DIY: Asian Pasta Salad

This pasta salad is very easy to make with regular ingredients from your grocery store. After one bite this will become your new party go-to-recipe.


Asian Pasta Salad
Lou Crandall, Savory Catering
Makes 8-10 servings

Ingredients
 Salad:
2 cans (30 oz total) mandarin oranges, drained
2 cups chicken breasts
1 bag (16 oz) bowtie pasta
1 bag (6 oz) Craisins
1/2 cup fresh chopped Italian flat-leaf parsley
1 bunch green onions, chopped on the diagonal
1/4 cup raw (untoasted) sesame seeds
6 oz honey roasted peanuts
1 1/2 bags (15 oz) fresh baby spinach OR cooked edamame

  Dressing:
3/4 cup teriyaki sauce
2/3 cup apple cider vinegar
6 TBLS sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
3/4 cup sesame oil (not sesame-flavored oil)

Directions
Drain Mandarin oranges, set aside.
Put raw chicken breasts onto a sheet pan, uncovered, and roast in oven at 450 degrees until an internal temperature of 145 degrees in the thickest part of the meat. Remove from oven, cover tightly with foil and allow to rest for 15 mins.
Put ice and water in a large bowl and set aside. Cook pasta according to package until al dente. Immediately immerse pasta in the ice-water bath after cooking to stop the cooking process. Set aside.
In a blender or food processor, mix together the teriyaki sauce, vinegar, sugar, salt and pepper. With the blender running, slowly drizzle in the sesame oil to combine and emulsify with the other ingredients. Set aside.
When the chicken has finished resting, uncover and slice into large cubes. Cool to at least 40 degrees in the fridge.
Combine all ingredients except spinach (edamame can be combine at this time), peanuts, and dressing. Store in fridge until service, adding the other ingredients.

Tip
It is very important to immerse the bowtie pasta in cold water after cooking. This stops the cooking process. Bowtie pasta is quite fragile after being cooked.
If salad is not being served the same day, then refrigerate all ingredients until ready to use. This can be prepped up to 2 days if nothing is combined.
Add spinach last so it doesn't become limp and soggy.

DIY: Mango Salsa

We love Mango Salsa.

It's good with chips, over fish, on appetizers...we could eat it with anything! As with most of our food, we hand-make our mango salsa. That way, our chef's make sure that you are getting the best quality for your food. It looks better and tastes better than other salsas from a can.


Mango Salsa
Lou Crandall, Savory Catering
makes approx 2 3/4 cup or 24 oz.

Ingredients
2 regular mangoes or 4 Ataulfo (champagne) mangoes, peeled, seeded and medium diced
1 red bell pepper, seeded and diced small
1/4 cup thinly sliced green onion
2 TBLS lime juice
1 TBLS cider vinegar
2 TBLS fresh cilantro, chopped fine
salt and pepper, to taste
1 1/2 tsp sugar (or to taste)
*optional 2 tsp. Fruit fresh or Everfresh to preserve color

Directions
Combine together all ingredients and let chill in refrigerator for at least 1 hour to blend flavors.

Tips
Salsa looks best when made the same day, resist keeping overnight.

DIY Recipe: Peanut Butter Bars

Chef Lou loves to serve these delicious Peanut Butter bars for her box lunches. Her box lunches are a great fit for corporate meetings, trade shows, competitions, and many more events. Call today and have your next function catered by Savory!

Peanut Butter Bars
Lou Crandall, Savory Catering
makes one half-sheet pan (13"X18") or approx 16 bars

Ingredients
1 cup (8 oz) butter
1 cup (7.2 oz) sugar
1 cup (7.3 oz) brown sugar
2 eggs (3.2 oz)
1 cup (8.6 oz) peanut butter
2 tsp vanilla
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups (8.5 oz) flour
2 cups (5.9 oz) quick-cooking oats

Directions
Cream butter and both sugars together in mixer until fluffy. Then add the eggs, peanut butter, and vanilla. Mix together. Then add the remaining ingredients. Mix only until moistened. Press mixture into a greased half-sheet pan (18"X13") and bake at 350 degrees for approx 15-18 mins. Cook until bars are lightly browned. Be careful not to burn the cookie. Cool a little, then spread on chocolate icing while still warm. Wait until bars are a little cooler, then serve.

Chocolate Icing

Ingredients
1/2 cup (4 oz) butter
1/4 cup (.8 oz) regular cocoa powder
1 egg (1.8 oz)
1/3 cup (3.1 oz) peanut butter
1/3 cup (2.8 oz) milk
1 tsp vanilla
3 2/3 cups (16 oz) powdered sugar

Directions
Melt together the butter and cocoa powder. Take off heat and slowly temper in 1 egg. Be careful to add the egg in a bit at a time otherwise you will cook the egg. Put that mixture into the mixer and add the remaining ingredients. Spread over bars while still warm.  

DIY Recipe: Panna Cotta

Chef Lou has been trying new things lately. Her newest is Panna Cotta.

Literally "cooked cream" in Italian, this dessert is very simple and extremely pleasing to the taste buds. There are many varieties of flavors out there but we've 

decided to share our Mint Panna Cotta Recipe with you.

Mint Panna Cotta

Lou Crandall, Savory Catering

makes approx 9 4oz servings.

Ingredients 

1 cup (8oz) whole milk

1 packet Knox unflavored gelatin

3 cups (24oz) heavy cream

2/3 cup (4.7oz) sugar

1/8 tsp salt

2 drops mint flavoring oil

3 drops green food coloring

Directions

Pour milk into metal saucepan, and then sprinkle dry gelatin on top. Stir to make sure all the gelatin gets wet. Let this sit for 10 minutes to "bloom" the gelatin.

Next, add the heavy crea, sugar, and salt to the saucepan. Heat this mixture up to 120 degrees F, about 2 minutes or stirring longer if the sugar is still grainy.

Next, add the mint flavoring oil and green food coloring. Stir until incorporated.

Pour into glasses, ramekins or dessert bowls and chill about 4 hours.

Presentation
Top with whipped cream, chocolate shavings, chocolate drizzles, or an Andes Mint.   

Soft Fluffy Biscuits

Whenever I go visit my mom's house I love to help her with dinner. She has been teaching cooking classes for a while now, so if I can get a "free" lesson in, then I'm all for it!

Last Sunday she made a Mexican-inspired dinner w/ Chicken tortilla soup. As a side she taught me how to make these delicious, flavorful jalepeno cheddar biscuits!

To start with, you add the dry ingredients in a bowl.
My mom has implored the importance of a kitchen scale. She uses one when she caters large events, and even uses it in everyday cooking. It really helps with consistent results. Using cups/teaspoons/TBSP will produce greatly different results-- based on how much air is in the flour, how tightly packed it is, whether it is filled to the top, etc, etc.

After the butter has been measured out, you add it to the flour. Mix it in so there are pea-sized balls of butter. It is important to NEVER over-mix the biscuit batter (and muffin batter). My mom explained the reason why you add the butter in w/ the flour right away is that it creates these little pockets of butter in each biscuit, and is quite tasty when its all baked. 

Next add in the buttermilk.

Mix it just enough until the dough is moistened.

it gets quite sticky! But that's what makes a great fluffy, moist biscuit.

Now you have your basic biscuit dough. Remember do not overmix!!!
You can add in your extras.
We had chives, cheddar/jack cheese, and dill.
You can also add in canned jalepeno bits (yumm!)
Or bacon.

Knead 4-5 times w/ flour, just until dough stays together in a ball.

Dough should be at least 1" thick.
Thicker is better for this biscuit dough.

Cut with a circle biscuit cutter.

Now cut out and put onto parchment paper.
Place the biscuits so they touch each other (my mom had to correct me after I took this photo). When they're touching, the friction from adjacent biscuits help rise up better.

Add melted butter before it goes into the oven. 

And add dill seasoning.

Cook in the oven until they're golden brown. Yumm! buttery, light, soft delicious biscuits!

Recipe Follows.

Courtesy Savory Event Catering

Incredibly Fluffy Biscuits

20 oz. All- purpose flour

20 oz. Cake flour (Soft As Silk)

0.2 oz Salt

1.7 oz. Sugar

1.8 oz. Baking powder

6 oz. Butter (salted)

32 oz. Buttermilk

optional mix-ins:

1-1/2 C. Bacon, cooked & chopped

2 C. Shredded cheddar cheese

1/2 C. Green onions, chopped

5 Oz. Jalapeno (canned)

For Red Lobster type biscuits, put the cheddar cheese in the recipe, then after you cut out and brush with butter, sprinkle with garlic salt and onion salt.

Bake at 415 (F) for 16 minutes or until golden brown. Butter again when they come out of the oven.