03.25.08
Posted in 3. Recipes at 5:44 pm by Chef Matt
This is a recipe I just transcribed from my recipe file for a friend. It is from somewhere in New Orleans, but I don’t know where (if anyone does, I would love to credit it properly). Anyway, it is about the best soufflé I have ever had, so I wanted to share it with you all. No special reason, just a little something to share with you all.
Bread Pudding Soufflé
For the bread pudding:
10 cups stale French bread cubes
3 egg yolks
3 whole eggs
1 ¾ cups sugar
4 ½ Tbsp vanilla
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
½ cup butter, softened
4 cups milk
½ cup raisins, soaked in water
-Toast the bread crumbs in the oven, place in an ungreased 13X9 pan
-Beat the eggs and egg yolks together in separate bowl
-Add the sugar, vanilla, cinnamon and nutmeg – stir to combine
-Add the butter, beat in
-Stir in the milk
-Sprinkle raisins over the bread crumbs, then pour the egg/milk mixture over all that.
-Bake at 350 for about 40 minutes until browned and puffed. Let cool – will sink some as it cools.
For the Soufflé:
½ cup sugar
6 egg yolks
2 ½ cups bread pudding (not all of it, you will have some left over to enjoy)
6 egg whites
½ cup confectioner’s sugar
-Over a double-boiler, mix/warm sugar and egg yolks GENTLY so as to combine thoroughly, but DON’T cook the egg yolks.
-If you have not scrambled your eggs, add the bread pudding and stir to combine, again, being gentle with the heat, but combining thoroughly.
-In a separate (copper if you have it) bowl, whip the egg whites and sugar together to stiff peaks.
-Fold in the bread pudding mixture and bake the soufflé for 35-40 minutes at 375.
For the Bourbon Sauce:
1 cup sugar
1 cup whipping cream
Dash cinnamon
1 Tbsp butter
1 ½ - 2 tsp cornstarch
1/2 cup water
1 Tbsp bourbon or rum
-In saucepan, combine sugar, cream, cinnamon and butter. Bring to boil
-Mix the cornstarch and water together in a separate bowl, then whip into boiling sauce. Sauce should thicken pretty quicky.
-Remove from heat, stir in booze and use while warm on top of the soufflé.
Nothing short of awesome! I hope you all enjoy, and if anyone makes it and wants to send me a photo, I’ll post it!
Chef Matt
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03.24.08
Posted in 1. The Story at 1:22 pm by Chef Matt
Last Monday, I filled in for a fellow sous chef, which actually was my paying in advance for a day he will be covering for me. (I guess the easy way of saying that is, “We switched days.”) This was the first Monday I have worked at Rustico since my very first week of working there. Back then, I was still learning where everything was located, so I didn’t really have a sense of what was going on. Now, 10 months into the job, I found the Monday experience to be a completely different one.
This is pretty much the only nudity my blog will have, so enjoy it while you can. |
What’s so different about Monday? Well, Monday is the one day that Rustico is not open for lunch. On a normal day, I find myself running trying to prep as much food as I can before we open at 11:30. But instead, on this day, I have all day with almost nobody in the kitchen to get in my way to prep everything for the restaurant.
It was peaceful, relaxed, quiet, and downright wonderful. On the one hand, I had nobody breathing down my neck with questions or commands as to what I had to do next. And even better than that, I didn’t have to take a break every 3 minutes to deal with another customer’s order. I was just cooking, plain and simple. It was the (perhaps misguided) hope of days like these that is why I took the plunge into this industry in the first place. I had almost forgotten how pleasurable it is to cook a recipe from start to finish without stress or interruption.
The problem is; this was wonderful Monday was the only one I have had a chance to work on, and the only one on which I will be able to work in the future. Here it is, another Monday, and I’m at home on a day off. Now don’t get me wrong; I love days off, I need days off. I’ve been putting in some seriously long days, so this chance to rest is something I have been looking forward to for quite a while.
But all the same, I now know how great it is to work on Mondays, and I’m stuck working on the other days.
I’ve taken a bite of the forbidden fruit.
And I want another taste…
Chef Matt
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03.10.08
Posted in 1. The Story, 2. Greatest Hits, 3. Recipes, 4. Teaching Classes at 11:28 am by Chef Matt
A fabulous film, and of course it doesn’t hurt that it’s about Italians… |
For those of you who don’t understand, “Big Night” is simply the best film ever made about what it is to be a chef. (Yes, even better than “Ratatouille”) Perhaps I am slightly biased in that it has to deal with Italian chefs, but regardless, it is still amazing. (Definitely better than “No Reservations”.) If you haven’t seen it yet, and have any interest in the culinary world, you must go rent it now. It is exactly what all chefs have to go through several times in their career.
To briefly explain for the poor souls out there who have not seen this film, it is about two brothers, one who is a fantastic chef who is unwilling to alter his cooking styles to match public tastes, and the other who wants to be a success with the public - even if it means making compromises on the food to sell people what they want. Simply put, it is about artistic integrity vs. selling out - from a culinary point of view.
At least I had been presented with the reality that this dichotomy existed before I was recently presented with it. I guess it helped me prepare for it on some level, but still it was amazing how it tore me in two directions so strongly.
Another cooking class up in Bedford, PA was coming up at LifeStyle and I knew exactly what I wanted to do. With the approach of spring, I wanted to teach a class on “Springtime in Tuscany”. It was going to feature lamb chops and grilled asparagus and a whole host of wonderful dishes prepared with the simple, straightforward style of Tuscan cooking. But the owners wrote back to me saying that while the class sounded great, they didn’t like how it used so few products from their store. Simply put, if they were going to pay me to teach a class in their store, I had to involve (read: “sell”) more of their merchandise.
So here it was, the integrity of my recipes and vision versus the need to follow the requests of those footing the bill. I was torn. On the one hand, it hurts to have a menu rejected like that. On the other hand, they had every right to make such a reasonable request of me since it is, after all, their store. I was not sure what I was going to do. Give up and tell them to find some trained monkey to hock their wares? Or maybe I should be more flexible in my menu seeing as how this is a great gig, and I don’t want to lose it just for the sake of my stubborn pride.
Cooking in the class with generous amounts of vinegar. As you can see, it makes me happy.
Photo by Ken Sepeda |
Suddenly it hit me. I have always been a big fan of their selection of olive oils and vinegars, so I decided to alter my menu just a little bit, and turn the class into a lesson on how to cook with different vinegars. My menu was changed only slightly in the long run (lamb chops and asparagus remained) but now the owners were very happy that I was showing the class how to use so many of their products. Compromise wins again!
The class was an enormous success as the food was awesome and my students loved it all. It was such a hit, we have decided to re-run the class again later next month. Here is the menu of dishes I presented (and the vinegars I used):
- Marinated Artichoke Hearts with Hazelnut Gastrique (white wine vinegar with cinnamon and nutmeg)
- Italian Bean and Tuna Salad with White Balsamic Vinegar (white balsamic vinegar obviously)
- Asparagus Vinaigrette (orange balsamic)
- Candied Cranberries (red wine vinegar) (These were placed on the asparagus vinaigrette)
- Lamb Chops Aceto (marinated in white wine vinegar with mint and lime, drizzled with fig balsamic after cooking)
- Strawberries in Balsamic (chocolate balsamic vinegar)
It all turned out fabulously, and every dish had at least one person decree as the best on the list, which to me is the sign of a successful class. (And to tell the truth, I was more than a bit worried about the first one since it was my most avant-garde attempt by a long shot.) But because it turned out so well, I will share the recipe with you here:
Artichokes with Hazelnut Gastrique
What may at first seem like an odd combination, this dish works well as an appetizer to surprise your friends and family with. The sweetness of the gastrique plays well with the tartness of the artichokes and the vinegar flavors blend in with the naturally good flavor pairing of hazelnut and artichokes.
- 2 Tbsp water
- 2 Tbsp sugar
- ½ cup sherry
- ½ cup sherry or flavored wine vinegar
- ½ cup halved hazelnuts
- ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
- 1 can marinated artichoke hearts - drained
- 1 loaf Italian bread - optional
- Combine water and sugar, and boil until sugar begins to take on an amber hue.
- Add sherry, reduce until almost all liquid has evaporated.
- Add vinegar, reduce by a little more than half
- Pour mixture over hazelnuts, stir to cool.
- Whisk in olive oil to form emulsion with liquid in bowl.
- Pour mixture over artichoke hearts, serve on thinly sliced bread if you like.
Chef Matt
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