How to make organic ice cream in less than 2 minutes recipe

How to make organic ice cream in less than 2 minutes recipe
By: Chef Cristian Feher
http://www.tampabaychef.com/

It's summer. It's hot. And your kids want ice cream. But instead of rustling your children into the car, traffic, back seat brawls and line ups, you'll be using up those frozen berries that have been taking up room in your freezer. Not only is this recipe cool and healthy, but it can be put together in less than 5 minutes!

Servings: 6-8



Ingredients:

- 10oz package of frozen organic blueberries

- 1/3 cup of cane sugar

- 1/2 tsp of salt

- 1 cup of organic whipping cream (35% cream) or organic fat-free yogurt

- A fresh mint leaf and chopped pistacchio nuts as garnish (optional)



Equipment:

- You will need a food processor. It can also be done in a blender, but it is much easier and less messy to do it in a food processor.



Instructions:



1. Put all the ingredients in the food processor. Blend the ingredients until they are smooth (less than a minute). Transfer them into a container. You can serve right away. For best consistency put the ice cream in the freezer for 30 minutes before serving.

Foods that make your home smell good

Foods that make your home smell good
By: Chef Cristian Feher
www.tampabaychef.com

Did you ever walk into somebody’s house and it smelled so good you didn’t want to leave? I remember Mrs. Avle. We lived a few houses down from her when I was 10 years old, and it seemed that she was always making tomato meat sauce. You could smell it down the street and it was absolutely delicious. I even made friends with her son in hopes of getting a chance to taste the source of this mesmerizing aroma. Some children make friends with kids who have pools or ping pong tables, for me it was the meat sauce. And for this sauce I would have made friends with Hitler’s kid.

One day he invited me in after school, I walked through the front door and was knocked back by the smell of perfectly herbed tomatoes, a perfect amount of garlic and savoury beef. I don’t remember his name, and probably ignored most of what he said for the next hour. I looked at my watch, 5pm. Yes, he would be having dinner soon. Mrs. Avle called him up from the kitchen. This was it. ‘OK, look hungry and needy.” I said to myself. I followed what’s-his-name to the kitchen and smiled politely in anticipation for my invitation to eat. Mrs. Avle looked at me with her no-nonesense face. She did not smile. I waited for what seemed hours for my invitation. At this point I was about four feet away from the magical pot. She might as well have been cooking meth in that kitchen, for the smell had made my heart race and my pupils dilate.

Alas she spoke, “We going to have dinah nowe. Y’a go on home.” I wish we had texting back in 1990 cause I would have typed the letters WTF into my cell phone. I never did get to taste Mrs. Avle’s sauce, but I’ve never forgotten that smell.

No one likes their house to smell like last night’s dinner, but there are some foods that can add a pleasant and inviting aroma that will make your guests come back time and time again - even if they don’t remember your name.

Pineapple and citrus fruits. In the hot months we eat a lot of fruit. I always keep citrus and pineapple peels and when guests come over I like to stick them in a pot, fill it with water and simmer them. The essential oils that come off the peels give my house a pleasant Caribbean smell that reminds me of roadside fruit markets in the tropics. You can also leave some citrus peels in your car (without the pulp) in a cup and let the sun bake them into a nice aroma. However, sometimes I’ve left them in there too long and it became too strong. So you gotta get the amount of time just right.

Virgin coconut oil. I like to fry most foods with some Kelapo virgin coconut oil instead of butter or olive oil.  It gives off a really nice, subtle coconut smell. I also like that the smell is light and doesn’t stick around for too long either - it knows when It’s time to go home.  Whether you use it for grilled cheese, stir-fries or scrambled eggs, it’s always nice to have a coconut aroma lingering while enjoying your meal.

Cinnamon. Whenever I smell up the house with strong foods like oily fish, my wife puts on a small pot of water and sprinkles in a bunch of powdered cinnamon with a little vanilla extract. I think it makes our house smell like the Yankee Candle store, but I guess it’s better than salmon.

Do you have any foods that add a pleasant aroma to your house? Do you know someone who makes their house smell so good you never want to leave? Tell me about it! You can email me at tampabaychef@gmail.com. I’m always happy to hear from my readers.

Cooking Myths Debunked

Cooking Myths Debunked
By: Chef Cristian Feher
www.tampabaychef.com

Much like the Loch Ness monster, Big Foot, and fact that you can’t get pregnant if you jump up and down, the culinary world shares many myths of its own. And it is my pleasure to debunk just a few of them for you.

[Cue the National Geographic music] There are those who think, and those who look. The thinkers have brought forth many interesting facts; like the Earth being flat, the existence of witches, and communism. The lookers went out and actually looked. They observed a round planet, they met women who liked to experiment with hallucinogens, and witnessed the political catastrophe that was communism in actual practice. Myths tend to originate from the thinkers who draw up conclusions based on what they “think” should happen, or what someone else has told them. A good scientist simply goes out and looks for himself. OK, now that I’ve given you the museum orientation speech, let’s get on with it, shall we?

Putting oil in the pasta water will stop the pasta from sticking together. False. This is probably the most common culinary myth around. Oil floats on top of water (even when it’s boiling). The only thing the oil does is to prevent the water from foaming and boiling over. Stirring the pasta while it’s cooking is what keeps it from sticking together. And after you drain the pasta you can stir in a little oil to keep it from sticking.

Sea salt is healthier than regular table salt. False. Both table salt and “sea salt” come from the sea, whether the sea is around today or was around 10 million years ago and someone dug up the salt deposit, that’s where it comes from. “Sea Salt” is just marketing talk for “Pay more for me!” Furthermore, salt is just sodium chloride and it dissolves in water just the same whether it’s fine salt, kosher salt, “sea salt” or Himalayan pink salt. The only difference from one salt to the next is all the extra stuff that is clinging to it, whether it be different algae, minerals, spices, or smoke particles. Salt is salt.

Strong black coffee will sober you up. False. Strong black coffee will only keep a drunk awake longer. And unless you really enjoy rude comments, close-talking, misguided aggression, and public urination, keep stimulants away from drunks. The only thing that will sober a person up is sleep and B-vitamins. The actual feeling of being “drunk” is just a depletion of your body’s B1-vitamin stores which your body has to use to get rid of the alcohol. As a side note - I was once in a bar with a group of Filipinos and one of them was getting way too drunk and out of hand. So they slipped some MSG powder (mono sodium glutamate) in his beer and a couple of minutes later the guy fell asleep in his seat. “This is how we deal with drunks in the Philippines” my friend said to me with a wink.

Diet soda is healthier than regular soda. Although this one shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone, it’s false. Various experiments, including ones conducted at the university of Barcelona in Spain, have proven conclusively that the artificial sweetener found in most sodas, aspartame, easily breaks down into several substances including formaldehyde (the stuff used to embalm corpses at the morgue). So if living forever is your thing, you may be going about it the wrong way by drinking diet soda. Besides, it’s the 21st century and the world is going green, so you want to be biodegradable when you die.

Know of any other food-related myths? If so, please email them to me. tampabaychef@gmail.com.

Possibly the healthiest organic vegetable soup in the world

Possibly the healthiest organic vegetable soup in the world
By: Chef Cristian Feher
www.tampabaychef.com

After spending the last little while debasing my body with fast foods, wheat products, dyes, preservatives, heavy metals, genetically modified vegetables and stimulants I feel like Axl Rose after a few months of partying, rocking out, and touring - but instead of long hair, mystery lingerie and millions of dollars, all I have to show for it is a few extra pounds, lethargy and the guilt of having added 50Lbs of non-degradable garbage into the environment.

I managed to nudge myself awake and dragged myself over to the organic grocery store where I put together the ingredients to possibly the healthiest soup that ever existed. It’s so healthy in fact, that I’m going to have to write a disclaimer.

Disclaimer: Neither this article, recipe, nor Cristian Feher himself can be relied upon as preventive, cure or treatment for any disease or medical condition. Jesus, Allah and Gautama Buddha know what I’m talking about, however, this article is solely my personal opinion and is not based on any medical fact. It is recommended that you consult with a licensed medical practitioner. If there were no disease, doctors would be out of a job. So go see your doctor before attempting anything healthy. And don’t forget to tip.

You are what you eat. I used to believe that, until I saw Ronald McDonald at a Chinese Buffet. In any case, it’s safe to assume that bad food causes or facilitates disease. At the very least, it makes you tired, fat and irritable. So the purpose of this recipe is to make you happy, healthy, and fit by providing you with all the right foods in one pot. Easy. No excuses. Your body is an engine, and if you feed it good fuel, it will drive faster, look better, and have regular oil leaks - which is good in this case.

Not only are all the ingredients in this soup free of preservatives, pesticides, stimulants, dyes, and all that bad stuff, but I’ve also gone out of my way to get two gallons of super-filtered and ozonated water at my local water filtration depot (35 cents per gallon). Using tap water to make healthy soup would make no sense - your tap water most likely contains heavy metals and fluoride (that can slow down your thyroid), chlorine, and trace amounts of pharmaceutical drugs, birth control pills, and a slew of other mystery ingredients. Think of how much effort your body has to put into getting rid of all this stuff after you eat. You’re using the little bit of energy you got in the first place, to get the stuff out of your body.

This soup has been engineered here at Chef Cristian’s Rocket Propulsion Laboratories to be a clean, crud-free, nutritious fuel so that your body can run at optimum. It has low glycemic carbohydrates (your pancreas will thank you), clean, organic, hormone and antibiotic-free meats for protein, and you will add raw green leafy vegetables just before eating to provide all the essential enzymes and minerals your body needs. In essence, it would be the ideal fuel for a healthy body.
I’m not saying I could eat this every day. But If all you ate was this soup for a few weeks, you would probably find two things would happen: 1)Your weight would start to normalize, you’d have more energy, you’d look better, feel better, and be happier, and 2) You’d get really bored of eating soup, cause this recipe makes a tonne.

Ingredients for the soup:
- 2 gallons of ozonated, super-filtered water
- 1 green organic cabbage cut into wedges
- 1 organic acorn squash cut into quarters
- 2 to 3 organic sweet potatoes whole
- 10 organic carrots cut into sections
- 1 whole bushel of organic celery cut into sections
- 1 large organic red onion diced
- 4 cloves of organic garlic minced
- 6 sprigs of fresh thyme
- 3 bay leaves
- 1 jar of Better Than Bullion brand Organic Chicken Bullion
- Fresh ground pepper and mineral salt to taste

Things to put into the soup just before eating:
- Raw green organic leafy vegetables (any)
- Pieces of cooked organic meats or fish (any)

Instructions:

1. Put all ingredients into a big stock pot with super-filtered water, bring to a boil, turn the heat down to a simmer, and simmer for 1 hour. Turn heat off, and let it cool naturally before dividing it into containers and storing it.

2. When ready to eat; heat it, add meat or seafood to it, serve it into a bowl and add chopped green veggies to it like spinach, kale, greens, etc. Enjoy!

Black sesame stir-fried beef tenderloin and broccoli recipe

Black sesame beef and broccoli. Photo ©Cristian Feher 2011

Black Sesame Beef Tenderloin w/ Broccoli
By: Chef Cristian Feher
www.tampabaychef.com



This is a quick and easy meal that your family will enjoy! Whenever I make stir-fry-type dishes with beef, I like to use beef tenderloin as it yields a really soft and juicy texture. If using cheaper cuts of meat, you can slice them thin and marinade them over night in egg whites and a little corn starch.

One of the questions I get asked most often from people who like to make stir-fry dishes is “How do I make the sauce?” The question here is, really, “Flour or corn starch?” Traditionally, asian sauces are thickened with starches, like corn and tapioca. But I sometimes use flour just for convenience sakes.

A slurry is a mixture of starch and water. You pour the slurry into a boiling liquid and whisk it in quickly to thicken it into a sauce. Flour is mixed with vegetable oil (to the consistency of toothpaste) and whisked a little bit at a time into a boiling liquid to thicken it into a sauce. The flour will give it a heavier consistency than the starches, so it’s up to you which way you go with this.

Yields: 4 to 6 servings

Ingredients:
- 1Lb of Beef Tenderloin
- 1 to 2 cups of beef stock (depending on how much sauce you want)
- 2 cups of broccoli florets
- 2 green onions
- 1tbsp of fresh ginger
- 1 tbsp of black sesame seeds
- 1 tsp of toasted sesame oil
- Japanese soy sauce to taste
- Peanut oil
- Corn starch
- Water

Instructions:

1. The first step is to prepare all of your ingredients. This means; slicing the beef tenderloin into smaller pieces, preparing the beef stock, chopping the green onion, mincing the ginger, and making a slurry with roughly one part corn starch and one part water (you may need more w
ater).

2. Heat up your wok or skillet, add a little peanut oil, the beef, ginger and scallions. Sautee on medium high for 10 minutes. Add the broccoli. Cook for another 5 minutes.

3. Add the beef stock and bring to a simmer. Once it simmers, whisk in a little of the corn starch slurry at a time until desired thickness is reached. Cook for another 3 minutes.

4. Take it off the heat, and season with sesame seeds, soy sauce and sesame oil. I like to serve with this a side of steamed Jasmin rice. Enjoy!

Indian Butter Chicken Recipe and The Origins of Indian Cuisine

Indian “Butter” Chicken Recipe and The Origins of Indian Cuisine
By: Chef Cristian Feher
www.tampabaychef.com

Indian Butter Chicken - Photo ©Cristian Feher 2011

I find that Indian cuisine is the type of food that people either love or hate. Its strong combination of aromatic spices can be intimidating to those accustomed to eating milder tasting food. But it’s intoxicating to those who love to crank the volume on taste.

Indian cuisine was born in a land where the harsh climate pushed Man to come up with ingenious ways to survive. Amongst the age old methods of survival was food preservation. As I’ve written in other articles, the advent of refrigeration is very recent. For ages back people have sought ways to preserve their food in climates where spoilage was accelerated by the ambient heat, and where food was not abundant. Although protein sources were scarce compared to the lush forests of Europe and North America, Indian culture was in a prime location - right in the middle of an ancient trade route between Asia, the middle East and Africa. And one of the most readily available goods traveled and traded along the route were spices. It was quickly proven that a high concentration of spices retarded, and even prevented in some cases, bacterial growth in food. And thus was born a cuisine of strong tastes and bold spices, not for luxury or pleasure, but for function - to keep foods from spoiling. However, as it is in every culture, the food artists (whether chefs, servants, or home makers) developed something functional into something wonderful and enjoyable, Indian cuisine as we know it today.

Butter chicken is one of the most popular Indian dishes known today by most of the world, aside from curry. The allure of this dish, in addition to its aromatic taste and rich texture, is that no two versions of butter chicken are ever the same. From restaurant to restaurant, and chef to chef, butter chicken always tastes slightly different. This is my rendition of butter chicken. By using Kelapo virgin coconut oil instead of butter I have achieved a lighter consistency and have added the slight aroma of coconut.

This recipe yields 4 servings.

Ingredients:

- 3 boneless chicken breasts

- 2 cups of diced onion

- 2 tbsp of Kelapo virgin coconut oil

- 5 garlic cloves (2 tbsp of minced garlic)

- 1 tbsp of fresh minced ginger

- 2 tsp of garam masala

- ¼ tsp of ground cardamom

- ¼ tsp of cayenne pepper

- 3 bay leaves

- ½ tsp of cinnamon

- 3 tbsp of cashew butter (or peanut butter)

- 3 cups of pureed tomato (about 5 fresh tomatoes)

- 2 tsp of brown sugar

- plenty of sea salt to taste


Instructions:

1. The first step is to prepare all of your ingredients. This means that you dice the chicken, dice the onion, mince the garlic, mince the ginger, puree the fresh, ripe tomatoes in the blender or food processor.

2. Put the Kelapo coconut oil into a deep skillet and add the onion, garlic, ginger, bay leaves, and spices (not the salt). Fry the onion until it becomes translucent (about 15 mins.)

3. Once the onion is translucent, add the chicken and fry for another 10-12 minutes. After 12 minutes, add the cashew butter and stir it really well so that it dissolves into the mixture.

4. Add the tomato, sugar, and plenty of salt to taste. Remember that it takes a lot of salt to bring out the flavor in tomatoes. When adding salt, always add a little, taste, add a little, taste, and so on. Bring the mixture to a simmer and simmer for another 20 minutes. It should thicken more as you cook down the tomatoes and evaporate the water. Serve with basmati rice, chopped cilantro and naan bread. Enjoy!