Video of the Day: Making Hollandaise Sauce

I must confess...I've never made a hollandaise sauce. There are supposedly "easy" ways to make, but still I'm intimidated. In life I guess one must find a way to get over their fears or be a victim to that fear...For now, I'll just keep pushing this down on my "to-make" list...ENJOY!

Video of the Day: Interview with Chef Irvine

Oh...though you've left us already on Iron Chef, Super Chef, you are still a super star in my book! :-)

Video of the Day: How to Make Banan Peze or Tostones

Whether you call this side dish fried plantains, banan peze, or tostones, it's still all DEE-LISH!  Enjoy this video! :-)

Video of the Day: How to Mince Garlic

MMMMMMM...GARLIC!!! The smaller you mince it the quicker they cook and burn. Sometimes, if you just want to infuse the flavor of garlic in the your butter or oil, once you smash and peel you can just drop that in your oil.  Remove the whole smashed garlic before you get cooking. A bite of that sucker will be very pungent and unappetizing! I think the garlic flavor is more mild when used this way.

On the other hand, if you're looking for a bolder garlic flavor use this mincing technique to get nice small pieces that will basically melt away in the cooking process. Don't let these burn those or else your dish will have a bitter aftertaste. ENJOY this video!

I hope these videos are helpful!  If you have any special requests, then let me know. I'd love to hear from you! :-)

ROFLMAO! Definition of Calories...

Video of the Day: Sofriot

I'm Haitian-American but my Uncle married into a Trinidadian family, and they've adopted us like we were their own. Many of my non-Haitian Caribbean cooking techniques are Trinidadian in origin because of my Uncle's in-laws. A recipe I use in MOST of my cooking even though it's not listed in the ingredient list is Green Grind Seasoning, and this seasoning is straight out of their arsenal. Their may be a Haitian equivalent, but my mom has never told me about it.

In Latin cooking an equivalent seems to be sofrito. Check out this video and tell me what you think!  ENJOY!

Breakfast for Dinner: Pumpkin-Banana Pancake

Ingredients

1 medium banana, mashed
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
1 large egg
1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup almond milk
2 tbsp light brown sugar
2 tbsp canola oil
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tablespoon pumpkin spice mix
1/4 tsp kosher salt

Directions

In a small bowl mash a medium size banana.  Add pumpkin puree to the bowl.

Add the egg, oil, and spices, and stir to combine.

In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, and brown sugar. 

Whisk all of the ingredients together until the lumps are gone.

Begin adding flour to the batter in batches and whisk to thoroughly combine.

Begin slowly adding milk, and whisk the batter until becomes a thick batter. Some lumps from the banana are ok. 

Heat a pan and add butter to the pan.

Add two ladles of batter to the heated pan.

The edges browning is the clue. Normally we look for bubbling of the batter in the middle, but that doesn't apply to this batter for some reason.  See the change in the batter's edges? That's what we're looking for before flipping.

Ugly pancake flip! Let these cook for about 2-3 minutes.

Serve with maple syrup and butter or pancake syrup! :-)

Ugly Pancake #2

Ugly Pancake #3

Ugly Pancake #4