Jerk chicken

This the seasons! it's 2016 and I still feel like I'm in 2015. Maybe because I still have tons of memories to share with a lot of you. ​

I want to share with you a simple and quick recipe to whip up for any occasion. Jerk Chicken! Never made it in my life. But after browsing a few recipes, this is what I whipped up at home with what I had.​

​Recipe​

• 18 pieces of chicken thigh (fat trimmed off as much as possible)​
• 1.5 full bundles of green onions​
• 3/4 cup of brown sugar​
• 1 tablespoon all spice​
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon​
• 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper​
• 1 teaspoon of black pepper​
• 8 cloves of garlic​
• 1 shallot​
• 4 Thai chilis (what I had at home. I would use serranos if I had some)​
• 1/4 cup of soy sauce​
• 1/4 cup (or so) of olive oil​

All items will be combined in a food processor. The oil will be drizzled in last to combine the ingredients together. Give it a quick taste for saltiness. If more salt is needed, just add a few pinches of kosher salt. The chicken itself will release a lot of fat, so you don't want the marinade to be too water.​

Place the chickens in a roasting pan and slather the marinade rubbing each chicken to make sure they have a coating. Wrap the pan with foil tightly, then preheat your oven to 350. You can let your chicken marinade overnight or with a few hours. I only let mine marinade for 30 minutes or so. ​

The chicken is place in the oven for 40 minutes, then the heat was cranked to 400 for another 15-20. The chicken was left to rest in the pan for an hour before I took it outside to give it a quick sear to caramelizes the chicken.​

Results:​

There you go! simple jerk chicken. I feel giving it a quick char is imperative because it really brings out the sweetness from the brown sugar and the crispy bits from the skin. Can't say no to that.

happy cooking. 

Standing rib roast

It's finally the season to make EVERYTHING that you want to eat. And I've been craving Prime Rib for the longest time, EVER.

But here is a little FYI on something about Prime Rib that I didn't know. For it to be called prime rib, the roast has to be Prime grade. Like. Ok. That will cost double the price of USDA choice. So with that said, we stuck with USDA choice. Though it's not as marbled and tender as prime, there are hacks that you can do, to make sure your roast is tender.

Going back to wanting a rib roast for quite some time. I've been eating all my steaks, literally with horseradish cream. That has been my new steak condiment and might be that way for the rest of my life. But who knows. If black truffles were affordable like garlic, that would definitely be my choice. But that's just taking it to another level. I'm not ready to quite commit to that level right now. 2016? Maybe.

So everywhere: Vons, Ralphs, Alerbertsons, were selling their USDA Choice rib roast for $6.99 a pound. I stuck with Vons just because it's one of my favorite markets. There was only one 9lb-almost 10lb rib roast left. Including myself, we have 6 people for dinner (most of my family lives in Canada). For 10lbs, I was being extremely optimistic. It's a challenge I was ready to accept. To devour this during the expand of this whole weekend. People that know me, thinks I can do it. And as a matter of fact, I could. But will I feel fantastic? Well it's Sunday and had leftover rib roast for the past 2 days and I feel great. Now all I have are the bones. And anyways, there were a group of people wanting the 10lb rib roast that we snatched. It was fate. And it was definitely my destiny to end 2015 with a meat hangover.

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9.90lb standing rib roast.

It's pretty beautiful to be honest. I always loved a big hunk of meat, but this was just a little intimidating to handle. First things first. I got a few paper towels to wipe the beef dry. I then got a pairing knife, and made a few stabs on top of the fat (only) and stuck garlic cloves in. 1 whole head of garlic was stuck into the fat. Nothing on the flesh.

Before we go any further, here's the quick ingredients used.

• 9 pounds of rib roast or prime rib
• 2 whole heads of garlic.
  • 1 whole used for inserts
  • 1 whole chopped and minced for salt crust
• 1 heap-full cup of Kosher salt
• 1/3 cup of freshly grounded black pepper
• 1/3 cup of dried parsley
• Choice of oil to rub the top of your roast (I used Thrive Algae Oil because their smoke point goes up to 500).

After your meat has been inserted with garlic, combine your salt, black pepper, parsley, and that whole large head of minced garlic. Drizzle some oil on top and rub it all over the fat until it's perfectly coated. Now, pat down the salt crust:

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Make sure to cover the roast as much as you can. DON'T worry about the sides or the bottom. Just worry about the fat cap. Preheat your oven to 475 and let this baby stay in for 1 hour. Don't worry if the roast gets a little smokey, there is a lot of black pepper and it's normal. And, try not to peep your roast by opening the oven. I know. I said try. I peeped like twice.

After an hour, lower your temperature to 300 degrees, and let your rib roast go for another 1 hour and 10 minutes.

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The high temperature scorches the exterior of the roast which helps the juices stay in. The low temperature cooks the meat, slowly, causing it to become tender and juicy. Let this stand on a cutting board for about 20 minutes or so before cutting into it. Just cover this with aluminum foil. It's a large roast, so you really want to let it rest for the juices to stay inside.

The salt crust is removed before serving (do NOT forget to remove this). And the ribs are also removed and put off to the side for a snack. You can easily stick the bones under a 500 degree oven with a quick spice rub. ugh. The bones though, peeled off from the meat because it was so tender.

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End piece

This cut was the end. I did the honors to eat this piece while everyone had the center. As you can see, the end pieces are borderline medium. And I love how pieces of garlic pops through the roast from the insertions.

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This bad boy was medium rare. So tender and full of flavor. No salt was needed for this. We just drizzled this with Au Jus which was made from the scrapings on the pan.

Au Jus

Pour out all the fat from the pan into a jar, let cool before dispose. In the pan, I poured in some beef stock about 3/4 of 1 carton. Crack a little more black pepper, and make a quick corn starch slurry to thicken the sauce just a tad.

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A quick simple mash and corn was all you need. You don't want to take away the main with sides, especially this beauty. I was extremely impressed by how tender the beef was, and how the salt crust really kept the juices sealed as well as penetrating through the meat.

Leftovers?

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Homemade Hashbrowns and over easy eggs (The Happy Eggs).

You be the judge! And always get a roast more than you think you will need.

Happy Holidays and stay tuned for more Christmas feasts.

Daisy

Russian Tea Cookies or Mexican Wedding Cookies

Whatever it is, they are delicious. And I am amazed how easy it is to make these bad boys. So easy that it was terrifying, because I made over 200 over these f*ckers. Powdered sugar... everywhere. Sheet pans... Everywhere... Balls.. all over the place. But with that said, it was a crowd pleaser. Well, everyone was raving about it. Unless they were all lying to me, which could be a possibility as well.

I am happy that my friend, Frances Yakota, was kind enough to share her recipe with me. I did made some alterations due to the ingredients that I already own at home.

RECIPE

• 2.5 cups of unsalted butter, room temp.
• 1.5 cups of powdered sugar
• 3 teaspoons of vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon of kosher salt
• 3 Cups of chopped nuts
  • The first batch I made, I used 2 cups of pecans and 1 cup of walnuts (preferred)
  • The second batch, I used macadamia nuts only.
• 5.5 cups of flour
• Extra powdered sugar for rolling the balls

First things first. Preheat your oven to 400 and make sure your rack is centered or 3/4 up.

In your Kitchen Aid, mix the butter, sugar, salt and vanilla extract together. Next thing, add the nuts then SLOWLY add the flour. I am a terrible recipe follower. So of course, I added all the flour in at once then turned on the mixer. Flour was everywhere! Mother F*ck!

Ok let's move on because I am pretty sensitive about that right now.

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Form your balls. I like mine a little smaller so I can pop them into my mouth with one bite. They don't rise too much so don't be too worried about spacing them too much on your tray. Bake the cookies for 12-14 minutes. The cookies should still be white, and sometimes, just a hint of color. Let your cookies rest a little before rolling them in powdered sugar to avoid gloopy balls. After the cooled again, roll them in sugar one last time to seal the balls.

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I packaged these cookies in small tins as well as mason jars. They make a really thoughtful gift as well as it being appealing to look at. Everyone is going to think you spent a lot of time on these. Which by the way you kind of did.

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These tea cookies are great with black coffee or espresso. I left a bunch on a tray for the scavengers at our agency. You would be surprised.

Enjoy & Happy Holidays!

Happy Eggs - Huckleberry Cookies

I just want to start off by saying that I am a true fan of Happy Eggs. But, it really started with that one story of that one man who went mad and destroyed a large flock of nesters. It was a pretty sad, mad, story which you can find here by Bloomberg. I remembered that when I heard the story, it made me sad to think about these chickens cooped up and just grasping for their lives. It made me look at eggs differently. One, was the sudden spike in price. When all eggs are averaging around $5, you really start to look at them a bit differently. The prices has fallen since, but I've stuck with Happy Eggs since.

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So what's the difference? There's caged, there's cage free, and then there's free range. I think this is something all of you should look into if you are serious about your eggs.

Caged - Well, this is pretty obvious. Caged eggs come from hens who live their ENTIRE lives in a wire cage that is so small that they can't even flap their wings. I can't even comprehend thinking about an animal stuck in a confined space for the rest of their lives. But... let's not open a can of worms and start talking about all other animals.

let's take one step at a time.

With caged eggs, a typical hen only has 8 1/2 by 8 1/2 square inches of space. Just think about your standard white piece of paper for a moment.

Now, California bans the producing and selling of eggs from battery caged hens. Hens are required to have enough room to turn around freely, lie down, and extend their wings. Is that wrong? Keep this in mind.

Caged Free Eggs - Here comes the fun marketing part. We see caged free eggs packaged all the time. But.. what does it mean? We believe it's good. I mean, even the packaging on these caged free eggs look happy. But, cage free eggs come from hens that are locked inside all their lives... they never go outside. Cage free birds have no outdoor access and spend their whole lives inside barns with only 10.5 x 16.5 inches of space. This angers me a bit. Because we've bought caged free eggs before assuming they were able to roam around. I guess I was ignorant.

But in lieu of the downside with some of these eggs, there are good businesses out there like Happy Eggs that does it right. Free Range Eggs - Happy egg hens have access to a total space of 8 acres, which is equivalent to 6 football fields. The hens get to roam outdoors everyday. And okay, before we start assuming that these poor hens are smooshed up outside! EACH individual pasture raised hen has access to 21.6 square ft a day. As it's a rotational pasture, pasture raised hens have daily access to 20% of the total 108 square ft available.

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American Humane Certified. Free Range Eggs.

Oh and guess what? Besides having the whole 8 acres of pasture to roam among the beautiful trees, shade, sand pits and fresh air, they also have large protective barns overnight, freedom to choose where to roost and even their favorite nesting box.

If that doesn't do it for you, they even have a few pecking toys to keep them engaged.

So let's get into some Happy Eggs. Because I feel GREAT to use them. I've decided to make some cookies with these cute copper cutters I got from Marshall's. My very dear friends, Ben & Ricky, who recently got engaged, brought me back some Huckleberry jam from their trip to Montana. They also have a fabulous blog called the Visualante that you all need to check out.

Recipe:

• 3/4 cups of butter, softened
• 1/2 cup white granulated sugar
• 2 Happy Egg YOLKS!!
• 1/4 teaspoon of vanilla
• pinch of salt
• 1 & 3/4 cups of unbleached flour
• Huckleberry Preserves/Jam (or any preserves you would like)

It's pretty simple. Preheat your oven to 375. Whisk the softened butter and sugar together, followed by the egg yolks and vanilla extract. Next thing you need to do is mix in your flour and salt until the dough is formed. If the dough gets too soft, like all dough, stick it back in the fridge till it's easier to roll out. I cut the shapes out with my cookie cutter, make a small dent to fill the preserves, then pop it in my Breville convection oven for 10 minutes.

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Buttery cookies with a tart preserve always made the knees go wobbly. I brought these to work and the crowd went crazy! These will be around during my New Years eve party.

I'm telling you, this is so easy to make and I didn't even need to take out my Kitchen Aid.

Stay tuned for more Happy Egg recipes to come! I have a few more things up my sleeve that I think you will enjoy :)

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Krusteaz Pancake

I've been meaning to make pancakes for a while, but November became quite expensive. From my brother's birthday, to a lot of other unplanned events that is making my credit card statements a little painful to look at.

With that being said, I became just a tad discouraged to make something from scratch. I went to Vons to make a quick run for groceries when I came across Krusteaz buttermilk pancake mix. I'm really curious about this, because for $2-$3, I can make this again for a few more breakfast/brunches. All I needed was to add water. At that point, I was sold. The batter was extremely easy to put together, literally. 1 cup of Krusteaz with 2/3's of cold water. I mixed the ingredients with a fork to not "over whisk" the batter. As mentioned on the box, it's okay that there are lumps, but not to over mix.

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The batter made 3 pancakes, but you could easily divide it to 4 pancakes (I was only able to eat 2 out of 3).

I brûléed a banana to use as a topping. Just grab one firm, but ripe, banana. Peel, cut in half and sprinkle with granulated sugar. Stick it under the broiler until the top starts caramelizing. When this happens, keep your eyes on it because it will burn quick. Let your bananas sit out as you assemble your plate.

Layer pancakes with a slice of butter in between, top with your caramelized banana, toasted pecans, crispy bacon pieces, drizzle with pure maple syrup (or Aunt Jemimas because everyone loves Aunt Jemima) and top off with just a sprinkle of kosher salt. To make it taste like the holidays, sprinkle a little nutmeg and cinnamon.

Now, remember your pancakes it just a blank canvas. I happened to have pecans and bananas at home to throw on. If you have frozen fruit, you can make a quick compote to throw over these pancakes. The verdict with these pancakes are pretty straight forward. I would rather make my own. I love pancakes to be extremely fluffy and buttery which wasn't the case for the Krusteaz buttermilk pancake mix. But, was it easy? very. And sometimes you just need something quick and easy to make breakfast happen. The toppings however, made this feel very gourmet.

So have fun with this and don't stress too much on breakfast. This will still be a crowd pleaser, and everyone will think you made this from scratch. Because, bacon. And brûléed banana. Pecans? You totally win.

Let the holidays begin!