Preparations Begin....

Saturday night the team and I from Wicked Tasty will further our cooking chops and cater a fun event at Lynn Arts. It is An Evening with Carolyn Cole and it is the talk of town. Proceeds will go towards arts programming in Downtown Lynn. The evening will start with cocktails and hors d'oeuvres at 7p and Wicked Tasty will make it's savory cooking debut. I am really excited about our menu and feel we have touched upon the season.

We all had some influence on the menu, even if it were just one ingredient we talked about or an entire dish, I tried to incorporate something the team said they liked or that they would like to learn how to make when finalizing the menu. Now, those who know me well, know I am a major control nut when it comes to my food, but was able to relax slightly and utilize ideas the Wicked Tasty crew gave me.

I know you just can't wait to hear what we're making, so here are a few things that will be part of the night.

Watermelon, Feta and Mint Salad:
For this salad, we will dice (brunoise) fresh watermelon and dice Greek feta cheese. These two ingredients will be lightly tossed with fresh squeezed lime juice and chopped fresh mint leaves. The salad will be served in cucumber cups and finished with a sprinkling of lime zest. The end result will be that savory, sweet and tart we look for in food with a crisp and cool finish. Great dish for a hot night.

Beetballs:
Really excited about these. A coworker of mine introduced me to a great cookbook filled with vegetarian burgers and when trying to come up with some different passed appetizers, I thought why not make one of these burgers into bite size pieces. I love the idea of a beet burger especially since beets are in season right now. Our beetballs will have goat cheese, quinoa and flat leaf parsley. The tang from the goat cheese will be perfect for the sweetness of the beets. They will be served with a pistachio pesto.

Beef and Cheese Empanadas:
Michel Roux wrote an amazing book called Pastry, that I have blogged about before. I knew I wanted to incorporate one of his pastries on our menu. The team suggested empanadas and so we will be doing beef and cheese empanadas using the Tart Dough recipe from Pastry. These little pastries will be filled with ground beef that has been cooked with diced onion, diced tomato, fresh oregano and allspice. Cottage cheese and sharp cheddar will be added at the end, making a creamy middle for these empanadas.

Those are just a few things we have planned. There are a few more tricks up our sleeves as we head into Saturday night. Preparations for the event start tomorrow and I look forward to a fun filled day of chopping, dicing, peeling, baking, rolling and of course cleaning that tomorrow is sure to offer. I will post pictures of the food over the weekend along with the full recipes.

Where's the cheese?

On Saturday, mom and I hit the Rose Kennedy Greenway and did a little shopping. It was the second week of the Greenway Market and the waterfront was buzzing with tourists, trolleys and food trucks.

Being a big fan of the food trucks, I told mom we should try one of the trucks. We stopped by the Grilled Cheese Nation truck. Outside was an A-frame chalkboard with their menu and everything sounded delicious. From the basic Boston Common to the Brie Me Up, the small menu got me excited to try this food truck solely dedicated to grilled cheese. Since, I love Iggy's Rye bread, I decided on the In Gouda We Trust, which was mushrooms, caramelized onions and Gouda on Rye. We ordered our food and the price seemed way out of line. I remember thinking we could have walked to the Fort Point and got a bowl a pasta from Sportello for what we paid for a grilled cheese. Mom went in search of a shady bench and I waited for the sandwich and waited and waited. Finally, the girl handed me to small pouches with our sandwiches inside. They smelled good and I was excited to open the pouch up and bite into that Rye. When I opened the sandwich, the bread was thinner than expected, but it smelled good. I took a bite and thought "where's the cheese?" and "is the new caramelized onion supposed to undercooked". I think we all know what a caramelized onion should look and taste like, caramel in color and sweet to the taste. This sandwich was not worth the money, sorry Grilled Cheese Nation next time I am aching for a grilled cheese sandwich I will just make one at home. Here is my recipe for my All Dressed Up Grilled Cheese.

Makes 2 sandwiches

4 slices of either Brioche or Challah, sliced 1/4 inch thick
2 tablespoons whole grain mustard
4 slices of extra sharp Cheddar Cheese
1/2 cup arugula
1 cup confit tomatoes or 4 thick slices of Heirloom tomatoes when in season
cracked black pepper
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

Get a saute pan on the stove and brush the entire pan with the melted butter. Put the heat on medium. Lay the bread slices out and spread all slices with the mustard. Then divide the other ingredients among two slices of bread, starting with the cheese, then the tomatoes, then arugula and finally a turn of the pepper mill and then top with the other slice of bread. Place in the pan and cook on each side about 4 minutes, until golden brown. Enjoy!

Even though I had a bad experience at one truck, it won't keep me away from visiting my favorites. If you are ever in Dewey Square during the week, you need to visit Clover. It is excellent, vegan/vegetarian options galore and seasonal lemonades as well as the best rosemary fries. Then there is the Bon Me truck, which specializes in bahn mi, Vietnamese baguette sandwiches. There are all sorts of fillings for these delicious sandwiches. The truck also offers noodle salads and rice bowls. If you're looking for some good coffee, Lincoln Street Coffee has truck dedicated to ensuring we all get out caffeine boost. These truck make appearances at SOWA Sundays as well as at various markets and squares around the city. Be sure to check them out next time you're walking around the city.

Not Your Mama's Pasta Salad

Back when I was at Johnson & Wales, I worked at Hospitality Dining Hall. Every Friday, Saturday and Sunday I would wake up early and feed the students of our school. This dish brings back all the memories of working at Hospitality. From fluting mushroom challenges, to making vats of Ranch dressing and who can forget the pig roast. So much fun was had working with Lemon, Jini, Danita, Chuck, Mark, Chaco, Cecily and the one and only Chef Dave. Lemon and Jini who know who I am talking about. I believe Chef Dave was the reason we wanted to to work at hospitality.

It was Chef Dave that taught me this next dish. It was early Spring and pretty warm out. We were prepping for Saturday dinner at Hospitality and I was working Garde Manger until Chef Dave pulled me aside and asked if I could make some kind of pasta salad. He told me to grab his book and find the recipe for Greek pasta salad in our Johnson & Wales recipe book. As I read through the ingredients and method of prep, the only thing that made it Greek was the Feta, but it still made for a delicious pasta salad. I can still remember Dave showing me how to chiffonade the basil leaves, talking me through each step of the recipe. The end result was a pasta salad almost to good to be eaten in your backyard. The ingredients all work together brilliantly and over the years, I have adjusted this recipe to my liking and have used it for many backyard barbecues. Here is my recipe for Greek Pasta Salad with a little help from Chef Dave....

Serves 8 people as a side dish

1 lb Rotini pasta
2 cups cherry tomatoes, washed and sliced in half
1/2 cup pitted kalamata olives, rough chop
1 teaspoon capers, washed
1 tablespoon both fresh basil and fresh mint, cut chiffonade
1/4 cup good quality extra virgin olive oil, Greek if you can find it or Portuguese is good as well
1 cup cubed feta cheese
salt
pepper


Place a pot of salted water to boil pasta. While pasta is cooking, in a large mixing bowl, combine the tomatoes, olives, capers, herbs and pinch of salt and pepper. Cover and set aside until pasta is done. When pasta is cooked, strain and add directly to the mixing bowl of goodness. Toss everything together and add the oil. Ensure all the pasta is coated. If you need more oil, don't be afraid to add it. Just before serving, taste and adjust seasoning, then fold in the Feta cheese. This can be served at room temp or right from the fridge. Enjoy!

It's Cookie Time....

Recently, I took on a new and exciting project as the pastry chef for a a baking company based in Lynn called Wicked Tasty. I am very excited to join the team and start baking cookies with my new staff! Wicked Tasty is a non-profit organization with two goals; to provide training and career services for low income families and to produce some amazing and affordable food. I want to send a huge "thank you" to Caleb who is the brain behind this endeavor. His passion is inspiring and I look forward to working with him. Be sure to check out the Wicked Tasty Facebook page and "Like" it so you can get all the latest information about this program.

Now the question is what kind of cookie should we start with? On my drive home the other day I thought about what makes the perfect cookie. For me it depends on the cookie. The perfect chocolate chip cookie is crisp on the outside and when broken is gooey in the center with a slight hint of salt. A shortbread should have that golden glow and crumble when broken. A classic French Macaron should be crisp on the outside and then airy throughout and they should always be filled with some kind of delicious buttercream. Should we talk about biscotti? Biscotti should have that crunch when bitten into from being baked twice and they should always be able to stand up to being dunked in coffee. I could probably go on forever talking about cookies as cookies are classic treat.

What type of cookie should Wicked Tasty start with? I could always go classic and do a Milk Chocolate Chip Cookie or maybe even an Oatmeal Cookie with some dried figs and spice. Or, a Shortbread Cookie could be fun or maybe Lime and Cornmeal. What about an Oreo cookie or maybe a Double Chocolate Chip Cookie with dried cherries and maybe a bit of Maldon Salt.

All you cookie monsters out there send me your suggestions Let me know what your favorite cookie is!

Brownie Cupcakes with Ga Ga Ganache

Last week we celebrated Niki's birthday!! I had the pleasure of making the cake or in this case, the cupcakes. I knew that Niki always gushed about the cupcakes at a famous, shall we say, butt kicking cupcake shop in Davis Square and I wanted to recreate one of their flavors for her. Frankie pointed me in the right direction and that was to the " super chocolate", which turned out to be a chocolate brownie cupcake with ganache and chocolate shavings. He also said I could add my own spin to it, and Niki's Brownie Cupcakes with Ga Ga Ganache were born. Here is my recipe for these decadent delights.

Makes 12 full size cupcakes or 24 mini cupcakes

Cupcakes
4 oz unsweetened baking chocolate
1 1/2 sticks of unsalted butter
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon finely ground dark coffee
1 cup flour
1/4 cup dark chocolate chips

Ga Ga Ganache
8 oz heavy cream
4 oz semi sweet chocolate
4 oz dark chocolate
pinch of espelette pepper or you can substitute pinch of ground chili

! dark chocolate bar for chocolate curls


Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and prepare your cupcake pan with paper liners and I always say the funkier the better. Something with Ga Ga Ganache would be great with leopard print cupcake liners! Set up a double boiler by filling a saucepan with water, bringing that to a simmer and placing a heatproof bowl on top. Be sure the bottom of the bowl does not touch the water as it may burn the chocolate. Melt the chocolate and the butter together ensuring the two are completely melted and combined. Turn off the double boiler and remove from the heat. Using a whisk, add the two types of sugar and whisk together. When combined, add the eggs, vanilla and coffee. When the mixture looks smooth, add the flour and stir. Do not over mix the dough or the tops of the cupcakes will crack. Fold in the chocolate chips and get ready to scoop. Using a standard size ice cream scoop, divide the batter among the twelve cupcake liners. Place in the oven and bake for 12-15 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean when pierced into the middle of the cupcake. The tops will be crackly like a brownie. When they are done, take out of oven and let stand on a rack for ten minutes. After ten minutes remove from the pan and let cool completely on a rack.

While cupcakes are cooking, scald the heavy cream in a saucepan. Cream is scalded when tiny bubbles form all around the rim of the cream. Place the chocolate and espelette in a heat proof bowl and pour the hot cream over it. Whisk together ensuring all the chocolate is melted and there are no lumps. The chocolate should be glossy. Place in the fridge to cool for at least an hour.

Using a peeler, make curls with the dark chocolate bar by peeling back and forth on the side of the bar. I typically do it on a piece of parchment paper and it is best to use room temperature chocolate, it creates big curls. If you have hot hands like me and they are melting the chocolate, rinse them under very cold water and wipe them dry as you are peeling the curls.

When the cupcakes are done, it's time to pipe. Place ganache in a piping bag with no tip and snip the bottom about 1/4 inch off. I piped the ganache in the center of the cupcake as I wanted some of the brownie top to show. No need to go too crazy as the ganache will be covered with curls. When done piping, divide the chocolate curls among the twelve. Pour yourself a nice cold glass of milk and enjoy!