Catch Of The Day And A Little Plating Fun

No surf and turf here - this is all surf baby unless you count the potatoes and veggies as turf. Lately I have been experimenting with newer techniques to me and also trying to visualize plates differently than what is commonly seen. 

Experimenting with the techniques is the easy part but putting it on a plate is not.


I have a small assortment of fish here, I have a flounder roulade, a grilled salmon and a sesame crusted cod all cooked to their most juicy perfection.

My vegetables are green beans, a colorful carrot medley and both yukon gold and purple potatoes cooked in avocado oil with rosemary.

I plated everything up and garnished it with a little kiwi coulis and some sprigs of baby cilantro.


Simple foods cooked simply and plated elegantly can make all the difference in the world. Cooking With Color - I am certain it enhances the flavor.

Grilled Scallops and Baby Octopus With Squid Ink Risotto and Asian Slaw

Check out my latest post for Char-Broil - fancy schmancy. Grilled Scallops and Baby Octopus with Squid Ink Risotto and Asian Slaw - Spring is almost here!

Don't let winter give you the blues - hit back and cook with color

I don't know about the rest of you but most of us are getting a little tired of winter and here in New York its been the snowiest winter in a long, long time.

Time to get yourself out of that funk and get on the grill. There are plenty of bright and colorful vegetables available this time of year and nothing will make you feel better than a colorful plate. I have been saying it forever and I will say it again - I cook with color! This is a big fat grilled pork chop with some winter vegetables. I have a potato mash, a parsnip mash a little cabbage, apple and carrot slaw along with a little red pepper and some squash. It made my eyes dance and my tummy happy. I think you will agree that when you cook with color everybody wins.

Foodbuzz 24x24: We all Scream for Ice Cream - a NYC roof top tasting

Who hasnt heard this saying  - "I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream" at least once in their lives - well if you havent then this is your first of millions.

Like so many before me I knew instantly what my proposal was going to be for this months Foodbuzz 24 x 24. Summer heat brings summer fun and what's more fun than ice cream? I will tell you what. Ice cream with grown up flavors, thats what, and if not grown up flavors then dang good ones at that.

For my Foodbuzz 24 x 24 I decided I was going to make a few unique flavors of ice cream - how does 8 out of this galaxy creations sound - then invite a few friends over for a little roof top tasting. So I made some ice cream and I made some ice cream cones and I decorated the rooftop for this special festive occasion. When dont christmas lights make magic out of the mundane?

I started off with a basic vanilla ice cream and added flavors - how else would you do it?

Vanilla Ice Cream 

1/2 cup sugar

dash of salt

2 cups half and half
1 cup milk

1 egg, beaten (you can substitute cornstarch or xanthan gum if using eggs is an issue)

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Combine sugar salt and all the milk and half the half and half in a saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally until mixture almost boils then reduce heat to low.

Gradually stir about half of this hot mixture into the beaten eggs to temper then incorporate all together and heat until it thickens stirring constantly, remove from heat and refrigerate 2 hours.

Whip the other cup of half and half with the vanilla flavoring until soft peaks form and fold this into the chilled mixture and pour into your ice cream maker and proceed as per its instructions.

When I had a few batches of vanilla made I then organized my flavors and the chemistry began.

some things from the garden some things from fruit stands

I should mention that "organizing" these flavors involved a trip to the Union Square Farmers Market as well as my garden, fruit stands and the supermarket - all on my trusty red bike. When I narrowed it down to the final 8 flavors - this was the result:

Mint Mojito Majesty is a twist on the mojito (obviously) with a little lime and a little mint and the tiniest splash of rum.

Luscious Lavender will make you wonder why you never had lavender ice cream before now. Aromatic, floral and sweet with the perfume of lavender makes this flavor special.

Mexican Chocolate Chocolate  is just that - Mexican chocolate - complete with the cinnamon and the spices and I added in a little bit of mulato chile just because I can. 

Sweet Summer Peach - just typing that makes me blush and to say it out loud makes me need a cold shower.

Fantastic Figgy Fig gave rum another mission - get it Mission figs - rum with a mission, hahahaha.

Don’t be Blue Blueberry  put a bright blue smile on your face with this blue blast of summer delight.

Lemon Basil Goat Cheese Vanilla takes a simple classic like vanilla and kicks it all the way out to left field with the complimentary tangs of the the lemon basil and the goat cheese - it may not be sweet but it sure is a honey - this baby is all grown up.

Carrot Cake a little carrot a little cinnamon a little cream cheese "frosting" and some "cake" - that is what is carrot cake isnt it? Isnt it? I cant play favorites - just sayin'.

The only way to make these fabulous flavors more fabulous would be to serve them in fresh made waffle bowls and cones rich with the flavors of malt and vanilla and since you are dying to know how I did it I will tell you.

Waffle Cones

2 cups sifted flour
1/2 cup sugar
pinch of salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract ( I used my home made vanilla extract again)
1/3 cup Ovaltine malt powder
1 egg
1 cup water (adjust water until a loose batter is formed)

Preheat waffle iron - if you have the actual waffle cone waffle iron then use that a pizzelle maker works great too but I am using an old waffle iron from Norway that makes heart shaped waffles like this. Mix all ingredients together forming a loose and liquid batter pour thinly into hot iron - you are not trying to make big fat waffles but thin waffles. Cook both sides until brown and quickly form into cones or bowls while hot.

I even made a little form for every one to fill out so I could get some focus group feedback.  I asked about mouth feel, texture (texture and mouth feel may seem the same but they are not), flavor and would you buy it - the results were interesting. Stay tuned for the next several posts as I am going to be leaking out each recipe as a blog post and then several detailed posts hinting about the consensus of my marketing survey before I actually post the results thereby milking this idea as much as I can so thats 8 ice cream flavors that would then become 8 separate blog posts....ha ha ha ha, just kidding - dont you hate when people stretch out blog posts like that - I know I do. I will give you the results here and now and the recipe is already there all you have to do is flavor it to your liking.

The over all favorite was the Mexican Chocolate Chocolate.  The creamiest was the Lemon Basil Goat Cheese Vanilla. The one that tasted most like actual carrot cake was the Carrot Cake. Then Luscious Lavender and Mint Mojito Majesty got best of show for most "cultivated" flavors, and while "most cultivated" was not part of the criteria these two shone through and created a category all their own. This isnt to say that Sweet Summer Peach,  Fantastic Figgy Fig, and Don’t be Blue Blueberry werent good rich flavors its that the tasting panel felt they were not exotic compared to the others and everyone would buy every one except the fig - they said it just wasnt figgy enough. So there you have it now go Scream for Ice Cream!

teach to learn, learn to teach

You have heard it "those that cant do - teach - and those that cant teach - teach gym" as the old saying goes but I guess those people already know how to cook. As old as I am I learn something new everyday and I mean every single day and as a constant learner I am now learning how to teach, how to pass on what I know to future generations.

Cooking is one of those arts that you can never stop learning, you may be good at one thing but you might need help with another so there is a never ending supply of things to learn. Today I taught a young student interested in embarking on a career in the culinary arts two of my favorite things to make. Eggs and dessert and what better eggs than Davidsons - Safest Choice, all natural eggs.

Brunch is a no brainer in my world and thats only because I've made it hundreds of times and since it is something so second nature to me it is one of the easiest things for me to teach since it is all technique, no recipe here. We started boiling water and separating eggs for the hollandaise while we thumbed our way through some pages of the Larousse Gastronomique.

While things were whisked and resting and english muffin toast was toasting we got our plates ready with some cucumbers, carrots, avocado and salmon.

Watching her do the "oh my god this is gonna be good" wiggle that some people do when they know they are about to taste something delicious was enough good feeling to last me for weeks.

This tasted fantastic, no doubt, but she has such a refined sense of smell and taste for her age it is exciting to think of the wonderful future she has ahead of her and to listen to her dissect the flavors was very impressive. She had two I had one - she liked it that much. Toasted english muffin with smoked salmon and avocado drizzled in copious amounts of hollandaise with a carrot and cucumber salad, you have seen this one before.

When we had our fill of eggs benedict we made a flourless chocolate cake out of the left over egg whites for dessert - this sealed the deal for the day. Chocolate, raspberries and cream foam how can you not like it? "Give a man(woman) a fish he(she) can eat for a day, teach a man(woman) how to fish he(she) can eat forever, show a man(woman) how to cook fish and everyone is happy" thus spoke Christo!