Wine A Little Bit More!

I really fell in love with salmon during the summer I spent cooking in San Diego.  1/2  Lemon 16 oz   Lump Crab Meat 3 cloves   Garlic ,  minced 3 Tbsp   Parsley ,  minced 1 tsp   Salt 1 tsp   Black Pepper 24 oz   Wild Caught Salmon Filet ,  4, 6 oz filets 1 tsp   Garlic & Herb Seasoning ,  (sub: 1/2 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp pepper, 2 cloves garlic, minced) Process Preheat oven to bake at 400°F. In a small bowl, season crab meat with minced garlic, parsley, the juice of half of a lemon, salt, and pepper. Slice salmon filet lengthwise down the center to create a space for stuffing. Stuff salmon with seasoned crab meat, using about 1/4 cup of crab per salmon filet. On a broiling pan, bake salmon for 18 minutes at 400°F. Switch to broil, move rack to the top layer, and broil salmon at 500°F for an additional 5 minutes. Garnish with fresh parsley and lemon.

3 Tbsp Brown sugar 3 Tbsp Bourbon 2 Tbsp Low-sodium Soy Sauce 1 Tbsp Grated fresh ginger 1 Tbsp fresh lime juice 3 cloves of garlic, minced 1/4 tsp ground black pepper 4 (6-oz) salmon fillets Cooking spray 1/4 cup Thinly sliced green onions 1 Tbsp sesame seeds, toasted Combine the first 7 ingredients in a large zip-lock bag. Add fish to bag. Marinate in fridge 1.5 hrs, turning occasionally. Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add fish to pan. Cook fish for 4 minutes on each side or until fish flakes easily with a fork. Drizzle each fillet with 2 Tbsp of the marinate. Sprinkle with green onions and toasted sesame seeds to garnish. Serves 4

This is one of my favorite recipes for pork. The pork chops turn out very moist. The smoked gouda and pork compliment each other quite well. A nice Chenin Blanc would pair beautifully with these stuffed pork chops.  4 (6 oz) thick cut pork chops 8 slices smoked gouda cheese 1/2 pound fresh spinach, rinsed and torn into bite-sized pieces 3 Tbsp horseradish mustard 1 cup breadcrumbs Your favor seasoning for pork, to taste Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Coat 9x13" baking dish with cooking spray. Lay each chop flat on cutting board, and with a sharp knife held parallel to the board, cut a pocket into the pork, leaving 3 sides intact. Stuff each chop with spinach and cheese. Season each chop.  Coat each chop with a thin layer of horseradish mustard and then roll in breadcrumbs. Arrange chops on baking dish.  Bake for 45 minutes until 45 minutes or until golden brown.  Serves: 4

I know we haven’t done this week yet. I’ve been waiting for the pasta week. If I were to ever open a restaurant it would most likely be Italian. I can’t wait to make pasta from scratch. My aunt Diane and I made it once when I was a pre-teen and it turned out horrible! Very gummy … Yuck!!! I really hope we get to make different variations of pasta. Spinach fettuccine is my absolute favorite! I’d love to make a pesto sauce from scratch too. Ravioli sounds good too, with lobster! Andrew said he wants to work with me on the lasagna. I’m game. I like lasagna. I’ll be sure to get a béchamel sauce in there too. Andrew said we will make different shapes of pasta. At home, Liam and I play ‘Restaurant’ all the time. Sometime he is a baker, other times he is a chef-er. He loves that I am in culinary school and we talk all the time about how a restaurant functions and what to do if someone orders food that you don’t have on hand. This is an organic conversation I had with him, fitting...

Our trip to NuGenesis Farm was a lot of fun. We got to give back to the community and help a great organization with maintaining their property. I helped with removing bricks from a pathway, did some weeding, and organized and decorated their meeting room. They were not in planting or harvesting season so I do hope that the Garde Manger class next semester can join the Basics class again for their trip. It would be fun to see NuGenesis Farm when they are in the full swing of planting and harvesting. Vegetable identification quiz was hard! I definitely need to get better with that. I knew it wasn’t going to go well. Cooking the vegetables went much better. I love roasting vegetables! I made brussel sprouts with pecan butter this week. I’ve always called it brown butter but I learned the correct culinary term is beurre noisette. I have made beurre noisette many times. I usually make it with green beans and hazelnuts. The flavor combination between the brussel sprouts, the pecan...

I will NEVER order gnocchi in a restaurant again without fully appreciating all the works that goes into preparing that entrée. That said, it was so much fun. Nick and I had a plan to work together on the gnocchi but he had to prep for his restaurant and missed the first part of class so I started without him. We intended to split the gnocchi so he could make a sweet variation and I was going to do a savory variation. Nick rolled his gnocchi in cinnamon and brown sugar. He was not thrilled with the end result. I went the savory route with a béchamel sauce and grated parmesan cheese. I was very happy with the gnocchi that I made. Rice pilaf is part of our practical exam. Nick, Andrew and I made rice pilaf together. The pilot light in our oven was turned off and we didn’t give the oven enough time to warm up so the rice pilaf did not cook properly but the flavor was good. I love saffron. Chef said that my seasoning was perfect. That is something I have really paid attention to...