Not Your Usual Tuna Sandwich or Potato Salad!

Here is an instructional slide show for building a better summer sandwich. I start with fresh pumpernickel, butter, canned Albacore tuna in water, drained. Italian tuna in olive oil would be better but I didn’t have any. I mixed the tuna with home made mayo, wild fennel and chopped apple instead of the usual onion and celery. Then comes the New York aged extra sharp cheddar, sliced tomato, bread and butter pickle, fresh basil from my garden, capers, leaf lettuce and extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper on the top slice of bread.

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What would go perfectly with this sandwich. How about a one of a kind potato salad. Recipe to follow in a few days.

Custom Recipes for all occasions. This is the Caroline and Anders Wedding Potato Sallad. Italian theme but made and consumed at a wedding in Sweden.

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1000 Water Wells, City Gardening and the Ultimate Potato Salad

Yes I am working on a relationship that could result on 1000 + wells for Niger. Think big I always say. Meeting in LA on Friday and tomorrow in DC. Wish me luck.

Here is a photo of today’s culinary creation. A sweet corn potato salad with basil, avocado, tomato, capers and a homemade creamy cilantro mayo.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Carl’s city garden.

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Mother’s Day is Coming. Make it Special!

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Thanks to Chef’s Bruno and Guido, Jessica and Haley. Alma and ICA.

This was just one course of a nine course Chef Calle dinner. I guess my time in culinary school wasn’t in vain!!!!!

Two dishes not on the menu were gifts from the chef.  #1 Seasonal soup duo. Maryland asparagus and leek potato. #2 Tuna crudo seasoned with fresh orange.

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CHEF CALLE’S, ITALIAN TOMATO – BASIL PASTA WITH FRESH HERBS AND GARLIC.

CHEF CALLE’S, ITALIAN TOMATO – BASIL PASTA WITH FRESH HERBS AND GARLIC.
INGREDIENTS.
2 large cans of imported Italian peeled, whole tomatoes.
One large cooking onion, finely diced.
5 or more cloves of garlic
¾ cup dry white wine.
Fresh basil, thyme, rosemary and parsley.
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes.
¼ cup extra virgin olive oil.
Salt and pepper to taste.

PROCEDURE.
1.     Finely dice the onion. Clean and chop the herbs accept the basil. By hand, tear  the Basil leafs into three or four pieces.
2.    Peel garlic and flatten with palm of hand or dice finely.
3.    Remove tomatoes from cans and crush with your hand.
4.    Heat skillet with oil until quite hot. Add garlic and onion, sauté 5 minutes.
5.    Add wine to hot skillet, allow alcohol to evaporate, 1-2 minutes.
6.    Add tomatoes, cook 10 – 15 minutes.
7.    Add red pepper flakes, ½ the basil and all the remaining herbs. Cook 10 minutes or so.
8.    Adjust the seasoning, add the ¾ cooked pasta to the skillet and cook together for 5 minutes add pasta water if necessary for sauce.
9.    Remove from heat, add the remaining basil, mix and serve immediately with a drizzle of olive oil.

PASTA.

1 pound dry Italian pasta.

Large pot of boiling water.

Salt water liberally.

Cook pasta to about ¾ of time on package.

When cooked add immediately to sauce and cook together.

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Spicy White Bean Chili with Rabbit, Carrot,Peas and Cilantro Leaf.

If you want to know for sure if you are the first person to ever do or make something there is only one way to find out for sure. “Google it”.

So, after I spent an entire Saturday afternoon making “Spicy White Bean Chili” with Rabbit” I Googled it and learned that NO ONE made it before me. I found rabbit in chili sauce, white bean and turkey chili, white bean chicken chili, fried rabbit heads with chilies, and even a Mario Batali recipe from 200o entitled Coniglio All’ Ischitana, or Rabbit in the Style of Ischia. which came up apparently because he used rabbit and some sort of chili pepper in the recipe.

So, here is my original recipe for Spicy White Bean and Rabbit Chili.

Time; 2 hours.

Difficulty: 6.5 out of 10.

Ingredients:

#1 One whole rabbit, cleaned, skinned and deboned, reserving the bones.

#2 4 cans white beans.

#3  1 red and 1 reg. onion, medium.

#4 3 stalks celery

#5 4 large carrots, 3 1/4 in pieces

#6 2 red bell peppers, cut into large pieces.

#7 1 cup frozen peas

Debone the rabbit, reserve the meat. Lightly oil the bones with evoo and roast in 350 degree oven for 1 hour.

In a medium stock pot saute onion, carrot and garlic 5 minutes, add roasted bones, 2 cups chicken stock and two cups water, simmer 45 mins.

Dice rabbit meat, brown in hot olive oil, degrease and set aside.

Saute onion until lightly caramelized, add carrot, celery, red bell pepper and rabbit about 2 minutes apart.

Deglase pan with 1 cup dry white wine, when alcohol is totally evaporated add to pot.

Strain the rabbit stock, add the vegetables and browned rabbit meat.

Wrap about 4 tablespoons of red pepper flakes in cheese cloth, tie and add to pot. Taste broth frequently to check spiciness. Remove when happy with the heat level. The recipe is intended to be spicy hot.

Rinse 2 cans white beans and add to pot. Add peas.

Rinse 3rd can of beans, add one cup of the stock to beans and puree the beans and stock then add back to the pot.

Salt and pepper to taste.

Cook together about 1 hour. Tasting frequently. Remove the red pepper bag when satisfied with the heat level.

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I need to COOK! Anybody need a chef?

What does a frustrated chef do when they are home on a killer cold Saturday night in Baltimore? When I say frustrated I mean I need to COOK MORE!

So I have been perusing Italian cook books. I examine the fridge to see what I can throw together. Earlier in the day I was thinking about making fresh pasta but it is already after 7:00 pm and and Mary is hungry. So I needed something really good and rich, comfort food, for a cold winter night, and fast. Blood sugar levels must be maintained.

The situation in the fridge is not great and the cupboard is not much better. I have a half a pound of dry whole wheat pasta. That’s all Mary will eat. I have a 1/2 of a left over zucca, (butternut squash). Milk, no-fat of course, (Mary again) but way in the back, left over from Christmas is a pint of heavy cream. Yum. I have some dried sage, left over from fresh sage used for Thanksgiving Dinner in November. So, ah, um what could fit the bill from these meager, left over ingredients?

Chef Bruno.

So I think to myself, I think “what would Chef Bruno do?

He is my culinary hero after all. Much better in my mind than Mario Batali and even Marchasi. Would he run out to the supermarket at 7:00 pm. on a frigid Saturday night? Or would he perhaps just give up and take the wife out to dinner? Or perhaps just eat popcorn?  Never!

We are Chef’s after all and it is much too cold to go out. Minus 10 c.

So I think what I really need is  some herbs. What would Chef Bruno do in this situation. Well check out the video.

 

What Chef Bruno would do is go out to his back yard in the mountains of Liguria and just pick a bunch of fresh stuff to make something awesome with. Tonight I didn’t have that option.

So then I started to think. What has the power to make everything taste great. What one single ingredient, more than any other on the planet has the flavor and aromas to make something from nothing. That would be……..

Pork. But, alas I had no freshly roasted porchetta and I wasn’t likely to find any on a night like tonight.

So I decided to do with what I had. Is that not how most traditional food came about. Ordinary folks needing food but not always having everything at their fingertips or the inclination to venture away from the home and hearth on a cold night to find what they needed, presuming of course they had the wealth to obtain it.

What can you make with zucca, pasta and milk?

Minestra Di Spaghetti E Zucca.

So here is what I did. 4 cups of no fat milk in a pot on the stove. Add heat and a 1/2 a cup of cream. Peal and cut the zucca in to small pieces and when the milk is hot add the zucca to the pot for 15-20 minutes till soft. Remove the zucca from the hot milk and add the pasta to the now zucca flavored milk. Puree the cooked zucca. Add some sale and pepe, rubbed sage and a dab of butter to the puree. When the pasta is almost al dante add the pureed zucca to the pasta and milk and cook for 2 more minutes. Taste and adjust the seasoning. A little more sale and a couple more twists of freshly ground pepe.

At the very last minute add a handful of Pecorino Romano, and a teaspoon of the secret ingredient,  Aceto Balsamico Tradizionale Reggio Emilia, Aragosta lable meaning 12 years aging, stir and serve. Garnish with one last twist of the pepe grinder and a pinch of Pecorino Romano. AWESOME!

Minestra Di Spaghetti E Zucca.

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2010 in review – 14,147 Hits to Date.

 

Class Photo.

This is a WordPress generated report on this blog for 2010.  14000 hits on 184 posts and more.

 

The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Wow.

Crunchy numbers

The average container ship can carry about 4,500 containers. This blog was viewed about 14,000 times in 2010. If each view were a shipping container, your blog would have filled about 3 fully loaded ships.

In 2010, there were 184 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 191 posts.

Fire Drill in Soho.

 

 

There were 1158 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 1gb. That’s about 3 pictures per day.

The busiest day of the year was October 2nd with 406 views. The most popular post that day was I’M BACK and BUSIEST DAY EVER..

Day One in New York.

Where did they come from?

The top referring sites in 2010 were italianculinaryacademy.com, facebook.com, mail.live.com, mail.yahoo.com, and frenchculinary.blogspot.com.

Some visitors came searching, mostly for appendicitis, massimo spigaroli, italian chef lawyer, italian chef, and carl vahl.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.

1

I’M BACK and BUSIEST DAY EVER. October 2010
6 comments

2

About the Author December 2009
6 comments

3

Photo Gallery April 2010
5 comments

4

A Cute, Appendicitis? April 2010
4 comments

5

Antica Corta Pallavicina, Restaurant Al Cavallino Bianco, Chef Massimo Spigaroli. June 2010
1 comment

Here are just a few of the fun photo’s from my exciting, life changing, gut wrenching, highly educational year with a group of great young people.

Chef Instructor Haley, NYC.

 

 

 

Sweetbread and Sweetwife, before the girlfriend shot.

Yankees Baseball. Thanks Greg!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A great kitchen partner.

Chef Guido!

 

Chef Bruno!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Graduation!

The real Pete.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The real Cip!

Always Smiling Robert.

The real Carl, with lamb testicle.

With Guest Chef Ricci.

Wife Mary and Sofia.

 

Sadie.

 

 

 

 

 

The Vin Cave.

 

 

Excursion to Venice!

 

 

 

 

Model worthy Eric!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

More photos to come so stay tuned.

 

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The Big Night Redux! Ravioli by Hand, Awesome Menu!

 

Preparing the pasta.

 

Last night was a great experience. Everyone called me “Chef” and respectfully the whole evening. We served a complex 7 courses to some pretty discriminating palates and did quite well.

All in all I was pleased with last night and it appeared everyone had a great time. Not everyone loved every dish or every wine but that is to be expected with complex people with experienced palates…..where everyone is eating the same thing.

The key question for me isn’t “was each dish your absolute favorite of all time” but rather “did you have a great time, enjoy the people you were with, the food and the wine and would you do it again in the future?”

I was very pleased that the Tuna Crudo dish and the spicy sweet potato ravioli, which I made by hand, see above, were all favorites for everyone. The biggest criticism was that the white bean puree with spinach and shrimp was too salty and for most people it was. Unfortunately I was taught to salt, salt, salt!

December 20, 2010 Event!

 

 

The details which are all a bit tricky in a small condo kitchen were seamless. The preparation, the timing, the service, the pace, the clean up all went great.

So, who wants to schedule their distinctive dining experience? We will travel anywhere. We will work on yachts, jets, ski homes, beach homes, Tuscan country homes, houseboats, penthouses, out-houses, Red Hus’s, Villa’s, Chateau’s, Superbowl hospitality suites, Raven’s corporate box suites, Bill’s cardboard boxes. We will go pretty much anywhere if the expenses are paid and we can make people happy with food and hospitality.

I have a lot to learn but m having fun learning it and soon may even be making some money!

We are already booked for a Valentines Day party for ten. So don’t delay, reserve today.

 

Hello Everyone.

 

 

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The Reviews Are In! & Building a Better Burger in Baltimore with Brie and Berries! CITYpeek!

Baltimore Brie Burger with Caper Berries.

We do a great, fine dining experience here in Baltimore but there are times when nothing tastes better than a burger. Not just any burger. The Carl and Mary signature Burger. The Baltimore  Burger with Brie and Berries. Caper berries that is.

Also, check us out on CITYpeek Baltimore and do a review if you like our food.

FIRST EVENT December 3, 2010.

Our first event was a big success. Not perfect but really, really good. Here are the reviews

December 3, 2010 Event. Baltimore Maryland. Party of 10.

Chef Calle, Mary and Dear Friends:

Wow….what a wonderful evening!  Who could ask for more?  Great food and wine, exquisite service and wonderful friends to share the experience.  Many thanks to Richard and Cristina for hosting this beautiful evening and to Chef Calle and Mary for wowing all of our senses!  The dishes were beautifully presented, perfectly balanced and delicious.  All seven courses, from the tuna crudo, to duck salad, whole fresh Rockfish roasted in a salt crust, concluding with that marvelous fig tart, were pleasing to the eye and palate.

We look forward to our next gourmet home dining experience with all of you!

John & Layla Hollender

___________________________________________________________________

Sent: Mon, Dec 6, 2010 6:35 pm
Subject: Re: Dinner tonight

…..as King the VIII with the Pompadour said: maybe we should make this a tradition!!

Thank you to everybody for coming to this event with great expectations that were beautifully met through the effort of our chef, Carl and wife/administrator/coordinator, event planner, Mary.

We had an absolutely great time: fantastic the food, unmatched company, excellent the wine and no kids!

Thank you Carl and Mary (and John and Layla for bringing them here, indirectly).

Kisses

Cristina
___________________________________________________________________

Sent: Mon, Dec 6, 2010 11:02 am
Subject: Re: Dinner tonight

Carl and Mary,

Thank you for a really delicious evening.  The individual flavors present in each course were quite lovely.

From those more complex flavors in the Tuna Crudo and Fig Tart to the perfect balanced simplicity and flavor of the rockfish entree. All was delightful. We also can’t thank you enough for providing us with a very civilized and elegant way to socialize with our dear friends as a tip off to the holiday season.

Richard and Cristina,  Thanks for offering up your home to all of us for such an evening.  It was really nice to hang with all of you.

Kisses

P and P.

____________________________________________________________________

Dear Carl and Mary,

Thank you for such a beautiful, sumptuous, and delicious meal!  Everything course was better than the next.  We loved everything!  You will truly be successful in your new careers!

Thank you to our hosts Cristina and Richard too.  Your house was the perfect place to have such a wonderful dinner with good friends!  Michael (AKA King Richard VIII with the pompadour) and I (AKA Asian Marie Antoinette) really enjoyed ourselves!

Enjoy the holidays.

____________________________________________________________________

Hi all,

D and I would echo all of these sentiments!  We had a great time and the dinner couldn’t have been more delicious!  Thanks to Carl and Mary for orchestrating and Cristina and Richard for hosting and everyone for being yourselves!!

love T and D.

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