A DIFFERENT KIND OF STUFFING

Here's a simple way to take an ordinary chicken breast to new heights. Stuffing it with sun dried tomato paste, spinach, dill and goats cheese gives it a Mediterranean flavor. But the filling isn't as important here as the technique. You can stuff your chicken breasts with whatever you like - keeping it there throughout the cooking process is the important thing.

I have tied this chicken breast to ensure the filling does not ooze out during handling and cooking, but there are other methods that can be used to get a stuffed breast from cutting board to pan and finally to the table still intact. Here are a couple:

• Fill the breast and cover the filling with the tender. Wrap it in plastic wrap. Set in the freezer for 20 minutes before unwrapping and cooking. The freezer will firm up the breast and hold it together.
• Fill the breast and cover the filling with the tender. Pull the flaps of the breast together over the tender and skewer together.

What you fill a chicken breast with will determine which direction to take in securing it. The wetter the filling. the more secure it should be.

Give it a try.

SIMPLY DELICIOUS!

Here is a little appetizer I threw together one night last week for the evening menu for our guests at Eaton Hall. A few croutons, a fricassee of mushrooms and some brie cheese is all that is required to make this fast, simple and decadent dish. Pictured here is a single portion, but several could be combined on one plate for sharing with friends with a nice bottle of wine

1. The croutons were cut from a French stick and were brushed with extra virgin olive oil, balsamic vinegar, garlic, sea salt and pepper. They were then toasted in a 350 degree oven until crisp.


2. The mushroom fricassee is a simple combination of butter, white wine, minced garlic, slivered shallots, julienne of white onion, shitake mushrooms*, fresh tarragon, chopped flat leaf parsley, sea salt and pepper. The butter is melted in a pan at a high heat, The mushrooms are added next and sauteed until golden. The garlic, shallot and onion are next into the pan and are cooked out until softened and aromatic. White wine is added - and perhaps a few knobs of butter - to make a small amount of sauce for the croutons to soak up. The fricassee is finished off with the tarragon, sea salt, pepper and chopped parsley.


3. The hot fricassee is spooned over the croutons. Here I have used three croutons per portion. A thin wedge of French brie cheese is laid over the mushrooms and is then glazed under the salamander. A broiler or a blow torch can be used for softening and browning the cheese as well.
   

Note: *If possible try to use some nice woodland mushrooms in this dish. My personal choice would be chantrelles, but others would work equally well too.

There you have it - fast, simple and damn tasty!

WHERE IT ALL HAPPENS.....

This is where it all happens. This is the kitchen at Eaton Hall. Since arriving here a few weeks ago, I have been cleaning and reorganizing the kitchen to suit my own personal requirements as a chef. I have been cooking all this time as well, but getting the kitchen organized has been high on my priority list because I always perform better in a highly organized and clean environment.

This kitchen is set up for banquet service in its configuration. That is, it is not set up for a la carte service as you would find in a restaurant kitchen. The main difference between the two is how the line is set up. The line in a restaurant kitchen has cooking equipment along the back wall and is complimented with steam tables, heat lamps, plate storage, cold tables and an automated ordering system running parallel to it to form a very efficient and busy alley way for the chef and cooks to bang out the plates as orders come in from customers in the dining room. A catering kitchen has no need for that parallel component. The food is prepared, cooked and finished en mass and is put out all at once. The kitchen set up must enable that style of service.

You will see in the photos that the hot line is well set up. The equipment includes a convection oven, a deep fat fryer, a flat top griddle/oven, a six-burner range/oven, a broiler and a steam cabinet. The kitchen has plenty of counter and table surface for prepping and laying out plates for the plating and picking up of banquets. The kitchen also has a walk in cooler, walk in freezer, reach in coolers, under counter cooler, steam table and a table top mixer.

When many banquet facilities prepare food is is partially cooked and then finished for pick up and service to the guests later. This is because a lot of food must go out of the kitchen "shot gun" style and this must be executed very quickly to prevent wait time for the guests. I am a restaurant chef and am accustomed to cooking food and putting it out to order. There is a huge difference between the two.

At Eaton Hall I hope to fuse the two styles of service together to put out high numbers of plates quickly while having just cooked quality. It makes for a hellish few minutes for the kitchen, but in the end, the customers will be very happy.

RANDOM PLATES THUSFAR........

This is a random selection of plates we have produced at Eaton Hall since my arrival. The majority of them were created off the cuff for dinner service where small groups were in for corporate functions. None of these dishes appear on the regular banquet menus.

Some of the dishes included are: beef tenderloin medallions with peppercorn demi; veal chop with basil smear; chicken breast with roasted onion and Calvados cream; salmon baked in filo with spinach, feta and sundried tomatoes; seared quail on risotto; roast eggplant soup with red pepper drizzle and a mixed berry trifle.

Once I rewrite the menus (soon), I will standardize recipes and plate presentations. There plates were created at a moments notice on a daily basis as I have been orienting myself with Eaton Hall and getting the kitchen reorganized. Not too bad for being so preoccupied...huh?

Hungry yet?

SAYING GOODBYE MY MAJESTIC FRIENDS.......

Okay! I'm finally up and running here at "Livingston Cooks!" Since my last post, I've had computer issues, and now that they're fixed...I'm ready to rumble!

I wanted to start off by sharing some photos of my drive east from British Columbia to Toronto. The photos here are of the Rockey Mountains which stretch from Revelstoke BC through to Banff. It was the most impressive leg of the journey east.

Relocating to Toronto has been difficult for me in many ways, but leaving the mountains is worst of all. I have lived in the mountains for the past 14 years and the stark contrast of the Toronto city scape and its busy pace is hard to take at times. I'm slowly getting accustomed to Toronto, however, so I am feeling better.

Things at Eaton Hall are going well and I will begin posting about my work there tonight. There is much to share. In the meantime...enjoy my photos of the mountains I love so much.