Cheap eats

So my focus on the rest of this school year and all of next year is going to be cooking good food at a much cheaper price. Ways that I did this when I cooked at UC was I bought jarred sauces and added different spices and maybe a meat or two to them. One of the cheapest things you can make is pasta, hence why that was a majority of what I made this year.

30 hour famine really struck a chord with me with showing me that a meal would cost only $.25 for a person to have a full meal in different countries. While this is pretty much impossible to do in the US, I have been trying to cut down my costs and do things cheaper. Next year I’m going to use my cooking as a fundraiser for this, charging people to eat and then donating most if not all that money to go towards feeding people overseas. I will also carry this over to my restaurant and have days where the entire day’s profit will go towards this. It is something that I think I can help out with and it is directly in line with my passions for cooking.

A can of sauce is somewhere between $2-4 depending on what kind you get, which will be a little cheaper than making your own from scratch. I usually buy different flavors of marinara sauce and add different spices (get the store brand…it tastes the same and is a few bucks cheaper than the better known brand). Sometimes I add either a meat such as grilled chicken (in the meat section there is pre grilled chicken in boxes for about $4) and recently I did a recipe with sausages (store brand) or a vegetable such as broccoli or asparagus. You can also do a white wine sauce with fish (this will be a little more expensive but not by that much if you buy small filets). One thing I really want to is cook with truffles, however seeing as they are at their cheapest $400 a lb, I will have to try and cook with truffle oil. This will run for about $15-20 a bottle so maybe I will get my mom to buy it ;). This is a rather gourmet ingredient so the higher price is expected. This will be part of an ongoing quest to make more gourmet meals at cheaper prices to enjoy. It will be a long but fun road and this summer is going to help me experiment with this J

"You smoked em!"

Above are the words of Dom Presutti referring to Danny, James and I "not just beating, but SMOKIN" the girls at Iron Chef Intervarsity. This was the first time I cooked competitively (even if it was a friendly competition) and I really enjoyed it. I really just let my passions for Italian cooking take over and make some really good Italian food for only really just starting to get into cooking. Some things I learned:

• Cheese is MAD expensive. Buying 5 different cheeses took up a majority of my budget.
• Less is more, having a less cluttered kitchen and a few focused teammates is immensely more helpful than having a bunch of people looking for new things to do.
• Adapt and change, I realized half way through the meal I didn't have a strainer, I always used Erin's when cooking before. So instead James went through the slow process of manually scooping out penne with a slotted spoon. Also the sauce wasn't turning out right in the beginning so I added more spices and more cream and it turned out really good.

Right from the start I had a clear vision of what I wanted to do. Since Italian is my forte I designed a simple appetizer and main dish around this. The appetizer is my own Crostini variation that I came up with. Crostini is basically small pieces of toasted bread with different things on top. They can be like a very simple bruschetta to something very fancy with fish and meat. I wanted to do something in the middle ground with this, so I layered prosciutto, mozzarella and sliced roasted red peppers on top in that order. It turned out very good and I'm pretty sure everybody enjoyed them.

The main course I did was a modified Penne Quattro Formaggio (Penne with a creamy four cheese sauce). The recipe called for four distinct flavored cheeses to be the sauce; Parmigiana, Mascarpone, Fontina and Gorgonzola. Since the store didn't have Fontina cheese, I used Fontinella, a cheaper and similar tasting cousin to Fontina. I also used light instead of heavy cream, although I used more than the recipe called for so the sauce would work. I also added grilled chicken, which was not in the recipe.

Overall I think the dishes turned out very well and were liked by judges and the girls side equally. I look forward to cooking more in the future and expanding into some new culinary areas outside of pasta, although that may have to wait until I am out of school and have a better budget. Below are the recipes for the Crostini and Pasta dish so you can make them your selves. The ingredients for the pasta dish have been doubled for the competition, so for a meal that will easily feed 4 just divide everything by 2. The crostini dish yields many servings so you can use that at a party if you would like.

Appetizer: Crostini with Prosciutto, roasted red peppers, mozzarella.

· 2 day old Ciabatta or French Baguette

· Olive Oil

· Roasted Red peppers (1 can)

· ¼ lbs prosciutto

· Sliced mozzarella

Preheat oven to 350. Thinly slice the bread and cut into quarters (just slice if using French Baguette). Drizzle slices with olive oil. Lightly toast until crisp (about 5-7 mins). Layer with small pieces of prosciutto, mozzarella and peppers. Plate and serve

Main Course: Penne Rigate a Quattro Formaggio con Pollo – Penne pasta with four cheeses and chicken

INGREDIENTS (below ingredients have been doubled)

2 lb. penne rigate
2 tbsp. butter
1 cup heavy cream (Light also works fine, may need to use more however)
8 oz. fontina cheese (fontinella also works), crumbled
8 oz. gorgonzola cheese, crumbled
1 1/3 cups parmesan cheese, grated
4 oz. mascarpone cheese
Salt, to taste
Fresh ground white pepper, to taste
Flat leaf parsley, chopped
Grilled chicken strips àI used the pre packaged kind you can find it in the meat section.

INSTRUCTIONS

In a small, non stick sauce pan, melt the butter and cream over low heat. Add the fontina, mascarpone, gorgonzola and parmesan cheeses; stir with a wooden spoon until the cheeses have melted into the cream completely. (THIS WILL TAKE A WHILE)

Since the sauce takes a while to melt and heat up, I would wait a little while to start cooking the pasta. The sauce will be very chunky at first (almost looking like curdled milk) this is normal! Keep stirring to break up the cheese. Once it is moderately to almost fully broken up I would start to cook the pasta. I personally add salt to the water before hand because it makes it boil faster and the pasta tastes better.

Once you throw the pasta in the boiling water start heating the chicken by putting them on a frying pan with some olive oil, flipping every now and then. This won’t take long.

Drain pasta and place in bowl. Add the chicken on top of the pasta, and then finally add the cheese sauce on top and mix it into the pasta completely. Season with salt and white pepper to taste, and garnish with a sprinkle of chopped parsley. Serve immediately.

Enjoy!!!

Much Love,

Steve :)

A City Misjudged

This week I’m going to change up my blog format and talk about Camden. This week I have the pleasure of spending a week of working with Urban Promise in Camden, NJ. During the day we spend time doing work projects and in the afternoon we spend time with 1^st-4^th graders at an afterschool program run by the ministry.

Coming into this week I was very weary and a little scared. This was because of all of the horror stories that I had heard about Camden, that its one of the most violent cities in America, less that 50% of high school students graduate, and that the people look to outsiders with disdain, mistrust and hatred.

Since spending time here with the people, that mindset as since passed. During the afterschool program I had the pleasure of meeting a senior named Miles (he spends his afternoons volunteering and helping out the ministry) and when asked what comes to mind when you think about Camden? He answered It is a city misjudged, full of untapped potential. Something about that really stuck with me. A city misjudged. But how can the statistics of this seemingly horribly city possibly be wrong? While yes it is a very tough neighborhood, there is signs of hope. And that comes from the residents of the city.

While walking to our renovation site, young students would wave and say hi and were generally very excited by our presence and very welcoming. Virtually every single car stops and lets you cross the street, something I have seldom seen in my home and college towns. People here are friendly and smile at you and actually say hello and acknowledge your presence. The complete opposite of what I expected and from what I see at home.

So I would have to agree full heartedly with what Miles is saying. It is most definitely a city misjudged. Even though the tour that we went on showed a complete opposite view of what I just expressed, with boarded up houses on every street, schools that look like prisons and drug dealers on the corners, there still is hope. New houses are starting to be built to replace the row homes. These homes are called Hope homes. Even though it is a visual upgrade from what they were in the past, it shows the people that there is a change starting and they will no longer have to turn to their current methods to make a life for themselves. There is hope for this broken place, and maybe this week my fellowship and I can start to make a change along with the wonderful people that I have encountered here.

In my next Camden update I will talk more about what we are doing here to make a difference and if it is finished link my first attempt at a movie. The movie is a culmination of all the photographs, video clips and interviews that I am taking this week.

Veal Rollatineishhh

This dish is very similar to one of my all time favorites, Veal Rollatine (Veal with mozzarella, prosciutto and a mushroom white wine sauce). I first had this dish at Ralph's Italian Restaurant in South Philly (website below), and nobody else makes it the same or as good as it is here. I never made this before, and just came up with this variation while sitting bored in class. It is veal, topped with either Prosciutto or Mortadella (or both), tomato and mozzarella. Baked and could be served plain or over pasta.

Ingredients:

• Veal medallions (one or two per person)
• Sliced Prosciutto or Mortadella (or both if you want)
• One or two vine ripe tomatoes (sliced, quantity also depending on how many)...this is the x factor in this dish, im not sure how this will turn out with tomatoes. Another idea I had was to use Roasted Red Peppers.
• Spices (optional, anything you would use to enhance the flavor, I will probably use Rosemary)
• Olive oil (very little, just enough to use to pan fry)
• One pound of Spaghetti (my favorite brand is Barilla)
• Salt for taste

White Wine Sauce Ingredients (taken from food network)

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 shallot, sliced
• 4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 1 cup dry white wine
• 2 tablespoons heavy cream (light cream will also be fine)
• 2 sticks cold unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch pieces
• 1/4 cup finely chopped fresh chives, plus more for garnish
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Recipe: Pasta

• Bring a pot of water to boil, and add salt for taste and decreased boiling time.
• Once at a boil, add pasta and cook until Al Dente (time for this is on the box) you can also tell by the firmness of the pasta, Al Dente wont be crunchy, but it wont be over cooked and mushy either.
• Once cooked, strain and mix with some of the white wine sauce. (You should have the pasta finish last, so it won't stick)
• For plating see below.

Recipe: White wine sauce (taken from food network)

• Heat the oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat.
• Add the shallots and the garlic and cook until soft, about 1 minute.
• Increase the heat to high, add the wine, bring to a boil and cook until reduced by half.
• Add the cream and slowly start whisking in the cold butter, piece by piece and continue to whisk until the sauce is emulsified.
• Strain into a bowl and stir in the chives. Season with salt and pepper, to taste, and set aside.

Recipe: Veal Rollatineishhh

• Preheat the oven to 400 F
• First prepare the white wine sauce and set aside.
• Pan fry the veal in olive oil, set in a baking dish. (don't clean when finished)
• Lightly pan fry the Prosciutto or Mortedella and lay on-top of the veal. (like above don't clean when finished)
• Pan fry the tomatoes until brown on both sides, lay on-top of the veal and Prosciutto. (now clean...by not cleaning the previous dishes, it allows the flavors to mix)
• Now that you have your veal, prosciutto and tomato stacked in a baking dish, drizzle some of the white wine sauce on-top of this until the pan is coated.
• Lay the mozzarella on-top.
• Place in oven, and cook until cheese lightly melts on-top (about 5-7 minutes)
• Take out, divide and plate either plain or over pasta. Drizzle more sauce on-top and add spices for garnish.
• If over pasta, take pasta and place in mounds on plate with a depression in the center. Place veal on-top and add sauce.

I'm not really sure how this is going to turn out, I've always just followed recipes so if you guys decide to make it and it turns out bad I'm sorry! haha it sounds good in my head :) Hope you enjoy it! Pictures to come once I actually make it.

OH here is the website for Ralph's in South Philly. It is my all time favorite Italian restaurant, and everybody should go and try it. Average entree price is around $20, but the quality is excellent.

http://www.ralphsrestaurant.com/

Cooking for God

So recently I decided that I will dedicate my life to culinary arts and pursue a career as a chef and possibly open a restaurant down the road. As a newer Christian I am still coming to terms with what it means to truly live out a Christian life. One thing that has recently come into my life and weighed heavily on my heart is that we are to do EVERYTHING for God. The exact verse is Colossians 3:23 "Whatever you do, work at it with ALL your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men." So this is the mindset I am applying to my cooking en devours, I won't be doing this because it is for me, I will be cooking for God.

As I cook, I will post pictures and recipes for everything as well as talk about why I made the dish and the influences behind it. Cooking here at UC is a little hard, but I'm going to hope for one cooked meal a week. I hope you will enjoy this journey with me :)

Until next time,

Steve