Category News & Events

Parties That Cook Heats Up the Kitchen with Chef Michael Chiarello

0 comments By The Kitchen Whisperer Filed in Entertaining, News & Events Tagged with celebrity chef, Chef Michael Chiarello, cooking competition, corporate team building activity, corporate team building event, guest judge, kitchen challenge, Parties That Cook Event September 24th, 2011 @ 3:44 pm

Earlier this month, guests attended what they thought was our normal Kitchen Challenge event. Little did they know that they would be joined and later judged by none other than Chef Michael Chiarello! You may remember that we featured his book, Bottega, in a past cookbook club, but if not, get the scoop here!

Chef Chiarello skipped a big introduction and surprised the guests by simply sneaking in and wandering around the kitchen while the teams were cooking. Try holding your composure when you have such an accomplished chef-lebrity walking around!

After the cooking, teams elected a spokesperson to present their dishes to Chef Chiarello one at a time. The spokesperson from each team explained why their team should win while our guest judge took his time tasting each dish. Chef Chiarello then thoroughly described what he liked about each dish and what the teams could do differently next time. (One of the keys to great cooking is making sure certain flavors do not overpower others!)

From the Moroccan Bisteeya to the Mexican Chocolate Chipotle Cookies with Smokey Salted Caramel Centers, it was a great menu. Everyone gave a valiant effort, but ultimately, the winner was the Mini Arepas with Oaxaca Cheese and Jalapeno Marmalade team — by a margin of 1 point! At the end of the event Chef Chiarello stuck around and was nice enough to sign cookbooks and take photos with guests (and Rosie). I’m sure everyone at PTC wished they could have been a part of this event!

Which celebrity chef would YOU like to see at a Parties That Cook event? Would your team be able to keep their cool under the pressure from this guest judge? Let us know!

Parties That Cook’s Eat Real Inspired Recipe: Gingery Pork and Shiitake Mushroom Lettuce Cups

0 comments By The Kitchen Whisperer Filed in Menus & Recipes, News & Events September 22nd, 2011 @ 3:31 pm

This weekend (September 23-25, 2011) is Oakland’s Eat Real Festival, and surprisingly, it’s not all about the food trucks. Don’t get me wrong, I plan on eating as much of the Tamales, Samosas, Sliders, Grilled Cheese, Mac & Cheese, Pizza, Spam Musubi, Ribs and other tasty bites as I can… But it’s nice to know that there are plenty of free activities to participate in while I’m waiting for my next craving.

This week’s featured recipe for Gingery Pork and Shiitake Mushroom Lettuce Cups with Hoisin Sauce involves a good amount of veggie prep, but the good news is that chopping is probably the toughest part of this recipe! Plus, once you’ve checked out Sean Baker’s Veggie Butchery demo on Saturday, you’ll be chopping and dicing those vegetables like a samurai.

Lettuce Cups Filled With Gingery Pork, Shiitake Mushrooms and Hoisin Sauce
This recipe can also be found in our Appetizer Recipe Library!

Ingredients
Pork Mixture:
3/4 pound ground pork
6 shiitake mushrooms, finely diced
1 red bell pepper, finely diced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 1/2 Tablespoons ginger, peeled and minced
1 Tablespoon Thai sweet chili sauce
1 Tablespoon Asian fish sauce
1 8-ounce can whole water chestnuts, drained and diced
2 scallions, thinly sliced
2 Tablespoons cilantro, chopped
1 Tablespoon canola oil 2 teaspoons Asian sesame oil
2 Tablespoons oyster sauce

24 Boston lettuce leaves, washed and trimmed into 3 inch rounds
Hoisin sauce
1/4 cup peanuts, toasted and chopped

Methods/Steps
Prepare Pork Mixture: Place the ground pork into a medium bowl. Finely dice the shiitake mushrooms and red bell peppers. Mince the garlic and ginger and add all of the chopped ingredients into the pork. Add the chili sauce and fish sauce and mix well.

Chop Aromatics: Dice the water chestnuts and set aside. Thinly slice the scallions and chop the cilantro, set aside until ready to use.

Cook Pork Mixture: In a large skillet or wok, heat the canola oil. Add the pork mixture and stir-fry over high heat, breaking it up, until it is cooked through and starting to brown, about 8 minutes. Pour mixture into a strainer to remove excess oil from the pan. Return the pork to pan over low heat and stir in the water chestnuts, scallions, cilantro, sesame oil, oyster sauce and cilantro. Toss mixture and remove from heat.

Serve: Trim lettuce leaves into 3-inch rounds. Brush very lightly with hoisin. Spoon 1 Tablespoon of pork into the middle of each leaf. Garnish with peanuts and arrange on a serving platter.

Serves/Makes
Makes 24 cups

Recipe created by Parties That Cook® www.PartiesThatCook.com

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