Chicken Hash topped with a Fried Egg and Hollandaise Sauce

Sunday morning was fun in the kitchen.  What started off as a chicken omelette so I can use up the shredded chicken turned into something completely different.

I started to do some prep work on some ingredients, and started brain storming.  I diced some potatoes, onion, red and green bell peppers. and garlic.

I got the potatoes started first because that was going to take the longest part to cook.  I tossed it with paprika, onion and garlic powder, salt, pepper, and oregano and tossed it in the pan with some of the garlic oil from my jar of garlic confit.

For the chicken, it was some left over shredded chicken from a couple days before that was not seasoned with much.  I wanted a garlicy chicken so I added some more of the garlic oil and added in the chicken and fresh garlic and added some chicken broth to let it cook down a bit.  This was sauteed with the bell peppers and onion.  The mushroom was sauteed on the side for presentation purposes.

As for the fried egg.  This will be my first go around with it.  I was inspired by a homechef on Instagram for the fried egg.  The most difficult part of all of this is cooking the egg.  I had soft boiled the egg and this has to be done pretty precisely because too little time, the egg white is too runny to peel and too much then it turns into a hard boiled egg.  There really is no way to know how it looks on the inside until you cut into it so I just hoped for the best.

Like anything that is breaded and fried, I rolled the egg in some flour then into a egg wash and then into some panko.  I quickly fried it.

After looking back at my plate and realizing that it is too "dry" looking, I decided to make a hollandaise sauce real quick.

Ladies and gentlemen...here we have it...Chicken Hash topped with a Fried Soft Boiled Egg and Hollandaise Sauce!

Red Wine Braised Braised Short Ribs with Parsip/Potato Mash and Roasted Brussels Sprout

This dish was created for a couple reasons.  I recently discovered the short rib and have been in love with it since.  And two, I had a bottle of Cabanero which is a habanero infused red wine that I had purchased to drink and did not care for it as something to drink.

Anyways, the night before, I had marinaded the short ribs in the wine with onion, garlic, celery, and carrot.  The next day afterwork, I let the short ribs sit at room temperature for a bit.  I seared all sides of the short ribs and added in the marinade to begin the braising process.

I braised it for about 3 hours and pulled it and stuck it in the oven to keep warm while the red wine reduces.  While the short ribs was braising, I went ahead and started preparing the sides.

This would be my first go around with parsnip and decided to mix it with potatoes to make a mash.  I mashed it with some milk that I had simmered with butter and infused with garlic and parsley.  The brussels sprouts were simply treated with salt and pepper, olive oil, and balsamic vinegar and roasted.

My first time with parsnip was a very positive experience.  I love the flavors that it gives to the potatoes.  To me, it reminded me of Christmas which paired well with my red wine reduction and short ribs.  Unfortunately, the heat was cooked out of the wine.  The wine itself had a nice little kick to it that I was hoping would have carried over into the sauce and short ribs.  The brussels sprouts ended up having crispy outside layers which was a big plus!.

Banh Mi Platter to Banh Mi Sliders

Dinner was suppose to be simple the night I had prepared this plate.  We had a long weekend and last thing I wanted to do on Monday evening is cook (shocker...I know).

We had all items to make a pretty decent banh mi.  I had a Vietnamese fried ham (cha chien), the pate I had made recently, cilantro, cucumber, and of course the bread.  The only thing I had to make was the pickled carrots (do chua) which was simple and a Sriracha aioli.

The second I started to slice the ham, I had the urge to want to turn it into something else.  Yes...a regular banh mi would have been awesome, but it is just a sandwich and so plain.  So I decided to make a banh mi platter...basically banh mi deconstructed.

Do not ask why.  I thought it would have been fun and it was.  But as I was eating it, I found myself building little "sliders".  This lead to another idea that I thought would have made a great looking picture and think outside of the box kind of plating.  

I ran back into the kitchen starving to the point that I was shaking, but I had an idea and I had to execute it.  Next thing I knew it, I stood back and realized, I had banh mi sliders! ( pictured above).

Pork Belly Confit Steak

I had a great time preparing and cooking the pork confit the week before.  It was a long drawn out process, but definitely worth it in the end.  

When I order pork belly at restaurants, it seems like it is never enough and it is always sliced pretty thinly.  So I wanted to prepare a "healthy" portion of pork belly and decided to serve it as a steak.  When I prepared the pork belly for the confit process, I had cut them in 4 inch squares.  

When I got home from work that evening, I took the pork belly out of the fridge and let it get to room temperature so I can scrape it out of the lard that it is sitting in.  

As I did this, I realized I needed a starch on my plate.  I had a gold potato and a sweet potato sitting on the counter. I cut those up into little dices so it cooks quicker, and steamed it.  I went ahead and heated some milk and butter and infused it with garlic and parsley and just let it steep in the milk.  I put the steamed potatoes through a potato ricer and whipped it with the milk.  

As the lard gets to room temperature, it makes it easy to get the pork belly out of it.  Keep in mind that the pork belly is very fragile and can be easily torn apart if not taken out of the lard carefully.  I scored the fat and let it render fat side down in a hot pan for a little while until it turned a golden brown and started to crisp.  I finished it off in the oven.  

For the sauce, I poured out some of the fat in the pan and sauteed some onion and garlic and deglazed it with some red wine and reduced it.  

To finish off the plate, I prepared some garlic confit to top it all off.

Pork Served 4 Ways

Ah...the pork.  Who does not love pork?  There is no bad way to cook it or wrong way to eat it!  With this mind set, I spent a 5 day process to prepare this plate.  I used a couple different techniques and different cuts of pork.

The plate for the night included several pork related components:

• Pork Belly Confit
• Cured Pork Tenderloin
• Chicken Liver Pate Stuffed with Pork
• Apple Bacon Jam

Pork Belly Confit

First off, I have never confit anything before.  Most recently I had it served at a Korean pop up.  With that in mind, I was all for doing some pork belly confit!  From what I have read online, confitting is one of the oldest techniques to preserve food.  Whoever invented this process is my hero!  

For the pork belly confit, I had to brine the pork belly, but it had to be done properly.  I could not let it sit in the brine too long because then it would get to salty.  I suppose all the fat in the pork belly is just like a sponge.  I did this the night before and rinsed it the following morning before work and just let it dry out in a way in the fridge throughout the day.  The key to a confit is low and slow.  When I got home from work, I began the long 6 hour process.  I had to use lard because I did not have any pork fat lying around.  I melted the lard and let the pork belly submerged in it and tossed it in the oven.  

After 6 hours of it, I let it cool and placed something heavy on the pork belly to compress the fat for two reasons: to press out the fat and to make a better presentation.  

The day of plating, I had let the pork belly confit get to room temperature because the pork belly is stored with the lard to keep it "preserved".  To serve it, I scored the fat and rendered it in a hot pan until the fat crisped and finished it in the oven.  

Cured Pork Tenderloin

For the second component of the plate, I cured a pork tenderloin.  I have been on a curing kick ever since I learned how to make my own bacon.  If I could, I would have cured meat hanging all over my apartment.  I did a quick cure and only did it for four days and slowly roasted it in the oven on the fourth day.

Apple Bacon Jam

The third component of pork is an apple bacon jam that I prepared the prior night before plating.  This came abouts because I had a couple apples lying around that needed to be used.  Compared to the pork belly confit and cured pork tenderloin, this was a quick process of only a couple hours.  

Chicken Liver Pate stuffed with Pork

The last pork component of this is the chicken liver pate that I had added some ground pork to in the middle.  This was the first time I have prepared a pate and cooking chicken liver in general.  I have always loved pate, but I do not see it readily available around the markets near me.  This did not take long to prepare.  I had to let it set overnight.