Andre G. Gray: tha Giant [Blog]

MRinternational hit 21 a couple weeks ago. Since we are in Europe, it would normally be a pretty regular night. In order to avoid this regularity and normalness, Yim and I decided to put together a real nice dinner party Chez Madame Linyer. In order to complete the Dinner Impossible, ala Robert Irvine, I had to first create a Menu. I was thinking of something good, hearty and filling. Being the fanatic of hearty homemade meals that i am, I turned to the trusty Chicken Parm with homemade Marinara. Once i had decided on this delicacy, meaning once i imagined it in my head and then was forced to make it because my vivid imagination would make me crave that dish until i ate it, i realized that the frying might be slightly time consuming, and might thusly slow down my dinner. The solution. Light Bulbs. There it was, my famous Minestrone Soup. It comes from a recipe I adapted out of a Williams-Sonoma kids cookbook i received for xmas many years back. Chicken Minestrone with
6 cups chicken stock
6 medium garlic cloves, each cut in 1/2 lengthwise
2 cups finely chopped yellow onions (2 small onions)
1 cup small-diced green bell peppers 1good sized pepper
1 cup small-diced carrots (2 to 3 medium carrots)
1 tablespoon finely chopped rosemary
1 (14-ounce) can kidney beans in a can unflavored
1 (14 1/2-ounce) can diced tomatoes
1 Box ridged small pasta of choice
1 lb chicken breast.
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
and 1 cup freshly grated Parmesan. Through the Parms on top of some pasta and make a lil salad to start and u have a menu. I then needed to go shopping. Then problem. First, my recipe i had written down was in cups and pounds, but europe does not get down with cups or pounds. Solution, call me English friend from Amherst for conversions. Then, problem two, No Breadcrumbs at the store. Solution, toast bread and make them urself. This being the first time i was cooking dinner for 30ppl, i was slightly unaware yet aware of how long it was going to take to shop, but after a 200euro+ bill, an hr15 in the Carrefour and a stolen shopping cart to push the food home, i was ready to cook. Well, I was ready to prepare. Armed with some amateur sous chefs, I began the cutting. And the cutting. AND the cutting. There were the peppers, carrots, onions and garlic for the soup and then the salad fixins. Not to mention the heap of chicken i had to cut and pound out for the soup n the parms. Meanwhile, I had someone crumbing the bread i was broiling in the oven and some other ppl cutting various things. Once i got the Marinara sauce up, which consisted of
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 small onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, chopped
2 teaspoons dried oregano seasonings
7 cups whole, peeled, canned tomatoes in puree (about 2 (28-ounce cans), roughly chopped
1 tablespoon kosher salt
and Freshly ground black pepper,
I moved to the soup. First, season and cook 1lb of chicken breast cubes in the bottom of a large large pot with the onions and peppers. Once the chicken is white on all sides add the tomatoes, chicken stock and everything else. Then cook for 40 mins. Salt and Pepper to taste.
Once that was going i started to smell a slight burn. I was wondering what it was, thinking something was on the bottom of pot or something. As the order became stronger and stronger, i realized that the burning was the oven, still filled with bread, and on fire. I opened the oven, smoke filled the room, and put out the fire. Luckily, we had enough breadcrumbs to still cook the chicken. O yea, and the house didnt burn down, thats good too. Then to the chicken. Dip it low in some eggs, then dredge in a mixture of breadcrumbs salt pepper dried oregano and thyme. Then to the frying pan, filled halfway wit some veggie oil. Fry fry, flip, fry. By then, the salad had been served by a sous chef and the soup was already coming out the kitchen. As soon as the chicken were ready, things started to move like clockwork. Spagetti on bottom, topped with chicken, topped with sauce, topped with mozarella. Delicious. Wait, i forgot to mention that at this point it was 23:30. And the party started at 21:00. This meant that people were drinking, socializing, and partying, all the while i am in the kitchen, solo by this point since my sous get distracted by some hot french boys n left, still smelling terrible from playing basketball earlier and in my hoop clothes.
In the end, the party was great, the food better, and i successfully cooked the largest meal of my life. It was a great time and i received rave reviews from a tough (as usual) french crowd, as well as some appreciative and hungry Americans. Once again happy Birfday tim and Bon Apetit to you all.

SO much for aprons…

Dont get it {Twisted}… welcome to the DubUNO club

I have spent a good portion of my time in Paree, looking, searching, digging for a hot pepper. Habanero, jalapeno, something. No go. So, me being the mover and the shaker that I am, i set out to hotify some peppers on my own. The best pepper i could find was a pasilla chili pepper, which isnt even hot enough to have a rating in scoville heat units but no need to fear, the capsaicin will b added manually. I, first, chopped the peppers up as i would have had i had some jalapenos, in small bits, akin to the size when dicing a clove of garlic. I then placed those bits in a bowl, drown them in a mixture of Tabasco, Louisiana Cayenne Pepper Sauce, dried Cayenne pepper and crushed red chili flakes. I let the mixture sit for a good twenty, to allow the hot to seep into the hot so hot peppers. Meanwhile, i made the rest of the guac real mexi style, as the mexicans i live with in sf taught me (Yea, yo vivo en la casa de locos, wit the mexicans) real chucky. Take 4 avocados, a tomato, some salt, a hint of garlic and a hint hint of water and some cilantro. Since i despise cilantro (though my gag reflex likes it), i left it out of the recipe. Dice the tomtoms dice the avocados and then mush them up a lil with a fork. By that time the peppers were manually spiced. Add them and mix together with the said fork and voila, BONapetit.