Cracking an egg one handed is not too hard - it takes a bit of practice and a lot of confidence. If you have any out of date eggs in the house that's a great place to start. You'll get more out of the video than you will my writing on how to do this... What I will say is, crack the egg carefully, then commit to getting the job done and just do it....
The Kings Head is my favorite pub in the greater Jacksonville area. The pub itself was shipped over from England, and it's full of interesting items that Ann (the owner) brought over with her. For the past 3 or so years I've gone there for New Years Eve and it's a blast. The best part is that they celebrate on England time! So at 7:30 we're sing ole lang sine and getting on with the evening - home before the whackjobs hit the streets... That makes me sound really old but it is fun...
The fish and chips - The best thing going at the pub if you ask me. I get it almost every time I'm there. They do a proper fish and the chips are spot on... No mushy peas though :(
Curry chips - These are the best curry chips I've had outside of England...
Garlic Shrimp. I'd pass - I'm glad I tried it once but it really wasn't all that good. They do so many things perfect that they have to have one downer in the bunch... A lot of people seem to order it but it just wasn't my thing.
Stilton soup. OMG this is so dang good. It's rich and creamy - good to the last bite...
Escargot - It's fantastic
Cheese Plate - They usually have a few nice selections and good crackers
Scotch Egg - Well I can do better at home, but it's not bad...
Me enjoying a black castle... Half Guinness and half Newcastle...
May I introduce you to Anne - She owns the pub. What an interesting person...
If you're ever in the Jacksonville / St. Augustine area I'd highly suggest stopping in for a pint.
Restaurant Medure is one of my favorite places to eat in Ponte Vedra Beach. The food is really top notch. Beyond the food the service was always fantastic. The restaurant was shut down 2008 but has now reopened. I like the new version of the restaurant much better. It's a bit more fun and the new menu is fabulous...
Mojito of goodness...
The Pastry Chef...
The bread plate. They always serve a nice mix of bred...
See sometimes things for free are good... This was a little shrimp something or other.
Duck confit risotto. This was so dang good. The risotto was perfect...
The special appetizer. Sadly I have no remembrance as to what this was... I remember it being really good though...
Lamb... It was quite delish...
Yummy Goodness - This was a strawberry cream the pastry chef had made for the souffles - I jokingly said I could drink it out of a cup and this is what I got... Was really good...
The cheese plate. They get their cheeses from a distributor in North Florida called Twin Bridges - Amazing cheeses!
The bill - It's not your every day dinner, but when you want to have a special night out - this is the spot...
As you can see by the bill this dinner was back in 2007...
I've made different versions of this dish for a while now, but I think this simple version is my favorite. The dish takes little effort on your part. It's rather flexable what you serve it with - most veggies will go with it, and it's good with rice or pasta...
2 Chicken breasts 3-4 Shallots, small dice 1/2 Lb mushrooms, cleaned and sliced 2 Tbsp butter, unsalted only please 1 Tbsp olive oil 2 Cups chicken stock 1 Tbsp Dijon mustard 1 tsp thyme, dried - or 2 tsp fresh Salt Pepper, fresh ground please
Heat a medium sized saute pan to a medium heat, and add the butter and olive oil.. Once the butter has melted, add the shallots and a pinch of salt; let cook for 2 to 3 minutes. Once the shallots are happy add the mushrooms, thyme, and another small pinch of salt - stir will. Let the mushrooms cook for about 5 minutes or until they start to brown. When the mushrooms have browned add the Dijon and the chicken stock, stir well. Add the chicken and cook covered until the chicken is 75% done - turn the chicken over half way through the cooking. Remove the cover and reduce the liquid to about a half cup. Serve - Eat - Enjoy...
The first time I had a curried egg salad was 1996. I remember this because I had just bought a house down the street from a good bagel joint. One day I ordered an egg salad bagel and he had put curry in it. I loved it! I've been making curried egg salad ever since. This is an easy sandwich to make and is good anytime of the day...
Start with a dang good bagel. My favorite bagels come from Ray's Bagels. They're made by Just Bagels in Brooklyn. They're fantastic...
Toast the bagel...
I use Penzeys Spices - They're the best I've found and they're cheaper than what I get in the market... You can use a sweet or hot curry powder... www.penzeys.com and tell them cookingmyway.com sent you!
Cut up a few hard boiled eggs. I'm not going to go through the process of making boiled eggs here because we'll get to that in another post.
Start with a teaspoon of the curry powder then go from there to get the taste you want.
Mix in a few tablespoons of mayo. You can make your own mayo for this (it would be really good I assure you), but I get mine from Kraft...
Wash and dry some nice lettuce. Put a few pieces on the bottom of the bagel.
Top with the egg salad...
The finished sandwich... It's quite messy to eat so get a fork and a few napkins... It's well worth it though...
The origin of the name is unclear... But the goodness that comes from making the dish is known by all who has tried it (if you tried it and didn't like it then there could be something wrong with you). Beef Wellington is the combination of beef tenderloin, pate (which I opt not to use), duxelles, all wrapped up in a puff pastry... I've seen some recipes include wrapping the coated meat in a crepe to retain the moisture and prevent it making the pastry soggy - but I've yet to try that but it sounds like a good idea... Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
The Beef Tenderloin
Start with good meat. These came from my local market. Trim off any fat (if there is any), and give them a nice salt and peppering. You will want to sear these off on a grill or a rocket hot pan. Depending on your desired doneness you can throw them in the oven for 10 min or so to cook them a bit - I like mine medium...
Duxelles
1 lb mushrooms, chopped 3 Tbsp butter, unsalted please 1 Shallot, finely chopped 1/2 tsp dried thyme (or can use fresh) 1/4 Cup Dry vermouth, sherry, or white wine Salt Pepper
Pulse the mushrooms and shallot in a food processor until you get a fine dice but not a paste. Put the mushroom mixture into a clean towel and squeeze out as much liquid as you can. Heat a large (10-inch) non-stick skillet over a burner set between medium and medium-high. Add in 1.5 tablespoons of the butter and let it melt. Add mushrooms, shallots, a pinch of salt, a pinch of black pepper, and thyme. In about five minutes the mushrooms will start to seem dry and will start to brown. Stir in the remaining butter, then once incorporated add the vermouth, sherry, or wine. Cook, stirring frequently, until the vermouth has evaporated. Remove from the pan and let cool.
Puff The Magic Pastry
Feel free to make your own but I buy my from Pillsbury... Thaw the pastry according to the package.
Assemble
Add a base of the mushrooms to the center of the pastry, then put on the beef. Top with more mushrooms. fold over the longer sides, brushing with a simple egg wash (1 egg 1 Tbsp water) to seal. Trim the ends if necessary and brush with egg wash and fold over to completely seal the beef. Save the ends to use as a decoration on top if desired. Brush the top of the pastry with egg wash then make a couple of slits in the top of the pastry using the tip of a paring knife. I find that you will have a crisper crust if you put in a few vents - letting the steam escape makes since right? Bake for 40 to 45 minutes until pastry is golden brown. Remove from oven and rest before serving. You can use an instant read thermometer to test the doneness of of the meat.
Medium-Rare
145 °F
Medium
155 °F
Medium-Well
165 °F
Well Done
170 °F
The finished dish...
This is really easy to do. It's one of my favorites...
Bon Appetit...
~Nikko
P.S. - I have a video for this dish but really need to remake it... It's long and the video quality sucks...
Hamburger love... Angel's Dining Car is just that - an old converted railway train car. Angel's is the oldest diner in Florida - it opened in 1932. Angel's is decorated on the inside with a 1950's decor with a old time jukebox, 50's records on the wall and they still offer drive in service.
The food is freaking amazing - Hamburgers available from .25 pound to a whopping 1 pound! (the photo below is a half pound burger) They also have great fries, onion rings, fried okra, hand dipped shakes, and other traditional diner food. To me half the fun of Angel's is the ride there. From where I live you can take nice wooded country roads to get there.
If you're in North Florida it's worth the trip over to Palatka to give them a try...
They're open 7 days a week 24 hours a day...
Angel's Dining Car 209 Reid St Palatka, FL 32177-3729 (386) 325-3927
Some of my favorite places to eat are hole in the wall restaurants. As you can see this little 8x5 pull behind falls into that category. I was driving to a meeting when I passed this gem parked in a gas station lot. I spied it out of the corner of my eye and had to turn around to give it a shot. The only bad thing is, out of all the times I've been back I can never find this place! Since it's on wheels it's easy to move and OMG I want more so dang badly! If you know how to get a hold of them please let me know!
I have said below that there is quite a difference between Tex-Mex and Mexican food. Although you can make a mole in 2 hours - it takes 2 days to make a proper mole. Although you can smother your tacos in the Kraft or Sargento Mexican blend cheese - they wouldn't do it in Mexico. There are many others and I'm working on a blog to point out some of the big differences I've experienced. When I talk about Mexican food I'm talking about eating outside of Cancun & Cozumel - most of the food these places is more Americanized... Anyway click the photo and you can see what their menu was like - 100% Yum.
There was quite the language barrier when it came to ordering - my Spanish is quite horrible, and she didn't speak a lick of English. It all worked out though and I got exactly what I wanted.
My lunch: This was 100% fantastic. Sour cream, and a roasted salsa accompanied my gordita and taco. One was chicken (bock bock bock is how I ordered it) and the other was beef (moooo for that one)...
I love the CurrySimple products. I've yet to try one that wasn't good. No, it is not as good as making the same dish from scratch, but when I come home tired from work and I have a taste for Thai you can not beat it! They really do take the thought process out of making a dang good Thai dish...
A long long time ago I had seen a CurrySimple podcast and became interested in the product. It was a long time after that, that I found it on a shelf of my local Whole Foods. I bought the Green Curry and gave it a shot. Like I normally do I made a video recipe - I submitted the recipe to the www.ILoveCurrySimple.com site and the rest is history - I've done 4 or 5 videos with the products now and have 3 more in the can.
The CurrySimple Pad Thai Sauce makes life so much easier - and it's amazing without any fuss... I've tried to make Pad Thai a few times and failed hard - there's just too much to put in there... With the sauce it came out as good as I've ever had in any restaurant. I've made it quite a few times now and it's always been really good. I'm on my second order...
There's not much to say here but to watch the video and do not cut yourself! Always use a sharp knife - It makes your cutting job easier, and will reduce accidents!
I've never been here but I get a kick out of the sign every time I drive past it. The Beefy King is located in Orlando, Florida. I've had a few clients tell me it's really good, but I've yet to make the stop - One of these days I most certainly will - and I'll let you know what I think.
Their website said they opened for business in 1967 but for some reason the sign says 1968... I'm too lazy to email or call to find out the real number - not that it really matters...
If you've ever been here leave a comment and let us know what you think!
www.beefyking.com
424 N. Bumby Ave. Orlando, FL 32803-6028 407-894-2241
I love me a good Sandwich. There's just so many possibilities...
This all came together while walking through Costco. Had the baguettes in the cart - saw the steak and that sounded good - the spinach was next and I've been thinking of a mushroom pate for a while - they all worked together quite well...
Start With A Nice Baguette
The baguette came from Costco - they have pretty dang good bread products there; if you've never tried them you should...
Add Some Dijon Mustard
Just your average Dijon mustard - could use just about anything here I guess (well maybe not standard yellow mustard)
Pile On Some Fresh Spinach
Washed and uncooked spinach - gave a nice crunch and mix of textures...
A Nice Helping Of A Simple Mushroom Pate
The mushroom pate was very simple - normally I'd go with a pound of mushrooms, 1 small onion, 2 cloves garlic, thyme, splash of cognac, butter, half and half or cream cheese - cook all but the cream or cheese them blitz them all together to the consistency you want...
Lay On The Steak
I used flank steak. It sat in some beer, garlic, salt, pepper, dash of cumin. Grilling it would be best but this was done in a pan on t he stove...
Steak, Mushroom Pate, & Spinach Sandwich
This was one for the keeper pile - it was freaking amazing...
I love Skyline Chili. The only problem is that the closest one to me is some 300 miles away. That's actually probably a good thing or I would go there almost every day and weigh 300 pounds. They're recipe comes from my country of Greece (and no that's not the only reason I like it). The chili has a fantastic flavor. Some markets sell cans of the chili or you can find it in some frozen sections. You can get it directly from the Skyline website too. www.skylinechili.com I've always thought it was cool that they severed it over pasta. I can still remember going in for the first time when I was a 13 or so with my mother - I remember thinking - Pasta, Chili, Cheese what could be wrong with that - NOTHING was the answer. I fell in love after the first bite. There are multiple ways you can order your chili:
The 3-Way - Spaghetti, chili, and shredded cheddar cheese. (My favorite)
The 4-Way - A 3-Way with diced onions or red beans
The 5-Way - A 3-Way with diced onions and red beans
Chili Spaghetti - Spaghetti and chili only
I've met some people who are pretty passionate about the way they order their Skyline chili. I have only had the 3-way - It's so dang good why go anywhere else? It just can't get any better by adding anything to it...
They do have some pretty dang good coneys - mini hot dogs covered with the chili and cheese...
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Sitting at the counter watching them make the goods...
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Here is a recipe that will get you pretty close to what they make.
2 lbs ground beef 2 cups chopped onions 4 cups beef stock 2 (8 ounce) cans tomato sauce 2-3 Tbsp chili powder 2 Tbsp apple cider vinegar 2 tsp Worcestershire sauce 1/2 ounce grated unsweetened chocolate or 2 3/4 Tbsp cocoa 2 tsp instant minced garlic 1 tsp ground cinnamon 1 tsp ground cumin 1/2 tsp salt 1/2 tsp ground red pepper or cayenne pepper 1/4 tsp ground allspice 1/4 tsp ground cloves 1 bay leaf or 1/8 tsp bay leaf powder
Directions
Brown ground beef and onion, once cooked drain well. Add the beef stock to beef mixture and simmer 10 minutes. Add remaining 13 ingredients, simmer uncovered 1 hour. Remove bay leaf, skim off extra fat. Serve over hot spaghetti, or hot dogs in buns for chili dogs. Top with plenty of cheese and other optional toppings.
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