I had milk, cheese, corn, and corn pasta to use up so this is what I came up with for today. It’s easy to prepare and comes out delicious! Serving size is always hard to judge. For me this made 10 servings. I’ll suggest 8 servings because some people will like bigger servings than me.

Ingredients for around 8 servings

1 lb roasted corn kernels

15oz pasta (I used a 12oz package of corn/rice fusilli + 3oz package of instant ramen noodles (don’t use the seasoning mix here).

2 Anaheim roasted chilis – peeled, core, stems, seeds removed and chopped fine

1/4 cup scallions – sliced thin

1 + 1/2 cups milk

optional – 1/4 cup salsa (preferably home made scooped up with a strainer to pick up mostly solids)

3 eggs – lightly beaten

1 teaspoon ground black pepper

6 oz fontina cheese – grated

6 oz sharp white cheddar cheese – grated

1 cup parmesan cheese – grated

1 lemon zest (just the grated zest)

around 3 Tablespoons butter (room temperature) to grease springform pan

Directions preheat the oven to 425 degrees F

Put a salted pot of water on to boil. Cook pasta till it’s a still a little hard…(my pasta said 14 minutes and I cooked it 9 or 10 minutes and threw in the unseasoned ramen noodles one minute before) Take off the heat and drain.

In a medium bowl blend together the milk, corn, chili, black pepper, and eggs. Set to the side.

In a large bowl add all the cheeses (parm, fontina, cheddar. Mix well and remove around 3/4 cup for reserving to top the pasta cake. Add (if using salsa), pasta(s), blended egg mixture, and mix well.

Grease up your springform pan. Get a lined sheet pan to place under the springform pan because they usually leak.

Place in middle rack area for around 35 minutes. (around at 30 minutes I lightly covered with foil to brown less).

It needs to cool off for at least an hour or two and then you can open it up. I used a rubber thin spatula to make sure that it didn’t stick to the pan when I opened it up.

I was able to cut mine luke warm. Would be easiest to let cool over night in the refrigerator and re-heat.

Enjoy!

I recently did mole dust carrots…….That recipe is a sort of adaptation or inspiration of chef Michael Voltaggio’s smoked carrots in mole with coffee mole dirt. I changed his recipe and added EIGHT ingredients to it to bring it closer tasting to mole. His recipe was a chocolate challenge that he did for Food Network TV that is delicious but is also sweeter and more chocolaty. My mole dust came out better than FORKING FANTASTIC……I don’t mean to brag but it did come out genius FORKING AMAZING…..Besides, carrots, squash, and chicken, I think my version of the mole dust would be incredible on brownies too. This makes a lot…..maybe close to a pint of mole dust. My guess is that it is closer to 16 portions of mole dust. I only made about 3-4 servings of chicken today. The leftover mole dust can be kept frozen.

ingredients for around 3 servings

1 chicken breast (usually they are close to a pound) – boneless, skinless, opened up and pounded thin

3/4 cup sugar

1 1/4 cup almond flour

7 Tablespoons sweet butter melted

3/4 cup flour

3 + 1/3 Tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder

2 + 1/3 Tablespoon cocoa nibs – lightly crushed

2 Tablespoons smoked paprika

1 dried guajillo chile – stem and seeds removed ground up with spice grinder

1 dried negro chili – stem and seeds removed ground uo with spice grinder

1/2 teaspoon chipotle powder

1/2 teaspoon mild chili powder

1 teaspoon ground cumin

pinch ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon granulated onion

1/4 teaspoon granulated garlic

1/4 teaspoon dried oregano

1 teaspoon sea salt

I carrot – peeled if not organic and sliced very thinly

2 cups vegetable or chicken stock

4 tablespoons scallions – thinly sliced

4 Tablespoons fresh cilantro torn leaves and fine stems ok

Directions

You have to make the mole dust first so you have it to season up the chicken.

It only takes 5 minutes to do the carrots in the microwave. You can do this before making the mole dust or while the dust is in the oven. Just add the stock to a microwavable container and add the carrot slices. Set it for 5 minutes on high. Scoop out the carrots with a slotted spoon and let them cool either on the counter or refrigerate and use when ready.

Set the oven to 325 F.

In a large mixing bowl combine the sugar, almond flour, melted butter, flour, cocoa powder, crushed cocoa nibs, smoked paprika, chili powders (guajillo, negro, chipotle, mild), ground cumin, cinnamon, granulated onion, granulated garlic, oregano and salt. Mix well. This mixture goes on silicon lined baking sheets in the middle rack of the preheated oven for 15 minutes then you stir the mixture and put back in the oven till it smells done about 15 minutes more.

Leave out on counter to cool.

Set the sous vide to 146 degrees F.

The chicken gets well rubbed with the mole dust on both sides.

Then add the carrots with 1/2 of the scallions and cilantro.

Roll the chicken like a jelly roll.

Vacuum seal it in a sous vide bag and put in the the sous vide for 4 hours at 146 F.

When ready to serve roll it in more mole dust, slice and serve and add the remaining scallions and cilantro.

Serve with some sour cream mixed with lime zest if desired.

ENJOY!

This is as easy as easy gets and is also delicious and not too heavy. All you do is slice radishes very thin. Then top each radish slice with some blue cheese. Then top each blue cheese with some sriracha (preferably Shark Brand sold at most Asian Markets) and finish with a bonito flake or two (sold at Asian Markets)

It’s tasty and delicious too!

This is a pretty easy recipe. I made my own turkey chorizo (recipe not published yet). Combined the chorizo with a bell pepper and an onion. Mixed it up with the spaghetti squash and added an egg. The amount of chorizo that you want to use will differ. If you are using real whole fat chorizo you will only need around 5 ounces for two people. If you us a lighter and healthier kind of chorizo you might want to up the amount to around 8 ounces.

Ingredients for around two servings

1 small spaghetti squash – cut in half longways – seeds and membranes removed

3 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil (approximate)

5-8 ounces chorizo – cut in chunks

1 onion – sliced thin

1 pepper (bell or whatever you have) core and seeds removed and sliced thin

1 garlic clove – ground to paste

1/4 cup fresh cilantro (leaves and fine stems ) – chopped or torn

1/4 cup scallions – sliced thin

2 eggs

optional – non-stick spray

fresh crushed sea salt to taste

fresh ground black pepper to. taste

Directions

Set oven to 350 degrees F

Spray cut sides of spaghetti squash with oil and place cut side down on. a baking sheet. Leave in the oven till cooked threw (around 45 minutes)

While the squash is roasting add around a Tablespoon of olive oil to a fry pan on medium high heat. If you are using slicing chorizo add it now in slices with the pepper and onion….If you are using Mexican style sauté the vegetables first and then add the Mexican style chorizo with the garlic.

Either fry up the eggs in a fry pan, bake them in the oven, or poach them.

By now the squash is done so scape out the spaghetti squash into a large bowl and mix it up with the pepper onion chorizo mixture and toss in the cilantro and scallions. Season to taste with salt and pepper and top with An egg per serving.

Enjoy!

Enjoy!

I was gifted with lots of cucumbers so I was looking up the best cucumber recipes that I could find. I thought that this recipe by Louise Robinson sounded really great but I also thought that it would be delicious with my Sous Vide chicken breast and it is……..I didn’t play with this recipe too much. I think that you can play around with whatever mustard that you use a little. The recipe calls for 1 teaspoon of dijon but I used around 1 teaspoon of old fashioned grain mustard and maybe a teaspoon of French dijon (not Grey Poupon). You need to pickle the cucumber the day before. This makes around 4 smaller servings.

Ingredients for around 4 servings

2 teaspoons fennel seeds – lightly toasted

300 ml cider vinegar

45g sugar

600g cucumbers (the suggested cut are thin strips long ways but you can do whatever you want)

20g fresh dill chopped (I didn’t have any dill so I used 1/2 teaspoon of dill seed)

1 lemon (see below)

1 Granny Smith apple – cut into matchsticks and tossed into the juice of one lemon

2 celery sticks – fine chopped

1 Tablespoon capers – rinsed and drained

1 small clove garlic – ground to paste

2 Tablespoons Greek Yogurt

1 Tablespoon mayonaise

1 teaspoon dijon mustard

2 Tablespoons parsley – fine chop

4 servings of whatever protein that you are using.

optional – handful of micro greens or salad

Directions

The fennel seeds, vinegar, sugar, get simmered in a small pan until the sugar dissolves. Remove from the heat add the cucumber and dill. place all this in a sterilized container and refrigerate over night.

Make the apple remoulade. The apple celery and capers goes in a large bowl. In a small bowl combine the garlic, yogurt, mayonnaise, mustard, and parsley.This gets mixed in the large bowl with the apple mixture. Taste and adjust seasoning to your taste. (I added more mustard.

Serve…I put the cucumbers on the bottom. Topped them with chicken and topped the chicken with the apple remoulade. I added a few micro greens and some sliced radishes.

Garnish with micro herbs or salad. Add more dill if you have any.

A Special THANKS! to Louise Robinson for a FORKING AMAZING RECIPE so I could come up with what I have here.