Life Tastes Good

The Pancake Soufflé

January 20, 2017

I wanted dessert for breakfast and this is what happened…. Go buy some milk, eggs, sugar and a giant bottle of vanilla paste and make these. They will change breakfast for the better forever!

Start by separating 1 whole egg’s yolk and whites into two separate bowls.

Begin to whip the whites while pouring in 1 tbsp of sugar.

Whip until it becomes glossy with soft peeks—set aside until needed.

Next sift 1/2 cup of all purpose flour…

…1 tsp of baking powder…

…1 tsp of baking soda…

…3 tbsp of sugar and a pinch of salt into a large bowl.

Then add 1/2 cup of milk…

…2 tbsp of melted butter…

…1 tbsp vanilla paste…

…and the egg yolk.

Whisk together for about a minute, or until it’s free of lumps.

Gently fold in the merengue, being careful not to over mix and deflate the batter.

Prepare a ramekin by buttering the walls of the dish and coating them in a thin layer of granulated sugar.

Pour in the batter until the ramekin is about 3/4th way filled up. Bake in a 375°F oven for 15-20 minutes, or until it passes the toothpick test.

While that bakes, simply reduce 1 cup of maple syrup over medium heat.

Once it’s reduced by about a quarter, transfer it to an ice bath (as pictured) to cool.

Divide half of the maple into a separate bowl and the other half into a mixing bowl.

Add in 1 cup of cream to the bowl.

Thoroughly whisk for about 5 minutes, or until it has soft peeks.

Remove the soufflé from the oven and it’s ready to plate. I used a warmed sauce pan to keep the soufflé warm, but that entirely optional.

Start by creating a small opening in the top of the soufflé.

Add a few spoonfuls of the maple whipped cream…

…a drizzle of the reduced maple syrup…

…and a dusting of cinnamon powdered sugar.

All that’s left to do is enjoy!

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Top Right: Boos Cutting Board | Top Middle: Frother | Top Right: Sifter/Strainer |

| Bottom Left: Ramekin | Bottom Middle: All-Clad Sauce Pan | Bottom Right: Mixing Bowls |

Breakfast

This is 110% the best time of year to make eggs benedict! The supply of honey glazed ham is at it’s THE BEST! I go all year whining about the fact that I need an excuse to get a giant ham for things like this, but now it’s my time!! And it’s time to go big. Hopefully you guys enjoy my take on a holiday breakfast with all your leftover goodies. Big shout out to Walmart for supporting and collaborating with me on this delicious holiday idea and a big happy holidays from the Talbotts!! Enjoy your leftovers!!!

Crack open 2 eggs and separate the yolks from the whites. We only need the yolks for this recipe.

Bring 1/2 cup of melted butter to a simmer and slowly incorporate the butter into the yolks while you whisk.

Continue to vigorously whisk until the mixture is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon.

Store in a warm place and set aside until needed.

Peel and skin 1 sweet potato and 1 russet potato.

I’m using a turning mandolin, but you can use a regular mandolin or simply julienne the potatoes into long thin strands.

Fill a small pot 1/3 way up with canola oil and bring it to 350°F.

Lay out a few paper towels and begin frying a handful of the potato strands mixed together.

Fry for about 2 minutes on each side, or until they just begin to turn golden.

Let them drain on the paper towels until needed.

While those drain, trim the tops of 1 bunch of asparagus.

Season with salt, pepper, and a drizzle of olive oil.

Transfer to a grill on medium to high heat and grill until they are a vibrant green.

Add a few pieces of the honey glazed ham, just to give them some nice grill marks.

Remove from heat and set aside until needed.

In a medium sauce pot filled three quarters up with water, bring the water to a rolling boil.

Add a splash of white wine vinegar and give the water a few mixes.

You want the water to be whirling when you lightly drop in 1-3 cracked eggs. Continue the whirling motion of the water for about 30 seconds after you drop in the eggs. Cook for 4-5 minutes for runny yolks, longer for more cooked eggs.

Once the eggs are cooked re-heat the hollandaise and season with 2 tsp of lemon juice, 1 tsp of smoked paprika, 1 tsp of cayenne pepper, and salt to taste.

Spoon a little bit of the hollandaise sauce onto the plate.

Place a crispy potato cake on top of the sauce followed by…

…a couple slices of honey glazed ham…

…some grilled asparagus…

…a couple poached eggs…

…and a hearty drizzle of the hollandaise.

Sprinkle with a little bit of cayenne and all that’s left to do is enjoy!

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| Top Left: Boos Cutting Board | Top Middle: All-Clad Sauce Pan | Top Right: All-Clad Mini Pan |

| Bottom Left: Metal Mixing Bowls | Bottom Middle: All-Clad Grill Pan | Bottom Right: Shun Kaji Knife Set |

Main Course

Herb Crusted Snapper

December 14, 2016

THIS IS A CLEAN RECIPE! Preparing and cooking fish is one of those kitchen tasks that I throughly enjoy doing because it always challenges my finesse skills and attention to detail throughout the process.. A big thick piece of steak can be tossed around a little, but a slender delicate filet of fish has to be handled with a gentle hand and attentive eye…its sort of a Goldielocks kind of thing unfortunately. At the end of the day you have to just get in there and figure out how to cook the fish you enjoy the most in the most effective way you know how, but the more you cook with fish, the more you will develop a confident hand in general cookery! Let’s dive in.

In a sauce pan on medium to high heat, add 1/4 cup of minced onion…

…2 tsp of fresh thyme…

…1 clove of minced garlic…

…and a drizzle of olive oil.

Sweat the veggies for 2-3 minutes.

Add 1/2 cup of brown rice and cooking for another 2 minutes.

Lastly add 1 cup of chicken stock and a pinch of salt.

Give this a good stir, and cook the pilaf for about 15 minutes, or until the rice is nice and tender.

Begin making the breadcrumbs by adding 2 tbsp of parsley, 2 tbsp of basil…

…1 sprig of thyme…

…1/2 clove of garlic…

…and 2-3 slices of bread to a food processor.

Pulse until the desired texture of breadcrumb is reached.

Transfer to a pan and bake at 375°F until nice and crispy.

Season 3 halved and trimmed filets of red snapper (any small white fish will do) with a pinch of salt and then transfer them to an oiled (drizzle of olive oil will do) non-stick pan.

As the fish begins to brown, add a couple sprigs of rosemary and 1-3 tbsp of butter.

Once golden brown, flip.

Add 2 tbsp of halved/shelled hazelnuts…

…a little more butter…

…and 2 tbsp of lemon juice.

Cook for about 5-7 minutes, or until the fish is cooked through and the outside is golden and crispy. Remove from heat.

Quickly finish off the pilaf by adding a helping of mascarpone cheese or heavy cream…

…parmesan…

…and a couple handfuls of spinach.

Give this a stir to wilt the spinach and you’re ready to serve.

Begin plating with a hearty serving of the creamy pilaf…

…a couple pieces of the crispy snapper…

…a spoonful of the remaining browned butter and hazelnuts…

…with a sprinkle of the roasted breadcrumbs…

…and a few petite basil leaves for garnish. All that’s left to do is enjoy!

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Desserts

Trio of Beignets

December 14, 2016

There’s nothing that quite captures the feel good moment between you, a great cup of coffee, and a straight-out-of-the-fryer crispy beignet… Add chocolate, pastry cream, caramelized apples, spiced crumble, lemon glaze—top it all of with a loved one to enjoy it all and a whole new experience can be created. Hopefully this video will inspire you to whip something up in the kitchen that you can share with your friends and family and enjoy a fun holiday foodie moment that might end up becoming a tradition! I want to give Nespresso a big shoutout for supporting and collaborating with me on this fun video because it’s always nice to find a group of folks that love food and coffee as much as I do!!” Plus they’re giving me a Nespresso machine to giveaway to one of you foodies! See below for how to enter! That aside, let’s dive into this recipe.

Begin by making a simple custard. In a medium sauce pot add 1 cup of milk…

…1/4 cup of sugar…

…1 tsp of vanilla extract…

…and 1 tbsp of butter.

Mix and bring to a simmer.

In a separate bowl add 1 whole egg, 3 tbsp of cornstarch…

…and mix together until smooth.

Slowly whisk in half of the heated mixture into the egg mixture.

Once combined, whisk the egg mixture back into the sauce pot and return to a simmer for another 3-4 minutes.

Be sure to check out the video recipe above for easy tips on making a flawless custard.

Once the custard has set up, remove from heat and divided it evenly into two separate bowls.

In one bowl add 1 tsp of lemon zest and 2 tbsp of lemon juice.

Give it a good mix.

Cover both in plastic (pressing down to remove excess air), and let the lemon and vanilla custards continue to set up in the fridge for at least 1 hour.

To make the spiced crumble topping simply combine 1/4 cup of cold diced butter, 3/4 cup of flour, 3 tbsp of granulated sugar, 3 tbsp of brown sugar, 1 tsp of ground cinnamon, and 1 tsp of nutmeg.

Once thoroughly combined bake in a 375°F oven for 15-20 minutes, or until it’s a dark golden brown.

While that bakes, begin making the apple pie filling by adding 1 pad of butter…

…and 2 medium diced apples (gala, fuji, honey crisp) to a pan on high heat.

Add 2 tbsp of brown sugar and a pinch of salt.

Give this a few tosses and cook for 5-7 minutes, or until the apples are golden brown.

Then add in 2 tsp of cornstarch and 3-4 tbsp of water.

Cook for another minute, or until it thickens up and has a sticky texture.

Remove from heat and set aside until ready to use.

Begin making the glazes by dividing 2 cups of powdered sugar evenly between two bowls.

In one of the bowls add in 4 tbsp of dark chocolate powder and 4-5 tbsp of water.

In the other bowl add 1 lemon, zested and juiced, along with 2-3 tbsp of water.

Give both a good mix and set aside until needed.

More TIPS on making the perfect glaze can also be found in the video recipe above.

You can check out my beignet recipe for a detailed description on how to make the perfect beignets for this decadent trio.

Just a few tips…when rolling out the beignet dough, the thinner and more consistent you can roll out the dough, the fluffy the beignet will be.

When you go to fry the beignets I never like to fill my pan more than halfway up with oil and to be safe I prefer about a third way up.

You can take a small piece of excess dough to test when the oil is ready. If the oil sizzles when it touches the dough, your ready to fry up the beignets.

Lastly, make sure you allow the excess oil to drain off the beignets.

Once the beignets are all fried up and cool enough to handle, begin glazing them in the chocolate and lemon glazes.

Leave a few unglazed for the apple pie filling and spiced crumble.

Cut small openings in the unglazed beignets…

…and stuff them with the warm apple pie filling.

Using a piping bag and metal tip, stuff the chocolate glazed beignets with the vanilla custard…

…and the lemon glazed ones with lemon custard.

Sprinkle the spiced crumble over the apple pie stuffed beignets…

…and add a sprinkle of powdered sugar.

All that’s left to do is enjoy AND enter to win my Nespresso Giveaway!

NESPRESSO GIVEAWAY:
In order to enter all you have to do is send me a picture or short video of a fun food & coffee moment with your friends and family via my Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook, and of course LIKE and SHARE this video. If you recreate my beignets in the picture or video, you’ll get little extra love. Use my social handle @ByronTalbott when you post and you will be locked in for a brand new Nespresso machine! I’ll be announcing a winner before December 21st, so let the holiday food festivities begin!!

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Food for Thought

Nespresso GIVEAWAY!

December 9, 2016

Hey guys! With the holiday season blowing in quick and I’m full on embracing it. For me that means busting out the HOT coffee and some INSANELY DELICIOUS treats that’ll help me fit into that Santa Suit in no time! 🙂

Kidding aside…you may have noticed that my house has been transformed into a beignet bakery! I’ve become slightly obsessed (in the most wonderful way) with testing out every beignet recipe I can think of!

At this point I think I’ve concocted quite a few killer recipes that I think everyone in your house will go nuts over! Chocolate glazed beignets with vanilla bean filling , apple pie stuffed beignets with a cinnamon crumble, and lemon glazed beignets with a light lemon filling that is SOOOO GOOD they barely lasted a minute in my house! There’s deffinitley some great variety and a little something for everyone to grub on.

If you’re anything like me, you’re washing these bad boys down with a cup of hot coffee—and that’s where the GIVEAWAY comes in. I have the opportunity to gift a Nespresso Evoluo Deluxe to one of you to help kick off your holiday season with the essential present that you must open first…and believe me that’s half the fun! The Nepresso box comes with a remote that controls the box’s auto-opening feature! You really have to check out my NEW video to fully unsterstand what that means, but it’s pretty out of this world! Not to mention a killer gift that you can WIN—for free!

The rules of the giveaway are simple…share a picture or short video of you recreating one of (or all of) these beignets, or just enjoying a warm foodie holiday moment via my Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram handles—along with sharing and liking my “Trio of Beignets” video! I’ll be choosing a winner before christmas so you can get the ULTIMATE holiday gift!

Time to make some magic in the kitchen! Good luck foodies!
I can’t wait to see what culinary creations you come up with.

-Byron

Desserts

Cake In A Box

November 28, 2016

For all you Justin Timberlake, SNL, and chocolate cake lovers out there, this one is for you. I was initially inspired to create this dessert from Dinara Kasko’s instagram and absolutely love her style of cake/pastry creation and recipe development. She has a very keen sense of flavor and aesthetic which is hard to come by, so go give her some love and tell her that I sent you on over if you do end up checking her out. Anyways, hopefully this “Cake In A Box” inspires you to think a little bit differently about dessert garnishing and plating aesthetics the next time you try to tackle some new fancy creation! Now let’s go makes some CAAAKES!!!!!

Start by making the yellow cake portion of the dessert. Mix 1/2 cup of room temperature butter, 1 cup of granulated sugar, and 1/2 tsp of salt.

Add 1 whole egg (room temp preferred) and mix thoroughly before incorporating a second egg.

Next mix in 1 tbsp of vanilla extract, or paste…

…and 1 1/2 tsp of baking powder.

Slowly whisk in 1/4 cup of vegetable oil until the batter is extremely smooth.

Then mix in 1/2 cup of whole milk…

…1/4 cup of sour cream…

…and 1 1/2 cups of cake flour.

Mix thoroughly, but be cautious not to over-mix. Once the lumps have dissipated the batter is good to go.

Pour the cake batter into a greased baking pan lined with parchment paper.

Bake at 375°F for about 25 minutes. Time will vary depending on the size of your pan.

Always use the toothpick trick to see when it’s done baking.

While the caking is baking begin making a very simple chocolate glaze.

Mix 1 packet of powdered gelatin with 4 tbsp of water until it begins thickens up.

Then add 1/2 cup of corn syrup…

…1 tbsp vanilla extract or paste…

…and the gelatin mixture to a small pan.

Heat on low until everything has dissolved, and mix together.

Add the dissolved mixture to 1 cup of melted dark chocolate chips.

Give that a good whisk until it’s completely smooth and transfer the bowl over a hot pot of water to keep melted.

Once baked, pull the cake out of the oven.

Let cool before carefully removing the cake from the baking pan—top side down.

Remove the parchment paper.

Cut the cake in small rectangles.

I definitely recommend freezing or refrigerating the cake prior to cutting. It will prevent the cake from crumbling or collapsing while slicing.

Place the rectangles over a wire cooling rack situated over a baking tray.

Carefully drizzle the chocolate glaze over the small cakes–covering all sides.

This next part is entirely optional, but spectacularly exciting and fun (see more details below)!

While the cakes are setting up in the fridge pour approximately 1 cup of isolmalt sugar into evenly divided rectangles over a silpat.

Cover the sugar with an additional silpat,

Transfer to a 350°F oven to cook for 15 minutes, or until the sugar has completely melted.

Remove the silpats from the baking sheet and use a damp cloth to press the silpats together to remove air bubbles.

Carefully peel off the top silpat.

Let the sugar walls cool before removing then from the pan.

Using a hot torch (or stovetop flame) heat a straight edge spatula.

Carefully cut and shape the walls of the box.

DO NOT let the sugar melt down onto your hand.

Carefully construct the walls of the box using the hot spatula to melt the edges together.

Once the glazed cakes have set up and can be handled…

…top with a few toasted cake crumbles…

…and a little pinch of sea salt.

Carefully top with the sugar “glass” box and ENJOY!

FUN FACT: What is Isomalt Sugar? Isomalt is the popular name for Isomaltitol which is a sugar substitute made from beet sugar. Over the past twenty years chefs, sugar artists, and confectioners have found that Isomalt has many advantages over sugar especially when making showpieces, cake decorations, dessert garnishes and candy.

It has an excellent taste and has an appearance and texture very similar to sugar. It is heat stable and ph stable and is suitable for cooking and for processed foods. It does not absorb water and so it does not become ‘sticky’. This makes it excellent as a coating for hard sweets and candies.