Savory Triple Cherries Jubilee

The secret ingredient has been revealed - cherries! Inspired by the summer, the challenge of today's Virtual Kitchen Stadium is to create a savory recipe using cherries. With so many directions I could take with a savory cherry dish, it was hard to choose just one. So how did I choose? Easy!

But first, let's take a closer look at the secret ingredient. Cherries come in all sorts of forms - solid, liquid, fresh and dried. Why not highlight the secret ingredient by using all these forms? With that, I present my...

Savory Triple Cherries Jubilee

Cherry Balsamic Braised Stuffed Chicken

served over caramelized turnip puree

Simmering fresh cherries with balsamic vinegar and other ingredients to create a concentrated reduction intensifies the cherry flavor even more. To compliment the sweet yet tart flavors of this glaze, I've paired it with a seasoned chicken breast stuffed with fresh herbs and creamy goat cheese set on a fluffy cloud of pureed turnips which have been caramelized and roasted.

Cherry & Orange Champagne Vinaigrette

over a bed of mixed greens

Salads are a favorite this time of year and my Savory Triple Cherries Jubilee captures the sweetness of summer cherries in a vinaigrette. Bright orange notes work nicely with cherries as I infuse sweet dark cherry juice with a muscat orange champagne vinegar, making a light and fruity dressing. Drizzle this over a bed of fresh mixed greens with sweet mandarin orange segments and fresh pitted cherries, and you'll have a colorful salad full of summer flavor!

Cherry, Cheddar & Rosemary Scones

Who says scones can't be sweet? The last component of my Savory Triple Cherries Jubilee introduces fresh herbs, mild cheddar cheese and plump dried cherries packaged up in a savory scone. I was inspired to create this when I had my cranberry orange scone this morning. In place of dried cranberries I used dried cherries and added fresh herbs and cheese to make a savory scone that's perfect as a snack or a great addition to a meal.

Please click the links above for the three recipes that make up my Savory Triple Cherries Jubilee! If you like my creation and wish to support me for the popular vote, please visit the Virtual Kitchen Stadium and cast your vote for my dish! Chef Rick Bayless will also be judging my dish and will determine if I can move onto the next round... Stay tuned!

Cherry Balsamic Braised Stuffed Chicken

For this dish, I wanted to highlight cherries by using it as a braising sauce for chicken. Cherries can have both a sweet and tart flavor, which works nicely with balsamic vinegar. Combining the two to create a sauce intensifies the flavor. For the chicken, I wanted to keep it lightly seasoned but still pair with the glaze. Including a creamy component with herbed goat cheese added some contrasting textures too. Finally, to tie the entire dish together, I prepared a caramelized turnip puree. Potatoes would have been too heavy for a summer dish and using turnips is a nice alternative.

Cherry Balsamic Briased Stuffed Chicken
served over caramelized turnip puree

Cherry Balsamic Braising Sauce:

1 cup balsamic vinegar
2 cups pitted fresh cherries
1 tablespoon Dijon-style mustard
2 tablespoons honey
1 stalk of fresh rosemary
4-5 stalks of fresh thyme

Combine the balsamic vinegar, fresh cherries, mustard, honey, rosemary and thyme in a small saucepan. Bring the mixture to a boil and cook until the cherries soften up. Remove from heat and set side to cool.

Herbed Goat Cheese Stuffed Chicken:

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
4 oz goat cheese
1 teaspoon chopped fresh rosemary
1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme
1 teaspoon heavy cream
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil


Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

In a medium bowl, combine the goat cheese, fresh herbs and heavy cream to create an herbed goat cheese mixture; set aside as this will be stuffed inside the chicken breast.


Prepare your chicken by creating a pocket for the stuffing. Using a sharp paring knife, make a slit into the side of the chicken breast, cutting along one edge of the chicken. The slit should be about 2-3 inches, depending on how large your chicken breasts are. To fill your chicken breasts, place 1/4 of the herbed goat cheese mixture inside the slit of each breast. Season the chicken breast with salt & pepper to taste and set aside.


Prepare your skillet by heating up the oil and butter on high heat. Carefully place the chicken in the skillet and gently brown on all sides. Place the browned chicken in a baking dish and carefully pour the cherry balsamic braising sauce around the chicken. Bake in the preheated oven for 30-35 minutes.

TURNIP PUREE:

1 lb turnip
1 1/2 heads of garlic
2 tablespoons fresh Italian parsley
2 tablespoons fresh thyme
2 tablespoons butter, melted
1/4 cup half & half
2 tablespoons butter, softened
Salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 400°F.

Peel the turnips and quarter them. Place the turnips in a medium sized bowl, add the melted butter and toss to coat. Place the buttered turnips in a single layer on a baking sheet and season with salt and pepper to taste.


Peel away the papery layers of the garlic and cut the head of garlic in half cross-wise. Drizzle the garlic head with the extra virgin olive oil and season with salt and pepper to taste. Place the garlic inside a piece of foil and wrap up; place on the baking sheet.


Roast the turnips and head of garlic in the preheated oven for 35 minutes until the turnips have nicely browned and caramelized.

Remove the turnips and garlic head from the oven, Carefully open up the foil wrapped garlic head and squeeze out the garlic.

Place the roasted turnips, roasted garlic, Italian parsley and thyme into a food processor. Add the softened butter and half & half, and pulse until puréed to the desired consistency. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

TO ASSEMBLE:

In the center of your serving plate, place a small mound of the caramelized turnip puree.
Top the puree with the chicken.
Pour a tablespoon or two of the glaze over the chicken.
Garnish with fresh Italian parsley.

Cherry & Orange Champagne Vinaigrette

Salads are a favorite this time of year and my Savory Triple Cherries Jubilee captures the sweetness of summer cherries in a vinaigrette. Bright orange notes work nicely with cherries as I infuse sweet dark cherry juice with a muscat orange champagne vinegar, making a light and fruity dressing. Drizzle this over a bed of fresh mixed greens with sweet mandarin orange segments and fresh pitted cherries, and you'll have a colorful salad full of summer flavor!

Cherry & Orange Champagne Vinaigrette

2 cups mixed greens
1/4 cup mandarin oranges
1/4 cup whole almonds
1/4 cup pitted fresh cherries
1 oz goat cheese, crumbled

Vinaigrette:
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1/2 cup orange muscrat champagne vinaigrette
1/2 cup sweet dark cherry juice
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon honey
3/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
salt & pepper to taste


Whisk all the above ingredients except the olive oil in a medium bowl. Slowly drizzle in the extra virgin olive oil while continuing to whisk. Season with salt and pepper to taste; set aside.


In a salad bowl, add the mixed greens. Top with the remaining salad ingredients and drizzle the cherry orange champagne vinaigrette over the greens before serving.

Cherry, Cheddar & Rosemary Scones

Who says scones can't be sweet? The last component of my Savory Triple Cherries Jubilee introduces fresh herbs, mild cheddar cheese and dried bing cherries packaged up in a savory scone. I was inspired to create this when I had my cranberry orange scone this morning. In place of dried cranberries I used dried cherries and added fresh herbs and cheese to make a savory scone that's perfect as a snack or a great addition to a meal.

Cherry, Cheddar & Rosemary Scones

2 cups flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons sugar
1 cup sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
1 cup dried bing cherries
2-3 tablespoons finely chopped fresh rosemary
5 tablespoons butter, diced small and cold
1 cup heavy cream + more for brushing over the tops



Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, salt, sugar, cheese, cherries, rosemary and butter.


Using your fingertips, cut the butter into the mixture and toss together until the mixture resembles cornmeal with some large lumps.

Add the heavy cream and stir with a wooden spoon to combine and form a soft dough.

On a floured surface, put out the dough and shape into a round disk roughly 8 inches in diameter and 1 inch in height. Cut this disc into 8 wedges and place on a parchment lined baking sheet.


Glaze each scone with some heavy cream. Bake in the preheated oven for 12-15 minutes or until lightly browned.

Virtual Kitchen Stadium: Secret Ingredient Revealed!

My mug shot is in the Chicago RedEye paper today
on the inside cover (laugh if you must!)...


The secret ingredient has been revealed...

And my task at hand to is to come up with a
savory dish using CHERRIES.

Stay tuned for the dish I create, which the public can vote on and which will also be judged by Chef Rick Bayless!

Virtual Kitchen Stadium, Iron Chef Style!

What an honor... and yet a nerve-wracking opportunity! I've been asked by Chicago's RedEye publication to participate in their first ever Virtual Kitchen Stadium, Iron Chef style! This 4 week long competition involves 8 "cheftestants" who will cook their way to victory for a handsome gourmet prize and the title of RedEye's Virtual Kitchen Stadium Champ. Here's how it works...

The cookoff begins tomorrow, June 30th at 10am CST, which is when the secret ingredient will be revealed. Cheftestants will need to use the secret ingredient to create an original recipe. The recipe will be submitted to RedEye, along with pictures. Judging the recipes will be Chef Rick Bayless... who will also announce the winners on Thursday!

Week 1 - Four of the 8 cheftestants are chosen and cook against each other. Two winners will move on to round two.

Week 2 - The remaining four cheftestants cook against each other where two winners will move on to round two.

Week 3 - The 4 winning cheftestants move on and cook against each other where two winners will move on to the final round.

Week 4 - The remaining 2 cheftestants battle it out for the title where only one will reign supreme!

I happen to be one of the lucky 4 battling it out this week for Week 1... so wish me luck! To read more about my fellow competitors and to follow along with the event, check out Chicago RedEye's blog. For all those Twitter peeps, you can also follow me (@ItsJoelen) and the cookoff (@redeyemunchtime) on Twitter for minute by minute accounts of the cheftestants!

Ciabatta Rolls (Poolish version)

This week's Bread Baker's Apprentice Challenge is Peter Reinhart's recipe for Ciabatta Bread (which you can get from his book above, starting on page 135-142). I haven't always been a fan of ciabatta bread but after making it from scratch, I've definitely had a change of heart. There were 2 pre-ferment options Peter Reinhart offered to make ciabatta bread - a poolish or biga version . There were also options to make a few variations using the same recipe including Wild Mushroom Focaccia, Ciabatta with Cheese, and Caramelized Onion and Herb Ciabatta. But being that this was my first time to make ciabatta from scratch, I chose to make it as plain and simple as possible using the poolish version.

To start out, I needed to make a poolish, which is a yeast starter. Yeast, water and a little flour is combined and left to ferment for a few hours or overnight. This mixture is then added to more yeast, flour, salt, water and olive oil to make the bread dough. This takes a whirl in my stand mixer to combine and knead.


Once kneaded,the dough is formed into a couple of rectangles and then folded onto itself before it's first rise. This part is especially important to get the air holes and open crumb that ciabatta is known for. I'm pretty sure that this part takes some practice!


After it's first rise, the recipe calls for using a cloth to help shape the dough. I got a little intimidated by the next step so I decided to take an easier route but forming the dough into rolls instead of traditional loaves. So I cut the dough into 10 squares and let them rest for their second rise.


Now that these guys had their second rise, it's time for the oven! I baked my rolls until lightly golden and ended up with some great sandwich bread for the week!

Foodie Freebie Friday: Garrett's Popcorn

The Taste of Chicago is a happening place this time of year and one of the new vendors for 2009 is Garrett's Popcorn. Garrett's Popcorn is a favorite treat of Chicagoans it's some amazing popcorn. Locals especially love the "Garrett Mix" which is a combination of their famous CheeseCorn and CaramelCrisp popcorn. Oprah even listed Garrett's popcorn as one of her "Favorite Things" in 2002. In honor of this local snack we love, especially during the summer, a lucky reader will receive a 1 gallon tin to enjoy!

Garrett Mix

The Garrett Mix is the culmination of our popcorn tradition! Our chefs gently blend CaramelCrisp® and CheeseCorn™ together to create The Garrett Mix. Take comfort in The Mix’s seductive sweetness and wholesome, savory cheesiness.

Some guidelines:
- Giveaway is only for those who live in the United States - my apologies to my international readers!
- You must have a valid email address (within your comment or blog link) so that you can be contacted if you win.

To enter the giveaway, leave a comment answering:

- Do you have a favorite popcorn flavor or a specific way you like your popcorn?


Deadline: Thursday, July 2nd, 2009 at 12 midnight CST.

ONE WINNER will be randomly chosen by Random.Org's Interger Generator based on the number of your comment and will be announced on Friday, July 3rd, 2009. Good luck!

Pride Weekend in Chicago!

(Picture I took from the Pilsen neighborhood)

This past weekend was awesome here in Chicago! I spent part of my weekend cheering on folks in Chicago's Dyke March and Pride Parade, as well as enjoying the Pride festivities in Chicago's Boystown neighborhood. It was a lot of fun and if you ever get the chance, come out to Chicago during Pride Weekend - so much to see! Here are some pictures I took of this weekend's festivities...

Chicago Dyke March 2009
The Chicago Dyke March Collective is a grassroots demonstration
and celebration of dyke, queer, and transgender resilience

In Chicago, The Gay and Lesbian Pride Parade is an institution. It's an outrageous event surrounded by the good-moodest of crowds, and it's not to be missed. Gay, straight, not sure, not particular -- it's a day to celebrate being yourself. And everyone is welcome.