Culinary Apps

Thanks to the incomparable advances of technology present today, we are at the constant disposal of innumerable tools to assist us in our day to day- all in our fingertips (literally) with the ever so popular iphones, droids and every other phone or gadget that is smart, (possibly smarter than us). One that I, as a newbie to the app world, rely on is the iphone's Epicurious app. The "cook's companion" allows you to research recipes by ingredient, cuisine, and course, among others, sourcing thousands of recipes from various sources from Bon Appetite to cookbooks such as "The Pleasures of Cooking for One".

When planning a meal, I skim through recipes searching for inspiration. I take elements from different recipes, whether it is flavor combinations, or the cooking methods I as a culinary school student should know, to create my own based on what the purpose of the dish is (a late night dinner for my chef?) and the actual ingredients I can find in this small New England town.

I will share, when possible, my inspired culinary creations.

At Home Dining: Chili Chicken, Wild Mushroom, Mozzarella

Late last night, I made a chili chicken pizza with caramelized onions, wild mushrooms, mozzarella, olives, and marinated tomatoes. I've been meaning to make a pizza at home for several weeks now. It is one of my chef's favorite, late night frozen meals, and I figure, 'I bet I can do better than Tony'. While I did not make the actual dough ( baby steps people- I left that to my reliable friend Pillsbury) , I still wanted to make all the ingredients from scratch to create a slightly creative pizza, without re-inventing the wheel. I first visited the idea of making a tomato sauce (it is my go-to at home, along with pasta for my chef), but decided against it. I chose to do a sauce-less pizza, simply coating the dough with olive oil and my other topping. I was then leaning towards using arugula, or some other leafy green, as it is the forward thing to do, but opted to leave that for some other time. Raw chicken sat defrosted in my fridge; I marinated it with chili seasoning and lemon juice for several hours. I sauteed it with onions and wild mushrooms. I finished with olives ( love!) mozzarella, and marinated tomatoes.

The pizza turned out "okay". It wasn't spectacular, but had simple, good flavors. Now I am determined to make a new pizza each week, and see how interesting I can make a simple piece of bread. Also in the horizon- making my own dough (fingers crossed!). I'll keep you posted.