FoodieCuisine.com

By Todd Barron @ FoodieCuisine.com

Crab meat with Rice Noodles

Ingredients

• 0.5 green onion chopped
• 1 TBSP soy sauce
• 4 ounces jumbo lump crab meat
• 0.5 TBS fish sauce
• 0.5 yellow or red bell pepper chopped
• 2 cloves garlic diced
• 0.25 Serrano chili pepper finely chopped
• 1 TBSP cilantro freshly chopped
• 1 TSP ginger diced
• Annie Chung’s Rice Noodles (Vermicelli) – 56g worth
• 1 bowl to contain the results
• 1 lime wedge

Preparation

1. Chop and dice the ingredients as listed in the Ingredients section
2. Boil the rice noodles per the instructions on the box
3. Drain the jumbo crab meat
4. In a non-stick pan, add the bell peppers, ginger, and garlic and cook over medium-high heat until slightly tender, about 5 minutes, remove from heat

Putting it all Together

1. Add the rice noodles to the bowl
2. Top with the crab meat
3. Top with the bell pepper, ginger, and garlic mixture
4. Add the Serrano chilies
5. Drizzle the fish sauce, soy sauce, and lime over everything
6. Top with the freshly chopped cilantro

Nutrition Information

• 339 Calories
• 54 g carbohydrates (mainly from rice noodles)
• 1 g fat
• 31 g protein
• 2185 sodium (mainly from fish sauce and soy)
• 4 sugar

By Todd Barron @ FoodieCuisine.com

Healthy Steak and Shrimp

Ingredients for 3 Servings

• 3 cloves garlic
• 2 ounces shrimp
• 3 Filet mignons @ 5 ounces each
• Package Raw spinach 10 ounces
• Package Raw mushrooms (1 lb package)
• Worcestershire Sauce, 1 TBS
• 1 Head of Cauliflower
• 1/2 TSP Land O Lakes Butter with Olive Oil and Sea Salt
• 1 Can Quartered Artichoke Hearts (14 ounce can)
• Garlic salt, salt, and pepper to taste.
• 2 TBS lemon juice

Notes

I prepared this meal by cooking everything at the same time.  For example, I started the water boiling for the cauliflower and then started the mushrooms reducing and then started the grill for the steaks and shrimp.  Lay out your ingredients and have everything ready to go before you start.  The total time for me to prepare the meal was under 45 minutes due to this.

Cauliflower and Spinach

Place a large pot of water on the stove at high boil.

Trim the core out of the head of cauliflower, resulting in 3-4 large pieces.

Trim the garlic cloves if not skin-free.

Once boiling, add the garlic and the cauliflower to the pot.

Boil for 10 minutes.

Remove the cauliflower and garlic to the side to rest for 5 minutes.  Do not drain the water!

Add the cauliflower and garlic to a blender, add garlic salt and pepper to taste, add the butter, and blend for a few minutes until smooth.

Remove to the side and cover to keep warm.

Add the spinach to the boiling water and let boil for 1 minute.

Remove the spinach with a slotted spoon and put in a strainer over the sink or bowl (if you sink is dirty.)  Let drain while you finish everything else.

Mushrooms and Artichokes

In a medium sauce pan add the mushrooms and artichokes to the pan over low heat.

Add the Worcestershire over the mushrooms.  Salt with garlic salt and pepper to taste.

Let cook on low until it boils and reduces to where the mushrooms are tender (about 20 minutes.)  Stir as needed.

Remove from heat once cook and cover to keep warm.

Shrimp & Steaks

Remove the steaks from the oven before you start cooking and let them get to room temperature.  If you do not do this, they will not cook properly!

Light the grill and bring to a temp of 400-500 degrees F.

Drizzle lemon juice, garlic salt, and pepper over the shrimp.

Place the shrimp on a skewer.

Add garlic salt and pepper to both side of each steak.  Add this liberally as much of it will cook off.

Grill shrimp on each side until they are done (or dark red if pre-cooked.)

Remove shrimp from the grill and cover on a plate.

Add the steaks to the grill and grill until they reach an internal temperature of 135-145 degrees F depending on how done you like them.  You can go higher if you want but personally 135 is my favorite.

Remove from the grill.

Assembly

Pour 1.5 cups of the puree onto the plate.

Add 3.3 ounces of cooked spinach to the middle of the puree.

Place a steak on the spinach.

Add the mushroom and artichoke mixture over the top (about 156g of mushrooms and 3 pieces of artichoke in total per serving.)

Add 2 pieces of the jumbo shrimp to the top.

Nutrition Information from MyFitnessPal

416 calories
21 grams carbohydrates
23 grams fat
51 grams of protein

By Todd Barron @ FoodieCuisine.com

I have written about my sous vide machine in the past but have not really used it much since.  The other weekend I decided to make spaghetti and meatballs and remembered that I have the perfect machine for such an adventure, the sous vide supreme!

To start with I prepare a batch or “normal” meatballs with ground veal, ground beef, fresh breadcrumbs, onions, seasoning, and an egg.

Raw meatballs rolled and ready to go

I then vacuum seal the meatballs in batches of four in preparation to put in the water bath (aka sous vide supreme.)

Sealed meatballs

I fill the sous vide supreme with hot water and set it to 60 degrees Celsius which should result in perfectly Medium meatballs. Once heated, I add the sealed meatballs to the water bath.

Sealed meatballs first into the water bath

I set the temp to 60 degrees Celsius, close the lid, and let it do its thing for four hours. Once done, I open it up to nice smelling meatballs (you can smell them through the plastic.)

The meatballs after four hours.

I remove the meatballs from the sous vide machine, dry off the plastic, and prepare to cut them open with scissors.

The cooked meatballs still in the packaging.

Once removed from the packaging the meatballs do not look that appetizing. They are cooked perfectly but the sous vide method results in “grey” looking meat. This is easy enough to fix though with some hot oil and butter in a skillet.

Removed from the packaging but not seared yet.

And voila, once I sear them in a skillet they look as good as they taste. Perfectly moist and bursting with flavor. I forgot how much I love the sous vide method and will be sure to remember in the future.

Seared and perfectly cooked!

By Todd Barron @ FoodieCuisine.com

A new chain restaurant popped up in Little Rock, Arkansas recently and the sign outside identifies it as Chuy’s.  I first heard about Chuy’s at a local pet store where they were passing out appetizer coupons to anyone who had their dog’s picture taken (to later be put around the bar area.)  It’s a nice touch and I know the buzz helped me to hear about the place at least!

Outside of Chuy’s

The interior of Chuy’s is as loud as the exterior with rooms full of hub-caps, a bar with hundreds of dog photos, and crowded spaces for the patrons.  If you are looking for a open, relaxing place to go, it may not be your ideal destination.  The food matches most Tex-Mex restaurants with the usual suspects ranging from fajitas, to enchiladas, to burritos, and well known appetizers such as cheese dip.

After a 45-minute wait at 1:30pm on a Sunday we sat down in a booth in the aforementioned hub-cap room.  One order of obligatory cheese-dip later and I perused the menu.  The menu claims the fajitas are marinated for 24 hours prior to cooking and I want to put them to the test.  All too often fajitas are bland and boring and 24 hours should be enough to inject flavor into anything.  Others at my table order the chicken quesadilla (plain with cheese only) and the chicken taco salad.  I also ask for a bowl of their hatch green-chili sauce to go with my fajitas as it is the hottest they offer.

The cheese dip is of the yellow variety and pairs well with the supplied chips.  It is not as creamy as the white variety, but is thick enough to stick.  Although it tastes okay, you would be much better off ordering queso from Local Lime down the road.

Beef Fajitas

The food eventually comes out, taking a little longer than usual, but it’s hot and looks good.  My fajitas sit atop several sizzling vegetables and the tortillas on the side are fresh and fluffy.  I pair a few slices of meat with veggies, sour cream, cheese, and the hatch-green-chili sauce on a fajita and go at it.  The meat is not tender enough to get a bite without pulling it out of the tortilla, but it tastes okay.  It is not bland, but it is not very flavorful either.  Luckily, the hatch-green-chili adds some flavor, but it is not spicy.  I am guessing they have kept their food on the “cool” side to appeal to the majority of people but I do wish they would offer spicy food, especially when their menu says it is spicy!  The owners should take a trip to Buffalo Wild Wings if they want to experience a chain restaurant with a few spicy sauces.

Overall the food is average.  It’s not the best in the world and it’s not the worst either.  I personally am not in a hurry to return but I can see it as a place to go on a lazy Saturday afternoon (before/after the crowd gets there.)

By Todd Barron @ FoodieCuisine.com

I am riding in the car and mention the new Mexican restaurant on Rodney Parham Road in Little Rock named Taqueria El Palenque.  From the back seat I hear, “What do you mean by finally, an authentic Mexican place in West Little Rock?”  The answer is simple, most Mexican places in the United States are not “real” Mexican restaurants.  Their food is usually very bland, their hot sauce is no hotter than ketchup with some Tobasco sauce in it, and everything is covered in mounds of cheese.  I don’t like to call out Tobasco here as they have a good sauce, but too often, it is paired with horrible “Mexican” food from these dispensaries of culinary disaster.

The competitors better catch up because places such as Taqueria El Palenque are opening more often and their food is not bland, is not covered in cheese, and they provide sauces with serious spicy-kick to them.  For my visit I order the carne asada (beef) taco, the carnitas (pork) taco, and the spinach & mushroom quesadilla.  I order the queso (cheese dip) just to see what they bring out.  Cheese dip is not something I have ever seen on my trips to Mexico so I am curious what will transpire.  I suspect they have it on the menu to appease local tastes.

The cheese dip comes out and is very thin without much flavor.  The warm homemade salsa they bring though is tasty and has a nice heat level to it.  I have had better, but it is far and above better than what you find at most competitors.

Asada and Carnitas Tacos

My tacos arrive next and look like what I expect.  They are grilled flour tortillas, laid flat (not fried,) with the meat in the center along with some grilled onions and cilantro.  And you know what is missing?  Cheese!  That’s right, not a shred of cheese in sight.  This makes me VERY happy.  The lime on the side adds some nice acidity to the tacos as well.  What really sets them apart are the two sauces they bring for you to add on your own.  The green sauce is not spicy hot but has mounds of flavor.  The red sauce is quite hot, which fits my tastes perfectly, and also has a lot of flavor.  The tacos themselves are not super amazing, but with the sauces, they are.

Spinach Quesadilla

My quesadilla arrives next and is huge.  I was expecting a thin quesadilla with questionable amount of spinach but received a stuffed quesadilla brimming with spinach, mushrooms, green peppers, and cheese instead.  It also has a lot of flavor, with the cheese really offsetting the bitterness of the peppers, and the spinach helping pull everything together.  I add copious amounts of both the green and red sauces to each bite for that extra kick of flavor.

One of the best parts of the meal is how affordable everything is.  The tacos are less than $2 each and the most expensive item I had, the quesadilla, was under $7 and could easily feed two people.  If you are close to Layla’s on Rodney Parham, swing by and at least try a taco.  Don’t forget the sauce!

By Todd Barron @ FoodieCuisine.com

There are only a handful of restaurants that I can go to over and over again and never tire.  Jiko in the Animal Kingdom Lodge in Disney World is one such place.  Jiko is one of a few African restaurants I have been to and the décor matches.  The tones of wood and open stoves are designed to look like the African sunset and the restaurant is complete with bird sculptures hanging from the ceiling appearing to be in-flight.

The menu changes seasonally but has a few key signature dishes that you can always find.  My favorites are the Taste of Africa appetizer and the Braised Short Rib.  Throughout the season they offer several flat breads, which area always amazing, and even though the short rib recipe changes somewhat, it is always good as well.

Taste of Africa

The Taste of Africa appetizer contains four different chutneys of sorts and each one pairs well with the special bread they supply with the appetizer.  I personally like to put them on the “normal” bread they bring out as well.  If you are familiar with Indian cuisine the chutneys should taste familiar with a spiced hummus, a roasted pepper reduction, and one that has hints of cilantro and mint.  You should order at least one for every three people at the table as the appetizer will go quickly!

Braised Short Rib

The short rib entrée changes in recipe but always features a very large boneless braised short rib that sits atop some type of sauce reduction.  In this instance it had a creamy cheese sauce with a touch of harissa.  I especially enjoyed the pearl onions and roasted root vegetables paired with it.  I am amazed how they can obtain such a large boneless cut of short-rib and even more amazed at how super tender it always is.  I cannot help but order it when I go and suggest you do the same.

I have never been hungry enough after the flat breads, appetizers, and entrees to order dessert but have been told it is good.  If you are every near Disney World you must get reservations and try out Jiko.

As I wrote about earlier, the Epcot International Flower and Garden Festival now includes food specials just like their Food and Wine Festival.  The menus are completely different though which is nice and most of the dishes are lighter due to the event being in Spring as opposed to Fall.  I tried at least one item from most of the twelve booths and the following were my favorite picks.

Pan Fried Vegetable Bun

One of my favorite surprise dishes was the pan-fried vegetable bun from Lotus House – the booth in China. The bun is very soft and is filled with chopped vegetables. It is served with a sweet sauce which really enhances the overall flavor.

Carnitas Taco

The pork carnitas taco from Jardin de Fiestas – the booth in Mexico, are very flavorful and have pork rinds which add a nice amount of texture.  The carnitas were a tad dry but the flavor made up for it.

Potato, Chive and Cheddar Cheese Biscuit with Smoked Salmon Tartare and Sour Cream

My absolute favorite item comes as a complete surprise from The Cottage: Savories, Trifles and Tea – United Kingdom booth.  It is described as being a “Potato, Chive and Cheddar Cheese Biscuit with Smoked Salmon Tartare and Sour Cream.”  The biscuit is very flaky and the cheddar flavor comes through but is not overpowering.  The smoked salmon tartare is perfectly fresh and the sour cream and chives offset any fishy notes.  I cannot wait to get another one.

I will be posting some of the other good finds soon but these were my favorite.

Epcot Flower and Garden Festival

For the first time ever, the Epcot International Flower and Garden Festival also includes new food and drinks from around the world! I spoke to one of the chefs and they plan to providing the food booths every year, and expanding them until the Flower and Garden Festival rivals the size of the Food and Wine Festival in scope of offers! He went on to say that this addition will turn the Epcot experience into 7 months out of the year worth of food. Needless to say I am very excited by the news and now have a reason to go to Disney World twice a year.

This year they had twelve (12) booths and each offered several food and drink items.  My favorites were The Cottage (English) and the Chinese Pavilions.