Need a great soup recipe? How’s about Chicken Vermicelli?

So many of you have asked for this recipe, I thought I might post it up so EVERYONE can have it. You will enjoy this luscious, silky chicken soup. Obvs, you will need to break this down otherwise you will end up with 15 quarts!!

CHICKEN VERMICELLI 

1)Bring 8 qts of water to a rapid boil

2)Now stir the following ingredients in with a whisk (stir for 20 seconds so noodles don’t clump together)…

•2 LB boneless, skinless CHICKEN 

•2 QTS MIREPOIX, ¼” dice (2 parts onion,1 part celery,1 part carrots)

•1/2 pound CHICKEN BASE

•1 LB VERMICELLI (broken into 1” pieces) 

•1 T S&P mix (4 parts SALT, 1 part PEPPER)

3)Once your linguini is just cooked, thicken your soup with a white wash made of  1 PINT flour mixed with 2 quarts ½ & ½ poured through a chinois.

4)Fish out your cooked CHICKEN and dice it. (½” dice). NO BIGGER THAN ½.”

5)Divide your diced chicken between 7 QTS. Pour soup over chicken.

6)As a finishing touch, sauté 1/4 # SPINACH (1/16” slivered) in ¼ c olive OIL, 1 t S&P and 2 T FRESH GARLIC until wilted.

7)Off the heat, whisk in the cooked spinach to your soup along with a ¾ cup of ROMANO CHEESE

Enjoy!!

Iron Chef a la Croc

We just love watching Iron Chef on TV (and Chopped, too). The quick decisions the Chefs need to make- and the fast, error-free execution mirrors what we need to do here at the Crocodile on a daily basis.

We get stuff like: “Kurt, we need dinner for 80 people in 3 hours. Oh, and half of them are vegetarian and we would like a South American theme. I don’t care what the menu is, just make it delicious and be on time.”

So we decided to do real Iron Chef here at the Crocodile. The first decision was what criteria we would use to judge. We went online but could’nt find anything good. So we had to come up with our own. Feel free to use this form for your very own Iron Chef party at home. Here it is…

IRON CHEF CONTEST SCORE SHEET

Competitor Name:

Rate each criterion. include comments if desired. 

Presentation/Plating (5 possible points)

Is the dish attractive and appealing to the eye? (ingredients fresh and colorful)

Is the dish easy to eat? (risottos, soups, salads, stews should be bite size)

Are ingredients the correct size, thickness? (uniform and clean of cut)

Is the dish the proper consistency? (runny, gummy, too thick, over-sauced, etc)

Appropriate garnish?  

Dish #1 Score:______

Dish #2 Score:______

Dish #3 Score:______

Dish #4 Score:______

Creativity & Originality (5 possible points)

Is the dish creative and interesting?

Are the secret ingredients integrated into dish and highlighted (not afterthoughts)

Dish #1 Score:______

Dish #2 Score:______

Dish #3 Score:______

Dish #4 Score:______

Flavor, taste & doneness (10 possible points)

Does the final dish taste good?

Is it seasoned appropriately? (enough salt, but not too much, no distracting flavors)

Does the food have a delicious aroma?

Do the ingredients complement each other?

Are ingredients distributed properly through the dish? (can you taste all ingredients in each bite?)

Are the ingredients cooked to the appropriate point? (too raw, overdone, etc.)

Proper moisture level? (enough sauce, dressing, broth, etc)

Dish #1 Score:______

Dish #2 Score:______

Dish #3 Score:______

Dish #4 Score:______

Overall Score  Presentation _______

Overall Score  Creativity _______

Overall Score  Taste _______

Overall Score  _______

What does Chef Linneman make for thanksgiving?

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. Just food and family.

My Thanksgiving always starts off with oyster shooters around 4pm with family and neighbors. Chilled shot glasses are filled with a freshly shucked oyster, a squeeze of lemon juice, a dollop of spicy cocktail sauce all topped off with Finlandia vodka straight from the freezer. Yum.

Then the main course. The turkey is rubbed with cajun seasoning and deep fried. The only way to go in my book. Accompaniments include: homemade cranberry chutney, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy and turnips. My mom always brings her delicious waldorf salad.

Salisbury Steak

How come nobody eats Salisbury steak anymore?

To my mind, it is the ultimate comfort food. Ground beef tossed with slow cooked, well-caramelized onions, an egg, a dash of milk, bread crumbs, a touch of sea salt and fresh-cracked pepper. That’s it, folks.

These beauties are grilled up and served with a mushroom gravy with my secret weapon added to the gravy…ketchup!

Menu Development

So many of you have asked about what goes into making recipes in a professional restaurant environment. Let me tell you folks, it’s not as easy as it sounds.

For instance, we are working on a new Far East menu.  These days we have a lot of clients who are vegetarian or vegan, so we have to come up with certain menus that satisfy this kind of audience

So the first step is you have to get a laundry list of different entrees and side dishes that you like.

Where do you find these things? Well, we find them on the internet, cookbooks, emails to our customers, and our own experience from different items we might have made in the past. 

Then, you have to work through each idea. Write down recipes  for each idea and then cook them all different ways.  You can’t just cook them once. You have to keep cooking them until you are sick of looking at them and tasting them and you know, you’ve got it just about right.

Now we are about half way there with our Far East section of our catering menu. We have Indian, Korean, Chinese, Siamese, Thai, etc.

Maybe some of you can give us your feedback or even come on in and cook up your specialty for us!!!

Chili Cook-Off

Five Crocodile chefs set off to West Chester for the great chili cook off on Sunday, October 11 armed with 20 gallons of their special chili and great enthusiasm.

Their goal? To be crowned chili champions of the restaurant division.

It was a brilliant, sunny day and the crowds were amazing. The streets of West Chester were packed elbow to elbow. In all, 30,000 people came out to sample the different chili booths.

There were lots of different styles of chili- vegetarian, turkey, mole style, brisket, super-spicy, mild as spaghetti sauce, with beans, without beans—you name it.

The Croc chefs played it straight with the famous beef chili that we served every day in our café and at catered events out on the road. Beefy, beany with a bright tomato flavor accented with ground cumin and smoked jalapenos.

Other Crocs appeared at the scene as the day wore on, but they didn’t help serve much. They seemed more interested in sneaking in to some of the very crowded bars to watch the Eagles and drink beer towers.

The judges did not vote us the winner, we are sad to say. Instead they voted for three West Chester restaurants who donate heavily to the chili cook off. Hmmm.

Better luck next year, Crocs.

Team Crocodile Tackles The MS150 2009

Spirits were high at the morning of October, 5^th as the team of seventeen riders set off from Cherry Hill for the 77 mile ride to Ocean City. The weather was cool… but dry.

The riders were all decked out sleek, Crocodile cycling jerseys which prompted other cyclists to ask; “What the heck is Crocodile”? Crocodile wanna-be’s I guess (we do have the coolest looking jerseys).

Adversity struck the team early with two flat tires and one broken spoke, but they plugged forward relentlessly. No further challenges occurred until the 50 mile mark when the team encountered a cold, pelting rain for about 30 minutes. But they had to keep riding.

Still the Crocs plugged forward dreaming of cold beer and seafood at the end of the long, hard ride.

Finally around 3pm the team arrived at their destination wet and exhausted. They ate cold pierogies, cheese curls, lemonade, Turkey Hill Ice cream and Hatfield Franks and went to their hotel to get ready for dinner.

The Crocs ate dinner at the Crab Trap in Somers Point. Kevin, Wendy, Kurt and Adam had 2lb lobsters. Kevin had his first martini!!! Off to bed by 1100—noone  got out of control.

Up early the next day—foggy and cool. The ride back to Cherry Hill is more hilly, plus there is the fatigue factor. By mile 50 the weather had turned brilliant sunshine and it was getting hot. Worse yet, the Crocs were now facing a severe headwind coming from the west blowing right into their faces making each pedal stroke sheer agony.

Things got very quiet and the Crocs all wore tight-lipped faces etched with grim determination. Still they pedaled forward.

Finally the finish line. Eureka!! We earned $7,911.99 for the fight against MS. Thanks for all your support with special thanks to our captain and GM Erinn Corry.