Instagram

Hello all,


It has been sometime since I have posted her and I truly apologize. I must explain that I think it was ambitious of me to do the 50 in 50 but I found that very few viewers understood what I was doing. Therefore I discontinued the concept but not the blog.


I have also created an Instagram account to display the dishes BUT will ONLY post the recipes for them on here so please check it out and follow.


To my followers I thank you and look forward to hearing from you on dishes you wish to see and questions you have on cooking them.


All my best
Chef De Cuisine


http://instagram.com/cajun_chef


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

for Family and Friends

Ok people, I was talking to my niece on the phone yesterday and we were talking about simple dishes that look great and taste amazing and I though of my lowly lil blog that I have neglected.

As most know I don’t cook from written down recipes and its hard for me to sit and write out what I use in my dishes but I have did just that for this simple dish. Nikki…this is for you.

Steelhead Trout with Blistered Tomatoes

Ingredients:
Extra Virgin Olive Oil (actually works beautifully with this)
2 pints Cherry Tomatoes (the grape tomatoes work fine too)
1 clove of Chopped Garlic (use the minced garlic in the little jar ok, make it easy on yourself)
Sea Salt to taste
Cracked Pepper to taste
1 Tablespoon of Fresh Thyme
1 Tablespoon of Fresh Oregano
1 Tablespoon of Fresh Chopped Basil
¼ cup of Cilantro
Juice from ¼ of a Lime
2 - 6 to 8 Ounce Fillets of Steelhead Trout skin on (works very well with striped bass also)

Directions:
1. Pre-heat your sauté pan to a medium high heat.
2. Rub fillets with olive oil and season them with sea salt and cracked pepper.
3. Sear the Trout in Olive oil for about 2 minutes with the flesh side down.
4. Flip your Trout so the skin side is down and then add the cherry tomatoes to the pan to fill the areas around the fillets.
5. Cook for another 4-5 minutes.
6. While fish cooks take the cilantro and squeeze the fresh lime juice on it with salt and pepper to taste.
7. Remove fish and set aside on a plate.
8. Add the Thyme, Oregano, and chopped Basil to the tomatoes , stir gently and season with sea salt and cracked pepper.
9. Allow to cook for one minute.
10. Serve enough tomatoes to hold the fish on top of them, you can add cilantro salad either to the side or on top of the fillet
11. If you want to get really fancy make some cilantro rice (get with me on that recipe) and serve your fish on a bed of that and use the tomatoes as a garnish and profess your Kitchen Dominance! — with Nikki Thomas Jones.

Thank you!

I was asked again to resume my posting on the blog and I shall.

I was talking to a few male friends of mine who have no idea of how to cook! Strange I know right! Well I have decided to embark on a huge undertaking and continue the 50 in 50 AND throw in a section for Men in the Kitchen.
Now I know this will not be easy and will at times seem like a job more than a passionate labor of love LOL but I will preserver and press on.

I will get into a series of things such as;

Using soups as bases for sauces.

The ease of duplicating a meal you have at your favorite restaurant, at home.

The ease of cooking with your significant other and enjoying it!

The intricate balance of pairing wine with your dishes.

And a host of other subjects as well, so welcome back to those that have been her and waiting on me to get back on the horse, and welcome to those that just view the blog.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Still cooking

It has been over week since I placed a recipe on the blog. It's not due to my desire to stop my blog, it is just that work has caused me to divert my focus temporarily. I will still be doing the 50 in 50 and will have another recipe up Monday, so get ready.

The passport will take us through 10 different regions of France and also give us a few recipes that every cook should have in their repertoire. These are the areas we will cover;

Burgundy, there are three recipe from this area, two from the Rhône Alps, one from Normandy and two from Toulouse.

We will hop from geographic locations in no particular order, as you can see when we pull two recipes from Languedoc, four from Provence two from Aveyron, one from Flander, two from Paris and two from Alsace, one we have already completed.

I will also provide you with seven sauce recipes. There are eight mother sauces that YOU MUST BE FAMILURE WITH!! These sauces can and will take a week each just so you truly understand them.

Some recipes will be ones that are from no particular region but are still French in nature, and need to be included in your repertoire, there will be fifteen of those.

For those that are following the blog please keep following, and those that are just viewing, click the link at the bottom and follow and leave comments. Join in and lets have fun in the kitchen. I will have more advice from farmers and sommelier's and awesome local Chefs that understand the passion of cooking and helping others to realize their culinary visions.

I have been offered the opportunity to apprentice under an awesome Chef. I will take it and work free of charge as I feel my payment is learning and benefiting under his tutelage. I encourage you all to seek out those elusive opportunities where you can pick up skills and enhance your outlook in the kitchen. And remember people Culinary Institutes are NOT the only place to acquire cooking skills. Think outside the box and go unconventional.

I will also continually cover spices over every week. I want you to understand the proper usage of spices in your dishes. Your dish does not have to be spicy when spices are utilized properly, unless that is your intent. Spices should accent your dish and add a certain flavor profile that is multi layered and enhances the main focal point of the dish.



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad3

2-50 Carré De Cochon En Cocotte (Casseroled rack of pork)

Carré De Cochon En Cocotte (Casseroled rack of pork)
To all of you that got in the kitchen and experimented with me with the last dish I hope it opened up a new passion for you and you continue to follow along.

This week the dish will be Carré De Cochon En Cocotte, translated;
Carré De Cochon(Rack (ribs) or loin of pork ) En Cocotte ( A high sided cooking pot (casserole) with a lid).

The ingredients are

4 rib rack of pork ribs
4 onions, sliced
6 scallions, chopped
2 packages of frozen (locally grown if you can find them) English peas, thawed
1 lb fingerling potatoes
3 Granny Smith apples
2 cups of hard dry cider
1/3 stick unsalted butter
Sea salt and fresh cracked black pepper

There, you have all the things you will need to make this great dish, we will cook it on Friday.

Comment on substitutions if you cannot find or use certain things contained in the recipe.

For those that are following from the wine club, comments on what wine would be best paired with this dish is always welcomed.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

1-50, Alsace Coq Au Riesling

Welcome to the beginning of a beautiful 50 weeks of awesome food.

To start off our passport adventure, the opening dish we cooked was Coq Au Riesling from the Alsace region of France. It is beautiful, healthy, and super easy!

The mushrooms were added to but not substituted, I added button mushrooms just for a little more texture. You could sub them if you wanted to with something flavorful like a portobello or maybe even say a shiitake.

This dish could go either light, like I did it here or it could go rustic and you could make it more hardy and add lardons and other ingredients and plate it more along the lines of French comfort food.

For those that cooked this dish let me know your feed back on how it turned out and what you would change or add.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone