Salt and Pepper is an absolutely amazing cook book. Everything in it is simple, unique, eleguant, and amazing. All of the recipes in the book are based around different Gourmet Salts and Gourmet Peppercorns.

The books offers up so many different ways to use these salts and peppercorns that you will be able to make use of anything that you buy. Most dishes are smaller, side dishes, or appetizer, but there is the occasional main dish.

Some examples that we have made and have been awesome is the Salt and Pepper Squid and the Salt and Spice Chicken. Both of these dishes were simply amazing and were worth the very affordable price of this book (around $23 at most places).

Be sure to check it out, and check out our online gourmet store for any of the gourmet salt and peppercorns that you might need to cook with!

Happy cooking!

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1 Tbsp mayonnaise optional

Method
1 Heat olive oil on medium/medium-high heat in a thick-bottomed sauté pan. Add chicken pieces and cook, stirring frequently until just cooked through, about 5 minutes. Sprinkle some salt on the chicken pieces while cooking. Check doneness by removing the thickest piece and cutting it in half. If it is still pink in the middle, keep cooking. Try not to overcook the chicken or it will be dry. Remove chicken pieces with a slotted spoon, set aside in a bowl.

2 Add yellow onion and cook. After a few minutes, when the onions are beginning to get translucent, add 2 heaping tablespoons of yellow curry powder. Cook a few minutes more, stirring frequently. If the curry sticks to the bottom or the mixture gets dry, add a bit more olive oil to the pan. As you stir, scrape up the stuck curry bits. Add raisins, and cook, stirring another minute. (If adding optional mayonnaise, remove curry from heat and mix in mayo.) Add raisin and onion mixture to chicken and mix well, coating the chicken pieces with the curry infused olive oil. Refrigerate until cool. At this point you can make the salad a day a head of time.

3 When you are ready to serve the salad, mix in the apple, green onions, and cilantro.

Serves 4.

We hope that you enjoy this amazing and refreshing treat! With summer here or approaching you need a nice refreshing meal or side sometimes. This salad is the perfect compliment to any grilled meal and is something that can be made ahead of time to bring to family or neighborhood bbq’s.

Be sure to check out the Athena Foods Gourmet Store for any of your gourmet ingredient needs. We have bulk spices, herbs, rice, grains, nuts, and just about anything gourmet that you will need for cooking!

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Because of their superior reputation, porcini’s often carry with them a much higher price tag than other mushrooms. Because of this, the best way to use and buy porcini’s is the buy them as Dried Porcini’s, or even better as Bulk Dried Porcini’s. By buying bulk dried porcini’s you are going to get the most bang for your buck. Dried Porcini’s can last about 1 year, and since they are dried their flavor is more concentrated and you can use less dried porcini’s than you would fresh porcini’s.

Using dried porcini’s is not hard or really anymore time consuming than using fresh. On top of that you can usually always have some on hand and you can use the liquid for rehydration in your sauces, soups, stews, or braising liquid. This is an excellent tip that people often don’t think of, or forget to do. When you rehydrate dried porcini’s you will have a remarkably flavorful liquid left behind. Don’t let this go to waste!!! Use it and you will not be disappointed with the results!Where can you use dried porcini mushrooms? Just about anywhere you would use any other mushrooms. The obvious place to start would be a mushroom risotto (recipe in the link). Risotto’s are often thought to be complicated and hard, but in reality they are very easy and enjoyable to make. Today though, we are going to offer you another recipe idea for your dried porcini mushrooms.

Since it is getting toward summer here, we are going to offer you a nice recipe we found over at Epicurious

Grilled Sausages with Chunky Tomato Porcini Sauce

1 ounce dried porcini mushrooms
1 1/2 cups hot water

3 tablespoons olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
3 large garlic cloves, chopped
1 1/2 tablespoons chopped fresh rosemary or 2 teaspoons dried
1/4 teaspoon dried crushed red pepper
2 28-ounce cans Italian plum tomatoes, drained, chopped
2 tablespoons tomato paste

3 1/2 pounds assorted uncooked sausages (such as Italian, turkey and
 chicken)

Preparation

Place dried mushrooms in small bowl. Add 1 1/2 cups hot water; let stand 30 minutes to soften. Remove dried porcini mushrooms from soaking liquid, squeezing mushrooms to release liquid into same bowl. Reserve liquid. Chop mushrooms.

Heat oil in heavy large Dutch oven over medium heat. Add onion and garlic; sauté until tender, about 8 minutes. Add rosemary and red pepper and sauté 1 minute. Add tomatoes, tomato paste and porcini mushrooms. Pour in mushroom soaking liquid, leaving any sediment in bottom of bowl. Bring sauce to boil, stirring often. Reduce heat; simmer until thick, stirring occasionally, about 1 hour. Season with salt and pepper. (Can be made 2 days ahead. Cover; chill. Before using, rewarm over medium heat, stirring occasionally.)

Prepare barbecue (medium-high heat) or preheat broiler. Grill sausages until just cooked through, turning occasionally, about 12 minutes.

Enjoy this great recipe and be sure to check out the Athena Foods gourmet store for more gourmet ingredients, cutting boards, and mixes you need to Cook Like a Goddess

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Wehani and Mango Salad

The Athena Foods Gourmet Store carries the wehani rice you would need for this salad. You could buy it in a smaller or you could buy bulk wehani rice and save yourself a little money.

Enjoy this salad all summer, and cook like a goddess

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The Agaricus Blazei mushroom is native to Brazil (hence the name Brazilian Cap), but is now grown extensively in Japan and China because of it’s medicinal properties. The Agaricus Blazei has shown (through clinical studies you can read about here) to be effective at treating hepatitis, diabetes, cancer, and dermatitis. Many scientists are not yet sure how or why this particular mushroom has so many medicinal qualities, but clincal studies are being carried out constantly in Japan studying this mushroom. One way in which you can enjoy the taste of this mushroom, while getting the health benefits, is by making a delicious (and we do mean delicious) tea with these great mushrooms.

Agaricus Blazei Tea

In a pan or jar of glass, agate, iron, stainless steel, but NEVER aluminum, boil a liter (quart) of water.

When boiling starts, add about 2 or 3 mushrooms; turn off the heat and cover.

· The tea may be stored in the refrigerator. It is ideal to drink the tea on the same day it is prepared.

The recipes later are based on rehydrated mushrooms. After you make your tea you can use the mushrooms in any of your normal recipes or try them in the following.

This tea is simple and amazingly delicious. Add a little honey or sugar if you must, but we don’t think you need it.

The Agaricus Blazei is also an extremely versatile mushroom. You can essentially use it in any recipe that calls for wild mushrooms. Below are a couple of our favorite recipes using Agaricus Blazei Mushrooms.

Vegetable Soup

· ½ liter of chicken or vegetable broth
· 2 small carrots, coarsely grated
· ½ teacup of cauliflower, chopped
· ½ teacup of green beans
· ½ red pepper, minced
· ½ teacup of rehydrated Agaricus blazei murill mushrooms
· 10 small leaves of water cress
· salt and ground black pepper
· 20 g of cheddar or parmesan cheese, grated

Directions:
Boil the broth in a medium pan. Add the vegetables, bring it to boil again, cover, lower the heat and simmer for 8 to 10 minutes, or until the vegetables are cooked, but firm. Season with salt and pepper. Serve on heated plates, and sprinkle grated cheese over it. Serve immediately

Fillet w/ Agaricus Blazei Mushrooms

Ingredients:

600 g of filet mignon
¼ cup of butter
1 large onion, minced
1 tablespoon of sugar
¼ cup of dry red wine
50 g of rehydrated Agaricus Blazei Mushrooms
salt and ground black pepper to taste

Directions
Cut the filet into 10 cm chunks, diagonally. Cut each chunk in half, lengthwise. Season with salt and pepper, and smear chunks with cooking oil. Fry the onion in the butter, in low heat, until golden brown. Add the sugar and brown it in high heat. Add the wine and mix well. Add the mushrooms, season, and, when it starts boiling, remove from heat. Heat well a frying pan, preferably an iron one. Grill two or three steaks together and server with the mushroom sauce

You can order these mushrooms from Athena Foods here in our Gourmet Store

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The argument over cutting boards is never ending. Wood is bad, plastic is bad, counter tops are bad, etc etc etc. Which is correct? How do you decide on what type of cutting board to use? Today there is no shortage of different types of cutting boards available. You have different types of material, sizes, juice rails, anti bacterial, the list goes on and on.

We have found a cutting board that we believe sets itself above the rest. It has all the properties that we look for in a cutting board. The cutting boards that we carry at Athena Foods are made out of Camphor Laurel, a soft hardwood from Australia. Being a hardwood makes it ideal as a cutting board, and it is easy on your knives since it is on the softer end of the hardwoods.

Camphor Laurel is also naturally anti bacterial. This is an amazing property to have in your cutting boards. Most “anti bacterial” cutting boards are MAN MADE into being anti bacterial. This means adding chemicals to the board. Not only does this not sound appetizing, it also means that this anti bacterial quality will not last. Being that Camphor Laurel is naturally anti bacterial, you don’t have to worry about weird chemicals or this quality diminishing.

Camphor Laurel is also a great wood to use if you want to help the environment. Camphor Laurel is an EXTREMELY fast growing tree and is basically a renewable source of wood.

Our cutting boards have another unique and amazing quality to them. The Camphor Laurel wood has a natural eucalyptus smell. This smell does NOT impart itself into your food, but it does help with the smells of garlic, onion, or whatever else you may cut on your board.

Everyone of our boards is hand made in Australia and imported for you. These cutting boards are so amazing, you will be wanting to get them for every chef, cook, or foodie that you know.

Why now check out our selection of gourmet, handmade cutting boards

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Another notable thing was how efficient and awesome Jen was.  Bobby was also pretty good and has really, really come a long way from the beginning of the show.  Actually both Bobby and Jen have turned themselves around completely while the bad just keeps getting worse.

In the end, the women win the dinner service hands down.  they have really been better than the men lately, and tonight was just a complete domination.  Bobby is tasked with picking his two team mates to go up for elimination.  We think it is a no brainer to put up Craig and Ben.  Bobby picks Matt and Craig…a little surprising, but not really when you consider the fact that he served up RAW chicken.  Chef Ramsey also calls up Ben, which really isn’t surprising.  Of the three though, Ben has probably been the best, and Craig is just really making himself look like an ass…..

and the person eliminated…FINALLY….is Craig.

Normally we would have a little better, longer blog…but there really wasn’t a whole lot to say about tonights episode…..kinf of blah……maybe next week will give us more to talk about.

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That is the grill that we use here at our home. It is a nice 5 burner propane grill and we use it for most everything. We also have a tall charcoal smoker that we use for bbq. Now, when you want to talk about grilling, there really is a lot to say. One of the most important aspects of grilling and something that can make ordinary extraordinary is quality ingredients. We mean everything from the meat or chicken you buy to the salt and pepper that you use. One of the most basic things to grill, but something that most people seem to do wrong, is the basic hamburger. Here is our recipe for a great, simple, and amazing burger.

2 lbs ground chuck (about 80/20 in the fact department…maybe 85/15)

Shape into 8 1/4 lb patties.
Brush each patty with Extra Virgin Olive Oil. Season each pattie with some Butchers Salt and 5 blend peppercorns. that’s it. Make sure the grill is VERY hot before you put the burgers on….do NOT touch them for at least 2-3 minutes…flip ONCE and cook 2-3 minutes. Done…..

That is all that it takes to make truly gourmet burgers. The Butchers Salt is a nice blend of sea salt and herbs and is really all you need with some pepper.

Another great thing you can do for grilling is chicken. Chicken by nature lends itself to a wide variety of options for grilling. Our favorite is a simple marinade that is nothing more than a couple of crushed garlic cloves, equal parts Olive Oil and Raspberry Vinegar, some salt and pepper and that’s it. Marinate this for about 2 hours and you will have yourselves an amazing grilled chicken that is perfect with a pasta salad or as a sandwich. Either way, you won’t be disappointed.

If you have any questions or suggestions, please feel free to ask.

Athena Foods - Grill Like a Goddess

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The next morning the teams awaken to chickens running around the apartment and each contestant has to grab one and bring it downstairs.  This part was actually pretty funny as chef Ramsey has them thinking that they are going to have to kill the chicken that they are each holding.  This obviously does not happen and he explains to them what the challenge is going to be.   Their challenge is going to be cutting up a chicken into 8 pieces.  Each team will have 5 minutes to cut up their chicken and the team with the most acceptable pieces wins.

The challenge is rather blah this time around.  Nothing very exciting, no drama to speak of.  The women do a very good job and  Vanessa, Roseann, Kristina, and Corey all get a perfect 8 out of 8 on their chicken pieces.  The women wind up with a total of 44 perfect pieces.   The men on the other hand is another story.  On Petrozza and Ben get 8 pieces accepted and Craig is the worst of everyone when he has only 2 acceptable pieces, eliminating the men from the challenge.  As a result of their loss, the men are tasked with having to pick peppers on a 100 acre farm, and the women get to go to lunch on the Sunset Strip with chef Ramsey. (more…)

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With a mere 3 weeks until Mothers Day, it is time to start thinking about Mothers Day presents.  Here, you have many options.  You could go the usual route of flowers or a box of chocolates, but those ideas are uninspired and played out.  We think that there is a whole host of other things you can do or give your mother on Mothers Day.  What you decide to do though will, or at least should, ultimately depend on what type of woman your mother is, and what kinds of things she would enjoy.
(more…)

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