My bride of nearly 40 years loves Tortilla Soup and I make it for her whenever the mood strikes and her diet will allow it. Jenny Craig makes a Tortilla Soup… but, well, it isn’t the same.
I like to make this soup a little different every time I make it from the spices to the meats. This time I seared and shredded a pound of pheasant breasts. You can buy some at Whole Foods or on-line directly at Pheasantfordinner. I also love a wide variety of vegetables, corn, rice, fire roasted peppers and my own dried Jalapenos! As for spices, you want it to have a bit of a tang, so I’ll use a blend of curry spices, or just turmeric and chili powder… but it depends.
My favorite Mexican Food Restaurant in Los Angeles is El Cholo’s where they serve many wonderful things made of Blue Corn … so I add some Blue Corn Tortillas for fun!
CLICK on the above picture for my general bread pudding recipe... but to see how this one is made, you must watch the movie below!
My daughter Karen reported on a wonderful gingerbread bread pudding made by Emeril in his legendary restaurant Delmonico’s in New Orleans. From Karen’s ‘super taster’ experienced palate and from the pictures, I had a fairly good idea on how it was made.
I confess that I sometimes eat bread pudding as a meal replacement so I really didn’t want to make my bread pudding with 100% gingerbread… especially my very flavorful gingery gingerbread. So, I cubed my gingerbread and added it as part of the total composition of breads ( the others being: croissants, sour dough bread and apple cinnamon muffins). I also reduced the cream slightly and added a cup of Amarula… which was wonderful. I made a sauce of Barenjager (it’s natural sweetness adds a lot to a sauce) and brandy!
BTW this is not a great video… but hopefully it gives you an idea
My daughter Karen had visited Emeril’s famous place in New Orleans… Delmonicos. For those who don’t know, Delmonico’s has a favored status among those who love culinary history. The Delmonico’s in New York produced a wonderful cookbook that every fine chef wants to own. The cookbook is called ‘the Epicurean.’ Even Emeril has one on display.
While Karen was at Delmonico’s, she tried an interesting twist on an ancient dessert called bread pudding. The difference is that it was made with Gingerbread.
However, I made my Gingerbread bread pudding differently, allowing the gingerbread to only be one of the breads used in the mixture ( the others being: croissants, apple spice muffins and sour dough bread. The technique isn’t really all that unusual if you remember what bread pudding was really all about. Its purpose was to allow the chef to utilize all of the extra unused bread scraps that a kitchen might produce… including but not limited to: cake, muffins, rolls, french loaves and (my favorite) croissants! Besides, for bread pudding, I tend to allow my spices to take control of the gingerbread… so diluting this with other breads only makes sense.
What do you want to eat on your birthday?
it only looks like a turkey... it's a TURDUCKEN!
One of the nice traditions we have in making a birthday special is that the person being celebrated is given their choices for the day. This gave me time to pause and think about my own upcoming birthday. I am also painfully aware that I had planned many culinary wonders for the holidays that never were developed and the various ingredients lay in my 3 freezers.
I had planned our version of what Chef Paul Prudhomme made famous… the Turducken.His recipe is very nice but I’d leave out the eggplant and remove the skin from the inner birds. BTW, I am very fond of Louisiana Cooking be it Chef Prudhomme or that of Chef Emeril John Lagasse and found autographed cookbooks by both for my daughters Karen & Kristin’s Cookbook collections. I had to insure that I had everything I needed!
For our Turducken: Turkey, Pheasant, Goose and Duck... and I have plenty of Chicken elsewhere!
Most people shy away from this wonderful dish, in part because many find deboning the birds a rather physical task. However, if you take your time and do it the day before… it is rather simple.
Each bird should be accompanied by its own stuffing! With so many wonderful stuffings out there, you can choose just the right one for each bird! Chef Prudhomme recommends an Andouille corn bread stuffing which is perfect even if you only make a turkey! Other stuffings that are fun are versions of wild rice, cashew, and mushroom and saffron. There are some fun stuffings for the smaller birds made from ancient grains that don’t over power… but add interest as well.
One thing you might consider is to place strips of bacon between the string lattice you made and the turkey… this is often referred to as ‘banding’ and adds a lot to the experience.
So, now all I have to do is wait to put this all together and celebrate something… oh yeah, my birthday!
