Za Recipes

Showing posts with label is. Show all posts

Monday, May 19, 2014

Calling All Foodies! Your Help is Desperately Needed!

Im asking for help answering this young cooks difficult, but thought provoking question. I will post my official response in a few days after comments, and discussions, from you foodwishers.

There are no wrong answers to this question (or right ones for that matter), so please chime in with any and all advice for this future chef. Thanks!

Photo Credit (c) Flickr user tracyhunter

Hello Chef,

You were kind enough to respond to some simple questions I emailed several months ago. I hope you will take a minute to respond to this more involved question.

I have finished my education at Johnson & Wales University. I am very confident with my knife skills and my understanding of the wet, dry, and combination cooking methods. However, I feel very nervous when it comes to flavoring food.

Recently, a friend of mine invited me over and said, "Oh, since you are a big culinary school graduate, make me an awesome meal with whatever you find in my fridge, freezer, and pantry." I turned white.

I can prep any ingredient. I can make any recipe. But the challenge to "make an awesome meal" out of random ingredients (i.e. without a recipe) made me want to throw up.

My question is this: "What approach did you use to learn to transform random ingredients into awesome dishes/meals."

Is it just experience? I hope not! I am trying to develop a framework to carry with me anywhere I go that will help me "make a daily special", "make an awesome meal", or just simply put some common ingredients together so they taste good. I hope you wont reply and say this is what the whole business is about...because that is the answer I have received from the best culinarians in Charlotte, NC!

Maybe I am looking for the holy grail of cooking, but I am hoping you have more insightful and instructive words. After all, I have told you in the past (and I still believe) your approach to cooking is the most simple, flavorful, and intuitive of any public chef I have investigated. :)

Thank you Chef for whatever words you can share.

Jim

Tuesday, May 6, 2014

Fried Peanut Butter Jelly Pinchy Pies – One Chefs White Trash is Anothers White Treasure

I was doing some research on shrimp toast for an upcoming video, and I became obsessed with the thought of frying things on white bread, which led to being obsessed with the thought of frying things in white bread. These fried peanut butter and jelly pinchy pies are the result.

The technique was ridiculously easy, but naming these delicious discs was another thing altogether. They arent cakes, donuts, or fritters; so I was sort of stumped on what to call them. I decided to make up something completely new (or at least Google says so), and the pinchy pie was born.

As I mention in the video, the possibilities are endless as far as stuffings go, so I can see this really catching on. I think Im actually going to trademark the name, and maybe hit the state fair tour. These would totally fly out of any Ferris wheel-adjacent food stand.

Regarding the title: While frying stuffed Wonder Bread is about as stereotypically "white trash" as it gets, I dont like or condone the use of that term. I only used it here because I couldnt think of anything as clever. Enjoy!

View the complete recipe

Sunday, April 6, 2014

Why Fried Gnocchi is a Bad Idea

They say timing is everything, and that was certainly the case this morning. Due to a blur of licensing contracts, book proposals, travel arrangements, and other less-than-enjoyable administrative duties, I was in serious need of a chuckle. Well, this video sent to me via @mysticl on Twitter sure took care of that! I hope you love this guys laugh as much as I did. This is from Webstaurantstores YouTube channel. Enjoy!