Roasted Garlic! It’s always a big hit!
Last night I had a few people over for dinner…. Diane, Toby and his wife. Silverwood Music?
These are the wonderful people that wrote and played my theme music for my Cooking Show and I never properly thanked them, so I thought I would do a Cooking Class, no charge!
When I shopped for the food, I was interested in a healthier track. White Rice? Brown Rice? No.
Quinoa. And I had made a batch the day before with sweet potatoes, caramelized onions and mushrooms. So that was going to be my ‘base’. But what to put on top?
Well, you know quinoa is a plant based protein, right? So I didn’t want to add too much protein to the meal. That’s when the memories of eating at Mr. Chow’s in Beverly Hills came flooding back in.
Ya know, in the asian world, they’ll take a steak for example that we would serve to one person and cut it up into thin strips, add rice and veggies and feed a family of four. And basically that’s what Mr. Chows does with their chicken.
They cut it into strips the size of skinny french fries, roll it in the hands (round is more interesting) then flour it, before deep frying. But I don’t deep fry. So I took a spray or two of olive oil, a light drizzle of grapeseed oil (to bring up the level of heat I could use) and a sprinkling of sesame oil, for that asian flavor. 
Of course there was salt and pepper in the flour….. and it wasn’t regular flour, it was sorghum…. gluten free…. But at the end of the day, it all had flavor!
I grabbed some baby bok choy and some corn (after all, it is summer), cut that corn into cobbettes (because we don’t need big pieces of anything), and also bought fixings for salad (raw cashews chopped, raisins, romaine, and tomato) with a miso ginger dressing. Roasted apples in cinnamon and nutmeg on top of Annie’s Graham Bunnies crumbled, was the game plan for dessert. YUM!
So you would think with salad, a main dish and dessert, that would be enough Right?
SOUNDS GOOD TO ME CHEF MARIAN!
But think about it. Guests arrive hungry and thirsty. So you give them a glass of wine and cheese and crackers, right?
THAT’S WHAT WE DO CHEF!
And the body doesn’t process cheese or any dairy for that matter. And cheese is ten bucks a brick… and you’ve got to have two or three choices right?
RIGHT CHEF!
How about changing that up next time? You don’t need a fancy garlic roaster. You don’t need to oil, salt and pepper anything. As Chef Marissa pointed out to me: You simply put the garlic on the rack at 350 degrees and when it feels soft to the touch or starts bubbling out…. it’s done!
So I put out gluten free crackers, had one of my guests squeeze the garlic onto the crackers and we had appetizers! Inexpensive, delish and ez breezy to do!
Best part of the night? The party (as with most of my parties) ended in a jam session. I just love singing harmony! And enjoying good food, good wine and good people!
Happy Eating,
Chef Marian