Jazz and Fall a perfect combo....

A few bottles of wine, jazz and friends can do a lot for the soul of a chef. Like the great jazz musicians who see their music as a framework for an improvisational session, I look at recipes as an inspiration, not a carefully plotted script. After a night with close friends, a hip hole in the wall jazz bar, I have decided to use this same approach for the design of my menu for the rest of Fall . . . keeping it smooth like the stand up bass, bright and cheery as a horn player, in rhythm with the season like a drummer, and soulful like the ivory keys.

The menu is written for the home cook. It contains liberal descriptions to guide the diner through the “framework” of the menu and enable them to see spontaneous yet focused cuisine I have cooked for them. If they choose to recreate the evening at home, the menu offers them a great tool to help them recreate a dinning experience, but allows them to add more trumpet and less bass if need be. I look at a dish in general and see a jazz quartet on every plate. Each piece can stand on its own, but together they create a more resonant sound. You, the guest, may not hear the dish in quite the same way as the next, and this is fine. If you like cheery trumpets, then maybe the acid of citrus speaks to you more than the smooth bass line of creamy “Fall Squash Risotto”, and this is ok. Food, like music, is a personal experience. I cannot tell you that putting cream cheese on a hot dog is a sin, even though it is, for if that bit of sweet cheesey topping on street meat is what makes you happy then go for it. If you feel the urge to try Bordeaux with striped bass then do it. Like a jazz musician, they will never know if that b flat minor fits if they don’t play it.

That is what food and music is all about, playing and eating what you like. It is something that speaks to the inner soul and makes you happy when you hear it, and smile when fond memory surfaces when you smell the aroma of a dish. Take life, as well as your dish of perfectly cooked pasta to the couch, dim the lights and listen to the ivory keys whisk you away, or a hamburger and Britney spears, whatever you’re in the mood for! But whatever you eat, make sure it is quality. Like my Father told me, “Good Food, Good Friends! QUALITY GETS AL”. . .

Butternut Squash Risotto

Ingredients
6-8 cups vegetable broth

5 Tbsp unsalted butter, divided into 4 Tbsp and 1 Tbsp

1 small onion, finely chopped

1 each Leek, Chopped

1/4 cup Marscapone

2 cups butternut squash, peeled, and finely diced

2 cups arborio rice

1 cup dry white wine

1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

2 Tbsp chopped chives

Salt

Method
1 Heat broth in medium sized saucepan and keep warm over low heat. Melt 4 Tbsp of butter in a large saucepan; add onion. Cook over medium heat until onion is translucent, about 5 minutes.

2 Add rice to onions. Cook 1 to 2 minutes. Add wine. Cook, stirring constantly until wine has been absorbed by the rice or evaporated. Add a few ladles of broth, just enough to barely cover rice. Cook over medium heat until broth has been absorbed. Continue cooking and stirring rice, adding a little bit of broth at a time, cooking and stirring until it is absorbed, until the rice is tender, but still firm to the bite, about 15 to 20 minutes. half way through the process add the butternut squash.

3 During the last minutes of cooking, add remaining tablespoon of butter, 1/3 cup Parmesan, leeks, and chives. At this point the rice should have a creamy consistency. Add salt to taste, and stir in marscapone. Serve with remaining grated Parmesan.

Serves 4 to 6.

I could not really ask for a better profession right now, being a chef is a great thing, part rock star, mixed with Latin lover, meets temperamental artist, hint of class clown, with a smig of scientist, and dash of humble servant. In an interview for a TV Show I was asked along with the other chefs, “What makes a Great Chef?” You got a lot of the stock standard answers, but when they got to me I said one thing “Broad Shoulders.” At any given time you are or doing the plumbing, valet, cooking, dishwasher, waiter, checking in orders, dealing with guest, and crunching numbers. A Kind of all around guy that everyone goes to, but this is not why I do it, and it is not all about the cooking either. SEASONS!

I love the seasons, and the changes and excitement it brings to an everyday grueling but loving job. From new harvest olive oil in December to strawberries in the summer the months that seem to weave together all have their own individual personality. Each month brings something to the table that the last month did not, and that next month can’t. I am a strong believer that there are 12 seasons in a year. Us as chefs should revel in what mother nature can offer us, and use fresh, local, unadulterated products that are there to brighten our souls and help us create something that the guest will come back for, even if it wont be there in a month.

Life as well brings us change, working on abroad there is constant change, people come and go, and when people come back they are different. This is a great thing, for if we try to be stagnant and not grow, we become content, and this is the worst thing for a chef, to be content to not want to be better or the best. To try and strive for an unattainable goal of perfection.

Seasons come and go, so do loved ones and friends, but as something is not longer available on the table, next month will bring something better, or different.

The Indian

Shortly before I moved to DC, I was working at this really amazing restaurant. It was a fusion concept of American, Caribbean, Latin, and Asian Influences. Though I have stated many times that this is not my style of cooking, this food was well prepared and never over done, simplicity in another form. But I digress…. While helping this place to open they brought in a painter to paint HUGE oranges, and this really tropical theme in the restaurant. When he arrived we brought him to the local home depot to buy supplies, and we were trying to push him to buy the name brand expensive brushes and paint. Finally he looked and said. “It is not the bow, nor the arrow…. It is the Indian!”

BRILLIANT! There is no better way to describe the way I am or how I cook! Yes we as chefs all love the GREAT and expensive ingredients. But time and time again I am drawn to the simplicity of the cheaper, less expensive stuff to draw my inspiration from. Being able to take chicken, lettuce, oil, vinegar, salt, and combine it in a way to where it taste good is a lot harder than being handed the best of the best.

Just like a pilot in an airplane, or a captain of a boat, it is great to have a million dollar GPS system behind you but what if that fails, you need to break out the map and know how to use the most basic of systems.

As a chef, “varietals” meats, or ingredients with less fan fare, such as pork belly, liver, beef cheeks, turnips, Brussels sprouts, lamb shoulders, all these ingredients are simple, inexpensive and have great flavor and are normally forgotten about, but with the right time and technique can outshine even the most expensive cuts of meat and fish that are more likely to adorn Haute Cuisine menus.

It comes down to the “Indian.” We as chefs, cooks, bachelors, and bachelorettes, must learn to take the simplest of things and create something beautiful with it, both in and out of the kitchen. This is the true mark of a really developing your craft.

Pork Cheeks Braised in Honey and Cloves! A great Fall dish!

2-3 tbsp olive oil

1 leek, finely sliced

2-3 sticks celery, chopped

1 onion, sliced

2 cloves garlic, whole

2 bay leaf

3 sprigs thyme

6 whole cloves

1 tea sp tomato paste

4 tblsp honey

4 pig’s cheeks, trimmed

4 cups chicken stock (pork stock if you have it)

1/4 cup white wine

Freshly ground salt and pepper

12 baby turnips, blanched until just tender

12 baby carrots, blanched until just tender

Heat the oil in a casserole with a tight-fitting lid. Add the leek, celery, onion and garlic and cook for 2-3 minutes, then add the bay leaf, thyme, cloves and tomato purée. Cook for 2-3 minutes. Add the honey and cook for a further 2-3 minutes to gain some color.

Add the pork cheeks, stir well and cook for 3-4 minutes to coat. Add the stock and wine. Bring to the boil, season, then cover and transfer to the preheated oven. Cook for 2-3 hours.

Remove from the oven, lift the cheeks from the stock and reserve. Strain the stock and place in a medium-sized saucepan. Bring to the boil and allow the mixture to reduce in volume by half. skim off any fat that rises to the top. once reduce by 1/2 check seasoning, i like th squeeze a hint of lemon in there!

Add the cheeks to the stock with the baby vegetables. Warm through for 2-3 minutes and then transfer to four warmed serving bowls. Serve with plenty of Mashed Potatoes.

Apples, Fall, MY FAVORITE

Summer is full of being way to busy and not enough time to truly enjoy the splendor of the season, but with the changing into Fall, and the color of leaves i think we all tend to slow down a little and take advantage of the last bit of the growing season. the Picking of stone fruits and wandering through pumpkin patches.

Fall is a great time of year, my favorite, that the smells, taste, and colors are so evident and unmistakable. It is a true time to lay in bed a few min longer and hopefully you can train a pet to bring you the paper, or a loved one, that you and a warm pair of socks can curl up to latest news and a cup of joe.

It took me a while, but I finally whipped up a batch of apple muffins–and were they ever worth the wait. They were so delicious. To me, these muffins taste like fall; the whole wheat gives them an almost savory taste, and serves as the perfect compliment to the sweet tart flavor of the apples. Even better is these muffins with great yellow butter!

Here’s my recipe: Apple Spice Muffins Add the following ingredients together in a bowl: -1 1/3 cup all-purpose whole wheat flour-2 teaspoons baking powder-1/2 teaspoon baking soda-1/4 cup of sugar-1/4 teaspoon salt-2 teaspoons cinnamon-1 teaspoon Jamaican allspice-1/2 teaspoon nutmeg Then, add the following together in a separate bowl and mix well:-5 tablespoons butter, melted then cooled-1/2 cup plain low-fat yogurt-1/4 cup low-fat or skim milk-1 egg-1 teaspoon vanilla extract Once you’ve combined the wet ingredients, fold them into the dry mix. Don’t over-mix or your muffins will be flat. When you’re done, add in: -Two large apples, minus the core, cut into small cubes. Any type will do; I used Honey Crisp Apples! Spoon the mixture into a 12-muffin pan lined with baking cups, then bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes.
i hope you love these as much as i did!