Israeli Couscous: Jewish Food! Shashlik: Russian Food! A Great Combination For Dinner

Have you ever had shashlik? What? You have never had shashlik? Have you ever had Israeli couscous? What? You haven't had Israeli couscous? You are missing out! This week I am making shashlik which is Russian food and Israeli couscous which is Jewish food! The two of these cuisines makes an excellent combination and an excellent meal to make your entire family very happy. Shashlik is claimed by so many countries and cultures that in my research I could not really find out who made shashlik first. All I know is that I have eaten it twice this week and it was delicious!

In Russia Shashlik or Shashlyk as it's pronounced  is a barbequed skewered meat dish that is served in Russia and althrough the eastern block of Europe as well as in other parts of the world such as Israel, Pakistan, India, Mongolia, Morocco and central Asia. The word Shashlyk means skewered meat.y BBQ the shashlik on a grill called a "mangal" which is a square fire pit filled with charcoal or wood or a combination of both. Shashlik can be made out of any type of meat you like such as chicken, pork, beef, veal or lamb. Depending on where you are in the world and what the cultural or religious beliefs are in place will dictate which meat will be used in the shashlik. Shashlik traditionally is marinated in a highly acidic marinade overnight and this acidity helps to break down the proteins in the meat and also makes for really tender meat. As with any dish from any country in the world there are a million and one ways to make a dish. This particular shashlik recipe is a cross between the Uzbek, Russian, Georgian and Israeli recipes as I find it to be one of the more simpler and delicious shashlik recipes out there. Everyone has their own way of making shashlik and I am sure they are all DELICIOUS!

Shashlik is a kabob style of Russian food but shashlik is not a shish kabob although many people do confuse the two.  As I stated shashlik comes from many parts of the world from Russia, Bulgaria to Israel and more. With shashlik recipes all the recipes are interchangeable. All of the meats can be used to make this dish, beef, chicken, veal, lamb. When making shashlik you can separate the chunks of meat with a vegetable like onion or a tomato or even a piece of fat or just about any kind of vegetable will work.

Shashlik is not a shish kabob although many people do confuse the two. The difference is the preparation of the shashlik which is the making of a highly acidic marinade along with herbs and spices that help to break down the proteins in the meat being used and hence keep the meat nice and tender. There are any number of ways to make the marinade acidic such as vinegar, wine, or citric acid from lemons or limes.

Shashlik is probably the best known skewered meat dish that is prepared all over the world and everyone claims to have created it.  It can be served with warm flat bread or rolls and an assortment of salads, it is a delicious way to become familiar with a true international dish! The version of shashlik that I am making is a bit of a cross from the Uzbek, Estonian, Russian and Georgian and Israeli  versions of this dish as they are all very close.  I will be making a side dish of Israeli couscous with sun dried tomatoes and kalamata olives. This two dishes from two cultures truly compliment each other. Enjoy the video and make this recipe your own!



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Jewish Food: Kasha? Kasha Recipes? Kupecheskaya!

 Hi everyone! This week I am making Jewish food. That's right! Jewish food. I know this is a basic departure from the usual Asian or Italian cuisine that I love so much but I am doing it. I am making a traditional Jewish food called Kasha or Kasha Varniskes. I am actually going to make one of the more popular kasha recipes called "Kupecheskaya." This kasha version is the traditional Russian Jewish kasha. I have been taking requests on my Youtube channel for a long time and one of my viewer sent me an email and asked my to make some Jewish food.

I don't have much experience with Jewish food, I mean I have had chopped liver and matzo ball soup but I have never really delved into Jewish food. So to me this was more than just a request, this was a bit of a challenge. I sat on my kaboose for about a week doing research into Jewish food and I found kasha! There are a few kasha recipes out there and they are all basically the same as kasha is a basic type of dish of buckwheat or groats and either egg noodle bowtie pasta or semolina farfalle pasta and some other small variations to the ingredients of the dish.

Kasha recipes are a very basic dish to make and can be made as either a vegetarian or vegan dish if you like by using some form of cooking oil like vegetable or olive oil. The traditional kasha recipes call for either rendered chicken fat or cooking oil. I am going the traditional route today and I will be using rendered chicken fat in my kasha.

Kasha is as I said buckwheat groats and the word "Varnishkes" is the Yiddish/Jewish term for the bowtie pasta used in kasha recipes. The Russian also use ground up buckwheat in their blini pancakes which the Russians eat with caviar. Buckwheat groats are also used in Japan and other countries to make soba noodles for dishes like Korean japchea. In eastern Europe kasha  and kasha recipes are a crowd pleasing comfort food that is delicious and good for you.

So this week I picked my favorite of the kasha recipes that I found and I will be making Russian kasha varnishkes or "Kupecheskaya" which is the kasha made with sauteed onions, garlic, mushrooms and scrambled eggs. Sometimes the scrambled eggs are omitted and hard boiled eggs are used instead. Kasha is either served as a main course or as a side dish to beef brisket or anything else you would like to serve it with. Go ahead and make some kasha and various kasha recipes I know you will love it as much as I do now. Enjoy the video and I hope to hear some good comments.



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Indian Cuisine: Paneer Recipes: My Paneer Recipes

Hi guys! This week I am making Paneer Recipes. If any of you don't know what paneer is then this is a treat. Paneer is Indian cottage cheese! It's basically a farmers cheese that can be purchased in an Indian grocery store or easily made at home. Paneer is a cheese that does not melt so it's perfect for lot's of different Paneer Recipes or recipes that require a cheese much like feta or farmers cheese. I find it to be a very versatile product. Most Paneer recipes that I am familiar with come from India. I have been watching many of my favorite Indian cooks on Youtube for months and one of them is owned by a girl named Aditi and her channel is called the eateastindian channel. I was watching this channel week after week as she made different Paneer Recipes. This is how I was introduced to paneer. There are so many Paneer recipes in India that it's mind boggling. I didn't even know that cheese was something used in Indian cuisine until watching the eateastindian channel on Youtube.

I told Aditi that I was going to have to make some paneer recipes of my own. She had been watching my channel and thought that me making some Paneer Recipes would be a great idea. I asked if I should make some traditional Paneer Recipes or should I come up with something on my own. She told me to go ahead and make some of my own Paneer Recipes as the world is full of traditional Indian Paneer Recipes.

So I had to think long and hard this week as to how I would like to prepare my Paneer Recipes. So this week I am going to make a pan seared paneer encrusted with za'atar spice topped with a nice Dijon mustard dill cream sauce. Then I will make a paneer orzo pilaf with oregan, basil, sundried tomatoes, almonds, garlic and shallots. Yum! I will also make a spring vegetable and paneer pasta dish of pan seared paneer mixed into sauteed zucchini, yellow squash, shallots, garlic, tomato along with some herbs and this will either be served on linguine. I am sure these Paneer Recipes will be pleasing to the eye's and palate.

I really struggled a bit this week trying to come up with these Paneer Recipes but it truth after watching videos on how to make paneer and how to make a multitude of Paneer Recipes it has just all come together for me. paneer is a very versatile food and Paneer recipes are just about as endless as the imagination. Just because paneer is a cheese used in India does not mean that this delicious cheese product cannot be used in the recipes of other nations. I have also found that it's cheaper to make paneer cheese or cottage cheese or even Feta cheese at home rather than buying it at the local market. So I hope you enjoy the Paneer recipes and I hope you try them at home and make them your own. Enjoy the video!



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Pasta Recipes: Linguine With Clams The Richard Blaine Way!

Pasta Recipes

 



 

 

 

 

Well, this week guys it's pasta recipes once again! It's going to be linguine with clams! Whoohoo! I know it's been awhile since I made an Italian dish but this week it's back to pasta recipes by request from one of my Youtube subscribers from England.

I don't know what it is but I'm really popular in England! I get tons of requests from the UK all the time. I feel like Bill Haley! He was a rocker in the 1950's who was even more famous than Elvis in England back in the rockin' 1950's!

I was looking over my extensive list of pasta recipes this week to come up with something simple and yet delicious for my subber. Her name is Mirella and she is a really nice person to have watching my videos! She has become my #1 fan and that's OK by me!

So I am digging through my list of pasta recipes and I came up with linguine with clams! I know what a lot of you are thinking. "Linguine with clams! Plain old boring linguine with clams just like everyone else does it!" Not the case here guys!

My version of linguine with clams will have multiple layers of flavors and textures well beyond just canned/or fresh clams in the shell and some garlic and oil! BORING! When it comes to pasta recipes I like to really work with them and either keep them traditional/conventional Italian/Sicilian or I like to mix it up a bit and truly make the dish something special. That is the case with my linguine with clams recipe!

My linguine with clams will have the benefit of butter, capers, anchovies and basil along with just a light dusting of the pungent flavor and aroma of Gorgonzola cheese! So I asked my subber Mirella about how she felt about me making here linguine with clams? Here reply to me was "Richaaaard! We love the same foods! I WANT TO MARRY YOU!" Needless to say I was blushing from head to to! Who knew that pasta recipes like linguine with clams could net you a marriage proposal! Now I know! So kick back and enjoy the video! Make this linguine with clams your recipe! Play with it and make it something special! Who know you might get a marriage proposal for it like I did!

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Tom Kha Gai Recipe: What Is Tom Kha Gai? Thai Coconut Chicken Soup

Tom Kha Gai Recipe

This week I am making my version of a Tom Kha Gai recipe. Tom Kha Gai is Thai coconut chicken soup. The weather is getting cold and I thought I would just make some good old fashioned Jewish penicillin (New York style chicken soup) and then I thought to myself I could do that anytime and lots of people have done it already. This Tom Kha Gai recipe in my opinion is a great version of Thai penicillin. Tom Kha Gai is warming and creamy and is loaded with lovely herbs and spices to make some of the best chicken soup that one has ever had. It's really a pretty simple and yet very delicious chicken.  This Tom Kha Gai recipe has all the distinctive Thai flavors that one would expect in a Thai dish.  Tom Kha Gai (Gai is chicken) has an ingredient in it called galangal (In Thai Kha) There is one substituition I am using in my Tom Kha Gai recipe and that is using ginger in place of galangal as I could not locate any galangal this week and then I will be using the other ingredients of lemongrass and kaffir limes leaves to infuse the coconut milk and chicken broth/stock that I make as well. A good Tom Kha Gai recipe will have a good balance of salty, sweet, spicy, and sour flavors. Of course when it comes time to make flavor adjustments to your Tom Kha Gai recipe you can manipulate them in any way that you like to suit your needs. This chicken soup is a total winner to warm you up in the winter months. The combination of herbs and spices will also help to fortify you with nutrients to help ward off that cold or flu! I mean isn't that what chicken soup is for anyway? Of course it is! My version a Thai Tom Kha Gai recipe will have some garlic in it and of course the chilies will help fight off that winter cold and give you a vitamin C shot to boot! Tom Kha Gai is a soup that can be served as an appetizer or as a main course depending on how you make it.  If you add noodles or even rice to your Tom Kha Gai recipe then it then becomes a main meal and if you exclude those items Tom Kha Gai then becomes an excellent appetizer. Either way Tom Kha Gai is a delicious chicken soup recipe. I'm making my Tom Kha Gai recipe this week as a main meal with the addition of rice noodles.

Tom Kha Gai can be made many ways. When I learned to cook I learned to make chicken soup or stock/broth using whole chickens or whole chickens cut up with the skin on. Then some herbs and spices would be added to the mixture while it was simmering. Jewish penicillin can be made with the addition of chicken innards or even chicken feet! I LOVE chicken feet. I have never had Tom Kha Gai in Thai restaurants that served it with chicken feet although I think that would really give it that soul food aspect of cooking. I won't be using chicke feet in my Tom Kha Gai recipe this week but rest assured chicken feet are on my future menu! A lot of recipes out there call for using boxed organic chicken stock in their Tom Kha Gai recipe and that is fine if you want to speed up the cooking process. Today I will be simmer a cut up chicken for at least 2 to 3 hours which is chicken broth. I will then remove the meat from the carcass and add the bones back to the broth for an hour or so to fortify the flavor of the broth to be something closer to a chicken stock. There will also of course be some herbs and spices added to make the flavor of the broth/stock even better.

It seems popular today when you go to eat Tom Kha Gai in Thai restaurants that you will either have Nam Prig Pad or Pao added to the Tom Kha Gai or it will be available on the side. To my knowledge this is not traditional but, it is popular these days. I will not be offering it up in my recipe but you can use it in yours if you desire.  Some of my friends like to add either sesame oil or some form of chili oil to their Tom Kha Gai to. I will not be doing that either. I just LOVE to eat my Tom Kha Gai with rice noodles as a complete meal. In some restaurants the Tom Kha Gai is served in rather small bowls but believe you me I'll make mine a BIG bowl! This is how it's going to be made today. Enjoy the video!


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Knife Sharpening: How To Create A Cutting Edge From Scratch

Knife Sharpening

 

Hi everyone! I'm back this week and we are going to look at doing some knife sharpening. I have been on vacation visiting my brother in Los Angeles and it was good to go seem him and unwind.

This week I'm back and instead of cooking I thought I would do some knife sharpening for you. I have this friend name Chef Giovanni and he works at a place here in Vegas called Yellow tail. It's a sushi joint as the name entails and Chef Gio is one of my best friends here in town.

Ever since Gio got into the culinary industry he has been obsessed with knife sharpening and if you ask him today he will still tell everyone that everything he ever learned about knife sharpening he learned from me, yours truly! He and I have been friends a long time and it's a great compliment he pays me. He has learn his knife sharpening skills well and does some of the best work I have seen a professional chef do with their knives.

Knife sharpening is an art just as cooking is and therefore when the two are done to a high level of skill people know it. Recently Chef Gio went on a food trip to Korea. He spent a lot of time at the fish market watching how the Koreans prepare their seafood dishes and one thing Gio paid close attention to was knife skills and knife sharpening techniques.

Needless to say Chef Gio learned alot on his food trip. When he got back he brought me a knife much like the one's used at the local fish market. They come in various sizes and he brought me a rather large one for all around kitchen use. When it comes today's knife sharpening video this is the knife that I will be sharpening.

You see the knife he brought back from Korea has no cutting edge on it and I don't know if that is a matter of knives leaving the country or if the maker does it that way for the person doing the knife sharpening to put his or her own type of edge on the knife.

As far as the knife sharpening goes Gio told me that most of the people he saw using this knife had a 50/50 grind on the blade much like a European knife would have and I can see that the blade type is closer to a "V" or saber type grind.

This weeks knife sharpening video will show you how I will put a single edge bevel on this Korean knife. The knife is hand made and somewhat rudimentary but from the videos I saw they will just cut and cut and cut! The knife is made from hand hammered carbon steel so as far as the knife sharpening is concerned should not prove to be very difficult.

I will be using the standard gear that I always use for knife sharpening which is DMT diamond plates that I use in 220/325/600/1200 grits respectively. I will also be using Spyderco ceramic stones Models 204F and 204UF respectively. I will also most likely use my surgical black Arkansas stone as a final blade polishing stone. So sit back and check out how I do knife sharpening and enjoy the video!

Soup: Seafood Chowder: Bay Shrimp Chowder

The weather is finally getting really cold here where I live and that means it time to make some soup! This week I am making Bay Shrimp Chowder, a seafood chowder idea from a friend of mine named Tango Joe. I love soup in the winter! Who doesn't? Soup is warming, comforting and filling. The best part about soup is that they are easy to make and they really don't take much time to prepare. So this winter I will be making lots of soup recipe videos! So this week I am making  Tango Joe's Bay Shrimp Chowder. I've been experimenting with it lately and this is soon becoming a favorite soup of mine.

I got the recipe for this soup/seafood chowder from my friend and sub on Youtube named Tango Joe of the Tango Spice Company. The soup is called Bay Shrimp Chowder and it's a recipe that Joe has been working on for awhile. The reason I am making this soup is because I got interested in Joe's spices and I asked him to send me some to try out and in return I would make one of his recipes with it. He sent me the spice called Tango Verde Green and along with it he sent me a starter recipe for his soup recipe bay shrimp chowder. I make seafood chowder all the time but I usually make either A Manhattan style seafood chowder or a New England clam chowder. I have never made bay shrimp chowder or any kind of shrimp chowder at all. This was going to be good.

The soup recipe he sent me was his starter for Bay Shrimp Chowder. He told me to work on it because he didn't get the recipe where he wanted it to be.  So I am going to make Joe's soup with my little twists and make a final recipe for this seafood chowder/bay shrimp chowder! Now Joe and I love heat and for this reason this soup is going to be very warming indeed as I am going to be using Joe's Tango Verde Green in this seafood chowder.

Joe's Tango Verde Green is a dry spice that's a bitchin' combination of Jalapeno pepper, Habanero pepper, cuming, oregano, celery salt and black pepper. The balance of this spice will be delicious in this seafood chowder and I am sure in just about any soup recipe that requires some heat in it. This Tango Verde Green can be a bit tricky because it's not hot right off the bat, it's really a creeper and can catch you by surprise!

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