Sometimes when I’m teaching a class, I hear someone say “I don’t like onions.” My ears perk up and I can’t wait to change their mind! Generally the dislike is because of the texture or flavor of raw onion. Onions are certainly aggressive in flavor when raw, but cooking them creates a sweetness and tender texture that will only embellish a dish!
I love working with onions – the most common aromatic and essential ingredient that adds depth and flavor to so many dishes. The onion family includes bulb or globe onions, pearl onions, cipollini, shallots, leeks, scallions, chives and their cousin – garlic. Collectively they belong to a plant species called alliums.In my classes, one of the most common “Ah-hah” moments is learning how to correctly dice an onion. I will break it down below.
1. Cut the STEM end off and leave the ROOT end on. The root end is your friend!
2. Place the onion cut-side down on the cutting board and slice it in half lengthwise through the root. You should have two halves and the root should still be on. You wouldn’t cut off your friend, would you?
3. Peel the onion halves – you have two edges to work with, so it’s easy-peasy.
4. With the root end toward the back of the cutting board, slice lengthwise at even intervals, stopping just short of the root end.
5. Turn the onion and holding the root end, slice horizontally toward the root, again at even intervals. The pieces will fall away as you slice, leaving only the root end, your friend that held the onion together while dicing.
I can guarantee this will yield uniform shaped pieces for even cooking, but I can’t guarantee you won’t be crying at the end. Cutting onions can cause watery eyes or even crocodile tears so guests also love this tip: Freeze the onion for 20 minutes before chopping – it helps contain the sulfuric compounds that make our eyes water.I always have a variety of onions on hand, as well as bread, cheese and cream – the makings of a classic bread pudding. So I’m sharing a favorite savory bread pudding recipe. I guarantee even those who “don’t like onions” will enjoy the delicious aromas and flavors created from some of the best alliums – leek, shallot, chives and garlic.
Savory Leek and Fontina Bread Pudding
2018-08-22 22:58:05
Serves 4
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Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups cubed baguette, sourdough or ciabatta bread
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 1 small leek, white and light green parts only, sliced thin
- 1 small shallot, minced
- 1 garlic clove, minced
- 1 teaspoon fresh thyme
- 2 tablespoons chopped chives
- 3/4 cup grated Fontina
- 1/4 cup grated Parmesan
- 3/4 cup heavy whipping cream
- 2 eggs
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon pepper
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place bread cubes in an even layer on a parchment lined sheet tray and toast for 6-8 minutes until dry and just lightly browned. Remove and let cool.
- Melt the butter in a medium sauté pan. Add the leek and shallot; cook over medium-high heat until softened, about 3-5 minutes. Add the garlic and thyme and cook for 1 minute. Transfer leek mixture to a large bowl and add the chives, Fontina and Parmesan. Fold in the toasted bread.
- Whisk cream, eggs, lemon juice, salt and pepper in a medium bowl. Pour custard mix into bread/leek mixture and stir to combine. Scoop bread pudding mixture into a casserole dish and bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes. The custard should be set and the top lightly browned. Garnish with additional chives.
Notes
- You can add wild mushroom or asparagus to this as well.
Marcel's Culinary Experience https://www.marcelsculinaryexperience.com/
I just returned from a week with extended family at my parent’s house in Michigan. With 90-degree heat, we minimized our use of the oven during meal prep for the 25 of us. Most of our cooking was done on the grill except for the enchiladas I had pre-made and frozen ahead of time. We were all happy that enchiladas cook in just 20 minutes! But the heat in the kitchen generated from the enchiladas was well worth it. These vegetarian enchiladas- made with shredded sweet potato and lentils- were enjoyed by all. It is a recipe I was refining for the Cooking for College Students class that I am teaching on July 18 at 6:30pm. Marcel’s College Cooking class is a perfect opportunity for young adults to learn together in the kitchen; it is always a lot of fun! Marcel’s hosts a college cooking class twice a year and this is the first vegetarian one we have offered. It has an amazing menu: Black Bean Avocado Mango Salad, Mexican Creamed Corn, Enchilada Casserole with Sweet Potato, and Coconut Rice Pudding. Please don’t miss it! 
Just like the cooking strategy my family and I had in Michigan, summer is always the ideal time to economize oven use. This Baked Honey Chicken is a recipe for success: cook once, eat twice. Essentially, use the oven once to produce two delicious meals. The chicken marinates for 1-4 hours before it’s baked for just 30 minutes. Half of this cooked chicken is then saved in the refrigerator for the next night’s dinner, 
When you sit down with someone and share their food, you are sharing their story. People are telling you something about themselves with each bite, each sip, each serving. No matter how small the size of the offering, the gesture is large, and the moment is magic.
Two young engineering students from a small village outside of Beijing invited us to their apartment to make dumplings. Multi-generational, mom and grandmother were visiting and deftly rolling out dumplings with the speed of a twelve-person assembly line. Every dumpling is the exact shape and size. Once all the dough was ready, it was time to fill. Their dumplings were perfect, beautifully shaped, properly proportioned. Ours, overstuffed and unable to close. With direction, “the dumpling is the purse, the meat filling the money. Don’t let the money fall out of the purse.” An “ah ha” moment for sure; our dumpling skills improved. The meal was set out on two card tables, served on paper plates, with lots of chairs crammed around the tables. Make room for what’s important, worry less about what’s not.
We invited some new tenants, a lovely Hispanic couple, over to teach us how to make tamales. We spoke with our hands, so we could understand one another. When I was about to add water in with the masa, my hand was tapped, and an index finger waved no-no. She pointed to the pot where the pork had slow cooked and then back to the masa bowl. Yes, of course! Water tastes like water, but pork juice tastes delicious!! We followed the leader and tied the husks. We counted hands and realized twelve hands make a hundred tamales easier than two. Share the work and it doesn’t feel like work.
May your purse hold money, your coffee cup never completely full, may you talk and taste with an open mouth, and eyes, with an open heart and mind. I know you’ll never leave hungry.
I haven’t always been so smart. For years, my wife Rondi and I would invite people over for dinner and brush off their “what can we bring?” with an immediate “Nothing! Just bring yourselves” response. Those four little words invariably led to four (or more) days of planning, prepping and preparing. 
The guest list eventually rose to 20 people, and as each guest was added to my growing list I simply asked them to bring their specialty. Marcie brought two fabulous flatbreads as our appetizer. Mindy was quick to claim the smoked ham. My sister Sarah brought her famous “Party Potatoes” (yes, that’s a real thing), Kay brought the lamb cake, and Nikki rounded out the party with Mimosa and Bloody Mary fixings.
As a chef instructor writing and testing recipes is one of the more tedious yet rewarding parts of my job. I don’t recall ever writing a recipe perfectly the first time. There is almost always a re-write, or two…or five. And, depending on the mood I am in or the recipe I am testing, sometimes the test is done on a controlled group of one (me!) or a large cackle of friends.
And although the recipe successes have outnumbered the failures…failures have existed. “I like the flavor, but the texture kind of makes me want to vomit.” That response is probably my favorite – that was definitely a “back to the drawing board” moment. Shout out to the “honesty”…but man that was a shot to the ego!
Maison is beautiful French word that, according to the Cambridge Dictionary, translates to “house, household, home.” It is the perfect word to embody the wonderful addition to the Marcel’s and Marché family. 
On event day the chef and staff arrive early to load in, unpack, set up and complete prep and cooking. Staff also assist with table setting, wine chilling, cocktail mixing and creating beautiful platters for passed appetizers. Guests arrive, cocktails and appetizers flow, dinner and wine are served and dessert is presented. At the end of the evening the chef and staff roll up their sleeves for final clean up before saying their goodbyes. 
I’m not sure how I could have a friendship that has withstood forty years and a marriage of nearly thirty, and I couldn’t figure out how to have a relationship with yeast. Sometimes, getting better at something starts with one move, deciding to do so. Whatever material you built the wall from to mentally stop you from doing it, is usually not made of kryptonite and usually crumbles once you make the decision to take action. Even doing nothing is doing something.
I embraced this new skill with gusto. Soon I was baking six or seven loaves of bread a week and had multiple varieties of sourdough starter feasting. I purchased proofing baskets, lames, linen couches, and cast iron loaf pans. My countertops continually had something rising at different stages and I asked my husband if he could build me a proofing box. It was at this point, I got the look. The look you get after nearly thirty years of marriage, the one that requires no words. This look, in my world, usually translates to “perhaps we are taking this bread thing a bit too far;” grab some reins, apply the brakes.
For years I have experimented with different methods. One year, I butterflied the turkey (sometimes known as “spatchcocking” ), a simple process of cutting out the turkey’s backbone and flattening the bird in an effort to reduce cooking time. Bad move. It wasn’t until after I had removed the backbone and flattened the turkey that I realized I didn’t have a pan big enough to accommodate the sprawling bird other than a sheet pan. Please believe me when I tell you that you cannot successfully roast a 13 pound turkey on a sheet pan without starting an oven fire and setting off every smoke alarm in your home.
As a chef instructor, people always ask me “do you cook like this at home every night?” And my answer is a swift “nope!” Yes, I am a chef, but I am also a busy mom of two active 1st and 2nd grade boys. That means I’m running all week from school, to sports, to cub scouts, volunteering, doing homework, playdates, cleaning, cooking, and of course teaching classes at Marcels!
Now – to make this a million other ways, you just swap the herb, nut and cheese combos. For example, Mexican night – use cilantro, pepitas, queso or cotija cheese, and a dash of red pepper flake. Or sweeten it up a bit by swapping arugula for basil, pecans for pine nuts, adding 2 tablespoons of honey and ½ cup ricotta. Or try parsley, almonds, and asiago.