Banana Bread Pudding by Michael Voltaggio

 Last week I was flipping through the Williams-Sonoma catalog, as I love to do, and came across a recipe for banana bread pudding by Chef Michael Voltaggio (winner of Top Chef, season six).   So I decided I would give it a try!

On a side-note...

 A few weeks ago I volunteered at an event in L.A., Taste Of The Nation - No Kid Hungry, to raise funds for the organization.  I was lucky enough to meet Michael Voltaggio while helping out the chefs in the VIP area of the event. I didn't get to work hands-on as much as I'd hoped when signing up for the gig, but did get to do a little work alongside his new restaurant manager!  I was just happy to be able to hang out with well respected chefs from the L.A. area!  Michael will be opening his restaurant "Ink" sometime this summer in the Los Angeles area.

Here is Michael Voltaggio making Olive Oil ice cream using some dry ice in the mixer! 

Now back to the banana bread pudding! I wanted to serve it warm with ice cream for dessert, so it took some planning and organizing to make because there are several steps in making this!  

I first dried some crustless bread that I cut into 3/4" cubes by toasting in the oven for 15 minutes.

As the bread cooled I roasted the bananas in the skins until blackened and juices were oozing out!

I put the bananas flesh and juices from the pan in a blender and blended to a puree.  That was mixed into a cream, sugar and egg mixture and poured over the dried bread cubes and some hand broken Nilla wafers.  That rested for an hour, with a stir here and there.

Next this mixture was poured in to a 8" square pan and placed in  9x13 water bath, covered and baked for 45 min.  Uncovered and baked at a higher heat for 25 more minutes.

                   I cooled the bread pudding for about 10-15 minutes and served with vanilla ice cream!

Below is a link to the recipe! 

http://www.williams-sonoma.com/recipe/michael-voltaggios-banana-bread-pudding.html?print=true

Paella...Culinary Style!

It was about five or six years ago that I purchased a paella pan from William Sonoma.  I also, bought the rice, and some sangria mix, thought I'd have a great "Paella Party"!  Well,  I ended up throwing out the rice and even the sangria mix because they eventually went bad as the idea of that party lingered on my mind here and there, but it never happened.  Every once in awhile I think...this will be the year I try to make the paella!  I still had the pan so, maybe?

Today would end up being the day!  I was at culinary school,  and today's recipe's theme were shellfish!  Each Wednesday at class we have several recipes and the chef will divide our students into three groups and divie up those recipes.  To my surprise my group got the paella recipe...alas I will make paella!

My two co-cooks and I begin the chopping and getting all the ingredients in order.  Mise en place, which basically means everything in place, and it refers to the prepping and organizing of all ingredients.  Yes, it might mean more little bowls to wash, but will end up saving you time and helping you have a smooth   cooking experience.  We began the cooking phase it a little before we had our mise en place and kinda panicked under the high heat, with half the ingredients already cooked and the other half not even prepped..aagh!  Bad communication on our part, but with three of us we quickly pulled the rest of the ingredients together just in time to not screw up the entire paella...which we were cooking two at a time!  All-in-all the recipe took about 1 1/2 hours to complete and it was so worth it because it was amazing!!  We got incredible feedback from the other students, a few even said it was the best paella they'd ever had!   

Thanks to Chef Tim for a great recipe!

Final presentaion!

Strawberry Jam

     It all started on Saturday at The Strawberry Jam at Terry's Berries in Ventura.  They have this sale one day a year, it's a $1 per pound of berries, and they're already hulled!   As I waited in line I chit-chatted with the people around me and listened to a million ways on how to make jam.  I stepped up to purchase my berries, (which I had no idea what I was going to do with yet) handed them my containers and they asked me how much I wanted...hmmm??   Not exactly sure why, but I bought twenty pounds, I mean how could you not at a dollar a pound, right?  At this point I decided that I too would make jam!  When I got home I called my girlfriend and we made plans to start our jam the next morning. 

     Sunday morning at 9:30 girlfriend shows up.  We had no experience, no canner, and no recipe picked out so we were just going to wing it!  Having never made jam before we each googled several recipes ahead of time, but decided to use one that came with the pectin we bought.  We had 24 jars, 3 boxes of SureJell pectin, and strawberries. 

 

First we had to wash and sterilize the jars and lids.  We washed, crushed, and measured out our strawberries and dumped them into an 8qt. pot.  Next, we stirred in the pectin and a little butter.  The heat went on, we boiled, added the sugar, and boiled again.  The wonderful sticky sweet concoction was ready for jars...a little hot, and a little messy!  Once placed in jars with lids fastened tight we put them in boiling water for ten minutes.  Afterward, set them in the pantry for 24 hrs to set.  That was it they were ready to be given to friends & family!