Veggie Patties

Ingredients:

Rice

 Red Bell Pepper

Green Bell Pepper

Red Onion

Garlic

Flour

Egg Whites

To make this I just used left over rice from the night before. Combine the peppers, onion and garlic in a food processor to finely chop, add in rice to mix evenly. Pour mixture in a mixing bowl, add flour and egg white until mixture in firm enough to make patties out of.

Once patties are formed place in a skillet with vegetable oil, fry patties until golden brown on both sides, about 3-4 minutes per side.

Variations: 

Other add ins: jalapenos, olives, black beans, etc.

Gluten Free: instead of using AP flour you can use rice flour, chick pea flour, or any other gluten free flour works as well.

Add Cheese: During food processor stage add in shredded cheese of choice.

- mozzarella, cheddar, goat cheese, feta etc.

Make it a burger: make slightly larger patties and place on hamburger bun with toppings of choice.

Chocolate Espresso Mousse

Yield: 14 - 6 oz. portions

Ingredients:

1. semi-sweet chocolate  1 lb. 12 oz.
2. Egg yolk - 9 each
3. Espresso - 6 oz.
4. Sugar - 4 oz.
5. Egg whites pasteurized - 9 each
6. Whipping cream - 3 cups

This recipe calls to use a double boiler, but boiling a pot of water and using a metal mixing bowl and setting it on top will act as a double boiler.

• First melt chocolate in double boiler.
• In Kitchen aid bowl, combine yolks, espresso, and sugar. Place over hot water and beat with a whip until thickened and tripled in bulk.
• Place in mixer a whip in chocolate. Continue to beat on low speed  until cooled slightly.
• In a clean bowl, whip egg whites until stiff. Fold into chocolate.
• Whip cream until stiff, fold into chocolate.
• Pipe into glasses. Refrigerate.

Topped with whip cream, chocolate covered coffee beans, and drizzled chocolate.

Tie Dye Cup Cakes!

White Cake

To make these tie dye cupcakes, I used white cake batter and to color the batter I separated the batter into Dixie cups and mixed in food coloring until I got the colors I wanted.

Once I had mixed all the colors of dough I had wanted I poured in color by color in spots of the cup cake liner until it was 2/3 full. You can pour colors on top of each other to get a tie dye effect when you cut into the cupcake or cake.

The color of the batter does not fade much, so if you want a very vibrant color cupcakes don't worry if you start out with that color you will end up with that color! 

For the frosting I used a simple butter cream and to show off the top color of the dough I just made fun faces on top, but you could also do a traditional cupcake look to and the fun will begin once you bite into the cupcake!

The Grown Up "Egg McMuffin" Sandwich

It is so simple to make a delicious healthy breakfast, and believe it or not cooking eggs is almost as fast as cooking the toast your putting it on! 

The picture above has eggs scrambled with fresh spinach, mushrooms, goat cheese and mozzarella cheese, then placed on top of a toasted English muffin with fresh sliced tomato.

The picture above is an English Muffin topped with scrambled eggs, spinach and mushrooms.

Other topping ideas to add in, sausage, bacon, cherry tomatoes, bell peppers, jalapenos, sun dried tomato, tofu.

Another delicious variation, instead of using eggs, try using tofu for a tofu scramble! Believe it or not the taste and texture resembles eggs and it is so good for you!

To make this even better, farm fresh eggs or raising your own chickens for eggs makes this meal very affordable and easy to make and you know exactly what is in your eggs and food. 

Fall Culinary Banquet Prep

 So much to do in such little time. In Class Molly and I made 16 sheets of puff pastry completed with either a tri fold or completed all the way to a 3 book fold. After the 3 book fold was completed Nick a second year student had to sheet it out to about 4 feet long so we could cut out circles to make a puff pastry.

Tri Fold in a puff Pastry dough, So much butter!

 

Once puff pastry was baked off we added a persimmon sauce and topped with whip cream and black berries.

Crunchy Brussel Sprout Salad

Brussel sprouts, red cabbage, Frisee, candied walnuts, goat cheese

Dressing: orange juice, sesame oil, red wine vinegar, honey, shallots

Brisket

16 huge chunks of Brisket Chef Scott Cut and I seasoned and Seared in the oven then took out for him to Braise. Then the next day when it was done we portioned it out into 3 ounce plate portions.

De-boning Chicken

Everyone who was there for the first prep day  got to learn and de-bone a chicken there was about 16 or so of them, it was interesting we cut them open from the back and left the skin and all the cuts of meat in tack so we could stuff and roll the chickens.

Chicken Galantine
We used the chickens we just de-boned, and stuffed them with a medium dice day old bread crumbs, rosemary and sage and egg mixture with sliced prosciutto, and Swiss cheese, then rolled it up and wrapped it in tin foil and bake and slice.


Purple Gnocchi with Chanterelles Mushrooms
Surprisingly this is not hard to make and is very tasty and has a bright vibrant color. You need to steam the potatoes, then rice them, add in flour, nutmeg, and salt and mix with dough hook in a mixer slowly add in oil until dough like consistency. Then roll out ropes and cup 1 in pieces and roll with a fork.  and boil. Saute mushrooms tell partially done and gnocchi and saute until browned add rosemary and port wine.

Barley Risotto with Delicata squash
This risotto takes for ever and ever to make, first you have to saute the onions and garlic add barley and saute until toasted, de-glaze with white wine and vegetable stock one cup at a time stirring continuously. You Keep adding one cup at a time until barley softens, then add Parmesan cheese, squash, and cream, salt to taste.

Letter of recommendation from Jim Wiltens

Mikaela:

Mikaela took on a co-cook position at Deer Crossing Camp, www.deercrossingcamp.com, for the summer of 2012. Mikaela was responsible for cooking meals for 50+ people, three times a day. Cooking in our wilderness location is considerably more challenging than cooking in an urban setting. There is no road access so she had to order food and then assist with food pick ups by boat, once a week. The food then had to be physically lifted and transported to the lodge after arriving by boat. Storage is also challenging due to the critter population which includes bears, marmots, squirrels, and mice. This requires constant monitoring, cleaning, and pest vector control. In addition she had to learn how to start generators, water pumps, and run other parts of the infrastructure associated with the kitchen which again is more challenging than a modern kitchen. As the director I was pleased that she was a quick study and picked up the protocols and procedures necessary to run the kitchen in a short period of time. She got along well with the other staff and campers and kept a can-do attitude for the summer. A number of times she offered cooking classes to the campers, who were enthusiastic about working in the kitchen with her. I think she will find that working in any food service organization is considerably easier after working at our wilderness camp and I wouldn't hesitate in hiring her again. If you have any questions feel free to contact me.

Jim Wiltens
(650) 369-3902
www.jimwiltens.com

The Kitchen at Deer Crossing