The opening of the Young chef Olympiad was so much fun. There were some speeches and some flags and some dancing... lots of dancing. The girls were all dressed in the most colorful costumes and the music was vibrant and exotic. I mean you don't see this stuff on Dance Mom's.
I gave a speech too- I had one carefully memorized but in true Logan style I went rogue and made it all up!
The Young Chefs are the best of the best of the best of the best of the best of the best....
Even though it was unexpected and almost all of the planners had a come apart it still worked out great.
Now enough celebration it was time for the competition to commence.
I know people think I can't or shouldn't judge but I am super serious about it. I have a fresh perspective and I know how I would cook something and defiantly how it should taste. I look for confidence, body language, nerves, and more, not going to give out all my secrets.
I lot of people think that since i am still a kid they can sway me with friendship or bribes but ultimately what matters the most is whats on the plate, if you want to be the best of the best you have to impress the best of us watching. I was honored!
Then we hopped on a Spice Jet plane named Parsley and took off for Bangalore, the Garden City.
The IIHM group there really out did themselves to welcome us! Flowers Drummers, sunshine and Koti rolls. I loved it! My friends there even found me a most adorable suvi a Tuk Tuk toy! How nice is that?!
Sadly, I was there just one night and back to Spice jet to head to Kolkata.
Love the cabbage,
logan
IKEA
The long wait is finally over, Memphis has an IKEA! No more going to Atlanta for all those cute and well planed kitchens.
Ikea is huge. Well, it's bigger than huge, it's massive and filled with everything you need to live(excluding a cat tree) including a Swedish market and mini restaurant. All this inside a furniture store, crazy. I think I could survive the apocalypse in there.
It is really hard not to give the Swedish food a try, there are two restaurants one in the front and one hidden inside. I ate in the hidden one. I had the legendary meatballs, a cup of chicken soup and shared a salad plus the special juices. Mom got the marzipan dessert. The meatballs were tasty and just really classic. The sides were mashed potatoes, lingon berry jelly, roasted vegetables and gravy overall it was a nicely composed simple, classic dish with nothing to dislike. In retrospect I should have gotten the extra side of meat balls. I could have eaten another scoop and managed to eat some of Mom's. I was surprised how juicy the meatballs were cause they looked rather dry.
The soup was ok and the salad was fresh. It was just a salad. Mom had marzipan dessert and said it was good.
I really really want Ikea to redesigned my kitchen and help tame the chaos with all that organization and innovation. I mean it they have the coolest kitchen stuff. I loved the non electric mixer, and those pull out drawers. Some teens have slept overnight inside of Ikea all though that is not approved it still sounds like fun. When you live in 100 year old house the kitchen is a dinosaur compared to the IKEA design.
Shoot me an email with your favorite IKEA item so I can go pick one up too!
Love the Cabbage Leaf
Logan
Everyone really knows I love to cook and I just kind of create and plan out my ideas and menus in my head. I keep a recipe book, so that I don't forget. I also have a food journal and even a sketch book.
So when I started hearing about companies that send fresh food to your door, I was curious. What would this be like to get a box of food? Easy? Boring? Dull? Expensive?
I ordered a 3 meal, 2 person plan from Blue Apron and to say I skeptical would be an understatement!
The website was easy to use, the recipes and food looked creative.
My first impressions were very positive.
When my box arrived it was on time and perfectly packaged! The food was in great shape and it all looked really fresh.
Now I am a very adventurous kid chef so to have three new ingredients was very surprising. I had heard of these ingredients, just never cooked them, so that got me even more excited.
First, I prepared the Lamb Burgers with the harrissa spread, and wow were they good. The directions were simple and straight forward, the pictures made it easy to follow.
I don't cook from recipes but I tried my best to stay straight with these.
Had I been hacking them ,I would have added some mayo or yogurt to the harrissa and used the extra arugula in a side salad with the harrisa as a dressing.
The carrot side was so simple and good we have made them since. The carrots were seasoned with caraway seeds and cumin. The meal did require some prep work but it was definitely worth it! I really loved my lunch.
It was a thumbs up! And I was starting to get impressed
Next up the Tamarind glazed cod.
The dish has included the glazed cod some zesty rice and a jicama cucumber topping.
I could not resist pan searing one piece of fish, I just needed that extra bit of control, all in all this was a great tasty dish! The tamarind was the new item for me and I really liked it. I plan to buy a bottle for the pantry.
The simple addition of lime zest to the rice just was genius and added a bunch of brightness to the plate.
I had lots of extra jicama and cucumber so I made a salad and that was a bonus.
Another thumbs up!
Last was the baked chicken with potato latkas and celery root.
The celery root was new to me and it was fabulous definitely a buy again! What a pop of fresh flavors! Now, my mom makes the best potato pancakes, so these were just ok for me. But if your mom does not make the best potato pancakes then these would be good.
I liked the apple mustard chutney and have made it several times since.
While one piece of chicken is technically enough for a serving I could have had another.
The roasted cabbage was very unusual and it was also unusual plating.
All in all the roasted veggies, pancakes and chicken made a great meal.
So you ask would I get it again?
Heck yeah! Hot lunch or dinner, fun to cook, easy but just a touch chefie, perfect packaging and ease for a busy schedule! Also this gets you cooking and gets the creative juices flowing!
If you are going to be a loyal Blue Apron customer then I would invest in two or three refrigerator bins to keep all the food together.
I hope to get another box ASAP!
And as an added surprise here is a special link from Blue Apron just for you!
Get 2 Meals Free On Your First Order!
Happy cooking
Love the Cabbage Leaf,
Logan
One of the cool things about when a new grocery store opens up it brings so many possibilities to a community.
The new Whole Foods in Germantown brings those possibilities to life.
I have never seen how a grocery store comes from the ground up and seeing some shelves stocked and the shelf right next to it empty is really neat.
I got to meet the team who helps with the opening and they gave me a wonderful tour of the new Whole Foods.
The center piece when you walk in is this fabulous dry ageing show case that easily gives you a 360 view of the dry aging process.
The Whole Foods has like every grocery store, a meat and seafood section, a dairy section, a produce section.
They also have a crepe making section, where they do a verity of sweet and savory crepes.
They also have (my personal favorite of the whole tour)
A Ramen Bar!!!
Now you may know that I love ramen and that there are only 3 or 4 places to get ramen in Memphis and so finding a place that servers it is a big treat!
They also sever some really rock'n and cool sushi burritos,
Now you may be thinking a sushi burrito? Whats a sushi burrito? I definitely was very intrigued. The burritos are kinda hard to explain, but its like a hand roll that you would find in Japan.
The sushi burritos are filled with either fish or chicken or tofu wrapped in rice and then wrapped in seaweed, they come out to be, well, the size of a burrito.
The sushi burritos were very tasty.
They had several flavors of ramen, including Kimchi, Tonkatsu, spicy Tonkatsu, and many more.
The ramen was very tasty the egg on the ramen can be hard to get the perfect texture with the jelly yoke, the broth was flavorful and delicious super tasty.
The next section is the charcuterie the meats and cheeses were very good they had some smoked goat cheese and other wonderful cheeses and also a very interesting vegan charcuterie.
The Whole Foods also has a custom made espresso machine
So go to the Whole Foods and bring your appetite and then think about something creative for dinner.
Love the cabbage Leaf,
Logan
After making the best darned smoked chicken, it was time for the pork.
Boneless pork cutlets are notoriously dry and hard to cook perfect. The Sous Vide does the best best job (http://www.polyscienceculinary.com/).
My first boneless chop I wrapped in bacon and tucked onions under the bacon. This was vacuum sealed and put in the bath at 144.F. After 1 hour to 1 hour 30 min, the pork was cooked. I removed it from the bag and pan seared it for a perfect pork chop. The meat was so tender and the bacon browned up. It tasted really good. This was my WORST recipe, but it was pretty darn good.
I took another boneless chop and rubbed it with my own Memphis BBQ Rub and smoked it with my Smoking Gun, and then sealed into the Sous Vide. This gave an almost instant flavor of a slow cooked BBQ - so popular here in Memphis. I pan seared the meat just to give it some brown color. My Dad loved it and he really hates this kind of meat as it is too dry. He enjoyed the pork with a simple slaw and some pickle beets. If you follow my Blog, you know my Dad is no foodie and he hates dry meat. If you do too, then the Sous Vide should be in your line up.
My last creation with the pork was to take the chop add 1/2 cup of apple butter, salt pepper, and an extra 1/2 Teaspoon of sugar to the bag, I vacuumed sealed it and cooked it in the same round in my Sous Vide.
This was the best. I removed it and pan seared it for a bit of color, and served with an easy potato pancake and some red cabbage. It is so good! The apple flavor goes through the meat and it is just sweet enough to be good. This chop was all mine, no sharing.
I can tell you that it is an amazing tool for things you that usually cook dry. The perfect temperature is so great and watching it in the bath is fun too.
I am glad I have one. And I hope to share more of my Sous vide successes with you in the the future.
Love the Cabbage Leaf,
Logan
PS Cous Cous cooks like a dream in the Sous Vide.
I Love Love Love it!
After about 400 emails well really 500- the shoot was set and my Mom had planned out all the aspects of the segments to shoot here in Memphis. It might seem easy but with everything there are phone calls and asking and email and more emails...
I shared my City with them and sent them to Graceland with Mom, gave them the best BBQ in Memphis at Central and we filmed.
I always get nervous for about 10 minutes after I film and worry about the EDIT. I had nothing to worry about, when you work with pros it makes every aspect of a video go from good to the best.
