surprising

Shrimp & Glass Noodle – Salad

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Glass noodles are the ideal canvas for pasta salad. They keep their texture even when kept as leftovers for a few days, which is perfect when you live alone and usually cook way too much for one meal, (as I do), even with a dog who will eat it’s fair share of whatever I cook 🙂
I like to prepare glass noodle salad with a dressing of kosher salt, cayenne pepper or sriracha, rice-vinegar, peanut oil, sesame oil, garlic paste, grated ginger, a tiny amount of sugar, cilantro and/or scallions. As for other ingredients, I sometimes add chicken, seafood, beef or duck, as well as any vegetables hanging-out in my fridge.
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Bon Appetit ! Life is Good !
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All about Glass Noodles
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More Glass Noodles on ChefsOpinion
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Shrimp & Glass Noodle – Salad

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Preparation :
To read instructions, hover over pictures
To enlarge pictures and read instructions, click on pictures

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: season cooked, deveined shrimp with kosher salt, cayenne, garlic paste, lime juice, chopped cilantro and olive oil

: clean, blanch, shock, drain fresh green beans

: cook, shock, drain glass noodles

: add beans, finely shredded red cabbage, carrots and onions

: dress salad with kosher salt, cayenne, garlic paste, rice vinegar and olive oil

: to serve, top noodle salad with the marinated shrimp, sprinkle with chopped salted red radish and chopped cilantro

: Shrimp & Glass Noodle – Salad

: Shrimp & Glass Noodle – Salad

: Shrimp & Glass Noodle – Salad

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Pork Medallions Teriyaki With Rainbow-Carrots In Honeybutter

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This is a typical meal as I prepare it at least twice a week lately – lot’s of veggies and fruits, some protein and as little starch and refined sugar as possible. It is all in the balance, so some days a small amount of sugar and starch versus some days with none of it……
It took me a bit to get used to it, but trying to live a healthier (and hopefully longer) life takes some effort 🙂
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Bon Appetit ! Life is Good !
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Pork Medaillons Teriyaki With Rainbow-Carrots In Honeybutter

Pork Medallions Teriyaki With Rainbow-Carrots In Honeybutter

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Preparation :
To read instructions, hover over pictures
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: whole pork tenderloin

: cut off head and tip, reserve for another dish, remove silver-skin, discard

: cut into medallions, flatten slightly, season with kosher salt, cayenne pepper and granulated garlick

: grill on both sides until 3/4 done

: while Medallions are cooking, simmer covered baby-rainbow carrots with kosher salt, butter, water, and honey

: slowly simmer until carrots are cooked and water has evaporated

: saute one minute in the honey-butter; to serve, add finely chopped parsley

: when medallions are 3/4 done, brush with teriyaki sauce, keep on cooking and brushing on both sides until meat is almost done, remove from grill, (carry-over heat will take it to 165) let meat rest at least 5 minutes before serving

: serve medallions with the carrots, Thai chili sauce and grilled lemon wedges

: Pork Medallions Teriyaki With Rainbow-Carrots In Honeybutter

: Pork Medallions Teriyaki With Rainbow-Carrots In Honeybutter

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Faux Lasagna

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A good Lasagna is a wonderful dish. Ideally it is very flavorful and dripping with the goodness of rich ingredients. It is a sumptuous and satisfying dish that usually leaves nothing to be desired – unless you are looking for texture. After all, besides the crispy corners of the baked marvel, there is just one texture in lasagna – SOFT.
Now, while there is nothing wrong with soft, as a singular texture of a meal it can be a bit boring. So I decided to try something a bit different today for lunch and boy! was I happy I did.
Although not real meatballs (I used spicy Italian sausage) nor real lasagna (which by definition contains sheets of pasta) nor ricotta (I used cheddar instead), this dish knocked it out of the park and although I am a certified pasta lover, I would substitute this one for a real lasagna at any time, hands down 🙂
While the taste ranked with the best I ever had, the texture and taste of the potatoes was something else again and made this the very best “(Faux) Lasagna” I ever had 🙂
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Bon Appetit ! Life is Good !
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Faux Lasagna

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Preparation :
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: cut large baking potatoes into planks, blanch in salted water, drain, shock in ice water

: grate good quality cheddar and parmigiano reggiano

: spicy italian sausage

: cut sausages into small pieces (no need to remove the skin

: saute sausages in garlic oil until cooked

: coat baking dish with garlic paste and garlic oil

: sprinkle grated parmesan and sliced onions

: add tomato sauce

: top with a layer of potatoes. sprinkle with parmesan

: add sliced onions, grated cheddar and half of the sausages

: drizzle with tomato sauce and sprinkle with italian parsley

: add another layer of sausage, sauce, cheddar and parmesam

: add one cup of milk seasoned with kosher salt and cayenne pepper, bake at 320F for one hour

: to serve at once, scoop out with a serving spoon, otherwise, let slightly cool and set, then cut with a knife and serve with a spatula

: 🙂

: Faux Lasagna

: Faux Lasagna

: Faux Lasagna

: Faux Lasagna

: Faux Lasagna

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My ChefsOpinion About New York Times Food Critic Pete Wells Recently Published Devastating Review Of Thomas Keller’s Manhattan Restaurant Per Se

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A dish served in an egg shell at Thomas Keller’s Per Se.
Credit Rob Kim Getty Images for Starwood Preferred Guest

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New York Times food critic Pete Wells recently published a devastating review of Thomas Keller’s Manhattan restaurant Per Se.
While I personally respect professionals like Thomas Keller for their skills, media savvy and good luck, NOBODY is infallible.
And please, never forget the other thousands of equally great chefs around the world who serve equally great food (at least) on a daily basis without being recognized on the monumental scale that some (very few) other chefs have had the good fortune to receive. Not for nothing, the saying goes – “The higher they fly, the deeper they fall”
Remember, there are only a handful of artists in any medium whose work will command millions, while an ocean of others will produce innumerable masterpieces which will wither unrecognized and are never seen by more than a handful of lucky patrons. The same goes for food, service and other masterpieces of our hospitality industry.
Those of us who don’t make it big will just have to suck it up and take the reward to which we are accustomed best – a decent salary (mostly) and the happy faces of our guest’s on their way out 🙂
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And yes, sometimes, even the best of us screw up and we need to be told about it in order to be able to make corrections !
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Read more: http://www.mensjournal.com/food-drink/chefs-restaurants/american-fine-dining-isnt-for-you-per-se-20160115#ixzz3xj4XDwH7

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I have just posted a review of this article on my FB site, which resulted in the following comment :
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Larry Campbell :
“Haters… I believe this is an art and some of us are better then others. Don’t hate respect.”
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To which I replied :
“To be a great chef means you are a top craftsman, not an artist.
Our professional label is “COOK”. Chef is a title.
While it is nice to be admired in ones profession, one should not lose sight of reality. Fine dining, at any level is just food, service and environment elevated to the next level. Not magic – just professionals doing their job. The point is that so few folks nowadays have any idea what good food, great service and sublime dining-environment is and are therefore fascinated with the new element of their dining experience and thereby mistake that for extraordinary quality 😦
Food like this has been served in restaurants around the world for ages. Most Americans have never been exposed to any high quality dining experience and are therefore smitten with old hats.
This is not to take away from Per Se and especially not from Thomas Keller, but great dining has been around forever and will continue in thousands of restaurants around the word.
Ballyhoo and/or crappy reviews will not change that.
Gourmets, Bon Vivants and Hospitality-Professionals will make sure that superb dining experiences will live-on, no matter if they are the “In” thing of the moment or not ……..”
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Comments Welcome 🙂
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Poulet Beaucoup D’Ail

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Chicken breast has gotten a bad rap for a long time.
However, you can safely say that’s not the chicken breast’s fault, but the fault of the cooks who do not know how to properly prepare it.
(It is the same dilemma with fish, veal, pork and most other protein besides red meat – the taste and texture of properly cooked protein is so wonderful yet so elusive in most restaurants these days).
I remember when I was a teacher and I showed my students how incredibly juicy and tasty a breast of chicken can be when cooked in a professional manner. Before the demo, I always asked “why do we prefer chicken leg over chicken breast” and the answer was always: “because breast are dry and tasteless”. How very surprised they all were when I proved them wrong. 🙂
So, the way to do it is to cook it to 160F to 162 F depending on the type and thickness of the protein, then let the carry-over heat do its magic; after a short rest, the protein should reach between 164F and 165F the moment it reaches the guest, but it must never exceed that temperature or it will be dry !!! During my time and before that, cooks would never think of using a thermometer to check the doneness of food – everything was dictated by the experience we garnered over many years of real cooking. Now imagine, some of our successors are not even able to find the center of the protein to get the temperature right (no kidding). And of course, if cooked too fast, protein will also end up less than stellar.
Having said all that, you might understand that I would never order a chicken breast in a restaurant these days, because the absolute majority of cooks nowadays does not know how to do a chicken breast justice. (Again, the same holds true with pork, fish and other protein which are so wonderful tasty, tender and juicy when handled with expertise).
Unfortunately, because of lack of cooking skills, the new “experts” will make you believe that only protein which is under-cooked or raw will be juicy 😦
Ok, ok, so I vented a bit, I beg your pardon…..
As of today’s dish, I resorted sheepishly to the habit of naming the dish in french, since “Poulet Beaucoup D’Ail” sounds so much better than “Chicken With Lot’s Of Garlic“. ( Or maybe “Pollo Con Un Monton De Ajo” anyone ?) 🙂
And for those of you who do not believe in lots of garlic, just replace the garlic with botton-mushrooms. As for the gnocchi with black beans, lately I have prepared that combination often and in many different variations – gnocchi with butter beans, gnocchi with chick peas, gnocchi with edamame etc, all sautéed in herb butter, pesto, tomato sauce, chili oil, cheese sauce and so forth. The added texture of the beans make the gnocchi even more enjoyable than just plain with butter or sauce.
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Bon Appetit ! Life is Good !
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Poulet Beaucoup D’Ail

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Poulet Beaucoup D’Ail

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Preparation :
To read instructions, hover over pictures
To enlarge pictures and read instructions, click on pictures
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: season chicken breast with kosher salt and cayenne pepper

: dredge chicken in flour, shake of excess

: saute slowly together with garlic cloves in olive oil (replace garlic with botton mushrooms if you prefer)

: the garlic should be golden, crispy on the outside and creamy on the inside

: remove chicken and most garlic, reserve

: in the remaining olive oil, saute cooked beans until heated

: add fresh cooked gnocchi, season with kosher salt and cayenne pepper

: chiffonade fresh basil

: add chiffonade to bean/gnocchi mix, check/adjust seasoning

: to serve, sprinkle with finely grated parmigiano reggiano

: top with sliced chicken breast

: top with the remaining olive oil and the garlic cloves, sprinkle with more basil

: Poulet Beaucoup D’Ail

: Poulet Beaucoup D’Ail

: Poulet Beaucoup D’Ail

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Shrimp And Vegetable Salad With Cheese/Garlic Bread

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Last night proved to be one of these dreary nights when I am not able to sleep, so at 5.00 am I decided to give it up, get up and start the day. I had my usual breakfast of two bananas and a glass of ice-cold, reduced fat milk, which usually carries me for a few hours until the early afternoon or even early evening. Not so today. At 10.30 am I decided I needed something a bit more substantial, which lead me to prepare this great concoction. Because of the delicious but very filling large amount of garlic/cheese bread I devoured, I’ll be fine for the rest of the day and will probably just have a few fruits for dinner 🙂 😦
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Bon Appetit ! Life is Good !
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Shrimp And Vegetable Salad With Cheese/Garlic Bread

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Preparation :
To read instructions, hover over pictures
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: spread a generous amount of garlic-confit paste on sour dough bread (or your favorite bread)

: sprinkle with finely grated parmesan and fresh ground black pepper, bake at 375F until golden

: Cheese&Garlic Bread

: sprinkle radish, cucumber, tomato and peppers with kosher salt, let rest for 10 minutes, discard excess liquid

: mix vegetables with ranch dressing

: marinade shrimp with lime juice, finely chopped chilies, kosher salt, olive oil and chopped cilantro

: drizzle some of the shrimp marinade over iceberg leaves

: top with veggie salad

: top veggie salad with shrimp

: Shrimp And Vegetable Salad With Cheese/Garlic Bread

: Shrimp And Vegetable Salad With Cheese/Garlic Bread

: Shrimp And Vegetable Salad With Cheese/Garlic Bread

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Executioners Stew

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Of course you will wonder what possessed me to name this stew Executioners Stew – well, my thinking goes that if I would have one last meal before the executioner would step in, this would be the last supper I would request. While there are many things I would like to have for that macabre occasion, this one combines five of my favorite foods in one single dish :
Soup, chili-peppers, chicken-gizzards, pigs-feet and ox-tripe.
Certainly not worth dying for, but as a last supper – yes sir, please !
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Anyway, here is to many more years of living the Good Life 🙂
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Link to Green Sofrito Recipe
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All about Sofrito
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Link to Pa Amb TomÃ Quet (Tomato Bread)
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Bon Appetit ! Life is Good !
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Executioners Stew With “Pa Amb TomÃ Quet”

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Preparation :
To read instructions, hover over pictures
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: add the pigs feet to cold water, bring to a boil

: strain the pigs feet, rinse

: add the o-tripe to cold, vinegared water, bring to a boil, strain, rinse, repeat two more times, third time cook until tender

: a thing of beauty

: add pigs-feet to cold, salted water, bring to a simmer, cook until tender but not falling apart

: during simmering, remove all impurities that rise to the surface with a small mesh-strainer

: when pigs-feet are almost tender, add chicken gizzards, simmer until gizzards are tender but still possess a bit of a bite

: add green sofrito, cayenne pepper, garlic paste

: add chillies, carrot julienne, white cabbage and chorizo, simmer for three more minutes

: add diced tomatoes, sliced cooke potatoes, cooked white beans and plenty of chopped cilantro

: check / adjust seasoning

: Executioners Stew With “Pa Amb TomÃ Quet”

: Executioners Stew With “Pa Amb TomÃ Quet”

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Buffalo Poussin

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While I am a big fan of buffalo chicken wings, I am even more fond of other proteins cooked-with or doused-in buffalo sauce. I prepare ribs, fish, seafood and even vegetables “buffalo style”, using my own home made buffalo sauce
Here is what I concocted today.
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Bon Appetit ! Life is Good !
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All about Poussin
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Easy does it # 17 – Hans’ Homemade Buffalo Sauce

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Buffalo Poussin

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Preparation :
To read instructions, hover over pictures
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: marinade poussin overnight in buffalo sauce

: roast poussin at 375F oven until done, about 50-60 minutes

: during cooking time, brush poussin every 15 minutes with buffalo sauce

: when poussin is cooked through, brush one final time with buffalo sauce

: Buffalo Poussin

: Buffalo Poussin

: Buffalo Poussin

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Red Rubies Salad

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This was all the food I consumed today (in two stages). I am surprised with how little food I get through the day sometimes without feeling hungry. Just a few short years ago, this would have been nothing but an appetizer for me 🙂
The great thing is that by eating a bit less quantity and a lot more health-conscious, I have stayed at the exact weight from February when I started with my “Hans’ Lighter, Healthier Comfort Food” Meal Plan, when I shed 28 lbs in one month.
It took me a while to get used to all those salad and fruits on a daily basis, but now I don’t want to miss them anymore. It also took a bit getting used to some of the other adjustments (mostly the absence of lots of refined sugar), but now I fully enjoy my way of healthier eating and therefore healthier living) 🙂
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Bon Appetit ! Life is Good !
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Link to “Hans’ Lighter, Healthier Comfort Food”
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Red Rubies Salad

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Preparation :
To read instructions, hover over pictures
To enlarge pictures and read instructions, click on pictures
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: mix diced red beets (red rubies) with Italian vinaigrette and diced onions

: romaine, baby arugula, sliced vine-ripened tomatoes, radiccio rosso, yellow grape tomatoes

: dress with italian vinaigrette

: arrange salad on serving dish, top with marinated artichokes

: top with batons of italian salami, bologna and sharp aged cheddar

: drizzle with buttermilk dressing, top with “red Rubies”

: Red Rubies Salad

: Red Rubies Salad

: Red Rubies Salad

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Sautéed Smoked Salmon Patty

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If you love smoked salmon as I do, but are a bit weary of it on toast or bagel for the ‘thousand’s time, you might want to try this dish. Different, super easy to prepare, very tasty, great texture and not too shabby looking either. Accompanied by “simpleton potato salad”, romaine lettuce in honey/mustard dressing and a dip of spicy ranch dressing. (3/4 ranch, 1/4 sriracha and a good dose of garlic paste)
Bon Appetit ! Life is Good !
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