Foodbuzz Tastemaker: Charbroil Big Easy Turkey Fryer

As part of Foodbuzz Tastemaker program, I was fortunate to receive a Big Easy® Turkey Fryer from Char-Broil. This fabulous device uses infrared light, making the process a lot less complicated than with traditional fryers which use oil. It is safer as there are no oil spills; it is cheaper and healthier as no oil is actually used; and the whole process is a lot faster. Not only does the turkey take less time to cook, but during the busy cooking for a Thanksgiving dinner, the regular ovens are freed up to cook the other dishes.

For our test of the Big Easy® Turkey Fryer, we cooked a couple of Cornish hens at our friends' house. After the hens were cleaned, we sprinkled them with the dry rub from Char-broil and threw them in the turkey fryer. Almost instantly there was a wonderful aroma of spices spreading all around, making all of the kids very hungry. Thankfully, they didn't have to wait long as in just half an hour the hens were ready. The hens were tender, juicy, and flavorful!

Please check out this video clip of our experience cooking with the Big Easy® Turkey Fryer.

Summer Trip 2010: L'Ecrivain

While staying in Dublin, we couldn't miss exploring the city's fine dining. Dublin now has six Michelin starred restaurants, and we chose to eat at the lovely L'Ecrivain which has one Michelin star.

L'Ecrivain is located in the center of Georgian Dublin and is operated by Chef Derry Clarke and his wife, Sallyanne. It features classic French style cuisine with modern influences and excellent local and fresh Irish ingredients such as Wild Irish Trout and Wicklow Venison.

We arrived on time, however we were seated and asked to wait in the bar area. We were surprised to have to wait 30 minutes before the restaurant opened for service, but it turns out a little "emergency" had occurred in the kitchen. Despite this minor mishap, once we were seated in the spacious main dining room upstairs, the service turned out to be excellent, and we really enjoyed the rest of our evening.

Our amuse bouche was a delightful corn veloute with truffle foam. We loved the wonderful aroma of truffles followed by the smooth and velvety fresh summer taste of corn.

The freshly baked breads offered were outstanding, including a delicious Guinness bread.

We enjoyed a Goat Cheese raviolo for our first course. This was a single raviolo with a nice center of goat cheese in the filling. The goat cheese was sharp and flavorful. The accompaniments were lovely, including pickled purple artichokes, an aubergine tart, and truffle dressing. The aubergine tart featured both sweet and savory flavors, delicately and masterfully seasoned, and I thought it was actually the best component of this dish.

A lemon ice and apple gellee provided a wonderful palate refresher. I especially liked the lemon ice on top, infused with aromatic herbs.

Our main course was truly the star of the evening, consisting of suckling pig "three ways": crispy pork belly topped with a slice of apple caramelized to perfection; a pig cheek, served tender and delicious; and pigs feet, deep fried in batter to perfection, surprising us with its delicacy and wonderful flavors. A side of new Irish queen potatoes seasoned with rosemary offered a nice seasonal addition. We appreciated the original presentation of this dish in an elegant square white plate, with each component presented on a quarter slice. The portions were very generous, particularly the serving of pork belly. In fact, while we loved the meal, this course would have been even more perfect if the pork belly portion had been somewhat reduced to balance with the other elements.

A pre-dessert of raspberries, with creamy coconut mousse at the bottom and an airy chocolate mousse on the top, was a heavenly concoction.

A chocolate pistachio tart with cherry sorbet was amazing, offering a great balance between the richness of the tart and the light refreshing flavors of the sorbet.

A perfectly made Irish coffee was an excellent way to end the meal.

This was an excellent meal, comprising local cuisine with a confident elegance, definitely worthy of a Michelin star!

Foodbuzz Tastemaker: Pace Picante Sauce and Mini Meatloaves

As part of Foodbuzz Tastemaker program, I have received a sample of Pace Picante sauce. We thought this salsa-style sauce was very flavorful, and had a nice kick even with the medium level spice. Since the sauce is very smooth, it was great to use in cooking.

I made mini meatloaves with bison, four cheese mixture, and Pace Picante sauce. Because the sauce already contained tomatoes, onions, garlic, and peppers, I didn't have to add anything else other than the usual Panko breadcrumbs and an egg to keep the meatloaves together. It was a quick, easy, and delicious family weekday meal.

Ingredients:

1 pound ground bison
2/3 cup Pace Picante sauce
2/3 cup Mexican 4-cheese mix
1/2 cup Panko breadcrumbs
1 egg
Salt, pepper to taste

Directions:

Pre-heat the oven to 375 degrees. In a large bowl, mix ground bison, Pace Picante sauce, cheese, bread crumbs, egg, and salt and pepper to taste. Form six mini loaves and place in a baking dish. Bake for about 20-25 minutes or until done. Serve with additional Pace Picante sauce.

Foodbuzz Tastemaker: Ghirardelli Luxe Milk & Kellog's Special K

Ghirardelli Luxe Milk



As part of Foodbuzz Tastemaker program, we have received samples a new line of Ghirardelli chocolates, Ghirardelli LUXE MILK, a rich and creamy, 100% All Natural line of milk chocolate available in five delicious flavors. We have tried three flavors: almond, hazelnut, and milk.




5 Star Foodie Junior:

I thought that almond chocolates were buttery and had nice chunks of almonds. The taste was similar to white chocolate.

The hazelnut chocolates were crunchy and just a little bit gooey. Their flavor was more hazelnut than chocolate.

The milk chocolates didn't taste like regular milk chocolate but tasted more like white chocolate than milk chocolate and were very sweet.

I liked these Ghirardelli chocolates a lot and my favorite was the Hazelnut chocolate because it was crunchy and yummy.

Special K Red Berries



Another Foodbuzz Tastemaker product that we received was Kellog's Special K Red Berries cereal. The newly reformulated Special K Red Berries cereal now offers additional fiber yet has the same great crunchy taste as the original cereal. While I don't typically eat cereal with milk, I was happy to eat this cereal dry as a delicious snack.



5 Star Foodie Junior:

I liked the crunchy Special K cereal. The berries were kind of dry and a little sour, so I like fresh berries better. The cereal flakes by themselves tasted of honey and were delicious.

***

I will be taking a short blogging break this week. I still have some scheduled posts coming up, but I will not be doing my regular blog reading and commenting. I will be taking this time to fixing my reference site that has been hacked recently as well as re-organizing my blog a little bit. Thank you, everyone, as always, for reading and all of your support!

Ile De France Camembert and Mini Tarts with Melted Chocolate

Recently, I received a sample of a new Camembert cheese from Ile De France. The new recipe is made exclusively with milk from herds that graze in the famous Normadie Region of France. The milk is transformed within 48 hours of milking to ensure absolute freshness. It's delicious and creamy, with hints of nuttiness and wild mushrooms. This Camembert is a great addition to any cheese tasting and is also terrific to use in cooking.

I decided to pair the Camembert with chocolate and made these delicious little puff pastry tarts.

I baked the puff pastry rounds until just starting to get golden, then placed the thinly sliced Camembert on top and baked a little more until the edges of puff pastry were golden brown and the cheese was starting to melt. Then I topped the tarts with chocolate, melted in a double boiler with a little cream and sugar, and garnished the tarts with fresh strawberry slices. This was a delightful dessert that was very easy and quick to make.

Summer 2010: Dublin for Dinner

Our virtual sightseeing tour of Dublin continues north of the River Liffey, the river that flows through the center of the city. Here, the most significant sights are the GPO and the Custom House, the main centers of the 1916 Easter Rising that led to the Irish War of Independence. The monuments on the prominent O'Connell street also celebrate the important figures in the Irish history.



Afterward, we can cross the Liffey to the Temple Bar area where we can get some fabulous drinks and stay there for the evening to party. Alternatively, we can catch a taxi to the Guinness storehouse for a tour, a fabulous view of Dublin, and a perfect pint of Guinness.



After a tour of the Guinness storehouse, it's only logical to grab a dinner at a local pub. The closest pub to our apartment was The Bleeding Horse, one of the oldest pubs in Dublin.



We loved the cottage pie here.



Their fish & chips were terrific.



For a late evening snack, we loved to stopped by the new Murphy's Ice Cream shop (per advise of Daily Spud). The ice cream here is just amazing, featuring unique flavors including Guinness, Dingle Sea Salt, Burnt Caramel, Pink
Champagne Sorbet, Dark Chocolate, Brown Bread, Fresh Mint, and Kilbeggan Whiskey.


Dark Chocolate & Kilbeggan Whiskey


Burnt Caramel and Rum & Raisin

PFB Vote!

The voting for Project Food Blog Challenge #4 is now underway! I would appreciate your support - please vote for my entry here!

I am just back from a weekend getaway and will be catching up with my blog reading right away as well as preparing new posts!

Project Food Blog Challenge # 4: Making Blintzes

Thank you so much for all your wonderful comments, and your votes on the third challenge for Project Food Blog! For the forth challenge, I am sharing a step-by-step photo tutorial of one of my all-time favorite dishes, the cheese blintzes. I would appreciate your support - please vote for my entry here

One of the very first blog posts that I published was an all-time family favorite, my recipe for cheese blintzes. It was actually the first dish that I tried to take a picture of specifically for my blog. Back then, I knew very little about food photography, and now I know that my picture wasn't that great. Today, two years later and with much improved photography skills, I am pleased to share with my readers a step-by-step photo tutorial on how to make the perfect blintzes.

***

In a large bowl, place 1 cup of all-purpose flour, 1 tablespoon sugar, 1/4 teaspoon salt, 3 large eggs, and 1 1/3 cups of milk.

Mix to blend so the batter is smooth.

Whisk in 3 tablespoons of melted butter.

Melt an additional tablespoon of butter in a crêpe pan. I use a large 12-inch crêpe pan but a smaller crêpe pan or a griddle will work as well.

Pour about 2/3 of the scoop of batter into pan (use less batter for a smaller pan).

Turn the pan gently to spread the batter around the whole pan.

Cook until the edges of the crêpe turns light brown, about 1 minute. Loosen the edges gently with a spatula.

Flip the crêpe over.

Cook the other side about 30 more seconds.

Transfer to plate and cover with foil. Repeat with remaining batter, spraying pan with more melted butter as needed and keeping the crêpes warm.

To make the filling for the blintzes, mix 1/2 cup ricotta cheese, 2 tablespoons plain yogurt, 2 tablespoons of sugar, and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla together in a bowl.

Place one crêpe browned side up on a work surface. Spread the filling on one side of the crêpe.

Roll the crêpe up.

Cut in half to form two blintzes.

Repeat with remaining filling and crêpes. This recipe makes about 12-16 blintzes.

To prepare cherries: place about 1 cup of pitted cherries and 1/2 cup sugar in a saucepan. Simmer until juices form a thick syrup.

To make chocolate syrup: combine 1/2 cup cold water with 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder and 1/2 cup sugar. Bring to boil and simmer just until the mixture is smooth.

Pour the chocolate syrup into a plastic container and cool.

Before serving, place the blintzes on a large griddle greased with olive oil.

Brown for 1 minute per side.

Serve the blintzes with chocolate syrup and cherries.