Production Eats - No. 8

This week I worked on the show Lie to Me. It's a drama on Fox with Tim Roth and Kelli Williams. I've actually been a fan of both actors for many years now. Tim Roth for his many films that he's done and Kelli Williams for her role as Lindsey Dole on the show The Practice. Lie to Me airs Monday nights after House. It's a really good show. It's probably one of my favorites this TV season. Also shooting scenes on those days were Jennifer Beals (Flashdance), Brendan Hines, and Monica Raymond. Basically the whole cast. I worked on the show for 3 days pretending it was winter in DC. I'll be working on it again this coming week. An upside on one of the days was when Tim Roth said hello to me on my way to the stage. I didn't care how long I worked, I was happy as can be (on the inside)  Now on to the food.

Day 1. We were on location in downtown Los Angeles, so food and snacks were plenty to keep the cast and crew happy, while we worked long hours on these next two days.

 Clockwise from top: White bread with sun-dried tomatoes and cheese baked on top, pasta in white sauce with ham, white rice, fire roasted roma tomatoes, roast beef with herbs.

I enjoyed the fire-roasted tomato. Just look at the char on the skin. When sliced open, the juices of the tomato just oozed out. Cut a tiny slice of that with a piece of the roast beef and some rice. Delicious. Probably the best roast beef I've had in a while. There was also some grilled calamari steaks, but the roast beef was just calling my name. How can you not resist that tender piece of meat?

I had it with a side of salad of mixed greens, pomegranates and grape fruit, tossed in a vinaigrette topped with some fresh mushrooms, fresh pineapple slices. For dessert, a delicious fruit tart.

I don't think I need to tell you how much I LOVED the fruit tart, do I? 

Day 2. Same location as day 1.

Top clockwise: Grilled yellowfin with tomato sauce, white rice with beans, a slice of pumpernickel bread, lima beans with sauteed mushrooms, pasta with red sauce or what looked like a tomato pesto. I was craving something a little lighter thatn a large piece of a grilled chicken thigh and leg, so I opted for the fish. It was enjoyable. A little cooked through for my taste, but I ate it all up. I did love the lima beans with mushrooms. It was a beany kind of meal.

I had the usual side salad of mixed greens with fresh mushrooms and a balsamic dressing and a couple of pineapple slices. Now the dessert was something to die for. A nice scoop of apple pie with graham cracker crust and a piece rich chocolate fudge cake. Oh yeah!!! I was tempted to get a second slice, but I didn't want to look greedy, so I just savored what I had in front of me. One bite at a time.

Day 3. Working on the 20th Century Fox Studio lot. Since we had a late call time by the time we were released for lunch most of the places to eat on the lot were already closed for the day. Luckily, there was one cafe that was opened late. So I ventured out in the cold with a fellow actor walking through the Fox lot towards some grub.

I had a simple slice of pepperoni pizza with some mixed greens with corn, edamame, topped with some balsamic dressing. A simple satisfying flair. We were also served some chili and chowder as well as fresh made crepes later into the night, I didn't have some of the soup as I was still full from the pizza, but it looked delicious and warm for a cold night. But I did manage to snag some snacks from the craft service table to take home with me. The perks of the craft service table.

Roasted BroccoBean in Garlic Browned Butter Sauce

There's no such thing as a broccobean. But wouldn't it be cool if there was? What would it look like? Would it have the florets of the broccoli with the thin body of the green bean? What about the taste? We can only imagine. Let ponder that for a moment. ...  ... Ok, back to out regularly schedule recipe.

Whatever it may be, the broccoli and green beans are the stars of this dish. Slightly accentuated by the browned butter sauce. It actually reminds me of a garlic broccoli dish I would always get from Whole Foods. I would be happy with a small to-go box of that from their hot foods section. I tossed the vegetable in some extra virgin olive oil, salt, pepper and paprika. To put a little kick to it, I spiked it with a teeny bit of tobasco. While that roasted, I made the sauce. The key is to let the butter cool after removing from the skillet before adding the garlic. Or else it will cook and burn pretty quick. No need to go to Whole Foods to get the garlic broccoli. I can now make it at home.

Serves 2

Roasted BroccoBean with Almonds in Garlic Browned Butter Sauce
1 lb green bean - rinsed with ends removed
1 head of broccoli or one small frozen bag.
1 Tbsp paprika
1 tsp tobasco
1/4 c sliced almonds
extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
garlic-almond browned butter sauce (recipe below)
shredded cheese topping - optional

Preheat your oven to 375˚F

Toss the green beans and broccoli in a light drizzle of olive oil. Season with some salt, pepper, and paprika. Add the tobasco as well. You may add more to your liking.

Place the green beans and broccoli on a foil-lined baking pan and roast for 25-30 minutes.

When roasted toss it with the garlic-almond browned butter sauce, add the almonds and serve.

Garlic Browned Butter Sauce
3-4 Tbsp butter
2-3 large garlic cloves - finely chopped

In a saucepan, melt the butter.  Heat it until it begins to foam. Carefully remove the top foamy layer, then transfer the melted butter into a small bowl and let it cool for 2 minutes. Then add the chopped garlic. Let it sit for for 5-10 minutes before serving.

Stuffed Chayote

If you hadn't notice by now, for you loyal readers, one of my favorite vegetables is the chayote squash. They're just so good. This time around I decided to stuff them. Stuff them I did. There's really no good story about this one really. I was just hungry.

The stuffing included sardines, onion and tomato. Oh and I must not forget the panko crumbs as well. I poached the chayote halves in water first to get them nice and tender, then scooped out the delicious flesh and mixed the filling together. Once they were ready I baked them in the oven just to get the chayote bowls a good roast as well as bake the filling.

Not too filling and just right. At least, for me it was.

Makes 4 chayote bowls

Stuffed Chayote

2 Chayote
1 ripe tomato - deseeded and chopped
1/2 small sweet onion - chopped
1 5oz can sardine in oil or tuna in oil
1 tsp dry basil
1 tsp dry thyme
1/4 c panko breadcrumbs - plus extra
1/4 c shredded cheese - your choice
extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
 
Half each chayote and remove the pit/seed.

Bring a small pot of water to a boil and season it with some salt. When the water is boiling carefully add the chayote. Cook until tender.

Drain most, but not all the oil from the sardines/tuna.

Chop the tomatoes and place them into a bowl with the sardines/tuna, dry basil, dry thyme, and sweet onion. Set aside.

Preheat your oven to 375˚F

With a slotted spoon, remove the chayote and let it cool for a few minutes before scooping out the flesh.

Coat the chayote bowls and lightly coat the skins with some olive oil. Place on a foil lines baking sheet.

Once the flesh has been scooped out, chop them into pieces and place into a bowl with the sardine/tuna mixture. Season with a pinch of salt and pepper to taste. Mix in the panko crumbs.

Divide the filling among the 4 bowls. Bake for 15-20 minutes until the panko crumbs are lightly browned.

Top the chayote with the shredded cheese and bake for another 3-4 minutes until cheese is melted.

Orzo Salad

Orzo pasta looks like long grain rice. I actually thought it was rice at first. After several days of heavy eating. I wanted to relatively have something filling and light at the same time. I had a tomato, persian cucumber, baby bok choy. I roasted the bok choy and left the others fresh. The thing that made this stand out was when I added some sweet pickled relish. Then to give it an Asian flair, gave it a splash some rice wine vinegar.

I had this with a couple left over avocado rolls.  It was deliciously good. I still have tons of orzo left, so now I need to figure out what else I can make this with.

Serves 3

Orzo Salad

1 c uncooked orzo pasta
1 persian cucumber or 1 small regular cucumber - sliced into  half moons.
1 ripe medium tomato - deseeded and chopped
3 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil (plus extra)
2 Tbsp sweet pickle relish
3-4 baby bok choy
2 Tbsp rice wine vinegar

Preheat your oven to 375˚F

Separated the bok choy leaves leave the inner bulb in tact. For larger leaves you may cut them in half. Lightly coat them in some olive oil and season with some salt. Place on a baking sheet and roast in the oven for 15 to 20 minutes.

In a large bowl combine the diced tomatoes, cucumber and sweet pickled relish. Set aside

In a pot bring of water to a boil. Season with some salt and a tiny drizzle of olive oil. When the water is bubbling add the orzo. Stir a couple times to avoid the pasta from clumping together. Cook until al dente roughly 8 minutes. Then strain. Add 1/8 c olive oil to prevent the pasta from sticking.

Add the orzo with the tomatoes and cucumbers. Add the relish and rice wince vinegar. Toss together to combine. Finally add the baby bok choy. Toss once more.

Serve cooled.

Cream Cheese Stuffed Bacon Wrapped Chicken

I had one lone chicken breast left in the freezer. The poor thing has been waiting for me to gobble it up for a while. Next to him, I didn't realize that I had a couple of bacon slices left. What the...? I thought I had used all my bacon already. How can that be? I stuffed bacon into the chicken, so why not wrap it around this time. I had an idea to stuff the chicken with a cream cheese mixture. So I prepped that. A simple filling of cream cheese, sweet onion and garlic powder.  Rolled the chicken as tight as I could without having the filling ooze out, then wrapped it with a couple slices of bacon. I then baked it in a 375˚F oven.

Then my smoke alarm decided to wig out and scare the crap out of me. When there's no remote sign of smoke or the smell it. My windows are open to let the heat out and it's pretty chilly in my place, so I can't find a reason why it would do that. I was baffled. I swear once in a while that thing has a mind of its own. Or it's telling me that it want a piece of my chicken. I say, "No chicken for you!!"

I also made a white wine sauce as well with a side serving of some oven-steamed mixed veggies. It's the frozen kind from the grocery. Nothing special about those. I considered it a lazy Sunday and I didn't feel like chopping anything. I have to cut some corners sometimes. Anyway, the chicken was juicy and tender. The bacon with a slight crisp. It definitely adds to the flavor of the dish. It was awesomeness!!

Serves 1-2

Cream Cheese Stuffed Bacon Wrapped Chicken

1 large chicken breast
2-3 sliced of bacon
2 Tbsp Cream Cheese
1/4 c sweet onion - chopped
1 tsp garlic powder
salt and pepper
parchment paper
tooth picks
white wine sauce (recipe below) - optional

Preheat your oven to 375˚F

In a small bowl, mix together the cream cheese, onion, garlic power. Set aside

Butterfly the chicken breast. Place it in between two pieces of parchment paper and pound it lightly to flatten to 1/2-inch thickness. Season with a little salt and pepper.

Then spread the cream cheese mixture evenly over the chicken and roll it up. Next wrap it with two or three slices of bacon strips. Pierce it with a tooth pick to keep it together. Place on a baking sheet and bake for 30-40 minutes or until juices run clear. Drizzle some of the white wine sauce on top and enjoy.

To get the bacon a little more crispy, place it in the broil for 5 minutes after baking.

White Wine Sauce

1/2 c white wine
1 tsp rice wine vinegar
1 tsp unsalted butter
1 large garlic clove
1 Tbsp fresh parsley - chopped

In a sauce pan on medium heat, melt the butter and saute the garlic for 30 seconds, Add the white wine and bring it to a slight boil and the wine reduces slightly. Once boiling, lower the heat and add the rice wine vinegar and fresh parsley. Bring to a simmer for 2-3 minutes, then serve.

Avocado Eggrolls

One of my favorite appetizers from the Cheesecake Factory is their avocado eggrolls. So here's my little take on it. Eggrolls are generally deep-fried. For this, I did a quick pan-fry. You can bake them too, if you'd like. The ingredients a pretty straight forward and can probably be found in your own pantry. Avocado, onion, parsley, sun dried tomato, balsamic vinegar.

I paired the egg rolls with a Filipino style teriyaki sauce. These are great appetizers or if you're like me have them for dinner.

Makes 6 eggrolls

Avocado Eggrolls

1 medium ripe avocado - diced
1/2 medium sweet onion - sliced
1/2 c parsley - chopped
1 c sun-dried tomato (drained from oil)
Juice of half lime
1 Tbsp paprika
salt and pepper
1 tsp balsamic vinegar
1 egg - well beaten
6 egg rolls wrappers.
Canola oil
Pinoy Style Teriyaki Sauce (recipe below)

Saute the onions in a skillet until it they slightly turn brown, near caramelizing. Add the sun-dried tomato and saute for another 2-4 minutes.

Remove from the skillet and into a bowl season with a pinch of salt and pepper to taste. Add Parsley avocado and lime juice and balsamic vinegar. together. Mix together.

Take an eggrolls wrapper and place it like a diamond on a flat surface and place a generous scoop of the mixture.

To roll- bring the corner over and roll once. The bring in the sides and wet the top corner with the egg wash. Roll once more to seal. Do this for each.

Heat some canola oil in a skillet. When the oil is hot pan-fry the eggrolls each ride roughly 60 seconds or until golden brown. Drain on a paper towel and serve warm.

You may also deep-fry or bake these.

Serve with the teriyaki sauce

Pinoy Style Teriyaki Sauce

1 Tbsp Soy Sauce
juice of half lemon or lime
1 1/2 tsp brown sugar
1 Tbsp tomato ketchup
1 tsp worschestershire sauce

Combine all ingredients together.

Crisp Potato Skins

 Potato skins are fairly easy to make. I had some potatoes that I had gotten from the farmer's market that I nearly forgot about in the vegetable compartment. I say nearly as I knew they were there, it was figuring out when I was going to use them

Again my absentmindedness took over and I had left the potato skins a bit longer that i should have in the broiler. Thus cooking the cheese. Other than that it was still nice and crisp and most definitely delicious.

What did I do with the scooped potato pieces? I made some mashed baked potato wit pats of butter and shredded cheese. Yum yum!!

Makes 4 skins

Crisp Potato Skin

2 medium Yukon or russet potatoes
extra virgin olive oil
1/3 c shredded cheese - your choice
2 green onion - chopped
bacon bits - optional
sour cream - optional

Preheat your oven 450˚F

Half each potato length wise. Coat each half with some olive oil, place on a baking pan lined with foil and bake for 30-40 minutes.

Let the potatoes cool before scooping out the inside. Coat one more time with a little olive oil and bake for another 10 minutes.

Then turn on your broiler.

Top the potato skins with some of the shredded cheese and transfer the baking pan to the broiler. Broil for 5 minutes.

Let cool for a couple of minutes, then top with some sour cream, bacon bits, and green onion.