MY FAVORITE VINAIGRETTE

Basic Gallery Vinaigrette

Hardware: Large mixing bowl, wire whisk, spice mill for grinding peppercorn, chef’s knife, storage container

Ingredients: 

4 cups apple cider vinegar

¾ cup coarse grain Dijon Mustard

4 Tablespoons white sugar, or more to taste

2 Tablespoons kosher salt

16 finely minced shallots

11 cups canola oil

1 Tablespoon dry dill

½ cup fresh finely-chopped parsley

½ cup finely minced fresh chives

1 Tablespoon fresh coarse-ground black peppercorn

Procedure:

1. Peel the outer skin from the shallots.
2. Process the fresh herbs using a chef’s knife. This requires precision and a sharp knife. Keep your eye on the knife at all times! Don’t get distracted unless you like blood! Finger cuts take forever to heal! If you want to speed up processing the shallots, you can pulse them in a food processor, but don’t do this with the other fresh herbs or they will be too mushy!
3. Combine all ingredients in a large mixing bowl with a wire whisk.
4. Store and refrigerate.

Yield: one gallon

BLUER THAN BLUE: GREAT SALAD DRESSING

The superior taste of freshly made salad dressings is astounding!

Gallery Blue Cheese Dressing

This recipe will work best if you use the highest quality blue cheese that you can afford. If you want to save time, you can purchase cheese that is pre-crumbled. I prefer a good Roquefort or Gorgonzola blue.

Hardware:  Large mixing bowl, wire whisk, kitchen scale

Ingredients:

24 ounces of crumbled blue cheese

6 cups mayonnaise

4 cups sour cream

2 cups heavy cream

3 Tablespoons lemon juice (fresh is better, bottled is ok)

2 Tablespoons Kosher salt

1 Tablespoon fresh ground black peppercorn

3 Tablespoons finely chopped fresh parsley

2 Tablespoons Lea & Perrins brand Worcestershire sauce. (Others are less satisfactory)

Procedure:

1. Course-grind the black peppercorn.
2. Weigh out 24 ounces of cheese and crumble (calibrate the scale to zero with the holding container first)
3. Thoroughly combine all ingredients in a large mixing bowl.
4. Store and hold under refrigeration up to one week

Yield: 3 quarts

RIBRUB

Dry spice rub for barbecue ribs:

Hardware: Mixing bowl, wire whisk

Ingredients:

2 cups granulated white sugar

3 Tablespoons paprika powder

2 Tablespoons granulated garlic

1 Tablespoon chili powder

1 Tablespoon onion powder

Procedure:

Gently blend all of the ingredients in a mixing bowl using a wire whisk, and store in an air-tight container.

ORGASMIC SALMON ANYONE ??

Gallery Berbere Salmon Seasoning

This is definitely a spice mixture for which I received verbal raves, and declined frequent bribes of every description from those who coveted the recipe.

The basic mixture originated with the cooking of the nomadic North African Berber tribes; hence the adulterated name. There are infinite variations, but this one is my favorite for salmon in particular. I had some customers who would addictively order salmon every time they came to my restaurant because of this blend.

I believe the key aromatics are the components of freshly ground fenugreek seed and green cardamom, which tend to be costly and hard to find. Rocky Mountain Spice Company, in my opinion, has the best fresh spices. You can Google them and easily place an internet order on www.myspicer.com.

It takes some time to grind everything and mix it up, so I recommend making a pound at a time. It’s well worth the trouble! The required dried whole peppers are available in most supermarkets in the Mexican section. If you’re feeling lazy purchase the peppers pre-ground, but the mixture will be less aromatic, and less impressive.

Hardware: wire whisk, large mixing bowl, Spice Grinder, Food Processor (optional), paper or metal funnel, airtight storage jar.

Ingredients:

8 teaspoons ground cumin seed

1 teaspoon ground whole clove

24 whole green cardamom pods

2 teaspoons finely ground black peppercorn

4 teaspoons finely ground fenugreek seed

2 cups dry granulated garlic

12 ounces of dry whole Ancho peppers

6 finely-ground dried, whole chipotle peppers or 6 teaspoons ground chipotle pepper

1 Tablespoon finely ground dry ginger

1 teaspoon turmeric

2 Tablespoons Sea salt or Kosher salt

Procedure: 

1. Trim the stems from the whole dry peppers and then open them with your hands to remove the seeds. If you are sensitive to peppers, don’t touch your eyes. You may also want to wear a pair of kitchen gloves.
2. Using a sharp scissors, cut the dry pepper skins into tiny pea-size pieces, so they will be easy to grind or pulse-process to a coarse powder and add to a mixing bowl
3. Individually grind all remaining whole spices into a fine powder and add them to the mixing bowl.
4. Add all remaining ingredients to the mixing bowl and blend slowly with a wire whisk until well blended. Go easy. If you are too vigorous in your blending you will end up inhaling a cloud of the mixture, which won’t agree with your throat or the sinuses in your head!
5. Store the mixture by placing a paper or metal funnel over the mouth of the storage container.
6. Slowly transfer spoon amounts of the mixture from the mixing bowl into the funnel. This will keep any spicy, powdery dust from being inhaled in the transfer process!
7. Seal the cover on the airtight jar and store.

Yield: one pound  

A LITTLE ZING FOR FISH OR CHICKEN

Spicy Chili-lime sauce

This is a super-quick and simple dipping sauce with heart. It’s great with any style of chicken or seafood. Fresh lime juice is the key.

Hardware: mixing bowl, citrus reamer or juicer, wire whisk

Ingredients: 

1 cup of your favorite mayonnaise

Juice of one half of a fresh lime

1 Tablespoon of Sriracha Chili Sauce: (available at most supermarkets or your local Asian food market). You can adjust this amount up or down to desired “heat”. Sriracha is also great for adding decorative squiggles of heat on the plate when you serve.

Add Sea salt to taste for balance, if your mayo is sweet.

Procedure: Fresh squeeze the juice from half of a lime. Combine all ingredients with the wire whisk in the mixing bowl until well blended. Store and refrigerate.

Yield:  slightly over one cup

LIGHT AND SLIM FISH SAUCE

Fish Dipping Sauce

This is a wonderful “light” dipping sauce that is full of delicate flavor. It works best with any white-meat fish filet that has been breaded or battered and fried. It is best made in quantities that will be used in one or two days in order to maintain a fresh flavor

Hardware:  Chef’s knife, two quart mixing bowl, wire whisk, two quart pot or two quart ceramic bowl

Ingredients: 

2 cups soy sauce

1 cup white vinegar

1 cup water

4 minced garlic clove

4 minced scallions

2 teaspoons dry ginger

2 teaspoons dry Coleman’s Mustard

1 teaspoon Thai chili paste or Sriracha Chili sauce

¼ cup honey

1. Procedure:

1. Combine all ingredients in a mixing bowl with a wire whisk, until the honey is dissolved.

2. Cook the ingredients on the stovetop to the boiling point in a two quart pot, OR in the Microwave on High for eight minutes in a two quart ceramic bowl (just until the contents heat enough to simmer and produce steam. Allow to cool to room temperature.

3. Store the sauce in a quart container in the refrigerator. It will hold flavorfully for one week under refrigeration.

Yield: one quart.

BEST EVER RIB SAUCE

Mango-Bourbon Barbeque Sauce for Ribs

Hardware: A large double boiler pot if you want to do this on the stovetop. If you want to do this in a microwave you will need a large ceramic bowl.

Ingredients:

4 cups of ketchup

2 cups dark brown sugar

Pureed fruit of one large ripe mango

½ cup Worcestershire sauce

¼ cup frozen orange juice concentrate, undiluted

2 Tablespoons coarse ground black pepper

1 Tablespoon granulated garlic

1 Tablespoon celery salt

¼ cup Jack Daniels Bourbon whiskey

Procedure: If you want to do this in a microwave, you will need a large “micro” with a carousel and a large enough ceramic bowl to hold the ingredients. You must have a couple of inches remaining between the surface of the contents and the top edge of the bowl to prevent bubbling over during cooking. The best way is to heat the ingredients in three minute increments on “High”, and gently stir the ingredients in the bowl when each increment of cook time ends. Eight four-minute bursts should be sufficient. You can work on something else while the microwave does the cooking. The contents and bowl will become very hot. Use oven mitts to protect your hands and remove the bowl. Allow the contents to cool to room temperature and store in the refrigerator. The sauce will be thick when cold and the flavors will meld. It can be frozen for long-term storage.

If you want to do this on a stovetop, use a double boiler pot so you can do something else while it cooks for an hour.

Yield:  one half gallon (8 cups): enough to coat and serve ten full racks of barbecue ribs