easy recipes

“Easy Does It” # 4 – Garlic Confit Paste

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Dear Friend’s
Although most of my followers are culinary professionals, there is also a large segment of followers who are just starting to enjoy cooking on a slightly higher than basic level. I have therefore decided to publish, under the moniker “Easy Does It“, from time to time some very basic recipe variations of dishes which otherwise might seem complicated to some folks. I will break them down to the easiest, most simple instructions, so that those of you who are intimidated by elaborate recipes will be able to prepare these dishes properly, adjusted to your taste and liking, right from the get-go.
Enjoy :-)
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We all know that roasted garlic paste is a wonderful thing, it will enhance the taste of just about everything, except maybe vanilla pudding. But few of us are willing to switch on the oven for one hour just to roast a few cloves of garlic and the chopped garlic in water you can buy at your grocery store just does not do it. So, for the perfect solution to have great, easy to do garlic paste available at all times, try this simple recipe. Once done, it will last in your fridge or freezer for a very long time. You can use it for sauteing, marinades, dressings etc.
If you don’t like olive oil, you can substitute the olive oil with a more neutral-tasting peanut or canola oil, clarified, butter, duck fat, pork or chicken fat. Experiment whats suit’s you best.
Enjoy :-)
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peeled garlic, olive oil, sea salt

season with cayenne pepper, confit very slowly without browning garlic for about one hour

blend until smooth

Confit Garlic Paste

saute in its own fat

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Hans’ Gnocchi & Strip

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This dish has everything I love: Steak, gnocchi, mushrooms, bok choy, wasabi and a few more other goodies, seasoned with lots of garlic paste and sriracha and – voilà, great comfort food prepared in a snap (I did have leftover gnocchi I had made the day before).

Bon Appetit ! Life is Good !
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For Gnocchi Recipe Click Here
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Hans’ Gnocchi & Strip

: season strip steak with kosher salt and cayenne pepper, grill to your preferred doneness

: meanwhile, saute mushroom in peanut oil

: add garlic paste, onions and red peppers

: add bok choy

: add gnocchi

: sprinkle with freshly grated parmesan

: top with strip, top with wasabi

: Hans’ Gnocchi & Strip

: Hans’ Gnocchi & Strip

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Fried, Fried, Fried, Fried & Fried

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My own Superbowl dinner yesterday. I loved every bit of it 🙂
The secret is to make sure that everything is very crispy and not greasy at all.
Fried chicken breast, fried scallions, fried mushrooms, fried pickled artichoke hearts and fried dill pickles.
Served with tonkatsu dipping sauce and scotch bonnet hot sauce – absolute fried food bliss 🙂

Bon Appetit ! Life is Good !
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Fried, Fried, Fried, Fried & Fried

: Mise en place

: season everything with salt, pepper and granulated garlic, coat with standard breading, fry until golden and cooked through

: while frying, remove all loose crumbs swimming in the fryer

: almost……..

: remove all items to absorbent paper

: Fried, Fried, Fried, Fried & Fried

: Fried, Fried, Fried, Fried & Fried

: Fried, Fried, Fried, Fried & Fried

: Fried, Fried, Fried, Fried & Fried

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Chicken Cordon Bleu Ala Kiev

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How to improve on a chicken cordon bleu you ask? By preparing it ala kiev I say 🙂
Chicken ala Kiev – breaded chicken breast stuffed with garlic/herb butter.

P.S.
Don’t tell my cardiologist !

Bon Appetit ! Life is Good !
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Chicken Cordon Bleu Ala Kiev

: pounded chicken breast, seasoned with salt and pepper

: top with cooked ham

: top with edam or gruyere

: top with herb/garlic butter

: roll the ham and cheese around the butter

: fold the ends

: top with another breast, tuck ends under, bread with flour, egg and bread crumbs

: saute in peanut oil, replace oil with butter for the last minute of cooking

: serve with small salad and lemon

: Chicken Cordon Bleu Ala Kiev

: Chicken Cordon Bleu Ala Kiev

: Chicken Cordon Bleu Ala Kiev

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Breakfast Of Champions # 32 – Milanesa Mexicana

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This exact dish was my daily breakfast staple for a few months back in 1975, when I spend extended time vacationing in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.
At that time, Puerto Vallarta was still a smallish, sleepy city with few hotels and minimal night life. Puerto Vallarta became internationally famous after American director John Huston filmed his 1963 film The Night of the Iguana in Mismaloya, a small town just south of Puerto Vallarta. I still have a photo from 1975 which I took on the beach where Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton were having their “sexy” beach scenes. It was basically a deserted piece of beach where only a few hippies and locals hung out. In the shot I took, there are as many pigs as people roaming the beach.
Times and Puerto Vallarta sure have changed since then 😦
However, at the time, the group of friend’s I spent most night’s with was a show band from Ireland named “Los Irlandeses”. They performed at the night club of the only 5-star hotel in town, the Westin Hotel, located on a small beach just outside of town. Their show started at around 11.00pm five times a week and that’s when and where I usually started my evening. They made sure to talk to me from the stage when I got there during the show and treated me as if I were a VIP. Since this was the hottest place in town, this little game made sure that by the time the show ended at around 1.00 am, there were already a few groupies sitting on my table, ready to party with the guy’s from the band and I.
We usually partied until 6.00 or 7.00 am (we were very young and sleeping during the day when it was hot made sense. Only the tourists came for a tan 🙂
So, at that time of the day, we usually went to a restaurant/bar in an area close to the beach which served great food (all food was good at that time of day). Almost all the time my best friend at the time who was the drummer of the band and I ended up ordering the same dish, day after day – Milanesa, accompanied by guacamole, salsa mexicana and fried egg’s, washed down with a few Dos Equis beers.
This was the usual daily before going to bed ritual. The Getting out of bed ritual in the late afternoon usually involved a couple of dos equis and a mexican style chicken and lime soup, containing shredded chicken, rice, vegetables and lots of cilantro.
So there you have it : Milanesa Mexicana and a few memories 🙂

Bon Appetit ! Viva Mexico !

Guacamole Recipe Link
Salsa Mexicana Link
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The Domino Principle, 1977

Milanesa Mexicana

saute breaded pork, veal, chicken or beef cutlets until golden and cooked to your desired doneness

meanwhile, prepare sunny side up egg’s

milanesa

top with guacamole

top with salsa mexicana

top with sour cream

top with sunny side up egg’s

Milanesa Mexicana

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“Easy Does It” # 3 – Asian Inspired Chicken Wings And Drumettes

Perfect for super bowl party !
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Bon Appetit ! Life is Good !
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Easy Does It #3 Asian Inspired Chicken Wings And Drummets

“Easy Does It” #3 – Asian Inspired Chicken Wings And Drumettes

season wings and drummets with kosher salt, sriracha, soy sauce, lime juice and granulated garlic, saute on both sides until cooked through

remove from heat, add sweet thai chilli sauce

add saoy sauce, mix well so all the chicken is well coated. To serve, sprinkle with sesame seeds and scallions

add soy sauce, mix well so all the chicken is well coated. To serve, sprinkle with sesame seeds and scallions

“Easy Does It” #3 – Asian Inspired Chicken Wings And Drumettes

“Easy Does It: #3 – Asian Inspired Chicken Wings And Drumettes

“Easy Does It” #3 – Asian Inspired Chicken Wings And Drumettes

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Steer Neck Soup

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This was the perfect dinner for yesterday’s cold evening. First a big bowl of this soup, then outside on the terrace by the lake for a night-cup, wrapped in two blankets and a few glasses of hot “Glühwein mit Schuss” (mulled wine with rum). Great evening 🙂

Bon Appetit ! Life is Good !

Note : If you can not procure steer neck, substitute beef or veal neck. The taste will be slightly less “beefy”

Steer Neck Soup With Egg And Horseradish

: slowly simmer sliced steer neck in salted water for one hour

: after one hour, add scallions, a small amount of tomato paste, star anis, lime juice, garlic paste and grated ginger

: simmer until meat is tender, about two hours more, remove scallions, add small potatoes

: cook until potatoes are tender, add tomatoes, red peppers, bok choy and white cabbage

: bring to a simmer again, remove from heat, add sriracha, salt and maggi seasoning to taste

: to serve, sprinkle with chopped cilantro

: Steer Neck Soup

: for individual portions, add a fresh egg yolk

: top meat with horseradish

: Steer Neck Soup With Egg And Horseradish

: Steer Neck Soup With Egg And Horseradish

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Boiled Pork And Shrimp Dumplings

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Boiled dumplings are one of the more common daily food items in Chinese cuisine. Yet, while most dumplings served in restaurants are steamed, the more common cooking method in private homes is boiling them in salted water.
These dumplings are very easy to make and take no time at all, especially if you use ready-made won ton skin’s.
However, tonight I used regular pasta dough (all-purpose flour, whole eggs, water and salt), which I rolled very thin and cut with a round cutter into even shapes) Add a stuffing of half minced pork and half minced shrimp with finely sliced scallions, grated ginger, garlic paste, sesame oil , soy sauce and cayenne pepper. Wet the edges of the dumplings with a wet finger, fold them over and press lightly. Boil in salted water until stuffing is cooked through, about 2 minutes. Remove to a bowl and toss with sesame oil and chili oil. To serve, sprinkle with chopped fresh coriander and a dipping sauce made of soy sauce, lime juice , sugar and chili flakes.

Bon Appetit ! Live is Good !

Pork And Shrimp Dumplings

boiling pork and shrimp dumplings

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Breakfast Of Champions # 31 Shrimp And Lap Chee Fried Rice

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This is one of my easy stand-by recipe’s. Whenever I have leftover rice from the previous day, it usually becomes breakfast the next morning. It takes about ten minutes to prepare, so it’s no sweat at all in the morning 🙂

Bon Appetit ! Have A Great Sunday !
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Breakfast Of Champions # 31

: saute rice in peanut oil until it makes a popping sound

: add diced onions, chopped garlic and grated ginger, saute until fragrant

: add lap chee, shrimp and scallions

: season with kosher salt and cayenne pepper

: add salt and pepper seasoned eggs

: stir fry until eggs are set

: Breakfast Of Champions # 31

: Shrimp And Lap Chee Fried Rice

: Breakfast Of Champions # 31 Shrimp And Lap Chee Fried Rice

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Picanha (Rump Cap) With Sauteed Potatoes, Morels And Cognac Cream

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Is the act of cooking a steak well done treason to the cooking profession? 🙂
While many folks will answer me with a hearty YES to this question, I believe the beauty of enjoying the perfect meal is to get exactly what YOU like, not what others dictate you. I am a big fan of cooking my beef steaks rare to medium rare, yet I will completely support the well done camp if that’s what you prefer. So when my friends Peter and Marina requested well done steak for dinner last night, I tried to make the best of it. I went to my Argentinian butcher in Hialeah and bought a whole Picanha. Picanha (rump cap) is not a well known cut in many countries and therefore seldom cooked a la minute. You will more likely find it as a braise on the menu. While there is nothing wrong with that, you will miss out completely on one of the very best cuts of beef steak. Just know that you have to cook it VERY slowly. I cooked this one in the following manner:
Seared on all sides in a very hot grill pan, then removed to a rack and roasted in the oven at 145 F for 3 hours. Then one more time to a very hot grill pan for another 30 seconds on each side. Removed to a rack, lightly covered with foil and rested for twenty minutes before cutting into it.
The result was the most amazing, butter-tender, juicy, medium well done piece of meat you can imagine.
If you want to try Picanha at its best, try a “Brasilian Rodizio” or “Argentinian Parilla” where you will find it as the star of the menu 🙂
We all enjoyed this great meal with a couple of bottles of 96 Bodega Catena Zapata 2005 Argentino which they brought with them.

Bon Appetit ! Life is Good !
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Rump Cap With Sauteed Potatoes, Morels And Cognac Cream

Rump Cap (Picanha) With Sauteed Potatoes, Morels And Cognac Cream

: Picanha (rump cap)

: cleaned picanha (rump cap)

: cognac cream sauce

: sauteed potatoes

: sauteed potatoes with morels, chili and scallion

: sauce mirror

: sauteed potatoes, morels, chilies and scallion on cognac cream sauce

: Picanha (Rump Cap) With Sauteed Potatoes, Morels And Cognac Cream

: Rump Cap (Picanha) With Sauteed Potatoes, Morels And Cognac Cream

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