Robin’s Birthday Lunch

18 Wednesday Sep 2019

Posted by Bob and Robin in 5-Stars, Bacquet's Restaurant, Basmati rice, Birthdays, Brunch, Brunch with Robin, Capers, Carrots, Chef Bacquet, Classic Herb Blends, Copper River Salmon, Dinner at Bacquet's Restaurant, Dinner For Robin, Dinner with Marnie, Ethnic Foods, Food - French, Food Photos, French - Bacquet's Restaurant, French Foods, French Wines, Green Salad, Greens, Housemade Pasta, Housemade Salad Dressing, Housemade Sauces, Housemade Soup, Pasta, Photos, Photos By: Bob Young, Salads, Salmon, Seafood, Special Dinners, Special Events, What's For Dinner?, Whats For Lunch?, Wines - French

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Bacquet's Restaurant

Bacquet’s Restaurant, Address: 1117 E Winding Creek Dr #150, Eagle, ID 83616, Hours: 11:30am – 10PM. Phone: (208) 577-6238. Easily a 5-Star French (the best in the area and the only one) restaurant and well worth the trip. Suggest you call for reservations, though. Here is some of what we had. Enjoy. We did.

House Salad
organic greens, tomatoes, shallots, parmesan cheese house balsamic dressing

Delicious!

French Onion Soup

Traditional Flatbread
bacon, shallots, Swiss cheese, cream on a cracker-like crust

Salmon with Pasta and Capers

Salmon Champenoise
fresh salmon filet baked in white wine, cream, pesto and crusted with Parmesan cheese and served over vegetable basmati rice

Birthday Lemon Cheesecake

Chocolate Mousse

An awesome, 5-Star late lunch. Thanks Chef for a great Birthday meal. Thanks Marnie for treating us.

Two Good Meals We Made – Idaho Trout and Eggs Benedict

10 Friday Nov 2017

Posted by Bob and Robin in Asparagus, Atlantic Salmon, Bearnaise Sauce, Breakfast, Breakfast At The Captains Shack, Breakfast With Robin, Brunch, Brunch with Robin, Buy Idaho, Chicken, Classic Sauces, Cod, Comfort Food, Cooking Styles, Copper River Salmon, Crab, Eggs, Eggs Benedict, en Papillote, Food Photos, Halibut, Ham, heirloom vegetables, Herbs, Hollandaise Sauce, Homemade Sauce, Housemade Béarnaise, Housemade Hollandaise Sauce, Huffington Post, Idaho Beef, Idaho Chicken, Idaho Eggs, Idaho Greens, Idaho Pork, Idaho Trout, Idaho Vegetables, Local Markets, Made From Scratch, Mushrooms, Photos By: Bob Young, Recipes, Recipes - Breakfast, Recipes - Dinner, Recipes - Sauces, Red Snapper, Salmon, What's For Dinner?

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Ah yes. These were fun meals. Idaho Trout Papillote with Candy Heirloom Carrots and Mashed Potatoes. Served with a delicious 2006 Alves de Sousa Douro Estação (Portugal). From Wikipedia, an En papillote is –

En papillote (French pronunciation: [ɑ̃ papijɔt]; French for “in parchment”), or al cartoccio in Italian, is a method of cooking in which the food is put into a folded pouch or parcel and then baked. The parcel is typically made from folded parchment paper, but other material, such as a paper bag or aluminium foil, may be used. The parcel holds in moisture to steam the food. The pocket is created by overlapping circles of aluminum foil and parchment paper and then folding them tightly around the food to create a seal. A papillote should be opened at the table to allow people to smell the aroma when it opens.
The moisture may be from the food itself or from an added moisture source, such as water, wine, or stock. This method is most often used to cook fish or vegetables, but lamb and poultry can also be cooked en papillote. Choice of herbs, seasonings and spices depend on the particular recipe being prepared. The pouch should be sealed with careful folding.

We used Apple Brandy for moisture.

Idaho Trout en Papillote with Mashed Potatoes and Candy Carrots.

To serve the papillote, Melissa d’Arabian says,

To serve, cut open the packets and serve directly in the parchment on a plate or remove the fish to the plate using a spatula, being sure you don’t leave the juices behind.

A good recipe can be found here – by Melissa d’Arabian. If you want to add vegetables, you can use almost anything. zucchini, Bok choy, sliced carrots, sweet onion, green beans and mushrooms to name a few. You can also use chicken, beef, pork, salmon, red snapper or sea bass to name a few. Here are some recipes: Sesame Ginger Salmon, by Kelsey Nixon; Salmon and Vegetables, by Jessica Gavin; Chicken en Papillote; Chicken and Summer Vegetables; Pork en Papillote; Pork Papillote with Apples and Onions.
So there are a few recipes. Use your imagination. You can google “Type of en Papillote” and find many, many more. Be creative. Have fun. Serve with a good wine.

And for breakfast, Try a

Klondike Waffles Benedict with Turkey and Fresh Fruit.

and to start here are several different kinds of Eggs Benedict – 17 Twists on Eggs Benedict Recipes, Huffington Post; Here is an awesome twist 13 Eggs Benedict Recipes, Chowhound and Top Eggs Benedict Recipes, Fine Cooking.

To go with the benedict, you need Hollandaise Sauce or Béarnaise Sauce. Here is an easy Hollandaise Sauce from Allrecipes – Microwave Hollandaise Sauce. And here is an easy Foolproof Béarnaise Sauce Recipe.

OK. There you go. Head for the kitchen and have fun. And remember, a Béarnaise Sauce or a Hollandaise Sauce is great on asparagus. Just sayin’.

Meal Variations and Other Things

01 Tuesday Mar 2016

Posted by Bob and Robin in Apricots, Baking, Biscuits and Gravy, Breakfast, Breakfast At The Captains Shack, Breakfast With Robin, Captain's Shack, Chicken, Chutney, Comfort Food, Cooking Styles, Copper River Salmon, Crème fraîche, Cultural Differences, Curry, Dinner At The Captains Shack, Dinner For Robin, Eggs, Eggs Benedict, Eggs Poached, Ethnic Foods, Food of India, Ham, Hard To Find Recipes, Housemade Hollandaise Sauce, Housemade Sauces, Housemade Soup, Idaho Eggs, Idaho Pork, Idaho's Bounty, Indian Food, Mirepoix, Photos By: Bob Young, Recipe by: Robin and Bob Young, Recipes - Sauces, Salmon, Sausage, Seafood, Sofritto, Soup, Special Information, What's For Dinner?

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biscuits, country gravy, Hollandaise Sauce, recipes

Such a great weekend again working in the kitchen. Warm enough outside to keep the kitchen door open. We can still find fresh, as such, asparagus but watch the prices. I saw prices vary here in Boise from $2.99 a pound for medium sized spears – which I bought – to $8.99 a pound for the skinny little spears, which I did not buy. It’s either $8.99 a pound for skinny little asparagus spears or my meds for this month. I chose my meds. (This is week #6 past open heart surgery for me. Go Team!) So with that introduction, here are some photos, and recipes, for our culinary endeavors for this past weekend. Enjoy!

Cream of Asparagus Soup

Such a good and rather easy soup to make. Here is the Recipe. Enjoy! It is really a good soup.

Homemade, absolutely superb biscuits! And bake them in a waffle iron for different effects. Just don’t cut them much thicker than about 1/2″. They will rise!

Waffle Biscuits

Here is the recipe for these Angel Biscuits. The original recipe came from Trisha Yearwood.

Salmon Benedict on Waffle Biscuits and Country Sausage Patty

Salmon and Ham Benedict on Waffle Biscuit and Country Sausage Patty

Cut those biscuits out. These are thicker – about 3/4″ – than the waffle biscuits.

Sausage Gravy and Biscuits
Scrambled Eggs with Hollandaise Sauce

Oh yes! The easiest Hollandaise ever. 5 minutes to make and no double boiler. Here is the Recipe – It is also in the recipe file above. And do you need a basic white gravy recipe? Here is my variation – White Gravy. Just add crumbled sausage for Sausage Gravy or sauteed dried beef for Creamed Dried Beef. Or try it over steamed asparagus. There’s a hundred thousand uses for this gravy. Be inventive. And daring.

I don’t have any photos for these recipes, but the plates were delicious. We made a chicken and then prepared a Chicken Curry Salad with some of the left-overs. (The rest are used in chicken stock!) But for the dressing we used this recipe, and it is superb! Chicken Curry Salad Dressing The curry dressing calls for a chutney. We don’t have any in the house. Don’t fret! Here is our own recipe for the Apricot and Cranberry Chutney.

Chutneys, by nature are, “Chutney (Hindi/ Nepali – “चटनी” also transliterated chatney or chatni, Sindhi: چٽڻي‎) is a side dish in the cuisines of the Indian subcontinent that can vary from a tomato relish to a ground peanut garnish or a yoghurt, cucumber and mint dip…Major Grey’s Chutney is a type of sweet and spicy chutney popular in the United Kingdom and the United States. The recipe was reportedly created by a 19th-century British Army officer of the same name (likely apocryphal) who presumably lived in Colonial India. Its characteristic ingredients are mango, raisins, vinegar, lime juice, onion, tamarind extract, sweetening and spices. Several companies produce a Major Grey’s Chutney, in India, the UK and the US…The word “chutney” is derived from the Hindi word chatṭnī, meaning to lick. It is written differently in North and South Indian languages (Nepali: चटनी, Gujarati: ચટણી, Bengali: চাটনি, Marathi: चटणी, Punjabi: ਚਟਣੀ, Tamil: சட்டினி chaṭṭiṉi, காரத் துவையல் karathuvaiyal, Kannada: ಚಟ್ನಿ, Hindi: चटनी, Urdu: چٹنی‎, Sindhi: چٽڻي‎, Malayalam: ചട്ടിണി, chattin̩i, ചമ്മന്തി, Telugu: పచ్చడి). Pacchadi, as written in Telugu script, refers specifically to pickled fruits, whilst chutney refers to minced foods, usually made out of coconuts.
In India, “chutney” refers to fresh and pickled preparations indiscriminately. Several Indian languages use the word for fresh preparations only. A different word achār (Hindi: अचार) applies to pickles that often contain oil and are rarely sweet.” [Wikipedia]

Our chutney, is but one of many variations of chutney. Ours is not cooked. Think of chutney as jerk sauce or sofrito, “…Italian soffritto, the Spanish sofrito, from Portuguese-speaking nations refogado (braised onions, garlic and tomato), the German Suppengrün (leeks, carrots and celeriac), the Polish włoszczyzna (leeks, carrots, celery root and parsley root), the U.S. Cajun and Creole holy trinity (onions, celery and bell peppers), and the French duxelles (onions, shallots, and mushrooms, sauteed in butter). Or Cajun Trinity – they can all vary from kitchen to kitchen. Fun stuff!

Asian Grilled Salmon

26 Friday Jun 2015

Posted by Bob and Robin in Alaskan Salmon, Captain's Shack, Copper River Salmon, Dinner For Robin, Dinner With Robin, Food Photos, Main Dish, Photos, Photos By: Bob Young, Recipe by: Robin and Bob Young, Recipe Flop, Recipes, Recipes - Marinades, Salads, Salmon, Seafood, What's For Dinner?

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Asian marinade, copper river salmon, marinade

Well, not all attempts at “kitchen craft” are successful. This is just one case …. there are many. I just wanted to post this one so you know that we do fail, sometimes! This recipe, Asian Grilled Salmon and Marinade, inspired by Ina Garten, to us is way to salty. I used Shoyu Soy Sauce and I think she used Kikkoman Soy Sauce. I added 1 more Tablespoon of mustard than she had. Those are the only differences. Potentially really a good recipe. I will have to work on it to lower the salt.