—  What’s cookin?  —

“This is why I do what I do...to inspire folks to not just cook, but cook with imagination and a spirit of adventure! A recipe is but a guideline....make it your own!” Eric Eisenbud

Join Eric and Lynn Wednesday nights for episodes of The Grateful Chef with Eric Eisenbud. Join the Facebook group and chat live with guests and host of online friends of all varied culinary background as Eric prepares a new menu each week with tips and valuable information from ingredients and technique to essential equipment. If you want to get caught up on past episodes those can be found in the video section of the The Grateful Chef with Eric Eisenbud facebook group video section.

There’s so much here, we can’t wait to share with those enthusiastic about discovering what’s next.

ArgentiniaN sunday assado

August 1, 2020

A few of my friends from Les Marmitons Gastronomic and Social Club got together for my first “Sunday Assado” … making and eating amazing food is what we love to do.

This BBQ was a bit unusual with our pandemic social distancing and taking care to ensure plenty of breathing room. It was great to get together with friends and I’m hoping next time we’ll be able to gather with more folks comfortably.

Every year our club gets together for our summer BBQ, inspiration came to me courtesy of our friend Chef Danko, whom we met in Barcelona and is now @ The Strawberry Tree Restaurant, Wicklow. Ireland, which is the only 0km restaurant in Ireland (we can’t wait to check this place out). Before leaving Barcelona, Chef Danko gifted us the recipe book “Seven Fires Grilling the Argentine Way”, written by his mentor Chef Francis Mallmann. Francis Mallmann has nine restaurants around and the world; he put Argentina on the gastronomy map with restaurant 1884 which has been on many Top 50 Restaurants in the World lists.

That was a lot of info to get to how I was reading through the recipe book, only to come upon the Sunday Assado menu and cooking instructions. This recipe took me through step by step of setting up the fire, how to cook each meat, recommended sides… at that moment I envisioned our BBQ day of amazing cooking and delicious meats. A fun note in the book made reference to whole cow cooking and the ingredient was “one medium sized cow”, a big fire and 8 strong friends to lift the cow, we didn’t do that!

This was a day of open fire cooking or maybe I should say open ember cooking… it’s a whole different process than cooking over charcoal; I lit the wood fire about 1.5 hours before the first meat went on the spit. We blew through 1/8th of a cord of wood and my Rec Tec Wyldside rose to the challenge!

Our menu

• 10 pound Prime Ribeye and 3 Chickens on the rotisserie spit

• 3 pounds of Argentinian Chorizo on my homemade skewer

• 2 pounds of Blood sausage-grilled

• 3 pounds sliced short ribs- grilled

• 6 pounds Prime Tri Tips- grilled

• 3 pounds Skirt Steak- grilled

• 2 pounds Sweetbreads- grilled

• Whole pineapples hung by wires for 3 hours on the Rec Tec

• Peaches and fresh figs-grilled on Cast iron grill pans

• Provolone and fresh herbs melted in a cast iron skillet at the fire pit

• Whole Onions, Bell peppers, Sweet Potatoes, and Russet potatoes cooked in the embers and ashes in my cast Iron cauldron fire pit

• Amazing side dishes brought by the guests

A great time was had by all!

Amazing Hot Dog... Revisited

February 3, 2019

Many of you know I once had a couple of hot dog joints called Amazing Hot Dog… tonight I brought it back to life, if only but for a few hours. If you want to reminisce a little check the NY Time Article on Amazing Hot Dog restaurant.

SPRING BBQ

March 2019

What an AMAZING Sunday afternoon with our dearest (family) friends Chris Sikorski and Kira Nichole! My Weber Kettle grill did an excellent job on the Ribs and 4 flavors of chicken wings : all brined...Some naked, some boiled in the brine then grilled, some BBQ and some Korean Gogujang, and the Broiler on my Capital Range yielded amazingly crispy skin on the pork belly! I also made a Toscano Kale Caesar salad.

Salmon teriyaki

March 4, 2019

I made lunch for Lynn and I on this sun shiny Snow day...Salmon Belly and Vegetable Teriyaki over Black Forbidden Rice. #lynnspersonalchef #alwayscooking #thegratefulchef #eatingwithcheferic

LAMB WELLINGTON

February 23, 2019

Sometimes when I’m asked to bring a dish to a pot luck, I’ll pull something out of my arsenal of recipes that I’ve made before and that I know will work. Other times the gathering is much more important and what I bring to the table has to be something spectacular in a reputation upholding kinda way. And so it is for the upcoming Les Marmitons NJ Executive dinner in a few weeks. I gathered my ideas and I did my research. I came up with a Lamb Wellington with Mint Purée and fresh Peas braised in Vermouth. Today I tested my dish. Testing is different(for me) than simply cooking. I approach each element of the dish with laser focus and constantly ask myself “ what do I want this element to add to the dish, how do I respectfully treat the ingredient(s), and make it taste the very best it can. It’s a long process of trial,and error and learning. While the dish was more than acceptable, it wasn’t perfect. I know what changes I need/want to make and this is why recipe testing is important...to learn what works or doesn’t work.

—  happy & in my kitchen  —