On the Road to Las Vegas � What happens there definitely won�t stay there

I thought I would post a quick update for all of you waiting patiently for a new recipe clip. I�ve leaving Giants Spring training with a record of 2-1, and everything I�d heard about spring baseball in the desert turned out to be true; beautiful sunny weather, small ballparks where you�re right on top of the players, cold beer, hot dogs, and lots of well-oiled bare skin. Other than that it wasn�t that great. I don�t like to post without photos so here is a couple from the old ball park. The first is a culinary student from Scottsdale cooking Bratwurst, and the second a Chicago Cubs fan who I assume likes to eat Bratwurst.

I can now admit it; this was not just a vacation. I actually had a bit of business to take care of, which went very well. It looks like I�ll be doing some work as private chef for several of the SF Giants this season. Before you ask who, let me say that similar to doctors and mob lawyers, private Chefs� clients expect a certain level of confidentiality, so I�m not saying who.

I�m headed to Las Vegas for an overnight stay, and then back to San Francisco on Wednesday. I hope to post Wednesday evening and then get back on the �new post every day� schedule you�ve hopefully grown accustom. Again, I thank you for your patience and I can�t wait to get back to the City and start cooking for you all. I have lots of requests to do and during these long drives I�ve been brainstorming some crazy new ideas. Well, we must be getting close; I just saw an �All You Can Eat� billboard�wish me luck!

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Cactus League Here I Come!

Chef John (as I write about myself in the third person) will be taking a small vacation to Arizona to take in some spring training baseball. So if you don't see any new posts for a few days, and/or I don't reply to your comments or emails, I apologize in advance.

Every spring, for about 20 years, I�ve tried to figure out a way to get down to the San Francisco Giant�s Cactus league spring training. Until this year I was 0 for 20. The streak is over! Thanks to a confluence of good luck, good timing, and great in-laws, I�m headed down there for a few days of sun and fun.

Now, since the Giants haven�t won the World Series since I�ve been in San Francisco, and since I�ve never been to Spring Training, I can�t help but think there may be some connection. The way I figure, since I�m going to be down there this year, helping them get ready, they should win it all (beating the Yankees in 7). You heard it here first.

By the way, I�ll try to post a few items from the road. There must be some desert Internet caf�s somewhere. Stay tuned and�Go Giants!

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Chicken Marsala a la Ryan�s Cafe

Certain dishes have a special place in my heart and this is one of them. The first real restaurant job I had in San Francisco was at a small place called Ryan�s Caf�. It was run by a husband and wife team, Michael and Lenore Ryan. They were true �foodies� before that term had even been coined. This Chicken Marsala dish was the most popular dish on the menu and the first one that I was taught. I had cooked with wine a few times at culinary school, but this was the first time that it had really hit me what magic could be created by adding the right wine to certain ingredients. Every time I make this dish, I fondly remember that 23 years old cook (with full head of hair), so thirsty for knowledge, just drinking it all in, both literally and figuratively.

Marsala wine originates from the Italian city of Marsala, which is in Sicily. It is similar to the more commonly know Spanish Sherry, and like Sherry is a wonderful wine to cook with. It has a complex, slightly sweet flavor that makes it the perfect choice for this great chicken and mushroom dish I�m demonstrating today. Be careful when buying your bottle of Marsala. You don�t need anything too expensive, but make sure it�s just regular Marsala wine, and not �Sweet Marsala� which is a desert wine and too sweet for this dish. This same recipe can also be made the with Sherry or Madeira wine with very nice results.


Ingredients:
2 boneless chicken breasts, skin on
1 shallot minced
2 tbl fresh parsley
3 tbl butter
2 tbl olive oil
1 tbl flour
5 white mushrooms, sliced
2 cups chicken stock
1 cup Marsala wine
1 tsp salt (to taste)
1/2 tsp pepper

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Braised Lamb and Eggplant Cous Cous � Easy, exotic, and a great case for gender bias!

Today�s post is perfect for the person that�s afraid to try anything that seems exotic because they think it�s going to be hard to prepare. Cous Cous has to be one of the easiest things on the planet to make. Can you boil stock and pour it into a bowl of Cous Cous? Then this dish is for you. This was a hard demo to edit down to a reasonable length, so I did go pretty fast with some of the steps and I thought I better give some additional info to help you follow along. So, I�ve put a few steps along with the usual ingredient list.

Cous Cous is a tiny, granular type of pasta that is as delicious, as it is simple to prepare. Usually considered Moroccan, this is also a staple in Algeria, Tunisia and Libya. The amazing thing about couscous is how fast it �cooks,� and how versatile it is. As long as you have some type of flavorful stock to prepare the Cous Cous, the meats and vegetables can be varied in countless ways.

Regarding the gender bias reference in headline; it has been claimed that female eggplants have more seeds than male eggplants. Those tiny white/grey seeds are what give eggplant it�s slightly bitter flavor, so Chefs are said to favor the male eggplants. Anyway, I show you how to �sex� an eggplant, and we also test the male vs. female theory. Wow, I feel like that �Myth Buster� guy. Enjoy the clip!



4 cups couscous
1 quart chicken stock
2 pounds lamb shoulder chops
2 eggplants
1/2 onion
1/2 cup diced tomato or sauce
3 cloves garlic
1 tsp black pepper
2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp dried Herb de Provence (or Italian herb mix)
1/4 cup olive oil
4 oz feta cheese (optional)
fresh herbs to garnish (mint, parsley, etc.)

Steps:
* Season lamb with half the salt and pepper, brown well on both sides in a bit of olive oil in Dutch oven, remove and set aside.
* Add onion, rest of salt and pepper, saut� for 5 minutes.
* Add eggplant and saut� for 5 minutes.
* Add tomato, garlic, red pepper flakes, cinnamon, cumin, Herb de Provence, saut� for 5 minutes.
* Add stock and lamb, bring to a simmer and cover. Simmer for 2 hours.
* Remove lamb.
* Strain braising liquid from eggplant and reserve (you should have about 4 1/2 cups).
* Remove meat from bones and add to eggplant mixture, keep warm.
* Bring reserved stock to boil and pour over �oiled� Cous Cous (see clip)
* Cover tightly for 5 minutes, fluff and serve as shown in clip.

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Sage and Sherry Creamed Mushrooms on Griddled Blue Corn

1 pound wild mushrooms
1 pound morrels
4 cups heavy cream
2 Tbsp. chopped fresh sage
2 Tbsp. dry sherry
Salt and pepper, to taste
1 1/2 cups blue corn meal
water

Cook the corn meal to a thick mush adding salt to taste.
Oil a 9-by-2-by-13-inch glass baking dish. Pour the corn meal mush into the dish to cover the bottom evenly, about 1 inch thick. Cool completely in dish before cutting. It's best if chilled overnight.

Put the mushrooms in a stainless steel pan large enough to hold all the mushrooms and the cream. Pour the cream over the mushrooms and bring to a boil. Add the morrel mushrooms. Bring to a boil again. Reduce the heat so the mixture is simmering. Cook for 45 minutes to 1 hour until the cream is slightly thickened. Stir often during the boiling and simmering to keep from scorching.

Add the sage and sherry and cook for 10 minutes more, stirring often. Salt and pepper to taste. Keep warm.

Cut the corn meal mush into 8 squares, then into 16 triangles. Carefully remove from dish to waxed paper. Heat a griddle or skillet (non-stick works well) on medium heat. Rub both sides of the triangles with olive oil. Carefully place the triangles on griddle or skillet. Brown well on each side.

Serve on eight small plates, two triangles on each. Spoon some of the creamed mushrooms on each and garnish with whole sage leaf. You can also serve this on a platter for a buffet.

The leftover creamed mushrooms will keep up to one week in the refrigerator. It is also good on chicken, fish, toasted crusty French bread - or be creative.

Makes 8 starter servings

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Chocolate Lava Cake � Is this the World�s most delicious mistake?

Legend has it that this dessert was the result of a major catering disaster. The dessert for this particular event was to be individual chocolate cakes, but someone took them out of the ovens to soon and the centers where not cooked enough and still liquefied. Well, there was no time to take them off the plates and cook them more, so the Chef simply had his wait staff introduce the dessert as Chocolate �Lava� Cake! Brilliant! Now, whether this is true or not, I don�t know for sure, but it totally sounds like something a Chef would do. If you have a better story email it to me and I�ll start using it.

Regardless of how it was born, it sure is good. I used very dark chocolate, but you can use semi-sweet or milk chocolate if you prefer. If you�ve watch my clips regularly you know I�m not big on measuring ingredients, BUT when you�re doing baked desserts you really do need to be accurate. So measure carefully. By the way, this was a view request and the photo he sent me (pictured above with the fruit) had no copyright info with it. I did use it in the clip and hopefully no one gets too upset. If you did happen to take this photo, and are upset I�m using it without permission, please email me and I will credit you. Enjoy!

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Ingredients
2 extra large eggs
1 extra large egg yolk
5 tbl butter
3 tbl sugar
3.5 oz. dark chocolate (this is one standard chocolate bar)
3 tbl flour
2 tsp cocoa powder
*Bake at 425 F, in water bath for 15 mins.

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Eggs Benedicts � The last 2 episodes to make this brunch classic!

Hopefully you watched the hollandaise demo we just posted, and you are ready to fearlessly finish this delicious egg dish! So, the sauce is done, now you need to poach the eggs and finish the plate. In this first clip, I show the basic restaurant technique for poaching eggs. Due to the high-volume of a brunch service, it is almost impossible to poach eggs �to order.� They are poached ahead of time and held in cold water until final plating, when they are re-heated in simmering water for a few minutes. This method also works great at home for smaller batches as you�ll see. Once you�ve poached your eggs and have them in cold water you are free to set up the rest of the plate and all you then have to do is reheat them as I�ll show you. Ok, here we go with the poaching clip. Immediately following is the final plating and some cruel teasing on my part.


Now that we have our eggs ready we can plate this beauty up. Now, as you�ll hear me say in the clip, I didn�t waste time filming how to toast an English muffin and fry up a couple pieces of Canadian bacon. If you need help with those techniques you can email me and I�ll make fun of you in private. VERY IMPORTANT: make sure you are using a warm plate! Since the sauce is just warm, not piping hot, and the eggs are also just warm, it is CRUCIAL that the plate is warm, as well as making sure the English muffin and Canadian bacon are hot. If you need some potatoes to serve with this dish, please check out our Homefries demo. Enjoy!

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Hollandaise 101 � Can a sauce really sense fear?

Re-run alert! Yes, viewers to my old blog may have seen this clip before, but it�s such a key sauce to master, I wanted to have it on this new blog. This sauce can be used on many other things besides eggs; like grilled asparagus and poached salmon. But, since the most common use is on the famous Eggs Benedict, I will also demo how to poach eggs (secret restaurant method) and how to finish the final dish. Stay tuned for that. Now, let�s get our Hollandaise on.

I�m going to show you a new and terrifying method for making this classic Sauce. I don�t use a double-boiler, but rather cook the egg yolks directly over a low flame. I find it faster, easier, and with less chance of under-cooking the yolks. (Warning, you may scramble a few before you get it, but once you get the feel you�ll never do them over water again!) Please note, it�s hard to see on the video, the bowl is never actually touching the flame, but a few inches above.

You�ll hear me say in the clip that this is the way to control the heat in the eggs. Most importantly, be brave! Like bees and dogs, a Hollandaise can sense fear. If you are afraid it�s going to �break� or separate, then it will. I believe this so deeply I had the slogan printed on T-shirts, which coincidently, I�m selling on the site! Hey, I think this is the first clip that actually features one of my products. Did I just �sell out?� If you are interested in getting one of these shirts just click on the picture and you'll be whisked away (pun intended) to my CafePress online shop. Anyway, good luck with the Hollandaise, and let me know how it came out. Enjoy!

Ingredients:
1 1/2 stick of unsalted butter
2 egg yolks
1/2 lemon
salt to taste
cayenne or tabasco sauce to taste

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Perfect Mashed Potatoes � Breaking the Cycle of Generational Potato Dysfunction

Well, I just posted a meatloaf clip so I thought I would re-post this mashed potato demo. Every day, all across the country, people sit down to plates of lumpy, watery, sticky, gluey, pasty mashed potatoes. This demo will hopefully show you the proper techniques to turn out perfect mashed potatoes every time; always light, fluffy and lump-free.

It�s not hard, but it does require breaking some bad, old habits you may have. Making mashed potatoes is one of those comfort foods that you probably learned from your mother. If she used waxy red potatoes, then that�s what you use. If she mixed them for 20 minutes and ended up with something resembling wallpaper paste, then that�s what you do. Well, it�s time to face a harsh reality�your mom may not have known what the hell she was doing. There, I said it. Now, if you mom�s mashers came out great and she taught you well, fantastic! But if you do suffer from this generational potato dysfunction, then watch and learn. As they say, it�s never too late to have a happy childhood (mashed potato-wise at least).

I suggest NOT using a non-stick pot for these, as I will be using a metal wire-style potato masher.

Ingredients:
Serves 4
3 large Russet potatoes
1/2 stick butter
1/2 cup milk
salt and pepper to taste

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Classic �All American� Meatloaf

This recipe is a version that Alton Brown did on Good Eats. I�ve added a few extra ingredients, like mushrooms, which I believe helps make a very moist meatloaf. Do I feel bad stealing Alton�s recipe? No, because he stole it from someone, who stole it from someone, and so on and so on. I've tried many recipes and this is my favorite for flavor, texture and it's just plain easy to make.

I believe this is the first demo I make you dust off your food processor for. I know they are a pain to drag out and clean, but they are crucial to this recipe! The real secret to this method is the veggie puree we add to the meat and bread crumbs. Not only do these aromatic vegetables add tons of flavor, more importantly they add moisture to the mix. Most �bad� meatloaves are nothing more than giant baked hamburgers.

Another important tip is to use a digital meat thermometer to check for an internal temp of 155� F. This will produce the best final product. The times I give can be very tricky since all ovens are different and you may not have shaped yours exactly the same as mine. When you go by internal temps you take the guess work out of it.

Stay tuned, as I will show you my mushroom sauce recipe that I garnished this beautiful loaf of meat with. In fact, it just stopped raining here in Northern California, so there should be a nice selection of wild mushrooms to use. Enjoy!

Ingredients:
2 1/2 pounds ground chuck (80% lean)
1 carrot
1 rib celery
1/2 onion
1/2 red bell pepper
4 white mushrooms
3 cloves garlic
1 cup plain bread crumbs
1 egg
1 tbl Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp dried Italian herbs
2 tbl olive oil
2 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp olive oil

Glaze:
2 tbl brown sugar
2 tbl ketchup
2 tbl Dijon mustard
hot sauce to taste

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�See-through� Herb and Potato Crisps � Worst Demo Ever?

Of all the things I�ve demonstrated on this site, without a doubt, this will be the one that the fewest viewers try. Why? Well, basically we�re going to spend 45 minutes, risk slicing off our finger tips, and when we�re finished we are going to have (if everything goes perfectly) about 10 translucent potato chips with leaves of herbs embedded inside. So why bother? I�m not sure. Just watch the demo and it may make sense. For the hardcore foodie, this may actually be interesting, for the rest of you, not so much.

If done properly (which will probably take you 4 or 5 times) this does make for a very cool garnish. And, for the select few that actually make and serve these, you may get one of your guests to ask, �Oh my God! How did you get the herbs inside that potato chip?!? This is the culinary equivalent of the old ship in the bottle mystery. Enjoy!

Ingredients:
fresh herb leaves (Italian parsley, oregano, tarragon, etc)
1 large russet potato
2 tbl olive oil
salt to taste (after cooked)

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