A few weeks back, I was invited to a fun local event hosted by Green and Black’s to launch their latest bar, Spiced Chili. What I took away from the evening was lots of creative ideas and inspiration to incorporate chocolate into intriguing savory dishes. Not only were delicious desserts on hand, and information on pairing chocolates with alcohol, but Chef Jill Houk challenged and inspired us to think out of the box when cooking.
Believe it or not with the holidays approaching, I’m not really feeling tons of desserts now. I’m coming down off a very hectic two months of catering and work commitments, and all I seek is savory comfort in my kitchen. So what did I decide to do? I took my inspiration from Mexico and used a grated bar of Green and Black’s Spiced Chili , which is seasoned with star anise,pink peppercorn, cloves,juniper and ginger , to make a mole like braise for an inexpensive cut of beef. All you need is a good grater or micro plane, a cast iron pan or dutch oven, and time to make this fantastic meal, which will leave you saying Holy Mole ( pardon the pun).
Green and Blacks Spiced Chili Pot Roast...Chocolate as Savory
Starting a business is not as hard as one thinks, and with catering, all I need besides my pots, pans, knives, and right hand assistant, is a reliable gadget. I have no money for sales and event coordinators, etc, so I have to wear many hats in executing events for Coco Cooks. A typical inquiry comes over via email from my website, I check my email, set up a time to talk, write-up a proposal, negotiate fine points, and show up. With the LG Intuition it makes all so easy. I can market my successes via social media, reply in lightning speed to clients, save excel documents with costs on Polaris Office, take pretty good pictures on the fly, save recipes on my Evernote account,calculate, make lists, send texts to staff about event details, run credit cards on Square,etc…. Get the drift? I think this is just the tip of the iceberg, and if I had the time I could find countless more uses.
This week I had the opportunity to cater for another Consul General, that’s two Consul General clients now. This was a sit down dinner for 15 people in a fabulous duplex penthouse overlooking the lake and city of Chicago. Being a start-up , I rely on my right hand, my cousin Inda, and friends to help me out. And boy did they help out. After plating the main the main course we had ourselves a high-five behind the kitchen doors. It’s a great feeling to hire my friends and give them new experiences as we all in the process of reinventing ourselves. It’s this spirit that attracted our latest client to us. They liked not only our food, but self-starting spirit, and team work.All that positive energy shows in our food. I hope you had a blessed Thanksgiving. I know I did.
Here was the Menu for the latest event.
The winner of the Walmart Give away is….
Nicole Larsen
Her biggest mishap was:
My biggest mishap was not having all the food done at the same time. So now, I do as much preparation that I possibly can the night before and I also have everything (cans, bowls, etc) set out for the next day!
Disclosure: I am participating in the Verizon Wireless Midwest Savvy Gourmets program and have been provided with a wireless device and six months of service in exchange for my honest opinions about the product.
It’s hard to believe our national day of thanks is next week. I chuckle when hear people stressing about, what to me is , a day of cooking for pure love and joy. And truth be told, I prefer a cozy lazy holiday with just Certain Someone and I to indulge in good food, with no drama or timeline pressures. Not everyone has that luxury. This post is about mishaps on the big day. I can’t say I’ve had a serious mishap on Thanksgiving , but I’ve had them when entertaining for large crowds.The most recent ones have occurred over this past summer with the new gas grill. We had two dinners planned for very important clients and colleagues of Certain Someone’s. No one except the repair man on the adjacent property will ever know how my special juniper cured pork belly were burnt to a crisp black ash. I mistakenly left the temp on high on one direct burner as I rushed downstairs several floors below, to prep the other courses. The poor repairman kept knocking on the terrace door believing it was an one level apartment and I couldn’t hear him. By the time I came up to check on my supposedly slow grilled bellies, they were a lump of black coal and the man was smoked out while trying to do bis job on the terrace next door. He didn’t even turn the knob to cut it off. I panicked for a second, and went to plan B, taking a frozen belly out , cleaning the grill, and starting over. The party and the food went well. Lesson to this is font sweat the small stuff and just carry on. It wasn’t the first time it happened. Imagine a similar scenario a month before with my hand made sausages.No matter how much you plan and stress, mistakes happen.
We chefs and cooks take our successes and failures personally, because we put so much into what we do. But the key is to learn from the mistakes and move forward. Also, to be open to learning and receiving tips from others. One Thanksgiving I roasted a gorgeous crispy goose. I like to change it up from traditional turkey. Everyone was curious about my offering and how it would turn out. An older aunt called me the next day and asked me for the goose fat. I was perplexed as to why she would.want all that fat. This was years ago, and while I was a good cook, not where I am now.She was quite upset that I discarded all that precious golden goose fat. Seems old southern folk lore has uses such things as remedies, and not to mention cooking other great dishes . Goose or duck fat potatoes anyone? I learned a few things from that incident . So listen to the wisdom.of your older elders, don’t stress, pay attention to details, pour a glass of wine and relax.Remember that scene from the movie Eat Pray Love when she prepares a Thanksgiving for her Italian friends . They cut into the eagerly awaited turkey and it’s frozen inside? No worries. They all chilled, put the bird back into the oven,drank, talked, and woke up to a marvelous turkey breakfast. That’s the spirit.
Tell me about your mishaps or approaches to holiday cooking. I will draw a winner for a $50 giftcard from Wal-Mart to help you with your holiday preparations. You have until the 21st of November to enter. Help spread the word. Who couldn’t use $50 with these high food costs?
If you want to read about some more Thanksgiving mishaps, check here. Wal- Mart has put together a great page of mishaps, interesting tidbits, and tips.
So now on to the cooking…
Here is a lovely restorative soup to serve at the big celebration. I call it Cellar soup, as it uses all sorts of root vegetables and apple’s to create a creamy rich soup. I made this , froze it and gave quarts away to friends and family.They looovvvved it. Even Certain Someone who resisted because it sounded too healthy for him, gave it a thumbs up.
I’ve been counting my enormous blessings this season, and want you readers to know how thankful I am for your support and encouragement, especially during these years of change.
Thank You.
Disclosure. Wal-Mart is sponsoring this post with $50 gift card provision’s for myself and the selected winner. My opinions are my own.
I work with Bertolli on occasion and always love to receive new products. Life has been mainly cooking and eating on the run these days.The fast few months the new range of Bertolli Meal Soups for Two have saved many meals and situations , as I have been :
too tired to cook
working or catering and not able cook
Certain Someone has no dinner while I’m away working or zoned out from fatigue.
Even industry people take shortcuts. You know the saying about the cobblers kids having no shoes, the hairdresser having bad hair, etc. While we work for others , we sometimes neglect whats at home. If I had to take a shortcut I love the tasty frozen Bertolli soups. These come excellently packaged with frozen cubes of excellent stock, meat and vegetables. It couldn’t be easier. My favorite was the Italian Wedding. I made this with a quick Kale Caprese Salad of chopped kale, small mozzarella balls, grape tomatoes, pesto , balsamic and oil. Dinner in about 10-15 minutes. Check them out.
Another quick item, stretchable item to make this winter or even for holiday entertaining, that would pair perfectly with a nice soup , bisque or risotto , is a short cut salmon rillette. I found wild sockeye salmon in cans at Costco that’s far superior than any canned salmon I’ve seen. I purchased a small tub of lox trimmings for less than $3 and made this amazing spread. Try it as a tartine on fresh baguette or on tiny crostini. It’s quite addictive.
Artizone Chicago and My Daily Find Chicago is having a Flavors of Fall Cooking Contest. I created this Guinness Braised Lamb Stew with Herb De Provence and Roasted Parsnip Crust using my surprise contest box. I picked the Slow Cooked Category and received the most beautiful large parsnips and a bag of aromatic herb de Provence.
After a week of challenging myself to come up with a creative recipe, I put together this hopefully winning combo. But I need your help. It doesn’t matter how wonderful the recipe is, I need to popular vote to get the next round, before the serious food judges look at it. Can you help me out?
Don’t you want to see me on TV demonstrating this fantastic recipe that will wow your dinner guests?
Lamb shanks, minced red onion and bits of parsnip are gently braised with Guinness Stout and aromatic Herbs de Provence until tender for a few hours. Strips of large parsnips are sliced paper thin , lightly tossed in olive oil, formed into a crust in a mini spring form pan, and filled with the lamb stew to roast until crispy on top and tender as a bottom crust. The sweet parsnip, the mild American Lamb shanks,aromatic herbs de Provence, and the rich slightly bitter Guinness all form together for the simple,elegant fall entrée that will impress your guests.
Guinness Braised Lamb Stew with Herbs de Provence and Roasted Parsnip Crust
An elegant roasted parsnip crust filled with aromatic tender lamb stew.
Author: Coco Cooks
Recipe type: Entree
Serves: 4
Ingredients
1 tablespoon Pommace oil
2 lbs American Lamb shanks cut in half ( total 4 pieces)
1 cup chopped cubed parsnip
½ red onion minced
2 cups water
1 tablespoon Herbs de Provence
11.2 oz bottle of Guinness
Kosher salt and pepper to taste
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 tablespoons flour
2 -3 very large wide parsnips
oloive oil for brushing
herbs de provence for garnish
Instructions
In a large sauce pan, heat the oil.
Add the lamb shanks and season with salt and pepper. Brown on all sides.
Add the red onion and chopped parsnip.
Add the water and bring to a boil.
Reduce heat to very low, cover and simmer for 1 hour until tender.
Remove lamb shanks from pot, and remove meat from the bone.
Add the meat back to to pot with the by now reduced liquid.
Add the Guinness.
In a separate small fry pan, melt the butter. Add the flour and stir constantly as the butter and flour form a roux. Cook until deep golden in color.
Remove from heat and add the lamb and vegetable stock.
Stir the mixture and and cook for 15 more minutes until thickened.
Preheat the oven to 400 F.
With a mandolin carefully julienne very thin strips of peeled parsnip .
Toss the various pieces of parsnip with olive oil , kosher salt an pepper.
Take mini spring form pans and line with parsnip along bottom, sides, etc. Take the larger pieces and tuck into side to overlap the pan, like a flower. This is not precise, but you want to cover the top of the " pie" by using the various sized strips.
Sprinkle with herbs de Provence.
Wrap bottom of forms with foil and place on a baking sheet.
Roast at 400 F for 5 minutes until edges satrt to rapidly brown. Reduce temp to 350 and roast for another 40 minutes until deeply caramelized and bubbly.
Carefully unlock spring form and release upwards the pie onto a plate. ( works better if it sits for a few minutes to cool down).
