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Oysters are to Valentine’s Day as whiskey is to Saint Paddy’s and as fireworks are to the Fourth of July.
It’s time for the busiest day of the year, for the mystical and magical oyster, for the aphrodisiac of all aphrodisiacs, for God’s natural Viagra. The sexual powers of the oyster have been revealed in stories throughout history. It has been told that the great Casanova would eat more than 50 raw oysters every day to boost his libido. The oyster’s aphrodisiac qualities may stem from the fact that they resemble the female genitalia and their sexual texture is known to ignite the imagination. The whole oyster-eating process is very exciting and unique: “shucking and slurping,” opening a live oyster fresh from the sea, tilting your head back, the salty freshness, a subtle yet almost unexplainable sensation, a true natural life force filling you with a wildly imaginative energy .... Deep breath .
These are just a few of the stories I like to think about as I prepare seafood. If you are what you eat then I would much rather eat seafood than any of the steroid and antibiotic-fed, and caged animals that lack character and story. You may say I went a little over the top on these descriptions, but come on, this is from the cowboy who used everything in the kitchen (according to Padma) on my elk shank in the mountains of Aspen.
Let your imagination run free as you find yourself at the local seafood counter. Here are a few of my favorites:
The sheer majesty of the Tuna, its missile-like exterior, its firm, rich flesh and its ability to travel thousands of free range miles of pristine ocean of blue, feeding on electric-like mackerel and...]]>
When the culinary bug bit me I was so excited to show my family what I could do with the tired and true Thanksgiving dinner. Fresh out of culinary school with huge ambitions, I would show them so many different and unique ways to take the turkey over the top. I was not going to play with the gaudy turducken; no, I was going to cook my first Thanksgiving dinner in the most traditional of fashions. I was going to cook the Thanksgiving dinner as the first Pilgrims would have, and my family was going to be so impressed with the authenticity of the entire meal.
Start with the bird -- it had to be free range, fattened on the neighbor’s farm, and raised as close to a wild bird that I might find in...]]>
Cheers and love to all of my supporters throughout the entire season of Top Chef 3: Miami. Did I have a good time? Would I do it again? What am I up to? Who did I like/dislike on the show? Do I really only know how to cook seafood? These are some of the questions I am going to address with my new voice, my unedited voice on the Bravo blogs.
Lets start this little story with a wee bit of a lad we shall call Malarkey. Most of you probably don’t realize this, but that whole cowboy act with the hat and everything, well, it wasn’t an act. You see I actually grew up on a large ranch in central Oregon. Raised by a single mother, my brother and I learned to work hard and fend for ourselves. It was explained to me at an early age...]]>
