Hi everyone.
I know its been awhile, but I am creating a food review blog to go along with my cooking blog.
I invite you to follow along that link as well.

https://therelaxedchefreviews.blogspot.com/

I will be posting new dishes soon.

Thank you,
Alex

Confit Byaldi aka Ratatouille Special

I loved watching the movie about the rat named Remy and seeing the animated dish he created with this name.

This is my next projected dish

I found a lot of types and ingredients so we will see what I can do.

Update: 6/16/12

Ok I decided on the ingredients and style so here we go...

preheat the oven 375 degrees.

1 half- 1 whole onion

tomato paste or very finely chopped fresh tomato's

1-2 clove of garlic

Olive oil

*Note: Ragu, oilve oil, garlic, and chopped tomato works great instead.* :-)

2 zucchini 

2 Japanese eggplant

3 yellow squash

*Note you can add 2 tomatos*

Make sure you removed the ends from all the vegetables and slice them into farily thin pieaces: roughly 1/4-1/8

Take the sliced pieaces place them into a Corningware or metal pan and alternate the slices.

Mine are eggplant, zucchini, squash, etc.

 *Undoing my second row above* change the pattern until you have a spiral pattern like below..

Drizzle some oilve oil over the spiral pattern,

Add pepper, salt, and thyme

Now Parchment paper is recommended as a covering for the dish while it cooks, but lacking that I tried aluminum foil fitting it next to the vegetables and pinch the sides and over the pan.

Allow it to bake at 375 degrees as the oven was preset. for 45-55 minutes.

Check it at 45 to see if the vegetables are cooked or steam is rising from under the foil. Try testing them with a fork.

*Note: You dont want them to cook to much and be limp. Also you don't want browning on the edges*

Once they are cooked to your liking carefully removed them from the oven and, watching the steam, take off the foil.

Plate your dish and add some of the sauce to it.

Enjoy.. it tasted great.

Chicken Stuffed Mushrooms

One of my favoriate dishes to take to parties I discovered in The Appetizer Bible.

 I only changed a few parts from the original. It has been a hit everytime and here it is..

Ingredients:
 2 packages of mushrooms: roughly 26+
1 package of softened cream cheese
1 tbs of butter
2/3 well chopped cooked chicken
1/4 cup chopped parmesan cheese
1 tbs of fresh chipped basil
2 tsp lemon juice
1/8 tsp of onion powder
1/8 tsp salt
a pinch of pepper
a pinch of garlic powder
olive oil
paprika for color

First preheat the oven to 350.

The mushrooms:
Again as I have stated previously scrub the mushrooms to get the dirt and such off. Dont soak them.
Pop off the stems leaving the mushrooms looking like little bowls
Chop up the stems only and set them into a seperate bowl.

Set out a baking pan, add some olive oil, and line up the little mushroom bowls.
*The book recommends using the butter to coat the pan, but we will do something different with it.*

Take the butter and cut it up into little pieaces and drop them inside each of the mushroom bowls.

Place the pan with the mushrooms into the oven and allow them to bake for 4-5 minutes.

You should smell them as they get close. 8-)


The stuffing:
*Note* you will end up making a lot of filling stuff accordingly.

Cook the chicken on your grill, George Forman, if you have one until it is golden brown on both sides and still moist.

Quickly mix the cooked chicken, the chopped stems, the cheese, basil, lemon juice, onion powder, salt, pepper and garlic powder in a large bowl.

Check on the mushrooms and remove them from the oven with a mitt.
All the butter may not have been absorbed by the mushroom and be floating in the middle.
Don't pantic this is a good thing.

Spoon out some of the stuffing and place it in each of the mushroom bowls and sprinkle some of the paprika on the tops
If you have too stuffing much the rest can be baked in the lower part of the pan.

Return the pan with the now stuffed mushrooms to the oven and Bake for 10-12 minutes/ until heated
You should see a light browning on the stuffing on the top.

 Remove them from the oven and let them cool for a few minutes.

 

Enjoy

Chicken with mushrooms and cream

I remembered one of the wonderful dished in the movie about Julia Child so I thought what the heck. However, I have discovered that recently chicken has lost a lot of its taste so I added my own style and flavors to it. So, here we go..

The ingredents:
5+ asparagus stalks- depending on serving size
1 small can of cream or 1 can evaporated milk (for those that can't eat cream)
1-2chicken bouillon cubes or 1 cup of chicken broth
2-4 chicken breasts- depending on serving size
1 package of fresh mushrooms. (pre chopped make is easier)
 a fair pinch of tarragon
a pinch of rosemary
olive oil
salt and pepper
1 table spoon of butter

Lets start with the mushrooms and sauce allowing the ckicken to defrost and the asparagus to sit. .

Wash them off good, but scrub them instead of soaking or heavy rinsing. Mushroom absorb liquids
 fast and you don't want the to just taste like water.

Slice the mushrooms and place them in a pan with a quick ring of olive oil and the butter
and as Julia said "dont crowd the mushrooms" :-)
After they start to soften/ darken/ get warm a little bit add the sauce.

The sauce:
Add the cream or evaporated milk, 1-2 chicken bouillon cubes/ broth, to the mushrooms.
Note: The broth made with the bouillon cubes is better than the boxed broth in the picture. Simply

Reduce the heat.

Take the defrosted chicken and thickly chop it/ or you can leave them as individual breasts and place it in the pan

Add the salt and pepper, tarragon, rosemary, and coat it with the sauce.

*Option: you can add a dash of white wine here to give it a bolder taste or leave it as is for a more tame taste which is also good.

Place a top or a plate over the pan to steam/ cook the chicken throughly until both sides are slightly brown.

*Important* leave a slight lip for a little of the steam to escape or the pan will foam over all over the stove top.

Now for the asparagus:

Place them in the steamer cook for 3-4 minutes until they taste cooked, but not loose and waterlogged. Add pepper to it as it is steamed.

Remove the asparagus add some melted butter.

Check on the chicken and if it is cooked to your liking

plate it with the asparagus & cover the chicken with the sauce it cooked in topping it with mushrooms.

Enjoy.

Cream of mushrooms over chicken with Instant mashed potatoes

After having a really tough day I needed a simple dish with a little creavity to help me relax and savor the smells, flavors, and food

I started with 2 chicken breasts, Mrs. Dash, olive oil, sea salt, black pepper, 1 can of cream of mushrooms, and a box of Hungry Jack instant mashed potatoes, but you can use any kind of potatoes. :-)




First, defrost the chicken breasts in warm water

Add a thin layer of oilve oil to the pan and add the chicken

Add Mrs Dash spice to the chicken

Mix the can of cream of mushroom soup and half a cup of water.
Then add all the sauce to the pan and coat the chicken well.

Cook at 400 degrees for 20 minutes or until the chicken is cook fully and moist.

For the Potatoes the instructions are on the box in relation to how much you want to make.


The main ingredients are water, butter, salt, milk, and the flakes.



I also added garlic and black pepper for more taste.



I made enough for 2 as it said and honestly it was enough for mainly one.


Lastly, I added the extra cream of mushroom soup in the pan to the potatoes and the chicken, and then added a little more Mrs. Dash and a little salt to the chicken too. It was great and really relaxing. Enjoy!!



shrimp & scallops scampi with steamed mussels over linguine.

The ingredents.
olive oil
Shrimp
Scallops
mussels
Old Bay
white wine: pinto de gerio
sugar
BUT if you use a sweeter wine you do not need to add sugar.
rosemary
black pepper
garlic clove

Defrost some shrimp, and scallops.

Add olive oil into the wok and add them to it.

Add the white wine to the wok.

 

Add the mussels to a steamers pot after it has started steaming.

Add old bay to the mussels so the flavor gets steamed in.

Chop up a garlic clove and add it to the mussels in the steamer



The mussels will open when they are fully steamed which takes about 10-15 mins.

Remove the mussels from the shell and add them to the wok and glaze it with the sauce in the wok with the shrimp and scallops.

OR you can just melt butter over them and set them a side.



Boil some linguine until fully cooked.

Plate the Linguine and place the shrimp, scallops, mussels with the sauce over the linguine.

Or as was said previously you can place the seperated mussels with the melted butter off the side.  

With the linguine off to the side also.