Weekend Eats

It's Here! 540 calories of deliciousness. I can't wait to try it this weekend. This is going to be epic. Fried chicken breasts, bacon AND cheese! Shake Shack is out and KFC is back in!

Here is a very interesting article. I gained about 5 pounds just reading it.
http://dealbreaker.com/2010/04/first-kfc-double-down-challenge-of-the-season-under-way/

I Love Bottled Water

Everyone in New York City universally loves Fresh Direct. I would probably be dead if not for the bi-weekly beverage delivery from  freshD. It is also a universally known fact that all the cool New Yorkers only drink expensive bottled water from Fiji. Sometimes water from France is an acceptable substitute. The further away it comes from, the better it is. Because it will be that much more expensive and New Yorkers like to pretend that they are ballers. You can immediately identify a cool New Yorker by the water they drink. When you are next hosting your ugly sweater party and someone asks if you have any artesian water from Fiji or any French mineral water, you will immediately want to tell them how awesome they are and facebook friend them. It would be wise to get their BBM pin and twitter account so that you can have multiple methods of staying in touch with such a cool person. This way you can host another awesome party together with awesome people, drinking awesome shooters, listening to awesome music, and then just sit around and soak up each other’s awesomeness. However, if at your party, someone asks for “New York’s finest” meaning dirty tap water or filtered Brita water, they are either from out of town or the wrong type of New Yorker. Either way, you will immediately want to throw them out of your party. This is acceptable social behavior because this is New York and it is just standard procedure to cut off all ties immediately with anybody uncool or has bad taste.

Derelict Chef Hates Foodies

In the past couple months, jillion's of people have laboriously asked why I do not cook more and if I do not cook, what do I eat? Some have even demanded I cook for them. Infidels! My food consumption, especially my act of cooking should be nobody's concern. The moment I mention I went to culinary school, I love how people try to make small talk by mentioning that they are also a foodie. "Also"? BTW, I really hate the word foodie and people who use it like it's a legit adjective to describe themselves. Foodie is NOT a real word! And honestly, is there anyone who isn't a foodie? Is there anyone in this world who doesn't like food? Even anorexic girls love food. I also love how they compare their inferior preferences to my supercalifragilisticexpialidocious tastes. So what do I eat? Whatever they have at the restaurant! Honestly, I'm not sure cause I've been eating out every day so all the tastes are blending in with one another and forming this extreme umami taste on the buds these days. I might as well eat some MSG. Yes, it gets exhausting, but until some enginerd invents disposable pots and pans, I may continue this odd urban behavior called eating out. I am a rogue chef! YES! I feel like I have street cred or something now! I do love cooking, but ever since the new job, I've had barely enough time to squeeze in the partying, let alone the sleep. So cooking has taken the backseat and completely abandoned. I shall cook something spectacular this weekend and post another blog. But seriously, unless I'm eating out, I really don't eat anything. Below is a picture of today's lunch...

Hugs and Kisses,

Chez Jamie

Eating out can be a bore sometime. Many restaurants in NYC are great, but I have yet to come across a place that's so amazing I'd like to eat there every day. Maybe I wouldn't mind going to Soto everyday for my daily fix of Uni orgy, but otherwise...nothing else comes to mind. Actually, I could eat at Fette Sau everyday, but its geographic location is not ideal. Probably a good thing else I'd be a heifer. So where do I go when eating out gets boring? Chez Jamie of course. It's really the only place to get delicious food in this city. Definitely not low cal food, but who watches their weight and fat intake these days. Weight watching is for suckers. Eating alone is not much fun, so I invited some people over for dinner and did some cooking. I live on compliments and compliments I got! This was overall a pretty successful dinner but maybe a little too aggressive cause I was a zombie the next couple days. I don't have pictures of everything cause I think I was busy stuffing my face. And I may have been a bit tipsy and forgot. I get tipsy often. And when I'm tipsy, I get very forgetful.

Menu

Roasted Veggie Canape

Roasted Red Pepper and Feta Cheese Dip with Crudites

Spinach and Artichoke Dip

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Pretty Salad with Tarragon Vinaigrette

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Lemon Rosemary Cream Pasta

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Black Sea Bass with Herb Butter Sauce

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Cupcakes

Roasted Veggie Canape

 

MAKES 24-30

INGREDIENTS:

1 red bell pepper, chopped very fine

1 red onion, chopped very fine

2/3 eggplant, chopped very fine

4 garlic cloves, crushed

20 basil leaves, chopped

Thyme

Salt, pepper and EVOO

PREPARATION:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Chop pepper, eggplant, onion and garlic. Spread out the veggies on a baking sheet. I like to use a silpat so things don't stick and it makes the cleaning process easier. Add as much thyme as you want, some salt and pepper and drizzle with about 2-3 tablespoons of EVOO. Give the whole thing a good stir and pop it into the oven for about an hour. After about 30 minutes, give it a little stir so the little diced up veggies don't burn. Once its done, put the roasted veggies in a bowl. Add the basil right before serving. 

Pretty Salad with Tarragon Vinaigrette

I was going to serve this with a poached egg instead of a hard boiled one, but I got lazy. It is more fun with a poached egg. The salad is prettier when you add more vibrant colors, but it is winter and this is the US. It's not as easy for a commoner to find super fresh and beautiful produce as it is in France. So I made do with what was available.

INGREDIENTS:

Green cauliflower

Purple cauliflower

Haricot verts

Mini carrots

Radish

Mache

Eggs

DRESSING:

Tons of tarragon

Dijon mustard

Sherry Vinegar

1 hard boiled egg

Salt, pepper, sugar, EVOO

PREPARATION:

Blend all the dressing ingredients in a blender so it's a beautiful silky green texture. Blanch the carros, cauliflower and the haricot verts all separately. Mandolin the radishes. Arrange everything on a plate, add the hard boiled egg (preferably poached, but whatever works), then drizzle with the dressing and serve immediately.

Black Sea Bass with Jamie's Signature Herb Butter Sauce
This was a bit annoying and super time consuming. I asked the fish monger to fillet the thing, but he just gutted it and didn't even scale it completely so I had to come home and perform surgery on it with my delicate little genius hands that move with grace and dexterity like that of a plastic surgeons. I've made this a couple times now and I think I've perfected the recipe.

FOR 6

INGREDIENTS:
Sea bass or some other soft, delicate and flaky fish
5 tomatoes, confited
1 bundle of chervil, chopped
1 bundle of tarragon, chopped
1 bundle of chives, chopped
2 shallots, chopped very fine
1/3 cup of dry white wine
1/2 cup of fish stock, preferably homemade
3 sticks of butter, very cold and cut into small cubes
Tumeric powder
Salt and white pepper

PREPARATION:
This is basically a butter sauce with herbs and such added to it at the very end. Confit the shallots in some butter. Add the fish stock and let reduce till almost all the liquid is gone. Add wine and reduce the liquid half way. Add a couple shakes of tumeric. This will give it the vibrant yellow color. Put the heat on low and slowly, add the cubes of butter using a wisk. Emulsify the butter into the rest of the mixture so that it creates a thick sauce. Don't ever let the sauce come to a boil or the butter will separate and you'll end up with an oily mess. Once all the butter is incorporated, add the confited tomatoes, and all the herbs. Give it a good wisk and set aside while you cook the fish. Once the fish is ready, serve immediately with a generous amount of sauce.

Some of these techniques are a bit tricky and I'm being a little lazy and not writing every little detail. Cause I'm not even sure if people are reading this. But if you have questions, email me.

The Best Cereal Ever. Try It!

I haven't had cereal in a really long time. It just seems too healthy. Besides, I only eat Cinnamon Toast Crunch and Reese's Peanut Butter Puffs and I got sick of them and didn't have any other substitute. But I found this great cereal at Whole Foods the other day. And I'm addicted! Puffins brand Peanut Butter cereal. It's a mixture of Corn Pops, Captain Crunch and Peanut Puffs packaged into a size just slightly smaller than Shredded Wheat to form the perfectly scrumptious bite size cereal. On a more educational note, did you know that they eat Puffins in Iceland? I once saw a documentary on this on either the travel channel or Nat G. Probably Travel Channel. It was pretty sick. But I enjoy the unctuous flavor of diseased duck liver. So who am I to judge.

Tasteless Turned Tasteful

Zucchini and eggplant. These two words are synonymous to tomatoes in my discriminating mind. They plague me with tastelessness and torment me with odd textures reminiscent of old people food. However, the French have found a brilliant way to combine these uncanny ingredients to create a supernatural dish they call ratatouille. Ratatouille is pretty much the only way to make me eat all three of my least favorite ingredients, the zucchini, eggplant and the tomato. But the combination of these three ingredients with the addition of red bell peppers and onions creates a melt in your mouth sort of provencal dish I'd like to eat everyday. I'd rather not make it everyday because it's labor intensive and requires a little too much tender love and care I can give in these chaotic times. So here's a little secret. You just make a very huge batch and reheat it everytime you feel the urge.

Ratatouille

FOR 8-10

INGREDIENTS:

2 onions

2 large red bell peppers

2 zucchinis

1 eggplant

5 tomatoes

5 garlic cloves, crushed

Thyme

Salt, sugar and freshly ground pepper

PREPARATION:

Roughly chop all veggies in the same size. Heat some EVOO in a large pot and saute onions and garlic without browning. Add chopped tomatoes and thyme and let stew. In another saute pan, add more oil and cook the peppers. About 10 minutes. Add peppers to the tomato and onion mixture. Clean the pot and repeat with eggplant and then zucchini. Season with salt and pepper and a little bit of sugar. The sugar adds a little something i feel.

Babbo's Basic Tomato Sauce

Tomatoes are definitely on the top of my least favorites list. Probably cause it's really good for your body with all the lycopene and riboflavin. But I do love ketchup. So tomatoes can't be all that awful, right? Cooked tomatoes are definitely bearable. I like to focus my cooking on French food most of the time because in my opinion, it's by far superior to Italian with all the fun cream and butter sauces. And the French also invented foie gras. Sick bastards. I give them mad respek for their deranged culinary methods. Anyways, the other day I thought I'd stop watching reruns of the Family Guy and do something productive like reading. So I stopped by the nearest Barnes&Noble, which is still far, like 2 metro stops far. And I took myself straight to the cookbook section and bought the first book with the most pictures that made my mouth water. Pictures are key. Cookbooks without pictures for every recipe should be burned. But what do I know. I'm just a humble amateur blogger. My opinions don't really matter.

So I bought the Babbo cookbook and went right to work. I had to make another trip out to Whole Foods once I got home, which was pretty annoying but I did it. Picked up the ingredients and lugged it home on the metro. I like to call the subway, metro. It sounds more chic. And I like chic. I followed the instructions almost exactly for the basic tomato sauce on page 220 of the book and the taste was superb. Although, next time, I might get crazy and puree the chunky sauce with a hand mixer. Below is the picture of the sauce. I'm not the best dried pasta cooker so just admire the sauce.

Babbo's Basic Tomato Sauce

Once I learn to improv on tomatoes, I'll post an original recipe. I'm not a huge fan of Mario Batali only cause there's no reason for any high caliber chef to be that rotund unless they're not really working, but this sauce was pretty delish. I'd probably give Babbo the three Michelin star rating Mario thought he was entitled to way back yonder with just this tomato sauce alone. After all, he looks like the Michelin guy. He deserves the three stars.

MAKES A LOT

INGREDIENTS:

1 onion, chopped fine

1/2 carrot, shredded very fine

4 cloves of garlic, chopped fine

2 28oz. canned whole peeled tomatoes (I like San Marzano)

Fresh Thyme

Salt and freshly ground pepper

PREPARATION:

Heat some EVOO in a pan. Add garlic and onions and saute until very soft. Add carrots. Saute about 5 minutes. Crush the tomatoes with your hands. Then add tyme and all the tomatoes to the pot/pan. Bring to a boil and then simmer till you get a rich thick consistency. Season with salt and pepper to taste. I actually added a little bit of sugar because I like my savory food a little bit sugary. I simmered for about an hour.

Carbicide Happens to Good People

The pretty princess had a friend, the ogre, coming over for dinner on new years eve. The ogre only thought the princess was a debaucherous, champagne drinking party animal so she wanted to impress him with her domestic goddessness. The princess decided to serve her infamous lemon rosemary cream pasta and slaved over this delicious meal all day. The ogre came pounding on the door and as she told him the menu, he freaked out. He didn't eat carbs! But whatever, the princess still plated and once the ogre tasted the pasta, he couldn't stop eating. He ate the whole vat with extra cream sauce. The ogre then fell into a deep and troubled sleep from the carbicide he had just committed. The princess couldn't give him a true loves kiss to wake him from his deep slumber. I mean...he was an ogre! The princess had to think of her reputation. So while contemplating on ways to wake him, the princess fell asleep too! But then she was wakened by the ogre's thunderous snore. The pretty pretty princess got up, went over and slapped the ogre silly until he woke up. They both changed into their fat pants and lived happily ever after.

Lemon Rosemary Cream Pasta

The combination of flavors may sound bizarre but it's actually quite orgasmic. Take that Chef Boyardee! When seasoned just right, you should be able to taste just a hint of sour lemon and some very small hints of umami. I usually don't eat carbs because it makes me fat but I wanted to start out 2010 with extreme gluttony. So bon appetite and Happy Happy New Years! Better picture to come...

FOR 4 (2 for hogs)

INGREDIENTS:

1/2 box of Dried Linguini

Microplaned zest of 2 lemons

Big thick slices of 2 lemon peels

Big thick slices of 1 orange peel

Juice of 1 lemon

2 cups Low sodium chicken stock

2 pints of heavy heavy cream

Lots of rosemary, chopped

1 cup parmesan cheese

PREPARATION:

Bring out your fat pants. Set aside. Blanch the thick lemon and orange peels. 2 or 3 times depending on your level of motivation. Add chicken stock with blanched peels and reduce on high heat for about 5 minutes. Remove the peels from the stock and reduce till you have about 1/2 cup. Add the 2 pints of cream and reduce till you have slightly more than a pint of liquid left. Cook the linguini according to package directions till al dente. While the pasta is cooking, add the rosemary, lemon zest, lemon juice and cheese. Stir in the pasta immediately and serve even more immediately. If there seems to be too much sauce, don't worry. My pasta is always swimming in the sauce and it's better that way cause the noodles soak everything up. This version of the sauce is going to be pretty thick. If you're a puss and calorie count, then you can use less cream and you don't need to reduce it cause the cheese will bind everything together anyways. But you probably wouldn't be reading this blog if you calorie count...

Qu'est que c'est que Jamie aime?

It's been difficult getting my manicured hands dirty in the kitchen with so many fun holiday parties. I like parties. And I like champagne. And recently I've really enjoyed vodka gimlets. I've been delinquent about blogging in the past month, but in case someone does read this, I thought I'd write a posting about the restaurants I like in France. Yes, unusual, considering I only write about my own delicious creations because I'm so super duper in the kitchen, but I can be unpredictable. I also want to jot this down before I forget some must must go to places. The French basically only eat French food. And why shouldn't they when their cuisine is pretty much based on butter sauces and cream and truffles. There's an abundance of French restaurants, but most of them are crap. I kid you not. However, if you are reading this, you are in luck. Because I have great insight into the best restaurants, mostly in the Paris region, and I have great taste in what's good. The list below reflects my subjective opinion, but once again, I have great taste in what's good. Especially when it comes to good food.

Alain Ducasse at Hotel Plaza-Athenee

Prices are steep, but the whole experience was amazing. I worked here too, so compared to the amount of work that goes into the food, I'd say the menu is underpriced. I was pleasantly surprised by the lightness of the food and then they gave me a tour of the wine cellar. And they gave me homemade caramel to take home cause I loved it so much. The poulet de Bresse with albufera sauce was one of the best things ever and I could eat it every meal. Probably even for breakfast.

L'Ambroisie

I would think prices are steep, but I didn't pay for it so I don't know the exact damage it would do. Inside a beautiful old aristocratic urban mansion, the food was very traditional French and the service was impeccable. I give a 20 out of 10 for service. I dropped my napkin on the floor without knowing and someone came and picked it up with a fork and spoon, chopstick style and replaced it with a fresh new one. That's some service. He probably wasn't French. Anyhow, the fois gras mousse with morel mushrooms are their signature appetizer they've served for the past 25 years and I could probably eat it for breakfast. It was so yummy.

Michel Guerard at Les Pres d'Eugenie

This place is way in rural France near bordeaux. But worth the trip in my not so humble opinion. The chef still works in the kitchen and he's 78! Everything is wonderful wonderful wonderful. I'd imagine this place is what heaven is like. His signature dish is this one called the soft pillow of mushrooms and its this delicate ravioli with mushrooms and truffle with an amazing cream sauce with more morels and chanterelles and truffles. It really looks like a soft pillow and I would like to sleep in the sauce every night. This is probably my #1 pick among the gastronomic restaurants.

Auberge le Quincy

I stumbled upon this by accident cause a friend wanted to meet near the ghetto parts of Paris. I rarely travel to 2 digit arrondissement's, but I can't always be selfish or I'd have no friends. And it was soooooooo good! The place is open only 4 days a week. Tues-Fri and it's only cash or check. 2 senior citizens own the place and they are hilarious! Everything on the menu was so to my liking! It's really important to order the ice cream cause they bring you either a whole bottle of grand marnier or rum and you can drink the whole bottle for all they care. The food is more midi-pyrenees style. Could be heavy for the untrained stomach. I always take alka-seltzer afterwards and whip out my fat pants for the next week, but it is soooooooooo worth it. It was listed in a recent article in the now obliterated Gourmet magazine. The article was written by Ruth Reichl and I total gave her respek as editor in cheif after that. Booyakasha!

Evasion

Maybe one of the best bistro's ever. It's sort of in the business district so not many people know of it. It's bistro food, refined. And they might just serve the best Paris-Brest after this one pastry shop in the 7th. This place is just really really good.

Pizza Chic

They serve pretty decent pizza, but the place is just so cute and chic and the clientele is so chic and fab. I like chic and I like fabulous. I don't like pizza so much though. But still, the food is really good.

Il Corte

I once read or heard somewhere that this little italian joint was on the favorites list of 2008 chef of the year Yannick Alleno. I could be hallucinating. But it's really really quaint. It's on the same street at Hotel Costes somewhere. You enter into a very average looking Haussmanian style building and then there's a very pretty courtyard where you'd like to bring out a couple cases of champagne and have a picnic. And then you see the restaurant. The food was very traditional italian I think. Italian food isn't one of my favorites...but I do not dislike it. 

Le Comptoir de Relais Christine

I prefer going on weekends when they have the regular a la carte menu cause sometimes they serve things I'm not too fond of on the weekday prix fix. And I like to have variety and I like making my own decisions, rather than having my menu planned out for me. I also love this place cause now they have opened this place next door called Avant Comptoir so you can get little nibbles and drinks as you wait for your table. And Avant Comptoir makes these lip smacking cherry pickles. It sounds gross, but it was truly lip smackingly good. Just make sure you don't get the crazy head waitress with short hair and glasses. She's disagreable and she stresses me out everytime I see her and when she talks, she spits all over the table. It's a true French experience.

Restaurant at Hotel Amour
This place is another Costes brother enterprise. Hence the food is always consistently pretty good. But this made it to my fav list because the place is just so much fun! The clientele is a great mix of snobs and hipsters and they have a super fun menu. The only place in Paris where they serve a bacon cheeseburger with real american style bacon. And just the thought of the hotel itself is fun. If you suddenly feel the urge for some sexy time, you can go rent a room by the hour.

Ferdi
A really tiny tiny place but so fab. The clientele is an amazing mix of hipsters, artists and fashion people. The food is pretty excellent. The burger here is also good. And the ambiance is just so much fun. I once witnessed the owner kicking out some American girl for her impudence. She had no idea what was going on and I wanted to help her but I was chicken and didn't want to be the next one getting the boot. So I watched. Another fun French experience.

Le Voltaire
The food here is quite perfect. Except for the price. But I know a little secret. Just order the Oeuf Mayonnaise appetizer and some tap water. Total bill = 90 centimes. Yes. You read that right. 90 cents in euro terms or I guess its like $1.35 to be exact. You get this ginormous platter of salad with one hard boiled egg covered in mayonnaise. It really is a meal in itself. But you know if you did that, the French will get all up in your ass and swear at you in their beautiful French language, which will sound like someone's singing anyways. So don't do that. But if someone does, please let me know. I was too chicken, so got the steak tartar and it was dam good. I think it's because they used Heinz ketchup instead of the usual gross Amora brand. The food here is really quite good, but it's not one of my favorites. It only made it to my favorites list because of the Oeuf Mayonnaise. Oeuf Mayonnaise is my ultimate favorite appetizer of choice!

I'll try to do some more cooking in the next year. Happy new years and a bientot!

Great American Past Times Made Better

I once worked at Alain Ducasse in Paris and everyone in the kitchen took turns cooking dinner for the chefs. My specialty is complicated french sauces with delicately filleted white fish, but the chef told me i must make something from 'chez toi.' What the hell does that mean, right? America is just one big collection of everything else that exists in the world. Anyways, I didn't argue and question the chef. Mostly because I couldn't phrase my words in French. All the frog's in the kitchen asked if I were making hamburgers. Jerks. So I told them hotdogs. I really couldn't think of something that was typical American other than Heinz ketchup. I love love love ketchup but the French despise it. Or at least they pretend to be disgusted by it. On the big day, I said I'll be making pain de beouf, or a loaf of meat. Nobody could imagine what this weird American thing was because they were only used to eating steak frites and croque monsieurs. As I was prepping and making my meatloaf I could feel everybody lingering to watch me fail. They kept wanting to help by adding some chicken stock in the pan with the meat and rubbing some butter or oil on the loaf. The kitchen staff were even more confused when I said the loaf was served with a ketchup sauce. They asked why I wouldn't use mustard. Weirdo's. It's obvious that meatloaf wouldn't be meatloaf without ketchup. It's be a gross disgusting meatloaf. I like meatloaf because it's another excuse for me to douse my food in ketchup and not look like a complete freak. I was sweating balls by the time I finished my creation but I was confident. I'm super Jamie! Goddess of the kitchen! And also because when I asked for some beef and veal, they brought me beef and veal tenderloin. How could a meatloaf not taste good. It'd be good raw! Well, most times, meatloaf can look like spam, but I have my secrets, which I shall reveal below. In conclusion, the chef's loved it! They said they were pleasantly surprised and the sauce was amamazing. Obviously. And then everyone else wanted in on the leftovers. Here is my meatloaf I made the other day. The sauce should have gone on perpendicular to the length of the loaf...but oh well...hindsight.


Close up of the interior. I like close ups.

 

Jamie's Fantastic Meatloaf

It's really important to make tons of ketchup sauce cause everybody's going to want to drink it and also its what goes inside the loaf to season it to perfection.

FOR 8 (6 for hogs)

INGREDIENTS:
For the Loaf:
1lb ground veal
1lb ground pork
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 small carrot, finely chopped
2 small celery ribs, finely chopped
4 sliced of white bread, cut into small cubes
2 cups of whole milk
1 egg
3 tablespoons of parsley, chopped
1/2 tablespoon of fresh thyme leaves
For the Sauce:
4 cups of Heinz Ketchup
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 large red bell pepper (or 2 small), finely chopped
1 overflowing tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce
2 bay leaves
Freshly ground pepper

PREPARATION:
Make the sauce. Saute the onions and peppers in oil until soft. About 5 minutes. Add all the ketchup, bay leaves and pepper. Let simmer for about 10 minutes. If the sauce seems too thick, add a little bit of water. Let cool.

While the sauce is cooling, prepare the meat loaf. Put the cubes of bread in a big bowl with the milk and let it soak. Saute the onion, carrot and celery until very tender. Squeeze the milk out of the bread and put them n a big mixing bowl, add the sauteed veggies, meat, egg, parsley and a cup of the sauce. Get your hands dirty and mix everything.

On a baking pan, shape the meat into a nice looking loaf, baste with a little bit of the ketchup sauce and put it into a 350 degree oven for one and a half hours. Serve with lots of ketchup sauce.