It looks like being a superstar chef doesn’t make you immune to childish behavior. Mario Batali has banned one Gordon Ramsay from all of his restaurants after Gordon took offense to a comment Mario made about his food, calling it “dull and outdated and said he didn’t get New York.”

Ramsay responded by calling Mario Batali “Fanta Pants” in reference to the orange shorts the superstar chef sometimes wears.

In a recent interview, Batali said the following on the matter:

“Now he goes about town calling me Fanta Pants.” What? Because you sometimes wear orange shorts? “I suppose. And it has to be as a direct result of what you wrote.” Batali has not been slow in responding. ‘I’ve banned him from my restaurants. Ramsay’s people call trying to book tables and I say no. I won’t have him in there. If he called me himself and said, ‘Let’s sit down for a drink,’ I’m sure it would be fine. We’d be cool. But right now it’s not cool.” More wine is poured. Another cigarette is smoked. It’s clear he enjoys the feud. He also insists on telling me that the feud does not extend to Ramsay’s chef colleagues. He wants me to know he likes Angela Hartnett very much, though that doesn’t really do justice to the completely filthy way he expresses his admiration. It’s clear Angela is not banned from his restaurants.

[From Mario ‘Fanta Pants’ Batali Bans Gordon Ramsay From His Restaurants -- Grub Street: New York Magazine's Food and Restaurant Blog]

Mr. Ramsay’s people have not been slow to respond, either.

Ramsay’s rep tried to make light of the simmering dispute, telling Page Six the two egomaniacal chefs will “get together someday and have a good laugh about it all.”

[From "HELL'S KITCHEN" STAR GORDON RAMSAY FROM EATING AT MARIO BATALI'S RESTAURANTS- New York Post]

I’ not sure if this is a battle of egos or just the way chef’s of this caliber muck with each other, but really… I think perhaps that drink is in order.

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Let’s face it, sliders are fun.  you get all the flavor of a full-sized burger in an easily had held and extremely portable package that’s perfect for tailgating, game day parties or any other circumstance where you need to have a lot of food handy without the requirements of plates and flatware.  They’re also perfect for kids parties, since sometimes a full burger is too much for a little mouth to handle.  With sliders they can just go back for more if they’re still hungry.

This particular dish is a riff on two recipes.  The first was this recipe for Italian Turkey Sliders, written by the lovely and always charming Anne from short Order Mom.  The recipe made me want to jump in and make sliders and I’ve been trying to get around to it since I first saw her recipe.  The idea for the relish is my personal spin on a burger topping I saw Gordon Ramsay create on his BBC show Kitchen Nightmares.  His was for a beef burger, but I thought that the concept would make the perfect condiment for the turkey and I was not disappointed in the slightest.

Of course, fresh basil is out of season at the moment, but I’ve got a bunch of it in the freezer, thanks to this method from Kalyn’s Kitchen. Now I always have at least a semi-fresh supply of basil at my disposal, rather than having to run to the market and pay inflated prices for a few wilted leaves in a plastic package.   In this case, the garlic was by far the more inferior of the ingredients, but still totally serviceable noetheless. And if you’re not in posession of fresh or frozen basil, feel free to use dried basil, but only use half as much.  it will still be wonderful.

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If you’re thinking to yourself that the above photo looks like a very rare steak on top of some greenery, you’d be just about right, and that is what it looks like, only that’s not steak, that’s American bison in all it’s rare glory perched happily atop a salad of spinach, mushrooms and grape tomatoes that have been touched ever so gently with just a  bit of vinaigrette and a sprinkling pf Parmesan cheese. The bison itself is unadorned as any new thing should be when first tried, so that it’s true flavors shine through.

If you’ve never tried bison, I urge you to go ahead and splurge a little for a good cut of this wonderful meat.  you won’t be disappointed, I assure you. The flavor is much like beef, but mild and slightly sweet, without much of the fattiness that an inexpensive cut of beef can (and should) have.  bison is naturally lower in cholesterol and saturated fats as well, making it the perfect choice in red meats for anyone who needs to watch these components in their diet.

This combination was good.  Very good. Unfortunately I found that the salad fought the flavor of the meat slightly and I’ll be looking for other accompaniments in the future.  A mild addition is needed for this, as the bison’s flavor is subtle and easily overshadowed by other flavors.

In the end, I love this meat.  I’m glad that it’s stocked at our commissary and will be buying it again (slated for the grill this time) before we leave Texas.  I should have no problems finding it in California either, so I’ll continue to muck with combinations well into the future.  this was good, but this could be great, and I’m looking for that recipe.

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Some things just aren’t meant to be. Apparently one of those things was the birthday dinner I’d been planning for my wife for an entire week. It was nothing over the top fancy, just a simple dinner of seared scallops over wilted romaine with garlicky butter and olive oil fettuccini.  All-in-all, a dinner that should have taken less than 20 minutes to make from start to finish if everything had gone right.

Of course, it didn’t go right.  It didn’t go right at all.

First, for some reason my stove doesn’t like to boil the wter in my pasta pot.  I blame it on both the pot itself for having crappy heat conducting properties and on the burners, which have no center vents, just a ring of outer gas jets that force all of the heat towards the outside of the pot and up the sides.  at times it can take nearly an hour to get a good boil going.  Add the pasta and the water will immediately drop below a boil for a good 5 minutes.

This in itself would not have deterred me.  I’d bought fresh fettuccini, so a qhick 2 minute dip in the water would have rendered it perfect regardless of a rolling boil.  (See, I plan ahead sometimes!)  so once the water was getting good ad ready, I pulled the scallops out of the freezer and plopped a sufficient number into a collander for a quick thaw under cold running water…

Only to find that they were completely freezer burned!

I’ll admit that this put a hitch in my semi-well thought out plans.  I’d run the menu in my head enough times that I should have been able to slam out this dinner with Gordon Ramsay-esque precision.  But hey, I’m the seat of my pants guy.  I’m adaptable. I’d just substitute the scallops and romaine for sauteed shrimp with a bit of thyme and a hint of lemon, no problem! I dashed to the freezer and grabbed for the jumbo shrimp, only to find that instead of a lovely milky flesh color, they too wore the mottled and splotchy signs of freezer burn as well.

OK, one pack I can see. maybe I punctured the package unwittingly or had stored it for too long.  Two damaged seafood packages and now it’s the commisary’s fault!  Unfortunately, those were the end of my options.  Every other protien I had available was inthe deep freezer outside so ther was really no other choice.  I’d already waited to start dinner because my wife had been talking to her best friend for two hours. (I’m not complaining, they only talk every few months.), there was nothing I could grab and make in a hurry and we’d both already toasted her <censored>’th year on this earth several times, so driving was out of the question.

So for my wife’s birthday dinner, we oredered Asian. She had the cashew chicken, I had the broccoli beef, and they managed not to screw up the fried rice this time.  That in itself is a kind of miracle.

However, I don’t take this type of insanity well.  I’ve had nights where something didn’t work, but I am not accustomed to finding that my product has gone bad, especially when I have not had them for long at all. (The scallops were bought just about a week ago, the shrimp was unopened.)  I’ll be back at the commisary later today for more scallops and whatever greens I can find that look perfect sot hat I don’t have to write off the pasta as well.  This dish will be made tonight, I swear it on all that is culinary.  I will not be defeated by a bi-valve and a piece of bad packaging!

Have any of you sufered through a comedy of errors like this?  What did you do at the end of the day?  I’d love to hear about it.

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After two months of heavy braises, rich sauces and gravys it’s nice to be eating on the lighter side again.  My palate had almost forgotten the joys of great ingredients cooked and served simply.  With just a few ingredients and a very short cooking time, this dish was an homage to simplicity and the preservation of the flavors that the ingredients bring to the party.

Fish should be served simply.  It’s far too easy to mask the delicate flavor of the fish itself with any type of sauce or glaze, and in the case of tuna this is especially true.  For this dish I took inspiration from both Western and Asian cuisine with striking results.  The flavors were subtle, pleasing and a perfect match from start to finish.  Plating could be done in any manner you choose, as all of the components are far better eated together than they are seperately in this case.

The best part is that this is a complete meal that carries absolutely no guilt.  The entire plate is low in everything that you want it to be low in and high i the things you need, like fiber, Omega 3’s and vitamins.  Quick, simple, healthy and Weight Watcher’s friendly as well at only 9 points for the entire plate!

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The holidays have passed and it’s time to start looking closely at what we’re eating again. For the next several months at least there will be little in the way of heavily buttered sauces or creamy casseroles.  It’s time to shed some of the pounds that copious amounts of Holiday dinners, desserts and alcohol have helped to put around our midsections and with that comes the return of counting points, at least for my wife.

Personally, I don’t worry about points values or Weight Watcher’s scales. I just make lighter foods with less of the bad stuff and more of the good stuff. That way I can eat more, still be quite full and enjoy the weight loss.  My wife on the other hand, prefers to regimen her diet, and if it makes her happy, I’m all for it, so I look to the weight watcher’s site for inspiration, then do my level best to keep her within her prescribed daily points.

This is the year’s first Weight Watcher’s dish, and I’ve got to say that I was very pleasantly surprised with the outcome.  The recipe is my own, but resulted in a heaping plate of food with a points value of only 8, which kept her well and truly within daily limits while still leaving me quite happily stuffed until dinner, which happened to be at 8:00pm that evening due to work schedules.

So to all of you who are craving a new low point recipe, have at this one, It’s sure to please without adding too much to your daily total points value and I’ll be the first to say that it won’t leave you hungry.

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Many people feel that the cuisine of the British Aisles is somewhat bland and lacking in character. I disagree completely. Most dishes from this region are recipes born of necessity and frugality. They use waht was available seasonally, they are prepared simply but yet all are heartwarming and filling. It’s a cooking style that I intend to persue further over the course of the next year. Perhaps I’ll help to show some of you what is, and should be, a wonderful cuisine that is perfecly suited to a family meal around the table.

Last night was a celebration of my family’s Irish heritage. This dinner, unlike most on this site was cooked from a cookbook with only slight modifications, as I have not made these dishes often enough to just throw them together as I normally would. I’m just digging in to Irish cuisine, so at least at first I’ll stick pretty tight to the recipes.

For those in the know, I’ve not served the champ in the traditional method. I wanted a one plate meal with a bit of presentation, rather than a seperate dish off to the side. If this offends, I apologize. The meal was fantastic even without the tiny soup plate of champ with it’s well of butter at the center and it added a lot to the lamb, which was fabulous along with a bite of champ and mint peas. these are good flavors and they all play well together.

I’m not really going to cover the lamb here. It was simply cooked with just salt, pepper and olive oil in a rocket-hot cast iron skillet for 5 minutes per side. While wonderful, it’s not really a recipe worth going through all the stages of. (In fact, I just gave it to you. Season, toss in hot pan and cook about 5 minutes per side. Rest. Serve.) The other dishes were really the stars here and I feel that they need the spotlight, so I’m giving it to them.

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I can’t remember the first time my mother brought home a tub of Rondelé cheese, but from the moment she did, I was hooked.  We all were.  It was the staple on wheat crackers in our home for years.  It was used with vegetable platters, smeared on sourdough with salami and a favorite at parties.  It only took one taste.

Of course, not every store carries this delicately herbed cream cheese, nor its it carried in all regions.  I have not been able to find a good quality replacement in Texas, though I’m sure it exists somewhere.  The thing is, I’m not looking any more.  It’s so easy to make that I’ll never buy the ready-made version again.

This particular version was made to go with a wrap we made for a friend’s commissioning reception, but it would be fabulous with any savory accompaniment. The flavors can easily be adjusted to suit your needs or be made with what you have on hand, so there really is no excuse not to give it a try the next time you have a need for a dip or spread that’s a little bit different from the fare found at the local BigScaryMegaMart.  I hope you enjoy this as much as everyone at the reception did.

Garlic and Herb Cream Cheese

Ingredients:

• 1 – 8 oz container cream cheese, softened
• 2 tbsp. milk
• 3 cloves garlic, finely minced
• 3/4 tsp. Italian seasoning
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/2 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
• 1/4 tsp. onion powder

Method:

Mix milk and cream cheese together in a medium bowl with an electric mixer or in the bowl of a stand mixer using the paddle attachment until creamy. Add remaining ingredients and mix well, scraping sides of bowl constantly.

Place in an airtight container and refrigerate for at least one hour to allow the flavors to blend.

Use as cheese dip, or spread on crostini, for wraps or wherever else you would use flavored cream cheese.

Share and enjoy!

What I would have done differently had I thought of it at the time:

The possibilities for flavors is pretty much limited only by your imagination.  Adjust herbs and garlic to suit the dish you are making.  Dill for fish, mint for lamb or heavier, more savory herbs for beef.  Add in some sun-dried tomatoes and use as topping for toast points, crostini or as a dip for crackers.  It’s really up to what you want at the time.

Links to other recipes like this:

• Herbed Cream Cheese, from The Crispy Cook
• Herbed Cream Cheese Spread or Dip, from Seasonal Ontario Food
• Herb Garlic Cream Cheese, from Chaos in the Kitchen

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