Mexican-French Fusion is what's on the Menu for our Saturday June 23rd Pop up. The event begins at 6 PM, and will consist of a complimentary cocktail, 2 wine parings, and a five course dinner. Vegetarian options are of course available upon request. We also encourage our guests to bring a bottle of wine if they care to drink more than is provided. Tickets are $45 and are available though our pay pal account below or through square anytime you see us using a VISA, MC, AE, or DSCVR. Thank you to everyone for your support!
To Reserve your spot and make a donation use the button PayPal below. You don't need a PayPal account, you can use any credit card, just click the link that says "Don't Have A PayPal Account?"
Friday, May 25, 2012
Thursday, May 17, 2012
Food Stamp Survival Meals
I saw Mario Batali is doing a "Food Stamp Challenge", in which he feeds his family of 4 for a week on the amount of money food stamps would provide. I think its a great way to highlight the financial hardship so many families are facing and counter the ridiculous argument you hear from republicans so often that the poor in America are living a life of luxury on the public dole. In any case, just happened to make a great, simple dish this week with some leftovers from the Pop-Up that fit with this low price, great flavor idea.
The key to inexpensive meals is very often thing like bean, lentils, or cheap cuts of pork and beef. These items are can produce great flavors, along with some simple spiced, but can be time consuming. To take pork shoulder or a beef chuck roast tender usually takes hours of braising. And many dried beans have the same problem. So for low income people who work all day, this presents a problem. You can't come how at 6 and start a 4 hour braised beef stew. But what you can do is use a pressure cooker and cut that cooking time down to 30 or 40 minutes with almost 0 prep work.
Basically, water can only get to about 212 degrees because once it starts boiling all the heat energy gets carried away in the form of steam. This keeps cooking times high. A pressure cooker, as the name implies, keeps the pot contents under pressure. This raises the boiling point, allowing it to get much hotter and cook much faster. You can get a tender, delicious stew or chicken soup in about 40 minutes.
So for this recipe I really just looked in the fridge to see what I could clear out and we had Kale, cherry tomatoes, a red onion and cubed pork shoulder and chops. The pork chops and should I just threw right in the pot. You could sear them first to develop some browning and flavor, but you really don't need to. This recipe will provide a lot of flavor without it. I chopped the kale and onion and threw that in with the whole tomatoes. Next I added a few cloves of garlic, salt, pepper, 3 dried bay leaves, some hot sauce and a bag of lentils. Then I put in one cup of canned beef broth and water to cover everything. You could also throw in potatoes or any other vegetable you have on hand. You could use a whole chicken, or beef or whatever. That's the beauty of this type of stew. Anything on hand can be substituted.
Then on with the pressure cooker top, high heat till it starts to steam (maybe 10 minutes) and then turn the heat down to medium low and let it continue to cook for 30 or so minutes. If you had a really big single piece of pork or beef you can do 45 minutes. Then hit the release valve to let the steam exit and you're all set. A really delicious, hearty and healthy soup which can feed a family for very little cost.
The key to inexpensive meals is very often thing like bean, lentils, or cheap cuts of pork and beef. These items are can produce great flavors, along with some simple spiced, but can be time consuming. To take pork shoulder or a beef chuck roast tender usually takes hours of braising. And many dried beans have the same problem. So for low income people who work all day, this presents a problem. You can't come how at 6 and start a 4 hour braised beef stew. But what you can do is use a pressure cooker and cut that cooking time down to 30 or 40 minutes with almost 0 prep work.
Basically, water can only get to about 212 degrees because once it starts boiling all the heat energy gets carried away in the form of steam. This keeps cooking times high. A pressure cooker, as the name implies, keeps the pot contents under pressure. This raises the boiling point, allowing it to get much hotter and cook much faster. You can get a tender, delicious stew or chicken soup in about 40 minutes.
So for this recipe I really just looked in the fridge to see what I could clear out and we had Kale, cherry tomatoes, a red onion and cubed pork shoulder and chops. The pork chops and should I just threw right in the pot. You could sear them first to develop some browning and flavor, but you really don't need to. This recipe will provide a lot of flavor without it. I chopped the kale and onion and threw that in with the whole tomatoes. Next I added a few cloves of garlic, salt, pepper, 3 dried bay leaves, some hot sauce and a bag of lentils. Then I put in one cup of canned beef broth and water to cover everything. You could also throw in potatoes or any other vegetable you have on hand. You could use a whole chicken, or beef or whatever. That's the beauty of this type of stew. Anything on hand can be substituted.
Then on with the pressure cooker top, high heat till it starts to steam (maybe 10 minutes) and then turn the heat down to medium low and let it continue to cook for 30 or so minutes. If you had a really big single piece of pork or beef you can do 45 minutes. Then hit the release valve to let the steam exit and you're all set. A really delicious, hearty and healthy soup which can feed a family for very little cost.
Monday, May 14, 2012
Monday, April 9, 2012
JC Pop-Up Menu
We're still not 100% set (in particular we haven't decided on the vegetarian entree), but here's the preliminary menu for May 12th.
Amuse Bouche:
Creamy Coconut Milk curry, mango chili paste, cilantro and jersey corn
Appetizer:
Homemade Fresh Duck and Pork Sausage with fresh thyme, rosemary and basil
Salad:
Frisée and Endive Salad w Warm Brussels Sprouts, Citrus Sections and Toasted Pecans in Mustard Vinaigrette
Entree:
Braised Beef Rib, Cranberry Ginger Teriyaki glaze, fresh Pea Greens and Aligot Potatoes
Desert:
Cheese Cake with caramelized mango and banana
Thursday, April 5, 2012
Get Tickets for Jersey City Pop-Up - May 12th 2012
For right now we're only releasing 10 tickets to the public, but the total seating will be 30 guests. We're offering a 2 course wine pairing for an additional $10 per person, but the event is BYOB so feel free to bring your own wine, beer etc.
To reserve your ticket and make a donation to help cover our costs, click the Pay-Pal link below. You don't need a Pay-Pal account, you can use any major credit card. Just look near the bottom where it says:
Don't have a PayPal account?
Use your credit card or bank account (where available). Continue
Once you're done, just print out your receipt and bring it with you to dinner. If you're bringing a guest, don't forget to change the quantity to "2" when you get to the donation form. We'll see you on May 12th!
To reserve your ticket and make a donation to help cover our costs, click the Pay-Pal link below. You don't need a Pay-Pal account, you can use any major credit card. Just look near the bottom where it says:
Don't have a PayPal account?
Use your credit card or bank account (where available). Continue
Once you're done, just print out your receipt and bring it with you to dinner. If you're bringing a guest, don't forget to change the quantity to "2" when you get to the donation form. We'll see you on May 12th!
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Jersey City Pop-Up Restaurant
Most of our friends already know we're planning a Jersey City Pop-Up Restaurant Series Starting in May. We hope to do 1 per month for at least 6 months. Here's the blurb I wrote up for our Kickstarter Project Page (yet to be approved):
We want to partner with local businesses and organizations in Downtown Jersey City to promote local chefs and local food, stimulate the culinary community and provide a new venue for creativity and socialization among the local residents and business people. Its our believe that sharing great food is a key part of building meaningful relationships and creating a sense of shared community, trust and friendship. We also love to cook, serve host and eat! The Pop-Up Restaurant concept lets us bring together our love of food and desire to bring more people in Jersey City together, while providing a great venue for local chefs to showcase their skills and vision. There will be a fee to attend which will cover food and equipment costs, but the exact price will be determined by how much money we raise in donations.
We hope that those who share our passions and interests will see value in this project and both donate to support it and join us at the dinner table. The dates and details will be forthcoming, but we have already secured a venue for the first Pop-Up Restaurant night and plan on a date in early May. Everyone who donates will be contacted by email with details. Because of limited space we cannot guarantee a seat, but you will be given priority over other attendees. Thank you!
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
Jersey city getting (fist) pumped for Jersey shore
all the latest gossip will nee covered later including whet they're living and the fox give interview at Marcos will be posted soon. bring it on jwow.
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