The Louisville Chef

I've been cooking for almost 40 years. I've made many sorts of food and dabbled in many cuisines, but I must say Asian cuisine is one of my favorites. The incredible diversity across the various cuisines is truly inspiring. It's hard to believe that after cooking all these wonderful dishes, that I'd never tried to cook with pork belly or garlic chives  What a revelation. The flavors are made for each other and the result was so good, I made it two nights in a row! A quick note, garlic chives can easily be found in any Asian markets, and the ones with the garlic buds are worth serching out. Additionally, garlic scapes and garlic chives are not the same thing, but they are related. Ingredients  1/2 lb Pork Belly, cut into 1 inch pieces.  1 Tbsp Soy sauce  1 Tbsp Shaoxing Rice Wine 1/4 cup Vegetable Oil 2 cloves Garlic, minced 1 inch piece of Ginger Root, minced 4 - 6 Dried Chilies, depending on the heat you enjoy. 1/8 tsp White Pepper  1 tsp Sugar 1 bunch Garlic Chives, s

These are easy to make and very tasty. They are low carb and filling.  You have numerous options for what to put inside, but just make sure your ham lining is a drier ham. Or if normal sliced ham, dap with paper towels to remove the moisture. You want the eggs to roast, not steam.  I’ve also made them with smoked salmon, cream cheese and chives and they are wonderful.  Ingredients Olive Oil  6- Eggs 6 slices of Parma or other dry Ham 6 Tbsp grated Parmesan, Gruyere or other cheese.  Roasted Peppers, sliced.  Salt and Black Pepper 6 cup non stick Muffin Tin Baking sheet Preheat oven to 400F, while you prepare the muffins.  Grease the tin with a bit of olive oil. Line the individual muffins with the ham. A bit on the bottom and some around the sides. Add in the grated cheese and roasted peppers.  Gently crack the egg into the tins, trying not to let it overflow. Sprinkle with salt and black pepper and top with a little more grated cheese, if  desired. Place on a baking sheet and into the

I modified this recipe from one I saw in BA. It’s excellent and very easy to make. While the ingredients are basic, the flavor is incredible. As mentioned below, adding feta or goats cheese is a nice way to give even more flavor, but it is very good both ways. Ingredients  2 lbs Chicken Thighs, boneless and skinless, trimmed of excess fat.  10-12 Roma tomatoes, sliced in half.  1/2 cup Kalamata Olives 6 cloves of Garlic, thinly sliced.  4 Tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil 1 Tbsp Thyme  2 tsp Calabrian Chili in oil. If this is not available you can sub with another chili powder like Aleppo or Korean chili powder. Just not too hot.  Salt and Pepper  1/2 cup Feta or Goats Cheese, crumbled. Optional Begin by trimming the chicken and cutting each thigh in half. Salt and pepper both sides and allow to rest in refrigerator.  Prepare your tomatoes and then add all ingredients and toss well and let the mixture marinade on the counter.  Preheat oven to 425F. Place the tomatoes in one layer into the bo

Thais’ love fresh basil, and use many different types. Most of us are familiar with Sweet Basil, and this is easy to find in any market. However, it’s the “Holy Basil”, known as Bai Grapao, which is the most flavorful and authentic. This basil has an anise type of flavor and gives this dish an amazing flavor and dimension that just doesn’t taste the same with sweet basil. If you  can't  find the holy basil, a good quality fresh Thai basil will work as well. You should always use fresh basil for this recipe, as the dried variety will not give acceptable results, unless you can find the authentic dried Thai Grapao. Ingredients ¾ lb. skinless, boneless chicken breast, coarsely ground and marinated in about 1 Tbsp. of fish sauce, and 1 Tbsp. of light soy sauce. 1/2 sliced large Onion 1/2 sliced sweet Red Pepper 2 finely chopped Thai Chilies 2 Tbsp. of Peanut or another Vegetable oil 3 cloves chopped Garlic 1 tbsp chopped fresh Ginger Root 4 stalks of fresh Basil, pulled apart just befo

This is a dish that I often used to order at Din Tai Fung in LA. Along with their rightfully  famous  xiaolongbao. I had tried it a few times in China, but not with shrimp. After tracking down the rice cakes (who knew there were so many types and shapes), it was a bit of a learning curve to figure our how to prep them for the wok.  I finally settled on boiling them in water with a splash of fish  sauce. The big take away, was it only took about 2 minutes for them to cook and they were done when they floated. Additionally once you drain them and start stir frying everything else, they tend to stick together, but quickly release once they hit the wok. Ingredients 3 Tbsp Vegetable oil  1 cup Shiitake Mushrooms, sliced  2 cups Bok Choy, hard ends removed and cubed and sliced 2 Green Onion, chopped into 1-2 inch pieces.  2 cloves Garlic, minced 2 cups Rice Cake, see note.  10-12 large raw Shrimp, cleaned and peeled, tails intact.  1 Tbsp Shaoxing Wine Sauce Mixture: 2 Tbsp Light Soy Sauce 

There are so many options to make your own pizza. I really enjoy my 72 hour cold proof pizza dough, but sometimes I want something faster. The pizza dough in this recipe is more like a focaccia texture, but that makes it perfect for a pan pizza.  It is a recipe from the amazing Jim Lahey of Sullivan Street Bakery in NYC. It is from his book "My Bread". Ingredients  3 3/4 cups/500 grams Bread Flour 2 1/2 tsp Instant or Active Dry Yeast 3/4 tsp Salt 3/4 tsp Sugar 1 1/3 cups/300 grams Water, at room temperature.  2 Tbsp Olive Oil  Mix all of your dry ingredients together in a large bowl, slowly add your water and mix well with a spoon or spatula until well mixed. About 1 minute. Cover and allow to rise for two hours.  Turn it out onto a floured surface and form into a ball and allow to rise for another 30 minutes covered with a damp cloth.  Preheat your oven to 500°F. Once the dough has finished its second proof, oil a half sheet pan well and

This salmon was truly amazing. I found so many recipes online, but this one seemed to really bring out the best of the salmon. Butter for richness, honey for sweetness and garlic and thyme for a savory element and a little brightness for the chili flakes. Ingredients 2 lb Salmon filet. Skin on or off is fine. 2 Lemons thinly sliced, and a 1/4 saved for after cooking. 4 Tbsp Butter, melted 2 Tbsp Honey 1 clove Garlic 1 tsp Thyme 1 tsp Chili Flakes Salt and pepper both sides of the salmon filet. Lay on a bed of sliced lemons. Spoon over the glaze. Into a preheated 350F oven for 20 - 25 minutes and then turn on broiler for 3-5 minutes, and broil until the glaze sets. Squeeze on the reserved lemon quarter and let it rest for 5 minutes and serve. Thanks to  www.delish.com  for the recipe and inspiration.

I had been looking at this recipe for a long time, but as I've mentioned, I'm not much of a baker. Enter quarantine and I have plenty of time to hone my skills. This comes from one of my favorite cookbooks, Warm Bread and Honey Cake by Gaitri Pagrach-Chandra. Her recipes reflect the heritage of her homeland of Guyana and her current home in the Netherlands. It's really a special book.  A few things I learned when making this cake. Firstly, the recipe was vastly more accurate when I weighed the ingredients. Example, I found that 9 oz of AP flour was much more than 1 2/3 cups. My friends who are accomplished bakers say to always weigh if possible. I have tried to adjust the recipe to reflect this, but weighing would really be best. Secondly, the recipe calls for 35-40 minutes cooking time, but I found in my oven it needed a full 50 minutes.  Lastly, in the original recipe, she did not call for allowing the cake to rest before turning it out of

As with most of you, I have time on my hands, so I broke out the slow cooker aka crock pot. I found a recipe online, but wanted to adjust it to be more Asian influenced, almost a Korean BBQ. It was very good and will definetly be on rotation for dinner. What I really liked about it, was that it was packed with flavor, but not a sodium bomb. The flavors were  balanced and blended well. I served it with steamed jasmine rice and  broccoli. Ingredients 2 lbs Chicken Thighs, boneless and skinless. Excess fat removed.   1 Tbsp Vegetable Oil 1/2 cup Catsup or Tomato Sauce 1/4 cup low sodium Soy Sauce 2 Tbsp Honey 2 Tbsp Hoisin Sauce 1 Tbsp Rice Vinegar  1 Tbsp Shaoxing Wine 1 Tbsp  Sriracha 3-4 cloves Garlic, minced 2-3 inch piece of Ginger, peeled and grated.  1 tsp Toasted Sesame Oil 1/4 cup Green Onions, sliced 2 Tbsp Toasted Sesame Seeds Lightly brown the chicken, then into the slow cooker with rest of ingredients, except green onions and ses

Originally developed by Jim Lahey of Sullivan Street Bakery. Published by NY Times and food writer Mark Bittman.  Incredibly easy and well worth the time.   This recipe makes one loaf Ingredients   3 cups All Purpose unbleached Flour or Bread Flour 1/4 tsp Instant Yeast 2 tsp Salt 1 1/2 cups, and 2 Tbsp slightly warm Water In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, yeast and salt. Give it a quick stir to incorporate. Pour in the water, and with a spoon, stir until blended and all the flour is incorporated. The dough will be rough and shaggy, almost like a scone dough, and fairly sticky. This step only takes one minute.  Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let it sit out on the counter for 18 hours. If your kitchen is cold, you might need 24 hours. No need for a “warm” spot, room temperature is fine.   The dough will be ready when the surface is level and bubbly.  Preheat the oven to 450˚, with the enamel pot inside, and with

This is a great way to use up any leftover apples or other fruit and handy if you’ve got some canned biscuits laying around as well. I ngredients 4 large Granny Smith Apples, peeled and cored. Cut into 1 inch pieces.  4 Tbsp Butter 1 tsp Cinnamon  1/2 tsp Nutmeg  1/2 cup Sugar 2 tsp Vanilla Extract Pinch of Salt 1 can of Flaky Biscuits  Topping 1 Tbsp Butter 3 Tbsp Sugar After peeling, coring and cutting the apples into 1 inch pieces, put them into a sauce pan with the 4 melted tablespoons of butter. Add a pinch of salt and allow them to soften and reduce.  Then add sugar, cinnamon, vanilla and nutmeg. Continue cooking until slightly thickened. If you find they are not sufficiently thickened, add a cornstarch slurry and continue cooking. You make a slurry by adding 1 tsp of cornstarch with 2 tsp of water and mixing together. Once at desired  thickness, p our into a pie dish/pan to cool. A square Pyrex can work as well Preheat

This was a specialty of the original Florence’s in the North End of Boston. Sadly Florence has passed away and the original restaurant closed in 2015, but I like the idea of keeping this dish alive. I've heard they've reopened as the Florentine Cafe. The North End has traditionally been a home for Italian immigrants and is packed with great restaurants and bakeries.  In addition, it is also the home of Paul Revere's house and the Old North Church. If you visit Boston, it's  well worth a visit. After I moved away from Boston, I tried to recreate Florence's recipe, and I think this is very close to the original.  This sauce can be made thicker and more concentrated by just using one can of tomatoes. It’s your choice. For the purists, they would likely disagree that this is the famous pasta from the town of Amatrice. However I like both. If you want to sample the "real" dish from Amatrice, here is a link.  https://www.ciaoitalia.com/seaso

So rainy and cold here today, it just begs for some French bistro comfort food.  So, time to crack open a nice bottle of wine and make a hearty beef stew. I just braved the weather to pull together the basics for preparing my beef bourguignon. Ingredients 2 Tbsp. Butter 3 cloves of Garlic, chopped 1 Shallot, chopped  1/4 lb. lightly smoked, unsmoked Bacon or salt pork 1 lb pearl Onions, blanched in boiling water for 5 minutes and then peeled. Frozen pearl onions are a good time saver.  ½ lb of whole Mushrooms 4 lbs. of boneless Beef Short Ribs, or Beef Chuck, cut into 2 to 3inch pieces 3 large Carrots, peeled and chopped into 2 to 3 inch pieces, or a 1 lb bag of baby Carrots 1 bottle of Red Wine (Pinot Noir is perfect) ½ cup Cognac ½ tsp. dried Thyme, or 6 stalks of fresh thyme 2 Bay Leaf 3 tsp. of Salt  Fresh ground Black Pepper Cut the meat and put into a large bowl or plastic freezer bag with 4 springs of the fresh thyme, 1 bay leaf and two