Grandma Kirk's pumpkin pie

GRANDMA KIRK'S PUMPKIN PIE RECIPE

I got my start in the culinary game from Grandma Kirk. I enjoyed helping her as a little boy and little by little I made more and more of the dinner under her tutelage. What a great mentor she was and I still carry a box filled with her recipes on my travels around the world. I was recently asked for a pumpkin recipe and here is my favorite, the one from my grandmother:

Short Dough Ingredients

 Butter or butter  500 g 67% or and 50%  Vegetable Shortening and shortening

Sugar 6 oz 180 g   (Or Brown Sugar)

 Salt  1⁄4 tsp

Eggs 3 small or 2 Large

Pastry flour  750 g

Yield 780 g

 Procedure

1.  Using the paddle attachment, mix the butter, sugar, and salt at low speed until smooth and evenly blended

 2. Add the eggs and mix just until absorbed

 3. Sift the flour and add it to the mixture. Mix just until evenly blended.

4. Chill several hours before using it.

6 Roll out a 1.4-inch thickness line a buttered and flowered pan taking care to push into corners dough all the way.

Note: Brown sugar may be used if the darker color and stronger flavor are desired

Enough for 2 x 23cm pies

Pumpkin Filling

 750 g Pumpkin purée, (Must Be High-Quality Thick Not Runny  Same Consistency

 30 g Pastry flour

 3 tsp L Cinnamon

 1⁄4 tsp  Nutmeg

 1⁄2 tsp Ground ginger

 1⁄8 tsp  ground cloves

5⁄8 tsp Salt 10 oz

 290 g Light  Brown sugar

 Eggs 2 oz

 60 g Corn syrup or half corn syrup and

100 g Medium Molasses

600 mL Milk

 Procedure

 1. Place pumpkin purée in the bowl of a mixer fitted with a whip attachment.

 2. Sift together the flour, spices, and salt

 3. Add the flour mixture and sugar to the pumpkin. Mix at second speed until smooth and well blended.

4. Add the eggs and mix them in. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.

 5. Turn the machine to low speed. Gradually pour in the syrup molasses mixture, then the milk. Mix until evenly blended.

 6. Fill the pie shells. Bake at 450°F (230°C) for 15 minutes only

7. Lower heat to 350°F (175°C) and bake until set, about 30–40 minutes more

8. Let Cool Down to room Temperature serve or Refrigerate until needed.

 Serve at Room Temperature

Suggested serve with Vanilla Ice Cream

Making Mooncakes in Bangkok

MAKING MOONCAKES IN BANGKOK

The Thai-Chinese  community is very large in Bangkok creating great demand for this special item especially during the Mid-Autumn Festival.

When I arrived in Bangkok, I worked with the incredible team at the Bangkok Mandarin Oriental. These talented chefs taught me about the traditions and process of making the different types of mooncakes. I learned how to roll the dough in a special way, then put it inside what is known as a mooncake bat, the name of a form maker that forms the cake, and imprints it with a custom form for each hotel design and logo.  Then we would carefully weigh the filling and stuff it inside then properly close the pastry.  Part of this process involves banging the wooden mold/bat to ensure it is properly packed and even more importantly,  imprinted correctly. This was quite an experience and seeing our hotel produce 14,000 of these in a short amount of time was impressive.

The festival traditionally gets people to appreciate the moon and watch it, a nice tradition and the mooncakes are a fundamental part of the whole thing. they usually get gifted among friends and family and are a must-bring when arriving at a family gathering. This festival is one of the four biggest on the Chinese calendar.

The cakes are round and quite uniform in size about 10 centimeters in diameter with a 2-3 millimeter crust on all sides, wrapping and containing a very rich, thick filling. The cakes are usually cut into wedges and consumed with tea. There are more different recipes than there are days in a year and now the mooncake tradition extends to all of Asia and is starting to take hold in other parts of the world. Give them a try sometime.

Remembering falling in love with Asia and its cuisine

ON FALLING IN LOVE WITH ASIA AND ITS CUISINE

After my transfer to Washington DC, I was granted a 1-month cross exposure to the Legendary Mandarin Oriental Hotel in mid-late 2009.

On arrival, I remember it was like landing on Mars. Everything was different, no one spoke English, and the people were of small stature, very polite and smiley though.  Later I would come to know that Thailand is widely known for as “the Land of Smiles.”

I was on a special program to expose me to Chinese and Thai cookery.  I spent four weeks tasting absolutely everything I could while taking notes and menus that I still have to this day. It was at this time though as I ate, I got a full-body rash It was determined I was allergic to both sharks fin and the entire family of Guava. I am glad to have shark fin allergy as this is a horrible practice. Snake fruit (related to Guava) which I ravenously consumed one day only to repeat the rash again.

One thing that was most amazing was the fine skills Asian chefs have in their hands makes European chefs actually look clumsy.  They have incredible attention to detail.  They also manage amazing teamwork, I came to realize that Asian Chefs as a whole, are much better at teamwork.  They all worked tirelessly at incredible speed and accuracy for up to 12 hours a day doing 2 busy services in both the Chinese Restaurant and Thai Royal Cuisine Sala Rim Nan at the Mandarin Oriental in Bangkok.

Another amazing thing that was happening at the time was the Chinese Moon cake festival.  The Oriental kitchen had a production kitchen to handle this in coordination with the Chinese kitchen for the magnificent fillings such as black sesame, lotus seed, Egg yolk Red Bean, Green tea, etc.

These are traditionally purchased as gifts for family, friends, business partners, etc.  An important part of this is the design of the box usually containing 12 moon cakes of various flavors textures. The Mandarin Oriental was making up to 14000 pieces finished baked, cooled, and ready for packing the next day. This goes on for about 20 days. It was at this moment I became dedicated to getting to Asia fulltime Somehow.

More on my culinary adventures in Thailand and my big move to China in upcoming blogs.

Recipe for Moroccan Veg Tagine

This is another fantastic dish from my colleague and friend Mouhcine Bendaoui

He is one of the great chefs on my team. Chef Mouhcine is from Morocco and honors his country with amazing food. Tagine is a dish that is named for the conical clay pot in which it is cooked. A thick stew of vegetables and spices. Amazing!

Moroccan Spring  Vegetable Tagine (Kesksou L’Hodra)

Method

1.      In a heatproof Tagine, Place Cous Cous (Precooked)

2.      Add vegetable stock or water preferable vegetable stock in which they were cooked

3.      Add Salt

4.      Stir quickly until all is absorbed

5.      Add vegetable and poach for 5 minutes, add herbs after 5 minutes 

6.      Let couscous hydrate for 12 minutes

7.      Add olive oil and rub between your hands to ensure grain does not clump in the cooking process (Important)

8.      6. Place dish in hot oven appx 400 F for 20 minutes

9.      Add Butter Olive oil and fluff up

10.   Garnish with cooked vegetables, serve with Lemon Harissa, Mixed Olive

11.   Top with cooked vegetables. Sliced Ripe Tomato

Ingredient for Cous Cous

Ingredient for Broth

500 ml Water

10 g Salt

2 Vegetable Boulion Cubes

Vegetables to poach in Broth

200Carrots 1/4

100 G Fennel Cut by 8

Sliced Ripe Tomato or Cherry Tomatoes

100 G Green Zucchini 5 Cm ¼ vertically

100 G Yellow Zuchini[RK1]  5 cm Sliced Vertically

80 G white onion sliced thinly

20 Pc Moroccan Black or red  olives pitted

¼ piece preserved lemon rind only julienned

14 ounces fresh shucked Fava beans

225 g Chopped Green Onions

300 g Frozen Artichokes 

Sea Salt to taste

Freshly Ground Pepper to taste

400 G fresh shucked peas 

1 Large Handful Chopped parsley

1 Large Handful Chopped Coriander

 1 Handful  Mint Chopped

The story of the Pistachio Herb Crusted Lamb Rack

Let me give you a little bit of background on this dish. It was our signature dish and sometimes an entire table would order only lamb like 5 or six people. That’s how popular it was and Centro was busy 200-350 covers per day 6 nights a week.

I would start my day by Cleaning/ Butchering the lamb.  It came fully enveloped in fat cap on which had to be removed.  Then the horrible task of removing remaining chine bones which are small pieces of bone in-between each chop on the bottom side. Fine dining Restaurants do this to ensure the guest can easily cut the meat and they don't get surprised with an unexpected piece of bone when chewing.

Chef David Lee taught me this preparation. Then we would clean the bones with a knife and clean them again using butchers twine tied to the wall wrapped one time around each bone and jerked away to leave the bone pristinely clean as it should be for fine dining.

Also of importance is the size of the eye, the actual meat that is left. Centro had exact specifications for this something like 18-20 ounces which indicates the gross weight of one rack of lamb before cleaning.

I also remember always having fights with the crazy Guatamalin guy who was responsible for making the bread crumbs. I believe he was either ex-military or an ex-con and he scared the shit out of me.

The bones are then wrapped in foil to protect them from browning. Ideally, you want the bones white as possible and not roasted when the dish arrives at the table.
Importantly we seared the lamb in very hot cast iron pans only to sear. We considered it a cardinal sin to have any uneven cooking on the lamb which would later be sliced chop by chop as the orders came in.

Cooking lamb is a real feeling you get. You only get reasonably competent at it after a lot of practice and guidance.  You need to touch the lamb by pressing gently on it to test while cooking it in the oven.

The big secret was to cook the lamb before crusting it for exactly 10 minutes in a roaring hot oven and after that never put it in the fridge. Lamb, similar to other meats, is best cooked from room temperature.

Our lamb was imported from the USA, NYC butcher importers Debragga were the best in the entire USA.  It was Australian lamb as they grow it much bigger there than in New Zealand.  Our lamb had a high marbling  Fat in-between muscle fibers which melts when cooked to offer tenderness and excellent mouthfeel as we call it.

Most popular was the lamb cooked medium.  But for us Chefs who knew the dish,  we know that proper doneness is called Rose or Pink somewhere between Medium Rare and Medium.

Chef Thuet would lose his mind when people ordered it well-done. He would curse and swear and announce what he thought their profession or position in life was.

Then the crusting... just before service we would liberally brush lamb with maple mustard and pack on the green pistachio crust tightly.

You need a razor-sharp knife when cutting this cooked lamb to ensure you did not damage or remove crust in the cutting process.

It was difficult to cook 6 orders all different donenesses to be ready at the exact same time and there are some secrets there for sure.

The dish can be difficult but once mastered you felt like a real chef for a few minutes. Just for a moment actually, until Marc Thuet or David Lee would offer more verbal abuse about something else that I had not mastered yet. As I knew, that is the way it goes in the kitchen! 

Lovely Moroccan dish- Chicken Pastilla

This recipe comes from chef  Mouchine from Morocco, a super talented chef I have the pleasure to work with. This chicken and onion pie or BstillaBil Djaj is a famous Moroccan dish brought back by the Moors from Andalucia. It seems complicated but actually not hard but definitely delicious. In Morocco the pie is made with trid, an oily puffy pastry but use fillo as a substitute available in packages from middle eastern stores around the world.

Chicken Pastilla

Ingredients:

500 g thinly sliced white onions

 75 ml Olive Oil

 80 g   Blanched Almonds

½    Teaspoon Ground Ginger

½    Teaspoon Ground Cinnamon

300 g Boneless skinless chicken thigh (Cut to bite-size pieces)

Sea Salt to taste

Freshly Ground Black pepper to taste

½ Cup Chopped Cilantro

7 large Sheets Fillo Dough (readily available in Frozen section of supermarkets)

150 ml melted butter

1 egg yolk

For Finishing

Icing Sugar + Cinnamon

Method:

1 in a preheated large saucepan place the olive oil followed by sliced onions, reduce heat and cover stirring frequently for appx 25 minutes until soft and golden caramelized.

2. Fry the almonds in more olive oil until toasty and fragrant sauteing constantly to prevent burning golden brown.  Drain on kitchen cloth.

3Stir in Cinnamon and ginger powder to cooked onions add seasoned boneless chicken, return to low heat, Cook uncovered stirring frequently until chicken cooked appx 15 minutes

4. Remove chicken pieces and continue to cook onions until no moisture left (important mixture is dry).

5. Return the chicken to the pan and mix leave off the heat.

6. with 4 pieces of filo and a pan that will allow appx ¼ overlap of leaves when placed in a circular pattern. Brush fully between each layer repeating steps 3 more times.

8. Cut t around edges of overlapping filo just enough to round. Then push this inside the edge of the pan to form the decorative bottom when served.

9. Add the Chicken onion mixture and spread out to help shape the pie, Topp with all the toasted almonds.

10. Continue with last 3 pieces of filo to close the pie (do not brush the last outside layer with butter. Tuck in excess around the edge of pan as previous

11. Brush the top with egg yolk water mixture bake in a preheated 350-degree oven for 30-40 minutes until puffed up golden and crispy. Move pie to bottom of oven for 10-15 minutes to evenly brown the bottom, it is a good idea to take a peek underneath to prevent scorching during this process

12. Turn out onto presentation platter and dust in a geometric pattern with a mix of cinnamon and icing sugar.

Suggestion: Serve with vegetable couscous.

My Culinary love affair with Asia

My culinary Love Affair with Asia

When I started cooking, Fusion Food was a big thing.  My first Chef Mentor in Canada was able to experience the world and its culinary traditions during his career and he told me many times that a Chef's career would not be well rounded without significant time working in Asia. His name is  Norbert Chabot had worked 2 years at the famous Peninsula Hotel Hong Kong. The Peninsula was built with the idea that it would be "the finest hotel east of Suez" and opened its doors in December 1928. It had an amazing location in Kowloon, Hong Kong directly opposite the quays where ocean liner passengers disembarked and the last stop on the trans-Siberian rail link that brought travelers from Europe. What a grand hotel to this day.

Norbert Chabot told me I would see so many things in Asia and come to understand a whole different way of cooking, the freshness of ingredients, exotic fruits, and vegetables, along with a cacophony of new and exciting flavors and strange ingredients. After hearing all these stories from someone I considered to be a great chef,  over time it became my dream to follow his footsteps to Asia.  I spent a lot of time on applications early in my career that came to nothing.

It was not until I joined Mandarin Oriental Hotel Company that this became even a faint possibility.

More in my next post- I really want to share my passion for food from all over the world with you and I wish you have culinary adventures!!