Archive for May, 2009
Roasted Garlic Pesto over Gnocchi
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Our video today features Chef Brian P. McCarthy, author of the Vegan Family Cookbook, making a very simple basil pesto with roasted garlic. He serves it over gnocchi, plated with crusty bread and a salad. This video is brought to us from EveryDayDish Tv, which offers a wonderful bounty of plant based vegetarian and vegan recipes and videos. The written recipe may be found here. What we like best about this dish is that it can literally be prepared in less than 30 minutes, and roasted garlic gives a sweeter, less bitter flavor than raw garlic. Non vegetarians feel free to add Parmesan cheese!
And, of course, a morsel of gnocchi trivia! Gnocchi, an Italian dumpling, translates to the word “knot” in Italian, and the word is derived from the stem word nocchio, meaning “a knot in wood”. It’s composition differs drastically by ingredient, and while typically made from potatoes, it is also made with various flours (often semolina), and in some areas of Italy it is made with bread crumbs.
Ceasar Salad in a Crunchy Parmesan Bowl
Posted by: | CommentsA Le Cordon Bleu Paris graduate, Hector Playuk is currently the Executive Chef for Jack’s Bar and Restaurant in Washington DC. This restaurant gets big kudos from us as it is 100% wind powered! One of their signature lunch dishes is a Caesar Salad served in a crispy parmesan bowl, and in this video Hector shows us how to make the bowl.
Note: It is absolutely essential to use a nonstick pan for this, anything else will not work (we tried!).
Recipe instructions: Make the Parmesan bowl using 7-8 ounces of cheese for each bowl. For the croutons, simply slice a baguette into cubes, coat in olive oil, garlic powder or fresh minced garlic, salt and pepper, bake at 400 degrees F for 15 minutes. In a regular bowl, toss romaine lettuce, croutons, shredded parmesan cheese and caesar dressing, then add to the parmesan bowl. Regarding the dressing, we like this recipe from Scott’s Seafood, but you can absolutely use your own variation or use a store bought creamy Caesar dressing. Enjoy!
Sushi School: Tuna Roll
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Making sushi at home can be a super fun activity and much more affordable than dining out. Our videos today showcase Chef Shirley Cheng from the Culinary Institute of America, demonstrating an easy recipe for making tuna maki, aka a tuna roll. The first video is very short and discusses the preparation of the short grain rice, which can be made via a rice cooker or on the stove. The second video is a presentation of the assembly and rolling of the maki itself, and she serves the roll sliced and plated beautifully with wasabi, ginger, and julienned daikon radish. Depending on where you live, the ingredients and the bamboo sushi mat may be found in a typical grocery store, Whole Foods, or any Asian market. Interesting food for thought that Shirley mentions: sushi chef training in Japan requires 3 years of study.
The beauty of this basic maki technique is that you can be creative and craft your roll however you wish! Substitute salmon for tuna, cucumber for avocado, or add shredded carrots. Itadakimasu (let’s eat)!
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