  Place the muffins on the plate, top each muffin with a slice of tomato, and place an egg on top of the tomato.  Sauce the eggs marigny, and enjoy with a nice blanc de blanc (white of whites). 

Fern Street All-Most Vegan Challenge

1st. Roasted Summer Squash Soup w/Chives, Truffle Oil

2nd. Tomato "Nigiri," al dente Brown Rice, Quartered Cucumber, Tomato Salad, Basil Blossom, Cane Vinegar, Amazing Pesto

3rd. Alabama Red "PeaCake," Sambal Crema w/Corn Dusted Okra Chips, Pea Echo

4th. Acadiana Honey Peach Compote w/ Room Temp Pineapple Local Hubig's Turnover

Picture N/A

Being a part of a community means one should engage the others they happen to meet in everyday life, at the end of a conversation, could be a friendship.  The Riverbend section of New Orleans is a good community, conveniently located near the HollyGrove Market and Farm.  The Hollygrove Market offers local sourced produce, neatly packed in a box each week on Tuesdays and Saturdays for a mere $25.  An understanding that farmer's and produce are the real stars behind the current American food insurgence, makes it easier to cook great food. Photos courtesy Wild Magnolia Photography.

Eat well, Cheers!

Burgers, Tater Tots, Oysters

It takes a birthday sometimes to realize the heritage of something, and last week America had a birthday.  As a cook, my feelings of admiration are best expressed through food, and a communal sense of enjoyment.  Cooking for America on her birthday is no easy task, especially in the city where Paul Revere and history meet to form the foundation of our nation, Boston.  For the menu it was simple, oysters, burgers, tots, tunes, family, and friends.

Burgers.  Having eaten hamburgers since the age zero, my burger palate has tasted quite a few hamburgers in the development of "my" hamburger.  It is a simple recipe of ground meat, salt, pepper, and patience.  Hamburger proteins are like coils of a phone line, and when you work them or manipulate the meat it stretches these protein molecules out to form bonds with one another.  When the proteins form bonds, the texture of the hamburger is more like a meatball or meatloaf than a hamburger.

Burger Method.  When buying meat, my preference is to have as much fat as possible in the chuck, and a little ground sirloin for meat-tastic flavor.  Handle the meat gently, forming patties, do not squeeze, just form.  Season generously with kosher salt and crack pepper.  Using extremely high heat at first, get a good sear or char on the outside, flip and continue cooking over high heat.  With both sides seared on high heat, depending on patty thickness, mine are rare in the middle.  Move to the low heat side of the grill, and cook until the internal desired temperature, with cheese or without.  Toast buns in the oven, serve with the appropriate condiments, and make sure to have amazing pickles.  The zing of the pickle, cuts through the fat and cheese of the meat, playing a symphony of America's culinary traditions on the palate.


Tater Tots.  Buy them from the store.  Cook according to the instruction on the package.  Serve with ketchup and hamburgers.

Oysters.  Buy a sack of oyster, keeping in mind that oysters harbor the terroir of the sea, and will taste uniquely different from different water spaces.  Crank the grill on high, and let roll for thirty minutes, until extremely hot.  Make the butter.  Combine room temperature butter with fresh thyme, asiago cheese, lemon zest, splash of white wine, and some sea salt.  Eat one of the oysters raw, to gauge the salinity and factor it in to the seasoning of the butter.  Place the oysters on the grill, and cook until they open.  As they open, pull them from the fire with a set of tongs, between the lips.  Pull the top shell away and let rest off the grill.  Top the oyster with butter, and put back on the flame.  Be careful, as the oyster shell shrapnel can be loud and abrasive, it't hot.  Be careful.  Once the butter is bubbling, in a minute or two, remove and serve with forks.

The Potato

Everybody likes a potato, or at least, most people like a potato in some form or fashion.  Whether it be baked potatoes, French fries, Mr. Potato Head, mashed potatoes or brabant potatoes, it is a friendly food.  And the best way to cook the best potatoes, is to use, the best potatoes.  Not talking variety preference or heirloom, but just a basic potato grown in the backyard.  Plant a potato, and a potato will grow.

Potatoes are tubers.  A tuber is where the plant stores its energy, which is why it's rich in carbohydrates and natural sugars.  It is not a root, as the root acts as the messenger, delivering energy to the plant.  Moving forward with the potato, we can break them into categories of mealy or waxy with the difference being water content.  The potato just below is a waxy potato, and further below, mealy potatoes.  When cooking the two, just remember waxy cooks best in water, and mealy cooks best with dry heat.

Steamed 

New Potatoes

- Potatoes

- Herbs

- Salt

- Butter

Heat the oven to 350F.  Place the herbs on the bottom of a tin foil sheet.  Lay the potatoes on top, and cover with another aluminum sheet, crimping the edges.  Cook until a knife pulls away easily from the largest potato, around 45 minutes or so.  When all potatoes are cook and still whole, press the tops of them gently to pop the skin.  Season with butter, salt, and herbs.  Pairs amazingly well with a roast chicken, salad, white Burgundy, and some tunes.

Local Blueberry Clafoutis

cla·fou·ti or cla·fou·tis  (klä-f-t)

n.

A baked dessert composed of a layer of fresh fruit topped with a thick batter.

The Clafoutis and I had met in years past, when my understanding of the French language was minimal (and still is), and my understanding of baking was non-existent (and minimal now).  It is similar to a cobbler in the United States, where a batter is encompassed by fruit and then baked.  Traditionally in France it is made with cherries.  To enhance the cherry flavor the pits are left in while baking, making it a cautionary dessert while eating.  According to Harold McGee in the book On Food & Cooking, "cherry flavor mainly comes from almondy benzaldehyde, a flowery terpene (linalool), and essence of clove (eugenol). Heating increases both the almond and flowery notes, especially if the pits are left  in the fruit."

Here is a recipe that should help in your understanding of the "French Cobbler."

.33C......Sugar

.25t.......Salt

.5C........Flour

1.25C....Milk

2...........Eggs

Vanilla Bean

Fresh Blueberries

Split the vanilla bean in half, and scrape out the inside with a knife or spoon.  Place the vanilla seeds in a blender with the other ingredients, except for the berries.  Blend until smooth, around a minute or so.  Butter and sugar the inside of the ramekins.  Pour a small amount of the batter in to the cups and place a few blueberries in the bottom.  Bake in a 350F oven until the berries begin to exude their deep blue-purple goodness, remove from the oven.  Pour the remaining batter into the ramekins, and dot with berries.  Place back in oven and cook until a knife pulls clean from the center of the clafoutis.  

*Note.  The reason for the berries in two stages is to create two flavor and texture profiles from the same product.  A blueberry will taste differently at various stages of the cooking process, and will also be texturally different with the addition of more or less heat.  Adding different notes of the same chord allow the berry to be heard as a symphony and not a one note wonder.

"Scalloped" Potato, Scallion, Tomato Basil Aoili

Pan Seared Potato "Scalloped" w/ Biased Scallions, Tomato Basil Aoili

Potato

Butter 

Salt

Scallions

Egg

Parmesan

Tomato

Thyme

Oil

Garlic

Fork, Saute Pan, Heat, Blender, Outlet, Oven, Bowl, Plate

Roast Idaho potato in oven at 350F uncovered for an hour or so, until just cooked.  Heat tomatoes under broiler to concentrate flavor, until most moisture is dissolved, let come to room temperature.  Bring garlic cloves to boil in water, three times, discarding the water each time it comes to a boil.  Combine eggs, garlic cloves, tomato, blanched basil leaves, shaved parmesan, and salt in blender, and blend until smooth consistency.  Begin to add oil in a slow drizzle until the sauce reaches the desired consistency.  Add chopped thyme, taste, and adjust seasoning with vinegar and salt.

Peel just cooked potatoes, and fork them into a bowl, handling them as little as possible.  Fold a little flour and room temperature butter in with salt.  When seasoning is correct, form little scallop-like patties, and sear off in hot oil until golden brown, flip add fresh thyme and finish in the oven.  Cut the green onions or scallion on a 45 degree angle for a biased cut.  

Sauce Plate, Scallop, Scallion.

Alchmey Defining Food

Alchemy

al·che·my 

[al-kuh-mee]

1. A form of chemistry and speculative philosophy practiced in the Middle Ages and the renaissance and concerned principally with discovering methods for transmuting baser metals into gold and with finding a universal solvent and an elixir of life.

2. Any magical power or process of transmuting a common substance, usually of little value, into a substance of great value.

dictionary.com


The Alchemist
 
By Paulo Coelho, Alan R. Clarke - HarperSanFrancisco (2006) - Paperback - 197 pages


My Heart Is Afraid that it will have to suffer," the boy told the alchemist one night as they looked up at the moonless sky."Tell your heart that the fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself. And that no heart has ever suffered when it goes in search of its dreams."Every few decades a book is published that changes the lives of its readers forever. The Alchemist is such a book. With over a million and a half copies sold around the world, The Alchemist has already established itself as a modern classic, universally admired. Paulo Coelho's charming fable, now available in English for the first time, will enchant and inspire an even wider audience of readers for generations to come.The Alchemist is the magical story of Santiago, an Andalusian shepherd boy who yearns to travel in search of a worldly treasure as extravagant as any ever found. From his home in Spain he journeys to the markets of Tangiers and across the Egyptian desert to a fateful encounter with the alchemist.The story of the treasures Santiago finds along the way teaches us, as only a few stories have done, about the essential wisdom of listening to our hearts, learning to read the omens strewn along life's path, and, above all, following our dreams.

The Alchemy of Dry-Cured Flavor

by Harold McGee.On Food & Cooking.

Some of the muscles' biochemical machinery survives intact, in particular the enzymes that break flavorless proteins down into savory peptides and amino acids, which over the course of months may convert a third or more of the meat protein to flavor molecules.  The concentration of mouth-filling, meaty glutamic acid rises ten to twenty fold, and as in cheese, so much of the amino acid tyrosine is freed that it may form small white crystals.  In addition, the unsaturated fats in pig muscle break apart and react to form hundreds of volatile compounds, some of them characteristic of the aroma of melon ( a traditional and chemically fitting accompaniment to ham!), apple, citrus, flowers, fresh cut grass, and butter.  Other compounds react with the products of protein breakdown to give nutty, caramel flavors normally found only in cooked meats (concentration compensates for the subcooking temperature).  In sum, the flavor of dry-cured ham is astonishingly complex and evocative.

Charred Sea Scallop, Watermelon Pistou

It was a small bite by the Sous Chef to amuse the guest's palate, and a canvas for the sea to meet the vine.  The Sea Scallops where dry pack, seasoned well, and met the hot grill with enthusiasm.  The watermelon pistou was made earlier with some reduced watermelon, pine nuts, oil, and a few herbs.  The dish was finished with watermelon matchsticks, goat cheese, and black sesame seeds.  Stop by Martinique Bistro www.martiniquebistro.com for a bite of creativity.  Cheers.

Branden & Jenn's 3rd Annual Memorial Day Parte'

Dominoes is a game where you stack chips in a  strategic way in order to beat your other opponents.  Or you can line them up and see what happens when the first one is let loose.  When the chips are stacked right, the party just falls into place.

I was graciously invited via a flier to a Memorial Day Parte' this past week.   Starting out in a new kitchen is always a journey in itself, but bringing people together outside of work in a social setting eases the transition into the resturant family.  With all of the service industry involved, the food and booze were not going to run out, or they might have, but I had to leave early as I started with a sprint towards the finish line, as opposed to a casual jog.

Booze:  Gin Box with turkey basters, Dos Equis Keg, Natural Light, Bud Light, Rum, Vodka, Daquiris, Soda, Water, Abita Amber, and many other craft brews on ice.  The list includes what I saw, but certainly is not inclusive of all that was offered.

Food:  Boiled Crawfish, Oysters on the half shell, Venison Sausage, Jicama Slaw, Buffalo Chicken Dip, Chips, Corn & Poblano Dip, Smoked Hamburgers, Asian Tomato Pasta Salad, Sausages, Salad, Cheese Dip Extravaganza, and many other delicatble food offerings.

The driveway provided a perfect setting for sitting, eating, drinking, and conversating about many a different subject.  One young lady chose to break out a melodic improptu song, which caught the ear as a good meal catches the palate, clean and pure.  Arriving at the party, I knew only a handful of people through work, but leaving the party, I gained a new perspective of people who seem to enjoy the same thing as me, LIFE.  New Orleans writes its own script for a good party, and the narration of this event left my heart proud and my head a little imbibed.

Thank you again to the gracious hosts for an amazing Parte'.

New Orleans Pierogi

This is an older post from my days of cooking at PRAVDA! While I am no longer there, the TRUTH! Pierogi will always be near one of my menus.

Got some amazing produce in yesterday from the HollyGrove Market, which included some broccoli and goat cheese curds.  The curds are amazing from Ryal's Dairy.  The taste is something like a country version of American Feta, with a certain tang, chalk, salt. The flavor takes well to seasoning other dishes as a component, or simply served by itself with some honey, cilantro blossoms, toasted cumin seeds, it can be an amazing component to a harmonious orchestra of flavors for the palate.  So, this thinking lead me to the following Pierogi ideas.  Broccoli and cheese are amazingly classic components, and we happen to have both of them on hand, along with some fresh made Pierogi dough.  So today, Goat Cheese Curds w/ HollyGrove Broccoli Pierogis.

Yesterday, Linda brought me some amazing foraged parsley, cilantro blossoms, sage flowers, and mustard green blossoms.  They are pure ingredients, which make it easy for people like me to cook.

If the divine creator has taken pains to give us delicious and exquisite things to eat, the least we can do is prepare them well and serve them with ceremony.                                    

Fernand Point  

It is the unlikely story of a guy from New Orleans, trained in French Cuisine, making Pierogies at a Russian Absinthe bar in the French Quarter.  But like life, there is no formula, just make it happen.  So here is the recipe that I have been using at PRAVDA! If you have any questions, shoot me an email and will get to the answer for the both of us.

PRAVDA! Pierogie Recipe

    - 4.5C All Purpose Flour

    - 2C Sour Cream

    - 2T Melted Butter

    - 1T Oil

    - 2Each Eggs

    - 1Each Egg Yolk

    - Salt

Combine sour cream, butter, oil, and eggs in a bowl; whisk until mixture is smooth and lump-free; salt the flour; make a well in the center of the flour; pour sour cream mixture into center; incorporate into dough; let rest 15 minutes at room temperature; pinch off and roll out into desired size.  Place them into some berrling water until they float...done.  Pierogie!

If this is too much, the recipe conversion factor can be used to scale it up or down.  For instance, if you only have three cups of flour, divide three by four point five, then multiply the other quantities by that number to yield your new recipe amounts.  If you get stumped, convert all the measurements into the same category, i.e., 1C = 8oz; 1T = 0.5oz; 1 Large Egg = 2oz, etc.  Just use the intraweb and find the needed conversion.

    Once you conquer the dough, it becomes a blank canvas for flavors and imagination.  At the top is a quote from my Gastronomic Hero, Fernand Point, he shaped the way we eat.

For those of you about to cook, we salute you.

Riverbend Supper Club 5.24.2011

The Dinning Room Ceiling

Foraging For Berries

The day started off like any other day, with a dog walk, but the dog walk today ended with a bounty of fresh local produce from the Hollygrove Market.  Breaux and I decided to make the walk down to the market, a mere 2 miles, to retrieve my bicycle.  Upon reaching the Hollygrove, Breaux got a bowl of water, and I got to work with some of the vegetables in setting up for the Tuesday Market.  Once the volunteering was complete, and veggies in hand, we walked back to the house to plan for the evening's supper club.

It was a bright idea at the time for an adventure, foraging.  So we set out, map in hand, to find some of the resources of the neighborhood.  It seems my math is a bit off and most of the citrus trees had stopped bearing fruit a month or so ago.  So onto the levee for mullberries and blackberries.  But the river had swallowed up much of the green space between the levee, where the fruits are usually ready and willing to be cooked.

Mike's Seafood Market

So we foraged further, and this time it was a sure shot, the seafood market.  Ended up with fresh catfish, and some beautiful white shrimp.  So the meal was set, we have potatoes, tomatoes, squash, onion, garlic, herbs, and seafood.

Heirloom Tomato Chips, Basil Flowers

Port and Mint Roasted Potatoes

Local Shiitake Brown Rice

Shrimp, Squash, Kale Stirfry

Sherry Cured Steamed Catfish

Tomato, Basil Flowers, Salt

Potatoes, Port, Mint, Salt

The food was cooked, people ate, drank and conversated.  Keep your ear to the grindstone for the next Riverbend Supper Club.

Cheers

Eat Local, or Else.

Starting June 1st the New Orleans Locavores are challenging New Orleanians to eat food from within a 200 mile radius.  It is a message which has taken over much of the rest of America, and now finally we start to seeds of healthy food being planted in New Orleans.  Eating from within two hundred miles is not that big of a challenge, as it is a commitment.  Before refrigeration, people ate what Mother Earth provided, and the confining mentality of "gotta have it now" did not exist.  So challenge yourself, to eat healthier for your community.  The only requirement is the ability to ask questions.  Next time you are in a restaurant, ask where the server where the butter comes from, or where the onions are grown.  Just think about it like wine, where local variations in temperature and geography affect the taste of the juice.  And next time you are in a "local" supermarket ask why 75% of the food is not from here.

Checkout the Website for Details

www.nolalocavore.org 

North African Tasting Menu

Introducing or being introduced as a "chef" usually leads to a fair amount of questions, with the number one being "What is your favorite thing to cook?"  And while this seems like a simple question, and it is, it litcherally renders me speechless half the time.  Trying to convey in a few sentences, what the feeling is like to make another person happy through food and wine ends up being a mumbled rant on whatever I just read.   My go to recipe, depends on the company and context of which I am currently with or employed by.  Any region, any cuisine, any time (with advance notice).

An example.  I am currently creating a seven course North African tasting menu to be held on Thursday June 9th on the shore of Bayou St.  John   Drumbeats, spit roasted lamb, wines, and amazing conversation seems to be my answer dujour (of the day) for the next few weeks.  Here is the menu, and we have six spaces available, chat me up for a space.

North Africa On The New Orleans Bayou

Amuse Bouche

First

Manti

(Turkey)

Spiced Dumpling, Lamb, Bulgur, Herbs, Yogurt

Second

Hlelem

(Tunisia)

Summer Vegetable, Red Bean Soup

Third

Msoura

(Morocco)

Beta Carrots, Cucumber, Herbs

Fourth

“Ghaliyeh Maygoo” Tagine 

(New Orleans/N. Africa)

Local Seafood, Local Vegetables, Cous Cous

Fifth

Mechoui Lamb, Cous Cous

(N. Africa)

Spit Roasted Leg of Lamb, Raisins, Pine Nuts Herbs

Dessert
TBD

Martinique Bistro, my new culinary home.

Martinique is located in between State and Nashville on Magazine Street in New Orleans.  Stepping inside the intimate setting, the only indicator of your urban surroundings are the cars which can be heard passing by on the other-side of the ivy clad brick wall.  The dinning room features amber lighting and inviting colors, to increase the personal experience of each guest. The food, well the food is clean, pure, and original.  Focusing and elevating the flavors of a French Caribbean island, the plates look as good as they taste.  It will be an opportunity to meet the expectations of which both the staff and beautiful surroundings have put forth, with the end result being, a superb dining experience for the guest.