Vegan Bean Burger & Summer Vegetable Cous Cous

Last Friday I wanted to make a little something special to bring to a tailgate before the Chicago concert. We bought wraps from our local health food store and I made a summer vegetable cous cous salad that was easy to transport and very light and tasty!

(From Clean Eating)
Ingredients:
3 T. balsamic vinegar
1 T. dijon mustard
1 T. extra virgin olive oil
1/4 tsp. sea salt
1/4 tsp. fresh ground pepper
2 cloves garlic, minced
Olive oil cooking spray
1 medium zucchini, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 yellow squash, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 red bell pepper, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 8-oz package sliced baby portobello mushrooms (I used a mixed blend of mushrooms)
4 cups cooked whole-grain cous cous
1/3 cup crumbled goat cheese
4 sprigs fresh basil, chopped (I used about double this amount--I love basil!)

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
2. In a small bowl, whisk together vinegar, dijon, oil, salt, pepper, and garlic. Set aside.
3. Spray a large shallow roasting pan (I used 2 baking sheets). Arrange vegetables in single layer on the pan. Drizzle with vinegar mixture, tossing gently. Cook vegetables in oven for about 15 minutes or until tender, stirring occasionally.
4. Combine vegetables with couscous, tossing gently. Top with cheese and basil.

Last night, my mom enjoyed some of the leftovers with a vegan black bean burger. I got the recipe from a blog that I regularly read called "The Front Burner". You can find the recipe here.

(The lighting was horrible in my kitchen.... )

Chicken with Mustard Mascarpone Marsala

Happy Memorial Day Weekend! I had a wonderful weekend lounging on the Asbury Park Beach and spending lots of time with family and friends.

I've mentioned before the amazing restaurants in Asbury.. my family went to some of our favorites this weekend. Unfortunately, I missed out on Moonstruck on Thursday (I had work) and Langosta on Saturday, but I did make it to Taka on Friday night (the best sushi & Japanese cuisine) and Siculiana's (a new pizza joint on the boardwalk) on Sunday night.

On Saturday night I ventured back to the Colts Neck house and made a little date-night dinner for the boy. I wasn't sure what to make, but knew that Giada's chicken marsala recipe has never failed me. I used to make this dish a lot even before I went to culinary school and it was always a crowd pleaser. The recipe can be found here. I didn't make any changes, except I used a combination of baby bella mushrooms and shitakes. In this picture you can't even see the chicken because it was soo much sauce! But I swear they're hiding under there somewhere!

Giada recommends serving this with linguine (probably to soak up all that sauce!) but I thought that was boring. Instead, I made some whole wheat Israeli cous cous (cooked in chicken stock and a touch of salt to add extra flavor) and topped it with roasted grape tomatoes:

I also roasted some broccoli for some green on our plates, but didn't take a picture! It was a great meal that we enjoyed outside with a bottle of Chateau St. Michele Riesling. Delightful.

Market Basket Challenge Day 2

Today was much the same as yesterday. We had a bit more of a general idea of what ingredients we would have because everything that was left over from yesterday was fair game to use today. We also got some other different ingredients, including some seafood.

In my mind, I was planning on making a cut of beef with a really nice cherry tomato sauce (I remembered seeing a ton of cherry tomatoes yesterday). However, when I saw the mackerel, I decided to change my menu a bit.

I thought that if I seasoned my fish with lots of spices then it would pair well with a fresh salsa. I made a salsa out of roasted yellow bell pepper, cherry tomatoes, cilantro, red onion, olive oil, and balsamic.

I also had a beet side-dish stuck in my head. I wasn't sure if it would go with my fish and salsa theme, but I decided to give it a try. I made a goat cheese polenta with beets and swiss chard. I loved this polenta!! When I went to plate my dish, I realized that the color of the polenta (which turned pink from the beets!) totally clashed with my fish and salsa. Oh well, whaddaya gonna do? I presented my plate with confidence to Chef Chris. He also commented on my..um weird.. color scheme, but he loved all of the components of the dish. My fish was cooked perfectly with a crispy skin, my salsa was super fresh and nicely seasoned, and my polenta was obviously awesome. Overall, I was happy with the end result:

(Spicy mackerel with a roasted pepper & tomato salsa; Goat cheese polenta with beets, swiss chard, and fresh thyme)

Tomorrow is my FINAL practical! I seriously cannot believe that this is my very last practical in culinary school. I'm a little bit nervous, but I'm confident that if I stay calm I will do absolutely fine. Here is my practical that Chef Chris made up himself to only give to his students:
-Knife skills-- small-dice mirepoix, fine mince garlic, fine mince shallot, prepare 1 sachet and present complete mise en place for braising
-Fabricate 1 whole chicken into 2 breasts (both frenched), 2 legs (thighs separated from drums), and 2 wings
-Braise the chicken legs, thighs and wings. Present in a hot bowl with 2-3 oz sauce.
-Make a paillard out of 1 breast and Grill
-Pan sear the other breast and present it with a pan sauce
-Cook green vegetables properly: asparagus, brocolli, and haricot vert
-Prepare a root vegetable puree and present in an 8 ox souffle cup

All stuff I have done before, but this is a lot to get done in the time we are given. I'm looking forward to the challenge!

My mom will also be coming to school with me tomorrow! She'll be attending the Chef Guarnaschelli demo while I'm taking my practical (I wish I could go with her!!)..Afterwards, we're having dinner at Blossom, a vegan restaurant in Chelsea. Tomorrow will definitely be an exciting day!!

Market Basket Challenge

Why do I always have the weirdest encounters at Starbucks???!  Today I was minding my own business while sipping on some green tea before class when some guy comes up to me and hands me his business card.  Apparantly he writes on a blog called "womenofstarbucks.com" and asked if he could take my picture.....uhhhh??  Awkward!  I didn't really know what to say, so I uh, let him take a picture of me?  Must've been my snazzy new yellow jacket from Marshalls that made me look so picture-worthy ;)

Anyways, I'll back-track to last weekend.  I spent the majority of the weekend experimenting with graduation ideas.  Kim worked on some of the dishes too so we were able to really discuss our game plan today.  I won't tell y'all the exact menu yet, but here's a little preview of what I was up to this weekend:

Notice my ridiculous sad face while killing the lobster... yup, I'm a killer and I'm not proud of it.

I brought the final dish to school today for Chef Chris to try.  Kim and I also brought it down the hall for the other chef instructors to have a taste and offer their opinons.  Overall, we got good feedback and have a good idea of what to change.

Class today was a bit different than usual.  Instead of working in groups, we were able to work independently.  We were given complete freedom as to what to make and were not given any recipes or instructions.  Chef Chris gave us a few ground rules and then left the rest to us.  We had to present a plate to him that contained a protein, starch, vegetable, and 2 oz of sauce.

At the beginning of class half of the students were let into the kitchen to take a look at the ingredients we were given and prepare a menu.  The rest of the students were let into the kitchen 30 minutes later.  I was in the first half of the group and immediately looked at the proteins.  My game plan was to keep things simple and to cook things that I knew how to cook well.  I was nervous about today and didn't want to think of crazy new ideas and then get flustered and mess up.  This was the first opportunity I was given to present a dish to Chef Chris that I could call my own, so I wanted to impress him with the skills and techniques I have learned thus far in culinary school.

Once I decided on my menu, the rest of class was a breeze.  Everything turned out perfectly and I presented a beautiful plate to Chef Chris that I was proud of:(Sauteed breast of duck with a red wine & rosemary reduction; Glazed carrot rondelles with orange zest; Rice Pilaf with fresh herbs and a brunoise of red and yellow bell peppers)

Chef commented that I cooked and seasoned everything very well.  He gave me suggestions to make the dish even better, but was impressed with what I served. 

While I was cooking, I was a little insecure because I thought my dish was going to be "boring", but I was happy that I contained my composure and executed every component very well.  Tomorrow will be my chance to add some more creativity and perhaps challenge myself a bit more!

Modern Culinary Masters-- Rick Bayless

Rick Bayless, you are a genius. I enjoyed the food today more than any other day. Obviously, the theme was "Mexican", a cuisine that I am not very comfortable cooking. I'm not talking about the tacos and fajitas you get at your local Mexican restaurant on 99 cent margarita night. I'm talking REAL Mexican. I love how all of the ingredients that we used were very cheap, but had a lot of flavor and were stretched out because of the fillers or toppers.

Kim and I were paired up to work on the Chilied Chicken Steamed with Avacodo Leaves. Chef changed the recipe considerably, so we ended up searing and baking the chicken in the marinade instead of steaming it. The avocado leaves were similar to dried bay leaves, so we simply wrapped them in cheesecloth and added them to the marinade to add some extra earthiness and flavor.

I worked on the marinade while Kim seared off the bone-in, skin-on chicken breast (keeping the bone in and the skin on keeps the chicken moist and flavorful). I toasted and rehydrated some dried guajilos chiles (very spicy!). I also toasted some other spices and ground them up in a spice grinder. I blended up the spices, chiles, onion, garlic, cider vinegar, and water. Next, I sauteed the mixture with some canola oil in a skillet until it thickened to the consistency tomato paste. We spread the mixture over the chicken and let it marinate before we put it in the oven to finish cooking. Here was our finished product that we plated with some red tomato rice that every group had to prepare.
Once our chicken was marinating and ready for the oven, I started helping out with other tasks that needed to get done in our group. I helped Matt and Allison prepare the gorditas for the Bacon-Flavored Gorditas Corn Masa Pockets with Roasted Poblano Guacamole:


Next, I helped assemble the chicken tamales with Kim, Henry, and Nora. These were my favorite!!!!Nora and Rob prepared this delicious chicken in Oaxacan yellow mole with green beans and chayote. I tried chayote for the first time today. Chef told us it is similar to an apple, but it's a vegetable. I would describe the taste as a cross between a cucumber and jicama. It was very fresh tasting, with little flavor. It went well with this flavorful sauce!
Here is the Red Tomato Rice prepared by another group (every group prepared this same recipes, but they all looked different.. our group eliminated peas because one team member is allergic)
Here are the rest of the recipes prepared by the other teams. Like I said, everything was incredible!!

(Crispy Potato Sopes with Salsa, Goat Cheese, and Herb Salad)

(Chicken in Green Pumpkin Seed Sauce)
(Classic Shredded Beef & Tomatoes served with Corn Masa Pockets)

(Slow-Cooked Achiote Chicken)

(Classic Red Mole with Turkey)

Tomorrow I am group leader, so I definitely have to be on my game! The next couple of days are only going to get harder, but I'm excited for the challenge!

Modern Culinary Masters-- Ming Tsai

I cannot express enough how great it is to have Chef Chris as our chef instructor this module (no, I'm not sucking up... I'm too scared to tell him about my blog hehe). I took a moment during class today to just observe the chaos and professionalism in our class. We have definitely come a long way in the past few months!

We began today's class with knife skills. I definitely needed the practice! We each minced a couple of shallots and cloves of garlic. When I say mince, I mean MINCE... these had to be chopped until they could not be chopped any more. We were even given knife skills homework for tonight. I'm saving it for the morning... I have to mince 5 cloves of garlic, 2 shallots, and small dice 4 carrots (1/4 x 1/4 x 1/4 inch cubes).

After knife skills and a quick review of today's menu, we got to work on the recipes (provided by Master Chef, Ming Tsai).

I started out by preparing an Asian Pear Chutney for our duck recipe. This chutney was spicy and sweet.. I loved it with the duck! The mixture contained, onions, ginger, sambal oelek, rice wine vinegar, apple cider, and Asian pears.

After that, I helped prep the fennel orzo salad, the shrimp stir-fry and helped saute the duck breasts. Just like yesterday, everything turned out beautiful and tasty! We were all scrambling during the last minutes to get our dishes on the table. It is seriously like a food network show when Chef is counting down the seconds and we're all putting our final touches on the presentation. Every minute is so worth it when we are all able to stand back and see all of the hard work we put into each and every dish. Then we EAT and it is DEFINITELY worth it!

Time for pictures....These first 3 dishes are the ones my group worked on:
(Achiote Duck Breasts with Asian Pear Chutney, Spiced Pecans, and Red Chile Oil)

(Spicy Shrimp with Mangoes and Snow Pea Salad)

(Citrus Herbal Tea-Rubbed Halibut with Orange-Fennel Orzo Salad)

(PEI Mussels and Chinese Sausage with Garlic-Ginger-Scallion Stir Fry Sauce)

(Blue Ginger Alaskan Butterfish with Soba Noodle Sushi)

(Traditional Mandarin Fried Rice)

(Oyster Corn Fritters with Two-Vinegar Emulsion and Spicy Mayonnaise)

(Napa Slaw)
(Oven Roasted Szechwan Squab with Steamed Scallion-Lemon Rice)

(Chicken-Rice Noodle Stir-Fry)

Everybody watch Chopped tonight--Chef Erica will be competing (our chef instructor from module 3!)

I'll be spending the rest of the night brainstorming menu ideas for our graduation! I'm working with Kim to create a very original and creative menu for the big day! We're meeting tomorrow before class to get our ideas down on paper for Chef Chris.

Lesson 93: Contemporary Modern Chefs--Mario Batali

Goodbye pastry, hello Mod 5!! We were back to cooking today and I realized just how much I missed it. I love pastry, mostly due to our amazing chef-instructor, but my passion truly is cooking.

We were instructed to arrive to school at 12:30 and were put right to work as soon as we entered the kitchen. Chef Chris means business and clearly instructed us as to how he wants the kitchen to run. I have never seen our class act so disciplined as we did today. We are always really good at cleaning up and attending to the chef's demands, but today was on a whole new level. "Yes Chef!" was being screamed by one or all of the students in response to Chef Chris's comments, demands and questions throughout the afternoon.

I know that the next 3 weeks will be extremely challenging, yet also rewarding and exciting. Chef Chris will whip our butts into shape and transform us into real chefs that are prepared for whatever comes our way. He will also help us make our graduation day successful and unforgettable.

Once we set up the kitchen and went over the recipes for the day, each table was ready to tackle Mario Batali's recipes. Every day this week we are preparing recipes from Master Chefs. Chef Chris instructed how to best approach each recipe and made some necessary changes to make the final product tasty and presentable.

My first task during prepping was to clean monkfish. Not the most glamorous job, but it was challenging for me and I'm glad I got through it. Monkfish is a really ugly fish that has silverskin and is shaped like a beef tenderloin. It's difficult to get that layer of skin off plus all of the red chunks, while keeping the fish as neat as possible. I cut the fish into appropriate sized peices for our dish and reserved it until we were ready to start cooking.

For the rest of class, I helped prep the other dishes that my team was working on. I also prepared the sauce that went with the Monkfish. The sauce contained white wine, lemon juice, tumeric, lemon segments, preserved lemons, and caperberries. The result was a very sour sauce. Chef knew that this result was likely to happen, as the sauce is supposed to be sour (but definitely not that sour). I mellowed out the sourness a bit by adding butter (of course) and some chicken stock. The sauce went very well with the mild, white fish. Here is our final plating of the monkfish, along with the 2 other dishes my group prepared:

(Monkfish Piccata with Caperberries and Preserved Lemons)

(Two Minute Calamari Sicilian Lifeguard Style: Sauteed calamari in a spicy tomato sauce with Israeli cous cous-- My favorite dish of the day!)

(Brussel Sprouts with Pancetta)

These are the rest of the items that the other 2 teams prepared. Everything was delicious!
(Mint & Parsley Fettuccini with a Lamb and Olive Ragu)

(Sauteed Skate and Shrimp in a Saffron Sweet Clam Citronette)

(Scallion Barlotto-- A barley risotto with a scallion & parsley puree)

(Spinach & Goat Cheese Gnocchi with Sun-Dried Tomatoes, Pine Nuts, and Lemon)

(Fennel-Dusted Sweetbreads with Bacon & Onions-- My 3rd time eating sweetbreads... and I loved it!)

(Roasted Beet Farrotto -- I love beets..and farro. This was an amazing dish.. Plus it's pink!)

It was a great first day back to cooking. Every day is going to get harder and harder as we tackle more difficult recipes and start creating our own ideas while experimenting with different ingredients!

Happy Easter!

Easter at the Zick house is all about good food and wine! Today was no exception. I loved taking charge and providing most of the amazing dishes we had today. I spent the day in the kitchen wearing a cute apron over my sundress and of course sporting my pearls and making sure I had a glass of red wine in my hand at all times!

The first thing we dug in to was the meat pie that I made on Friday. Here's a picture of the inside of the pie:

I was surprised at how much it reminded me of the pie we usually get at the Italian bakery. Some people commented that there was a little bit too much meat and I'd have to agree. I didn't measure how much I put into the pie because I didn't want any of the meat my mom bought to go to waste (so I just added it all). Next time I'll be sure to add less meat so it doesn't overpower the rest of the cheesy, creamy filling.

My favorite side-dish that we have every Easter are dumplings. This is my great-grandmother's recipe and is a very special addition to our Easter spread.

I started out by taking 3/4's of a package of King's white bread (the really cheap white bread) and cutting off the crusts. I diced the crusts into 1/2 inch pieces. I mixed the bread crusts with 3 cups flour, 1 heaping tsp baking powder, and 2 tsp salt. I incorporated 1 egg and then started adding milk until the mixture came together. I separated the dough into 4 large dumplings:

Next, I boiled the dumplings (2 at a time) for about 20 minutes (flipping them halfway through).

I sliced them up and laid them in a large baking dish. I poured on some melted butter and baked them in a 350 degree oven for about 30 minutes. We served them with gravy, but they are also so buttery and delicious on their own!

I had some bread in the freezer from culinary school, so I pulled out a nice spread of brioche, bread twists, and croissants to serve with dinner:
Earlier this morning I started marinating the leg of lamb. We had a semi-boneless leg that I marinated with white wine, dijon mustard, thyme, salt, and pepper.

It roasted in the oven for about 2 hours total (starting out at 425 degrees and cooking the rest of the way at 350). I let the lamb rest while I made the gravy.

For the gravy, I used the reserved marinade, pan juices, and some dry sherry. I adjusted the seasonings a lot while I was cooking it and thickened the gravy with my emergency thickening agent: beurre manie (kneaded butter and flour).

My mom sliced the lamb and it was cooked perfectly!

Here's our dining room table with the whole Easter dinner spread. The blazing sun made for a not so nice picture..

To accompany the stars of the meal (the lamb and dumplings) we also had some roasted asparagus, roasted corn with basil, mashed turnips, plain ol' noodles with butta, and a fresh salad with raspberry vinaigrette.

After this extravagant meal, we all digested outside in the beautiful weather. Then, it was time for DESSERT.

I froze the lemon-scented cake from school and de-frosted it yesterday to make this lemon-strawberry layer cake. I split the cake and spread on a layer of vanilla flavored buttercream and sliced strawberries. I let my mom take over for the rest of the cake decorating ;) I forgot to take a picture of it before everyone dug in. It was a huge hit! The lemon was not too overpowering and the cake was very moist. Not to mention buttercream frosting is amazing.


We also had a brownie pie with hot fudge sauce (I can seriously bathe in this hot fudge sauce.. it's incredible). Okay okay, I'll give you the recipe.

Best hot fudge sauce ever:
1. In a small saucepan mix 3/4 cup sugar, 1/3 cup cocoa powder, 1/3 cup light corn syrup, and 5 oz condensed milk. Bring the mixture to a boil and continue to boil for another minute.
2. Stir in 1/3 cup butter and 1 tsp. vanilla extract.

My mom also made some chocolate covered strawberries. These were also a hit and I didn't get a picture until there were only 3 left!

Now I'm stuffed, but happy that today was such a success. Not to mention, I got to spend time with the cutest little girl in the world:

Happy Easter!