Ms. Glaze's Pommes d'Amour

Cracked Ribs & Catering

Here's my recipe for cracked ribs. It's not one of my brainier recipes, in fact it's downright stupid, but I still think you'll find it juicy.

Ingredients
Rib Cage

Instructions
1. Walk straight into a rod iron latch sticking out of a gate at full speed carrying boxes. Make sure the rod goes in between two ribs cracking the upper one.
2. Fall over face flat on the cement ground.
3. Try to move your head and yell for help while all sensation leaves your left arm and a warm spreading painful feeling throughout your chest warns you that the damage is more than just a bruise.
4. While trying to yell, give up, because breathing is difficult and using your diaphragm to press air over your vocal chords is excruciatingly painful.
5. Find a passerby who speaks your language to help you get off the ground– not just stack your dropped boxes neatly while you continue to lie paralyzed.
6. Go to emergency room.

Note: Make sure to have the doctor check your lungs for punctures. Don't worry about your ribs, there's nothing they can do for you at the hospital anyway accept confirm that you do have a fracture and give you painkillers.

Oh, and one more note, be sure to have an appetizer party to cater with some very special people attending (who you'd like to impress) two days after the accident. That gives you one day to shop for the food in pain, one 15 hour day to prepare the food in pain, and one day to transport the food and serve it (in pain).

Also, make sure it's your first real catering job ever so there's no other stress involved.

And do yourself a favor. Hire your best girlfriend to come and help you cook and serve. Convince her that her disability leave from cooking should be ignored. I mean really, tennis and golf elbow in both arms? What's that compared to cracked ribs?

Tell her you'll share your Vicadin and your sympathy if she lends a helping hand.

Let's see, what else can we add to the mix. How about hot weather, lack of refrigeration space, and bags of ice nowhere to be found.

Other than those minor set backs, I'd say the party was smashing success. And I'm very fortunate that a third talented female cook came to lend a helping hand on the big day. And she was not injured, tired, or stressed. She was perky, proffessional, and a big, big help. A life saver really.

So what did we injured cooks conjure up for the party? That's really the important part. Not all the pain and suffering that went into it. Because no one wants to eat an appetizer of tears.

We made some really fantastic stuff – all bite sized. And despite our physical ailments we had a great time doing it.

The biggest hit was an appetizer that I wasn't sure would work out or not. It was a crab & mango salad tossed with an apple cilantro vinaigrette served in a little apple crisp cup. These little apple cups just dissolved in the mouth magically.

Other hits were the warm apricots stuffed with walnuts and blue cheese and wrapped with thin country ham and the steamed mussels served cold topped with cucumber, red onion, and mint relish with a splash of ponzu sauce and a tiny red hot chili pepper slice.

I wish I had taken pictures of everything, especially the beautiful fruit plate my friend made. I asked her to come up with a fruit sculpture and she pretty much laughed at me and then did it anyway. It was sleek and modern. God, I love her.

I've learned a lot about catering from this experience. First of all, it can be more challenging than cooking in a restaurant because you are responsible for everything that goes into the dish, not just one part of it, and the transportation too. Secondly, a professional kitchen makes preparing for large parties much easier than a small galley kitchen. Third, working with talented people is the key to success.

It's all about the team. Just like in theater, you can have the best musical or play at your disposal but without a talented cast to pull it off it's just a script in black and white.

The same goes for any recipe.

And, just like in theater, no matter what happens the show must go on.

(Thank you Jamie and Mattie for all your hard work and help! I hope we can all three work together again soon. And a big thank you to our client who made all this learning possible and allowed us to be creative in ways that we rarely get to do in a restaurant. It was a fantastic experience for all us. )

Mini Lamb Sliders with Harissa Sauce

And you thought sliders couldn't get any smaller. These are one bite lamb hamburgers with spicy tangy yogurt sauce and toasted cumin mini buns. Cute, huh?

I'm catering a private appetizer party this weekend and while looking for inspiration came across this recipe by François Payard, a renowned French chef, who lives in New York and owns the Payard Pâtisserie & Bistro.

Sliders are popular at appetizer parties these days and they are so adorable. But, as I've been finding out, making mini bites taste adorable can be challenging.

Small bites have a tendency to dry out faster and often lack the flavor that bigger bites do. However Lamb, if not overcooked, stays juicy. And the yogurt sauce with harissa spice adds heat.

Harissa is often used in Morocccan and Meditarrean cuisine. It's a chili paste made with a blend of spices. Be forewarned: a little goes a long way.

The buns are a simplified brioche dough with toasted cumin and compliment the lamb and spicy yogurt sauce.

For more fun appetizers by François Payard, check out his cookbook: Bite Size

Technorati Tags: appetizers, burgers, harissa, lamb, sliders

My Hood: The Latin Quarter

The Latin Quarter is fun, fun, fun, fun. Don't let the hoards of tourists deter you. There are tons of international restaurants and neat things to do and see.

With all-night cabarets, raucous Greek restaurants, kabob stands, night clubs, ex-pat bars, fondue bistros, late night cafés, rotisseries, Mexican establishments, Italian trattorias, and Tunisian pastries – this quarter has got it all.

One would think the 5th arrondissement, was named the Latin Quarter after the many Latin restaurants and late night festivities. But in fact, it was named in the Middle Ages because the Monks and students that inhabited the area spoke and studied Latin, the language of learning.

This makes a lot of sense considering that Notre Dame is just a stone throws away, across the Seine, and that many universities have popped up over time around the area.

Now, however, I don't think anyone gets any studying done in the 5th. The most pious of activities includes raising a pint of beer to your lips while praying that your wallet doesn't get stolen at the same time. There are pickpockets in the area, so it's good to be cautious. Finally that money belt will get some use.

But, I've never had any problems and I've done countless stupid things like leave my purse unattended at my favorite cabaret and my keys in the door upon returning to my apartment.

First on the international eateries to visit is the Tunisian Patisserie on rue de la Harpe. This place is an institution. The desserts are syrupy and often filled with nuts and spices – a welcome unusual break from French pastries.

If you're looking for savory street food to munch on while strolling through the cobblestone streets and Medieval architecture, then a kabob is the perfect accomplice.

Don't just go to any kabob stand, because many slice up this strange phony compressed white meat that I can't quite place (Chicken? Lamb? What?!?!?). There is one stand on Rue de la Huchette, called Souvlaki, that serves up real lamb and piles on fresh hot french fries and lots of sauce. And they are open late night – my dinner after work.

A perfect place to grab a book or hear a reading by an author is the bookstore Shakespeare & Co. This shop is often a meeting place for students and ex-pats.

My favorite place to hang out on weekend nights is the cabaret Aux Trois Mailletz on rue Galande, that offers unpretentious bistro food till early in the morning.

Upstairs they have an old rickety piano and people bring their sheet music and sing various show tunes, French standards, arias, and pop music. Downstairs you can pay for dinner and a show in a large cave and watch professional performers. Very relaxed and always entertaining and not touristy at all. This is a great place to watch the French let their hair down and join in with the chorus.

Right across from the cabaret is Le Guillotine Pub with Le Caveau des Oubliettes (the cave of the forgotten) underneath. This pub is said to have once held prisoners in its cave during the French Revolution before their heads were chopped off. Now, the cave below the bar is used for blues, jazz, and rock n roll. There's no entrance fee and I especially enjoy the eclectic mix of ex-pats, tourists, and French university students.

If drinking and rebel rousing is not your thing, then perhaps church going is? The often over looked Eglise St. Séverin on rue St. Séverin is a gothic beauty with unusual twisting spires and stain glass. It houses an enormous antique organ and hosts concerts in the evening.

No, it wasn't listed in The Da Vinci code, but it is still worth a look. Don't miss the art collection in the small prayer room or the peaceful enclosed courtyard.

Right across from the church St. Séverin is the goat rotisserie. I've never eaten here, but the stuffed goat stands outside every day and welcomes me home. Sometimes they paint the French flag on its forehead for rugby games. I've often thought about kidnapping the goat just for fun, but it's become as much a part of this quarter as I have. And I'm sure it's the most photographed attraction in Paris next to the Eiffel tower and the l'Arc de Triumph.

I've left out quite a number of fun restaurants, clubs, and bars but there are just too many fun places to list in one post. No doubt, if you come to my hood, you will discover them on your own.

Technorati Tags: kabobs, Latin Quarter, rue St. Séverin, Trois Mailletz

Sweet White Corn Soup

If you want to make this soup in Paris, you've got to get yourself a corn dealer. And, to my knowledge, there's only one.

I'm not talking corn-in-the-can which is often sprinkled on the popular 'Salade Californienne' that graces the menus of trendy bistros. Or pre-husked corn wrapped in Saranwrap and set out for people to point and giggle at in supermarkets. I'm talking: fresh corn, in the husk, just picked.

It may sound crazy, if you haven't stopped to consider it before, but there is no such thing as fresh corn in any classic French recipe.

"Corn is for pigs!" as one French Chef told me long ago.

And considering that I am a little piggy when it comes to fresh corn, I'm happy to hog it all to myself. Oink.

I did get a chuckle over last month's French cooking publication, Elle à la Table, because they published a recipe for BBQ'd corn on the cob and made a point of emphasizing that Americans really like to eat it that way. Yes, we do.

So maybe corn is getting a second chance in France? Yeah, and maybe pigs will fly and French kids will demand PB&J's with the crusts cut off. But, you never know, stranger things have happened.

The recipe for this soup is an adaptation from the 1 Michelin Star restaurant in San Francisco, Boulevard, created by chef & owner, Nancy Oaks. What makes the soup special is that she uses a corn stock created with the cobs to flavor the soup.

Chef Oaks often tops this soup with lobster and always serves it alongside delicious mini crab cake souffles.

For more recipes by Chef/Owner Nancy Oaks and Chef de Cuisine Pamela Mazzola check out their awesome new cookbook:

"Boulevard: The Cookbook" (Nancy Oakes, Pamela Mazzola, Lisa Weiss)

If you're really jonesing for corn, my dealer is on the tiny rue Poncelet in the 17th arrondisement. He's the guy that sells vegetables from a tiny stand. And he doesn't carry corn all the time – just so's you know – so, don't get your hopes up for a regular fresh corn fix.

Technorati Tags: corn, soup, white corn