Blue Duck Kitchen's First Cooking Demo - Creole Chicken

New Orlean's Style Creole Chicken

1 medium size yellow onion
1 medium size green pepper
3 cloves of fresh garlic
1 large stalk celery
1 large tomato
4 sprigs fresh thyme
1/2 tsp dry oregano
1 15 oz can tomato sauce
2-3 dry bay leaves
1 pinch of red pepper flakes

2 chicken drumsticks
2 chicken thighs
2 chicken wings
4 table spoons vegetable oil

Rinse chicken pieces , pat dry and season with salt and pepper. Heat large sauce pan and add vegetable oil. Lightly dust chicken pieces with flour and place in heated saute pan. Brown chicken (10 minutes). Turn pieces over and brown the other side (5 minutes). Remove chicken from pan and place on platter and place in preheated oven to keep warm.

Pour off any excess oil in pan and set oil aside. Return pan to stove top and turn heat to medium. Coarsely mince onion, green pepper, tomato, celery and place in saute pan. Saute for five minutes, add thyme, oregano, red pepper flakes, bay leaves, salt and pepper. (Add reserve oil if needed) Finely mince garlic and add to pan. Scrape "fond" from bottom of pan while stiring vegetables. Add can of tomato sauce, chicken broth and minced tomato. Remove chicken from oven and place into sauce pan with sauce. Return to stovetop and simmer for 1/2 hour with top on pan. Remove from heat, taste and adjust seasoning.

Traditional accompaniment - Uncle Ben's Rice cooked with chicken broth

The Art of Cooking

The art of cooking is all about bringing ones individual talents to the kitchen. You must not only make the sauce but you must also feel the heart of the sauce. Be it on the prep table or on the stove or in the oven, you must have a sense of what you are in the process of cooking. Measuring cups will not tell you if you have added enough. Listen to your heart and feel like it is enough.

It is not only important to be a good cook or chef, it is equally important to be able to transfer ones culinary skills and abilities to someone who is willing to watch, listen and learn.

About Blue Duck Catering

We have always acknowledged that catering is about more than excellent food. At Blue Duck Catering, we sincerely believe that an event is a combination of great food, great themes, impeccable and unobtrusive service with a gracious and professional staff. It is our most sincere desire to see to it that you and your guests experience the joy and surprise of a truly special party.
Blue Duck Catering is a premier off-premise caterer and event management company with a reputation for providing uncompromising quality to a demanding clientele.

This past fall (2008) Blue Duck Catering, Inc. enjoyed tremendous success with it's Personal Chef program. Executive Chef Gary Cole has developed a young cadre of Cordon Bleau culinary school graduates to prepare from scratch beautiful and tasty meals for clients, in the privacy of their own home. With you, the Chef plans the menu, then makes recommendations, does the shopping, prepares and presents the food. The host or hostess only task is to send out the invitations. A pampered guest as though she or he were a guest in their own home is the goal.

The guests are welcome to watch the food preparation in the kitchen and will leave the kitchen with some new aspect of cooking that they did not know. Jan Slaughter of Oak Park, Illinois stated "I had a wonderful time and I did not have to cook a thing. The meal was wonderful and my guests were floored by the chef's food presentation. I'm scheduling another date to invite some of my more important clients, who knows I may close a deal over a glass of Chardonnay after we finish the Flounder stuffed with crabmeat".

Blue Duck Catering's Recipe of the month - July

Vegetarian Entrees' are an absolute neccesity for today's menus. Here is a recipe for an absolutely delicious Eggplant Torte.

EGGPLANT ZUCCHINI, RED PEPPER AND PARMESAN TORTE

2 large onions (1 lb.)
1 garlic clove
about 2/3-cup olive oil
26-32 oz container of whole tomatoes
1 tbsp finely chopped sage leaves
1-½ teaspoons finely chopped fresh thyme leaves
2 large eggplants (about 2 1/3 lbs.
4 large zucchini (about 1 ¾ lbs. total)
4 large red bell peppers
2-table spoons unsalted butter
3 tbsp all purpose flour
1-cup milk 1-cup heavy cream
3 large eggs
6 oz. freshly grated Parmesan cheese



Sauté onions in olive oil in skillet until onions are soft, add garlic until all liquid evaporates. Add tomatoes breaking up as you add them with juice, sage and thyme. Simmer & season with S & P. Allow to cool.

Preheat oven to 450. Brush shallow baking pans with oil. Cut eggplant salt and allow to sit heavily sprinkled with salt for 15 – 20 mins. Rinse eggplant pat dry and place on baking sheet brush with olive oil and roast in lower ½ of oven until tender (about 20 mins.. rotate pan ½ way through). Allow to cool 5 mins and transfer to paper towels to drain.

Cut zucchini into medallions 1/3 inch thick and prepare and roast like eggplant. cool 5 mins and transfer to paper towels to drain.

Make roux with butter and flour and whisk in milk and cream. Bring to boil whisking and simmer, whisking 2 minutes. Remove pan from heat and cool sauce 5 minutes. Wisk in eggs and 2/3 Parmesan cheese. S & P to taste

Arrange Eggplant. Top with tomato mixture. Pour on some Parmesan custard. Nestle zucchini in custard. Put on peppers. More custard on top. sprinkle with Parmesan and bake Torte about 35 mins. Let stand 10 mins. before serving.

Blue Duck Catering has offered it's services to many not-for-profit organizations in the Chicagoland area. Providing gratuitous catering for small parties for bidding at Silent auctions is one way that Blue Duck Catering gives back to the community.