Weekly cooking thoughts and recipes – notes from a private chef

I am a private chef. This means I cook meals for people with their input in their homes using groceries they have purchased. I tend to think of it as an iron chef competition but that everything is the secret ingredient. I suppose its more like an episode of chopped but without the puff pastry and gummy bears. I have unlimited amounts of time, instead of a half hour, although I do make one soup, two main dishes, three side dishes and one or two desserts in about 3.5 hours, so in a way, I do have some time constraints, plus that last hour is usually spent cleaning. I have never cleaned so well in my life as I do in my clients’ kitchens except when I operated my restaurant in the Atmananda yoga center on Lafayette street earlier this year. I was one with the mop.

This week, I made a cream of brocolli soup with red potaoes, a casserole of halibut and bay scallops, meatloaf with 90% grass fed beef from a small farm (Simply Grazin) in Skillman, NJ and an orange pepper from the farmers market along with vine ripened tomatoes from the market as well as local cippolini oniones, beet greens and spinach sauteed in a bit of olive oil, peas and mushrooms with those great cippolini onions and for dessert, my first ever successful tapioca coconut pudding with a pear crisp (two desserts). I need to start taking some photographs of my dishes.

My inspiration comes from several sources: the food network, eating out, dreaming, and simply going to the store, the market, the recesses of my mind and seeing what looks/feels good. I feel somewhat like Mozart writing a symphony and hearing the parts of each and every instrument and how they all fit together. I feel I do this in my head with flavors: lemon, mint, butter, sundried tomatoes…soy, ginger, onion and shallot, balsalmic vinegar, oil, shallot etc. I have ideas that sometimes work and sometimes don’t, but I experiment. I don’t ever cook with recipes because I can’t follow them. I’m too creative and passionate that I miss things and recreate while I am creating. I’ve tried to follow recipes and I miss steps, add things in different proportions. I’ve always found baking a challenge for that reason.

I need to start writing down my recipes, but I never know the correct proportions. I hardly ever use measuring cups or spoons. I use my hands a lot – pinching, sprinkling, dashing, mixing…I always infuse love into my food.

I’ll give you the recipe for the coconut milk vanilla pudding because it was easy and came out right:

Naturally sweetened coconut tapioca pudding

Ingredients:

3 cups coconut milk (I used lite)

1/4 cup tapioca

2 tablespoons turbinado sugar

2 tablespoons agave nectar

2 tablespoons vanilla extract (pure – from madagasgar or tahiti best) – a vanilla bean with bean specs removed would be better

Directions:

Heat tapioca in coconut milk until simmering. Turn heat to low and continue simmering 12-15 minutes, stirring often. When tapioca is really transparent, turn off heat, stir in sugar, agave and vanilla. Pour into dessert dishes and refrigerate at least 4 hours. To avoid skin, put a piece of saran wrap directly on surface.

Variation:

melt 1/2 cup dark chocolate chips in a double boiler and add liquid chocolate at the same time as vanilla or instead of vanilla for a chocolate pudding.

Garnish with fresh mint!

apples, restaurant consulting and poached eggs

Its so easy to buy gifts for me. I just asked all my family members to get me cookware. One my recent acquisitions was an egg poacher. Being a chef, I want to use as few short cuts as possible. One of my major challenges in cooking has always been poaching eggs. I could never got the vortex quite right, the vinegar always got into the flavor of my egg…somehow it just never looked pretty. But now, I have a lovely egg poacher. At first I didn’t like it because the cups were plastic and the thought of heating plastic didn’t thrill me. Also plastic is not non-stick (neither is non-stick cookware, completely non-stick). But I just take a bit of olive oil and paint it on the cups with a paintbrush and viola – beautiful poached eggs that come out of the cup.

I’m very happy now with my new toy. I make all kinds of poached egg treats but in natural healthful way. Now I can also bring poached eggs to you as part of my delivery service. Although I am not certain how long I would eat them and if I’d really want microwaved poached eggs…but I could certainly make them and bring them to you for breakfast or to your office. Certainly let me know and check out the catering services on my website www.sobelwellness.com .

I recently also bought some gala apples.  I made a mistake and bought some that were not organic. They were covered with this nasty waxy film. I have no idea what that is, but I really don’t want to be eating it. Also the apples are tremendous. They are not sweet. They sort of have this staid taste that tastes like apple – but almost as if it were canned and very old. Nothing like the crisp sweetness of a fresh organic apple.

I’m in the process of looking for work as a restaurant consultant. If you or anyone you know is starting up a restaurant concept and would like to benefit from incorporating whole, natural and local foods onto your menu as well as offer perhaps one or two dishes that are healthful, not just healthy in the classical boring flavorless sense, please let me know.

I’m also looking to establish myself as an expert to the media. I’m working on writing a book, but that’s a labor of love and not one I always have time for. Instead I am hoping to garner some media exposure now and gain the ability to be able to write as time allows. If anyone you know has any needs for someone to speak on Alice Waters-esque food preparation or restaurant/menu, home catered meals that are delicious and health balanced, let me know. If anyone has any connection to Alice Waters at all, I want to meet her more than I can breathe and would love to be able to expand her brand to New York.

Bon Appetit and Salud!

amazing things are happening

So I scored some karma yoga time at a yoga studio that needs someone to run their cafe…so in exchange for making a few spreadsheets I am going to do it. My first day is tomorrow. I’ll be serving soup, sprouts and cabbage salad and see where things go. Feel free to stop by. Atmananda Yoga 324 Lafayette Street, 7th Floor. Come for a yoga class and stay for lunch. I’ll be serving from 12-4. This studio is also beautiful and a great place for a party. I am looking into it for a party to launch my non-profit in February. So many things a brewing and I have to run 4 miles in the park tomorrow to raise some money for AIDS. I really hope it stops raining.

Today I made butternut squash soup at Williams Sonoma on 59th Street between Park and Madison. I might be scoring some more gigs there and also across town on 59th Street. I am available for catering and private parties with a healthy themed menu. The studio is also available for parties. Its a loft space that is just fantastic for a party of 50 people or more. I am still trying to figure out what the capacity is – but I feel like it could easily accommodate 100 or maybe more. It might be a very interesting New Years Venue for a private party – health themed or not. I prefer to do healthy cooking – but I do it all. I’m a huge fan of chocolate mousse, but I know how to make it slightly better for you. It might be really fun to do a chocolate mousse tasting. Let me know if anyone is game for that and I’ll set it up: Regular Chocolate Mousse, Coconut Cream Chocolate Mousse and a Chocolate Mousse made with avocado instead of heavy cream and agave nectar for sweetener. I’ve just sampled it and you can’t realize its avocado unless they aren’t ripe…and then you will know. It pains me to have avocado outside of California though. They are just not the same. I haven’t tried the Florida avocado yet. They just seem too big and unless I am making food for a lot of people I am not sure what to do with them.

Will see what this cafe brings. Apparently I am going to need to take a few more cooking classes to expand my repetoire, although its a great foundation with French training, restaurant trailing and tons of classes at ICE. Although I find the best way to learn is by doing and watching. Tonight I watched Bob Blumer, a.k.a. the Surreal Chef make shrimp on the Barbie with a barbie doll. He also made some steak with chimichurri sauce (lots of sugar) and some other interesting looking things with avocado puree. It was tasty, I really wanted to stick around for the steak bites, but I needed to get home. I am still awake and I need to be in the park tomorrow AM to race and then get back to the yoga studio for lunch service. Someday I will get my expenses straight and write my business plan, but life is amazingly good for the moment.

Check out www.sobelwellness.com/events.html for upcoming events. There is a stress seminar that I am teaching at next Saturday. I will be posting the information soon as to how to sign up. I’m also teaching a cooking class on the 25th currently at the chill spa – but I might just move it to the studio where there is a full kitchen which would make things much easier. Going to see what can be done there. Sign up at http://healthythanksgiving.eventbrite.com. Its going to be a blast!

Educating the Food Network about Diabetes

So I just came back from a taping of what I thought was a food network show where Francois Payard, owner  of one of my most favorite dessert (and also restaurant) places in New York, was giving a class on the traditional buche de Noel. So, I was trying to figure out if it was really worth taking half a day off from networking, returning phone calls and other work to further my business…and go to a food network TV taping for a show based entirely on sugar and fat. I was basically going to go on Nationwide TV (and let’s face it worldwide, this is the network that brought us Iron Chef) eating cake. A bit of irony, right?

The afternoon started with some basic networking. There were a few interesting people there. In the spirit of my networking group, Business Networking International and the great Neo-Sage, Larry Sharpe, I was determined to stay out of the box and when people asked me what I did, I said clients used me to make it possible to live in the real world and manage their diabetes. People were interested, they asked more questions. I collected a few cards. Mostly why I was there. I said I wanted to find out about what it took to shoot a cooking show and learn about the production aspects (which I did) and also just ask some basic questions to Francois about whether he’d ever used agave nectar. It so happens the person I was talking to, his first name was Javier, says, “Agave nectar…isn’t that the same stuff from the cactus plant…what they use to make Tequila.” I reply, “Yes it is and its also a great nutritive sweetener that is safe for diabetics. My new friend Javier replies and tells me his father is an Agave farmer and raises agave for Tequila. Super nifty if I am ever to need Agave in bulk. I’ll definitely keep Javier’s info on file.

So I thought I would be bold and ask some questions when they asked us if we wanted to ask Francois any questions. So I asked a basic question – how did he come up with chocolate for the Buche, when traditionally it was a sponge cake, of course I knew he is the MASTER chocolate cake guy (or whatever the French equivalent to that phrase is). He answered something to the effect that Americans love chocolate and it went over really well here – but that he actually makes 4 different kinds of Buche (not sure if there’s a plural of this word) and about 5,000 of them for only the 4 days around Christmas. That is a lot of Buche. So he starts demonstrating how to make the Buche and people ask a bunch of other questions. We are standing. I am getting a bit bored…and hungry. I decide to ask another question…this time the one I really wanted to ask. Francois – what do you think about making some of these Buche friendly to diabetics? He makes a comment how they don’t really taste good without sugar and he’s trying to make them low fat instead. To which I counter – have you ever heard of agave nectar. He says he hasn’t and he’s not really trying to reach a diabetic market. Next he walks us through the recipe where he says he’s not using sugar, he’s using corn syrup – something that really surprises me considering he’s French. I didn’t know French chefs used corn syrup – something I learned and he’s also using non-fat dried milk, which causes the cholesterol to be oxidated and therefore more sticky. So this glorious cake from a famous high end bakery is actually fairly processed.  He kept talking about the pasteurized egg yolks and cooking them in a saboyan to which he made a chocolate mousse with cream that probably wasn’t from a grass fed cow. Slightly defeated, but way more informed about what’s in Payard’s cakes and wishing I could sit down at this point, I turn to the person next to me who was extremely curious as to what agave was as were the other three people to her left.  We start whispering about it and I make a comment about how Bobby Flay loves Agave Nectar and how he had this woman making an avocado based chocolate mousse with agave on his grill it show from earlier this year. A show I tried out for.  He would know what to do with agave, but then again, he’s not a pastry chef.

And then someone walks into the studio and the woman next to me says, speaking of the devil…and there he is, Bobby Flay, and little did I know (or any of us) that this was an episode of Throw Down with Bobby Flay. How awesome! Now I don’t regret taking off half a day of work.  So here’s the good news: Francois talks about Bobby’s Buche which looks like it contains far more sugar and cream and looks straight at me and says – this cake is not for your diabetic clients. Awesome! National TV and its getting exposure – tip of the iceberg. Too bad I couldn’t (or didn’t!) say my name or website. Next time…and there will be a next time.

After the initial and taping during the tasting, a woman comes up to me. She says, “What was the name of that sweetener, I will show him. I’ve shown him Stevia. I will see if he will use it.” Thoroughly confused, I ask,  “show him?”  She replies, “I will show Francois the Agave Nectar you mentioned, he liked your question, and see if he will use it.” She turns out to be Francois’ assistant. So I ask for a card and believe me I will be following up with her. Wow, I was kvelling. At this point, I feel very powerful, and I see Bobby Flay talking with a few of the guests, so I go over. I stand around waiting through other people’s questions which were all very interesting and a woman next to me mentions the Next Food Network Star…another show I tried out for a few weeks ago. She mentions she got a call back and since he is one of the hosts, I guess she’s trying to get a good word in or something. I mention I tried out and didn’t get a call back because I am a healthy chef. He says, oh no – they should have called you back. That would be interesting, he says. So I ask him about Agave Nectar. He says he is not a pastry chef. Yet, the irony of this taping continues…but that he loves Agave in savory dishes and uses it all the time. I mention the restaurant, Tocqueville I used to work in, which is across the street from Mesa Grill and how I have been a fan of Mesa for a while. I don’t mention that I stayed up until 3am to watch him on the first and second appearance of Iron Chef and how huge a fan I am. He says he knows the Chef of that restaurant, Marco and we chat for a bit about it. I am chatting, with Bobby Flay. Wow, because this happens every day! At this point, I just feel like I am having a conversation with a friend. We talk about Miracle Grill where he first worked after visiting the Southwest. I remember going on one of my first dates in New York when I graduated college to Miracle Grill, I mention that. Mesa Grill was already open at that point, but only for a few years…and Miracle grill was pretty damn good, even without Bobby working there. I chat with his wife and his assistant about tuille cookies and how I used to make them. His wife makes a comment about what a pain in the behind they are. I concur, remembering a time when my pastry chef told me he wouldn’t feed the tuille cookies I made to his cat because they were too dark. This was all very cool indeed. I think I’m “MEMORABLE” which is what I need. They didn’t know my name, but I’m pretty sure they will remember my face. Let’s hope when I stop by the restaurant next week they still will. Maybe I’ll stop by tomorrow or over the weekend. Looks like he’s at Bar Americain these days – since he was wearing the “whites” with that label. Thinking strategy for what I can do for Mesa Grill or Bar. I’ve never looked at the menu for that place – so might be interesting to see what he’s doing over there.

I have been wanting to get into restaurant consulting for some time. Today was a fairly bold day for me, I walked into La Bonne Soupe and asked to speak to the chef and see if I could help with the menu to make it more friendly to diabetics. I feel a revolution coming on.

Anyway, I can’t give any more details on the show. I wonder if Payard will start using Agave and I’ll definitely have quite a bit of footage for a video reel to submit with my video press kit. Food Network – watch out. Meredith Sobel is here to stay!