cooking

Portland – Unnoticed in Tv food competition?

So I want to get some more experience in culinary competition. At first I thought I would try to toss my hat in on Chopped or Top Chef and give it a try. While doing this I thought I would look up some notable competitors to try and talk to, and get some tips or at least talk strategy. Doing my little research I looked up the past contestant list of both shows ( Chopped and Top Chef ). Not masters or teen of something or other until I realized something.

Between the two shows from their inception to the end of 2013 there has not been one single winner from Portland, Oregon. Now I have also found out the reason for this. Between the start of both seasons to the end of 2013 there has not been a single competitor from my fair little slice of the world. More then seven hundred people have tried between the two shows without a single one being from Oregon.

If I seem to be mistaken then please let me know. When every other state is represented by at least a half dozen only for one state to not have one seems a bit odd and a mistake by people who have to pick the people to go on their shows. I cannot say whether it is on purpose or on accident. It does not really matter to me, but where it does is that you cannot really say that it is truly in the spirit of competition.

Just something to think about.

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Stuffed Chicken with cheddar and mustard sauce

So with this recipe your going to need the following for one plate

2 4oz portions of boned and skinned dark meat chicken, 2 oz cheddar, 3 slices of bacon, olive oil for pan frying. For the sauce add a tablespoon and a half of dijon mustard, a tsp of honey, and a quarter cup of heavy cream.

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So start out with your pan on medium heat and begin to cook your chicken after both sides have been flipped and cooked through. Stuff them with cheddar and let it sit for a moment while the bacon cooks. Drain the pan of your fry oil before dropping your bacon in to the pan. Cook your bacon through while making sure that it does not turn to glass. This will be the layer between your sauce and the chicken.

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While this recipe is very rich the sauce should have a very refreshing bite. Either from the horse radish and acidity in the mustard or from additional seasoning. Other ways you can roll it is using addition of chives or cayenne pepper for additional color. The light heat of the seasoning or the fresh aroma of the chopped chives adds anew dimension to this. When you make the sauce all you have to do is put it all in a clean pan let it simmer after whisking together until the volume decreases by a third to a half.

Layer your bacon on top of your chicken and pour the sauce on top of the bacon gently then enjoy. So hope you enjoy and hopefully after eating this you get one step closer.

 

 

 

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Murphy’s law and cooking rules.

The law of whatever can go wrong will. This has been as close as a lover to the world of cooking. In my most recent work to finish the souffle I was buttering up the ramikin to bake in only to have it hit the corner perfectly against the floor. I being of the mind where I don’t need many copies of items and when I do not make souffles for many. So until I get a shopping trip in for new ramikins and plateware the souffle will be on hold. As well now I will just be dropping recipes at random.

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Progress Report 3/1/13

Hello, all and here is what got done.

The team is practicing for the magic grand prix, but not letting that stop us we decided to down our sodas and raise our game with new videos. Hate mail Magic Turn Phases 106 and Shooters and Grinders 2 with Senore Rage Face. We have more videos coming so if your bored give us a view, we appreciate it. League of Legends has begun to make it in to the training schedule, as it stands we are still far out from our goal, but updates will be given when needed.

http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAhAm0XR8eWUBkselQoowfw

So next time for recipes we will have a two for one with sweets.

One is the classic souffle this time paired with a fruit sauce with the other being a surprise cupcake that  my roommate and I had made for a convention before.

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As the Year Goes On

So at the beginning of the year most of us made resolutions to keep ourselves on track with a specific goal. As the time goes on some of us are closer while others are less so. As it stands I have a lot of things coming including a new set of shirts on zazzle, new videos oncoming within a couple days ( Planet of Gratuitous Sarcasm for table gaming videos ) New pictures on deviant art, and a new recipe with a story behind it in the next post ( The Earned Sandwich). Writing is still going on and pictures have begun for the cookbooks.

How was your year everybody. Have you made progress toward your causes?

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Eggs Magda: Start by gathering the following ingredients. 2 Jumbo Eggs, 1/4 cup Green Onions, 1/4 cup grated Gruyere cheese, and 1 tablespoon Dijon Mustard. At the end of this recipe you should have a very smooth cheesy set of scrambled eggs that is very nice on a slice of toasted wheat bread.

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Start by cracking your eggs in a pan over medium low heat and whisk in your dijon mustard.Image

You will want to break up curds with a small whisk scraping gently from the bottom of the pan as it cooksImage.

After the color has changed you want to add the cheese and turn off the heat. Whisk it all together until it melts before finishing with the green onions. Whisk together and serve.

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Simple but delicious. Serve with toast and bacon for a breakfast of champions.This recipe was for one portion. When making multiple portions though there is not much change in the process to make it.

 

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Some of the hardest people to cook for

 In a kitchen there are two major problems. One is you find out that you have a table of food critics and the other is you have a table of true cooks. Not those that announce that they have been cooks for years because often times those that do that in a restaurant are about as good in a kitchen as a critic. I am talking the old school been there thirty years and have forgotten more about food then most people know.

One can utter a word based out of stupidity and the business dies the other can tell exactly what you are doing by the plate. So you have to be on your “A” game because your little tricks will be on full display to them.

What is surprising is critics often have no culinary experience to draw from and that is the norm. You want the best food then you go ask a cook. This article may seem a bit harsh, but I do agree with the point.

http://gawker.com/5913046/food-critics-are-worthless

Food critics to be food critics are just not that good you can either go to sites where you can get a wider range of experiences or you can just ask a cook where he would go to get some good grub. If in a city a cook is impressed enough to respect the food he is given then that is the highest show of respect.

What is sad is that it is a very rare moment where a food critic that gets respected in the writing circles has actual kitchen experience. The same is true for health inspectors. Often times you do not need any experience to become one. You could see though how past experience in a kitchen would help when you need to grade it because if you know all the tricks then you know where to look.

Cooks can really be useful in a lot of different aspects if you think hard enough, but that is true in nearly any job.

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A New Year comes..

Over the past year I had done quite well with my resolution. I had gotten further to my goals then any other year before hand. On top of that I managed to stay off the streets so that is a plus ( A few weeks in 2012, I had gotten a good camping experience in the urban realm so to speak.)

With the new year once again I wish to get closer to my goals. So that would be my resolution and what that means is a bunch of smaller things I am aiming for because if your going to make a resolution, might as well go big.

Da list

Get cookbook published

Get a MtG Grand Prix or Pro Tour top 8 finish

Start my cooking blog

Start my cooking videos

Get pro wrestling training

Make enough money of my writing to have as a job

Draw more (100 for the number)

Make money off the zazzle store

Get more social

Hold executive chef status  – ( I have been every thing else including baker and dessert chef, but the big hat seems to elude me)

Get in to more cooking competitions

L.o.L team gets set up and starts winning tournaments

Get my music recorded ( small project just to do it)

Make a couple new inventions

Get in better shape

Ya. It’s a list of stuff to do. Joyous 

Got to keep going big. Use your typing instruments to tell me your big goal for the year. If we can help each other then next year all of our resolutions may just come true.

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Here is a picture of my trout sauteed in honey lemon sauce and finished with almonds. Have a great year everyone ! 🙂

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Working in a national park

For those who have never had the experience of working in a park let me tell you what it is like. You and a group of people living, working, and hanging out together. I worked at Mount Rainier as a cook for a couple seasons. If you do not have a car then you will be stuck in one spot a lot or you will get really good at organizing car pools. If you want to work one to get a try of it be aware it is seasonal work, bu often time working the full season will allow you unemployment.

There are some good things about it though. I met a lot of people there that I would have never talked to otherwise. My friends list is beginning to look like a United Nations cast. You will to as for the most part people do not want to burn bridges here. I’m not that much of a social person, but I have gone drinking with Turks, ran obstacle courses with a blond Canadian, worked on cars with the Sengalese, and partied with the Jamaicans, not including the times I had with my British, Chinese, Thai, Czech, and other American friends I made here.

I got my camera working now and here are some of the pictures I took while I was on the Mountain for the 2013 season

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If you like the view then you will like working in parks. Many times they have things you can do provided you are not working. Writing or drawing pass the time quite well. You have to bring your own entertainment, but some areas in park have wi fi for workers only.

Hope your holidays went well. Just needed to put this up and get some nice pics on here.

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Hitting the books – What I want to write

As I may have alluded to I want to do some publishing somewhere before my funeral.

One is something called 100 Ingredients: Home Edition. This book would be just talking about how different ingredients are handled and common applications over different recipes. This is going to be for people who are not the most comfortable in the kitchen. I was hoping to do more books in this line of thought with different sets of ingredients. That’s putting things too far ahead though. People who know how to cook will have something to gain from reading it. It has recipes in it, but it will be more focusing on the ingredient so you ( the readers ) can come up with your own recipes a lot easier.

The second is called Life, Love and Cooking. It is set up so you can read one page for every day of the year and it goes over dishes, experiences I have had in the kitchen, Working in the industry and some of the adventures I have gone on. Other cooks can laugh at some of the mistakes. People who want to get in the industry know some of the goings on. People who burn water will hopefully not and every one wins.

The typing is done on both and I have gotten some good returns from agents just not good enough to be contract worthy. Yet.

So tell me what you think of my book ideas? Like? Hate? Let me know because I would like to know.

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