As a young CIA student, my day one job was to prepare rice pilaf in Skills One with Chef Aldo Bagna... I've always been 'math challenged' & totally messed up the ratio-my pilaf was a disaster. Fortunately I'm an overachiever & had volunteered to prepare lentils, I brought my delicious lentils up for a final grade of A & ditched the pilaf. I've been a pilaf fan ever since.
Rice cooking
I learned to prepare rice from Puerto Rican chef Alfredo Ayala at a CIA Worlds of Flavor conference. He discarded all of my carefully prepared mise en place-poured a bag of rice on the counter and showed me how to pick out the bad grains... he told me he had eaten this rice dish every day of his life (about 65 years or so at that time); showed me to lightly toast whole cloves of garlic, toast the rice and prepare a delicious pilaf with water!
Cilantro Rice
Prep Time: 2o min
Cooking Time: 18 min
Yield: 4 portions
Ingredients
2 oz. Olive oil
3 ea Garlic, whole cloves (peeled)
1 Cup. Long grain Rice
t.t. Kosher Salt & Crushed Black pepper
1 3/4 Cups Water, hot
4 Tbsp Herbs, freshly chopped (cilantro)
How to Prepare Rice
Step 1
Heat olive oil in a sauce pot, when hot add the garlic and lightly cook until golden brown... add the rice and toast it (parch it) to gelatinize the starches and add a little flavor. This will take about 4 minutes, season with salt and pepper.
Step 2
Add the hot water, stirring with a wooden spoon to mix with the rice. Bring the water to a simmer & cover-simmer slowly on top of the stove or place into a preheated oven at 350 F.
Cook until tender, about 18 minutes.
Step 3
Fluff the cooked rice with a fork and fold in the cilantro.
Season to taste.
I think my favorite cobbler was a recipe I developed with Chef Joshua Mackintosh for an ACF student chef competition. We used raspberries, blueberries, strawberries & dark chocolate chips for the filling. It was delicious. Josh came in second place... hmmm \I'm not sure I agreed with that evaluation! hahaha
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Often when I'm fishing, people catch bluefish or skate and throw them back. I always run over and ask to keep one or two. Bluefish are quick and easy to fabricate and a delicious dinner to prepare when I get back home from fishing all day. I prefer simply dredging in seasoned flour and frying pieces in olive oil & butter mixed together. Perfect with cold beer or white wine!
My first professional cooking job was as the poissonnier at Le Cirque in Manhattan. Occasionally the Chef asked me to make fried fingers (goujons) of flounder family meal. Being right out of culinary school, I set up the normal mise en place for standard breading; a tray of sifted flour, eggs and breadcrumbs. Chef came over and taught me the quicker method... flour the seasoned fish in a bowl, add eggs to the floured fish (same bowl) and then breadcrumbs (same bowl). (one bowl and a fraction of the time)! To this day, that’s the method I use to make crispy, fried goujons-these photos are with bluefish fillets Junnie and I caught.
I see fisherman fillet their fish, discard the head & frame! They're amazing at catching fish but have little experience fabricating or cooking the beautiful, fresh fish they get. I'm very interested in sustainability & respectful when I take a fish. I cook from head to tail... that's where the tender, 'chef' cuts are... cheeks, head, on the bones etc... which is perfect for salads, pasta, rice and this frittata. The first time I ate this frittata, I actually thought it was crabmeat!