Chef Foundation

Archive for July, 2011

Let’s start at the beginning where some of the most satisfying Cajun dinners originate, on crawfish farms. I bet your mouth is watering right now thinking about the delicious meals you had on your trip to New Orleans. If you are looking for recipes to dish up some tasty Creole cooking for your family and friends to rave about, the search is over. We have cooked up a whole mess of info designed with you in mind.

Crawfish spiced just right served up with corn on the cob and sausage is some of the finest eating this side of the mighty Mississippi. Have you ever wondered to yourself or aloud, “I wonder where crawfish come from? Do people in Louisiana catch these locally or are they shipped here from somewhere else?”

Since there are many people who cannot eat dairy, eggs or any other animal by-products for ethical, environmental, and health reasons, I wanted to create a quick and easy alternative treats book in the easiest format that you can take full advantage of straightaway. Thus, here’s a sample recipe from our book for you to enjoy, rich in flavour, yet quick and easy to prepare.

Lemon & Orange Poppy Seed Cake

Ingredients you will need:

1/2 tsp sea salt 1 tsp bicarbonate soda 1 Tbsp poppy seeds 2 Tbsp pure orange juice 1 Tbsp pure lemon juice Grated rind of 1 small orange Grated rind of 1 small lemon 3/4 cup water 2/3 cup raw cane sugar 13/4 cups wholemeal Self Raising Flour 1/4 cup vegan margarine (May be substituted with 4 tsp vegetable oil)

This is a dairy-free vegan suitable recipe.

Method for Making ths cake:

1. Mix the flour, sugar, salt, bicarbonate soda, and poppy seeds in a large bowl. Use a wooden spoon to mix.
2. Add the margarine, juices, rinds, and water. Mix well with wooden spoon.
3. Pour the mixture into a well greased cake tin.
4. Bake in a preheated oven at 180

Summer is here and everyone likes the idea of ice cream. If you are throwing a dinner party or just having some friends over for dinner, you will amaze them when you bring out this ice cream dessert. It looks like a watermelon, even when you slice it. It even has the ‘seeds’. It is easy to make and so impressive.

Ingredients

Lime Sherbet, softened

Raspberry Sherbet, softened. Or you can use cherry or strawberry. It just needs to be red or pink in color.

mini chocolate chips

Line a large mixing bowl with the softened Lime Sherbet. Think of this lining as the skin of the watermelon. Don’t make it too thick, but don’t make it too thin either.

Next, mix the chocolate chips with the raspberry sherbet and fill in the rest of the bowl. The red or pink sherbet is the inside of the watermelon and the mini chocolate chips are the watermelon seeds.

Seal the bowl and refreeze the sherbet watermelon. Once the sherbet has refrozen, remove the seal and turn the bowl upside down onto a large plate. Use a warm towel on the bottom of the bowl to help the ice cream release. Slice the “watermelon” and serve. When served, each piece will look like a slice of watermelon and taste yummy, too.

Techniques are the most difficult to guess and sometimes the most important when trying to clone a Famous Restaurant Secret Recipe. For example, if you want to make your favorite famous restaurant chicken recipe, you may not be able to just saute a whole boneless chicken breast. Chicken breast is all white meat which can dry out quickly, especially the thinner end. Sometimes the trick is to make the breast thinner, a more even thickness. There are two ways I do this:

Cut the breast in half horizontally:
When the chicken breast is almost completely thawed or completely thawed, press it flat on a cutting board with the palm of your hand, chicken breast smooth side up. Place the breast lengthwise under your hand with the thickest side under your thumb area, your fingers together and pointing away from you. Using the whole blade of your knife, start at the thumb side and carefully slice the breast in half horizontally, keeping the knife flat, “feeling” the knife stay level and even. Do this slowly so that you can adjust your angle if necessary. Usually a wide, long knife works better. If your knife has a nice handle, you can place the handle flat on the cutting board and use for a “cutting guide.” You will have 2 pieces of breast meat. The bottom will be slightly larger because it will have most of the thinner end in tact. There you have it, thinner chicken breasts that will cook faster and therefore be more moist.
Pound out the chicken breast:
Place the fully thawed chicken breast in a large plastic baggie. Make sure the chicken is laying flat on one side of the bag, smooth side up and centered in the bag. Leave the bag open. Place bag with meat on cutting

One of the best things you can do for your family is to cook healthy, nutritious and delicious meals. Science is proving what we have long suspected: the food you eat is largely responsible for how healthy you are. In addition, the eating habits you instill in your children are likely to be with them for the rest of their lives. Those are some very good reasons for serving your family the most nutritious meals that you can possible make. These tips will help you make sure that you are cooking and serving healthy meals to your family.

Serve whole grains like brown rice, bulgur wheat and kasha.

Rice is a staple in the diets of some of the healthiest populations in the world. Cooking rice can be tricky, but it’s surprisingly easy if you invest in a rice cooker which maintains the proper heat to cook rice without turning it into a gluey, sticky mess. Use a little olive oil to keep grains from sticking together and salt and season lightly. A rice cooker can also be used to cook other whole grains like bulgur wheat for tabouleh and kasha.

Include lots of fresh fruits and vegetables in your meals.

Fresh fruits and vegetables include fiber, vitamins and minerals that your body needs, along with extra water that helps you stay hydrated. Veggies and fruits are best served raw, but steaming and stewing are great ways to cook them as well, especially if you include the stewing juices as part of the meal. Keep produce fresh longer with Green Bags or Produce Keepers so that salads and fresh fruits are an appealing option for snacks.

Steam veggies and fish to preserve nutrients

Vegetables taste fresher and better when they are lightly steamed. You may even find that your children will eat up all their beans and peas without any butter or other heavy fats when they taste this good. Invest in a good set of steaming pans like a 4 piece Double Boiler and Steamer Pot or a 3 Tier steamer to cook meals all at once.

Add spices to your cooking arsenal.

Spices add more to your meals than flavor. Many spices contain important nutrients and trace minerals that are not found anywhere else. Chili and pepper, for instance, contain small amounts of capsaicin, an anti-inflammatory agent that promotes healthy digestion. Use fresh herbs if you can. It is surprisingly easy to grow them in your own kitchen when you’ve got a good set of herb pots, and invest in a good spice rack like one that can measure spices for recipes.

Send healthy lunches along to school and work.

Don’t let school lunches and take-out snacks sabotage your efforts at a healthy diet. Invest in a set of good portion control containers complete with ice packs so that you can send lunch along with them to school and work. You can even pack up fruit or veggie sticks with dip in containers designed to hold both and keep them separate until you’re ready to dip them yourself.

Grill meats instead of frying them in their own grease.

Enjoy the flavor of your meats without all the unhealthy fats. Grill them on a grilling rack instead of broiling or roasting in a pan that leaves roasts, ribs and burgers swimming in their own fat. There are many roasting pans with racks on the market. If you want something a little more compact, you can invest in a tabletop or counter top grill to cook your meats to perfection.

Serve fresh fruits for breakfast, desserts and snacks.

Melon and pineapple are great snack foods and make wonderful breakfasts and desserts. Take some of the tedium out of the peeling, slicing and wedging with a melon slicer that’s designed just like an apple corer, but a whole lot bigger. You can slice cantaloupes, honeydews, even watermelons, with one easy motion, making it a lot easier for you to serve healthy fruits to your family.

Control what goes into your family’s foods by making supermarket staples at home yourself.

The peanut paste scare drove home what a lot of us have know for a long time, you can’t control what goes into everything your family eats, especially if you are serving store-bought foods. Pick up a few specialty appliances to make homemade foods that your family loves, some options are a peanut butter maker, a yogurt maker or a food dehydrator to make your own fruit leather, yogurt and peanut butter.

The most important things to keep in mind when trying to make your family’s diet healthier are these:

- Whole foods are generally better. Fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grain breads and nuts will go a long way toward improving your diet.
- The more refined something is, the less healthy it is likely to be. Skip white breads and white rice and avoid snacks made with white sugar.
- You can almost always make it healthier if you make it yourself.

Looking for great  easy dessert recipe that is perfect for blueberry season? Here is a recipe for simple cheesecake bars made extra special with the addition of both fresh blueberries and blueberry jam.

These cheesecake bars are much easier than your traditional cheese cake.  They bake in a 9×13-inch pan so you don’t need to dig out your springform pan and don’t require a water bath.

If you are looking for a delicious way to serve blueberries for dessert, I hope you will give these delicious blueberry cheesecake bars a try. To make cleanup even easier line your baking pan with foil.

Easy Blueberry Cheesecake Bars Recipe

6 tablespoons butter, melted
2 cups graham cracker crumbs
2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
3/4 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 (10 ounce) jar blueberry jam
1 cup blueberries

Preheat the oven to 350F.  Position an oven rack in the center of the oven. In a 9×13-inch baking pan, mix together the butter and graham cracker crumbs. Press the mixture evenly into the bottom of the pan to form the crust then place the pan in the refrigerator so the crust can chill while you prepare the filling.

In a large mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese with an electric mixer on medium high speed until creamy. Add the sugar, eggs, vanilla, and lemon juice and beat until creamy and well blended.

Remove the crust from the refrigerator. Stir the jam around in the jar until it is spreadable and then spread it evenly over the crust. Sprinkle blueberries over the jam then spread the cream cheese mixture evenly over the blueberries.

Bake in the center  of your oven for 30 minutes, until the bars are set and slightly puffed. Remove from the oven and allow to cool to room temperature. Then cover with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator to chill completely. Cut into desired size and shape bars.

Number of servings will depend on how large or small you cut the bars.