Kitchen Guy

Video: Dijon Chicken

Posted by Chef Jim on July 28, 2009  |  Comments Off

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Blog Topic: Champions of Breakfast

Posted by Chef Jim on July 27, 2009  |  Comments Off

On our recent trip to Scotland, my wife and I stayed at a bed and breakfast. I’ve also served as a guest chef at a bed and breakfast and I’ve found that breakfast is probably the most favored meal of the day for many (if not most) people. At least the ones I’ve encountered.

I find it odd then, that so many people choose to skip breakfast. They say they’re too rushed, too late, too this or too that. For many, a cup of coffee suffices. For most American breakfast-eaters, it’s cereal with too much sugar, or sugar in other forms – such as donuts, pastries, pancakes, French toast, etc.

Meanwhile, back at the Scottish bed and breakfast, everything they served, except for the three granola-type cereals, was savory and distinctly not sweet. In my own experience as a chef at a bed and breakfast, most guests were more apt to request savory dishes (except when it came to my crème brulée French toast – a subject for another time).

The “Scottish Breakfast” listed on the menu consisted of one fried egg (usually overcooked), sautéed mushrooms, baked tomatoes and bacon that was more like ham. On the side was toasted brown bread with butter and marmalade. I noted, also, that the proprietors required a day’s notice if you wanted kippers or potato cakes for breakfast, the latter being extra savory (if you’ve ever eaten kippered herring, then you know what I mean).

The B&B guests I cooked for seemed to like my baked eggs in tomato cups and while my goal was no repeats during my weeklong stint, I bowed to popular demand. Again, more evidence of favoring savory dishes over sweet.

Since then, I’ve dabbled a bit more in savory breakfasts and when I came across a Tex-Mex style savory pancake dish I knew I might have stumbled on one of the greatest breakfasts ever.

Tex-Mex food in its finer forms is not simply meat, beans and cheese wrapped in tortillas for every meal, like the clichéd versions seen at fast food joints or in the ethnic food aisle at your supermarket. There is real technique and flavor profiling that has a refinement that the aforementioned clichéd foods do not.

Envision this pancake made without sugar and served without maple syrup and a whole new horizon will open for you. It has a piquant flavor that wakes up the sour, salt and spice sensors on your tongue. Serve it with a cooked salsa-style topping and I think you’ll see what I mean when I say this is a breakfast that will get your day going in the best possible way.

Begin by sautéing in just a tablespoon of oil a half cup each of finely diced red and green bell peppers and finely chopped green onions. Add in a half jalapeño pepper that’s been seeded and minced. When the vegetables have softened, set them aside and keep warm.

To make the pancake batter, combine the dry ingredients: a cup each of all-purpose flour and yellow corn meal; a tablespoon of baking powder, and a half teaspoon of salt. Then mix together the wet ingredients: 3 large eggs lightly beaten, and then beat in 8 ounces of plain yogurt, a third of a cup of milk and a third of a cup of melted butter.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry and stir until just combined and still lumpy.

Heat a griddle until hot, grease with some additional butter and ladle the batter onto the griddle. When bubbles form along the sides and you see the bottoms browning, flip and cook until the second side is golden brown.

Top with the sautéed vegetables and shredded Jack cheese. For an additional kick, serve the pancakes with jalapeño jelly on the side.

If I were to open a B&B, I have no doubt the enterprise would become known for this breakfast. Try it and you’ll see what I mean.

Blog Topic: Pub Crawl

Posted by Chef Jim on July 25, 2009  |  Comments Off

EDINBURGH, Scotland – As the mist rolls in from the North Sea over the Firth of Forth, the pubs of Edinburgh provide shelter against the near constant schpritz from the sky. I know it sounds as if I were writing the opening lines of a novel, but that’s what the place does to you.

There’s a lot of pint-hoisting going on seven days a week, from fairly early in the morning until closing time. Ales and beers, local and foreign, flow almost continuously from the taps and each pub seems to have its own set of regular characters who consume their beverages into what have to be hollow legs.

I went to Scotland for a family event and turned it into something of a “busman’s holiday,” as I thought I’d surely find fodder for this column, based on the jokes and legends about Scottish food.

What I found was a vibrant community of serious cooks with a huge array of influences from the cuisines that came to the British Isles from so many former colonies. That includes pub food, although seeing nachos on so many of those menus kind of threw me. What passes for guacamole there, we’d sniff and push away. It’s just not very good.

But if you like food from the far flung corners of the world; even the smallest villages have curry-style foods from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and many other Asian countries. Wherever imperialist Great Britain hoisted its flag, you’ll see immigrants from those countries and their descendants rolling out the welcome mat at restaurant after restaurant. So there was no lack of variety or choice. American fast food joints have penetrated the place as you might guess, and they’re plenty busy, too.

I confess I was on sort of a mission as many of my chef friends from around this country and several others challenged me to eat the national dish of Scotland, haggis. Behind the challenge were snickers and guffaws because haggis is one of those traditional foods that has its origins in making do with whatever you had on hand.

Haggis in its original form was the stomach of a sheep stuffed with left over pieces of mutton (including the remnants of other organs from the sheep) along with oats as a filler and spices. The stomach was then tied at both ends and boiled in a cauldron. Here’s where I may burst a bubble or two: Modern times have taken over, and so I must inform you that most of the haggis in Scotland now comes in boil-in bags.

Nearly every pub I visited offered haggis. It is traditionally served with “neeps” and “tatties” which is slang for mashed turnips and mashed potatoes. There’s also a side of whiskey sauce, and it just depends on the sauce maker how strong it is. I had one that was relatively mild, though the redolence of strong drink was noticeable. Another just about knocked me off my chair.

Some creative chefs in Scotland are also doing riffs on haggis, including one I sampled made with venison and topped with turnip risotto and a carefully laid line of cranberry sauce. I also sampled Scottish beef at this same restaurant that came with what the chef called “haggis cream.” I could make this place, The Wedgwood Restaurant, a regular stop if I were resident in Edinburgh.

And if I were a resident of Edinburgh I don’t know if I could spend as much time in the pubs as so many people obviously do. I must also report an improvement since the last time I was in a pub in Great Britain, which pleases so many visitors, me included. Many of them now offer cold beer, as opposed to the room temperature stuff of pub legend.

This was one trip where I accomplished all of the goals I set out for myself: I ate (and enjoyed) haggis; I played golf on one of the premier courses in Scotland; I hit more pubs in four and a half days than I would in three months here (that wasn’t a goal, just a coincidental occurrence); and I drove on the other side of the road and even managed to shift with my left hand without hitting anything. Of course, my wife clenched her teeth and reared back in fright most of the time while the double-decker buses came within an inch of our car. By the time I turned in the car I was really good at it.

Och, aye!
haggis,whiskeysauc