When Life Gives You Lemons... Make Vinaigrette

Soooo Good!

When it comes to salad dressings, I have come to learn that making your own is so much easier and so much better than using store bought dressings. As a kid, my mom's only salad dressing choice was the Season's Italian Vinaigrette mix that you buy in a packet and mix with oil and vinegar. We never had any creamy dressings or mustard-based vinaigrettes because she is basically the world's staunchest advocate for the abolishment of mayo and mustard. While I am not a huge fan of either, I will use them in recipes.

Anyway, after college, when I began cooking for myself I became a HUGE fan of Ina Garten's (the Barefoot Contessa) recipes. One of my absolute favorites is for an arugula salad with a lemon vinaigrette. It is so simple that anyone can make it and it is so elegant and delicious that it will impress your family and friends every time. Also, its mom approved :)

You will need:

1 Lemon
Good Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Sea or Kosher Salt
Fresh Ground Pepper
1 Container of Arugula
Shaved Parmesano-Reggiano  (optional)

Prepare the salad right before you are going to eat. For 3-4 people I usually only have to use the juice of half a lemon. Squeeze the juice directly into a bowl making sure to eliminate the seeds. Throw in a pinch of salt and a healthy portion of pepper, depending on your taste. Then whisk in a small, steady stream of Extra Virgin Olive Oil. Using a whisk is very important in order to get the correct emulsification. Once the mixture begins to look cloudy, almost creamy, taste it to see if it is to your liking. You can adjust any component of the dressing at this point, just keep whisking and tasting until it seems yummy to you. Then add your arugula and mix it all up. The arugula will absorb the dressing quickly, so just add more arugula if you find it necessary. Add Parmesan shavings if desired and enjoy!

Make new friends, but keep the old...

New Friends, Old Friends, Good Friends

Happy New Year to all! As many of us do, I have been doing some thinking and reflection at the close of 2012. For me '12 was a year of thinking, pondering and basically living a good chunk of the year in my head. I'm not sure if I'm better off for all of this thought and internal debate, but I have come to one certain conclusion: I have got some really great friends.

It's not that I didn't know that I had great friends before, but over the past few days the truly awesome nature of my friendships really hit home for me. I spent the last few days of 2012 in good ole' Richmond, VA. For me and my crew, this town is pretty special. Many of us moved there right out of college to began our "adult" lives. Over many nights sharing late night pizza, spending summer afternoons swimming in inflatable swimming pools, and having heart to hearts over bottles of wine we became a family. And that's not hyperbole, I truly mean family.

When I had to leave Richmond in 2008, it was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do. Eventually, the "family" began to move on to different corners of the world, but a few remained in RVA. Over the next couple of years, some of my "old friends" who remained in Richmond began to meet "new friends". Other displaced "family" members and I would discuss "new friends" with a bit of skepticism that was really just jealousy. Who were these strangers, anyway? I can say that I felt a little replaced. We were jealous that these people were hanging out with our "old friends" and life was going on at our old haunts without us. But the world keeps on turning and Metro keeps playing "Don't Stop Beleavin'".

As my luck would have it, over the past year or so I have been able to spend a little time in Richmond and meet these "new friends". As it turns out, my Richmond "old friends" have got pretty great taste when it comes to the people with whom they choose to surround themselves (I mean, hey they are friends with me ;)).

It might sound silly, but it turns out that we weren't replaced, you can never be in a good and true friendship. What happened was actually a great thing, because now the "family" has grown and whether the friend is new or old they all seem like pretty good friends to me and I'm looking forward to a happy, healthy, and fabulous 2013 for all of us! I'm so thankful to have all of you in my life.

Mise en Place... Say What?!

A Fajita-tastic Mise en Place

Hola, Folks!

Ahhh, Fajita Night... What a wonderful weeknight meal to come home to! This has always been one of my family's go-to meals. What's not to love about deliciously flavored meat, sauteed onions and peppers, and any other number of yummy toppings all wrapped in a soft, warm tortilla? I can't think of one thing. BONUS: fajitas are SUPER easy to make!

So to make cooking fajitas (and everything) all that much easier, I'd like to share a tip with you, a little thing called a mise en place (pronounced [miz on plas]). Yeah, that's right it's French, my friends. So if you suffered through a bit of college or high school French and the "Foreign Language" section of your brain has yet to be totally cobwebbed over, you may still be able to make out that mise en place means "things in place". I was introduced to this concept by one of my favorite writers/chefs/TV show personalities, Anthony Bourdain in his very funny, but very informative book Kitchen Confidential (go read it now!). Bourdain discusses the mise en place and its place (no pun intended) in professional kitchens. If you have worked in a kitchen, then you already know what I'm talking about. Each station (e.g. the grill, sauce station, fryer, etc.) will have their own mise (for short), or set up. This means that most of the ingredients that they need to create the dishes that they are responsible for are right there, chopped/sliced/diced and ready to go into the dish. So think about this concept with your own cooking...

The next time you go to your favorite recipe website to find that perfect quiche to make when your in-laws are coming over, remember this and create a mise en place. Your life will be so much easier! As you can see from the fajita night pic, I cut up the onions and peppers and since they were going to cook at the same time I threw them together on a plate. Paper plates, people... embrace them! Next I cut up 3 chicken breasts and kept them separated since I was going to cook the chicken in batches so as to not crowd the pan. You'll also see my salt and pepper and a sauce mix that I decided to try. In general, I hate sauce mixes and flavor packets, but I came across this one from a chef that I really respect and I know has made his name learning about and cooking with Mexican flavors, so I decided to give it a try... Eh. I probably wouldn't use it again. You also see some limes there, for a little freshness after everything is cooked. And let's not forget, the glass of wine, a very important and necessary tool in any kitchen :) Having my mise ready to go with the ingredients that would need to be cooked, allowed me to be able to grate the cheese, cut up the avocado, and prepare all of the other things that would go into the fajitas that were uncooked. 

This concept can be used when cooking almost every single thing you make. Just make sure that you read the entire recipe before you begin! I can't tell you how many times I have skimmed a recipe or just read the first part and completely missed an important step or instruction. So read fully, prepare your ingredients accordingly and go forth and get your mise on, my friends!

Cheers!
KB

Chicken Dance

A Chicken Catastrophe... This was a result of an experiment gone wrong. Note: DO NOT attempt to cook something in a Pyrex dish on a hot grill!

If you know me, I have probably told you at some point that my “Top Three Foods” are chicken, coconut and whipped cream (yes, whipped cream is obviously a legitimate food). Many people balk at my affection for chicken, personally I don’t get it. I mean, what other meat product is so versatile? Come on people, you’ve got chicken fingers, grilled chicken, barbequed chicken, chicken cordon bleu, fried chicken, chicken fajitas, roasted chicken: the possibilities are endless! That being said, I have come to realize that many home cooks have a hard time thinking of different ways to prepare this King of Meats. I also think that some people are just grossed out by salmonella, which they should just get over right now.

A few years ago I lost my job in Richmond, VA when the economy took a nosedive and had to move “home” to Houston, TX with my parents. I say “home” because I didn’t grow up there so I had no friends or any kind of social network, which is really awesome for a very social, very single 25 year-old. However, these circumstances led to the beginnings of my serious culinary explorations. One of the first things that I really perfected was grilled chicken. I learned that if you marinate chicken correctly, it really transforms into a flavorful and absolutely delicious addition to your dinner plate.

So here you go… This is how I prepare what my friends and family refer to as, “Delicious Chicken”. I could eat it everyday!

2-3 Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breasts

Extra Virgin Olive Oil

1- 1 ½ Tbls. Kosher or Sea Salt*

1- 1 ½ Tbls. Freshly Ground Pepper

1-2 Lemons and their juice

3-4 Large Garlic Cloves

*Regular iodized salt is much more potent than both Kosher and Sea Salt, so make sure you adjust the measurement accordingly if that’s all you have.

Place the chicken breasts in a large Ziploc freezer bag. Toss a healthy amount of salt and pepper into the mix and douse the chicken with Extra Virgin Olive Oil (until it doesn’t quite cover the chicken). Halve and squeeze 1-2 lemons, toss in both the lemons and their juice. Crush and mince 3-4 garlic cloves and add to the bag (I really love garlic so I tend to use 4, adjust for your own taste). Close the bag and squish everything around. After you do this the liquid in the bag should have a slightly milky look to it. Marinate the chicken in the fridge for about 30 minutes. You don’t really want to go too long over that because the lemon's acid will begin to affect the integrity of the meat.

In the mean time, preheat your grill to High. After the chicken is done marinating you are ready to grill! Turn the heat down to Medium and grill for about 8 minutes, then flip and grill the other side for 7 minutes. This 8/7 ratio is just the ticket on my grill, but you will need to adjust based on your own grill’s heat. Let the meat rest for about 5-10 minutes before serving. The chicken should be super moist and totally yummy!

Cheers,

KB

The First Bite

The oh-so-delicious Croque Monsieur from Boxcar in Washington DC. Bon Appetit!

Welcome to my foray into the blogosphere. I have thought about blogging for a long time, but now I have bit the bullet and put proverbial pen to virtual paper.

“The Gypsy Gourmet” is born out of sheer lack of direction. I am, by nature, a wanderer in every sense of the word. There is no one place that I call home. After a few years in graduate school (I am still suffering through the process of completing my thesis, let’s not talk about it) and a few summer time stints at the Smithsonian, I am stuck.  Completely and utterly S.T.U.C.K. Let me tell you, if you think you love something go to graduate school and study it… You probably don’t love it as much as you thought you did. Or you may find, as was the case with me, that your fellow compatriots seem much more well equipped and passionate about the field, thus making you feel like a total idiot for the first time in your life. Awesome! Well, enough of that.

So here I am on the verge of 30 and wondering, “What the hell am I going to do with myself”. Start a blog? Sounds reasonable. What else have I got going on? Now what should my blog be about? Well, I’ll tell you. The over-arching theme of this little electronic diary is going to be about food. Food and the making of it have been a large focus of my life for the past few years. I have discovered a love for all things culinary and funnily enough I am not half bad in the kitchen. The word "Gourmet" in my blog title is slightly misleading considering I have never been to culinary school or had any type of professional training, but hey, I thought it sounded good.

In my experience, food can really change your day, allow you to relax, and let’s face it, a great meal can make you feel exceedingly happy (and if not, I feel sorry for you and you probably should read something else)! For me, the ability to provide this euphoric feeling to my family and friends, even if just for a moment, is a great thing. I also appreciate a good restaurant though! So here I will share stories, tips, thoughts, etc. relating to my adventures in and around kitchens. That being said, you may one day open up the page and find an entry espousing the virtues of Pride and Prejudice, but hey, its my blog. I do what I want.

Cheers,

KB