Street & Savory, what a great concept!

I volunteered at the Street & Savory event for Citymeals-on-wheels. Street & Savory was a global street festival. Top chefs around the country came together and created their own favorite street food from dumplings to satay; sandwiches to tacos. The goal was to raise money for Citymeals-on-wheels. I was in awe of the creativity and the talent of all the participating chefs. It was truly a wonderful charity event, and I was so thrill to be a part of it.

The event took place at Rockefeller Center. I was assigned to work with Ed Brown, owner/chef of 81. His restaurant was recently awarded a Michelin Star. I met the chef and he introduced me to his staff. He grew up on the Jersey shore so he decide to set up his booth with a beach theme. There were sand, sea shells, salt water taffy, sand buckets with candles inside. It was a fun theme. His dish was a crispy clam roll with toasted hot dog bun top with a homemade tartar sauce. It was simple and delicious, something he grew up eating. As you know since I'm a big fan of fried food, this was right up my ally. I couldn't wait to get my hands on one of those rolls. It turned out I wouldn't be able to taste anything until the very end as we were one of the busiest stands at the event.

Words quickly spread and people were telling us they heard about these clam rolls and they want to know what the buzz was about. I was working with the Executive Sous Chef and putting the sandwiches together. The line was getting very long and we were working at a feverish pace. We served a lot of people and hours later, we finally ran out of food. Luckily I managed to get my hands on one of the last sandwiches. The crunchiness of the fried clam strips along with the toasted bun were just perfect, no wonder why everyone wanted one.

After we ran out of food, I was free to join the festivities so I wasted no time to visit some of the booths and tasted a few dishes. The kimchi quesadilla by Kogi Korean BBQ. The kimchi was not too spicy, it was definitely an interesting concept. Braised beef with carrot jam, brown butter couscous by Aziza. The beef was so tender, and well seasoned. So delicious, the beef just melted in your mouth. Next, roasted pork shoulder gyro with pickled cucumber & yogurt from Anthos. The pickled cucumber and yogurt sauce complimented so well with the pork shoulder. The texture and sourness of the pickled cucumber combined with the tendered pork gyro was outstanding. This is one of those perfect sandwiches that you can eat throughout the summer. The most creative was probably by Park Avenue Summer. Park Avenue restaurant is located on Park Avenue and 63rd Street. They change the restaurant's decor as well as its menu every season. Currently they are serving a summer menu. At the event they were serving a 5 course 3 minute picnic. They have a picnic table that seats eight people. In the center of the table there was a huge basket of waffle fries. First up, grape and cheeze-its, then smoked salmon and egg salad finger sandwiches, third was Dr. Pepper pulled pork, watermelon feta skewers and finally blueberry pie serves in a shot glass. Each course was a little bite of great flavors coming together and so much fun to eat.

Those were some of the dishes I tasted and wish I had room and time to taste more. I was grateful to given the opportunity to volunteer at this event. I was thrilled to learn that Always Hungry in New York voted the clam rolls as one of their favorites. I had such a wonderful experience. It also brought back fond memories of some of my favorite street food I had when I was growing up.

My love for all things fried, starting with Beignets.

For those who know me, I'm not a huge fan of desserts. I take savory over sweet any day. I have never baked any cookies or cakes or made any desserts until my pastry module in school last year. It was an overwhelming experience for me. I was totally intimidated. I know how to cook but making pastries and cakes? That's just not my thing. I was afraid I would be terrible at it. I confessed to my chef instructor right away, and he reassured me that it's ok, we can get through this together. I still remember him telling me not to be afraid of the dough when I was rolling out my puff pastries and bread dough. Through the guidance of my patient instructor, Chef Jeff, I became more confident and started to enjoy making desserts.

So from time to time, I experiment, this time I made beignets as these little fried dough are one of my absolute favorites. I love all things fried, fried chicken is the ultimate comfort food for me. As to dessert, topping my top 5 list has to be beignets.

A few years ago, I went to a local French restaurant. As we sat waiting for our first course to arrive, I saw these mini copper pots filled with beignets and I couldn't keep my eyes off of them as it seems everyone around us was ordering them for desserts. So of course I had to have them, and they are the most amazing little bites I've had. These beignets are stuffed with chocolate truffles! As you put one in your mouth, the warm chocolate just melts in your mouth along with the soft puffy dough, it was heaven! This restaurant no longer serves them as they now have a different owner/chef, but I got to know the chef and his family, and he told me how it is made. Though I haven't made an attempt to make those yet but soon and when I do, I'm sure you'll hear about them.

Anyway, before I start making the truffle stuffed beignets I thought I would try making the regular beignets. However after a twice-failed attempt Sunday night, I took a break and thought I would do some research on Monday. As a follower of Michael Ruhlman's blog, to my surprise I found on Monday morning, he posted a new entry about a pate a choux recipe which is the dough I need to make beignets. I was so excited that I wrote him and told him about the synchronicity. He was nice enough to reply and told me to check the ratio of the recipe as his new book is all about ratio. He uses this particular ratio for his pate a choux, 2 parts water, 1 part butter, 1 part flour and 2 parts eggs. So I thanked him and told him I can't wait to go home and make my attempt number 3.

Well I went home last night and did exactly what he said and this time, the dough was light and fluffy, it was exactly the way it should be. I was so excited. This is such an easy recipe, anyone can do it so go ahead and give it a try.



Beignets (this recipe makes about 2 dozen)
1 cup of water
1 stick of butter
1 cup of flour
4 eggs
2 tbsp of sugar
1/4 cup of chopped pecans (or any nuts you like or nuts are optional)
1/4 cup of powdered sugar

Boil water, butter, salt and sugar in a pot in high heat until it comes to a rolling boil.
Take the mixture off the heat then add in the flour and stir rapidly.
Put it back on medium heat and keep stirring until all the water is absorbed into the flour and the dough will pull to the side of the pot, cook for another minute or so.
Take it off the heat and let cool for about 5 minutes.
In another pot, heat some vegetable or canola oil for frying.
While the dough is cooling, you can add chopped pecans or any nuts you like.
Pour the mixture in a standing mixer fitted with the paddle.
Add one egg at a time, and mix until the egg is completely absorbed before adding the next egg.
The dough will become a bit sticky like a paste.
Using a teaspoon, scoop about a teaspoon or less dough, use another teaspoon to push the dough into the pot of oil for deep frying.
The dough will puff up and get larger, fried until golden brown.
Finish them with powdered sugar.

By the way, if you don't have a standing mixer, you can do this by hand with a wooden spoon and just stir. Be sure to let the pot cools before adding the eggs. These are best to enjoy while they are hot, so make a batch and share with your friends and family.

What's for brunch?

I have been craving for fresh bread lately, mostly Ciabatta rolls. These are the rolls they serve at the restaurant I externed at, and we often used these for garlic rolls or just toast with butter for snacks. I'm not a bread eater. My choice of carb are mostly noodles, pasta or rice. Bread is not something I would crave to eat. I wonder if in some way this means I miss the restaurant as I am craving for the Ciabatta rolls. Anyway when the craving hit late last week and I couldn't find any around, I settled for some sour dough and brioche rolls. I ate them but they didn't satisfy my craving. I did find some over the weekend, and they were so delicious.

But what should I do with the few of the other bread that I have left over. I didn't want to waste them so I looked around the fridge and found an unopened package of turkey kielbasa, some shredded parmigiano reggiano and eggs, and I made an egg and turkey kielbasa strata for brunch.





Egg & Turkey Kielbasa Strata
8 large eggs
1 cup of diced turkey kielbasa
1/2 cup of shredded parmigiano reggiano
2 sour dough rolls (diced)
2 brioche dough (diced)
Pinch of salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 350
Saute the turkey kielbasa at this point, if you're using other ingredients, you can pre cook them first, be sure to season with salt and pepper as needed.
Spray the bottom of a 10 x 10 casserole dish with cooking spray
Spread the diced bread covering the bottom of the dish.
Whisk the eggs, add salt and pepper then pour into the dish covering the eggs.
Sprinkle the kielbasa and the shredded cheese on top.
Put in the oven and bake it for 30 minutes. Test for doneness by inserting a knife in the middle of the casserole, when you take the knife out and it's completely dry then it is ready.
Cut into pieces and you can eat it like a slice of pizza.

As mentioned this is just one recipe that I made with the ingredients I have available. You can surely add as many variety of protein, vegetables, cheese or herb as you like.