Okay, tonight is less about an active recipe, but more of a story. Yes, that means tonight Patrick’s Table Fare becomes Patrick’s Table Story Hour. Good news, this story won’t be actually be an hour, but you get the idea.

Alright, so last week one of my bosses came to me and said, “Hey, there is a recipe contest with a local restaurant group that maybe you should think about entering.”  Of course my interest was immediately piqued, but my initial thought was where was I going to come up with an unique enough spin that I could garner some attention. I thought my chance was quickly dashed when I realized a bulk of the recipes I do only have minor changes, but may not provide enough complexity to make the dish my own. So, it was no surprise when I started talking myself out of the possibility that I could even create something that would work.

Oh, what would I get out of this if the recipe won? The winning recipe is featured for 6 weeks on the menus of a local restaurant group in all their restaurants. Sweet, right?!

I digress, back to my story. Even though I had decided I couldn’t come up with anything, my brain continued to search and seek through my internal database. Alas, I still couldn’t come with anything that could be identifiably my own. My in house copy editor and I started chewing over some more ideas to make sure I wasn’t limiting myself. We kicked around a few more ideas including the roasted pepper sauce that I make that you can find my Party on the Barbie post, but I knew that wasn’t going to be unique enough. I started to wonder if I could find a way to give that sauce a notable twist that would turn some heads. I suddenly remembered this time where I combined some left over red pepper sauce and some left over homemade pesto in a pinch to stretch both the sauces. As it turned out, the flavor of the pesto and red pepper was different and could be well suited for this application, but the color of the sauce was anything but appealing. So, to keep you reading, I will just describe the color of the sauce as that of pate. See the problem? Now the wheels were turning since I had a flavor profile, but I had to make sure the sauce’s color would be appealing. How could I make this work, I wondered. Then it hit me, maybe I could incorporate fresh basil leaves with the red peppers and follow the same premise of how I make the sauce normally.

Off to the kitchen I went and as luck would have it, I had enough ingredients in the fridge to make a very basic batch of my new creation. What did I discover to my own surprise? The sauce worked. Boom! Just like that, I had my unique twist that I could apply to a dish that is recognizable but would march to the beat of it’s own drum.

Now, the fun part. Now I need to test the sauce until the flavors balance properly, then I can figure out how to bring it all together. Anyone ready to roast some more red peppers? I will post a complete recipe once it is done, but there will be updates coming soon as the deadline is less than two weeks away! Here we go!

Good evening my faithful readers! There is a post that is in progress, but it is currently marinating and won’t be ready till tomorrow. Until then, don’t forget the salt and pepper! Stay tuned!

Besides seasoning your food well, one of the best ways to apply flavor is to marinate. The great thing is you can marinate vegetables, fishes, meats, heck, even some fruits. Yes, you can marinate fruits & vegetables — but we will cover both later down the road. Depending on the marinade and how much flavor you either want or have time to achieve, a marinade can flavor meat or other items in as little as 30 minutes or up to 24 hours.

Since it’s almost summer and for most that is the main grilling season, we will now turn our attention to the humble grilled chicken. One of the biggest problems with chicken is that it can be really bland. Plus, if you season the outside too much and apply too much heat to the chicken you may burn the outside, leaving raw chicken, or it could intensify the seasoning you used — making it too spicy,  too salty or too sweet to enjoy. This is where marinating comes in. You can get some of those same flavors to penetrate deep into flesh of the meat simply by placing it in the marinade for a little while.

What sort of things can you use in a marinade? Truthfully, the options are endless for what you can use. Let me give you a few examples. Don’t use this list as a recipe mind you, but just pick some items that sound good together.

For, Beef, Pork, Chicken:

• Rosemary  — Just remove the leaves from the stem & place in your plastic bag or bowl for the marinade, lightly crushing the stem to release that essence of flavor from the herb, and toss that into the marinade as well.
• Salt and Pepper — Always use salt & pepper in a marinade, seasoning according to your tastes.
• Vinegar — A splash of regular balsamic, apple cider, and champagne vinegar can give some nice notes of acidity and sweetness to a marinade.
• Crushed Garlic — I recommend just peeling a few cloves, smashing so the flesh starts to open and the oils will release, before tossing the cloves into the marinade. Use as many cloves as suits your tastes or the flavor you’re looking to achieve.
• Oil — Some types of cooking oils will work well for any marinade, such as olive, canola or grape seed oil.
• Spices — Anything will work, but I like paprika, garlic powder, onion powder, dried herbs and various spice mixtures depending on the type of meat you may be marinating.

For fish:

• Cilantro
• Garlic
• Dried Herbs (Basil and Oregano)
• Salt and Pepper
• A splash of wine
• Oil
• Citrus — Note: When applying citrus, make sure you use enough to get a little flavor and only marinate for a short period, making sure not to leave your fish in the marinade too long as too much citrus can cook your fish — hello ceviche! We aren’t covering that in this post, but instead we’ll leave that one for another day. I always recommend finishing fish with some kind of citrus for maximum flavor, or if you feel your fish is under-seasoned.

Alright, now that we have covered the basics, lets talk application. Just throw everything in a bag and swish around until the seasonings dissolve in the liquid. If you don’t get it all don’t worry, you will get your chance to combine it all. Throw your protein in the bag with the marinade, seal it, set on a plate, and turn every 15 minutes for a 30-minute marinade or every couple of hours for a lengthier soak, which makes sure every part of the chicken gets covered. Oh, we are using skin on, bone-in chicken breasts, but you can use any of your favorite chicken pieces as well.

You can cook these with any application really, but I suggest the grill or oven. This allows you to make sure you can secure a proper, elegant cook and will help keep the meat moist.

Make sure you check the cooking times for the type of chicken you have selected, as these can vary.
For us, a bone-in, skin-on chicken breast will take about 30 minutes on the grill or in our oven. Remember to pull your chicken off of the heat a little bit early to let it finish cooking without drying out. Properly cooked chicken after resting should have an internal temperature of 165 degrees. I usually pull our chicken off the grill or out of the oven at about 155 – 160 degrees as it will finish during the rest period. Feel free to use a digital thermometer to check the internal temperature, or after it has rested go ahead and cut into the chicken and make sure you don’t see any pink and that the juices run clear.

After about 5-7 minutes on the grill your chicken should start to look like this.

You can also serve the breast off the bone if you prefer, which makes for a really nice presentation.

Chicken finished with a nice salad of arugula, green apples, spinach, mushrooms, and homemade balsamic of course.

A couple of months ago while I was the store, I began the tedious hunt for my favorite salad dressing, balsamic vinaigrette. Looking for a vinaigrette went about as well as winning the lottery has gone for me. Yeah, that explains it all, right? I look down the aisle and all I can see are bottles with faces of roman characters, labels where all the money goes to charity, celebrity chef’s dressings, and a simple label for a store off-brand dressing.

Yet, most of these bottles had one common problem, the number of ingredients doesn’t make sense! One variety had 17 ingredients in it! Are you kidding? I thought to myself. I scowled at the Roman God on my way out of the aisle, checked out, and set out to make a dressing that would cost less than and rival any store bought bottle, and would be assuredly better for me than 11 extra ingredients I didn’t need. I am happy to say that I won’t ever need to buy balsamic dressing from the store any time soon.

How do you make this delicious concoction?  Follow this recipe:

• 6 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
• 2 ½ Tablespoon Dijon mustard
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• ¾-1 cup olive oil
• Salt and freshly ground pepper

Add all ingredients above to the blender as well as 1/4 cup of the olive oil, reserving 1/2 – 3/4 of the olive oil. I have a Vitamix blender, but use what you have at hand. Once you’ve incorporated the first 1/4 of olive oil and the other ingredients, begin slowly drizzling the remaining olive oil into the blender until all the ingredients are emulsified.

Don’t have a blender? No problem! You can do this by hand pretty easily but it can take a bit longer for all the ingredients to emulsify. Just add all the ingredients, but slowly drizzle the oil in a small steady stream and whisk until it starts to come together. The visual cues will be clear, when the dressing begins to come together the color will begin to change as you whisk, and lastly, you will notice that the mixture thickens.

I included the visual cues because so often recipes don’t do an adequate job describing what it should look like, smell like, feel like, and so on. That is one thing in lots of recipes that drives me crazy.

Okay, time for a couple of photos.

Here is the finished balsamic in a mason jar. Just put a lid on it and it can hang out on the counter and be perfectly stable.

Here is another look at the mason jar from a different angle. This yields around a cup and a half of dressing.

Make sure you taste this because sometimes you need to adjust the seasoning. Try using a piece of lettuce dipped in the dressing to check the level of seasoning, or a piece of bread will do nicely. Sometimes I add a splash of lime juice for a fruity undertone. Remember, if the balsamic seems super strong you can thin it with a little more olive oil, or vice-versa if you aren’t getting that balsamic note. As with most of my recipes, adjust accordingly.

Looking for a new twist for how to use this vinaigrette?  Try making a baked potato with a little sour cream, and finish with a drizzle of vinaigrette and some salt and pepper. Truthfully this is one of my favorite ways to use the balsamic. You could also use this for a slaw if you aren’t a fan of mayo based dressings or just a regular potato salad. Again, you can use this for anything.

It is that time of the year, time for corn! Like so many things, corn is super versatile and can be a star in any dish. Of all the variations on how to cook corn I wanted to talk about grilled corn. Grilling corn looks awesome and provides an amazing, complex flavor that is a great compliment for any meal.

Who doesn’t love perfectly charred, smokey sweet kernels of corn that pop in your mouth when you bite in? Oh, did I mention that we are putting the corn straight on the grill with the husk removed? Yes, this isn’t your Mama’s grilled corn after all.

I think this picture speaks for itself.

The application of this recipe is super simple:

Remove the corn from its husks.
Place corn on the grill with no oil or seasoning (we will fix this later) on medium to medium high heat. Allow the corn to get some char and color then rotate about a1/4 turn. Once you have charred all sides (about 4 quarter turns) you will be ready to move on.
Make a seasoning packet out of foil with enough space in the foil pouch to place the corn inside. You could use salt, pepper, butter, olive oil, paprika, a little chili pepper (if you want), and a little bit of brown sugar.
Place the charred corn in this packet and wrap it up tight. setting it aside for 10 minutes or so. You are actually finishing the corn by steaming it in the foil packet with the seasoning. As you are ready to serve, roll the corn in the melted seasoning mix until it is coated to make sure it has plenty of flavor.

Corn On!

Here is what you should achieve after about 15 minutes. May take a little longer depending on your grill and how much heat has been lost by checking on the corn.

That is it. You are done making some amazing corn! This will be a recipe you go to again and again.

How do you know the corn is ready to be pulled off the gril and wrapped in foil? The kernels will start to separate from each other a little bit and that is your clue it is time to wrap the corn in foil. Be sure not to cook the corn too long after you see the kernels pull away or you will have mushy corn and that could be your Mama’s corn.

Boom!

Okay, I hope you enjoy and soon we will be on to our next…….did you really think I would leave you without a finished plate?  If so, well then congratulations you have earned yourself more photos. If not, well, take better notes as home cooks can be creatures of habit, but I digress.

This photos is because, well, I enjoy a good steak. Want a refresher on  cooking steak essentials? Review the “Party on The Barbie” blog post.

Here is a finished plate. Now I am done. Oh, just one last thing, I am going to show you how to take this roasted corn to another level in a future post.

Rice, a staple food loved by many, but intimidating to many who try to make this soft, pillowy, starchy goodness. As strange as this may sound, rice was one of my most feared culinary enemies.

I had never tried to make it as all I had ever heard were horror stories of cooking on the stove top or in a rice cooker. Luckily for me, rice was always around when I wanted to have some and usually in large amounts. My best friend’s mom was Filipino and there was always rice, I mean always.

How I learned to cook rice is a two part story. The first is, once again, I ended up falling in love with someone who could make rice and it made me happy as a clam. A few years ago, I became pretty ill and rice became, well, a staple while I worked to get myself healthy again. One day when I wanted to have rice and I used all I had earlier in the day, it became clear I needed to learn how to make it. So, when my girlfriend returned home from work, she began to teach me how to make rice so I could support my rice habit. The best thing about this recipe is it is pretty simple and works every time. Although this is very basic recipe, rice can be used in any cuisine and with any cooking technique.

Here is the recipe:

2 c water
1 c rice
A pinch of salt

Bring two cups of water to a boil and add the salt.Add the rice when water reaches a boil and turn the heat down to medium low. You want a very steady, gentle simmer for the rice to cook evenly — a rice sauna! While the rice simmers stir ever 2-3 minutes so it does not stick to the bottom of the pan.

After most of the water has evaporated and absorbed by rice. You can easily recognize this point in the cooking process as the rice will be clearly exposed with a small amount of water in the pot. At this point, move rice to a cold burner and put a lid on the pot, leaving about a inch gap for steam to escape while the rice completes its cooking. After 10 minutes just fluff with a fork and serve.

*Note: We like our rice slightly al dente, which means there’s a slight bite to each individual rice kernel. If you like your rice a bit softer you may cook it a couple of extra minutes on the heat and let additional water absorb/evaporate before letting it cool. 

Done!

Here are a few photos to go along with this recipe:

You’ll see in the photo above the rice cooking at a gentle simmer. You will want the simmer to be a little more active than is visible here, but not a hard boil.

OK, this photo shows you the point where you will want to pull the rice off the heat and move the pot to cold burner, partially covered with a lid. As noted above, if you want your rice to be a little softer and a little less moist than our recipe, let the rice remain on the heat a couple extra minutes.

Just like that, you have cooked rice. So, we can all cross rice off the list of intimidating things to cook!

As I alluded, you will never look a store bought rotisserie chicken the same after you try this recipe. I believe that this will be a recipe you come back to time and time again.  Whether you make this chicken on a week night, special occasion, it won’t matter — it’s so delicious you just might dream about it!

Here is the your payoff:

The recipe am I using has been adapted from the Lemon and Garlic Roast Chicken from Ina Garten. I have provided the full recipe via the link below.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/lemon-and-garlic-roast-chicken-recipe.html

Here’s how we rock this recipe with our changes:

• Don’t bother with the bacon. Originally, we were concerned about the bacon being used mostly for flavor and keeping the meat moist, but we wanted to know if the recipe could be done sans-bacon. Little did we know, that this would be the dream recipe. However, the bacon was giving us reason to reconsider. Although we had great success without the bacon, to make sure we were being fair to the recipe we made it with the bacon to see what would happen. Honestly, we noticed very little difference and it didn’t impact the flavor profile at all. So, for us, this wins without the bacon time again. As you can see, we love our bacon, so this isn’t a knock against our favorite smoked meat, just about what it brought to this party.

• As you can see from the photo included below, you don’t need to worry about tying the chicken legs together. It makes the presentation look really cool, but it is not necessary for a successfully roasted bird.

• Save the gravy train. As I have stated, this chicken has plenty of flavor and will be more than moist. Also, if you need a little extra sauce, spoon over a bit of the pan drippings over the chicken meat, as the flavor from the lemons will bring a much needed reprieve from the richness of this meat.

Lets look at a few photos that will help you with this bird:

Above,are the ingredients that you are going to use to stuff the cavity and below is what the cavity of your bird should look like. Layer as follows, half a head of garlic, 2 lemon quarters, fresh thyme and fresh rosemary, 2nd half the head of garlic, and last two quartered lemons. The peeled garlic cloves we will use later.

Okay, here is the chicken ready to go in the oven. Two important tips, you can go a little lighter on the paprika and that will help the skin of the chicken not be so dark as it cooks. Note: Make sure to place your oven rack on the lowest position in the oven before putting the chicken into the oven to roast.

While roasting, if you think the skin is getting too dark and you still have a lot of time left to go, cover the chicken with foil for the last 30 minutes or so. This will keep the skin from getting too dark. In order to keep the bird moist, pull the chicken out of the oven after roasting for 1 hr & 25 minutes to 1hr & 27 minutes. You are going to let this bird rest on a cooling rack (an oven mitt or you can put it on a cold burner if you don’t have a cooling rack) and it will finish cooking — otherwise known as carryover heat. So it is OK to pull the chicken out just a couple minutes early.

After you pull the bird from the oven, let the chicken rest for 15-20 minutes covered in foil to cool. Then you are ready to move it to a cutting board and slice. When you are ready to save your leftovers, remove the aromatics from the cavity as they can leave a funny flavor in the chicken once it’s been cooked.

Yes, we are on the grill with one of my favorite and most versatile ingredients around! Bell Peppers. Seriously, besides salads and fajitas you can do a lot with these beauties. Don’t believe me? Let’s get at it!

Roasted red peppers or any color that works for you.

Once the peppers obtain this level of char on the skin, pull them off the heat, place them in a bowl,  cover with foil, and wait. Why do this? Now that we have applied all this heat we are going to use the steam from the cooked peppers to help remove their skins. Trust me, otherwise it isn’t easy to remove the skins. Now, cover with plastic wrap and wait another 10 minutes or so.

You will then be able to peel the skins off the peppers. *Warning* the peppers will be super hot still, so protect your fingertips and use a fork to pull off the skins or just wait a little longer until the peppers are cool enough to handle.

Here are your finished roasted peppers. These are amazing on salads, sandwiches, a meat tray, tapenade, soups, and pastas. Did I say pasta?

After you have gotten all your peppers peeled, throw a few in a blender with a bit of half and half or milk, salt, pepper, a garlic clove or two, and a little liquid from the roasted peppers. Boom! You have just made a killer roasted pepper pasta sauce. Oh, I suppose you would like a photo of that too? Oh OK — here you are.

Roasted red pepper sauce complete.

This is fettuccine with roasted red pepper sauce, spinach, arugula, and a little sausage. Feel free to omit the sausage for a vegetarian version and this will still be amazing, I promise!