I’m a fan of celebrity chef Richard Blais. I’ve been to his restaurant Juniper and Ivy in San Diego and his fast casual restaurant Crack Shack in Las Vegas. The food was out of the ordinary and was delicious. I saw him recently on the Rachel Ray Show and wanted to try his recipes. I couldn’t make them all yet but have tried his amazing salsa verde recipe and here is his Tomato Celery Leaf Salad Recipe. I think the only changes I made was to add red onion and the other only change was that I crisped up the chickpeas in the oven and added some powdered hot sauce to them so they didn’t just taste like out of the can. (I’m sure the chef cooks his own chickpeas so they taste better). The dressing I made slightly different because I didn’t have Italian seasoning so I guesstimated my own and added different vinegars. I do note that for most people a cup of celery leaves might mean like from three bunches of celery. I happen to have saved a few celery centers and just got a new one so I had enough. My idea of serving size may differ from your idea of serving size. This makes around 6 small salads that I used as a side dish. It comes out very delicious!

Ingredients for around 6 servings

2 cups cherry tomatoes cut in half (I used a 10oz container)

1 cup celery leaves (for me it was from three bunches)

1 cup garbanzo beans

1 cup toasted walnuts

1/2 cup blue cheese – crumbled or cut in small pieces

1/4 cup fresh basil

1 Tablespoon Italian Seasoning

3 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

3 Tablespoons fruit vinegar (fig, pomegranate and red wine are suggested)

Directions in a big bowl add the tomatoes, celery leaves, garbanzo beans, walnuts, blue cheese and basil.

In small bowl add the Italian seasoning, olive oil and vinegar. Mix well and serve with salad or mix into salad as desired.

My version of the dressing was 1 garlic clove (microplane), 1 teaspoon dry basil, 1 teaspoon dry oregano, 1 teaspoon dried thyme,1/4 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon sugar, 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper, 3 Tablespoons olive oil, 3 Tablespoons apple cider vinegar and one Tablespoon balsamic vinegar. If you want to crisp up your chick peas you need to slightly dress them with canola oil and I sprinkled mine with powdered Frank’s Red Hot sauce. I put them in a 350 degree oven for around 30 minutes.

The salad came out DELICIOUS!

Special THANKS!!! To chef Richard Blais for sharing his DELICIOUS Tomato Celery Leaf Recipe with us.

I’ve been working on and tweaking my pastrami recipes for years. I had a very good idea on how to do a turkey breast as pastrami. It’s different than working with beef because you don’t want to do the pastrami solution for more than 4 hours. I figured out the perfect formula and spice rub for the most delicious pastrami turkey I’ve tasted so far. I do note that I started with a dry brined turkey breast. A brine is means the meat was soaked in a salt solution. Marinades are for flavor and are usually acidic this marinade is salty but it contains the flavors for pastrami.. I skipped the brining step so you need to brine your turkey breast first or skip that step by purchasing an already brined or dry brined turkey breast. You can use this recipe for both sides of the breast or do one half and use half the brine for another time or for something else. I did half pastrami and the other half traditional with herbs. I used an average sized turkey and each half after cooking weighed around 1 1/2 pounds…I consider that around 6 or more servings for each half breast. You can make the marinade and rub the day before if you want.

Ingredients for around 12 (or more) servings

1/2 cup olive oil (that you froze in a flat square shape that’s cut in half for each Sous Vide bag)

4 Tablespoons ground coriander (rub)

! Tablespoon ground black pepper (rub)

1 Tablespoon smoked paprika (rub)

1 whole boneless skinless turkey breast – from an average sized turkey that has been brined or dry brined – pierced all over with a fork

1 cup dark brown sugar

5 oz diamond brand kosher salt – DO NOT USE ANY OTHER BRAND BECAUSE OTHER BRANDS HAVE A DIFFERENT SALT CONTENT and also PENETRATE THE MEAT DIFFERENT ****ONLY USE DIAMOND KOSHER SALT FOR THIS RECIPE

1/4 cup honey

2 teaspoons juniper berries

3 Tablespoons coriander seeds

2 teaspoons allspice berries

3 bay leaves

1 cinnamon stick

1 teaspoon whole cloves

2 teaspoons yellow mustard seeds

2 Tablespoons telicherry black peppercorns

2 teaspoons white peppercorns

1 teaspoon ground ginger powder

10 garlic cloves sliced thin

1 Tablespoon granulated garlic

2 hot dried peppers – crumbled (I used Calabrian Piri Piri peppers) (two pinches of crush red pepper will do in a pinch)

2 teaspoons smoked paprika

2 cups water

Directions

Make the marinade.

In a sauce pot add brown sugar, diamond salt, honey, juniper berries, coriander seeds, allspice berries, bay leaves, cinnamon stick, cloves, mustard seeds, black peppercorns, white peppercorns, ginger, garlics, hot pepper, smoked paprika and water. Bring to boil then let simmer about 10 minutes. Take off heat let cool to room temperature. For best results refrigerate and marinate the turkey breast tomorrow.

Make the rub.

In a small mixing bowl add the ground coriander, ground black pepper and the smoked paprika. Mix well and put in a sealed container or a ziplock bag.

Next Day

Each Turkey Breast gets pierced all over and goes in a gallon ziplock bag with 1/2 of the marinating liquid. Squeeze out the air from the bag. This needs to be refrigerated for four hours.

Add water to the sous vide and set to 140 degrees F.

After four hours take the turkey out of the bag and rinse it off and pat it dry and then apply a light amount of rub to it. Then it goes in a vacuumed sealed bag with half the frozen cube of olive oil. The sealed bag(s) go in the Sous Vide for 3-4 hours after ruching prober temperature…(incase you don’t know…once set at 140 the temperature will drop and it takes awhile to reach the 140)

After the 3-4 the four hours in the Sous Vide remove the turkey breast bags. Run them under cold water or apply an ice bath to stop the cooking process.

Just before serving Blot them off. Apply a little more rub. Sear them off in a pan or finish on your grill.

ENJOY!

You might want to serve with-

Enjoy!