Last month, I attempted a new cuisine in honor of the 4th of July holiday…Southern American Cuisine. I don’t eat much Southern food and have never really cooked it, so this was definitely a challenge for me.

I started out with appetizers of a hot crab dip, and jalapeño and goat cheese hushpuppies. I included some veggies and bread with the crab dip, and the hushpuppies were baked in the oven before serving.

Serving the crab dip and hushpuppies

Appetizers, with a guest addition of fruit snacks.

As people began dropping off ingredients, the very talented Jason Eskridge set up some sound and accompanied the social hour. He was an excellent addition to the night, and I’ll forgive him for upstaging me a little bit.

Getting ready

Jason Eskridge

We had some beautiful produce arrive, including a bunch of sweet peppers, zucchini, squash, tomatoes, red onion, and eggplant. I had my work cut out for me when guests showed up with two types of quinoa and couscous! Benton’s bacon made an appearance, along with some raw beans which we think were speckled kidney beans.

The Mystery Ingredients!

Getting the pretty sweet peppers ready for slicing

Brandon started on the bacon and red onions, which were added to the boiled beans for a hearty side. The entire Farmers’ Market filled with the awesome scent of bacon.

Me being silly. Can you smell the bacon??

The red quinoa reminded me of dirty rice, so I cooked it in some chicken stock with thyme, pepper, and a pinch of cayenne, then added some turkey hotdogs which were marinated (if you can even marinate hotdogs) in Louisiana hot sauce to make a hot sausage and “dirty rice” dish. The guests nicknamed this dish “Quinie Weenie”. Oh, good times!

Spicy turkey dogs and Red Quinoa AKA “Sausage and Dirty Rice” AKA Quinie Weenie

The couscous was prepared in the style of grits, with some butter, garlic, and lemon juice, which helped balance out the sweetness of the sweet peppers.

Peppers and Couscous AKA “Grits”

The grits were topped with shrimp boiled in a fish fry batter.

Shrimp in Fish Fry bath

Mmmmm….bacon baked beans. You know what they say, bacon makes everything better!

Bacon Baked Beans

I prepared some chicken legs in a buttermilk thyme batter and baked them in the oven until cooked through. Next time I will add some breadcrumbs or corn flakes to give it that extra crunch.

Buttermilk Baked Chicken

The zucchini, squash, tomatoes, and the rest of the sweet peppers were sauteed and then stewed in broth and spices. I added some lean ground beef to help cut the heat a bit, and this might have been my favorite dish of the evening. It was hot, but so flavorful.

Spicy Vegetable and beef stew

With the white quinoa, I made crispy eggplant by adding the quinoa to some of the buttermilk batter. When fried, quinoa becomes super crunchy and adds a nutty flavor. The eggplant was served with a remoulade of sorts; I only wish there had been more eggplant!

Crispy Quinoa Fried Eggplant

The finally dinner was served!

The spread

Full Plate

Lastly, we prepared a peach cobbler with some super ripe peaches, but it didn’t quite set the way I’d like. It was still delicious though!

Peach Cobbler

We had a great evening and made a bunch of new friends! Thanks for making my first attempt at Southern cuisine a fun one. See you next month!

This is a burger I created last fall, and there is a lot of love that goes into it. I make a strawberry BBQ sauce and homemade Rosemary rolls just for one burger. You can simplify this recipe by purchasing pre-made buns, but I highly recommend, no, I insist on, making the BBQ sauce.

Triple B stands for Bison, Bacon, and Blue Cheese. I use ground bison you can find in most stores, sold by the pound, center cut bacon, and a mild blue cheese. Blue cheese is one of those cheese that can overwhelm a dish, so I go easy on it. Plus, the BBQ sauce helps balance the sharp saltiness of the cheese. The recipe below is broken up into the three different components. Since the bread takes the longest, I cheat and start with a box of white bread mix, typically used with a bread machine, but then make them hand (so I do not use a bread machine, if that was unclear).

The Triple B Burger

For the bread:

1 box Country White Bread Mix
2 tablespoons dried rosemary
Flour for dusting

Follow the instructions on the box for Traditional Bread (not bread maker, duh). Add the 2 tablespoons of dried rosemary to the mix when it is dry, and then mix it in when combining all ingredients. After kneading it together for 5-10 minutes on a floured surface, place dough in a slightly greased bowl and cover. Let it sit and rise for about an hour, until it doubles in size.

Divide dough into 6-8 portions and form into a roll by gently pulling the dough around your thumb and gathering it together under the bun. This makes a nice, smooth, round top. Repeat this for all portions and set on greased pan. Cover and let rise again. Sprinkle with flour and bake in preheated oven at 400 degrees for about 12-15 minutes. They should have a golden brown top, but not too brown.

Fresh Rosemary Rolls

For the BBQ Sauce:

1 1/2 cups granulated white sugar
1/2 pound strawberries, sliced
2 1/2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
2 1/2 tablespoons water
1 teaspoons fresh black pepper
1/3 cup ketchup
2 tablespoons mustard (I’ve used both Dijon and stone ground, adjust according to your taste)

This makes about 1.5 cups of BBQ sauce; you’ll have some left over to dip the extra bread in!

Mix the sugar, strawberries, vinegar, water, and black pepper in a saucepan. Bring it to a boil over medium heat. Lower the heat and cook at a slow boil for about 45 minutes or until thick. Remove it from heat and add ketchup, and mustard. Mix it really well.

The strawberries should break down over those 45 minutes, but you might want to use an immersion blender to smooth it out. Strain the mixture through a sieve or cheesecloth to remove the seeds. You don’t want those little buggers to make it into the burger.

Now, for the burger:

1 pound (1 package) ground bison
1 slice of bacon per burger, cooked well done and set aside to crisp and drain excess oil
Blue Cheese, sliced thinly
1 Beefsteak tomato
1 bunch watercress
Salt
Pepper

The burger itself is pretty simple. Just season the meat with salt, pepper, and form into patties. Depending on how big you want your burger, you could get 2-4 burgers. Grill on medium-high heat, using high heat cooking oil (not olive oil) to coat the surface of the grill. I use an indoor grill that’s non-stick, but I still use the oil to get a nice browning on the burger. Cook until internal temp is 160F. You’ll want to flip the burgers after 4 minutes, and then flip them once or twice more. Total cooking time should be between 11-13 minutes. About a minute before removing them from the grill, place a slice of blue cheese on top. It should be enough to thinly cover the top of the burger.

Remove from heat and let the burgers rest a few minutes before assembly.

When it’s time to assemble, slice your buns, and spread the BBQ sauce on the inside of the top of the bun. Don’t be shy with it! Then, from the bottom up, layer watercress, a slice of tomato (I like it cut thick), burger with cheese, a slice of bacon (or two if you are feeling adventurous), and then the top of the bun.

You might need to give it a little squeeze to be able to take a bite, but go for it. You know you want to.

MMmmm….

I have served mine with homemade chips and had fun making the chips from Japanese Sweet Potatoes. The sweet and salty taste meshes well with the sweet, salty, and savory burger. Enjoy!

Burger with fresh potato chips

After watching tonight’s episode of Masterchef, where contestants were eliminated based on the quality of their risotto, I thought I would share my most recent risotto dish. I found some gorgeous golden zucchini at my farmer’s market, as well as some large spring onions, and used them as my star ingredients for this recipe. I also added some fresh rosemary, lemon zest, and shrimp. The end product was so delicious I made it again one day later in a vegetarian version for a friend’s engagement party. The measurements below are approximate, but should be pretty close.

Fried Golden Zucchini, Spring Onion, and Shrimp Risotto

Ingredients:

2 Golden Zucchinis (yellow squash will work well also, but they are different), sliced into 1/4” rounds
1/4 cup Italian breadcrumbs
2 Medium Spring Onions, sliced into thin rounds, then roughly chopped
1 Tablespoon fresh rosemary
Zest of one lemon
Juice of 1/2 lemon
4 cups chicken broth (or vegetable broth for the vegetarian option)
1 cup Arborio rice
1/4 cup Dry White Wine
Salt
Pepper
Olive Oil
Parmesan Cheese
Large Shrimp (how many is up to you!)

Heat the chicken broth in a medium saucepan and keep warm over low heat.

Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil over medium heat. Season zucchini rounds with salt and pepper. Fry zucchini in oil until tender. Add breadcrumbs to pan, toss zucchini with breadcrumbs, and cook until crumbs brown slightly. Remove zucchini and place on towel-lined plate to soak up excess oil. Set aside.

Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add spring onion, cook, stirring, until translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the rice and stir quickly until it is well-coated and opaque, about 1 minute. Stir in wine and cook until it is nearly all evaporated.

With a ladle, add 1 cup of the warm broth and cook, stirring, until the rice has absorbed the liquid. Add the remaining broth, 1 cup at a time. Continue to cook and stir, allowing the rice to absorb each addition of broth before adding more. The risotto should be slightly firm and creamy, not mushy. Add shrimp before adding the last ladle or two and let it cook with the rice. Add rosemary, lemon zest, juice, and golden zucchini to the rice mixture.

When rice is cooked through, grate a small amount of Parmesan cheese over top, and cook briefly until melted. Remove risotto from pan and let risotto settle for a few minutes in the serving dish. Feel free to add more Parmesan over the top. Enjoy!

April’s dinner at The Farmer’s Market was quite the undertaking, with another large group and a challenging cuisine. I’d done Indian food once before for a Kamikaze Chef dinner, so I learned to plan ahead and think of ways to use possible mystery ingredients. In addition to that challenge, I knew that one of the guests had an extensive list of allergies, so I tried to make as many dishes as I could that she would still eat. There were still some surprises, but overall the meal turned out great.

For appetizers, I stopped at my favorite local Indian restaurant and picked up some Papadum and chutneys. Papadum is a gluten-free crispy wafer made from lentils and chick peas. It is traditionally served at the beginning of the meal with assorted chutneys.  I left this task up to the experts, but still made a few more appetizers from scratch.

Papadum with mango, tamarind, and mint chutneys

I made some spicy lamb meatballs that were just delicious, and ended up being able to serve them with a cucumber/yogurt sauce, Raita, after a few ingredients arrived.

Spiced Lamb Meatballs

Lastly, I made some vegetable pakoras, which are battered in chick pea flour and a variety of spices.

Vegetable pakora

As the guests arrived, so did the colorful ingredients. Here they are by category:

Fruit:
English Cucumbers

Vegetables:
Russet Potatoes, Frozen Mixed Veggies, Rutabaga, Green Beans, Sweet Potatoes, Red Cabbage, Jicama

Rutabaga and Red Cabbage

Peeled Sweet Potatoes

Dairy:
Vanilla soy milk and goat cheese w/honey

Grain:
Red Quinoa

I sure had my work cut out for me. Traditionally, Indian food uses a lot of dairy and tomatoes, two ingredients which were on the allergy list, so I made a number of modifications. The following dishes are not what you would call authentic Indian, but the flavors made it into each dish.We got to work right away!

Working the jicama through the slicer

Meghan peeling potatoes

Brandon and Meghan keeping it light

Fresh ground spice blends for each dish. The coffee bean grinder is my friend!

Getting all the veggies chopped and cooked, ready for assembly

The first dish was a version of Gujarati Vegetables, which is a reference to the part of India where this blend of flavors is popular. I used both varieties of potatoes, with the addition of the green beans, and quinoa. It was topped with some fresh cilantro, commonly called coriander in Indian cooking. The spice mixture consisted of cumin, fennel, and turmeric. It made for a pretty dish!

Gujarati Vegetables with Cilantro

The next dish incorporated the jicama, a root vegetable not typically used in Indian cuisine, cabbage, and green beans to make a Masala-style dish. The cabbage and jicama were cooked over medium heat for about 15 minutes with a spice mixture of garlic, ginger, fun, fenugreek, coriander, and a freshly made Garam Masala courtesy of one of the guests. Garam Masala is a blend of ground spices, usually including cinnamon, cloves, and cardam0m. The green beans and vegetable mix were then added until everything was incorporated together. It was surprisingly savory for a vegetable dish.

Jicama Masala

I supplied two different preparations of chicken, and the first was a dish called Chicken Korma. Chicken breasts were combine with rutabaga (although it traditionally is served with potatoes), onion, curry powder, cloves, cinnamon, and vanilla soy milk. I used a little less cinnamon than usual, since the soy milk already had some sweetness. This was served with Basmati rice and was absolutely divine.

Chicken Korma

The last dish was a play on Chicken Tandoori. The chicken thighs were marinated in a blend of onion, ginger, curry powder, and turmeric, and then cooked on the grill. After it was cooked through, it was tossed with the goat cheese and soy milk until it was thoroughly mixed. The sauce was sweet and spicy, and went perfect with some naan I purchased from the local Indian market.

Chicken Tandoor with Goat Cheese

Here is a shot of the final spread:

The spread

Full plate

Another great time at the Nashville Farmer’s Market! The next one is coming up soon and I hope to have some more exciting dishes to share with you!

This past Saturday was the second Kamikaze Chef dinner at the Nashville Farmers’ Market Grow Local Kitchen! We had a great time and I already have some great photos to share with you.

I picked a Japanese theme for this dinner and brought along all the necessary sauces and components I might need to create a few traditional dishes:

My stock of Japanese ingredients (plus more you can't see!)

For appetizers, I made three new dishes. The first was something I”ve been wanting to try, a change-up on the dumplings I”ve done in the past. These ones were pork and shrimp wasabi shumai, modeled after one of my favorite Japanese appetizers. I found the shumai skins at my local international market and placed a small dollop of prepared wasabi in the center of the wrapper. These were served with Ponzu sauce and hot mustard.

Pork and Shrimp Wasabi Shumai

The second appetizer was chicken yakitori, made from chicken thighs that had been marinating all day in a mixture of soy, mirin, ginger, garlic, and peanut oil. Then they were grilled and basted with more of the marinade. Yum!

Chicken Yakitori on the grill

Ready for the crowd!

Lastly, I made a cucumber and green onion cold salad, tossed in shuyo (a lighter version of soy sauce), rice vinegar, topped with bonito flakes. It was tasty!

Japanese Cucumber Salad with Bonito

A pretty arrangement of all three:

All three appetizers

The mystery ingredients were colorful and unique! I had a lot of great items to work with. In their categories:

Vegetables: White cauliflower, Eddoes (Caribbean root vegetables, found in a local Indian market), sweet potatoes, corn, sugar snap peas, spinach

Corn, Spinach, Sweet Potatoes, Eddoes, and Cauliflower

Fruit: Bosc and Anjou Pears, Avocados

Pears (and Eddoes again)

Dairy: Paneer Cheese, Coconut Milk, Herbs de Provence Goat Cheese

Me slicing the Paneer into cubes

The proteins I brought were shrimp, thinly sliced beef, and lean pork cutlets. I came in with at least somewhat of plan of dishes I could make, so these proteins worked out well.

Then it was time to get cookin’! Christina started peeling the edooes, while Brandon removed the corn kernels from the cob, and I fried the paneer before combining all three with some ginger, garlic, onion, water and the sugar snap peas to form a curry base.

Adding the corn to the eddoes and onions.

After adding the paneer, Japanese curry, and sugar snap peas

I served this with some Tonkatsu, or fried Pork cutlets, breaded in Panko:

Tonkatsu

The two went very well together:

Tonkatsu with Japanese Curry

All of us working away:

Working hard!

I believe this has been dubbed "Happy Chef"

Next, I got started on some interesting sushi rolls. I combined the Herbs de Provence goat cheese, spinach, panko, and some of the beef, and topped it with thin slices of avocado to make a one-of-a-kind sushi roll:

Creative Sushi!

We got a heck of a lot of good photos of the finished product, but here are some of the best. I made a spicy mayo to drizzle over the top. Click to see larger images (which you can always do with any photo. None of these are full size!).

Full Roll

Here you can really see what's inside the roll

Another Closeup

Enough for a crowd

To go with the sushi, we fried up some slices of cauliflower, sweet potato, and shrimp in a tempura batter:

Platter O'Tempura

Pretty sushi and tempura plate

For the final course, I actually made a dessert for this dinner: Ginger-Infused Rice Pudding with Pears! Having never attempted rice pudding before, I believe it came out great. I used the coconut milk and large chunks of ginger to infuse flavor for about 20 minutes before adding the cooked rice. Of course, I had to find them before I served the pudding, or else someone would’ve gotten a very spicy bite!

Plated version. Oh yeah, and I added edamame!

Fun to-go box presentation

There were so many more fabulous photos that I will post to my Facebook page, so be sure to check that out soon.\n\nThanks again to the great crowd who made this night an absolute blast! I hope everyone had fun! The next dinner at the Farmers” Market is April 28th. You can find details and RSVP information here.

In January, I hosted my first dinner in the Grow Local Kitchen at the Nashville Farmers’ Market, and boy was it fun! They have a gorgeous demonstration kitchen right in the middle of the main building, and, at 6pm on a Saturday, we had it all to ourselves. I invited many of my friends who’ve attended other dinners, and they invited their friends! All-in-all, we had 19 people, only 4 of which had ever been to a Kamikaze Chef dinner before. It was a new experience all around!

What a great space! More pictures to come.

I chose to go with a Latin theme for this dinner, and started off with my favorite roasted tomatillo guacamole, and fresh corn and flour tortilla chips. I also made a queso fundido, but didn’t manage to get any pictures of it!

Roasted Tomatillo Guacamole and fresh tortilla chips

My soux chefs, Brandon and Christina, helped me gather up all the mystery ingredients to get started. Here they are by food group:

Vegetables: Eggplants, Kale, Orange and Purple Cauliflower, Beets, Red and Yellow Carrots, Rutabaga, Crimini Mushrooms (baby portabella), Yellow Squash, Bell Peppers

Carrots and Rutabaga

Purple Cauliflower and Mushrooms

Dairy: Lavender Goat Cheese (what!!?), Shredded Italian Cheese, Coconut Milk

Eggplants, Coconut Milk, Starfruit, and Lavender Goat Cheese

Grain: Quinoa Spaghetti, Sourdough Baguette, Jasmine Rice
Fruit: Starfruit, Asian Pears

I provided the protein this time, so chicken, chorizo, shrimp, and skirt steak were standing by. I also had some mangoes, black beans, peppers, and necessary spices on hand. Oh yes, and I also pre-made a chimichurri sauce in case it fit with one of the dishes.

I started immediately with the eggplants and got them roasting. Brandon got to work on the carrots, beets, and rutabaga, slicing them into wafer-thin pieces. It was tough, messy work without a mandolin…

Brandon painstakingly slicing the carrots and beets

We ended up frying them to make chips. Delicious!

Beet, Carrot, and Rutabaga chips

The lavender goat cheese really threw me for a loop; it took a while for me to come up with a plan. I ended up blending the roasted eggplant with the goat cheese, jalapeno, and a good amount of cumin and garlic to make a spread. I served it as an appeteaser (I just made that up) on slices of the baguette as well as with the chips for dipping.

Eggplant and Lavender Goat Cheese spread

Next, I combined a number of the vegetables, including the kale, squash, and mushrooms, into a poor man’s tamale, or tamale casserole. It requires two boxes of Jiffy Corn muffin mix, one as the base and then one over the top of all the veggies. I also added some cheese and chile peppers to the middle and then popped it in the oven. It turned out to be very tasty, and, gosh, so easy. Surprisingly, I did not get a picture of that one separately, but you’ll see it in some of the larger shots.

Next, I prepared a simple chicken fajita casserole by tossing together cooked chicken with sliced bell peppers, jasmine rice, coconut milk, cheese, and some spices and then, again, popping it in the oven. Final product:

Chicken Fajita Casserole

The colorful cauliflower was also giving me a hard time. I wanted to show off the colors, so I didn’t want to muddle them by mashing or hide them away in another dish. I took a chance and decided to make a cauliflower and black bean “salsa”, if you can call it that. I mixed in fresh herbs, lime juice and zest, and a few tomatoes. The dish actually turned out to be very tasty!

The pretty cauliflower after blanching (in a briiiight pink bowl)

After it was mixed with the beans, et al

Next came the salad, which was a mixture of the starfruit, Asian pears, and mangoes, as well as cilantro, lots of lime juice, and some olive oil. It was very light and refreshing, each ingredient being highlighted:

Starfruit, pear, and mango salad

Lastly, I served the Quinoa pasta with some garlic and pepper shrimp, all tossed with the chimichurri sauce (see? I knew it would come in handy!).

Chimichurri Quinoa Pasta with Shrimp

I would be remiss if I didn’t share more pictures of the space and the crowd. Click on any picture to see a larger slideshow:

[Show as slideshow]

Many thanks to Laura Wilson and the Grow Local Kitchen at the Nashville Farmers’ Market!

This post is embarrassingly late to arrive, due to the fact I have embarrassingly few photos from the evening and I’ve been hesitant to post without them! In January, I had the pleasure of creating at The Green’s home about an hour outside of town. They had a large group of 20 people (our largest yet!) and it was one of the most epic dinners so far. Due to the sheer number of ingredients, many of them being gorgeous proteins, I served the dinner in three stages and the whole process took about 4.5 hours.

For appetizers, I prepared toasted flatbreads with arugula, prosciutto, and fontina cheese. It was a variation on a similar flatbread I’ve done in the past, but these were individual bite-size rounds:

Flatbreads with Arugula, Fontina, and Prosciutto

We also had cheesy bread bruschetta with stewed tomatoes, garlic, lemon juice, and Italian parsley:

Bruschetta

Lastly, I prepared traditional Italian Meatballs in a spicy tomato sauce:

Stirring the Meatballs

Here were the mystery ingredients by food type:

Protein: Flank Steak, Bone-in Pork chops, Chorizo, Italian Sausage, Mahi Mahi fillets, chicken breasts

Oh my!

Vegetables: Kale, Bok Choy, Brussel Sprouts, Yellow Squash, Avocados, Tri-color Bell Peppers, Butternut Squash (not pictured because it was already roasting in the oven!)

Veggies and Cheeses

For the first course, I decided to make stuffed peppers with a cream cheese and Italian sausage filling. And filling they were! So rich, but sweet with the peppers. Yum!

Stuffed Bell Peppers

For the second course, we made a lasagna with kale, chorizo, and a combination of the cheeses, including some Ricotta I had in the fridge. We used the leftover meatball sauce as the main tomato sauce, since most of the meatballs were eaten and the sauce was a little lonely.

Bubbly, Cheesy Lasagna

With the lasagna, we served a brussel sprout caprese salad, which sounds weird, but it was delicious. After blanching the brussel sprouts, they were thinly sliced and mixed in a salad with arugula, mozzarella, basil, and fresh tomatoes. I tossed it with some olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt & pepper, and lemon juice. It was tasty and turned out to be one of the favorites of the evening.

Chorizo Lasagna with Brussel Sprout Caprese Salad

Tragically, this is where the pictures end. :0 So, I guess you’ll just have to take my word for the rest of this!

For the third and final course, I served an osso bucco made with the flank steak. I started it early in the meal preparation and had it roasting in the oven for as long as possible. It was served with carrots, celery, and onion I had pre-chopped.

The pork (oh! I do have one picture of the pork chops!) was braised, chopped, and served over spaghetti noodles. The sauce started with a basic cream sauce base and was then infused with some puree of the roasted butternut squash. Mmm hmmm.

Braised Pork resting before being chopped (it was cooked more after this!)

The chicken was chopped and seared with a mixture of butter, thyme, rosemary, and lemon juice and then tossed with some bowtie pasta for a light(er) dish.

And finally, the Mahi Mahi was seasoned and baked, and then served with an avocado cream sauce!

It was truly a marathon dinner and everyone was completely stuffed at the end of the meal. The Green’s finished off the dinner perfectly with a light fruit medley over a slice of pound cake, topped with some whipped cream. I believe there was even some drizzling of bourbon for the adults! All-in-all, it was a great night.

Stay tuned for my (also embarrassingly late) post from my first Nashville Farmers’ Market dinner!

The holidays were a blast this year and we had a great time by celebrating with a Kamikaze Chef dinner on December 11th. I wanted to try something new and went with a Tapas theme. My hope was to serve individual small plates as they were ready, course by course, and I think it turned out well!

We started with some hearty appetizers: a trio of meatballs (pictures of each below), baked tomato and Parmesan bites, Hot Dates, and crab cake stuffed mushrooms. The last two were Angela’s contribution to the dinner and, boy, were they delicious.

Thai Beef Meatballs with Spicy Peanut Sauce

Bison & Turkey Meatballs with Spicy Tomato Sauce

Teriyaki Pork with dipping sauce (sorry for the blur!)

Baked Tomato, Parmesan, and Oregano

"Hot Dates" - Dates stuffed with Pecorino cheese wrapped in bacon and Crab Cake Stuffed Mushrooms

For the mystery ingredients, we got a plethora of fresh veggies and fruit. The Kamikaze Chef “who brought what” book didn’t get passed around so I’m not exactly sure who brought what, but here were all the ingredients:

Fruit – Strawberries, Cantaloupe Melon, oranges, avocados, Asian pears
Veggies – Yellow Squash, Canned Green Beans, Fingerling Potatoes, Banana Squash, English Cucumber
Protein – Skirt Steak, Ground Turkey, Ground Lamb, Chicken Breasts
Grain – White Bread Loaf

Green beans, Asian pears, strawberries, squash, and oranges

Melon and some of my pantry items

For the first course, I used some of the corn tortillas above and made a quickly marinated skirt steak taco with an avocado salad topped with strawberry slices. It was a yummy bite!

Skirt Steak Taco

For the second course, I took the two ground meats and then added in the herbs and spices I”d strained from the peanut sauce for one of the meatballs to make Turkey and Lamb meatball sliders. I also incorporated some onion and breadcrumbs made from the white bread loaf. They were topped with some of the peanut sauce and served on sweet Hawaiian bread rolls. The only complaint I heard was that there were not enough of these! On the side, I made a salad of the cucumber, oranges, and melon, which complimented the savory slider perfectly.

Turkey and Lamb meatball sliders with peanut sauce

The last course was a chicken breast roll up with the green beans, Asian pear, and yellow squash. I made a puree out of the banana squash and served it on the side for dipping. The fingerling potatoes were roasted with fresh rosemary and olive oil and served on the side.

Chicken Roll Up with Squash Puree and Fingerling Potatoes

Overall it was a very successful evening. I like how the Tapas style theme played out and may try it again in the future.

Stay tuned for the next post, a very merry Chinese New Years Eve!

This New Year’s Eve was very special because I got to spend it with Beth, Chris and their guests for a gluten-free Chinese Kamikaze Chef dinner! I was thrilled to accept the challenge of an entirely gluten-free meal and did my research before planning the appetizer menu. The Chinese cuisine is easily adaptable to GF dishes when you use organic Tamari (wheat-free soy sauce) and other gluten-free versions of sauces. The one sauce I could not find any GF varieties of was oyster sauce, which is a key ingredient in many Chinese dishes.

For the first appetizer, I made gluten-free pot stickers from scratch. I tried my hand at the dough using corn flour, but that kept falling apart. Beth informed me later that in any type of gluten-free baking, you want to mix at least four flours to get a good baking flour. Luckily I also had an all-purpose GF flour that worked wonderfully the second time around. I had to make the skins a little thicker than traditional pot stickers, or else they started to break apart. The final product turned out really well:

Gluten-free Pork Pot Stickers

The second appetizer was Asian Beef Skewers which had been marinating overnight in a combination of Tamari, Hoisin, ginger, and garlic. They were so tasty!

Asian Beef Skewers

The third and final appetizer didn’t make it into the pictures, but I served Chicken Lettuce wraps with a spicy soy drizzle. They were light and refreshing.

For our mystery ingredients, these first time guests really embraced the challenge!

Vegetables – Canned Water Chestnuts, Rutabaga, Bok Choy, Jalapenos, Broccoli and an orange
Proteins – Hot and Mild Italian Sausage, Cubed Beef, and fresh raw jumbo shrimps
Dairy – Cottage Cheese, Plain Yogurt, and Sour Cream

I brought all the grains to ensure everything was gluten-free so I also had some white rice in the cooker and some rice noodles as well.

With the sausage meats, I decided to make spicy Asian meatballs with a sweet and sour sauce. I used the jalapeno, diced bok choy, and fresh squeeze orange juice in the meatball mixture, and then combined soy, ketchup, orange juice, sugar, and cornstarch to make the sweet and sour sauce. I topped them with some sesame seeds for good measure.

Sweet and Sour Spice Asian Meatballs

After marinating the beef for an hour, I made a tasty Beef and Broccoli Lo-mein (or as close as you can get to lo-mein with gluten-free noodles).

Beef and Broccoli Lo-Mein

The shrimp were deveined and cleaned and then stir-fried with the rutabaga, bok choy, water chestnuts, carrots, celery, and peas for a colorful fried rice dish. A few dollops of sour cream at the end gave this fried rice a nice creamy touch.

Shrimp Fried Rice

Lastly, and mostly challengingly, I strained and rinsed the cottage cheese so I was just left with the cheese curds. I had researched what I might be able to do with cheese to fit the cuisine and relied on a recipe I’d found for Chinese chili, where the cheese curds are the hearty part of the chili. We got some peppers, garlic, and ginger sauteing in sesame oil and then later added the cheese curds. At the end, I added in a few hearty spoonfuls of the plain yogurt to thicken the entire mixture. This was served over white rice in small take-out containers. It turned out to be the most popular dish!

Chinese Chili with Cottage Cheese Curds

It really was an amazing evening and I think everyone had a great New Year’s Eve. Thanks again to Beth and Chris for hosting the dinner! I hope to see you all again really soon.

In October, the weekend after the Halloween party at Lyndi’s, I hosted a “Breakfast for Dinner” themed dinner at my place. Who does”t love breakfast for dinner!!??

The appetizers I had in mind were lox and cream cheese crustinis and french toast sticks with homemade maple syrup. The lox and cream cheese crustinis were simple, little bites with onion and capers on french bread slivers:

Lox and Cream Cheese Crostini

I didn’t get a starting picture of the french bread dipping sticks, but you can see how popular they were. I ended up having to use garlic butter Texas toast as the bread because I couldn’t find any regular Texas toast. I wiped off some of the excess butter and garlic, but they were still very present in the flavor. Surprisingly, everyone drooled at how yummy they were and had no idea it was due to garlic and butter! Well, they could”ve maybe guessed the butter part.

Texas Toast French Toast

I served them along with some homemade maple syrup (the simple, maple flavoring type). The bottle with the XXX on it contains a little brandy. Apparently, if you put three x”s on a bottle and put it in front of adults, it is the first choice every time.

Homemade Maple Syrup

For the mystery ingredients, we luckily had bacon as a random selection. Boy, was I pleased to see bacon for our Breakfast dinner! Here”s what everyone brought, and then some pictures:

Kristin D & Tom – Flounder
Josh – Soba Noodles
Courtney & Brandon – Brown Rice and Bread
Shelby – Bacon
Grant & Mary Jo – Bell Peppers
Kerry & Erik – Artichokes & Bean Sprouts
Jes – Heirloom Tomatoes, Basil, Carrots
Vicky – Sartori Balsamic BellaVitano Cheese

Beautiful heirloom tomatoes, some Japanese Soba (buckwheat) noodles, and BellaVitano Balsamic cheese.

The Sartori cheese is a hard cheese, similar to parmesan, with a slight hint of balsamic. It was delicious! I also had some fun with my Picnik editing tool.

BACON, bread, instant brown rice, pretty bell peppers, and a bunch of shiitake and crimini mushrooms.

I have to say, I was a bit freaked out by the instant brown rice. To me, very few things are harder to flavor than brown rice, especially INSTANT brown rice. But, that”s what this is all about! A little challenge.

There were also some beautiful tri-color carrots that I botched up the picture of…so I”m just going to show you the shredded slaw I made out of them. I tossed them with some olive oil, salt, and pepper and they were delightfully crisp and fresh.

Tri-color Carrot Slaw

There were also a few more items not pictured, like bean sprouts, cheeses, and enough Flounder filets to feed everyone.

We started with the bacon to get it nice and crispy and ended up doing a BLT using the bread loaf, some left over cream cheese, bacon, the beautiful heirloom tomatoes, and the bean sprouts (in place of lettuce). Pictured here before the tomatoes made it on top!

BST - Bacon, Sprouts, and Tomato bread with cream cheese spread

Did you catch where I mentioned someone brought Flounder?  Yep, Flounder for breakfast! I decided to take the two most non-breakfast foods (Flounder and brown rice, IMO!) and put them together, so I thought, “What fish and grain would you ever eat for breakfast?” Then, an idea came to me: Shrimp & Grits. Grits are breakfast food-y and they go with shrimp when it’s a dinner, so why not Flounder and Rice, but Shrimp & Grit style. It was a stretch, but I added some Cajun spices to the Flounder, some cream and artichoke to the rice and called it the Kamikaze version of Shrimp and Grits.

I had planned ahead and made sure I had enough eggs to do a large quiche or omelets, and was thrilled to try out my first ever frittata with the balsamic cheese, peppers, mushrooms, and basil. It was easy and very tasty.

For the Soba noodles (which are traditionally served cold with a soy, sugar, and mirin dipping sauce), my first thought was to do some sort of latke, or potato pancake, but then it made more sense to do something more in the style of hash browns to feed a large crowd. So I cooked and drained the noodles, tossed them with the batter I’d used on the french toast, and cooked them in a skillet until they were browned and crispy.

Full plate, Clockwise from the carrot slaw, we have the Flounder and Rice, Frittata, Soba Noodle Latke, BST, Mini Quiche (I only made a few for appetizers), and French Toast Wedge

Here’s me explaining everything on the menu:

You know it's me by the polka dotted apron

And here’s everyone applauding my amazing achievement (haha!):

So proud, sniff sniff!

Some Holiday parties are in the works and I”ll be posting my recipes for my MasterChef practice dishes. Even though I may not have made it on TV, I did pass the food judge, so you can at least try out the winning dish and it”s contenders.

Till next time!

~The Kamikaze Chef’