Rachael Ray's Blog, page 73

Building a Better Jambalaya (Even If You Never Made One Before.)

I naturally imagined that, having never made jambalaya before, that it would turn out badly. The fact that it didn’t, that it in fact turned out to be a culinary triumph here in Casa Ozersky, testifies to both my dumb luck and the usefulness of hubris. A better man, having never stepped up to making one of the country’s most beloved and cherished dishes, would - at least at first - try to make it the right way. It’s not as if I didn’t have a blueprint. I reached out to John Besh, the greatest chef in New Orleans history, and asked him how I should make it. He sent me an exact recipe for the traditional dish. I can’t say why I didn’t follow it.

Maybe it was sheer perversity. Or maybe I knew that I would like my way better.

For one thing, while I’ve never made jambalaya before, I have had it on multiple occasions. And it hasn’t thrilled me. I say this with all due respect. There are a lot of classic recipes that our modern tastes, accustomed as they are to oversize flavors, can’t really get behind. I remember the first time I had cassoulet; I couldn’t believe that this dish, treated with an almost religious reverence by Waverly Root and A.J. Liebling, amounted in reality to just a bowl of beans. Jambalaya, a simple dish of baked rice with some sausage and shrimp thrown in, was likewise a letdown. I don’t know what Besh’s version is like, but it didn’t sound that interesting. I felt guilty about it, but so what? I made it how I wanted.

First of all, I replaced the carolina converted rice the recipe called for with carnoli rice - the stuff they use in risotto. I didn’t want it to be fluffy; I wanted it to be rich and moist, like a great pilaf or even risotto. So I used risotto rice: short-grained carnoli. I wanted it to be rich and flavorful, and so eschewed the pallid pale chicken broth the traditional recipe calls for. (I added some chicken demi glace to it to give it a bigger, deeper, roastier flavor.) Instead of the usual blah bell peppers, I added five or six levels of mild chile flavor, to give a zing and piquancy that was missing from most of the versions I have tried: fresh minced poblano and serrano peppers, cayenne, esplette pepper, and a rub I got from chef Jesse Perez in San Antonio. (I also used the rub to season the wild shrimp I popped in for steaming at the very end.) And finally, along with the andouille - which is, we can all agree - indispensable to any self-respecting jambalaya, I worked in a half pound of chorizo fino: a very fine grind of the spicy Spanish sausage, for extra piquancy. There was also a bunch of bacon in there somewhere.

The result was fantastic - better than I could have hoped, and better than any jambalaya my guests claimed to have eaten. (They were probably just being nice - but still.) The rice absorbed all those flavors and all that rich liquid; I put in more than recommended because the starchy rice seemed thirstier. It wasn’t a traditional jambalaya; it was something denser and hotter and more interesting. Why not? I’m not from New Orleans. Next up is cassoulet.

Some of My Recent Chicago Eats

Half the fun of discovering a new restaurant is sharing it with people you know will enjoy it. As Rachael Ray’s resident restaurant guru, here’s an inside look at what I report back to Rach about some of my favorite restaurant finds and food experiences!

From: Kappy

To: RR

Sent: Thursday, January 17, 2013 4:12pm

Subject: Some Recent Solid Chicago Eats

Hey RR -

While I always like to try a new restaurant, the ones I want to tell you about this time aren’t new. But they’re some solid places that are new to me since moving back to Chicago, and I decided it was about time for me to give them a try.

Terzo Piano is in the Modern Wing of the Art Institute and is helmed at the kitchen by Chef Tony Mantuano of Spiaggia and Bar Toma. As I think you know, I’m a big fan of Tony. The man has had one of the top rated restaurants in Chicago for about 25 years, so you’ve gotta figure Terzo would be halfway decent, right?! I actually was lucky enough to interview Tony at Le Cordon Bleu in 2011 and I had asked him one of his favorite things to eat in Chicago at that time. He said (not that he was biased) the Lamb Burger at Terzo Piano was excellent - and it instantly made my mouth water. So when I had a work meeting at Terzo and saw the Lamb Burger on the menu, it was a no-brainer. It was stuffed with goat cheese and had an olive relish, too. [image error] The fries were cooked to perfection and the homemade ginger lemon soda was pretty darn good. There were so many other delicious-looking things on the menu that I’ve gotta go back, but this lamb burger was pretty serious for starters.

I had heard a lot about Macku in the Lincoln Park neighborhood. Some friends said it was their favorite sushi, but I don’t consider myself a huge sushi connoisseur. I mean, I like it and all, but I’d choose different Asian cuisines over sushi. But with the word on the street being what it was, I had to try it - and I was glad I did. I started with the sweet potato soup, which arrived in front of me in a crazy hot bowl. With a lobster stock base, the soup was sizzling. [image error] I then ordered a piece of Hamachi nigiri that came with sautéed banana peppers, an interesting twist. I also had the Mebachi (tuna), served with pickled onions, truffle and soy - now that was pretty good! [image error] And then I needed something green, of course, so I added a salad with scallops and a kiwi vinaigrette. Macku kind of reminded me of Sushi Yasuda in NYC, which is an A+ place. I’m not saying it was the same, but the sleekness of it reminded me a little bit. If you’re particular about your sushi, you’ll dig this place.

Now, I had no expectation of getting a seat very easily at Great Lake, despite the fact that I was dining alone, but I wandered in on a Saturday night and was giving the LAST seat of the night, at a communal table, right between two other groups. Great Lake is on the north side of Chicago and received GQ writer Alan Richman’s nod for #1 pizza in America - bold, I know. There are about 14 seats and the man making the pizzas makes each and every one to the beat of his own drum. All of the ingredients are local and of top quality. I started with the seasonal cauliflower salad, served with its own leaves. [image error] This was definitely something different, but tasty. As for the pizza, I went for the regular cheese, but added their homemade sausage and red onion (pictured above). Crispy bottom, perfectly chewy crust, sweet tomato sauce and a kick of cheese (not mozzarella). Best in the country? I’ll leave that for you to decide. But hurry up, as they are not extending their lease in the current location, and only time will tell where they end up.

And that’s what’s on my plate!

~ Kappy

Terzo Piano (Modern Wing of the Art Institute of Chicago)

159 East Monroe Street

Chicago, IL 60601

(312) 443-8650

www.TerzoPianoChicago.com

Macku

2239 North Clybourn Avenue

Chicago, IL 60614

(773) 880-8012

www.MackuSushi.com

Great Lake

1477 West Balmoral Avenue

Chicago, IL 60640

(773) 334-9270

Andrew “Kappy” Kaplan loves food. A professionally trained chef, by day he runs Yum-o!, Rachael Ray’s charity focused on kids and cooking, and keeps special projects running smoothly for her. By night he hops course to course, place to place, all across the country. He’s Rach’s own personal dining guide! You can also follow Kappy on Twitter to see what’s On Kappy’s Plate in real-time!

Colorful, Crunchy, and Full of Flavor: Persian-Style Rice

For the past year I’ve been writing The New Persian Kitchen, a cookbook inspired by Persian cuisine, so I’ve been cooking a lot of rice. In Iran, once known as “Persia,” rice is the main starch, and much like pasta in Italy, Iranian cooks have turned its preparation into an art form.

As comforting and delicious as plain rice can be, there are countless ways to embellish this simple grain, and in Iranian cuisine you’ll find it baked into the shape of a crisp and savory pie, added to ground meat to form toothsome meatballs, and made into a sweet pudding flavored with cardamom and rosewater.

But Persian rice is most famous for fluffy, jewel-toned piles of pilaf-style rice mixed with all manner of nuts, fruits, and spices. To give you a sense of how Iranians like to riff on rice, here is a sampling of classic Iranian rice dishes:

-Rice cooked with fava beans and dill

-Rice cooked with sour cherries and almonds

-Rice cooked with lentils, lamb, and potatoes

-Rice cooked with orange peel, nuts, raisins, and barberries (dried sour berries)

-Rice cooked with shrimp and tomatoes

Many of the above dishes call for seasonings such as saffron, turmeric, cinnamon, cardamom, garlic, and onions, providing subtle and exotic flavoring.

I hope you’re starting to get the picture, that rice can be combined with any of your favorite ingredients, including veggies, nuts, fruit, herbs, and meat. To make your own Persian-style rice, start with basmati rice (available at natural, Indian, and Iranian markets), and cook it according to the instructions. Ideally, the cooked rice should be dry and fluffy. In a separate pan, cook the accompanying ingredients, and when it’s time to serve, fold everything together, and season to taste.

Persian-Style Rice with Carrots, Walnuts, and Raisins

Here is a recipe for a fruity, bright-hued rice dish in the Persian tradition. Serve it as a side dish, or with salad, yogurt, and tangy pickles for a light meal.

Ingredients

2 cups basmati rice

2 tablespoons cooking oil (not olive oil)

1 yellow onion, diced

1 1/2 cups grated carrots

3/4 cup walnuts, coarsely chopped

1/2 cup green or golden raisins

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon turmeric

2 tablespoons orange marmalade

2 tablespoons warm water

1 tablespoon butter, softened (optional)

Salt

Instructions

Cook the rice according to the instructions on the package, and set aside, covered.

Heat a skillet over medium heat and add the oil. When hot, add the onions and cook until translucent. Add the carrots, walnuts, and raisins, and cook until the carrots are slightly softened, stirring often, about 5 minutes.

In a small bowl, whisk together the marmalade and water. Turn down the heat to low and stir in the marmalade, along with the cinnamon and turmeric, and cook for another 5 minutes. Turn off the heat and salt to taste.

Fluff the rice with a fork, and transfer it to a large bowl. Fold in the carrot mixture, and the butter, if using. Serve warm.

If you want to learn more about Persian cuisine, check out my cookbook, The New Persian Kitchen. It’s available for pre-order, and in stores on April 16!

Savory French Toast With Tomato and Onion Confetti

There it sat, growing older and harder. When I bought the loaf, it was in great form – full of vitality and springiness at the slightest touch. That was then. Now four days later, the knife had to wrestle its way through. If a knife had to work that hard, just imagine what that meant for the teeth. I could have just tossed it out, but that seemed unfair.

Growing up, mum would give the bread a once over. If it was dry, she would make Andaa bread – French toast. Her reaction was like a reflex. But this is not uncommon, if a bread dries out, find a way to resuscitate it. If you trace back the genesis of French Toast whether you take the French or Indian route to get there, it was a dish that was born out of the unwillingness to waste. But to be frank, fresh bread doesn’t work as effectively in any case. The bread needs to be weathered and dehydrated so that it can pull in that eggy goodness.

Andaa bread is commonly prepared as a savory dish. Slices of bread are dunked in to a peppery egg batter of confetti diced onions, ginger, cilantro, tomatoes and green chili. It is served piping hot from the skillet with copious amounts of ketch-up and a cup of chai. Doesn’t that sound like a breakfast for champions! I make this dish all the time for breakfast but it is just as satisfying for dinner with a side of lush field of greens.

Recipe for Andaa Bread – The Savory French Toast

Ingredients

2 eggs

1 tbsp. sour cream

2 tbsp. milk

1 tbsp. finely sliced onion

1 tbsp. finely diced tomatoes

Salt and fresh cracked pepper

½ Serrano chili, deseeded and finely chopped

1 ½ tbsp. cilantro, finely chopped

1 tbsp. butter

1 tsp. vegetable oil

4
 slices stale bread

Method

1) In a wide dish (that can accommodate the size of the bread), combine the eggs with the sour cream, milk, salt and pepper, onions, tomatoes, chili and cilantro

2) Heat a skillet with the oil and butter (this prevents butter from burning)

3) Coat the slices of bread in the egg mixture and place on the skillet, spreading some of the chopped ingredients over the top. Cook until golden and crisp, turn to cook the other side spreading a few more chopped ingredients over the top

4) Serve hot and crisp with ketch-up or hot sauce

Saira Malhotra, is of British–Indian descent and is a chef, food writer and cooking instructor based in New York City. Raised in Hounslow, U.K, or rather ‘Little India’, where the air is aromatic with roasted spices, little did Saira know these moments would follow her from being a student in France and Italy to residing in NYC with her husband and kids and parlay themselves unexpectedly in to a culinary career. She is a graduate of the International Culinary Center in New York City. Come visit her at her food blog: www.passportpantry.com where she shares approachable and international recipes

2013: Your Best Year Ever

Christmas and New Year celebrations are over, and it’s back into work. No doubt you made some resolutions on New Year’s Eve, but a week in, are you keeping any of them? Setting huge goals can be tough to maintain, so why not start small? Pledging to hit the gym every morning at 6 a.m. isn’t likely to happen, but taking your eye makeup off every night (even if you get home late!) is a little easier to stick to. Here are some resolutions that will ensure 2013 is the year of great skin and hair!

1. Remove Your Makeup

One of the easiest ways to increase aging and clog pores? Sleeping with your makeup on.  You don’t have to wash your whole face, just keep a packet of makeup remover wipes next to your bed. Your skin will thank you, really.

2. Indulge in a Weekly Hair Mask

Locks looking a little worse for wear? Adding a weekly hair mask to your regimen will add much needed moisture to your tresses, resulting in healthier, shinier looking locks. We suggest slathering a mask into your strands, then shaving your legs or exfoliating your face—talk about multitasking!

3. Try a Serum

If you haven’t heard, serums are the latest beauty products on the market guaranteed to give you a softer, brighter, and clearer looking complexion.  Gently pat a serum of your choice into your skin immediately after toning whilst still in a steamy bathroom. The warm air will help the ingredients to better penetrate your skin.

4. Become a Multitasker!

There’s nothing worse than wasting time (especially if you live in New York!), so learn to manage every minute of your time. Sitting in your car at the traffic lights? Massage some cuticle oil into your nails.  Watching TV on the couch? Slather moisturizer on your feet and put on a pair of thick cotton socks. You can even apply a facemask before cooking dinner.

5. Try a New Haircut

Make 2013 your most spectacular year yet. A bold new haircut or color will give you the confidence boost you need to try new projects and styles. Scour magazines and websites for pictures of cuts you like, and then take them to your hairdresser to discuss. And remember, hair grows back!

My Beef With Meathead Goldwyn or, Why Resting Meat Matters

A great many meats have sat on my cutting board over the years. And every time they have, there I was, in a state of hysterical paralysis, barely able to contain myself. Every nerve in my body, every flashing neuron, all the cholesterol-choked blood oozing manfully through my veins, urged me to eat. “It’s been long enough!” they said. “It’s rested! It’ll be fine!”

But, I knew, it wouldn’t be fine. The process of resting meat has been one of the fundamental laws of my meat universe. Cook a steak, and put it on your cutting board, and cut it up. Here’s what you’ll get: a big cutting board full of blood and greast. Well, not actually blood. It just looks like blood. What it really is is a substance called myoglobin, and it constitutes everything that we call “juiciness” in meat. And that’s where you want it: in the meat. As a steak, or a roast, or a chicken sits there, calming down while you get increasingly more worked up, the myoglobin retreats back into the muscle tissue, only to be released when you bite it.

Now, this is what I always believed. But my formidable rival in the meat-advice business, Meathead Goldwyn, disagrees. He considers resting a canard. What’s more, he summoned a scientist to his aid, Dr. Greg Bonder, who put some meats through a series of experiments, which generally involved his cutting up a meat right out of the oven on paper towels and weighing them, and cutting up the same meat, rested, and weighing those towels. There is a bunch of other very plausible, thoughtful, well-reasoned, carefully citationed, and very wrong arguments on behalf of this preposterous theory. I told Meathead that he was wrong; but he insists on going on at obsessive length against the practice of resting. “So resting cools the meat, softens the crust, overcooks the center, and reduces moisture of steaks and chops, and its impact on the perception of juiciness is probably nil,” he says in one of his more measured statements.

I know Meathead is wrong because when I see the steak sitting there, and I slice it with my razor-like Bob Kramer carbon knife, it barely spills any juices at all. It’s as simple as that. Meathead has the fair-mindedness to discuss experiments by British superchef Heston Blumenthal, Food Lab savant Kenji Lopez-Alt, and the entire Cooks Illustrated kitchen testing team, all of whom testify to the exact opposite of everything he says. But take it from me. It’s worth the wait.

Meanwhile, I’m going to keep reading Meathead’s site, if only for the recondite meat reveries of Dr. Bonder. “I’m about to write up my conclusions on bark formation,” he tells me excitedly in a private email. Bark formation, of course, is what happens on the outside of a pork butt. But to Dr. Bonder, it’s “a wonderful dance between fat exudation and oxidation, carmelization, and pellicle formation. The pellicle is particularly interesting.” Tell it, Dr. Bonder! As long as you don’t want me to make me roasts and chops hemmeorahge over the cutting board, I’m all ears.

7 EASY ECONOMICAL WAYS TO SAVE ON WINTER ENERGY BILLS

My how time flies! Holidays are over, kids are back in school and our New Year’s resolutions are almost a distant memory -must be January!! And, that means for lots of us it’s cold ‘n nasty and so our energy bills - Particularly if you’ve got leaks and are overlooking those nooks and crannies where heat and air conditioning can easily escape. Here are seven pocketbook ‘n manicure friendly ways to help you keep it toasty indoors without you and yours needing to wear your cold weather gear at the kitchen table. Bow wow!

LET THE SUN SHINE IN: Seems like a no-brainer but the simplest way to warm up your home is to open all window shades, drapes and raise shutters. And, when it’s cloudy out keep them closed.
PUT YOUR FANS ON THE CLOCK: Switch your ceiling fans to clockwise and turn them on low, which will push warm air back down from the ceiling.
THROW IN THE TOWEL: Or rather down! To help stop drafts from the bottom of your doors throw down some towels. An easy to install rubber draft guard will also do the trick.
SOCK IT TO THEM: Depending upon the width of your doors or windows, fill enough knee-high socks to match the width with dried rice (uncooked). Be sure to leave enough room unfilled at the top of the sock to tightly tie a knot. Then place them on the sill and/or bottom of your drafty door. This is a very easy project for your kiddies to do or at least help with and makes them feel like they’ve helped with some energy savings-a good life lesson! TIP: Use those single socks that have lost their mate in what I lovingly refer to as my dryer’s “Bermuda Triangle”!
MARK, GET SET, PLUG: It’s easy to plug up cracks around your window and door frames that can cause heat to literally ‘fly out the door’ without breaking a nail or a sweat! Just take aim with a MANI-FRIENDLY CAULKING TOOL that you can buy at your local hardware store, Lowe’s or Home Depot. So on your mark get set plug! Be sure to hit not only obvious leaks, which may loom around your doors, windows, outlets, switch plates and cabinets but those that are less obvious like recessed lights, outlets, corner gaps and cracks.
SEAL THE DEAL: Believe it or not 10-15% of our heat or air conditioning can escape through light switches and sockets. No problem: Simply take a ride to your local Ace ‘n install ELECTRIC SOCKET ‘N SWITCH SEALS. Trust moi, it’s even the least handy of we accidental housewives can do to derail those drafts and keep your energy bills in tow.
MOVE SOUTH - That will help with your heating but you’ll still need to check to see if your air conditioning is taking flight in the same places so the above tips will still do the trick!

For more tips from The Accidental Housewife visit Julie’s tips

Stuffed Peppers

Part of the reason I love writing recipes is because of the research process. Reading, watching and yes, eating are all part of the job. It’s fascinating to learn about a family and their culture through their recipes. The process makes me feel like part historian and part detective. Sometimes you have to dig deep because, as many of us have discovered, retrieving an old recipe doesn’t always come easy. Many recipes exist only in the memory and can only be translated via demonstration. How many of us have had a relative tell us “I don’t have it written down, but I can show you.”?  Those moments are priceless because they are the very essence of family and tradition. What really connects us through food are the memories attributed to a certain dish and the person we remember making it. Smell, taste and touch are all sense that can instantly remind us of a time, place, or person and nothing does that better than food.

Whenever I set out to create a new recipe I do everything I can to learn about the way it’s traditionally made and then I set out to make it my own. Sometimes the changes are minor and other times more drastic. Reading this you might be saying “I do the same thing with my recipes”, and that’s probably true. The wonderful world of cooking is this amazing mix of traditional and new ideas. Each recipe has a history and a story all it’s own, making it as unique and special as it’s creator.

These stuffed peppers are a great example of re-working a classic— a slight spin on a family favorite. I took our family stuffed pepper recipe and decided to bump up the flavor a bit by adding fresh herbs and swapping out traditionally used white rice for super fragrant jasmine rice. The change may not *seem* all that drastic but I assure you they took this dish from simple to special. The flavor is unique all the while preserving the traditional recipe. I think my Grandma would be proud.

Note: this recipe can easily be made vegetarian by omitting the sausage. You can even add in beans to bump up the protein. If using beans, stir pre-cooked beans into the rice mixture before filling peppers. Bake as indicated below.

Stuffed Peppers

Serves 4- 8 (depending on portion size)

Ingredients:

4 tablespoons olive oil, divided, plus more for greasing pan and drizzling over top of peppers

1 small onion, finely chopped

3 chicken or pork sausages, casings removed

1 large clove garlic, minced

2 cups cooked jasmine rice

3/4 cup freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese

1/4 cup flat leaf parsley, finely chopped

2 sprigs fresh thyme, finely chopped

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

1 (15 ounce can) of  diced tomatoes, well drained of its juice

4 red bell peppers, cut in half, stems and seeds removed

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a rimmed baking sheet or roasting pan with foil and coat with 2 tablespoons of olive oil.

2. In a large skillet heat remaining 2 tablespoons of olive oil over medium heat. Add in onion, garlic and sausage meat. Using a wooden spoon or spatula, break up the chicken sausage. Cook sausage until meat is no longer pink and onions are soft, about 6-8 minutes. Allow to cool while you put together the other components of the filling.

3. In a large bowl combine rice, 1/2 cup of cheese, parsley, thyme, salt and pepper, diced tomatoes and cooled sausage mixture. Stir gently until combined. Place each of the peppers, cut side up onto prepared baking sheet and divide filling amongst them. Top evenly with remaining 1/4 cup of parmigiano cheese and a sprinkling of breadcrumbs. Drizzle each with a little olive oil and bake until peppers are tender, about 25-30 minutes. Serve peppers warm as a side dish or as a main coarse alongside a salad.

Christina Stanley-Salerno is a mama, recipe developer, food stylist, photographer and blogger atTakeBackYourTable.com. She loves cooking for and with her family. Life is hectic, but Christina is passionate about mealtime because she believes that family meals are the glue that holds everyone together. Creating simple, quick and healthy meals is her specialty and her trick to keeping the family meal a reality, even on busy weeknights.

Follow her on Twitter @TakeBackTables

Some of NYC’s Finest (not the NYPD)

Half the fun of discovering a new restaurant is sharing it with people you know will enjoy it. As Rachael Ray’s resident restaurant guru, here’s an inside look at what I report back to Rach about some of my favorite restaurant finds and food experiences!

From: Kappy

To: RR

Sent: Saturday, January 12, 2013 6:38pm

Subject: Some of NYC’s Finest (not the NYPD)

Dear Rachael -

As you know, my restaurant cruising runs the gamut. I love a little down-home local spot, I love a good food truck, I love a great sandwich and I also love a nicer meal every now and then. When I do splurge, I like to know it is going to be great. And by deciding to visit Chef Daniel Humm’s newest restaurant and Chef Floyd Cardoz’s newest venture, I knew I was going to be in good hands - make that great hands!

While the amazingly talented Chef Daniel Humm and his front-of-the-house business partner Will Guidara have received global press with their Eleven Madison Park restaurant, their most recent opening in the NoMad Hotel is pretty special, too. While it is not as highbrow as EMP, it’s still a special meal. I went with Katy and looked forward to the feast we were about to embark on. We started with a plate of radishes that the menu said were served with butter and fleur de sel (pictured above). What arrived at our table was Humm’s savory answer to chocolate dipped strawberries: a beautiful board of fresh radishes dipped (coated) in butter and served with a little pile of fleur de sel on the side. I could talk about this dish for pages, quite honestly. But in the interest of moving on, they followed these little gems with their potato and spring onion flatbread. Many restaurants would classify this as a menu item, but this is their “bread.” We then tried an interesting combination of soft egg with crispy quinoa and brown butter sabayon followed by the julienned snow peas with pecorino and mint. Simple, but perfect. [image error]

Without slowing down, we both dug into my fettuccine with king crab and lemon and Katy picked at the grilled asparagus panzanella. Filling our table, we added the suckling pig confit with greens and apricots, which was plate-lickable, perfectly cooked pork that was tender and flavorful with a thin, waiting-to-be shattered crust. [image error] For dessert, we were talked into the enrobed chocolate bar with peanut butter, and the Milk & Honey dessert, which is one of Chef’s favorites. Both were pretty special, as was the whole experience at the NoMad. [image error]

Next up? Top Chef Masters winner, a personal favorite chef of mine and a crazy talented chef at that: Floyd Cardoz’s newest venture with Danny Meyer and the Union Square Hospitality Group, North End Grill. I sat at the kitchen counter and watched the show. I knew this was going to be a marathon, so I paced myself and shared with my neighbors. I started with the Skip Jack Crudo with blood orange and pickled ginger, a great start to the meal. Then, Christmas came early… in the form of a taste of the dressing/stuffing that Chef Cardoz serves with his whole roasted chicken. I also tried the Chili-Rubbed Rock Cod with fresh turnips and grilled ramps and then a couple slices of the Grilled Clam Pizza with cilantro and lemon. [image error] Whoops, I tried more… the Scottish Egg coated in their homemade chorizo and breadcrumbs in a spicy watercress soup (amazing) [image error] and a side of grilled ramps and, oh yes, a side of Brussels sprout hash with mustard seeds and lentils and, okay, I’ll just admit it, a side of thrice fried spiced fries. Man, I think I got full writing this. But you thought I was done? No, there’s always room for dessert, which came in the form of the Butterscotch Pot de Crème with single “maltmallows.” The best part for me was mixing the whole thing together to mix in the salted caramel and cookie crumbs like I would have done if I were a kid. Now THAT’S the way to go! [image error]

And that’s what’s on my plate!

~ Kappy

NoMad

1170 Broadway

New York, NY 10001

(212) 796-1500

www.thenomadhotel.com

North End Grill

104 North End Avenue

New York, NY 10282

(646) 747-1600

www.northendgrillnyc.com

Andrew “Kappy” Kaplan loves food. A professionally trained chef, by day he runs Yum-o!, Rachael Ray’s charity focused on kids and cooking, and keeps special projects running smoothly for her. By night he hops course to course, place to place, all across the country. He’s Rach’s own personal dining guide! You can also follow Kappy on Twitter to see what’s On Kappy’s Plate in real-time!

Blondie-Topped Brownies

[image error]

It being the new year, I started 2013 with the best of intentions. I would eat more fruits and vegetables, eliminate or cut down on processed foods (good bye fries and chips), cut down on wine (ugh), vary my workout routine (hello stretching), and no sugar during the week (this means baking too). I officially started this regime this past Monday, I made these brownie/cookie combo bars Wednesday night. Three days is better than none, right?

These bars - a thick, gooey brownie, topped with a chocolate chip cookie layer - are off the charts rich. Just to ward off any requests for calorie count, full disclosure - they come in at 7 eggs and 4+ sticks of butter. They are an indulgent treat - don’t bother. They are so thick you can barely get your mouth around one. They are off the charts good, and one batch would make about 40 or so bars, so they make a lot. The pan weighs about 10 pounds.

Everyone loved them. In my house, forget the souffles, the crumbles, the mousses (a word?), the cakes. Cookies and brownies are king - and these bars are the best of both worlds. Note - these are better completely cooled and actually left to rest overnight.

Blondie-Topped Brownies (click here for printable recipe)

(adapted from dessertgirl.com)

Ingredients:

For Brownie Layer:

1 1/4 cups unsweetened cocoa powder

1 1/4 cups flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cups butter, melted

3 cups sugar

5 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla

For Blondie Layer:

2/3 cup butter, melted

2 cups brown sugar, packed

2 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla

scant 2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

2 cups chocolate chips

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line a 9″ x 13″ baking pan with foil and spray the foil with non-stick cooking spray.

Make the brownie layer: Sift together cocoa powder, flour and salt in medium bowl. Set aside. With an electric mixer beat butter and sugar until thoroughly combined. Beat in eggs one at a time, add vanilla, and beat on medium speed until mixture is creamy and light yellow, periodically scraping down bowl. Gradually add cocoa/flour mixture, beating on low speed until completely mixed. Transfer to prepared pan and bake for 20 minutes, or until brownies are just starting to set in center. Reduce oven temp to 350 degrees F.

While brownies are baking, make the blondie layer: With an electric mixer beat butter and brown sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs one at a time, add vanilla and beat on medium speed, scraping down the bowl occasionally, until mixture is light and fluffy. In a medium bowl combine flour, baking powder, and salt. Slowly add to butter/sugar mixture and beat until thoroughly combined. Fold in chocolate chips.

Carefully and quickly spoon blondie batter over brownies so the brownie layer is completely covered. Move quickly as the blondie dough will sink into the brownie layer. The blondie layer doesn’t have to be perfectly even, as it will spread out as it bakes.

Bake for 30-40 minutes, until blondie layer is browning on edges and has a dull finish, and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Let bars completely cool, ideally overnight.