Archive for July 28, 2008
Well Hello Cyberworld! Im Chef Maven.
July 28, 2008 | 
Author So you ask who is the Chef Maven? Well it’s me silly! I’m an Especially All Homemade From Scratch, Just Out Of Your Garden, Never Been Tried, Make It Up As You Go And Of Course Anything Delicious Full Fledged Foodie.
I am a bit quirky, and who isn’t these days. Blogging, cooking, baking, taking care of family, the pets, the household and when I can, take care of myself as well.
This particular blog of mine will share not only recipes, but other interesting tidbits of food findings, questions for you all out there in cyberland and even fun interesting food facts! So Stay tuned. Pull up a nice glass of iced coffee and enjoy!
I’m new to wordpress and look forward to sharing my food news with you. Now I feel super important, ok not really. But heck, what’s one to do but help other’s with their cooking and baking questions? Well sign up an account on wiki.answers.com. The site is actually quite interesting allowing anyone to answer and question those answers as well as ask their very own questions on any subject. Got that? Good!
I have read much that I found quite interesting. Shared a few bits of my own wisdom to some unanswered questions. And overall, I recommend this site for any who care to know what they need to know but quick and can’t seem to find it anywhere else.
I happen to find this site quite by accident while looking up my blog statistics. One page has continued to be highly popular and it had to do with “how to cook a bottom round roast”. One I am continuously surprised that this one post is so popular, but realized why.
Today, since we are living in such lean times, where money is at an all time struggle to keep in our pockets (I will not go political here nor do I believe we have even seen the worst of it by far) – the bottom round roast is a lot of meat for only a little money – and it looks like it would feed easily a family of 6. But when these people get this chunk of beef home, they may have no clue as to how to prepare and cook it – hence they do a search and voila, find my post on which recipes are best to make a bottom round roast.
And hence while doing further research found that this question was needing said answer on wiki.answers.com, I knew I found a home for my post. I should actually update my answers since I have learned a few other interesting ways to use bottom round roast, but thats for another day. But what really occurred to me was that I should be sharing more recipes that are super affordable yet nutrient packed to feed a family of four. I may put these sort of recipes on one of my other food blogs, I am not sure just yet – I will allow it to come to fruition on its very own.
So if you would like to see some of my answers to various food questions, simply surf on over to wiki.answers.com and look for ChefMaven (yes one word over there) or ask me right here in the comments sections.
I look forward to hearing from you and your questions!
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Leahs Fresh French Tarragon Salad Dressing
This is one of my staple homemade salad dressings I have done for years and finally decided to share here – I learned this one while traveling to the French Riviera and seemed to be on every salad we ate – creamy but not naughty – neat thing, if you do this in a blender, you can actually make a ‘light’ version – see directions – otherwise great to serve over salad greens, over steamed veggies and even fish – also makes a nice light marinade for chicken. Flavors get a little stronger as they marry and get to know one another and you can easily adjust to your palette should you want to add more honey, salt or vinegar, etc.
Ingredients:
- I eyeball the amounts, but I believe when I made this last night, that these measurements come quite close.
- 3 tablespoons fresh tarragon minced
- 4 tablespoons WHITE balsamic vinegar (use apple cider vinegar in stead if you don’t have white balsamic – but you should buy this the next time you are at the store – its very nice!)
- 2-3 tablespoons good honey
- 2 cloves fresh garlic minced
- 1 tablespoon grainy for a more artisan look or creamy (preferred) dijon mustard or spicy mustard
- 1-1/2 tablespoon lite mayonnaise
- 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
- 1/2 cup olive oil
- 1/4 cup or more water (if making a light version)
- bowl and good whisk or blender
- 1 teaspoon of kosher salt and 1/2 teaspoon of fresh cracked pepper
Directions:
- In bowl, add all of the following: tarragon, garlic, salt and pepper, mayonnaise, mustard, honey, vinegar and lemon juice.
- Whisk till combined.
- Slowly , really slowly drizzle olive oil while continuing to whisk to create an emulsion.
- If this is too difficult for you – use the blender on a low setting but add the tarragon last and by hand so it doesn’t pulverize the tarragon.
- If making a light version, use only half of the olive oil while making this in the blender, once emulsified, add water slowly – this will keep the dressing emulsified yet creating a creamy type salad dressing.
- Then add your minced tarragon by hand and set aside.
- Taste test your salad dressing, add a little more honey if it has too much of a bite for your tastes, or more lemon juice if you need more, etc.
- I usually prepare this before serving up my salad and let it sit for 30 minutes for the flavors to marry, then save any unused portion in a sealed container in the refrigerator.
- This will keep for two weeks. And as mentioned, this is great over your poached fish dishes, used as a marinade for shrimp or chicken to be grilled and is nice as a dressing over your potato or pasta salads.
- The dressing has a fresh bright creamy goodness which makes you want only more. Enjoy!
- Photo is borrowed from christinecooks blog
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Leahs Pesto Pasta With Shrimp And Bacon – Oh My
Easy twist to a quick pasta dinner I served up with homemade pesto (click on link to see my basil pesto recipe) over pasta with chicken (happened to be left over), shrimp and oh so good crispy bacon. Serve this up hot or cold along with a salad and a fresh cold drink and garlic bread – enjoy! And yes, yet another pesto recipe from me, I’m telling you this stuff is very versatile! Ideas are endless.
Ingredients:
- Boiling water for pasta (I used penne pasta)
- 3 large jumbo shrimp deveined and cleaned per person
- 1/2 cup or more pre-cooked chicken (or left over chicken) diced large
- 1/2 cup of caramelized onions (I had some extra over from my ‘cilantro bean dip quesadilla’ (recipe posted)
- 1/2 cup diced red or green bell peppers
- 3 slices of bacon cut into 1 inch wide pieces
- 4 tablespoons or more pesto (my recipe posted)
- red chili flakes
- olive oil
- salt and pepper
- additional fresh grated parmesan cheese
- 1 spring/green onion and fresh parsley minced
Directions:
- Start to boil water in large pot
- Slice up bacon and set aside
- In deep skillet on top of stove, add a little olive oil and on medium low heat add sliced onions, let caramelize slowly – do not burn. This will take about 8 minutes – enough time for the water to come to a boil for the pasta.
- Once water is rapid boiling, add a dribble of olive oil, and add salt
- Add penne pasta or pasta of your choice into boiling water and set timer as noted on your pasta package.
- Once onions are cooked, remove from skillet and set aside.
- Add bacon to skillet and cook on medium heat – turning over occasionally.
- While bacon is cooking, clean shrimp removing veins and shells and set aside and dice up chicken (if using) and set aside.
- Once bacon is crisped, remove from skillet and add green peppers and shrimp to skillet.
- Add freshly cracked pepper to skillet.
- Cook shrimp 4 minutes ensuring they are cooked through and add chicken to reheat.
- Drain pasta at this point, reserve a little of the pasta water.
- Add Penne pasta to skillet, add back onions.
- Sprinkle a couple of shakes of red chili flakes to skillet
- Skillet should now contain penne pasta, shrimp, onions, peppers, bacon and chicken.
- Add pesto to skillet and 1/2 cup of the reserved pasta water, stir till combined.
- Plate and put shrimp on top of pasta, and add garnish of freshly grated cheese, and freshly minced spring/green onions and parsley on top and serve with your favorite salad and some garlic bread!
- Enjoy!
Share how you use homemade basil pesto with us all!