Kind of a quiche yet kind of a frittata

I had some amazing tomatoes from the Farmer's Market and thought of making a tomato tart but didn't really want the calories from the crust so I came up with an alternate. 

Fresh tomato and corn quichetatta.

1/2 c. Seasoned bread or cracker crumbs

Non stick spray

1 large flavorful tomato

1 ear fresh corn

1 can Ortega chiles

5 large or jumbo eggs

1/3 c. Lebneh or sour cream plus 1/4 c. Water or sub with 1/2 c. Milk

1t. Chopped fresh dill

1/2 c feta cheese

Salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 350. Spray a baking dish with non stick spray and scatter the crumbs over the spray to cover the bottom of the pan. Slice the tomato into slices and lay over the crumbs.

Peel the corn and slice off the fresh kernels. (Tip: put a small bowl upside down inside a larger bowl.Place the ear of corn on the smaller bowl and slice the kernels off and they will fall into the large bowl instead of onto the floor.) Sprinkle the corn kernels over the tomatoes. Sprinkle a little salt and pepper over the tomatoes and corn. Slice the chiles and lay over the corn. Sprinkle the chopped dill and feta over the chiles. 

Break the eggs into a separate bowl and whisk in the lebneh and water OR milk. Stir in a pinch is salt and pepper. Pour the egg mixture over the vegetables and cheese and place the baking pan in the oven. Bake for 40 minutes or until set in the center and golden on top. 

Enjoy!

MamaP

An egg poached in an avacado..oh my!

This is an idea I saw on The Chew on ABC a couple weeks ago and was reminded of by my sister. So credit to Chef Symon. I just bumped it up a notch.

Being an Angeleno I just can't get enough avocado on a daily basis. It's a well supported habit since my favorite market in Altadena, Super King sells big beautiful Haas avocados for about 79 cents per. Crazy!!! I buy them by the half dozen and always have them in the fridge at a ripened state and assorted degrees of ripening on the counter.
Anywhoooooo onto the recipe.

1/2 avocado per person not too ripe and slightly under ripe is OK.
1 egg per person
1-2 oz. sliced smoked salmon per person
6-8 cherry tomatoes per person cut in half
fresh tarragon
lemon zest and juice from 1/2 lemon
1 T. capers
good olive oil
salt/pepper
1T. coconut oil or olive oil

In a saute pan, heat the coconut oil over medium heat. place each avocado face side down on the oil and allow to get a little caramelized. After about 2 minutes gently flip the avocado over to its back side. Try to get the avocados nestled together and flat so that you can crack an egg into each little bowl where the seed sat. Put a lid on the pan for 1 minute then add 1/4 c- 1/3 c. water to to the pan and return the lid to create steam to help finish the eggs.  The eggs only need 3-5 minutes of cooking time just to set the whites but don't overcook the yolks. While the eggs are cooking, prepare the tomato salad. Mix the tomato halves, tarragon, lemon zest, lemon juice a drizzle of good olive oil and salt and pepper together. I also like to stir in 1T. of capers. If the eggs are set, remove the avocado with egg from the pan to a bowl. sprinkle with a little salt and pepper. Lay the salmon over the egg and spoon on the tomato salad.
Find a lovely place to eat this and prepare yourself because its going to be a party in your mouth!
Enjoy!
mamaP

How many claws does a bear have?

Some products are not worth making yourself and puff pastry is one of those. One of the many fabulous things you can create at home using store bought puff pastry is Bear Claws.

It is much simpler than one would think and can be made with great success. The most important thing to know with puff pastry is KEEP IT CHILLED! It is the ice cold butter in the many layers of pastry that creates steam when baked at a high heat and causes the pastry to puff. So if I forgot to tell you later, if you are not directly in contact with the pastry, keep it in the fridge.

The process is simple.
1. Thaw your puff pastry ,in the box, overnight in the fridge.
2. On the next day, preheat your oven to 425F and make the filling and glaze (see below).
3. Once you have the filling made put it into a piping bag or large zip top bag with the corner cut off. Beat an egg in a bowl with 1 tsp. water to use a the egg wash and have a pastry brush at the ready.

You will also need to have sliced almonds ready.
4. Assemble the bear claws. Unfold the dough and if needed roll into a rectangular shape or cut into 2 pieces in order to obtain rectangles. you should work on a Silpat or parchment paper to facilitate getting the pastry onto a sheet pan. Orient the rectangle so it is horizontal in front of you. Using a piping bag or zip top bag, pipe the filling along where the middle fold of the rectangle. You can make 2-3 strips of filling depending on how much you like. 

Egg wash the bottom and sides slightly and the fold the top half of the rectangle down over the lower half so that the filling is now at the top of the folded pastry where the fold is. Press the edges closed so no filling escapes. Cut the length of pastry into individual bear claw portions. 

If you are work on a Silpat, be careful not to cut the Silpat. Separate the individual portions and cut the toes along the bottom edge.

 Egg wash the whole bear claw and sprinkle a generous amount of sliced almonds over it. Get it into the hot oven for 15-20 minutes until nice golden and delicious! remove from the oven and brush the glaze onto the hot pastries.

Bear Claw filling:
1/2 c. almond paste
1/2c. butter
2 eggs
1/3 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. almond extract
1/2 c. cake flour
In a mixer, using the paddle, mix half of the butter and almond paste on medium for 1-2 minutes until light and smooth. Add the remaining ingredients and mix on medium until well blended.

Apricot glaze
1/4 c. apricot jam
1/4 c. water
1/4 c. corn syrup
1 T.  brandy
Combine all ingredients in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil over high heat and stir until the jam is melted. Strain through a sieve into a bowl. It is ready to use once it has cooled to room temperature.
These would make lovely Christmas morning gifts for neighbors! 

Enjoy!
xo MamaP

My final day at the CIA

Sadly my time at the CIA has come to a close. I learned quite a bit at Bistro Boot Camp and am so looking forward to preparing Bistro food for my Fam!
Day 4 presented us with the challenge of desserts and baked goods. My team was responsible for cheese souffles, quiche with caramelized onions and brie, and chocolate mousse.
Since I have had experience preparing all 3, my team mates asked me to help with all 3 and they would each take 1 as their responsibility. I started by helping to prep the mis en place for the cheeses souffle.

With that done, I moved over to help with the syrup for the chocolate mousse. We got it to the point of just going from little bubbles to big and went to whip it into the egg yolks and ended up making egg hard candy.  I was totally perplexed.  So... OK,  call chef... she too was perplexed! That made me feel much better! We pulled out the hard lumps, made another syrup and ended up with much better looking stabilizer so we slowly mixed in the melted chocolate which I though was about to seize so I quickly turned off the  mixer and summoned chef again. She took it out and said the chocolate had not seized but somehow we had made the consistency of truffles. She told us to try to get the whip cream folded in but that was not going to happen. So, we scalded some cream and slowly stirred that into what was now truffle dough and voila'! We got it back to mousse base. We then let the mixture cool a bit and got it folded into the whipped cream to make an outstanding mousse, worth the effort.

As with the rest of my life,  I learned the most from my mistakes. If I hadn't had the lecture on understanding of the process of what occurred in that process of stabilizing the base, I probably would have thrown everything out at the first mistake and started again. However, continuing to push forward gave me even more confidence in the kitchen. As chef reminded us, it's food and unless it's burned to a crip, there is almost always a way of saving a mistake!
I will work on a user friendly chocolate mousse recipe to share with you later. But for now, don't give up on your mistakes and trust your instincts!
xo MamaP

CIA Day 3 Breakfast!

My favorite meal out is breakfast and that is what day 3 was all about! One would think breakfast is so simple but I learned the most by far on this day and had the most fun! My assignment was to make English muffins for our team.

Not as difficult as I first thought and very fun!  There will probably not be a lot of commercial English muffins in our house from this point forward. I have included the recipe so you can try them at home. 

Please note that all credit for this recipe goes to the Culinary Institute of America.
In addition to the responsibility of our recipe to fulfill the team's menu for the day, we each had to prepare a perfectly cooked French omelette and a perfectly poached egg.  Since I pretty much subsist on poached eggs, that one was a no brainer, but the omelette proved a bit more challenging. If you know Julia Child's story of culinary school, then you know how many omelets she prepared before success. While I would not say mine was perfect ( a wee bit of color on the exterior) I did get the inside just right and Chef was very pleased! Be still my heart!
Our presentation buffet was at least 3 dozen poached eggs in various forms of bennies. We also got puff pastry 3 ways, apple turnovers, bear claws and tomato tart. Add to that lemon soufflé pancakes, cream scones, muesli in the French style ( folded with whipped cream and fruit!) and grapefruits a la Salvor Dali! It was quite a spread again.

 Technically, we are not supposed to take any food away from the building,for liability, but somehow when I got home, I discovered 2 English muffins in my bag. I thought the Producer needed to reap some benefits for his investment! ; )
Enjoy the English muffin recipe!
Xo MamaP

My time in the CIA Day 2

The CIA is definitely. A place I like to hang out.

 We got to do some fun things yesterday. While not much is brand new to me, it is so good to learn what I am doing correctly and not. Most of all, since this is a learning situation and not a job situation, it's just really fun to don the togs and join in on the energy here! While lectures have been informative, the time in the kitchen matches nothing else. The suites next to us yesterday (where the full time students are working) were attending to their practical on flavors of Asia.  This means in addition to what our chef taught, I eavesdropped on their Shu Mai lecture and demo. Can't wait to try them at home!

We worked on classic Bistro dinner fare.

 Coq au Vin, Ravioli Provençal, Camembert crisp with apple pear compote, Burgundy braised short ribs, Moules ( mussels) Provençal , and all the fabulous sides to go with. So good. 

Of course it all goes on a buffet for us to dive into but after a few hours in the heat of the kitchen one's appetite diminishes. To add to that, we went to lunch to look at a more contemporary setting and their plating style. So we were quite full from lunch! I tell you it's rough here at the CIA!

Xo MamaP

My time in the CIA day 1

Yes it's true, I signed up for the CIA! What else does a 50 year old retired educator do? This has been a decade long dream of mine ever since I toured it decades ago with the Producer and saw all of the fun things they get to do here. The best part is I now have full privelages and access to the highly guarded third floor due to my name badge and most importantly the uniform. 

Well now that I have your attention, time to come clean. I am not entering the world of espionage ,as my young baseball coaching friend first thought! In my world CIA means only one thing! Culinary Institute of America. When I first toured those kitchens, my only thought was I want to cook here some day! 

And with much gratitude to the Producer, there is a big fat check on my bucket list...although I really don't have a bucket list for a variety of reasons! I have not gone back for a full degree because that is a HUGE time and financial commitment. Rather, I am getting my fulfillment in a 4 day Boot Camp. 

We are spending our 4 days in a mini Culinary school experience in and amongst the full time students.  Our focus for the 4 days is all things Bistro. We are broken into teams of 4 (there are 12 of us) and each team prepares 3-4 items and then we set it all out for a delicious buffet dinner. 

Yesterday we did soups, sandwiches and salads. To me the highlights were the French onion soup, and bitter winter greens dressed with a melted Brie vinagrette.

Today we are all going to lunch to look at and talk about plating. this restaurant serves large parties family style so I'm really excited since family style is my thing!

We will return to campus, don our uniforms and go to class for 2 hours of lecture. Lecture will consist of technique and recipe clarification along with some kitchen etiquette.  After lecture, we will head to the kitchen to begin mis en place and then prepare our assigned dishes. Tonight in class we will prepare classic Bistro dinner fare. I will report on the results tomorrow with some better food porn and kitchen shots. 

You can also look forward to me playing with these recipes and sharing my versions!

Xo MamaP