The Best Red Potatoes Ever

I got this recipe from watching America's Test Kitchen and they really are the best red potatoes ever!

Ingredients:
1 pound red potatoes 1" to 1-1/4" size
1 tablespoon butter
2 garlic cloves
1 bay leaf


Preparation:

Wash the potatoes and slice in half. Place the potatoes flat side down in a 12" sauté pan. The potatoes will remain flat side down for the entire cooking process. By doing this you will end up with a crispy golden brown potato on one side and creamy in the middle. Next add the butter, garlic, bay leaf and water to just cover the top of the potatoes.

 

Cover the potatoes and cook at just below a boil for 15 minutes. Remove the lid and raise the temp to a slow boil and cook until all the water evaporates. Once the water has evaporated, remove the bay leaf and garlic cloves. Add a touch of olive oil, cook until the bottom side of the potato is golden brown.  Take the garlic cloves and rough dice them and toss on to the potatoes. To serve, place the potatoes on a plate or shallow bowl, top with light sour cream, green onion and chopped Italian parsley.

Chicken Burger with Goat Cheese and Green Onion

This is a burger I made using a ground chicken patty as opposed to a grilled chicken breast. I've been using ground chicken for a few different recipes because it's just better than ground turkey. Ground chicken is actually hard to find in the grocery store because stores don't have much on hand or they don't have any at all.

 

I like goat cheese and I thought this combination would go together well, and it does! I'm throwing this out as a signature dish because I can't find any reference to this recipe on Google.

 

Ingredients:
1 pound ground chicken
Goat cheese
green onions
Green leaf lettuce
Potato bun
Mayonnaise
Stone ground mustard

Preparation:

Ground chicken is really soft and kind of difficult to make into a patty. I use a patty maker and the key is to put some water on each side of the patty maker so the chicken patty will release once you form into the patty.

Heat a 12" sauté pan to medium high. Use a little spray canola so the chicken patty doesn't stick to the pan. Cook the chicken patty for about 4 minutes per side, longer if your make thicker patties. When the chicken patty is done, your ready to assemble the burger.

 

Take you fresh potato bun and start by adding some mayo to the bottom piece of bun. Next add the green leaf lettuce and the chicken patty. Goat cheese can be very soft, so what I do is put it into the freezer for 10 minutes and that hardens it up so you can make nice slice of goat cheese.

 

Add a few slices of goat cheese and top with diced green onions. Take the top bun and spread on some stone ground course mustard. Cut the chicken burger in half and serve with a simple salad.

Seared Scallops with Parmesan and Green Pea Risotto

This post closes out the first year on my blog, "what's cooking at the Bullmann's." I wanted to make something really special, but that doesn't necessarily mean really difficult. 

I chose to make Seared scallops with parmesan and green pea risotto. Scallops are so good when cooked properly, but if not they can be tough, chewy and a bad experience.

The key to a properly cooked scallop is to have your sauté pan at the correct temperature. If the heat is too high, they'll burn before they cook. If the heat is not high enough, they'll cook but won't have that beautiful golden brown color you want for the perfect presentation.

Ingredients: Scallops
4 scallops per person, size U10, 10 per pound
1 tablespoon olive oil
salt and pepper

Ingredients: Risotto for 2 servings
1 cup Arborio rice
4 cups vegetable stock
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 yellow onion
2 garlic cloves crushed
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 cup green peas

Preparation: Risotto

Take a 3 quart sauce pan, heat to medium and add 1 tablespoon olive oil. Dice the onion to no larger than 1/8 x 1/8 pieces. Crush the garlic and add the onion and garlic to the sauce pan. Cook until translucent, about 5 minutes.

 

Add the Arborio rice to the sauce pan and let the rice soak up some of the onion and garlic flavor. Don't do this too long or you may burn the rice, onion or garlic then you've got a burnt flavor you won't be able to get rid of.

 

Add one cup of stock at a time until the rice stop absorbing the liquid. You may need to add more or less than 4 cups of stock so adjust as necessary. The risotto should be done after about 15 minutes. Add the green peas and parmesan cheese and taste to see if you need salt and pepper.

 

Preparation: Scallops

Take a 10" sauté pan and heat to medium high. Add 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Salt and pepper the scallops and add to the pan. After one minute check to see what's going on with the scallops. You want them to sautéing to a golden yellowish brown. If the heat is too high, they may start to burn, turn the heat down a little. If there is no color to the scallop then turn the heat up a little. You want to cook about 3 minutes per side for a perfectly seared scallop.

 

To serve, place some risotto on a plate and top with some grated parmesan cheese and chopped Italian parsley. Place 4 scallops on top of the risotto and sprinkle a little chives on the scallops and then drizzle with a little olive oil. Bon apatite.

Shrimp, Cucumber, Carrot and Green Onion Salad with Miso Ginger Dressing

I remember one of my favorite Asian salads was at Godzilla Sushi in San Francisco. It contained these same ingredients which work really well together, but theirs was way better. I'm sure the reason is because they used a mayonnaise based salad dressing, which is fine, though just high in calories. The key to this salad is finding the right dressing. Here I'm using Bolthouse Miso Ginger and because it's low in calories and fat, but still awesome flavor. Once again, Bolthouse crushed it with this Miso Ginger salad dressing.

 

Ingredients:

Green leaf lettuce

8 medium shrimp, cooked and sliced in half

1/4 medium cucumber

4 green onions

Shaving of 1 carrot

sesame seed

Bolthouse Miso Ginger dressing

 

Wash and dry the lettuce. Cut the lettuce into bite size pieces and add to large salad bowl. Add the shrimp, thinly sliced cucumber, diced green onion and carrot shavings. Add 4 - 6 tablespoons of dressing to the salad and toss. Place a serving on a salad plate and make sure each salad has 8 shrimp half's. Lastly, top the salad with sesame seeds. 

Chicken Fajitas

 I haven't made fajitas in years and they're so good and easy to make. I remember when I was a kid, one of my friends dad always made fajitas out at the Stinson beach. We'd be out trying to surf or boogie board and then come in from the water freezing cold and have hot fajitas, everyone loved them. The key to this dish is keep it simple; grilled chicken breast, bell pepper, spring onion, red onion, sour cream, a dash of hot sauce and lime.

Ingredients:
1 Chicken breast
2 garlic cloves crushed
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 red bell pepper
1/2 yellow bell pepper
6 spring onions
1/2 red onion




Preparation:

Take your chicken breast and cut it in half so that it's twice as thin and place in a zip lock plastic bag. Crush the garlic and add to the chicken with a tablespoon of olive oil and marinate for 30 minutes. Grill the chicken on an indoor grill pan or your BBQ. When finished grilling, cover the chicken and set a side.

Cut the bell peppers and red onion into strips. Cut the spring onion into bite size pieces because the spring onions can be tough to bite through.

Heat a 12" sauté pan to medium and add 1 tablespoon of olive oil. When hot add the peppers and onions and sauté until translucent, you still want a little crunch to the vegetables. While the vegetables are finishing up, cut the  chicken into thin strips and add the vegetables, toss and your done.

 

My favorite tortilla's are made by La Tortilla Factory. The are a hand made style corn and flour tortilla with no hydrogenated fat. They have a couple of different tortillas to choose from, yellow corn, white corn and white corn with green chili.

Heat the tortillas up in a sauté pan and add some of the fajita mixture, top with sour cream, hot sauce and a squeeze of lime.

Chicken Shish Kabob

This is one of my favorite ways to cook shish kabob, chicken marinated in crushed garlic and olive oil, then skewered with a slice of red onion in between the chicken pieces. The combination of the grilled chicken and caramelized red onion is awesome.

Ingredients:
2 chicken breasts
4 clove garlic, crushed
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 red onion

Preparation:

Wash and dry the chicken breast and then cut into pieces about 1 1/2" x 1 1/2." Place the chicken breast pieces into a large zip lock bag, add the garlic and 1 tablespoon of olive. Marinate the chicken for 1/2 hour minimum.

 

Take the red onion and slice in quarters so you can get some large pieces. To make the shish kabob, start with a piece of red onion and then a piece of chicken. Repeat the process with 4 or 5 more pieces of chicken and finish with a piece of onion.

 

I like to use an indoor grill pan for this dish because it does a better job of evenly cooking the chicken. Start with a hot grill pan and add the chicken skewers. You 'll want to turn the chicken 1/4 turn every 4 minutes for a total cooking time of 12 minutes. After 12 minutes check to make sure the chicken is done. Serve the shish kabob with rice, pasta or salad for a wonderful meal.