Written by Pompous Palate Staff on 27 August 2010
Chef Carla Pellegrino Baccala' alla Pizzaiola
Baccala’ alla Pizzaiola – serve 6
The best “Baccala” comes from Norwegian, it’s a type of Cod fish found in the Arctic Ocean, made dry and after generously cover by salt, when prepared in the same way, but without the salt bath it called “Stoccafisso”. Before cooking it needs to be soaked in pure water, better if it’s running, for about 18 hours, then soak in hot water (180F) for at least ½ hour to lose the remained salt, then deboned and taken the skin off. This cured Cod fish it’s considered a delicacy throughout Europe especially Italy, France and Portugal.
Ingredients:
3lbs Baccala already unsalted, peeled and deboned
4tbs Plain toasted Bread crumbs
6 Plum tomatoes (peeled, seeded and cut into strips)
1tbs Italian parsley (chopped)
1tbs Fresh oregano (chopped)
10 oz Regular olive oil
½ cup White wine (dry)
Salt & ground white pepper to taste
PROCEDURE:
1- Cut the Baccala in 6 ounces pieces and return it to a hot water (180F) for about ½ hour, drain it and pat dry the pieces
2- Spray or brush olive oil over a roast sheet surface, lay the portions of Baccala in it, brush each portion with olive oil and lightly sprinkle salt and pepper over it
3- Pour a thin layer of bread crumbs over each portion, pour over the tomatoes strips, sprinkle homogenously the chopped parsley and fresh oregano, pour over all a cup of olive oil and the white wine
4- Bring the sheet into pre-heated 375F oven and let it roast for about half hour, or until the bread crumbs gets golden color. Serve immediately!!!!
Bolgheri Bianco DOC, Gavi di Gavi – la scolca DOC – Rao’s Pinot Grigio 2007
Tags: Baccala’ alla Pizzaiola, Carla pellegrino, Italian, Italian food, Rao's
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Written by Pompous Palate Staff on 24 August 2010
Three Square brings you restaurant week
Restaurant Week Help Out by Dining Out! August 30 – September 5, 2010 Once again, Three Square will be partnering up with the finest restaurants in Las Vegas to bring you Restaurant Week. This is your chance to sample the cuisine of world-famous Chefs at a fixed price with the proceeds going to help Three Square end hunger in Southern Nevada. Specially-designed Restaurant Week menus feature three-course meals at three price points – $20.10, $30.10 and $50.10 per person. You can find a list of participating restaurants and their Restaurant Week menus here http://www.threesquare.org/events/event-calendar/restaurant-week/ . The Pompous Palate will keep you up to date with any of their future events.
The Pompous Palate Suggests you try the following restaurants:
· Alizé at the Top of the Palms- Dinner $50.10
· Cafe Bleu- Lunch $20.10 Dinner $30.10
· Dos Caminos- Dinner $50.10 Lunch $30.10
· Eiffel Tower- Lunch $30.10
· Fleur de Lys- Dinner $30.10 Dinner $50.10
· L’Atelier de Joel Robuchon- Dinner $50.10
· Mesa Grill- Lunch $30.10 Dinner $50.10
· Origin India Dinner- $30.10
· Panevino Ristorante- DInner $50.10
· Prime Steakhouse at Bellagio- Dinner $50.10
· Rao’s- Dinner $50.10 Lunch $20.10
· Rick Moonen’s RM seafood- Dinner $50.10
· Seablue by Michael Mina- Dinner $50.10
· Smith & Wollensky-Dinner $50.10
· Tom Colicchio’s Craftsteak- Dinner $50.10
Tags: restaurant week, three square
Posted in Celebrity Chefs, Food News | No Comments »
Written by Pompous Palate Staff on 24 August 2010
Fresh & Easy's New "Farm to store in 24" Campaign
Everyone wants fresh locally grown foods these days, it’s the latest craze. Of course businesses respond to current market trends McDonald’s is touting a new “organic” and “local” menu, however I am just not sure that’s really the point. McDonalds Organic is one hell of an oxymoron. The only place I can go normally is whole foods to get my fresh fruits and vegetables. I need to take overtime at work to shop there. Have no fear Fresh & Easy is here. Afordable, fresh locally grown fruit and vegetables. Their selection is amazing and you will buy way to much fruit the first few times you go.
Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market, an energy-efficient supermarket chain in California, Arizona and Nevada, started their “Farm to Store in 24″ pilot program earlier this summer with grapes and strawberries picked and shelved within 24 hours. Their customers liked it so much, the company has decided to roll it right into fall, introducing local stone fruit for August and root vegetables come September. Keep up the good work Fresh & Easy, we really appreciate it!
Look for the "Farm to store in 24" seal
Tags: farm fresh, Farm to store in 24, Fresh & easy, fresh local, organic fruits, organic vegetables
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Written by Pompous Palate Staff on 24 August 2010
Ingredients
- 1 lb loaf white bread (cut into cubes)
- 6 eggs (beaten well)
- 1 cup prosciutto (diced)
- 1 cup salami (diced)
- 4 ounces pepperoni (diced)
- 16 ounces mozzarella (diced)
- 1/4 cup grated Locatelli cheese
- 2 tablespoons fresh parsley (Chopped)
- Salt and Pepper to taste
- Chicken broth to moisten the bread
Procedure
Place bread cubes in a large bowl and drizzle with enough chicken broth to get the bread moist but not wet. Add eggs, prosciutto, salami, pepperoni, mozzarella, Parmesan, parsley and pepper and mix well. Place stuffing in a bowl or casserole dish. If using a casserole dish, bake tented with aluminum foil, at 375 degrees for 35 to 45 minutes. You can add a little salt too but beeeeeeeee easyyyyyyyy there is a lot of salty meats in there, but sometimes I feel it just needs a touch more.
I have also done this recipe with Sausage. Left out the pepperoni and Salami added both sweet and hot Italian sausage.
Tags: chef catapano, italian stuffing
Posted in Private Chef's Las Vegas, Top Chef Recipes | No Comments »
Written by Pompous Palate Staff on 14 August 2010
iphone cupcakes
The App Store is overflowing with food applications that can convert recipes, find local fresh ingredients, or even pair your food with wine. The best part is none will cost you more than $2.99. You’ve heard enough? Check out our favorite foodie apps and download them until you’re full.
1) Lovacore: Know the food in season near you. Eating local food when it’s in season is an increasingly popular goal amongst people who are interested in eating the tastiest, healthiest food while also being good to the environment. Knowing what’s available in your area at a given time of year is often difficult to determine, so Locavore has taken on the task of collecting data from a variety of sources and presenting it all in the most understandable of ways. The Locavore iPhone app will come in handy next time you’re at the market and want to know what’s actually being grown near you, and what is most likely to taste the best right now.
2) Serving Size Pro: Finding recipes is easier than ever with the popularity of cooking channels, online sources, clubs, and celebrity chefs. However, people often find themselves wanting to make the latest recipe for a different number of guests. Serving Sizer Pro meets this need by easily scaling entire recipes from one serving size to another without having to think about fraction math and saves the recipe to resize again later.
3) All Recipes Pro (AKA Dinner Spinner): AllRecipes.com iPhone app called Dinner Spinner Pro and its fantastic and very user friendly. Available for $2.99 in the AppStore, the application allows users to access the complete Allrecipes.com recipe library, add recipes to personal Recipes Boxes, create shopping lists, share recipes, upload photos to AllRecipes.com, and more. This fun app is designed and developed to help foodies in need of trying something new by using the “spin feature”. For instance if you want to have chicken you can pick chicen and use the spinner to pick randaomly sauces cooking times, vegetables to go with it. Don’t like the choioces, spin again! It uses All recipes vast library of recipes to come up with delicious new combos for you to try.
4) Ipairings: Featuring 131 wine varietals, iPairings provides over 1,400 food, wine and cheese pairings from your iPhone or iPod Touch. Choose your food (or cheese) and find wine pairing suggestions, including a brief description of the wine. Instantly filter results by red or white wine to find your ideal preference.
5) Food Substitutes: Need to know how to substitute all-purpose flour for cake flour, or can’t find creme fraiche need a substitute? You can find food substitutes for recipes in eight different categories with this app.
Tags: all recipes, all recipes pro, Allrecipes.com, food apps, Food Substitutes, Ipairings, iphone, lovacore, Seving Size Pro, wine pairing
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Written by Pompous Palate Staff on 14 August 2010
Maine-Seafood-Chowder
2 cups of Onions Finely Chopped
1 cup of Shallots finely chopped
4 cups potatoes, cubed
3 cups of clams, shucked save shells for garnish
1 lb. halibut cut to about the size of the clams (any lean flat fish will work here)
1/2 lb. salt pork or bacon , diced
1 cup of cream
1 cup of whole milk
Water as needed
Salt Pepper oregano to taste Saute salt pork/Bacon for a few minutes until brown in large heavy saucepan. Take out pieces and drain on paper towels, get rid of all remnants in pot except for about 2 tablespoons of the fat. Saute onions and shallots in remaining fat until translucent DO NOT BROWN, add potatoes and saute for 2 to 3 minutes paying close attention . Add water enough just to cover potatoes and onions. Bring to boil, lower heat and cook for about 20 minutes we are trying to cook the potatoes til their are just about done but not quite. Add fish and clams, bring to boil, lower heat and cook for 10 to 15 minutes. Remove from heat and add milk and cream, salt, pepperand oregano to taste. Serve immediately and use bacon parsely and clam shells for garnish. NOTE: MAKE SURE YOU DO NOT boil chowder with milk or cream in it!
-Pompous Palate Recipes
Tags: Pompous Palate recipes, seafood chowder
Posted in Private Chef's Las Vegas, Top Chef Recipes | No Comments »
Written by Pompous Palate Staff on 13 August 2010
A.K.A Gallon eating the quarts trick
gallon-eating-the-quarts trick
Ever rack your brain to figure out how many quarts in a gallon? How Many Pints in a Quart? Or Even How many cups in a Pint? The diagragm above will end those problems forever. It is easy to visualize and quite helpful those of you that are culinary math impared.
2 Cups in a Pint
2 Pints in a Quart
4 Quarts in a Gallon
And so two “C’s” fit inside a “P,” two “P’s” fit inside a “Q,” and four “Q’s” fit inside a big, enormous “G.”
It takes a few minutes of mental visualization, but with this diagram in mind, you can easily figure out that there are four cups in a quart, 16 cups in a gallon, and so on. The only number you have to remember is 8 ounces in a cup.
Happy Trails!
Tags: cilinary math, cups, gallons, how many quarts in a gallon?, ounces, pints
Posted in Cooking Lessons Las Vegas | No Comments »
Written by Pompous Palate Staff on 11 August 2010
And The winner is………………….. HOLLI
Holli Ugalde Hells Kitchen Winner Season 7
Holli Ugalde, a banquet chef from San Bernardino won the title and the job on Season 7 of “Hell’s Kitchen,” landing her a dream job at Chef Gordon Ramsay’s Savoy Grill in London, recently remodeled as part of the Savoy Hotel’s multimillion-dollar renovation.
Jay, was a clear favorite going into the finale. And frankly it looked to me that he did a better job, he finished first, was more commanding in the kitchen and basically put out great food overall.
Ramsey said it was her progress that made her the winner, He said “Holli had grown more than any other chef of the season, and once she emerged, there was no holding her back.”
Holli and Jay weren’t just competitors, they seemed to be quite fond of each other. Although Holli seemed quite snugglie with her babies daddy when he came on the set.
Jay made his intentions clear, to Holli and whenever there was a camera on him. He said his goals were winning the show and getting into bed with Holli.at the shows closing after all was said and done he made one parting reference: “Hopefully I can take her pants off tonight.”
Maybe this was part of Jay’s down fall, he had his nose so far up Holli’s @#%* that he lost site of the price. Although I still think Jay had a better service.
No matter what I think, Holli is on her way to London to take on the Savoy Grill.
I think in the end, Chef Ramsay wants young trainable people. Jay with 13 years of experience might not fit in that box. I was disappointed when I saw Holli’s door open. It felt much like the time Christina beat Petrozza in Season 4. You wanted Petrozza’s door to open. Not to say Holli isn’t up for the job, she had some great weeks and certainly proved her self, But last night Jay killed it and Holli seemed a bit lost at times. Judging last nights performance Jay should have taken it.
The Highlight of the night was when Fran returned to the kitchen and Ramsay said “ Hey what happened to you?” she clearly didn’t get what he was saying, he continued “where you on an episode of the Swan?” . She looked dumb founded and he added “You look great!” For those of you that don’t know “The Swam” was a show that took really ugly woman which they called “ugly ducklings” and turned them into beautiful Swan’s. Although he was telling her that she looked great it was quite a brutal comment if you break it down lol.
Actually I think what everyone is waiting for is to see if Jay moves to London with Holli and becomes Holli’s Sous chef in some strange version of life imitating art.
Well, congratulations Holli, no matter my tone or insinuations you certainly deserve the win after all your hard work. Besides its nice to see a Le Cordon Bleu Graduate win. The Pompous Palate is owned by Le Cordon Bleu Alumni. Enjoy. (And try to let Jay down easy)
Tags: Chef Gordon Ramsay, Chef Ramsay, Gordon Ramsay, Hell's Kitchen, Holli Ugalde, Jay Santos, Season 7
Posted in Food Television | No Comments »
Written by Pompous Palate Staff on 09 August 2010
Cafe Bleu is the onsite restaurant at the Las Vegas Campus of Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts.
The restaurant is staffed by the students and instructors of Le Cordon Bleu. The Students work there in their last semester of school to gain experience before they take on their externship. But is the food any good? I’d say it’s much better than good, its excellent.
The Run down
They start you out with a complimentary basket of different freshly baked breads . The number of different breads was overwhelming and I almost wanted to spoil my dinner by trying every one.
I ordered the potato and leek soup to start off. The flavors were amazing and the presentation was beautiful.
My wife ordered the Le Cordon Bleu Chicken it was pretty huge and cooked perfectly. Stuffed with a variety of cheeses and Serrano ham .
I had the New York Strip and it was cooked perfectly. It came with some garlic potatoes that I couldn’t stop eating.
We also shared a tomato and mozzarella plate, my wife was annoyed that they “gutted” the Tomato. It was cut concassé style and was a perfect Tomato and mozzarella. And although my wife complained she ate more of the plate than me.
The experience was great and the prices were rock bottom, it is definitely one of the most under rated little restaurants in Las Vegas (well Summerlin technically).
You pay 4 times less than you would at a fine dining establishment in Vegas but you get the same fine dining experience from food to service, they do not miss a trick.
Restaurants Info
Café Bleu
1451 Center Crossing Road
Las Vegas, NV 89144
Hours
Open for lunch and dinner Tuesday through Friday
Lunch – 11:00 am – 12:30 pm
Dinner – 6: 00 pm – 7:30 pm
Café Bleu caters to the local community, offering a variety of dishes with an emphasis on American, French, and Italian cuisine. Enjoy innovative cuisine such as goat cheese appetizers garnished with mango salsa, crab Napoleon, New York strip steak with a light peppercorn sauce, and chicken cordon bleu stuffed with Serrano ham and a variety of cheeses. The 10,000 square feet dining room can accommodate 125 diners.
For Reservations Call 1.702.365.7690
Average Prices
Lunch menu entrees average $9.
Dinner menu is a la carte, entrees average $16.
Café Bleu is available for Special Events.
Gourmet Wine Dinner on a periodic basis.
Tags: Cafe Bleu, Culinary School, las vegas, Le Cordon Bleu, restaurants
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Written by Pompous Palate Staff on 05 August 2010
Chef Kuldeep Singh kicks off the Wholefoods "India Chef Series"
Ever wanted to learn how to cook India style cuisine?
On Tuesday, August 17th you’ll have your chance
Wazuzu – Origin India Chef Series
At Henderson/Green Valley Wholefoods
6pm-8pm FREE (Our Favorite Price)
Chef Kuldeep Singh of Origin India and Chef Jet Tila of Wazuzu will be cooking together in a new series of classes at Green Valley Wholefoods on July 20th and August 17th! The first in the series will be ”The Curry Connection”. Discover the secrets to making amazing Thai and Indian curry with beef and the perfect jasmine rice. The second series will be “Favorites From the Kitchens of Wazuzu and Origin India”. The chefs will be at their best creating signature dishes from their own menus featuring Thai pineapple fried rice & salmon teriyaki. There will be a raffle for a dinner for two at each class! To sign up for these classes call Megan at 702.361.8183. Space is limited and classes fill up quick! So if you want to go, Call ASAP.
Tags: Chef Jet Tila, Chef Kuldeep Singh, green valley, henderson nv, salmon teriyaki, Thai pineapple fried rice, Wholefoods
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