… from the Perspectives’ KitchenHow you doin’? At the Lawry’s California Center test kitchen Sandy and I used to spend lunch time trying to come up with new recipes that used Lawry’s products. This Taco Ring is still one of my favorites that we collaborated on. It is a dramatic, delicious appetizer or main dish that everyone loves. Lawry’s Taco seasoned ground beef and melty cheese wrapped in a buttery, flaky Pillsbury crust are perfect for game day, Taco Tuesday, or any night of the week! A Taco Crescent Ring brings together all the flavors of traditional tacos wrapped in a soft and flaky pastry instead of taco shells. Not only is this one of the best dinner ideas for picky kid eaters, it can also be an easy appetizer for food-loving adults. Try it once, and without a doubt, it will be a family favorite in no time! Prep time: 10 minutes Cook/bake time: 35 minutes Yield: 10 servings Ingredients 1 pound ground beef 1 package taco seasoning (I prefer Lawry’s brand) 4 ounces chopped green chilies (small can—do not drain) 2 cups shredded cheddar cheese (divided) 2 cans (8 ounces) crescent roll dough (I prefer Pillsbury brand) Directions
ChefSecrets: Keep the crescent dough cold until ready to use. You can substitute ground turkey or ground chicken for the ground beef. You can add diced onions to the meat mixture when cooking. Once the beef and onion are cooked down, add the taco seasoning and green chilies. My favorite taco toppings are shredded lettuce, diced tomatoes, black olives, taco sauce, pico de gallo, salsa, salsa verde, queso dip, jalapeños, shredded cheddar cheese, refried beans and guacamole. Quip of the Day: You cannot make everybody happy all the time, after all, you are not a taco. ------------------------------------------- Do you have a question or comment? Do you want to share a with our readers? Send your favorite recipes, pictures or thoughts to ed@perspectives-la.com. Recipes and cooking tips are posted on our website https://www.perspectives-la.com/covid-19-survival-guide. ------------------------------------------- To you and everyone dear to you, be strong, be positive, stay well, stay safe and be kind. Take a breath and count your blessings, and if you have a little extra to share with others, please consider donating to Feeding America and/or American Red Cross. #Baking #Appetizers #Entrees #CrescentRolls #TacoRing #Lawrys #Pillsbury #2023Recipes #QuarantineKitchen #Covid19 #FeedingAmerica #RedCross #PerspectivesTheConsultingGroup ©PERSPECTIVES/The Consulting Group, LLC, 2023
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…from the Perspectives’ KitchenHow you doin’? Do you remember the days before everyone went crazy for low-carb foods when bread of some kind was on every table as a meal starter? Actually, there was a good reason to get something into the stomachs of every guest. When your blood sugar is low you feel hunger pangs. People get short tempered and people with a few drinks in them can get downright nasty when they’re hungry. A bowl of tortilla chips, Asian noodles or a breadstick or two, creates a little forgiveness, buys some time and keeps people reasonable until the server can get to the table to take an order. In these times when so many restaurants are running short-staffed, many restaurants would do well to remember this secret. Let’s bring this custom back with my Homemade Garlic Breadsticks (or turn them into tied garlic bread knots). You’ll find they’re delicious and goes perfectly with a bowl of pasta and soup! Prep time: 20 minutes Proof times: 40 minutes (first proof) / 25 minutes (second proof) Bake time: 10 to 12 minutes Cool time: 10 minutes Yield: 18 breadsticks Ingredients 1/4 cup granulated sugar, divided 1 (1/4-ounce) package active dry yeast 1 cup warm water, divided 2-1/4 cups all-purpose flour, or more if needed 3 tablespoons vegetable oil, plus more to coat the pan 1 large egg 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/2 cup melted unsalted butter 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder 1 teaspoon coarse kosher salt 1 teaspoon chopped dried parsley 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese Directions
ChefSecret: When proofing the dough, I turn the oven on warm and put the bowl with towel-covered dough in the oven with the door slightly ajar to let it rise. Quip of the Day: When he was young, Bob decided to go to medical school. At the entrance exam, the candidates were asked to rearrange the letters P N E I S and form the name of an important human body part which is most useful when erect. Those who answered SPINE are doctors today, while the rest are on Facebook. ------------------------------------------- Do you have a question or comment? Send your favorite recipes, pictures or thoughts to ed@perspectives-la.com. Recipes and cooking tips are posted on our website https://www.perspectives-la.com/covid-19-survival-guide. ------------------------------------------- To you and everyone dear to you, be strong, be positive, stay well, stay safe and be kind. Take a breath and count your blessings, and if you have a little extra to share with others, please consider donating to Feeding America and/or American Red Cross. #Baking #Appetizers #Breadsticks #HomemadeBreadsticks #GarlicBreadsticks #DoughKnots #2023Recipes #QuarantineKitchen #Covid19 #FeedingAmerica #RedCross #PerspectivesTheConsultingGroup ©PERSPECTIVES/The Consulting Group, LLC, 2023 …from the Perspectives’ KitchenHow you doin’? One of my favorite Italian appetizers are double-breaded deep-fried mozzarella sticks but sometimes even perfection needs a little refresher. So, here’s my modern makeover on mozzarella sticks. Fried Mozzarella Puffs are a cross between Café du Monde Beignets and Rao’s Mozzarella Sticks. No breading is required. They are easier, crispier and cuter than ordinary cheesy sticks. How do make these, you ask? It begins with choux pastry (cream puff pastry dough). Make a kind of roux by combining butter, flour, and water together in a pan until it clumps into a smooth dough, then incorporate egg and seasonings once it’s cooled down a bit. While the fridge works its magic on the dough, season up the jarred marinara sauce of your choice. All that’s left is to incorporate the mozzarella cheese into the cooled dough. Now just scoop it out and drop the cheese balls into the fryer. You’re never going to dip another cheese stick again. Prep time: 20 minutes Chill time: 60 minutes Fry time: 15 minutes Yield: 12 puffs Ingredients 1/3 cup water 2 tablespoons unsalted butter 1 teaspoon kosher salt 1/3 cup all-purpose flour 1 large egg 1 pinch cayenne pepper 1 pinch freshly ground black pepper 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano 1 cup marinara sauce, or to taste 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes 1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar 4 ounces low-moisture mozzarella cheese 4 cups canola oil for frying 1 anchovy fillet Directions
Quip of the Day: “What do you call a row of people lifting mozzarella—a cheesy pick-up line.” Let’s hear the rim shot... bud-dum! ------------------------------------------- Do you have a question or comment? Send your thoughts to ed@perspectives-la.com. All recipes and cooking tips are posted on our website https://www.perspectives-la.com/covid-19-survival-guide. ------------------------------------------- To you and everyone dear to you, be strong, be positive, stay well, stay safe and be kind. Take a breath and count your blessings, and if you have a little extra to share with others, please consider donating to Feeding America and/or American Red Cross. #Appetizers #FriedMozzarellaPuffs #Mozzarella #ChouxDough #2023 #QuarantineKitchen #Covid19 #FeedingAmerica #RedCross #PerspectivesTheConsultingGroup ©PERSPECTIVES/The Consulting Group, LLC, 2023 …from the Perspectives’ Kitchen How you doin’? One of the best dishes served at my China Rose restaurant were our Lettuce Wraps bursting with complex Asian flavors. They are delicious and a great idea for entertaining or a family-style meal. I know this is a pretty bold claim but China Rose Beef or Chicken Lettuce Wraps that you can make at home are far better than those served in most Chinese restaurants. It may be bold, but it’s true! This Lettuce Wrap recipe is one that took a lot of sweat and tears working at Sea World (the restaurant not the park) in Hong Kong. So, here is the best of my years of trial and error, and lots of taste-testing, to get it just right. To serve, allow each guest to spoon a portion of the meat mixture into a lettuce leaf. Wrap the lettuce around the like a burrito and enjoy! Prep time: 20 minutes Cook time: 15 minutes Yield: 6 to 8 servings Ingredients 16 Boston Bibb or butter lettuce leaves 1 tablespoon peanut cooking oil 1 pound lean ground beef or ground chicken 1 large onion, chopped 1/4 cup hoisin sauce 3 tablespoons minced garlic 1 tablespoon soy sauce 1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar 2 teaspoons minced pickled ginger (red ginger, if you can find it) 1 dash Asian chili pepper sauce, or to taste (Optional) 1 (8 ounce) can water chestnuts, drained and finely chopped 1-1/2 cup chopped green onions (tops and bottoms) 2 teaspoons Asian roasted (dark) sesame oil Directions
ChefSecret: To add a little crunch and make this this dish very special, add 1/4 cup chopped roasted peanuts. Quip of the Day: Why is lettuce the most loving vegetable? Because it’s got heart and a head. -------------------------------------------------- Do you have a question or comment? Send your thoughts to ed@perspectives-la.com. All recipes and cooking tips are posted on our website https://www.perspectives-la.com/covid-19-survival-guide. ------------------------------------------- To you and everyone dear to you, be strong, be positive, stay well, stay safe and be kind. Take a breath and count your blessings, and if you have a little extra to share with others, please consider donating to Feeding America and/or American Red Cross. #Entrees #Appetizers #LettuceWraps #ChinaRose #AsianBurrito #2023 #QuarantineKitchen #Covid19 #FeedingAmerica #RedCross #PerspectivesTheConsultingGroup ©PERSPECTIVES/The Consulting Group, LLC, 2023 … from the Perspectives’ Kitchen How you doin’? Last week I was talking to Earl, one of our client’s managers in Kayenta, Arizona. Never heard of it? It might be because it’s in the middle of Navajo Indian reservation, just at the entry of the Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park. Aside from it being so near to some of the most beautiful landscapes in the country, there isn’t a lot to do in Kayenta. There’s a Sonic, McDonald’s, Burger King, Taco Bell, Subway, Pizza Edge and Church’s Fried Chicken (which continually runs out of chicken) and a Hampton Inn which serves great dinners. There is also a Chinese restaurant where Earls says he’ll only eat the noodles. He was telling me he really misses great Scallion Pancakes that he used to order in another part of the country—you know the ones with lots of flaky layers. We developed a great recipe for this simple appetizer for both China Rose and China Coast. You may have seen a similar recipe that Martin Yan demonstrated on Yan Can Cook. It is both simple and ingenious. It combines water, flour and a little patience. With most breads and pastries, cold or room temperature liquid is added to flour before kneading. There are two major proteins in flour, glutenin and gliadin. There is a little chemistry and physics involved here and when they get wet and are rubbed around (like kneading), they stretch out and bind with other glutenin and gliadin molecules, forming the stretchy protein matrix known as gluten. Gluten is what gives dough structure, and the more it's kneaded and worked, the tighter it becomes. A ball of well-kneaded cold water dough will spring back if you press it and contract if you stretch it. This is why pizza dough is extremely hard to roll out until it's had at least a few hours to rest, allowing the gluten to relax. The level of chewiness and stretch you get from a cold water dough is directly related to how vigorously it’s kneaded and how long it rests. Okay, forget all this…it was just written for context and a better understanding. Scallion Pancakes 101 Hot water doughs—the type used to make scallion pancakes, dumpling wrappers, and several other Chinese pastries—work a little differently. By adding boiling water directly to flour, you end up not only denaturing the proteins, but smashing them into small pieces. Some gluten can still form, but because cooked proteins aren't nearly as stretchy or clingy as raw ones, you won't get anywhere near the stretch of a cold-water dough and they are far less touchy. So, if airy, hole-filled bread is your goal, destroying the proteins is a bad thing. That’s why you always keeps yeasty waters below 109⁰ F. If you're looking for tender dumpling wrappers or scallion pancakes with just a little bit of a bite and chew, that's precisely what you want. That’s the beauty of hot water doughs—they don’t bounce back as much as cold water doughs. This makes it extremely easy to roll out. That's a good thing when you're rolling scallion pancakes. Even better, because they have so little gluten development, you can work with them cool, making it easy to prepare your dough in the morning, chill it down and roll out it right before mealtime to make a laminated dough (which is where the flakiness come in). Scallion pancakes are made by folding the dough over and over to create layers. The flat disks of dough are first brushed with sesame oil and sprinkled with scallions, then rolled up, jelly-roll style. The number of complete turns this process makes—five or so—depends on how tightly you roll it. After rolling, the log gets spiraled up like a snake. Finally, it gets flattened out one last time, this time with the scallions tucked neatly inside. A quick fry in hot oil later, and you're done. Crispy, slightly chewy, flaky, filled with scallions, and by the way, delicious. Cooking scallion pancakes at high heat cooks them unevenly. That's not what you want. On the other hand, cook them on low heat and the pancakes soak up too much oil until they’re totally saturated, making it greasy instead of light and crisp. Moderate heat with a good amount of oil and constant swirling is the best way to get even browning and, flaky layers—just follow my directions below. Prep time: 35 minutes Resting time: 30 minutes Fry time: 20 minutes Yield: 4 pancakes (24 wedges) Ingredients For the pancakes 2 cups all-purpose flour, plus extra for dusting work surface 1 cup boiling water 1/4 cup toasted sesame seed oil 2 cups thinly sliced scallions green tops For the dipping sauce 2 tablespoons soy sauce (I prefer Kikkoman) 2 tablespoons Chinkiang or rice wine vinegar 1 tablespoon finely sliced scallion greens 1/2 teaspoon grated fresh ginger 2 teaspoons granulated sugar For frying the pancakes 1/4 cup vegetable oil (I prefer peanut oil) Kosher salt Directions To make the pancakes
To make the sauce
To cook the pancakes
ChefSecret: Here's are my six easy steps to make the best China Rose Scallion Pancakes: 1. Combine flour and water until workable dough is formed. 2. Knead (kneading is a good thing). 3. Add scallions. 4. Knead some more. 5. Roll out with a rolling pin, and fry. 6. Serve with salt, vinegar-soy sauce. Quip of the Day: Confucius says, “Know the origin of your food and enjoy.” ------------------------------------------- Do you have a question or comment? Do you want to share a with our readers? Send your favorite recipes, pictures or thoughts to ed@perspectives-la.com. Recipes and cooking tips are posted on our website https://www.perspectives-la.com/covid-19-survival-guide. ------------------------------------------- To you and everyone dear to you, be strong, be positive, stay well, stay safe and be kind. Take a breath and count your blessings, and if you have a little extra to share with others, please consider donating to Feeding America and/or American Red Cross. #Appetizer #ChineseScallionPancakes #ChinaRose #MonumentValley #Kayenta #NavajoNation #2023Recipes #QuarantineKitchen #Covid19 #FeedingAmerica #RedCross #PerspectivesTheConsultingGroup ©PERSPECTIVES/The Consulting Group, LLC, 2023 |
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