Feeding My Passion

Although I’ve been doing a few of the 98.3 The Coast “Cooking with the Diva” radio/video podcast shows recently, it’s really Watty’s (that’s what most everyone calls Chef Tom Watson) show, and he’s been nice enough to let me do it. Last Tuesday, he was feeling very poorly, so he asked me to do it. Not exactly expecting it and I froze for a second before stammering out “Sssure!” Fortunately the recipe was very simple, a delicious tomato gratin with toasted hazelnuts, thyme and fresh mozzarella. It turned out pretty well, I even had time to go back to the Port to do some research on the best wine for this dish and grab a couple bottles of what we had at the restaurant. During one of the commercial breaks, I looked up the origin of the word “gratin” (on my super cool new Samsung m800) and was able to talk about that before the end of the show. Excellent!

The story about the gratin is interesting, so I’ll tell it soon.

Video after the jump.

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In the ongoing series of cooking classes we’re doing for Highlife Adventures, Cameron and I went into Chicago and taught a vegetarian cooking class. Actually, I did most of the teaching, mainly because when it comes to being a vegetarian, Cameron doesn’t remotely resemble that remark. But he and David, the grill guy at Marilyn’s where Cameron is the chef, were very helpful plating food for the class. We had at least 12, which is equal to our biggest classes, and they really seemed to love everything.

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I actually have a Friday off, which is very nice, but I have to run up to St. Joe to have lunch with my boss. He, Tom, Brandon, and I are going to eat at Ban Thai, the new (and only) Thai restaurant in the area. I had eaten there before by myself, and it was interesting. The place is tiny, which means the kitchen must be the size of a broom closet, and they’ve just opened in the last month and a half. They been very busy ever since they opened, so they’re learning all the things they need to work on, just as we did at the Buddha.

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For the latest Cooking with the Diva segment, I did my all-time favorite dish, Vietnamese catfish with caramel sauce. Here’s my written introduction to it on 98.3 The Coast’s site:

While name of the dish is intriguing, that’s nothing compared to how it tastes! Vietnamese caramel sauce feels barely related to what you put on your ice cream. It’s much, much darker, almost black, and because it’s so dark, it’s actually bittersweet. When you simmer catfish in it with a few other ingredients, you create a rich and seductive dish that almost everyone falls in love with. With a few minor variations, you can also use the same sauce and technique with chicken, shrimp, and pork with equally impressive results. The flavors are intense, and you’ll want something to soak up every drop of the finished sauce, so serve it with rice.

Ingredients
Caramel sauce (sugar, water, shallots, garlic, fish sauce, vegetable oil)
Catfish fillets
Scallions
Ground black pepper

Given that little list of ingredients, the complexity you get from that little list is stunning, definitely worth a try, whether you make it or order it! The best method for making caramel sauce base (sugar/water caramel) I’ve found so far is in Into the Vietnamese Kitchen by Andrea Nguyen. It’s worth the price of the book just for that alone since the caramel sauce can be tricky. And the rest of the book is outstanding as well, I’ve cooked from it many times and have always been happy with the results.

Video after the jump.
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I’m doing another radio/video cooking thing today, this time I’m making Vietnamese catfish with caramel sauce, probably my all-time favorite food. The recipe is very simple, so I’ll be explaining the ingredients again, just like with the pad thai. There aren’t too many exotic ingredients, just the fish and caramel sauces. I’ll also be talking about the catfish a bit, especially since many people still think of it as a dirty fish that tastes gamey.

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It’s been a very interesting week so far with the cooking radio show/video recording on Tuesday and the cooking class at the St. Joe library last night. Port 412 was doing a breast cancer fundraiser last night, “Burgers for Boobies,” a very fun and tongue-in-cheek way to raise money for the cause. Those who donated at least $2 got a full Port 412 hamburger, which is quite delicious, let me assure you. So the place was packed to the bra-strewn rafters and the kitchen was pumping out burgers like mad. Read more »

Holy smokes people, it feels so weird when I watch myself doing the pad thai demonstration (after the jump) on Tuesday. As for my awkwardness, my only defense is that it was my first time doing something like this on camera.

I’m sure I’ll be twice as awkward the second time.

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This evening, I’m going to be teaching a cooking class at the St. Joseph Public Library, Cooking with Herbs. It’s another thing Chef Tom has asked me to do since he’s going to be very, very busy today with a wedding rehearsal dinner and a charity event both at Port 412 tonight. He was actually asked to do the class by the chef at the The Pump House, also in downtown St. Joe, which is just a block away from us, but their chef is going to be super busy as well, so he asked Tom. And now I have this hot potato. Just kidding.

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Chef Tom is very busy these days, over committed actually, so he’s asked me to do some of his things, mainly the public-appearance sort of things. He usually teaches a cooking segment for 98.3 The Coast, which is based in Benton Harbor. Every Tuesday, DJ Robin Van Dyke does a live broadcast from Perennial Accents in downtown St. Joe, just a couple blocks from Port 412. It’s a beautiful kitchen and homewares store, and they have a nice demonstration kitchen where Tom and Robin do the cooking segment from.

While I taught cooking classes before, about 4 so far I think, being live on air, and with someone making a video recording, made me a bit nervous. Read more »

Chef Cameron (a truly learned, experienced, and passionate Certified Executive Chef, and a good friend) and I are teaching a vegetarian cooking class at Whole Foods in Chicago on 3 Aug at the Halstead location. This will be our third class, the first two being Thai food (right up my alley) and ceviche respectively. We’ve had a lot of fun with the classes, met some nice people, made some money, and I always enjoy going into the city, probably my favorite in the US (sorry SF!). I enjoy teaching and I love passing along my enthusiasm for food, so I actually started teaching before I went professional.  Read more »