Key West Chicken Wraps July 26, 2017 by Jill Foucre 1 Comment Key West Chicken Wraps 2017-07-27 04:18:54 Print Ingredients 2 pounds boneless skinless chicken thighs 1/3 cup honey 1/4 cup soy sauce 1 teaspoon ground ginger 2 cloves garlic, minced 1/4 cup sliced scallions 1 ripe mango, diced 1 avocado, diced 1 small jalapeño, minced 1/2 jicama, peeled and diced 1 head Boston leaf lettuce, separate and clean and dry leaves (or 4 soft whole grain tortillas) 2 tablespoons fresh cilantro, chopped Dressing 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice 1 tablespoon white balsamic vinegar 1 teaspoon honey 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon white ground pepper 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil Instructions Spray a 9x13 baking pan with non-stick cooking spray. Arrange the chicken thighs in a single layer. Mix remaining ingredients in a bowl and pour over chicken. Cover dish with foil and marinade in the refrigerator for 1-4 hours. Turn chicken once midway through marinating time. When ready to cook, preheat oven to 425 degrees. Place chicken, covered, in oven for 20 minutes. Remove chicken from oven, uncover and turn chicken pieces over, and bake for another 15 minutes, until internal temperature is 165 degrees. Dice chicken into bite size pieces. For the dressing: combine lime juice, vinegar, honey, salt and pepper. Whisk in olive oil. Set aside. In a large bowl, combine avocado, mango, jicama, and jalapeño. Add dressing to taste. Fold in chicken. Season, as needed, with more dressing. When ready to serve, arrange lettuce leaves or whole grain tortillas on a platter. Divide Key West Chicken Salad amongst leaves or tortillas. Garnish with cilantro and serve. Serves 4 By Lynn Dugan Marcel's Culinary Experience https://www.marcelsculinaryexperience.com/
For The Love Of Caramel by Paul Lindemuth July 12, 2017 by Jill Foucre Leave a Comment One of my favorite cookbooks is “My Last Supper” by Melanie Dunea. It is a journal where 50 great chefs were asked “if you were to die tomorrow, what would you want for your last meal on earth?’ Each chef shared their personal thoughts and requests. I’ve often been asked a similar question when I’m teaching: “what is your favorite food or flavor?” I know the answer, hands down, to either of these questions: Caramel. There is something seductive about caramel and the flavor descriptors are pretty diverse: buttery, nutty, smoky, toasted, butterscotch, burnt. I love the chemistry part of working with caramel which begins with melting pure cane sugar and slowly controlling the temperature to turn the sugar from crystal clear to pale amber to deep golden brown. Each stage yields different flavors: pale amber is light and mild, deep amber is rich and complex. Taking the caramel beyond this point to dark caramel yields a more bitter flavor due to increased oxidation (my favorite). Additionally, heating beyond this point (which happens very quickly) will turn the caramel into a black, smoking, bitter mess as the sugar breaks down into pure carbon. I spent the 4th of July holiday toying with this chemistry while roasting marshmallows to create S’mores. I started with that initial golden-brown crust on the marshmallows, took it one step further to dark brown (actually peeling that layer off to taste it and then putting the remainder back over the fire and tasting again). Then I let a couple of marshmallows actually catch fire and get totally charred…. not so tasty. It sure was fun playing with melted and burnt sugar! When you peel back the layers of chemistry and technique of caramel, you can easily create some pretty amazing flavors. Patiently working with one cup of granulated sugar, ¼ cup of water to dissolve the sugar and adding 1 cup of heavy cream to the hot caramel will yield my favorite thing to eat: perfect caramel sauce. Salted Caramel Apple Tartlets 2017-07-12 17:59:13 Print Ingredients 1 cup sugar ¼ cup cold water 1 cup heavy cream ½ teaspoon flaky sea salt 6 tablespoons unsalted butter 4 medium Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored and cut into thick wedges ¼ cup plus 4 tablespoons sugar ¼ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg 2 tablespoons Calvados or apple brandy 1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice 1 package frozen puff pastry thawed Instructions In a small saucepan combine the sugar and the water. Stir until the sugar is dissolved. Place the saucepan over medium-high heat and bring the mixture to a boil. Using a pastry brush dipped in cold water, brush down any sugar particles that cling to the side of the pan. Continue to boil until the sugar caramelizes and turns a deep amber color, being careful not to let it get too dark and burn. Place the saucepan in the bottom of the sink. Carefully pour the cream into the melted sugar. The sugar will bubble violently and give off steam. Return the saucepan to low heat and stir until the caramel is dissolved and smooth. Add the sea salt and set the caramel aside. In a large sauté pan melt 4 tablespoons of the butter over medium-high heat. Add the apples and toss to evenly coat them with the butter. Sauté the apples until they begin to soften, about 5 minutes. Add ¼ cup of the sugar and continue cooking until the sugar melts and the apples are caramelized, about 3 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat. Add the nutmeg, Calvados or apple brandy and lemon juice. Toss gently to combine. Set the apples aside. (The apples may be prepared up to 4 hours in advance, loosely covered and held at room temperature. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Gently unfold one sheet of the thawed puff pastry. Cut the pastry into 4 rounds. Transfer the pastry rounds to a parchment paper lined baking sheet. Using a smaller round cutter make a shallow indentation into each puff pastry round, being careful to not cut all the way through the pastry. Using a fork, evenly prick the center of each pastry inside the inner circle. Divide half of the apples into the center of the pastry rounds. Repeat with the remaining puff pastry and apples. Cut the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter into thin slices and scatter the butter evenly over the apples. Sprinkle the remaining 4 tablespoons of sugar evenly over the tartlets. Bake the tartlets until the pastry is puffed and brown and the apples are soft, about 15 to 18 minutes. Remove the tartlets from the oven and allow to cool for 5 minutes. Transfer to plates. Spoon some of the caramel sauce over each tartlet and serve. Serves 8 By Paul Lindemuth Marcel's Culinary Experience https://www.marcelsculinaryexperience.com/
Food As A Gift by Deb Forkins July 9, 2017 by Jill Foucre Leave a Comment After lamenting my less than stellar rhubarb harvest last year, a dear friend brought me over this homemade rhubarb treasure. She is a fabulous cook, and the pie was delicious….but it was the big D on that pie that was the most delish! Edible friendship! One Sunday, I came home from working at Marcel’s to dinner in the oven. Marc had made his specialty quiche, adding zucchini to my half. Again, the best part of that dinner was my name on my half of the quiche in zucchini peel. Edible love. Sharing the gift of food is a universal gesture of love and friendship, compassion and kindness. A meal to a family struggling with challenges, chicken soup to a sick friend, cookies to your new neighbor…food has always been a way that we reach out to one another, to connect. We all know this. The food itself may or may not be a fabulous culinary creation, but the gesture speaks volumes. In her cookbook, Food Gift Love, author and chef Maggie Battista shares some tips to make you the quintessential food gifter: Know your recipient. (always best to play to the audience.) Master a signature food gift so you can make it quickly and have the ingredients in your head. Embrace imperfection. (my favorite tip!) Put a label on it. (ingredients and date created) Summer and fall are the best time to make gifts when fruits and vegetables are plentiful and it’s a less hectic time of the year. Reuse old jars, cups and boxes that can be cleaned and repurposed. At risk of sounding corny, “what the world needs now is love.” And edible love is just the best. (Check out Chef Kelly Sears’ “Pickling and Preserving Workshop” on Sunday, August 27th to learn the tricks of canning and preserving in anticipation of Christmas 2017 Food Gift Giving!)