Bluberry Vanilla Cream Pie
Ingredients:
3 cups fresh blueberries
3 tablespoons warm water
1 tablespoon vanilla paste
4 teaspoons gelatin
16 oz cream cheese, softened
14 oz sweetened condensed milk
1 10-inch graham cracker crust
East Meets West Indies
Trini-Chinese Chicken
INGREDIENTS
- 8 to 10 chicken thighs, legs and wings, about 2 1/2 to 3 pounds total
- 2 tablespoons five-spice powder
- 3 limes
- 3 tablespoons soy sauce
- 1 2-inch knob ginger root, peeled and minced
- 1/2 cup neutral oil, like canola or grapeseed
- 2 tablespoons sesame oil
- 1/2 cup oyster sauce
- 1 to 3 tablespoons Scotch-bonnet-pepper sauce, ideally Matouk’s Soca, to taste
- Freshly ground black pepper
- 1/4 cup chopped scallions, for garnish.
For directions go |Here
Making my own Butter
Making your own butter supposedly produces a lighter and fresher, free of the preservatives and artificial coloring butter. And since I love butter, I decided to find a DIY for butter. So excited to try it. Check it out.
Ingredients
- 1 cup heavy whipping cream
- 1 tablespoon sour cream (optional)
Tools
- Mason Jar or food processor
- Small mesh strainer
Using the Mason Jar, vigorously shake the cream for 20-30 minutes.
Or, place the cream in the food processor for about 5 minutes and whip until the butter has formed a solid yet grainy yellow mass.
Pour every thing onto the small mesh strainer over and into bowl. The liquid is buttermilk! (You get milk and buttermilk with this process! How awesome is that?) Refrigerate the butter milk, it will last for several days.
Pour the butter into a mixing bowl and pour cold water over the butter. Gently massage the butter and press it together. This removes any additional buttermilk. You want to remove excess buttermilk because it will cause the butter to go sour quickly. Pour out the water. Gently massage the butter and repeat the process until the water is clear.
You can then add salt, herbs, or any other seasoning you would like to the butter to give it the taste you!
Enjoy!
The Nominees are out for the 2013 James Beard Awards.
I am definitely going to check out some of the chefs and restaurants from my home town on this list. Starting with David Chang, Momofuku Noodle Bar, NYC.
Anxious to see who wins! I guess I have to wait until May 2013.
TUE
Curried Beef Dumplings
ingredients:
3/4 pound lean (90%) ground beef sirloin
1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger
1-2 garlic cloves, finely minced
1 tablespoon yellow curry powder
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoons cornstarch
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon dark sesame oil
2 large eggs, divided
1 red bell pepper, finely diced
1 stalk green onion, finely chopped
cooking oil, for pan frying
40 round wonton wrappers or round dumpling wrappers (about 3-1/2-inch diameter)
1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger
1-2 garlic cloves, finely minced
1 tablespoon yellow curry powder
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoons cornstarch
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon dark sesame oil
2 large eggs, divided
1 red bell pepper, finely diced
1 stalk green onion, finely chopped
cooking oil, for pan frying
40 round wonton wrappers or round dumpling wrappers (about 3-1/2-inch diameter)
For directions go| here
Soul Food, or Not?
So as some of you know I am sort of an urban lifestyle/social life concierge. When ever my friends want a place that would be good for them to go, on any date (friendly or more intimate- where food is involved), I am usually their first point of contact.
I do my research and usually set everything up so they don’t have to do anything but show up. The latest request I received was this past weekend for a nice soulfood restaurant for two friends catching up, one was from out of town and the other lived upstate.
It was very short notice and so I just rattled off a few places that I would suggest since I was doing this as a favor; not reservations made, no business time used.
The places I suggested captured the entire rainbow from the “local-local” spot to something that would be a little more formal as far as ambiance (of course all with decent soul food). These were the place I suggested:
Soco 509 Myrtle Ave
(between Ryerson St & Grand Ave)
Brooklyn, NY 11205
Neighborhood: Clinton Hill
(718) 783-1936
Melba’s 300 W 114th St
(between Manhattan Ave & 8th Ave)
New York, NY 10026
Neighborhood: Harlem
(212) 864-7777
http://www.melbasrestaurant.com/
Manna’s soul food restaurant
Peaches restaurant and bar
393 Lewis Avenue
Brooklyn NY, 11233
Stuyvesant Heights
http://www.bcrestaurantgroup.com/location
Not bad right?
Well, would you believe that my friend decided to go to Ruby Foo’s in time square instead because of thier time constraint?! Thank Goodness i didn’t make any formal arrangements for them, it would have been a situation.
Ruby Foo’s?…. smh
TUE
