WNYT Truffled Salt Cod Cakes

Hello everyone, I was on WNYT Channel 13, a local channel here in upstate New York. I thought I would share with all of you the recipe I prepared today. It was actually a componant of a dish I prepared a few weeks ago at an American Culinary Federation competition which I took a gold medal in. I hope you might enjoy making this recipe, it is a contemporary interpretation of a traditional New England Salt Cod cake.

Truffled Salt Cod Potato Cake

by Chef Christopher Ingredients ¼ lb. Salt Cod ½ lb. Yellow potatoes, peeled and cut into cubes ½ each Spanish onion, small dice ½ teaspoon Rosemary, minced ½ tablespoons Flat leaf parsley, minced 1 each Egg, large 1 each Egg yolk, large 2 tablespoon Truffle oil To taste Black pepper, ground fresh As needed Flour, all purpose As needed Grape seed oil Method 1. Place salt cod in a small pot and cover with water and bring to a simmer for five minutes. Drain and reserve. 2. Place potatoes in a separate pot and cover with water and bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer and boil until tender. Drain and dry in oven for 2-3 minutes and reserve. 3. Heat sauté pan over medium-high heat and add a tablespoon of olive oil. Saute onion until soft, add rosemary and sauté another minute. 4. In a medium bowl combine simmered salt cod, potatoes, onions, parsley, egg yolk and egg, truffle oil and black pepper. Use a pastry cutter to mash all ingredients together until smooth. 5. Shape potato/salt cod mixture into four cakes and coat with flour. Heat a medium sauté pan over medium-high heat with enough grape seed oil to coat the bottom. Place the salt cod cakes into the heated pan and pan-fry on each side until golden brown. Christopher Allen Tanner, CEC Professor Department of Hotel Culinary Arts and Tourism Schenectady County Community College

Thanksgiving with Dad

Oh goodness, so what does one do that has cooked everything for Thanksgiving. I've done the turkey, I've made a fairly large number of turduckens, I've done the Asian themed, Creole themed and every other theme in between. This weekend I thought of what I truly want this next Thanksgiving, simplicity. It will be just my father and I, and as I don't get to see him as often as I have in the past, I want to make the dinner really special.

Now simplicity doesn't mean boring. I just finished ordering a wild turkey from D'Artagnan, a company I love to do some of my specialty ordering through, they may be a bit expensive but the quality is well worth the price. The 5-7 lb. bird costs 78.99 retail. Yes, it is more expensive than your supermarket turkey with the freakishly large breasts, but unlike the supermarket freak, it will have much more flavor.

I'm thinking of slicing some pieces of butter underneath the skin along with some minced rosemary and then drizzling a bit of black truffle oil over the skin. Gonna do some simple roasted fingerling potatoes with rosemary (got tons from the garden still) along with some porcini oil and salt and pepper.

For vegetables I'm gonna go with so haricot vert with obliques of carrots tossed in a veloute sauce with some fresh tarragon, chervil and parsley. I also have to make Brussels sprouts this year. I made an amazing brown sugar smoked bacon recently, which I am going to render and then caramelize the quartered sprouts in, seasoned with (wait for it) rosemary and thyme, and then add a bit of Calvados along with apple cider, cover them in my copper saute pan until they are tender.

Well we need stuffing don't we, I so love a cornbread stuffing, a simple American standard that can't be beat. As for gravy, I have a recipe for sweet potato eggplant gravy from Paul Prudhomme which I will be using this year, pretty tasty with great texture.

So there ya have it, oh wait, dessert you say. Well I am getting it from my students this year. I ordered a pumpkin pie and pecan pie. my dad's favorite pie is pecan, so I'm hoping he will enjoy it. I think I might make a honey and lavender ice cream to go along with it. That's all, nothing else, I think it will go well with the Beaujolais Nouveau for wine.

Judged an ACF Show in Washington DC

I just spent the last weekend in Washington DC judging an American Culinary Federation competition. A great time was had by all, including the competitors and the judges. The event took place in the Washington Convention Center. There was two days of competition, the first day on Saturday was the Market Basket competition. One version was an F/1 which was a four course meal, ten portions each and the competitors had no idea of their ingredients, sort of like Iron Chef, but on steroids; they had four hours to prepare the meal. The second group had the same guidelines, except they had a shorter time frame and there were two people on each team.

On the second day we judged about 30 competitors in a category known as Contemporary. The category involves the competitor creating one entree course, preparing four portions, in 60 minutes, with a 5 minute plating window. Additionally there were competitors that produced some amazing watermelon carvings (one of the competitors happened to be the guy who won the TV Food Network vegetable carving challenge); while others prepared a variety of "cold food" (charcuterie) show platters.

It was a great time, a number of golds were attained in the contemporary category, a guy I have known for awhile who has improved vastly over the last year or so I have known his. Another chef who I would call a friend Peter Dweyer did a great job in the F and cold food categories. More admirabley, he trained five students to compete who preferomed wonderfully in the contemporary category. One student attained a silver, after haveing never competed before this point. Peter himself attained a few medals in the categories he comepted in.

I judged with some amazing chefs, humbling actually looking at who they are, Chef Alfonso Contrisciani CMC, Chef James Hanyzeski CMC , Chef Rene Marquis, and Chef Gunther Heiland CMPC. We had a few great meals at restaurants in DC, Jose Adreas' Turkish/ Israeli style tapas restaurant and an ACF member's restaurant, Agraria which was even more amazing than Andreas place.

I had a great time, can't wait to see the judge's I worked with and the chefs that competed again soon.

Cooler Weather Calls For Pot Au Feu

Man it got cold real quick this past few weeks. It was really cold at my home last night, I even lite the fireplace last night it was so cold. Cold weather brings my mind back to some of my favorite dishes. Most of my friends know of my love for cassoulet, I have another favorite French cold weather dish, pot au feu.

Pot au feu is a regional French dish consisting pretty much of various tough cuts of beef simmered in liquid with vegetables and seasonings. The stewing vegetables are then removed and replaced with hearty root vegetables. I have my own personal twist which comes from my Alsatian heritage which adds fresh bacon to the dish. I have some bacon in my fridge that I cured for a month, so it is ready for the pot.

Pot au feu Recipe

Ingredients

4 medium leeks, white part only
8 carrots, peeled and halved crosswise
8 stalks celery, halved crosswise
1 large onion, quartered
2 pounds beef top round, trussed
2 pounds oxtail
2 pounds brisket, trussed
2 lb slab bacon, (in one solid piece) trussed
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 tablespoon Kosher salt
1 teaspoon black peppercorns
2 bay leaves
3 small turnips, peeled and large diced
1 medium rutabaga, peeled and large diced
1 lb fingerling potatoes

1. In a large stockpot place 4 leeks, 4 carrots, 4 celery stalks and onion, place meat on top of vegetables along with dried thyme, bay leaves, salt and peppercorns. Add enough water to cover and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat and simmer partially covered for 3 hours, skimming any foam which forms on the top.

2. Strain the broth and discard the cooking vegetables. Return the broth and meats to the pot and add remaining vegetables except the potatoes. Bring the broth to a simmer and cook, partially covered, for 1 hour, adding the potatoes after a half hour.

3. Remove the meat from the broth and discard the trussing strings. Carefully remove the vegetables from the broth, place them on a large serving platter, and moisten with some broth. Cover and keep warm.

4. Carve the meat and place on the serving platter with the vegetables.

From the SCCC Kitchen: Skins stay on to give grilled potatoes a healthful kick

From the SCCC Kitchen: Skins stay on to give grilled potatoes a healthful kick

Grilled Potatoes with Rosemary and Garlic

Text Size: A | A | A

From the SCCC Kitchen offers Daily Gazette readers tastes from Schenectady County Community College’s nationally accredited American Culinary Federation culinary arts program. Recipes selected by SCCC instructors can easily be prepared at home. Today, The Gazette concludes a summerlong batch of recipes offered by technical specialist (and certified executive chef) Christopher Tanner. The finale is a fall harvest of small potatoes — Grilled Potatoes with Rosemary and Garlic. Tanner offers more cooking tips at his blog, “Gastronomic Inspirations” at cheftanner.com.

Schenectady County Community College technical specialist (and certified executive chef) Christopher Tanner offers grilled new potatoes.
Watch Video»

Christopher Tanner has his own version of “tater tots.”

His spuds are small, like the baked staples kids (and some adults) smother with cheese and ketchup.

There are no toppings allowed on Tanner’s “Grilled Potatoes with Rosemary and Garlic.” There’s enough flavor in them to bypass participation by Kraft and Heinz.

“People love starch,” said Tanner, whose recipe scores points for easy preparation, taste, health and simplicity.

The easy prep work comes courtesy of aluminum foil. The fingerling, baby Yukon gold and baby purple potatoes used for the dish are wrapped in a foil packet for their time over (or under) the heat. The taste comes from pepper, rosemary and garlic used to spice up the round vegetables; the healthful component is represented by skins that stay on the spuds. “If you take the skins off, you lose all the nutrients,” Tanner said.

Washing the dishes is simple because there are no dishes — once the seasoned and sizzled potatoes are off the grill or out of the oven, aluminum foil is rolled up and thrown away.

Unlike many recipes, chefs don’t have to keep a constant vigil near the flames.

“This is one of those recipes that you can kind of forget for 15 minutes on the grill or the oven and it will still be fine,” Tanner said.

The potatoes, in different shapes and colors, make a great side dish for autumn plates.

GRILLED POTATOES WITH ROSEMARY AND GARLIC

2 pounds varied small potatoes (fingerlings, baby Yukon gold, baby purple potatoes)

2 teaspoons salt

2 tablespoons olive oil

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

3 sprigs rosemary, leaves removed and minced

5 cloves garlic, crushed

Heat a grill on medium-high heat. In a large bowl, combine all ingredients.

Place a large piece of aluminum foil flat on the counter, place the potatoes on top of foil, add a second piece of foil over potatoes and seal potatoes inside aluminum foil pouch by crimping the edges securely.

Place the aluminum packet over grill and cook for 10 minutes. Flip the package and grill and additional 20 to 30 minutes, or until potatoes are tender. You can poke them through the packet with a toothpick to check if they are tender.

Remove potatoes from the grill packet and serve.

Serves 4 to 6.

What the heck have I been up to?

Oh goodness it has been a long time since my last post. Well I am teaching full-time at Schenectady County Community College and things could not be any better. I seriously can't say I recall any better time in my life. I am the lead instructor for Garde Manger, I personally teach three sections of the class with two other instructors teaching under my curriculum. I also run the restaurant class on Tuesday nights (make reservations in advance, the days fill up quick) and I teach the basic baking class called Elements of Baking.

I have been working in an America Culinary Federation Knowledge Bowl team for the college along with a number of other great things. On the competition note, I haven't done much myself lately because of work. For those who are ACF members, you will see in the next National Culinary Review that I am named one of the newest ACf certified culinary judges, so proud and humble at the same time.

I am judging one of my first competitions this winter in St Augustine, Fl. I won both my first gold in cold food (garde manger) competition along with my first market basket (mystery basket competition) at this show. Again, I am humbled that I get the chance to come full-circle to judge at this competition.

In the next couple weeks I will be competing in a couple competitions. One will be in Pennsylvania, while the other will be in Delhi, NY. I have never competed in the seafood category, so I thought I would come up with a new dish for that category. To be honest the dish came to me by accident. I purchased some salt cod last week and decided to make some traditional New England salt cod cakes.

The dish I came up with is a sous-vide olive oil poached black cod, set upon a truffled smoke black cod potato cake with rainbow chard two ways (julienne stems sauteed in butter, and the leaves wilted with garlic and shallots with a bit of pumpkin oil. The sauce will be a beurre rouge (red wine butter sauce).

I hope you all are well, thanks for reading... I will try to keep you all up on my latest escapades. Be well, and be safe.

Sheldon Farm Corn Fritters

Corn has finally come into season in the Capital District and this recipe utilizes corn from Sheldon Farms in Washington County who will have its own little corn festival in support of the Saratoga region chapter of Slow Food USA on Saturday August 9^th, 2008 where these fritters will be featured and cooked by myself along with a number of other fantastic corn dishes.

Sheldon Farms
4363 State Route 22
Salem, NY 12865
518-854-7847

You can find more recipes, food and culture writings and restaurant reviews from

Chef Christopher Tanner at http://www.cheftanner.com

Sheldon Farm Corn Fritters

Makes about 20 fritters

Ingredients

2 cups Flour

1 tablespoon Baking powder

1/2 tsp. Salt

1/4 cup Sugar

2 each Eggs, beaten

1 cup Milk

1/4 cup Butter, melted

1 cup Corn, fresh whole kernel

½ cup Corn, fresh, mashed

As desired Powdered sugar or maple syrup

Method

1. Heat a fryer to 365 degrees or heat oil in a cast iron pot measuring temperature with an oil thermometer which can be found in any quality cooking supply store.

2. In medium bowl combine flour, baking soda, salt and sugar.

3. In a separate bowl combine the eggs, milk, and butter then combine with the flour mixture. Fold both the whole kernel and mashed corn into the batter.

4. When oil is heated, drop approximately 1/8 cup spoonfuls of batter into the hot oil and fry until golden brown. Remove fritters from hot oil and drain on a paper towel and dust fritters with powdered sugar and serve with maple syrup.