Come to one of our classes and join in the fun. We talk, we learn, we enjoy ourselves. And we have fun while cooking healthy food and even throw in a few time saving tips and tricks of the trade!
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Tapas Recipes
Cumin and Lemon Cream Cheese Stuffed Dates in Puff Pastry
Take an 8 oz container of cream cheese at room temperature, add the zest of a lemon and the juice from the same lemon. Add a half tablespoon cumin and mix well. Take 24 dates and remove the pit. Stuff with about a tablespoon of the cheese mixture. Thaw your puff pastry and then cut each sheet into twelve pieces. Take each piece and wrap around a stuffed date. Place on baking sheet and brush with beaten egg. Bake in hot, (450) oven until well browned, about 15 minutes.
Chorizo Stuffed Rolls
Brown a pound or so of good chorizo in a large skillet in a tablespoon olive oil over medium heat. When it changes color and loses the redness, add a cup diced onion and pepper. Cook another 4 to 5 minutes. Allow to cool slightly. Take some regular whole wheat bread dough and pinch off a golf ball sized piece. Flatten into about a 3 inch circle, place in the palm of your hand. Add a heaping spoonful of the chorizo mix into the middle, then fold the edges up and around the filling, seal by pinching the edges together. Place on a baking sheet and cover, allow to double in size. Brush with beaten egg and bake at 400 for about 20 minutes.
Chorizo and Dates
This fabulous dish is unbelievable tasty. And simple. Make some small patties about 2 inches in diameter and 1/2 inch thick. Fry in olive oil until browned, set on paper towel to drain. In a clean skillet, heat a tablespoon butter and throw in as many date halves as you have chorizo patties. Cook for a minute or so, then toss in 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves, 1/4 teaspoon cumin, and 1/2 teaspoon cayenne. Toss together well and allow to cook until starting to brown. Drizzle with just a touch of honey and stir again. Place one date atop each chorizo piece and garnish with sliced chives.
Mushrooms and Brea
Aioli
In a blender, blend 4 roasted garlic cloves, a pinch sea salt, a big pinch cayenne, a tablespoon good wine vinegar, a teaspoon lemon juice and 2 egg yolks until well blended. Drizzle in slowly 1 cup olive oil. When emulsified and all the oil is incorporated, turn off blender and scrape the stuff out into a jar.
Recipes for Cajun Basics Class
Take 2 chicken thighs and put in a saucepan with a quart of water, a cutup carrot, some onion skins, 2 ribs celery, and some thyme sprigs and bay leaves. Simmer for 20 minutes. Take the thighs out and remove the meat, chop finely. Strain the stock and reserve 4 and a half cups. In pressure cooker, heat 2 tablespoons olive oil and then toast 2 cups brown rice in the oil for 4 or 5 minutes. Add 4 cups of the stock, bring to a boil and add the pressure lid. Bring to pressure, lower heat and cook at pressure for 25 minutes. Remove from heat and allow pressure to lower naturally. Now, in large skillet, cook 1 pound chicken livers in 2 tablespoons olive oil. (okay, you can use bacon fat if you want) Remove the livers when cooked through. Chop finely on cutting board or use food processor. In the skillet, add more oil or bacon fat if needed. Sauté 1 cup each diced onion, celery, and bell pepper until soft. Add 6 to 12 cloves garlic chopped fine, just depends on how much you like garlic. Add a bit of salt and pepper, the chopped chicken thighs, the livers and now toss in the cooked rice. Add the reserved half cup of stock and stir the mix well and continue to cook until the stock is absorbed. Season with some Cajun seasoning, and serve with lots of chopped parsley.
Ettouffe is just gravy with stuff. The trick and the technique is cooking the basic roux until the flour becomes dark brown. This gives the resultant gravy a rich toasty, nutty flavor that is characteristic of this dish. Remember, as flour toasts, it loses the ability to thicken sauces, so more dark roux is needed to achieve the same consistency you would get with a light roux for a light gravy. Melt 1 stick butter in a large saucepan. Add 1/2 cup olive oil and one cup unbleached organic all purpose flour. Stir well, and over medium low heat, cook, stirring frequently, until the roux becomes dark brown, about twenty minutes. Add a half cup each, finely diced onion, bell pepper and celery. Cook for another 5 minutes. Add ¼ cup Cajun seasoning mix. Add another half cup each of the onion, pepper and celery. Cook another 5 minutes. Add 3 cups of stock, shrimp stock if you have it. Stir well, bring to a boil and simmer until thick. Add shrimp, or crawfish tails, or chicken, or really, any meat or seafood. Let it cook a bit in the gravy and then serve over dirty rice, or try the recipe below.
Shrimp Ettouffe Pot Pie
Take some of the Ettouffe mix and place in oven proof dish. Cover with puff pastry or regular pie dough. (Okay, I know, puff paste is not that healthy. But you don’t eat it everyday.) Bake in a hot oven (450) until well browned. Serve.
Usually Jambalaya is rice cooked with sausages, chicken and seafood placed atop the rice and all the flavors are able infuse themselves into the meats. I like doing it that way, because once again it gives me a chance to tell people about the health benefits of brown rice. But here, I am cooking everything together with tomatoes and then serving it over pasta. It gives me a chance to showcase one of my newest creations, Spicy Cajun Linguine.
Cut up a chicken and liberally coat with Cajun spice mix. In a large pressure cooker brown 4 slices bacon. Remove and chop. Add the chicken and brown, about 4 minutes per side. Remove from pan and add 1 cup each of chopped celery, onion, and pepper. Saute for about 2 minutes. Add some garlic, you know, however much you like. Add a pound of sliced smoked sausage. Add two 14.5 ounce cans petite diced tomatoes, one 6 ounce can tomato paste, and throw in about 6 to 8 tablespoons Cajun seasoning. Add the chicken and bacon back into the pot, bring to a boil and put the pressure lid on. Bring to pressure and cook for 12 minutes. Cool pot in the sink under cold running water. Remove lid. Place back on stove and bring to a boil and reduce the liquid by half. Add some shrimp, and cook until pink. Cook a pound of Spicy Cajun Linguine in boiling salted water. Drain and toss with 3 tablespoons olive oil. Place on large platter, then spoon the Jambalaya mix over the top. Garnish with lots of chopped parsley.
Recipes for Bread Class
PIZZA
Basic Info
Pizza truly is just bread dough rolled out thinly, (or thickly) and baked with a variety of ingredients added to it. SADly (Standard American Diet) we all to often just go with red tomato type sauce, mozzarella, and meat. My pizzas are light years away from those calorie laden cardboard boxed things that have few, if any, nutrients left in them and cause more bloating and constipation in this country than probably most anything else out there. Here’s how to improve the nutrition of this staple, if you feed your kids healthy pizza from a young age, they will shy away from the delivery stuff.
Pizza dough needs to be a bit stiffer than regular whole wheat dough. If you have been to any of my bread classes at the store, then you will know that in order to have bread that is light and fluffy, you need to keep it sticky and add as little flour into the dough as possible. Although that works great for loaves, it is hard to make pizza crusts with dough that sticky. Make your dough using the basic bread recipe, except when it is just beginning to mix and pull away from the sides of the bowl, add another ½ to ¾ cup flour. Let knead for the 9 minutes and feel the dough. It should be just slightly sticky, but still hold together and allow you to form it into a ball on an oiled counter top. Pinch off a big ball and roll it out with a rolling pin into a circle just large enough for your pan. Lift the dough on one edge and slide the pan under it. Freeze it this way and wrap in plastic wrap for fast pizza construction, or allow to rise and make a pizza right away. I also like deep dish pizza and so do the same as above, just with more dough and then throw it into a deep dish pan and allow to rise for a while before building the pizza. Try some of these ideas for truly unique pizza.
Chicken Parmesan Pizza
In a small bowl, mix a half cup of bread crumbs with a cup of parmesan cheese. (actually I use Asiago, I like the flavor, and the price) Take two chicken breasts and place in a heavy plastic freezer bag. Use a mallet or heavy skillet and pound out to uniform 3/8 inch thickness. Next beat an egg with a couple tablespoons milk, and place in flat pan. Put some flour into another pan and season well with pepper and Italian spices. Then in third pan place the bread crumbs. Dip the breasts into the flour, shake off the excess and then dip into the egg. Place into the crumbs and make sure well coated with the cheese and crumbs. Heat a ½ cup olive oil in a large skillet and fry the breasts on medium high heat until browned on each side. Remove from pan and drain on towels. Cut into bite size pieces. Spread all over pizza dough crust. Cover with a GOOD marinara, preferable one that you made yourself, like my twenty minute marinara recipe found elsewhere in the recipe section. Cover with cheese and bake it. Man, this is the bomb, excellent stuff.
Healthy Mushroom Extravaganza Pizza
This actually works really well with onions as
well, I just like how the mushrooms come out.
Actually you could cook them both and make an exceptional
pizza. Take about 8
ounce mushrooms and slice them into thick, ¼ inch slices.
In a large skillet, heat about 3 tablespoons olive oil just
until beginning to smoke.
Add the mushrooms, sprinkle a small amount of salt on them.
Crack some black pepper over them and then add a big pinch
crushed red pepper. Cook
until beginning to brown, stir well and brown some more.
After about 8 to 10 minutes they should be well browned, add
a half cup
Breakfast Pizza
Okay, really, breakfast. Yeah, try it, it is pretty fantastic. It works best with deep dish style. Make sure the dough goes up the sides of the pan a little ways. Beat 3 or 4 eggs well and use that as sauce instead of marinara. Add the cheese, then top with sausages, onions, peppers, sliced tomatoes, or what ever you like on a pizza, or in an omelet.
Get Some Veggie Sausages
Spicy Chorizo Style Sausage Rolls
INGREDIENTS
- 1 cup cooked pinto beans
- 1 cup vegetable broth
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 cup whole wheat flour
- ¼ cup nutritional yeast
- 2 tablespoons chili powder
- 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 1 teaspoon each, cayenne, paprika, oregano, black pepper
1. Prepare steaming apparatus, bring water to a full boil.
Place 6 to 8 corn husks in
the water, boil for 1 minute and using tongs, remove and drain.
2.
In a large bowl, mash the pinto beans until no whole ones are left.
Throw all the other ingredients together in the order listed and mix
with a fork. Divide dough into 6 even parts. Place one part of dough
onto one edge of corn husk and mold into about a 5 inch log. Roll
dough in husk, like a tootsie roll. Don’t worry too much about
shaping it, it will snap into shape while it’s steaming.
Tie ends with cotton twine.
3. Place wrapped sausages in steamer and steam for 40 minutes.
INGREDIENTS:
- 1 cup Raw bulgur wheat* -- cooked
- 1/4 cup whole wheat flour
- 2 eggs
- 1 tablespoon Nutritional yeast
- 2 tablespoons Tamari
- 1 teaspoon Dried basil leaves
- 1/2 teaspoon Poultry seasoning
- 1/2 teaspoon Paprika
- 1/2 teaspoon Sage
- 1/2 teaspoon Garlic powder
- 1/2 teaspoon Black pepper
- 1/4 teaspoon Crushed dried red pepper -- flakes
DIRECTIONS:
- To cook bulgur wheat: Put one cup bulgur
wheat in a saucepan with 2 1/2 cups water and one teaspoon salt.
Bring to a boil, then turn down to medium-low and simmer for 20 to 25 minutes.
Remove from heat and let stand for 10 minutes before using. - In a bowl, mix cooked bulgur wheat and whole wheat flour well.
- Add nutritional yeast to egg; mix into bulgur mixture.
- Add tamari and the rest of the seasonings, mixing well.
- Form into logs. Wrap in cheese cloth and tie ends together with cotton twine. Take aluminum foil and wrap each log with at least 4 wraps, twist ends together. Hang one end from inverted steamer and cover with foil, bring to a boil and steam for 20 minutes.
- Allow to cool and remove foil top, then remove foil from sausages. Remove water and place wood chips in bottom of steamer. Cover tightly and place on high heat for 4 minutes, reduce heat to medium and smoke for 15 minutes.
Italian Sausage
- 1 cup
crushed Triscuit Crackers
- ½ cup
toasted bread crumbs
- 1 cup
mozzarella cheese, grated
- 2 eggs
- ¼ cup
Italian Seasoning
- ¼ cup
finely chopped onion
- 3 cloves
garlic
- 1 head of
cabbage, steamed
- marinara
sauce
Directions
Mix all
together first 7 ingredients.
Take a ¼ cup of the mixture and place on large end of cabbage
leaf, roll up burrito style and place in large skillet.
Repeat for remaining mixture.
Pour marinara over rolls and bring to a boil.
Reduce to simmer and cook covered for 20 minutes.
Serve with or without the cabbage.
Visiting Chef Roy will teach healthy cooking techniques to you, your group, or your company. Just call to arrange Healthy Cooking!
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