So as you all know I love to experiment, and I love to play with my food. For my Facebook friends this may clarify, and to people who don’t know me on their I have been up to some fun stuff. So this is a quick update/recap, of what I’ve been up to. Breakfast is a hard thing to come up with specials, so here are some of those specials (if you have any suggestions for specials, I would love that) and some other things I have been up to.
mmmm good
Well at work I have been working on creating a new and very fun menu. So to start I decided to make some kimchi to pair with some new dishes. For those who don’t know kimchi is a Korean-style fermented, spicy cabbage. It may sound odd, but i have almost everyone at work try it and even the least adventurous eaters have enjoyed it. The owner also brought some down to YUME, which is a Japanese restaurant. All the employees are Chinese, but still they tried the kimchi and raved about it, one server even came up to me and asked for the recipe. This was such a great moment for me, I know they weren’t Korean but damn it felt good.
Better than it sounds
Next up was the Chicken-Fried Eggs, I had a little experiment with some very lightly poached eggs in which I breaded and gently fried them. They were nice and crisp on the outside and soft and runny on the inside, I even went ahead and topped them with a sausage gravy, perfect for those Sundays with a terrible hangover. Sadly I only sold one the day I made them and it was to Sarah. But she liked it nonetheless. It was fun to make this dish but it was extremely time-consuming, I have to work something better out with this one
I wanted to make this short, so I will quickly tell you about the last few pics then I want to talk about something else. I’m happy to say I have a sale from my Christmas presents, granted it is to my brother but it is still a sale, he wanted to purchase some of my beef jerky, and hopefully i may have another sale on some homemade sausage/soppressata. The first picture is the Beef jerky, I have three varieties drying now; teriyaki, peppered, and hot and spicy. The next is another special I ran, I called it Eggs Atlantic, it was sautéed Atlantic rock shrimp with roasted red peppers,tossed in a very acidic Hollandaise, over poached eggs on top of a grilled English muffin. The third is a chili I made way to much of (its in the freezer, and it’s coming to whichever Superbowl party I’m invited to), it consists of Bacon, braised veal breast, lamb, venison, beef, and pork, it was phenomenal. And, yes, before you ask there are beans in it. I know, those of you who know me know that’s against what I believe in chili. Anyway here are those pics.
Animal Kingdom Chili
Beef Jerkys
Shrimp Benny
Anyway, some other stuff coming up and some happenings, look for an article about me and my business (Chapman Hospitality) on the Farmington Patch, the internet ‘newspaper’. I am also nominated on the Hartford Advocates website, for Best local chef, I know i probably wont win but you never know, so vote. It isn’t hard to vote, and to make it easier for you, in a bunch of categories, vote for Caffeine’s Cafe, especially in Best breakfast, and best place to buy coffee/tea, you should know where we are applicable. And in other news I had an interview today, big time stuff, it’s for a part-time gig for now, but I would love to get it, and wish me luck more information on that in the future. Anyway, thanks for you support, and I will try to write more often.
Keep Cooking
Brendan
