This is the way I LOVE to cook! Wasn’t really planning anything for dinner, maybe even just hitting up a restaurant. Walking through the grocery store to pick up a few items for the test kitchen, I saw a HUGE pile of turnips with the greens still attached. I’d never cooked turnips these were local, fresh, and beautiful — I had to cook them!
I didn’t remember to take a pic at the store, but here’s what I brought home:
I also grabbed a chicken and a bit of bacon and got to work.
After butchering the chicken, I marinated the legs and thighs in hot sauce. Chopped and braised the greens in bacon fat and white wine. While that was going in the pressure cooker, I boiled the turnips and smashed them with butter and black pepper.
Here are the results:
Chicken and Turnips
The Quest for MasterChef! (I need your help!)
Aschultz wrote:
Friends & Blog Readers,
I need your help! I’ve decided to put my cooking and plating skills to the ultimate test: I’ve entered as a contestant in Season 2 of MasterChef. If you haven’t seen it, MasterChef is a amateur cooking competition judged by Gordon Ramsey (Hell’s Kitchen, The F Word), Graham Elliot (youngest ever 4star Chef in the USA), and Joe Bastianch (Italian Restaraunteur). They’re looking for skilled home cooks with little to no formal training…I think I fit the bill, and hopefully I’ll get to compete on the show!
What I need your help and support with is catching the eye of and winning the hearts of the producers… I’ve created a Facebook Fan page to help. I’d greatly appreciate you taking the time to “Like” the page if in fact you do. I’d appreciate it even more if you told all your friends to “Like” it (use the suggest to friends link or post a link in your status)… and even more if you started all your conversations with “Look up Put Alvin Schultz on Master Chef Season 2 next time you’re on facebook” … you don’t have a Facebook account? Get one so you can like the page! Also, if you have other viral marketing ideas, I’m all ears.
Along the way I’ll keep you posted on my progress — Read: you’ll get to see plenty of food porn along the way. Also, as always, I’m happy to share any recipes/techniques you find interesting.
Thank you in advance for your support!
~Alvin
Croquembouche
Finally, a success! First batch of pate choux (ever) was too loose and burnt, then the Carmel wasn’t hot enough to crack…
Started over today and here are the results: they’re filled with a egg nog creme and topped with vanilla Carmel
~Alvin Schultz
Pate a choux
Owned!
First batch/recipe was a total failure…
I made a 11pm grocery run to give te good eats recipe a run…success!
They’ll get filled with an orange-lavender creme patisserie…stay tuned!
~Alvin Schultz
My first cheesecake!
Fresh vanilla bean and creme cheese.
The crust is 17% crushed almonds, 43% vanilla wafers, and 50% Graham.
Served with fresh sliced strawberries and Shiraz glaze
~Alvin Schultz
Croquembuche
Sugar wasn’t quite hot enough…need to give assembly another go
Now I know why people love eggs bennedict
Having never had them before, I decided to give it a crack…mostly to experiment with making hollandaise sauce. The sauce was the only thing I kept traditional.
Not being a big fan of them, I replaced the customary english muffins, I did a blue cornmeal hoe cake filled with roasted corn, roasted [and seeded] jalepeno, and scallion. I pan fried these in butter.
I was about 8 years old at my grandparent’s house the last time ate Canadian bacon… needless to say i didn’t have any just laying around. I did have a spicy lamb and pork linguisa sausage (left over from my scottish egg experiment) which I thought would do nicely. I pan fried it whole, then sliced it about 1/4″ thick.
No poached eggs here, I went Sous Vide at 62.2C…although the immersion circulator crept up to 64C once…no worries the yolks were still right at the edge of custardy and the whites silky smooth. I can’t imagine how a poached egg is better than this.
Enough talk, here are the results! (played around with plating a bit…which one do you like best?
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